sparks1093

Continental breakfast from room service is what we do. Coffee pot holds about 4 cups.

The beer cans are the same ones at the bar so there's no way to tell. It is my belief that the main reason to have the policy in place is to keep people from bringing their 1 liter bottle of booze up to the lido deck.

I figured that would be case which is why might was italicized. 🙂

I actually prefer those to an omelet. It always amazes me that they can be runny in the middle after being in the warmer. I don't recall seeing them on our Pride sailing in 2012 (first time on CCL) and can't remember when they first appeared but I do like the option.

There are no greens fees for putt putt golf.🤣 OP, thanks for the 411!

Exactly, it's impossible to tell how many folks are deterred just from the fact that a BC is being done. Complacency is a possible result "98% of the people we do background checks pass, so we don't need to do as many".

Welcome to Cruise Critic. We cannot recommend travel agents on this forum. Not sure what advice in particular you are looking for. If it is to find a way to get a cabin on a sold out sailing I can think of little that would help (some travel agents might have a block of cabins that they are holding for a particular sailing but with all of the travel agents in the world finding them might be like trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack). You might check some of the larger online ones. If you call Carnival they might have a waiting list that you can be put on in case someone cancels at the last minute, but I would think that, too, might be a long shot. As for general advice on waiting til the last minute it is possible with less popular sailings to find one and book it, but your choice of cabins is going to be limited and may not meet your needs.

Yes, I have cruised other cruise lines but only when their fare is equal to or less then what Carnival's fare. I've yet to sail another line that is so good that I'd pay substantiallly more for.

That's all well and good but people shouldn't switch cruise lines and expect a different result. People that solely criticize Carnival while ignoring the industry wide reality evidently need to be reminded of it. We've cruised 3 times since the restart and feel that Carnival still checks the biggest box of all for us- they are still a good value for our vacation dollar.

Exactly this. I have seen people just carrying the box of soda in their hand.

Not necessarily my logic, but it is the logic used by many bean counters (hey, let's put one less tomato in the salad and we can save thousands) and I can see this being argued out this way to the beards. I glanced at his placebook page and he has mentioned omelets several times. We have no idea how things are going to evolve going forward and I hope that your prognostication is incorrect.

A most excellent point!

I do use a PVP but by the time I call her I basically already have everything picked out, including which cabin we'd like.

It's not the adding 3 different items that slows the process down, it's the prep of all of the items and having them available- it takes time to prep everything (which means someone has to do it) and it costs money to have all of the different items available. I can definitely see a bean counter saying "we can save 2 staff hours a day by limiting the number of options, that's 730 staff hours per year, per ship" etc. If I want an omelet going forward it is likely to be a veggie omelet with an order of ham and sausage on the side.

I suspect running the check itself is easy enough, but the reliability of the result is in question as Cheng points out above.

It is only one step in a process but listening to your kid (and your gut) is just as important.

Background checks are far from perfect, as we all know, but the most important thing is the management controls that are in place. The are the policies, procedures and practices that make it difficult for the wrong doing to occur. And since humans are involved this is not perfect, either.

I believe so, but Security might open the box, so if you do that have tape available to close it back up.

They can be out of the box, but they need to be in a carryon.

Yes, I am aware that much of what comes from a specialty restaurant is made in the same kitchens for the most part, but they do offer different items and your post is about having variety. Thank you for the attempt at a passive aggressive insult but yes, I do have a simple palate and simple taste. Makes life, simpler😉. In any event it sounds like a world cruise would fail you in the food department and if it is really that important it might be best to just skip it. And since there are no food related threads on the world cruise section maybe you should start one (and you might have already, since this will probably get moved there).

A lot of variables here, most importantly where one is flying from. For our upcoming trip we have to fly to Orlando and the difference between the major airports near us is in the hundreds, with the least expensive airport being in Canada. The difference is drastic enough that one family that is traveling with us will be getting passports just for that flight and they will still save a lot of money. (And even flying out of Montreal costs around $500 each round trip.)

Isn't that what you do at home? Most cruise ships offer quite a bit of variety in the way of specialty restaurants, etc. which helps break up any boredom that might set in.

We tried a booking with Celebrity but it was cancelled due to a homeport and we subsequently booked CCL. We've cruised with them since 2012 and while there have been changes those changes haven't degraded the experience for us.

Only some old timers feel there's been a degradation. Many don't feel there has been. Changes, sure, but not a degradation. Our cruise on Glory was fantastic and none of the changes had an adverse impact on that. (Same goes for our two Legend cruises as well.)

No, they aren't a charity, but their financial situation is still of concern to me- if they go belly up while I have a cruise booked with them I probably lose my money. Their financial situation also lets me understand why certain things are done. Another thing to keep in mind is that Carnival isn't the only cruise line making these types of changes- go to any cruise line forum and you'll see very similar complaints. They still offer me a good value for my vacation dollar and to me that is all that matters to me.