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We have already booked our complimentary Specialty Dining on our 2/27 Rotterdam cruise. We used mine for the Tamarind and DH's for the Pinnacle Grill - paid for the second person on each. We also booked the Canelletto at full price for another night. Will get 25% back on out of pocket costs for the dinners as OBC as we are 3* Mariners.

Our 2 Moderna vaccinations and the booster are all handwritten on our CDC card - no stickers and no problems having gone on 3 cruises with it that way.

Two weeks ago, DH and I embarked on a Carnival cruise and at check in we were told our cabin had been changed (to the better) due to cabin maintenance issues. Well, it wasn't better at all We always book a balcony or suite mid-ship and the change was to another balcony 1 cabin from the forward of the ship! I have some mobility issues and never book anything way forward or way aft. DH went to Guest Services to request a change and they couldn't guarantee it and we would have to wait until that evening to see if anything was available. That seemed too complicated so we kept the changed cabin and discovered that others in neighboring cabins had also been changed due to cabin issues - we had all been booked on Deck 6. We let Carnival know in our return surveys we were not pleased. We have another Carnival cruise booked for May and received a free upgrade to a suite the other day - coincidence or not?

DH and I sailed on the Rotterdam for 11 days in Dec. in a mid-ship Vista Suite (5139) and loved the location. We are also sailing on the Rotterdam on Feb. 27 and March 13 in mid-ship Vista Suites. We enjoyed the Vista very much in Dec. and am sure we will also enjoy it on the next two cruises. A couple of caveats - we felt the suite is smaller than it looks in the photos and the bathroom is quite small. The verandah was fine with plenty of room.

DH and I always rent a clamshell when we go to Half Moon Cay (all Holland America cruises). It is a cheap way to get some shade on the beach if you want it. Or, you can put the loungers outside of it. There is a staff person on the beach to take you to one. I haven't read the reviews, but I can't imagine why they would be horrible. With a disabled person you might want to ask the staffer to get one close to where the beach starts as it is difficult to walk in the sand if disabled.

Simple solution if you want to cruise - get vaccinated. If you don't, enjoy your land vacations.

So glad to see that masks are still required. Not going to be sailing on NCL or Royal Caribbean since they have mostly dropped their mask requirements. Also glad to see I can smoke in the casino again.

Thanks for the help!

DH and I have one complimentary specialty dining on our Feb. 27th Rotterdam cruise. I clicked on the Comlimentary Dining box and made reservations at the Tamarind. When I go to my cart, it shows I have to pay for it. If it's complimentary why do I have to pay for it? Help please.

I never use a travel agent of PVP for Carnival, but I wanted to cancel my Jan. 16th cruise the week before it and I won't hold on the line for more than 15 minutes. Under Plan on the Carnival home page you can request a Personal Vacation Planner who will get in touch the next business day by email. I did that and a PVP contacted me the next day and I easily cancelled my cruise and booked another one for May. No waiting on hold on the telephone! I have since booked two other cruises without his assistance.

I'm glad the Covid protocols will be continued by Carnival. I wish they would add that a booster shot would also be required. Holland America must be getting pressure to add the booster to its requireents as we received an email from them early last week asking if a booster was required, would we still cruise. I said definitely yes. The more we can do to mitigate Covid the better off we will all be.

We had a Vista Suite on the Rotterdam for our Dec. 2022 cruise and have booked 3 more for Rotterdam cruises in Feb., March, and Nov. 2022. We like the extra room and the bigger sofa. However, the bathroom is smaller than we expected. The big payoff is receiving double days for a suite - we will be 4* Mariners at the end of the March 2022 cruise! Mostly due to 6 Neptune Suites on 10-11 day cruises. We prefer Neptunes, but haven't been able to get reasonable rates for them lately. Have never stayed in a Signature Suite.

Can't answer your question Zelker about the TV swiveling to the sofa - we only had it on once in 11 days to watch the safety lecture on embarkation day and a few times to look at menus and we happened to be on the bed.

We received one after we cancelled our Jan. 16th cruise as I had used one to pay for something on that cruise. We actually received two, but our PVP called and said to use only he second one as it was a mistake to send us two. We are going on a cruise on March 31st, but I'm going to save it for our May 1st cruise and buy a bottle of liquor for DH to have in our cabin.

We received 4 great masks in our Holland America cabin in Dec. Will be going on a Carnival cruise on Jan. 31st. We were wondering if Carnival was going to also provide masks. The Holland masks fit perfectly, were cloth and wash easily and keep their shape.

We are Platinum and I just did the online check-in today. Mostly went well with a couple of server errors that I had to do a couple of things over. Got it done, chose our arrival time, and printed out the documents.

On the Carnival home page under Plan you can request a PVP and you should be contacted on the next business day. We have cruised 41 times on Carnival and never used a PVP until this week. I cancelled our Jan. 16th cruise due to Omicron concerns and needed help sorting out what would be returned to me and what would go to a new booking (FCC and OBC). I received an email yesterday (next business day after my request) and by this morning it was all sorted out and I had a new Premier cruise booked for May. I was very pleased with my first PVP experience with Carnival - sorry I can't give you his name. I always use one on Holland America as I need to in order to book great casino rates.

 In a previous post I said I filled out the online cancellation form and submitted it. I received the generic email a few hours later saying they had received the form. The next day the booking was gone. Yesterday, I received a $100 Carnival gift e-card to use - I used an e-card at some point towards that booking so this was considered a refund I guess. I have never used a PVP on Carnival before but signed up for one as I want to re-book and want someone to make sure my Future Cruise Credit and $800 OBC are there for me to use. I printed out the Carnival notes that said they would be.

I completed the form and received an email from Carnival saying they are working on it but there could be a wait due to the volume of cancellations. This is for our 1/16/22 Pride cruise. We have $800 in OBC from previous 2020 cancellations and most of the cruise was paid for with Future Cruise Credits. I read on the form that if the cruise was paid for with FCC, the OBC and FCC could be used for another cruise that has to be booked by March something 2022 for use through Jan. 2023. Any other form of payment beyond the FCC would be refunded. The cruise is still on my account, so we just have to wait now and see.

The CDC threshold for a Yellow status is .10%. For example, if a ship had 6500 passengers there were be 7 cases - not a significant number.

We've sailed on the Magic twice since the restart and both times we were in our car heading home between 8:30-9am. We did not carry off our own luggage. We are Platinums and our luggage is always in zones 1 or 2. Great thing about Port Canaveral is the facial recognition so no longer have to go through Customs. 

We loved the hand washing machines on the Holland America Rotterdam in December. A staff member was almost aways close by asking people to please use them. Theirs were different from the ones on Carnival but just as effective. Glad to see that Carnival has them now especially since the buffets are still self-serv. Buffets on Holland are only served by staff, no self serv.

 We have received our pre-cruise Covid tests for three cruises at a drive-thru site sponsored by our county health dept. that did the rapid antigen tests and all were accepted by Carnival and Holland America. I don't think it's the type of site where you get tested, just the type of tests administered. We had our results emailed to us within 15 minutes and we printed them out at home to take with us to embarkation. Plan on going to the same place for our Jan 16th cruise, although we drove by the site yesterday and there were about 100 cars or more waiting in lines! We always make appts. for the earliest times available.

My experience with Free Play on my two Magic cruises in Aug. and Nov. was no cash, but when I went into my account on a slot machine the Free Play was listed. I just selected how much I wanted to take out and played through that amount before I cashed out.

DH and I just received our Moderna booster shots last Thursday and were told it takes 2 weeks for the booster to be fully engaged. I don't know about Pfizer, etc. boosters and their timelines. Our next cruise is on Jan. 16th on the Pride.

I usually make hair cut appointments online before the cruise and select a day when in port as the cost is a bit cheaper. DH always gets massages and waits until he's onboard and goes to the spa to request a deal. For example, on the Magic in November, he managed to get two Swedish Massages for $99 each, regularly $149 each on port days. We were on an 11-day Holland America cruise in Dec. and he tried getting the same deals, but no luck as they only discounted the massages a little bit. We'll be on the Carnival Pride in January and he is already thinking about massages. His birthday is during the cruise and pre-Covid, he always received a $50 gift card for the Spa when his birthday was during the cruise. Wonder if he will receive one on this cruise?