LargeCornGyro

How many years had they held the previous price? If you average it out it's not that big an increase.

The most honest answer to that question is, MOST people didn't even know this "program" existed. Even the Bon Voyage program for the most part was only known for a selected few.

Only since the open discussion, releasing the "Secret" to the masses, did this all of a sudden become an issue.

But their pricing is disingenuous at best. For a M&G, for a little under $20 plus tip, you get an hour of drinks. For a little more than twice that amount, you can get the CHEERS PROGRAM, which is 24 hours worth of drinks.

I mean let's use some common sense....

Yes, let's use some common sense. Carnival has assumed responsibility.

I have several friends who are Carnival Reps at ports and Carnival does not make the final decision....US Customs does.

 

You can always go up the food chain.

 

I have heard of way to many stories that Carnival has moved heaven and earth to try to assist people for everything from leaving their documents in checked luggage and giving them to the porter to leaving their documents at home....

 

because the bottom line is that Carnival does not make money when they sell a cabin. Carnival makes money when they get those bodies on a ship.

 

Not to mention the salary that Carnival probably covered of the wait staff who would have been paid by these people.

Did you not read that US customs said it was fine, and it was CCL pulled the gate?

Sorry but I disagree.

 

No company is responsible for the actions of a federal agency.

 

Just like no airline is going to override or financially cover the actions of a TSA agent.

 

Now perhaps their travel insurance would cover errors made by CBP....

 

they need to file a claim with their travel insurance.

Sounds like no one shared the facts of this case with you.

Now I do not have a crystal ball, but I would not be surprised if Carnival offered them some something like a future cruise credit as a show of goodwill even though Carnival did absolutely nothing wrong.

Huh? Carnival has stated it was someone in their org that called it.

Where did you go?

How were the seas?

How was the weather?

LOL. I thought you were on board. I do this every time I go to the city. My family thinks I'm nuts.

Thanks for sharing.

Well, like I said, a year ago I can assure you that people were consuming WELL over the value of the $11.50 per person! For every person who doesn't attend for the sole purpose of getting drunk, there are probably three who DO attend to do so!!

 

Sure, it's nice to meet some Cruise Critic "friends" but it's more like the PG parties. Do we still go every year to witness the introduction of the staff and watch the corny video and cheer for our past ships?

 

Or do we go do pound down as many free drinks as we can?

 

C'mon now. Be honest! :p

 

No food? Seriously? You're somewhere that there is pretty good food available 24/7 and you're going to complain that there's no food during your 1 (or 2) hour party? You can't find something to consume before you attend?

 

Yes, I'm thinking like both a shareholder and an accountant. I'm not going to apologize for trying to see this objectively.

 

Yes, as noted, it is a big increase. But 2 x almost free still isn't very expensive.

 

It's $25 people. Is this going to break your cruise budget? Yes? Then don't attend. Schedule a "free" M&G. Carnival has the right to not lose money on these functions!

And we have the right to complain about it.

True to a point. Then when I look back, and I paid more for my Holiday cruise in 1986, then I paid for my recent Splendor cruise. I guess something has to suffer!!

When you cram twice as many passengers onto a ship, you can cut the fares in half.

Great food.

Great service.

Great entertainment.

Ample personal space.

When are they gonna start serving moonshine on board!

Why do you think the bathtubs are only in the suites, and not available to the general Carnival cruiser?

Any on board updates?

Actually, the larger ships are more crowded. We like the Spirit class; Legend, Pride, or Miracle.

Over several threads on the topic of Auto Tips ...

 

How about doing this Carnival:

 

- add the daily tips on to the fare, that portion cannot be disputed but ...

- any passenger who is incline to reallocate the total daily tips amount will be allowed to do so. Daily total remains the same but percentages among different staff one can reallocate to his or her heart's content. Have forms available in various parts of the ship (don't even have to bother Guest Service).

 

I wonder what percentage of their existing clients Carnival would stop cruising with them if they implement such a policy. Seems to me by reading these forums (including those of other cruise lines), most people who remove auto tips claim they actually ended up paying at least the daily amount suggested by Carnival (in aggregate $$$s) but they prefer to pay more to certain individuals and less to others. I'll take their word for it and Carnival shouldn't be losing that much. 1%?

The part you're missing is then Carnival (or whomever) has to state that this is their fare. $299 is suddenly $384.50

I don't even drink rum and I can't imagine that Carnival would stop carrying Captain Morgain. Bacardi would have had to make them a godfather offer. There's no upside to Carnival to discontinuing it unless Bacardi offers them a massive discount in exchange.

Exclusivity, except that Carnival doesn't know it. They think it's still on the ships.

So far, I'm reading it's gone from the Pride, the Dream and the Freedom.

with all the noise around, you cannot hear what others are doing at the desk. At least not without being SUPER nosy

When I'm in the atrium, I can't hear what the person NEXT to me is saying. Nor listening to others conversations.

Unfortunately, some do not realize these are not traditional tips as we understand it in the US.

 

Cruise lines use the word gratuity and handle it this way in compliance US labor tax laws..but make no mistake, this is not a tip. It is their salary.

 

Personally I wish they would call it what it really is...a service surcharge.

 

NCL has already changed their verbiage to Service Surcharge .....

 

IF Carnival included it in their price, then there would be tax implications ....which we the customer would ultimately pay in higher cruise prices.

 

As long as people want the privilege of cruising, then they should follow the protocol. Cabin stewards and wait staff should not have to work for free....because someone does not like the way cruise lines handle their salary.

Privilege? Anyone can cruise. And anyone can tip, along the lines of how they tip anywhere, based on service.

And they are tips just like in any service industry, except these individuals get room and board.

And MOST important, anyone taking this job gets explained to them EXACTLY how their "pay" works. Then they decide.

Saw that post to. Would like to know how that poster knows that the 20 people in line in front of them was removing their tips.

Or how all those in the casino and drinkers are sharing what they are doing with tips.

So I was reading A thread on here someone complaining about her neighbors and she said when she was in line at guest services 20 people in front of her were canceling there pre paid gratuities .. I m new to cruising Why would people do this ? When we went We had excellent service and provided an extra tip at the end 11.50 a day is hardly enough for all the staff it extends too ? I Have seen this mentioned before as well Do they wait to see if service is up to standard ??? Im just curious :confused:

You are confusing pre pay with auto tip.

Pre pay is actually paying tips before you board the ship, usually made around the time you pay off your cruise.

Auto tip is where they charge your sail and sign account, and you don't actually pay till after you get off the ship, unless you are paying your S&S account with cash.

Some people just like to tip with cash.

Any option is acceptable, and is up to the individual how they wish to extend tips.

For some reason, how others tip seems to irritate others, who start calling people names if they don't tip in the same manner they do.

You would think they would be more interested in finding out why they paid 25% more for their cruise than their neighbor.

This is not correct information. Who told you it is no longer available?

What makes you think it's not correct information?

We just returned from a cruise last week and saw the Carnival Freedom sporting this emergency generator. I was curious so I did a search and found this thread.

 

At least it is an isolated generator - but considering the size of the box, the genny would not be very powerful; probably 500Kw max... not enough to run the propulsion systems.

 

We also saw a slightly larger container behind the stack on the Carnival Dream when it was in port as well, but again, seems kind of small for running much.

 

Maybe these are just temporary solutions until a more permanent solution can be found, because there is probably no room in any existing area to put such large equipment.

It's also possible they were simply transporting it.

Does it have to be limited to Baltimore?

We discovered the Pride when she sailed from New York for a week long cruise to Bermuda.

Maybe it's because I lived in Manhattan for a few years, but I equated it to a subway on the water. I even used my old skills of weight shifting side to side to keep my balance like I used to do on the subways haha Subways have "stops" so that's why I thought of it like that :) Either way, it was an interesting experience haha

I'm a D train rider myself. Translated to DUH! :)

But I did end up buying a nice chandelier there from my mistake.

Nice shots, and nice "journey". Been a long time since I was in Venice or on this ship. She certainly has changed!

 

The vaporetto stops can be somewhat confusing. There are multiple floating docks at the stop location, and two or three vaporetto routes stop at each dock so you need to look for the numbers on top of the waiting area shelter to see which routes stop there. We intended to take the route that goes directly to Murano express with very few stops, but somehow ended up on the local route instead. No worries though- it got us to Murano eventually! Unfortunately, I never took a good photo of the vaporetto stops, but here is a photo I took while standing on the dock...

 

I had to laugh at this. We looked at this as more like a boat ride, with a terminus; not a stop. Of course, we ended up getting off one stop further than we were supposed to.