groundloop

For only messaging someone, yes, the social plan should work.

Yep, that's the one. Thanks. Now I just need to convince myself to go. I'm thinking what will work best for me will be mid morning, hopefully it's not super crowded then.

The only time I've ever seen the drink package "discounted" was when it was offered as a package with the cruise rate, either an RU0, RU1, RU2 etc. rate. And I haven't seen any of those offers in quite a while.

That's exactly the case with my daughter, she won a couple hundred dollars at bingo and didn't spend it all on board. As I mentioned, the remainder was put on her credit card in a week and a half.

Yep, it's all over the place as to how long it'll take you. You're totally at the mercy of how long it takes the previous passengers to get off and clear customs, the crew to get the ship ready, etc. etc. Interestingly I was recently on a Holland America cruise and you can walk right on the ship and go straight to your cabin after you finish the check-in process. They assign your arrival time instead of letting you pick, I imagine that allows them to get cabins ready in 'blocks'. We had about a 10 minute wait in line when we arrived at the terminal, about five minutes to get through three stations at check-in and then on the ship and into our cabins.

I'm curious as to which religion has a stance against getting vaccinated. I'm not trying to start anything, just looking to be educated.

My experience has been pretty much the same, I've received email approvals anywhere from a few days to 3 weeks after submitting my request. I once had one fall through the cracks - I submitted four individual requests on the same day, three of them got approved quickly but after four weeks the fourth one was still outstanding so I just resubmitted and it was approved within days.

Out of all the cruises I've been on I've yet to make it to the fitness center despite my best intentions. We'll soon be on a 15 day cruise to Hawaii with quite a few sea days so I'll have fewer excuses for not working out. Can one simply show up to the fitness center anytime during the day to work out or are there certain times they're open?

My daughter had some money left on her S&S account, it was refunded to her in approximately a week and a half as I recall.

Cruise Director.... let me think..... oh yeah, that's the voice on the intercom incessantly telling me that I need to purchase bingo cards.

Yep, after more thought (and caffeine) I believe you're right.

For you it's going to be 2 days if you do an antigen test, or three days if you do the more sensitive PCR test. This is from Carnival's website - you're considered vaccinated but not up to date with boosters: NOTE: I think that's the correct interpretation. In any case you can do a PCR test at three days and you'd be ok. Except where destination requirements differ*, guests who are up to date with their vaccines may take their test within three days prior to sailing. Up to date means a guest has received all recommended COVID-19 vaccinations, including any booster dose, when eligible. Example: For a sailing departing on Saturday, guests may take their test as early as Wednesday and as late as Saturday morning, if guaranteed to receive results in time for check-in. If a guest is fully vaccinated but not up to date with their vaccines, they must take an antigen pre-cruise COVID-19 test within two days prior to sailing, or a PCR test within three days prior to sailing. If you are eligible for a booster and have not received one, you are not considered up to date. Example: For a sailing departing on Saturday, guests may take their antigen test no earlier than Thursday and as late as Saturday morning, if guaranteed to receive results in time for check-in. A PCR test may be taken no earlier than Wednesday prior to sailing.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll take a look.

I'm leery of booking something too early just in case there's a delay in getting off the cruise.

I recently used Seattle Port Valet on Eurodam..... it was great. I submitted all the paperwork online before the cruise, but you can also submit while on the cruise. The ship will leave a boarding pass in your mailbox, pick up the luggage for you on the last night, and the luggage magically shows up at your home airport. It was especially nice for us since we booked a later flight to give us the day to explore Seattle.

Before the cruise we'll be arriving the evening of Sept 13, not planning on doing much of anything that night. We'll be at the Giants game the next afternoon (Sept. 14) and the cruise departs Sept. 15. We'll be getting off the ship Sept. 30 (a Friday), so will have most of that day to sightsee. I've glanced at hotel prices on google and yeah, they seem kind of high compared to what I'm used to, but if I could get something for not too much over $200 it'd be great. And thanks for the suggestion, I'll look up Tadich Grill.

We'll be on Carnival out of San Francisco in September. Planning to spend the night in San Francisco after the cruise gets back so we can enjoy the city the next day - I'm probably going to book a tour to Alcatraz and then see what else we have time for. I'm looking for suggestions for an affordable hotel not too far from the port, and it would be nice if we could drop our luggage and have the hotel hold it for us (I'm assuming we won't be able to check-in until quite a while after we get off the ship). As a last resort does anyone have experience with one of the luggage storage places in the area. Also, any suggestions for things to do before the cruise? I've bought tickets to a Giants game for the day before the cruise that'll start at 12:45 so we might have a bit of time that evening to do something.

I see in John Heald's facebook feed that someone is complaining mightily about not being able to bring a blender on board, so I'd say that's a pretty good guess.

I honestly wouldn't sweat it and go for one of the later arrival slots. If you get on board after 1:30 (for most of the ships anyway) you can go straight to your cabin without having to babysit your carry-on luggage etc. with the added benefit of smaller crowds in the terminal.

Yep...... We were on Holland America in Alaska recently and Miracle docked right after we did. She obviously didn't have full maneuverability since she had to be helped in with tug boats. We'll be on Miracle in September going to Hawaii and are really looking forward to it as the Spirit class are my favorite ships.

Until last month I’ve only sailed on Carnival, not because of any hard and fast loyalty but mostly because of the convenience of being able to drive to port. I’ve been on over a dozen Carnival cruises and have sailed on Elation, Paradise, Spirit, Pride, Valor, Dream, and Magic. We recently returned from an Alaska cruise on Holland America’s Eurodam and thought it might be interesting to do a comparison of Holland America vs. Carnival...... Here goes: Embarkation - HAL wins hands down. Maybe I just got lucky this one time, but it went FAR more smoothly than any of my Carnival cruises. Once we got to the port in Seattle it was about a 10 minute line to get to the first check-in station and from there we went to two more stations and were walking onto the ship in 5 minutes. And here's a big difference - once on board we were able to go directly to our cabin, no waiting around with a couple of thousand other guests on Lido deck. And to top it off our luggage was at our cabin within 30 minutes. Note - HAL assigns your check-in time, you don't get to choose. I'm guessing this is how they manage to have cabins ready for guests when they board. Ship overall condition - Eurodam seemed to be better kept up than most of the Carnival ships I’ve been on where there always seems to be a few little blemishes here and there. Things like burnt out light bulbs in the atrium, mis-fitting cabinet drawers in the cabin (which at least didn’t affect functionality), etc. This isn't to imply that Carnival ships are horrible, but you do tend to notice little things. I found the general design and layout of Eurodam to be a bit ‘stale’. I love the wide-open atrium on Carnival, Eurodam didn’t have that and it made the ship feel a bit cramped. Also, the decor just seemed a bit stuffy and boring to me (yes, I love the Farcas ships). Cabin - Carnival has an edge (in my humble opinion) as far as the cabin layout (I’m comparing balcony staterooms), Eurodam has a desk and the sofa right next to the balcony doors which was a little awkward. Carnival also has more storage space and the closets are laid out a bit better. HAL beds combine to make a Queen, whereas Carnival gives you a King. Also, for me at least, Carnival’s beds and pillows are more comfortable. Carnival also has nicer curtains which do a lot better job of blocking light (which was a big deal in Alaska where it stayed daylight for so long). HAL does have a few things in the cabin which beat out Carnival though, the TV was far nicer than any of the Carnival ships I’ve been on and had far more choices of honest to goodness real channels to watch and a decent selection of on-demand movies for free. Also, on Eurodam the fridge actually kept things cold, on the majority of Carnival ships I’ve been on the fridge couldn’t do any better than to slightly chill anything. Food - Maybe I just got lucky this time but the dining room food quality and service on Eurodam was excellent. On Carnival recently it’s been a bit hit or miss. The buffet on Eurodam had a bit better food than what I’ve become accustomed to with Carnival, but not a huge difference. The major contrast with the buffet on HAL is that each and every station is staffed and they dole out everything. I imagine this cuts food waste, but I personally prefer to serve myself. Also, HAL has BACON each and every day, which was nice. Casino – It was nice that casinos on HAL are non-smoking, and that didn’t seem to be cutting into their business one bit. Entertainment - I like the Carnival theatre shows better, but of course that’s very subjective. One downside though is that Carnival largely shares many of the same shows across the fleet so lately I’ve been skipping shows on Carnival cruises because I’ve seen the same show before. Carnival does a better job with comedians as well, on our 7 day Eurodam cruise there was just one comedian (who was ok), and some of his shows conflicted with other events. On most 7 day cruises with Carnival they’ve had 4 different comedians with multiple shows each night. I will say though that I loved BB Kings Blues Club on HAL, the band was great and they had two very talented singers. Misc – Our Eurodam cruise director was much more laid back than any I’ve had on Carnival. She wasn’t on the public address system constantly reminding us to buy bingo cards, pushing jewelry sales, etc. Finally, Eurodam didn’t have any self-service laundromats on board. Lately we’ve learned to pack light and spend just a little bit of time at the laundromat, but that wasn’t an option on Eurodam.

It seems that the cruise industry doesn't really want those numbers to be known. And I wonder how long until this thread disappears.

They definitely make a ton of money from bingo card sales, otherwise the cruise director wouldn't spend so much time on the PA telling us that we need to buy cards.

Ever see videos of what spring breakers do to hotel rooms? I'm guessing the cruise lines want to avoid that kind of nonsense. In any case we're guests on Carnival's ship and are obligated to follow their rules.

For that matter how many other cruise lines have a "brand ambassador"? I've never understood why someone puts in so many hours answering what are often stupid complaints.