Permanent Cutbacks on Carnival

[Super27]

This is all extremely disappointing, but not surprising given the constant cutbacks across the travel industry (Disney, I'm looking at you). 

 

I think the biggest thing for me personally is going to be the lack of breakfast room service menus. That is a service that I used and, frankly, looked forward to using on every cruise. I get that apparently you can pre-order still by calling the night before, but there was something just so simple about just filling out the menu and putting it out and knowing that breakfast was taken care of. 

 

For me personally, the other changes won't be as big of a deal, but I think for others they will be a much bigger deal. 

 

Now, will any of this cause me to avoid Carnival when booking a cruise? Honestly, probably not. The fact is they still provide an overall solid product at a (generally) better price than their competition. For me, any money I save on the booking is more that I can budget for gambling - again, that's just my preference. However, I think little cutbacks like this will cause me to think harder about options other than cruising when planning a vacation. For my upcoming trip, we had been very much on the fence about a cruise versus Vegas, and ended up going with the cruise largely because we both like all the little "extras" it felt like we got on a cruise versus another vacation. As the cutbacks make a Carnival cruise feel less "special" and like less of a value, that decision may very well go differently next time.

[Joebucks]

17 hours ago, pc_load_letter said:

 

Agreed, I am not going to bash Carnival for cutting back on steaks when the price of beef is through the fricking roof.

 

I don't go on Carnival to have a prime grade AA cut of steak at the sea day buffet.

 

At pig and anchor, I ask the guy to pile some more brisket and sausage on my plate and he was more than happy.

 

My drinks are still strong and plenty of other food options. I am not going to lose any sleep over the steak at the sea day brunch. My cruise will not be ruined because of it.

 

I mostly agree with what you say here. The constant food elitism is just plain annoying. We all understand the economics of food and where to find 5-star dining. It's nice every once in a while, but overrated as a whole.

 

However, out of all food changes, the new Carnival steak is the one I have the hardest time getting over. I was quite content with a sirloin or flat iron. The filet was also very delicious. This new cut is just plain bad. 

[jlwilliams4]

On 8/4/2022 at 7:57 AM, ledges1 said:

The loss of caloric intake. Oh my, how will I survive.

Exactly my thoughts. I’m kinda glad that these temptations are being removed. I was worried it would be some more catastrophic to my cruising experience like limiting number of appetizers or something. I actually think the celebration cake is a good one. I never have liked the celebration cakes and always end up ordering another dessert and feel guilty about the waste of the food and the effort of those making those cakes. I think most others feel the same. I can see where some of these effect people but in all my cruises, I take advantage of few of them. 
 

i have spent the past two month getting my body cruise ready, and have two more months to go…. My hubby and I already made the commitment to use the fitness center every morning to offset some of the calories but this actually helps us out 🙂

[CruizinSusan70]

50 minutes ago, Joebucks said:

 

However, out of all food changes, the new Carnival steak is the one I have the hardest time getting over. I was quite content with a sirloin or flat iron. The filet was also very delicious. This new cut is just plain bad. 

On night one of our Mardi Gras cruise in February we went to the Pig n Anchor and had the filet that they offer as the first night special.  It was tasty.

[sanmarcosman]

1 hour ago, Joebucks said:

However, out of all food changes, the new Carnival steak is the one I have the hardest time getting over. I was quite content with a sirloin or flat iron. The filet was also very delicious. This new cut is just plain bad. 

Yes, the strip loin should be replaced. 

[KmomChicago]

On 8/4/2022 at 12:07 PM, wemjam said:

NO biggies on any of these as far as I am concerned.  

 

1. Almost 50 cruises never went to tea

2. Never ate late at night (get WAY more than enough the rest of the day) - Oh wait once, years ago at the midnight Mexican buffet and regretted that BIG time for next 12 hours!

3. Slight reduction in some hours no big deal.

4. Don't even know what Ocean Plaza is (and been on Horizon & Vista) 

5. Can still order breakfast, so don't care how.  1/2 the time you used the door hangers it didn't show up when you wanted it anyhow

6. No cake, no big deal.  I order the dessert I want anyhow - don't even need the candle and the "Hoppy Birdday" song  - and yes I meant to spell it that way... think about it lol!

 

To me these all seem very trivial

 

 

 

Only like 12 cruses but almost 100% with you 

1. Have gone to tea and it wasn't much of a fit for us, no interest in returning.

2. We grab a final plate at the buffet or deli before 9 if we want food in the room; pizza line is already too busy for us and a lot of passengers being very picky and short with the pizza guys so we mostly have already stopped using it.

3. Agree, the change is minor for us timewise, barely noticeable for us if at all. I don't think we ever went to brunch past noon and we love the brunch and go all the time.

4. We were on Vista in April, went to trivia all the time in Ocean Plaza and never realized there was any food being served - thought it was like Java Blue.

5. We only did room service breakfast once and didn't like it, years ago and have had no interest since.

6. We got a paid cake with a birthday room decor package and could not eat most of it between all the other food onboard and it not being irresistible. I don't think we ever got one in the MDR. 

[ShakyBeef]

I told myself I wasn't going to get involved in this discussion.  I've been here before and should know better.  But I'm a little bored and apparently a slow learner, 'cause here I go...

 

For those of you that say "no big deal" / "I don't care about any of this" / "I'm glad they're making these cuts because they have no effect on my cruise experience" and the like, I have a few questions:

 

Will longer lines, longer amounts of time on hold / waiting for the food choices you want, and larger crowds in your venues of choice (leading to longer lines, less available seating, etc.) affect your cruise experience?

 

Have you considered that as these options (dining options in this case, but this could apply to entertainment options, as well) being eliminated or reduced will lead to more demand for and crowding in the remaining areas?

 

As others before me have stated examples,

 

Onboard a Carnival ship, I never use the pool, the hot tubs, the Lido Deck lounge chairs, the Spa, the kids' clubs, or the gym.  I rarely play anything at all in the casino and don't mind if I never set foot in another casino in my life. I avoid the Buffet like the Plague.  But I'm glad all these options and venues are onboard for the enjoyment of my fellow cruisers.  If for no other reason than crowd control.  All those people at any given moment in those venues which I never visit are people with whom I don't have to compete for the things that I do enjoy in a cruise.

 

These cutbacks as well as others Carnival has made in the past and those that they will undoubtedly make in the future will affect your cruise experience whether you think so or not.  If you're fine with the effects, so be it.  But there will be effects.

[Badfinger]

I think our last straw was our Breeze cruise in June.  But these cutbacks make it much less likely we will spend our vacation dollars on a Carnival cruise.  Guided fishing trips to Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin have been my thing lately...just so much fun.

[KmomChicago]

21 minutes ago, ShakyBeef said:

I told myself I wasn't going to get involved in this discussion.  I've been here before and should know better.  But I'm a little bored and apparently a slow learner, 'cause here I go...

 

For those of you that say "no big deal" / "I don't care about any of this" / "I'm glad they're making these cuts because they have no effect on my cruise experience" and the like, I have a few questions:

 

Will longer lines, longer amounts of time on hold / waiting for the food choices you want, and larger crowds in your venues of choice (leading to longer lines, less available seating, etc.) affect your cruise experience?

 

Have you considered that as these options (dining options in this case, but this could apply to entertainment options, as well) being eliminated or reduced will lead to more demand for and crowding in the remaining areas?

 

As others before me have stated examples,

 

Onboard a Carnival ship, I never use the pool, the hot tubs, the Lido Deck lounge chairs, the Spa, the kids' clubs, or the gym.  I rarely play anything at all in the casino and don't mind if I never set foot in another casino in my life. I avoid the Buffet like the Plague.  But I'm glad all these options and venues are onboard for the enjoyment of my fellow cruisers.  If for no other reason than crowd control.  All those people at any given moment in those venues which I never visit are people with whom I don't have to compete for the things that I do enjoy in a cruise.

 

These cutbacks as well as others Carnival has made in the past and those that they will undoubtedly make in the future will affect your cruise experience whether you think so or not.  If you're fine with the effects, so be it.  But there will be effects.

 

Right.  Of course there will be effects. Every change has an effect. 

[ShakyBeef]

5 minutes ago, Badfinger said:

I think our last straw was our Breeze cruise in June.  But these cutbacks make it much less likely we will spend our vacation dollars on a Carnival cruise.  Guided fishing trips to Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin have been my thing lately...just so much fun.

 

My (kinda) last straw was about 7 years ago or so.  The cutbacks had piled up and degraded the product too much.  That's when we stopped booking Carnival cruises unless we had enough FunPoints (from Carnival Mastercard) racked up to pay for a huge chunk of it (like around 300,000 to pay for $4500) AND  it was a cruise that family or friends were going on and wanted us to join them, or if it was a cruise for our kids' sake (but still only if we have at least a couple thousand FPs saved up). 

 

When DH and I vacation for our own enjoyment these days, we usually do fly-to trips to an Abaco Out Island, drive to places in the U.S. that strike our interest, or cruise on other lines that give us a higher-quality experience (with a higher price tag, of course).  I've said this before, so many times, but I wish Carnival would just charge what they need to charge to provide the product that they taught us to expect.  Instead of chipping it away so fast that each Cruise I go on offers less than the previous one.

[KmomChicago]

17 minutes ago, Badfinger said:

I think our last straw was our Breeze cruise in June.  But these cutbacks make it much less likely we will spend our vacation dollars on a Carnival cruise.  Guided fishing trips to Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin have been my thing lately...just so much fun.

 

I would enjoy that kind of trip very much as well and 100% understand why that is a lot more appealing than a cruise to a lot of folks, and that as things change, people will move on to other options.

 

I could go on a long time about my boring travel history (domestic and international, tent camping to 5* hotels, basic economy to first class) but I get it. . . in fact I was "done" with cruising after Celebrity in 2001 because I was finding the whole business of being overfed and pampered in luxury kind of boring.

 

I don't prefer to do the same vacation over and over, and I have always enjoyed active travel with boots on the ground sightseeing over several days' time, rather than the 6 hour rush in a port. 

 

However, it's not just about Kmom. If it were, I wouldn't be here live reviewing anything on Cruise Critic at all.

 

I really only "like" cruising nowadays because DH and my kiddo like it. If they are happy I am, and that, paired with not going bankrupt to pay for it, is actually the only real factor that impacts my cruise experience. Happy husband = good vacation. Happy teen = good vacation.  Everyone gets home safe and healthy = good vacation.

 

So lines, cutbacks, changes, of course I know it's the last straw for some and that diminishing returns are a risk for the cruise line and when the experience is bad enough that my peeps don't like it they will say, we don't want to do this anymore. 

 

Every cruise I ever went on was missing something I liked about a prior one, but they were all okay.

 

 

[LMaxwell]

We utilize many of the services throughout the cruise. Usually like a light breakfast of coffee and fruit; so we either got room service or Ocean Plaza.  The buffet can be a madhouse in the morning. 

 

Carnivals late night buffet was already kind of "weak" and always had lines. Now lines will be out of control at other areas like the Pizza place. Not having pizza 24 hours I think is OK.  10am-2am would probably be sufficient honestly. 

 

Glad they still have seaday brunch; we'd usually sleep in and go around 10-11; the cut back in time isn't a huge deal for us but it can impact others. Tea Time is always nice.  We would even make sure to do it on 4 day cruises. 

 

Just a lot of cutbacks that are going to create longer lines and choke points at other places. I sense some of these will be quickly "undone".  Not taking pre-orders for room service is definitely a cutback; you'll see anything "free" disappear from room service entirely soon as they cite lack of demand. 

 

My primary complaint w Carnival is there's usually lines for everything that just don't seem to happen on other cruises; and now they will be worse. We like Carnival food, it's very good, so this is a significant cutback. I don't cruise for snacks, but not going to pay a premium for the newest/biggest ships and stand in lines all week either. 

[ontheweb]

18 hours ago, ALKID said:

Walmart of the seas is too generous for them!  They must be going for dollar store of the seas, or johnnys bargain store of the seas!

Our local Dollar Tree is now a $1.25 Tree. Is it the same everywhere? And watch out for this comparison or Carnival might raise their prices 25%!

[BlerkOne]

10 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

It's going to snow in August......I thought that Carnival did no wrong.

It always snows somewhere in August and I guess you were wrong.

[ontheweb]

Being a vegetarian, I have shed no tears over the steak cutbacks!

[Badfinger]

1 hour ago, KmomChicago said:

 

I would enjoy that kind of trip very much as well and 100% understand why that is a lot more appealing than a cruise to a lot of folks, and that as things change, people will move on to other options.

 

I could go on a long time about my boring travel history (domestic and international, tent camping to 5* hotels, basic economy to first class) but I get it. . . in fact I was "done" with cruising after Celebrity in 2001 because I was finding the whole business of being overfed and pampered in luxury kind of boring.

 

I don't prefer to do the same vacation over and over, and I have always enjoyed active travel with boots on the ground sightseeing over several days' time, rather than the 6 hour rush in a port. 

 

However, it's not just about Kmom. If it were, I wouldn't be here live reviewing anything on Cruise Critic at all.

 

I really only "like" cruising nowadays because DH and my kiddo like it. If they are happy I am, and that, paired with not going bankrupt to pay for it, is actually the only real factor that impacts my cruise experience. Happy husband = good vacation. Happy teen = good vacation.  Everyone gets home safe and healthy = good vacation.

 

So lines, cutbacks, changes, of course I know it's the last straw for some and that diminishing returns are a risk for the cruise line and when the experience is bad enough that my peeps don't like it they will say, we don't want to do this anymore. 

 

Every cruise I ever went on was missing something I liked about a prior one, but they were all okay.

 

 

Our June cruise was number 8 for us.  I know not a lot compared to many here.  We can leave our house the morning of and drive to Galveston, so that has always kept the cost down.  Even after cruise 3 or 4, both my wife and I decided that aside from an Alaskan cruise, flying to a different port to get to different destinations would be a deal breaker price wise.  Not because we cannot afford it but after 3-4 cruises, "excitement" of being on a cruise was waning.  And for the same money we can do some pretty nice fly to vacations.  What use to be fun (all the pre-cruise planning, etc) became tedious chores.  Food on the ship, while adequate to pretty good, never really changed, so nothing new there.  Activities are pretty much identical or so similar as to provide us the same experience.  This June cruise, with all the lines and LONG waiting times in the dining room, pretty much sealed it for us.  While I could spend most of the time in the Cloud 9 Spa, my wife won't set foot in the place.  And being we don't gamble or drink...yeah....enough for us.  But I will reserve the right to book a solo cruise on a dream class during some off-season winter month...just for the spa.

[DrSea]

7 hours ago, Super27 said:

This is all extremely disappointing, but not surprising given the constant cutbacks across the travel industry (Disney, I'm looking at you). 

 

I think the biggest thing for me personally is going to be the lack of breakfast room service menus. That is a service that I used and, frankly, looked forward to using on every cruise. I get that apparently you can pre-order still by calling the night before, but there was something just so simple about just filling out the menu and putting it out and knowing that breakfast was taken care of. 

 

For me personally, the other changes won't be as big of a deal, but I think for others they will be a much bigger deal. 

 

Now, will any of this cause me to avoid Carnival when booking a cruise? Honestly, probably not. The fact is they still provide an overall solid product at a (generally) better price than their competition. For me, any money I save on the booking is more that I can budget for gambling - again, that's just my preference. However, I think little cutbacks like this will cause me to think harder about options other than cruising when planning a vacation. For my upcoming trip, we had been very much on the fence about a cruise versus Vegas, and ended up going with the cruise largely because we both like all the little "extras" it felt like we got on a cruise versus another vacation. As the cutbacks make a Carnival cruise feel less "special" and like less of a value, that decision may very well go differently next time.

I find it interesting that you consider vegas vs cruise when making your decision. I am in the same boat too (haha, get it?), but I don't gamble. So cruising almost always wins. For a gambler such as yourself, why does cruising win out? What are the little extras that you're alluding to?

[DrSea]

6 hours ago, Joebucks said:

 

I mostly agree with what you say here. The constant food elitism is just plain annoying. We all understand the economics of food and where to find 5-star dining. It's nice every once in a while, but overrated as a whole.

 

However, out of all food changes, the new Carnival steak is the one I have the hardest time getting over. I was quite content with a sirloin or flat iron. The filet was also very delicious. This new cut is just plain bad. 

Haha, I don't think it's food elitisms here. It's just that the steak tastes terrible. I know I know first world problems.

[jsglow]

2 hours ago, Badfinger said:

I think our last straw was our Breeze cruise in June.  But these cutbacks make it much less likely we will spend our vacation dollars on a Carnival cruise.  Guided fishing trips to Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin have been my thing lately...just so much fun.

We'll make you an honorary Cheese Head with comments like that. Next thing you know you'll be extolling the virtues of our famed Brandy Ol' Fashioned cocktails doncha know.

[DrSea]

2 hours ago, ShakyBeef said:

I told myself I wasn't going to get involved in this discussion.  I've been here before and should know better.  But I'm a little bored and apparently a slow learner, 'cause here I go...

 

For those of you that say "no big deal" / "I don't care about any of this" / "I'm glad they're making these cuts because they have no effect on my cruise experience" and the like, I have a few questions:

 

Will longer lines, longer amounts of time on hold / waiting for the food choices you want, and larger crowds in your venues of choice (leading to longer lines, less available seating, etc.) affect your cruise experience?

 

Have you considered that as these options (dining options in this case, but this could apply to entertainment options, as well) being eliminated or reduced will lead to more demand for and crowding in the remaining areas?

 

As others before me have stated examples,

 

Onboard a Carnival ship, I never use the pool, the hot tubs, the Lido Deck lounge chairs, the Spa, the kids' clubs, or the gym.  I rarely play anything at all in the casino and don't mind if I never set foot in another casino in my life. I avoid the Buffet like the Plague.  But I'm glad all these options and venues are onboard for the enjoyment of my fellow cruisers.  If for no other reason than crowd control.  All those people at any given moment in those venues which I never visit are people with whom I don't have to compete for the things that I do enjoy in a cruise.

 

These cutbacks as well as others Carnival has made in the past and those that they will undoubtedly make in the future will affect your cruise experience whether you think so or not.  If you're fine with the effects, so be it.  But there will be effects.

I'm glad you put in your input bc it's very similar to how I feel. Crowd control can be an issue and all of these cut backs will make crowding worst. 

[KmomChicago]

2 minutes ago, DrSea said:

I find it interesting that you consider vegas vs cruise when making your decision. I am in the same boat too (haha, get it?), but I don't gamble. So cruising almost always wins. For a gambler such as yourself, why does cruising win out? What are the little extras that you're alluding to?

I realize you didn’t ask me, you asked another poster. But I can tell you Vegas hotels cost an absolute fortune on Friday and Saturday nights. The resort fees are extremely irritating. Restaurants are expensive and also sometimes have junk fees. Entertainment ain’t cheap. Night shows such as comedy or Cirque or magicians are at least $50 (really only a few down here) and often well north of a hundred per ticket, per show.
 

Getting room plus food plus day and night entertainment plus a pool with deck chairs and view of the sea for a relatively cheap fare plus foreign ports to walk around in is a great value, as long as you LIKE all that stuff.
 

Vegas used to give you more for less than nowadays just like everything else. But even if I try to cheapo Vegas I can’t touch the overall value of a cruise. 

[DrSea]

Many of these cut backs directly affect me. 

 

- Due to time zone differences, I am up at 4 am. In the past, I have grabbed pizza for breakfast at 430 am. I don't like breakfast foods. So pizza was always a good option. This was esp helpful on days where I wanted to hit the port early or on disembarkation days. 

- Cutting an hour off of the sea day brunch is an issue. It gets packed from 10 am to 12 pm. I usually eat around 830am and come again at 1230 when the crowds have died down for my fillet mignon. Now that the fillet mignon is gone and there are shortened hours, the sea day brunch is not to my liking. 

- The cutbacks to the late night food stings. What I do is I eat at 530 in the MDR. I then go to see a show. Afterward I head to the buffet. Sometimes I get an entre. Sometimes it's just fruit like watermelon. 

- I have celebrated many events on CCL. My birthday, graduation, etc. It's nice having those cakes to take pics on instagram etc. 

 

Had I known, I wouldn't have booked my CCL thanksgiving cruise. It's the one holiday that culturally all Americans agree that gorging is social acceptable. I told my other guests about the cutbacks and we all wished we didn't book. We would lose our deposit if we cancelled, so we will keep it. I would book with CCL in the future, but it would have to cheaper than it is now and I would have to have no other options sailing out of my home port. 

[DrSea]

10 minutes ago, KmomChicago said:

I realize you didn’t ask me, you asked another poster. But I can tell you Vegas hotels cost an absolute fortune on Friday and Saturday nights. The resort fees are extremely irritating. Restaurants are expensive and also sometimes have junk fees. Entertainment ain’t cheap. Night shows such as comedy or Cirque or magicians are at least $50 (really only a few down here) and often well north of a hundred per ticket, per show.
 

Getting room plus food plus day and night entertainment plus a pool with deck chairs and view of the sea for a relatively cheap fare plus foreign ports to walk around in is a great value, as long as you LIKE all that stuff.
 

Vegas used to give you more for less than nowadays just like everything else. But even if I try to cheapo Vegas I can’t touch the overall value of a cruise. 

Thank you for your reply. Hearing everyone's view on this is interesting bc I used to spend all major Holidays and celebrations in Vegas bc it was affordable when I was younger. Again I don't gamble so that never appealed to me. 

 

Whenever I do the calculations, cruising >>>>>>> vegas when it comes to value and price. So I have essentially stopped going to Vegas except for conferences or visit some friends, of which I am trying to convince to go to a cruise vs having me go to them in Vegas.

[staceyglow]

1 hour ago, KmomChicago said:

 

Vegas used to give you more for less than nowadays just like everything else. But even if I try to cheapo Vegas I can’t touch the overall value of a cruise. 

Definitely true.  I live in Las Vegas in the winter and there are definitely very few bargains there these days.

[Petersonfcu]

3 hours ago, ShakyBeef said:

 

My (kinda) last straw was about 7 years ago or so.  The cutbacks had piled up and degraded the product too much.  That's when we stopped booking Carnival cruises unless we had enough FunPoints (from Carnival Mastercard) racked up to pay for a huge chunk of it (like around 300,000 to pay for $4500) AND  it was a cruise that family or friends were going on and wanted us to join them, or if it was a cruise for our kids' sake (but still only if we have at least a couple thousand FPs saved up). 

 

I am having trouble understanding this.  Its seems that you don't really want to cruise Carnival . . . .but you have the Carnival Mastercard and you collect funpoints on the Mastercard from purchases and you have to use those funpoints to book Carnival cruises.   I think, though, that the Carnival Mastercard only gives you funpoints worth about 1% back on nonCarnival purchases, which you can then only redeem toward Carnival cruise fare.  Have you thought about getting a no annual fee 2% cash back card (like the Citi Doublecash Card)?   More money back . . . and you wouldn't be forced to use it to cruise Carnival!!  Or if you wanted to cruise Carnival, you could just pay the fare with 2% cash and still have money in your pocket left over.  What am I missing here?   Perhaps I am missing something, because 300,000 funpoints for $4,500 in cruise fare looks like the equivalent of about 1.5% cash back when used for the cruise . . . but that is still not as good as a card that earns a clear  2% cash that you can use anywhere.