Sailor75

I don't get this, maybe Chengkp or someone else knows. Cruise ships don't have extra life boat or life raft capacity? I'm sure there's rules that dictate this. I also wondered who got their cruises cancelled, inside guarantee cabins? I'm sure suite guests wouldn't get cancelled.

I'm diamond on Carnival and use to go on 6 - 8 cruises a year with them; now it's usually 1 a year due to these issues with adults and kids (which I've seen first hand, long and short cruises) and deceptive pricing. I mostly sail with Princess now and no longer have to deal with this.

I'm mad Strokin by Clarence Carter was pulled from karaoke, enough is enough.

You can access Carnival's website for free on the cruise. Also, the offers you would have for booking onboard are extended for I believe 48 hours after the cruise.

First cruise line, otherwise nothing.

I've used my phones texting on MSC and I believe Princess with no charges using the ships WiFi too. One time I had my WiFi calling on and my phone rang, but I was afraid to answer it. I have an Android phone.

Correction, I found a $99 deposit in April, but the one I wanted to book in May or October 2026 have $250 deposits, so I guess it's certain cruises.

With Southern Caribbean being the exception, a lot of the usual boring ports, Nassau, Grand Turk, Belize, Cozumel, Amber Cove and prices are higher. Their website talks about $99 deposits, but when I try to book all I see is $250pp.

It's hard to get a table unless you're early, great food, but limited open times for lunch - just sea days. Dinner I'm at the MDR or specialty restaurants. I think O'Malleys has a band in the evenings it was very loud.

Scattering of Ashes at Sea This is the other thread I saw.

Do I need to call back?? (scattering of ashes) This is a discussion about it and I remember seeing another one too

This has been covered recently. I remember people said they set it up with Carnival and you are taken down aft and low on the ship with a ship officer and possibly other people doing the same thing. The place and time is chosen by Carnival.

I never thought the Bolt was a good idea; Carnival does a poor job of maintaining anything. I rode when it was new, but never again now. It's an accident waiting to happen. Look at the ropes courses, two ways to go but one is usually broken; ships with rusted holes in the side.

Ok, thanks.

So, not to make this too confusing, but I'm booked on the Getaway October 12, 2025, yes 2025. I don't see it listed in Portland or Bar Harbor. I already figured Bar Harbor was being replaced with Boston; but, now am I right in understanding we're probably not going to Portland too? I will be following this cruise and may have to change mine.

Noon would be plenty of time

I'm on the May 10th cruise, the shore excursions went down. I had already booked, but I was able to cancel and rebook at the cheaper price.

I like this if I can save money. I may be the opposite of most people, but I don't want the internet, I hate being reminded of work when an email pops up. I only want drinks, so if it's cheaper I'm all in. I like cruising to get away, I hate needing to carry my phone around to look at menus or daily activities.

I was told at the garage they don't open until 11, which is very late; but, they actually opened at 10:30 (maybe enough people cleared out early). The garage doesn't fill up, I think a lot of people fly in. MSC will let you on the ship before your time, although last time in June 2024 someone tried to stop us and I proceeded anyway since I'm diamond and have priority check-in although the guy said that didn't matter, but I still boarded early.

Carnival isn't the industry leader, Royal is. Royal has been building bigger and bigger ships and Carnival said they wouldn't, now they realize they should've been building bigger ships. Now, Royal is going into smaller ships and Carnival is saying no. In a few years I bet Carnival changes their minds; they're always behind.

I recently booked 2 cruises on NCL and I found them to be the same price as what I typically spend on Princess. But, with NCL I get unlimited drinks and a dining credit; however, I have to pay gratuities. But, on Princess I get tired of tracking my drinks and other peoples since their drinks frequently show on my account.

Cruise lines change itineraries for a lot of reasons; but, they all do it so changing lines for that reason probably isn't a good reason. I've been on Carnival when they shut the door and pull away from the embarkation port just to announce a change in ports. Or, Princess when, in Alaska, they kept selling cruises with a specific itinerary and shore excursions only to change the stops as the season went on because the ship was experiencing propulsion issues through the entire season because it had to be dry docked to fix it and they didn't want to take it out of service. They let people book that cruise knowing they couldn't do it, I'd say that's probably unethical. There's always new people to replace people that leave; many people get mad at whatever cruise line they're loyal too and rotate to a new line, people are rotating too NCL as well.

I have been on 69 cruises across 7 brands with another 8 cruises currently booked; there's always someone with more cruises. I don't let a bad sailing keep me from ever booking another cruise with that company; if I did I wouldn't have been on 9 MSC cruises on 5 different ships; you've been on 2 different ships. I see you had one really bad experience on Princess with a Christmas, New Years cruise but booked another this past May and another this August. My first Princess cruise was my first trip to Alaska and half of the stops and most of my shore excursions were cancelled due to propulsion issues that they knew about for at least a month, but instead of fixing the ship they limped it through the entire season, but I still booked more cruises with them because they made it right by giving us a 50% FCC and an OBC. While MSC is the last cruise line I consider, I continue to sail with them too because they're cheaper which seems to be the common theme on here, I know there's no perfect cruise line, and there are many aspects I like about MSC too.

Couldn't any cruise line proactively replace parts before they break? Or, maybe that just costs too much money? I guess they'd rather wait until there's issues and then fix them. Imagine planes just dropping from the sky because a part failed and saying oh well it happens, they did the required maintenance. I don't worry about my engine spinning a bearing or throwing a rod, I maintain my vehicles. Besides, I buy a new car every 4 or 5 years. Losing the two best stops and replacing them with Nassau and the petty credit they received isn't fair compensation.

People mostly sail MSC because they're cheaper, but there's a reason why they're cheaper. There's people on here cheerleading MSC while complaining other cruise lines are too expensive. My last cruise on MSC in June 2024 on the Seashore wasn't full and I got a really great last minute deal on it, why can't they fill their ships when other lines are sailing at up to 132% capacity? The bar service is horrendous, guest service is a joke, food is hit or miss, 9:30 dinner dining times are ridiculous and I've also been given no dining time; but, I'll say the ships are really nice and I've never really had a problem with the room attendants. I was surprised to be charged $47 on the last day of the cruise for a bar charge after I had already left the ship when I had a drink package. MSC customer service won't even respond to my emails as to what that was for and I've been given 3 different "final" invoices all with different amounts with no explanation of the charge and one invoice even said I was owed money; that one quickly disappeared. By the way, these "final" invoices were still being changed more than a week after I disembarked the ship.