It's June 1st, 2 months until Carnival sail again on Aug 1st...

[MsTabbyKats]

And I'm stating my opinion....many people will say that they had a great time even if they know they didn't have a great time....because that's what people do.  

 

Am I not entitled to my opinion?

 

[bitemyfly]

I get with ms tabby cat is saying.. but that’s goes for all reviews on here and other sites both pre and post virus ..all different motivations drive reviewers .. Some for facts , some for driving businesses., some for..... I’m so looking forward to both reviews but more from the outcomes and data derived . Will the virus go up, will it have marginal outcome  , zero outcome . 
how  it affects activities  ultimately pricing  and services .. 
im so waiting for this to be over ( over as defined by my risk tolerance) and data for me is the driver .. can’t wait for it to happen and see the results .. 

 

[maddea20]

This is why I’m booking my cruise for next summer so I can wait to see how cruising goes this year and next. 

[Organized Chaos]

5 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Will be watching what Carnival does in August with much interest.  Eight weeks isn't a long time when you think about how long it took to get the crew off and home.  Will the ships be ready by then?  DH says they will but I'm more of the wait and see mind set.

 

It didn't really take all that long the get the crew members home. They didn't start that process mid-March when the shutdown was announced. They kept them on not knowing the shutdown would keep getting extended. Then in early May, they finally extended it until the end of July and knew it didn't make much sense to keep all of the crew on the ships for that long, so they started sending them home. The closer we get to Aug. 1, the better idea they'll have whether they can start. It would only make sense to give themselves a little leeway and start bringing back the necessary crew with time to spare.

[Organized Chaos]

4 hours ago, quattrohead said:

I am willing to be "tested" on in September on Elation.

 

Elation just got refreshed in dry dock in March, so it hasn't had any passengers yet. We'll be on it in January and hoping it's still looking nice & fresh when we get there.

[Organized Chaos]

4 hours ago, Butterbean1000 said:

I think the only deal breaker for me will be mandatory face masks.  Social distancing, buffets being converted to cafeteria style, more hand washing and th like is all ok with me.  Our cruise is scheduled for August 29th. There will be at least 5 cruises before us. I'm glad we wont be on the first couple. 

 

They had already put some of the measures in place when we were on Horizon in March. We filled out a short health screening, but that took less than a minute. They did temperature checks after the security screening...again, only took a few seconds. The crew served the food in the buffet, they had a lot more hand sanitizer stations set up, and crew members were put in place to strongly encourage everyone to wash their hands in and around the buffet, MDR, and other food venues. Being served at the buffet really wasn't bad at all. I thought it worked well. A couple times I had to ask for a little bit bigger portion, but they were happy to oblige. The only thing I didn't like was not being able to make my own ice cream cone. LOL Only because different crew members made them differently and sometimes you'd hardly get any ice cream. Once they stop, they can't pile more on and I wasn't going back for a second one. Small price to pay, though. 😜

 

2 hours ago, Butterbean1000 said:

It already sounds like you prejudged the positive reviews.  The only reviews you will believe will be the negative ones.  If you have read any of the past reviews on this site, you'll see people post the good, bad and the ugly. Also, one person's experience can be polar opposite of another's on the same cruise.  Looking back on most of your previous posts, they are mostly negative, so I'm not sure that anything anyone has to say will impress you at all as it seems you have already made up your mind.

 

Well said. I agree wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, we're seeing that it doesn't take long for someone to come rain on many of the more positive discussions lately. I think a majority of cruisers will be honest about what it's like when it resumes.

[Georgia_Peaches]

I am one of those who always writes a review.  And I never sugar coat my experience but I tend to see things more positively than negatively.  As a general rule, I take reviews that are over the top positive or negative with a grain of salt because they may, in fact have an agenda.  I can't really imagine anyone going to the trouble of writing a positive review if they didn't actually have a good time and vice versa.  The people who actually write reviews are just a microscopic sample of all those who actually sailed...for those reasons, I prefer to do the cruise and find out for myself.  In the case of restarting however, every review will be of some value IMO.

[firefly333]

Actually I think if you complain about something on a cruise people accuse you of lying. Works both ways.

 

My last cruise on carnival I booked a 1A porthole. Great big cabin for a solo cruiser. Without notifying me carnival upgraded me to a 4J HC cabin which I hated. Rocky ocean so the door were locked to walk out every sea day. Had to close curtains at night for navigation.

 

I got 0 sympathy here and most said I lied, that carnival wouldnt change your cabin without letting you know. They might have tried to text idk, they only had a land line phone #. My pvp was on carnivals side and changed how I feel about her. She said in the terms and conditions I clicked to agree to it says carnival has the right to change my cabin without notice. Not a ounce of sympathy. She entirely took carnivals part.

 

So I think people only want to read nice reviews, if you complain they attack you on cc. Not one person was on my side, i should have been notified. I even unpacked in the cabin I booked and shut the door and then had to explain how i didnt have a card key to get in but that was my stuff. 

 

I kind of ignore reviews. Honesty is not what people want to read.

[jimbo5544]

8 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Actually I think if you complain about something on a cruise people accuse you of lying. Works both ways.

 

My last cruise on carnival I booked a 1A porthole. Great big cabin for a solo cruiser. Without notifying me carnival upgraded me to a 4J HC cabin which I hated. Rocky ocean so the door were locked to walk out every sea day. Had to close curtains at night for navigation.

 

I got 0 sympathy here and most said I lied, that carnival wouldnt change your cabin without letting you know. They might have tried to text idk, they only had a land line phone #. My pvp was on carnivals side and changed how I feel about her. She said in the terms and conditions I clicked to agree to it says carnival has the right to change my cabin without notice. Not a ounce of sympathy. She entirely took carnivals part.

 

So I think people only want to read nice reviews, if you complain they attack you on cc. Not one person was on my side, i should have been notified. I even unpacked in the cabin I booked and shut the door and then had to explain how i didnt have a card key to get in but that was my stuff. 

 

I kind of ignore reviews. Honesty is not what people want to read.

Interesting perspective, not been my experience, but I have seen negative reviews commented on somewhat aggressively.  They sometimes get protective for the cruise lines. 

[skridge]

I would hate to be one of the guinea pigs on the first cruise ship out.

[BlerkOne]

15 hours ago, Organized Chaos said:

Arnold Donald has clarified that the Aug. 1st date isn't set in stone. He said there appeared to be some confusion and many people thought that was going to be THE date, but in reality it can still change. We're not booked until January, but I'm rooting for them to start up in Aug. as planned. He also said that when that August date was announced, bookings for August alone went through the roof, so people are definitely ready to get back to cruising. Here's to hoping it works out this time.

 

He did. He said it could be sooner!

[Georgia_Peaches]

1 hour ago, firefly333 said:

Actually I think if you complain about something on a cruise people accuse you of lying. Works both ways.

 

My last cruise on carnival I booked a 1A porthole. Great big cabin for a solo cruiser. Without notifying me carnival upgraded me to a 4J HC cabin which I hated. Rocky ocean so the door were locked to walk out every sea day. Had to close curtains at night for navigation.

 

I got 0 sympathy here and most said I lied, that carnival wouldnt change your cabin without letting you know. They might have tried to text idk, they only had a land line phone #. My pvp was on carnivals side and changed how I feel about her. She said in the terms and conditions I clicked to agree to it says carnival has the right to change my cabin without notice. Not a ounce of sympathy. She entirely took carnivals part.

 

So I think people only want to read nice reviews, if you complain they attack you on cc. Not one person was on my side, i should have been notified. I even unpacked in the cabin I booked and shut the door and then had to explain how i didnt have a card key to get in but that was my stuff. 

 

I kind of ignore reviews. Honesty is not what people want to read.

Wow!  I totally get this perspective.  And you're right.  Negative cruise reviews often fall on very unsympathetic eyes here on CC.  The cheerleaders point to the T&C's to say that by agreeing to them, you've essentially given up your right to basic customer service.  In your case, Carnival absolutely should have notified you about the cabin change!  An honest review (with a negative tone) can be tough to swallow if you are one who has just sunk a lot of money into an upcoming cruise...so I guess it's easier to assume the reviewer is either exaggerating their experience or extremely hard to please.

Edited June 2, 2020 by Georgia_Peaches

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, skridge said:

I would hate to be one of the guinea pigs on the first cruise ship out.

And here I thought they were cruisers.

[skridge]

2 hours ago, canes20 said:

I would guess your glass is always half empty. Just my opinion.

Or maybe she is just realistic.  There is a difference between pessimism and realism, in my opinion.

[jimbo5544]

7 hours ago, tybrkr17 said:

I am sailing on the Horizon in August so I have my fingers crossed, however with 6 or 7 trips cancelled so far this year, I am skeptical. But I will defiantly be doing a review/vlog if the cruise happens.

 

We can speculate all we want, but at this time, the only one thing we know for sure is: that we don't know what will happen in August and beyond. 

 

I can picture my group flying to Florida, getting to the cruise terminal, and then them announcing that the cruise is cancelled right before we board. (Didn't that happen to folks when cruises paused in March?) So I have a billion back up plans and trip insurance to try to cover the unknown. The world is so uncertain right now. Hoping for the best, preparing for the worst.

Yup was supposed to sail on the Magic on 3/13, was canceled late on 3/12.  

[jimbo5544]

Just now, skridge said:

What does that even mean?  

You called them guinea pigs, I called them cruisers.  

[Don Kehote]

1 minute ago, skridge said:

What does that even mean?  

YOU inferred that they were Guinea Pigs.  Jimbo jokingly said that he thought that they were cruisers (and NOT guinea pigs).  The joke is the substitution of cruisers for guinea pigs.

 

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

[TNcruising02]

I am eager to see if Carnival will start cruising in August and will definitely read any reviews posted.  I really appreciate reading reviews and I think the majority of them are balanced. 

I will hopefully be cruising out of Galveston at the end of September, so I will look for reviews by people who sail on the Freedom before my cruise.  My next cruise will be special and I will have a new appreciation for being able to cruise.

[skridge]

1 minute ago, jimbo5544 said:

You called them guinea pigs, I called them cruisers.  

It is a figure of speech.  Guinea pigs have been used in scientific experiments in the past.  I don't think it is to big a reach to think this is basically a big scientific experiment.

[jimbo5544]

1 minute ago, skridge said:

It is a figure of speech.  Guinea pigs have been used in scientific experiments in the past.  I don't think it is to big a reach to think this is basically a big scientific experiment.

Got it, I was trying to inject some humor into the conversation.😉

[Georgia_Peaches]

Sometimes I will make a corny joke when my husband says something.  He's hard of hearing so I often have to repeat myself.  At times, I make my corny jokes...much like a guinea pig/cruiser joke, and DH will say, "ehh?"  I repeat and he says, "Ehh?"  by the time I've repeated it that many times, the joke moment is lost and exhaustion from trying to explain sets in...

[BlerkOne]

3 hours ago, firefly333 said:

I kind of ignore reviews. Honesty is not what people want to read.

 

Other people's opinions are not what I want to read. So much is subjective and some people have rotten attitudes. Honesty is farther own on the list, somewhere after just the facts.

[Organized Chaos]

8 hours ago, firefly333 said:

So I think people only want to read nice reviews, if you complain they attack you on cc. Not one person was on my side, i should have been notified. I even unpacked in the cabin I booked and shut the door and then had to explain how i didnt have a card key to get in but that was my stuff. 

 

I kind of ignore reviews. Honesty is not what people want to read.

 

I'm not big on writing reviews. I've only ever done one post-cruise, plus a couple live threads during cruises. They don't get much traffic because, first and foremost, my cruise comes first. I'm just not the type who's going to dedicate a lot of my cruise to building review content. I find that I do like doing the live threads because it gives me a chance to help people out with the most up-to-date experiences. But again, my cruise always comes first, so it's only something I'll do when I have free time. I don't mind that they don't get a lot of traffic. If I help one person, that's good enough for me.

 

Instead of writing it all down in a single review, most of my experiences come in the form of individual posts across different threads over time. I'm always very honest. I believe the negatives can be just as valuable as the positives. Not only with my own experiences that I share, but also when reading what other people have to say. I like reading negatives from other people because then I know they're not sugar coating it. If someone only gives you the positives, it can give others a false impression. People will get there thinking everything's going to be perfect, but will probably be disappointed at some point because we're all different. There's bound to be negative experiences, but that doesn't mean it ruins the whole cruise. So I think the negatives are important, but we shouldn't let the negatives make up our minds for us. For example, if someone's overall opinion of a ship is negative, I'll take it into account, but it won't necessarily stop me from sailing that ship. The only way to know for sure is to experience it for myself. I've posted about a lot of negatives, along with the positives, and I don't think I've gotten much push back for it. I do remember on one occasion, someone mistook my negative experiences as me saying I didn't enjoy the cruise, but that wasn't the case. Posting those negatives didn't mean the cruise was bad. It's just that sometimes I'll call attention to things I didn't like more than the things I did. Sometimes it's just easier for me to say I didn't like those 5 things than it is to say I did like those 10 things.

 

Once cruising resumes, I think a majority of people who do write reviews the first few months will be honest.

[BlerkOne]

4 hours ago, sanger727 said:

 

I personally don't put much faith in really good reviews or really bad reviews. It's a bit like when people fill out surveys and give 10's to everyone for everything - I understand companies and employees love it but it gives very little actual feed back to tell someone they are perfect at everything. On tripadvisor I tend to read only the 2-4 star reviews and ignore the 1 and 5 star reviews. The 1 star person had 1 or more things about their trip they really didn't like and from that point on there was no salvaging it. It might have been someone silly like the A/C wasn't cold enough and it took them 2 days to fix it or a culmination of several things - none of which is likely to reoccur during my trip. The 5 star reviewer has rose colored glasses on and is willing to overlook things that I might want to know about in anticipation of my trip. I'll read both sets of reviews just for facts, but the reviews I put the most weight on at the 2-4 star reviews. People who admit that most things are not 100% good or 100% and are honest about the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

 

Reminds me a little of people who automatically toss high or low bids from contractors because something must be wrong with them. I really don't put much faith in any reviews, because I didn't write them and I don't write them.

[Georgia_Peaches]

Actually, this has turned into a pretty good thread on the merits of reading/writing reviews.  All really good perspectives!