Inspiration, April 17, 2017 The Walmart of the Seas

I was trying to be funny, but actually mild Arabica coffee can be delivered to the ports of New Orleans, Houston, Miami, or New York. Today the NY price was less than $1.65 per pound delivered. Any number of high volume roasters can prepare the beans for use on board ship.

 

There are other less desirable beans at $1.33 per pound, and these appeal to the sharp pencil boys (accounts) in Miami.

They are sailing to the Dominican Republic on a regular basis now and DR coffee is pretty dang good. ;)

OP, I enjoyed your review. We had better luck in the MDR on Imagination but otherwise I'd agree with you pretty much point for point. I think the West Coast cruises are a great quick getaway. Especially for a group. However, you need to go into them with reasonable expectations. You aren't getting a luxury cruise for $250 pp. And when Princess ran the same itinerary, it had exactly the same vibe but WAY worse buffet food.

If you go to Ensenada again, try the winery tour. It was very fun and informative. There were some kids in one or two of the group's. No wine for them, but they serve little snacks and soda was available for purchase at a couple of places.

OP, your review was spot on. We're on the Inspiration right now.

 

Cabin steward just dropped by to ask whether we would prefer morning or evening cabin service.

 

What the??? My 6th cruise on Carnival and this is a first for me. He said it's because they've been given "many more" cabins to clean. Well, I don't want to be a jerk but why am I not charged less in tips?

I love Carnival. But we're booked on the Oasis of the Seas for next summer to see what, if anything, we're missing.

Enjoy Oasis but just a warning. Our steward routinely ignored the bunk bed my boys slept in in a Family OV cabin on Allure. Made the beds maybe twice in 7 days. We asked about it but nothing changed. He never left us ice (even though we kept asking) and routinely brought in three clean towels for the five of us.

 

Wonder how many people are up and mobile before 7am on a cruise. My experience has been the ship is a ghost town before then.

Only because I'm a late riser and sleeper, I always wish they would leave the gym open longer at night because I'm thinking who wants to work out in the morning (but I know people do)

What the??? My 6th cruise on Carnival and this is a first for me. He said it's because they've been given "many more" cabins to clean. Well, I don't want to be a jerk but why am I not charged less in tips?

This comes up from time to time, so I'm not sure if they are experimenting, or if it's a lazy steward. When I was on the Inspiration last year, I was anticipating him asking, but he didn't. I'm on the Imagination in about 45 days - not sure what's gonna happen.

OP, your review was spot on. We're on the Inspiration right now.

 

Cabin steward just dropped by to ask whether we would prefer morning or evening cabin service.

 

What the??? My 6th cruise on Carnival and this is a first for me. He said it's because they've been given "many more" cabins to clean. Well, I don't want to be a jerk but why am I not charged less in tips?

I love Carnival. But we're booked on the Oasis of the Seas for next summer to see what, if anything, we're missing.

You are being tricked by the stewards. This is a trend that I am seeing and hearing about too often from general labor staff especially in hospitality whether on-board or land based.

And, as a consumer/customer only you have the power to stop it.

i would first visit guest services about getting twice a day service and if they don't accommodate, my steward would be getting half the tips for sure.

 

Enjoy Oasis but just a warning. Our steward routinely ignored the bunk bed my boys slept in in a Family OV cabin on Allure. Made the beds maybe twice in 7 days. We asked about it but nothing changed. He never left us ice (even though we kept asking) and routinely brought in three clean towels for the five of us.

I hate to say it, but that is where I might make a trip near end of cruise and pull all tips from cabin stewards for the cruise from my account. They essentially went out of their way not to provide a reasonable and expected level of service and I would go out of my way to ensure none of my money would go them in return.

I'm sure the purser/ship hotel manager frowns on this from happening, but I am pretty sure you can pull the tips if you go out of your way to do so. The likely way it would end up happening is that the purser or hotel manager can credit my account for the portion of tips automatically taken for the steward's piece. Stewards will probably still get their piece, but the purser/hotel manager has to justify, at some level, the value of the credit placed back onto my account and why. If occurred enough times, they would be able to get an attitude adjustment out of the steward or cut them loose.

Our recommended guideline to what is appropriate is $12.95 USD per person, per day for guests in standard stateroom accommodations and $13.95 USD per person, per day for guests booked in suites. The majority of the tipping amount goes to employees such as stateroom stewards, assistant stewards, dining room waiters and assistant waiters. A small portion goes to a mix of other personnel who are in guest-facing customer service positions within areas such as culinary and hotel services, along with certain key positions in entertainment and guest services.

Here is the breakdown, per day:

Housekeeping Team: $4.05 ($5.05 for suites)

Dining Team: $6.40

Alternative Services: $2.50

I thought the dining room food on the Dream was just awful. Worst of 6 cruises. The exception was jerk pork loin the final night.

 

My grilled chicken the first night was CRUNCHY! Grilled chicken!!! I think it was raw in the inside.

 

 

I wonder what is going on.. dining room used to be perfectly acceptible/adequate/pleasant (I come from new orleans so nothing is ever going to match every day food in Nola).

With the understanding that we love the food in NOLA (e.g., Brigsten's), so much so that we are flying there for a few days in February - just to do food, there are many other towns that easily outshine NOLA when it comes to per capita terrific restaurants (e.g., SF, Charleston)

In any case, one of the issues with food quality on cruise ships is that this is a good example of "you get what you pay for." Some premium/luxury lines (e.g., Crystal, Oceania) spend at least twice per passenger on food - even when their "parent" corporation is doing the overall purchasing for all ships in their total fleet (e.g., NCL gets the "choice" beef while Oceania gets the "prime").

It's hard to believe that anyone spending less than $100 per night on a cruise would actually be surprised that some (if not all) of the food would be nothing better than what they'd find at an Appleby's or Golden Corral.

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You have the option for both am and pm service. They try to sell you in one, but we objected and were then told you can get both - all by the greeting room steward.

Have fun as were in the Inspiration this past August.

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If a dish is unacceptable - do you not send it back and request something different?

We have occasionally done so and enjoyed the alternative. If I'm hungry I will order enough to eat so that I'm no longer hungry:D

I hate to say it, but that is where I might make a trip near end of cruise and pull all tips from cabin stewards for the cruise from my account. They essentially went out of their way not to provide a reasonable and expected level of service and I would go out of my way to ensure none of my money would go them in return.

........]

We had that room steward on Princess. We left the tips on but we wrote scathing comments onboard and in the online survey. The comments are what determines promotions, choice assignments and future contracts.

If a dish is unacceptable - do you not send it back and request something different?

 

We have occasionally done so and enjoyed the alternative. If I'm hungry I will order enough to eat so that I'm no longer hungry:D

Lol - yup! I always order 2 shrimp cocktails!!!

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Carnival's food did not start to get bad until the last few years. I have sailed with them from the 4 day Baja , Mexico to the 14 day Panama Canal with very good food including the old midnight buffet/s with food and ice carvings displayed and eaten in the MD. Cruising used to be know for it's abundance of good food. Not sure what happened but sure miss the good ole days.

o.k. let me post this and see what happens.

My wife and I took our first cruise in 2005, onboard the Miracle. It was our belated honeymoon (7 years later). We had a wonderful time, except for one incident during an open seating brunch.

We were seated at a table for 10, with one other younger couple and the rest "experienced" cruisers. Conversation was pleasant....at first. Then, the "experienced" cruisers decided to start bashing Carnival on everything. It got so bad that the other younger couple left.

My wife and I were dumbfounded that these people could be so brazen, all the while stuffing their faces with Carnival food. We didn't know if we should leave or not. We stuck around since these folks obviously knew much more than we did, right? Then, one gentleman opened up a briefcase, pulled out a letter he wrote to corporate and passed it around for everyone to read. He was declaring rather loudly that Carnival was the "Walmart of the cruise industry."

Upon hearing that, my wife and kindly excused ourselves and left the table, making the decision from then on that we would never dine in open seating again.

I complete disagree with the OP's assessment. Most people sailing Carnival know what to expect, and we don't go around looking for issues. For us, Carnival provides a good cruise at a good price point to ports we like to visit. When we tire of this, we'll look for other itineraries on other cruise lines.

Hey I sail another line for the ports, but for the Caribbean - Carnival is perfect.

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o.k. let me post this and see what happens.

 

My wife and I took our first cruise in 2005, onboard the Miracle. It was our belated honeymoon (7 years later). We had a wonderful time, except for one incident during an open seating brunch.

 

We were seated at a table for 10, with one other younger couple and the rest "experienced" cruisers. Conversation was pleasant....at first. Then, the "experienced" cruisers decided to start bashing Carnival on everything. It got so bad that the other younger couple left.

 

My wife and I were dumbfounded that these people could be so brazen, all the while stuffing their faces with Carnival food. We didn't know if we should leave or not. We stuck around since these folks obviously knew much more than we did, right? Then, one gentleman opened up a briefcase, pulled out a letter he wrote to corporate and passed it around for everyone to read. He was declaring rather loudly that Carnival was the "Walmart of the cruise industry."

 

Upon hearing that, my wife and kindly excused ourselves and left the table, making the decision from then on that we would never dine in open seating again.

 

I complete disagree with the OP's assessment. Most people sailing Carnival know what to expect, and we don't go around looking for issues. For us, Carnival provides a good cruise at a good price point to ports we like to visit. When we tire of this, we'll look for other itineraries on other cruise lines.

Keys2Heaven,

We are sorry reading about your exposure to the "experienced" cruisers.

We too have been in a similar situation and which is one of the main reasons why we ask for a table for 2 or 4.

Thank you for sharing your experience.