txcruiser1234

My wife and I have been cruising Carnival on a casino deal called "Plan Now, Play Later" that contains the exact same wording about the original mail piece in the T&Cs. We don't receive physical mail from Carnival, just emails. We have not had to produce any documentation (yet) to use the FunPlay component onboard. I recommend, though, having the offer as a printout (or pdf/screenshot on your phone), just in case. After booking, you could also send the casino an email requesting confirmation of the deal - we've done this as well - it usually takes 4-5 business days for them to send back confirmation.

Top Gun: Maverick Although I didn't think the movie as a whole matched the hype, there was one four minute (or so) flying sequence that I would like to see again. Dive-in movies are a perfect setup for drive-by watching...

We've been on four plan now, play later cruises so far and all was set up just right in the system when we boarded the ships according to the deal - cabin, free drinks (for both my wife and I), OBC and free play (also for both my wife and I). I did email for confirmation of details for an upcoming Jackpot deal cruise that also includes free slot tourney entries for both my wife and I...it took about a week (5 business days) to get the reply confirmation.

seinfeld trivia (the only tv or movie franchise I and my wife both know inside out) made as common as friends or the golden girls... a jazz/blues band in a speakeasy themed space plays at sea (not musicals)

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.

So, wife and I booked the Nov 5 2022 Mardi Gras sailing with one of the million dollar slot tourneys from an out-of-the-blue (we hadn't been on a cruise of any kind since 2016) email received way back on Sep 1 2021. Not much to go on regarding the tourney details...and I haven't seen any other details since...but this is how our particular booking originated. Carnival's marketing lines from the mailer: November 5, 2022 $500,000 Grand Prize Mardi Gras™ from Port Canaveral (Orlando), FL Book by October 31, 2021. You will need to provide your VIFP Club® Number, ########, at time of booking. It's our 50th birthday next year, and we're celebrating big with our first-ever guaranteed $1M tournament — including a $500,000 cash grand prize! Plus, there will be cash and prizes for the 100 top-scoring guests. But if you can't make our slot tournament, no worries — we have great birthday tournaments going on throughout 2022! Just book a Carnival Player's Club® offer for any tournament by October 31, 2021, and your seat is reserved.

You may also find a porthole or obstructed view picture window cabin able to be booked as an inside cabin (under the $100 casino deal). Good options, if available, to get some of the natural light you mentioned in your original post...

Last June, we had an 11-11:30a SF arrival appointment. We got to the terminal right at 11. There were three lines already formed in front (outside) of the terminal - a 10:30, 11 and 11:30 line. We had to ask around a bit to figure out which line was for what. After getting in the right line, we had to show our arriveCan code to someone from Carnival. The 10:30 line was already moving when we arrived at 11. We got into the terminal building at about 11:30. It was another 30 minutes to go through security and the check-in stations. And then another 30 minutes to wait for our B8 (I think... it was B something) boarding zone to be called. On board at 12:30p. Miracle sailed a bit late (about 6:45p).

First thought is, yes, that is a good deal. The regular interiors on Spirit class are smaller than the balconies and do not have a couch (don't have room for the couch). So, if a little extra space in the cabin is a plus for you personally, that might add a bit more value as well. The only downside of those deck 8 aft balconies (that I can think of) is that they sit below the Serenity deck. So, you may experience some morning/afternoon noise with chairs being set out or moved about. Deck 1 cabins, though, sit below an activity heavy Deck 2 - so, depending on the location of the Deck 1 cabin, there could possibly be a little noise from time to time as well. We sailed a 10-day to Alaska Jun '22 in a deck 1 interior on the Miracle (a very similar sister ship to Spirit) and absolutely loved the cabin we were assigned - at the time we booked, only an inside guarantee was available. We did not feel as though we missed anything critical without the balcony or extra space - those are just 'nice to haves' for us. That being said, we would have taken the upsell offer. Those 'nice to haves' would definitely be worth $300 to us. All that really matters is if it is worth it to you... oh, edited to add: If it is something you want, I'd act much sooner rather than later as those upsells, especially for an aft balcony, tend to go quick!

Congrats on a successful trip! ...was curious about the mix of nationalities aboard Pride's European sailings?

My wife saw this tip on a packing video once and it works for us... We pack two of those scented kitchen trash can liners, one for her and one for me. Takes up no packing space and easy to fill with clothes as needed, close the top and store in a drawer, wardrobe or under the bed whenever clothes are taken out of service during the cruise. Just need to make sure the clothes are dry before putting into bag (swimwear/work out clothes/etc.). Also keeps any unused or laundered clothes fresh during trip back home. Not sure about rodents...never thought about that one before...maybe the scented plastic would turn them off?

from Carnival's milestone info in the link BlerkOne posted: "Milestone Rewards Program denotes a guest’s 25th, 50th 75th and 100th revenue cruise with Carnival." Do you know what the phrase "revenue cruise" means? Our post-pandemic cruises are those casino-type deals where you pay $200 ($100/cruiser) and they give you $200 in OBC per cabin + some amount of funplay. Carnival refers to these as "free" rooms in their description of the promotion. I'm guessing these might not be considered "revenue cruises"??? TIA!

Especially love that last pic with the streams of water coming off the tail! Awesome.

I think what shows up in the email list is just a small sampling of cruises available for premier. For example, the email list I got today listed just one Jan 2023 ship/itinerary/sailing offering. But, if i click the 'Book Now' button in the email, the Carnival Booking engine opens specific to the premier offer, and if I filter by Dates: Jan 2023, there 14 different ship/itinerary options to choose from. Most only have one particular eligible sailing that month, but all-in-all, there are a ton more eligible offerings than what's listed in the email.

"Boon : Forget it, he's rolling."

I vote a hard 'no' on this line item. I don't want to have to start showing and explaining my health insurance papers to a cruise line, or get some sort of 'proof of minimum insurance card', or have to purchase some other coverage I don't want or need.

Jun 10-20 2022 Carnival Miracle to Alaska. 2088 guests - 98% full at double occupancy.

We usually cruise with backpacks and carry-on sized rollers. When we bring champagne and cokes aboard, we put them in the rollers as they're supposed to be checked at security and carried on.

We were on Miracle June 10-20. Absolutely loved this cruise. First time on Spirit class ship, which is now our favorite class of ship. Minimal lines throughout. Very much enjoyed the CD Frankie - entertaining, organized and full of useful information. MDR food was good (loved the hot soup appetizers) and service was spot on - never waited more than a couple of minutes between courses. Was in and out in 45 min to an hour each night (your time dining between 8p-9p every night). Never waited more than 5 min for table to be ready thru the HUB app. Particularly enjoyed Chopsticks' Asian inspired offerings for lunch at the Lido buffet - always seemed to have different dishes each day. Sitka saw the one big glitch of the cruise. You had to queue up the day before to get tender passes. As we knew we wanted to hike Herring Cove trail, we were keen to get the first available non-excursion tender time which was supposed to be 11am on port day. The tenders were delayed a couple of hours - we did not end up in Sitka until a little after 1pm. With a back-on-board time of 5pm, we had to scrap our planned hike and just explore Sitka and do the short Totem Pole nature hike - which was still nice. But, I know some folks who were in later tender groups only had a couple of hours in Sitka. Saw a pod of whales off the ships bow out of Sitka. They were the talk of the town throughout the ship that night (and for days after). In Juneau, we rented a car for the day thru Turo (sort of like an air BnB for cars) for $99 and drove out to the West Glacier trailhead. Eagles everywhere. We passed a lowland area on the way out that was filled with at least 100 eagles just standing around on the ground. Spent about 8 hours hiking out to the front of Mendenhall Glacier and back. Challenging trail, incredible experience. Spent the rest of the time tooling around the city, stopping at a local grocery to pick up Coke and ended up at the Alaskan Hotel bar for drinks before boarding the ship. We also had to tender in Juneau, but the operation went smoothly - no significant time loss. We did the Tracy Arm small boat excursion and, wow, that was a definite highlight of our trip. Sunny, blue sky day. Saw the glacier calve twice - one big, one small. The swell created in the water from the first calving was about 8ft. The crackling, crashing sound was unforgettable. Several dozen (maybe a 100) harbor seals basking in the sun on the iceberg field in front of the glacier. Saw a black bear and a cinnamon brown bear at waters edge on separate beaches. The Captain said it was their first bear sightings of the season. Watched a humpback whale circle feeding for a few minutes and then flash its tail as we moved on. All amid incredible scenery filled with waterfalls, cascades, snow-capped peaks, deep green valleys and an amazing array of naturally sculpted icebergs. Ketchikan was another sunny, blue sky day which is apparently not common for this town. Took it easy just hiking around town for a few hours. Enjoyed the Creek Street area - picked up our only Alaska souvenirs - a couple of 19th century era glass bottles - one whiskey shaped like a flask, one apothecary. Took advantage of the great weather the rest of the day back on ship - had the Serentity area, hot tub and pool all to ourselves for the afternoon. Victoria B.C. was the last port. Really only had about 3 hours to explore. Short port call. Walked up to Beacon Hill Park and down through the heart of the city. Beautifully landscaped city park with peacocks wandering around. Entertainment was great throughout the cruise. Had four comedians - two were on for the first five days and they brought on two more for the last five days. We only saw the adults-only shows and they were all very entertaining - great audience reactions. Live music was abundant throughout the ship. We particularly enjoyed a solo singer/guitarist by the name of Bri-Zee - hope to sail with her again. Our favorite lounge to hear live music was the one by the Alchemy Bar. We're not usually nightclub people, but really enjoyed the DJ, the crowd and the atmosphere downstairs in Frankenstein's - we ended up there three nights. Did not see any of the production shows, but enjoyed the Love and Marriage show as well as the Deal or No Deal type shows (Frankie was a great MC). There was also a very adult late night show one night that that had us in stitches. It was set up loosely like a game show with the entire audience divided into six teams. Each team would select it's own members to participate in different challenges/skits that included everything from best fake orgasm (for the girls) to lap dancing (for the guys). Saw the movie Dune for the first time on a screen set up in the lounge. We always appreciate having TCM in the cabin and had a couple of late movie nights after everything else was said and done on the ship. Did a trivia session for the first time (James Bond) - was very challenging - 12 out of 20 to home the ship on a stick. If trivia is your thing - I think I counted 30 different sessions/topics available on this sailing. Our cabin steward was a rock star. We requested evening service and she was there at 6:30pm every night sharp. Made it easy to plan our evenings. As for San Francisco - we got there two days before the cruise and left two days after. First two nights at the Metro Hotel on Divisadero just east of Golden Gate Park and the last two in the Nob Hill area at the Cornell Hotel de France. Both highly recommended for quality, location and price. All in all we walked about 22 miles around different areas of the city. Golden Gate Park (huge, incredibly beautiful city park), the Presidio, Alamo Park, Fisherman's Wharf were all fantastic areas. Haight-Ashbury was a cool area to see, but not really much to do there. Chinatown was a real treat - lots of great dinner options. And to top it off, the cruise got back on the day the Golden State Warriors were having their championship parade. After we checked in to our hotel, we walked a couple of blocks down to the parade route and watched Steph Curry & Co. parade through the city. Massive energetic crowds, confetti everywhere, live music at every major intersection - never saw anything like it. Oh, and last but not least, sailing out of the Port of San Francisco was really something. You sail out with a fantastic view of the city skyline past Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf, right past Alcatraz and then under the Golden Gate Bridge. Our cruise was a couple of hours late departing, so the sun was a bit lower in the sky - golden hour on the GGB. This was the first sailing I've been on where all the decks rails were filled from bow to stern with passengers during sail away. And, if you want to get up early on debarkation day, you can see all the same in morning twilight (no crowds though). GGB at sail away. Sitka totems. Mendenhall Glacier from West Galcier trail. Miracle in Tracy Arm Fjord. Sawyer Glacier calving. Alcatraz in morning twilight.

We used these BinaxNOW tests for the first time in June from our San Francisco hotel room. We had one glitch. When we first signed in to the emed app, the virtual queue just kept spinning without giving us an approximate wait time. We waited 45 minutes before locating a customer service number for Optum (we could not find an emed/BinaxNOW number that would answer the phone). Optum answered after about 5 mins.) Turns out there was a glitch on the emed end that particular night and all we had to do was exit completely out of the emed app, start the sign in process again, and the virtual queue from that point was 7 minutes. Otherwise, these tests were easy to use. Took about 25 minutes each. Had our digital results a few minutes after each test. If you search youtube for something like BinaxNOW covid tests, there are a handful of cruisers who have uploaded helpful videos of themselves taking the test. We watched one guy accidentally knock the test off his table and had to restart with a new test kit. So, although we only needed two tests, we took four with us.

Happy to report one data point of good news on this topic: Its just one ship, one cruise, one perspective - but I observed absolutely no staffing issues on the Jun 10-20 2022 Carnival Miracle to Alaska. Full ship - 2088 guests according to Frankie the CD - minimal lines the whole trip as explained below. Ate at the MDR 7 nights between 8pm and 9pm (your time dining) - never waited more than 5 min from HUB app checkin to table ready. Service was spot on - never waited more than a couple of minutes between courses being served. There were a couple of nights where we wanted to eat particularly fast to make a showtime and we were in and out in less than 45 minutes. Got Guy's 4 times on the trip - once on embarkation day at about 1pm with just two folks in front of me and the other 3 times literally no wait at all - just walked up and got burgers immediately - it was just about the same story at Blue Iguana. The three nights we just did the dinner buffet - there were never more than a couple or three people in line at any of the stations - if there were any folks at all - again we tend to eat a bit later. We did sea day brunch once and this was the longest HUB app wait we had at 15 min, just lounged in our cabin till we got the table ready message. The only real line we had to wait in the whole trip was for next-day tender passes into Sitka. We needed the earliest non-excursion tender time available, so we lined up 20 min before the designated time for handing out the passes. Frankie the CD was there walking the line the whole time entertaining and letting everyone know about the tender process (and anything else you wanted to ask him - really a great CD). The free drink service (Drinks on US) in the casino was insanely good. They were serving faster than we could drink, literally. There were times we had drinks in our hands, another one waiting on deck and the server would come by and ask if we were ready for another. I just started asking for cans of beer that I'd take back to the cabin. By day three, I had a fridge full of Michelob Ultra tallboys from the casino that served their purpose throughout the cruise in the nightclub, at shows, etc. Because of the above - we only ordered drinks from a bar once the entire cruise - the last day after 5pm free drinks - we got them from the Alchemy bar and there was no wait. All that being said - there were lines at the Lido buffet and other food outlets right when the venues opened at lunch for, say, the first 30 minutes or so. But that's not a function of a staffing issue - it's just the logistics of a few dozen people showing up at the same place, at the same time for the same thing. As long as we showed up 45 to an hour after a venue opened, we experienced lines of 0-5 people at most. Only went to guest services once - to break a bill into smaller bills - and had no wait. I definitely saw some long lines a couple of times while passing through the lobby, but unless you had an issue that needed immediate attention, most of the time guest services had little to no queue. All the shows seemed to go on as scheduled. They even had 4 different comedians on during the trip. Two were there for the first 5 days, they left and two new ones were brought on for the last 5 days. The entertainment programming was more robust than we had on our previous two post pandemic Carnival cruises (Oct 2021 Vista and Feb 2022 Dream). It seemed most every night had something going on 'till 11:30pm or midnight. Our previous two cruises, even though bigger ships, seemed to shut down entertainment much earlier in the evening and had slimmer entertainment schedules throughout the day. If trivia was your thing, this ship must have had 30 or so different trivia offerings. Lots of great, varied live music on this sailing as well. One last note - our cabin steward was a rock star. We requested evening service and she came by at 6:30pm the first night. So, from there on we would leave our cabin at 6:15pm and every night we'd pop into our cabin to pick something up (mostly beer from the fridge) and it seemed like the room was done by 7pm every single night. Made it nice to plan our evenings knowing exactly what time she was servicing the room. If housekeeping was under staffing pressure, we could not tell from our steward. So, all in all, I went into this cruise on the lookout for staffing issues but really saw none.

Just back from Jun 10-20 on the Miracle Some of the little things I loved: Jalapeno hush puppies from the Lido buffet - only saw them available one time at lunch - absolutely delicious Hot soup appetizers in the MDR - if two different hot soups were available on the menu, I'd order both - it wasn't just the unique flavors, the soups were always the best *smelling* items in the room Guy's Burgers were as great as always, but I really enjoyed the chili available in the toppings station - seemed to have a bit more of a spice kick than usual - I heaped the chili on my seasoned fries more than once Strawberry ice cream from the Swirls machines - only found it available one day - usually it's just chocolate or vanilla

I know regular tournaments were understandably not happening on our past two cruises. But, Carnival Players Club is still advertising it's bigger planned tourneys on it's web site. One, a $100k Blackjack Tourney, was (and still is) promoted for the recent May 7 Mardi Gras sailing. Does anyone know if this tourney took place? There are also a couple of other $50k tourneys scheduled for this week's May 14 Mardi Gras sailing. Any word on if they are still on? Our Nov 5 Mardi Gras booking came with tourney entries and we are just wondering if tourneys are on their way back yet? Thanks in advance...

Yes! ...incredibly liberating. Traveling light is definitely not for everyone, but, for us, it just feels good. We were luggage toters up until my wife was inspired to backpack 17-days across the Greek islands in a land-based adventure last September. Since then, we've cruised twice (6 and 7-day) and done Vegas 3 times with just personal-sized backpacks that fit under a plane seat. The key for us was to find clothes made of thin fabric. Linen suites me best in this regard. It's amazing how little space tightly packed linen actually requires. In addition to the essentials, I am able to pack 2 pair of linen shorts, linen pants, two long sleeve linen shirts, a short sleeve linen shirt, a couple thin cotton t-shirts, 2 swim trunks, flip-flops and still have room for a Nikon and two lenses in the backpack. I steam the linen out next to a hot shower as needed. The only real drawback, for me, is the lack of additional footwear other than what I wear on the plane. I honestly don't know how my wife does it, but she ends up with everything she needs including make-up and 4 or 5 dresses. Give it a shot and see if the pros outweigh the cons for the two of you.

I just checked for available rooms on a 10-day June Miracle to Alaska and there were only a dozen or so cabins left to choose from across all categories. Suites were sold out. So, I expect this particular sailing to be full.