Latest reviews are scaring me!

When I was planning my first (and only) cruise back in 2009 on the Conquest I lived on CC. I read all the reviews and the boards helped me out tremendously! So naturally when I was ready to book my 2nd cruise I came back to CC and the boards to help me decide the who, what, when and where. Having been on 1 Carnival cruise, which BTW I loved, I really wanted to try one of the RCCL mega ships. But since I am traveling with my husband who has never cruised and is not a huge fan of crowds, I didn't want to spend a small fortune and he ends up hating the cruise. So we opted for a Carnival cruise. We ended up choosing the Glory-Western Caribbean, next summer. Although after choosing our extended Aft balcony I didn't really save any $$ over RCCL (but that's a different issue). Anyway after I booked I went back to reading the boards and OMG I am scared of what to expect! I have read several reviews from people who say "I have been on xxx number of Carnival cruises and they are okay but let me tell you everything that went wrong"! One of the biggest complaints I keep reading about is the food! Back in 2009 I remember the food was great! And our service was also great, Then again I didn't have anything to compare it to! My husband and I love good food! Probably foodies but def not food snobs, but if the food is as bad as some of the reviews I've been reading I am wondering if I should have gone with RCCL? I did make a chef's table reservation so I know at least one night we'll have good food ;). One bad review kept going on and on about how bad the eggs were and then how bad the BBQ was. I am like but did you starve...LOL! I know everyone has different standards but I am starting to see a trend on food! I should mention that I really wanted to sail on the Breeze but the airfare to Galveston would have been so much more for us then going out on Miami! So that will have to wait! Someone please tell me that they had a great time on the Glory and some people just cant be pleased :eek:.

I can let you know in two weeks. I will have an un-biased review, as I am not loyal to any cruise line and have been on most of them, I've also recently sailed on the Vista (in Feb.) and will now be on the Glory in June. I have no fear, as there is always something we like to eat. BUT while the buffet on the Vista was really boring and bland, the evening dining room food was amazing! Always something to choose from and we never went out of there less than stuffed.

I can let you know in two weeks. I will have an un-biased review, as I am not loyal to any cruise line and have been on most of them, I've also recently sailed on the Vista (in Feb.) and will now be on the Glory in June. I have no fear, as there is always something we like to eat. BUT while the buffet on the Vista was really boring and bland, the evening dining room food was amazing! Always something to choose from and we never went out of there less than stuffed.

Thanks! I will be standing by! I keep telling myself that if all i hear is bad we are still far out enough that if we decide change to another ship or cruise line we wont be loosing too much ;)

Have a great cruise!

Thanks! There are 15 of us going (all family) and we like to eat, so I'll be sure to let you know. In my experience, food is so subjective, so it will be interesting to see out of the 15 of us if everyone enjoys it the same.

My experience is that for every negative review that is posted, there are a couple of dozen positive ones that are not. Stop reading them and stressing about things.

We did the Western Caribbean on The Glory in April 2015 and loved it! The Ship was great and that was before dry dock. The food was good, especially loved the soups in the dining room. Did we have some food we didn't like, sure that happens on any trip. We are going on the Glory again May 2018, this time Eastern Caribbean. you will have a great time. LOVE the Aft balconies, once we did one we can't go back to a regular balcony.

If you are a foodie, then you know you can't expect a mass market line to compete with your good local restaurants. You just have to adjust your expectations. There is food on the ship that would cost a small fortune in my area and then there is stuff I can find on every street corner that is better than the ship's. To be honest, I never pay much attention to any food reviews on a ship. They are simply too subjective and after 10 cruises, I've never been disappointed.

My experience is that for every negative review that is posted, there are a couple of dozen positive ones that are not. Stop reading them and stressing about things.

My experience as well.

The food is dependent on individual tastes. It is also dependent on the ship and the chef. The chefs do move around, as do most employees.

I have had some cruises that were better than others, some ships had better food or service. But every time I have cruised We have had a wonderful time. Interestingly enough, I would look for reviews on ships I had just been on, and would see horrible reviews about them-for the week I was on! The reviews were so bad I couldn't believe it was the same trip!

Go in with a positive attitude and an open mind. KNOW you will have fun, and you will! If you think it will be bad, you will look for every minor detail that makes it bad.

There are some "born complainers"-you know who they are in your life- and those are the types writing the bad reviews. Take them with a grain of salt. Every cruise I have been on (15 plus one next week), there has been something that has gone "wrong." If you fixate on that and don't get over it, it could ruin your cruise. We tend to laugh about it and make fun of the situation, and move on to better things. We try to not take things too seriously, and we tend to be happier in general.

Don't let the reviews scare you!! The members that post here a very small number of carnival cruisers.

You can take 4 people from the same cruise who are at the same dinning room table had rooms next to each other and you will get for different reviews from great to terrible. So enjoy your cruise your not at work !!!!!!!!

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My experience as well.

 

The food is dependent on individual tastes. It is also dependent on the ship and the chef. The chefs do move around, as do most employees.

 

I have had some cruises that were better than others, some ships had better food or service. But every time I have cruised We have had a wonderful time. Interestingly enough, I would look for reviews on ships I had just been on, and would see horrible reviews about them-for the week I was on! The reviews were so bad I couldn't believe it was the same trip!

 

Go in with a positive attitude and an open mind. KNOW you will have fun, and you will! If you think it will be bad, you will look for every minor detail that makes it bad.

 

There are some "born complainers"-you know who they are in your life- and those are the types writing the bad reviews. Take them with a grain of salt. Every cruise I have been on (15 plus one next week), there has been something that has gone "wrong." If you fixate on that and don't get over it, it could ruin your cruise. We tend to laugh about it and make fun of the situation, and move on to better things. We try to not take things too seriously, and we tend to be happier in general.

I totally agree! I know some people complain about the air! To be honest I am easy to please. But my husband on the other hand can be a little harder to please! He is the guy that wouldn't step foot in a Golden Corral and i'm like hey they make good rolls!

I would say that's really the only reason I am worried. He really did not want to go on a cruise and I finally got him to agree on giving it a chance (pretty sure he's going to love it) he keeps referencing the Titanic if that tells you anything....LOL!!!

I just want to make sure he doesn't have anything "major" to complain about so he doesn't refuse to go on another cruise ;p

I'll just keep him happy with the Cheers package so he cant complain :beer-mug::tropical-drink::cocktail:

I don't care if anybody wants to ball me out but if I were in your shoes I would want somebody like myself to tell it as they see it as I will.

I am one of the people who has been on 70 cruises so far (we are both 54) and the majority of them have been on Carnival only because we take 2-3 cruises a year, go to Aruba for two weeks yearly and take 3-4 mini vacations throughout the year so Carnivals prices allow us to do an extra cruise. The past three years we only have taken 6-7 Carnival cruises, we stood away from RC, but this year again, I booked the Dream but due to medical issues and my specialists advised me not to fly longer than an hour or I will rupture one of my herniated disks, I had to cancel. Carnival didn't allow me to transfer my booking to another ship out of Florida (we live in northern Florida and the flight from Jacksonville would only be 50 minutes to Ft. Lauderdale), we were willing to pay penalty fees and all, since they didn't allow this we simply booked RC new Harmony of the Seas and we went on her this past May. It was the BEST thing that happened to us because going on this ship and back on RC we realized how much we were missing out on not mentioning all the food in the buffet lunches on this ship were all fresh, edible with huge amount of selection/variety of food including free hard ice cream that I found myself eating daily lol....there are choices of other complimentary eating places for both breakfast and lunch as well as all the specialty restaurants to choose from for dinner. We did not eat in the MDR at all or the complimentary Solarium Bistro as we prefer specialty restaurants but I heard many passengers were very happy with the MDR food. The Cafe Promenade as well as Sorrentos offers you different items to chose from for late night snacks and the Cafe is open for 24 hours....the premium drink package is all unlimited which includes fresh squeezed OJ in the am, soda, non alcoholic drinks, bottled and sparking water and you receive a tumbler and there are soda machines located in various parts of the ship that you can simply help yourself. The pools are large and fresh water, just lots to do on the Oasis class of ship and the shows blow out what you would get on Carnival, and don't miss the ice and aqua show either should you ever take a RC cruise!

Carnival buffet lunches are eh, nothing special, we found warm items on the salad bar as well as always soggy tomatoes, and there is only pizza for late night snack thats all. We do love the brunch on sea days and we heard the live bands now are cut down to just 1-3 people (from what I heard) and their Cheers program has a limit of 15 alcoholic drinks daily (I never got there but if your a beer drinker you sure can go over that). The beverage service in the MDR is always slow in fact bring in a cocktail/wine/beer in with you as it will take you time for that beverage server to get to your table, and generally we really aren't approached more than once, they have many many people to serve....The waiters are cut back so they are overloaded with too many people and the bartenders have been cut back to less in the bars but I never had any bad service but I do tip extra each cocktail.

Back in 09 things were all better and different....its all about cut backs now basically because Carnival is trying to keep its prices for the cruises at its lowest possible so they have to cut back on help and food quality/variety. Carnivals Steakhouse is our most favorite specialty restaurant and when we cruise Carnival in the past, we dine there every night simply because the food in the MDR was just ok....(most fat on the prime rib I ever seen if you call that stuff prime rib, flat iron steak always tough and chewy) but they do have the up charge items which are better where you pay an additional $20 for a steak, surf and turf and lobster tail...and Carnival does serve lobster on one of the formal nights which you can ask for more, and by the way, both cruise lines you wear what you want, you find people wearing anything they want in these days.

The way I see things, your husband hasn't cruises why not show him the best this way he probably enjoy the cruise a lot more and perhaps want to cruise again? If you go on Carnival and you find many disappointments (but any cruise is better than no cruise) cruising may be unappealing to him for the future...so I say, go on one of the Oasis class ships, you won't be disappointed and by the way, RC gives you shower doors where Carnival is that curtain, Balconies on RC are much larger than Carnival and there is so much more to do on RC than Carnival and the solarium area on RC is so much nicer! I say go for the better one which is RC, I am unsure whether we would cruise again on Carnival as we now saw how much better RC is but I am cancelling another Carnival cruise that I had booked up months ago and we booked up the Oasis instead for this October so I will have a credit with Carnival, I guess somewhere I have to go use it, perhaps on a 5 night cruise, don't think I want to waste more money any longer on Carnival.

One more thing, if you eat at fast food establishments, mcdonalds, Wendy's and such, you will definitely like the food on Canival so again, food is subjective.

One of the biggest complaints I keep reading about is the food! Back in 2009 I remember the food was great! And our service was also great, Then again I didn't have anything to compare it to! My husband and I love good food! .

What it seems to me is that some of the folks watch those foodie shows on the Food Network and compare what's on the menu on CCL to those designed for 5-star restaurants.

My guess is that the food menus are wayyyyy better and have a much wider variety than what most of these complaing folks routinely eat at home.

In all our cruises we have yet to go to the MDR for dinner and not be able to find a tasty meal. Did we love everything - no, not necessarily but found food that tasted good and we certainly never went away hungry.

You can't expect Ruth Chris's every night on a budget cruise line.

I totally agree! I know some people complain about the air! To be honest I am easy to please. But my husband on the other hand can be a little harder to please! He is the guy that wouldn't step foot in a Golden Corral and i'm like hey they make good rolls!

 

I would say that's really the only reason I am worried. He really did not want to go on a cruise and I finally got him to agree on giving it a chance (pretty sure he's going to love it) he keeps referencing the Titanic if that tells you anything....LOL!!!

 

I just want to make sure he doesn't have anything "major" to complain about so he doesn't refuse to go on another cruise ;p

 

I'll just keep him happy with the Cheers package so he cant complain :beer-mug::tropical-drink::cocktail:

Umm Carnival food, like the lunch buffet that you're going to have to eat, is comparable to Golden Corral and Golden Corral's would be better as they actually bring in fresh food every morning.. the ship can't do that. That being said I cruised my first cruise back in 2010 and I cruised in 2016, can't say the food was any different on Carnival but I don't go into the dining room I just use the buffet.

Here's the thing - if you are a true foodie you are likely to do better with the American Table menu. It's a bit different than a basic meat-starch-veggie menu. DH and I are from NYC and live outside of DC now, and consider ourselves quasi-foodies. We had no issues with the American Table menu on the Vista. We also did the Chef's Table, and loved it. And we thought the pizza was pretty good for a cruise.

I have never had a really bad meal on any cruise, Carnival or any other. There have been items that I didn't love, but, for the most part, that was because of my selections not being what I expected, more than that there was anything intrinsically wrong with them.

Glitches and hiccups? Sure.

Less than perfection in the buffet? Naturally, which is why I avoid eating in the buffet (on any cruise line) for more than a lighter meal, snacks, and breakfast. I can always find something palatable, but prefer to be seated and served at dinner.

People are always ready to write reviews when things go wrong, but most people don't even think about it when everything goes as expected.

Here's the thing - if you are a true foodie you are likely to do better with the American Table menu. It's a bit different than a basic meat-starch-veggie menu. DH and I are from NYC and live outside of DC now, and consider ourselves quasi-foodies. We had no issues with the American Table menu on the Vista. We also did the Chef's Table, and loved it. And we thought the pizza was pretty good for a cruise.

ME TOO!!! I am from Mid town Manhattan, my mom still lives there. I left in 2009 when I joined the military. Now I'm a federal employee for the Navy as is my husband, and we live in Southern MD. He is originally from the Fredrick, MD and Richmond VA area.

I have to admit I consider myself a pizza snob (being from NYC) and I thought the pizza on the Conquest was good!

We were on the Glory in November and it was a good cruise! The food wasn't fantastic, but by no means awful and I am a foodie! You'll have a great time!

I don't care if anybody wants to ball me out but if I were in your shoes I would want somebody like myself to tell it as they see it as I will.

 

I am one of the people who has been on 70 cruises so far (we are both 54) and the majority of them have been on Carnival only because we take 2-3 cruises a year, go to Aruba for two weeks yearly and take 3-4 mini vacations throughout the year so Carnivals prices allow us to do an extra cruise. The past three years we only have taken 6-7 Carnival cruises, we stood away from RC, but this year again, I booked the Dream but due to medical issues and my specialists advised me not to fly longer than an hour or I will rupture one of my herniated disks, I had to cancel. Carnival didn't allow me to transfer my booking to another ship out of Florida (we live in northern Florida and the flight from Jacksonville would only be 50 minutes to Ft. Lauderdale), we were willing to pay penalty fees and all, since they didn't allow this we simply booked RC new Harmony of the Seas and we went on her this past May. It was the BEST thing that happened to us because going on this ship and back on RC we realized how much we were missing out on not mentioning all the food in the buffet lunches on this ship were all fresh, edible with huge amount of selection/variety of food including free hard ice cream that I found myself eating daily lol....there are choices of other complimentary eating places for both breakfast and lunch as well as all the specialty restaurants to choose from for dinner. We did not eat in the MDR at all or the complimentary Solarium Bistro as we prefer specialty restaurants but I heard many passengers were very happy with the MDR food. The Cafe Promenade as well as Sorrentos offers you different items to chose from for late night snacks and the Cafe is open for 24 hours....the premium drink package is all unlimited which includes fresh squeezed OJ in the am, soda, non alcoholic drinks, bottled and sparking water and you receive a tumbler and there are soda machines located in various parts of the ship that you can simply help yourself. The pools are large and fresh water, just lots to do on the Oasis class of ship and the shows blow out what you would get on Carnival, and don't miss the ice and aqua show either should you ever take a RC cruise!

 

Carnival buffet lunches are eh, nothing special, we found warm items on the salad bar as well as always soggy tomatoes, and there is only pizza for late night snack thats all. We do love the brunch on sea days and we heard the live bands now are cut down to just 1-3 people (from what I heard) and their Cheers program has a limit of 15 alcoholic drinks daily (I never got there but if your a beer drinker you sure can go over that). The beverage service in the MDR is always slow in fact bring in a cocktail/wine/beer in with you as it will take you time for that beverage server to get to your table, and generally we really aren't approached more than once, they have many many people to serve....The waiters are cut back so they are overloaded with too many people and the bartenders have been cut back to less in the bars but I never had any bad service but I do tip extra each cocktail.

 

Back in 09 things were all better and different....its all about cut backs now basically because Carnival is trying to keep its prices for the cruises at its lowest possible so they have to cut back on help and food quality/variety. Carnivals Steakhouse is our most favorite specialty restaurant and when we cruise Carnival in the past, we dine there every night simply because the food in the MDR was just ok....(most fat on the prime rib I ever seen if you call that stuff prime rib, flat iron steak always tough and chewy) but they do have the up charge items which are better where you pay an additional $20 for a steak, surf and turf and lobster tail...and Carnival does serve lobster on one of the formal nights which you can ask for more, and by the way, both cruise lines you wear what you want, you find people wearing anything they want in these days.

 

The way I see things, your husband hasn't cruises why not show him the best this way he probably enjoy the cruise a lot more and perhaps want to cruise again? If you go on Carnival and you find many disappointments (but any cruise is better than no cruise) cruising may be unappealing to him for the future...so I say, go on one of the Oasis class ships, you won't be disappointed and by the way, RC gives you shower doors where Carnival is that curtain, Balconies on RC are much larger than Carnival and there is so much more to do on RC than Carnival and the solarium area on RC is so much nicer! I say go for the better one which is RC, I am unsure whether we would cruise again on Carnival as we now saw how much better RC is but I am cancelling another Carnival cruise that I had booked up months ago and we booked up the Oasis instead for this October so I will have a credit with Carnival, I guess somewhere I have to go use it, perhaps on a 5 night cruise, don't think I want to waste more money any longer on Carnival.

 

One more thing, if you eat at fast food establishments, mcdonalds, Wendy's and such, you will definitely like the food on Canival so again, food is subjective.

Thank you for your honest post! Everything you have mentioned is exactly what I was thinking about. I will definitely think about it! The good thing is we bookes a few weeks ago when they had the $49 deposits so if I do cancel I am only out $98!

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You can't expect Ruth Chris's every night on a budget cruise line.

HAHAH! Love this! Although our last experience at Ruth Chris's was BLAH! But we do love our Fogo De Chao :D

I haven't been on Glory but I am going on Splendor in September. I will say when I first got on CC and was reading up on Splendor so many people had bad reviews. I was nervous trying to to see if I should cancel and book with another cruise like. This will be my 4th cruise but my husbands first so I want him to have a good impression so that we can go on more or at least travel more. After reading and reading I found that a lot more people were pleased. I actually see good reviews about glory. My husband will eat almost so the food part I am not worried about as long as he eats. I am a picky eater as it is so I usually play it safe. You can always have pizza or eat in different places. I say don't worry about the reviews and enjoy your cruise.

So, I don't consider myself a "foodie" because that is way too much trouble. I am more of a food lover, I don't discriminate, good food is good food. Family members were chefs in very high end places, and we love street food so we are flexible. I do consider myself a cruiser with experience on NCL, Princess and more than 20 cruises on Carnival.

Do a search on CC for a thread on favorite Carnival food and you will find lots of people have good experiences with the food and will give you some ideas of what to try. Number one thing I don't eat on a cruise is the scrambled eggs. Not really sure what they are but they are horrible. Instead, I go to the omelet station and get eggs over easy. Go to the Sea Day Brunch. It's great. Try new things. DH does not eat, he grazes and if he doesn't like something he moves on, in the MDR he just orders something else. Lot's of options, find what YOU like.

Ignore people who rehash on EVERY post their complaints, the obvious "cut and paste-rs" who want to beat the dead horse with their pity story. Give more credence to those who share a more balanced view. If Carnival were that bad they would be out of business. If they were that good, they would charge more.

Mdgal76 your welcome...by the way, I don't like Ruth Chris either and we really enjoy Fago De Chao LOL :D

forlkr- You shouldn't tell the OP to ignore people such as myself because the OP is asking for our advice and opinions, all because I said things that you didn't like hearing or whether you disagree with, the OP needs to hear from us all to make her decision. I am a foodie for sure as I travel a lot but on cruises I don't expect wonderful quality food as I would get from a 4/5 star restaurant, I expect decent good quality food and on Carnival there have been times on every cruise when myself, my other half or my father in law just couldn't eat items and the lack of selection especially on the older ships is real shameful! When I cruised on Carnival I know I won't be eating well and I am not cruising for the food.....you ever wonder why you see so much waste of food on a Carnival cruise its because of the lack of quality, and honestly, on the Harmony this past May I noticed pretty much everybody finishing what they had on their plates...but on Carnival I see tons of wasted food and I know for a good reason. You even mention about your own husband when he doesn't like something he won't eat it and asks for something else.....I am not as you say giving a pity story, I simply mentioning the truth and the OP was very nice to thank me for my post which I am very happy to have helped.

No Carnival would not be out of business because of not good food, the majority of passengers choose Carnival because of their more economic prices (you pay for what you get), most people choose because Carnivals prices are lower than RC and that is the honest truth...ever wonder why you always hear people (and I never said it. myself although it does fit) calling Carnival "The Walmart" of the cruise industry?;)

OP, whatever you decide you still are going to be on a cruise, but I assure you, there is a huge difference between a RC Oasis class ship and a Carnival ship, and its like you said, should you change ships, you only loose out $98. ;)

Don't worry about the reviews. I have been cruising Carnival for 14 years. My latest cruise on Elation last month out of Jacksonville was actually my favorite. Great food and service and a clean ship with great entertainment. I even got a beautiful remodeled cabin. Yes there have been cutbacks but the quality is still very good and so is the value. Cruising a mass market cruise line may not be best for a pickey person looking for faults. But if you are not pickey and go with an open mind with the understanding you are not the only person on board then you will have a great time. Enjoy your cruise.:)

JohnSpo- The Elation is the cruise we are cancelling this October, I did choose it for my extra cruise this year because it is only a 35 drive to the port but after going on the Harmony we just can't go back on Carnival at least not yet, but in September she is going for a month long refurbishment and I have heard as you mentioned that they already are starting her updates, another reason why we chose her, when we cruise Carnival I make sure the ships go into dry dock within a year before I go. I am glad you enjoyed her and had those updates!

I am not a picky eater, just want to eat edible, fresh and good food thats all, it can be Ruby Tuesday and I am ok, so I am not picky.

When I was planning my first (and only) cruise back in 2009 on the Conquest I lived on CC. I read all the reviews and the boards helped me out tremendously! So naturally when I was ready to book my 2nd cruise I came back to CC and the boards to help me decide the who, what, when and where. Having been on 1 Carnival cruise, which BTW I loved, I really wanted to try one of the RCCL mega ships. But since I am traveling with my husband who has never cruised and is not a huge fan of crowds, I didn't want to spend a small fortune and he ends up hating the cruise. So we opted for a Carnival cruise. We ended up choosing the Glory-Western Caribbean, next summer. Although after choosing our extended Aft balcony I didn't really save any $$ over RCCL (but that's a different issue). Anyway after I booked I went back to reading the boards and OMG I am scared of what to expect! I have read several reviews from people who say "I have been on xxx number of Carnival cruises and they are okay but let me tell you everything that went wrong"! One of the biggest complaints I keep reading about is the food! Back in 2009 I remember the food was great! And our service was also great, Then again I didn't have anything to compare it to! My husband and I love good food! Probably foodies but def not food snobs, but if the food is as bad as some of the reviews I've been reading I am wondering if I should have gone with RCCL? I did make a chef's table reservation so I know at least one night we'll have good food ;). One bad review kept going on and on about how bad the eggs were and then how bad the BBQ was. I am like but did you starve...LOL! I know everyone has different standards but I am starting to see a trend on food! I should mention that I really wanted to sail on the Breeze but the airfare to Galveston would have been so much more for us then going out on Miami! So that will have to wait! Someone please tell me that they had a great time on the Glory and some people just cant be pleased :eek:.

My review mentioned the BBQ at Guy's and the bad eggs. If you're referring to my review of our trip on the Breeze, we had far more good food than bad. I do think the buffet is generally just okay, but most of the food in the dining room was good to very good. I don't know that I'd say any of it was superlative, and most of it could have been warmer--that's hard though when serving that many people. Some of the dining room items weren't great, but everything was edible. You'll be just fine. Enjoy your cruise.