mz-s

Did you go to the Pixels cashier stand to pick it up? They stopped delivering the gifts during the COVID restart.

You can bring all 4 bottles on during the initial embarkation. Carnival says the last 2 will be kept until your second leg but that never happens. If you wanted to, I bet you could leave the ship during turnaround day and bring on 2 more bottles so you'd have 4 bottles for your second leg.

They serve german chocolate cake on the Lido buffet usually. There's no way to reach steakhouse crew before you get on the ship that I'm aware of. The steakhouse is usually open during embarkation for people to make reservations, I'm sure if you snuck in and asked them they could help you.

Yeah these cabanas and villas are not for me. I can just stay in my cabin on the ship if I want a private space, lol. Just not my cup of tea! Each to their own.

If they're still selling out at a grand each especially this far out from the cruise, they need to raise the price again...

I actually think somebody here did call the triumph cruise an extended vacation.

Only on this forum is it the guests fault when carnival makes cutbacks.

There are no discounts for booking onboard or soon after a cruise anymore. The most you'll get is a small amount of onboard credit generally.

Are you a new Carnival cruiser like OP?

When you actually look at it, Free at Sea isn't so free. I remember once I looked at a Free at Sea cruise, the "gratuity" for the free drink package cost almost $500. Granted that's less than Cheers but surprisingly expensive "gratuities".

Those with allergies can speak to the Menu Mate onboard for help navigating their allergies.

Sorry I read it differently in my mind the first time, thanks. I need to read more carefully.

So how are they getting away with it? The cruise lines just put up with it because they'd rather not "rock the boat" so to speak?

I was hoping for something more imaginative than just removing a lounge for more cabins, but I guess I should be happy they're doing anything at all. Many of Carnival's drydocks since the restart have been limited to just the basics like repainting the hull and whatever statutory things they're required to do. Carnival not building new ships and also not upgrading other ships to compete is a very bad scenario when their competitors are doing the opposite.

One thing you can do if you want a deal is gamble at a local Indian casino and get some status, Carnival will then extend offers to you. Other than that, as a new cruiser, your options are basically limited to the offers everyone else gets - Early Saver, reduced deposit sales, etc.

If they really think it's suddenly a sin to just deliver the stupid pin and chocolate delight like they did for decades, then just print out coupons for each gift (sort of like the old sea day brunch drink coupon) and put those in the stateroom. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. They print and throw away thousands of photos every cruise, and who knows how many $0 receipts for everything, both on non-recyclable paper, so yeah this is a rounding error by comparison. Especially since this paper is recyclable.

Not everything is negative, neither is everything positive. The truth, as with most things, is somewhere in the middle. The point I am making is you shouldn't come here expecting blind praise. If that's what you want, there are plenty of places for it. In the comments of JH's posts is where I'd start.

It's almost like this site is called Cruise Critic or something...reading is fundamental.

It's true, Carnival's Excel class accommodates basically the same amount of people as RCL's Oasis class (Oasis holds a few hundred more, which is nothing when you are talking about over 5,000 people). But the Oasis class is around 45000 tons larger (or about half of a Carnival Spirit).

I wonder if they're better off by selling fewer cabanas/villas at higher prices, or selling them all at lower prices. I guess it depends on how many they're actually selling.

You're only allowed to critique other passengers on here, not Carnival.

I don't think anybody is really getting the RU codes anymore.

They can't use the "enchanced cleaning procedures" excuse anymore as if anybody believed it to begin with. I am surprised, but glad, that priority embarkation came back at least. I guess since those are not Carnival employees and so Carnival isn't paying for how many of them it takes, they don't care.

Depends on the ship, I noticed the Freedom had a primitive map when I was on it in 2021. But Sunshine has always had the nicer colorful maps with distance, speed, etc.

She's on the way https://www.cruisemapper.com/?imo=9223954