RoperDK

Lol, she is your "person" of the cruise. You will now see (and hear) her everywhere. It seems to always happen. We give our "person" a nickname. It seems like "Miss Alabama" is it for you. Our nicknames are many times not politically correct. It's so funny that we might not remember which cruise it was, but everyone will remember that special "person".

Lol. I save my towel animals all week and then group them together on the bed and then they give the cash tip to the steward on the last day. After all of these years you'd think the fun of towel animals would wear off.

We experienced that, too. It isn't that way anymore. However, when we were on our last Carnival cruise on Mardi Gras in Oct. 2021 our cabin steward did bring us ice in the evening too because I had knee replacement and needed the ice for swelling. He got a large tip!

People's extra tip choices are all over the place. Since you had already covered the steward's basic gratuity with your daily charge, then I would think $50 is quite generous. There are only two of us and we keep the cabin very tidy, but do request extra towels, ice, and leave a few glasses that need to be picked up. We usually leave and extra $20 to $40. If we have asked for something unusual or more time consuming, then we tip more. Only once did we not tip extra when we received some pretty awful service. Once we start to receive once a day service and the service charge remains the same, I doubt we will tip extra. As far as not acknowledging your extra tip, we have noticed the same thing post covid on Royal. In general, Royal's stewards have been polite, but not overly friendly. This is just our experience.

Started on Carnival Triumph in 1999. Really loved their 50% off military rates and the value product they used to offer. You could get filet mignon every night in the MDR. Things started slipping about 10 years ago. We've been trying other lines and have settled on Royal for now. Our last Carnival cruise will be next month on Mardi Gras. It's a milestone cruise and it is hard to pass up all of that OBC. We will have a good time regardless and try not to end up on YouTube! 😉

Lol, I worked and have since retired in Alabama. Grew up in Miami. Spent 23 years in the Air Force moving about. I do enjoy it here, but I have zero southern accent. A lot of people still say "you're not from around here are you" even though I've lived here for twenty years. 🤣

Lol, we are Carnival old timers...been cruising on them for over twenty years. I defended the brand for many years and felt they offered a good product. Not so much any more...

It seems that removing our "saved" towels happens more often than not. I really wish they would leave them. We do reuse our towels, but more often than not, those left on hooks are still wet many hours later.

This is what I am afraid will happen. Carnival continues to overwork their staff and in turn that staff doesn't try or can't do a good job anymore. Royal needs to avoid this perception at all costs!

Oh my, I have mixed feelings about this. First of all, they don't CLEAN the cabin twice a day. The second visit is for touch up....fresh towels, empty trash, ice, and the elusive paper copy of the daily activities (if available). The gratuity rate is going up and the services offered is going down. We left Carnival because of these guest "improvements". Service on Carnival has become a joke and I would hate for Royal to go down that path. At least Carnival has lower pricing. We can easily do with once a day cabin servicing. We leave everything neat as a pin. That is the way we live at home, also. I do like coming back in the evening to a refreshed cabin with no wet towels hanging around the small bathroom. We cruise in suites, so I guess we won't have any changes. I feel for families in smaller cabins. How do they keep their small space in order? People seem to accept these many cutbacks throughout all areas of the ship along with price increases. We on the other hand are evaluating our future cruising plans.

I don't do that at home either. However, my bathroom at home is quite a bit larger with places to hang those wet towels. 😄

Is the upcharge prime rib any good? We actually like the free lunch buffet on sea days. Has that changed, too? At least you could have them plate you a regular side serving size! 😁

Well, a little off topic, but I think I have the right crowd here. Once you get onboard can Suites, Diamonds, and Platinums go drop off their luggage right away? We are in a suite and Platinum if that matters. This is my first cruise since priority was reinstated.

Where do suites fit in now?

Does it still have the daily specials? Thought I read somewhere that they are now gone and there is a new dinner menu. If so, does anyone have a copy of the new menu items? Thanks!

Shhhh....please don't let this best kept secret out. 😉 Other than the Vista suites on deck 4, these are the best cabins on Spirit class.

Just got a call from Celebrity. I was booked on the Apr. 21st sailing. It has indeed been cancelled. They did offer a price protected move to either the Mar. 31st or Apr. 7th cruise. We chose to move to the same itinerary in the same cabin on the Apr. cruise. Received an extra $200 OBC to boot with the Black Friday offer. I am pleased with the outcome.

Since I'm new to Celebrity, what does code red mean and where would I find that?

This is my first booked Celebrity cruise. It has disappeared from the website. April 7th is the last cruise showing. Does anyone have any insight? Does Celebrity change their published itineraries often?

I believe I read somewhere that Royal can discontinue your drink package if you are sharing with others and I would certainly hope that they would not serve someone who obviously has had too much to drink.

Yes, Royal's drink package is truly unlimited.

No matter if you have a drink package or are paying a la carte, they cut you off at 15 drinks. The servers will not serve you again until the next day. The 15 drink limit on Carnival has more to do with cost cutting than stopping bad behavior.

This year I was in a JS on Odyssey in Mar. We had the Salt+Breeze triple wall mounted (shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel) plus a lotion pump. We had a GS on Mariner in May, a GS on Harmony in August, and an OS on Harmony in September. On those sailings we had the Malin-Goetz products. Perhaps orville99 was in a JS.

Well, as luck would have it, I just checked pricing on our cruise and the S1 cabins were $800 less than the Magic Carpet Suites today. Needless to say I rebooked in the S1! Two days ago, the S1 was $2500 more than the Magic Carpet Suite. Since we are new to Celebrity, I am confused by the pricing swings but will definitely roll with the flow, lol.

Was yours a connecting cabin? If so, was the connecting door in the cabin? Did you have any noise issue?