ShamelesslyCruising

48 minutes ago, pcvtmom said:

We brought on a 12 pack of pop from one of our ports on a cruise to Hawaii. No one said anything. 

Thank you, pcvtmom!  It seems that the policy applies to embarkation and every other time you pass security.  I just realized that the sodas I brought back to the ship in Puerto Vallarta were in bottles not cans.  Security didn't blink at them.  Not sure if bottled sodas are allowed to be brought on-board usually.

On 11/29/2021 at 4:03 PM, kapcruiser said:

Can you bring on Can soda from a port that you dock in during the cruise?

On 11/29/2021 at 5:45 PM, Bgcruising said:

 

You can, yes.

I have done this before without thinking, grabbing various Mexican sodas at the Walmart in Puerto Vallarta.  Later, I wondered if I was just given a free pass that time.  Now I am wondering what the policy is.  Could you bring 12 per person at embarkation and refuel in port with up to 12 per person each time you pass security?  Experience anyone?

Thank you all.  I’m understanding that there really aren’t any other themes beyond the White and Gold, which I think occurs on a formal night. Kudos to Princess for emailing in advance about that activity. I also understand that participation is low in general and no 80s night.

If anyone has anymore insight into Discovery Princess themes or recommended activities on 7 day sailing I would appreciate them.

We are experienced cruisers, but new to Princess and certainly the Discovery Princess.  I’d like to know if they have any night themes.  It seems there is Love Boat white and gold night.  Is there an 80s night?  Just wanting to be prepared.  I couldn’t find a week of Princess Patters to check.  Any direction would be appreciated.

11 hours ago, ngrund said:

 

Don't they give you teabags? Or is it served already brewed?

They give you Lipton tea (regular and decaf) and the cheap green tea.  They offer better teas for a charge (I think it was $3).  You can always bring your own tea bags.

On 1/11/2023 at 5:45 PM, wemjam said:

I did see that, but we don't get the fun times anymore since they do not specifically provide them and you have to go ask for one at guest services.   We always use the hub app and was just wondering if it is in the hub app somewhere we are missing it?

It is definitely in the Hub app.  I kept trying to find it under "What's happening", but it was under the food.  You have to scroll down to the bottom to find it (I forget the section name, but it was something like "Hungry for more", around the Deli, Swirls, and Pizza details).  On the Panorama in December, we were able look ahead and confirm that it was being offered on future sea days.

Just be sure to skip dessert for lunch on those days. ;-)  Also, in my experience arriving late is fine, but you may find all of the macaroons and strawberries are gone and anything else that looks enticing.

13 hours ago, wemjam said:

Yes, it is what ever rate you book at.  Yes, once Diamond it will be in your account (visible to booking agent only, not you).  If you have a PVP use them to do it, if not call the Diamond Desk to do it.  Do NOT use a normal Carnival agent.... this will assure it is handled properly

Thank you very much wemjam!  This is very helpful.

Could anyone please let me know if the 3rd/4th guest free one-time benefit is applied to an early saver fare, does one retain the ability to price adjust if the fare for the 1st and 2nd passenger reduces later?

Bonus question: Do I need to wait for some notification of this offer being granted or can I assume it is usable following the cruise that I earned/turned Diamond?

By the way, here are the terms and conditions from Carnival:

Terms and Conditions | VIFP Club | Carnival Cruise Line

• Member's choice of one (1) of the following Benefits:
  1. One-time complimentary category-type upgrade on applicable booking. Upgrade varies by ship class and is subject to certain category restrictions and exclusions. Does not include upgrade from balcony to suite.
     OR
  2. One-time free passage for 3rd, 4th and/or 5th guest on one (1) Cruise. Benefit limited to cruise fare only. Benefit does not include, and Diamond Member will be responsible for any and all other associated fees, including without limitation, prevailing taxes, fees, port expenses, gratuities and/or fuel supplement, if applicable, for each guest.
• Benefit is redeemable by calling CCL’s Diamond Desk at 1(855)386-8437 only. The Diamond Desk is open Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. EST, and Saturday 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. EST, Sunday CLOSED. Valid VIFP member number is required. Offer is applicable to new bookings only and subject to availability and occupancy restrictions. Offer is combinable with carnival.com published rates. Benefit is capacity controlled and subject to change without prior notice.
• Benefit must be redeemed within twelve (12) months after Member reaches Diamond level and Cruise must sail within twenty-four (24) months after Member reaches Diamond level.

All three of our cruises on the Panorama in the last part of 2022 had boarding passes that did NOT say Priority on them as expected.  In most cases our boarding group was very low too (in the high "D" numbers).  Something is off.  The boarding passes did say "Diamond" next to our VIFP number and we were able to get in the priority lines as a result.  But boarding after check-in and security was delayed.

Thank you all for the clarity you have given.  I am truly disappointed in my PVP and I will be letting him know.  I tried calling the Milestone desk and ended up getting my call answered by Casino booking.  In the end they gave me a better number to call to get Guest Admin on the phone on Monday.  I'm removing this from our net booking completely.  Waiting for a more expensive cruise for sure.

Thank you!

Seasons Greetings to All,

I have read much on the topic of Carnival Milestone On-board Credit benefits and nothing I found seems to clarify explicitly one detail of the Carnival Milestone On-board Credit.  I appreciate an help you can give me in understanding this better.

Carnival says the following on the topic:

"In appreciation for their loyalty, the guest will also be granted the opportunity to redeem a future non-refundable onboard credit equivalent to 25%, 50% or 75% of the cruise ticket price, corresponding to the milestone reached."

Reference: GUEST RECOGNITION - MILESTONE REWARDS PROGRAM

Here is my question:

Does the Carnival Milestone OBC benefit apply to just that guest's ticket price (cruise fare minus port taxes and fees) or does it apply to the entire cabin's ticket price (all cruise fares minus all port taxes and fees)?

No one seems state this clearly in the various posts I have read.  Part of the reason I ask is because my PVP spoke confidentially about the program and then proceeded to put in a request to apply all 3 of our milestone benefits to the same future cruise where one of us has $1 cruise fare (from a great sale in Feb 2022).  If the benefit for that guest only applies to that guest's cruise fare than applying it for that cruiser to $1 cruise ticket price would the WORST POSSIBLE use of a milestone OBC benefit EVER!  If this is so then I am very concerned about the knowledge and experience of my Carnival Personal Vacation Planner.

On 12/7/2021 at 8:49 AM, jeffsnoy said:

I have anytime dining and you check-in on your phone.  You are notified when your table is ready so no lines and you walk right in.  I checked-in last night and was notified within 5 minutes that my table was ready.

Thank you very much.  This is exactly what I wanted to know.  I was not sure if this ability had been rolled-out to the Miracle yet.  I love this feature, it is truly amazing.

On 9/15/2021 at 9:36 AM, Elaine5715 said:

 

You can load any type of OBC into a slot, spin it once or so, "cash out" to your S&S.  This will transfer all slot credit into your player's bank, just like using cash.  Then you take your card to the cage and cash out.  What people are trying to do is go directly to the casino cage and asking for the OBC to given given to them in cash because they think that is what casino players mean by "cashing out" in the casino.

On 9/15/2021 at 11:45 AM, Elaine5715 said:

The casino cage doesn't care or know if what is in your player's bank came from cash in, charged to your S&S or won. They don't care.  They just cash it out.  When you ask those types of questions to crew who don't use OBC, you will get stock answers.  However, she would have needed to upload all her OBC to the machine.  If the OBC amount is too much, you have to do it a couple of times, upload, pay and cash out.   I think player banks max at $1500 and then if you try to add any more to your player bank, it triggers a handpay,  

Elaine5715, thank you very much for these posts.  I found them very helpful and accurate.

Thank you all for your input and assistance.  I was able to get the teams and conditions for the offer and these are the relevant sentences:

“Offer is valid for guests with a qualifying VIFP Club Member number, is capacity controlled, and is not combinable with any other discount or promotional offer.”

…

“Changes made to the reservation may result in the assessment of cancellation penalties or service fees.”

I will call up Carnival and see what they say, but it seems pretty iffy.

Greetings Cruisers,

 We booked a cruise with my mother under an offer she received exclusively.  She is the primary/1st passenger. The cruise is next week and she cannot make the cruise.  There are still 3 of us on the booking, with our own credit cards setup for onboard expenses.  Can we still continue on without her?  Since she won’t make it and it was booked under her offer (which was really good), will we be asked to pay for some penalty without her?  Well she get back her Port fees?

Does anyone have any ideas about how this is handled?

Thank you in advance!

28 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Maybe ask on the carnival forum. Not NCL. 

Good point.  I didn't find any existing related discussion there though.

A couple years ago my son and I figured out that we could play Minecraft multiplayer if we both just connected to the Carnival ship's WiFi without signing up for any Internet service plan.  We just connected to the WiFi to get menus and events in the Carnival Hub app.  We found this out Minecraft would link up players when a jerk joined an open world that I son had created and started typing rude messages to him.  However, this gave me a great idea.  If Minecraft could connect players via the ship's free WiFi allowing them to play together and text chat, couldn't a dedicated text app work?

I looked around and found these: https://mashtips.com/android-offline-messaging-apps/.  I struggled to setup FireChat on our phones, but Bridgefy looks promising.  Check out this video: https://youtu.be/SVJsL4uqC3Q.  The part about WiFi without out Internet access is exactly what I was thinking.

Does anyone have any experience with any of these apps and particularly with using them WITHOUT paying for Internet?

P.S. I am aware that Carnival has a $5 per person chat plan, but I have also experienced issues with the service.  Since the ship's WiFi service is always working, I expect a WiFi messaging app which is not Internet dependent (Like Minecraft) would be a great solution for inner-ship communications.  Of course, it would only work with the ship's WiFi isn't blocking those ports.

Good points, thank you.  

I thought of another...

Night Light = USB Battery with built-in flashlight.  We usually keep one in the bathroom.  Ours holds its charge easily for a 7-day cruise with nightly use.

I have a few which I won't share, because sharing them here would dilute their value considerably as they only work well because they are not known by many.  I am sure that some of you feel the same way.

I find the smoothies from the bar are usually too sweet.  However, mixing them with Vanilla Soft Serve makes for a perfect beverage with twice the volume.

Universal Plug adapter always gives us an additional (and sometimes the only) electric outlet.  Usually we just need the round two-prong kind, but once we needed a UK adapter.  OF COURSE, I always make sure that the items I plug into it can handle 220 volts.

Sorry for the mistake; I can't figure out how to edit my original post.  I meant the "Behind the Fun" tour (usually on the last Sea Day).

Season's Greetings Cruisers,

Is there anyone sailing on the Carnival Inspiration on December 3, 2018 who is planning to go on the Behind the Scenes tour?  We have an interesting and very responsible 12-year-old son who wants to go, but we don't really want to join him this time.  We are hoping we can meet a new family friend who might accompany him on the tour.

It used to be $5/day but wasn't offered on Glory or Conquest my past 2 cruises.

Thank you so much. I was pretty sure I recalled the same thing. It seems that the only per dail option is the $16 value internet deal. This explains why I didn't get the Social option on my last 7 day cruise when all I really needed was to check-in with Southwest Airlines on the day before our flight. Social's mandatory 7 day rate would have been more expensive than value's daily rate for one day.

Does anyone know the price of just one day of Social Internet? I just want to use it one day on the cruise. Pre-purchase seems to assume/require a purchase for every day of the cruise.

I really just want to know if I can purchase the Social option for one day of my cruise and bill it to my my on-board account. If this is possible, how much will one day cost me?

Wait until November 21 to view all sailings and then get a full refund and obc if nothing suits you?

To be honest, I only booked with Royal Caribbean because they had the best promotion going at the time (second guest was free or heavily discounted). I can't imagine that RCI is going to honor that promotion now. I feel shafted.

I'm a semi-seasoned cruiser, but never with RCI. This is my first time with RCI and my first cancellation.

Presumably hundreds of customers who planned ahead of time are now forced out of their cruises because RCI cannot plan ahead of time.

Hi All, I just learned about this cancellation through the following forwarded message:

"We'd like to provide you with important information on upcoming sailings. Due to ship repositioning plans, the following sailings are being cancelled:

- Enchantment of the Seas: 6/23/18 - 3/13/19 & 4/19/19

 

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience these cancellations have caused. In order to appropriately compensate you, we are offering the following:

 

Option 1: Re-book any other Royal Caribbean Sailing

- Please note some sailings will not be available to book until Tuesday, November 21

- Receive a credit to spend onboard per stateroom:

o $100 for Interior, Ocean View and Balcony staterooms | $200 for Suites

o Plus an additional $50 for each third or more guest to spend onboard

- Reimbursement of non-refundable airline charges with receipts (up to $200 per guest for Domestic flights and up to $300 per guest for International flights)

 

If you would like to cancel your cruise without re-booking, you will receive a full refund of the cruise, including any non-refundable deposit. You will also receive reimbursement for any airline charges, up to $200 for Domestic flights and up to $300 for International flights. In addition, any pre-paid shore excursions will be refunded to the original form of payment.

 

Sincerely,

 

Royal Caribbean International "

We booked a great deal during their promotion a couple months ago, now what?