jimbo5544

For us it was about half way thru, think it was day 6 or 7 of 14 day cruise. On our cruise they did this for at least two evenings. While I know there were Diamond guests there, there were also others who were not, I do not know the reason for that.

The issue is that the cruise line says it is verboten. There are documented cases of people being banned for life for breaking rules like this.

Agree, on 65+ cruises an over 180+ (no idea really) ports of call, the only time we took passports is when the cruise line (usually at the request/order of the port) told us to. There were times when the cruise line/ port had us surrender them, but that is a different story. Other than that I would never bring passports off the ship (it could only end poorly). There simply was/is no reason to.

Love the different decor

Agree on all of this.

For purs last year I cannot remember more than a handful of kids.

Our cruise was much different, we never made it to Greenland (chased by 3 hurricanes, 2 going and 1 coming), but I am pretty sure there are some pics of the Al Fresco dinner. Not trying to steal the thread.

Will tell you what I know. Ours was on a Journey cruise, and as far as I know only done on Spirit class ships. They are by invitation only, I believe they were started by Ken Byrnes (the singing Maitre’d). They are held outside on Lido, white linen and white glove service. Pretty special evening.

We LOVED the Al Fresco dinner, one of the highlights of our Greenland cruise,

If room location is key to your experience, booking early rather than waiting for a minute chance of a cancellation is always the way to go. Good luck and enjoy your cruise.

Bingo

Pretty close to an accurate assessment of the chances.

Part of what makes CC such a good site. Same to you.

LOL, so based on your comments, loyalty works for them but not for you. It is not important what label we put on it or what we call it. It also does not help the argument by implying anyone with a different opinion is a cheerleader, a grasshopper, or Kwai Chang Caine (great show by the way). You are correct that cruise lines need repeat customers, of course they do. What they do not need, nor do they want and they do not get, is the vast majority....wait, majority of their business from something as trivial as a loyalty perk (notice I did not say marketing program...want to know why?). Of course there are pros and cons to all cruise lines. You might be surprised on the how many lines each of us cruise on....not that it has anything at all to do with the topic at hand.

I was not joking when I said that Carnival thinks Galveston is the crown Jewel. It is, despite comments to the contrary their best homeport.

I get it, while I referenced your post, it was less commenting on your post than your post prompted my additional thoughts. We are pretty much on the same page...albeit that and $5.99 (probably a lot more now...) would get you a happy meal at MCD's.

Great review, thanks for doing it and bringing us along.

With Carnival it is all about options when it comes to home ports. It is one of the home ports that has a fairly small variety of itineraries due to its location. Others like Long Beach, NYC, New Orleans and even Baltimore have limited itineraries (for the most part).

Perks are perks, nothing more or nothing less. Each cruise line (or airline, or credit card company, or whatever) offers what they believe is small token of thanks for cruiser loyalty, That is it. These constantly change, the perk value can be altered at any time. Carnival’s situation is not all that unique, their loyalty levels have grown as more and more people continue to cruise (a pretty good problem for them to have). IMHO, they need to raise the bar, you simply cannot have 2/3 of a ship participating in something they offer to their most loyal guests, it is simply unsustainable. What NCL, or RCCL, or MSC or HAL, or whomever else do is really not meaningful. I am Diamond, and have been that for a fair amount of time. Would I love more perks? Sure. Do I think they “owe” it to me? Not a chance.

The pool of potential has little value, what matters is the amount dead presidents spent on a ship. Having a greater inventory (I would agree that PC def does, and Miami prob does), brings with it the cost to run those ships, hence the true value of what profitability is the company. IF we were talking the relevance of the city tourism, it would be a different discussion. Carnival does not care about that, they care about filling the ships and dollars generated by the clients that fill the ships. Galveston is now king, was king, and probably will be king till at least the new generation of ships come out. The only variable is profitability, lower berths filled and the revenue that drives.

Not sure what “outperforms” means. That said, I have heard Carnival execs say Galveston was the best performing port, but whatever. I would bet the ranch with anyone on Philly outperforming any Carnival port, especially if a single Spirit or Fantasy class ship would ever someday sail from there. But will move on.

Actual logistics are what they are. Ports like Bermuda have the ability t cherry pick how many ships they want (they also have a limited calendar market timeframe). They can only go so fast and so far and when you are on the bottom of the pile in terms of days available in port. My recollection of number of days in port in Bermuda (CCL anyways) was 2 days, but it is really a mot point.

Options are a good thing. We all have subjective views on just about everything. You have yours, I I have mine. They need not aline.

Galveston is the real sweet spot in that equation. Well over 10 million within a 3 hour drive (Houston, Dallas and San Antonio and add in the smaller ones.

Grass is always greener