Yillup

The system itself doesn't recognise that you have the package on your account. I repeatedly had to get soda and alcoholic drink charges reversed on the Radiance when I ordered in the Windjammer. For some reason the staff in there had great difficulties noticing the sticker on my card. The full price was charged, even though all drinks were fully covered by the package.

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I've seen that same surcharge for credit and debit cards in Aussie hotels. The hotels claim it is not under their control but a government "thing".

It's not a government thing, it's a money grubbing bank thing. The banks charge the vendor a charge, the vendors pass it on to us poor customers. Ok, in the end we have awesomely rated banks when it comes to our economy and the world market, but we as Australians are certainly paying them enough for it...

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There are some drinks not included. The "specialty" drinks in some restaurants (like Japanese drinks in Izumi) are often priced higher or are excluded.

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On my Spirit cruise a month ago, I think there were just too many people for anytime dining. There were lines every single night just to get to the hostesses. Sometimes out past the elevators. Up to 40-50 people waiting in the line, never any less than 10-20. Unless you got there between 5:30 and about 6:00 you would almost certainly be given a buzzer and told to wait. The wait was anything up to 45 minutes. They were taking groups of people downstairs to sit at empty scheduled dining tables on some nights. It settled down much later in the evening, but if you want to eat somewhere between 6:00 and 7:00 you're pretty much out of luck.

Before the cruise I was listed as "wait listed" for anytime dining up until the week before the cruise. I'm thinking they might have just approved everyone and left the poor hostesses to deal with too many people vying for too few tables...

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On the contrary MicCanberra,

 

I think Carnival chose these names because they were NOT repeated by other posters. That way they had a single individual to award the cruise prize to, rather than having to decide between several who submitted the same name.

 

 

 

Can't say I am impressed with their choices.

 

As most often we hear "the Jewel" or "the Pearl" mentioned without the word 'Pacific' affixed in front, just try saying "the Aria" and "the Eden" the same way. Sounds like you have a lisp or some speech impediment.

 

 

 

Nevertheless, congrats to the winners, we are all just jealous.

 

Rosee

They definitely didn't only have one person suggesting each of those names. Checking out the Facebook page you'll see numerous people (jokingly) asking for a cruise because they also chose the winning names.

The names aren't Australian, they aren't modern, and there seems to be little theme to connect them to each other. They're pretty boring and relatively indistinguishable from every other cruise ship out there. They also don't fit the rules of not using given names. One of the winners said she used her daughter's name.

Ah well, it's their ships and if they want to name them something boring and unimaginative, I guess that's entirely their choice.

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I can understand wanting to "sweeten" the smell, but adding anything other than your own, well, refuse to the toilets is a bad bad idea. Those things are very sensitive. It's not like a normal toilet that has pipes leading to a nice big sanitation plant, it's all processed on board.

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I check regularly too. Not quite sure why though. Here in Australia we just about never get any price reductions, no matter what the sale...

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We are planning for next year. Between cruises we have 5 days and would like to visit the Great Barrier Reef. Any suggestions on how we could do this from Sydney? Thanks for your help.

You're looking at a pretty decent flight to get that far. It's thousands of kilometres from Sydney to the Great Barrier Reef. You could hop on a flight from Sydney to Cairns and do tours from there. It's certainly not local though... :)

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OK I had them the wrong way around as to who owns who (my boo boo), but my point is still the same. They are running the two lines the same way - no grog packages etc. If you are aware of that before you book your cruise with either Carnival or P&O I can't really see the problem. And by the amount of pizza boxes and food trays that usually lined the hallways at all hours I don't think the cost of room service put too many people off ordering it either.

That makes no sense whatsoever. If you're going to draw parallels between two brands, it would seem more logical for the two brands that are named the same (Carnival) would be the most similar. And that is definitely not the case. By your logic all brands owned by the one group should identical.

Carnival in America has so many advantages that we here in Australia cannot access. And it's got absolutely nothing to do with "culture", "law" or anything other than what they feel they can get away with. Other lines operating in Australia don't have the same policies. Maybe as those lines become more common and popular, Carnival will be forced to reevaluate the way they treat us Aussies.

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I didn't see anywhere hiring out snorkel gear at any of the ports (as an aside... Eeewww! Can't imagine putting my mouth over a snorkel someone else has slobbered on!). The ships usually have snorkel gear for sale if luggage space is a big problem. They're not very cheap though...

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In Noumea we went on the green train from the passenger terminal. It was a good overview of the town and being in the train all the locals were waving and calling out to us. Noumea is a mining town, so it's not particularly "pretty", but it has a fascinating history. The area around the passenger terminal is rather run down with plenty of graffiti. Not the best part of town. The pastry and chocolate shops are apparently very good (if a little expensive). There are exchange machines around the town which will exchange Australian dollars into local currency. Anse Vata beach is pretty much the best place to swim around Noumea. We didn't go, but when we went past it it was rather grey looking, only a couple of metres of sand, and not particularly appealing.

We didn't get off the ship in Lifou. The water was a bit rough, we were enjoying the ship and were going to go in the afternoon. People started coming back with coral cuts in their feet having to visit the ship's medical centre. Wear reef shoes on the beaches! My favourite memory from that port is a church with a white rounded steeple that looked rather, um, phallic to us!

Isle of Pines we took the kids snorkelling near the religious rock (which you can't touch). Someone near us was feeding the fish, so we got a great look at them. If you go snorkelling but don't do it regularly, it might be a good idea to take a "noodle", one of those foam pool noodles, makes the snorkelling above pointy coral much easier. The coral is all brown, so don't expect the bright colours of the Barrier Reef. We also went to the pub hoping to have a plate of chips and a drink. It was busy, and the beers cost $11 each! We ended up leaving and walking through some of the markets. One of the stalls was offering a "taste" of bougna. We thought it'd be a mouthful like you'd get at a supermarket taste, but it was half a bowl full each. We enjoyed it, and it was a great light lunch. Grabbed some orange watermelon for after and we were set! The locals weave headbands and hats for the visitors, but they can't be taken back on the ship. There was a pile of dozens at the tenders!

Hope that helps a little!

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I know that most of these things can be done on board. Thanks for those tips on that everyone. The point for me is, I cannot spread my cruise spending out at all. All the money needs to be paid on board. Which means that most of it will have to go on the credit card. Not a huge problem, but a whole lot less convenient than paying things in smaller amounts over time. I cannot see any reservations online. I cannot plan my port days because shore excursions can't be booked. I "go with the flow" for many many things, but when it comes to 10 nights, I'd like to have a little bit more to help me plan. Plus I can't use Cruise Critic much at all for this cruise as so much about Carnival on these boards is just so irrelevant.

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Our last cruise was with Royal Caribbean and it was great being able to purchase things in the lead up to the cruise. It was great to spread out the cost of the cruise over time. It's not like any of these things will ruin our cruise even remotely. We're planning on getting on and having heaps of fun (after we spend the first few hours sorting out stuff we'd love to do online beforehand...).

I think the idea of a separate Australian Carnival page would be a good one. Other lines that have branches in different areas have that (P&O), and it works well. The Aussie page probably wouldn't be as busy as the American one, but at least we wouldn't have to sift through the 99% of stuff that has absolutely no relevance to us at all. I'm missing being able to just pop on here and have a good read.

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I'm sailing on the Spirit out of Sydney in May. Getting excited as it gets closer! Only problem is, I head in here to find out information about Carnival, only to find out almost every benefit the rest of the world gets booking with Carnival isn't allowed for us Aussies...

We cannot purchase alcohol packages, the soda package can only be purchased on board, not prior to embarking. Restaurant reservations need to be "requested" through an online enquiry form, not booked directly. There's no purchasing alcohol for our room. Room service has a charge. We cannot purchase shore excursions online, only once on the ship. We cannot buy flowers, birthday cakes, on board credit, or anything like that. We cannot book spa experiences before getting on the ship.

I'm starting to get rather frustrated that I cannot give Carnival any of my money! I'm frustrated that I cannot do my research because Carnival in Australia is so ridiculously different to anywhere else. It seems crazy that in this digital world that all we can access online is our basic booking details and nothing more...

Anyway, sorry for the rant. Just came on here to do a bit of research and realised it was almost entirely pointless to even begin reading anything on the Carnival threads, as almost none of it applies to me.

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Just read our cruise contact and we're not allowed to even bring on a bottle of wine! Wow, we really are the poor cousins, aren't we?

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What I don't understand is why we have almost no access to our cruise online. The only information you can get is the basic booking. You can't make restaurant reservations, buy the one drinks package available, buy room decorations or birthday cakes or flowers, the only way you can get anything done online is send a "request" so someone else can do it for you. It means they HAVE that information on a computer somewhere, it's just we as Australians have no access to it. Surely it couldn't be that hard, particularly as they have the code needed. That's what the American website has...

And I don't buy the "Australian market" rubbish. Other lines servicing Australia have alcohol packages and somehow are able to provide enough alcohol while still maintaining a family focus, other lines have online restaurant bookings, other lines have online shore excursions. Being based in Australia doesn't suddenly mean the company cannot organise anything...

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I got mine this morning and my surname starts with A... Lol

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Just think of the deal you're getting, booking that far in advance! I can only imagine the prices people will be paying for cruises then and you're booked in at today's prices!

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Do you guys decorate your room door in hotels aswell?

If I were in a hotel with hundreds of rooms down long corridors I probably would put something on my door so I could find it... I haven't been in a hotel like that yet, but if I do I'll get back to you...

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or you can just walk up when you feel like it. some people say they have never waited more than 5 minutes to be seated, others say they have waited up to 20 minutes or more.

On our recent cruise we did have a 40 minute wait one night. It was definitely the exception. Every other night we went straight in with no wait at all. In the end we went to the a Windjammer because the kids were very restless and wanted to get to Adventure Ocean. Of course my mum said almost as soon as we left the maître d came over to take them in...

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You don't need to make a booking at all. They will ask you to make one both online and in person for the first few days of your cruise, but it's not necessary. If having the same wait staff is important to you, booking a time will help that happen. Otherwise, just turn up and wait for a table. If it's only a few people getting a table is relatively quick and painless (as long as you're fine being seated with other groups is needed). For groups of about 8 or so it can be a bit harder, but not too bad.

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Does anyone know exactly what virtual balconies are? perhaps they supply you with electronic face viewers!!:)

They're big screens showing an outside view.

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A friend of mine tried to say my name backwards in high school. We still have no idea how it turned out to be Yillup, but it did. When I started on the internet (which was virtually as the internet started!), Yillup was a name that no one at all had. I didn't have to call myself Kylie239853 or something equally annoying. I'm the only Yillup out there that I know of. If you google Yillup, you only get my stuff... :)

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It looks like what they're doing on the website is showing you the average price per head in the room. They don't say that the fare for one person is actually that person's individual fare. They say that the total price for the room with that number of people equals the price shown per head.

Go back to the exact same cruise and book the exact same room with two people in it. You'll find the total price for two matches the total price for four...

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Thanks everyone for your responses! Very excited to say we have booked for Chef's Table and am looking forward to the experience!

 

Do you have allocated seating? We are dinning with another couple on the one dinner reservation made online and would like to be seated together

 

 

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You do have assigned seats, but as we walked in they let us know that we could change the seating if we would prefer.

One thing about the Radiance, the room for the Chef's Table is right next to the Colony Club where they hold some events. We were treated to the soundtrack of The Hunger Games throughout our meal and then walked out to a VERY large crowd for a male vs female event. Not a problem for us, but it could have bothered other people...

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