Carnival Bus Transfer from Airport

J

jester95008

Guest
How many of you have gone on Carnival's buses that take you from the Airport to the Pier? Do you feel forced to tip the driver? And do you or don't you tip him?
Also , one year my friend and I booked a flight on the day of the cruise 2 hours before everyone and ended up being the first bus over to the pier! We ended up being one of the first on the ship even!
 
M

mrssully

Guest
We have taken the Carnival buses to the pier in the past and yes we did feel "forced" to tip the driver. We had a bad experience with the buses when we traveled with 6 teenagers, very disorganized and total chaos. Since then we take a cab to the pier if we fly down the same day as the cruise. 99% of the time we fly down a day early and take a cab from the hotel to the pier.
 
J

jester95008

Guest
interesting how you had the same prob. as we did about feeling obligated to tip those guys that drive the buses. See what they do is they have you stand out on the side of the bus , then take out one bag and look for its owner with tip in hand, then the next one and the next... But they don't just place them outside the bus for you to grab. I didn't tip him a penny. Why should I ? Its like hey , he's getting paid enough as it is and should be jamming with getting the baggage off the bus as fast as possible!
We've got people anxious to get in line for their cruise! ;)
 
A

Alley

Guest
Hello...
I just sailed on the Pride to the Mexican Riviera and had absolutely no problems riding the bus. I had read about tipping the people who take your luggage but didn't even find that a "froced" issue. There's so... many people and so... much luggage they wouldn't know who's luggage belonged to who. I did tip the guy that took our luggage to the ship but I did not tip the bus driver and did not feel pressured or "forced" to do so. I would ride the bus from the Las Angeles Airport to the Long Beach Pier again without hesitation!

Alley
 
V

VirgandJim

Guest
I too felt pressured to tip the driver. If you read your ticket for your transfer, it states gratuities are included. When a fellow seat mate stated this to the driver, she got on the overhead P.A. and said "I don't know who told you all that the tips were included but they were wrong so don't forget your driver". She opened the hatch under the bus and we put our own bags in and then when we got on the bus, there were some people standing up and the driver yelled - "We can't move the bus until everybody is seated, who is hogging up all the seats?" Some elderly people in the back had bags sitting next to them and they were terribly embarrassed. We have never used the transfers again, I prefer to take a cab, its a lot less stress, noise and you don't get herded into a tight little space. To tell you the truth when we got off the bus at the port, the driver opened the hatch, we got our own bags out and I walked right past her. She never once even touched our bags and gave very poor customer service, I tip based on service not out of obligation or having some overbearing person standing over me.
 
J

jester95008

Guest
Virginia ,
I'm glad to hear you didn't tip her , although I would have been upset with those elderly people for bringing their luggage inside the bus too.
but as far as them having to point out that about making sure to tip the driver is a bunch of bull. I don't like that at all! That's one thing I don't care for with transfers.
 
Top