Permanent Cutbacks on Carnival

[csm5986142]

One of the things that bothers me on cruises is seeing all the food waste - I'm so glad they are getting rid of the complimentary occasion cakes.  Almost always, less than half would get eaten and the rest thrown away.  

 

[mz-s]

Just now, csm5986142 said:

One of the things that bothers me on cruises is seeing all the food waste - I'm so glad they are getting rid of the complimentary occasion cakes.  Almost always, less than half would get eaten and the rest thrown away. 

 

It's not wasted or thrown away, it feeds the fish.

[shof515]

with the brunch closing earlier it is going to make other areas of the ship for food be more crowded. as is most other lunch places closes at 2 which can be early

[Saint Greg]

1 hour ago, jsglow said:

TERRIBLE.  We've used the hanging tag Continental breakfast nearly every day on every cruise. It literally serves as our alarm clock, as necessary. For those that know, does the house phone have a wake up call feature?

And potentially the alarm clock for your neighbors. I had a cruise recently where the people across the hall got the 6:15 room service every morning. I wish they would call the phone and tell them room service will be there in five minutes. Instead of Bang Bang Bang room service! Ugh.

 

Edited August 4, 2022 by Saint Greg

[pc_load_letter]

The 24hr pizza thing doesn't really bug me. I think the latest we've been was about 2am. As long as they have enough staff to keep cranking out the dough.

[Lee Cruiser]

1 hour ago, Saint Greg said:

The one I don’t like is brunch closing at noon. They had it that way on Splendor. Not a fan. I like to go for lunch in the 12pm hour.

Yes, that will affect everyone.  We are not huge brunch fans anyway.  We typically go eat breakfast on the Lido and then get lunch later.  But, with the brunch serving now closing at 12, the lines for everything else at the noon hour will get longer.

[JT1962]

The “Hairy Chest” contest is gone permanently as well:

 

https://www.cruisehive.com/carnival-cruise-line-confirms-end-of-popular-lido-deck-activity/78081

Edited August 4, 2022 by JT1962

[Lee Cruiser]

Guests craving a late night snack will no longer be able to enjoy Late Night Snacks in the Lido Restaurant, which had often been light fare from a single buffet line, but will be able to get Pizza Plus options instead. This includes the late night pizza as well as pasta, Caesar salad, and sandwich options from the pizzeria.

 

I'm wondering what is considered late night.  The pizza line on Mardi Gras was horrible around 9-10 on our cruise in April.  Can't imagine what it would be like with adding additional items.  Hopefully they will had additional help as well, though that would probably defeat the purpose of why they are doing it to start with.

[Saint Greg]

1 minute ago, Lee Cruiser said:

Yes, that will affect everyone.  We are not huge brunch fans anyway.  We typically go eat breakfast on the Lido and then get lunch later.  But, with the brunch serving now closing at 12, the lines for everything else at the noon hour will get longer.

Definitely. I noticed on sea days the lido seating area being more like embarkation day crowded with the dining room closed at lunch time on splendor. I walked around for five minutes one day just trying to find a place to sit down and eat a piece of cake.

[Old Fart Cruisers]

I will miss the hang tags for coffee in the morning, but I think I will be able to find a way to survive without it.  I love chocolate, but I don't miss the cr@p that they have been trying to pass of as chocolate and have never considered it to be any kind of 'extravaganza'

[mz-s]

8 minutes ago, Lee Cruiser said:

Guests craving a late night snack will no longer be able to enjoy Late Night Snacks in the Lido Restaurant, which had often been light fare from a single buffet line, but will be able to get Pizza Plus options instead. This includes the late night pizza as well as pasta, Caesar salad, and sandwich options from the pizzeria.

 

I'm wondering what is considered late night.  The pizza line on Mardi Gras was horrible around 9-10 on our cruise in April.  Can't imagine what it would be like with adding additional items.  Hopefully they will had additional help as well, though that would probably defeat the purpose of why they are doing it to start with.

 

When the supper buffet closes, the only food options will be Deli or Pizza. When Deli closes, the only option will be Pizza. The same pizza line will also serve Stouffer's lasagna unless they separate it out somehow.

[TomCruise48]

18 minutes ago, JT1962 said:

The “Hairy Chest” contest is gone permanently as well:

The Carnival bashing comedians on RCCL will now have to find some new material!

[mrpayroll]

43 minutes ago, pc_load_letter said:

The 24hr pizza thing doesn't really bug me. I think the latest we've been was about 2am. As long as they have enough staff to keep cranking out the dough.

That's always a problem. Twenty people in line and they all take a whole pizza. It goes fast. 

[ontheweb]

Was I reading this wrong, or does it say across the fleet, but seems to only apply to Carnival cruises, not the other brands operated by Carnival corporation?

[mz-s]

16 minutes ago, mrpayroll said:

That's always a problem. Twenty people in line and they all take a whole pizza. It goes fast. 

 

No, it being the only thing to eat on the entire ship is the problem.

[Hoosierpop]

2 hours ago, mz-s said:

 

"It doesn't affect me so it is meaningless and your complaint is invalid"

Well, I’ll fess up to thinking that way. Very much a meh announcement. Although I get it if people did use some of these. 

[mz-s]

2 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

Was I reading this wrong, or does it say across the fleet, but seems to only apply to Carnival cruises, not the other brands operated by Carnival corporation?

 

It means across the Carnival Cruise Lines fleet. It is very rare that a change occurs across the Carnival Corp fleet, nearly unprecedented. Imagine Cunard no longer offering afternoon tea for example.

[SwordBlazer Cruising]

2 hours ago, mz-s said:

 

No, the late night snacks buffet is gone. In its place, pizza pirate/del capitano will be serving salads etc.

The correct context of the article is pizza, salads and sandwiches. See how easy it is to be accurate. 

[ray985]

1 hour ago, Lee Cruiser said:

Guests craving a late night snack will no longer be able to enjoy Late Night Snacks in the Lido Restaurant, which had often been light fare from a single buffet line, but will be able to get Pizza Plus options instead. This includes the late night pizza as well as pasta, Caesar salad, and sandwich options from the pizzeria.

 

I'm wondering what is considered late night.  The pizza line on Mardi Gras was horrible around 9-10 on our cruise in April.  Can't imagine what it would be like with adding additional items.  Hopefully they will had additional help as well, though that would probably defeat the purpose of why they are doing it to start with.

It's going to be awful. Have people working at Carnival never seen the line at pizza place between 10 PM and Midnight. On the older ships, it's easily a half hour wait (on the newer ships it's closer to 15 minutes because they can really crank out those pizzas). Now, we're going to give those poor guys working that place at that hour the responsibility to make sandwiches and salads to? Insane! They used to do Caesar salads and Pizza Pirate years ago but I heard they stopped it so the guys could just focus on getting the pizzas done. As a temporary setback, I get it, but not as an ongoing thing.

 

I was on an RCL ship this May and was so disappointed in their late-night selection (just pizza pretty much). I was telling everyone how Carnival at least has selections at the Lido Buffet for some munchies and now they get rid of it. 

[SCBarker]

8 minutes ago, ray985 said:

 Now, we're going to give those poor guys working that place at that hour the responsibility to make sandwiches and salads to? Insane! 

My guess is that they'll be pre-made like the little deli cooler at the pizza place on RCL.

[shof515]

3 minutes ago, SCBarker said:

My guess is that they'll be pre-made like the little deli cooler at the pizza place on RCL.

Princess also has similar premade deli sandwich's too

[mz-s]

36 minutes ago, SwordBlazer Cruising said:

The correct context of the article is pizza, salads and sandwiches. See how easy it is to be accurate. 

 

What are you talking about? What did I say was inaccurate?

[sparks1093]

I don't have too many problems with it. I can call room service the night before and place our order if needed. Other food will be available from Pizza Pirate late night, if needed (and hopefully pre-prepared to minimize the line). They aren't changing the name of the Pizza place of course, Pizza Plus just means "pizza, plus other food". 

[ProgRockCruiser]

3 hours ago, willyt25 said:

As someone who enjoys the Havana area I will really miss the food service in Ocean Plaza.  That was such an easy place to grab a bite without having to brave the lido during peak breakfast and lunch hours.

This is probably the one change that affects us the most - it was handy being able to grab a small breakfast bite instead of dealing with Lido, especially if our cabin was closer to the Ocean Plaza offerings anyway.

 

3 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

The one I don’t like is brunch closing at noon. They had it that way on Splendor. Not a fan. I like to go for lunch in the 12pm hour.

This doesn't directly impact us - we typically have brunch around 10:30 or 11am - though I will not claim we never had brunch at noon.  But the incidental impact will be those people that did take brunch between noon and 1pm - now they'll "rush" to get in around 11am / 11:30am, making it more crowded in that last hour, which may impact our ability to get seated and served in a timely fashion.

 

I will admit this move, while possibly not a huge impact to most cruisers, and for some no impact, is a sad reflection of Carnival simplifying just a little too much.  These things were successfully offered before, so the only reason to not continue them is cost-savings.  We like sailing on Carnival, it has been consistently fun for us.  But like the shrink-flation of bags of chips/crisps this nibbling away of the feature-set, without offering something different to replace it, is annoying and creates a bitter aftertaste.

[Elaine5715]

3 hours ago, jsglow said:

TERRIBLE.  We've used the hanging tag Continental breakfast nearly every day on every cruise. It literally serves as our alarm clock, as necessary. For those that know, does the house phone have a wake up call feature?

Yes, I use it for my sea day naps.  Can't miss a meal