Although this long posting is mostly a rant, I will try and provide some decent information you can use, instead of the grand and glorious ravings of the first time cruisers who go on and on and on and bore everyone silly with every detail of their experience.

In 9 prior cruises, I've secreted onboard a few beers interspaced between packaged cans of caffeine free diet coke. Never a problem until this cruise. The beer police were in full force in Galveston. Behind the zeal of their security badges, these TSA wannabes checked every beverage package to ensure no alcohol was sneaked onboard. This included the disassembly of every can from every package. Particular thanks to the crekin who used a knife to split the cartons open, thus piercing a can and spraying my clean shirt with diet coke. At least the TSA is taught to apologize. Carnival considerately gave me the confiscated contraband beers back the last morning of the cruise. I felt like such a thug.

So Carnival, I guess you won this battle. But guess what, you lost the war. I don't need beer that much on your boat...I generally get my fill ashore. I purchased a whopping $22 of your beer onboard, thus your revenue gain from me was minimal. But more than that, you lost a considerable amount of my customer goodwill. If your company so concerned about a minor beer revenue loss as to truly anger your repeat customers, so be it. Your loss. My only allegiance to your company anyway is the fact Carnival is the only cruise line offering short cruises from ports a reasonable distance from Dallas. To the RCCL and NCL management personnel monitoring these critiques, are you hearing this? Read more