Terre

It's my understanding that all the others, i.e., buffet workers, servers, bartenders, pool guy, etc., get part of the overall tip -- it's divided among them all. That's why we give our cabin steward and waiter a little extra because they directly affect us more closely.

Wasn't the OP's question about gifts, something more personable, in addition to extra tips and not tipping anyway?

You are simply rude. All of the CC Members (and YES! I have been a Member for 16 years), regardless of if they are past employees or regular cruisers, or new cruisers, or all of the above, come here because of their love of the industry. I find it SO hard to sit here at times and listen to people on MANY of the threads that are supposed to be fun being so NASTY!

 

NO ONE DIED AND MADE ANY OF YOU GOD OF CRUISING, GOD OF KNOWLEDGE OF EVERYTHING CRUISING, OR JUST PLAIN GOD TO PASS JUDGEMENT!

 

I truly miss the days when people could come here for information, to talk about and anticipate their vacation, to help each other gather information and get excited, and to pass ideas that you could either take or not. Also, to meet people that you will be on board with. It is nasty people that take the fun out of this.

 

I TRULY miss the days of making good friends on here! Thank goodness I have learned almost exactly WHICH posters to ignore! Because almost everything they say is going to be negative or nasty, and almost everything they are going to post is a slam! SAD!

 

Dawn

I'm trying to find the "Like" button...

This is huge for them. I do speak to the crew a lot and get to know them and while I have never asked them about buying gifts, it is a HUGE deal for them to be mentioned positively in post-cruise surveys. Since I don't seem to get surveys after sailing on Carnival, I left notes at Guest Services for the department heads mentioning the great jobs a couple of the people did.

Great idea! I don't surveys anymore either and I miss that!

I created a Thank You card with "thank you" in different languages (hopefully theirs is on it!) and thanking them with our names and cabin number. I let them know that we were honored to have them as our cabin steward, assistant, waiter, etc. We then put in an extra $20-$40 to match the job they gave us. They all seem to love that...the money, I mean. One bartender we used every night, who knew what we wanted after the first night, loved the card as much as the money. Said he was going to keep the card!

They can use the money to purchase what they need in the ports, or do whatever they need to with it. I have also e-mailed Carnival's CEO about a particular cabin steward which he forwarded to the cabin steward, who in turn e-mailed me back thanking me. He was so excited that the CEO had e-mailed him with compliments!

The Fantasy is only 14 years old? Doubt the Fantasy is going anywhere anytime soon.

She is older than that as we sailed on her 1996 and she was not new then. Still love that ship.

Oops...went back and saw the other posts.

I love the Fantasy. We've sailed her several times recently and she was the third ship we cruised on, so it has been updated from back then. The drive for us is not as quick as Goldwinger, it takes us about 3 hours, but it's an easy drive. I just wish she had a better itinerary!

Hey, Goldwinger..Bubba and I sailed with you last year.

Yes we will be! Our ports are Roatan, Belize City, Costa Maya and Cozumel. Got a crazy cheap rate out of Tampa, where I live, thanks to CC price drop updates! Victor Bodden is a name that I continue to find all over the CC forums. I will absolutely look into that! Thanks for the lead!

Okay, this helps. In Cozumel you should check out Nachi Cocum. Great day for relaxing. It's around $50 pp and that includes your chairs under an umbrella, your own bar waiter for the day, one appetizer, entrée, a dessert and whatever you'd like to drink all day. They have a pool and a hot tub. You can pay extra for a massage or paddle surfing. They also have a website, look up Nachi Cocum in Cozumel. It doesn't look like much when you drive in, but once you walk through the "door" you'll love it.

In Roatan Carnival has its own private area called Mohagony Bay and is very nice. Pictures of it and Nachi Cocum are in my pictures at the link in my signature. When we went to Belize in January we took a tour of the Mayan Ruins. We took the river tour, had lunch, then got on a bus to the ruins. You can do this backwards. The first time we went to Belize, we did cave tubing and loved that.

Check the ports of call board for other suggestions. These are great ports.

One tip about the Liberty...in the buffet there are some stairs...follow them up and you will come to the Fish & Chips. This is a great little place with great food. Not many people find it until later in the cruise, so at first you can have it almost to yourself!

The Liberty is my favorite Carnival ship, you'll love it. If your ports are HMC, St. Thomas and Puerto Rico, here are my opinions: HMC is beautiful. Try to get there early so you can get some pictures of just the beautiful island before everyone else gets there.

St. Thomas is one of my favorite islands. One thing we did there several years ago that I would do again, is book a snorkeling tour with Rumbaba. We had a wonderful day. They provided a small snack going out, lunch, and a snack on the way back. -- I had the fresh Mahi Mahi and my husband had the steak. Wonderful lunch! We went to two places to snorkel. Here's the link http://www.rumbabacharters.com/The-Crew.html and I see that Capt. Bobby no longer owns Rumbaba. Hopefully, it's still a wonderful tour.

Not much at Grand Turk, in my opinion and Puerto Rico...not my favorite either. We did walk up to the fort last year or may two years ago, but it is worth the walk. You can also take a bus or taxi there. I'm a history type person so I loved the fort.

I have created a packing list of everything I take on a cruise. I have a section for my clothes and my husband's, a section for jewelry to make sure I take the right jewelry for the different outfits. There is a section for all the different toiletries we need, misc. items are passports, cruise docs, etc., thank you cards for the cabin steward and waiter/asst. waiter (we put our extra tip in them), etc. I also take a sewing kit and a small fan as we think the cabins are too hot to sleep.

Don't forget chargers for your camera and cell phone. Calls made on the ship are way expensive so try not to use your cell phone for calling.

Don't forget to take Ibuprofen, medicines, etc., a first aid kit and a power strip. There are not many places to plug things into. A couple of tips: you can shower in the spa and the showers are bigger there. You can wear the same outfit for both formal nights to cut down on packing. I take two casual outfits and change every other night, one pair of shorts and two tops. One pair of formal shoes, one pair of sandals will work with both casual outfits and then whatever shoes I wear with my shorts and to the pool. I have got my packing down to all my clothes in the carry-on and all the other "stuff" in the larger suitcase.

You don't need to bring beach towels, Carnival will provide those. You can take a bottle of wine in your carry-on. If you fly and have to put it in your checked luggage, switch it to your carry-on before you get to the cruise terminal or they will take it.

Number one tip: enjoy yourself, have a wonderful time, try everything and do as much as possible.

We were on the Liberty in January and didn't like the new menus or much of the food items. I missed my favorite desserts that are no longer offered...but that's another thread! I'm hoping they go back to the old menus and food items. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?

We have sailed on Celebrity, RCCL, NCL, Princess, and some that are no longer around, and when my non-cruising friends (and even those who've cruised a little) ask me which line is my favorite, they always seem surprised when I say Carnival. Someone even answered the other day, "really, even better than Royal Caribbean?" I said "yes", of course!

We love Carnival and have never had an issue with service, food, or anything else. In fact, I think the food is better on Carnival than on some of the other cruise lines I mentioned above.

I'm not sure how or when Carnival got a bad reputation, but my experience has been that it's just like all the others and better than some! I guess the "party" reputation depends on the time of year you go and that's the same on all lines, too.

2. Should a corkscrew be carried in carryon or checked luggage? I know the steward can provide, but I like to be prepared. You know, in case everyone on the ship needed one at the same time I always bring a corkscrew onboard to open my wine. It doesn't matter if it is in the checked bag or carry-on

Unless you are flying, then it should be put in your checked bag; otherwise, airport security may take it.

Yes, that is Carnival's number. They called us a week or so before our January cruise and gave us a free upgrade from an inside to a balcony. Couldn't pass that up! BTW, we have sailed with Carnival since the early '90s and have reached Platinum status, but this is the first time we've received an upgrade like this.

We were on the Liberty in January and they were using the new American Table menus. The crème brulee, soufflés, and bitter and blanc were not on he menus for any night. I was very disappointed as those are my favorites.

But you can request it menu or not

You can request it, but you won't get it. I asked for the bitter and blanc every night just teasing around with my waiters and they tried to get it for me, but the chef wouldn't make it since it wasn't on the menu.

Basically, it's Carnival way of getting FTYW (Faster to Your Wallet). Platinum and Diamond people board before the $49.95 people.:cool:

They should, but this didn't happen on our Liberty cruise two years ago. The FTF people jumped ahead of the rest of us in the lounge and no one checked them.

Lucky dawgs! Just got off the Liberty Feb. 1st...it's my favorite Carnival ship.

Have a great time!

http://www.***********/info/carnival-cruise-lines/food-recipes/bitter-blanc-bread-pudding.php. Terre...you probably have seen this.....If I made it...it wouldn't be as good!!!

I wasn't able to open the link; message said it couldn't find the site. Oh, well.

I agree with your thoughts on the new menus.

 

I just wish they hadn't taken away all of our yummy cold soups and the Creme Brulee.

 

As someone mentioned above, they didn't like the layout of the new menus. I was disappointed that I missed the Escargot on the 2nd week of our B2B because it didn't stand out like it did on the old menus. Too much info on a small sized sheet.

I miss the cold soups, too, and agree, too hard to read with the layout.

Same here Terre......not much I wanted either.....miss the bitter and blanc bread pudding....

I didn't think the menus were awkward to hold, much easier than the menus in the book covers, at least for me. I did think the layout was awkward and choices were not as great as they used to be. Hope someone from Carnival is monitoring comments...

Rubysmom, I would ask for the bitter and blanc every night just to tease my asst. waiter because I saw nothing I wanted. Our waiter, Fernando, even asked the chef to make me one, but he wouldn't, said he couldn't since it's not on the menu. Our waiter and assistant waiter tried to please me, but couldn't. They were great, we had no complaints with them.

One thing I ordered because I love it so much on Carnival was the mac & cheese. They added bacon to it and I thought it was terrible, couldn't eat it. The bacon took away that wonderful white cheddar cheese flavor.

They had them on the Liberty a couple of weeks ago. The foods is good, but I don't like the menus and the choices. Three of my favorite desserts are no longer offered...may just be me, but I didn't much on the menus I wanted. That being said, I didn't go hungry and I never ate from the buffet! My favorite is the Fish & Chips above the buffet.

I just clicked on my link and for some reason they loaded with the arrival back into Miami first. Just click backwards on the left arrow to start at the beginning and then go backwards: http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums/...ps09840bed.jpg. Sorry about that or just use the link in my signature.

Thanks, Dick, that helps. I've heard the Bravo, Bravo, Bravo before, too. Maybe what he said was Sierra Team as someone else mentioned and it just sounded like seraphim.

Thanks everyone for trying to find the answer for me.

Here is a link to mine from 2012 http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums/o660/Terre52/Carnival%20Liberty%20Cruise%202012/IMG_1768_zps09840bed.jpg, and in my signature is a link to our cruise two weeks ago. It doesn't have as many of the ship, though.

You're welcome.

Hmmm...it could have been Sierra Team, but it was pretty clear seraphim. The bright star code did not begin with operation, just bright star, bright star.

This is going to drive me crazy.

My aunt and uncle were on a Princess ship. He was too sick to get out of bed, but they had someone stationed outside their door. My aunt could leave, but not him, even if he could.