mz-s

A ship being old should mean things like it's smaller, the hallways are more narrow, things like that. It shouldn't mean you have to worry about bugs or dirty/sticky floors. Carnival should have better standards than that. Sadly - they often don't.

Sunshine's last dry dock was cut a little short due to her needing to be rushed back into service to take over for Horizon. Recall this was back when Horizon had the propulsion issue and had to have an emergency dry dock for repairs. So that may have explained why in early 2022 she had splintered deck railings, dirty windows, and worn carpet - they didn't have time to get to those things during her dry dock. But I don't see how anybody could excuse them now. Carnival's ships are generally in port every other day, give or take, there are plenty of opportunities to replace worn carpet or clean dirty exteriors.

And what evidence do you have that Carnival's system is any different than Chili's?

So the tip you leave at Chili's is a service charge too then I guess, because you add the tip to your bill and it goes to Chili's then to the server.

I have no reason to doubt that statement, nor do I really care. But so far the best evidence I've seen in this thread to support your statement is a study that was apparently done in 1997. Maybe some data from this millennium would help. In the meantime I remain happy that Carnival does not allow cigar smoking in their ships, and hope they ban ALL indoor smoking in the future.

What makes you say Carnival's gratuities do not meet that definition? https://www.carnival.com/help?topicid=1123

Carnival is not known for the maintenance of their ships. Rather they're known for how rusty and worn they often appear in port, alongside ships from other lines. The Sunshine is the oldest ship in their fleet. They renovated it in 2013 but haven't really touched it since.

Why would it be incorrect to call it a gratuity?

Having your cabin available as soon as you boarded used to be the benefit of FTTF. Now gone. You used to be able to disregard arrival appointments and show up to the pier whenever you wanted with FTTF. Now gone. I don't see why anybody would buy it anymore at any price - I mean how long is the line at guest services generally? - but each to their own.

They got rid of the early stateroom availability perk without much mutiny so I wouldn't be surprised at all to see baggage drop-off go. They have no issue reducing the value of FTTF either.

As far as I am able to determine, that is the only place this benefit is documented anywhere (other than on JH's posts every once in a while when it comes up).

"too much waste" While they print thousands of photos every week on many ships that are simply thrown away

The tortilla shell bowl has been gone from Blue Iguana for quite some time.

Nothing about the VIFP program says you only get the benefits if you booked the room...

OK I see. Gratuities aren't called service charges on Carnival. You can use your OBC to pay for gratuities.

What service charge are you talking about? There is no service charge with Carnival that I'm aware of.

yes to all questions

I waited 13 years to sail on Carnival Magic for them to work out the kinks - still got over cooked lobster, dry roast beef, ice cold / still frozen deli sandwiches, crew that spoke Indonesian or Tagalog in guest areas, and cakes that tasted like they were frosted with pure Crisco shortening.

Nobody should gamble because they want comps. Carnival does not have a published schedule of comps. You could blow $20k gambling and not get a single offer - and you'd have nobody to appeal to, because there is nowhere on Carnival's websites or advertisements that says to expect these comps at these levels of play. As far as I'm aware, the only comp that Carnival advertises is 1500 points for drinks on us. Anything beyond that is gravy.

Yes if I am remembering correctly it was at dinner and it was pretty good.

My wife and I usually cruise free insides - fine with us, we paid for insides for years. We gamble with about $1000 between us, plus any FunPlay we get from the Casino. That's typically enough to continue to get us free Insides and DOU while playing. We usually come home with $0 charged to our credit card, but also $0 in our pocket.

Carnival has all that information on their website. https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4529/~/back-to-back-cruises

I may be misremembering but I feel like they had pecan pie on my most recent Magic cruise on the buffet.

Yes that's happened to me a few times since the COVID restart as well - the steward told us when he was available to service our room.

There are several levels of priority - Wedding guest, Suite Guest, Diamond, Platinum, VIFP. While they could sort all of those ahead of everyone else when issuing boarding zones, they've decided to just give everyone a boarding zone and then allow priority to sort themselves out at the pier.