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This is not really a hub app enhancement, but one of the things I suggested is the $5 chat feature should be complementary for Gold level and higher VIFP cruisers. As I am not a drinker I never use the coupons so the only two perks I get is the stupid pin and a bottle of water.

I'm going to say something total different. Neither!!!

I highly recommend one of extended aft balcony or if you can afford it an aft wraparound balcony. The two big advantages in the back is you get to see both sides and you are totally shielded from the wind by the ship and this makes the temperature very reasonable. On top of all that in the Tracy Arm Fjord we got to see everything twice(once going in and again after we turned around).

When we were in the Fjord I was in shorts and a tea-shirt the entire time we were in transit. I will say anytime I ventured to lido and people saw what I was wearing they thought I was nuts. Its also didn't help that when I was asked about it, I told them I was ready to swim with the dolphins.

The only negatives I have about the aft balcony are

1. Its a low pressure area so if someone is smoking towards the back of the ship(not flowing the rules) your will always smell a little bit of it.

2. The back of the ship slopes so most of the lower cabin are only partially covered so when it rains(it will in Alaska) things will get wet.

Having a PVP has helped us. We used our PVP for the last two cruises and in both cases we got a better deal than what was published on the Carnival site. In addition the deal gave us $50 each on ship credited each time.

That said, there is minor annoyance I have. I stay signed in on carnival's website and I am regularly on there just looking around. I'm not really looking to book a cruise, just seeing what is available. However, when I do look at something on there, I am almost guaranteed to get a call from our PVP within 12-24 hours of visiting the site. I always let it go to voicemail and It always our PVP saying he has a "special going that is not published on the site".

That said, we have decided to use our PVP anytime we book from now on and since using him, the deals have been so good we have never had to use the price match guarantee unlike every cruise we have booked on the website.

I know several years ago Carnival floated the idea of selling the Fantasy, but had nobody interested at the time. Today, I just stumbled on this by accident and while they don't mention the ship by name as more detailed information is "available only to qualified buyers", The Carnival Fantasy is the only ship that matches list the specs

http://www.boats.com/power-boats/1990-cruise-ship-2000-passenger-stock-no-s2152-4886577/

Listed Specs:

Ships Specifications –

Year Built: 1990

LOA: 261 m

Beam: 31 m

Draft: 7.8 m

Gross Tons: 70,367 GT

Service Speed (Knots): 21

Y'all have it all wrong! Your forgetting this is going to be Carnival's very first ship powered by natural gas. How could the name be anything but the Carnival Flatulence!

The pilot is not in control of the ship. I once took the "Behind the Fun" tour on Carnival Magic (I visited Messina on that cruise) and during the Q&A with the captain on the bridge I asked that question, if the pilot controls the ship in the port. His answer was simple. "No. The pilot knows the port, I know the ship".

 

There is another video taken from a different angle that makes me think that wind played a factor even though it appears not too windy. Looks like as the ship was departing and sailing through the narrow part, wind from the starboard side caused the ship to over rotate and the stern got too close. This ship has "azipods" which are a lot more powerful than thrusters. It was probably the main propulsion system pushing all the way to one side and not just thrusters of the type you find at the bow or stern in ships with shaft-mounted propellers.

 

http://www.adnkronos.com/2016/09/03/disastrosa-manovra-della-nave-crociera_TCI9w6hlzhcRgbnr2aUWFP.html

You are 100% right. However, lets consider this scenario. Lets say the pilot gave the captain/crew incorrect information and this was an emergency action taken by the captain to avoid a collision that was about to occur as a result of pilot's instructions. If this was the case the captain did the right thing. His first responsibility is safety of his ship and his passengers. Yes, its completely hypothetical and the truth is we don't know what happened on the bridge.

There is one exception to the captain always being in control and that is the Panama Canal. Its the only port in the world where the pilot takes full command of the ship. The reason for this is because its captain duty to always place the safety of his ship and passenger first. The pilot's priority on the other hand is the safety of the Canal.

No, not on the ship, but I got it crab two places. First was in Skagway there was a seafood place not for from the dock, I got King Crab there it wasn't unlimited, but it was a decent amount for what I paid. The second was in Juneau . I rode the Mount Roberts Tramway to the top and at the restaurant up there they had all you can eat dungeness crab. I was told that it was actual crab caught on the deadliest catch, but as I don't watch the show that didn't mater to me. I just like crab, So much so, I had at least 6 plates of it while i was up there:D

We did a 5 day on the Fantasy to Freeport and Nassau from Charleston.

 

It was a fun cruise and I'd do it again. The only negatives about it were:

 

1. That the Fantasy is currently Carnivals oldest ships and it showed in a few places.

2. Just about all the water excursions were canceled the day before we got to Nassau because of the approaching Tropical Storm Earl(not the same Earl that just hit Mexico/Belize). We still docked in Nassau, but by the time we were scheduled to leave Earl decided to rapidly and unexpectedly intensify, was now twice the size and a full category 2 hurricane. The outer-bands were just starting to come ashore when we left and the next 6 hours were the rockiest I have ever experienced. I might add I never felt unsafe in fact didn't even see a drop of rain from it.

 

Our goal was this was to be the first in couple of cheap short 3,4 and 5 day cruises booked at the last minuet to reach our 10 cruises to get platinum, but it was right after this cruise they decided to switch from the number of cruises to to number of cruise days:(.

I forgot to add, I'm a huge history fan and sailing right past Fort Sumter as we left Charleston, was a big deal for me as it was site of arguably one of the most important battles of the civil war.

We did a 5 day on the Fantasy to Freeport and Nassau from Charleston.

It was a fun cruise and I'd do it again. The only negatives about it were:

1. That the Fantasy is currently Carnivals oldest ships and it showed in a few places.

2. Just about all the water excursions were canceled the day before we got to Nassau because of the approaching Tropical Storm Earl(not the same Earl that just hit Mexico/Belize). We still docked in Nassau, but by the time we were scheduled to leave Earl decided to rapidly and unexpectedly intensify, was now twice the size and a full category 2 hurricane. The outer-bands were just starting to come ashore when we left and the next 6 hours were the rockiest I have ever experienced. I might add I never felt unsafe in fact didn't even see a drop of rain from it.

Our goal was this was to be the first in couple of cheap short 3,4 and 5 day cruises booked at the last minuet to reach our 10 cruises to get platinum, but it was right after this cruise they decided to switch from the number of cruises to to number of cruise days:(.

This isn't one of your question, but its advice I give anyone one with a balcony(I haven't been on the Triumph personally).

1. Take a bungee cord if you may want prop balcony door open and listen to ocean at night. Down side is your AC will not work while its open. There is a trick keep the AC working, but I don't recommend it as it is wasteful. A google search will yield you answers if you want to know the trick.

2. If you room ever gets too warm and the AC isn't cooling fast enough, open both the balcony door and the cabin door at the same time for just a few seconds. The outside hallway has positive pressure and doing to will quickly blow all the hot air(and any lose papers if your not careful) outside. After we discovered this my wife insists we do this anytime I use the restroom:o

I actually got on that website that has the cruise ships port time tables on it.... had to check how many ships in port for each cruise to see if that matters. It did.... we found a couple of them had 4 or 5 ships in port at St Thomas, St Kitts, and/or St Maarten. Yuck. Took those off the list.

So now I have it down to 3 cruises.... much more realistic.

 

As far as them booking it as ES... why is that bad? Is it non-refundable? I think whichever one we book, we will keep it. All those itineraries have ships that are pretty full already, some have limited balcony rooms, which we want. Waiting any longer wouldn't be prudent.

If your 100% cretin about what cruise you want ES is fine. It the Early Savor Rate. This goes back to the earlier post post about a "place holder" cruise. Its also known as a sleepers cruise. You book it with the Past Guest Rate. The Past Guest booking can be changed up until the final payment is due(I think) while early saver is locked the best part is the on-ship credit you get for booking on board follows you to the new reservation once you decice. Once you find the cruise you want you probably want to switch to the Early Savor or similar rate as on most cases it is cheerer than the past guest, but once your switch from the past guess rate you can NOT change it to a different cruise.

The general idea with the sleepers cruise is book the cheapest furthest in the future cruise you can find. You don't care where it goes, how long it is because you will not be on it. If it gets close the the final payment deadline and still haven't decided rebook it with a another cruise using the past guest rate again, the cheapest furthest in the future cruise you can find.

I'm confused. Do the outlets also turn off when the card is out of the slot?

No they do not turn off immediately there is a delay and its like 5 mins or less from what I remember.

It my opinion it would be better if they turned off immediately so it remind you to put someone else's card in and you don't end up with people trying to find their way around in pitch black.

So I guess Motel 6 wont be introducing this anytime soon then ;)

Actually, many do, they just do it differently. A lot of hotels will have a motion sensor that everything is tied to including the AC. The only difference is the hotels have a much longer timeout(as in hours).

I've been on the magic twice. I can personally vouch for how frustrating it is "sitting on the pot" in an interior cabin when everything goes pitch black shortly after the wife leaves(pulling her card from the slot). I used a business card after that. The second time on the magic we opted for a aft balcony and that probably wouldn't have been so bad having outside light, but we still used the business card the entire cruise anyway.

So I decided to visit Carnival’s Australia site as I’m thinking about one of the Transpacific Cruises on the Carnival Legend. I’ll admit after looking around I found 19 Night Transpacific cruise from Sydney to Honolulu very tempting. Later, I ended up clicking on the VIFP benefits page, because the 19 day cruise would push me over the Platinum mark by just 1 day. Thinking I was back on Carnival’s main site and I saw that the “Gold, Platinum and Diamond VIFP Party on 5+ day sailings” was back. It took me a bit before I realized I was still on the Australian site. At first I thought it had to be an old page that hasn’t been updated, but I also see that they also get the “Complimentary 1 bottle of water” that was added not too long ago.

Can anyone who has sailed with Carnival’s Australia recently very that Gold members are invited to the VIFP Party? It’s not really a big deal to me, just thought I might point it out and ask.

AU site:

http://www.carnival.com.au/loyalty/benefits.aspx

US Site:

https://www.carnival.com/loyalty/benefits.aspx

I got the names from another poster on here who claims to have inside knowledge on not only the Vista class, but the following class as well:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=49893387&postcount=25

 

And in reply to Micah's Granddad, it would not surprise me in the least to see a Vista-class ship in China. Carnival could home port one in Miami, another in Long Beach, and then one in China - the West Coast gets a newer boat, China gets a newer Carnival-branded boat (Costa and AIDA are already in China, and the Carnival Splendor will relocate to China in 2018), and there's still a Vista-class boat in Miami, even if it's not the Carnival Vista herself.

Ok, Its time to set the record straight. I'm sorry to say that post want my attempt at sarcasm/humor. There is absolutely no truth to it at all and I attempted to make its appear as a sarcasm/humor in the post, but apparently it fooled some. Sorry for the misunderstanding and I can assure you I am not a time traveler.

I didn't know that the card slot controlled the AC - I thought it only controlled the lights. If this in fact is true - I really appreciate the heads up.

Looking back on it, I'm not 100% sure the switch did control the AC. However, it would make since seeing as it takes much more electricity to run an AC that it does to power the lights. I'm sure someone will correct me if I wrong:-)

A couple of things about the Magic.

First, cabins on that ship will have a slot for your card to keep lights and AC on. You don't have to use your S&S card any card will do even a business card. I left one of my Business cards in the slot the entire time. I know it defeats the purpose,but with the AC off with direct sun i found it almost impossible for the AC to get the temperature back down by itself.

Second, if you in a balcony and it has gotten too hot and you want to cool it down really quick, try this. Prop your balcony fully open followed by opening your cabin door for at least 30 seconds. Then close your balcony door first followed by your cabin door. The outside hallway is designed to be a positive pressure area and from my experience always slightly cooler than I can ever get the cabin. This will flush all the hot air(and any lose papers if your not careful) outside. My wife also insists I do this after I, um, use the facilities.

There is a Red Frog Pub on the Legend. I think it just doesn't serve food. I do know on our last cruise(on the Legend) that the first person to the Red Frog Pub on embarkation day got a free bear.

I'm not a drinker so I never visited it.

I've been on the Magic twice and it was well...magical!!! As for the Sunshine, being a red headed ginger my dermatologist would have a fit as she is always telling me to avoid sunshine!:D So my vote would be Magic.

In all seriousness I haven't been on the Sunshine, but I will say the Magic is my favorite ship so far. She just recently went though a dry dock and got the FUN 2.0 upgrades and she was still my favorite ship even before she got them. If I not mistaken she is the only ship with the new Guy's BBQ joint. Not even the Vista has that(correct me if I'm wrong).

Ok, I get it, I fell for it too. The question was "places to eat" not places to get food!:p

With that in mind, I think it can be put simply just by saying, anywhere! Though I haven't tried eating while on the ropes course yet. Sounds like a bucket list item!:D

I would advice against trying to eat something underwater in the pool or hot tubs. Yes, I have seen someone who was drunk try this.:eek:

I don't think its been mentioned yet and while it doesn't have beautiful views, I have really liked the "Behind the Fun" on ship excursion.

It can only be booked on the ship and it fills up fast. They take you on a special tour(usually on the last sea day) to all the areas you normally don't see and then they tell you how everything works. You get to see everything from were they do the laundry, the galley, engineering control room, the massive refrigerators that store food/bear and it ends on the bridge where you meet the captain and the bridge crew(there is a lot more I didn't mention). Its really informative and it takes about 3-4 hours.

One thing your will learn if that for every crew member you see above deck, there is another two below deck that you never see.

I've done it on the Magic and Fantasy.

One neat fact I learned on the Magic tour. To desalinate water on the magic rather than wasting energy applying heat to boil sea water, they simply apply ocean water to a vacuum so it boils at room temperature. I know Im a nerd at heart, but who ever came up with that was a genius(someone needs to tell this to California).

You are certainly correct about that! After all we went through, AON is imprinted in my brain for life!:(

I've never had a chance to ask this of someone who had a major medical incident. If you don't mind me asking, do you think there was any benefit to having "Carnival's insurance" with regard to the ship services or paying for those services? Do you think having another insurance been more of a problem?

I think I already know the answer, it would a great reference to point to for people who insist Carnival insurance is better because its "Carnival".

We typically cruise with 2-3 different types of OBC and have never had any problems.

In the past we used FCC certificates with owners OBC

Hearing both you say that, upsets me a little bit(with Carnival not you). At the time I wasn't sure what else I could do. Part of me wanders if I was just told that to get off there case. Anyway it was years ago and its not worth dwelling over the past. Besides, I think both of you just answered my question.

Being the 8'th person(yes I counted) to endorse the Italian restaurant, I will say I enjoy I like getting there early at a table by the window and watch the activities bellow at the cruise terminal.

However, I'm not sure this is on all Carnival Ships, but on my last cruise I learned before we sailed that on the Carnival Legend, the first person at the Red Frog Pub gets a free beer. We had FTTF and I told the people behind us about it(since I don't drink) and they later thanked me and said they were the first and got it.

As other have said other insurance options are cheaper and better.

That said, I hear a lot of people think the offered insurance is somehow better better because "Its Carnival's Insurance". Well the truth is, it isn't. The Insurance company is actually AON and the policy itself in underwritten by Transamerica Casualty Insurance Company.

So weather you choose "Carnival's Insurance" or not. You will still have to file a claim with someone who isn't carnival.