Platinum Disappointment

[lazydayz]

2 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Exactly.  Type up a list of what a red, gold, platinum and diamond member is entitled to and post it permanently in the room.  It's bad enough that the stuff is no longer delivered to the room and you have to go pick it up at pixels and a bar. You have to pick up a phone to order the strawberries you're entitled to as well instead of just having them delivered.

We know it adds to the bottom line because of labor costs no longer involved just like the room only being done once a day instead of two.

Carnival emailed us about our Diamond perks a few days ago. We cruise on Sunday.  

[lazydayz]

2 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

 

Many are just rebels.

 

Just ask for a paper menu and the diseases that come with them. Problem solved.

Right, there are no germs on your cell phone, the dishes, the glasses, the table, etc. While the plates and silverware were sanitized, how do you think they were delivered to your table? Save yourself from disease by never picking up a piece of paper.  Interesting theory. 

[shof515]

1 hour ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Really?   Then why do so many cruisers ask for a paper menu in the MDR and specialty venues when all they need to do is zap the QR code to see the menu?

i have been on cruises in the past when the app menu was incorrect and the paper menu was correct for that day. the app menu was completely wrong and the paper menu was the same one they have posted on the wall outside of the dinning room

 

i also had issues with scanning qr code on my phone where the page never loads at all time or i get some odd error message like invalid url or some other strange error message

Edited July 25, 2023 by shof515

[CruizinSusan70]

16 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

Just ask for a paper menu and the diseases that come with them. Problem solved.

Make sure you wear your plastic gloves anytime in the future to add salt, pepper, ketchup and any other condiments to your food. 

Gotta avoid diseases.  What did we ever do as kids drinking from a hose?

[icft]

9 minutes ago, shof515 said:

i have been on cruises in the past when the app menu was incorrect and the paper menu was correct for that day. the app menu was completely wrong and the paper menu was the same one they have posted on the wall paper outside of the dinning room

 

i also had issues with scanning qr code on my phone where the page never loads at all time or i get some odd error message like invalid url or some other strange error message

Just an FYI... Many phones with security on them will not load from a Carnival QR code because the Carnival Wi-Fi (other than the purchased Wi-Fi plans) are not secure connections. The Hub app has the menu and the unsecure connection doesn't bother it since the app is limited in what it can do to your phone.

 

But we have healthy immune systems so prefer paper menus. The immunocompromised will, of course, prefer their phones which they sterilize hourly.

Edited July 25, 2023 by icft

[BlerkOne]

10 minutes ago, lazydayz said:

Right, there are no germs on your cell phone, the dishes, the glasses, the table, etc. While the plates and silverware were sanitized, how do you think they were delivered to your table? Save yourself from disease by never picking up a piece of paper.  Interesting theory. 

The staff is far better at personal hygiene than the cruisers. Why do you think whenever there is a Noro outbreak, one of the first steps taken is to not allow cruisers to serve themselves?

[CruizinSusan70]

24 minutes ago, lazydayz said:

Carnival emailed us about our Diamond perks a few days ago. We cruise on Sunday.  

Must be something new since we're Platinum and never have gotten an email reminder of what perks we're entitled to.  Doesn't really matter to us since the overwhelming majority of them are useless to us.

[BlerkOne]

5 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Make sure you wear your plastic gloves anytime in the future to add salt, pepper, ketchup and any other condiments to your food. 

Gotta avoid diseases.  What did we ever do as kids drinking from a hose?

Don't forget to put hand sanitizer on those gloves, first.

 

 

[CruizinSusan70]

13 minutes ago, shof515 said:

i have been on cruises in the past when the app menu was incorrect and the paper menu was correct for that day. the app menu was completely wrong and the paper menu was the same one they have posted on the wall outside of the dinning room

 

i also had issues with scanning qr code on my phone where the page never loads at all time or i get some odd error message like invalid url or some other strange error message

I fully agree with you.  The fact that the world is QR code crazy leads to differences at times like you mentioned as well as the bottom line cost that causes cruise lines to do this in order to save money to add to the bottom line.

[BlerkOne]

6 minutes ago, icft said:

Just an FYI... Many phones with security on them will not load from a Carnival QR code because the Carnival Wi-Fi (other than the purchased Wi-Fi plans) are not secure connections. The Hub app has the menu and the unsecure connection doesn't bother it since the app is limited in what it can do to your phone.

 

But we have healthy immune systems so prefer paper menus. The immunocompromised will, of course, prefer their phones which they sterilize hourly.

and of course, there are paper menus on display outside of the MDR as backup.

 

Odd that some think their phone security really protects them. Even VPNs can be hacked.

[BlerkOne]

31 minutes ago, lazydayz said:

Carnival emailed us about our Diamond perks a few days ago. We cruise on Sunday.  

I received a number of those notices since cruising restarted. Carnival would need the correct email, of course, and perhaps you need to check spam settings.

[CruizinSusan70]

4 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

Don't forget to put hand sanitizer on those gloves, first.

 

 

We don't worry about the possibility of picking up something so no gloves are needed by us.  Using a pepper grinder that countless other people have touched is not going to bother us in the least.  

[BlerkOne]

2 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

We don't worry about the possibility of picking up something so no gloves are needed by us.  Using a pepper grinder that countless other people have touched is not going to bother us in the least.  

What Carnival ship has pepper grinders on the MDR tables?

[Colorado Beach Bum]

19 hours ago, shof515 said:

i have been on cruises in the past when the app menu was incorrect and the paper menu was correct for that day. the app menu was completely wrong and the paper menu was the same one they have posted on the wall outside of the dinning room

 

i also had issues with scanning qr code on my phone where the page never loads at all time or i get some odd error message like invalid url or some other strange error message

And I’ve been on many a cruises where one of us at the table had a different paper menu. Mistakes happen with paper and electronic menus. 

[Gold Mine Gal]

We had a similar experience.  Hadn't traveled since the pandemic.  When on board, couldn't find where we picked up our gift, coupon for the sea day brunch drink, etc.  My husband had been given a white card instead of his Platinum one which was strange.  It said Milestone Cruise but nothing stating what it was. I had to search for the Milestone information after we returned.  Found we were entitled to a discount on the next cruise.  It was a hassle to check in for dinner on My Time Dining.  Sometimes we didn't get notified of a table for over an hour or so.  I guess we are set in our "old" way of doing things,  

[CruizinSusan70]

1 hour ago, Gold Mine Gal said:

We had a similar experience.  Hadn't traveled since the pandemic.  When on board, couldn't find where we picked up our gift, coupon for the sea day brunch drink, etc.  My husband had been given a white card instead of his Platinum one which was strange.  It said Milestone Cruise but nothing stating what it was. I had to search for the Milestone information after we returned.  Found we were entitled to a discount on the next cruise.  It was a hassle to check in for dinner on My Time Dining.  Sometimes we didn't get notified of a table for over an hour or so.  I guess we are set in our "old" way of doing things,  

Congrats on your DH reaching his 25th official cruise on Carnival, which is the first milestone level.  Just to let you know, you're not forced to use the discount on your next cruise.  It can be on any future cruise of your choice.  It will consist of 25% of the base cruise price on your DH's fare, not both, before taxes given as OBC.  So, if you paid say 1000 before taxes, you would get 250.00 as OBC.  The more expensive your cabin, the more OBC.

Edited July 28, 2023 by CruizinSusan70

[Gold Mine Gal]

5 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Congrats on your DH reaching his 25th official cruise on Carnival, which is the first milestone level.  Just to let you know, you're not forced to use the discount on your next cruise.  It can be on any future cruise of your choice.  It will consist of 25% of the base cruise price on your DH's fare, not both, before taxes given as OBC.  So, if you paid say 1000 before taxes, you would get 250.00 as OBC.  The more expensive your cabin, the more OBC.

thank you!  Yes, after researching and taking to my PVP decided to book a cruise to Hawaii.  I'm so glad I decided to check out exactly what a Milestone Cruise was.  I hope to earn mine next!  Yeah!!

[JoseyP]

On 7/24/2023 at 7:52 PM, aborgman said:

 

Got me... I still print concert tickets, airline tickets, etc. even though I could just use my smartphone.

Hate smartphones and don't want one.  They seem to be a new body part for most people, and when they are misplaced.....there is like, panic.  No thanks. I'll be old fashioned for as long as i can. There are other benefits to just having a plain old cell phone that i won't get into here.

[JoseyP]

On 4/27/2023 at 7:09 PM, vwrestler171 said:

Its been announced for almost 2 years how to get your platinum perks.  Not sure how you missed it.

I havent been reading cruise critic for the past 2 years.....and it takes hours to do so, even if I like it. It's very easy to miss it.  And, i don't go to their website if I am not booked. Carnival never emails me anything. I needed to know when the $400 obc would be over, when I let them hold my money from a canceled cruise.  Never was told anything, and totally annoyed over this.

Why can't they leave the perks, or most of them, in our cabins?

[firefly333]

1 hour ago, JoseyP said:

I havent been reading cruise critic for the past 2 years.....and it takes hours to do so, even if I like it. It's very easy to miss it.  And, i don't go to their website if I am not booked. Carnival never emails me anything. I needed to know when the $400 obc would be over, when I let them hold my money from a canceled cruise.  Never was told anything, and totally annoyed over this.

Why can't they leave the perks, or most of them, in our cabins?

I suspect it saves them a lot of money to not leave them in our cabins. Some like me dont even want a bottle of water so wouldnt drink it even if they left it in my cabin. Saved that money for them. Or they dont want that plastic luggage tag or whatever it is now. .. havent seen any $400 obc. That I'd want.

[CruizinSusan70]

2 hours ago, JoseyP said:

 

Why can't they leave the perks, or most of them, in our cabins?

It's all about the bottom line.  There are costs involved to have all of those perks delivered to your cabin on the first day and then the strawberries midway through your cruise and have your cabin steward do cleaning twice a day.  So the bean counters said, let's cut cleaning down to once a day and force the cruisers to pick up their perks and order their own strawberries.  There will be cost savings for us with labor as well as the percentage of cruisers that don't pick up their pins, gifts, bottle of water, etc.  It all adds to the bottom line as we bled billions during the shutdown.

[JoseyP]

Got it. It was pretty late last night and i know the question was redundant.

This has been a very informative thread, and thanks for all the information!  learned a lot.

[JoseyP]

22 hours ago, Gold Mine Gal said:

We had a similar experience.  Hadn't traveled since the pandemic.  When on board, couldn't find where we picked up our gift, coupon for the sea day brunch drink, etc.  My husband had been given a white card instead of his Platinum one which was strange.  It said Milestone Cruise but nothing stating what it was. I had to search for the Milestone information after we returned.  Found we were entitled to a discount on the next cruise.  It was a hassle to check in for dinner on My Time Dining.  Sometimes we didn't get notified of a table for over an hour or so.  I guess we are set in our "old" way of doing things,  

Do you mean to tell me i have to "check in" for dinner? How do i do this?  and i have no smart phone. I don't get why people want to look at little screens ALL DAY......  will be on Venezia in Sept.

[BlerkOne]

13 hours ago, JoseyP said:

 

Why can't they leave the perks, or most of them, in our cabins?

A lot of people just threw them away. Just more waste. Most cruisers don't sit in their cabin the whole cruise and will be out and about at some point. It takes minimal effort to pick up the logo item or ship pin, for the people who want them.

 

Paper drink coupons were eliminated by pre-loading the drink onto your sail and sign card. That takes even less effort on the part of the cruiser. No more forgetting to bring a drink coupon to brunch or wherever.

 

[BlerkOne]

17 minutes ago, JoseyP said:

Do you mean to tell me i have to "check in" for dinner? How do i do this?  and i have no smart phone. I don't get why people want to look at little screens ALL DAY......  will be on Venezia in Sept.

or they can check you in at the MDR. Paper menus are also available by request.