john91498

All we ever use are the passports. I don't recall ever being asked for a drivers license.

Always cash out at the end of the night and then rebuy in at the beginning of the next day. Don't bring chips to the table at the beginning.

It only applies to the person the promo is targeted to. No discount on cheers.

It seems there's no points for the poker table. I see the points for blackjack and slots, but nothing for poker.

Family Harbor has coffee and an assortment of other coffees for free. A cappuccino anywhere else on the ship is $4...

It's open most of the day. Breakfast starts at 7am and ends at 11am to prep for lunch. Lunch starts at noon and goes to around 4pm. Dinner starts at 5pm to 10. When I was on her, they also had a midnight buffet which starts, uh, at midnight...

I thought the same thing, but no, she said the $2,500 was for all 8 months. Gee, that's heartbreaking...

Ok, not really a review, just my jumbled thoughts and observations. Embarkation was smooth, we had a noon to 12:30 check in time and got to the dock at 12:15. We were on the ship by 12:35. They had dogs, but they weren't police or feds. Seemed like they were working for Carnival. They were checking every 3rd or 4th group that checked in. The handlers had to direct the dogs to the bags and the dogs really didn't even sniff any bags. Room stewards were short staffed. Of the 7 nights, they only cleaned our cabin 3 times and didn't get to our room on embarkation till around 10pm. Didn't really mind and when we asked for the towels to be replaced, they showed up quickly. Food in the MDR was a mess. First night, we waited around 45 minutes after we ordered for the food to show up. Luckily, we were drinking, but were getting kinda hungry. We ate at the steak house 1 night and didn't want to wait on a couple nights and ate at the buffet. By far, Guys burgers, Pig and Anchor and the Cantina were the best food options. We were very disappointed at Jiji's Mongolian Wok. Four choices and all of it was premade. Bleh... On a personal note, my wife befriended a waitress in the buffet. She doted on my daughter and said my daughter reminds her of her own daughter. She told us that she was under contract for 8 months at $2500. Wow, that's only $312 a month. My wife felt so bad that we tipped her $500. She looked like she was going to cry when my wife gave her the money. All in all, it was another memorable cruise, but the Carnival cruise experience was just ok...

The cruise was ok...

I wouldn't take her at all. My nephew got horribly sick and we watched him suffer for 3 days. Needless to say, he'll never cruise again.

I don't think that's entirely correct. We declined an upgrade to a higher deck within the same category. About a month before the cruise, we got an offer to an Ocean Suite for the same cruise and we accepted that.

Shocked the Elation is still around. She was my first carnival cruise back in 1999.

My kids love Carnival and hated Celebrity. That's the thing, if it was just me and the wife, Celebrity would win, hands down. But, since it's my young kids, we have to sail on lowly Carnival...😆

lol, reminds me of the time we were at the local yacht club and we were talking about cruising. A local member, who our friend knew, overheard us. He asked if that's the kind of cruising we prefer, "being on a ship with thousands of others?" "Why don't you just rent a yacht and hire a crew?" Didn't have the heart to tell him we're not filthy rich 😆😂😆😂

We were informed about the capacity when we were checking in at the dock. They were telling every group as they were checking in. Regarding the tenders, I read that they did away with the night before handing out for tickets. So, the process should be better.

They had a horrible process for tickets for the tenders to Catalina. They set up the night before Catalina to give out tickets, so it didn't matter if you wake up early. I heard from many people that they waited for hours for nothing as carnival finally announced that tenders to Catalina stopped and are only taking people back. On a positive note, staying on the ship gave us a chance to try out Shaq's as there were no lines.

When we sailed on her, Carnival informed us that they were above capacity for the ship. It sure showed, there were always long lines at Guy's, the Cantina and Shaq's. Dining room wait times were ridiculous and you had to get to shows 15-20 minutes early or you wouldn't get a seat. Wait times to get on a water tender to go to Catalina were 2-3 hours long, so, we didn't go. Other than that, it was a great cruise.

When I'm at home and have certain obligations, I sometimes won't drink for weeks or even months. But, when I'm on vacation, 15 drinks a day is easily doable for me. So, we always get the drink package. Heck, I'm making money on it....😆

We were on the radiance and the poker table was full every single night. Too bad they are trying to axe poker. For some reason, even Vegas is closing all their poker tables.

the Mardi Gras is an Excel class ship 🙂

Not really. On ships without Starlink, it doesn't matter what plan you purchase, Netflix would be spotty at best. You'd have better luck on the ships with Starlink. We sailed on the Radiance (which doesn't have Starlink) and even with the premium plan, Netflix would not work. We're sailing on the Panorama in August and read Netflix works great.

As much as I enjoy Carnival, I feel Royal and Celebrity is a much better experience. The main reason we sail Carnival more than the other lines is because my kids don't like the "adult" cruise lines. I believe Carnival has a much better childrens programs with the water works, Camp Ocean, childrens menus, etc...

4. Don't fall off the cruise ship. Disregard 1, 2 and 3...

As a growth and dividend investor, I wouldn't touch CC stock with a 10 foot pole...whatever that means...😆

Drunk anything can be a good time...😂