Just off Victory - Changes I noticed

[Bhern05]

Hi All! We just got home off the Victory and had a great sailing. Just wanted to point out some changes I noticed. I'm in no way complaining, just providing some info:

 

1. We did not get a coupon for our free drink for being Gold. We did get the paper welcoming us with the pin and our water and listing our benefits, but the usual coupon was not on the bottom. I thought maybe they had streamlined the process and would give a credit to our S&S or maybe give it the last day, but no. Don't know if this was a fluke or pilot for some VIFP changes, but just saying.

 

2. I can confirm that there is now a 3rd green spot "B" on the roulette wheel. I had seen a thread a few weeks back asking. We were on the Magic in March and this was definitely not there, so maybe they're rolling it out slowly.

 

3. Elegant night didn't have lobster or filet as an option. Mind you this was a 3 day cruise and we don't usually eat in the dining room so this may just be news to me. I happened to check the menu and notice - I thought one of these was offered at elegant night.

 

4. Disembarkation process has changed slightly. Our CD really stressed people check out the disembark show to get the details. Basically they don't deliver your luggage tags to your room anymore. You have to go pick them up and select either early or late disembark. Our debark was a nightmare. I don't think it was the new/old process, just people in general going to the lobby at whatever time instead of when called. I've noticed the past few times this has gotten progressively worse. Not sure what Carnival can do to improve that.

[thesmiths]

Appreciation drink on 5+ day cruises (on the last evening of the cruise after 5pm )

[Bhern05]

Just now, thesmiths said:

Appreciation drink on 5+ day cruises (on the last evening of the cruise after 5pm )

 

Ahh! Forgot about that 5 day rule. Clears that up! Thanks!

[LynnTTT]

Any more tips?  Taking grandkids on this next week?  How crowded was the buffet? What did you do in Cozumel?

 

[Bhern05]

19 minutes ago, LynnTTT said:

Any more tips?  Taking grandkids on this next week?  How crowded was the buffet? What did you do in Cozumel?

 

 

I never found the buffet to be too crowded, except the omelette station in the morning and right around boarding time after port day. As for your grand kids, my son loved the camp at night. The counselors were really great. Not sure how old your grandkids are, but there's two pools on lido (one by the slide). My son loves music so he enjoyed listening to the karoake.

 

Our trip didn't stop at Cozumel, but when we've gone in the past we usually go to an all inclusive. Theres a few but I know some sell out. Try looking in the Cozumel board - there's usually good recommendations!

[Jenn1974]

1 hour ago, LynnTTT said:

Any more tips?  Taking grandkids on this next week?  How crowded was the buffet? What did you do in Cozumel?

 

We love Mr Sanchos in Cozumel.   YOu need to book in advance as it typically sells out.  They have a great kids play area and the price is great for what you get.    

[PhillyFan33579]

No lobster on elegant night changed several years ago.

 

The new debarkation process where you select your own luggage tags changed some time last year. I don’t recall exactly when, since they still deliver luggage tags to cabins with priority (we are currently Platinum). Of course any process Carnival uses is going to have problems of people don’t follow it. 

 

Good info on the the roulette wheel. 

[shof515]

 

2 hours ago, Bhern05 said:

4. Disembarkation process has changed slightly. Our CD really stressed people check out the disembark show to get the details. Basically they don't deliver your luggage tags to your room anymore. You have to go pick them up and select either early or late disembark. Our debark was a nightmare. I don't think it was the new/old process, just people in general going to the lobby at whatever time instead of when called. I've noticed the past few times this has gotten progressively worse. Not sure what Carnival can do to improve that.

 

 

The picking up your tags is new to Carnival, other cruises do it to too. I noticed on my cruise on the sunrise, there is no crew/staff members acting as crowd control. If there was any kind of crowd control, it will prevent people from gathering in the lobby

[Bhern05]

55 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

No lobster on elegant night changed several years ago.

 

The new debarkation process where you select your own luggage tags changed some time last year. I don’t recall exactly when, since they still deliver luggage tags to cabins with priority (we are currently Platinum). Of course any process Carnival uses is going to have problems of people don’t follow it. 

 

Good info on the the roulette wheel. 

 

I thought they made it one night lobster and one night without. It was only a 3 day cruise but I thought for the one elegant night they would have at least one of the more "upscale" options. We've had priority the last few cruises so that's probably why I didn't notice the luggage thing. It just really stood out to me because CD came over speaker multiple times telling people to go.

 

29 minutes ago, shof515 said:

 

 

 

The picking up your tags is new to Carnival, other cruises do it to too. I noticed on my cruise on the sunrise, there is no crew/staff members acting as crowd control. If there was any kind of crowd control, it will prevent people from gathering in the lobby

 

It was really bad this time. I'm not sure how you can control people coming from decks they're not supposed to. I mean elevators full of people would come down every few minutes, and only 1 deck was called. We waited an hour in line on the lobby deck trying to get out.

[purplephenom]

19 minutes ago, Bhern05 said:

 

I thought they made it one night lobster and one night without. It was only a 3 day cruise but I thought for the one elegant night they would have at least one of the more "upscale" options. We've had priority the last few cruises so that's probably why I didn't notice the luggage thing. It just really stood out to me because CD came over speaker multiple times telling people to go.

 

 

Elegant night lobster is only on cruises of a certain length now- i want to say 5 days or longer, but i'm not 100% positive.  The shorter cruises have a different special option for the first elegant night.

[CheersPkg4Us]

We were recently Horizon for a 8 day southern and they had a dedicated spot for luggage tag pick up with a generous pickup time something like noon till 8-10 pm. But, CD Schwartz was making announcements they were first come first serve.

[DukeASUGirl]

13 hours ago, Bhern05 said:

4. Disembarkation process has changed slightly. Our CD really stressed people check out the disembark show to get the details. Basically they don't deliver your luggage tags to your room anymore. You have to go pick them up and select either early or late disembark. Our debark was a nightmare. I don't think it was the new/old process, just people in general going to the lobby at whatever time instead of when called. I've noticed the past few times this has gotten progressively worse. Not sure what Carnival can do to improve that.

 

My first Carnival cruise was in October, and they did the procedure you described then as well. I didn't realize it was a new procedure -- I just assumed it was a Carnival thing (NCL didn't do it that way when we'd last cruised). But we always self-disembark bc we hate putting our bags out the night before anyway. SO much easier.

 

Last time we waited until 9:30 last call and just walked right off the ship with no wait. This past Thurs (4th of July), we got off about 3 minutes after we heard the announcement for self-disembark (which was 15 minutes before the scheduled time). Just walked right off and maybe a 2-minute wait in the customs line. If that long. Super easy.

 

We got off at 7:18. Hadn't originally planned on leaving that early but we woke up early to go pick up our wine and then decided we might as well leave early so we could get on the road (my parents had been watching the kids all week a 7-hr drive away). 

 

Good thing we did, because it meant we were well outside of the radius where you could feel the earthquake by the time it happened. We would have definitely felt it if we'd waited until our usual last call.

[DallasGuy75219]

11 hours ago, purplephenom said:

 

Elegant night lobster is only on cruises of a certain length now- i want to say 5 days or longer, but i'm not 100% positive.

The first elegant night on cruises with more than one elegant night (i.e., 6+ days).

[Schoifmom]

23 hours ago, Bhern05 said:

Hi All! We just got home off the Victory and had a great sailing. Just wanted to point out some changes I noticed. I'm in no way complaining, just providing some info:

 

1. We did not get a coupon for our free drink for being Gold. We did get the paper welcoming us with the pin and our water and listing our benefits, but the usual coupon was not on the bottom. I thought maybe they had streamlined the process and would give a credit to our S&S or maybe give it the last day, but no. Don't know if this was a fluke or pilot for some VIFP changes, but just saying.  As someone else stated, you only get the appreciation drink on cruises of 5 nights or longer.

 

2. I can confirm that there is now a 3rd green spot "B" on the roulette wheel. I had seen a thread a few weeks back asking. We were on the Magic in March and this was definitely not there, so maybe they're rolling it out slowly.

 

3. Elegant night didn't have lobster or filet as an option. Mind you this was a 3 day cruise and we don't usually eat in the dining room so this may just be news to me. I happened to check the menu and notice - I thought one of these was offered at elegant night.  Lobster and filet are only on cruises of 6 nights or longer.  This changed several years ago.

 

4. Disembarkation process has changed slightly. Our CD really stressed people check out the disembark show to get the details. Basically they don't deliver your luggage tags to your room anymore. You have to go pick them up and select either early or late disembark. Our debark was a nightmare. I don't think it was the new/old process, just people in general going to the lobby at whatever time instead of when called. I've noticed the past few times this has gotten progressively worse. Not sure what Carnival can do to improve that.  They only deliver your tags now if you have priority.  This changed about a year ago.  Debarkation is almost always a nightmare!