Celebrating on Cruise

[audraz910]

We decided to do a cruise this year.  I am turning 45 in Sept.,  DH is turning 40 April, DD is turning 16, DS turning 13, Youngest is turning 5.  My question is when they ask if we are celebrating would it be wrong to say we all are just not that actual month when we are sailing?

[Butterbean1000]

We'll be celebrating our 40th anniversary on our October cruise.  The actual date was in May.  The October cruise was the only time we could schedule due to other commitments and just life.  Go for it and celebrate on the ship.  Have a great cruise!

Edited September 9, 2019 by Butterbean1000

[sanmarcosman]

Whether it would be wrong is for you and your conscience to decide and no one else. 

[Stick93]

1 hour ago, fyree39 said:

Well, they offer a little cake in the MDR for birthdays and anniversaries. IMO (humble as it is), I feel it would be unethical to ask that each of you receives one of these little cakes at dinner. What you could do is pre-order a celebration cake and have it served in the MDR for all of you. Do you think that would be suitable?

Just wondering why would it be unethical? Let them say no if it’s not doable. Sometimes I have seen it as a little cupcake - then it’s like a desert. I would ask - nothing to lose. 

 

On a a separate note decorating the room and getting a cake was not a bad deal either and you can do this. It would be fun for everyone and the cake would  feed more than 4. 

 

You are taking the cruise to celebrate 4 people. Celebrate the way you want and ask for anything you like. What’s the worst thing that happens  as I said before is - they say no. 

[mrpayroll]

Almost everyone on a cruise is celebrating something. By the end of the week you will be tired of hearing them sing Happy Birthday.

[five.]

Well, it doesn't matter if it's the month to them. But it might matter to you. All the kids paid for my parents to go on a cruise and it was way out, maybe 2 years out. Eventually it's the first night of the cruise and they all come out singing happy birthday to my parents. It wasn't anywhere near the date of their birthdays and we had all forgotten that we had said it was a birthday present for them. So there was 5-10 seconds of confusion before it clicked. A very humorous story to share.

[rvsullivan]

Bear in mind that as part of setting up your cruise you have to give them everyones real birthday matching their boarding documents and/or passports!!

[VentureMan_2000]

7 minutes ago, rvsullivan said:

Bear in mind that as part of setting up your cruise you have to give them everyones real birthday matching their boarding documents and/or passports!!

 

I'm sure Carnival goes out of their way to confirm birthdays match with birthday celebration requests...  

Those caught will be ridiculed by the dining staff... or worse, thrown in the brig.

[VentureMan_2000]

3 hours ago, audraz910 said:

My question is when they ask if we are celebrating would it be wrong to say we all are just not that actual month when we are sailing?

 

Let the MDR staff know that this cruise is to celebrate everyone's birthday and you would like to celebrate one evening...  they will accommodate and make it fun. 

[rvsullivan]

19 minutes ago, VentureMan_2000 said:

 

I'm sure Carnival goes out of their way to confirm birthdays match with birthday celebration requests...  

Those caught will be ridiculed by the dining staff... or worse, thrown in the brig.

I would hope so!!! Gaming the system is a brig offense.👨‍✈️

[sc4125]

I too think that you should look into ordering decorations for the cabin & maybe one of their cakes.  The decorations are really cute & not very costly.  I haven't had the cake, but I have heard that they are really good. 

 

You could certainly ask that the MDR staff sing happy birthday - but the only person who will probably enjoy it is the 5 year old (lol).  Like someone else said, it doesn't feel really special because they seem to be singing Happy Birthday or Anniversary or Honeymoon every few minutes.

[Elaine5715]

5 hours ago, audraz910 said:

We decided to do a cruise this year.  I am turning 45 in Sept.,  DH is turning 40 April, DD is turning 16, DS turning 13, Youngest is turning 5.  My question is when they ask if we are celebrating would it be wrong to say we all are just not that actual month when we are sailing?

They know exactly when your birthday is so telling them isn't going to get you freebies. If you want a cake, buy one and ask if they will sing Happy Birthday.  This isn't WDW where everyone is wearing birthday buttons to scam free stuff.

[Elaine5715]

2 hours ago, VentureMan_2000 said:

 

I'm sure Carnival goes out of their way to confirm birthdays match with birthday celebration requests...  

Those caught will be ridiculed by the dining staff... or worse, thrown in the brig.

Usually when your birthday is during the cruise, you don't have to prime the pump.  

[Stick93]

1 hour ago, fyree39 said:

Then, perhaps Carnival should only offer the little cakes for dessert and sing Happy Birthday or Happy Anniversary (kissy, kissy!) for everyone in the dining room. Settled! 😉

 

It's all good. I'm just thinking of the time it takes to get the cakes, light the candles, sing and disrupt service for the other diners. But, you do you and I'll do me! Everyone wins. 👍

It may be a waste of time but not unethical. I think they could make it worth the time of the servers ($$$$) if they do something nice. If they don’t have time - call it desert and a day. 

[christyran1228]

We picked a time to celebrate our 15th anniversary, and both of our birthdays which all are a few weeks apart ... on a cruise where several of our friends were already booked.   We aren't celebrating for a free cake.  Lol

[VentureMan_2000]

1 hour ago, Elaine5715 said:

They know exactly when your birthday is so telling them isn't going to get you freebies. If you want a cake, buy one and ask if they will sing Happy Birthday.  

Oh come on...  !  The MDR waiter has pushed desert on us so many times ( it's fun, even if we mean we do not want desert ) that I cannot believe there would ever be an issue to requesting a celebratory evening.

Don't listen to anyone on this thread that suggests otherwise... they are probably the person with a wad of newspapers crinkled in their hands, standing on their lawn, waiving them at the kid to get off their lawns.

[Stick93]

In a world where you can pick your gender and almost anything else I doubt a birthday on paper means anything. My son celebrates his birthday on every cruise and nobody has ever done the birthday check. He is getting older now but it’s a family tradition and we all laugh and have a good time. That’s what cruises are all about. 

[Stick93]

15 minutes ago, fyree39 said:

Hey! I don't have a lawn! I live in the desert!

Thanks for the laugh 

[sanmarcosman]

53 minutes ago, fyree39 said:

Hey! I don't have a lawn! I live in the desert!

And you know you live in the desert and not the dessert. Having desert after the main course: I'll have the Mojave for my desert. 

[Drose716]

We were on the Horizon in April for my son's actual 10th birthday. We booked a meal at Cucina (& had a cake delivered from cherry on top to our room after dinner). After dinner, they brought him out a little cup of whipped cream with a candle in it & sang Happy Birthday in Italian. Oh the great cost to Carnival for that cup of whipped cream! It still made his day!

 

My point is even when you are on the date celebrating something, they aren't dedicating big company dollars. Celebrate together. The waiters will sing over your already free dessert & maybe pop in a couple candles. As long as you aren't expecting something grand, go ahead & celebrate! 

[geoffrywillhardt]

I was actually wondering something similar to this. On our 15 day Mardi Gras that is coming up my wife's birthday is 5 days before the cruise and mine and my sons are during the cruise. I was debating on just ordering her a cake for night one because I felt bad that her birthday wouldn't actually be during the cruise and they might do things for myself and my son. I also was wondering if they would do anything at all considering when we celebrated our anniversary on the Horizon they did nothing (which was fine we were not expecting anything). I feel like I cannot remember the staff singing happy birthday during any of our cruises. Do they only do this during set dining and not anytime dining? We always do anytime.  

[May1cruiser]

They do celebrate during anytime dinning. When you enter the day you want to celebrate, it prints on your seating ticket when you check into the dinning room.

 

We just celebrated an anniversary, ordered a cake from the fun shops, brought a cake decoration from home and gave to the waitstaff as a surprise for my parents. They added the purchased decoration to the top of the funshop cake before delivering to the table. 

 

They do a fantastic job accommodating. This all happened in YTD. 

 

And yes a different night we celebrated my daughters birthday from July, the cruise was in august. 

[Elaine5715]

14 hours ago, VentureMan_2000 said:

Oh come on...  !  The MDR waiter has pushed desert on us so many times ( it's fun, even if we mean we do not want desert ) that I cannot believe there would ever be an issue to requesting a celebratory evening.

Don't listen to anyone on this thread that suggests otherwise... they are probably the person with a wad of newspapers crinkled in their hands, standing on their lawn, waiving them at the kid to get off their lawns.

Huh?  If you buy a Birthday cake, they will deliver with all the pomp but they aren't dishing up a free birthday cake because you whisper in their ear.  If you want them to sing Happy Birthday with your regular dessert, well, you and the 15 others who asked for the same can sing along.  

[VentureMan_2000]

1 minute ago, Elaine5715 said:

Huh?  If you buy a Birthday cake, they will deliver with all the pomp but they aren't dishing up a free birthday cake because you whisper in their ear.  

Speaking of "Huh?"... who mentioned a free birthday cake... or free anything ?

As I said... the waiters that I have had seem to have fun forcing dessert on us, even though we politely declined as we are usually stuffed... bringing out one plate anyway for us to split.  So perhaps the waiter may simply bring out that evening's dessert with a candle on it.  

[Shaded Lady]

On our cruise in June, we were right between my hubby's birthday and our grandson's- 10 days after my hubby, 10 dyas before my grandson... this cruise was a celebration of a bunch of things, mostly our first cruise as a family. My PVP asked if we were celebrating anything and I told her yes, my husband and my grandson's birthdays. She said we were only able to list one celebration ( 😲 ) so I said my grandson's birthday... so instead of making it something special for an 11 YO boy, here comes all the waitstaff one night in the MDR with a cake, singing happy birthday to my hubby!

 

I had never heard of a limitation to the number of celebrations- on other cruises we celebrated my birthday and my husband's graduating from college with a degree (finally) and they had fun with both of them! I just think my PVP was either in a mood that day, or just plain wrong... one of the reasons we booked our next cruise online, not with our PVP!