Knights on the Beach

It's all the same anyway. If you apply the $500 gift card (or whatever balance you have on it if you buy bottomless bubbles now), any charges made on the ship will come out of that amount. You will need to either go to guest services and have them add the card to your S&S account or you can do it at a kiosk onboard. We usually have everything paid for ahead of time and still have OBC so we've never applied a gift card onboard.

I got the same message yesterday when I applied $45.77 from a card that had $500 on it. However, just above that message in red, it showed the $45.77 as the payment. I was paying gratuities for our 4/14 cruise and had 2 cards with small amounts and I applied those first then used the $500 card for the $45.77 balance. Since it looked like (to me) it was going to just use the $45.77 needed to complete the purchase even though I saw the message in red, I held my breath and submitted the payment. It went through just fine - our gratuities are paid and I have a $454.23 balance left on my $500 gift card (you bet I double checked that). 🙂 I figured if it did something crazy and applied the whole $500 to that cruise (showing $454.23 as a credit), I would just go ahead and buy Cheers. We plan to do that anyway, but usually do it the week before a cruise. Anyway, that was not the case. The transaction went through and I still have the correct balance on the gift card. Now I think I'll go ahead and pay the gratuities for the second leg of our B2B (4/20) with that same gift card since it seems to be working correctly (though that red message is confusing).

You said you were able to see the gift card option for bottomless bubbles so why don't you go ahead and pay for that with a gift card? Although if you can pay for that with the gift card, I don't see why don't have the option to do the same for gratuities. BUT will your TA not handle the transaction for you? You shouldn't have to buy cruise cash to cover gratuities, you should be able to pay them outright. You can always leave the gratuities to be paid onboard and apply a gift card to your Sail & Sign account once on the ship.

Looks like I have the same option to do it this way for our September Mardi Gras cruise. Yes, through my Carnival PVP.

See my reply to this in the other thread.

I was just able to pay our gratuities for our 4/14 cruise using 3 AARP gift cards. From Booking & Order Details, I clicked on View Invoice Details, then next to Prepaid Gratuities, I clicked on Add which took me to the payment screen showing the Gift Card option.

Is this something new? We live 2 miles from CT-3 and generally use Uber/Lyft to get there but have taken taxis home from CT-3, CT-6 and CT8.

Since 11/26 is a Tuesday, that lot isn't likely to be full - but yes they are nuts! lol We live just about 2 miles from there and aren't usually there before daylight but there are almost always parking spots available there.

Now we're getting somewhere! I'm not a coffee drinker but my hubby is and we LOVED hanging out in the mornings at Bar 820 on Celebration. Watching the morning shenanigans was way better than any production show. 😂 I'm hoping Ocean Plaza Bar will have a similar vibe in the mornings. Was anyone actually sitting at the bar, or just in line for coffee?

Ah! We were on MG December 2022 so that must be it. I was thinking we saw him at Brass Magnolia once or twice that week.

I was just thinking the same thing. But was wondering if he also worked at another bar on Mardi Gras or another ship?

Sounds like a great start to your cruise!

We've done this on a few recent cruises and for the most part, it worked well. Occasionally there were delays receiving messages but overall, it was fine. And the $5 per person is per cruise so it's pretty inexpensive.

We're doing both - B2B on Vista next month and Mardi Gras in September. We love MG, it will be our 5th time on it. But we're looking forward to Vista!

Yes! Our first B2B and we can't wait!!

I forgot to say Guy's Pig & Anchor on deck 8 is also open for lunch.

The deli is called Piazza Panini and it's located on deck 8 next to Pizza Del Capitano which is the only pizza place onboard. The deli is open until 10:00 pm but pizza is open until 4:00 am. There's a late night buffet in Guy's Pig & Anchor (which is where lunch and dinner are served daily). The lunch buffet is inside P&A on Mardi Gras, not on an outside deck like on some other ships. Dinner is table service.

We had lunch at Shaq's Big Chicken on embarkation day. Guy's Burger Joint will also be open as well as Blue Iguana. I know you said besides Lido, but not sure if you just mean the buffet. 🙂

Looking forward to your Live - we'll be getting on right after you.

That's mixes really well with Malibu. 😎

Oh thank goodness. 😂

We pack the day before. I usually start pulling things out sometime earlier in the week and lay them out on the bed in the guest room. Then when the pile gets too big, I have to put some stuff back in the closet. Then pull some of it back out again. LOL But nothing in the suitcase until the day before. Unless we have overnight guests staying with us the day before a cruise or trip, then we have no choice. I hope I haven't asked this already, but are you an ECU Pirate? So happy to see your LIVE and glad I made here it before the cruise starts! 🙂

Very odd, it opens right up for me.

Maybe delete and reinstall the app?

I'm able to log in and see our next cruise. But if you try to do anything (book a cruise, manage your booking, etc.), you will be redirected to the Carnival site.