Not So Priority VIFP

[poundcake09]

I am right there with this poster. I don't buy it to sit in the waiting area or even to get on the ship faster. Having my room ready and luggage there. Being able to use the priority line at guest services and getting to get on the tender whenever we want IS the biggest reasons we buy it.

 

This is also the reason why I purchased FTTF. Getting in my cabin to unpack and having the Customer Service issues (if any) sorted out without the wait of the regular line was a plus. I'm not Platinum yet to be able to enjoy some of the perks.

The issue of waiting to board seems to be a big problem for some. To me... I'm just so excited to get on board and start my Vacation that the hour wait isn't a big deal breaker for me.

[Elaine515]

Not true. They open them to sell 15 at a time, but there are more released when they figure out how many Platinum and Diamond there are on the ship. Lots of the, very few FTTF. Few of them lots of FTTF on the ship.

 

 

 

On one of my previous cruises, FTTF was sold out ... BUT THEN, a week later when one of my friends decided to join us, we went to check out the FTTF and their were 18 available, and this was 9 months before we cruised :( So, they do and will sell more than 15 per cruise, regardless of how many Diamonds, Platinum,, Suite and/or Weddings are booked...

 

 

And I too am going in 2 weeks out of the Port of Miami with an open mind and LOTS AND LOTS of patience as we are also taking a cruise that was a promo offered to all Diamonds, some Platinum and Casino Players and I just know the VIP room is going to be Standing Room Only ....

 

At least I'm happy to see that at least at the Port of Miami they have been cracking down on allowing multiple family members/booked with the same credit card/friends etc passengers into the VIP Room... It's really not big enough for the true Diamond/Platinum/Suite and Wedding parties passengers in there as well as others who do not belong in there..

[Disconnections]

On one of my previous cruises, FTTF was sold out ... BUT THEN, a week later when one of my friends decided to join us, we went to check out the FTTF and their were 18 available, and this was 9 months before we cruised :( So, they do and will sell more than 15 per cruise, regardless of how many Diamonds, Platinum,, Suite and/or Weddings are booked...

 

 

And I too am going in 2 weeks out of the Port of Miami with an open mind and LOTS AND LOTS of patience as we are also taking a cruise that was a promo offered to all Diamonds, some Platinum and Casino Players and I just know the VIP room is going to be Standing Room Only ....

 

At least I'm happy to see that at least at the Port of Miami they have been cracking down on allowing multiple family members/booked with the same credit card/friends etc passengers into the VIP Room... It's really not big enough for the true Diamond/Platinum/Suite and Wedding parties passengers in there as well as others who do not belong in there..

 

I guess that's the third confirmation of consistently releasing a plethora of Faster to the Fun accommodations when there is an abundance of Platinum or Diamond passengers.

 

Sunshine TA

Pride Repositioning Cruise

Victory free cruise offered to Platinum or Diamond guests

[Elaine515]

 

Sunshine TA

Pride Repositioning Cruise

Victory free cruise offered to Platinum or Diamond guests

 

 

 

Are you going to be one of those Standing Room Only passengers with me on the Victory 11/6 cruise ??? lol I just know that room is going to be crowded... Since I don;t know who you are or what you look like, look at my picture and please do say hello to me :) Or are those the 3 cruises where we have shown that there are more than 15 FTTF available ?

 

Hey, you're even a neighbor... Boynton Beach here and my parents who will be cruising with us are from Boca too

 

Serenity during the day and Piano Bar at night .. YAY

 

 

.

Edited October 25, 2014 by Elaine515
Noticed Location

[Out to sea!]

This is why so many of us were upset with Carnival when they rolled at the FTTF. It wasn't FTTF, it was all about a few extra bucks in Carnival pocket. I would be pretty upset with Carnival, the FTTF people only took advantage of the deal. FTTF are suppose to board after Diamond and Platinum passengers. Put up a stink and see what happens.

 

Diamonds and Plats can always sail another line that does not have the FTTF option if it upsets them so greatly. :D

[Jamman54]

I am on the same cruise as the OP, and yes, VIP check in was chaos, but it had NOTHING to do with FTTF. The problem was the vast amount of Diamonds and Platinums booked on this cruise. I heard that there were about 100 Diamonds, and God knows how many Platinum. They tried to alleviate the problem by bringing small groups of VIP's over to the regular lines while they scrambled to find the keys. It took me about 45 minutes to get checked in, and of course when it was my turn, they had to go search for my key again. It was all good though, as I was done being checked in by the time boarding started,(11:45), and I was still one of the first 30 to board the ship. BTW, FTTF boarded AFTER Diamonds and Plats. I didn't get my luggage, which was orange tagged, until almost 3:30, but I survived!!

Edited October 25, 2014 by Jamman54

[UpstateCruizer]

On one of my previous cruises, FTTF was sold out ... BUT THEN, a week later when one of my friends decided to join us, we went to check out the FTTF and their were 18 available, and this was 9 months before we cruised :( So, they do and will sell more than 15 per cruise, regardless of how many Diamonds, Platinum,, Suite and/or Weddings are booked...

 

 

And I too am going in 2 weeks out of the Port of Miami with an open mind and LOTS AND LOTS of patience as we are also taking a cruise that was a promo offered to all Diamonds, some Platinum and Casino Players and I just know the VIP room is going to be Standing Room Only ....

 

At least I'm happy to see that at least at the Port of Miami they have been cracking down on allowing multiple family members/booked with the same credit card/friends etc passengers into the VIP Room... It's really not big enough for the true Diamond/Platinum/Suite and Wedding parties passengers in there as well as others who do not belong in there..

 

I don't envy you on that embarkation!! Our last sailing out of Miami was a total cluster! We arrived early as we always do only to find that they weren't letting anyone in so the line grew longer and longer outside. When we finally got in and went up to the VIP embarkation room we were among the first in the room. It didn't take long before the room filled and people were standing and sitting on the floor. Each time someone new came in the check in it was comical to see their reaction to the massive crowd before them. When it came time to board it took quite awhile to clear the lounge so anyone that was seated had to wait to get out. The fun part started as we went up the escalator and got to the top(which you couldn't see until you get half way up the escalator). That area was jam packed and there was no place for the people at the top of the escalator to go. People started falling onto each other while yelling for them to turn the escalator off. By far the absolute worst embarkation situation we had encountered.

 

That was on a regular no freebie/perk cruise so I can't imagine how crazy it's going to be on yours. I have noticed that with all the casino cruises and freebies offered that prices haven't hit rock bottom to sell cabins like they used to. Offering these freebies must net them more money overall :rolleyes:

[Elaine515]

I don't envy you on that embarkation!! Our last sailing out of Miami was a total cluster! We arrived early as we always do only to find that they weren't letting anyone in so the line grew longer and longer outside. When we finally got in and went up to the VIP embarkation room we were among the first in the room. It didn't take long before the room filled and people were standing and sitting on the floor. Each time someone new came in the check in it was comical to see their reaction to the massive crowd before them. When it came time to board it took quite awhile to clear the lounge so anyone that was seated had to wait to get out. The fun part started as we went up the escalator and got to the top(which you couldn't see until you get half way up the escalator). That area was jam packed and there was no place for the people at the top of the escalator to go. People started falling onto each other while yelling for them to turn the escalator off. By far the absolute worst embarkation situation we had encountered.

 

That was on a regular no freebie/perk cruise so I can't imagine how crazy it's going to be on yours. I have noticed that with all the casino cruises and freebies offered that prices haven't hit rock bottom to sell cabins like they used to. Offering these freebies must net them more money overall :rolleyes:

 

 

 

Yup, been there done that on previous cruises...EVERYTHING you posted is the absolute truth... The VIP room at the Port of Miami just isn't big enough to fit all of us... Like you mentioned, even on a "regular" cruise where no incentives were offered, its a mess in this room... But I'm going to bring all my patience with me :)

[DANCING GRANDMOMMY]

FTTF do not get to use the lounges it general seating with regulars

there must be a lot of diamonds and plats on your cruise, they will only sell the FTTF pass in lots of 15, Truly there can not be a lot of FTTF that are making the line up a lot longer. they only get to get on the ship after weddings, diamonds and plats ,, then FTTF .

 

That was not the way it happened In Long Beach on our last cruise in February. Diamond, Platinum and FTTF all were in the same line and boarded at the same time. Not an advantage to being platinum. Several were on their first cruise. Only positive was it gave us a chance to give them some pointers on things to make their cruise the best experience possible.

[kicia]

We've had negative experiences at Port Canaveral twice this year. In May. We got to the priority line about 10:30 and there were 12 pages of people ahead of us and we had to wait with everyone else. Groups of people were getting on and we still had not checked in.

 

In September we were able to check in ok but then went to the waiting room to wait for the embarkation clear. We asked where the Diamond guests were supposed to go and were told there was no difference and that FTTF, Platinum and Diamond were all priority and what difference does it make since the ship was not going to run out of food. There were red and blue cards getting on first since they were FTTF. That is not the point. The point is that being Diamond we're supposed to get on first and it is listed as a Diamond perk. Either the port staff need to be better trained or this should not be listed as a perk since we have been told that Diamonds will always get on first, then Platinum, and then FTTF. There needs to be consistency.

 

We'll be in Tampa in a couple of weeks so we'll see what happens. It did work well there in April and hope it does again.

[Elaine5715]

On one of my previous cruises, FTTF was sold out ... BUT THEN, a week later when one of my friends decided to join us, we went to check out the FTTF and their were 18 available, and this was 9 months before we cruised :( So, they do and will sell more than 15 per cruise, regardless of how many Diamonds, Platinum,, Suite and/or Weddings are booked...

 

 

And I too am going in 2 weeks out of the Port of Miami with an open mind and LOTS AND LOTS of patience as we are also taking a cruise that was a promo offered to all Diamonds, some Platinum and Casino Players and I just know the VIP room is going to be Standing Room Only ....

 

At least I'm happy to see that at least at the Port of Miami they have been cracking down on allowing multiple family members/booked with the same credit card/friends etc passengers into the VIP Room... It's really not big enough for the true Diamond/Platinum/Suite and Wedding parties passengers in there as well as others who do not belong in there..

 

In my past four cruises out of POM, everyone's boarding documents where checked at each step and only those with Priority went to the Platinum/Diamond areas and FTTF elsewhere. No " but I'm with them" worked. Even when the ship boarded out of the end terminal, Priority checked in at a separate room and waited in an open area when non Priority guests walked past to the main boarding area. There was an employee standing at the walkway and he would not even let anyone without Priority on their documents to sit in this area. They were all sent to the General area.

[kelson21167]

I can only imagine what checkin will be like for the bloggers cruise lol

[Elaine5715]

In my past four cruises out of POM, everyone's boarding documents where checked at each step and only those with Priority went to the Platinum/Diamond areas and FTTF elsewhere. No " but I'm with them" worked. Even when the ship boarded out of the end terminal, Priority checked in at a separate room and waited in an open area when non Priority guests walked past to the main boarding area. There was an employee standing at the walkway and he would not even let anyone without Priority on their documents to sit in this area. They were all sent to the General area.

 

That should have been the "No but I'm with them" DID NOT work.

[ruthie101]

When we went out of NY in Sept. the lounge was packed with priority cruisers, these included platinum, diamond, fttf, and premiere casino cruisers. The problem as I see it is if Carnival is going to have so many guests be "priority" they need to have more workers checking in all the "priority" guests. The next time I run into this I'm going to go in the regular line then I will at least know when it is my turn to be checked in and not wondering why we are still waiting while others are walking in and getting checked in immediately.

As a stockholder I'm all for Carnival making money by selling fttf and I don't see this as a problem.

[Disconnections]

Are you going to be one of those Standing Room Only passengers with me on the Victory 11/6 cruise ??? lol I just know that room is going to be crowded... Since I don;t know who you are or what you look like, look at my picture and please do say hello to me :) Or are those the 3 cruises where we have shown that there are more than 15 FTTF available ?

 

Hey, you're even a neighbor... Boynton Beach here and my parents who will be cruising with us are from Boca too

 

Serenity during the day and Piano Bar at night .. YAY

 

 

.

 

As much as I would have loved the golden opportunity to sail Carnival again at no cost, I turned down their offer of the Splendor and Victory sailings and instead, booked the Caribbean Princess the very next day. When I have an actual reason to sail Carnival, then I'll consider it. Until then, I have no intentions on making a reservation, based solely on a past experience and not even cutbacks.

 

I'm wishing you a very nice cruise on the Carnival Victory now because I'll be disembarking the Caribbean Princess when you start embarkation in Miami. You're right - we are neighbors.

[cynthe66]

Umm let see our last cruise there were over 800 platinum and only 30 FTTF.

[Plant]

On our last cruise there was no advantage to having any standing with Carnival. We're Platinum, but so were about 90% of the people cruising with us:). Our boarding was delayed, but no one told us why or took down the "Platinum Boarding" signs.

 

When we tried to line up for Platinum Boarding we were told (emphatically!and rudely) that we should "wait over there" with the rest of the Platinum cruiser's.

 

There was no explanation or apology for the delay, and there was no food, water or restroom availability while we waited. We finally boarded about 2:30 PM. The rest of the cruise was great, but the beginning, not so much.