notscb

The priority tendering is the point of FTTF for me when we cruise on the Panorama in December. I'm not waking up at 6am to get a ticket when I could just get priority, anyway. After my last cruise, I'll never show up at 11am again. When I arrived at 1/1:30pm, I walked straight through and onto the ship in 10 minutes. It was such a good experience that I'm making that my new normal.

I would 100% do the excursions and chef's table, as that's an experience in and of itself. It's a good opportunity to try an excursion you otherwise wouldn't, too!

Give it a few years and the Utopia and next Icon class launching for the pricing to change and become much, much more reasonable.

The crew do it at night after the pools close so they can clean the deck. Almost every night.

Right, but both of those packages covered drinks, it just depended on where you were on the ship. It's still drinks. The OP is complaining about not getting the same deal and is planning on borrowing from their friends package without paying for or having it included in their fare. In your case, you both had drinks already included (just in different ways).

It sounds like he's talking more about food quality for value, plus adding in paid options which are usually better quality overall. I also agree that Carnival's extra options such as Guys and Shaq's are some of the best food I've had on a cruise.

Is this not a different case, though? If you both had a package already, it's not like Carnival isn't already covering both of you. The situation being described in this thread is someone not paying for a service someone else payed for.

As others have said, and you said, they were offered a perk that you weren't, which happens all the time. If you are platinum, don't you already get drinks at brunch and an entire reception where drinks are flowing freely? Carnival is being inconsistent in some ways- and every single company you interact with does the exact same thing. I wish i could get $400 cheers for a week, too, but targeted marketing means we all get different deals at different times at the whims of their marketing algorithm.

That's a really good way to get caught and get your friends in trouble. Carnival doesn't look lightly on those who share their drink packages, especially Cheers.

Ok now i feel gooped. I never knew you could order a real order of ice cream with this cake! My server once brought me two of the little ones and I was amazed. Now I feel like I truly have the life hack.

Sure you can- it was his personal account. RCL didn't make him use a corporate account, and he clearly didn't sign anything saying he couldn't post non-official content. I'm not saying it's a good choice, but there was clearly nothing stopping him- versus if RCL had a chief meteorologist account that they could go in and edit/delete/control in addition to that person.

That's the point. Get folks super hyped up and interested in coming back because they feel like they missed something onboard.

This- it wasn't even on him that RCL didn't make an exclusive account that they could control and maintain history of, and I'm surprised an oversight like this happened.

I wouldn't be surprised, especially since Celebrity is owned by Royal Caribbean Group and that little island has made them a pretty penny, especially over the past couple of years. I wouldn't be surprised if they had a ship like Apex or Beyond stop there and even tender folks in (those ships have the really nice lifeboats that even seem luxurious).

I've done it- but it was in the pre-summer rush and a non-busy time. Port Everglades is like a 5 minute drive from FLL if that's where you're going out of. MIA is a bit further, but if you do land at 11 you should be fine.

I am one of those folks, especially since my first cruise in '09 was on the Triumph out of NYC and was such a great experience. I was also disappointed that this ship was getting re-deployed over winter as we were looking at taking a bahamas cruise in March, and NYC would have just been way more convenient. I hope that they work out some of these kinks/bugs as the crew become acclimated to the ship and the routine- especially food wise. Cruises aren't known for 5 star dining, but acceptable dining would be good enough.

I've seen 10% off shore excursion when you buy wifi sometimes, but otherwise prices usually stay the same.

That's why I was asking- since this thread is on the RCL board.

Virgin and MSC both have status match programs and might be interesting to look into.

What i'm a bit confused about in this is that RCL continues to push the "no serious injuries" line when we've all seen videos of people being directly hit by flying deck chairs. It seems like there was a failure on many levels here to have so many guests outside still when they could have seen this coming (cue the conversation about a staff meteorologist again).

Is RCL doing this, too? I know Carnival had texted this to their folks.

I think we need a Willdra fan club cruise where we can hear live commentary, based on the amount of positive feedback on your latest review. Thanks, as always, for sharing your sense of humor and experience with us 😄

Good luck! Definitely let us know how it works out. I'd definitely avoid any online forms or emailing them to credit you- a phone call would probably work best (at least it did for me).

I went on a cruise in 2009 and could only remember the ships name, rough month and the itinerary. When I booked a cruise last year, I noticed that it was missing from my account. I called Carnival and the customer service rep was able to find and confirm my sailing and learned that I had an older VIFP number, so she put in a request for the account I had now to be merged with that old account. That process took about two weeks but it eventually happened and I was bumped up in status. She did say that some of the cruises pre-2000's might not be in their system, but it's worth trying if you think it'll bump you up in status.

Same here. I was in a Deluxe OV on the Panorama in December of this year and less than a week later had an offer in my cruise planner for a cove balcony mid-forward which I gladly jumped on for $200 (saved about $200 from buying it that way when booking). I had to pay the upgrade cost on the spot but am still not paid in full otherwise.