popeyesChickenSandwich

@CruizinSusan70 LOL thanks - I'm not looking for your condolences, and we did use paid dining options because of the quality.

I still maintain that decline in the quality of MDR food is a valid grievance. In the past it was at a quality of let's say 8/10, and this experience the food was 4/10 - what's up with that? The point of my post is that I am going to wait until economic conditions improve and Carnival (or any other cruise line) has a better opportunity to showcase the value they are capable of providing before going again. When I do re-book, yes it will be a "booze cruise" because that is what I enjoy.

Wow that's interesting.

Contrary to the tone of the group, I'm not bashing folks that didn't get vaccinated.. I'm just interested in trying to minimize my own chances of getting sick again. It sounds like it's just the way it is now. It's not ideal, to take a week off work and then have to call in a few more days after the vacation. I'm in the same boat, I mean SHIP @Eli_6: my wife got sniffles, but I got floored for a few days and lost smell and everything 😅

Thanks for this important clarification. I was not in the Boats, I was on the SHIP the whole time.

9 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Lots of threads about quality being cut in Mdr. Prices are up and what you get for it down everywhere, not just carnival.

Yeah I agree it is everywhere. Just sucks to see it on my vacation. We definitely ran up the check in the restaurants - the sushi was still solid! The macro-economic condition is definitely driving some cuts, and I hope the economy bounces back soon - and so does the MDR.

I got off Vista on 12/17. This was my:

• 6th Carnival cruise overall
• 3rd post-covid cruise
• 1st time on the Vista

I'll start by saying, this was the last "covid cancellation reschedule" that we had so we thankfully got the extra $600 OBC, and we did enjoy some of the ports. Overall it was not a great experience though. Here's my grievances:

1. Noticeable decline quality of MDR food. My wife and I look forward to dinner every night, but the food was under-whelming (all over the ship actually) to the point that we were just eating for sustenance instead of enjoyment - the waitstaff was crushing it with service, but even they understood the dishes were not good.
2. The casino on Vista is wayy cramped.. there's no room to walk around, and coming off the Breeze where I spent a lot of time in the non-smoking casino. I did not enjoy spending time in the Vista casino.
3. The Vista overall felt cramped. It's the largest ship I've been on, but felt the smallest. No dedicated club. Single-level dining (at least the MDR that I was in). Despite seeing that it was bigger, I felt that too much was jammed in instead of giving larger common areas to showcase the size of the boat. There was a comedy club, but comics were moved into main theater most nights. Space just wasn't used well.
4. Completely a me-issue: This was my first 7-day cruise.. that ain't it for me. I enjoy getting on the boat, going hard for a long weekend and getting off. The crowd was a little bit older on the 7-day cruise as well.. just not our style.
5. Perhaps the biggest deterrent: we both got covid on-board. This was our first cruise since they allowed non-vaccinated individuals back. Of course I'm not certain that's how I got it but  .... *does math in head* there may be a correlation. I'm still on the recovery - I had gotten kind of complacent about the virus because of doing 2 post-covid, but getting hella sick for a few days puts a damper on the experience and gives me pause about considering another cruise. It would make sense (IMO) for Carnival to still offer fully vaccinated cruises on certain ships with non-vaccinated on others so people could still choose to have some level of confidence about overall health on the ship.

We still definitely had moments of enjoyment - the waitstaff is still doing 100% effort in making the vacation a good time, but that's going to be it for us for a while.
When I do book another cruise, it will not be on Vista.

I am going to be on Vista next week 10th - 17th.
I've never been on a ship with the onboard IMAX, and I'm wondering if they publish the showtimes before getting on-board. If they are only available on the ship, how far in advance do they put showtimes out?
 

The new Avatar comes out on the 16th, and I'm wondering if there's any possibility it will be available on the ship and if so, how aggressively will I have to try to get tickets - is there a smart strategy?

7 hours ago, groundloop said:

 

 

You probably just started another multi hundred post thread.

 

And yes, we no longer have this option available to us so I suspect smuggling will be on the rise.

Smuggling is really the only option.

During debark today, a couple guys got into it over an elevator. It wasn’t a full brawl, but they pushed, clinched, went to the ground and bottom guy got held until security came. Security took their time with both guys and I walked away before seeing what happened. It made me wonder though: what happens when you get in a fight on the ship?

@cruisinqt I’m glad that worked out, have fun! I really wanted to chime in and thank you for sharing your experience about booking two rooms with casino offers. My wife and I get the same, but we’ve never tried booking both and swapping sleeping arrangements… we’ve always wondered if it’s viable and sounds like it can be done 🙂

On 7/2/2021 at 9:14 AM, czechcruzr said:

i tried the refill the wine bottle trick in galveston. the lady at the check desk said the color is off 🙄 and we need to open it if you want to bring it onboard, i said just keep it and walked off.  lesson learned.

Galveston is the worst! My colored refilled wine looked good, but the lady identified the resealable shrink wrap top as the cheap brand sold on Amazon.. it was wild. She just put them to the side and told me to enjoy the cruise.

On 12/23/2021 at 10:56 PM, IntrepidFromDC said:

I gave the free water on Lido deck a chance.  It has an odd, musty taste and smell.  The bottled water delivered to the staterooms tastes more like the odorless, tasteless water from my purification-filter tap back home.  Less than five bucks for a 12-pack?  Keep 'em comin'.

Agreed.

Compared to how much alcohol is marked up ... the gouge on water is almost unnoticeable. I'll have 4 cases to my cabin as well please!

8 hours ago, smellywax said:

So you are saying putting a couple thousand in slots on a ship is better than on land in vegas?

My personal experience: yes.

I've been to Vegas multiple times. My wife and I do about the same level of play at Vegas as we do on a cruise ship. In Vegas we will gets suites comped at Cosmopolitan, 2 free buffets, and some freeplay. But then while you're in Vegas you gotta see a show .. that's $500 for 2 tickets. You don't get every meal comped so you gotta decide if you're gonna eat a $20 hamburger and fries on the strip or drive a ways off for cheaper food. AND it's Vegas .. I can't do more than 3 days there with all the constant demands on your attention and street scammers and everything going on.

Comparatively, we are very happy taking casino offers from the cruiseline - I feel like the value is definitely there. When we were younger and wanted that Vegas energy ... you gotta do it, there's nothing like Sin City. But now that we're at a point where taking a week and relaxing with the nice people in the hot tub by the sea and getting attentive service from the staff and all the things we enjoy about cruising are just more attractive to us.

1 hour ago, Colorado Beach Bum said:

Some offers lately are for drinks anywhere on the ship. Those are great.  You don’t earn them while on the current cruise but is may be included in future offers. 

Yeah, our last cruise (Aug 2021) was booked with a free balcony offer and some freeplay. When we visited the casino on the first day for the free-play, the host also gave us both free drinks everywhere aboard the ship. On the last night of the cruise the server in main dining room let us know the casino comped the steakhouse entrees so we both ordered lobster.

Our strategy is to play the amount you would spend for the next cruise. If you spend $500 in the casino, you'll get a comp that is comparable to buying a $500 cruise .. if you get $1000 its going to be better like more freeplay or a suite.

The main consideration here is to not spend more than you would pay for the cruise itself. If you're spending more than the cost of room + drinks then you hit what I call true red (experiencing diminishing returns on the casino offers as well)

Does Carnival ever give over $1,000 free play with casino offers?

3 hours ago, latserrof said:

How much do you have to play/risk/lose/win to get the offers, please?

Honestly, the cost of a cruise.. maybe bring $1,000 .. cycle it through the machines a few times so you bet $8,000 or so over the course of the cruise. The first cruise where we paid full price and then gambled enough for a casino offer is the thing paid for the next cruise.

That being said, I think we'll beat the house next year, during COVID we booked 2 cruises for 2022. Both are casino offers, casino credit, $200 OBC + the $600 OBC from cancelled cruises ... even factoring in port fees and taxes we're gonna come out on top - really looking forward to those!

@jimbo5544 Wow! I would not have guessed sold out!
Good for everyone that can afford and enjoy it tho.

Gratuity is included.
BUT throwing them a dollar or two definitely goes a long way with the level of service you get.

22 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

Remains to be seen. Currently it is $500 for a cabana for a day.  Guess how

many are filled today?

LOL that's the same price as a cabana rental for the Chelsea Pool at Cosmopolitan Las Vegas!

Definitely unattractive at that price point for myself, and I'm sure many other Carnival patrons.

Yup, you're good to take pictures with it!

@Honolulu Blue Are the non-smoking casinos open currently?

I go on the Breeze late this month (hopefully), and in a strange way even though I don't smoke, there's something characteristic I enjoy about being in a smokey casino LOL.. definitely down to try the non-smoking room tho, especially if I can compare which area has better drink service 😁

That's great to hear!

Appreciate the input from both of you!

My wife and I sail on Carnival and get casino offers - my wife's offers are better than mine, so we always book with hers, but we both get free rooms.

We are looking at booking a cruise with my parents - it's our first time booking a second room.

What would happen if my wife books a free room with her casino offer (mother as her second guest), and I book a free room with my casino offer (father as second)?

Would the steward or anyone else care if we switch where we sleep on the ship so my parents use one room, my wife and I use one room, and we take full advantage of the free offers?

Thank you for the insights~