CruisingFromLA

Whoo hoo, saved me nearly $350 on my 7/27/22 Carnival Spirit cruise this summer. Worked on Cheers, Internet, Steakhouse, and Excursions.

1 minute ago, Saint Greg said:

 

 

Try a different device or clear cookies in your browser. It just let me do it on my phone. Saved a cool $50 on an Alaska excursion.

Thank you, this worked.

Just now, captainmayi said:

Are you typing in the code or copying/pasting?

I think it might be for certain sailings only. The code is working for my Carnival Spirit on 7/27 but does not work on my Carnival Valor for 5/21.

How long does it take to cancel and rebuy? I cancelled my Cheers and Internet package, but it says that I have already purchased it so I cannot rebuy it. Was curious on how long it took to refresh before you were able to purchase it again.

Not mad, just disappointed. Set my alarm clock to go off at 9pm PST to check in for my cruise that is on 5/21 and of course I get the message below. Dang it Carnival, couldn't you have waited a couple more hours. There are a lot of cruises that start on 5/21 and a bunch of us now cannot check in and have to wait 2 1/2 hours. 

Lastly, does this post count as getting back to normal of things we complain about on Cruise Critic vs the typical Covid stuff?  

It saddens me with the amount of people that has the mentality that ignorance is bliss. They have this idea that if I don't get tested, then that means I don't have Covid, and therefore I can continue walking around the ship so that it does not inconvenience my vacation. Thank you for those that are doing the right thing. For all others, how can you be so selfish? You not only put the other passengers at risk, but you also put the employees at risk of catching Covid. Yes, the bulk of passengers and employees are vaccinated, but it does not stop severe symptoms and death at 100%. In addition, employees get tested on a weekly basis, and if too many test positive, that ship will go into red status and future cruises on that ship will get cancelled for x amount of weeks. It can affect more people than you realize. 

Also just an fyi for US residents, your health insurance is required to reimburse up to 8 at home test kits per month per insured member, up to $12 per test kit. This has been in effect since mid-January of this year. Because of this, I have a big stockpile now and was able to take some test kits with me on my last cruise and test myself as needed. Everyone should be bringing some test kits with them on board to test themselves as the ship does not have the capacity to do everyone.

I wish they would integrate a separate line for those that just want soda, beer or a bottled water. I really hate waiting 5, 10, 20+ minutes for a can of soda. Hopefully Carnival starts adding more of the self-serve soda and beer machines on all the ships.

If you are getting this message below, there is nothing you can do at the moment. Some idiot programmer capped the max number of orders the Fun Shops can process each day. The only thing you can do is wait until 12am EST, place the order, and hope the prices didn't change. 

Granted it is rare that they would ever reach the limit amount, but as a programmer you need to think about all possible situations that might occur. This is a very simple coding error that could have been prevented. Hopefully they learn from this and change it so that it doesn't happen again in the future. Lastly, as a business why would you ever put a limit on the number of orders that you receive in a day? Someone really F-ed up here.

3 hours ago, n6uqqq said:

 

I am guessing the main reason for speed differences is Princess cruisers probably tend to be older and not married to their phones and internet so the number of users at any given time would be much less.

Except at 4am when everyone is still asleep, I was still getting 0.15 Mbps upload speeds on the Panorama on the premium plan. It is bad no matter the time or how many people are connected to it. In addition, when I was on the Radiance it was like at 40% occupancy and the internet was just as bad.

They did a long time ago, but has stopped since then. On my Panorama cruise in March, we were at above 100% double occupancy. The ship was packed.

You need the booking numbers and the last name of each guest to be able to properly link up the reservations. Once you have all that information, log into your Carnival account and add those bookings. Once added, you will see something like this on the left side of your screen:

Once added, you will be able to book restaurant reservations, excursions, drink packages, check-in, etc for all the bookings at the same time. The only issue is if the other guest are comfortable with you having full access to their booking, as you will be able to see everything associated with it. 

Once booked, this will be under your "Booking and Order Details":

I was watching a YouTube video on wifi speeds for different lines and now understand why I always get such shitty speeds on Carnival. Note my average upload speeds on my last 3 cruises were 0.10-0.15 Mbps (Radiance, Sunrise and Panorama). What I don't understand is that Carnival charges $14 per day for the premium plan, while Princess has the best speeds and only charges $9.99 per day. The wifi on Carnival is just not worth it.

When you get the chance, can you run a speed test on the internet? My past sailings on Carnival were painfully slow (avg 0.15 Mbps upload speeds on the premium plan, and that is if it was even working). I will be sailing on the Spirit in July and am curious if it is still just as bad as the other ships.

Can confirm. Was on the 3/12/22 Panorama cruise. Pre-paid for Cheers for both my husband and I. Due to work, he was unable to go so I went by myself. His portion of Cheers ($429.11) was refunded onto our credit card 4 days after the cruise got back. 

Can anyone confirm and upload a recent fun times for a sea day to show that Tea Time is no longer offered?

2 hours ago, 13cheermom said:

That kinda sucks!  We just got off a Princess cruise with their premium wi-fi (which was included, lol) but had no problems at all.  Even did video calls with great service.  Why does Carnival want to be so difficult??

Did you happen to do a speed test? I am curious what the speeds are for Princess. Recently on the Carnival Sunrise and the Carnival Panorama, I was averaging 0.15 Mbps download speeds. In addition, there were times that the internet completely stopped working and this was with the premium plan for both ships. It is pretty much unusable. 

Just to give you an idea, for my past 2 sailings on Carnival (Sunrise and Panorama) I was averaging 0.10 to 0.15 Mbps download speeds on the Premium Plan. It was painfully slow to even do basic things such as load a website. In fact, the internet went completely out at times. It is not worth it. 

4 hours ago, WorkerBee74 said:

Also yes, those venues are still all free.  We sail on Saturday so I am very happy that they still are - sounds like they're going to be for the whole 'inaugural season' so would be until July 2022 sometime.  

Honestly, I think Carnival will have no choice but to keep these 3 restaurants included for free as there is no room in the MDR to accommodate everyone. Have you seen how small the Anytime Dining MDR is on the Mardi Gras? It is puny.

The Carnival Panorama is currently packed. There are a lot of people onboard, which can explain the slower speeds during the day. However, it is day 4 and it is currently 3:45am. Most people are asleep right now, yet I am only getting 0.19 Mbps upload speed. Just super frustrated.

On 2/25/2022 at 6:29 PM, Saint Greg said:

Panorama will be significantly better than the others. Vista class and newer have upgraded internet. So Vista, Horizon, Panorama, and Mardi Gras are good. 
 

This is from Panorama.

 

Saint Greg, which internet plan did you get on the Panorama? I am on it now and am getting nothing close to what you got. I am currently getting 0.21 Mbps for download speed on the premium plan. The fastest I have gotten hasn't broken 0.50 Mbps while on board and it is currently day 3. Unfortunately location on the ship hasn't made a difference.

Am going on the Carnival Panorama this weekend and I thought I got a great deal for the Havana Aft Balcony. It was just under $1,100 all in. It was the P0Y rate, which I think was called Good to Go offer or something like that.

So initially I had issues with it but everything was eventually approved in the app. I have the California state health card (it is on the approved list that they accept for digital covid vaccine proof) that includes a QR code. I tried to scan that but it was giving me a message saying that there is no vaccine information attached to that QR code. Strange, ok I will just upload the California state health card with the QR code into the app. Nope got the same message. I recheck the approved list on their website and see that Cedars Sinai's QR code is also on their approved list. So I scan the Cedars Sinai QR code, nope same message. Then I try and upload the Cedars Sinai QR code and it said again that there is no vaccine record attached to that QR code. Getting super frustrated, I create a picture with my official CDC covid vaccine shot record along with the CA state health card with the QR code on one document and submit it for approval. Less than a minute later I get an email saying that it was approved and that I should have scanned the QR code in the app, omg whatever. Submitted my covid test results and in less than a minute that was also approved. I now have the green check mark with the "Ready to Sail" pass on the app. Hopefully everything goes smoothly when I board the Carnival Panorama this Saturday.

2 minutes ago, edudansil said:

Thank you for this! I know the first one is free, but are you saying they're free throughout the entire cruise? We took the first one, no charge. But then when we took a second and third after the steward restocked, we were charged for both. 

It is 1 free 1-Liter of water per guest that is Red VIFP level and above. If you have Cheers, the only place that the 1-Liter bottle of water is free is in the main dining room. If you try and get the big bottle at a bar or in your room beyond your 1 free one, then they will charge you. Therefore, you just need to remember to request the big bottle when you go eat dinner in the MDR.

1 hour ago, edudansil said:

Forgive me if this was already asked, but I did not see it anywhere. We're gold and have cheers. Do the large bottles in the stateroom not count as free ones? I think on our last cruise, still gold and with cheers, we were charged for them when we drank one. 

They are included, see below. Just make sure to tell your room steward that you are taking one as the VIFP benefit. That way they know to bill it correctly on your account and not just charge you for one.