dabomb6608

41 minutes ago, Butterbean1000 said:

My daughter works in the school system and the only time she can cruise is spring break and summer.  We won't cruised during those times which is a shame because we would love to cruise with them.

Seems a bit extreme...its not even that bad...😅

My first two cruises 2019 & 2020 were during spring break for our area. Traveled with a group of 2 other families that are all teachers. We always had a blast. Definitely busier, more kids and more young adults. Only real issue I had was the college group across the hall from us being loud when they returned to their room late at night. Besides that, nothing else stands out in my memory as being unpleasant on those cruises. 
 

If you go into something only thinking/worrying about the negatives, the negatives will be the only thing you see. It’s a cruise with thousands of randoms. Statistically you are bound to see rude, obnoxious or unpleasant people. I’m not going to let someone else’s poor choices ruin my vacation for me.

Obviously there comes a time when intervention is needed. Lord knows I was close to my limit with the group across the hall from us by the 3rd late night wake up. But for the most part people just need to carry on with their cruise. It’s not worth the frustration a majority of the time. 

54 minutes ago, K&RCurt said:

I believe they were referencing the only substantial benefit of achieving Gold status...a free drink on the last day, being the reason to search for an 8 night cruise.

Rereading it that is probably true. I think at the time of that post there was another active thread where that post would've made perfect sense. I was thinking they meant it for that thread. 

We are heavily considering a 7 day trip on the Venezia out of Port Canaveral for next January. We think it will be a fun/different experience. Should fare better on the embarkation port side of things compared to the NYC port reviews I have read. We thought Port Canaveral was fantastic 2 weeks ago and look forward to visiting the area again. All new itinerary for us as well, so will be nice visiting new places.

Between our list of options for the week that works best for us this one is ranked #1 on my wifes list. She has a lot of Italian blood in her and is 10/10 for it. It was a tie between this and a 6 day Vista for me. Solely because of pricing honestly.  With regards to the Venezia I think my personal biggest concern is lack of traditional lido deck with lots of loungers. I could spend all day laying out in the sun and be happy as could be, my wife wants the shade after a while. With it being only the two of us we never had issues finding a pair of loungers on the Mardi Gras. We seemed to get out before the big crowds showed up, which helps. Hoping the same holds true on Venezia, even if that means heading to the aft area. Which from what I have seen is where the DJ plays so that is prefered location. Or even heading to Serenity, we frequented that as well on Mardi Gras. 

Won't hit gold this time but will be on the following cruise. Which we are talking about doing a 2025 mid-year(ish) 5(ish) day cruise to the new Celebration Key. 

9 minutes ago, Hoosierpop said:

Yeah, pig and anchor is great food, good atmosphere. I think the ribs and something else is extra but I never get that. 

Prime Rib is the second one and was $12 on the Mardi Gras 2 weeks ago.

26 minutes ago, Pyxie said:

 Honestly, it's not really much of an "upgrade." It's more of a marketing gimmick to make you feel like you're getting something.

My suspicions exactly.   

14 minutes ago, Pyxie said:

 

It means that you'll move to a higher category/higher deck within your same room type. What it does not mean is that you'll go from ocean view to balcony, for example.

Does this move occur automatically during booking or once you select your room you get offered the upgrade. Or is it a "to be assigned" type booking that they select the upgrade for you?

I've seen those sales plenty in the past but never fully understood how it worked.

2 minutes ago, staceyglow said:

My guess is that most people who are on the Do Not Sail list already know they are on the Do Not Sail list. It's quite possible that Carnival informed the scammy travel agent of that, but of course, they did not pass that information on to the customer. 

I agree most people would/should know they are on the list. And without a doubt that is what occurred with this situation, the scammer has every reason not to pass that "little" tid-bit along.

2 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

More than a few during the shutdown where people (after asking here and being warned) did chargebacks to speed up the refunds.  The kicked out in port people would also be on the No Sail list and no company would want disgruntled employees publishing that information like why was Guest Drunky McPunchy not on the List but Guest Pinchy Butty on the List.    

I'm certainly no developer/coder but there should be plenty of avenues available on the back-end to implement a "check" for Sail/No Sail during booking process without CCL Planners being able to have full access to a No Sail list. Could even block out any reasoning for the ban and simply redirect concerns/questions to customer service reps. 

2 minutes ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

If they are keeping those deposits to make up some of their earlier loss, they would have no motivation to prevent that scenario from happening. 

I was speaking more broadly to any situation that would result in someone being on a Do Not Sail list, not just ones that have monetary reasoning. But I definitely get your point in situations like that. 

A slight derail from OPs question but related to upgrades overall...

When there is a sale active that says "Free Room Upgrades" what exactly does that mean? 

3 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

I don't think the PVPs have free access to that information.  I believe something else triggers the cancellation.  Others who have reported they found out they were on the No Sail list, were able to make a booking, pay deposit and then were cancelled.   

Interesting. Seems like an unnecessary way to rack up refund processing fees and customer service hours. I wonder how often situations like that actually happen. I guess not that often if they haven't implemented a way to avoid someone paying deposits or more and then getting it cancelled after the fact.  

53 minutes ago, BIGBANG22 said:

I was apart of a group cruise with my extended family. I have a total of three rooms i booked. I gave the travel agent my CC information last year for deposit. This agent works directly for Carnival Groups. 

If it was an actual CCL Planner, I would think they should have seen the "Do Not Sail" flag associated with you prior to getting to the stage of paying for the bookings. 

57 minutes ago, Hoosierpop said:

I do like some ships more than others but the ship itself is never the reason I cruise.  feel for you if it makes that much of a difference. Maybe try a higher end cruise line?

I wouldn't say the ship itself is the reason we cruise. But it is a contributing factor towards our cruise selection. Especially if I am spending 7+ days on it minus a few hours per stop. 

We have talked about trying Royal Caribbean. But Carnival hasn't disappointed us yet so we haven't been "pushed" to doing so just yet. 

16 minutes ago, LynnTH said:

Celebration does a few 8 day cruises. We are going on one in September to the ABC Islands.  

The Mardi Gras does as well. Looks like they are mainly summer season cruises. If we did a 8 day, between our work schedules and her masters degree classes, it would have to be a winter cruise. 

9 minutes ago, Pyxie said:

 

It's kind of luck, but the easier Carnival thinks they can sell your current cabin, the more likely you are to get an offer to move to something else.

That makes sense. We have always had either Ocean View or on our most recent a Balcony. I guess if there isn't much "upgrade" from what you currently have booked that would also reduce your chance of getting a call. 

13 minutes ago, Joebucks said:

Is there really this much discussion and thought how to plan everything with 2 free cocktails being at the center of the universe? You can easily spend many multiples more than the cost of those 2 cocktails in trying to get everything to align around this. 

Think you had the wrong thread tab open. 🤣

Are upgrade inquiries from Carnival just luck of the draw or do you request to be put on a list? We have a CCL Planner guy that we have used for each of our 3 cruises (plus 2 that were canceled during Covid) and have never received any kind of upgrade offer. 

55 minutes ago, Earthworm Jim said:

 

That's probably fair. And also B2B short cruises might well take you to the same nearby ports of call.

Thats what I was noticing when I was looking this evening. Lots of Nassau and Cozumel. 

21 minutes ago, jsglow said:

So @dabomb6608, let me suggest that the gap between an Excel Class ship and an old Fantasy Class ship is massive. There's a lot in between and truthfully you don't have enough cruise experience just yet to really know what your own personal sweet spot is. Personally, we LOVE the Spirit Class ships for particular applications; Europe for example.  But I also enjoy a more fully featured boat when we have a lot of sea days. I likely wouldn't take Spirit on a trans-Pacific if you catch my meaning. Similarly, Jubilee would be an absolute nightmare for the ports at Dun Laoghaire (Dublin) or Santorini, Greece.

 

So try them all. Carnival has a very wide product line. And it's totally cool if your favorite turns out to be different than mine. 😎 

I completely understand I am basing my opinion on two opposite ends of the class spectrum. Not to mention our limited experience. 

Some things we really enjoyed out of the Mardi Gras...

• The various dinner options. A couple nights looking at the MDR menu it just wasn't appealing to us. We liked that there were various free/cheap options to fall back on when that happened. Pigs & Anchor was good. Cucina Del Capitano was fantastic and free both times we went, although as I understand it should have been $16 the second night for us. The steakhouse is nice as well but is on most/all carnival ships as far as I have seen so not a contributor to this discussion. 
• It was really nice being able to hangout in the Alchemy/Fortune Teller area while listening to entertainers in an area that was very spacious and didn't feel like we were stuffed in a corner of the ship. This one I am sure others might have similar layouts, but looking at deck plans on Spirit I don't see it at a glance.
• The large Serenity Area with beds and loungers. And even the large second floor Lido area around the main pool. To us it just didn't feel like we were on a ship with 6000 people. We never had issues finding a spot. 

I'm not denying there might be another class we would like. We just both were very impressed with the Excel and I think it will be a tough class to match. 

44 minutes ago, maxandmolly said:

I wouldn’t cruise just to get Gold status. It doesn’t really get you anything much. I would just cruise your preferred cruise.

I think our preferred cruise is the 7 day Jubilee on the week that works best for us in January. It is a close(ish) port that we could drive to in a long day, the same itinerary we enjoyed last week, and an Excel Class with the bonus of being new. 

45 minutes ago, Earthworm Jim said:

Have you looked at options to do a B2B 3/4/5 day cruises to get you the 8 days you're looking to get? That might find you some closer ports.

This is actually something I hadn't considered...but I've wanted to try a B2B. My only thing with doing a 3 or 4 day B2B is the risk of less than pleasant crowds. In our (limited) experience and from reading online it seems the shorter length/cheaper cruises risk that. I will look into it for comparisons sake though.

2 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

check out Spirit within 90 days of the cruise and Southwest way farther out from the cruise.

 

We don't cruise for points, and we are limited to school breaks. My DH refuses to drive from Atlanta to either MIA or FLL, so we always fly.

This is basically what we did with last weeks cruise and ended up flying to Orlando with Southwest out of St. Louis. Saved a little bit of money over gas/food/hotels driving there and back.  Think it was right at $500 for round trip. 

15 minutes ago, yankprintster said:

Just rode this on the Jubilee a few days ago.  It was fantastic!  Worth the $15.  As others have said, go full throttle the entire time and strategically use your 15-second turbo boost for the best possible experience.  You can ride by yourself or with a second person.

 

I had no idea you had the ability to control the throttle until I was ready to ride.

As a motorcycle rider I jokingly pointed the throttle out to the wife right before the ride started and held it wide open when we rode "because why not". I had no idea the throttle actually did anything.

I also had no idea there was a boost button...guess I will have to ride again next time we are on an excel class!

6 minutes ago, d-lite-n-cruisin said:

Thank you EVERYONE!  What is the cost?

$15 per person...high enough to be not worth it to do more than once for us. But it was fun and worth the experience.