Kmom NEEDS LOTS OF HELP PLEASE - Pre-Planning Pre-Review Preview Mardi Gras August 7, 2021 - Join me if you dare

[tallyho8]

I'm all for cabin crawls but I believe they should be limited to no more than can fit in an elevator at one time. When I have a crawl come to my cabin I like to host them with a little special shot and maybe a quick photo shoot which is impossible with 50 people.

[KmomChicago]

15 minutes ago, tallyho8 said:

I'm all for cabin crawls but I believe they should be limited to no more than can fit in an elevator at one time. When I have a crawl come to my cabin I like to host them with a little special shot and maybe a quick photo shoot which is impossible with 50 people.

I think ours is like 20 people in 5 or 6 cabins. I have never done one and I was not planning to give out any favors or gifts but now I feel like I should. I'm not a stuff / accumulator type person so I don't necessarily want a lot of souvenirs and it's hard for me to picture what people would like. Maybe I'll bring onboard one bottle of Manishewitz and get a pack of those tiny communion cups.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

12 hours ago, SonoranDevil said:

Yes, we're on the cabin crawl for our sailing.  We'll also get a peek at the Presidential Suite on our tour.  I've never done a cabin crawl before, so this will be interesting.  

 

Make sure you take a few good pics in that cabin, especially if it's on the starboard side. Oh, and sneak a bottle of vodka under the mattress in there for me!  😉

 

(and a coffee maker, and a kettle for heating water for tea, and....)   😄

 

 

Tom

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

10 hours ago, tallyho8 said:

I'm all for cabin crawls but I believe they should be limited to no more than can fit in an elevator at one time. When I have a crawl come to my cabin I like to host them with a little special shot and maybe a quick photo shoot which is impossible with 50 people.

 

I agree. We had one with a few dozen people, and it was entirely unmanageable. We had to wait in our cabin for probably 45 minutes as waves of people would come to visit. It was like trick-or-treaters !

 

I think the core group should be those offering up their cabins for viewing, along with a reasonable number of additional people. And everyone should move as a single group (not leaving "hosts" in cabins who don't then get a chance to have a look at others).

 

It's probably a VERY good idea to get a show of hands on roll calls to avoid a pile of people showing up (who often barely even posted on the thread).

 

Tom

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

On 7/17/2021 at 4:36 PM, KmomChicago said:

 

Tom I need your help. I paid for 5 people at the steakhouse and here's how it shows 1 guests! *****?

 

 

 

Hey - have you been able to get any kind of verbal confirmation or corrections made to your reservation?

 

Tom

[maryann2]

Just chiming in regarding cabin crawls.  I have done many over the years. IMHO 100 is far too many.  Would need 10 groups of 10 people to organise.  During covid be really careful. 

I always liked to show my 1A with portholes cabin and loved seeing the suites LOL.

However on the Vista people were coughing and hacking in my cabin while visiting and I picked up a really serious chest infection. Cabins without windows to open for ventilation in my opinion should not be shown.

Be careful.

[KmomChicago]

46 minutes ago, maryann2 said:

Just chiming in regarding cabin crawls.  I have done many over the years. IMHO 100 is far too many.  Would need 10 groups of 10 people to organise.  During covid be really careful. 

I always liked to show my 1A with portholes cabin and loved seeing the suites LOL.

However on the Vista people were coughing and hacking in my cabin while visiting and I picked up a really serious chest infection. Cabins without windows to open for ventilation in my opinion should not be shown.

Be careful.

Well, this is a very good point. I hadn't thought of that. We are still in a pandemic, vaccinated people are still becoming infected, and there are still things out there like colds and flu. Hmmmm. I don't want people hacking in my cabin early in the cruise. Or late in the cruise. Or period.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

16 minutes ago, KmomChicago said:

Well, this is a very good point. I hadn't thought of that. We are still in a pandemic, vaccinated people are still becoming infected, and there are still things out there like colds and flu. Hmmmm. I don't want people hacking in my cabin early in the cruise. Or late in the cruise. Or period.

 

One could always stipulate masks when entering cabins. I can imagine that there will be opinions across the board on this, and all are 100% valid!

 

At least from our perspective - we'll probably be the most immune people on the ship, LOL

 

Tom

[KmomChicago]

31 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

One could always stipulate masks when entering cabins. I can imagine that there will be opinions across the board on this, and all are 100% valid!

 

At least from our perspective - we'll probably be the most immune people on the ship, LOL

 

Tom

 

Yes, that's great. I am traveling with a husband who takes Humira which immunocompromises him and two septuagenarians. While I don't consider myself a fearmonger, we avoided this virus for almost a year by being careful until vaccinated. I would really hate for our group to be the reason cruising shuts back down.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

8 minutes ago, KmomChicago said:

 

Yes, that's great. I am traveling with a husband who takes Humira which immunocompromises him and two septuagenarians. While I don't consider myself a fearmonger, we avoided this virus for almost a year by being careful until vaccinated. I would really hate for our group to be the reason cruising shuts back down.

 

No doubt!

 

Everyone does need to be responsible for themselves. The Butterfly Effect is real!

 

Tom

[KmomChicago]

Last night another member of my extended family booked this cruise.  They got the last really large suite available on the ship - or perhaps they got one that was cancelled due to someone not being vaccinated or receiving the exemption they requested.  There are still Ocean Suites and Spa Ocean Suites available, but those are basically balcony rooms with an elongated, extended interior space - this is a bigger one with a separate bedroom and sitting room. In respect of their privacy I won't disclose the exact class or location but of course I will get in there and get pics to share after.

[KmomChicago]

Well it isn't the last large suite after all, as one more large suite has opened up for booking - along with rooms in almost every category all over the ship - as of today.  When my relatives looked at the options on the Carnival website, on Monday, they saw the suite they wanted. They preferred to call to reserve, said they waited on hold for over 20 minutes before getting a rep who said it was not available. . . nothing like that was available. So they went back to the website and booked it there. 

 

I can only imagine the chaos of getting this huge ship going.  It looks like any guarantees that had been booked are now assigned, exemptions granted or denied as the case may be, and subsequent cancellations processed. It looks like there are over 100 staterooms available but an interesting twist is you can only book rooms now for 2 people - even though Family Harbor Suites are among the open categories, and by definition they hold 5 people, in addition to numerous other cabins with sofa beds or pullmans available.  Clearly intended to deter people from booking any more littles. 

[KmomChicago]

Guessing we are going to be among the lowest tier passengers on this cruise. As this is our 3rd Carnival voyage we are Red, or as I prefer to think of it, "Ruby Plus."  I mean, really, would it kill them to give a little panache to the tier names for us rookies? Like they do in Vegas? Copper? Garnet? Cornelian? Coral? Bronze? Rose? Strawberry? Anything reddish besides just. . . Red? Not like the tier levels get you any worthwhile perks anyway.

 

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

1 hour ago, KmomChicago said:

... Not like the tier levels get you any worthwhile perks anyway.

 

I've been trying to tell them (Carnival) that for nearly a decade! 

 

(Edit - I typed most of my regular spiel here, and then deleted it!) 

 

🙂

 

Tom

[kdr69]

8 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

(Edit - I typed most of my regular spiel here, and then deleted it!) 

Oh how much ive been doing that this year...... 😏

[TrqoisWtrs]

1 hour ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

I've been trying to tell them (Carnival) that for nearly a decade! 

Don't get me started on how I've paid double for years as a solo and Carnival gives zero appreciation to us that do that.  And yes, I'm doing it willingly, but barely.  lol  At least I'm finally Diamond on the 31st.  :)

[maryann2]

1 minute ago, cruisin*tigger said:

Don't get me started on how I've paid double for years as a solo and Carnival gives zero appreciation to us that do that.  And yes, I'm doing it willingly, but barely.  lol  At least I'm finally Diamond on the 31st.  🙂

Agree.  It would be nice to get double points as they do on Royal and Celebrity. They used to have 150% solo prices for the 1As but did away with that many years ago.

[kdr69]

17 minutes ago, cruisin*tigger said:

Don't get me started on how I've paid double for years as a solo and Carnival gives zero appreciation to us that do that.  And yes, I'm doing it willingly, but barely.  lol  At least I'm finally Diamond on the 31st.  🙂

Gratz even with 4 cruises booked right now i wont even be Platinum until Nov 2023 assuming nothing changes with my current cruise bookings

[TheGrandSnackoneer]

27 minutes ago, cruisin*tigger said:

Don't get me started on how I've paid double for years as a solo and Carnival gives zero appreciation to us that do that.  And yes, I'm doing it willingly, but barely.  lol  At least I'm finally Diamond on the 31st.  🙂

How have I never noticed this before. I'm guessing they also twist the knife by not giving double OBC? I'm bummed Mardi Gras doesn't have 1A rooms anymore...

[SNJCruisers]

2 hours ago, TheGrandSnackoneer said:

 I'm bummed Mardi Gras doesn't have 1A rooms anymore...

Or 4J's as well.....

[TrqoisWtrs]

3 hours ago, TheGrandSnackoneer said:

I'm guessing they also twist the knife by not giving double OBC?

Well, I do get the entire $600 OBC for my cancelled cruise.  And when I use my 25% milestone credit, it will be 25% of the double fare in OBC.  So there are a few very small silver linings lol.

 

and sorry @KmomChicago didn't mean to hijack your thread.

[KmomChicago]

5 hours ago, cruisin*tigger said:

Well, I do get the entire $600 OBC for my cancelled cruise.  And when I use my 25% milestone credit, it will be 25% of the double fare in OBC.  So there are a few very small silver linings lol.

 

and sorry @KmomChicago didn't mean to hijack your thread.

I don’t think you quite hijacked it! More a stream of consciousness segue kicked off by bragging about my Ruby Plus status. 😀

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

3 minutes ago, KmomChicago said:

I don’t think you quite hijacked it! More a stream of consciousness segue kicked off by bragging about my Ruby Plus status. 😀

 

I'm ok with RUBY PLUS !

[KmomChicago]

So I just did a thing that is going to encourage me to spend more with less griping than typical on this cruise. I signed up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card in order to take advantage of their 100,000 point bonus promotion. Of course we have to spend a chunk o' change in the first 90 days to get all this. Like Carnival, Chase knows who Kmom is, so I was approved in seconds online and the cards will be here in time for the cruise. We are fully paid for the cruise itself and prepaid gratuities as well as dinner in the steak house on the first night. 

 

If only there were optional add on expenses available during cruise vacations.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

35 minutes ago, KmomChicago said:

...We are fully paid for the cruise itself and prepaid gratuities as well as dinner in the steak house on the first night. 

...

 

How did you eventually get the Steakhouse reservations issue resolved?

 

Tom