Banditswife

Ok, sorry, I must have you confused with someone else. I do appreciate all the info you share with this board. We've done 3 full transits. 2 with HAL & 1 with Carnival. Loved them all. Hope you enjoy yours next Oct.

Yes, I think they keep changing the name for gratuities. I might be mistaken, but in Oct of 2022 I think they called it crew incentive. At any rate, from this thread I have learned we can use our promotional credit to partially pay our "crew appreciation" or whatever they call it these days. Thank you for all the info you provide on these boards. I believe we sailed with you through the canal several years ago.

We are in a similar position. Carnival does allow you to use OBC prior to being onboard. But HAL does not, I have tried. I was also told OBC could not be used for crew incentive. I hope you are correct Crew News.

Thank you for update on this incident. Sounds like the tour company & HAL did well considering. I imagine HAL will give those 41 people some type of discount on a future Panama Canal cruise, since they didn't get that experience.

we've been on 4 cruises post pandemic- 31 days on Carnival & 21 days on HAL. Yes there are cut backs, but that is everywhere on land, sea & air. We had only sailed HAL 1x pre pandemic & did not really care for the slower climate, but gave HAL another try w/ an offer too good to pass up. Thoroughly enjoyed our 21 days on HAL last Oct. So much so that we booked 14 days on N Statendam for next month. I felt dining was better than our pre covid cruise- but maybe because I had missed cruising so much, I appreciated it more. Our 3 Carnival cruises were hit & miss- 1 was what I would call really bad in dining & entertainment. The other 2 were great. We are looking forward to sailing on N Statendam & making HAL our cruise line of choice.

Yes very interesting. Curious about how they are doing now. Wondering if they have figured out how to meet up with the ship yet. Hoping someone will come on here to gives us a positive end to this incident.

We stopped there last Oct of 2021 for 2 days in a row. I have no idea about weather though. I guess because they have to tender to island-- rough seas might make that unsafe, & there are few places to seek refuge if weather is really bad.

Be aware that on a reduced fare cruise, they can & do deny the OBC. This is one area where Carnival seems to be more lenient than HAL.

I only know what we paid (see post # 45) & what it covers.

Does the extra $10 cover crew incentive? If yes, that would be worth it. Our does cover drink gratuities.

I believe they were running a special. Their web pg said "have it all" for 1/2 price. It quoted regular price as $99 per person per day. We pd $1400 for 14 days, 2 passengers. We had no call the shore excursion telephone to get the $50 price. Another benefit was that we were allowed to book our specialty restaurants & shore excursions ahead of time.

We were debating this issue for our upcoming cruise. The HIA pkg for us was $50 per person per day & did not include crew incentive. We are not big drinkers & our bar bill on any given cruise never reaches the $50 per day amount. But when we considered it included: 1 specialty dinner, 1 shore ex, internet & up to 15 drinks per day, we think it is worth it. I appreciate the advice of asking for unopened waters & sodas for our cabin. We do enjoy the specialty coffee too. So a couple of those along with sodas, water & a few cocktails makes it worth it. IMO

Thank you, Crew News. Your bar menu is helpful, but hoping it isn't all inclusive. Didn't see any of my fruity type drinks on it. But your menu does give me an idea of what to expect.

A slightly different but related question. We bought the "have it all" pkg. Will we be allowed to purchase individual waters with this pkg?

We've been getting these offers & we've only sailed HAL 2x. The last offer was for a free OV guarantee. So we booked a B2B using these offers. Total cost for 14 days, 2pp was $1800. Offer includes $800 OBC & $800 casino credit. We do play in the casino, but are not big gamblers. Even though we booked for Nov/Dec of this year, we continue to get offers. Most are for inside cabins.

We are on 11/26 & Dec 3-10. We will be watching you keep those chair hogs in line-LOL looking forward to seeing you on board.

awesome, thanks

We get casino offers frequently from both HAL & Carnival. Hal's being the best offers so far. We are not big $ players, but do spend a great deal of time in the casino. Our last offer was for a free ocean view guarantee. We ended up paying about $950 total for ea cruise. We will get $400 OBC + casino credits. We also did a very reasonably priced 21 day last Oct on HAL. The offers are so good, they are difficult to turn down.

We are on N Statendam in Nov for a B2B, good tip. I am unfamiliar with this ship, would that be deck 10?

Thank you DaveOKC

This may have already been answered, but couldn't find a thread on it. We have a Carnival cruise booked for next month & a B2B on Hal in Nov. I received an email from Carnival about pre cruise testing on Carnival, just wondering if HAL has adopted a similar policy. I have not gotten anything from HAL, so far. Carnival's new policy takes affect in Sept. There are still pre cruise covid tests required for unvaxed guests, for certain destinations & for 16+ day cruises. Just curious. Thanks in advance

For us, it was how Carnival handled the outbreak. They were totally unprepared for it. We were all vaxed & boosted according to Carnival's requirements. We tested 72 hrs or less before embarkation & were again tested in the terminal-very few people tested positive in the terminal. On these longer, sea day intensive (4 port days/12 sea days) cruises there should at least be random testing to determine whether all should be tested more often. And better measures put in place should an outbreak occur. On a HAL 21 day cruise in Oct of 2021 we were tested several times throughout the cruise. HAL"s testing procedure was very organized & efficient. Much better than what we experienced at embarkation for the Spirit cruise. Carnival should learn from her sister company.

We were on this cruise. In my opinion Carnival was seriously under prepared for the Covid outbreak. Yes, we know we are at risk for contracting Covid/other illness when we leave the safety of our own homes. But cruise lines should also be prepared should an outbreak occur. Guest services, Medical, room service was overwhelmed, understaffed & under trained. I do not blame Carnival or crew members for the outbreak, I do, however, believe they need to get a better way of handling it when/if it does happen. Embarkation was a mess, disembarkation was a mess too. Thankfully, we did not get sick. And hopefully cruise lines will learn from these situations & come up with better ways to deal with them. Understaffing & disorganization & poor communication seemed to be the biggest issues.

Sorry about your shortened cruise. I hope you are home & on the mend, We would have been on the same walking tour in Cartegena, but am assuming you missed it due to your fall. Thanks for your attempt at a review. For us the cruise started out fairly good, with the exception of MDR. It just seemed to get worse as the days went by. We ended up having dinner on Lido most nights. I felt the ship was unprepared to handle the illnesses & injuries that occurred. While crew members were friendly & trying their best, they were just unorganized & understaffed. Again: thanks for your attempt at a review & hope your ankle heals quickly.