txcruiser1234

Yup! Do you know if that's the same for Drinks Everywhere thru the casino leaving from Texas? Or, still just in the casino?

We got a curious offer today to move from a "large" balcony (kind of a regular balcony turned sideways with the bed facing the balcony that runs the length of the cabin) to a regular balcony three floors up for $44. The first bullet point in the upsell marketing blurb made me chuckle: UPGRADE YOUR Balcony ROOM Tip: Higher decks are always better Get faster, easier access to all the onboard fun Enjoy the convenience of staying closer to the pool, dining spots, Lido Deck, Promenade and more favorites

Does anyone know if a cruise hold on an expiring deal still works? i.e. if I put a hold on a booking today under a deal that expires today, would I still be able to finalize the booking before the hold expires (but after the deal expires)? Might give the op an extra day or two to decide?

If you find a deal appealing, I'd hop on it. I'm hoping those deals continue when the current round expires, but I'm definitely not counting on it.

For us it did on Mardi Gras last November. In particular: 1) My biggest pet peeve was the way they have the photographers laid out in the evenings. The way they had to shoot required them to step out deep into the walkways, causing the flow of foot traffic to come to a halt every time they needed to snap a photo. It was kind of like catching every red light when you are trying to get somewhere. And, it was even worse after shows let out. 2) The thermal suites area of the spa seems undersized for the amount of folks it attracts and the acoustics of the area amplified the chatter. I started bringing ear plugs after the first couple of days (assuming I could find an open chair, which was more miss than hit). 3) The casino is pretty large but, wow, it was at capacity from early evening to 2am. By at capacity, I mean every machine and two deep at the tables with people waiting. Lots of energy and action, but a lot of standing around and waiting for something to open up. The servers, when you could flag one down, would generously serve us the DOU even though we were not actively playing, which was nice. You pretty much had to go middle of the night or EARLY morning if you wanted run of the house - but no drinks or table games then. 4) You had to show up early for the comedy shows (we only tried the later adult shows). We showed up 15min early the first time and it was already full. Showed up 30min early the second time - full. We got into one that we showed up 45min early for, but that was our first and last comedy show of the cruise. 5) The elevator capacity seemed inadequate, in general. We use the stairs for two or three decks, but when we needed to go from the public spaces on 16 and 17 up/down to the public spaces on 6, 7 and 8, there was a lot of waiting and squeezing into crowded elevators. One awesome feature though was the spa elevator on 17 that takes you direct to the spa on 5. We used that one more than once in the evening to zip down from our cabin on 17 just to get to the lower decks of the ship (even though you still had to walk through the spa and up to wherever we were going on 6, 7 or 8). 6) Both at Cucina and Chibang, we had a table for two that was literally one inch from the tables on either side. The other tables were larger groups and it was absolutely impossible to have our own conversation. They were real "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" situations. We've had lots of close dining neighbors on other ships, of course, but not quite as tight as these. Food was great though! All in all a great ship and cruise (we're going to give the Jubilee a shot next year, too), but those were the major crowd-type differences from other Carnival ship classes we felt on our Mardi Gras experience.

The post dry dock logistics must be much more complicated than a normal turnaround. Curious about how they embark the whole crew and go about supplying the entire ship. Wonder if guest check-in times might run a little later as well...

GUEST ADVISORY ITINERARY CHANGE NOTICE CARNIVAL PRIDE March 22, 2023 Dear Carnival Pride Guest, We have adjusted the itinerary for your cruise. The changes, as shown below, will be reflected on Carnival.com within 24 hours. Pre-purchased Carnival shore excursions will be automatically adjusted based on these changes. If a port was cancelled, they will be automatically refunded to the original form of payment. Tours for the new port will be available for purchase on Carnival.com prior to sailing. Thank you for your understanding. We look forward to welcoming you aboard for a FUN and memorable cruise. Sincerely, Colleen Oliverio VP, Guest Services - Contact Centers

We've been on 9 Carnival cruises since the restart (of variable lengths - 4,4,6,7,7,8,8,10 and 14 day cruises). All great cruises. The crowds on all were what I'd call 'typical' cruise crowds and much more similar than dissimilar. The only generalization I would make is that the longer cruises tend to skew older with more folks not tied to work schedules or tending to younger families. The only really abnormal things witnessed in this lot of cruises was a diversion to an unscheduled port for a medical emergency, one unfortunate death at sea and a stop in the middle of the ocean to render aid to a boat full of Cuban refugees. To Carnival's credit, none of these incidents affected the originally scheduled itineraries. Although we have not witnessed any rowdiness (we duck our heads into most venues including the nightclubs and casinos), we have noticed a more visible security presence on our last two cruises with personnel wearing brightly marked 'SECURITY' jerseys constantly posted in the nightclub and casino and others randomly seen roaming throughout the ship. Our 10 day was to Alaska on the Miracle and was a fantastic cruise with the only 'issue' I can remember being the ship's inability to dock at one port and requiring a tender instead. No crowd issues whatsoever. Stuff has happened and will continue to happen.. as always, YMMV on any particular cruise. I'm sure we will come across an 'incident' at some point if we keep cruising, but, in our view, the likelihood of that happening on any particular cruise going forward is so low that it does not impact our decision to cruise Carnival in the immediate future.

We had this happen to us once last year. We had booked a porthole cabin (through a casino deal) which was changed to a regular inside cabin that happened to share a wall with the IMAX theater screen. Carnival considered this an upgrade because the IMAX cabin was on a higher deck. At the time of the change notification, the casino deal was still valid and there were other same category cabins available, so the casino dept was able to move us to a quieter cabin location (still not the porthole cabin we booked, but it could have been worse). It never hurts to call to see what your options might be...

just back from a 14 day Miracle to Hawaii Journeys cruise... probably our best cruise yet... noticeable differences from regular carnival cruises (in no particular order)... 1) an onboard naturalist who did 8 different talks. they were also recorded and shown in a loop on a cabin tv channel if you could not make them in person. the naturalist also did almost daily nature watches in the morning and stargazing (weather permitting at nights) 2) new MDR menus we had not had before as no night was a repeat menu. they offered a beef wellington one night that was out-of-this-world good. (probably not a journeys thing, just a long cruise thing) 3) two Hawaiian "ambassadors" were aboard the whole trip and did a bunch of wide ranging cultural classes including Hawaiian language, fresh lei making, cooking and hula dancing (and they performed hula as well in separate sessions) 4) a Hawaiian music duo that performed almost daily 5) progressive ukulele classes that started with and introduction class and progressed in complexity throughout the cruise 6) a progressive shipboard mystery whodunit type of program that started early in the cruise and had several additive sessions throughout the trip 7) besides hula dancing classes, there were 5 or 6 other types of dancing classes including meringue, waltz and a "michael jackson" music dance session 8 ) trivia galore... there must have been 60 different trivia sessions including my favorite - Seinfeld - which I've only seen on one previous journeys cruise 9) a big native Hawaiian show one night in the theater (which we unfortunately missed because we were still in port) 10) lots of different shipboard games we hadn't seen before like champagne bottle ring toss (to win bottles of bubbly) and mechanical frog racing (for st. jude). again, probably more of a long cruise thing and not journeys specific. 11) specialty one-night-only entertainment on non-production show nights including a magician and a broadway singer. we had seen a crooner on a shorter 8 day cruise. 12) a dedicated magician that performed table-side slight of hand throughout the cruise. he made it by our table six or seven nights and performed different tricks every nights. it sounds strange, but he really was one of the memorable highlights of our trip - he was REALLY good - his name was Anoop. I know I'm forgetting some things.. we made it to less than half of what I listed.. there was almost too much to choose from (in a good way) outside of what we've seen on normal 7 day cruises.

If it's just your husband missing the boat, it could be awkward (at a minimum) trying to explain to the ship's crew, after the fact, why he's not there and you are. Just not showing back up to the boat *could* cause a delayed departure while Carnival tries to understand the situation - they may need to contact him directly to verify your story. Notifying Guest Services before leaving the boat seems prudent. I'd imagine there are customs issues involved somewhere along the line (either in Mexico or arrival back to the States - or both).

Is there any current consideration for extending loyalty program status among the many different cruise line brands under Carnival Corp.?

Always good to know it's not just us!

Yes, up to and including our last cruise, the casino has been honoring both of our casino deals - both the DOU and the additional funplay. Like @mz-s mentioned, we have had the same exact deals/rate codes applicable to the same exact cruises. I was surprised that Carnival does this, but it has been obviously much appreciated. We have this situation for the rest of our booked cruises through 2023 and kind of expect it to continue but would not be surprised if it did not - the way I read the T&Cs, it's not explicitly set up this way.

Yeah, coves seem to have a cult following (I'm a member). If we have a choice between a cove in a quiet location and a regular balcony, we'll always choose the cove. But, I've read other cruiser reviews with valid reasons (for them) for not liking the coves - location being one reason. Hard to tell which group you'll fall into until you personally try one. I wrote this a while back re: our first cove: We had a cove for the first time last month on the Dream. Loved, loved, loved it. Normally, a regular balcony is just a nice-to-have for us b/c we just never find ourselves out there for any length of time - maybe a couple of hours total over a seven day cruise. We spent at least a dozen hours out in the cove on our eight day cruise (a lot for us). It was nice to be able to sit and actually put our feet up while watching the world go by. The regular balconies we've had on Carnival have tinted plexiglass below the rail that's often hard to see through clearly while lounging, especially when salty.

First I've heard of this.. did not know they did that. Do they just award you the requisite 75 VIFP points for Platinum to work from to get to Diamond? After the points were added to my VIFP from my last cruise, this message appeared near the top of my VIFP account "Benefits" page: "All that glitters isn't gold, or even platinum. Because you're at the top of the VIFP Club, and that means you've got your own toll-free number for sales & service." Thought I might have been magically transported to Diamond - even though I'm more than 100 points short. But, alas, when I checked in for my next cruise later this month, my boarding passes still say Platinum.. the message is still there, though, just an odd messaging glitch in the system.

Recently read this in an article dated Nov 2022 regarding platinum/diamond perk updates: "As has been the case in the past, priority check-in, boarding, and debarkation is not available on longer Carnival Journeys cruises." (referring to platinum/diamond perk) Is that an accurate statement?.. can't find it directly stated on the Carnival site..

We're booked on the late April 2024 14-day Miracle to Alaska and so excited for this itinerary - will be following along. Prior to the pandemic, we hadn't cruised since Jan 2016. We've had an absolutely fantastic time on each cruise since the restart - cruising, to us, seems more fun now than before (and we had fun before). Anyway, we did a 10-day Miracle to Alaska last June from SF. Our two top highlights were an on-our-own hike on the West Glacier Trail outside of Juneau to the front of Mendenhall Glacier and the small boat excursion thru Carnival to Sawyer Glacier in Tracy Arm Fjord. View from West Glacier Trail: View of Sawyer Glacier from the small boat excursion: BTW - the Miracle is our favorite of the ships we've been on to date... mainly for it's size (not too big or small) and it's ability to handle the crowd (little time wasted in lines).

Yes It's ship/port specific - the general idea is that you will get a flyer in your cabin a day or two prior to the tender port day that gives you a meeting place and time for the priority tender(s)

Agreed. Acquiring "new blood", though, does come at a significant cost to Carnival. Those national (or at least multi mega market) ad campaigns do not come cheap. A couple advantages they have with regulars is that they can market to us directly (i.e cheaply) and we are better known quantitie$ meaning the offers they extend to us should more reliably align with current revenue plans (whatever those may be).

Complimentary beverage at Seaday brunch (on ships where brunch is not available, complimentary beverage at breakfast or lunch in Main Dining Room) The first time, we thought this was every sea day brunch.. it's just one though. You don't have to sit down for a meal, you can just ask for bar service from the dining room desk if you prefer to just grab and go.

We arrived a couple of hours after our appointment time on our past two cruises out of Galveston (Dream NYE '22 & Breeze Dec 1 '22) and were waived into the priority line anyway. Really nice perk - less than 10 mins total each time to get on the ship. Not sure if this is standard again or not though...

These carnival koozies serve as perfect winter wraps for our outside water spigots. They are just the right size to snugly match the distance from the foundation to the spigot handle. I use a few on each spigot and cover the whole thing with a couple of wool socks and job done.

I like these good food threads - seem to always read about something I've never tried before... Two little things from the buffet I'm always on the lookout for: Jalapeno hush puppies (edible gold) Pepperoni pasta Little things from the MDR: Love the soups too, especially the hot ones - sometimes I get the cold ones as a desert Cranberry bread Current iteration of the Baked Alaska And I'm a sucker for a strawberry swirl...good thing it's not available every day...

Yes - once booked, the Funplay $$$ (or DOU info) have never shown up for us in the cruise booking details - but all was right upon boarding. To be absolutely sure though, you can email the casino for confirmation ahead of your cruise.