DallasGuy75219

I never said it was, just that Italians weren't likely making it on MSC. In fact in over 60 cruises I've not eaten it once. Cruises from only the South tend to have it, and I never cared to try it because the biscuits on those cruises looked inedible.

I doubt the culinary crew on the ship are actually Italian. Probably mostly Asian like most of the mass market lines.

Hopefully so, since he knows everything and has all the answers.

Yeah, I never understood why Carnival still pours soda from cans almost everywhere when most other cruise lines have bar guns, at least at busier/higher volume bars.

But it seems Carnival Corp. would do better to have some sort of program to keep cruisers who've outgrown CCL in the Carnival Corp. brands, like how Royal Caribbean (the parent conpany) honors status across Royal, Celebrity, and (at least used to be before they spun them off) Azamara. I'm not necessarily saying match Carnival Diamond to Princess Elite, but at least throw a bone to someone with CCL status to encourage them to move up from CCL to, let's say, Princess rather than Celebrity.

"The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) is a democratic, affiliate-led federation recognised as the world’s leading transport authority. We fight passionately to improve working lives, connecting nearly 700 affiliated trade unions from 150 countries that may otherwise be isolated and helping their members to secure rights, equality and justice. We are the voice for nearly 20 million working men and women across the world." This is all puffery and posturing. Show me some evidence of this "union" having the authority to exert some meaningful legal influence over foreign-flagged ships sailing from more affluent (e.g., U.S.) ports with foreign crew and then we'll talk.

I'm kinda shocked Carnival would spend the money for this, when the wait at a bar and potential attitude from the bartender (or just ignoring you if they know you have the soda package) is a bit of a deterrent from getting that glass of soda you've already paid for with BB. But then again, they usually pour from cans at the bars, and fountain soda is cheaper.

If you think cruise crew are unionized, at least on the mass market lines, you clearly don't understand the labor dynamics of the mass market lines sailing foreign-flagged ships with crew from relatively poor foreign countries. Substantially all (if not all) of the crew are not unionized. While they work hard onboard, most make than they'd make at home. The cruise lines exert a lot of power over the crew. Yes, in the current economic and COVID environment the cruise lines probably have to offer higher pay to attract enough foreign crew, but once onboard they're at the mercy of the cruise line to treat them fairly and uphold their end of their contract with the crew. There's not much stopping the cruiselines from adding more and more to their responsibilities without a corresponding increase in pay.(e.g., Carnival's room stewards). Complain too loudly, engage in a work slowdown, or just refuse to perform the added responsibilities and you'll get fired and put off at the next port. Theres no EEOC to complain to. One of the crew's biggest fears is getting fired in the middle of a contract and having to pay for their own travel home.

Corkage = the cruise line's lost profit for you bringing your own wine and not buying theirs, not a fee for a service of any real value (e.g., storing or opening your bottle of wine).

Before Princess Plus made the price of drink packages reasonable, I did this once. The crew collecting corkage looked at me like I was crazy, but paying corkage on a case of mass market wine (equivalent to what I'd get now get for $12 a glass with Princess Plus), paying corkage on it, ordering a bottle of whiskey to the cabin, and buying an occasional cocktail by the pool was still several hundred dollars cheaper than buying a drink package or a week's worth of drinks a la carte.

... for majors that no longer needed their capacity anyway when demand for air travel plummeted in 2020. That capacity would have been cut at some point in 2020 anyway regardless of whether the regionals could staff it, with 50-seat flying (inherently high unit cost) being cut first for the worst performing (e.g. Trans States' trainwreck of an operation) and most expensive (e.g. ExpressJet's high-seniority pilots).

Completely irrelevant to the fact that Carnival could buy all the bacon they want if they were willing to pay market prices. All the other major cruiselines use a similar supplier strategy (and in some cases the same suppliers) yet Carnival is the only one with a bacon shortage.

The sprinkling of bacon on top is maybe one or two strips of bacon's worth, nowhere near the calorie, saturated fat, and carb content of the rest of the dish.

There's no bacon shortage, just a shortage of bacon at the dirt cheap prices Carnival is willing to pay for the quantity they'd need for Lido breakfast every. When they first cut bacon down to every other day on the Lido, they put up signs with something corny like "The bacon is on bacation today but will be back tomorrow." They kinda got mocked for it, at least on here, and first-time cruisers can't miss something if they didn't know it was the old norm in the first place, so the signs eventually went away.

Firstly, these are arrival times for check-in, not boarding times. With that being said, there is no definitive answer, because it depends on multiple factors: 1. Some ports are stricter about enforcing arrival times, and for any port it can even vary sailing to sailing. 2. How smoothly and timely was debarkation from the incoming cruise, when did CBP clear the ship for boarding, and are the shipboard crew ready for boarding? On any given day those factors can put check-in and boarding ahead of, on, or behind schedule. 3. How closely are the rest of the passengers following their assigned times? If they're following their assigned times, there are more likely to be lulls when they let pax with later arrival times through early. But if everyone else is trying to check in early like you, check-in will be chaos and they'll be struggling to keep on schedule and telling people to leave and come back at their assigned time. Bottom line... take a chance on arriving early if you wish, but you only have yourself to blame if you have to wait around until your assigned time.

Also it seems some think they can make you happier by bringing you more food, whether or not you really wanted it. While the Spaghetti Carbonara is good (usually), I just want a small portion, not 2000 empty calories of eggs, cheese, cream, and pasta.

The appetizer size portion should come in a smaller bowl. Even though I emphasize the appetizer size (like twice) when ordering, occasionally they bring the entree portion anyway.

Only if there are enough bar waiters to compensate for the fact that most of the casino is drinking for free on a Premier Cruise, and nowadays there never are. Due to understaffing since the restart, "free DOU while actively playing", at least on a Premier Cruise, is practically false advertising unless you're willing to stalk and chase down a bar waiter to take your order. Then there's another 15-20 minute wait to actually get your drink because they're also understaffed on bartenders, and unlike some other cruise lines Carnival won't let bar waiters pour their own orders, at least in the casino bar. So DOU on a Premier Cruise isn't nearly the deal that Carnial makes it out to be, at least on a Premier Cruise.

An upsell offer won't impact any promos associated with the fare you originally booked at. Now if you decide to upgrade yourself by changing your current booking to a better cabin, you lose all promos associated with your original booking and get whatever promos (if any) come with the fare you rebook under. People here have reported getting burned when the PVP failed to mention that when rebooking them and then they unknowingly lost their original promos.

IWWYJAC

For the longest time this wasn't well-publicized or even on the menu; you just had to know to ask for it. But on the Splendor cruise I got off of this week the night's pasta dish was also listed as an appetizer every night. Could just be another cost-cuttig tactic though... offer one less appetizer and have the pasta dish do double duty by listing it as an appetizer and entree.

For now, at least. Expect a surcharge for multiple entrees (like at the steakhouse) at some point if things continue in their current direction.

There's usually at least one night on every cruise when none of the entrees interests me so I order a meal of about 4 appetizers. I usually wind up getting the appetizer size portion of the pasta entree as my last appetizer/"main" because although its good, I don't need the carbs from a full entree size pasta dish.

You can generally do this with all the pasta entrees at least.

Miami Air, Trans States, Compass, Ravn Alaska, ExpressJet (after losing its United Express contract and trying to rebrand as aha!)... and Mesa reportedly on the edge of shutting down.