mom2tcdx2

I have to say I was a bit on the fence about paying $15 to ride, not sure that I would pay $19. Seems kind of sad that they decided it was something to charge for.

I can't wait to see some of the drink menu's, for possibly newer bars on the ship. February is going to be so far away, when we finally get the chance to sail.

As long as we can still drop off the bags in the stateroom early, I am not really worried about the room being ready. From what I read we can still drop off the bag, which is the main thing I would want to be able to do.

I never liked the fries all that much, I normally ordered my burger with no fries.

We have done the steakhouse like 3 times out of 16 Carnival cruises. I have never found the experience to really be worth the cost. Worst service I ever received from Carnival was in the steakhouse. Even so much as several cruises we let Ken (Maitre'd) know that he had better servers in the dining room than the steakhouse had. At $48 I won't even consider it at all anymore, pretty much the same with the Teppanyaki - we get better prices and a better show at locations at home. As for the 3rd entree, I can truly say I don't think any of us have done that. Except for maybe a pasta dish as my husband would ask for smaller portions of those sometimes. But usually 2 might be his norm. Rarely do I order more than 1. We also don't order the extras that are paid for in the dining room.

Have some not noticed the water prices on other lines? NCL shows 6 liters for $19.95, while Royal shows like 24 16 ounce cans being $29. While I do remember at one time Carnival had the water for $2.95 a few years ago, we have only purchased it like twice in the past. Generally with getting the drink package we have just gotten waters that way.

Personally I have never seen anything other than the discounted rate offered before boarding. I have never seen it on sale, other than the discounted rate which I believe is like $5 per day compared to onboard price.

I still have yet to find a land vacation that isn't more expensive than any cruise vacation I have taken. Personally cutbacks are everywhere and on every cruise line. Recently my parents went on the Oasis and they didn't serve fried eggs or omelets in the buffet, said only available in the main dining room. So while still available, the main dining room wasn't quite the option they wanted. I never bought the bottle of alcohol, honestly didn't see the need for it. The pizza closing for a few hours seems fine to me, as I never really went beyond about 1 am. Lines are all charging for room service (except I think Disney). I think the only thing I miss is the bacon as I do prefer bacon with my breakfast (I prefer sausage in patty form, which no cruise line seems to offer) so then I go to bacon, and I miss the bacon you could add from the toppings bar at Guy's. I would prefer menu's I can hold, as opposed to always pulling out my phone and I don't miss the little chocolates on the pillows. One would assume hopefully that someone was really looking at the numbers of people using said services and opted for those that were making the line the least money, or what was costing them more money.

Then you actually seem to have gotten a good deal on the drink package price then, as they add a 20% gratuity (Carnival adds 18%). So while it is added to your fare the gratuity paid is cheaper than the daily rate Carnival charges. Carnival has you pay the gratuity for however many days the package is for, so really not any different with NCL.

Interesting as NCL doesn't mention anything like that on their website. They notate that if you buy the drink package (Or have it as an included item) you pay the 20% gratuity on the cost of the package. Which would be a bit higher than the cost you mention per day. So honestly not really sure what this charge is supposed to be for?

I guess I don't quite follow your point? Both NCL and Carnival (and Royal) all charge a gratuity when purchasing a drink package or in NCL's case it being provided. Not really sure how their charge is any different than the gratuity that Carnival adds when you buy the drink package? In the end you just have to price everything and see which line offers the more bank for your buck. I have to say though I also don't recall seeing liquor as something that could be purchased on Royal, MSC, NCL, Disney, etc only ever saw this on Carnival. The other all seemed to offer beer, wine, champagne.

The biscuits have always looked awful (I will stick with grabbing a croissant), and I never thought the sausage gravy even looked like I wanted to try it. Only thing I wish Carnival did have would be regular sausage patties and not the link sausage.

I am on that sailing as well, I have an upgrade offer that has quite a few balcony cabins showing available that I can pick from. Right now we just have 4 inside cabins booked.

I get you on the pricing, we have been looking at the Mardi Gras for ages and found it just to be higher than we were willing to pay. Browsing around the Carnival site a couple weeks ago looking at my offers and we were able to book the Celebration in February for $848 and my parents had $502 (they get better casino offers than I do). All the time when we have checked the Mardi Gras it never had pricing that was as good as we are getting with the Celebration. So we booked the Celebration.

I am always amazed by those who tip with each drink and claiming they get better service? Only once or twice have I had rather bad service, and have gotten to know quite a few bartenders. Called by name, they would know little things like I liked a Mtn Dew chilled (I hate hot drinks poured over ice). Always been able to find a bartender that would put them in the fridge for me to get cold. On the Horizon the lady in the Pig and Anchor knew I didn't like the club soda added to Blackberry Bourbon Fizz (always ordered no fizz LOL). In the end we have tipped the last night servers who did great during the week with us. While probably not equal to drinks consumed we generally gave around $30 to each bartender. I would say we have gotten really great service without tipping per drink. Truly about the only time I tipped per drink was in the Casino with a drinks on us in the casino while playing promo.

Now if they would carry the Crown Royal Apple or Peach would be fantastic.

I have used the service a couple times, we didn't see any problems with the items we got back. Mostly sent socks, jeans, t-shirts, khaki type pants.

I have to say them doing away with liquor purchases doesn't really bother me at all. I have sailed on over 35 cruises and have never bothered to buy a bottle of liquor or bring wine onboard. I would much rather have a cocktail and not just a shot of liquor, so the bottle in my cabin never really did any good. Even did a suite on Princess that provided the little bottles in cabin and didn't even drink those as I preferred to just order a cocktail when I wanted one. Perhaps they decided to do away with because maybe there weren't enough people taking advantage of the puchase? I could see them no longer offering if just a small percentage of people were buying.

We have two cabins booked in our family in February on the Celebration that have a GTY cabin. I will probably go crazy trying to check and see when it gets assigned. All together we have four rooms, with two being a GTY. Will see how it goes as we all just booked an inside cabin, though one is for 2 people and the other for 3 people.

Where I have missed the bacon more was on the buys burgers. With their toppings bar they used to have crumbled bacon you could add to a burger. LOVED IT. Last two cruises they didn't have it at all.

Rarely have I seen a meal be less than an hour, our experience with YTD was the meals took longer than when we had a set dining time. I usually count on them being about an hour and a half. Which to me is about the right length of time for a nice meal and just being able to talk with family, etc. If I want my meal under an hour then I would just go to the buffet where there is generally no wait in getting food. Longest cruise meal I have ever had was on Royal in Wonderland, meal was over 3 hours long.

I am not sure I am quite following this - if I have chosen the late dining, we would be unable to eat until after 8 at this location, as well as if I chose the early dining? The only option that allows flexibility at these two is to chose the ATD? Personally I hated the ATD, we did on one cruise and the service was awful. We waited over 20 minutes at our table before a single wait person even acknowledged that we were sitting at our table, completely disorganized, and took forever to get out food. We tried again another night and same issues even when seated in a different area. Just totally turned us off to that dining and we said if we couldn't get set dining then we would skip the dining room completely. Our cruise in February doesn't have early dining as being available.

I gotta say, I could never get my kids to be asleep by 9 pm. No idea how parents manage, if a kid isn't tired how do you force them to sleep? My grandson is often up till at least 9:30 or 10 (he just turned 3). I see quite a bit that he will be out and about later on a cruise (just as he was at WDW). I can't imagine not being able to take him into some areas as well, as there is no reason that we adults can't have a drink and he still be able to join us? I am not looking to be clubbing, but being able to be out and about but still order drinks, etc.