Youyoyotoo

8 hours ago, Silver Sweethearts said:

 

Do try your source once again, as we show them open 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays.  Worth checking.

I stand corrected. Thx. It appears for some reason they are not open on any Sat (Sunday is OK). And, I don't arrive on a sat anyway, so not a problem for me this particular trip.

On 7/17/2021 at 10:23 AM, zelker said:

The closest car rental place to the pier is Enterprise, on the Hana Highway.  It's a 10 or so minute walk from the ship (a bit of a winding walk to get out of the actual pier area but then it's just across the street and about a block to the left).  Not sure if they offer pier pick-up/drop-off but we just walked both directions.  Car Rental Kahului Hana Hwy. | Enterprise Rent-A-Car

bummer. it is not open on Sundays. 

On 6/21/2022 at 1:31 PM, mpk said:

 

Did you rent a car to get there?   A cab ride is about $25 from the cruise dock to Sandbar.

OMG. Then it becomes a $100 fish and chips in 2024...

On 2/27/2024 at 4:01 AM, Paelos said:

One of the reasons I pick Carnival is the food relative to the price. I do think they have the best complementary options on a cruise ship of the four major lines CCL, NCL, RCL, MSC.

 

My biggest takeaway from every fan of every major line is that food took a hit in quality post covid. The difference I've found in carnival is the complementary variety has increased, while other lines pushed to higher cost specialty options.

Well, if that is true then why after years of non COVID recovery, hasn't the quality of food returned to "normal". Who is getting all that better quality food, especially the "meats" now instead???

On 3/3/2023 at 8:00 AM, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

The host found me a couple of nights ago - asked if she could treat us to the Steakhouse (already booked for all nights pre-cruise, Rudi's as well). Then asked about spa services - we had already enjoyed a couples massage that afternoon, but thanked her and passed on the offer. She asked if there was anything else we could think of - so I went with my go-to request - a bottle of Caymus Special Selection. I think we've taken 4-5 of these home over the last several cruises.  YAY !!

 

 

Tom

Good touch by the host. Smart business. Glad to hear.

On 5/27/2022 at 2:30 PM, Prismism said:

Sorry if off topic- I have never been offered an elite cruise and never noticed if there were other sailors who were on theirs when onboard. I noticed some people in our facebook cruise group that mentioned they are doing an elite cruise for our cruise date. Before reading that I just assumed an elite cruise meant that ALL of the cruisers on that sailing were on an elite cruise. So, does this mean that the casino on our sailing will be packed since there will be people on there who took the Elite cruise offer?

Do all sailings have Elite cruisers on them?

Well, yes. Elite cruise offerings are capacity controlled and why there are not a lot of choices to choose from in any given promo period. For sure, SOME sailings in my experience will have lot's of Elite members onboard. Not absolute but many sailings 7 days and under CAN have hundreds of Elite's, Ultra's, Premiere's on board intermixed with several thousand other casino patrons at any given moment on any Carnival Cruise. Although eligibility for Elite offers may  individually change every quarter, so do the overall # of eligible Elite cruises for any given period. Most of the time, although well qualified for Elite cruises, the specific cruises they enable as eligible Elite are often either NOT within date(s) I can vacation OR are ported in places that would require substantial additional costs for flights and pre/post hotel and added transpo/meal costs just to sail on, that I can't/don't ever take the plunge and accept one.

It has been a frustrating road with Elite status and after sailing with Carnival brand for 17 years, I don't think "Elite" offers, once achieved by whatever means it takes to be included in such offers, should be as painful and confusing for a brand loyal player to assess and book. Carnival's contracted partner (Global Casino Services) management and casino marketing company has made Elite offers under the Carnival brand convoluted and difficult to exercise the option. That statement MAY not be true for passengers that live within a 50-100 miles radius of a Carnival cruise terminal in the U.S. However, I do not. Therefore the complexities involved in planning/booking a cruise vacation, let alone an Elite voyage, are more in depth than for those within 50-100 miles of the port. I submit they should consider R/T air  coupons/vouchers valid for the Elite voyage from the loyal passenger's home zip to any of the ports listed within the eligible Elite offer pages for that period. It would be an ELITE perk, and one that would ENABLE rather than EXCLUDE folks that do not have the inherent benefits of a home port <100 miles. Perhaps enable that perk if ALL of the following applies: Elite CASINO player status AND (not or) Diamond or Platinum cruise line status AND passenger residency >100 miles but less <500 miles from one port listed in Elite offers during the Elite eligible period. Even IF they only offered flight coupons to only SOME of the relevant Elite cruises offered. Let's say to ports within 500 miles of the passenger's home zip code. IDK for sure how to work that out, but it can be done, and absolutely would remove a lot of the otherwise voodoo planning and significant individual consumer cost barriers many of us loyal players otherwise have to deal with just to accept an Elite offer, while others don't (and just don't do it)...

In collusion, YES. The casino MAY be "packed" with casino hosted guests of varying levels at anytime and on virtually any cruise itinerary. 

On 2/13/2023 at 9:01 AM, supaflyrobby said:

Just thought I would share what I know as this was maddening getting someone to cough up a definitive answer from customer service at either Barclays or Carnival. I booked our cruise 13 months out using this card and used the card often for large purchases in the interim to stockpile fun points. Including the new cardmember bonus, I managed to bank $450 in on board credit for our cruise coming up in June. Thought this would be a nice little cushion for our trip and allow us to splurge a little. However the credits were not showing up on my account on carnival.com, which was maddening. The 100$ in credit that I got for booking the cruise itself was showing up however.

 

After lots of emails and phone calls I finally got someone at Barclays (after having my request 'escalated') to tell me that OBCs obtained from use of the Carnival Credit Card will not show up on your account until after you arrive at the ship. I guess have no huge problems with this, but it would be awesome if this was explained with transparency as many people might like to use these credits to make pre-cruise purchases too. 

Yeah, the ship itself is supposed to indicate your obc credit from Barclay's tied to your booking number/cabin SOS. No other indication until boarded. Pretty bad. Lots of guesswork and confusion, and may not always work correctly. 

On 4/3/2023 at 10:59 AM, shiner6 said:

Let me preface by stating that I have been booking my own cruises for 20 years. This is my first time using a TA and my first Carnival cruise.

 

I am putting my experience on here to help others avoid the pitfalls which I fell into. I purchased over $6,000 worth of gift cards on AARP to help pay for my Carnival cruises.  I used a TA to book the cruises but purchased all the extras myself on the Carnival manage your booking site.   I had 2 b2b cruises to Norway and Baltic. I had to cancel one of the cruises. This is when I discovered that my TA had failed to properly deposit my gift cards.   My new TA spent hours trying to get my money refunded.

  Be aware that your gift cards do not automatically have the money refunded to them.  Save all the cards and document dates and times you use them. (I saved everything, thanks to advice on this board, and glad I did).

  Carnival representatives had many different excuses for delay in refund.... It is almost comical, but my $$$$$ is involved, so I am not laughing.

 

What I have learned so far is this:  1. Be extremely careful when choosing a TA,and monitor what they do. 2. Do NOT ever book an excursion or any extras through the Fun shops on the Carnival Website with Gift cards (have your TA do it).  I have spent a total of 8 hours on different dates on the phone trying to straighten this out.  Bottom line is, I have to do a conference call with my TA on the line in order to get my money returned to a gift card. I asked for Carnival to email me a copy of their accounting form/ they refused.  My next step, if this doesn"t work, is to see if my Travel insurance will cover the loss.  What a mess!

 

Just so sorry I ever got involved in this mess.  I will update this thread as I go along......

 

I had very similar problems with their Gift Cards when a cruise had to be cancelled and more than $1,000 was pre paid via gift cards. We never really did our money back... Extremely difficult to track as they change numbers and don't account to you what original GC was used for what and how much. Then you may or may not get amounts back, and those amounts will never line up with your original purchases...

 

On 10/1/2022 at 4:18 PM, IntrepidFromDC said:

 

No it is not the same.  The lobsters in the steakhouse are bona fide, delicious lobsters.  The juvenile ones in MDR are some kind of anomaly because they look like Maine lobsters (shell red when cooked) but they don't taste like them.  They still taste pretty good, but if you had your tastebuds set for amazing lobster taste you will be disappointed.  If you pay the $23? upcharge (used to be $20) you get the lobster they serve in the steakhouse.  I have done it three times to put the steakhouse selection lobster on the plate next to the MDR juvenile mystery lobster to oohs and ahhs.

Yes, it was the same on Splendor in May 2022 times 2 on the plate served. Ridiculous. Splendor must have been used to serving their Aussie community garbage food throughout that ship, but rerouted it to America for a period including replacing Freedom at the last minute for the first Alaska itinerary of the year in 2022. Went to steakhouse 3 times in 8 day cruise, and each time, no matter what we ordered, it was MDR stuff, and those item thqat were not were skimpy raggy pieces of meat  like their lamb chops even. Their desserts were the best. Even the side were marginal on that vessel at steakhouse. Worst Carnival Steakhouse experiences ever...

On 9/15/2022 at 10:04 AM, DallasGuy75219 said:

This is not a change or a recent cutback, but just pointing out that they can't even call what's in the soft serve machines "ice cream".  The first 3 ingredients are water,  sugar, and oil.

Yea. CORN SYRUP. Like in high fructose corn syrup. That ingredient list demonstrates why we do NOT eat that free for all poison on their ships.

On 9/15/2022 at 9:22 AM, sanmarcosman said:

Have you been on a Vista Class ship and may be thinking of the frozen churned gelato served in the lido buffet at lunch each day? 

I have on Panorama. They easily could have and should have added that machine to every ship by now. But, they have not.

2 hours ago, staceyglow said:

They announced it on board. And yes, the steakhouse brunch was in the steakhouse. 😊

If they offer it on my Journey's 14 day starting Oct 16th, I will do it every time they are willing to! Thank you for the info!

On 9/26/2022 at 5:09 PM, staceyglow said:

On the last Journeys cruise I was on, they had a Steakhouse Brunch on one day, and it was amazing!  Possibly the best meal I have ever had on Carnival.  Completely worth the $25 upcharge.

How did you find out about that and was that located in the steakhouse?

I looked all over and was NOT able to find 14 day Journey's cruises MDR menus for 2022 from anywhere to anywhere. Anyone? TIA

On 2/8/2022 at 6:20 PM, KatieBug28 said:

Weird question that I haven't been able to find an answer to, so figured I'd ask the real experts here!

 

I've casually got my eye on a Spring Break cruise that is currently quite cheap, but seems to be falling in price a bit every week. It's from Long Beach, which is drivable, and we already have the week off of work and school. We're planning on a national park trip, but if the price keeps dropping I might sub in a cruise instead.

 

My question: how late can we book? Is there a cutoff?

 

Obviously we'd need the time to get our COVID tests (all fully vaccinated, so no exemption needed) and drive down, but those are fast and easy. Can you still book a week out? Two weeks? (Assuming there are still cabins available, of course). 

 

Would love any info anyone has on "last minute" bookings. We are normally the type that book months or years in advance (currently booked for Costa Rica and Thailand later this year and have had those on the books for over a year!), but it is honestly looking like a cruise might be cheaper than our cheap camping trip at this point, and I'd love to take advantage if we can!

I booked two, day before sailing, cruises on Carnival, earlier this year. Just made sure I had required proctored test kits on hand and ALL documents perfect (Passport, federal ID, KTN,) and it worked out perfectly for me. Booked them, PIF immediately and continued with COVID test and then immediate checkin online.

Well, after years passed how was cabin 6483 on Splendor? TIA

On 12/28/2021 at 10:10 AM, chengkp75 said:

The difference is that the Alaska exemption benefited US citizens and businesses in Alaska, while the Mexican one would benefit strictly foreign corporations.  And, given the rising numbers of covid cases on cruises, I don't think there are as many supporters for a cruise line exemption these days.

When the cargo is humans in the millions per year, I think it MAY/Should.

On 12/28/2021 at 2:46 PM, beerman2 said:

This is after denying a cruise ship to dock today. Tomorrow (Wednesday) they will allow ships to dock.

 

They changed their mind!

Poli Sci not real SCI

On 12/28/2021 at 2:16 PM, JT1962 said:

Looks like the issue may be resolved. 

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/mexico-says-cruise-ships-with-coronavirus-cases-can-dock/
 

 

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Mexican government said Wednesday it will allow cruise ships carrying people infected with the coronavirus to dock. 

 

The announcement came after two Mexican ports refused to allowed passengers ashore because their ships had coronavirus cases. 

 

The Health Department said passengers or crew who show no symptoms will be allowed to come ashore normally, while those with symptoms or a positive virus test will be quarantined or given medical care. 

 

The department said a cruise ship that was prevented from docking at one Pacific coast port will be allowed to dock farther north, at the port of Guaymas. That was an apparent reference to a ship that was supposed to dock at Puerto Vallarta a few days ago but was not allowed to do so.   

 

Early in the pandemic, some cruise ships wandered the seas for weeks seeking a port that would allow them to dock with coronavirus cases aboard.  
 

Mexico is one of the few countries in the world that has instituted no travel restrictions, no testing requirements and no mandatory face mask wearing for visitors. The government argues such measures would be counterproductive for the economy, for which tourism revenues account for about 8.5% of GDP.

With more than 800.000 AMERICANS in world class healthcare systems dies within the first 24 months, our neighbor (pretty much mostly 3rd world) denial of reasonable measures for its people and visitors is absolutely insane IMO. All in pursuit of not hurting 8.5% GDP totals COMING FROM AMERICAN and foreign visitors. Hmmm.

On 12/27/2021 at 10:35 AM, Joe817 said:

The big question is "why?"  Have you been given ANY explanation from Carnival or port authorities? 

 

Please keep us posted! 

I am guessing here but Mexico is NOT the U.S. They do NOT have the mechanisms in play to test out 4,000 additional people on a whims notice nor take mass causalities in their port cities given the sieges they are already under but a grossly non reported by Media. So, that is the most logical explanation I could guess at. Doesn't seem that far fetched. Hence forth also why Government decided to buy 500.000,000 additional test kits in AMERICA as I think airplane flights and many other mass transit, closed air ventilation system transport systems are gojng to be hit with lots of added masking and testing req's they may have been exempted from up until recent "new" variant assault on the world...Be flexible or be angry. Your choice.

On 12/27/2021 at 11:18 AM, Bases5 said:

Couldn’t agree more

Only once (out of 5 times) did I find Guys burgers aboard with his fixings to be of any real interest in taste, texture, temp and usefulness. Sad, since I am a big gourmet burger kind of person,

On 12/27/2021 at 9:58 AM, icft said:

 

On 12/27/2021 at 9:58 AM, icft said:

I read a lot of posts about food on these carriers, and pay attention to comments about the included (MDR, Lido stuff) versus all the upgrade charged -- Specialty dining, vertical offerings in food --experiences added food (classes or Chef's pairing and tastings) options that have emerged from most (if not all) the carriers. The single BIGGEST disappointment that seems to chime in from us AND what we read pretty consistently is that the included foods (mainly anything from MDR except upcharge seafood or turf) has suffered greatly over the past decade on Carnival.

MDR in food serving style(s), and much of the food itself brought down numerous notches in quality and form during the last 10 year stretch. Way more cafeteria looking and presenting and often tasting. I don’t know if they doing that to drive more specialty or upgrades dining across the board, but it certainly has us venturing out and into other premium dining ranging from $15 PP to Chef’s table at $95 PP out of Los Angeles ports We have done most of these options and many in between like steak house. I have not had a bad dining experience in any of the other premium offerings. In fact great values IMO. I have NOT had Guys Pig and Anchor yet at a premium.  But I would say in advance if they are demanding additional money for simply BBQ’d items that are average at best, that is a big MISTAKE. Most Americans who are not Vegan, eat BBQ and most make their own versions of BBQ in some form or another at home. And. BBQ can be especially sensitive thing as the protein may be well prepared but the minute any a sauce or flavor treatment isn’t desirable by the eater, the whole dish goes SOUTH very fast!

On 12/27/2021 at 9:58 AM, icft said:

On our two Glory cruises this year we found the MDR food to be very good. The rest varied a lot. For example on our first cruise Guy's was good. On our second Guy's wasn't good. The Lido buffet was sub-par both times. I think that has a lot to do with there being less people on board (about 50% first cruise and 65% second) and thus batches of food sitting out longer. Until supply chain issues are fixed I think we are going to find the food will vary ship to ship, venue to venue, sailing to sailing. I think they have to take what they can get in the way of supplies right now.

 

I noticed someone mentioned the cakes being good and that is a wonderful example of different folks have different tastes. We found the cakes pre-covid to be not to our taste. They, in our mind, don't really have cakes. They are all layers of cake and icing with too much icing. These last two cruises it was even worse. Whereas in the past I could separate the icing from the cake and actually eat some cake, now the cake layer is incredibly thin - about a quarter inch - followed by about a half inch of icing - followed by a quarter inch layer of cake, etc. and it is impossible to separate the cake from the icing. When I was a kid I would have loved all that sweet but not so much now.

16 hours ago, Manatee Mom said:

One question. How many Carnival cruises have you been on?

 

A detailed and fun cruise highlights video from our 12/26/21 Carnival Freedom 6 night to Princess Cays, Grand Turk and Amber Cove. 
 

We got everyone in our unfortunately smaller sailing group involved with the “challenge”! Enjoy 

 

Watch the video here

On

On 7/22/2021 at 5:58 PM, roguebandit1441 said:

I'm on a BIPAP and can not even take a nap without it. We always use bottle water when traveling,  and if not mistaken the water on board a ship is distilled sea water then filtered and reverse osmosis. Safe to use from the tap, you just don't want to use hard water or water that may have bacteria In it.

 

 

 

BIPAP users are explicitly tied to using their machines whenever sleeping. When I first was a CPAP user more than 2 decades ago, my  apnea was not severe as it is today. BIPAP basically a personal, portable, ventilator system controlling air flow both on inhale and exhale. I never leave behind when traveling, and always use at any interval that I sleep (nap or not). Anyone fully diagnosed, that has a BIPAP as part of their medical treatment, would be insane to skip its use whenever sleeping. Especially true, IMO, after years of use and conditioning whenever asleep.

On 7/22/2021 at 4:03 PM, Cherries Jubilee said:

Did anyone ask John Heald to elaborate on this story? Just telling us that Cpap machines are allowed won’t prevent this from happening again. This one is important.

 

As I understand it, that is NOT what Heald said. He said that Oxygen concentrators are currently not allowed to be boarded or used. And, his sense was that this was a potentially temporary policy. And, he provided no corporate rational or wisdom behind the policy change. Cruise on!