Carnival Cruise Line offers strong value and has built its brand around fun. It literally calls its fleet the "Fun Ships" and has Shaquille O'Neal in a (mostly) ceremonial position as its Chief Fun Officer.
The basketball great, who also has his "Big Chicken" fast-food chain on some of the cruise line's ships, has leaned into the CFO role.
Related: Carnival Cruise Line plans major Lido buffet menu change
"In today's world, it's more important than ever to choose fun, especially when everyone is busy with work, family, and life in general," O'Neal said. "So, I'm honored to be appointed the Chief Fun Officer at Carnival – a company that lives and breathes fun."
Your fun, however, can be ruined, or at least interrupted, if you don't plan ahead. Elana from LifeWellCruised shared 29 mistakes Carnival passengers can easily avoid in an episode of her popular YouTube series.
Don't make these mistakes on a Carnival cruise
Transcript:
If you're going on a Carnival cruise, you need to avoid these mistakes that waste money and time and can actually ruin your cruise, as you will miss out.
Hi there, I'm Elana from the website lifewellcruised.com. Welcome or welcome back to my channel. Now, I recently came back from my third Carnival cruise, but my first Carnival cruise was over a decade ago, so there were a lot of things that I did not know.
All that to say, even though I did a lot of research, there were still mistakes that I made that I want to let you know about so that you avoid them and that you have a better cruise. Now, by the way, Carnival has had some changes over the last year or so, so whether you're a first-time cruiser with Carnival or you're a more experienced Carnival cruise fan, there are even going to be a couple of advanced tips or mistakes to avoid in this video.
Now, before I get started, I did want to mention that if you like this video, if you find it helpful, informative, or enjoyable in any way, then please do give this video a big thumbs up.
I really appreciate it. Please subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already. Let's get started.
1. Not researching your cruise ship enough before you get on board.
Now, one thing that we do before we cruise on any new ship is always watch videos about it on YouTube, we watch ship tours, we watch some different cruise reviews. I go to the cruise line website, and I check what are some of the restaurants that are included like all of those different things to know because the worst thing that you can do is actually get on board your cruise ship and use the first couple of days just to figure out what's included how many pools there are what are some of the activities that are really must do's you want to know that before you get on board so that you can actually get on board and just enjoy.
2. Now, this is a mistake that I actually made it is not doing your online check-in exactly 14 days before your carnival cruise.
Now, every cruise line is different, but when you cruise with Carnival, they open up the online check-in 14 days before your cruise, and that is the exact same time that you can pick your embarkation time.
So my mistake was that I waited until about 10 days before my cruise and then what happened is I ended up with a late embarkation time I think it was 1 or 1 30. Now, personally, I like to board early. It did take about an hour to board, and I felt like I kind of really missed out on those first couple of hours of my cruise where I would have explored the ship and settled in.
3. Choosing the wrong cabin
Now, if anybody tells you that you're only in your room to sleep, they are wrong, at least for the most part, and if you're a first-time cruiser, it is something that you should know that all cruise cabins are not created equal and it really is all about location as well. So, if you think that you're somebody who might be affected by motion sickness, you want to avoid the forward cabins on the ship. If you're somebody who gets a little bit claustrophobic, you don't want to be in an interior cabin where you have no window; instead, you'll want an ocean view or maybe even a balcony where you can go outdoors.
If you're sensitive to noise, and honestly, who isn't? Don't get a cabin that is above or below any of the clubs, any of the discos, even right underneath the pool because Carnival ships are fun and they are going to get loud.
4. Not buying the WiFi or the drink package before you board your cruise
Now this is a mistake that I made I did buy the WiFi package, and I knew I was going to buy it, but for some reason, I saw that it was 10% off, I didn't think that it was that much and I just forgot about it and waited until I got onto the cruise ship. Well you know what I think it was $175 per person for the premium WiFi I did purchase it and had I bought it before getting on board the cruise I would have saved like almost $20 per person and honestly I just really wasted money.
Now don't worry we are going to talk about the drinks after including the drink package mistakes that you might be making.
5. Not checking out the restaurant menus on Carnival's Hub app.
Now Carnival's Hub app is free for all passengers, and it's pretty good every single day that the menu is going to be updated. So for instance, for any of the main included dining rooms where the menu changes, you'll want to check it out every single day to see what you can perhaps order and even to make choices as to which restaurant you will go to.
6. Don't go to the MDR on embarkation day
Speaking of restaurants and the main dining room, it's a mistake to go to the main dining room on embarkation day. Now, nobody ever talks about this, but the fact is when you go to the main included dining room on embarkation day, it is hectic. Everybody's still trying to figure it out, including the passengers and the staff, so what you can do instead is go to one of these specialty restaurants but there's another reason. When you go to the specialty restaurant on embarkation evening, you will be offered a free bottle of wine, so honestly, it's a money saver. If you're going to go to one of these specialty restaurants anyway, you might as well go the first night.
Now, here's a little bonus tip and something that we found out only on this last cruise I never had heard this before, but when you eat in the specialty dining restaurant that first night, they will also give you the option to purchase additional bottles of wine at 50% off so we were able to buy bottles of wine that we could enjoy other evenings on our cruise at a 50% savings.
Now, by the way, if you're planning your Carnival Cruise and you do want to make sure that you do not forget a thing I do have the LifeWellCruised Ultimate Cruise Planner. Now, the LifeWell Cruise Ultimate Cruise Planner is a 47-page downloadable printable cruise planner that you could use to keep organized from the time that you book your cruise all the way through the disembarkation date.
Now, it includes a cruise packing list, it includes shore excursion planning forms, it includes cruise countdown forms, and even pre-cruise checklists so that you can actually write down all of the different things that you want to make sure that you do before your carnival cruise. Now if you are interested in seeing what's included in the LifeWell Cruise Ultimate Cruise Planner I'm going to leave all of the information linked down below in the description of this video in case you do want to check it out.
7. Dress code or what to wear on a carnival cruise mistakes.
Now, I made a mistake on this as well. I knew that carnival cruises are pretty casual, and they are; however, when it comes to cruise elegant night Carnival cruisers do dress up so obviously, it is up to you. There is no judgment, but if you're somebody who wants to wear an evening gown, cocktail dress, guys you want to wear your nicest and finest suit you can definitely do this on carnival and by the way there are a lot of photo taking opportunities to take advantage of as well.
8. Don't be too casual
Now, beyond the formal night, there is another mistake: sometimes people think that carnival is more casual than it is.
One of the restaurant managers had told us that there are some people that sometimes try to go in to like one of the restaurants in a bathing suit with just sort of a net or a mesh covering where it's completely see-through and he basically told us no that is a mistake because you will not be allowed in that is definitely frowned upon.
9. Know what you can't bring
Going on your Carnival cruise and not knowing what you can and cannot bring. Now, a couple of things that you can't bring on any cruise ship include irons and steamers, and that's because it is a fire hazard.
The other thing is a surge-protected power strip, and that's basically the kind of power strip that you might find at the dollar store or what you might use at home. Instead, if you need extra outlets, you can bring like a USB hub or a non-surge-protected power cube. That is what I bring. I'll leave that linked down below in the description, but in addition to that, there are some things to really watch out for.
10. Don't bring illegal substances
Don't bring any substances that could potentially be illegal. They do have sniffer dogs as you board your Carnival cruise sometimes so definitely something to know about you don't want to get into trouble over something like that.
11. These are banned too
But beyond that, there are a couple of new things that carnival has prohibited. Now one of those is Bluetooth speakers, and the other one it's also a very recent change when it comes to door decorations, leave the upside-down pineapples at home.
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12. Book rides early
If you are on board Carnival Celebration, Carnival Jubilee, and Carnival Mardi Gras, don't forget to book the Bolt Seacoaster as soon as you get on board on embarkation day. Now, these are the only cruise ships in the entire world where you can actually ride a roller coaster at sea. I think it's pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
If this is something that you want to do, make sure that you book it early.
13. Stay on ship's time
Not staying on ship's time when you're in a cruise port of call. Now, when we were in St. Thomas on our recent cruise, St. Thomas was actually one hour ahead of us if I'm not mistaken, but basically, we were one hour different from St. Thomas.
Now my phone adjusted automatically to the St. Thomas time, but Frank's phone thankfully stayed on ship time because he has it set to not update automatically. Now you want to make sure, no matter what, that you always stay on the ship on time and you do return on time. Buying the bubbles package on your Carnival cruise.
14. You can bring soda
Now, I would so skip this, but I will tell you why. Carnival allows guests to be able to bring, I think it's 12 cans of soda per person on embarkation day, and we saw so many people doing this, so unless you're really drinking more than that, it's just not worth it. Bring your own on and you can actually put them in your little mini fridge in your cabin.
15. Don't forget the wine
Now, speaking of drink mistakes not to make on the first day of your cruise, Carnival allows you to bring wine and champagne, one bottle per adult on embarkation day, so that's a great way to save money as well.
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16. Don't rely on the buffet
It's a mistake to go to Carnival's buffet. Now, especially on some of those bigger ships, you just have much better options, and I have to tell you something that really surprised me on our Carnival cruise is how good the casual food was.
Now I'm talking about Guy's burgers, I'm talking about Big Chicken, I'm talking about Blue Iguana which by the way amazing breakfast burritos and the shrimp if you want like a shrimp taco for lunch just fabulous. Pig and Anchor, the pizza and the deli there are so many amazing choices and even the sea day brunch on Carnival.
17. Beware the midnight buffet
Oh, and another mistake is thinking that Carnival's midnight buffet is like the old midnight buffet.
Now, there's nothing wrong with it if you are in the mood for some late-night snacks. Now, I don't have high expectations, but it still is some free food to eat at night.
18. Not taking advantage of Carnival's free continental room service breakfast.
Now, so many people don't know that this is included. Now, you can fill out a card and put it on your door if you're a past Carnival cruiser and you've done that in the past. You cannot do that anymore, but you can use your phone, and you can call room service. what we do every single night of our cruise is we call room service, and we place an order for the next day.
Now it is only continental breakfast, so basically, it's Danishes, fruit, yogurt, and cereal. We thought it was really good, with coffee, tea, and juice. So I would definitely take advantage of that so that you don't miss out.
19. Not going to the popular shows 30 to 40 minutes before.
Now people complain about the lack of seating at a lot of the Carnival shows, but it really is because the entertainment is that good. So if you really want to see a show, be there early.
20, Not booking your shore excursions before your cruise and thinking that you're just going to wing it in every port.
Now, honestly, you can do that, but that is the best way to not really enjoy the ports of call. You don't want to do that. You have a limited amount of hours in that cruise port.
Now, you can book your shore excursions with the cruise line. That is going to be your easiest option, especially if you're a first-time cruiser, but it won't necessarily be the cheapest. Now, the other option is to research your cruise ports, and you can do it on your own.
Many cruise ports are relatively easy if you're just walking around the port or maybe you're going to a local beach, but not all, by the way. You can also book your excursion with an independent tour provider. Now you want to be careful with these because you do want to make sure that you do get back to the ship. However, there are some really reputable third-party tour providers.
21. Not getting a paper menu
Now you can find all of the menus like I mentioned on the hub app but a lot of people, even me, I sometimes like to look at a physical menu.
Do you know what? You can ask for this. These are available at all of the different restaurants, and by the way, if you are vegan, if you are gluten free, there are special menus for you to just ask. Not doing and looking out for the fun ship stuff.
22. Not being ready for fun
Now Carnival is known as the fun ships and honestly that is what you're going to get. So, you might as well get into that mindset before you go on the cruise. So that includes attending the very fun sail away party.
It is very fun. Now you might also want to even buy matching cruise T-shirts if you're going with a big group. A lot of people do that on Carnival.
23. Not enjying the towel animals
Now look out for the towel animals. Not only will you have towel animals in your cabin that your room attendant will leave, but as well one day during your cruise, when you go up to the Lido deck, you're going to see a towel animal invasion. Now, by the way, if you've sailed with Carnival before, please let me know what are the additional very fun things on a Carnival cruise.
24. Don't drink the bottled water in your cabin.
Yes, I said the bottled water because Carnival will leave a couple of large bottles of water in your cabin, but those are not complimentary.
I believe on our cruise, there was something like $5.50 per bottle. What you do want to do, though, because if you're thirsty at night, you're going to want to drink it. That actually happened to us.
So you can bring little cups of water back to your cabin but I will warn you on Carnival the cups that they have next to the water and juice stations are really quite small. So I suggest that you bring a refillable water bottle, which you can fill before going back to your cabin. Not knowing how much your cruise is going to cost.
ALSO READ: Top travel agents share how to get the best price on your cruise
25. Not planning for extra charges
Now, especially if you're a first-time cruiser, you might be going through this now. When you first book your cruise, you're paying the price. However, once you get on board, there are, of course, going to be some extras, and you just want to know so that you can budget for this so that you're not getting sticker shock at the end of your cruise.
Now, the biggest thing that a lot of people aren't aware of is the fact that every single day, the cruise line is going to charge daily gratuities to your onboard account. Now on Carnival at the time that I'm filming this I believe it is $16 per person per day. Now that means that when you go to a restaurant, you don't have to tip anybody.
That is already included, and your housekeeping who are going to do a fantastic job, you don't have to tip them and all the different people that work on the cruise ship. Now the other thing that is not included is your WiFi your drink package. So you want to see if these are things that you want to buy, and you're going to want to budget for these things.
Of course, there are shore excursions and even things like photo packages and spa visits. Those are often things that once you're on the cruise ship may even become spontaneous purchases. So you want to budget for that and, of course, even shopping at the onboard boutiques.
26. Not understanding double tipping
Speaking of tipping or cruise gratuities, I do not understand double tipping. So basically, what I mean by this is in addition to your daily gratuities if you go and buy a drink at the bar or maybe buy a coffee individually, if you don't have a package you're going to see that you're going to be charged 18% as a gratuity on that service but you're still going to see an extra little line that says tip. Now it's optional. You can definitely tip over and above this, but don't feel like you need to because your tip is already included in that price.
Now, I do have a little suggestion: if somebody has gone above and beyond or you just like a particular bartender, consider bringing a dollar bill and keeping it maybe with your cruise cart in a lanyard. this way, you can give that particular bartender a little bit of extra cash.
27. Not printing your boarding pass.
Now I really should have said this earlier but I just remembered it.
On Carnival, something that they will request you do is actually print out a paper copy of your boarding pass. So even if you have this information on the hub app that you've downloaded, you still need to print it. If you don't print it, your check-in can take a little bit longer.
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28. Not checking your invoice during your cruise and waiting until the last morning of your cruise.
Big mistake. Firstly guest services is always going to have a very big line on the last day of your cruise and, by the way, on the first day of your cruise as well so you want to avoid this, but during your cruise, keep an eye on that invoice if there are any mistakes any corrections that need to be made even just any questions that you have you want to be able to ask that before the last day when it really is going to be a long line that you want to avoid.
29. Not picking the right Carnival cruise ship for you.
Now I think something that we just don't talk about enough is the fact that three and four-day cruises are going to attract completely different guests than longer sailings, and it makes sense if you go on a three or four-day cruise, you might be there only to party, and these ships are going to attract a little bit of a younger crowd, and if that is not you,, you probably do want to avoid them and instead go for a cruise that is seven nights or longer even ideally on a newer ship where you can oftentimes have the best entertainment on board attractions and truthfully the best food.
Now, I'm going to leave all of the information about the Lifewell Cruise Ultimate Cruise Planner linked down below in the description of this video and I also wanted to know if would you like a Carnival secret tips video because I have so many more tips that I do want to share with you please let me know down in the comments below you can just use the words secret tips and that will be perfect.
I hope that you enjoyed this video if you did please do give it a big thumbs up I really do appreciate it and please subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already. Bye for now and happy cruising!
Related: Get the best cruise tips, deals, and news on the ships from our expert cruiser
