wemjam

So this just gets crazier. I just got two more random refunds from Carnival via gift cards. $5.85 and $76.00. Spent an hour on the phone again trying to get someone to tell me why I keep getting these! No one can answer me. Driving me nuts. Guess I will go email them again!

Thanks, missed it. So it will be on our cruise then!

I assure you that isn't it. I cruise 4-5 times a year and usually rack up somewhere around 200-400 points only. I finally just got a bottom of the barrel cruise offer. My dad cruises once a year... and doesn't gamble anymore than I do on that one cruise. He gets better offers (like free inside rooms)

Hey Tom, what is that you guys were drinking in your profile pick... looks yummy and may want to try it. Girl loves her some chocolate!

Yea I see what you did there LOL! 😁 To this whole card type thing though I don't know if that really pans out in all this. All our cards have high limits on them... like walk in a buy a brand new car if you wanted to limits. We use one for our "everyday" carry card and when we travel so it is on our account. Never seems to have helped us much lol.

NAILED IT!!!! And the same people that would be more likely to escalate it from a verbal confrontation to a physical one.

Sadly it is the world we live in. Everyone is entitled and cares little for those around them. How many times do we see it on here.... people ask a question and others jump in and tell them what they "can" do not what the proper, orderly rules are. Can I go to my room early.... "Sure I do it all the time and they let me" And... "Here are fifteen ways to smuggle stuff on" Can I arrive early to the terminal... "Sure I do it all the time and they let me" And the one that frosts my cookie the worst when actually on board - "They are doing it, therefore I am entitled to also and you can't stop me" (like going to the Plat/Diamond party) Two cruises back we were in the diamond area out in the main lobby bar area waiting for the ship to clear to disembark and of course sometimes random people would decide to sit down and join us. A carnival agent would come along and explain they had to wait somewhere else. I kid you not - This one couple (and they were older not some young kids) came over and decided to stand there by us. An agent came along and explained they had to wait somewhere else. They just stood there. The agent came back again and explained again why they needed to find somewhere else to wait. Then a few minutes later I saw the agent speaking to our cruise director, who then came over and politely tried to explain again why they had to move and stood there trying to get them to do it. This woman literally went off on him screaming - "THESE PEOPLE SITTING HERE ARE NO BETTER THEN ME, and I am going to wait right here and get off this ship when they do!" I've been in the Diamond line at guest services and had some guy step out of the regular line and literally push his way in front of me and start screaming at the desk agent that he was in line before me and they were going to wait on him first. My husband (who is normally very quiet and easy going, but I am sure took offense to the guy literally bumping me as he went by and then screaming like that) actually stepped up on that one. All he did was hold up his sign and sail card (didn't say a word at first) and showed him his sail and sign card (the color) and pointed to the sign over the desk that says "Diamond/FTTF..." The guy looked confused for a second and then my husband said, when you decide to pay for FTTF or Cruise 40 cruises like I have, then you get to use this line!"

Trust me, it was all I could do to bite my tongue. I am a pretty vocal person but didn't want to "embarrass" my husband 😁. Just decided that was the last one for me. I go to the diamond party where it is usually much better, even at that though we often don't go just because they seem to pick weird times to have it sometimes. It is things like this... and ordering 10 lobster tails.... and ordering 5 apps, 3 entrees, and 3 desserts.... taking an entire plate full of bacon, etc. that have gotten us to where we are today. People take issue with Carnival doing different cut backs or changing the way they do things. But honestly, a lot of this stuff all you have to do is look around at the insanely bad etiquette you see on board sometimes and it suddenly shines a blaring light on why some of these changes go down the way they do.

You will experience this on all ships. Some areas are going to feel more crowded at certain times. If you hit the restaurants at prime times then there are going to be a lot of people so there will be lines and it will be more crowded. Other times it will be dead. It is like comparing eating in the lido restaurant on embarkation day (when you are having lunch with 2000 of your best friends) to eating there at lunch time on a port day (when there might be 50 people total in the entire dining area because everyone else is off the ship).

I don't think this would a fair comparison though. When they first started back up and went back to full capacity ALL the ships were struggling a bit. They had the same problems as everywhere else finding good help. Also a lot of the workers were new since so many were lost when Covid hit and had moved on to something else. Nothing was the same after start up. Things have normalized more this year.

Yes that is a big part of the issue too. One Platinum guest will bring like 5 people with them and think that is OK, and nobody is "policing" the door. Last one I went to (when I said that was it for me), was held in the comedy club. There was one of the big half round booths with like 7 people in it. The were all wearing their sail and sign cards around their necks and they were all red and blue except for one Gold and one Platinum. And they were just sitting back, lounging and acting like they owned the club. They were demanding drink after drink and the servers. I watched at least 25 drinks get consumed at that table alone (and it was a party where you could order what you wanted). Servers would come buy with food trays and they would each grab 4 and 5 of whatever bite they were passing. Literally we were like 2 tables over from them and almost every time the server left with an empty tray because they cleared off whatever was on the tray. We got like 2 things offered to us because that was all that made it past their table. And it is things like THIS that is why they don't do things they way the used to anymore.

Do not believe so. It is from the bars, not the coffee shop.

You need to read the whole context. My point was, that they were not asked for their drivers license BECAUSE they used their passport. Not that only a passport works. I was responding to another poster who said: Silly goose... the OP is asking about using a drivers license and birth certificate in leu of passport.🤪 Passport trumps and that is ALL you need if you travel with it.

I am sure part of the reasoning is there are just WAY too many Diamond and Platinum these days. There comes a point where there are just too many to try to the same old type of party for. Not only cost prohibitive, but just too many dang people. I haven't attend the Diamond Platinum party for a long time for this reason... just too many people and not worth the effort.

Yes, this is how they do dining in the main dinning room now. You check in on the Hub App or in person... and then it will be as I described in detail above. The only exception is for restaurants where you pay and have formal reservations (like on land). Those you just show up at your reservation time.

Silly goose... the OP is asking about using a drivers license and birth certificate in leu of passport.🤪 Passport trumps and that is ALL you need if you travel with it.

Man, I don't even see the Conquest on the list (we sail next week), or Magic (we sail in December)

More more thing. Not ALL airlines/flights are available to purchase through Carnival. So if you have a dedicated airline you like to fly you may or may not be able to fly with them.

We have in the past, not recently. Sometimes it is comparable in price, other times it is more. You are also restricted to flying ONLY during the windows of time the deem appropriate. Example: if they decide the earliest flight home after a cruise is 12:30 by their standard, you will not be able to get a flight before that even if you want to. The NICE thing is you can book anytime and have right up until the cruise pay off window to pay it off, so you don't have to fork out the full airplane ticket months in advance. If I remember the last time I did it, we also didn't get seat assignments right away though even though the air was added when we booked the cruise months out.... we had to wait until closer to sailing.

I agree smarter to have proof of the name change with you as they absolutely may require it. AND if you find yourself in a bind in a foreign port the more docs with you the better. Right from Carnival Website: Names on Travel Documentation It is important that the guest's full name (first name and last name) on the cruise and airline tickets be the same as the guest's unexpired, government-issued photo I.D. that will be used for travel identification. In the event of a different name on the cruise/airline ticket and the guest's photo I.D. because of a marriage, divorce or a legal name change, documentation (original or clear, legible copy) supporting this change is required at embarkation, such as a marriage certificate, marriage license or legal name change court document. Failure to bring documentation bridging the name differences could result in denial of boarding. Note: For guests about to or recently married, we strongly recommend that, if the unexpired government-issued photo I.D. is in the maiden name, the cruise booking be made in the maiden name (do not include the married name). If the reservation was made in the married name, but the unexpired government-issued photo I.D. is in the maiden name, documentation (original or clear, legible copy) supporting this change is required at embarkation, such as a marriage certificate or marriage license. Failure to bring documentation bridging the name differences could result in denial of boarding.

So another stupid question here. Is it all about points then really? So what I am getting at is, if I am not a huge player, am I better off saving all my play for a longer cruise and spreading it over a 7 day cruise and skipping playing on my 3 dayers? Unless I plan on dropping a crap ton of money each day and/or on each play on a 3 dayer (which I don't play that way) it is going to take a lot more to rack up the points versus playing the long game on a weeks cruise. Like I said I got the bottom of the barrel cruise offers now and was quite surprised at that as I don't think I had 400 points total when I got off the cruise and started getting them.

Me too, leave next week. Will be interested in seeing if the new menus are out on our sailing.

PS: It isn't too different from the old days, other than you don't line up in a big line outside the dinning room. People are just mulling around waiting for their alert to go off that their table is ready, or to be called if they checked in with the hostess in person (like you will). The difference is, all the people you can't see that are ahead of you in line now because they checked in on the app before you checked in in-person. They will come walking up and be seated right away while you stand and wait, as they have been waiting elsewhere on the ship but were in the que before you. Formal nights will be the worst, and if you are wanting to eat around 7pm... that's kind of in the thick of it.

Just in Casino.... not anywhere. OK what is YMMV? Don't know that one.

Your dinning room will still be assigned to you. Your time dinning is still a specific assigned dinning time it will be on your sail and sign card which dinning room you are in. You will need to go down and physically check in with one of the hosts at the door. They will log you into the system since you do not have a phone and can't do it yourself. BE prepared though. This likely means you will have a longer wait standing around at the door. With the Hub App you can check in from your room and then wait there or go hang out somewhere like a bar and have a drink and wait and it will alert you when your table is ready and then you have 15 minutes to show up. You will need to wait by the door for them to call you. If it is really busy, this could be 15, 20, 30 minutes or more.