matymil

That stinks. I wonder if the next cruise is going to be able to go out on time

Due to strong winds the Carnival Magic (which is currently hosting Shiprocked) collided with the pier in Ocho Rios. Nobody was hurt but apparently it's affecting a portion of the ship. This happened while their were docked so many guests are still off the ship. According to someone on the sailing, they have to get the guests Montego Bay to get back on the Magic.

The mother told me that her daughter actually does Judo so she showed restraint in that situation.

When was this? When we boarded there was only the Venezia in port and it was still terrible

I thought we wouldn't have to deal with kids because it's Jan

Yeah I know this seems like a mostly negative review but overall we still had a good time and our son had the time of his life so that's really all that matters. Plus I wasn't at work so that's a win

I appreciate it but I'd hope any decent human would have done the same but again...it's NYC. When did you go on the Magic last. When we went last July it was a disaster. Day one, we got into the hot tub after a group of teens. We found a pile of nuts and bolts sitting off to the side. I picked up a handful and asked one of teens that were standing close "yo man?! What's up with these" and shocker the teen said he had no idea. I gave the parts to a Carnival worker who just shook her head and said "I love kids" The hot tub was shutdown for a couple of days after this for repairs and again....this was day one lol

She told me that her daughter was with a friend that she trusted. I don't know the details but the fact that I came across this situation and somehow was not surprised, should tell someone all they need to know

This was a three off by the OP dating back to 2017. Maybe I just keep getting unlucky but either way we don't want to risk our son being around that behavior.

Probably not. It's our least favorite ship but that's just our opinion. Again it's absolutely gorgeous but logistically you can tell it just wasn't meant for our market or for a crowded ship tbh.

Funny you say that. Out of the 4 cruises, the only one I had without issue was to Canada

I know she was talking to the head of security for sure.

Our son still had an absolute blast which is the most important thing 🙂

How many Carnival cruises out of NYC have you been on though?

It's a combo of the Carnival customer base & NYC. Out of the 14 Carnival cruises I've been on, I've only had major problems when sailing out of NYC

Ive had afew days to process our cruise on the Carnival Venezia and I wanted to give my honest thoughts of the whole experience. It seems like the Venezia and departure port of NYC are pretty polarizing amongst cruisers these days so just remember that this is my honest opinion of my experiences. We may not have the same opinion but it doesnt mean that either are wrong 🙂 Quick background; I was on the Venezia sailing leaving on 1/5/24 (HMC/Nassau/Freeport) out of NYC with my wife and 5 year old son. This is my 14th cruise, all with Carnival, 4th out of NYC and 1st on the Venezia. The Good: The ship: It is absolutely gorgeous. It looks nothing like any other Carnival but at the same time still seems very familiar because it is essentially a Vista ship. The attention to detail is nothing like any other ship in the fleet that's for sure. Nassau: I cant believe it but Nassau is actually a port worth getting off and exploring now. We had been to Nassau a bunch like most cruisers and like most cruisers we knew that unless you were doing an excursion, you really didn't need to get off the ship. After our excursion we came back and explored the new port area and honestly it is 1000% better. We didnt even get harassed after we left the gated port area. Its honestly like night and day. The food: Did not have a bad meal on board. Everything from the MDR, lido, guys, etc was all great. La Strata was a great surprise. It takes the place of Guys BBQ on deck 5 outside. Very good quality all the way around (aside from the late-night snacks which basically the same on all ships) MarQ: We sailed with him before, but it was back in 2016 when he was part of the Vista fun squad with Cookie, Nono and Matt Mitcham. You can see a blend of Cookie and Matt Mitcham with his energy and quick wit. Everyone in our group and everyone else we talked to all seemed to love him. He is easily our favorite Carnival CD now. The Bad: The staff: Another thing i can't believe because in all of our sailings we've always had awesome staff across the board with very few exceptions. Aside from the fun squad and our room steward it seemed like most of the staff did not want to be there. We never had the same MDR wait staff twice which was weird, i heard multiple people say that they think they may have been training? Some of the MDR staff seemed downright rude. I was used to long waits but afew of the nights our dinner took almost 2 hours which is tough with a 5 year old, plus our friends with us had an 18 month old. We talked to some of the staff and afew of them openly told us that they weren't happy. The casino pitboss openly told my friend "its the worst ship ive ever been on, my contract is done at the end of this cruise and im never coming back". The rest of the staff weren't necessarily rude but I always come off of a Carnival cruise with afew names of staff that I remember so I can praise them in the email survey. Aside from MarQ and afew fun squad members, I could not tell you one name of a staff member. This could very well be because of the clientele that deal with on a regular basis but either way it was the worst service weve ever had from Carnival by far. Not only did the other people in our group share the same opinion but others we talked to on the ship did as well. The layout: After we got settled in and we quickly started to realize that this ship was not designed for us. At first it was little things like there not being any laundry rooms (I was told its more custom for people to send away for laundry in Asian culture, which was the market this ship was meant for). Then we began to notice things like how crowded places like the MDR and lido seemed because of the design. Most lido decks have three tiers, this one has two but it also has a large stage that takes away several rows of deck chairs. Because its only two tiers, the screen is much lower. Not to mention that the second deck of the lido is very sectioned off (same with the MDR). You'll see lots of nice looking marble pillars but when youre trying to watch the screen, it makes it very hard to see and seating at a huge premium. The layout in the gym is also by far the worst I've ever seen. You can tell that the machines are European but if the weight area had more than one person in it, it felt crowded. I even went at off hours and it was still a mess. HMC: Got cancelled because of the rough seas. It is what it is but i can't wait for the pier to be built 🙂 The NYC: I'm probably going to offend NYC locals but my wife and I agreed that this is the last cruise we ever take out of NYC, no matter the time of year or the price. My last cruise out of NYC was last July and to say that was a disaster is an understatement. About a week after I got back from that cruise, Carnival announced the new curfew and cited the behavior of the kids on the Magic (sailing out of NYC) as being a main reason. First issue: we had was getting into the building. For some reason there was a delay getting us on board and we ended up having to wait outside in the cold, in a 5-block line for over an hour. Second issue: 30 seconds after boarding, we encountered our first (of many) extremely rude people. A lady who filming the atrium bumped into our 5-year-old son without saying anything and then proceeded to give my wife an instant attitude, which lead to a very heated argument. Granted my wife did not handle it the best but we had just got done waiting for almost 2 hours to get on board at this point and my wife gets very defensive when it comes to our son. Our friends saw the same woman later in the cruise with her arm in a sling so may she tried the wrong one🤷‍♂️ Third issue: The day that HMC got cancelled, we were up early so we decided to go to the back pool. We found 3 open lounge chairs next to three other chairs that had towels on them. We only took two chairs because my son did not need one. After about 20 mins he wanted to go to the splash pad so my wife took him and left her bag on the open chair. At this point, the open chair to my right was taken now. About another 25 mins past (45ish minutes after we took the chairs) and I hear this nasty lady yell "HEY!!!! YOU TOOK OUR CHAIRS!!!" I looked around, looked to my side and said "me?!?" She yelled back "YEAH!!!! We had 4 chairs saved and now we only have 3!" And this point a lady she was with starts chirping to. Side note; it was extremely windy and items weird blowing around the area including shirts, a flip-flop and.....(wait for it) the almost empty can of sunblock that the woman used to reserve the 4th chair for at least 45 mins. At no point did i move anything for any chair which I told the woman but that did not stop her from yelling so i responded by taking my bag, my other stuff and getting up. I said to her "You know what! Take both chairs because I dont want to sit next to someone like you anyway." I went off to the side, got dressed and texted my wife to not come back to the pool. As i walked back by the scene of the crime a group of people sitting on the other side stopped me and said "Hey! We saw the entire thing. You did nothing wrong. If you want, you can have one of our seats." To which i replied "Thank you but i have to meet with my wife and its not worth it" The lady heard and saw all of this so i really hope her made her feel fantastic. Final straw: Im gonna keep this one as brief as possible because it wasnt my kid in the center of this issue but this is the main reason we arent sailing NYC again because I dont want him around this behavior. I was taking my son to play mini golf when a group of about 15-20 kids came running towards us yelling about how they just beat some girl up. Me and my 5-year-old walked up on a lifeless girl, with her glasses on the ground, laying on the deck (about 13 years old ish) who wasn't responding to me. I ran and got security. When I got back to her, she was sitting up and crying. At this point security had said that they saw her messing around before and were basically blaming her which made her cry even harder but it wasnt my kid, wasnt my business and figured that it was under control. About 20 mins later im with my son in the arcade and the same group of kids come in and they start talking about how they are gonna beat up some other kid so i decide to go to guest services. While waiting i find out that i am standing behind the mother of the daugther who is talking to guest services. I take her off to the side and explain what i saw and give her my information if she needs someone to write a statement. At this point shes in tears and tells me that her daughter is autistic, and she has been getting bullied by these kids for the whole cruise. She told me that even her 9 year old was complaining about getting bullied. After that this is not an environment that i want my kid around. I know you get bad kids on every ship but I don't care what anyone says, there is a huge difference when it comes to sailing out of NYC. Thats pretty about it. Thanks if you made it this far 🙂

Thanks for the info

My cruise leaves in a week and there has been a swell of ppl in my cruise group to talking about bringing a mattress cover. I've never seen this before. Are the mattresses really that hard on the Venezia? If so, wouldn't you be able to ask the room steward for one?

Yeah don't really know where you got "baulking at the markup" from any of my comments because I actually think it's reasonably priced but thanks for your participation Dallas, stay classy and keep cruise criticing

I've never ordered an entire bottle of wine at a restaurant in my life

6-12 dollar bottles lol...i priced it out

Thats weird that its not in the description. I tip at the bar obviously but I dont see why 18% would be applied for literally just buying a bottle of wine.

It showed up on the website for my cruise in a couple of days. Never seen it before so i guess thats new

Has anyone done this recently? Its not a horrible price but i have a couple questions. Can i buy this on board or is this pre cruise only? Are there any hidden fees like a corkage fee or gratuity that arent included? TIA

I think i had their pot roast on our last cruise in Sept and liked it. Pot roast is one of my favorite foods, ill remember this