l8cruiser

33 minutes ago, Warm Breezes said:

In your situation I would highly recommend getting insurance.  My suggestion would be to go through insuremytrip . com and compare policies for the one that fits your needs the best.  My advise comes based on having experienced your situation on multiple occasions and having to cancel 2x with insurance with a possible 3rd time coming up.  Praying we can sail in May on a cruise we booked over a year ago, but glad we have insured our trip because of continued issues with my mother who had a major stroke at the end of November.  The peace of mind knowing that you can cancel and reschedule later without losing your invested funds makes going through the difficult times much easier when they come up...and for us they seem to come up way too often.

Thank You. Prayers for your mom. 

29 minutes ago, leaveitallbehind said:

The terms and conditions in booking through a Travel Agent (3rd party) would be the same as booking direct. 

 

As a word of advice, you need to confirm first if your TA also charges additional fees not charged by the cruise lines for originating, modifying, or cancelling a booking made through them.  Many do, and many do not.  IMO I would only book through those that do not.

 

The suggestion for cancel for any reason travel insurance is also a good one.

Very good information. Thank You

11 minutes ago, leaveitallbehind said:

As others have said it is cruise line dependent and you should confirm with your Travel Agent or Carnival for your options prior to booking. 
 

But in general, most cruise lines will offer both a refundable deposit and a non-refundable deposit option.  Usually the non-refundable option is offered with a higher stateroom fare than the non-refundable option.  But with the refundable option you receive all money deposited as long as the cancellation is made prior to the final payment date, which is generally 90 days prior to sailing. 

 

With the non-refundable option, if you cancel prior to final payment, many lines will retain your deposit for a future booking, less a change fee that is charged for the cancellation.  You would have to determine if the rate differential minus any change fee charged between the refundable and non-refundable rate (along with the held deposit funds) is worth it to you in making your booking choice.

 

Past final payment - regardless of booking options - there will be a scaled penalty timeline where cancellations made will incur a penalty of 25% - 100% of your fare depending on how close to your sailing date you cancel past final payment.

 

 

Thank You 

12 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

It depends on the category of fare that you book under.  The terms are clearly stated on the website of each cruise line.  With Carnival, if you cancel BEFORE DATE OF FINAL PAYMENT you will get all of your money back..  UNLESS you book an Early Saver rate.  This one has different conditons.  After final payment, there is a sliding scale of refund that applies to all fares.  EM

Would this be true also if you used a third party 

We want to book a cruise but are worried if we have to cancel. With aging parents and other family members , something may come up to make us have to cancel. Is trip insurance the only way to get a refund for a cancellation. We are interested in a Carnival cruise. Will cruiselines give you a refund if you cancel so many days before your trip. 

27 minutes ago, coevan said:

so the deck was not hot when you went to the slide? It's definitely not a servers job to fetch your flip flops.

No the deck wasn’t hot from between where we were sitting and the slide . The ship was casting a shadow where we were sitting . 

27 minutes ago, coevan said:

My wife and I were on the Freedom a few years ago. We were enjoying the serenity deck. It was a very hot day. My wife was reading and I needed to cool off. I said , I am going down the slide and dip in the pool. I slid down the slide and cooled off in the pool. As I started back up the stairs , my bare feet were on fire. I jump from shaded spot to shaded spot trying to get back up to the serenity deck. I couldn’t make it. The deck was hot enough to fry an egg. I flagged down a waiter and tried explaining to him my predicament. It took a few tries to make him understand. I needed him to go up and retrieve my flip flops. He comes back down with my flip flops on a tray. My wife said a guy just came up here and took your flip flops lol. That waiter received a very nice tip. From now on , I hold my flip flops across my chest when going down the slide. 

12 hours ago, Nic6318 said:

Hi 

 

The question, no matter how it's phrased...and it has been posed many times, is "Is Cheers Worth it for me?"

 

For me it's clear. If you are not one to drink a moderate amount of alcohol every day, then Cheers is not for you. You are much better off not purchasing it and just paying as you go.

 

For those that like to drink a lot, and will drink alcohol every day, "Cheers" is well worth it. 

 

Now it's obvious, if those that didn't drink much, didn't purchase it, and only those that made full use (or close) were making the purchase, then Carnival would be losing money and would either discontinue or keep raising the price.

 

So why would they continue to offer this program. The answer would seem clear enough. There are enough people in between that are making it profitable for them. I believe it is those, that are in the camp of feeling that they are probably/maybe breaking even are those that are making it "worth it" for Carnival to offer the package. The bottom line, is that many of those people, are making as much use of what they can get just because they "have already paid" for it. They buy drinks they don't like, they try to drink a little more than they would normally, etc... but the fact is, as with any bar, Carnival has a tremendous markup on their alcohol sales. What they are doing with packages such as Cheers is selling an upgrade. By making this purchase, you are guaranteeing a big ticket sale, which if it wasn't offered, the customer might not be willing to spend as much. So as with any other sale, the best sale is to someone who might not otherwise make the purchase. Just like anything else on cruise lines, some people are helping others keep costs down. If there were no "people in between" there would be no Cheers package. (or the price would just keep rising) So those are the people who are subsidizing the heavier drinkers, and they are mostly buying the "upgrade" for convenience. 

Good Reply 👍

I have read about the alchemy bar and how great it is. What makes it so great. We haven’t sailed in 6 years. 

11 hours ago, BENHANDEL said:

Not regret, per se. We can justify that we got our moneys with. We can justify that it was nice to try new things without having to worry about it. BUT we would have been just as happy with a couple bottles of wine brought on board and drinking beer. And we were so focused on "getting our moneys worth" that we stood in lines and made trips back to our room that we otherwise would not have. I think we had many hours wasted on the extra lines and trips back to our room. When we left, we had 6 untouched bottles of beer to share with the steward.

 

First 2 days were great. But light-home drinkers and moderate-vacay drinkers could not keep up the pace. Next family trip is a 7 day and we do not plan on getting cheers. 

I think y’all are like us. We are light home drinkers as well. I like to have a drink when grilling out or at social gatherings. I would probably do what you did and waste too much time trying to get my moneys worth. I think we will just place money aside for drinks. Your point of view is spot on for us. 

7 minutes ago, n6uqqq said:

Do people really " worry " about their bill? Is sleep lost at night thinking about bar tabs?

I do . I can’t help it 

Are you automatically given better alcohol if you are cheers or do you have to ask for it. 

28 minutes ago, l8cruiser said:

Did you find yourself drinking more than you normally would , especially on port days trying to break even. 

19 minutes ago, thanna said:

For us it is not about breaking even (although we always do), it just makes for a more relaxed cruise knowing what that cost will be. For a planner like me being able to prepay for one of our biggest expenses and knowing exactly how much it will be is worth the money even is we didn't break even. We debated about it when we took the cruise out of San Juan that had 6 port days, but in the end even on that cruise it was worth it.

 

Did you find yourself drinking more than you normally would , especially on port days trying to break even. 

We enjoyed the all you can drink at the resorts in Mexico. The cheer program would give you the Resort feel of being able to almost drink all you want. It’s kind of like gambling. You are taking a chance on if you can drink enough to at least break even.  Our last cruise bar tab was only 350 dollars for the week. Now if I knew that I could have 15 drinks a day , I would certainly drink more. In Mexico , I was drinking tequila sunrises and mimosas for breakfast simply because they were free. I would do the same with cheers and order mimosas along with premium coffee. 

I am curious if anyone thought they made a mistake purchasing the Cheers program. I was thinking on port days , if we would be away too long to get our moneys worth. It would be nice to have mimosas in the morning along with special coffees. I would kick myself though if we didn’t drink enough to make it worthwhile.