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young_k92

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Posts posted by young_k92

  1. Four Carnival cruises under my belt. One MSC. I can only comment on my experience, but it seems to me, when comparing my last 2 on Carnival with my first on MSC, one of 2 things is possible. Either Carnival absolutely does not care at all about passenger comfort and MSC does or Carnival has subpar employees who are in charge of planning and/or piloting the ship (probably the wrong term, I apologize) in comparison to MSC. The Carnival cruises have been miserable with excessive movement causing seasickness and we couldn't even tell we were moving on MSC. Carnival is dead to me after our last upcoming cruise with them that I can't get refunded for. Point is, I'm not shocked Carnival left as scheduled and that MSC didn't. MSC is a vastly superior product to Carnival in just about every aspect at this point. Now, if they'd just get Guy Fieri and his burgers on board, they'd be the perfect cruise line!

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  2. On 9/19/2023 at 6:08 PM, Baggy178 said:

    In all fairness who needs a cabin cleaned more than once a day anyway.

    But for the rest Virgin seems to have their finger on the pulse.

    Me. Part of why I'm moving on from Carnival. Trying to decide who to move to. I thought it would be Celebrity, but I think it's because their marketing in the 90s was so good. Lol. Sounds like it might be VV. That status match I think clinched the deal. That's why MSC was the first trial run booked. Cruising MSC next week.

  3. 5 hours ago, eroller said:

    Celebrity is nothing like Carnival, pre or post Covid.  Yes there have been cutbacks which is the case on most every cruise line, but the atmosphere and demographics onboard are nothing like Carnival.  Thankfully a massive security force is not needed, nor do you read about the fights and brawls on Carnival which seem to be getting more and more common. 
     

    It’s sad because I used to love Carnival.  In fact I’m Platinum on them, but I’ve moved on.  It’s not that the product is bad, because it’s actually decent.  It’s the behavior onboard.  I don’t want to experience the excessive bad behavior while on vacation or the need for such a large security force.  

    Thank you! This was helpful and went a long way to helping me decide to try Celebrity on our next vacation. Several people have been quite helpful. I appreciate it!

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  4. 8 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

    You are correct. I don't expect them to sail through a hurricane. I do think they should have given the customers some sort of FCC that would at least have given them a head start towards taking another cruise. The cruise was undoubtedly billed and advertised as a cruise to Greenland. The prices on those Greenland sailings were literally running $7k-8k for a balcony when I priced them.  $200 per person of OBC is downright insulting. 

     

    A 25 or 30 percent FCC (like what NCL did in the same situation) is more in line with what should have been done in this situation.  In fact, it was what WAS done when the initial Mardi Gras TA sailing was canceled...and it was even canceled a year-and-a-half out!  (Guests were given a full refund and 25 percent FCC to use on a future sailing.) When we had a Vista sailing canceled because of propulsion issues, we got a 100 FCC (plus full refund of cruise.) I don't expect them to do that, but something like what they did with the Mardi Gras delay would have been appropriate. Presumptively the difference between then and now is Carnival was in a better financial situation back then because that was pre-Covid. 

     

    However, I don't think they are going to get back to being solvent by screwing over their best customers...and I guarantee the people on a Greenland cruise are generally speaking the people with the money and time to cruise frequently and not the blue cards who are cruising because they got a $99 deal for an inside cabin.  It seems like Carnival is more worried about just getting new cruisers in the door with super low rates who will probably never cruise again than keeping their current loyal customers and treating them well.  This Greenland cruise is just another example in a long line of examples. 

    " It seems like Carnival is more worried about just getting new cruisers in the door with super low rates who will probably never cruise again than keeping their current loyal customers and treating them well.  This Greenland cruise is just another example in a long line of examples."

     

    💯!!!

    • Like 3
  5. 13 hours ago, tigervixxxen said:

    I’ve cruised on Carnival plenty but not in a couple years. The difference isn’t as extreme as some folks make it out to be. At the end of the day they both are mainstream cruise lines. 
     

    What did OP hate so much about their cruise that it forced them to walk off the ship? Need more info there to help determine if Celebrity is a better option. 

    Decreased service. Food quality decline. Paid for "exclusive" spa room but spa sold passes to literally EVERYONE on the ship not in a spa cabin and allowed anyone to wander in and use the "exclusive" facilities. The amount of comped casino cruisers. Generally terrible behavior from guests. By the last sea day, my husband did an experiment. We were walking down an interior hallway. He said a polite "hello" and gave a smile to each person/group we passed. We were ignored and stared angrily at, I kid you not, every time. The ship was over capacity, and it's too small an area to be around that many nasty, drunk people for 8 days, much less 14. Hope that helps.

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  6. 13 hours ago, oakbender said:

    Since you are a Carnival cruiser just curious why you picked Celebrity and not Princess.  We have no loyalty to any cruise line and pick our cruises usually by itinerary or because a club we belong to picked the cruise.  i will say that Celebrity is our over all favorite but you can't beat Hal or Princess for itinerary.

    Less children, or so I've read when I Google "princess vs celebrity" anyway. I love kids. I babysit for a living, so I need space without them when I'm on vacation!

    • Haha 1
  7. 2 minutes ago, 1Virgo said:

    Strictly my opinion, but I would recommend booking Aqua class which gives you access to the Blu restaurant, much smaller and better food than main dining room.  

     

    Celebrity is not Carnival. 

    Good. I'm done with Carnival. We are no longer Carnival people.

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  8. First, this topic is not intended to start a verbal war. I'm honestly asking, because I do not have unlimited funds to spend on trying new cruise lines in an attempt to find one that doesn't make me, to be honest, hate cruising. And we're trying to decide if we should try Celebrity or move on to HAL.

     

    Background: My husband and I are almost-50 Gen Xers who cruise exclusively as a couple and have only cruised Carnival. We usually average about one cruise every 5 years. We started in 2005. We started on a 5-day on the smallest ship in the fleet, and have done 8-day as well as a 14-day Journeys cruise. Each time, we've cruised a bit larger class of ship, but we will never book a cruise on a mega ship. Just not for us. Our next cruise is in October on MSC (not YC).

     

    Our last cruise on Carnival was on the Magic in the Caribbean last January. For various reasons, it became apparent to us that, post-Covid, Carnival would not be receiving any more of our hard-earned dollars. It was so bad, that we were booked on a B2B and chose to get off the ship after our first leg, even with it costing us some of those dollars. We are stuck on a previously-booked 14-day Journeys cruise to Alaska next year, praying that the length, itinerary, and sailing month makes the other passengers at least semi well behaved. We're not snobs. Before Covid, we considered Carnival people to be "our people," but post-Covid, it seems to be a different cruise line.

     

    So, I've been reading a lot of the posts here on the Celebrity forum. It almost sounds like RCI is turning a once premium line into what Carnival was like pre-Covid. Anyone that can elaborate on this possibility? Honestly, I wouldn't mind trying a line that was like Carnival 18 years ago. We rather enjoyed our pre-Covid cruises. But I want to be prepared not to expect "premium" when it isn't anymore.

     

    And, if someone with experience could elaborate on the difference between Celebrity and HAL post-Covid, I would appreciate it. The plan was to try MSC first, then Celebrity, then HAL. But after reading these reviews, I'm wondering if moving straight to HAL might be a better option for us.

     

    Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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  9. 1 hour ago, morpheusofthesea said:

    Yeh, and keep all them interlopers out and in the rest of the ship.

     

    Yes, please do! I'm not paying for YC on my upcoming cruise, so I have no right to be there. Please, by all means, keep me and everyone else paying for steerage out of YC!

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  10. We are booked on our 1st MSC cruise next month. We have been complimentary upgraded from Interior GTY to a Deluxe Balcony on 13. Bella experience. We have had the opportunity to upgrade bid to a YC Interior for 2 weeks at what is an excellent price. But due to exactly this issue, we have refrained from bidding. We just can't justify losing our own private balcony space (that we were blessed enough to receive) for an interior, even in YC, if MSC doesn't do a better job of keeping interlopers out, per several recent posts here on CC. We plan to spend the equivalent of the lowest YC bid on "extras" to enhance our balcony experience. I understand the benefits of YC. And it's been tempting. But privacy on our own balcony versus paying to upgrade to what should be an exclusive experience and having to deal with jerks willing to cheat was more than I could handle. MSC really needs to nip this in the bud. Quickly.

    • Like 5
  11. I managed to get my credit card info to load for our upcoming cruise. I just received a new card with bonus points if I spend so much the first 90 days. I'm wanting to change cards. I can't seem to figure out how to update it on the MSC website, either mobile or on my laptop. Am I stuck with the original credit card? Or can I change this at check in at the port or onboard at a kiosk?

  12. The spa itself is great. But don't kid yourself. You don't get exclusive access. The spa employees sold so many day and week passes to people not in spa cabins, we who were in a spa cabin couldn't get into the thermal suites or thalasso pool until the cruise was almost over because the novelty had finally worn off for the people sold the passes. If you didn't take the "upgrade," you did the right thing. Total waste. Just buy a pass. Or, better yet, do what most people on the Magic were doing in January. Pretend you had pass and use the facilities anyway. The spa employees were more concerned with the people spending $200 for a massage to care.

  13. I know nothing official. Not like anybody actually would because the truth will be scrubbed by Carnival anyway. But we were on the Magic in late January-early February. It was obvious to anyone who'd ever been on another ship that something was wrong, either with stabilization or propulsion, or possibly both. We attempted to dock at Amber Cove. Several passengers reported mud being thrown as the ship attempted to dock. Then the ship abruptly left port. It was announced that the seas were too rough to dock. Even though another Carnival ship had docked less than an hour before. This was after leaving PC 5 hours late and having as rough a night as we've ever experienced, and we've been onboard a cruise ship at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay during a n'oreaster, so we know what rough seas are. We were not in rough seas. The sounds coming from the ship were being talked about by seasoned and honest cruisers (not the "cheerleaders," you know what I mean) during the entire cruise. We were scheduled for a B2B and were so disturbed by the ship that we elected to lose over $400 just to get off once we got back to PC. I would not get back on the Magic for a free cruise plus a $1000. I'm not sure I'd do it for any amount of money. Something is seriously wrong with that ship.

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