mz-s

I think it's pretty easy to understand that a curling iron is more dangerous than a coffee maker but Carnival has to choose their battles. There's no way they can ban curling irons.

For one thing if you have a work phone or work laptop with a 5G modem, the company is already set up to pay that so it's easy to have them cover your 5G roaming fees vs. having them pay for wifi.

It is true that Carnival's closest competitor is probably Royal so that is a good comparison, thanks!

They're leaving a huge market to competitors by continuing to charge ever more for the internet, that's for sure. So many people do remote work while on vacation these days.

I think it's somewhat like Spirit Airlines vs. Southwest vs. Delta. Carnival is great if you are OK without all the add-ons or if you only want some add-ons. If you want add-ons like meat with a bone in it, wifi, soda, included gratuities, etc., you can get it with Carnival - or you can pay more on the front-end and sail a line where all this is included already. And because you're starting at a different baseline, you'll likely enjoy an overall elevated experience.

I get your point but the comedy clubs on Carnival are big money makers, they sell a lot of alcohol. And they're much cheaper for Carnival to put on than the playlist shows for example.

Of course, it's everywhere and it just comes to a point where all of us have to decide when we've had enough. I have only eaten at a "sit down" restaurant maybe 6 times since the onset of COVID for example - the poor service and high prices just aren't worth it anymore.

They are not but if you don't direct people to Carnival's site you'll get pages and pages of "whataboutthis" and almost surely some people giving wrong information just trying to be helpful. I think it's better for people to get information like this directly from the source.

Obviously. I think part of me is sad that I appear to have outgrown Carnival, but in many ways they don't want me anymore and I just have to come to terms with that I suppose.

It is true that Carnival has made a lot of changes to their level of service, while asking us to pay more and more in gratuities. Why is the change only a one-way street, the only change allowed is the change that saves Carnival money?

Carnival has an exhaustive list of prohibited items on their website, please read it.

You should double check to make sure but I don't think Travel Pass is good while on the ship, it's only good when ashore. So if you need internet access while on the ship, that answers that question.

Neither does a $20 bill or millions of other things, what's your point?

It is common on here for the Carnival faithful to resort to ad hominem when their beloved cruise line is being criticized, despite the name of this forum. It's a big issue for Carnival right now I think, they're churning through crew too quickly. On my last cruise many of the crew had very limited grasp of the English language for example. In the past a major point of pride with Carnival was all of their crew spoke English at all times in guest areas - no more.

Some time ago they used to break down how much each individual got did they not. I recall the maitre'd got $1.50 a day or something. Was that Carnival or some other line, or was I dreaming that?

I agree unless something crazy happens and the ship arrives to Miami 4 hours late, you'll have no issue making the noon flight. I've never pre-booked an Uber for Miami but I'd probably do 8AM. I feel that you'll be able to get off the ship by 8AM even if you're not a priority guest.

Good point - they may still need to throttle the "shrimp and crab" plan users, say to 10Mbps or something, just so that they don't hog all the bandwidth. In fact they probably still do that today.

I agree, they have changed up the booking engine lately to automatically select the rate code with the lowest price. You have to go through the booking engine until the end, then go back to choose a different code. Big headache. At least, I haven't figured out a better way to do it. Maybe there is. I used to use Carnival's booking engine to book my cruise, then I'd call my TA to book it, because I felt Carnival's booking engine was easy to use and faster than going back and forth with my TA but that's no longer true.

It may have to do with the rate code you've selected, it may only apply for certain cabin types. Instances like this are when it's helpful to have a PVP or TA. Their tools can be more comprehensive.

It's $16 per guest per day in standard rooms and $18 per guest per day in suites. https://www.carnival.com/help?topicid=1123 The auto gratuity amount is Carnival's recommendation. As I said you are free to go to guest services once the automatic gratuities post and have them adjusted up or down, or removed entirely. Then yes - you can tip individuals in cash.

With the automatic gratuities, your gratuities are pooled. The crew who wait on you in the dining room for breakfast are working on Lido for lunch and dinner for example. Your gratuities are pooled and everyone shares in the pool, so it all comes out in the wash. How much you pay in gratuities is entirely up to you. I wouldn't get into that here because this thread will go on for pages and pages of people fighting. It is up to you to go to guest services and have the automatic gratuities removed entirely, or scaled up or down, as you see fit. What you may decide to do is remove the automatic gratuities and tip in cash the crew you wish to receive your tips. A lot of people do that and it works for them. You may choose to adjust the automatic gratuities to a level you are comfortable with, and just leave it alone. There are lots of ways to do this and it's all up to you and what you feel the service you received was worth. I will say that I have a big problem with the ever-increasing automatic gratuities and the ever-declining level of service (rooms no longer ready at embarkation, only one room servicing a day, hours of dining cut to push people towards the buffet, etc)

I don't think data caps are the answer personally. If I were designing Carnival's new wifi plans in the era of Starlink, I'd have two plans. A throttled plan, say 2Mbps max. Good for everything except streaming video really. And an unthrottled plan for everyone else. No data caps, no social media only plans, etc. A throttled plan for average users, and an unthrottled plan for those who want to Zoom or vlog or whatever from the ship.

As far as luggage delivery, it really is a crapshoot. I've had luggage arrive at my room by the time I get to my room, and I've had it not show up until closer to supper time. I don't think the "Priority" text on the luggage tag means much, especially on longer cruises when there are so many priority guests and so much luggage to deliver.

Pretty sure when Carnival released these new plans, the Social plan was $5 a day. The current prices are disgusting and actually feel punitive.

Wifi on vacation is not deductible for the use case I'm talking about, and even if it was that doesn't mean it's free like it is on other lines and pretty much every land resort.