gtonda

Is it made from the same oranges you can get at the buffet? I would just bring my own juice squeeze thing and make my own. Lol.

Just got off the Magic this past Saturday, so boarded 1.5 weeks ago. I am platinum and boarded right at 11am. There was no signage saying Platinum could access rooms so I went to Guest Services to ask. The lady told me “I’m sorry that’s no longer a benefit for platinum and diamond. Only FTTF receive this benefit.” I told her I was surprised to hear this because John Heald had not one, but 2 Facebook posts this week saying that was absolutely a rumor. She looked surprised and she asked me to hang on one minute. She went to the back office and talked to someone. She came back a minute later and apologized for the confusion and said I could access the room :confused: Hmm, ok... not sure what changed.

Anyways, we went to our room and it WAS ready and our S&S cards were waiting for us. One of the assistant room attendants was very unhappy with us and started yelling something to the main room steward in a different language. Luckily, our main room steward was amazing. He smiled at us and welcomed us aboard.

 

 

Long story short, it’s not gone yet. But, if I had to bet, it will be gone shortly.

If your room was ready, I wonder why he cared that you went in?

"Dress shorts" You can lipstick on a pig it's still a pig.

 

Put pants on or go to the buffet.

 

 

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Sounds like you just need to purchase a cruise line, and then you can make all the rules you want.

A few things have made me laugh about the posts here: the OP critiqued Carnival for not keeping up with new ships and the newest ship in the ocean is Carnival's Horizon sailing on its inaugural sailing this weekend... "LOL".

 

Secondly, another poster was complaining about Carnival not offering a great experience and literally a few words later complained that the Carnival staff is some times too friendly...

 

We have not sailed in a little more than 3 years and will be Horizon in a couple of weeks. I prefer to be a big fish in a small pond so I would rather have a suite on Carnival than a lower class of Cabin on more expensive lines... For what we pay, we have never been disappointed with the Fun Ships. I hope I can say the same in about 4 weeks.

 

 

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Having the newest ship does not in and of itself, equate to "keeping up". Carnival is far behind in the use of on board technology compared to some ships on other lines. We tried MSC a few weeks ago (first cruise ever not on Carnival), and while we will be going right back to Carnival, for various reasons, the technology that they have installed in the ship is far superior to anything Carnival has out there.

Smell is not fixed. I was on same cruise (3/10-3/17). It is alive and well, in the jungle water park area/water slide area. It's pretty pungent, but the kids love that area, so we still hung around in it. One if my trips to the water slide I had to laugh, because the operator at the top of the slide was using his shirt to cover his nose. At the top of the slide, the sewer smell gets mixed with the smell of diesel. It's a bit much up there.

Not on the cruises I’ve been on. The last main show lets out before the last comedy show starts. But there’s an adult comedy show before that and sometimes one or two PG shows before that.

 

We are saying the same thing. Even the latest main theatre show is over by the time the comic's last show starts. So they could easily have the 11:30pm comedy show in the main theatre, and even some of the earlier comedy shows on nights where there is no late production show. This way, if you can't get into the comedy show at 9:30pm, because the comedy club is full, you'd at least have the option to know you could go to the 11:30pm show if it was in the main theatre, because there would be ample seating.

I'm very sensitive to lines too but I think it's pretty ship dependent. On the Sunshine both times I was on her, I got pretty annoyed by the constant lines and crowds. Other ships haven't been that way.

 

I haven't been on the Vista or Horizon so I'm unsure if it's a new ship thing or what. My most recent ships were Conquest, Pride and Splendor and I don't remember difficult lines or crowds on embarkation day or otherwise. I can't remember noticing anything on the Liberty or whatever other ship I was on first but they were almost 10 years ago. The only place there seemed to always be an issue was the Comedy club. The company grossly underestimated what a hit those were going to be.

The funny thing is, is they have a solution right in house. Typically the theatre shows are over by the time late night comedy starts (at least by the time the last 2 comic sets start), and they could simply use the main theatre for it, but they choose not to.

I can't speak specifically to the Oasis class, but it seems like RCCL, Princess, Celebrity, and even NCL have all done much better than Carnival in managing traffic flow, at least at the Lido buffet. RC's Windjammer has the round buffets where you can just jump in for that one thing you want. The other lines use a "station" concept or at least smaller serving lines so that every single person does not have to wait in the same line. Meanwhile, Carnival ships (at least through the Dream class) still have the same long cafeteria-style serving lines that force you to wait behind everybody else, just like their new-build ships 30+ years ago.

Very good point. We just tried MSC (just got off ship yesterday) and the had the segmented buffet sections. No more than 4 or 5 items to a section. WAY BETTER!! I wish Carnival would do the same.

I missed that. Where exactly did MSC make this admission? (link please)

 

I just returned from Seaside. No sewage smell. However, in the Forest Auqapark area, there was a sulfer smell. Most likely from the stacks above. I don't believe that many people are able to discern the difference between the two...many probably assume that anything "stinky" must be a sewage smell.

Does that make it any better? Sulfur, sewage, I don't think anyone enjoys the smell of either. To me, the point is, you shouldn't have to smell something that bad when enjoying a cruise ship.

After your prompting, I visited Mr. Heald's FB page. No, I did not write to him. I was not alone on "the side" of that check in area. And NO, I have not asked anything of Carnival...

I rushed out & left our passports home & I am relieved we eventually obtained documents & were able to board.

 

For those questioning luggage carry-on: at passenger/luggage drop off at Port Canaveral you must show travel ID. It was not until that moment I realized I did not have our passports. (The airport only required our drivers license.)

 

As for the other member of our group with his drivers license & global entry... he insists he followed on-line requirements & that it is an EDL.

The discussion on FB is quite heated... so I know he was not alone in requirement confusion or finding inconsistency. I do not know who Fay is... or what she may or may not feel entitled to- but I understand her frustration!

 

Once again- I offered this posting only for others to learn from our mishap!

So you're saying that the post on John Heald's page (pasted below) is not from you? That only leaves 3 possibilities. First one, someone had the exact same problem almost verbatim as you did, around the exact same time, and she happened to decide to contact John Heald.

Second one, John Heald completely made up that post based upon him or someone else seeing your post here, and then totally faking that he was contacted about this story, and with those demands he listed out.

Third, you're not being truthful about contacting John Heald.

Clearly, something is not adding up.

Name: Faye------

Message: Why John when have you never warned and given people pre-advice that trying to get on the ship with an enhanced Driver's Licence (EDL) and a Global Entry Cards is not allowed. My family are back from their cruise which they only managed to get on 10 mins before the ship sailed off. would be sufficient identification. They were separated from everyone else and treated like immigrants. It was only because my BIL managed to get other documentation copied and scanned and e mailed that they were allowed to get on the boat at all. Get this! They were forced to carry on their own bags! No refund, no free drinks nothing. I have cruised before with Carnival. This is not acceptable. You should warn people and stop wasting peoples time with garbage posts about nothing.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, I have written and apologised to Faye although I have to also say that I had no idea what an enhanced drivers licence was until I ask Uncle Google. So I post this as a kind reminder that we do need official government ID to check in please and obviously the Global Entry card and the enhanced drivers licence are not accepted forms of ID.

I am truly sorry that Faye's family had to wait but obviously there are very strict rules set up by various US Government Agencies about ID and would get a serious bollocking indeed if we did not follow those rules.

I am glad that Faye's family were able to sail and I do hope they had a brilliant time.

Cheers

The cost of the soda package is worth every penny to me to not be lugging a million pounds of soda onboard on embarkation day, hauling it around the ship until the staterooms open, banging it into people in the buffet during embarkation day lunch, etc etc.

 

Yeah, no. I don't splurge on a lot of things on cruises, but I'm not going to be so uber cheap that I'd bring soda onboard vs just going with the convenience of the soda package.

If carrying a pack of soda is that big of a challenge for you, then maybe you should stop drinking soda and hit the weight room.

Many people can carry it without the struggle you seem to have. Many people with status or FTTF can access their storeroom right away to drop soda off.

Doesn't really have to do anything with being cheap. As others have mentioned, some prefer different brands than Carnival offers, some prefer not to have a flat soda because tropical temp soda was poured over ice.

Summer sailings, along with holiday / spring break sailings out of Galveston are ridiculously priced. It's a mostly drive to port for the second most populated state in the country, so during those peak times, they jack up the prices sometimes fourfold.

I often wonder what kind of POS mattress, those who rave about Carnival's mattresses, are sleeping on at home.

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Not sure if you have status on any cruise lines, hotels or airlines, but if you do, MSC will match your status for the first cruise.

The match is not just for your first cruise.

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Where was can you get announcements in 5 languages that go on for hours..

 

 

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From what I understand, this will not be the case with the Seaside, and the other new ship they are building, as these will be catered towards the US market. They will be "Americanized", if you will.

It is indeed, American Table.

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Consider me in the 'Guy's is totally overrated' category. Is it better than McDonald's? Sure. Is it to die for? Not a chance. I question where those who say this is the best burger they've ever had or they only go on ships with a Guy's, are eating their burgers otherwise. If this is the best burger you've ever had, you need to expand your dine-out options. I've always thought they were decent, better than the dried out ones they used to serve, but on the Conquest last week they just didn't appeal to me at all. I also thought the fries were way over-seasoned. I didn't recall them always being that way.

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Part of my disappointment with HMC in regards to ships, is that by next spring you will have 1 ship that is newer than 15 years old, that calls there/ (2 if you count the Sunshine as "newer" than its original build date) And that one ship is the Liberty, which will be 13 years old. After being on the Conquest last week and finding it, eh. We decided we wanted to do Dream class ships, but most of their itineraries are the same old, same old, because 2 of the 3 are based in the Gulf which limits their ability to travel further. We have no desire to try the Vista, which will soon be in the Gulf area anyways. So for next spring break we decided to do the Glory now that it will have the new water slides. Well, then our school district decided to jack with the spring break week and pushed it out another week. So the Glory itinerary for the new week is that same old western Caribbean one that I am trying to avoid. We love Carnival and have sailed exclusively sailed them as long as I have been cruising (13 years), but with the combination of all the factors I just laid out, we decided to try something different for next spring. We booked on the new MSC Seaside for next year. I understand that it's a high capacity ship, but it looks beautiful, very spacious, and well laid out, so I expect traffic to flow nicely. It does have a western itin the week we're going, but I figure if I am going to have to do that itin, I mind as well do it on a new, huge ship, with a package of drinks included, all for a bit less than what we'd pay on Carnival. We'll see how we like it.

What bums me out is that none of the Dream class ships port there. I guess the extra ~700 passengers is just too much of a logistical issue. Kind of sucks.

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Just move the lone flip flop to wherever it's mate is and put the folded towel at the bottom of the lounger until the owner comes to retrieve it. From my experiences on other lines this seems to be a Carnival "thing." I agree that if people are just assertive much can be accomplished. As far as loungers for little kids, how many of them actually use the loungers - very few - they are running all over the place and in the pool. It's really not difficult for the towel folks to watch the area around the pool. Shame on them if they let people put out towels at 8 AM that are unsed for hours and hours.

Totally agree on the kid thing. My pet peeve is when a family insists on saving a chair for each and every kid, no matter how young. Not to mention that not only are the kids rarely ever in the chairs, it's even more unlikely that all of them would be there at the same time. We use 2 chairs for the 4 of us. (Kids are 8 & 6) When they want a break from the pool, they just sit at the end of our chairs.

Just an update for those who care or inquired. Service has been on par for what i have experienced for most of my cruises. I would call it 7 out of 10. Nothing mind-blowing, but satisfactory overall. I can tell the 1st day issue was addressed with the steward as he was overly alert about asking if everything was ok and if the room was clean enough. I do feel a little bad that be probably received a talking to, but I did feel that I had to level-set expectations right away. I felt it was better to do that than risk possibly having poor service continue and be 4 days into the cruise waiting for it to change.

We really are pretty low maintenance. We don't need ice or robes, and don't need room service dishes removed very often. Just need an occasional vacuum, clean towels twice a day, and the beds made. All of which has been done since my discussion with GS. Part of the reason I tend to feel a bit guilty is that I am unsure if it boils down to a lazy steward, or simply Carnival expecting an unreasonable amount of work to be done in the time allotted. It may be something in which the company needs to have the onus, yet the steward takes the heat.

It truly amazes me when people don't advocate for themselves.

We were on Splendor last week. (Yes, the sailing that lost the port engine and skipped two ports, but that's another post. We had a fabulous cruise and enjoyed our extra sea days very much.) We left a note for our cabin steward with our requests just in case we didn't meet him/her on the first day. We wrote that we wanted the cabin serviced twice a day, we wanted fresh ice twice a day, and a few other things. We did meet our cabin steward and his assistant later embarkation day and explained what we wanted again. We got what we wanted.

Instead of complaining, take the initiative and explain what you want.

I think you may be talking about people general, but if not.....in my case I did clearly communicate what I wanted, but had to trek down to GS to do it. Shouldn't be that way.

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I didn't understand what you meant by Weird. I don't want the sofa turned into a bed until evening. I would like it to be a sofa during the day so that we can use it as a sofa when we are in and out of the room.

We definitely wouldn't want it made up upon boarding, but definitely at turndown. In fact, the only thing I don't like about this room (scenic ocean view, deck 9) is that when the sofa is pulled out, you have about 4" between it and the mirror area. They should've made the sofa bed about 10" shorter. Other than that, it's a good room.

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I'm still trying to wrap my head around that you are posting complaints here while you are cruising. On the list of things to do on a cruise, complaining on a message board ranks right up there with going to the medical center for kicks and giggles.

 

 

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E-oh, e-oh! (Sirens blaring)

Another chat board police officer telling people when and where they should be posting.

There's nothing for you to wrap YOUR head around, because it's MY vacation. See how easy that was?

Just so you can sleep easy tonight I will explain in a slow, simple manner. It was the first night, we turned in early, I purchased Internet because I have some assignments I have to turn in while we're gone. So as I laid in bed I logged on here to pass some time.

Now grab your bwankie, put your thumb in your mouth, and take your nap. Clear your mind of the worries of others using a computer on vacation.

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Thinking on....

Last cruise where we had a fold out sofa the bed was a bare mattress upon boarding. (We checked.) No reason why your mattress wasn't stripped when it was last used.

Ya, normally I would have expected just a bare mattress. I wouldn't expect it to be made upon boarding, but definitely after I come back from dinner for turndown service. The last thing I would expect would be for it to have dirty linens in it. I mean the one time you'd expect the room to be at it's cleanest would be between sailings.