groundloop

I'm on an 8 day right now. Our elegant dinners are on the second night and seventh night. It's been a couple of years since the last 8 day I've been on, I'm thinking our elegant nights were a bit different on that one - so don't assume anything until you're on board and can verify the schedule.

This is making me wonder why in the world Carnival is sailing Legend to Greenland next year, and I'm questioning my sanity for booking one of those cruises.

We're also on Magic right now, currently watching the lights of St. Martin disappear into the distance. So far I must say this cruise has exceeded my expectations, especially after our disappointing Thanksgiving cruise on Freedom. After that one my adult daughter decreed that she's never sailing on Carnival again - this one might change her mind. I'm not quite as dramatic as her, but I'll say that if that Thanksgiving cruise were my first ever I might have decided that cruising wasn't for me. In any case Magic and her staff are doing a great job of handling the crowds, the food has been great, getting off the ship at St. Martin was relatively quick, and the entire family is enjoying a relaxing 8 days.

Thank you. I was mostly just disappointed because I'd been bragging to the family about all the great benefits of being Platinum. You'd think Carnival would standardize things such as this across the fleet instead of leaving customers on their own to figure things out.

Our cards worked fine when we returned to the cabin at 1:30, so not a card problem.

I guess I'm too nice.

SO.... I'm a brand new Platinum and just boarded Magic. I was foolish enough to make a big deal to my family about being able to drop off our luggage in the cabin before exploring the ship. Lo and behold we went to the cabin after boarding and it's locked, couldn't even get in with my sign and sail card so we're lugging our sodas and bags around just like before. What gives? (I wasn't going to hunt down a cabin steward to let me in, I'm sure they've got their hands full).

I'm having a similar problem with a refund for wifi that I cancelled because it was unusable. We were on Freedom for Thanksgiving and I'd paid for our wifi ahead of time. Now I know full well what to expect out of Carnival's wifi, it's never very good but always at least somewhat useful if you have patience. This was totally useless, they were obviously having some internal problems because half the time I couldn't even connect to the Hub app. After a day and a half of that I got Guest Services to cancel my wifi purchase, they said that since I'd pre-paid that they couldn't issue a credit on my sail-and-sign account but that I'd get a refund to the original form of payment in about two weeks. Well, so far no refund and no response to emails. (The first email I sent got a reply a couple of weeks later telling me to contact a different department.) Just a thought - it'd be great if there were a sticky thread at the top of the Carnival section with contact information for various customer service needs.

Yes.....exactly. We did 15 day cruise on Miracle from San Francisco and loved it (grapes and all)

I think you just talked me out of ever using Carnival's transfer service, I was actually thinking about that for a cruise this summer.

I'm a bit skeptical of the extent of the problem until I hear it directly from multiple people who were on the ship. I can see an issue with one cabin, or a small group of cabins, being conflated into "the entire ship is freezing".

John Heald mentioned that they will (hopefully) be getting some new gifts soon. I've got 7 cruises booked between now and the end of next year (I loaded up while they were on sale) so it'll be nice to get something different, but for now I'll be happy with a few coozies to replace my dwindling supply at home.

So theoretically I should be able to go to the MDR after we board and get switched to YTD? (My travel agent checked for me a few weeks ago and said that YTD was full. I wouldn't have shown up as Platinum yet as it was before my previous cruise). And I'll be happy with some coozies as the gift, we're in need of a few more.

What in the world is a "tour conductor" credit? If it's similar to an on-board credit offered by a travel agent as a perk it will appear on your account once on the ship.

I'll be getting on a ship in a few days for my first cruise as Platinum and have a few questions concerning the Platinum perks. Is "Priority Debarkation" only for getting off the ship at the end of the cruise or is this also for getting off the ship on port days? What is "Priority reservations at Main Dining Room....."? Does that just put you at the front of the que for Your Time Dining? What are the "Carnival logo gifts" we can get from the Photo Gallery? How do I send in laundry for the free "wash & fold" service? Do I just fill up the provided bag and leave it for the cabin steward? Is there anything that I shouldn't send through the laundry service (dress pants, shirts etc.)?

Something you might not realize is that once you get on the ship you're still going to have to find a place to sit and relax among a few thousand new friends while you wait for cabins to be ready (usually at 1:30). FTTF doesn't change that. I sailed Holland America this past summer, I like how they handle arrival and boarding much better. They assign a check-in time based on your cabin location, after you check-in you board immediately and have immediate access to your cabin. That's SO MUCH more relaxing.

No, that's not technically spam. It's a legitimate email from Carnival just hoping to nudge folks into paying before they really have to.

No. If getting on the ship a few minutes earlier is important you can put each non-platinum in a cabin with a platinum when you book and then go to Guest Services once on board to get spare cabin keys so that everyone is where they belong. Honestly though, I think the thing to do is to get one of the latest check-in times (about an hour before the final boarding time). By then there will be no lines, you can walk directly onto the ship and have immediate access to your cabin instead of sitting for a couple of hours in the middle of a crowd waiting for cabins to be available.

Carnival's website doesn't specify an age breakout for this, I believe that "child" is anyone below the legal age to purchase alcohol. One problem with the Bottomless Bubbles package is that kids have to get their soda at a bar and most of the time they're ignored by bartenders in favor of adults purchasing drinks who will most likely leave extra tips.

True, but then you get to port along with thousands of other folks who want on the ship at the first possible instant, wait in line for the check-in process, sit in the terminal area for an hour or more (usually) until the ship is ready, and then sit in the crowded buffet on the ship for a couple more hours until you can get to your cabin. It's WAY easier to get a late check-in time (about an hour or so before the final boarding time) and breeze right through check-in with no lines and waltz straight to your cabin.

I actually paid for FTTF one time, and then it dawned on me what a colossal ripoff it is. All that money and the only tangible thing I got for it was being able to get on the ship a little bit earlier. No Thanks.

There's nothing all that strange about it, there has been severe fog for the past week or so and tanker schedules have been impacted. The airlines are working around the problem by having planes carry additional fuel coming into Orlando. According to articles I've seen online the weather is lifting and things should be back to normal very soon.

You have to log into a wifi plan with your folio number and birthdate, pretty tough to forget doing that.

OH.... daughter is 25. She's an elementary school teacher.

Actually there's a couple of feet on each side, so tons of space. 😁 But definitely close enough to reach out and touch the side of the canal if you were so inclined. And yeah, on our Panama Canal cruise we thumped the wall pretty good one time.