geoffrywillhardt

1 hour ago, ray98 said:

 

So?.....it is still just a temporary reduction in CC limit at best.  If you are using a debit card for these type transactions at least you know where the problem starts.

As I said, traveling on a budget this can be frustrating and I was merely commenting on how I get around these so others traveling on budgets can have more information. If you find it a trivial thing that's great, and I'm glad it's not something you worry about.

On 8/28/2019 at 9:06 AM, midcarolina said:

...also anytime tipping comes up in a topic nearly everyone are big tippers...

NA, Ill be honest and say I'm a fair tipper (poor by most peoples standards I'm sure). My opinion of fair is I tip based on the service provided. I don't tip at buffets, If I have to go get my own food and drinks, no one is taking my order, no one is getting a tip. If I hand my heavy bags to someone else to haul, I'll tip them based on how far I see them haul it before it goes on a cart of some kind, usually a buck or two a bag. Most of the time I haul my own, I don't usually pack heavy. I don't tip if I'm picking up an order. I don't tip well for bad service. I waited tables before and know exactly what goes into it. I'm not ashamed to say that I have lowered tips on my S&S card before. On the Sensation I felt as though we got extremely sub par service and lowered the tips to reflect that. In my opinion if your not willing to do a job for the base pay and be grateful for anything above and beyond with tips then you shouldn't do the job. And we as a society would decide if we really needed these services provided then we would pay them accordingly. When I work as a CNA I'm not allowed to receive tips. When I drive Uber I am. I provide good care/service at both jobs and am willing to do both for the regular pay rate. I do get excited when I get a tips driving Uber but I don't count on them.   

On 9/2/2019 at 6:19 PM, coevan said:

 

 

Well aware of this, we fly alot. I just did not understand where the picture ID comes into play. I guess with all the check in kiosks, the ID might not be needed until TSA.  Sounds like a great way to go if you have a late afternoon flight and want to explore. 

Even if you use a check in kiosk you have to take your bag to an agent that checks your ID and boarding pass. 

Forgive my ignorance but how many dollars wagered are we talking for that 4900 pts? Is it $1 per point? I enjoy gambling but usually set my budget fairly low, around $100 per day max. Do those of you that get these bounce back and other offers typically range in the same amount of points? I usually get casino offers from Carnival but they are considerably less generous. Usually only amounting to a slightly lower fair and reduced deposits. Just wondering if its worth gambling a little more in the casino for better offers. 

I honestly am surprised by all the hate for Vista class. We sailed on the Horizon and loved it. I particularly liked the fact that we had to go somewhere other than the dining room to get our reservation for anytime dining. On the other ships everyone just lined up at he door and waited which wasn't a problem for us going in but coming out there were so many people waiting sometimes it was hard to get through, where on the Horizon everyone waited in other areas of the ship. The elevators were a mess but it was also very new for nearly everyone on board and hardly anyone understood the concept on day one. By day 8 it was less problematic. I really enjoyed the IMAX and was very disappointed to learn they were not including it on the Panorama. I agree about the skyride being a waist of time and money with how often its down. Maybe they can figure out a way to retrofit Bolt on these ships when they go to dry dock. 

For me the ship I will never go on again is the Sensation. It was too small, not enough balcony rooms (overpriced) and felt like it was missing some of the fun things we enjoy. It also felt very old, which I understand that its getting up there in age. They can start retiring this class of ship anytime now.  

I would change the Anytime dining option to the family style low frills, but still waited on option that moves quicker and possibly have advanced ordering or a more simplified menu. I would keep the set dining early and late options as they are for those that enjoy that. I'm fairly new to cruising so I don't know what options they have changed/removed over the years with the exception of starting to charge for room service and all the plastic changes that have been taking place recently. I can understand people wanting a more premium experience but I do feel that Carnival has great value for the money.

Thanks everyone for the help and info. I think we are gonna go with the QM for the night before our cruise on the Panorama over Christmas. 

On 9/3/2019 at 7:33 AM, ray98 said:

....but why does it matter.  It isn't costing you anything other than a temporary reduction in limit.  It is all a numbers game until it actually posts.

Some hotels have told me they hold as much as the cost of the room per day, so if your talking about even a $100 room for 2-7 days... you can do the math. These kinds of hotels I refuse to stay at and will book elsewhere. I call before hand to find out. With cruising I've gotten many different responses even from the fine folks at Carnival, that's not a risk I'm willing to take when I can get around it. Its more convenient for me to know exactly where every dollar is and make a trip to guest services as needed than to give them a wad of money and wait to see when they decide to give it back. 

On 9/3/2019 at 10:36 AM, coevan said:

The only time it would have any impact is if they had an extremely low line of credit

And this is true for many travelers. Many travel on a budget and having potentially hundreds of dollars that you haven't spent out of your account or held on a CC for days or worse weeks can be extremely frustrating. 

I travel within my means and take comfort in knowing where and to what every dollar is going towards. Many others are the same which is why these questions come up. We pre pay as much as possible and plan for the rest. Carnival and others don't need to hold onto my money, I can handle that. :)

I think I may have answered my own question by looking closer at google maps. It looks like the carnival dock it right next to the QM, but if anyone has any insights it would still be great. Thanks

port of long beach carnival - Google Maps.pdf

Hello, we are going on a cruise out of Long Beach in December on the Panorama. We were thinking about staying at the 
Queen Mary hotel the night before the cruise and were wondering if we can see the Carnival ships coming in to dock from the Queen Mary. We were hoping to get up bright and early and see the Panorama come in and dock and thought it would be especially cool if we could see it all from the deck of the Queen Mary. Thanks for any info. 

7 hours ago, James4me said:

Thank you Geoffreywillhardt!

No problem :)

We never put a credit card on file because we don't want a hold placed on it. We just hate how inconsistent our bank and whoever is placing the hold on the cards are. We have had hotels place a hold on a card and it has taken up to a month before the hold gets released. Call the bank they say its the business that put the hold, call the business and they blame the bank. So we have just gotten to the point that if possible we don't put a card on file anywhere. We have had the amount of cash we put on our S&S cards run out and when we went to use them (such as in a slot machine) they get "declined" and it tells us to go to guest services. We just add more cash and go on with our lives. Its a little inconvenient but rarely happens because we usually have a pretty decent idea of how much we are going to spend and put enough on in the beginning to cover it. 

On 8/20/2019 at 6:22 PM, James4me said:

When making your reservation for dining venues are you charged for it? 

No, you are charged to your S&S card on the ship. You can also cancel at any time with the exception of the chefs table and Bonsai Teppanyaki which have a $25 fee if you cancel within 24 hours of the reservation. You can also try to "walk in" and they will seat you if they have space. The first time we ever booked a reservation for the steak house we didn't realize how late it would feel and we attempted to move our reservation up, we were able to get it bumped up by an hour or so. Now we know how tired and hungry we will be after a day at port so we book early reservations, but we also tend to eat dinner earlier also anyways. Here is a link to the specialty dining info page over at Carnival. https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4250/~/specialty-restaurants---dining-reservation-information

I will add for anyone that makes it this far down in the future that on our first cruise we realized once we got into our car back at our stay and park hotel that we had forgotten my pillow on the ship. We drove back to the ship and my wife went in and asked someone about going and getting it. They told us that since we were scanned off the ship we were not allowed to reboard to go look for it, but they sent someone to our cabin who retrieved it for us and brought it off the ship. Now your mileage may vary on if they would do the same thing for you but if you remember soon enough it might be worth it to drive back to the ship and ask. Obviously can't happen for the OP since this post is many days to late but thought it may help someone in the future.  

On 8/23/2019 at 6:06 PM, LandlockedCruiser01 said:

I thought they're called "chicken water shuttles" now? 😄  

 

I vaguely remember seeing them on my previous cruises, but those were non-2.0 ships.  It could be different on the Breeze, since it was built as 2.0 ship from the get-go.  Your options are the MDR kids' menu or paying for room service.  Since chicken nuggets are cheap and many kids like them, I smell a money grab.

 

Would your granddaughter be OK with eating something similar?  I'm sure there are chicken nugget-like dishes in the buffet.  Like the Italian chicken masala, without the sauce.

OMG Chicken water shuttles got me, I was laughing so hard at work people were stairing. Thanks for that one!!

I know the Horizon said it and stuck to it. We checked frequently before our cruise on her and it was never offered. Same goes for Panorama, have not seen it offered. 

On 8/27/2011 at 3:40 PM, SNJCruisers said:

 

I believe that the white wine glass has the longer stem so that you can place your hand there to raise the glass to your mouth and the body heat from your touch will not affect the temperature of the chilled wine in the glass. It is the same reasoning behind the longer stem on a champagne glass.

 

The red wine glass has a shorter stem because you're supposed to cradle the bottom of the bulbous portion of the glass since red wine is drunk at room temperature. It is the same way with a brandy snifter. I believe that the circumference of the red wine glass is also larger than a white wine glass so that the wine can more easily "breathe".

 

I'm not a wine connoisseur, but this stuff is sitting in my useless information portion of my brain and I thought it would be impolite not to share.;)

Thanks, was wondering but not a wine drinker and didn't have the motivation to open a new tab and google it myself. :)

I would call your TA directly and ask them if they have anything available in your desired location. They may if nothing else be able to contact Carnival directly to see more availability. 

I feel like the ports are totally what you make of them. We have been to Nassau multiple times and have loved it each time. We always find something to do. Freeport we didn't enjoy the "port" area but went on an excursion and did enjoy that. One thing I will say that although it would be great of them to add piers to HMC and Princess Cay I hope they do not start to charge for the currently free food that is offered at these places. 

The only person I have ever known to be able to save money by shipping items to the hotel ahead of time worked for FedEx and got a massive discount. Otherwise I highly doubt its worth it. If you mailed a 12lb package that is 12" cubed from Miami to Anchorage it would cost about $45. I used 12 pounds assuming 2 people with a coat and boots each. 2 lbs for coat 2 lbs for each boot. 

 My wife gets motion sickness so we try to stick to the middle of the ship. For no real reason we booked our first cabin on the starboard side of the ship. From then on we always book on the starboard side. So for us Starboard midship and as high as we can afford to be close to the lido deck where most of the action is. (We have a 5yr old so the action is the pools and water slides lol.) 

Added it over there thanks

Hello all. I was thinking about taking this excursion in June on the Carnival Horizon. I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on what makes this excursion VIP. The description doesn't say anything about why this is VIP over the standard rain forest excursion. Thanks Geoff

The Carnival one

Hello all. I was thinking about taking this excursion in June on the Carnival Horizon. I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on what makes this excursion VIP. The description doesn't say anything about why this is VIP over the standard rain forest excursion. Thanks Geoff