Just off carnival Legend,going to take a break from Cruising

[capcutie2002]

I went on almost back-to-back cruises this past November. The first week on the Paradise and the following week on the Legend. The service on the ships was like night and day. The Paradise was an awesome ship with great staff, hot food, and a good/fun atmosphere. The Legend left a lot to be desired. Like was mentioned before, the room attendant was always behind on making the room and doing the turn down service. I would come back from dinner and want to change to go to a show and the room was still being worked on! Also when we would return from shore the room was still being worked on. It was ridiculous. Multiple times I had to leave and come back later to get into my room. This never happened on any previous cruises I have been on and definitely not the Paradise. The room steward on the Paradise was so extremely nice and welcoming and knew my name. The Legend steward seemed mostly annoyed at my presence. Multiple employees made me feel this way on the Legend, something I did not experience on the Paradise at all.

 

The Legend dining room service at dinner was fine, but for breakfast we couldn't even get coffee refills. After waiting 20+ minutes for a refill I got up and got a carafe myself, then someone noticed! I got a scolding, LOL! The buffet areas on the Legend always had huge lines for the specialty items. The outdoor buffet on the Paradise was nicer and seemed to be stocked with fresher food. The Legend it seems skimpy and that it had been there a while.

 

The Legend had a very small comedy club area compared to the Paradise. The Legend filled very quickly and usually they had to close people out. The Paradise was a smaller ship with a bigger room for the comedy shows...how does that make sense?

 

Also, I didn't like that on the Legend you are basically forced to walk through a smoke filled casino to get around. Unless you go up a level and then back down. The layout was just weird. On the Paradise the casino was off to the side of a walkway.

 

Some cut-backs were somewhat noticeable on both ships. But they didn't bother me on the Paradise. The Legend was just annoying.

[cruzeluver]

If those on CC are a good representation of the general cruising population, then Carnival probably sees little reason to keep up standards and not make additional cutbacks. Every day on here people say:

 

"Any day on a ship is better than a day at work!"

 

"I don't cruise for the food."

 

"I don't care about the entertainment."

 

"I just like being at sea."

 

Not exactly the most discriminating remarks and certainly would not motivate them to keep quality levels up. Apparently for a lot of folks, as long as the ship don;' sink, all is good!

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[Beachdude]

Not exactly the most discriminating remarks and certainly would not motivate them to keep quality levels up. Apparently for a lot of folks, as long as the ship don;' sink, all is good!

 

This is exactly the reason we haven't cruise Carnival for a while. If you want to get a feel for the Carnival type crowd, go find a discussion on the MDR dress code. I'm not talking about their opinions, but how the express those opinions.

 

Burt

[cruiseclues]

As for Disney Cruise Line...their employees told me why they seemed so happy, was they were treated very well by Disney...a Disney cruise cost's more than say Carnival or RCI...enough more, that Disney should not need to cut back.

 

I'm not defending Carnival, though, we will be making our own evaluation on our upcoming 2013 7 Day Glory (Feb 17), and B2B with 6 Day Breeze (Feb 24). As we have been reading reviews, the more recent ones have been a little more positive. Those two Carnival ships are part of 4 (soon to be 5 with Sunshine) that seem to have more food venues than the others.

 

We will have a fantastic time, regardless of our discoveries. Cruises have always been our best type of vacation. :):):):)

[ReverendVW]

Reading this is great. My very first cruise was this past april on the legend. We choose it specifically for the cost. We knew we were getting a cheap cruise, so did not expect much. For me, it was eye opening. I say this, because It was also the first real vacation I had taken in 15 years. Bottles, empty buckets of beer, glass's, empty plates, empty wine bottles, bags of garbage otw to wherever, seemed to litter ever hallway, and deck. a small group of girls from jersey spent most of their time completely wasted(I would hate to see thier bar tab). I was not prepared for the pushy sales tactics everywhere. an announcement every 30-45 minutes about some casino or raflle, or photo thing.

I could over look most of it, only because, I think I had the one set of dining/room service people, who actually cared. My room was turned down early, and perfectly everytime. and my dining wait staff were amazing at anticipating what I wanted. but the boat was dirty, old, falling apart everywhere.

I was not going to do carnival again, but last week, we sailed on the glory, only because we had friends going with. It was night and day difference. less advertising, less trash, horrible room attendant, but the dining staff was still funny and anticipated our needs.

I dont' know if I would give up on carnival yet, because I still think, that for the money, you get a great deal. Most of the complaints I have heard, can be dealt with, simply by complaining on boat. Heck, most of the time, they gave us a discount on the gratuities, or cash for drinks. I think like anything in life, it's how you use it. If you want to walk on board and feel like a king or queen, expect to pay for it.

We looked into cost of going to atlantis, or another all-inclusive. and it doesn't compare. at least cost wise.

[Villagemdu]

I too have left Carnival for greener pastures but for a slightly different reason. Several years in a row I would book a vista suite and the next two balcony cabins on either side for various members of the family. The final year we had made arrangements for our 1 yr old daughter to stay with Grandma for the week in Fla during the cruise. Approximately 2 weeks before the cruise, Grandma became terminally ill and was not able to watch our girl. We called to add her to our cabin and was told she was not able to be booked in our cabin nor any of the other 4 cabins I had purchased. Their suggestion was for me to book an interior cabin and pay for two people, and list her in this cabin with either myself or my wife. I was also told that they did not care where she slept as it was no concern of theirs We were well past our final payment, otherwise I would have given them the heave ho right then and there. Reluctantly, I purchased an additional interior and paid double occupancy.

 

When I arrived at the pier, I was given a choice of multiple vacant cabins on the other end of the ship, two or three decks below our others. It did not matter as the only possible use I had for it was to possibly store my/our luggage if needed. When I arrived in our vista suite, we found a sofa sleeper and 3 lifejackets. When I inquired about the sleeper/lifejacket situation, they said they anticipated our needs and had them places there ahead of time. The sofa sleeper had additional bedding inside it. I feel certain this was there prior to our arrival.

 

The door to the interior cabin was never opened, I do not have a clue as to what it even looked like, nor did I care. Corpoprate offices at Carnival took 3 weeks to respond to my complaint as to why we were forced to purchase the additional accomodations when the cabin we had was equipped to do so already. Their response was the ships manifest only allows for two people and we can not exceed the occupancy rating of the entire ship overall. Hello, there were several empty cabins at time of sailing, so this was not an issue. I made my mind up then to say goodbye to simple greed and have not even checked the website in the last 4 years since doing so. I occasionally receive 50% off coupons with $800 casin cash for me and my wife. I promptly toss them in the trash, which is the same the Carnical exec staff did with my letter.

 

I still love cruising with my entire family and happy to do so on another line that at least seems to appreciate a loyal customer.

[TheTravelista]

If those on CC are a good representation of the general cruising population, then Carnival probably sees little reason to keep up standards and not make additional cutbacks. Every day on here people say:

 

"Any day on a ship is better than a day at work!"

 

"I don't cruise for the food."

 

"I don't care about the entertainment."

 

"I just like being at sea."

 

Not exactly the most discriminating remarks and certainly would not motivate them to keep quality levels up. Apparently for a lot of folks, as long as the ship don;' sink, all is good!

 

Bingo!!!

[BenjiRodney]

We cruise last November on the Victory, loved it, Jan on the Imagination, loved it, going in May on the Paradise and again in November on the Valor. I have not noticed or looked for the cutbacks. I always find food to eat, and they have plenty of it available, and usually have to make a decision on what activity or event that we are going to participate in. So sorry that many of you feel that there have been cutbacks. I just haven't seen them.

[Danacat222]

If i am sick of something i don't keep repeating that experience, why would i keep paying for something that i am sick of, i'd only have myself to blame. Likewise i would never go on a cruise and expect to be wow'd by the food. It's banquet food. I cant control the bonuses of the big shots at Carnival (nor those at my employer) but i wont harbor resentment that affects my enjoyment [or lack there of ] whilst on a cruise vacation. Everyone has their individual and sometimes collective idea of what a cruise should entail. Personally, i don't need to be continually entertained, if i could spend a few days just on Serenity and being able to look out at the ocean and have a few neat experiences at a few ports, all is well. Maybe it is a matter of perspective. I work in health care and i see a lot of awful things, i'm constantly overstimulated and it's often emotionally and physically exhausting. I'm grateful i am able to go on vacation, the gripes i am hearing about on Legend do not discourage me at all, thank goodness.

[OceanSea]

My first cruise was on Disney almost 12 years ago. The next year, we tried Carnival. Had a great time on both cruises but the maintenance of the ship was clear even then. Disney kept their ship in much better shape than Carnival did (and it was only a 6 month old ship at the time!)

 

We have done 3 Royal Caribbean cruises and they offer a nice product and cruise experience for the price. Even since the first time we cruise RCCL in 2005 there have been some cutbacks but I still think the ships are maintained well.

 

We would love to do Disney again. Doubt I would do another Carnival cruise unless the price was really right.

[headhurt]

If i am sick of something i don't keep repeating that experience, why would i keep paying for something that i am sick of, i'd only have myself to blame. Likewise i would never go on a cruise and expect to be wow'd by the food. It's banquet food. I cant control the bonuses of the big shots at Carnival (nor those at my employer) but i wont harbor resentment that affects my enjoyment [or lack there of ] whilst on a cruise vacation. Everyone has their individual and sometimes collective idea of what a cruise should entail. Personally, i don't need to be continually entertained, if i could spend a few days just on Serenity and being able to look out at the ocean and have a few neat experiences at a few ports, all is well. Maybe it is a matter of perspective. I work in health care and i see a lot of awful things, i'm constantly overstimulated and it's often emotionally and physically exhausting. I'm grateful i am able to go on vacation, the gripes i am hearing about on Legend do not discourage me at all, thank goodness.

 

While I can appreciate that you have a different opinion, I disagree that anything differing from that opinion is called a "gripe". You're probably the kind of person who can make the best out of a lousy situation, which is great. However, not everyone has this fluid expectation of their cruise experience. True, it's not fair for someone who cruises Cunard, to hop on Carnival and expect the exact same experience. I'd probably jovially mock anyone who did. From what I have read, and from my own personal observations, the disappointment stems from the product that Carnival used to offer versus what they offer now. Which is vastly different, and not in a good way.

 

Carnival sells itself as being the complete, most awesome vacation ever. People who buy into this don't board the ship, having already made compromises in their head about poor food and slow service...just as long as they got to be on a cruise ship. Having made the purchase of the all-encompassing awesome vacation that they see on commercials, they are going to want all of what they were promised.

 

I'm a nurse, working in healthcare, and I understand the whole overstimulation-need-a-vacation concept. Even so, my expectations are not lowered just because I'm on vacation and a day cruising on a ship is better than a day at work getting pooped on. In fact, they are a little higher. My entire vacation experience is important to me, it's important to a lot of people. Ala carte is not even an option.

[Handsome58]

is amazing. It is like racism, bias. having met one or 2 people of a certain race/culture and then making certain negative comments about the WHOLE race/culture. PEOPLE OPEN UP YOUR MINDS BECAUSE SOMETHING HAPPENS ON ONE OR 2 SHIPS MAY NOT BE AN INDICATOR OF WHAT THE WHOLE CRUISE LINE IS ABOUT. AND I AM NOT JUST TALKING ABOUT CARNIVAL, I AM TALKING ABOUT ALL CRUISE LINES. Then you have some people who have never cruised on a line just passing on mis-information as if they cruised the line first hand. PEOPLE RELAX IT IS A VACATION. "SALT SHAKER WAS HAVE FULL SO NOW MY VACATION RUINED"......lol!!! :)

[doodlefan]

is amazing. It is like racism, bias. having met one or 2 people of a certain race/culture and then making certain negative comments about the WHOLE race/culture. PEOPLE OPEN UP YOUR MINDS BECAUSE SOMETHING HAPPENS ON ONE OR 2 SHIPS MAY NOT BE AN INDICATOR OF WHAT THE WHOLE CRUISE LINE IS ABOUT. AND I AM NOT JUST TALKING ABOUT CARNIVAL, I AM TALKING ABOUT ALL CRUISE LINES. Then you have some people who have never cruised on a line just passing on mis-information as if they cruised the line first hand. PEOPLE RELAX IT IS A VACATION. "SALT SHAKER WAS HAVE FULL SO NOW MY VACATION RUINED"......lol!!! :)

 

 

Spoken like someone who has nothing to compare a Carnival cruise to. Or a Carnival Cheerleader. :eek: Try another line and you too may see the differences now.

 

We can lump alot of these things under the whole "Carnival" category. Many of the issues I'm starting to have with Carnival are changes in the company fleet wide, like the breakfast comedy brunch instead of just having the dining room open for a normal breakfast, cost cutting measures that are happening on all the ships, that's why we are complaining. There are lots of smaller issues that happen on different ships, you're right but it's the big picture that's making me venture out for a bit.

 

I'm not a picky person and I like Carnival, have done 10 cruises with them and will most likely cruise again with them but the honest truth is that since I've started cruising in 2004 to now, there is a BIG difference. There wasn't much difference between the Lines like Carnival, NCL or RCCL before. I used to say when people asked me which line I preferred, that there were more similarities than differences, I'm starting to not say that anymore. The gap has widened and Carnival is on the bottom now. Yes other lines have all cut back too, but it's just much more evident on Carnival Line, yes the WHOLE Line. Changes made fleet wide, not just little inconsistencies ship to ship.

 

I sail my first Celebrity ship, the Silhouette in 10 days, I'm really looking forward to it. :D

[cruiseonthebrain]

We just got off the legend on Sunday. We have been on 7 cruises with Carnival and are gold members. i really noticed the cut backs this time. Our room was not made up till mid afternoon and turned down was not until like 7 or 8 PM. The food was mostly warm and in some instances cool. The only thing consistantly hot was the soup. The dining room service with the anytime dining was great. We had Elena on deck 3 most nights. The cleanup around the pool on sea days was really bad with cups and garbage laying around all afternoon. This was a geriatric cruise with only about 25 kids under 18 on this cruise. The CD said on his show its the least amount of kids on board in the Legends history. We will be taking a break from cruising with Carnival for a few years as we are tired of the same shows,food and now a DJ on the deck with no more live music up by the pool. We really like the carribean music and there was a little played but not a lot. i think what really has gotten to us is all the balcony door slammers. People going out for smokes or whatever at 1 am or 5 am and letting their balcony doors slam behind them. I told our cabin neighbours to please not slam their doors anymore and they were pretty good about it. They were newbies and did not realize it until I mentioned to them as they were out on there deck at like 6 am sitting and talking.Its amazing how many cabins down you can hear the doors slam and after 7 cruises I have had enough.

Also another concern for us was the food handling by the cooks at the burger place next to the pool. On the last port day we got back from Grand Cayman and were hungry. At 4:30 almost everything was closed so we got burgers and chicken fingers. While we were in line I notciced the cooks were handling raw hamburger meat and them touching everything else including the duns and lettuce and tomaotos for the burgers. I was really shocked to see this so later that night i seen the hotel Director and the coffee shop on deck 2 and told him about it. He was very concerned and took off right after I told him about it. So hopefully something was done about this.

 

 

It's funny- because after our last cruise we had definately decided to take a cruising break and look into other vacation options. Four months later I am shopping for another cruise :-)

[Handsome58]

" hit dog will holler "

[MsTabbyKats]

I felt "finished with Carnival" after our last cruise, in Dec.

 

Although I enjoyed the cruise, I just felt I had enough and I can have more fun at home.

 

For example, I like "to play the slots". I go weekly to a casino with 5300 slots. There were perhaps 53 slots on the Miracle.

 

I go to B'way often. Although I don't expect this caliber, there were some entertainers who seriously couldn't carry a tune. And there weren't enough "professional" shows.

 

The food...I eat out almost daily so it's not a novelty to have someone cook & clean up. But, I look forward to the buffet...to drown pancakes in syrup (something I don't do at home). The pancakes tasted like cardboard. I like fruit. The fruit was hard as rocks. The chocolate was brown, but otherwise, if I were in a blindfolded taste contest, I wouldn't have known it was chocolate. I don't go for "the fancy stuff' such as steak & lobster. I'm really easy to feed...and I generally rave about "the food at the buffet"...but not on that cruise.

 

I loved our cabin; I loved our steward; the ports were "as expected".

 

I came home thinking that this was a "second tier" vacation and perhaps time to open the pocketbook and pay more.

[Danacat222]

 

Carnival sells itself as being the complete, most awesome vacation ever.

 

Ha ha that is one of the funniest thing i have ever read recently. Woohwee.

[headhurt]

Ha ha that is one of the funniest thing i have ever read recently. Woohwee.

 

I"m serious. You watch an ad for Carnival, and try to look at it with the eyes of someone who has never cruised before. At the end, you'd be thinking it's the Best. Vacation. Ever.

 

Just because I don't agree with your opinion, doesn't mean you get to climb on a throne and leer at me for it.

[seavoyager6]

Carnival is a good entry level cruise provider along with NCL, Disney and RCCL. Better than the MSCs, Costas, P&Os but you can easily take that small step up financially and do better

[headhurt]

I felt "finished with Carnival" after our last cruise, in Dec.

 

Although I enjoyed the cruise, I just felt I had enough and I can have more fun at home.

 

For example, I like "to play the slots". I go weekly to a casino with 5300 slots. There were perhaps 53 slots on the Miracle.

 

I go to B'way often. Although I don't expect this caliber, there were some entertainers who seriously couldn't carry a tune. And there weren't enough "professional" shows.

 

The food...I eat out almost daily so it's not a novelty to have someone cook & clean up. But, I look forward to the buffet...to drown pancakes in syrup (something I don't do at home). The pancakes tasted like cardboard. I like fruit. The fruit was hard as rocks. The chocolate was brown, but otherwise, if I were in a blindfolded taste contest, I wouldn't have known it was chocolate. I don't go for "the fancy stuff' such as steak & lobster. I'm really easy to feed...and I generally rave about "the food at the buffet"...but not on that cruise.

 

I loved our cabin; I loved our steward; the ports were "as expected".

 

I came home thinking that this was a "second tier" vacation and perhaps time to open the pocketbook and pay more.

 

I don't feel finished with Carnival, but I am more open to exploring other cruise lines. I've booked an X cruise for next year, just to see if I like the differences. But, Log and I are going to do some land-based all-inclusive resorts. Like Sandals. I think I have seen enough of the islands to know which islands I'd like to stay at for an extended period of time.

[Relayer]

Perceptions and experiences are as varied as people. Unique...different. We can choose pretty much any line or vacation that's out there.

 

Why do we continue to sail Carnival? Our experiences have all been strictly awesome and our expectations really have been exceeded. We tend to make future decisions based on our personal experiences. We have noted a few changes but not any that are deal or quality breakers.

 

We sailed Disney on our first two cruises and CCL for the last ten. We are extremely open minded about other lines, but frankly I can't find these deals others have mentioned. Disney and RCCL are at least 50-75% higher for like accommodations and itineraries. Based on my experience when shopping for March and or October cruises.

 

Now we're cruising on the Breeze in 13 days and I fully expect to have a wonderful cruise. Especially since it just started snowing here on the NC coast. BRRRRR!

[mnsawyer]

Interesting thread - we are Carnival cruisers and have noticed a big difference over the past few years. In particular the presentation and quality of food. We are not picky eaters but found last year on our cruise that the food had declined considerably. We thought the Lido deck food was not good and ate most of our meals in the dining room. It is my understanding that on port days now there is no MDR lunch? The flat iron steak in the MDR was not good and options available for only okay. This is in comparision to what we have experienced over the past 20 years on Carnival.

 

We would love to try another line and even though over the years cost has been a big issue, I just found a Princess cruise in March that was as inexpensive as Carnival for an eastern Caribbean itinerary balcony cabin. As has been mentioned about cost, you cannot compare an October price to March price.

 

We have never tried an all-inclusive and may at some time in the near future.

[RockinRobyn62]

We cruise the Legend in 2 weeks. All this talk about the cutbacks is making me a little sad.:( I love Carnival!!!

[almondglaze]

My cruise in May on the Freedom will be my last with Carnival but not because of anything wrong. I'm jut bored and want to try different lines. I've enjoyed all of my cruises on all lines (couldn't understand all of the motion on the Breeze though). Also getting bored with islands and beaches, seen one, seen them all, so my next cruise will be to Europe.