mpicard

Had an almost Seinfeld flashback experience on Fantasy a few weeks ago.

On entering our cabin, there was a small wrapped piece of bar soap on the sink, just like you see in any hotel from the cheapest flop house to the most expensive luxury resort. Little bitty wrapped bar soaps are the norm in travel. On Carnival they have liquid soap dispensers in the showers. I don’t care for liquid soap, I prefer bar soap. So I moved my little bar from the sink into the shower, but it wasn’t replaced the next day. So I went down to the customer service desk and asked for an extra piece of bar soap and had my SNL-skit experience:

"We don’t have bar soap,” the rep said.

"But there was one by the sink when we arrived."

"Oh, that’s a ‘promotional item.’ We don’t replace promotional items."

"'Promotional item?' Soap? Seriously?"

"The liquid soap is complementary. The bar soap is meant to last you seven days. You can buy soap in the gift shop."

"Wow."

I tried not to laugh, it was both funny and sad that Carnival is cutting costs so much that they take a hard line on not doling out a .20 cent piece of soap for a probably rare request such as mine. This wasn't the only cost-saving measure noticeable --my husband is still going on about his supposedly watered-down martini--but it is the most bizarre I think I've ever experienced.

We signed up for the Tour #1 on Feb. 14. Maybe we'll see you all then.