mapsmith

I was always under the impression that the bottle of wine was for dinner for a special occasion. Not for just having a drink in the room.

I am booked for the Nov. 3 sailing of the Paradise. I just booked last week so that I could go on a short 4 day cruise with family who were already booked.

 

I just learned today that a Supervisory Meeting scheduled for Nov 3rd is mandatory - it's scheduled until 4:00 - however, my supervisor has said that if I attend the morning session, return after lunch (at 1:00 - 1:30) and sign in, I could then "sneak out". The port is about a one hour drive - I know I have to be onboard at 3:00 for a 4:00 sail away.

 

My question is - if I make it to the port by 2:30 - do you think 30 minutes is enough time to park and check in? I believe Tampa has a valet parking option which I would use if it would speed things up. I am Platinum, but I don't think that will matter in this case. I guess I'm asking - if I'm in the terminal by 3:00will they let me check in - or do I have to actually be onboard at 3:00?

Might even be worthwhile to see about attending the meetings via smart phone (Periscope, Skype) while driving to the port. That way you could attend and actually leave by noon (or whenever the lunch break starts.

Time for Carnival to find a new company to provide a Harbor Pilot. The Harbor Pilot is there so that things like this don't happen.

I like the idea of telling them they can't go to the topless deck.

Another one would be to fill a rumrunner with water or Ice tea so they get called to the naughty room.

Also decorating with Barbie stuff.

And if you can still find them, 99cents only store had little motion detector owls that had a quiet "hoot" that can drive you crazy until you find it. Putting it in the Shower room so that anytime someone goes in in the night there will be a "hooting"

Boarding the ship.

No Photo ID.

Did he even have his Birth Certificate? Probably didn't have that either.

Customs and Border Protection would not let him board because they could not prove he was a citizen for when he came back.

Can I get a pig patty with the Veggie Burger?

mapsmith, they serve spiny Florida lobster.

Okay, I am going out on a limb here. I think that there have only been minor changes to the food and service over the 15 years that we have been cruising. Many have been for the better and most that people have thought are for the poorer are not. Those changes are just different.

On our first cruise on the Paradise, we had a three person wait team and six people in a booth. Thank goodness the booths are not company wide. The three person wait team had a total of Eight tables. We did not get constant refills of drinks. Bread was offered only once. But they were always available if you had a request. Same as today. If your waiter is not giving you service and you need something. ASK!

I have also noticed improvements in the menu. Now you get Maine Lobster (on the voyages of 6 or more days). It used to be the Caribbean Lobster that was smaller but easier to cook and serve. The appetizers are more creative and varied. Now you can have shrimp cocktail every night if you want. There are also Frog Legs, Calamari, duck, etc. Before it was small antipasto plates or cucumbers and tomatoes.

The desserts, like breakfast, are routine. There really isn't much to improve on Chocolate Melting Cake, Bitter and Blanc, Crème Brule', And that is what most people will order.

Oh, Yeah, you can still order as much as you want. And if something does not impress, you can reorder something else.

Variety. Escargot, Frog Legs, Duck, (French) Fresh Mozzarella with Cherry Tomatoes, (Italian). A full Indian Vegetarian Plate every night. (one of the best everyday options.) American Table and American Feast both have a "local" option each night. Something new to try. But if you want the same old, same old, there is always a Grilled Chicken Breast, or Grilled Salmon, or Flank Steak available every night. All cooked by world class chefs, and served to your table, and the table is cleared for you.

So, if you are complaining about the Food and Service going downhill, you are either Wrong or just enjoy complaining.

Just My Opinion (sorry it is so long. but the points needed to be made.)

I can't really see anything ever happening that would cause me to move or even have anyone contact me to move. If you don't have connecting cabins and need them, you contact Carnival a few weeks before the cruise and let them find connecting cabins. Of course, you would put yourself in danger of being over the Disco. Same for the hypothetical case of two couples traveling together but separated by you. They should contact Carnival BEFORE the Cruise and the sooner the better and have the cabins reassigned so that they can be together.

A cruise is not like an Airplane Flight where a family at the last minute gets seats all over the plane. On a Cruise, they usually know at least 3 or 4 days before the cruise what the assignment will be. The Exception is when they book Guarantee. That means that they have left ALL the decisions up to Carnival. And would have no room to complain.

There is an artist colony there that was kind of interesting and easily gotten too via public bus for about 5 bucks each.

And most of the arts shops have really decent prices for really good stuff.

With the rain they have had in the Houston Area, they probably had to load the Ark before they started on the Breeze.

Supposedly two couples used it on our first cruise in 1996. It was on the Paradise when it was completely non-smoking. Turns out both couples were heavy smokers and their Travel Agent did not let them know the Paradise was non-smoking. They invoked the guarantee, were flown from Grand Cayman to Miami and Carnival offered them a cruise on another ship.

I vote for the West Coast. A new ship might be able to be home ported in San Fran and do a 7 day to Seattle, Vancouver, then sea days to Ensenada, then San Diego back to San Francisco. Would love that itinerary

Does carnival have a rasual sauna like Royal Caribbean does? Either on the breeze or the liberty? I can't find any info on it so I'm assuming no? Hubby and I were looking forward to giving it a try [emoji16]

Well, they do have a mud treatment. But not really with the sauna part

Get all the complainers on one ship and just sail it into the middle of a storm. Then we can listen to them complain on why the itinerary wasn't changed.

Didn't Royal sail directly into a storm last year. Anthem of the Seas maybe. How many complainers were on that one.

When you carry on soda (12 cans of 12oz or less) does the carton have to be sealed? I was thinking it would be nice to have a few cans of root beer to make root beer floats and then have some regular soda to sip on throughout the cruise (I am not a big soda drinker) but I didn't know if that was acceptable.

 

Also, would it be frowned upon for my 4yr old to carry on drinks as well? She couldn't carry them herself so basically I would be carrying her juice (is juice the same idea, it's allowed in a bottle/carton/can as long as it's 12pk 12oz or less?), my soda and my wine in one bag. Is that okay?

bottle/carton/can

No Bottles except the wine bottles. Juice must be in cans or boxes

If can swing extra money I would upgrade to balcony. Just makes room seem alot larger. And gives 2 more places to sit and view is spectacular.

However a Balcony Cabin is actually smaller than an Oceanview. The Balconies are 185 sq ft plus a 30 sq ft balcony. the Oceanviews are 210 sq ft. (185+30=210) But if possible on the Conquest series ships, there are Oceanview cabins on the back corners that average about 240 square feet (Cabin 2470etc) Get one of those with 4 adult women.

Simple one, no harm and no foul, but can be funny.

Tell them that they have to activate the Sign and Sail Card at the cashier at the end of the Lido Buffett line after they get their food. But remind them that the food is already paid for, but the ship just needs to activate the card for accounting reasons.

Probably a simpler explanation. (although I understand the greasy hands) If packaged in individual packages, they could easily be blown off the ship, and the ship could get fined.

I always wonder about those people that select GTY and don't like their room assignment and ask to be put back in the pool for GTYs. Don't they think that the people doing the assignment at CCL might look at that as an insult to the choices they offer and then put them in the GTY that is under the Gym or over the Karaoke???

We have had four GTYs in our cruise history. One was deck 9 but three from the front. Decent but we could hear everything from the Show Room. Two were three from the back. Good rooms but a long walk to the Showrooms, (but short to the MDR). The final one was eight from the back. Decent and next to the Steward's area. No noise. Good Cabin.

These guarantees have shown us that the back of the boat is where we like to be.

I would give up smoking in the Casino.

WalMart. Ooops. Taken

How about SeaView. Fits with 7 letters and is a synonym for Vista.

Let me put this out there for the OP and the others on the board to see what they think.

Cancel one room since they don't need it. Lose the deposit and it is put in the Carnival Bank for future use.

Move the remaining person into the other room as a third person. This would require a 3 person room but theoretically, the third does not pay all of the fare.

Then the other person not going is a 'No-Show'. Losing the fare but getting the refund of port fees that can now be applied to the third person.

All providing that there is no insurance policy.

This might work. But because it is complicated, I hope the OP has a good Travel Agent, PVP, or gets a decent Customer Service person when calling Carnival.

If you don't have a PVP, can you ask for one and have the bookings transferred to the PVP?

Just to keep the discussion going.

They knew it by some other means, or it was just "pure chance", or a hunch.

 

I just know that they've never relied on any method for ensuring people are at the drill other than clearing the cabins via the room stewards, and that's not 100% effective. The whole point of them conducting this "count" (which I've only seen it the last couple/few years) was to make people think that they were actually accounting for people, when in reality it was an act/ploy/charade/etc...

 

Tom

Was on a ship a couple of years ago when they had a crew only drill. (the one where they actually lower a lifeboat and a life raft to make sure that the crew does what needs to be done in the proper amount of time) And the Cabin Steward was putting red chips in the door locks of the cabins. I asked, and he said that red means that the passengers were out of the room, green or yellow means that someone is in the room. So they do have a method for identifying rooms that are vacant during drills.

Not sure if I would want a balcony above or near the Smoker. Although the smoker would be enclosed, whenever it opened the smell of the smoke and smoked meat would be released. For a short while it would be good but the morning of the Sea Day and for about 6 to 8 hours on the sea day? If I want that much smoke, I will go play in the Casino.