DallasGuy75219

12 hours ago, Mike45LC said:

This seems to be a Carnival thing.  This was the practice I encountered on two different Carnival cruises this year.  

Carnival changed to ordering everything at once several years ago.  At that point Royal Caribbean had already been doing it.

If you tell them you're not sure if you'll be hungry for dessert or just politely ask to order separately,  they'll probably accommodate you.

On 5/16/2024 at 6:34 PM, kywildcatfanone said:

This is princess, the cruise line cutting back on spending and reducing loyalty benefits regularly.

And what mass market line isn't?

On 5/14/2024 at 11:23 AM, Gebirgsdonner said:

Curious - you can’t just call after booking and ask what the price to upgrade is? 

If you do it that way, you lose any other benefits of the casino offer if the offer you booked under is expired or sold out and you don't have another valid casino offer to rebook under.

And after final payment you can no longer rebook under a different casino offer without penalty.

On 5/15/2024 at 11:38 AM, TRLD said:

Cannot think of any other port with cruises coming from and going to US ports with enough traffic to have multiple ships from the same cruise line in port.

Definitely Miami.

But it's not so much the number of ships in port as the number of one-way itineraries, particularly (1) repositioning cruises at the beginning and end of the Alaska season and (2) the weekly one-way cruises between Vancouver and Alaska.

22 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

During the pandemic, Alaska was given a waiver (not Hawaii).  It takes an "Act of Congress" literally and you know how that goes.

Because Alaska's economy is much more dependent on tourism dollars from cruisers vs. Hawaii.

How many nonstop flights from the continental US (or from anywhere for that matter) are there to Alaska as compared to Hawaii?  And how many cruises with Hawaii itineraries vs. Alaska?

9 hours ago, 555 said:

We saw a teen kid drop a cookie one time & he picked it up only to throw it back on the tray. I told a crew member & they dumped the whole lot. 

I saw similar on Princess... someone dropped the serving spoon or tongs on the floor then put it back in the dish🙄  I told someone and they replace the whole pan of food.

9 minutes ago, EDVM96 said:

So whats's the problem? Just cancel and get the refund. Real drama here.

The problem is Princess cheerleaders justifying or defending Princess' boneheaded and passenger-unfriendly decisions (i.e., "well if you had read that Diamond Princess press release, you would have known...").

8 hours ago, TRLD said:

If it was a Princess bus, then I can see why it might cause a potential conflict since the complete trip was on cruise line provided transportation.

Still not a PVSA violation.  PVSA applies to voyages on a single ship, not the whole cruise line.  Not mention they would have debarked in one port and embarked in another.

Changing ports and/or changing ships "breaks" any potential PVSA-violating (single) voyage, because it creates two distinct voyages.

Whoever told @Cruise Raider this was a PVSA violation was wrong to begin with.

3 hours ago, EDVM96 said:

That's not true.

 

Churrascaria Brazilian Grill is available on the Diamond since ca. early February now.
The same press release stated "and coming soon to Sapphire Princess" at that time.
 

🙄🙄🙄

Clearly OP meant no notice to people who already had reservations for Sterling Steakhouse.  I hope you don't seriously expect someone who made a reservation in advance to go scouring the internet for a press release (with Sapphire tangentially mentioned, at that) just in case Princess happened to change the type of restaurant before their sailing.

3 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

So, my question is this: Do I need to order myself a birthday cake? (Not a huge fan of the carnival birthday cakes.) Or will my waiter take notice and sing me happy birthday?

If you want a whole cake, you will need to order and pay for it yourself. Carnival no longer provides those for free. 

If you're happy being sung to with a candle in a piece of dessert, just let your MDR waiter know its your birthday and they can take care of that. 

1 hour ago, wish_I_was_a_mermaid said:

 

It is so strange they charge each person for a full fixed price meal when only 1 pizza is consumed by 2. Do they really prefer that people order more food than they can eat and toss half of it away? 

I think they prefer that 2 people using their Plus package dining credits not take up 4 casual dining seatings.

2 hours ago, totz808 said:

I grabbed the menus from here:

 

https://freestyletravelers.com/blog/carnival-2024-mdr-menus

 

I don't know if it's totally accurate, but they do look like captures.  The two menus appear to be identical except the first elegant night has grilled jumbo shrimp and fish cake, and the second night has the lobster.  It's why I'm asking, but if your experience is that the menus are different I'll go with that.  Thank you.

That second elegant night menu isn't correct.  First and second elegant night menus should look similar to this...

The menus may vary slightly over time and from ship to ship (this one doesn't have prime rib the first elegant night) but the two elegant nights are definitely different menus.

10 minutes ago, Packman1000 said:

Thank you so much for this information.   I was looking at deck plans so these options didn't show up.  And even after 25 cruises on Princess I never knew Vines was considered a casual dining option.  Learn something new every day!

The "dining" is limited to crudités, a charcuterie board, and truffles.  They can be purchased a la carte or as prix fixe menu with one of each.  The prix fixe menu is considered a casual dining "meal" if you have the Plus or Premier package.

3 hours ago, phoneman69 said:

Hello All

We are boarding the Carnival Horizon next week on May 19th. It is a 6 day sailing. Will their be a lobster night or a beef wellington night in the MDR ?

First time we have been assigned Anytime Dinning

2 hours ago, totz808 said:

On a seven day cruise, you get two elegant nights.  I looked up the menu online, are they the same menu except that the second one has lobster?

The two elegant night menus are pretty different.  Both have prime rib, and only the second elegant night has complimentary lobster.  

Beef Wellington is served on a regular night on 8-night sailings but may not be on the menu on 6- or 7-night sailings.

You have to get Carnival's approval ahead of time (as in make the request now).  People will respond that they have or haven't done this before, but the only response that matters for you is how Carnival responds when you make the request now for next month's cruise.

5 hours ago, jedi bobs said:

You need to have special permission from Carnival, and I don't think they are giving it.  You could just leave the ship, but, you could be given fines onboard the ship and such and banned from all futire Carnival, and carnival corp sailings.

Fine you for what? It's not a PVSA violation.

Carnival can't hold you hostage. If they won't approve an early debark in advance, just have a family emergency the night before and go to Guest Services telling them you need to disembark in Aruba.

3 hours ago, Neonsport said:

I know the cruise contract describes a "small quantity of non-alcoholic beverages" as a maximum of 12x 12oz cans.  I was wondering if they would give me a problem if I brought on 6x 16oz cans of Monster energy drink instead? 

It's hit or miss depending on the port and who is doing the screening and their mood/whim on any particular day. 

But if it does get confiscated please don't come back here complaining, even if someone on here tells you it's allowed, because you were aware of the rule and the possibility that it could get confiscated. 

On 5/5/2024 at 1:08 PM, Cruise Raider said:

The highest bid will usually be the one accepted.

 

Not necessarily. The algorithms maximize total revenue from the series upgrades from the lowest cabin to the highest cabin, so just because someone has the highest bid for a particular category doesn't mean that some else's lower bid isn't part of a different series of bids that better maximizes total revenue. 

11 hours ago, kamelia said:

Based on our experience, I would suggest that your dad look at the cruise reservation they made to see if the Future Cruise Credit that would have part of the Princess Promotions package has been applied to the cruise they booked (substantially more than the $100 per person Future Cruise Deposit).  If so, it will likely have to be removed before the credit card company can process the cancellation.  If push comes to shove with Princess, your dad has every right to stand firm on having purchased Future Cruise Deposits to be used for the cruise, and NOT Future Cruise Credits from the Princess Promotions package.

Obviously I can't speak to what OP's parents were told they were getting (FCCs or FCDs), but Princess' own semantics only confuse the issue.  When I look up my open/pending Future Cruise Deposits, Princess shows them under Future Cruise Credits section.

So an FCD is an FCC, but not every FCC is an FCD.

Carnival won't serve OP's husband more than 15 drinks in a 24 hour period (6 am to 6 am), regardless of what combination of Drinks on Us, Cheers, or individually purchased drinks. 

If husband will be doing most of his drinking in the casino and OP isn't a big drinker, it may make more sense to buy their drinks a la carte rather than buying Cheers when husband already has DOU.

On 5/5/2024 at 2:52 PM, simplelife said:

If you switch to get the drink package for the two of you instead of all of you, won"t you lose the casino offer for the 2nd room?

17 hours ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

So nobody that has the casino offer has to be booked in the cabin? That doesn’t right.

Based on the info OP provided, there is no way for her and husband to cruise for free and to have Cheers without all four paying for Cheers.

Mom and aunt are the ones with free cruise offers. They have to book in their own cabins so there are a third and fourth lower bed available for OP and husband.  They can get "key only" S&S cards made so people can sleep in a different cabin than assigned; Carnival doesn't care who sleeps where.

But Carnival will not (either before or during the cruise) reassign mom and aunt together and put OP and husband in the same cabin, because no one who would be in that cabin had the casino offer.  Plus Carnival knows about the "moving people around" trick to not have to buy Cheers for everyone. Sometimes it works but not in this case when mom and aunt are the only ones with the casino offer. 

There is only one circumstance in which this would work.  If mom and aunt had Drinks On Us Everywhere (not just in the casino), Carnival will let just their roommates buy Cheers because mom and aunt essentially already have Cheers, just paid for by casino.  But this can only be done onboard (not with the Cheers prepaid discount) because a bar manager has to override the transaction to sell Cheers to just one person in the cabin. 

Last time I bought FCC was January 2023. I was able to leave a form in a drop box and the $100 was automatically charged to the credit card I had on file for my onboard changes.

Has the process changed and I now have to give a credit card directly to O.N.E.?

1 hour ago, Lyndonn said:

It felt like a “BAIT AND SWITCH” scam!  I sent off a complaint email to Customer Relations, Jan Swartz, Jon Padgett.  

"Bait and switch" is quite an exaggeration considering you could have still had a free interior room and you're out exactly $0 since they've corrected the offer and you've canceled with no penalty.

4 hours ago, HMSDingy said:

I'm rather confused that everyone is stating that the wines on the Plus package aren't very good. I came across a 2024 wine list for Princess and the selection of wines isn't too shabby. Unless they have a different wine list for the Plus package, I don't think I'll have any problems finding a decent glass of wine.

Just about anywhere other than Vines, the wine list only lists the varietals available with Plus, not the vineyard/winemaker. So you order a Cabernet or Chardonnay and very likely get the cheapest label they have, often some plonk like Canyon Road.

8 hours ago, Gamecock_Cruiser said:

I just got off Monday and had the same issue. I had free drinks everywhere. My other three cabin mates did not. They were trying to make me buy the package again at the casino bar when purchasing. I asked him to call a manager. The manager came up and was able to over ride the system so I didn't have to purchase it again. 

Exactly, a regular bartender can't sell Cheers to a partial cabin, even if the other person has DOU Everywhere. Just ask for a bar manager from the beginning because they will have to override the system to sell Cheers just to the others in the cabin.