edrussell

Perfect, I will park in your driveway and we can car pool....

I consider 'free' a fully COMP'd base fare. Taxes and port fees are always going to be charged. With Carnival we also get the 'deposit' back in OBC.

Far late to the party here, but wishing you all the best the rest of the way on your sailing. From a fellow Ontarioian.

Fair enough statement @mz-s and you have your opinion on the matter. I was asking for firsthand accounts and was going to take them at their word. You consider it useless information, I don't. Not like there is anything dependent on what a few people post in an online message board. If a few people post similar experiences then I can chose to do what I will with that information. Some people actually post accurate information about their results. I know I do. In fact take meticulous records. I have pictures of my point total before and after ANY session in the casino. I also have an accurate accounting of my bankroll before and after a session and can share that anytime. Sure it is only my word, and I fully recognize many people either stretch the truth or flat out lie, but some don't. Cheers, all the best.

I know, I was more hoping for first hand experiences and the 'norm'.

Still new to the casino on Carnvial as we have mostly sailed on RCCL (hosts on RCCL are bloody awful and invisible), how many points usually get their attention? Enough for an ASK of a steakhouse dinner maybe?

Full transparency that is above our normal range. I took a chance on a hundo in a 777's machine and ran it down to 14, then all the way back up over 1000 in about 30 minutes. Was a nice run for sure.

Our first and only sailing on Carnival thus far was a 7 day last Sept. We were COMP'd on the sailing (interior room) via Carnival status match that my wife applied for. So no play of any sort with Carnival before that sailing. We gambled slightly above our usual pace, but nothing too crazy. We had fewer sessions (exclusively slot players) but played at a higher spin (9 per spin) and did very well overall. Came out ahead for the trip. Ended up with just shy of 4000 points. There has been an avalanche of offers since. A mix of interior, oceanview, balcony etc. We are currently booked on 5 Carnival sailings into 2025! Super pleased with the COMP value.

Such a refreshing thread to read as opposed to the countless threads with people just whining and complaining about the smallest possible things they can find. Thanks for posting it.

Pool during the day, Miami Vice Afternoon, Coors Lite Evening, Crown and Ginger

You have to do your best and pick a sailing based on dates, ship, itinerary etc and then hope for the best. Even weighing all of those factors you occasionally win and you occasionally lose. Best case do your research and pick a ship with a decent amount of adults only areas that you hope you will enjoy. We just got off Wonder OTS (Feb 11-18) and there were definitely more kids than we expected but we did our research and knew Wonder had a great Solarium we hoped we would enjoy and boy did we! We used the pool deck sparingly and that was enough for us. Apart from that we frequent bars and the casino etc which are largely kid free. We don't mind the little buggers (our only child is grown and we now have grandkids) but we do acknowledge they can be a pain in the ___, especially so when parents don't parent. That said RCCL is a family line so there is that. You can always go the route of adult only lines, or roll the dice and hope.

Definitely no attack from me and in fact I'd actually agree with most of your observations. Full context we have 7 RCCL cruises under our belts with ships ranging from Wonder (most recent cruise) to Enchantment and Grandeur. We have 1 Carnival sailing (Venezia) and we have 6 more Carnival sailings booked with NO RCCL cruises. The primary reason being we sail via Casino COMP and the offers from RCCL are terrible lately. Specific observations from your post ring true with us, comedians, no comparison whatsoever. We've never really seen any comedian on RCCL that comes even close to Carnival. Not even close. That said though Carnival prides itself on comedians and they are up front about it. I believe RCCL only puts on comedy out of a feel of necessity rather than desire. Pizza (yes, yes VERY subjective I know), but the pizza on Venezia was lightyears above any Pizza I've had on any RCCL ship (most recently the pizza at Sorento's on Wonder was downright terrible). Rooms, well I strongly feel that is going to end up being more a factor of the ship itself than anything else. Food in the MDR, our experience on Venezia easily matches any RCCL ship and in fact tops many of them. The check in feature via the APP on Carnival makes My time MDR experiences so much better. People do get so emotionally attached to 'their brand' and that is 100% natural. We've never been overly loyal to one brand, especially so as the loyalty rewards mean little to nothing to us. The C & A program on RCCL seems to garner a lot of emotional attachment and to each their own but I'll never get that. Truth is both brands have something to offer and if one doesn't work for you, the the other might. All that said though until you actually get out there and sail both of them you can't make an educated comment on them, especially in a comparison.

Petty squabbles notwithstanding, there was no mention of this on Wonder on our Feb 11-18 sailing and in fact we had some deeper discussions with a more senior member of MDR staff and this topic came up in a round about way. Personally I think this would do wonders (pardon the pun) of fixing the cluster that is my time on Oasis class. Is there any reference to this anywhere besides rumor?

With Royal's use of a dynamic pricing model the closest you are ever going to get on beverage packages or specialty is an educated guess. Even with that educated guess pricing fluctuations can come out of nowhere. Best route is to take that educated guess and pick your cruise. Then buy whatever you want early on RCCL and cancel back as prices do fluctuate. That of course means you've already chosen your cruise. Depends if you are more or less risk averse.

Snagged it at 43.99 on our Wonder sailing a few weeks ago. Given that the pools and ocean were cold, the heated pool alone was worth the scratch.