NavarreCruiser

There have been some changes over the past couple of years, most of them not considered as positive. I posted this on another thread about cutbacks, just an FYI:

Only you or any other cruiser can decide it these Carnival changes/cutbacks matter or even affect you at all. I will try to create a list of what I remember, I am sure I will miss some:

Formerly small chocolate candies left on your pillow at turn down now gone

Loyalty program used to have fewer levels, Platinum reached after 10 cruises. Now added new levels of Red and Diamond, 1st Cruise blue card, 2nd cruise to 24 nights red card, 25 to 74 nights gold card, 75 to 199 nights Platinum card, 200+ nights Diamond card

Returners party with free drinks and canapes available to anyone on 2nd or later cruise, reduced to only gold and above then reduced again to only Platinum and Diamond. There also used to be a 2nd free drink party at the end of the cruise now gone

Lobster available on elegant night on all cruises, now just 6 or more night cruises

Frequent price reductions on cruise fares shortly before sailing to fill remaining unsold cabins resulting in the ability to get "Early Saver" onboard credit now very few fare reductions mostly upsells and casino comp offers.

There was a "Fare Viewer web page that made it easier to view sailings and fares, now eliminated by Carnival.

Twice daily room servicing on all ships, now can still be requested but Carnival is moving toward and encouraging once a day service

Formerly free 24 hours a day room service, changed to some items only available for a fee, changed again to only available for a fee from 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.

Formerly had the broadcast TV networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox) available on in-cabin TVs now being eliminated

A new 15% delivery fee on items ordered for your cabin from the Fun Shoppes pre-cruise.

Go online and look at your luggage tags if you already have your cruise booked. It will say "Priority" in a big red box. That means that you are Platinum from the start. We are at 68 days and have an 8 day cruise booked for Feb, 2019 and ours show "Priority". Contrary to what some say, you don't have to have the cruise paid for to look at or print your luggage tags.

Yes, but you must be paid in full to print your boarding pass.

Why do people do searches just to look for negative things? Does it make you feel better or more important? I know when I went to school 80% was pretty good.

I don't search for negatives but this is news and it is disturbing. Four fails in the last 2 months are twice as many as my other cruise choice, RCCL, has ever had.

Here is a link to the details.

https://wwwn.cdc.gov/inspectionquerytool/InspectionDetailReport.aspx?ColI=MTkzMDA0MzU%3d-EJ25IM5KeYk%3d

Going to the CDC website for cruise ship inspection failures I compared the 2 largest cruise lines results:

Carnival failures

Ship Date Score

Liberty 1/18 80

Breeze 12/17 77

Triumph 11/17 78

Paradise 6/17 83

Fascination 10/16 74

Legend 10/06 71

Pride 8/04 83

Victory 1/01 83

Sunshine 1/99 81

Fascination 6/97 74

Fantasy 3/90 78

Royal Caribbean failures

Adventure OTS 10/15 84

Majesty OTS 2/97 85

What is most disturbing to me is that Carnival has had 5 failures in the past 15 months vs 6 previous fails over more than 20 years. And the 5 recent fails are 2 1/2 times what Royal has ever had.

Very disturbing, Another Carnival ship fails, totally unprecedented.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/article196700769.html

I'm not looking for total flexibility, but I'm also not looking for Teutonic precision in arriving for dinner either. "Wiggle room", as it were.

 

How many times have you shown up on time for a reservation at a restaurant and been told you have to wait (for any one of a myriad of reasons)?

 

I would estimate about half of the people with the 6pm seating were being more "flexible" than us, at least in my immediate dining room area. We arrived at about 5:55pm the first night, I believe, and our table mates didn't show up for at least another 20 min, IIRC. I think the next night we arrived at 6:10-ish, shortly after our table mates had arrived, and on the last night we got there about 6:05-ish and they arrived maybe 15 min later.

 

And the tables around us, all with the 6pm seating as evidenced by their continued presence over the three nights, were arriving all through the period between 5:50pm and 6:30pm, including partial parties slowly filling in (families where a few folks arrive, then 10 min later another couple of them, then a few more stragglers 10 min later again).

 

I dunno, seems like a weird thing to stress about. If we all sat down at exactly the same time, our servers would be dashing about trying to get everyone in their section water / bread / drinks all at the same time, and inevitably someone would have to wait.

I disagree with your assessment that the wait staff would prefer staggered arrival times. It is 6:00 p.m. dining and the process is based on PAX arriving at that time. There have been many discussions on here and Facebook as to whether PAX arriving 15 -30 minutes late should be turned away. General consense is that they should be. I do YTD for this reason. On one cruise just after I became a widower and cruised solo I picked early dining. On the night that the Diamond event was dinner with the Captain, I made sure that my wait staff and tablemates knew I would not be there. It is just being courteous.

In my 126 cruises, I have always taken a 3 to 6 pill organizers (morning, noon,& night) and have never had an inquiry.

My experience is that ports are concerned with food not beverages, Posted below was copied from another website. That being said it is very likely that your cup would have to empty when returning to the ship

Any food that is of an organic nature, i.e. any food that is animal based, dairy, fish, honey, plants, soil, seed, fruits and vegetable, etc. is not allowed to be taken from one country to another, regardless of how it is packed. These items can carry pests and diseases that may destroy crops and livestock and cause problems to public health.

Chocolate and other sweets are generally ok, as long as they don’t contain any restricted items.

Why so troubling ? It's a commercial. Do you think this will make people jump ?

 

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I don't think anyone will jump, but the ad gives the false impression that it is easy to fall overboard. And non-cruisers will think that it is a real risk when cruising. We who cruise know that no one leans against a railing and then "falls" over.

Enjoy your close together cruises. Taking them in the same month may become addictive. I no longer cruise with the frequency that I did when my wife was alive. She passed about 2 years ago, and she really loved to cruise. In 2013 we did 12 Carnival cruises and 2 RCCL cruises, in 2014 it was 14 Carnival and 2 RCCL, and in 2015 11 Carnival and 3 RCCL. Ah, the good old days.

The only reason I am resurrecting this 3 1/2 months old thread is to observe that there have been discussions and rumors about "brilliant" new changes to the VIFP program for years and here we still are with no news in sight.

I have been to almost 60 Diamond & Platinum Reunion parties. They have varied greatly in size as others have observed. However, the D&P parties have always have had a much larger attendance the Captain's Diamond event. My Diamond events have had as few as 2 (wife and me) up to a couple hundred on journey cruises.

The liquor is confiscated and destroyed, even if it's in it's original container.

I have no specific knowledge, but I bet liquor in its original container is much more frequently consumed by someone on the ship rather than destroyed.

I just wish one of the big lines would bring back butler service. we have always been willing to pay for it, but it has gone away. so sad.

I don't spend the price they want, but I believe that the Star Class service available to the largest suites on RCCL would come close. Others who have used it may be able to expound.

I sail other lines, Carnival is not always my first choice. I did, however, point out that other lines have issues, although many act like Carnival is the only line that has ever had them and that your life is constantly in peril if you sail with them.

 

I do not purposely go around posting on other forums, topics, threads, like I see others do, constantly putting down the people that sail on Carnival or belittling their choices. There's a difference and it's easy enough to identify those that do it.

To me, it is just very scary that Carnival had a totally unprecedented 4 ships fail in a 1 year period. Sure there are other ship failures, but often they are on smaller lines that only sail to the U.S. infrequently and are not as familiar with the inspection procedure as Carnival should be.

I sail with Dr. E and John Heald in a few weeks. That will be my 92 Carnival cruise since 2005. I have no other Carnival cruises booked at this time, I do however have 2 RCI cruises booked. In the future, I am sure I will make an effort to reach the milestone level of 100 cruises with Carnival to obtain the free cruise that is offered. But for now, all of the cutbacks, staff reductions, inspection failures have me very disappointed with Carnival.

I went back and pulled all reports for 3 years - the orange ones are below the average. Figured this would provide a bigger data set.

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thanks for the larger data info, It does not make Carnival look good.

In the past 12 months, Carnival has 4 failed CDC inspections. Carnival has 10 failures all time. Standards seem to have slipped recently. In comparison, NCL has had 2 failures all time. RCI and MSC has had 1 failure each all time. Celebrity has had 2 failures all time and Disney has never failed a CDC inspection.

 

4 Failures in a year shows something. Cutting corners and getting lazy at the expense of passenger health is not cool.

I do not question the accuracy of your statistics but am curious where you found the data about the number of failures all time. I would have thought there would be more failures.

I saw Sailor Jack's name mentioned in another post--can't recall whose--so I clicked on the name and ended up at the review. It's really delightful!

Yes, it was. Thanks for resurrecting it.

I had insurance which entitled me to a complete refund as soon as the weather people labeled it a hurricane. It took me about two months to get the full refund. Meanwhile, because we knew darn well that ship was going nowhere, we just went to Disney and had a good time while the people without insurance or those who trusted Carnival, found that trust misplaced and waited until they had just a 2 day cruise to nowhere, I believe.[/quote}

 

It is interesting that it took over 3 months/100 days for you to respond.

Thoroughly enjoyed your review. Almost like reading a ship-based "Year in Provence". Thank you!

I also really enjoyed Sailor Jack's review. What prompted you to go back almost a year and a half to find this thread?

Even after drydock, I've never seen a fantasy class ship with an outdoor screen. So I wouldn't plan on any movies by the pool on Paradise. The Dive in movies are one of my favorite activities...I wish there was a way to add the screen to Fantasy class!

 

 

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Based on the pool layout on Fantasy class ships there is really not a good place for a dive in movie screen that would have adequate seating.

 

Is this Continental Breakfast door hanger fairly recent? They used to have smoked salmon but that was a while ago. Did they bring it back or is this an older photo?

Never mind, you already answered.

 

Is this Continental Breakfast door hanger fairly recent? They used to have smoked salmon but that was a while ago. Did they bring it back or is this an older photo?

Depending on the ship they usually have a few large tables or can push some together to make a large seating. If you communicate your intentions to the hostesses at the front desk handling the seating they may be able to have a table waiting for your group each night.