kelkel2

So they don’t necessarily hold you back. But they put you in the line for early/late arrivals…aka anyone who didn’t show up during the window they chose. The window you’re choosing is the arrival/check in time not boarding time. But essentially, yes they can hold you back.

Oh interesting! I was always wondering if they were going to plan something similar to RCL’s that has a water park and such.

What happened? I missed that post!

@TxTeach79 By chance have you been though the gift shop? Do you happen to know if they’re selling any tumblers that say Carnival or Mardi Gras on them? I’m packing for my cruise and I’d like to not pack one, but buy one on the ship.

Happy New Year!! A new years cruise is totally on my bucket list!

Not to mention this is a PR nightmare for them and likely costing them millions of dollars. It’s in their best interest to make sure it doesn’t happen again and I believe DOT being involved won’t give them a choice.

It appears based on FlightAware’s website that there’s only 41 cancelled flights across the country with Southwest today. Seems like thing may be back in the normal zone today. We really enjoy Southwest Airlines, although Delta is our preferred airline. We go back and forth between the 2. Southwest wins out more often due to nonstop flights and free checked bags, especially since we’re now a family of 4. Saving money where we can is important to us, as it is with other families too I’m sure. It’s what keeps us able to go on cruises. Living in Illinois it makes it difficult to cruise and NOT fly. This is the first time Ive been booked with southwest and a little nervous. But we don’t fly until 1/20 so I think we’ll be ok. Southwest isn’t going to go out of business over this. There’s a lot of people who are looking to save money which is what keeps spirit, allegiant, frontier etc in business. I do however think they have a lot of work to do to gain their customer’s trust back and it could take years for them to build their customer base back. And they HAVE to get their technology updated.

I think this problem will likely be cleared up. My worry is another winter storm and more meltdown. Although I would hope they’re working on fixing this issue with staffing quickly, I still doubt that would change in 3 weeks time. We actually really like Southwest and they’re generally speaking quite convenient for us. They have a bazillion flights out of Chicago Midway which is our primary airport and most of them are nonstop. Which is really nice. We will fly with them again and will continue to consider them in the future, but it does make me hesitate. We have enough time to drive if we have to, so we will use that as a backup plan. Although we REALLY don’t want to.

Agree. We actually really like southwest and with Chicago Midway being one of our outbound airports, they’re super convenient and usually a non stop flight option to our destination. I’m sweating this though. Our cruise is 1/21 and I really hope they can get their s**t together. I do believe what that pilot wrote is probably accurate. It’s just too bad they had to have a massive meltdown for the company’s big wigs to get it.. Did you get ahold of Southwest recently? How long did it take you? We thought about canceling too, but this late in the game flights with other airlines are super expensive.

Does Mardi Gras have it?

We are booked on southwest out of midway on 1/20 to MCO. We’re closely watching and have a backup plan to drive. It’s sucks and I really don’t want to, but I won’t miss this cruise! It’s a serious mess but a friend of mine is a FA with southwest and really thinks we’ll be fine by the time we fly. Fingers crossed for you. But I’d make the decision to drive before you check your bags.

Can someone at home take a pic of her certified birth certificate for her? At least you’ll have a back up plan?

Oh they absolutely will. This isn’t the first time this has happened with southwest. People are suckers for cheap flights.

That’s what I was thinking. I just don’t want a credit, I want a refund, but I didn’t think that would be likely.

Is anyone versed on the southwest cancellation policy? I want to cancel my reservation with them or at least I’m considering it and want to know my options. Can’t call them. Can you cancel for a refund or is it just a flight credit? We’re booked on a wanna get away fare for 1/20/23.

I’m not going to consider them again unless I have to. I have to drive to Chicago midway to make a flight on southwest so although it is cheaper, it’s more work for me. I regret not booking Delta, but Southwest had much nicer flight times so we went with them. My sister also lives by midway so we park for free. So we used to always at least consider southwest when booking.

If you don’t get the answer, we check in for our cruise next week and I can let you know. We’ll be in a suite and I can tell you if it shows up on anything. Just make sure your husband doesn’t get the emails from carnival, my husband gets an email every time I make a booking.

That’s really nice!!

I have to say, southwest isn’t our favorite airline, but they had the best flight times available for this trip. So we booked.. our trip is 1/21. Do you think I should be worried that far out? It gives them a few weeks to work things out. But I am anxious about it to say the least.

Man, but if you hadn’t driven it wouldn’t have taken off…. That’s my luck. You made the right call.

Ohh this is going to be good! I’m following along. My countdown for the Mardi Gras is at 24 days so this will help pass the time!

I’m so excited for another one if your reviews! I don’t blame you about stressing over the flights. My sister and her family were due to fly home from the Cayman Islands and got stuck in Dallas. They slapped them with a 4 hour layover right before boarding. I’m guessing an issue with the plane, but who knows? But they got into O’hare in the wee hours of the morning Christmas Eve, no luggage in sight. So diving may be the safest bet for you and your luggage… it’s such a hard call!

Also here to recommend SAS!

I can agree with a lot of this. We did princess and we loved the MDR food. It was amazingly good. I still remember the fettuccine Alfredo with the parmesian crust in the bowl under the pasta. So good! Service was good too, but I can’t remember it being that much different than carnival’s MDR service. I personally think that Carnival wins out on food though, mainly due to all the lunch options, and I think Carnival’s buffet is similar to Princess’ buffet. Carnival also wins out on entertainment, mainly more due to our tastes. We would rather listen to a dj than a string quartet in the atrium, we thought the activities through the day were more fun too. We didn’t attend shows so I can’t comment on that.

Does anyone know first hand what the hours are for the Mardi Gras Spa? I was considering a spa pass but I would get more use out of it in the evenings vs. during the day. But wanted to make sure of the hours before I purchase.