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You could very well be right though only those on the inside will know. But during my working life I saw several instances in which they came after the heads of departments, and sometime everyone in a department, for their failure to do something the head and the whole department had been begging to be allowed to do for years. When the top guy is the guy that stopped them the underlings usually take the full blame. In this case the top guy is relatively new so hopefully he'll make a fair call.

These days I don't know if the Carnival webmasters are incompetent or if Carnival is intentionally playing games. A couple of weeks ago we wanted to take advantage of one of the casino offers we had. I went to the website, went to my offers and there it was. As usual, after I entered the number of guests etc. it took me to a page showing our various offers for that sailing (why can't they just stay with the offer you clicked on?) but the rate code we wanted didn't show, only the one identical but with less casino freeplay showed. I tried it from scratch several times, even logging out and back in, with the same results. Just to see if it would work I started from scratch and picked that slightly less desirable offer from my list of offers. Again, after entering number of guests etc. it ended up sending me to that list of our offers for that sailing. But this time the offer I had been after from the beginning was listed and I was able to book it. Usually I immediately get an order confirmation from Carnival. After not getting it for a couple of days I went to the casino web site and requested confirmation of the booking and offer terns and got confirmation from them. The booking does show on Carnival's manage cruise page, but after the booking hassle and not getting the email confirmation I had no faith that they actually used the correct rate code. It isn't the first time they have made it difficult to book the better deals. So, are they incompetent or are they trying to push folks to the less desirable offers? I don't know.

For all intents and purposes I believe you are correct as far as owners of common stock. In theory a profit can be made if you bought shares just before bankruptcy was declared (when everyone thought there would be a bankruptcy and the shares traded for pennies a share) and the bankruptcy court approved a Chapter 11 plan that did not cancel pre-bankruptcy shares. It is the proverbial "rare bird" case. In theory it can happen but having it happen to you is like you finding a species long believed extinct. It is far more common for the lenders and the corporation to come to an agreement before bankruptcy is filed that presents the court with an agreed plan under which all outstanding common and preferred shares are cancelled and the lenders agree to sell their loans to the company for newly issued shares. That happens if the company would be making decent profits if it were not for the interest expense and if the lenders believe that under a liquidation bankruptcy they will loose a lot but that as the shareholders of the debt free profitable corporation they will get a good return and possibly a great return with proper management. A bankruptcy judge can pretty much do whatever he/she wants. The bankruptcy court is primarily an equity court. So it does not require all lenders agree. If the holders of super majority of the debt agree, and the judge believes the interests of the customers and employees have been protected as much as feasible in the circumstances, then usually the judge will go along and the minority debt holders claims of contractual obligations and the like are overruled. Usually the common shareholders are given nothing. They willingly took the risk, they voted in the boards of directors who led the corporation down the drain and if the company had done wonderfully they, not the lenders, customers or employees, would have reaped the rewards. If anyone at the table deserves to lose it is them. To the extent the numbers permit, the court will usually try to prevent harm to customers and employees. So betting on making money holding the shares of a company going into bankruptcy is not terribly wise in my opinion.

Where did the OP even hint that anyone should refund the cost of the cruise. Why admonish them for something they never said? My thought is they will have no problem and everything will be back to normal soon. But I can understand their having some concern. This big of a disruption for this long is near unprecedented and due not only to the weather but also to their systems failing. The weather will pass but can their systems be relied upon?

I'm not so sure. I think Carnival is regretting making their new ships run on LNG. In May of 2020 LNG was $2 per mmBtu. Now it is around $34 per mmBtu. Will it stay that way? Who knows. The key is cost of fuel per passenger mile. For all I know the cost per passenger mile for small old ships burning marine diesel is now less than the cost per passenger mile for big shiny new ships burning LNG.

It is starting to feel like Carnival has made special efforts to find the rude and crude in society. We recently booked a cruise on NCL. While talking to the Personal Cruise Consultant (NCL version of PVP) he asked what we were looking for with NCL vs. Carnival. We told him "housebroken passengers."

ZING! You are approaching legend status in my eyes... 😁

Come to think about it. This is probably why people who have not gotten casino offers in the past have been surprised to receive casino offers these days. As the regular fares have dropped that has reduced the cost to the casino operation for each room. So if they have X million dollars set aside in their promotions budget for buying rooms they can now buy more rooms for that same X million and can afford to go after lower level gamblers to try to get them hooked (so to speak).

They will be getting an "arms length" price for the rooms in order to maintain the corporate veil. If they give preferential pricing to the casino corporation the courts will not consider them separate corporations and the whole purpose of putting the operations in separate corporations will be defeated. Each ship is in a separate corporation. The reason for that is that if the worst happens, such as the ship sinking with many deaths, those suing the ship will only be able to reach the assets of the corporation that owns the ship and the rest of the corporations will be unaffected. So they are not going to facilitate piercing the corporate veil by doing business with each other at rates other than those at which they can convince a court they would do business with anyone.

.😆🤣😂. Zing! Us guys are known for our narrow interests.

Perhaps I missed them, but I don't recall any cases of scheduled dry docks taking longer and resulting in canceled cruises. I have heard of delivery of new ships being delayed and I have heard of unscheduled dry docks cancelling cruises though.

Can and should are two different things. I know you can wear a baseball cap on elegant night because on our last cruise I just happened to glance around us and in the small portion of the MDR I could see I saw five guys at four different tables wearing them. So you can, but having been taught manners, I wouldn't. Did it bother me? Not in the least. I was glad to see it. It makes me look good.

As far as the Vista, I'm with the OP. That is the worst ship I have ever sailed with the worst casino I have ever been in. We sailed it once not long after it moved to Galveston and refuse to sail on another Vista class ship because of the cramped conditions noted by the OP.

The casino does already have its own program. See my post (#51) above. And those not in the casino program do already scream about how it is not fair. The ship operations and the casino operations are separate corporations and separate lines of business. Each has its own perks program to attract customers to its business. The spa operation is also a separate business for that matter.

I totally agree. It used to be that the 3 - 5 day cruises were the ones to avoid but the 7 day were great. Now to get the level of housebroken passengers you used to get on 7 day cruises you have to go to 14 day cruises.

I disagree with those who think casino deal "free" cruises should not be counted as cruise days. I think they don't understand how this works. The cruise fare for "free" casino passengers is paid just like the fare for other cruisers is paid. The ship gets paid. The only difference is who pays. In the case of "free" casino passengers it is paid by a corporation that is separate from the corporation that owns the ship. That is why you get referred to "casino operations" for questions on casino offers. An outfit known as "Global Casino Operations" https://www.oceancasinojobs.com/ offers the "free" cruises and pays the fare for those who receive the "free" cruises. Global Casino Operations is a separate line of business that runs the casinos and does what it does to maximize the profit from the casino operations. If they think they maximize profits by getting certain people onto a ship with one of their casinos by offering to pay that person's cruise fare then that is what they do. But the cruise ship operation is not out any money and has given nothing away.

We have started looking for alternatives to Carnival. Our problem is that we don't like flying, staying in hotels, fooling with transportation and all the stuff that would come with sailing from a port other then New Orleans. As it is we jump in the car, drive for a bit over an hour, park at the terminal and jump on the ship. Sailing from New Orleans really means Carnival or NCL and NCL doesn't have many sailings out of New Orleans. We're booking NCL for January 2024 to get a taste though. And NCL does sail out of Tampa and we have a son living there so that would mean just facing the airlines. If our January 2024 NCL experience is good we may split cruises between NCL New Orleans, NCL Tampa and Carnival New Orleans. Once in a blue moon RC sails from New Orleans so we will keep an eye out for one of those rare occasions. The bottom line is that a cruise for us is not a big deal; it just beats staying home. Make it too much work and we might as well stay home or spend more time visiting our sons who are scattered about. It is just a shame that Carnival is making the experience not much better than staying home. At home we don't have to become "hunter-gatherers" tracking down decent food, stocked and working drink stations and elusive drink servers. We don't have to put up with the boorish people who have become unpleasantly common on Carnival. We don't have to put up with non-stop sales pitches. We don't have to put up with standing in lines or trying to walk down passages blocked by photographers... Of course there are positives, but the positives keep dwindling and the negatives growing.

I can understand your frustration. In the past Carnival provided an experience you quite enjoyed and now they have taken that away. We have similar frustration. But I have to ask, don't most bathrooms smell like a toilet?

😂🤣 I feel your pain. We just got off a Carnival cruise and were amazed at how many extended groups were on board. These herds stretched across the entire hall or walkway sauntering along occasionally all stopping and just standing there while the contenders for boss loudly cursed each other out arguing about where to go. It was mainly just disgusting.

The Deli did have fries and they were pretty good.

I think everyone is reading way too much into this news article. These are CEOs of two majors in an industry talking about the cruise industry vs. land based resorts. The first thing to recognize is that these guys are “talking their book.” They want to generate the perception among consumers that cruising is a better deal and if they actually believe it or not is a different matter. Look at the article’s advice – book quickly to lock in these low prices. The talk of the CEOs already has the media pushing cruise sales. The second thing to recognize is that in Carnival’s case it does not necessarily mean anything to the Carnival subsidiary. There are a number of cruise line subsidiaries under the CCL parent corporation. Some are “premium” brands and some are “value” brands. Even if parent CCL raises prices on most brands the Carnival brand is the value brand and they may well take a different approach with Carnival. My personal view is that the Carnival brand will become like the “free vacation” associated with the old time share real estate business. You get a free cruise but you get badgered constantly with sales pitches. These days Facebook, Twitter, Google.. have been quite successful with the “you are the product” approach. They give you a free service whose only point is to serve you up to advertisers. This is nothing new to the cruise industry. For years the casino operators have offered free cruises to gamblers. They pay the cruise line your cruise fare and give you a free cruise to get you into the casino. Carnival in particular has always done its own version by being the value line but you can’t walk down the promenade without tripping over photographers or art pitches or some jewelry shop drawing. I think for the Carnival brand the “get you on board to sell you things” approach will become more intense to raise revenue rather than raise cruise fares to raise revenue. On our latest cruise we were bombarded with sales pitches for things like a wine package which was new to us. The cruise director spent a huge amount of time on the announcements promoting shore excursions, spa treatments, photos, jewelry sales and the like. I expect an increase in the prices of things like specialty dining and drinks packages and photos and spa treatments more than increases in cruise fares. The food is bad in the main dining room? Then go pay for a specialty restaurant.

We just got back from a 7 day on the Glory out of New Orleans. We sail the Glory regularly because we like no hassle cruises and the Glory is a little over an hour from our house with no airlines, no TSA, no cabs or hotels etc. A cruise out of New Orleans is our version of our neighbors running down to their camp in Grand Isle for a week every now and then. This was our sixth Glory cruise this year. In the past I have mentioned how the wet dock refurb early this year and the consistent maintenance work they have done ever since have kept Glory in great shape. I also mentioned that while Glory has not escaped the cutbacks they have mitigated them and we found easy workarounds for others. Well, it looks like Glory has run out of luck. A “just the facts” look at our latest cruise: Day 1 We are Diamond and in November got an email from Christine Duffy saying Diamond priority boarding is back and specifically saying “Upon arrival to the terminal, look for the Priority line to check-in.” Well, she was mistaken. They would not let us into the priority line to get into the terminal saying it was only for suite guests and those who bought faster to the fun.” Once in the terminal they would not let us in the priority line to check-in, again saying it was only for suite guests and faster to the fun. When we got to check-in we asked to speak to a supervisor. It wouldn’t do us any good at that point but at least they could fix it for others the rest of the day. The supervisor told us we did get priority; that everyone they had let in to the building at that point was priority. Well, having seen the priority lines and not being let in them and helping the first time cruisers in line behind us we knew we were being treated like idiots and really didn’t want to waste more of our time arguing. We simply said “you are wrong” and moved on. Was waiting a little longer in line a big deal? No. But being treated like idiots definitely was not appreciated. When we got to our room we saw the couch that I understand converts into a bed was broken. Specifically there appear to be two drawers on the bottom front. One was askew while the other was flopping around hanging by a thread. We found the room steward and asked it be fixed so things sliding off the couch did not disappear into whatever was under there. Later it was fixed, but in a quite trashy manner. After repair the askew drawer was still askew but the badly broken drawer was nice and level and secure thanks to four screws or bolts (I did not examine) as evidenced by the four silver (until they rust) screws driven through the upholstery and front drawer panel. I could live with that, but it was trashy. And for that to have not been observed and fixed before we ever got there doesn’t speak to any standards, let alone high standards. (My wife’s father built and operated a successful motel in New Orleans. She worked there until she left for college and making sure you don’t send a customer to a room with obviously broken furniture is as basic as making sure there is a door on the room far as she is concerned.) That evening we ate in the main dining room. In recent times we have taken to avoiding Lido and getting good food in the MDR. Our main courses were served cold. Day 2 First thing I went by the shop to buy some cigarettes. For the first time in my experience they were out of Marlboro Golds (aka lights). Again we ate in the main dining room. Again the food was cold. It seemed to me that two days in a row of cold food indicated a system problem that management needed to fix so I asked to speak to the maître d'. They wouldn’t let us talk to the maître d' instead sending a “restaurant manager.” I explained they seemed to have a problem that needed to be fixed since our main course was cold for the first two days in a row. The “restaurant manager” talked up a storm but seemed to only care about and be able to speak about the fact they don’t “pre-plate” food. I never mentioned that, can only guess what it is and I don’t care how they get hot food out. I just wanted them to be aware there was a problem so they could fix it. Late that night I went to get coffee. They close all but one or two stations in the late evening and they are located at the very back of the ship. That long walk is annoying, but not as annoying as there being no spoons. Day 3 While they managed to serve hot over-easy eggs at brunch they served stone cold brunch potatoes. Did I report it to anyone? No, I didn’t need another lecture on how they don’t “pre-plate” food. Day 5 We ate lunch at the “Old Fashioned BBQ.” After getting our food we asked where the utensils were located. They said they were out but some would come soon. Soon is a relative term. In this case when they finally came we gave back the food and asked for fresh. By now you can guess what’s next - stone cold beans as well as mac and cheese. I watched and can testify they did not “pre-plate” the food - the food sitting on top of the burners was cold. Day 6 Today was apparently casino day for my wife. Under the offer we were on I had free drinks everywhere but my wife only had free drinks while playing in the casino. For the whole cruise drinks waiters in the casino were as rare as hen’s teeth. By this time my wife had learned how to track down and tackle one. She tried to order a drink and was told “OK, but it will be a very long time.” Later she tried to cash out a whole 52 cents from a machine. It popped up some message about calling someone. So, being concerned there was something wrong with the machine that needed to be fixed, she took the time and effort to go to the cashier’s desk and get someone. The guy got to the machine, saw she was trying to cash out 52 cents and told her 52 cents wasn’t worth his time and effort. So she said OK. She didn’t care about 52 cents, but felt somewhat insulted; like she was being called cheap or stupid or both when she mainly just wanted to have any problem reported and fixed. Day 7 Drinks stations can be iffy. Today no coffee cups. So nothing earth shattering this cruise, just the continued downward slide unfortunately catching up to old Glory. I also kept up with the pleasant surprises: The new steak and cheese sandwich at the deli is quite good. After the second night we pretty well abandoned the MDR and that steak and cheese was very welcome. Also, the woman who often worked back there is a real whirlwind. I was really impressed with her. While my wife was at the mercy of drinks waiters in the casino she learned to be more assertive. She now knows the best tactics for cornering a drinks waiter and where to touch them to get their attention. Maybe that can transition to the home setting. Since I had drinks everywhere I spent a lot of time going over to the casino bar. The bartenders are the one thing that has held up at Carnival. Randy and Vincent at the casino bar are outstanding. I knew Randy from our last cruise and just got to know Vincent this cruise. We are sailing Glory again in a few weeks and I am looking forward seeing those guys again. On our last cruise the internet was only barely connecting and only about a third of the time. This trip it was pretty reliable and almost full 56K dial-up modem speed.

Apparently Boatdrill doesn't.

He's old enough to be on his own and they perhaps thought he got lucky.

You've been running around all day with no pants?