movtarget

Cabin/Ship structures are metal, and are really bad at allowing radio frequency (RF - as in Wifi RF), to penetrate through walls, floors, and ceilings (all metal on a cruise ship). Even with better internet source speeds, your actual experience can vary greatly depending on where you are located. As in how close you are to a properly setup wifi access point. Even 30 feet down the hall from an access point, the signal gets really bad.

I surveyed wifi signal strength on cabin decks on the Legend and the Magic, and it went from -42 dBm (pretty good) to -92 dBm (really bad) and occasionally non-existent.

Sitting at home right now (on a 4 node mesh network) I get a range of -26 dBm to -68 dBm.

Geeks gotta geek. (I used “airport utility” app on ios mobile devices to measure the signal strength - it’s free, download it before your cruise)

• -30 dBm: The best possible signal strength, and your device is likely only a few feet from the AP 
• -50 dBm: Excellent signal strength 
• -60 dBm: Very good signal strength 
• -65 dBm: Good, reliable signal strength 
• -70 dBm: Okay signal strength, and the minimum signal strength required for a decent packet delivery 
• -80 dBm: Borderline useless, and packet delivery may be unreliable 
• -90 dBm: Signal is really weak, and (almost) impossible to connect to

No craps table in the non-smoking casino when we sailed December 2023.

I was just on the Legend for a 7-day mid-march. The ship shows her age, but I’m a “go with the flow” kind of guy. I really enjoyed the trip. I have to believe that after dry dock she’ll look slightly “freshened”, but you know the age of the ship and what to expect.The fatigue/energy strategies for port-intensive cruises are really good.

Now that my obligatory “on topic” portion of the post is completed:

This thread is the reason I hang out on Cruise Critic. Fantastic input and idea/experience sharing. Thank you fellow posters!

4 hours ago, nwcruiselover said:

When my husband ordered it through room service once aboard, it was delivered almost instantly.  No more than 1-2 minutes after ordering, it was delivered to our cabin.  I think it was about $3.75 + delivery charge.

Similar with us on Magic this past December. Easily way under 10 minutes between phone call and delivery

I have been testing FaceTime, Microsoft Teams Video “Meet Now” (with plans to test Zoom, Zoho Assist, Microsoft RDP) last week and this week on Carnival Magic. Itinerary is Bahamas, Mid-Carribean. 
 

Experience is sometimes great synchronization (lip sync), and sometimes laggy, with zero dropped connections. I will create a separate thread post-trip. (IT guy, trying to figure out if working on a cruise is feasible with new Starlink). 

I used gift cards on AARP’s contracted Expedia website. They log into their payment portal with Carnival to enter the gift cards. It’s cumbersome for them, but if you are persistent it is both allowed and possible.

1 hour ago, ChuckF said:

One reason I don't play the Pass line. 

Pass line house edge: 1.41%

Place bets house edge: 

6 and 8: 1.52%

5 and 9: 4.00%

4 and 10: 6.67%

Odds bet on point house edge: 0.00% - always bet odds even if only double

It’s just math

Chase Freedom 5% this quarter (Oct-Dec) includes PayPal purchases (limited to $1500, so $75), so I used my Chase Freedom via PayPal to buy AARP $1700 in Carnival gift cards for $1530. 15% off (after cash back). Cool.

We did back-to-back 10-day & 4-day late last year on the Carnival Sunshine. My perceived “intensity” of the passengers on the 4-day was much greater than the relaxed atmosphere of the 10-day. On that 10-day, more experienced and older cruisers, less “weekend party til you drop” vibe. Because of that experience, we have only booked 6+ day cruises for the future.

(Balcony cabin) One at the vanity mid-cabin opposite the bed. One halfway between there and the balcony door behind the TV. I used a multi-outlet there, and ran a long light duty extension cord around the perimeter floor to the bed from it. (Both 120v AC)

Some email services allow you to leverage one email as several “unique” emails. With a gmail account, you can add a period into the email, and google still reads it as though it is the same, while the service you sign up for (Carnival VIFP for example) sees the modified email as unique.

Example:

BobsYourUncle@gmail.com is the same as:

Bobs.YourUncle@gmail.com

Both deliver to the first email address, but most online services will see those as unique emails.

I’ve not tried that with Carnival, because I just added additional aliases (private email domain) to my email to create, login, and receive emails for my kid’s accounts/VIFP offers. They are both young adults now.

Similar (but not the same) happened to me. I was trying to book a cabin that SHOULD have had $500 OBC, but only $400 showed up. Took 4 phone calls (2 w/ Casino Dept, 2 w/ PVP) and a number of emails. When it was resolved, the Casino Dept went up 3 or 4 levels to get authorization to add the $100. I assume they did NOT fix the computer programming, so anyone else using the same code for 9+ day sailings probably got shorted $100. 05J
 

Why tell my story here? Keep calling until you get someone willing to fight your fight. 

Oh my, on Spin the Wheel, I just won a $15 Amazon gift card. I’ve seen a unicorn.

6 hours ago, n6uqqq said:

AARP has 100 and 500 ecards and they have been very consistent lately. They usually arrive via email within 5 minutes, sometimes faster, sometimes a bit slower but nothing major. I bought the 5 year membership for 63 and got back 8 dollars buy buying it with my bofa credit card at the time. I like to buy via Allstate when I can, but they haven been very inconsistent latelty with ecards and regular cards, the latter of I will not buy. 

I concur, 1 week ago, 4 $100 e-gift cards within 5 minutes. Note that each comes in a separate email from email @ email.aarp.org

My last two gift card refunds have come via email as e-gift cards, so keep an eye on your email (including junk mail)

Mine were still missing about 2 hours ago (8 AM EST), now they are back… so, glitch. 

Yesterday I had 20 VIFP offers including targeted from casino. Like: Free Room (interior), $940 off w/ $500 onboard credit, Slots Tournament, etc. 

Today, all I’m seeing are 7 more generic (early saver, February sale, etc).

Tried logging out, using other browsers and on different devices, re-pasting my VIFP into the field, etc, still just 7.

Anyone else seeing (or have seen) similar?

When I search for a cruise and look at some that the casino offers were good for, it still brings up the offer codes when I look at additional offers, like the one including $500 onboard credit. I assume I’m in a glitch, and it will recover.

Thoughts?

We did this on Sunshine this past December. The only time to sign up was the first night, but then when we got on, we’re assigned a night (not the first). We saw the parade we took from galley to dining location (library bar) go by us in the mdr on at least 4 of the 10 nights of the cruise. So, you will be assigned a random night (letter in your cabin), but you might be able to request a specific night if you go straight to the Matre-de embarkation afternoon. 

12 minutes ago, BasicSailor said:

Expect more of an older generation aboard. Activities are surrounded by this. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, just answering your request.

What this translates to are typically very experienced cruisers who have learned how to avoid ship-time rush hours, aren’t trying to experience every single activity, and they understand they are in a shared resource environment pursuing their share, but allowing others theirs. I did a back-to-back Journey 10-day + a 4-day long weekender. No more 4-days for me. The budget hunter crowd was going to ensure they got their money’s worth, and their fellow passengers would have to fend for themselves (Mad Max Theme). We went from one of the younger couples (we are not retirement age just yet), to one of the oldest couples between cruises. 

Look at the actual port times for the “Cays”, at Princess Cay recently, left port at 4:00, meaning head back to the ship around 2:00, seemed a short day (because of tender time). Depends on if you are an early riser or not.

I had both (cheers and free in casino) on a recent December cruise. After I flagged down a drink server (an unusual effort), I gave extra tip ($2 first drink, $1 subsequent drinks). They then came back to me very regularly. Even offered to come back with a refill in 5 minutes (the time limiter between package drinks). 

I just think simply:

4 drinks a day + 4 bottles of water a day + 2 specialty coffees a day = break even for me. 
 

my day (bottle of water w most drink orders)

morn:

1 coffee

1 morning drink (Bloody Mary?)

afternoon:

1 coffee

1 afternoon drink (Old Fashioned w Woodford Reserve)

dinner:

2 glasses wine (the palatable ones are 14ish)

evening or throughout day:

bonus beverages (beyond break-even)

no worries about cost 

typically port days are at a minimum break even, sea days are bonus. 

23 hours ago, ShakyBeef said:

I recommend (thanks to what I've heard here on CC) you bring a printout of Carnival's rules (quoted by weezal above) along with your boarding passes for both cruises.  This worked for me (although they were not at all accustomed to B2Bs on Elation🤣); and they did not hold my second-leg bottles, but allowed me to take all of them onboard for my first leg.

Same for us on Sunshine out of Charleston this past December. They made sure the boarding passes for both were legit (reviewed them well). They did really inspect one of my wife’s bottles because it had an unusual seal (to see if it had been recorked).

42 minutes ago, I_AM_GROOT said:

eGift cards not available now? Anyone else seeing that?

 

Somehow my account got limited and was locked, (got restored) not sure why but their reasoning doesn't make sense as to why when I don't really use the account to buy anything which I haven't since Feb of this year and only do daily deals with gift cards if I can even get one/instant win.

 

Seems like their software flag my account my mistake. 

I just logged in, I don’t see any e-gift cards.