Bad Reviews

[BobbyD]

This is why I have a love/hate relationship with Cruise Critic. It provides a wealth of info, yet the reviews, both positive and negative, can have one second guessing every decision that we make. Being educated and informed is one thing, but over analysis can be bad sometimes. We can read 2 reviews of the same cruise, one being the vacation of a lifetime and the other being the cruise from hell. That's why we, readers and contributors of Cruise Critic, need to take all info with a certain grain of salt.

 

I frequent the Royal boards as well. If I believed half of what I read, I would never take a cruise with them either. Some reviews would have you believe that the food on Royal was on a par with fast food. Our June cruise on the Serenade was awesome in all aspects of food, service, ship.

 

Our family is eagerly awaiting our cruise next summer on the Magic. I have no doubt that there will be both negative and positive reviews before we leave but I also have no doubt that we will have a great time.

[jetskier]

To: Harleygirl...

 

This is the first I've ever heard or read anyone stating that they were to wait in your cabin.

 

How was this communicated to you.

 

And imagine getting on your ship the week before, and your cabin wasn't ready, as ther previous occupants decided just to hang out.

 

Pete,

The Debarkation Information letter in the cabin states:

 

Select where you want to relax while you wait to be called for departure.

 

Another section reads:

 

If you choose option 2 (Self Assist) please keep your luggage in your stateroom until you leave the following morning. Please wait until your deck is called and at that time you may proceed to deck 7 and ashore.

 

 

NO WHERE does it tell you a time you have to be out of your cabin nor does it state you CANNOT wait in your cabin. Actually it tends to imply it where it says to leave your luggage in your stateroom.

 

Dave

[zqvol]

Seems like Carnival has had a rash of bad reviews lately. What up with that?

 

IMO it is a typical fall. the weather seems to mess with a lot of cruises and people want to vent. If you dig deep in the bad reviews, most of them, at least IMO are disappointment because of things that are weather related.

 

I have not noticed any decrease in the level of service or the quality of food that Carnival has been providing for the past 5 years. Labor costs on the hotel side of the ship are one of the smallest expenses that are incurred every week. The savings that might be gained by reducing hotel staff are negligible because of the tipping system, and as a result I do not believe that staffing has been reduced at all.

 

I do think that food quality has diminished but only a slight amount.

 

Ships for the most part sail at about 104% of capacity, even in this economy, so I really don't think that money is an issue.

 

If there are problems IMO they are in the customer service area, which I believe relates directly to changing standards and expectations across teh board. Everyone wants and expects to be waited on hand and foot just like at home (oh, I forgot that doesn't happen any more everything is self serve). Services levels are not going to be the same because for the most part the expectation is not there except among experienced cruisers who long for the old days. The old days still exist on the luxury lines, but you pay as much per day on those lines as you do for a week on Carnival.

 

OK

 

I'll get off the soapbox.

[x-cruiser]

I think the quality of the Carnival product has diminished somewhat from the first cruise I took in 2003. I'm sure this is due in part to the economy. I have since been on 10 Carnival cruises and prices now are

cheaper than they were in 2003. So the value is still there, I'll make do with some of the cutbacks..... It has been my experience that people who pay the least, expect the most and complain the loudest.

[firefly333]

The savings that might be gained by reducing hotel staff are negligible because of the tipping system, and as a result I do not believe that staffing has been reduced at all.

I'll get off the soapbox.

 

Actually the fact that cabin stewards are now cleaning more cabins than a few years ago and waiters have more people to wait on was told to me by the workers on the ships. I would tend to believe them. If a cabin steward says to you .. we have fewer cabin stewards now doing the same number of cabins, then I say to myself .. staff has been cut.

[QVickiB]

A cruise would have to be truly horrible for me to give it a bad review.

I had an instance on NCL when waiters didn't speak English, and it took 5 waiters and the DR Mgr just to bring carrot sticks and celery with ranch dip to my daughter. We got frustrated at waiter#3, but through #4 & #5, we just decided to laugh. She eventually got her carrots. We could have gotten nasty (my dad wanted to - GRANDPA to said little girl), but chose not to. I could blast NCL and nitpick the whole cruise and write a bad review, but hey, I cruise to have a good time!

 

I've also done the Bahamas Celebration which is a 2 nights (2 short) cruise to Freeport. It's nothing amazing, I'll be the first to tell you that, BUT, I got on it KNOWING it was only $99, KNOWING it was only 2 nights, and had a blast! (FYI - had a better dinner there than the above-mentioned one on NCL! LOL!), but if you look over on the Celebration forum (NOT Celebrity) there are people who totally slam it, and are comparing it to RCCL. Hmm, how about compare it to what you could get for $99 on RCCL????

 

(The only negative thing - and I wouldn't even call it a true complaint - is that if asked about all of the private islands in the Bahamas - Half Moon Cay vs Coco Cay vs Great Stirrup Cay - I will indeed give my opinion to which is best and which, in my eyes, is worst. But I'd still take the worst one over a day at work!!!)

 

There are some people who will just never be happy. I, personally, try to ALWAYS be happy ;)

[Tree Hugger]

NO WHERE does it tell you a time you have to be out of your cabin nor does it state you CANNOT wait in your cabin. Actually it tends to imply it where it says to leave your luggage in your stateroom.

 

Weird. I guess it is different ship to ship. We were on the Conquest last month and they asked us to vacate our rooms by 8:30 and wait either in the main theatre or on Lido (we were doing self debark). We went back to our room after we had breakfast to get our luggage and noticed that our steward had been in there making beds and such already.

[klmorg]

We honestly haven't had a bad cruise yet. On our last one, we had to miss Half Moon Cay because of the weather/rough seas. Disappointing, but we knew we were cruising in hurricane season. No big deal... went on to have a fabulous day at sea.

 

I think maybe people's expectations are awfully high, or they really let the little things get to them, or complaining is a normal part of their lives perhaps. I never even notice or think twice about things like a smell here & there, or a bit of food not to my liking, or a stain in the carpet, or whatever.

 

With the number of passengers & voyages these ships make every week, I think they maintain them incredibly well. And obviously, the cruiselines cannot control the dang weather! I never let a bad (or good) review really impact my crusing decisions.... I'll go on a cruise of my choice & find out for myself.

[vacruizer]

Actually the fact that cabin stewards are now cleaning more cabins than a few years ago and waiters have more people to wait on was told to me by the workers on the ships. I would tend to believe them. If a cabin steward says to you .. we have fewer cabin stewards now doing the same number of cabins, then I say to myself .. staff has been cut.

 

I've been told the same thing. Right about the time I first heard about the staffing changes I noticed the waiters were much more rushed, that we barely saw the steward, little details in the room were missed like filling the ice bucket, capers for the next day, or heaven forbid on one cruise - we kept running out of toilet paper. :eek::p

 

I was watching the "How do they do it?" show on the science channel the other day and it was on the Carnival Freedom and how they turn around the ship each week in such a short time. They had one of the stewards there and he was FLYING trying to get everything done. The show said he was responsible for 65 rooms. Yes - you read that right -sixty five. I know they have two assistants now but that's still a lot and I"m amazed the rooms are as clean as they are with that many rooms to take care of. I even had one cruise where the steward apologized the first night if we didn't see him much since he had rooms on two different decks. :eek: He was actually really good in spite of that, but there's no way that's efficient for them.

 

Bad reviews do increase this time of year from the weather, but I also think some may come from the cuts in service and entertainment. Those tend to come more from the experienced cruisers who went and had a great time, but felt like something was missing or that there was room for improvement.

[bythehex]

This is why I have a love/hate relationship with Cruise Critic. It provides a wealth of info, yet the reviews, both positive and negative, can have one second guessing every decision that we make. Being educated and informed is one thing, but over analysis can be bad sometimes. We can read 2 reviews of the same cruise, one being the vacation of a lifetime and the other being the cruise from hell. That's why we, readers and contributors of Cruise Critic, need to take all info with a certain grain of salt.

 

I frequent the Royal boards as well. If I believed half of what I read, I would never take a cruise with them either. Some reviews would have you believe that the food on Royal was on a par with fast food. Our June cruise on the Serenade was awesome in all aspects of food, service, ship.

 

Our family is eagerly awaiting our cruise next summer on the Magic. I have no doubt that there will be both negative and positive reviews before we leave but I also have no doubt that we will have a great time.

 

I agree with you, it's sometimes difficult to deal with conflicting reviews. Those are what confuse the newbies who don't know how to react to them, and haven't yet learned to shrug off the little things.

 

I think what I've learned over the years is to filter the information so I take away what I think will be relevant for my particular cruises. If I worried every time someone b*tched about a dim lightbulb or that their cabin was too hot/too cold/too noisy I wouldn't be able to judge for myself or enjoy the cruise as much as I'd like to.

[Litewait]

I've been on 15 Carnival cruises and have 3 currently booked. I am not a "cheerleader" nor do I come on here and write bogus bad reviews. Carnival as a whole is going down hill. Bad reviews have been esalating for months. Not just during hurricane season. I have noticed it to. Not just on this board. Go read the review section, these are people that have cruised numerous times with Carnival. I cruised in August on the Liberty and it was less than stellar. I chose not to review it except to give kudos to a great band on the ship.

 

I'm sorry for once to say that you cant always smooth things over with the weather or a new cruiser ect. Plain and simple Carnival is NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE, it's going down hill and I dont see the trend changing.

 

I will do my New Years cruise and my June cruise because it's ES as for August..it's up in the air based on the next two.

It's a very sad state of affairs for Carnival.:cool:

[LemurCat]

I can't comment on whether or not CCL is going downhill, as I've just started cruising less than ten years ago and have reportedly missed their zenith.

 

That said, people in general are just angry these days. Angry about everything. A buddy of mine runs a restaurant and he's been getting ridiculously outragious complaints from his diners lately. Everything from the chairs not being high enough to accomodate the tables to the type and amount of TP left in the restrooms, to someone complaining about the ice cream being too cold. If people are looking to spend money, they want the biggest bang for their buck, so when little nits (stuff you'd shrug off normally) surface, they become explosive. Folks are a lot more forgiving when the economy is good.

[MrPete]

Pete,

The Debarkation Information letter in the cabin states:

 

Select where you want to relax while you wait to be called for departure.

 

Another section reads:

 

If you choose option 2 (Self Assist) please keep your luggage in your stateroom until you leave the following morning. Please wait until your deck is called and at that time you may proceed to deck 7 and ashore.

 

 

NO WHERE does it tell you a time you have to be out of your cabin nor does it state you CANNOT wait in your cabin. Actually it tends to imply it where it says to leave your luggage in your stateroom.

 

Dave

 

Thanks Dave.

 

One follow up Q...

 

Is the time for self debark these days earlier than the time you are supposed to vacate your room?

 

Just curious. Being VIP, and doing self debark, we were actually off the ship with 19 others at 7:30 AM, loving it!

[JRock59]

I agree with Fire it's been a busy weather season and lots of new cruisers. Wonder if these folks would complain if they were at Disney for a week and it rained every day.........YUP bet they'd yell about that too.

 

As for the Steward coming into your room I'd consider send a letter to Carnival stating the good and not so good. Yes on some ships you can stay in your cabin with all you luggage as if everone waited in public areas think how crowded it would be. :( Most ships have a time you need to be out of your cabins as delays do happen. But they also have other cabins o service so to barge in to the same one twice seems rude and uncalled for. We always find the Stewart when we leave for the final time and tell them we're out.

 

I've been on 18 Carnival Cruises some really good, some not so good and a couple that were really bad. But it doesn't stop me from going again and again. As each Cruise is different and most times if it was bad crew on a ship in a few months they change so next time around it's a different experience. And if you Cruise during Hurricane season well.......duh can you really expect nothing to happen? And if it does blame the Cruise Line? If Carnival could control the weather it would never rain during the day or on deck party nights, the seas would always be smooth and the temp would be a perfect 80 degrees. :p

[papilliontraveler]

I am in the midst of trying to plan an April vacation. We used to do AI's (at least 15 of them) till we re-discovered cruising. I am shocked over the prices of most of them - anywhere from $3500 (Breezes, etc.) to $7500 (Beaches, Paradisus) for a week for 3 adults. I have had my eye on another Glory cruise for the same week- $1800 for 3 adults. This is a no-brainer, in my mind. I don't drink much, so free alcohol is not a deal breaker for me. I would rather visit 3-4 ports than be "stuck" on one island for a week, at this point in my life. We are very easy-going, so some bad reviews from first time posters don't scare us!:p

 

When you figure in air, drinks, etc., the cruise isn't so inexpensive then. We have cruised and done AI's for years and the value is about the same if not less on the AI. Biggest difference is, do you want numerous ports, or do you want to be able to not clock-watch all day.

[HarleyGirl]

MrPETE, If you go to the debarkation talk, you would understand that you are specifically told that if you checked your luggage the night before, meaning you're not carrying it off the ship yourself, then you go to a certain deck to wait. Those passengers who are taking their own luggage off that morning are asked to wait in their cabin until their deck is called, one deck at a time. This is not a mis-communication and has been this way in each of my nine Carnival trips. It does not give anyone, busy room steward or not, the right to barge into your cabin without knocking. I've heard of two other occasions where this has happened and in one case, my friend's husband was coming out of the shower naked! Needless to say, that steward got a shock. Also yesterday morning as we were leaving I heard an elderly woman tell someone that her cabin steward asked her and her husband to leave their cabin because, as she put it "he had 45 cabins to clean". She was a self assist passenger carrying her own luggage as well and this is not the protocol that the cruise director asked everyone to follow. At any rate, just the common courtesy of knocking on my cabin door before entering would've eliminated all this.

[Flynlo]

[quote name='glrounds'][I][FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=4][COLOR=navy]I think its because of the economy and all the cruiselines fighting it with numerous cutbacks. I personally think Carnival has gone downhill in the last few years with their entertainment, food and service, and drink pricing. .[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/I][/quote]

Agree 100% with this statement.

[MrPete]

[quote name='HarleyGirl']It does not give anyone, busy room steward or not, the right to barge into your cabin without knocking. I've heard of two other occasions where this has happened and in one case, my friend's husband was coming out of the shower naked! Needless to say, that steward got a shock. Also yesterday morning as we were leaving I heard an elderly woman tell someone that her cabin steward asked her and her husband to leave their cabin because, as she put it "he had 45 cabins to clean". She was a self assist passenger carrying her own luggage as well and this is not the protocol that the cruise director asked everyone to follow. At any rate, just the common courtesy of knocking on my cabin door before entering would've eliminated all this.[/quote]

I don't disagree. I've just gotten used to their omnipresence, I habitually use the DO NOT DISTURB insert, whether I'm there or not [B]AND[/B] I don't want anyone in my room.

Hey, look at the post where the steward told someone flat out that they could not smoke in their cabin.

Seems like they are trying to do some things to make thier jobs a little easier.

[Rocknsoul]

[quote name='LemurCat']I can't comment on whether or not CCL is going downhill, as I've just started cruising less than ten years ago and have reportedly missed their zenith.

That said, people in general are just angry these days. Angry about everything. A buddy of mine runs a restaurant and he's been getting ridiculously outragious complaints from his diners lately. Everything from the chairs not being high enough to accomodate the tables to the type and amount of TP left in the restrooms, to someone complaining about the ice cream being too cold. If people are looking to spend money, they want the biggest bang for their buck, so when little nits (stuff you'd shrug off normally) surface, they become explosive. Folks are a lot more forgiving when the economy is good.[/QUOTE]

I think they're not only angry, I think in the age of Facebook, message boards, etc. we (as a society) are losing our civility. It seems to have become "de rigueur" that if one thinks something, then one must express it loudly and immediately.:p

[LemurCat]

[quote name='Rocknsoul']I think they're not only angry, I think in the age of Facebook, message boards, etc. we (as a society) are losing our civility. It seems to have become "de rigueur" that if one thinks something, then one must express it loudly and immediately.:p[/quote]

I wouldn't be surprised. Combine that with the fact that we, as a society, do so much to tailor our environment to our own specific likes, it's not surprising that we lose our junk when we don't get our way.

[scperk]

[quote name='glrounds'][I][FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=4][COLOR=navy]I think its because of the economy and all the cruiselines fighting it with numerous cutbacks. I personally think Carnival has gone downhill in the last few years with their entertainment, food and service, and drink pricing. I'm still hanging with Carnival, in fact, in the process of booking the [B]MIRACLE[/B] for my son, his girlfriend and 5 more of us for December.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/I][/quote]
I completely agree with you, the room stewards have more rooms to clean, waiters have more tables and they have slacked off a lot in the buffet area with cleaning off tables and brinking drinks around..They have stopped most of the most pool games because there are less entertainment staff and the liability with some of them..And don't get me started about prices of beers and drinks which I have cut back a lot....Dennis

[jetskier]

[quote name='MrPete']Thanks Dave.

One follow up Q...

Is the time for self debark these days earlier than the time you are supposed to vacate your room?

Just curious. Being VIP, and doing self debark, we were actually off the ship with 19 others at 7:30 AM, loving it![/quote]

Yes it is. On the Elation, self assist for platinum had to be in the Lobby at 7am. For VIP/Plat that turned in their luggage, they had you meet in the Library at 8:30am.

I think one of the issues is that there is no longer a LIVE debarkation talk. To get out the information they have to depend on your watching the talk on TV; reading the Disembarkation Letter; and listening to the announcements on disembarkation day.

Adding to the confusion is calling turning in your luggage (RELAXED DEBARK) and then calling the areas people are suppose to go and wait RELAXATION AREAS. This would lead you to believe it does not include self-disembark.

Dave

[jetskier]

[quote name='HarleyGirl']MrPETE, If you go to the debarkation talk, you would understand that you are specifically told that if you checked your luggage the night before, meaning you're not carrying it off the ship yourself, then you go to a certain deck to wait. [/quote]

The ships no longer do a debarkation talk. It is now done via the TV for folks to view.
Dave