Sean_B

5 hours ago, grandmarnnurse said:

You both actually sound like my hubby and me. He used to be able to drink more, but I never have been able to. I have always been small in stature, 5’ (barely), and never even hit 100lbs until I was in my 50s. Now, I am much older yet, and retirement and bilateral TKRs has helped me gain some unwanted weight, but I STILL have a low alcohol tolerance. Hubby just drinks beer, never any hard liquors or wine, and watches how many because of the carbs. So, it IS relevant for people like us to comment on threads like this, because the question to whether the drink package is worth it, or you would regret buying it, is a question asked time and time again. People need to realize that if you are fairly light alcohol drinkers, adding in non alcohol beverages, you still may never come near breaking even or getting your moneys worth. And there are a lot of passengers out there just like us, that do more on our cruises than drink alcohol, and it is far cheaper to just pay as you go. People need to really think about how much they are willing to imbibe. As for staying up after midnight with a drink in our hand—-LOL—it’s a rare night that I can keep the hubby up that late, unless he takes a nap in the afternoon. Lol! Just a fact of life as you age. 🤣🤣

I'm 51 (turning 52 on the cruise) and my wife will be 47 and it's also a rare night that we're awake at midnight, even on vacation. Different people have different vacation styles and because we're both health-conscious, gym people, we rarely indulge in things that take away from that lifestyle. We want to relax on vacation, not party all night. We've budgeted for 5 drinks per day combined between the two of us, which will be well below the cost of Cheers. We also plan to take two bottles of wine onboard, which we may or may not drink and we also get a free bottle of wine for dining at the steakhouse on the first night. We would have to combine for 10 drinks a day to break even on the cost of Cheers and that would definitely not happen. An additional factor is that we're Canadian, and the cost of Cheers for our 8-day itinerary (including gratuity and exchange rate) works out to just under $1300 CAN for the two of us, which is well beyond a reasonable price in our eyes. Our 5 drink average will be 1/2 the price of purchasing Cheers.

Thank you for your post and assuring us that there are others who feel the same way 🙂

6 minutes ago, SNJCruisers said:

Have to call BS on using port days as a crutch to not drinking your 6 per day.  On a port day if you are back on board by 430, and if you have a drink every 90 minutes, then you have drink number 6 in your hand at midnight.  Easily doable and if you drink at the Alchemy Bar, then you need less than 5 per day to break even and then all the non alcoholic  stuff is gravy.

You're assuming we can drink that much. One drink every 90 minutes would very likely kill me, thanks to a medical condition and my wife is <100 lbs, so a drink every 90 minutes would probably put her out cold in < 4.5 hours. We also have no plans to be awake at midnight. It's not a contest to see who can drink all night.

Thanks for your concern over how we spend our money.

Deck 9 puts you under the deck 10 cabins or (at worst) under the Water Works/Seaside Theater which could be annoying during a mid-afternoon nap.

I don't see any benefit. Deck 8 will be much quieter if that's a thing for you.

Every contest they have is apparently a popularity contest from what I can tell.

JH pushed this out the other day on his FB page and I believe it's a fantastic change. I haven't cruised yet, but I've seen the pictures/vlogs/videos and it's sad that some people think these clothing items are funny. It just goes to show what kind of person they really are.

Just now, khewston said:

The color of your luggage tags are based on your deck, not category you are in.  

I understand that, but others have said it was category so I'm also in the group defeating that rumour.

As I said: "The colour of the luggage tag is probably a code for the onboard luggage handlers to know where the bags go, but likely has no relevance or bearing to anything a guest would/should care about."

ie: it's a code for which deck, and passengers shouldn't care about which colour their luggage tags are unless they're so vain they need the tags to show their VIFP status, so the handlers can see how important they think they are.

21 minutes ago, thesmiths said:

Stayed here an Ubered around.

https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/fllbr-renaissance-fort-lauderdale-cruise-port-hotel/

 

Was very nice.

 

 

For that price, it better be nice!

For info, we are first time cruisers and will be sailing on the Breeze. Our luggage tags are magenta, which does not correspond to our cabin category.

The colour of the luggage tag is probably a code for the onboard luggage handlers to know where the bags go, but likely has no relevance or bearing to anything a guest would/should care about.

We're cruising on the Breeze Oct 2020 and staying at the Best Western. It offers a free shuttle to the airport and to the cruise terminal and the standard free breakfast.

7 hours ago, WhaleTailFlCruiser said:

Back Corner looks pretty fixed? They must have worked through the night to get the majority done as well as putting the plating on. 

That's not plating. The entire rear corner that was damaged is housed in white plastic. They essentially gun taped some white tarp material over the damaged area to keep wind/rain from coming in, so the workers can complete the work needed.

7 hours ago, MrsKC08 said:

I was wondering where you got this information, but see that it was just announce two days ago. This is one reason why I never book early sailings. Our's is the end of February. Of course, we all know how things can change. 

The first 8 sailings on the Mardi Gras have been cancelled.

7 minutes ago, sunonfire said:

I am not on board. I checked various marine tracking sites - the Legend has departed. The Glory is still moored in Cozumel.

The Legend wasn't really damaged beyond some minor cosmetic damage from what I can tell.

29 minutes ago, itsmeagain said:

Did Navy time also, and you do need to remember they do not have their hands tied the way the Navy does on yard periods and repairs.  It would not surprise me at all if they don’t cancel anything but piece it back together during different port calls.  

I wasn't US Navy and when our ships needed repair they went in right away.

Looking at the damage, the outside deck of the Ebony lounge is completely crushed, causing some pretty serious damage the dining room. If they fix this at sea, I'll be astounded, but the amount of noise it's going to create during the repair is going to reverberate throughout the entire ship, so even doing it along side in various ports is going to cause a giant line at guest services. Giving out onboard credit like it's raining money may still be cheaper for Carnival than heading into a dry dock period for several weeks, so I guess that's a business case to be presented.. What it will do to their reputation is another thread all together.

As for the CEO knowing more than we do, I don't doubt that he's at least one personal conversation with the Captain and perhaps two, but there's no way they've had that damage inspected by a Marine Engineer due to their location, time and some other factors. They won't truly know until they get back to the US, so be prepared for the CEO to change his mind.

1 minute ago, That One Guy said:

Do you make this statement acknowledging that the CEO already commented otherwise? I'm skeptical of a "everything's fine" statement while there's still passengers to take home then a change of heart Sunday morning when there's no outstanding liabilities - to them. Curious if this is you calling shenanigans on that statement or not aware of it. 

There's not been enough time to have the ship surveyed, so there's really no way for the CEO to know the extent of the damage. It also worries me that the crew and staff have apparently been told to not talk about the event or the extent of the damage. That's the last comment I'll make on here.

1 minute ago, Hoosierpop said:

I have no experience in ship building. But, if it’s safe enough to sail with passengers until Sunday morning, why would it not be safe enough after that? 

2-3 days of good weather heading back to NOLA. After that, the weather gets iffy (especially this time of year) and a good storm could turn that dining room in a gnarly wave pool. That would be bad.

24 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Might want to put in that order for the crow you need to eat, just saw on the network news sailing will not be affected, and here I thought we had all the experts here.

They're going to sail everyone home to NOLA, but after that, it's doubtful they'll go to sea. They need to have Engineers look at the ship and that crushed deck is somewhat structural and will need to be replaced.

I spent 13 years in the Navy and have put two ships through refit, including one which was damaged in a similar manner. I'm not an "expert", but I've got first hand knowledge of the process.

For context, we're sailing on the Breeze in Oct 2020. FTTF just opened up today for the first time; 11 months away, almost to the day.

With Mardi Gras being significantly delayed for their first sail, this may push the FTTF opening date for your cruise, but I would starting looking in Feb 2020 and keep checking every few days. If there is a FB roll-call group for your cruise, you could consider joining it as members usually post when FTTF goes live and then the mad rush is on. There's also the roll-call group on CC

23 hours ago, MrsKC08 said:

I checked the website and it states it will be open for Mardi Gras 2021 which is when I'm sailing.

 

This is literally the only right answer in this entire thread but it didn't have a single like. Go figure. I liked it.

Unless each of you plan to drink 6 drinks per day every day, then it's not worth the cost. That's pretty much the answer, and it's more of a psychological aspect knowing you're not "paying" for your drinks than anything else (even though you are paying for them).

For context, my wife and I are going on an 8 day cruise and neither one of us will average 6 drinks per day because we have four port days. With the sea days, we will probably average 3-5 drinks per day for me and maybe 1-2 for her plus a couple of coffees and maybe a shake or two between the two of us for the entire trip. Doing the calculation, our drink spending will work out to about 41% of buying the drink package. That's a significant savings and we can budget for what we intend to spend.

56 minutes ago, jsglow said:

 

Meaning that they can safely get the existing passengers onboard back to New Orleans and she isn't going to sink on the way.  You people are dreaming if you think she isn't going out of service for many weeks.  That's structural iron.  She's gone.  Maybe by her scheduled sailing this weekend.

yeah, I'm going to agree here. There's no way this ship keeps sailing in that shape. She will be out of service for several weeks to get repairs and it would be pure negligence on Carnival's part to not do so. Seaworthy in flat, calm waters is one thing, but you never know when a storm pops up and that dining room would be come a pretty radical wave pool pretty quickly.

Anyone sailing on the Glory for the next...month or so (maybe two months), should pay attention to their email inbox for a heads-up from Carnival. You're probably losing your sailing.

16 minutes ago, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

Would a Harbor pilot have been in control of the ship? 

Harbour Pilots only give suggestions in navigation to the Captain, who is at all times responsible for the movement and safety of the ship, her crew and passengers. The Captain is free to accept or ignore anything the Pilot says.

First the Mardi Gras news and now this. Not a great day for Carnival 😞

24 minutes ago, darth frosty said:

I can see my stateroom for feb's panama canal cruise.

 

I hope this won't cause a delay

 

I know that's selfish, cause obviously someones cruise will be affected due to repairs.

Coming from a Navy background where one of my ships had similar damage, I can say with certainty that this will take many weeks, if not a couple of months to repair.

On 12/6/2019 at 12:30 PM, Sparky2 said:

 

If it were a future loyalty gift I would enjoy using them at home but not on cruise.

I can only imagine the uproar D&P guests would have if they were given straws for their loyalty gift. Nothing less than a Mercedes S-Class will do!

On 11/10/2019 at 9:41 AM, Jenner9 said:

So we bought a Go Pro a few years ago and have yet to really use it. We want to bring it on our upcoming cruise and I have really no idea what I am doing! LOL! Does anyone have some pointers for beginners? Can I take shorter clips and string them together? Any other helpful tips?

Which model do you have?

They're fairly straight forward to use if you stay away from any protune settings until you understand what they do. GoPro cameras aren't great in low-light situations, so they wouldn't necessarily be a good camera for vlogging, but they would be an excellent choice for shooting at a Caribbean beach in bright sunlight.

If you need any help, just let me know. i've been using them since about 2012 and I'm one of the senior members of r/GoPro on Reddit.