NCTribeFan

Have a separate, dedicated area on the first 2 days where CS/IT can help the dozens of people who can't seem to figure out how to use the app or access their wifi. That's the vast majority of people at the service desk the first few days. I also was ignored in the CO line. Because they all were helping the helpless with their phones. Yes, bring back chilled fruit soups. And book exchanges.

Not all. I paid for Eurodam and Nieuw Amsterdam. Zuiderdam Alaska was free inside cabin. I'm paying for the Rotterdam TA. The two following 5-night sailings are, again, free inside cabins. My friend, who I finally convinced to try HAL, was on just the 5-night portion of the NA sailing. She spent time in the casino, but didn't drop thousands and thousands of dollars. After that one sailing, she received an offer and they joined me on the 2nd leg of the Alaska cruise. In a free verandah. So, if you care to join in on the casino offers, it really doesn't take much. Even if you "only" get offers for insides, you can upgrade. And, no, I don't particularly want to pay for extras just because I'm sailing on a good deal. But I understand why the upcharges are happening. People just get so upset when anything changes but life isn't static. Companies have to adapt. That's just the economic reality of it all.

Guess I'm in the minority here. Things change. We should be so very aware of that these days. I have no problem with people paying "extra" when they get extras. FTR, my Pinnacle dinners on NA and the first leg of my Zuidy B2B were excellent. The first on Zuidy was a really good steak. The second was a rather sad, small, overcooked lobster tail. Supply chain issues. With the price of lobster these days, I'm mildly surprised you can get it anywhere without a steep upcharge. I can't even make room for dessert (took a cheese plate to go), let alone eat multiples of anything. But that's me. I did get my Mariner discount on Rudi's on Zuidy, which surprised me, since it's considered a pop up on that ship.

I got the gnocchi on Zuidy and was not impressed at all. If I bother with the Chef's menu next time, I'll definitely try something else. If I knew what day to expect it on our 1-time itinerary, I'd book Tamarind for that night. That bridge gives me sweaty palms just looking at the pic. Seriously. I have a major phobia about bridges over water. Going up, how do I know, FOR SURE, that there's bridge over the crest? Just no!

I was curious about this. I did a B2B on Zuidy in Alaska the first 2 weeks of June. When I go to the app and look for statements, it shows the two separate weeks because they were two different booking numbers. But if I try to view the 2nd week's statements, it says it cannot be viewed. When I tried to open the first week's statement, sure enough, the entire two weeks was shown on that one statement. I have a B2B2B next spring that each leg comes with various OBC. I'll be sure to double-check and make sure everything appears when it should.

You cannot get the draft beers available elsewhere on the ship. I know. I've tried. Multiple times. Even when there is a bar right next to the casino that has it, if it isn't at that casino bar, they can't go fetch it. And IIRC, many/most of the casino bars don't have any draft at all.

@Tom-n-CherylYou think the free Diamond steakhouse dinner is pathetic? So do I! As a solo cruiser, who has paid 200% to Carnival for years, I asked whether I would get two dinners. After all, if 1 person is Diamond, the dinner for the couple is free. Nope. I just get it for me. Yet another way that Carnival totally screws over their solo sailors.

Great to read they're doing something about the Serenity Deck. When I was on the ship at the end of January (in the Caribbean), all the sheltered seats had stuff on them. And I'm an early riser. Unfortunately, it isn't serene at all on those sailings. It's just an Adult Party Deck. 😑 I expect that by the time we leave Lisbon for the TA portion of our B2B2B (on 10/30), it may be too cold to get any use out of it anyway. Still, I may be tempted to just wrap up in several beach towels and sit there to read anyway. I don't suppose Carnival has any blankets on the pool decks in the colder-weather sailings, do they? I loved that HAL had both beach towels and wool blankets available in Alaska. Is there a string trio on the ship now? They played at the atrium bar in early evenings. We'd go there for our before-dinner drink and enjoyed listening to them. So much better than the guy with the guitar.

I much prefer FLL because I can fly SW (no baggage fees!) on an easy 2-hr nonstop. I muchly dislike the Miami airport. I dislike flying to Orlando to sail from PC even more. Flights full of screaming kids going to/from Disneyworld. And then there's the long shuttle ride to PC. I'm not at all happy that Carnival no longer has a single ship in Port Everglades. I vote for Tampa! HAL's ships should be able to navigate there. Carnival has a Spirit-class ship which is much like the Vista class.

Carnival's loyalty program is pretty pathetic. I rarely use any of the perks. Carnival already has loyal cruisers. I don't know why everyone seems to lose their minds when Carnival does an interesting sailing once a year when there are other cruise lines that do the same or similar interesting sailings all the time. It's like they don't even consider sailing another line. Many of those lines offer much better loyalty perks. So why should Carnival offer more perks? There are already so many Plat/Diamond on the ship that the priority tender is a joke. So is boarding. I haven't sailed Princess, but I've been sailing HAL a lot more recently. They offer some real perks in their loyalty program. You earn one point for each day. You earn double points for suites. You earn points for your onboard spending. When you book under their Have It All fare, you get perks for that as though you purchased the dining, drink package, wi-fi separately. When you reach 3*, you get tangible perks, like discounts on wine packages, specialty dining, logo items in the shops, spa discounts. That discount increases are you reach 4 and 5*s. Tangible rewards. I reached that 75 cruise day credits to become 3* after 56 actual cruise days. That's how they should revamp the loyalty program. Holland-America-cruises-Mariner-Reward-Chart.pdf

I got this email on January 28th. I sailed Pride on January 30th. I totally forgot to get any of that but I'm pretty sure my bottle of water was in the cabin. Since I'll be on Pride for 32 days beginning in October, maybe I'll actually remember to get some of these things. Definitely the water (although I've ordered water for the first leg). And my casino credit. Maybe a ship pin (don't think I have one from Pride but I might). I've been reading that the tender process on Pride in Europe has been pretty dreadful. I'm sure there are many, many Plat/Diamond on her this summer. Thankfully, we only have a couple of tender ports out of the 17 ports where we'll call.

There's a current thread about how disappointing the Lincoln Center Stage performances are on this ship. Have you heard them at all? Part of me wonders if it's just a new group of people performing together for the first time and getting used to each other (and probably the playlist).

Yeah, I gave up trying to post most of my pics from my cruises since the restart. Someone explained that unless you rotate your camera a specific way, the software here won't post them correctly. It's ridiculous, really. You're killing me with the bread pudding pics! Mushroom risotto sounds nice.

I'm perfectly happy with Lido for lunch. Or Dive In or Pizza or Deli. But I like MDR for dinner. Bread pudding! I make sure to get to Lido before it closes in the afternoon and get some along with my PG Tips tea and have my own afternoon tea. Of course, on this ship, I may be visiting the Dutch Cafe mid-afternoon to get my snack to hold me over from lunch until dinner. 😄

I got the Snap error but did a regular search for Nov-Jan sailings on Luminosa. It doesn't come up with free balcony, but does have interior and OV for $206.70 (as a solo) and says EL6 with the rate. Wish I could go. I was booked on Splendor out of Brisbane, then 3 days in Sydney, and Spirit to NZ for this past February. Those were cancelled. I probably couldn't really afford them anyway. 😪

What a great itinerary! I'm on the Rotterdam TA next spring and when I received casino offers, I added the two following 5-night sailings (Oslo & Copenhagen; Edinburgh & Invergordon). Edinburgh is one of my favorite places. I'll be interested in hearing about the tender process. We have an overnight in Rotterdam at the end of the TA portion, which will give us the opportunity to get out there and explore the town. We'll probably check out the hotel even though we won't need accommodations. Can't wait to read more!

Exactly. The folks on the Carnival board complain regularly about the "boring" itinerary they have from Baltimore and how they want more/different islands. It seems many have never looked at a map. You can only go so far and back on a 7-night sailing. Carnival used to rarely have any sailings longer than 8 nights, but they've added many more. Thing is, Carnival loyalists also don't seem to realize that other cruise lines regularly offer longer sailings, so Carnival's longer cruises book quickly and often are more expensive than elsewhere. If you want more options from some ports, then the cruise simply has to be longer. Personally, I'd never sail from Galveston (for several reasons), mainly because of the itineraries. I loved sailing from San Juan. Old San Juan is one of my favorite places, and you get to all those great Windward islands. Dominica is my favorite. I think X, NCL & RCI have ships in San Juan. I need to have a look at those sailings, too.

Yes, I added CO to the Rotterdam TA mainly because I wanted that separate dining room. I don't normally have breakfast in the MDR but went that morning on Eurodam (it was Panama Canal day) because i was up so early to get out there and watch the approach to the Gatun Locks. Then I went to the MDR for breakfast. Pretty sure there is no CO breakfast menu on the non-Pinnacle ships. Except for the Room Service card.

I've done 2 partial canal sailings, both times in interior cabins. The first time, I did the excursion on the small boat that went all the way through because I wanted to be sure I made that transit. Last time was this past November on Eurodam. Approaching Gatun locks, I went up to the deck above the open bow area. It's standing only, but not nearly so many people. Most of the rest of the day was spent on the Promenade Deck (I do love it there). I could sit and read, then get up and stand at the rail for a while, then go back and sit and read. We only had about 500 pax on that sailing (the first after she returned to the states; it was reduced from 10 to 8 days). So, there are place to sit and still get good views. It was pretty bizarre when I went to breakfast in the MDR, sat at a table facing a side window, and suddenly it got quite dark. Realized it was the wall of the lock we were in. Still hoping to do a full transit. It's one of the reasons I'll look at Oosterdam 11/15/24. That's FLL to Chile. Wish I could do more of that (around the horn), but it's too pricey for me. I need to see some more parts of the world. Yeah, I love the Caribbean and I love TAs, but at my age I just can't put off getting out there and seeing more while I can.

When I went to the MDR for breakfast on Eurodam last November (my first time with CO), and asked for my free mimosa, I was told that was only with the room service breakfast. Seemed odd, but that's what I was told. So I had RS breakfast more on that cruise than usual! 😁

I'll keep looking for a RT from Port Everglades to the Amazon. Don't know that I can fit it in my budget since I have the Rotterdam TA + 10 nights following next April and I'm thinking of the Westerdam TP in spring 2024. Might have to stick with a 11-night sailing for fall 2023. Did a quasi-B2B TA a few years ago. NCL Star EB Miami-Barcelona in late April, 3 nights in an AirB2B in Barcelona, then Carnival Horizon WB Barcelona-NY. It was fabulous. Only reason we could do that was that Horizon was a new ship and rather than keep her in the Med for the entire summer, they brought her to the states. Don't find many westbound TAs in the spring. Well, there's Cunard but that's def not in my budget. I'd be pretty excited to be able to do a transocean sailing RT from a US port.

Right. The 16-oz cans were included in my HIA on NA in December but not when I was on Zuidy in Alaska at the beginning of June. I'm thinking they didn't have the 12-oz cans early on so included the 16-oz. Then, when they got the smaller cans, the larger were excluded. I thought they didn't even want you bringing on an empty plastic bottle. I have a reusable bottle for when I cruise w/o a drink package. I typically just drink the water at the buffet but need something to take off the ship.

I think it was on my first sailing since the restart (Eurodam, November 2021). I had some OBC left over and went to the service desk asking to have it added to the service charge for my cabin stewards. I was told I could not do that (it was like asking for a refund in cash). I'm not a shopper, but I went to the shop and bought a pair of earrings I didn't really want. 😒

Yes and No. HIA includes just the 12-oz pop-top cans. They have 16-oz screw-top, which are much more convenient for carrying around the ship. But those aren't included in the package. If you bring your own water bottle, you can open the pop-top can, pour it into your own container, and be on your way.

I was looking at the Volendam Amazon sailing that's RT from FLL this fall (which I can't take because I'm on a B2B2B on Carnival Med/Med/TA that's been postponed twice). Unfortunately, I don't see anything comparable for fall 2023. I would almost certainly book that. Think I'm just missing something or that they haven't posted an itinerary for that yet?