icft

Is "being blessed by others" the same as depending on the kindness of strangers?

Asking for Blanche...

33 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

Thank you for your input.

If you are in the cruise business the industry standard is free food, or food included if you prefer. If you are in the casino business (land or sea) the industry standard is free perks, or perks included if you prefer. In both businesses you can try defying the industry standard and charge for the free (included) parts, but companies don't do that because they believe cruisers would go to competitors and gamblers would go to competitors.

If you are going to lump the paid parts and the free parts of one business together, a fair comparison with another business requires lumping the paid and free parts together for that other business.

I would lump the free and paid parts together for both businesses because the bottom line profit is what matters.

49 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

The food is included, not free.

Casino perks are included, not free...

4 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

Selling rooms on Carnival is to cover fixed costs. Onboard spend is for profit. It takes both.

 

The casino giving away rooms is the loss leader.

I thought giving away free food to sell rooms was the loss leader...

8 hours ago, TxTeach79 said:

Onto the next… we’re with three other couples; that’s it, two from the UK and one from Ireland by way of Australia 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let me guess... Irish?

7 hours ago, TxTeach79 said:

Going with a red here 

 

 

 

I'd go with her too!

41 minutes ago, TxTeach79 said:

Escape artist tonight in stardust 

 

Disembarkation training? Sid could have used that on his last cruise.

4 minutes ago, TxTeach79 said:

2a here. I’m really tired, but having trouble sleeping. Hit close to 15k steps each of the last two days, so that’ll do it I guess 

The other day you woke up and made your first few posts just as I was going to bed. Now you are going to bed 5 or 6 hours before I will.

Continue the trend. Soon we will be on the same schedule.

45 minutes ago, gopackgo21 said:

As a gambler that has only ever paid for one cruise (my first), I can confidently say that if carnival didn’t offer me a free room, I’d go with another line. We love carnival and will be platinum in August, but we have an endless amount of free cruise offers from Royal, NCL, Virgin, etc. And before people ***** and moan, I can confidently say I spend more on my free cruises than the avg person paying for theirs. I frequent the spa, the casino, the shops and tip very well. 

Welcome fellow scourge upon all that is holy and good about cruising.

2 minutes ago, TxTeach79 said:

My God. I think Terry is worn down from having to listen to bad karaoke every night. He just made me a second and it’s pure rocket fuel. Double Shot, tiniest splash of zero

I have noticed how with the free at sea drinks package, where you can get a couple of drinks or shots at the same time, they tend to be heavy on the pour.

2 hours ago, TxTeach79 said:

Sailaway from aft on the wraparound. Btw, I’ve told @HelloItsMeB about ten times today how much I want an aft balcony sooner than later…. Some day…

 

 

Good luck convincing her...

14 minutes ago, Stallion said:

That must look pre-tty, pre-tty good on his Resume

Actually it worked wonders for his "hookup" resume...

2 hours ago, TxTeach79 said:

Well, it’s officially a cruise now 

 

Can't believe Thriller dance is still a thing. One of my sons was part of a group of students at the College of William and Mary that briefly held the Guinness world record for "most people to dance to Thriller simultaneously in one place". That was back in 2009.

You guys waking up just before I go to bed is a challenging.

21 minutes ago, TxTeach79 said:

 

 

Well, that's different...

16 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I remember when they did those tournaments and personally I enjoyed them. Once I almost won, came in 2nd. I think I just got a size small shirt but still fun.

 

I dont have strong feelings about losing the $25. I did go into the casino in January and got my $25. Most unlucky ever. I never lost money so fast lol. I knew I should look for that german heidi machine I'm lucky on but coukdnt find it ... saw it later. 

 

I enjoyed the tournaments more so this is kinda easy come easy go. Royal only says gives you $6 but if you go in to play within 24 hours it turns into $8. So to me $25 was super generous. 

My wife used to always enter the free slot tournaments that came with diamond. She badgered me until one cruise I entered. I won and got this ship on a stick and a free cruise and entry to a big tournament - a couple of hundred thousand jackpot or some such.

We went on that tournament cruise and it was one of our least favorite cruises. Everyone on the ship was a slot fanatic. You could not find an open slot machine until about midnight. To top it off I was out of the "big" tournament the first day of the seven day cruise.

Ever since we avoid tournaments and tournament cruises. We keep looking for a cruise hosting a Southern Baptist convention.

2 hours ago, TxTeach79 said:

Wild that Buffalo Trace is 15 and included and Woodford is 23 and premium. Definitely not like that on Carnival and Princess. 

I'm a Woodford fan so this is a small peeve I have with NCL. But a Buffalo and Coke beats a Woodford and Pepsi so that cancels my peeve.

55 minutes ago, TxTeach79 said:

Headed back up… you always know you’re in Europe when the ground floor is floor zero

 

 

 

I don't know. In most of Europe what we call the first floor is known as the ground floor, but I think it an outlier to call any floor "zero floor." Sounds more like a warning...

19 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

I will leave that line alone…😎

That's not what I meant, but I like the way you think😁

58 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

... I was just going to say I hope we cruise together soon. 🥲

While I also have a thing for pom-poms, I have a completely different idea of who I want holding them...

4 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Who cares who offered it, who cares who pays for it (the Casino Operation, but I digress).  How is any of it disingenuous?  They have a perk, they remove a perk.  If they want, they can yank all the perks, nothing disingenuous about any of it.  Their ball game, their ball, their perks.  Hence the huh.

I agree. I was simply pointing out the error of saying the casino did it. Carnival did it. But as you said, their ball game. Just clarifying whose ballgame. As for disingenuous. By saying the casino did it at least 3 below applies. Knowing a little history, maybe more.

adjective

1. Not straightforward or candid; insincere or calculating.

2. Pretending to be unaware or unsophisticated; faux-naïf.

3. Unaware or uninformed; naive.

As to who pays for it, while the contract between Carnival Cruise Line and Global Casino Operations may not have Carnival paying GCO $25 to hand out the money (it may be more or less depending on where Carnival Corp. wants profit to appear and how much their attorneys figure they can get away with before endangering the corporate veils), legally Carnival Cruise Line is paying for it.

2 minutes ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

Not on cruises of five nights or less.  And there's a $5 surcharge for each ramekin of fancy ketchup after the first two.

Now you guys are just screwing with the heads of new cruisers 😆 There will probably be a thread started by someone worried they will make a mistake and get charged $5.

1 minute ago, jimbo5544 said:

Huh?

It's not complicated. If you looked under benefits for the VIFP program (you know, that thing with gold, platinum, diamond levels) you would have seen the old free tournament entry benefit listed under the benefits of the VIFP program. When covid came around you would have seen the footnote to the VIFP benefits saying that since there were no tournaments the were giving $25. All that was part of the VIFP benefits available to folks who never set foot in the casino. It was offered by Carnival, not the casino operation.

6 minutes ago, n6uqqq said:

I agree Carnival has the right to do whatever they see fit. However, blaming this on the "casino" is just a game of semantics. Is the Casino not owned by CCL? 

Also, bringing the casino into it is very disingenuous. This was a VIFP perk listed along with all the other VIFP perks like priority boarding etc. It was not a casino perk.

12 minutes ago, RoperDK said:

I have been, but I still cruise on Carnival sometimes.  All cruise lines are sailing full with higher prices and fewer extras. How long that will last is anyone's guess. We all make our choices based on how we feel when cruising on that particular cruise line.  What is a perfect fit for someone can be a great disappointment for others.        

Like minds here. Except for Journeys cruises we generally sail NCL now. That means the loss of the $25 doesn't much matter to us. But we did chuckle when we saw this. It is typical Carnival. Almost all the "temporary changes due to covid" that reduced cost to Carnival and service to the passenger were permanent while the temporary change that had a cost to Carnival and benefit to the passenger truly was temporary.