Blackjack22

What are ships that already have a sushi bar getting instead of the taste bar? Will the type of cutback that is just a cutback, a cutback with a free replacement or one with a for-cost replace I wonder?

The bread baskets were removed from the tables at seaday brunch as well as breakfast and lunch in MDR. They still have them in the MDR at dinner.

I don't think there has been a cutback on the number of barista's. There has been a substantial increase in demand. Starbucks frapacapacino, extra whipped, half fat, triple sweet, caramel, extra hot.....it's gotten so that instead of a 2 minute prep time for a specialty drink, it's 4-5 minutes.

Hey, I hadn't seen you post in a long time, glad you're still around. When I was just a lurker, I used to love your reviews, you do such a good job!

You may be on to something about the demand being incresed. Now that it is included in cheers, you'd think they sell more. Not sure if the menu changed all that much though since I've been using it so I'm not sure it is the drinks are necessarily more demanding to make but I could be wrong on that. Great to see a post from you!

I just learned that for journeys they don't sell FTTF, do they also not do it on newer ships?

I find your post a bit harsh in the fact that you Group everyone who liked attending into a negative light. My husband and I enjoyed a few cocktails, meeting other cruisers, seeing and talking about how many cruises some have been on. That's what's wrong with this site. Everyone is so quick to place blame and judge others whom they no absolutely nothing about.

I agree, when a beer costs 7-8 bucks and they are giving them for free, of course people are going to load up while they can and take a few to go.

I think it depends on the ship. I had some long lines for coffee on Elation, Triumph, and Freedom. On those ships there was sometimes only one person making coffee. The most I saw was two. On Breeze they had three every day and I never had a long wait for coffee. I'm hoping Dream is the same way.

 

I don't think I ever wait more than 15 minutes for pizza but I keep hearing that people do so I'm going to time it this next cruise.

If the dream is like the Magic (I assume similar) they will have 2-3 pretty much all day and 1-2 at night. For some reason though they just couldn't seem to crank out the drinks efficiently. I don't know if their station set up was wonky, they had newbies or fill-ins or what. I always complain about the Sunshine but one area that i can't complain about is the specialty coffee. The baristas were on point and the drinks always tasted the same (I love spiked coffees and find they aren't consistently made usually)

I think certain ships and certain times of the year have more line issues. I thought the Sunshine was awful but never notice it on the Pride. Other ships fall somewhere in between but those are two of the three ships I've sailed multiple times and have been consistent.

One thing I have noticed is that it takes longer to get a drink at the bar and specialty coffee. Are there cutbacks in those areas?

Also, the entire fleet needs to figure out a way to deal with the pizza lines. I'm not sure the solution but if they are going to cutback free options at night more and more every year, it is a travesty to expect people to wait more than 15 minutes for a pizza late at night!

One pro tip to save on lines,

I personally won't miss the fried ball of meat and some kind of soup thing at the Taste Bar. Everyone rattling on about 15 years ago blah blah blah......Try finding somewhere where you get a week at a hotel, ample food included, all entertainment included, don't have to worry about anything, all while seeing 3-4 different islands, for $5-600 per person on land. When our family of 4 goes to Disney World, we drop 6K EASY, and the customer service there is nowhere near Carnival level. Things change. It's inevitable. As small business owners ourselves, I can assure you that at the end of the day, the end goal for any company is to MAKE A PROFIT while still providing your customer with a good experience.

Good for you! However, others enjoyed the venue. I hope they get rid of the piano bar. I won't miss that cutback.

John BS Heald promised news on that over a year ago and of course NOTHING!!!!!!!

The only news that Heald ever delivers is bad.

My family cruises twice a year. We have only sailed with carnival. I am beginning to notice more and more changes some are concerning others not so much. I have no issue with losing the " George Lopez" on the comedy show, I noticed no difference in the comedians. The ESPN bar is now the Skybox, nothing different but the name. Those change to save money buy not paying for the name I get completely. The poor dining room staff are so over worked. The service has suffered but not because they aren't working as hard as possible but because they have too many people to serve. Dinner took forever the last few cruises. I don't expect a fast food experience but I also don't expect a 2 hr one. It used to not be like this and I certainly wish carnival would rethink this and give the staff more help. My other concern is how HOT our rooms are. The temp in one of our rooms this cruise was 81 at night. When we called and asked them to check it they brought a fan. This HOT room and hot dinning room has been our experience the last few cruises. Lastly why is the DJ/Music suck a short time on the Lido each day? 12-3? I do love cruising I just don't want the changes to make carnival not look like carnival anymore. They can't keep cutting corners and have quality service.

 

 

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The rooms are a lot hotter than I remember as is the whole ship for that matter. I used to always pack sweats, a hoodie and a couple pairs of jeans for evening time. Those days are gone which I guess saves room in my luggage. I don't mind that aspect but I like to sleep in a cold room and sometimes that is rough, especially on the Sunshine. The dinners need to be under and hour in my opinion.

Thanks for dredging up yet another long-dead thread. Your intentions are crystal clear.

:confused:I don't have any intentions pal. I have just been reading old threads lately, it's fun to go back and see how things change and there's a lot to learn in "old" threads believe it or not.

Add the taste bar to everything else in this thread!

Let’s see....you got the first one, the second is there is still access, the third is the price of the stock has no relation.

 

 

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Just wait until the Beards get another brilliant idea. A lot of people think FTTF is worth it and will pay for it. Maybe they will keep it for diamond status but platinum status is about to be getting huge cutbacks. Too many of us.

Could we please get someone to cut the chicken in the proper order before it's fried ?

I mean when you cut a chicken leg in half it becomes a chicken nugget ,with the bone intact .

So true. Likely wouldn't cost them a dime and they'd waste less. I wonder if the chicken comes from their chicken dealer cut that way or something though maybe.

:(:(

So many holes in this it looks like Swiss cheese.

 

 

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What holes pal? I did get hurricane season wrong (thanks Obama, used to be August-November I thought).

Open the night club for smoking during the day.

You know what? That is an excellent idea that never occurred to me and I've never seen posted here until today. Gold star poster award for you Sir or Madam!

Yes, the spiked coffees as well as the spiked milkshakes and floats all count against your 15 alcoholic drinks per day. If I am not mistaken, the Shake Spot with the alcohol infused shakes and floats is only available on the Horizon, Vista and Sunshine. Should also be on the Panorama as well as the Triumph once she is "sunshined".

I love the spiked coffees, I just don't think they are prepared very consistently. Some are super strong, some are super weak, some lots of coffee, some a few shots of espresso. All of them taste fine but never the same.

More smoking areas, especially indoor so that people don't complain about the casinos being so smokey and also so non-gamblers will stop crowding the casino so they can smoke!

Really a no win situation. If someone revives an old thread they get called out for doing so. If someone starts a new thread they get called out for not doing a search and seeing it was already discussed.

 

I personally like old thread recalls as I have not been here since inception and stuff pops up that I may have never thought of, but thanks to bringing an old thread back to life I now have new knowledge.

EGG-Zach-Lee!

Like I said, I've just been searching and reading new (old) threads a bunch lately because all of the ones on the homepage seem to be so similar and have the same people in them. I get so much info more searching for what I'm really looking for!

No, they don’t expire unfortunately. Usually on boards, at least the ones I participate in, the Mods lock old threads preventing them from being revived and cluttering the board. Unfortunately the Mods do not lock old threads here and you have cluttered the first page with old threads.

Never seen that done. They do a lot of things differently on this message board and I'm just existing within the system. We usually get along Book Dragon, I don't know why you are trying to stalk me and call me out. I have no idea what you mean by cluttered the first page since posts go in sequential order but I think you need to take a chill pill!

and yet in another thread you want Cheers to be increased to 20 :o

That's why I need the government to protect me from myself!!!!

Just curious...Blackjack22, why are you reviving old threads today? This is like 1 of 5. So can’t describe this as a rookie move.

Because no one talks about anything interesting anymore so I've been reading old threads? If we weren't supposed to look at them or comment on them they'd expire at some point.

With the stock dropping, expect this to become a reality by hurricane season!

nice!

Cruise ships have you held hostage. You have no choice but to put up with whatever they want to give you. Unless of course you choose to take matters into your own hands and form a cartel of one to compete with their racket. ;)

I think this was an incitement to smuggle! I'm in!