geoffrywillhardt

This is very frustrating considering the email said that they would automatically be refunding and you don't need to call. Guess I'll call tomorrow and get it processing. Thanks everyone for the info!

Any updates from people regarding their refunds? We still haven't received ours just wondering if others are still waiting or not.

48 minutes ago, teknoge3k said:

 

That's the menu.

Haha see how much attention I pay sometimes. Thanks 

I had a similar experience recently. The first person I talked to said there would be no problem transferring my deposit to another booking, then she said she ran into a problem and needed to transfer me to another department(she didn't specify which department). When I talked to them they said they would be happy to do it but that I would loose essentially half my deposit because of change fees so it would cost me $150. We booked the Mardi Gras 15 day for $100pp x 3 of us so $300. It was a casino offer. We were having second thoughts on taking that much time off to go. For us it will essentially mean taking 20+ days to go. We will have to fly to NYC (we want to spend a few days there before the cruise to see the sights), take the 15 day cruise, and fly back to Montana from Florida. We decided to keep our booking and try and make it work. About a week later we got an upgrade(sell) offer to go from a Cove balcony to a regular balcony 2 decks below Lido and we took that ($65). So if we end up not being able to take the cruise I know we will be out $150 for the original deposit but I'm not sure about the $65 upgrade that we paid for. 

So TLDR We could have paid $50 pp to change but chose not to. If you paid $99 total for two people then you would end up paying $100 to move $99, so not worth it. If you paid $99 each for a total of $200 then you could get $100 back, could being the main thing, I don't know how nice they are about these things especially last min. Our Mardi Gras is almost a year away still so they might have been more relaxed about that one. 

not gonna lie it was more boring that I was expecting. I thought there would be more to it. 

do you get to keep the book?

The TLDR on this is not very helpful. It is much clearer if you read the actual post to see what happened according to the reddit user. Just FYI for anyone reading this and wondering. 

5 hours ago, crockea said:

update on our experience with check in.  I didn't arrive too early as I didn't want to be sent to a naughty area.  We arrive maybe 20 minutes prior to our window.  nobody ever checked our paperwork to turn us away.  check in was the same pace as what I am used to.  thanks all!

 

How was the cruise overall? I think a lot of us got the impression that you were not thrilled to be cruising Carnival in the first place and you were going to make that the theme of the cruise. It was gonna be bad no matter, so I'm interested to know if it was as bad as you thought it was gonna be or were you pleasantly surprised?

44 minutes ago, Schlinger said:

  How they could make it to start with is still mysterious to me.  Any ideas ?

I think the logic was that after 7pm most people would be eating dinner, going to shows, gambling, but not swimming or sitting in a hot tub. Therefore if there isn't as much demand open it up to everyone to encourage people to utilize it and want to spend time there and at the bar. As I said in my post I wanted to check it out and see if it is worth booking, at this point thats not gonna happen so I probably will never book a Havana cabin. I don't blame them for making it exclusive but I feel like the more things the make exclusive to certain categories the less likely I am to book that ship. Sure they might be able to get away with one pool and set of hot tubs but anything more and I think I will just go to a ship or line where everything is open to enjoy no matter if your in a suite or inside cabin. Not a huge fan of the idea of a ship within a ship, hopefully they don't take it further.  

Not gonna lie I'm dissapointed in the timing of this. We are going on the Panorama over Christmas and I was planning on checking the area out at least one day to see if I thought it was worth possibly booking a Havana cabin. Now since I'm assuming this will be the same on the Panorama as the Vista and Horizon, I will not be able to. Guess I should have made the effort and checked it out on the Horizon when we sailed on it. 

We tried the IMAX on Horizon and loved it, but the Skyride was closed for our entire sailing which was the 2nd sailing from NYC after the ship arrived in the US. So within a month of her inaugural the skyride was already down. I'm hoping that the Skyride will be operational on our Panorama sailing so we can try it. I would also love to try the trampoline park but the IMAX was great for relaxing and cooling off after being out and about on a sea day. Im wondering if the nighttime blacklight glow party will be part of camp ocean activities or not. I would imagine not considering its all ages and they wouldn't want random adults interacting with the children but it would be cool if they opened it up for the night owls. 

We have really enjoyed the playlist shows, they usually have a different show every night with two seatings so you can make it to the show no matter if you have early or late dining. I have found the production value to be good, not blow your socks off amazing but good and worth seeing. Also on longer sailings they usually switch out the comedians half way through the sailing so you get some fresh faces with fresh acts half way through. We have never been to a comedy show that hasn't been full so we always try to get there early. 

41 minutes ago, petuniaflower said:

you mention for a 7 day they may have magic/hypnosis/juggling..any clue if any of these are on the Horizon?

I do remember seeing the juggling on the horizon but that was in June of 2018 on an 8 day. I have no idea what they have these days and I'm sure it probably rotates. 

Does this apply to filling a growler? Im assuming it doesn't apply to buying a new one with a fill...

On 10/22/2019 at 6:57 PM, DryCreek said:

Shaq seemed to enjoy himself in that video I saw of him as the new CFO of Carnival!

Yeah Id look happy if I was getting paid big bucks to ride it too lol

Personally I'm a little excited about it but more dissapointed in the lack of IMAX. I think they should have put it on a top deck and gotten rid of the skyride which always seems to be broken. 

8 hours ago, coevan said:

of course in a U.S. port, DUH! Sue who for what?

The comment you made was that there were no state laws regarding drinking and I have proved that there are. There are and have been people that sue the cruise lines for alcohol related incidents on cruise ships including sexual assault and wrongful deaths.

You said that the cruise lines make arbitrary rules regarding drinking, they are anything but arbitrary and based on US federal and state laws that do in fact help them to cover their asses in the event of a law suit. They can go to court and say they took reasonable precautions based on US laws. May not immediately stop all law suits against them but it does help.

37 minutes ago, coevan said:

 

 

not on the ship

 

 

incorrect, 8 miles out Maritime Law takes precedent.

“Due to state laws, we cannot sell CHEERS! until the second day of the cruise (starting at 6:00am) for voyages departing from our Texas and New York home ports.”

I'm not saying they have to follow US law 100% of the time, what I am saying is that they are subject to it and they can and have been sued no matter where the incidence take place.

The last thing the cruise lines want is problems (especially major public law suits) arising from drinking.  

9 hours ago, coevan said:

NO WAY, your S&S has your age and specifically says minor and is strictly enforced, tipping or not.  Sharing you might get away with, if this is the lesson you want your kid to learn. 

Pretty sure I've never seen a sail and sign card with an age printed on it. I could be wrong here but I'm fairly certain that my sons card did not have anything identifying him as a minor. I'm sure if they checked it in the computer they could see his age and info but possibly not at a POS and even if they could there is no guarantee that the particular employee would adhere to the rules. Could be that if you slipped a bar tender enough cash that they could ring up the drink as non alcoholic. Highly doubt this but again mostly replying to the comment about S&S card identifying minors. 

8 hours ago, coevan said:

there are no state laws, 21 is an arbitrary age Carnival made because they port in the U.S., I believe European cruises are 18 or 19. 

There are plenty of state laws about drinking. Most states have made it Illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to purchase or posess alcohol due to the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. And if I'm not mistaken in order to drink alcohol you must be in possession of it. All of the major cruse lines have offices within the United States which puts them at risk of being sued within US jurisdiction. And with the recent events on cruse ships leading to them being sued such as the rape case where the underage girl was drinking I would not put it past the cruise lines to crack down on underage drinking to ensure they are no liable. 

3 hours ago, cdm289 said:

Under my Panorama reservation I have seen the new system where you "add to cart" and pre-pay but now my reservation is back to the old way to make a reservation for the restaurant and do not pre-pay so it has flipped back and forth for me.  Not sure why it changed to the new system and then back to the old system but anyone who just wants to make a reservation and not prepay, keep trying back.  

Also you might check on a phone or other mobile device. When I looked on my phone it allowed me to without pre paying. 

Great! Thanks for the help :)

Hello all. We are cruising on the Panorama for Christmas and will be in Mazatlan on Christmas Eve and PV on Christmas day, we are wondering if things are going to be open or if it will be pretty limited. We are booking excursions for both ports so we will have things to do but are hoping to do some shopping and stuff after the excursions. Especially PV after the excursion we are there until 8pm. Thanks for any info and help.  

8 hours ago, Rockypoint said:

Stupid question, but how do you send John Heald a message?

7 hours ago, Greektreats said:

I would like to know how to send John a message as well.  We are a group of 8 couples traveling together in February and are interested in reserving some specialty dining.

If you go onto his Facebook page and click on the posts tab you can post a question to his wall and it will show up under the community tab. He will answer every question or have his 2nd in command Jacinta answer if he is busy. Keep in mind if you ask and question and he answers and you have a follow up question you must post a whole new question otherwise he won't see it. 😁

Same as you love love love the Lido. Its so nice to be so close to everything. Our first cabin was on the Starboard side and from then on we have always booked on that side. I think I would consider booking on the port side if it was all that was left but maybe not... Idk thats our one weird thing I guess. 

18 hours ago, Joebucks said:

At this point, I don't know why you and 90% of these posters wouldn't just do the early dining. Your table will always be ready for you. The dining process will usually end around 7-7:30. For me, I am done with dinner at that point. I want the rest of the night to enjoy.

Yes we are usually waiting in line to eat around 5:30 when the dining room opens BUT sometimes we have other things going on or a late port day or any number of other things that has pushed us to later than when we prefer. For example on Christmas day this year we will be in Puerto Vallarta the ship docks at 8am and leaves at 8pm so we would have to be back on the ship changed and ready to eat dinner 2 and a half hours before the ship even leaves port if we had early dining or our Christmas dinner would be spent at the Lido Deck. I would rather have an extra hour or two in port then get on the ship and shower and get ready for dinner and still be able to eat in the MDR without having to worry about what our dining time is. Sometimes we have even gotten back from an excursion early and taken a nap only to wake up late and have to eat closer to 6:30-7 pm. The main thing with YTD is that it is Your time, its flexible. No worrying about pissed off table mates because your a few min late. No eating on the lido because you missed you dining time. Also with only dining with our group instead of a large table we can rush dinner if we want to some extent and not feel obligated to sit the whole thing out. We can say no thank you to desert and move on with our lives and drop our kid off at camp and get good seats in the theater for a show with a drink from the bar. Flexibility my friend thats what its all about. 

Johns response: 

Hello mate and yes indeed we are starting this but at the moment it is not for everyone and only a percentage of people who book online are being asked to pre pay. You can get a refund if you cancel within 24 hour and with the large groups there should not be a problem and if there is I will be here to help. We are indeed doing this to cut down on the number of last minute cancellations which prevents others from booking. Hope this is Ok and if you need anything I am here for you. Cheers. 

So that being said if I were you and you want to book a reservation for a large group and not prepay I would message John and see if there is any way that he can put the reservation through for you. Obviously there are no guarantees but if everyone wants to pay with there own S&S card that's what I would try.