TNcruising02

Neither my husband nor I drink wine, so it’s nice that they at least have a $10 credit for a drink. It sounds like we will just skip the party. 

18 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

I agree and the only part of the buffet area that I frequently think is nasty is the ice cream area, and that's because there are kids using the machines that don't know how to act. Carnival should just raise the machines up a foot or so to avoid this issue.

or they can have a kid sized dispenser and an adult sized dispenser. Then the kids can have at it. Lol

9 minutes ago, BigAfts said:

 

Generally a different class of people on a Disney cruise versus a Carnival cruise.

Currently, Carnival passengers get their own tea and a few other drinks. I don’t see those areas messy. 

Disney does it. Somehow they survive people getting their own drinks.

In the stock OBC approval email for my cruise this coming Saturday, they did not approve the OBC for my August cruise.  This is what they said about it:

We can only apply shareholder OBC's on sailings through July of 2022. Please re-submit your request in the Spring of 2022 when you receive an updated shareholder certificate for sailings from August of 2022 through July of 2023.

According to the CDC, a person is up to date if they are fully vaccinated and receive the booster, when eligible.  So it appears that a person who is not yet eligible for a booster is considered up to date.

 

Up to date means a person has received all recommended COVID-19 vaccines, including any booster dose(s) when eligible.

Fully vaccinated means a person has received their primary series of COVID-19 vaccines.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/stay-up-to-date.html

If you scroll down, there are links from Carnival's page from some proctored home tests that they accept:

https://www.carnival.com/Legal/covid-19-legal-notices/return-to-service-faqs

15 minutes ago, amyh13 said:

What is everyone's definition of "booster if eligible?"  My 12 yo daughter got her second shot on December 23 so she isn't eligible for her booster until may.  I would hate to misinterpret but it would be so much easier on me as the rest of us are vaxxed and boosted.  

I believe Carnival goes by the CDC's description, which is 5 months after Moderna and Pfizer or 2 months after J&J.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/booster-shot.html

It took about two weeks for me to get the email stating my OBC has been applied to my cruise.  It was a discounted cruise, so I guess that doesn't make any difference.

Did your friend gamble in the casino?  I play about $100 to $200 on the slot machines when I cruise and get promotional discounts through the casino.  I received a lot of free cabins and discounted cabins for February, although not through the casino.  I've taken about 9 Carnival cruises.  

All of that food looks delicious!  Thanks for posting the pictures.  As you see the shows, if you could let us know what you think or have any advice as far as getting good seats and wait times, that would be great.

I don't know, but I wish you good luck!  We are cruising on the 26th too and hoping for negative tests.  

7 hours ago, csj092809 said:

Nope

Great news!

From Carnival's website:
Effective March 1, guests who are up to date with their vaccines, i.e., received a booster if eligible, may take their test within three days prior to sailing.

From the CDC's website:

Up to date means a person has received all recommended COVID-19 vaccines, including any booster dose(s) when eligible.

Fully vaccinated means a person has received their primary series of COVID-19 vaccines.

Everyone is considered up to date until the time they are eligible for a booster – which is 5 months after the second dose in a two-shot series, (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines), or two months after the J&J/Janssen vaccine. After this time period, a booster shot is recommended and a person is no longer up to date on their recommended COVID vaccination.  In order to be up to date, a person would need to get a booster shot to be considered up to date.

Congratulations on winning the ship-on-a-sticks!  I think they are pretty neat.  It sounds like the shows are very good.  Thank you, again, for taking the time to post about your cruising experiences.  We board this coming Saturday and I found your trip story very helpful and interesting.

37 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

I wonder how the soda tastes, sometimes the water on the ship is perfectly safe to drink but doesn't have the pure taste you'd think would be necessary to make a nice glass of pop.

I've had good experiences with the soda on Disney and Royal.  I know that drinks out of multiplex machines can taste a bit off if the drinks aren't calibrated correctly, but the drinks I had were always fine.  I do prefer bottled or canned drinks because I know those will always taste good.  I just don't like going to a bar to get a soda.  It seems like such a waste of a bartender's time.  Plus, I really like the larger selection of drinks with the machines.

What a fun day!  We did the "hummer" tour too several years ago.  It sounds like they stopped at the same places.  It sounds like some of the venues for the shows can get crowded.  I wonder how that will work out when the ship sails at full capacity.  Thanks again for such a detailed trip report!

It would be a smart move to put a drink station outside of the buffet area of every ship.  That would really free up the bar tenders to take care of other drinks and not have to deal with soda.  When we went on a Disney cruise, they had the drink station outside of the buffet.  On the RCL ship we sailed, the drink stations were on several decks.  They had cups that had chips in them and there was a huge selection of drinks.  

It looks like Carnival has some drink stations on the Mardi Gras where you swipe your card.  I hope they do add them to some of the other ships.  

3 minutes ago, WorkerBee74 said:

 

Yep, that's how I'm reading it too.  We wanted to be boosted for sure before our cruise because this can all change at a moment's notice - if anything changes closer to two weeks prior and you're not boosted, you're in trouble.

That is exactly why I got boosted.  We have a chance to cruise on the Mardi Gras for $19 per person  (plus taxes, gratuities, port fees).  Carnival makes it clear that if the CDC changes fully vaccinated to included boosted, they will too.   That change can happen any day or it may never happen.  I am not one to leave the ability to cruise up to chance.

51 minutes ago, sammee said:

I get it, we all want to ditch them. It's normal for us. Some are just taking it too far. My cruise is 2/27. There's a certain cruise group that posted this news. Everybody's wondering if we're going to get to remove them on March 1 or keep them on. I get it. What I don't get is the people who knowingly booked the cruise with this mask policy and agreed to it. If this new tidbit didn't come out, they'd be carrying on the same. But now, since it came out, I see a comment like. "They better not be making us wear them". Really? It's not a complaint. I'm ready either way. But why this kind of comment when just 2 days ago, everything was honky dory.

 

It is a bit disappointing for Carnival to jump on allowing people to smoke in the casino, yet put off loosening the mask mandates for vaccinated people.  I will watch comedy shows with a mask, possibly being asked to mask up between sips, while people can constantly blow smoke all over the casinos.  People who have cruises this coming week are just disappointed that the risk won't be any different in the next two weeks as it is after March 1st.

Carnival seemed to be in a bigger hurry to allow smoking than to loosen the mask mandate for people who won't be blowing smoke everywhere.

3 hours ago, Dancindukes2 said:

Take good care of her and have a great time. We sail next Saturday! 

Us too!

Csj, I hope you have a wonderful cruise!

1 hour ago, chefchick said:

Well, I’m boarding the Panorama today, so we shall see.  

It seems like a cruise out of California would have a larger percentage of people who are fine wearing masks on your cruise than a cruise out of Florida.  We are cruising on the 26th out of Port Canaveral and I will be pleasantly surprised if the mask mandates are a bit looser, but prepared to mask up after every sip. 

I looked into cancelling my cruise and changing it to the following week, but the price for non stop flights would cost too much money to change this close to sailing.  I think those people who are very fearful to be around anyone without a mask at this point should bring along a good N95 mask to protect themselves.  Things are changing to people protecting themselves instead of mandates that other people protect them.

Have fun on your cruise!  Our last Carnival cruise was on the Panorama in Dec 2019 and it was a lot of fun.  We really enjoyed the excursion Rhythm of the Night.

14 minutes ago, Dancindukes2 said:

To "add insult to injury" we are on the 2/26 of Mardi Gras sailing & neither my husband, myself OR my Travel Agent has received this correspondence. Had to find out thru social media which is no way to run a corporation.  I know they can change ports but substituting Nassau for San Juan is like having purchased a Mercedes and giving you a 12 year old beat up truck with a flat tire! 
 

I thought I hadn't received the email, but I found it in my junk mail folder.  I didn't expect anything from Carnival to go to that folder since everything else from Carnival arrives in my in box. 

7 minutes ago, AandBmom said:

Well that seems way easier than going somewhere to do it.   Is this a Carnival rep that I do it through?  How do I set that up?  I can't seem to get the info on their website. 

 

Sorry for all the questions..... I'm super overwhelmed with testing for cruise, getting back in to Canada, etc.  

https://www.carnival.com/Legal/covid-19-legal-notices/return-to-service-faqs

 

Fully vaccinated guests may consider using one of the following self-administered telehealth viral antigen tests:

Abbott BinaxNOW™ COVID-19 Ag Card Home Test	Test kits ship to all 50 states and arrive at your door in three business days or less. Order now.
Radeas Inspire Diagnostics At-Home Health Test	Test kits ship to all 50 states and free 5-7 business day shipping is available (expedited shipping can be purchased at checkout). Order now.

2 hours ago, Earthworm Jim said:

 

Following CDC Guidance became a lot easier once the CDC quietly changed their Operations Manual for cruise ships on February 17th. Now it says Vaccination Standard of Excellence or Highly Vaccinated ships can do away with masks. Previously it was only Vaccination Standard of Excellence ships, which is a standard I view as unrealistic to attain.

 

Now it's a pretty easy decision for cruise lines to opt in, and 110 ships have done so.

 

 

 This change made all of the difference in the world because there was no way for Carnival to meet the requirement when it meant people had to have boosters.