furf_n_slo

3 hours ago, Colorado Beach Bum said:

I thought the early show was timed for late dinner and late show for early dinner.  We usually opt for early dinner and if we can catch the early show catch that, if not we still have late show.  Usually in between all that we can catch a comedy show.  With YTD you still have to time dinner similar to early or late seating otherwise you miss shows.  

In theory they are supposed to be.  But with the shows all starting at 9 or 9:15 I don't see how they expect guests that sit down to dinner at 8:15 to be able to make it to those show times. Especially when the wait staff has to stop service to sing and dance every night.  😉

1 hour ago, n6uqqq said:

I just got off Panorama on Saturday and they brought my lobster and prime rib together, no issues. I will say the hallways of the Panorama were nice and clean since they started charging for room service. The amount of food waste I saw on lido deck, however, was incredible. 

We just got off Saturday too! There were days I would have paid $$ for coffee/tea to be delivered to my room in the morning lol,  but sadly that wasn't an option.  

One of our favorite things about cruising is having the same staff at dinner that get to know you,  anticipate what you like and always remember our names.  And we've always done late dining.  It's closer to the time we eat at home,  we have 2 teenage boys so we all end up staying up late on vacation and our traditional cruising schedule has been comedy club and dinner together,  then the boys go to their club and we go to the big show.

But the last 2 cruises, the schedule has made it almost impossible to make the late show. We just got off the Panorama and the shows were starting at 9:15, some even started at 9. Even if we rushed through eating (which is not the point of eating in the mdr) the earliest we ever got done with dinner was 9:30 and that was on the night we were in Puerto vallarta and our wait staff only had 2 tables.  Most of the 7:30 comedy shows were also 18+ only shows so we weren't able to go to any but 1 pre dinner comedy show. 

Also our room steward was off work at 8. (Rightfully so,  I'm not faulting that the stewards need to be off the clock) We've always chosen evening cleaning and our room was straightened up during dinner.  But since he was done at 8 we had to be out of our rooms by 6:45 ish when we'd normally be getting spiffy for dinner.  It was awkward to have to rush getting ready, especially on port days,  and our steward standing outside our door waiting for us to leave.  We usually just ended up sitting around the ship somewhere because we don't really drink and weren't able to attend any of the entertainment. 

If you prefer late dining how have you been able to work in other activities in the evening? I don't remember this being an issue at all prior to our last 2 cruises. They were both on vista class ships. I'm afraid we may have to make the switch to any time dining.  😞

Our cruise last week gave out a ton of them 🙂

We just got off the Panorama and didn't have this issue at all.  We would order 2 entrees every once in awhile and they brought both at the same time. 

We have 4 in our family (2 adults 2 kids) and have been getting connecting rooms since they were sleeping in regular beds instead of a crib. Sometimes even then we're on top of each other lol I can't imagine 5 in one room.  I'm sure they wouldn't let you book if there wasn't a sleeping space for each person,  but there would be zero space when everyone is awake. 

We used the veteran rate one time and it was so horrible we haven't even looked into it since. They wouldn't allow us to choose our room, only a category. And we were in since a tiny room right next to a crew passage way and an elevator. It was miserable. And it wasn't even that great a discount.

I would just forgo looking for veteran discounts and stick with their sales and VIFP offers.

They are under specialty dining. But they aren't listed until a few weeks before you sail. 

All of the classes for our sailing are already sold out.  They went so fast! Do they save any spots for guests to fill when we board? I'm thinking probably not. Do they have a cancelation list we might be able to sign up for? 

Thanks!

I think Carnival could also help their food waste by having better quality control on their foods served on the lido deck. 90% of the time when we leave food on our plate its because it tastes awful. Someone passing by may judge that we are leaving an entire serving of guys fries, or a barely touched slice of cake because we are wasteful. When it's actually because something was so salty it was inedible,  or their cakes tend to be so over saturated with simple syrup it's soggy.  Of course there are always going to be people that take more than they intend to eat. But a lot of times, especially the last few cruises, the food can look really appetizing but tastes horrible.  

Our health insurance does cover care internationally,  including emergency transportation.  🙂 sorry I should have added that to my original  post.

Our final payment for our November cruise is due in a couple weeks.  Really our only major concern about not getting on the boat would be if anyone gets covid.  We're all fully vaccinated but you never know.  From reading what's on the website,  we would get fcc if anyone did test positive.  We've gone on several cruises and have never done the insurance before. We are driving to Port (about 4 hours away) so we don't need to worry about flights changing/delayed. And we're driving down the day before so we even have time for a backup plan if something happens on our drive.  

Do you usually get insurance now? 

Is there a way to check how many points you have without creating an account? I want to check my kids' points but they don't have an account,  or an email to make one.  I don't really want to create an account just to check their points. I do have their VIFP numbers.

Thanks!

5 hours ago, Wheels87 said:

So cool!

 

My wife sailed on the Tropicale out of Los Angeles back in 1988.  We sent in a pic of her with her waiter and a pic of some other souvenirs to get credit for her 7-day cruise for the VIFP program.  It worked!

 

Cheers!

That's so funny you got credit!

Taken sometime in the 70's

On 10/10/2021 at 3:35 PM, PandaBear62 said:

 

 

Are you referring to Galveston Limo and Transportation? ( https://galvestonlimo.com/). 

I am asking for two reasons: 

1. I am looking at booking with them. Can you give a review if this is the same company?

2. When I look at the website, it says this: " 2 Suitcases - 30" (Length or Height or Width) Each and 1 Carry On", which means to me that each piece of luggage cannot exceed 30" in one way. Can you let me know what you found?

That didn't even blink.  Everyone had large suitcases. 

It's been great.  Hot and muggy. But still pretty empty.  2,200 guests and lots of room.  Not as much reminding about masks during comedy show and main lounge show. We did have to make an emergency stop in cozumel on Monday but we got to mahogany bay on time.  I'm sorry you had to miss it!

5 hours ago, CruiseesiurC said:

Does anyone know what days they typically do the dining room entertainment on a 7 day cruise?

We've had it every night so far

I don't mind much for dinner.  It would be nice if not every waiter participated so that service could continue. 

I did not like it during breakfast.  We had to wait almost 20 minutes to order because the gentleman was singing so loud I couldn't hear my kids talking right next to me,  let alone hear the waiter. He sang 4 songs.   Then it took our waiter awhile to get through all the tables that were waiting to order. 

We are! I'm sorry you had to miss it!! We almost had to cancel too. ❤

There were 2 lines today.  An employee was checking our boarding passes and we were directed to get in the on time line (which we were). This line moved much faster than the early/ late line.  30 minutes from getting in line to walking on the ship. 

Currently on Vista with 2,251 passengers.

In the FAQ from carnival it says that if you test positive within 14 days of sailing you're supposed to call to reschedule.  

"What happens if I have a positive COVID-19 test within 14 days of sailing?

Please do not go to the cruise terminal if you have any symptoms of, or have recently tested positive for, COVID-19. Call 1-800-314-9859 to cancel your cruise. You will receive a future cruise credit. For more information on symptoms of COVID-19, please visit the CDC's website ."

The issue we are having with the rapid test is that no where within a 2 hour drive is doing them without being sick.  Even then it's really limited and first come first serve.  No appointments.  The lab tests are pretty easy to get but we wouldn't have our results until embarkation day if that. 

Our only real option is the at home test but it's really stressful not being able to have a solid back up plan. 

So what would happen if you used $100 in OBC, then won $300. Would you only actually get $200 to cash out since the first $100 was the canceled cruise OBC?