vacin8r

Thanks all for the definitive answers.  Really I just want to be able to pull money from slots to use at the table.  I always find a way to leave money with carnival in addition to whatever I have as a bonus on my account.  I just didn't want to preload my account a ton to use in casino if it would be an issue since I've never had this level of OBC before.

I posted this on a facebook group Im in, but want as much clarification as possible:

 

I have a couple cruises booked for 2022 with cancellation on board credit and there seems to be a lot of posts with a lot of differing info about using your S&S at the casino when you have OBC.  Please do not answer unless you have been on a cruise recently or have reasonable insight into how things are now as it has been made clear that Carnival/The casinos have at least told people the rules are different.  I am going to give a couple scenarios and I want to know what people think would happen based off their experiences.
 

Scenario 1:  I have $300 OBC.  I go to the Casino the 1st night and load $300 on to my slot account.  I play $50 bucks worth of spins and hit $20 worth of wins so I now have $270 in my slot account.  I go to the cashier.  What can I cash out?  If I cannot cashout $270, can I move any of the remaining amount back to my S&S account to use as OBC for the rest of the cruise?

Scenario 2: Similar to above, but it is the 3rd night of the cruise and I have already run up $150 in charges against my OBC elsewhere on the ship.  Does this change anything?

Scenario 3: Same as 2 but it is the 6th night of the cruise and I have charged well over my amount of OBC to my S&S elsewhere, does this change anything?

I also tend to load a couple gift cards on my account or get some "use anywhere" cruise cash.  Would this be the same for that as OBC or is this different?

My main concern is loading money to my slot account(be it OBC or regular S&S charges) and being forced to play with them in the Casino.  I cannot imagine this would be the case.  If it is not the case, I wanted to know when or if we can take cash for any money placed on the slot account that has not been "spun".  In example 1, $300 was loaded, but only $20 of the $270 remaining was "spun" in the machine so what happens if they will not give me cash for the remaining $250?  Would it just be refunded to S&S and if not all OBC is used that would have to be handled by end of cruise?  Again, I cannot imagine it would be locked into my slot account until played and if so, this would surely be my last ever Carnival cruise.  I can of course also understand if they need to protect themselves against the fortune in OBC that has been awarded for cancellations.  Really I just want to be prepared for what to expect and not do something stupid that is irreversible. 

Thanks in advance for the help and input.
 

Its possible they were all above whatever the covid max passengers would be, but it's weird they all disappeared the same day.

Carnival Cruise Search - Journeys Only - Nov 2020 through March 2021

The original list looked more like this:

Carnival Original Journeys Schedule

Dont get me wrong, I completely understand the policy. I just know they didnt really push the notification of the change, so I wanted to make sure no one bought any ebay gift cards thinking they could be used to buy carnival gift cards, which we could do up through last week.

Just a warning in case anyone ever used ebay gift cards to buy carnival gift cards on ebay. Ebay changed their site such that no ebay gift card can be used to purchase any third party gift cards. Bleh on them.

Did not see Buffetts Cheeseburger in Paridise on your list.

Since there are only around 100 or so Buffet tunes that would fit, some became a victim of circumstance. I didn't choose fins either which is such a staple song. I tried to add a little variety.

I am booked on the February Carnival Pride Journeys cruise. On the Facebook page for that cruise, I have been doing a song of the day via youtube and adding it to a spotify playlist. Of course all songs needed to be on youtube and spotify. I also tried to avoid overtly explicit lyrics in regard to rumpy pumpy (as John Heald would say) or illegal substances. I thought I would post a copy of my spreadsheet here in case anyone wanted to use it as a resource for doing similar or creating their own Caribbean Cruise Playlist. (The link to the spotify playlist which is building by one song per day is at the top of the spreadsheet) Those on that cruises Facebook page... No Peeking!:) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eKWjh4B4lEAMus8dMVjPF3_jw0voAY2uMHI_5djrPE8/pubhtml

Look, the pro-rule people have valid points. It is tough on CC at times, because it is easy to make the assumption that the venn diagrams of those who complain about kids in the pools, kids in the buffets, kids in the dining room, kids in the steakhouse, kids on the lido, kids in the piano bar, kids walking past the casino, kids in the nightclub, kids alone on the ship, kids on the ship period all mostly align. I respect the desire for being as healthy as possible. Many also believe that responsible parents can give their kids a good time and know if they can handle a pool without a good chance of an accident. I would also bet most problem are from situations where the parents know when the risk is high, and still buck the system. That's where the norovirus story is a good analogy. Here's to hoping whatever issues anyone has with others on their cruises, we can all still have a good, healthy time.

Vac, one question if I can....I get that there are never 100% iron clad guarantees, but....If your child was NOT potty trained, would you lie and let him go in the pool anyway?

Definitely not in the pool or hot tub unless he was 90+% trained, ie there, but maybe has a few slip ups while asleep or something.

I haven't been on a ship with waterworks so I dont know how they work, but if he was not ever submerged above the knee, I would consider bending the rules.

Just trying to be as honest as possible.

This is an interesting situation. I understand everyone's desire to keep human waste out of the pools and hot tubs, but the rule itself is borderline unenforceable. Yes, of course you can kick a baby out of the pool, but toddlers are different. Some toddlers are potty trained at 2. Others not until 4. My daughter was potty trained at 2.5 and I took her on a cruise after that and still put a swim diaper on her because despite potty training, she is still a kid and I guarantee at least 10 % of the potty trained kids and 5% (both numbers are probably much higher) of the alcohol enhanced adults urinate in the pool and I am trying to avoid as much contaminates entering the pool's water supply as possible. If someone with Carnival told me she cannot be in the pool in a swim diaper (which they never did), I would explain the situation and it would go down very similar to the story in the original post, I would remove the diaper and let her swim.

I am taking my toddler boy on a cruise in February and he will be 2.5. As of now he is not potty trained but I am already working on it. If he doesn't get there, then I wont let him swim. I would be fine with a poop charge as long as it applies to all ages. If you want to make the rule completely enforceable, it should be all kids < a certain age cannot swim, but that should be the rule posted before people book cruises. There is a large amount of vitriol toward children often on these boards.

I think many posters need to accept that kids are allowed on the ship, and they will not always be parented the way you like. If you as adults cannot handle that, pick a cruise line that is not notorious for such things occurring.

Will they give you cans at the bar unopened? I was wondering about getting a RockStar the night before, putting it in my fridge, and drinking it in the morning.

Same with bottles of water and juices.

Supposedly the rules state all bottles and cans must be opened by bar staff, although I wouldn't doubt there are plenty of stories of those who tip well getting special consideration from the bartender. I have thought about getting a non-insulated water bottle and the night before getting one, filling the bottle, wait five minutes, get another, repeat until bottle is full, put bottle in fridge. I doubt it would go too flat if the cap is sealed well. Of course the refrigerators, if you can call them that, don't keep things too cold either, so I may prefer to make sure I have the steward leave a bucket of ice each night and keep the bottle in there.

Carnival has a wide variety of tropical cocktails to choose from on the ship, but let's say I have a favorite one that is not very common that is not offered. For example I love a Wiki Waki Woo:

1/2 oz vodka

1/2 oz tequila

1/2 oz triple sec

1/2 oz amaretto

1/2 oz 151 rum

Mix over ice in a hurricane glass and fill with equal parts orange juice, pineapple juice, and cranberry juice. Garnish with a cherry and an orange slice.

Now in the case of this drink, there are a lot of alcoholic components. First off, do you think I could order this drink at one of the bars if I provided the recipe, and second, if I didn't have cheers, would a drink like this be ridiculously expensive, and third, if I had cheers could I order it and have it be covered by cheers? I know the limit is supposedly $50 now, but I didn't know the limits as far as amounts of alcohol in a custom drink.

Thanks for any info in advance.

I love how so many policy change ideas are based upon preventing other people from annoying the poster on a cruise. Its funny how so many policies would not be needed if everyone realized they are in a confined space with thousands of other people and a little courtesy goes a long way. Oh well as far as my changes:

A) Gift cards can be used to buy anything on the Bon Voyage website including cheers.

B) Go back to the night owls program being open later. Since the kids fall asleep there it really doesnt matter if they are there until 1am (current close time) or 3am (old close time) and since we are fans of late dining, it would definitely make it easier to party on the ship.

I dont know what will be first, but since I plan on getting cheers for a 14 day cruise next year I put this together to encourage me to try new things. I compiled it from whatever menus for the Pride I could find as well as old Carnival drink lists and recipe guides. I didnt include beer other than red frog and I excluded things that didnt seem yummy to me.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iDqy0GyXr2aVfEI_yKLxG7I3f3-7Uk03PncOtSEIeqc/pubhtml

I thought I read you couldnt leave them with the kids club while on shore unless you had a carnival excursion booked. I know we left our 3yo daughter on the ship while we did a snorkeling excursion in belize but that excursion was a boat that picked us up at the ship and dropped us back off at the ship so it was impossible to miss the boat. We are debating leaving our now two kids on the ship for one excursion so we can snorkel out of the five stops on our next cruise. I have taken them on many excursions though and never felt unsafe. Overwhelmed maybe, but not unsafe.

I think I might pick up one of these for my next cruise:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B017XWL1K0/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=1461506979&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=cubietime+alarm+clock&dpPl=1&dpID=31mHj6JbY5L&ref=plSrch

Never mind, it has surge protection, how the heck do you delete a post?

Never done Costa Maya but Roatan was one of my favorite cruise days ever. We didn't know what to do and didn't book an excursion, so we grabbed a cab and said go go a beach club. He asked us if we wanted to shop and see the island and we said sure. He took us everywhere. A local craft market just sitting up on a hill, a local rum shop, the shopping area of town, a tour of the island both touristy stuff and local type stuff, then to a beach club where the cabbie secured us towels and beach chairs. It was like $50 plus tip and we bought the cabbie lunch at the club. We bought a bunch of local items and crafts direct from. Locals on the hilltop market for very reasonable prices. Just an amazing day that didn't seem like a forced cruiser tour as so many excursions do (it stops at overpriced shopping in exchange for a cut to the tour company)

I posted on JH's Facebook a couple times in the last few days about not being able to use gift cards for any of the funshop purchases including prepurchase of cheers. It would be nice to buy cruise cash as well so I dont need to spend actual vacation time loading cards onto my account via kiosk while on the ship. Sage had commented that Carnival was aware of the issue and that it was a technical issue regarding the coding of the website not a conscious choice on Carnivals part. It didn't sound like it was a huge priority to fix either though. I will keep at it as it is probably my biggest complaint about Carnival at the moment. Hopefully it can be fixed soon.