muggo11

I really appreciate those of you posting experiences with the casino. For 2023 I have 5 casino-comped cruises: 3 with Carnival and 2 with Princess (Discovery to Alaska and Sky to Norway). For 2024, I have 3–1 Princess (Royal from Sydney to Auckland) and 2 Carnival. None of the Princess cruises come with the Plus package. Two are balconies, 1 is a mini-suite. This represents 34 days of cruising with a total of $1200 in free play that cost me a total of $4000 in fees (I paid a little extra for the mini-suite!). The Carnival casino deals offer far more perks and casino cash—some of them cost less than 0 when perks are calculated. And most include drinks throughout the ship! The 4 Carnival cruises total 35 days for $4000 (one is a suite!), with $3000 in cash. One is what Carnival calls an Elite offer that includes transportation to and from the ship plus 2 excursions and other gifties. I am not particularly happy about the Princess deals being Princess Standard but it’s somewhat offset by already having Elite status with Princess. We are not big drinkers. The bidding for upgrades are interesting. Does anyone know if casino comped cruisers are eligible? I think not. I just read that Holland America casino is doing status matches. We have never sailed on Holland but may give them a try if the deal and itinerary are right. In the meantime, I still (and always) wish that cruise casinos would organize themselves more like land-based casino loyalty programs where I know exactly what I can get for what level of play. AND they recognize my accumulated play with them. On every ship it’s like I’m there and playing for the very first time. Not hating—just wish the cruise casinos would take a page from their land-based counterparts. Happy sailing (and gambling), all. . .

Interesting. . . I booked and paid my taxes and fees for a casino offer via phone and have never gotten a confirmation/statement although my personalizer clearly shows I am booked on the cruise. And I get emails about dining and excursions. Nothing to do but wait for all of us, I guess!

Wow. . . I had no idea. Thank goodness for cruise critic! I just asked my TA to request diet Dr. Pepper. . . This will be a first for me on a cruise ship! Hurrah!

Re: Chair Hogs? I buy a drink, find a chair, sit and keep watch. After 1/2 hour, I go and very efficiently move all stuff to a nearby chair, table or dry part of a pool deck. No guilt. The chairs are there to be used, not saved. I have never been confronted—generally people assume one of the pool attendants moved their stuff. If I were, I would just fess up and say—“you were gone for over 1/2 hour. That seems like the limit for keeping a chair without sitting in it”. I would just do the old “broken record” technique and repeat that calmly over and over again until the person hears me. No muss, no fuss. I so wish the pool attendants would do this, though. I hate conflict. But I am also a fan of fairness and rules 🙂

The system is messed up today. . . Can’t book any excursions on any cruise I have booked. . . Keeps kicking me back to the home screen.

I am generally in the 3-5K range. I now can book any cruise up to 19 days for only taxes and fees. I primarily play table games—BJ at $25-50 a hand a few hours every night. AND, I play a $1 video poker. Good luck.

Hello! We are on this cruise and looking to book a Godfather tour for 4 with a private guide that includes Taormina. The cost would be around $375 per couple. If you’re interested, let me know! Margotknight11 at yahoo.

Can’t speak for any other lines but YES for Carnival and Princess.

The web managers for Princess and Carnival need to be loaned to Cunard for a bit. 😂😂

So what happened. Did you have to leave the ship in Southampton? Or are you in one of the deck 5 quarantine cabins. So so sorry!

Just a note to say that we got our COVID test today for tomorrow’s QM2 sailing out of Hamburg. Easy as pie at booth outside of the train station. Took 5 minutes and got results in 15 minutes. All you need is your cell phone with a QR code scanner. And best of all? It was free!

We too are on this cruise. Which test center are you booked in?

Haha. Can’t even get the page about COVID RULES to open. And everytime I need to go back to a previous page, had to renenter booking info. Took me an hour to screenshot e-ticket and print baggage labels.

19 cruises on Princess and 19 on Carnival. My casino play is consistent. I get crummy offers from Princess (free interior, low $ free play) compared to Carnival (free balconies and suites, $500 to $2000 in cash). Which explains why I have 7 free cruises booked on Carnival. And one regularly priced cruise on Princess (no casino discounts on world cruise!). We prefer Princess but we also appreciate saving money!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! We board the QM2 on June 22 in Hamburg, heading back to US after 4 months in Vienna, Paris, Andorra and Germany. We are even more excited, having read your post. Alas, our traveling in weather that has ranged from the teens to 75 degrees didn’t leave room in the suitcases for DH’s tux. So he shall be in dark sports jacket with a tie. All my fancy, flowy jackets sit in their packing cube, waiting to be released (and pressed). Watch out, laundry room. Nick has had his watercolors with him throughout the trip. He enjoyed the classes on the QV and is happy to hear they are offered on this crossing. And, yes, the website is truly dreadful. Bu once on board, all such problems will be forgotten. Now, I just need to make, confirm, and reconfirm a COVID test in Hamburg. thanks, again, Jack. You made my day.

With 12 cruises booked I am sadly familiar with all the website inadequacies and dysfunctions for Cunard, Carnival Princess, Oceania and NCL. We all process information differently but Cunard bugs me because I have to enter my booking number every time. Why not just let me log in and see ALL my sailings like I can on Carnival and Princess. I find the Princess site the most functional but NONE of them make it easy. I have just learned the quirks of each one.