Hoosierpop

24 minutes ago, cruise pup said:

$127/day (including taxes and fees) for a single balcony L126.. Plus a $250. on board credit. To the person who asked. No, I am not a shill  I have taken many more Carnival cruises than Princess. So excuse me for alerting my fellow cruisers that there are better offers out there. And to the wisenheimer who made the obnoxious crack, I most likely will be back on Carnival. Especially if they offer me some more free cruises (got 3 so far). Some people need to validate their choices by belittling everyone else's. That person must be foaming at the mouth seeing the rates I got 

 

Are there people who don’t know there are other cruise lines and other offers? Also, deals are pretty individualized, so not sure how stating your specific deal helps anyone else. To recap, you got a great deal on Princess and are taking advantage of it. Very smart.

2 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

I don't get that... is it because they feel that you're more likely to lose it at slots than on a table? Heck, they should encourage people even more by offering a bonus when you charge (and actually use) money, lol...

 

Tom

I don’t know if that’s why but carnival makes a lot more money off slot than table players. Hence why slot players earn more points. 

Since I don’t care about any of the cut backs so far, it’s all good. They need to just keep my desires in mind. 

It does crack me up about the two vs one cabin service per day. As long as there are enough towels, why do people need two services? You really spending that much time in your cabins?

If you are that unhappy with Carnival, here’s an idea: don’t go on Carnival. I know, I know, that may be too radical. But there are other cruise lines you might find to your liking.

So branch out. Spread those wings and fly!

We are on deck 5 and love it. We rarely go to lido and spend 90% of our time in decks 6-8. 

55 minutes ago, jam19872016 said:

Good morning.

 

I used to be unsure if I preferred the two sea days at the front or the back. I've definitely landed on team front.

 

That last sea day you are really hit with the reality the cruise is concluding. This is two days of that. 

Funny you mention that. On the other hand, doing port days makes things seem quicker to me.

Have enjoyed the thread. We are getting on Monday and it’s been great having 3 recent threads live blogging the ship.

17 minutes ago, sid_9169 said:

No more Yankee me wankee... The donga need food!... (First person to name that movie gets five hundred points!)

 

 

Going with 16 candles

15 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

I will infer that many people just like to chill on their balcony, read a good book, watch the waves go by and be dressed however they like while doing all of this.  Others prefer to be out and about and doing things.  There are no right or wrong answers, it's all personal preference as to how we like to vacation.

Agree. it’s people who wonder why anyone would get an interior room. Its kinda simple if you spend less than an hour in your room per day other than sleeping.

20 hours ago, shof515 said:

i am never in my room during the day so an inside is perfectly fine for me. only need the room at night to sleep

This. I don’t judge people who get balconies, but I would ask the opposite question. Why spend enough time in your cabin to justify the higher cost of a balcony?

Again, if people do spend that time, cool. I just never would.

1 hour ago, kwokpot said:

The GENERAL policy is you have to be at a slot machine or table game and you MUST order the drinks from waiter,you CANNOT order directly from the casino bar yourself. Put in a $5 bill in any machine,then wait until you see a waiter and order your drink. Please be aware this won't be a 2 minute thing, you are going to wait at least 15 minutes or more total before you get a drink. Much longer when the casino is busy. And not all drinks are available. 

You actually don’t have to put money in. All I play is craps and if I’m standing anywhere near the table, they take my order. I suppose a server could ask for proof I’m playing but it’s never happened.

But you are correct about the time. If someone is wanting to get a drink and then take it somewhere, be prepared to wait. 

No. Can’t get drinks from the bar. Now, the actively playing part is a little loose. If someone sits at a slot machine or hovers around a table, servers will bring them drinks even if they aren’t really playing. 
 

So, you can get around the actively playing. But it’s not as simple as walking up to the bar.

It is shocking that prices for things are going up with the high overall inflation. 

On 10/7/2022 at 3:20 PM, iria64 said:

 

 

The Bayou Lemonade was very good.  I tried making it when I got home but could did not have the aged rum so had to make do with what I had on hand.  Still was good though.

This. It was awesome

I borrowed my sisters premium wifi on the MG last week and streamed the game on my Amazon Prime video app. Worked great. 

On 9/22/2022 at 1:30 AM, matymil said:

I mean im not against taking stairs but with being on deck 4, its a long haul up to the lido especially with a toddler that keeps telling us "walking is hard". This is kind of why i felt almost trapped at some points. We'd maybe go up past deck 15 once or twice a day just because it was normally such a pain to take the elevators plus we only had the two elevator sections on deck 4 instead of three on the other decks.

I’m not saying no one should take the elevators. What I am saying is that people who don’t need to take the elevator can cause folks who do need to take them to have a long wait. 

Good news. None of the things they took off were items I like. So it’s all good. 

On the Mardi Gras now. I rarely take the elevators but I can see why it would be an issue. 
 

One thing though. If people are fit and can walk 3-4 decks, why not take the stairs? If you’re going from 6 to 16, fine. But watching some guy in his 10k racing shirt go from 6 to 8 while there’s a backlog is hilarious. 

A couple of things:

1) we tell the boys that the first person to run and press every floor button on each elevator and run back gets an extra $20 for the arcade.

2) we put as many towels on the loungers nearest the lido pool as we have in our cabin. I hate that location, but apparently, it’s popular.

3) we find out where our MDR table is, then spend an hour with the Matre D finding a new location because we are platinum, damnit.

2 hours ago, Jelly_Toast said:

I agree with the unreliability.  We always get it because it's better than nothing.  There is four of us and we don't buy an internet package so it's the only method of (sometimes) contact. I think it's worth the money as long as you manage expectations of what it can do.

Agree with this. First time we got it, my wife thought I was ignoring her. I may have been, don’t really remember. But then I tried texting her and she got them late so it saved me from any further admonitions.

Still worth the $5 though. And you can add people outside of your cabin if you want.

Next update from Carnival is people will have to pinky promise that they don’t have Covid.

End the theater now.

7 minutes ago, wemjam said:

I think it depends on what you want to do.  ahl has given a pretty good overview.   We always got the middle plan and it worked fine for our needs.

This is correct. Depends on what you’re looking for. We get the social because all I do is text and my wife gets on Facebook. But if you need to surf the net and do other things, social won’t work.

Good to see. I want Carnival to survive and be able to provide a quality product. Hard to do when fares are so cheap.

Just now, mz-s said:

 

Something is weird with my wife's Carnival account - she never gets these emails.

We don’t get them every time. Been on 4 cruises this summer. Got it twice. So you’re point is valid

48 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

The point is the only way a plat/diamond would know they can go through since COVID is if they read JH's facebook page or if they read this forum. It isn't documented anywhere.

We got an email for platinum guests that said this….

STATEROOM ACCESS – Due to enhanced cleaning and sanitation, staterooms may not be ready at the time of boarding for the early Arrival Appointments.   If you have not checked your bags, feel free to quickly drop off your luggage while our crew puts the finishing touches on your stateroom.  

So, back to the original question, the cheapest way to text back home is get the social package and either FB messenger or WhatsApp. Yes, that requires having messenger or WhatsApp. But downloading that seems cheaper than paying for a higher internet package. We always get the social package and works great for that.