staceyglow

I have done a ton of traveling since 2020, including 17 Carnival cruises, the last of which was 2 months ago. The only time I caught Covid was during a land vacation in Germany in 2022. It was like a bad chest cold. Got to stay an extra week there because they wouldn't let me on the plane to go home until I tested negative.

This deal isn't a company wide thing. I am pretty sure it varies from ship to ship. I have taken six Carnival cruises on five different ships in the past year, and none of them had happy hours or half price fish bowls at Red Frog Pub - and I always check, because I have seen them on other cruises.

You are exactly right. As long as they get the type (interior, balcony, etc.) they paid for, no who agrees to a GTY cabin has any right to complain about the one they are assigned. But I am sure that doesn't stop people from doing it.

I am closing in on Diamond status. I went on a B2B last year that had nearly all of the ports you have listed, and except for the weather and very few children, found virtually no difference in the onboard experience, including the food. We had a great time, BTW.

Yes. See John Heald's Facebook post, which has all the information, including menu and conversion dates https://www.facebook.com/share/p/xZsjKGFx3eT83Pzs/?mibextid=9z1EC3

Some say bacon is poison. 😁

There was no price on the receipt you signed?

My local pub serves Blood Marys in a pint glass. When I get one as my free brunch drink on Carnival, it comes in a smaller glass. But I don't feel I have been ripped off.

Steakhouse is not Steakhouse is never open for lunch. Once in awhile on a Journeys cruise they will offer a brunch, and there is a charge for that.

They don't offer room service on debarkation mornings. I don't think they ever have. They want you out of that cabin.

Not Teppenyaki or the sushi place. Cucina an Jijis are free at lunch, including embarkation day.

Bonaire's cruise port schedule is here: https://infobonaire.com/getting-to-bonaire/cruises/ If I looked at it correctly, every time a Carnival cruise ship is there, it's the only one in port. If your tour calls itself a "cruise excursion", it will have no choice but to wait for you and anyone else on the ship that booked it. It might be helpful to contact the tour company again and explain the situation. You should be able to confirm any time difference once you are onboard (at Guest Services, and I believe it is mentioned in the Hub app) and still follow up with them once you find out.

We have purchased Cruise the Vineyard many times, and have never had a delivery charge. To see what you were talking about, I went into my planner and put a 5-bottle package in my cart. It did show the $22.86 (18%) service fee as a delivery fee, which is clearly spelled out in the detailed description of the package. So I am guessing that is what happened to you. That’s basically the same gratuity they charge on all beverage service. We drink all of our wine in the MDR so we don't have an issue with that.

I disagree. We often used room service as our wakeup call, especially if we had to be somewhere (like an excursion meetup). I am pretty sure that even back then, you could still call in the morning if you didn't know when you were going to get up.

Do you really need to worry about this until it is closer to your actual check-in date for those other cruises?

You can get a free bottle of their lowest price wines, or half off another bottle. That hasn't changed.

Yes.

Yes, I am sure that Carnival knows that once you have paid for the cruise, a $5 increase in the price of a character breakfast isn't going to change your decision to go, especially if you have little kids. FTR character breakfasts at Disney are $60+ per adult. Granted, it is not exactly apples to apples, but again, once you have plunked down the $$$$ to book the hotel and get into the park, you're going to pay a few extra dollars for the meal to get the experience you want.

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.

Are the two cabins in the same general area? If they don't have the same muster stations, that may be a reason to enforce the room limit. Also, bear in mind that you would be asking the steward to service a room with 3 people (including converting the bed), but unless the other cabin is part of their responsibility, he or she would only be receiving gratuities for 2 people.

My question is where are all these new massive ships going to go? There are only a handful of ports that can handle the megaships, and they appear to be pretty saturated already with their current cruise visitors. They don't seem to want to build the smaller ones that can go just about anywhere, so what happens when they need to retire the old ones? Is the strategy to convince all the ports to build docks that accommodate the big ships? Will the build some small ships in the future so that people will be able to go other places than Nassau, Cozumel, and Grand Turk?

Just because you don't use it doesn't mean that no one else does either. I have used mine on every cruise since I qualified for it. So I am going to say that the redemption rate is at least 75% 😊

I agree. I have never heard that bribes were necessary.

I don't think most people (even if they can follow the story) are going to care.