Why All My Prior Cruises Were Far Superior to My Most Recent Carnival Cruise

[KmomChicago]

I can't help but notice from all the posts here, how many mention why everything was terrible on their most recent cruise. Well, my last one went to 11. Yes, my August 7 sailing on the Mardi Gras was my 11th cruise and I skew a little toward Pollyanna, gushing about how "wonderful" everything is, my life, my ability to travel, these "incredible" or "beautiful" ships.  

 

I realize this attitude has gone out of style so now I am going to explain why the cruise industry should pack it all in, abandon their modern sensibilities and get back to the basics that were sooooooo much better.

 

1. Premier Cruises, the original "Cruise and Disney Week," SS Royale, 1985.  This cruise was superior because I didn't know anything about cruises so it seemed pretty good to me. The ship was 24 years old, a whopping 21,000 tons, we stayed in a completely forgettable inside cabin, we had Disney Characters aboard, we had a private island port call at Salt Cay just off Paradise Island in the Bahamas, now known as Blue Lagoon Island and leased by the day to the cruise line. We ate every meal in the MDR except Midnight Buffet.  Oh and Bingo was free and winners got cheap bottles of wine. There was more free wine at a scheduled wine tasting event.  CARNIVAL SHOULD REPLICATE THAT EXACT EXPERIENCE BECAUSE I LIKED IT!

 

 3. Scotia Prince, 1987. This cruise was superior because it came out of nowhere. On a road trip to Maine we stumbled on this one day with no particular hotel plans for the next couple of nights, my mom decided we could afford it, and we found ourselves in a very ancient 4-berth cabin for the night with no bathroom. There were communal/public showers a few steps away. We sailed overnight to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, spent one night in the local hotel, and had a short day cruise back to Portland on the third morning. This is not, and never was, anything like a traditional Carnival tropical cruise. Nevertheless, CARNIVAL SHOULD REPLICATE THAT EXACT EXPERIENCE BECAUSE I LIKED IT!

 

3. Premier Cruises, SS Oceanic, 198-something. I don't know, I'm old.  This cruise was superior because it was a little bit bigger and newer ship. By now the whole Disney partnership had gone south so the characters were Warner Brothers. We still had the same dining and I think we still won free wine somehow. We chose a massive inside cabin from the deck plan, at the travel agent office, from the brochure, and it was pretty fabulous. I can't really remember specific details about that cruise because I am old and I have done a lot of traveling since then. Even so, CARNIVAL SHOULD REPLICATE THAT EXACT EXPERIENCE BECAUSE I LIKED IT!

 

4. Disney Magic, 1998.  This cruise was superior because it was free.  Yes that's right. I worked for one of the telemarketing departments at House of Mouse and the cruise line was off to a slow start, so they did a campaign using our agents and they sent us off on a familiarization cruise. I got to take mom along for free, we had an Oceanview room with a big round green porthole and the split bathroom. It is impossible to imagine the stars aligning to recreate this situation in my life or anyone's life. Still, that's no excuse and  CARNIVAL SHOULD REPLICATE THAT EXACT EXPERIENCE BECAUSE I LIKED IT!

 

5. Disney Magic, 2000. This cruise was superior because, let's face it. Disney.  It was just a nice daggone cruise on a beautiful ship, and we all knew it.  I was getting a little fed up with working for that place so my then-partner and I decided we'd better get aboard at a Cast member rate while we qualified. Which was not as free as the aforementioned voyage but pretty close. I have been told that changed soon after and nobody has gotten deals like that in years. None of that is my problem, however, and my opinion is, CARNIVAL SHOULD REPLICATE THAT EXACT EXPERIENCE BECAUSE I LIKED IT!

 

6. Celebrity Millennium, October 2001.  This cruise was superior because it was my first balcony cabin, the ship was nearly new, the food was good as Celebrity is known for (though not much better than all the great food on Premier or Disney). Also it was only a few weeks after 9/11 and everyone was nervous about travel and terrorism, but it was fine. My mom and I rented a car for our day in St. Thomas and had a lot of fun on the left side of the road, twisting and turning up hills all day and oddly ending up at the same lookout point about 4 times no matter what route we took. However, I found I was getting bored with all this relaxation and pampering and shortly entered into a fifteenish year phase of a more boots on the ground form of travel. CARNIVAL SHOULD REPLICATE THAT EXACT EXPERIENCE BECAUSE I LIKED IT!

 

7. Carnival Triuimph, March 2017.  This cruise was superior because it was my first Carnival cruise and my husband and kiddo's first cruise period. They really didn't know what to expect and they loved it. The kid had seen various commercials about cruise ships and out of nowhere a few months earlier demanded to be taken on one. I found this 5 night out of NOLA with adequate weekend drive time on both ends. Our Oceanview room was adequately proportioned even with the sofa made up into a double bed the whole time. In particular, the song and dance shows were accompanied by a live band and involved a lot of costume changes and we may have a low bar, but we were truly wowed by them. In fact we sat through a couple of them twice.  This was phased out in favor of Playlist productions when the ship was revamped into the Sunrise. CARNIVAL SHOULD REPLICATE THAT EXACT EXPERIENCE BECAUSE I LIKED IT!

 

8. Carnival Sensation, January 2018.  Okay, let's face it. This cruise was superior only because it was a cruise, in the winter time, and that meant we were not home in Illinois on those days. CARNIVAL SHOULD REPLICATE THAT EXACT EXPERIENCE BECAUSE I LIKED IT!

 

9. Oasis of the Seas, March 2018.  This cruise was superior because IT IS AN OASIS CLASS SHIP. If you don't like big ships, that's fine. We loved this ship. We loved the food, all the neighborhoods, especially the Promenade and Central Park. Our interior cabin was comfortable, attractive and efficient, entertainment unmatched, etc. etc. etc. After a week we had not had time to do everything we wanted. It was a really great cruise. CARNIVAL SHOULD REPLICATE THAT EXACT EXPERIENCE BECAUSE I LIKED IT!

 

10. Adventure of the Seas, August 2019.  This cruise was superior because my mom came along and paid for two adjacent Junior Suites on the hump one deck below the Windjammer. Food was great, entertainment was great, the itinerary going up to Maine and Canada was a lot less broiling than the Caribbean in August. Almost everyone on the ship was either from New Jersey or Long Island, except us. CARNIVAL SHOULD REPLICATE THAT EXACT EXPERIENCE BECAUSE I LIKED IT!

 

11. That brings us to Carnival Mardi Gras and as you would know if you read my pre-cruise planning thread and my "Live from Steerage" onboard report, everything about cruising and Carnival has become 100% terrible, inferior, a ripoff, and borderline elder abuse (I turned 55 onboard so you kids better get off my lawn!)  While no two cruises, or vacations in my life, have ever been exactly the same, according to many reviewers they are supposed to be.  They should NOT make changes. They should NOT build new ships. They should NOT dare to make so-called improvements, because some of us like things exactly the way they used to be. 

 

This will be the one and only time I post a fake and sarcastic "negative" review about how terrible cruising is. Because, in case you don't get the joke, I love every cruise and every vacation and even when things go wrong, I laugh at the sitcom that seems to be my real life. Happiness is a choice, and guess what I choose?

 

 

[Anyislandwilldo]

Great post!  I choose Happiness because I am by no means rich, but I have many blessings in life to be thankful for!

[KaiBlue]

I thoroughly enjoyed both your planning thread and your live thread so knew instantly this was sarcasm (love it!).  We've been on several of the same ships as you (4 cruise lines total) and this will be our 12th cruise.  We  take each as wonderful opportunities to experience something new, and have found the  'hiccups' turn into some of the best travel stories we have:)  The differences are  what makes them memorable!

[trulytracy]

I sighed and opened this thread to hear another barrage of complaints and was very pleasantly surprised! Such a fun read!

[ProgRockCruiser]

Lol!  I half expected this kind of post, since you had clearly had a great time on MG, so I did wonder where this was gonna go. Thanks for the laugh!

 

Oh, and btw, the laugh was so good, therefore:

 

CARNIVAL SHOULD REPLICATE THAT EXACT EXPERIENCE BECAUSE I LIKED IT!

[Moviela]

BRAVO!