gnocchi_mommy

11 hours ago, vwrestler171 said:

To be honest, they don't have to offer anything.  Thats what insurance is for......

Yeah Carnival sure isn’t advertising any such restrictive policy, because they know a lot of people won’t book if negative test is required and their money would be lost if the test is positive. On their Covid update page they specifically say there is a FCC if you test positive within 10 days of cruise. 
 

As for insurance, the last 2 years have been a nightmare for people who bought travel insurance only to discover their pandemic covered issues were less than stellar. But besides that it is moot- if you book a cruise with a written policy allowing for FCC in case of positive test then that’s the policy you should expect. 

My daughter and friends need to cancel a cruise due to a positive Covid test 5 days before sailing- how does the FCC work? She was told it needed to be used immediately and they had to rebook now at time of cancellation- has anyone else encountered this? If that is the case, is it possible to rebook any given cruise in the future and then move to money to a cruise they really want (right now they can’t commit because of uncertain schedules beyond the immediate future) 

My daughter and friends need to cancel a cruise due to a positive Covid test 5 days before sailing- how does the FCC work? She was told it needed to be used immediately and they had to rebook now at time of cancellation- has anyone else encountered this? If that is the case, is it possible to rebook any given cruise in the future and then move to money to a cruise they really want (right now they can’t commit because of uncertain schedules beyond the immediate future) 

Just now, cruisemom2 said:

 

I hope this is the correct info but I guess we'll sure hear about it in a couple weeks.

I’m gonna assume it is. I don’t see the point in assuming the worst when there’s zero evidence to support that conclusion.

I used to really enjoy the shack but on our last cruise (Magic- November) it was GROSS. I tried a lobster roll and it had barely any meat and just tasted off. I thought maybe it was an anomaly so tried the clam strips another day and they were these weird mushy balls!! Just plain gross. I don’t know if it’s a change of vendors and products fleetwide or just a poorly run seafood shack on that ship but I wouldn’t buy from them again.

We liked him! Different strokes for different folks I guess. 
 

My favorite though hands down is Reverend Doctor E!!

I like at sea days, but that’s ridiculous. I wouldn’t be happy either.

23 hours ago, Will_Dieterich said:

Just because you play more hands.  I play Craps in casino and during a single roll on a table, if I switch to a video crap machine I get 5-7 rolls in the same time.

That makes total sense!

5 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

Table player ratingsare subjective so poor tippers and bad attitude can affect rating.  A slot machine doesn't care, they just track play.  

Lol husband is a big tipper, and they always seem to like him. He gets us free steakhouse meals and sometimes a bottle of wine  while on board, but the points value doesn’t increase. I’m on several casino related groups and consensus is tables simply don’t earn as many points,

period.

58 minutes ago, CharmCity2000 said:

I’ve decided I’m going to venture into the casino on my next cruise.  My preference is craps.  But I’m most interested in learning how the points are awarded.

The tables don’t seem to award points at a comparable value to the machines. My husband and I have mirror budgets, he plays tables and I play machines- I always get a lot of points and all the great offers. My theory is it’s because I lose more they want me to keep coming back 😅

10 minutes ago, audcc77 said:

So, if there’s no smoking in the casino, or anywhere else inside, and no smoking outside while docked on embarkation day because of refueling, I’m curious if people won’t want to get on earlier since there won’t be smoking until pulling away from the dock at 4 pm? Thoughts?  How long does it take to refuel?  

There hasn’t been smoking allowed in the casino or on smoking deck embarkation day since the reboot, it doesn’t seem to have slowed down the masses in trying to board first.

4 minutes ago, BasicSailor said:

The wanna be first crowd will be there you can bet on that. Nothing to do with smoking rule, most of those rules will be ignored anyways.

There was no smoking during embarkation on our Magic cruise and I didn’t see anyone ignoring the rules. I heard some complaints but staff made it clear you’d be removed if you lit up.

We had $1200 on this cruise thanks to a few cancellations and casino credit, and we really enjoyed having it.

Disembarking today- it was pretty messy. We self assisted, and waited in the northern lights dining room (platinum) and there were some issues with other groups going ahead. Now I need to preface this with the fact it was absolutely messy with little communication but we still made it off by 0830. I was totally shocked by the way some of the passengers behaved, grown adults, some old enough to be my parents- were shouting at Carnival employees and other passengers. Just super rude and entitled behavior they should feel embarrassed about. You really don’t need to shout you are platinum in a roomful of platinums!!! You really don’t need to shout at all, actually. 
 

Anyway, don’t want to end on a sour note because the cruise was great, the staff was wonderful, and most of our fellow passengers were also great.

Yesterday was the last full day, day 8…. And we were feeling all 8 of those days!! Took it easy for much of the day, met up with all of our new cruise friends at night. Not a whole lot to add but a shout out for the seaday brunch which was fast (unlike past cruises) and fantastic!!! 
 

Groove for St Jude turn out was fantastic!!!! Look at the lines in the pictures. We set a new post-shut down record with $5360 in donations.

Then there was a short squall and I had to include this picture because the woman on the lounger cracked me up- she was not letting a little rain ruin her vacation!!! That’s the attitude!

80s glow night was kind of a bust, not at all like pre-Covid. Remember when they used to put out a special late night buffet on the deck and there would be tons of people dancing? This was mostly line dances led by the cruise director- I think probably to control the masses… and it was at 8:15 which means late dinner people couldn’t make it. I mean, we had fun but this was not a really a glow party. They were handing out beads and nothing glowing. Oh well, we made our own party…. Starting at Red Frog but again the real action was at the Alchemy. 

Amber Cove- I purchased a snorkel catamaran excursion through the ship. When we looked at the tickets we noticed the 7:15 am meeting up 😳 This is tricky for a couple that likes to close down the alchemy bar every night… but we stiffened our spines and vowed to somehow do it. The night before though, a pink note was in our mailbox. Excursion cancelled and refunded due to sea state!!! We may be the only people on board who were cheering that cancellation. 
 

We slept in and walked casually off the ship into what felt like a furnace, and made our way down the 20 mile long pier with a loose plan to find chairs at the pool. Except. We made it all the way there, sweating and huffing and puffing and arguing over nothing. At the pool area every seat seemed to be taken or was far from the water, then we began to argue about which bad seating area was the least bad… and finally we looked at eachother, laughed, and said let’s just go back to the ship. So we did! Guess what we found? An amazingly empty pool deck!!!! Score!!!! Now that was a great way to enjoy Amber Cove.

We did the free pasta bar in the Italian restaurant for lunch and it was sooooo good!!!

Steakhouse night- this is what always happens. The chef offers a special little treat as an appetizer, the soup is great, the service is perfect, I order a ribeye and it’s better than any other ribeye anywhere, my husband gets some other cut of meat- tries my ribeye and pouts and says he should have ordered it. Every single time. This was no different 😄 

Chefs treat was a delicious Parmesan bonbon. French onion soup was outstanding and hubby said his lobster bisque was really good. My pork belly appetizer was “eh”, more pork than belly if you know what I mean. Tough not melty. My steak was perfection!!!!! My husbands Australian wagyu was good but as predicted he wished he would have gotten the ribeye. Someday he will learn! Chocolate domes for dessert. Super rich, just ate a few bites but it was delicious. Totally worth the upcharge. 

Next seaday was Veterans Day- I had this long post about how awesome Carnival did the military tribute on this cruise but lost it I think- hopefully this isn’t a duplicate! Turn out was HUGE, in the main theater- people on all levels. When each branches song plays they are asked to stand so we stood proudly for Semper Paratus. Way more coasties than we have ever seen before! Carnival handed out small flags to everyone and it was a lovely event.

Platinum and Diamond reception was this day as well. 850ish platinum and 160ish Diamond on this sailing! Open bar, no limits- appetizers are still not back. Invitation specifically says “you and a guest” now btw. Tech difficulties meant the ship montage movie didn’t play.

With so many P/D, the ship ran out of pins and chocolate strawberries- and boy did we hear about it. Over and over. And over. Often by the same people. They told anyone who didn’t get a pin to contact Carnival  after the cruise and they would send one. They offered substitutions for the strawberries- I loved mine 🤷🏻‍♀️ Truffles, cheesecake bites, and macrons. Others were apparently not as satisfied, and I get it - we all have our favorites, but it seemed like a bit much to get upset over. 
 

This day was also remarkable because we found our first cruising duck!
 

The next day was Curaçao and this was the highlight of the trip for us. This was our second visit here and this time we chose to stay in town. It’s absolutely beautiful- the street art is super impressive, the food and drink is wonderful, the locals are so friendly. The island is Dutch but there’s heavy African, Jewish and Spanish cultural influences. We toured the temple (the oldest in the Western Hemisphere!) and Jewish History Museum, I think it was $10 PP and also dipped into the Postal Museum - honestly because it was air conditioned and it’s the oldest building in Curaçao (1600s) at only $2 PP. I’m going to post a bunch of pictures from here because although this was only our second visit, I’ve decided it’s my favorite Caribbean port.  

Internet slowed waaaaay down on board despite having the fastest package so gave up on finishing this review until back on land. Just disembarked. 
 

Going back in time to Aruba day- they added this $19.99 Beach express tour, ride a banana bus to the beach with a mini tour on the way. Being honest, you can easily do this on your own in a cab. Another couple did and it was $17 one way- but they paired up with another couple on the way back and split cost. We paid a few dollars more but it worked fine. The drop off spot was okay but we walked about 1/4 mile back to the Amsterdam resort section to take advantage of the beachside bar. Rented two loungers for $10 each, and scored a waterside umbrella. Loved it!!! 
 

Im gonna sandwich in here one HUGE CARNIVAL FAIL- disembarking. Holy Covid hell… okay back in the day if you purchased an excursion you had a meeting spot, like say- the spotlight lounge or the main theater, your little group then exited in an orderly manner. Not so anymore. Now, paid excursions leave at the same time as muster station A03- and it was a madhouse. We were packed like sardines on the stairs for over 20 minutes. It was the only time on board I really felt “unsafe” as far as Covid protocols- even though everyone wore masks. We were just all up in each others business. I tossed a picture of the chaos below.

That complaint said, we had an amazing day in Aruba and getting back on the ship was a leisurely event.
 

Magic 11/6 departure, Diamond and Platinum got priority- at least the first group of us did. Had a 10:00-10:30 check in, group A02 we arrived at the port at about 9:30 and walked to the line at 9:40. In the door and through security around 10:15 I’d guess. Directed upstairs, suites to sit in red chairs, D&P in blue. Worker told us to ignore what was being announced downstairs. Doors opened and everyone upstairs queued up at the photo scan machines, it took all of 5 minutes to get to the gangway from when they opened the door.

I can’t speak to experience of people who had later check in times, perhaps they didn’t get sent to the priority lounge.

Yesterday was the second seaday in a row. We spent a little more time in the casino, the husband did decent on the blackjack table and I left a whole $22 up on the grown up arcade aka slots. We can hardly compete with these Elite casino cruisers but that was a good day for us.

We chose to eat at the deli for lunch, I had the caprese sandwich on focaccia and it was SO good!!!

Dinner was the seafood shack, and my review isn’t as glowing for that. I’m not sure what those little fried bits were I ate but they weren’t any kind of fried clam strip I’ve ever had before. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Tiny portion for an “additional fee” meal, and honestly just not good. My husband had the fish and chips and he said they were okay. On past cruises I’ve had the lobster roll and it was good, so maybe those are still a good option but skip the fried “clams”.

We spent most of the night at the Alchemy bar- there was a great band that did an hour or two of country then a few hours of 80s tunes and the deck 5 stage next to Alchemy was rocking all night. There was a deck party at the same time that we skipped, but it seemed like so did half the ship! We’ve met a lot of really friendly, chatty cruisers on this ship and everyone seemed to end up at Alchemy. 
 

We did make it to part of the dive in movie, last night it was Black Widow and I was really impressed with the acoustics! 
 

I don’t like when people are lucky enough to cruise and only post negatives, so I feel a little bad going there but I did want to say if the crew is failing at anything- it’s lido buffet area cleanliness. We went up for the “late night snack” hour, meatball subs, grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, some kind of pasta, and a little salad bar were set up. Almost every table on the open side was dirty. Dirty dishes on most, water rings, etc. The buffet itself on the passenger end (where you put your tray and walk ir through) was pretty gross. I felt like we saw barely any crew anywhere, cleaning like they normally would in there. If I’d had one less drink at Alchemy my germaphobe sense probably would have convinced me to walk away but I was Island Old Fashioned fueled and needed food so I blew off the ick around me and ate anyway. I’m not bent over in the bathroom today so I guess all’s well that ends well.

Today is a late day visit to Aruba- yay! We will be in port 1:00-11:00 pm. I added a last minute excursion today, only $20 PP party bus to Eagle Beach. I’ll review it tomorrow!

I apparently took almost no pictures yesterday. Here’s or reminder though to hydrate and that the CHEERs package includes free bottled water at all bars!

13 hours ago, SeaBrz said:

Loving every update and you are such a gifted "story teller". After the Magic, I will look forward to reading more of your reviews for any ship. Great photos, too! My BIL is retired USCG and met my sister while stationed at Canaveral in the mid-80's. Coasties are the BEST!

Aw thank you!