rocketship

The guy that is in the EA Sports Bar most of the time, taller gentleman, was incredibly nice and willing to talk alot about ship life and all the ports.

Our favorite was Alex(or Allen) running around the aft pool deck. He was funny, quick service and always made sure we were good to go with drinks.

Just got off the July 12th sailing and we were in the Renoir dining room. We talked to a bunch of people on board and everyone who had YTD was in the Renoir... And it was only the lower section of the Renoir. Upper part of the dining room was still seated dinner.

Didnt meet one person who had YTD in the other dining room...

Yeah I noticed the line getting considerably longer after us and we were zone 1. I know some people believe that FTTF is a waste of money but we love it.

I absolutely love FTTF... We have previously purchased it 3 or 4 times.. On this particular cruise, we had no tender ports. We were also arriving day of on an airplane and wouldn't be to the port until around 12:00 and then on debarking, our flight wasn't until 7pm that night... So we didn't see a real need for FTTF on this cruise. I wish I could go back and pay the money to skip that line. haha.

I hit platinum on my cruise in October, so I no longer have to worry about it!!! Yay!!

Just wanted to post a quick review of our family cruise aboard the Conquest.

 

Arrived at Port Everglades at 10:45. We had FTTF so we bypassed the line and went straight to security and then went to get our sail & sign cards. Once we finished we noticed that the waiting area was packed but there were people already boarding so we asked and they told us FTTF had already been called so we walked directly in at 11:15.

 

Disembarkation was also very smooth. They called FTTF at 7:30 and we were done with customs before 8.

 

We have sailed NCL 3 times, RCCL 3 times and Carnival 5 times and this has been our favorite cruise so far. Great job by the Carnival Conquest crew....

 

Man, what a difference FTTF makes... We had the complete opposite experience with Embarkation and Debarkation. By far the WORST of all my 13 cruises. Embarkation line was ridiculously long, I would guess 3x-4x longer than any line I have ever encountered... Debarkation couldnt get worst right? It did.. They called our zone (zone 8) and by the time we could get down from Lido deck, to deck 3, they were already calling the next zone. Luckily we beat those guys, but were still in for an over hour wait to get out of customs. FOUR customs agents working. I was flabbergasted. And the way they had the lines/ropes setup, I get the feeling they experience that often.

Like I told Carnival in the reviews, everything starting with the first step on the actual boat, to the last step off the actual boat was absolutely perfect. It was the before and after that was a terrible experience.

Sc4125 I'm on the same sailing as you. I received the email yesterday but with a boarding time from 12:30 - 1:30.

Same cruise and same boarding time! We are flying in day of the cruise though, so cross your fingers its an easy and successful flight! :)

I really don't know why they don't let you prebook it. NCL charges $5 less a day if you pre purchase it online. I think they would sell more of them if they allowed pre purchase online. Some people change their mind when they get on board, or they wait until the second day because they may not drink much on the first day.

Completely agree with you on this. I think they should pre-sell them. Like you said, it only opens a revenue stream that you previously didnt have. There is nothing to lose. Cant lose something that isnt available to be lost anyways. Rather, you only have things to gain, like people committing to it before hand, they may have either been on the fence or change their mind once they are on board!

What a terrible program that serves no real point. Just budget your expenses and plan accordingly. You really need carnival corp. to hold your money for you?

I budget and plan just fine, yet I still use this program.

Do you have a savings account? Why? If you budgeted and planned accordingly, there would be no use, as the money would be in your checking account at any time. :rolleyes:

The sports bar should be open by 1pm on sunday, but the feed will be the cbs Miami station. You will probably get the dolphin game that day, and what ever other game cbs Miami puts on there station

This is accurate. One of my biggest complaints(and its not even that big of a complaint in the grand scheme of things) is that they dont have all of the games in the sports bar. Cant wait until the new internet packages roll out fleet wide, ill just stream it. :)

We have had a mix of everything. I personally love to meet new folks and always try to make friends with them. I think Carnival usually does a pretty decent job at matching people up. We usually get paired up with couples that are similar in age to us. Our last cruise, we had 3 other couples at the table. One couple, we ended up really liking, hung out with multiple times throughout the rest of the cruise. The other two werent really our type of people, but were very friendly. We hung out sometimes too.

I am going to miss when all cruise lines go to YTD...

I was just there in March and its quite the opposite. There was no crowd at all. Felt like we had the place to ourselves. There were obviously people there, but they have so much seating and beach front, that there were even empty chairs/loungers all day. The only complaint I would have had, is that my food did not come out with everybody elses. We were in a group of 6 and 5 of the 6 came out at once and mine took about another 30 minutes. They said they had ran out of chicken and were cooking more, so they didnt want the rest of my food to get cold, so they held off on making the plate until the chicken was ready. I cant even complain about that because the service was great and the water/grounds were beautiful. Our group agreed it was purely paradise.

Im sweating our cruise coming up... Our honeymoon cruise is on July 12th and we are getting married on July 11th. So flying in the day before was not an option... And I couldnt find a decent itinerary for the 13th that we hadnt taken many times. Im hoping that since we are flying out, on a non-stop, giving ourselves about 4 hours of delay time, we will be ok. Also, we are flying into Fort Lauderdale, so if at last resort, we may be able to catch a flight to Miami and drive over...

Everybody say a prayer to the cruise/airline gods for us! :)

I saw that too. On the July 4th cruise and hope it will be available.

Its one of the new things that im most excited about.. Really hoping its on by July 12th...

I saw John Heald answered your question on his blog....

He said she is scheduled to get it in July... As I am on a cruise in July, Im curious if anybody has an exact date or know that when they say "______ ship gets it in _____ month" does that normally mean at the very beginning or a certain sail date...

What's the difference in buying cruise cash and just putting the money aside?? % off??? Not trying to be rude in any way, was just wandering...I think years ago there was something, Fun Cash or something like that, that you could purchase and they mailed them to you. We just starting throwing it a jug with cruise money on it. At that time we weren't saving anything..

This is a good question. As I have used cruise cash multiple times, its basically the same thing. You get no added benefits of cruise cash. I believe Carnival implemented for people who wanted to go ahead and put money on their sail n sign accounts. If you can put it in a jug and not use it before the cruise, then thats one way to go. For me it was the convenience. I like to buy $100 in cruise cash each time I get paid. It doesnt hurt when it comes out on payday and by the time I get to the cruise, I have a built up account already.

To answer a few more questions:

Yes, you can use it towards Cheers. I

Yes, you can use it in the casino.

No, its not refundable. However, if you take it into the casino, get chips to play, then just turn the chips back in, they will refund you in cash. I think they take a small fee, but its better than losing the money or spending on something you dont want to. :)

They certainly use it to see what the latest creative way to smuggle is... And no I don't and never have.

haha lets not start that debate here.

I spend most of my day at work, working through solutions for my clients, learning their customer's behaviors, get an insight on how and why they buy, then deliver a solution that can build on that. I just want to bring a little bit of an educated opinion to the conversation. No matter who is right or wrong in this situation, I believe that if enough people reach out or talk about it, Carnival will notice...

Thank you OuttoSea.. I was going to make that comment... CC really needs to get over itself. Yes, there are a lot of members but hardly making up a majority of the 59,000 passengers Carnival has each week.

You guys are correct, very few CC members are on any given cruise.

The point I think people are trying to make, is if you are willing to spend your free time on a message board discussing the topic, then you are very likely to also spend time speaking to people in real life about it. Carnival definitely has people reading this board. For most topics, they wouldnt respond in an official way. Almost every company has people and software that monitors the web for mentions or discussions of their brand. Carnival(and all cruise brands) is unique in that they have a WHOLE site dedicated to nothing but their product. They would not miss out on the opportunity to gain more insight into their customer and how they can influence that in the future to spend more time with them.

If you wanted to make that the rule in your home, you certainly could but it seems you haven't and that is your choice as well. But IMO, you're looking at it from the wrong viewpoint. Let's say you were having a business meeting at your home with fellow members of the board or clients. What would you think if everyone brought their uninvited spouse and kids with them as well.....and maybe a few friends to boot (this is exactly the issue Carnival has had)? The party is for people who have attained a certain level with Carnival. If a person doesn't meet that level, they are not invited. Just because it may be your spouse still doesn't give him or her the right to go. You of course have the right to not go if you think they would make your spouse feel uncomfortable which is the way I would do it but you don't have the right or expectation that Carnival should bend the rules for you.

 

BTW, a couple of watered down $6 drinks for your wife x 99 others who felt the same way x 24 Carnival ships equals $28,800 per week or $1,497,600 per year for Carnival in stolen product.

The exact same way that carnival is making sure that only the actual VIFP is allowed in is the exact process they could use to make sure it's only the invitee plus their guest and not everyone they are traveling with. As stated many times, I'm not asking for them to bend the rules. They can do what they wish. I simply believe it's the wrong way to conduct business for this situation.

As for your cost savings comparison, this is something I'm very familiar with. Actually a professional as my career is in marketing, advertising and branding. Generating an ROI. Do you know how many companies would KILL to be able to have a captive audience, for an hour, while actually using their product for $12 per person. Like someone else said, they wouldn't look at it like that. They would use actual hard costs and I'm guessing it's less than $5 per person.

The problem is, while Carnival does not make the rules in your home you seem to think you should be able to make the rules in Carnival's home. Therein lies the difference.

Man you guys are ridiculous.

I don't think I should be able to make rules in their business. I gave my opinion on why I believe this is wrong and why I will not be participating.

Way to put words in people's mouth. :)

What kind of analogy is that? It is a reception for their most loyal guests. Period. Not everybody they can drag a long, part of their extended family of friends or pople they met waiting to board. If you tjonk it is a couple of wwatered down drinks, than I guess you won't mind not going. ;)

Where in the world did I mention bringing anyone except for a significant other? I only ever said "and guest."

Im not sure how you can say "what kind of analogy is that?" Did you read my whole post? I am comparing a party/celebration/reception that Carnival is throwing to a party/celebration/reception that ANY other person/company/organization would throw. It is literally an apples to apples comparison.

Once again, if you read my original post, I said I wouldnt be going. ;)

And your point is?

haha nevermind, ignore my previous post.. Logic clearly isnt your thing.

So marrying you makes her special? :cool:

No. Wow.... Man you guys really missed the point.

Lets say I decide to have a party at my own home. Do I invite over my friend, who I have known for many years, but tell him that his new wife isnt invited because I haven't known her as long? What if they traveled from out of town to this party? How often is any invitation to a celebration or party in this world, not extended to the recipient's guest? We arent talking about a free trip to Tahiti here. We are talking about a couple of watered down $6 drinks.

I have spent 35 years in the tech industry teaching and installing total business systems in some of the largest companies in the U.S, and Europe. There is nothing but a simple app that can be written in a few hours, and this is not a simple app, no matter what you think or say. Every ship has it's own business system that has to be balanced and closed at the end of each cruise and then sent to corporate to be consolidated into the corporate systems. If you think that the minute you complete a transaction on a ship that it appears and is visible in the corporate system and visible on line in your account, then you have even less of an understanding of how these things work that your previous comments indicate. But go ahead, have your techi friend write it in a few hours and lets see how bad it really is.

Amen. As a 'techy' guy who has done his fair share of coding for most of his life, I can say you are absolutely right.

Her techy friend might be able to do this on a solo platform that will run on his/her own computer, but implementing on the many systems that Carnival uses and throughout their fleet of ships? LOL! Im imagining the nightmare already.

Welp, this will certainly keep me away from them. Im turning platinum on my next cruise, however I am also getting married soon. My new wife hasnt been on nearly as many as me, so now I have to tell her to hang out somewhere for an hour just so I can go watch an infomercial and enjoy a free drink? Nope, no thanks.

Carnival, this is a great way to start alienating those younger people who have been faithful to your company, who are trying to bring new people into your brand.

I like the idea of adding on-board expenses to the point system, but I think your totals are pretty far off... Maybe I mis-read it, but let me take a shot at it...

If I take (12) 7 day cruises, that would get me 84 points for cruising. Then if I spend the absolute max on all cruises, that would get me an additional 120 points. Lets say I book 2 excursions per cruise. Thats another 12 points.

So I have now taken (12) 7 day cruises, spent over $1,000 per cruise while on the ship and booked excursions through Carnival, and have a grand total of 216 points. And I still don't qualify for 'platinum' level(aka priority boarding)?

Doesnt make sense and WAYYY more than their current system to get to platinum. If you dont spend much on board(lets say around $200 per cruise) you would have to go on over (30) 7 night cruises to be considered a 'platinum' loyal guest...

However, with that said, I think you have come up with some pretty interesting and very doable new perks. I really do like the idea of on-board spending count in some way.