smears

I've been on 7 or 8 cruises, all carnival and in my experience the vibe of the ship can change dramatically based on the port you're leaving from and when you leave as well as the duration of the cruise.

If you're leaving from Miami or New Orleans on Halloween or New Year's for a 4 day cruise to Cozumel or Cancun, you can expect a younger crowd of weekend warrior types and a full nightclub.

If you're leaving from Charleston heading to Bermuda on a 7 day, the whole ship might be asleep at 9pm, leaving you free to explore the entire ship without any crowds.

Cruises that are like a quick weekend getaway are generally going to attract a different crowd than ones that may be a bit longer or going to more exotic destinations and that may cost a little more. 

Either way though, whichever one you end up on, the ships, (even the smallest ones) are big enough to make it the case that if you want to find a peaceful place to relax that's relatively quiet, you shouldn't have any problem doing that. Likewise, even on the ships that have drawn in more families or people looking for a longer vacation, you can find a lively section if you're looking to turn up the volume a notch so to speak. 

Cruises are for the most part what you make of them, and they tend to have something for everyone. I've never had a bad experience.

Does anyone know how to decipher the offer codes? I have 2 that seem identical. One is ZJ5 and the other is ZJ5-FR. 

So it looks like it's a guaranteed balcony, but that the casino offer is "capacity controlled" which I think means that they only get so many balconies to use for that code. I can pick other sailings and it will let me just choose a balcony room, it's just that there aren't any left for this offer on this sailing. I believe that I can choose an oceanview room for the same price, and if a balcony becomes available then I can call them and get the upgrade. 

I know that on the carnival site that you're allowed to hold a booking for 72 hours without actually booking it, and that this offer expires August 5th. So I'm going to refresh the page like crazy until the 5th with the hope that a balcony becomes available, and if it doesn't, then I'll probably book the oceanview and still call it a win.

I went to the carnival players club site and sent them a message to try and get info/confirm what I believe to be the case about all this stuff and if they get back to me I'll know for sure what the best path is to get the most bang for the buck. I plan on promising to gamble a lot. I think they like that so maybe that will help. If they don't have the balcony, I'll ask if they've got anything else...like maybe drinks in the casino or something. It can't hurt! 

About getting these offers based on things like when you last sailed or if you're already booked...I haven't sailed since about 2014 I think. I do have one cruise currently booked for November of this year. I got a similar offer and used it for the one that I have booked currently. "free room" meaning, pay 200 plus the taxes and get 200 back in onboard credit. I booked 8 days on the Glory for November 19th. Then this new offer came and now I'm just about to book another. 

Someone talk me down. 

i once did a back to back, but it was years ago, and by the time i got off the 2nd ship, i'd made more $ in the casino than i'd paid for both trips and everything on both sail and signs. i think they want their money back.

i'm gonna call them this afternoon. if they can guarantee a balcony at that rate i'll book it. that's just crazy. plus it's next year, so plenty of time to set cash aside for the booze and what have you.

if i click through, then select that zj5 code for the balcony, it lets me pick a room, but all the rooms that it shows are interior. the balconies aren't sold out or anything. so that's confusing. 

not sure. i'm gonna try it.

i can drive to the port. i booked one under a similar deal on the glory for this november. 8 days for 338 bucks with 200 back in obc. interior room though, albeit on the lido deck which i thought was nice.

this one says balcony. does that mean i get the balcony or that i may get the balcony? if i'm gonna go to the panama canal, it would be nice to have that balcony. if it's a balcony for that price, then i kind of want to book it today.

so i've got some offers on carnival when i login and this one came up and it seems too good to be true.

does this mean that i get a balcony? or that i might get a balcony? clearly the price is insane.

someone talk me down. i can't keep booking cruises when i haven't even taken the one that's already booked.

i've taken 5 or 6 cruises all in october and aside from some rain here and there nothing major happened with the weather. all but one in the carribean. also it's not as hot as when you go in the middle of summer.

128

Ok so I can confirm. I got the $40 cash back yesterday. It took about a week to process and show up in my acct. I didn't make a new booking, just paid on an existing one. 

Cruising solo on Carnival Glory over Thanksgiving out of New Orleans!

2 hours ago, Bollycats said:

I logged onto my Wells Fargo account, but I don't see a place for offers. Where on the website do you find them?

On the app, once you login and get to the screen that shows your accounts, click checking and then scroll way down and you'll see the deals. You have to find the carnival one and activate it first.

That sucks! Maybe it'll show up before you cruise again.

Side note...I spent last year in Colorado and it's amazing. Love those mountains but it's a long way to a cruise port!

Nice! My booking was for a "free room" which meant 200 for the room but 200 back in on board credit. Taxes and fees were 138. So with $40 cash back from Wells Fargo, I feel like in a roundabout way I'm getting this cruise for 98 bucks. 8 day cruise not bad at all.

Here's the rest. The link takes you to the Carnival site and directs you to where you'd book a cruise.

Looks like this. 

I booked a Carnival Cruise about a week ago and paid the deposit on it. 

Then I logged onto my Wells Fargo checking acct and if you use Wells Fargo you might know that they have "offers" there that you can opt into on the app. Things like 5% back at Target or other random businesses if you use your debit card with them.

To my surprise, they had a current offer of $40 cash back if you use your Wells Fargo debit card to make a purchase of $100 or more with Carnival Cruises. So I opted in, logged on to Carnival and paid $100 on the cruise. 

Will update when the cash back arrives to confirm that I did everything and it worked.

I believe this offer expires on the 15th of this month.

Bourbon, vermouth and a dash of bitters and I'm just fine. Simple enough and you can get it anywhere. If a bartender says they don't have vermouth or bitters, then I'd just tell them to surprise me.

it's been years, but if i recall correctly, they just didn't have an onion, and my friend had been drinking already and just got a little belligerent about it and took what i felt was a condescending tone...as if knowing something about some cocktail imparted some status on her and for me, it came off as a bit distasteful. when you travel, you should be gracious and you should be there to experience what there is to offer in the place where you are. if they don't have drinks with onions, then drink what they do have or just try something new. at the end of the day, a cocktail is a cocktail and it's not worth any stress at all if you have to have one over another.

one of my best friends who i've known my entire life, but who has a tendency to want to be the biggest foodie of any given group and who sometimes likes to one-up others with regard to her travel experiences made a big deal on a ship once because she wanted a gibson at the bar and kept going on and on that they didn't have some particular kind of onion that was supposed to go in it. 

it's a cruise ship, not a bar in manhattan where the drinks are 30 bucks. you can't just decide you want some highly uncommon thing and expect it to be on this random boat out in the ocean. she's my friend, but it was a bit embarrassing to watch her try and go back and fourth with this poor lady bartender about how they should have this special onion for her drink. 

I got that offer and haven't cruised in a long time and had kinda wanted to take one this year, so I booked one on the Glory in November out of New Orleans for 8 days. I had 3 or 4 variants of that offer, some with "up to" a balcony but the only rooms showing as available would have been deep in the belly of the ship and I would have been crossing my fingers for an upgrade thay may or may not come, so I took the interior one and got a spot on the Lido deck which feels fair given that it's a desirable location for me and that w/ the obc I'm only out the taxes of 138 bucks. I can drive to New Orleans pretty quickly from where I live so no airfare to consider. I'd do it. it never hurts to take a cruise. 

Dress up or go to the buffet. Why insist on messing up a nice little dinner scene people want to have when there's food elsewhere, just because you don't want to put on the standard gear for a nice dinner?

Guys the whole thing is probably my fault. I get wasted on these cruises. I'm not obnoxious though. Everyone likes me and my singing voice is awesome....no....really....