Any tips or tricks for Carnival Cruises?

Question

I'm taking the Carnival Pride to the Mexican Rivera. Any suggestions for how to get room upgrades, which excursion to sign up for, etc?

Answer 1

Carnival is big on standing in line.  They really want you to stand in line for everything, because that's more efficient for them -- regardless of how it is with you.

When my wife and I went on our cruise, we foolishly stood in line to sign up for excursions because "seating is limited".  Well, none of the excursions we attended ran out of space.  Which isn't a guarantee, but we sure could have done something more productive than spend 30 minutes standing in a queue.

So my advice is -- never spend any time doing something that's not fun.  If there's a line, go do something else and come back in a half hour.  You might miss something, but you'll have seen something else just as good.

Answer 2

call your agent close to the maybe a couple of weeks before the sailing to get upgrades. and also watch the price of the cruise if it goes down closer to the sailing they almost automatically give you upgrades.  or you can book a gty cabin in which the cruise line assigns you a cabin but you almost always get upgrades.

Answer 3

If you wait until a week or two before sailing and contact your booking agent, you can often get a free upgrade.  This will depend, of course, on whether the ship is sailing with empty cabins.  When fully booked, there's nothing to upgrade you to.  If the cabins would otherwise be empty when the ship sails, however, they might as well upgrade you as not.

We have taken six cruises and have been upgraded on all but one of them.  Our most recent cruise was the week after Thanksgiving and we got upgraded from an inside room to a small suite with a queen-sized bed and a sitting area with a sofa and coffee table.

As for excursions, I recommend booking them on line instead of on ship.  It's easy and you don't have to stand in line to book it.  For 'what' to do, it depends on what you like to do when you get to your ports of call.  If you like to experience other cultures, you might want to tour a city or a ruin, for example, or see a folklorico production.  If you're athletic, I've never seen anyone do one of the zip line excursions that they didn't have a blast.  Adventurous?  The ceynotes are cool if you aren't the claustrophobic type.  You'll float down an underground river or stream ending in a pretty grotto, etc.  These are usually mineral waters so it's like having an adventurous 'spa day.'  We've done submersibles in the past and were disappointed in how much of the reefs have died since we started snorkling back in the early eighties.  And if you like to snorkle, the new power snorkle opportunities do all the work for you.  Party Animal?  The party boats that go to private beaches or islands are terrific.  It all depends on what kinds of activities you like.  My husband and I have even stayed on the ship (if it was a port of call we'd already explored).  Since practically everyone else got off the ship, we had the pools and other amenities all to ourselves.