Out to sea!

Yeah - I keep hearing about all of these empty dining rooms. My cruise history listed is a fraction of our trips. I do not recall seeing empty dining rooms on the last night of the cruise. People paid a fortune to cruise back then, and I really do not think any of them were the type to skip out on a gratuity.

You may have not seen the empty MDRs but I did personally, on the Jubilee in 2000 and the Triumph in 2001. The first time I was wondering what the hell was going on and I understood the second time. It was a crying shame.

Oh I did - they can change the itinerary and # of days, even after final payment, completely if they wanted to for whatever reason even (Exhibit A is the Pearl that gets chartering off alot). But I guess you knew that already. :rolleyes:

But in the scenarios you presented, the cruise is given the option to cancel their cruise with no penalty. that has not been the case with these other issues.

1) reread your contract because they can plus they did it already for months now and 2) Depending on when one booked, you're grandfathered in before final payment ( I know because I got grandfathered in twice - this year for $12 and next for $12.95).

Just because they "can" do something doesn't make the action valid. And with the new system, if one booked a cruise when the servers in the specialty restaurants were in the DSC and then they changed it, that is double dipping.

But as I have stated in many threads on several lines, to remove the problem all the lines have to do with make the DSC, Auto-tip, or whatever you want to call it mandatory. Until they do that, this will continue to happen and in some cases it is justifiable.

You don't need to debate if what you did is logical or not. You operated within the rules of the company so whatever decision you made is fine and really doesn't need any third party approval.

 

If you tried to totally circumvent policies that would be different but doesn't seem to be the case.

I'm half Vulcan so everything is derived from logic. :D

I don't think anyone here cares what you believe.

 

I eat at specialties all 7 nights of the cruise. I am being forced to tip 18% at those specialities, and yet am ALSO being forced to tip at the MDR (where I NEVER eat) via the DSC.

 

If I don't adjust down the DSC, then I am tipping for service I never received.

Which is why I adjusted my DSC the same amount that I now had to pay in the specialty restaurants for the new 18% gratuity.

Yes, it is fair.

How do you think tips were given before they started implementing this "DSC" nonsense??? It was always in cash, and always directly to your server, steward, bartender, etc., with spare envelopes given to you for whoever else you wanted to tip.

Which is why over half the MDR was vacant on the last evening of a cruise. It was a bad system replaced by a better system. Not the best, but better.

I read posts as they are written. So are we now supposed to read a post and assume they meant something else?

Pretty much with about half the posts written here. I don't think English is being taught in schools anymore (in the US). :D

Could let them know the first night that if you're not at the table 5-10 minutes after the beginning of dinner to assume you'll not be joining them for dinner.

I'm sure there's a way. Off the top of my head your S&S card has your table number on it. Make a little placard or find a piece of paper and write something to the effect "If the Smith's are not here by 6:15 we will not be joining you tonight." and leave it on the table. You could also drop a note with the Matre'd.

It's not about the free drink, or the fact that Carnival does not care about loyalty. It's about the slap in the face by offering a $0.23 bottle of water in it's place.

 

Oh, we are taking these things away from you, but guess what! You will get a bottle of water! :D

Anyone who thinks it is truly a "slap in the face" can easily take their cruising dollars elsewhere. I don't know about you but I wouldn't dream of giving money to someone who I thought was "slapping me in the face".

Whichever deck you disembark on there will be a giant crowd waiting. Usually deck 0, but often you have to wait on deck 1.

 

Although, last time we were in Cozumel they never announced you could disembark, and we just noticed people slowly filtering out a little before the official port time.

Deck 0 is usually used for tenders. Cozumel has a pier so I would think deck 5 (I haven't been to Cozumel on a Fantasy class ship but Nassau has the same set up and we used deck 5 and walked directly onto the pier).

No steakhouse on Paradise.

 

That's why I asked. I didn't want to just show up late and cause a problem.

 

If I didn't care about being rude or discourteous' date=' I would have just shown up at 7 without asking about it first.[/quote']

 

No, no steakhouse on the Fantasy class of ships but the pizza is great and open 24/7. :)

If that happens' date=' I'm going to come here and stalk you for eternity :eek:

 

Where is the best place to wait for them to let us off the ship? (on the Paradise)[/quote']

 

Most likely deck 5 (Atrium).

They should also require scooters must be stored IN the cabin, not the hallway outside the cabin.

Actually, those are the rules on Carnival. But sadly, like most every other rule, Carnival fails to enforce it.

I have 3 passengers in my party, one of whom is 4 years old (note that they don't charge DSC for 2-year-olds, who make more of a mess than 4 year olds!)

 

We dine ONLY at specialties, which now have a separate mandatory 18% tip.

 

We do not utilize many other services on the ship which would otherwise be covered by the DSC.

 

I have decided to opt out of one of the 3 passengers, and use at least some of that money instead to directly tip the steward and anyone else who directly deals with us often.

 

The other two DSCs I will leave as-is, even though they went up to $13.50 long after I booked.

 

So this is me "one-third opting out", which I think is fair, since I will not be utilizing the MDR at all, and therefore I don't feel like those employees should be getting my full tips as they will never be serving me.

So I'm guessing the only meal you eat all day is dinner? :rolleyes:

Yes. I will reduce the DSC to $0.

 

I will then pay individuals, tips for their services rendered. I tip well, in the 15-20% range normally. If I have poor service, I speak to a manager and if service is corrected, I still tip +10%.

 

I fully understand that crew on these ships make a low wage and live off their tips. If you provide me with good service, I will tip you accordingly.

 

To me, the cruise lines charging these automatic gratuity/service charges is an excuse to foster poor service.

What is 15-20% of 0? How do you figure out 15-20% for you cabin steward and waiter/waitress in the MDR? Are you going to tip the omelet maker every morning? The washy-washy girl? The guy who cleans your plates off the tables?

I never reduce the dsc and always give the steward and specialty waiters extra

 

I think I might not give the steward the extra $50 to $75 I usually give though

 

And not planning on doing any specialties this cruise.

 

 

 

 

 

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If I had not done any specialty restaurants last month on the Sun I would not have reduced my DSC either. Since I didn't, I reduced my DSC the amount of the 18% mandatory gratuity now paid in the specialty restaurant. NCL should have lowered the DSC when they removed the servers in the specialty restaurants from it and instead they increased the DSC. Not fair in my book so therefore I corrected the issue and made it fair.

Sometimes the ships are early. Sometimes the ships are late. Who knows.

 

 

Early dining is nice for people with kids, but has the negative appeal of meaning shorter time in ports. Late dining means you have to wait a long time to eat; but you also don't have to rush to get back and cleaned up for dinner. It's just how it goes, pros and cons. Plan on eating at the Lido or cutting your port day short.

 

Personally, I like spending time in port, so I'd just go with the Lido.

The ship could even miss the port making this thread moot. :D

Why would you respond if you never got a drink package?and it doesn't cost less when your on board.

What the poster was trying to say is it would cost less out of pocket if you have OBC and use that to offset the total cost of the package. If pre-purchased you can't use OBC to offset the price.

Carnival is the only cruise line I know of where you get the benefits at the beginning of a cruise if you change status during a cruise.

Everyone is a hypocrite, just another part of the human condition. I doubt anyone would turn down the benefits on principal.

I beg to differ. when our kids were small my wife and I turned down WIC benefits based on principal. Not everyone is shallow and out to grab anything they can get their hands on.

The opposite side of the coin. We love your time dining. Most times we get seated right away but on the couple of times that did not happen we never waited more than 5/10 minutes at the most.

The problem is wait times are based on ship and time of day. There have been reports of waiting an hour, other reports of walking right in. You never know until you get to the check-in desk.

The right time is not when someone is getting screwed.

 

it becomes bullying very easily. Mocking their issues at the very least.

Well, to be truthful, no questions were posed in the OP, no help requested, it was just a rant that doesn't even really need to be here. But if someone is allowed to come here to just rant, others are equally allowed to make a quip about it. If no one is trying to take the OP's lunch money it hardly counts as bullying.

A full ship does not indicate anything. They can easily fill a ship by constantly dropping rates until that is accomplished. There s nothing difficult about doing that.

A full ship indicates most people don't care about whatever trivial complaint some folks are whining about and see Carnival as the best bang for the buck.

BTW, rates drop on other cruise lines as well prior to sailing to ensure the their ships are full. Nothing new or special there.

I have been invited to 8 past guest parties. Now for my tenth cruise we are persona non grata. LOL, it doesn't bother me because we only ever attended a few of them, and did not find them to be much of a party anyway.

 

What I do find interesting is the complete failure of someone at Carnival to realize the public relations hit they would take from this. They may have been ok if they offered a free drink anytime during the cruise. Nope, someone decided to remove the party for a large group of customers and then rub it in their face with a restricted coupon. They are not fooling anyone, we know the coupon is restricted so fewer will be redeemed.

 

This all leads me to believe that the real motive behind this has less to do with the number of guests showing up foe the party, and much more about the number of free drinks being served during that 45min.

If the ships continue to sail full, there is no public relations hit. If the ships start to not sail full, then Carnival will change things.

I'm not proud of it but it was my first cruise and I wasn't aware of how the dining worked. I was very green. I showed up 45-60 minutes late 3 nights and was served each time. I didn't understand why the couple i was with stared at me in contempt each time until I started reading here.

So you could comprehend that you were late but couldn't comprehend why that might be a problem? :confused: