FLSteve11

The Princess On Your Own does include transportation, it's always a bus though. This is from the 2018 Alaska brochure:

 

*On Your Own cruisetour options do not include Direct-to-the-Wilderness rail service, Natural History Tour into Denali National Park, Sternwheeler Riverboat Cruise or Gold Dredge 8 Tour in Fairbanks.

 

 

 

Here is a direct link to the brochure which makes it easier to see the differences: https://book.princess.com/images/cc/brochure/downloads/Princess-Alaska-2018.pdf

That's not quite correct. We're doing the "On your Own". 4 night tour (DBX). We took the train on the 4 hour trip from McKinley Lodge to Denali lodge, then on the 8 hour bus ride to the ship. The Denali Explorer tour does the opposite. So you get the longer trip on the train then, and can checkin to the ship while on the train. They do a bus ride between the two lodges instead.

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Ours processes the payment with Royal while I am on hold.

 

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Yes, because they're having Royal charge the card at the time.

Do you wait for the last day though? What happens if it's someone with bad credit and one card? What if they can't reach you that day, and you've forgotten? It's safer for them to do this a week ahead, to make sure they'll get the cruise paid for, get their commission, and have a happy customer.

Now all TA's do this, but I can understand the ones who do.

If you can leave the money in the investment as long as possible, historically, you'll come out ahead. Obviously there's going to be times when that's not the case, but over the long run, it's better to leave the money in.

 

Now if that money is the only money that one has available to pay for the cruise, then of course one shouldn't risk it.

The problem is generally you need a significant amount of time for that to work out historically, because they crash faster then they rise. Most bull runs go on for a long time to earn the money, whereas crashes happen in a much shorter time period. Basically you're just trying to time the market over a few months, which is risky.

If you are only thinking of interest as in a CD or money market or other bank account, then I agree. However, there are many other investment options that can provide a significant return on your money.

True, though all those are generally riskier options if you're talking about just putting your money in for a few months. You could also lose a significant amount of your money in that amount of time.

it's amazing but internet searches mainly show options for families with 2 or 3 children but not 1. My daughter has a family of 3 and want either an inside or ocean view room that would accommodate a king and single bed for the 3 of us (child will be 3 years old).

 

I've also seem ocean view rooms with a king and a couch, which would be perfect but not sure if they book the couch out as a bed for a 3rd person in the room.

 

If anyone has any experience of advise that you could offer, would be much appreciated

We have sailed many times with the 3 of us. We've never booked separate rooms, it's not worth the cost. You'll very likely have 2 beds that become a king, and the 3rd person sleeps on either a pull-out couch, a couch that converts to a bed (cushions taken off, mattress underneath that they sheet and give pillows), or a Pullman from the wall or ceiling. It's never been an issue for us on any line.

My last MSC cruise, which was my second, 7 days, with status match (two bottles of champagne, two nights at specialty restaurants, etc.), 18 drink vouchers, taxes, insurance, 3 people in an inside room came out to just under $1100. That's about $150 more than I am paying for my next Carnival cruise; 4 days in an OV on the Victory without any perks or drinks.

 

My next MSC cruise is going to be 7 days on the Seaside, same perks, 18 drinks, balcony room for 3, with taxes and insurance, is coming out to around $1700. No one had pricing even close to that. Carnival would have been just over 3K. NCL and RCI were close to 4K for the same week and comparable ships.

 

MSC undoubtedly provides the best value and is doing so to get their name out in the US. When they have more ships here and gain more market traction I'd expect pricing to surpass Carnival and more closely mirror NCL / RCI.

 

So at the very least I've got 21 days on MSC that haven't gone to CCL, RCI, or NCL. (Most likely MSC has cost the most business, from me, from RCI)

Exactly, we've sailed Divina twice now. We wanted to try out a new ship/line, and the prices were just too good to pass up on.

Like you, I suspect the prices will rise in time, certainly once they've been here for awhile and are sailing multiple ships in the US. For now they're just trying to undercut people, and give out perks and status matches, to get people to try them out. In the meantime, it's good for everyone who is sailing, as it gives them more options, and is price competition on everyone to keep rates down (not just for MSC). For the newer ships on most lines it doesn't do much (people still want to do the biggest and newest on lines they know), but it definitely effects older ships on lines, who then have to then keep prices down.

Exactly. Why let someone else use your money when you could be putting it to use?

 

Along the same lines, I never understand why people think getting an income tax refund is a good thing. It just means the government has been holding on to your money that you could have been investing.

I think that was more useful when you actually got some interest on your money. Now paying 30 days out is no big deal, you can't do much with it in that time.

I find the ones who are excited by the refund, are not the one who would have invested their money anyway, they would have spent it (and then proceed to spend their refund as well) :)

I've never used a TA but I thought that I'd read that when you make a paymemt the TA never actually sees that money but instead the TA just uses your credit card to make the paymemt direct to Royal.

It was my understanding that most TA's want the payment early in case there is an issue with the credit card then they have a chance to get the issue resolved prior to the actual final payment date.

Most TA's do that, certainly the smaller ones do. The card is actually charged by Royal, the TA is just doing the work of contacting Royal with the information to get it charged as part of their service to the client. And yes, the ones I know that's the reason they do it. If the card gets declined for some reason, they have time to contact the customer to get it fixed before it's cancelled.

That's called "float" and they make the interest on your money.

Not if they pay the cruise off, the money is in Royal's hands.

The much more likely reason is they don't want to be scrambling if the clients credit card gets declined and then have to track down the client and get alternate payment methods. (And then find the client doesn't have one, and doesn't have the time to get the money before the cruise gets cancelled and they lose the sale).

I would agree that cruising is evolving. I am not so sure that the offerings of free drinks and other add on perks is part of that, but it is debatable. I also agree that an informed cruiser is a smart cruiser. I have seen the best that most lines have to offer and as of now, Carnival is our best bet. I will stick with my previous comment that there is no free lunch. Ncl has grown significantly and is having to find ways to fill rooms. Celebrity is hurting trying to do the same thing. The people that love these lines will argue but it is a fact.

 

 

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I agree with you as well, all things change. The perks and freebies are a change in the way they market and make a profit off the customer. In much the same way the last 10 years has seen the cruise industry shift to lowering base prices and providing services as add-ons and upcharges (which some complain as nickel-and-diming, but if they priced what they got 10+ years ago with a cruise and the extra expenses, they'll find it's not any different and may be cheaper). Carnival has done a good job with the keeping base pricing down, and while they don't add as many of the bells and whistles, the people sailing them might not be looking for them (if they were, they'de sail another line). The freebies, it's just part of the pricing model now, which has evolved with what people want.

I agree with NCL as well, they've grown percentage-wise more then Carnival/Royal, without the background of customers who have sailed them regularly. So they need to do a different method of trying to get people onboard. They've probably also been hurt the most by MSC coming in with a US-based ship and having to undercut everyone even more to get people to try them. Celebrity's is a little different. They just upped the price a bit and added in the freebies, so they're not really free, more a discount on them together. You can often get the cruise without the perks at a cheaper rate, as that is now what their discount rates (senior, resident, military, etc) are. The base cruise at a cheaper rate, but you don't get the perks.

We never used to tell our DD when we were going to a cruise. We would pack all her stuff and then head out into the car like we were just going to the park, or to a show or something. She would start guessing at what we were doing when she realized we had passed all the normal places. It wasn't until she got to 8-9 that she would start guessing cruises (now she's 13 and I don't want to have to deal with packing for her *grin*)

What!? You mean you didn't kick up a fuss? Storm off the Ship ?

 

That would've shown them

Ha! :)

Maybe they should have started a riot on board. Or demanded the other passengers stick up for them and do a mass walk-off of the ship to show RCCL.

I just told my 13yo the story, and she said "That's stupid, why would they leave over that". Apparently kids know better.

I'm sure there are plenty of people who have taken a 1 year old on a cruise ship but having had a child that young at one point, I can't help wondering what the hell these people were thinking. Not just about the pool thing, but bringing a baby on a cruise ship in general. We tried taking our daughter on a local (car) vacation when she was just a few months old and the amount of work that went into the whole production made the entire trip very hectic and not relaxing at all. I can't imagine spending thousands upon thousands of dollars to do the same.

Lots of people (including ourselves) have taken a baby, toddler or kid on cruises and had a great time. You're on a cruise, it's much easier then a car vacation, where you can get out and walk around when you want. But we certainly didn't complain if one or two things came up and we couldn't do something we, or the infant, wanted to do. (Same thing happens on land vacations too). Really it's that or sit at home, which isn't much fun at all as you have to do all the work then, with no relaxing. :) We certainly didn't flip out and abandon our cruise over what's generally a minor kink in the vacation.

I've taken a one year old on a cruise before and if there was a venue that was not appropriate for him, I didn't take him. How else was he going to know about it or get there???

 

Had I known Junior would insist on going to the Casino and Cigar Club before boarding I'd have never booked and just gone to Sesame Place. :')

Same here, our DD couldn't use the pool on the first few cruises we were on because she was too young. So guess what...she didn't use it. We discovered the rules as well. We've also bumped into a couple rules through the years we didn't know as well, and so we don't do those things, unless the line is allowing us to do it anyway (happens sometimes, where they waive rules).

Dumb reason for leaving a cruise though.

You might have been better posting on the Carnival site as that is your favourite cruise line and a lot more boisterous than RC

The thread that Clarea pointed to had lots of funny and strange things on which you would enjoy reading.

There has been one added in many of the forums lately. There's been one in Carnival and NCL that's for sure (and Celebrity had one awhile ago) Might be the same person starting them, I didn't check

Did you ever notice if the sway of someone drunk, offset the sway of the ship and caused a straighter ball? Or did the sways combine to make things worse?

Depended which way they were swaying! ;)

There is also 2 or 3 lanes, though it is very rare to see more then one in use, so they might just throw it down the wrong lane. :)

I just got off the Breeze on Sunday. The "new and improved" app works great.

 

New features were just added, so on top of the $5 for the chat option and Fun times,

you can link to your folio, weather at each of the ports, also see all of the photo proofs you have taken by the Carnival Crew.

 

We had issues on the time it took to download on our Iphone, but Androids didn't seem to have the same lag. It is a great app, just needs some fine tuning.

I had no problems with the Hub app when I used it, including the chat feature. Definitely worth having a phone in use for it (even if you don't use your phone for your camera like it so many do)

I don't know if that is the complete story. Though Carnival is a more affordable line, they are much better leveraged than Royal Caribbean. Carnival's debt vs. EBITA is in the 30s while NCL and RCL are in the 50s. (http://marketrealist.com/2015/01/comparing-royal-caribbeans-leverage-versus-competitors/ )The reason for this lower debt is that Carnival has been alot more conservative with their new build investments - Those 150,000+ ton ships are capital intensive. I feel the significantly lower debt Carnival carries would make them more flexible to investment and would give them significantly lower overall costs to operate.

 

I feel Carnival's corporate culture is the reason their program is more laid back then the competition. It seems as though the goal of Carnival is to provide an equitable experience for all guests. Not have their system fall in to the trap of having the carrot being given to high tier customers become a stick for the lower. An example of how this process has played out with RCL would be the show seating for high tier guests in the theater. Even worse I have heard about high tier elevator privledges on Quantum, where guests are kicked out of elevators so the elite can use the elevator. Having been in the travel industry before I have worked in businesses where there was a much greater disparity between tiers, and I have been on the other side of the desk where I have had to be told I am not important enough to get what I needed. Even worse I have seen some highest tier benefits that are so unreasonable that they create a system wide drain on service to all other levels.

 

Reading an awesome Skift Article published yesterday (https://skift.com/2017/06/27/the-business-of-loyalty-carnival-cruise-line-wants-to-win-over-customers-earlier/), Carnival does say they are looking into their loyalty program. This confirms my thinking, as they do say they are not looking for people just needing high tier perks -" the cruise line wants to cultivate passengers who are enthusiastic about the brand, not just driven by the promise of perks." . They want to help foster a better attitude about the brand. They also want to allow for more perks early in the program.

Those figures are for Carnival and Royal Corp, not the brands. They contain all the other brands that are included in the corporate umbrella (Princess, HAL, Cunard, Costa, Seabourne, etc on their end , Celebrity, Azamara, etc on Royals side), so it's mainly useless for comparing the individual method of comparing just the Carnival and Royal Caribbean brand out of it. Particularly as Royals is by far the biggest part of their corp structure while the Carnival brand is a more relatively minor part after all the other brands come in.

And yes, a lot of that is because, until very recently, most of Carnival CORP has not been building many ships at all. Princess and HAL went on fairly long breaks in building ships for a bit, and even outside that, the lines in general build lower cost ships compared to what Royal generally builds (both in size and features). We'll see if that actually holds once some of their lines start building out more ships with newer designs.

As for the brands, the Carnival brand generally goes for low-cost pricing. Some of that is because their ships are cheaper to build, but some is also in that they are trying to pull in the low price (and new) cruiser into their line without using larger, more feature rich (and expensive) ships that need (and also command and get) a higher price to fill them. Now if you add in more and pricier perks, you need to up the price to compensate for that and keep their profit. This then makes the price more comparable to their competitors, and makes it harder to draw in the same people who might look at other lines at that point. Royal goes more for the "Look at all the snazzy stuff we give", which includes their loyalty perks, and goes for a slightly different type of customer then, who will pay extra to get those things. Those people are less likely to go the other way, as the Carnival ships just don't have the same features (though the newer ships are getting closer, but are also getting pricier as well. Look at Horizon pricing for example)

Count me in with the group that thinks if you haven't tried it yet, then go for Moderno's. I like both of them, but you should try it out for yourself. Experience something different and you may find you want to go back to that next time instead.

5 D cinema

Bowling

Better suite perks on non Oasis/Quantum class ships

NCL has full sized bowling alleys on a number of their ships. I find they're not utilized all that much. They're not gyro stabilized. Costs about $7pp/per game. We did one while docked in port and there was a slight list (due to current) and it did make for a great hook on my shots though :)

Wasn't the new AIDA ship getting a lazy river on it? Not sure how big it is, but it can be done if that's true.

Oy, someone beat me to it! That's what I get for going away a few days :)

On one of the DCL tours, I remember them saying DCL originally wanted a lazy river on the Dream, but for the reasons you noted and more, it morphed into the Aquaduck.

 

I just wish the food in the main dinning rooms would return to the glory days I've only heard about.....that's my wish.... I'm fine with a lounger and a book.....watching the ocean go by....don't really need many frills...

Wasn't the new AIDA ship getting a lazy river on it? Not sure how big it is, but it can be done if that's true.

I do also love Priority embarkation, debarkation, and having my cabin ready when I get onboard. All those things cost Carnival zero dollars. Laundry I really don't care about. Maybe an internet plan discount would be nice. There are plenty of things they can/could do for an extremely minimal cost to them.

It's not just what it costs them to give it to you, it's the profit loss from you not purchasing it for using if you would otherwise. (For those who wouldn't then that is just the expense portion). It adds up, especially if you're trying to beat others on price.

It doesn't really fit their business model. They're the low cost fun ships, having hefty loyalty benefits means their cost will rise. Part of going on Carnival (the low cost) will be lost

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My 13yo DD used the gym with her mom with no troubles. If they are acting up they should be asked to leave with someone or not (along with the parent). If they are behaving responsibly they should have no issues

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