Writerfl

Just did this on Empress. Brunch is a bit of a misnomer as the selections are pure lunch. Meat and cheese antipasti, choice of around four different appetizers, main course is either a 6 ounce filet mignon, cold lobster tail or one other that I'm drawing a blank on. Three or four dessert options. Mimosas flow VERY freely and the gallery tour beforehand was fascinating. We got the single Chops dinner and Brunch package, booked onboard for $59 plus grats. I thought that was a pretty good value and enjoyed both meals.

I should add that it was sit-down service, not a buffet like the unwashed masses received on sea day.

3 hours ago, Christinampl said:

Looking forward to your review. Happy you were able to enjoy under the stressful circumstances.

 

I board Empress this Saturday and cannot wait to read your thoughts. Any photos of MDR or drink menus?

Sorry, no photos at all. Twangster has pretty much slammed the book on this one. His recent review has dozens of really professional looking photos, MUCH better than I could do with my little Canon Rebel.

Again sorry, no drink menus cause I don't drink. I did, however, have the soda package and definitely got my money's worth, especially since ALL previously purchased packages were extended without cost for the remainder of the cruise.

Hi all. Just off the extended Empress cruise where we hit every major cruise port in the Western Caribbean (except Ocho Rios). Detailed review to follow, but the TL;DR is "Fantastic Time, great food, amazing crew, teeny weeny cabins, surly Guest Services staff, but overall a super effort under trying circumstances." While I'm putting the review together, feel free to AMA.

I'll be on Empress August 24-Sept 1. Back in the 80's I sailed on both Emerald Seas when she was Eastern Cruise Lines and Azure Seas when she was Western Cruise Lines before they were both bought out by Admiral. It's funny that, thirty years later, I'm going to complete the Trifecta by sailing on what was to be "Future Seas". Twangster, thank you a million times over for your excellent review. I was somewhat apprehensive as I've never sailed RCI before, but it;s obvious that you really, really enjoyed your time on Empress. Now I'm quite looking forward to it.

Texas also charges state cigarette taxes on cartons bought through duty free while on the cruise, whether purchased on board or at a port. That's $15 a carton, taking away most of the price break enjoyed by buying duty free. They also collect between $3.25 and $5.50 for liquor purchased while on the cruise, duty free or not. If you live outside the state it doesn't matter that you're "in transit" and that none of the goods will be consumed in Texas, they still want their pound of flesh. Even though the individual amounts are small I refuse to support this behavior, so I'll not be sailing out of Galveston ever.

Reference: https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1382/~/texas-tax-declaration%3A-the-texas-alcoholic-beverage-commission-(tabc)

In Costa Maya the town of Mahahual is a $3, 10 minute taxi ride away, and is not to be missed. Tons of souvenir vendors, very beautiful, sleepy and SAFE little town. Some excellent restaurants as well with beach seating. The sargassum won't be a problem in town either as there's a sand bar about 100 yards off shore that holds almost all of it back. One of my favorite places to visit.

Hi folks. I'm due for my first RCI sailing on August 24 on the Empress western Caribbean itinerary and I'm curious about what Royal does for solo travelers. By comparison Carnival tends to ignore them, offering a one-time solo cruisers meetup on the daily activities page that is rarely if ever attended by cruise ship staff and nothing thereafter On the other hand Norwegian has a dedicated solo host who organizes daily meetups and optional group dinners. They also invite all the solos for a tour of the Studio cabins and lounge (and lately, a pitch for the spa at the same time).

What does Royal do? Will there be a scheduled introductory meeting? Will there be any organized activities after that meeting? Any information will be greatly appreciated.

On 5/4/2019 at 10:02 AM, 123funcruiser said:

  On 5/4/2019 at 10:00 AM, Beav1279 said:

Psychic = some who claims to see/hear spirits; clairvoyant

Physics = science of matter and energy

 

Phsyic isn't a word.

Actually, physic IS a word. It is an archaic term for medicine, usually a laxative. Imjustsayin.

Just posted on Carnival.com:

Cuba Update - 06/05/19 – 8:00 AM (EDT)

The U.S. government has imposed a series of new sanctions on Cuba prohibiting travel via cruise ship and rescinding certain categories of authorized travel, which previously allowed U.S. citizens to visit Cuba under the People-to-People program.  Effective immediately, cruise ship travel is no longer allowed and we are required to cancel our visit to Havana. We have replaced our call to Havana with a replacement port to provide our guests with the best experience ashore.   

Guests currently aboard Carnival Sensation’s June 3rd sailing will be calling on Cozumel this Thursday instead of Havana.  We recognize Havana is a unique destination and may have been the reason for the selection of this itinerary.  Along with our apologies, guests will receive a $100 onboard credit posted to their Sail & Sign® Account.

We are in the process of notifying our other guests of their new itineraries and their options, in the order of sailing date proximity.  Mailings for sailings through the end of July 2019, are now in progress.  Guests will have the following options:

• Remain on the sailing and receive a US$100.00, per person, onboard credit (no need to call us if you are continuing with your plans to sail with us) 
• Move to another itinerary and receive a US$50.00, per person, onboard credit
• Cancel and receive a full refund

We are working as quickly as possible to secure alternative itineraries for the remainder of our Cuba voyages and expect to have information for sailings further out in the next 2-3 days. In the meantime, please check back on our website for further updates.  
 
We sincerely apologize to our guests for this unexpected change and thank them for their understanding.  We look forward to welcoming them on board a Carnival cruise in the near future.

*****

Personal Note: Well done, Carnival. Eminently fair.

I had a balcony guarantee on one cruise that was assigned as a Spa Balcony and I thought "awesome". Then I researched it and the cabin had horrible reviews (ping pong tables overhead, angled mini-suite balcony next door that was all up in your business). Since I'm not a Spa kinda guy I called NCL to find out what my options were and was able to "upgrade" to a normal balcony in a more favorable location for about $100, BUT when I did that it became a regular reservation and I got the "Pick Three Free" applicable at the time, giving me back about $300 in freebies. Win-win.

I'll throw my two cents in. Booked a Balcony Guaranty on the Tuesday before the ship sailed Sunday. I'm just Bronze, made Silver on this 5 day trip. Got my cabin assignment the next day, it was a BA on Deck 10. No complaints. I've done this a total of three times on NCL and been happy every time. DON'T get me started on Carnival, who has given me cabin assignments I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy's dog. I no longer travel the (not very) Fun Ships.

Enough about smoke but how much should I tip the butler?:D;) ;)

Just like with cows. Wait till he's asleep on his feet, then run up and give him a quick shove.

It was a new gambit by the casino hosts. Recent science indicates that male risk-taking behavior increases drastically when exposed to the aroma of bacon. Female risk-taking increases exponentially when given access to the smell of dark chocolate. They first experimented with tofu burgers and brussels sprouts and almost went bankrupt.

Suggest: put your phone in airplane mode, then go back an turn on wifi so that you can use the ship wifi service that you are paying for. (phone should be in airplane mode while at sea, always)

If you do this no-one will be able to reach you via cell phone in case of an emergency. If that's okay, then do it. If it's not okay, leave the cell phone on (calls will cost $2.50 US per minute) but definitely make sure that "data roaming" is turned OFF. You can incur huge charges without even realizing it if your phone is getting facebook notifications and the like in the background.

UPDATE: Judge Josiah Dredd has denied the motion for a Cease and Desist Order. His verbal ruling (written ruling to follow, written in crayon in the margins of MAD magazine) was that anyone who speaks harshly of an NCL cruise is de facto and de jure suffering from a mental deficit and cannot be held accountable for their deranged ramblings. He then took off his judicial robes revealing a loud tropical shirt and swim trunks, brandished a Sign n Sail card and was last seen heading in the direction of PortMiami.

I was on Getaway 4-2-17 through 4-9-17 as well. I did not get the Plague, Swine Flu, Dengue, the Common Cold or Boogie Fever, I did, however, gain 4 lbs.

Thank you so much for the info. I was just assigned that cabin (8168) as a GTY assignment for the 4/2/17 sailing. This makes me happy. - Jeff

This is the first policy change that Carnival's introduced in the last couple of years that DIDN'T make me feel like a proctologist's patient. Even though they say that the problem is with 'unmonitored alcohol consumption', it's pretty obvious that it's aimed squarely at the liquor smugglers, and you know what? I'm okay with that.

For the water-bearers among us, $2.99 for a 12 pack ain't bad, considering the hot, sweaty labor you've just been unburdened of, lugging that 18 or 24 pack aboard. While I prefer my soda in bottles, cans are okay, and ***-mart carries some nifty snap-on can covers that preserve the fizz.

I like the idea that I won't be held up behind people having every single seal on every single bottle examined by an ill-trained rent-a-cop during embarkation. I like the idea that more people will have fewer things to stuff through the x-ray machines. I like the idea that all but the most hard-core of smugglers will have to actually pay for their drinks like us law-abiding, rule-following types, keeping the costs for all manageable (for now).

This is a change that actually comes across as well-considered, rather than the Ready! Fire! Aim! process that seems to characterize most of Carnival's decisions of late.

Interestingly, John Heald didn't even try to 'sell' this one to us, with his somewhat labored "Brilliant!" posts. But you know what? This one solves so many problems and streamlines so many processes that it really IS brilliant.

Someone posted this thought early in the thread, so props to you. I didn't copypasta as I wanted to add my personal spin.

Carnival has a lamentable history over the past few years of subtracting things we used to think of as "basic", then offering them back at an additional charge. Reducing the quality of some beef entrees, then offering "Steakhouse Selections" in the MDR is a good example, as is the recent removal of some of the more popular (and higher cost) room service items, then adding in up-charged items. Other items simply dwindle then disappear, like reducing the quality of the turn down chocolates, then discontinuing them because "no one liked them anyways".

The previous poster wisely linked the Platinum/Diamond benefit of early embark and debark to the popularity of FTTF at whatever price. I hope against hope that as I approach Platinum (55 nights) that "the beards" don't put two and two together. If they do, I'd wager that the benefit is eliminated (but of course suite guests retain it), the number of FTTFs offered triples and the price *initially* drops by about a third, allowing John Heald to proclaim it as 'brilliant' and the company to double their earnings from it. Later, the price creeps slowly up to whatever the market will bear.

<<sigh>> Carnival, I *want* to love you. Why do you make it so hard?

Elaine -

I have to split my response into two parts. First, whether the casino operator uses it or not, that capability is there. Modern slot machines are almost entirely solid-state, networked and remote-flash capable.

Second, personal experience and anecdotal evidence indicates that they do indeed use that capability on cruise ships, but in a limited manner. They improve the payouts to generate excitement early in the cruise, then decrease it during most of the cruise when the "serious" gamblers will be playing. Then at the end of the cruise they improve it again, although not to the same level as at the beginning.

My personal experience is this: I typically budget about $300 per cruise for slot play, playing only the machines that I enjoy (five reel mechanical, lots of flashy lights, bonus cycles). I'll win a little bit the first day, feed it back plus more $20 or $40 at a time for the next five days, and end up either totally depleted or less than $100 in the budget. Then on the last day, I'll invariably "win" back about half of what I put in overall. On only one of the eight or nine trips last year did I come out ahead, by around $200. Not the point, though. I had a good time, and it was fair value for entertainment.

So, to summarize: Do I believe that they constantly manipulate the odds to get every one of granny's last nickels? No. Do I believe that they manipulate the odds on a predictable schedule and if I had an irrevocable will to stay away from the machines most of the cruise that I could take advantage of it? Yep, but I don't. I'm having fun and that's what counts.

Sillychicky -

While much of what you posted is "right on the money" (pardon the pun), it's applicable only to regulated slot machines. Landside, the payout is pre-set at the factory and cannot legally be changed after that. A number of states require that the casino post the payouts publicly for every machine type they operate.

On the water that's not necessarily true. The EEPROM (stands for Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) in older slot machines has been replaced by Flash Memory. Both can be reprogrammed, on the fly, remotely, but Flash can be reprogrammed in microseconds compared with EPROM which takes seconds to minutes.

I have to stand by my earlier comment about "Machine Settings Changed" referring to machine internal settings rather than operator selections. My sources were very definite about that, and it surprised me. Why would the machine announce that it had changed? The only response I got was "it just does".

Now, on to the random number generator. This is where things get interesting, and rather technical. If the random number generator and the pay table were the same for every pull there would be no way of controlling the payout. The manufacturer compensates for this by controlling the content of the pay table. It's also how "capture mode" works. Here's an example, vastly simplified.

For the sake of argument, lets say that the RNG generates a whole number from 1 to 1,000,000 in default state. 100,000 possible numbers are pre-programmed as winners in a table format, ranging in value from 1:1 to Jackpot. This is all done according to a formula that says "over the life of the machine (a million or so pulls) YY percent of the bets will be returned as winnings". YY can be anywhere from 70 to 105 percent, but cruise ships are typically in the low 80's. That's the default.

However, there are several things that can affect the pay table at game time. Changing the payout level via Flash will add or remove winners to/from the table. Playing higher bet levels seeds the table with additional winners. Capture mode likewise. Pay tables differ from game to game as well. Some have a larger number of lower payouts in the table, producing more frequent but smaller winning spins. These are referred to as "low volatility" machines. Others pay much less frequently, but with larger wins, "high volatility".

Bottom line: on a cruise ship, playing the slots is something you do for fun, not money. There are too many variables to make it predictable and if it were predictable it wouldn't be fun.

Eponym, great question and one I have no answer for. My prior response was based on both personal experience and a couple of article interviews I did with Williams and IGT product managers a few years back, and that's a question I never thought to ask.

One thing I did learn and should have mentioned is that the payout DOES in fact vary while you're playing the machine. Every modern slot bumps the payout for a short, preset amount of time when you first sit down to play it. This is called, cynically, "capture mode". Its part of the machine's basic programming, not controlled by the back office.

Slot machines on cruise ships are unregulated and the payout can (and is) changed "on the fly" from the casino back office. Typically, they will be set looser on the first evening of a cruise and on the last day.

The only restriction is that payouts cannot be altered *while* there are active credits on the machine. Occasionally after cashing out a message will appear on the small display next to the Sail-N-Sign card slot after you withdraw your card that says "Machine Settings Changed". That means the back office just tweaked the payout on that machine, although whether for good or evil you'll never know without feeding the beast some more money.

Please remember that these machines are there for the sole purpose of separating you from your money. The only difference is whether they do it quickly or slowly. When the payout is set "loose", the intent is to generate excitement so that even when you "win" you keep playing the machine and eventually feed it back (look up the gambling term "churn"). It takes iron will to take a good win out of the machine and pocket the money rather trying to parlay it higher, but that's your best shot at a winning trip. Jackpots are rarer than hen's teeth, even in landside casinos. On a typical seven days cruise there will be 5 or 6 of them, but out of around a HUNDRED slot machines.

My best advice: find a machine that entertains you and set a budget. If you win, terrific. If not, you spent X dollars to be amused, like going to the movies or some other leisure activity.

Good luck!

BB can only be purchased while aboard. It's a tax thing. Club soda (and tonic water) are included in the program.

This is actually kinda reassuring. Remember that Victory, Triumph and Destiny (nee Sunshine) are all the same class and Sunshine's upgrade was *not* an unqualified success. Excessive noise in the statrooms, unusual crowding at certain times and places and "The Smell".

I love Victory and even my shin barks from the "attack seahorses" are a pleasant memory. Her decor is darker and more formal than many other Destiny and Conquest-class ships, which I personally find appealing. I think a general refresher that still retains her character is a Good Thing. It wouldn't have hurt my feelings if they shoehorned a Red Frog Pub onto the Lido deck, but it's not a deal breaker by any stretch of the imagination.