Never thought I would say this.....

[sparks1093]

4 hours ago, Raysgirl said:

I am not trying to hit my 15 drink limit in per day,  Honestly I barely can drink 5 a day, but I also drink water and soda.   My point is there is not enough staff for the amount of people on the ship.  In years passed you were constantly saying "no thank you " to the numerous amount of bar staff trying to get you a drink, now you can barely find any.  It is not enjoyable to get out of the pool to stand in line at a bar for 30 minutes to get a drink. The drink can be a water, soda or alcohol, it doesn't matter, they are just under staffed.   Enough time has passed that they should be fully up and running.   If they do not have enough employees, then should not have not put a ship or 2 in service and spread those staff members over the fleet.     This is not just me noticing it.  Ask your room stewards, most have twice as many cabins to service, same with the dining staff, they have more tables in their section than prior to covi which puts a lot of stress on them.   Carnival will not increase the number of employees back to precovid if passengers do not speak up that there is issue with services.  This is just another way for them to increase revenue.

 

When I see businesses around here finally being fully staffed then I'll expect the cruise lines to fully staffed. My comment about the drink limit was made to someone who said a 30 minute wait prevents them from receiving value on the package.

[CruzCra-Z]

for me Carnival has been an inexpensive vacation (with kids) with ports that I can drive to. Now that my children are getting older and my husband and myself are cruising without them different cruise lines will better suite our interests. I have NCL booked for Alaska and plan to book northern Europe on NCL as well.  Virgin is another that is next on our list to try.... If Carnival would stop raising their rates we would probably use them more but after this year I'm not sure how often we will.

[LatinaInTexas]

Only been cruising about 6 years and fell in love with Carnival over RC which I liked but didn't love.

I have learned I don't like repetitive things. Don't really want to sail the same ships, visit the same ports, eat the same dining room menus etc so want to try other lines for variety and change.

Tried MSC and my only real trivial complaints were their fixed dining times, no comedy club, and no drinking in the hot tubs/pool.

Everything else was excellent from food to service to entertainment. Their drink package was much better and more convenient and easier to use than Carnival. You could order doubles lol.

End of the day I will cruise whatever line meets my needs at the time. Like people say the various lines are more alike than different so there will be plenty of nickel and diming going on everywhere .

 

[Raysgirl]

34 minutes ago, Island Dog said:

While Norwegian can be a nickel and dime experience if you opt for the bare-bones fare, we enjoy the all-inclusive experience when packaged into the fare. We are cruising NCL in March and got a great deal that includes 2 specialty dining meals, drink pkg., wifi and $50 off one excursion every port. Not to mention the drink package is honored on their private island. It's really a carefree experience imho.

We are doing the exact same thing on Norwegian Encore in March.  Figured this would be the way to go to try something new. The price was reasonable if you compare it to Carnival and add the extra cost of the drink package, and wifi to Carnivals rate.  Looking forward to it

[Island Dog]

1 minute ago, LatinaInTexas said:

Tried MSC and my only real trivial complaints were their fixed dining times, no comedy club, and no drinking in the hot tubs/pool.

Everything else was excellent from food to service to entertainment. Their drink package was much better and more convenient and easier to use than Carnival. You could order doubles lol.

Thanks for the tip on doubles on MSC! I was not aware. Had a subpar experience on Seaside years back but are trying MSC again in February. Heard they have made great strides in trying to appeal to the North American market.

[mz-s]

48 minutes ago, CruzCra-Z said:

for me Carnival has been an inexpensive vacation (with kids) with ports that I can drive to. Now that my children are getting older and my husband and myself are cruising without them different cruise lines will better suite our interests. I have NCL booked for Alaska and plan to book northern Europe on NCL as well.  Virgin is another that is next on our list to try.... If Carnival would stop raising their rates we would probably use them more but after this year I'm not sure how often we will.

 

If Carnival was still a 2019 experience, I would have no problem paying higher prices. But they can't cut the experience to the bone and expect me to pay higher prices as well. It's one thing to be expected to pay $5 for a PB&J sandwich when the cruise was dirt cheap. But I'm not paying 2019 prices for 2022 Carnival, sorry...

[jsglow]

7 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

If Carnival was still a 2019 experience, I would have no problem paying higher prices. But they can't cut the experience to the bone and expect me to pay higher prices as well. It's one thing to be expected to pay $5 for a PB&J sandwich when the cruise was dirt cheap. But I'm not paying 2019 prices for 2022 Carnival, sorry...

So here's where I believe we see things different.  I think Carnival has modestly compromised the experience in an effort to keep costs (and cruise fares) down.  Your perspective is that it is a vastly different and inferior product. 

 

Do I miss the Continental Breakfast hang tags? Yes, but I've worked around.

Do I miss the option to have twice daily cabin service? Yes, but just a little. 

Do I think the waiters have been pushed too hard? Yes, but I saw that even before the shutdown.

Does not being able to get pizza at 4am bother me?  Heck no. I'm old and asleep.

Do I care that they eliminated the petite filet mignon at Sea Day? Yep, but I've accepted it.

Do I think MDR food has 'gone downhill'? Not really. It's always been a solid notch above wedding reception standard and remains that way.

Do I care about room service charges? Not really as long as free Continental remains.

Do I think the drinks are too expensive and do I miss room bottle service? Yes, but I also REALLY hate freakin' $5 dollar gas so there's that.

Do I think the entertainment is worse? Not really.  The bands have routinely been very good and I think that most of the Playlist productions are fairly weak. Comedy also remains solid.

 

Anyway, you get my point.  I see pretty much the same old Carnival.  I've avoided the biggest ships so I do acknowledge that crowds could be a problem that I've not experienced.  I did sense on my one Horizon cruise that it would be super crowded when it was 'summertime' full.  I seek to avoid that by sailing off peak.  A benefit to being retired I suppose.

[jjzblla]

We have only cruised once since the restart and although it's a cruise so how bad can it be, we noticed a lot of cutbacks or "differences".  We've got another scheduled in December, but with the constant notifications of changes and cutbacks we may also be done with Carnival for a while.

 

I ordered a margarita on the Breeze in June. the new mix is the absolute worst I've ever had.  Ok, so they wanted to save a little money and went with a cheaper mix, I understand.  That awful margarita was the first and last mixed drink I bought on that cruise.  I also won't be buying any on our December cruise.  They saved a little by switching mixes, I'm saving A LOT by not buying it.  We also paid for the bubbles for my son, we haven't cruised in a while so didn't realize they'd switched from Coke to Pepsi.  Again, they saved some by switching, we'll save a lot by not buying their Pepsi products.  We also had extremely slow service in the MDR for dinner and breakfast.

 

I don't mind paying for a 3rd entree or even paying more for a margarita if they used the same mix they used to.  I understand they've got money to make up and that everything is more expensive these days.  The problem is that I can't just opt to buy a more expensive margarita or pay more for Coke instead of Pepsi when on the ships, they don't offer that choice.

 

These aren't big things or certainly the only things, they didn't ruin our cruise but they are things we noticed and didn't appreciate and if you couple these with the constant announcements of changes and cutbacks we've decided that Carnival cruises may not be what we're looking for anymore.

 

 

 

[icft]

8 hours ago, Island Dog said:

Point is that if I'm plunking down 1k plus for Cheers! for two, I should be able to get my value from it. If I'm waiting 30 minutes, I'm not.

I'm with you, but I think we are a minority.  Years ago I realized most people are happy to pay to wait for service or stand in long lines. (Look at Disney World.)

 

Good, fast service was once a basic part of cruising and what drew us to cruising. That is no longer the case.

[CruiseAdict218]

I've been cruising for about 13 years now, started young with Carnival, then moved to Princess for a few years before coming back to Carnival just prior to Covid. Post restart, been on 4 Carnival cruises from Sept 2021, to just this past July and in between those sailed on my first Royal Caribbean cruise. Being honest, sailing on Horizon at reduced capacity really was a spoil because you could really enjoy the ship, and it was much better than the first time around when ships were at full capacity.  

 

But some of the recent sailings were great, and others just middle of the road (food was the most up and down, but staffing/service were excellent all around). I don't think too many of the cut backs really effected my opinion of Carnival, but I wouldn't mind paying a little extra if it would help. 

 

Royal Caribbean for the first time was also a lot of fun even with a complete port change (out of their control) did miss some of those Carnival touches. Staff were still excellent, ship had an interesting layout in some places too. I would also recommend MSC, the shoreside management isn't the best, but onboard service was the complete opposite. However this was just before everything came to a stop, but would sail on them again. 

 

Can't wait to see how Venezia plays out, with this "new" concept coming in a few months.

[Joebucks]

 

 

7 hours ago, Raysgirl said:

Carnival will not increase the number of employees back to precovid if passengers do not speak up that there is issue with services.  This is just another way for them to increase revenue.

 

You mean profit. Revenue is sales, which could decrease due to less labor.

 

6 hours ago, Theosprey247 said:

I've never had to wait anywhere near 30 minutes for bar service and I only cruise in the summer months (June and July) and December.  

 

None of us have

 

3 hours ago, Island Dog said:

While Norwegian can be a nickel and dime experience if you opt for the bare-bones fare, we enjoy the all-inclusive experience when packaged into the fare. We are cruising NCL in March and got a great deal that includes 2 specialty dining meals, drink pkg., wifi and $50 off one excursion every port. Not to mention the drink package is honored on their private island. It's really a carefree experience imho.

 

 

I'd be curious to know the price difference between the same experience with Carnival with the "Cheers on us" offers and other things added in.

 

[icft]

1 hour ago, jsglow said:

So here's where I believe we see things different.  I think Carnival has modestly compromised the experience in an effort to keep costs (and cruise fares) down.  Your perspective is that it is a vastly different and inferior product..

.

I think you have the different perspectives right. To what degree does something have to change before it is no longer the product you liked?

 

The answer is different for each person.

 

In our case some of the things that made cruising enjoyable for us were good service and a touch of luxury. With those gone much of the appeal is gone for us. We are past the age where glamping appeals to us. But lots of folks love glamping. 

 

For us the product is no longer the same product. For others nothing they care about has changed and it is the same product.

 

 

[jsglow]

4 minutes ago, icft said:

I think you have the different perspectives right. To what degree does something have to change before it is no longer the product you liked?

 

The answer is different for each person.

 

In our case some of the things that made cruising enjoyable for us were good service and a touch of luxury. With those gone much of the appeal is gone for us. We are past the age where glamping appeals to us. But lots of folks love glamping. 

 

For us the product is no longer the same product. For others nothing they care about has changed and it is the same product.

 

 

There is no doubt that Carnival is far from a luxury experience.  I 100% agree with you.  But as you said, there are other lines for that.

[sparks1093]

11 hours ago, jsglow said:

So here's where I believe we see things different.  I think Carnival has modestly compromised the experience in an effort to keep costs (and cruise fares) down.  Your perspective is that it is a vastly different and inferior product. 

 

Do I miss the Continental Breakfast hang tags? Yes, but I've worked around.

Do I miss the option to have twice daily cabin service? Yes, but just a little. 

Do I think the waiters have been pushed too hard? Yes, but I saw that even before the shutdown.

Does not being able to get pizza at 4am bother me?  Heck no. I'm old and asleep.

Do I care that they eliminated the petite filet mignon at Sea Day? Yep, but I've accepted it.

Do I think MDR food has 'gone downhill'? Not really. It's always been a solid notch above wedding reception standard and remains that way.

Do I care about room service charges? Not really as long as free Continental remains.

Do I think the drinks are too expensive and do I miss room bottle service? Yes, but I also REALLY hate freakin' $5 dollar gas so there's that.

Do I think the entertainment is worse? Not really.  The bands have routinely been very good and I think that most of the Playlist productions are fairly weak. Comedy also remains solid.

 

Anyway, you get my point.  I see pretty much the same old Carnival.  I've avoided the biggest ships so I do acknowledge that crowds could be a problem that I've not experienced.  I did sense on my one Horizon cruise that it would be super crowded when it was 'summertime' full.  I seek to avoid that by sailing off peak.  A benefit to being retired I suppose.

Pretty much the way that I look at it, except for the being retired part (which will happen some day). A look at Carnival's stock history is telling- from a high of $66 in 2018 to just under $10 today. There are a lot of factors in play in the decisions being made and I would guess that no one on the exec team likes having to make these changes, but they are necessary ones for now. As for Carnival charging more, well, all cruise lines are charging more and when I'm booking a cruise Carnival is still the lowest (and that is now factoring in the cost of Cheers and wifi for us). We do want to sail with other cruise lines and have, but we aren't breaking the bank to do it. When we sailed with Royal we lucked out and the cost of that cruise was $400 less than a comparable cruise with Carnival. And while Royal was a little better than Carnival in some ways we didn't find it to be the "all that" that Loyal Royals say it is. Now if a Royal cruise was $400 more than Carnival we'd book it, but likely not more than that. 

[Joebucks]

11 hours ago, icft said:

I think you have the different perspectives right. To what degree does something have to change before it is no longer the product you liked?

 

The answer is different for each person.

 

In our case some of the things that made cruising enjoyable for us were good service and a touch of luxury. With those gone much of the appeal is gone for us. We are past the age where glamping appeals to us. But lots of folks love glamping. 

 

For us the product is no longer the same product. For others nothing they care about has changed and it is the same product.

 

Out of all of the "cutbacks," the only one I have personally felt is the steak. The strip loin absolutely sucks, and the loss of the filet at brunch is the end of one of my favorite entrees.

 

I'm very much open to cruising other lines. Carnival roped me in again with a 7-day, balcony, on the Celebration for $1250 total. Less than $100pp per day, for their newest ship. There are new lunch options (and I am probably going to eat at Shaq's way too many times) and more included dinner options. I think I will finally go to Cucina and try the chicken parmesan. Sure I lost something, but I gained in other areas. Hell, even if I didn't gain, the experience was still plenty.

 

I could piss and moan about steak, or look at the reality. I could go on another line for "included steak" and surely spend more money overall. I could do the steakhouse selection steak for $23 (might be what I do). I could do the steakhouse for $48. It isn't all magnified because I can't have 3 dinner plates or pizza at 4 am.

[samiam0403]

21 hours ago, bguppies said:

After you try another line, please come back and let everyone in here know how the service and food shortages (the Carnival BS, bacon shoratge) and food quality are in comparison.

 

We have one more cruise on Carnival in 3 weeks, but after that, unless it is a great cruise, after our experience in September on the Sunshine, we will; be branching out ourselves.

 

We have been pretty lazy about branching out due to Carnival's ports being so convienient to us. (Charleston is a short drive to downtown, Jacksonville, Tampa and Port Canaveral.)

But the staff on the September cruise were great as usual, just stretched way too thin.

When you bring that up in here all of the apoligists just shout out any non-Carnival opinions, like they own the company personally.

 

I'd be incredibly anxious to know if other cruiselines are as shorthanded as Carnival has been running their business. I personally feel that Carnival has intentionally kept their staff shorthanded to save some labor costs, while cutting thheir product as close to the bone as they possibly can.

But I  would love to hear confirming opinions of this. (or if the other cruiselinesd feel shortstaffed , PLEASE come back and say so)

 

I greatly appreciate your honest assesment and review of your cruise.

I've sailed on Royal and Oceania post-COVID (as well as Carnival), and Carnival was the only one that had staffing issues still. My Carnival cruise in September had the longest lines I've seen out of 40+ cruises - I actually gave up on one bar because I had waited so long. Never done that before. Waited 30 minutes plus at seaday brunch to even have a waiter acknowledge me. I will say though, that drink service in the casino was still on point. Most of the time, the drink servers would bring me a bourbon as soon as I sat down, without even asking. (Had drinks everywhere from the casino, and tip $1-2 per drink.) On Royal and Oceania, I could walk up to any bar and maybe have to wait behind one or two other people. Maybe. So from my experience, Carnival is the only one so far that feels severely short-staffed. YMMV.

[1kaper]

23 hours ago, Island Dog said:

Thanks for the tip on doubles on MSC! I was not aware. Had a subpar experience on Seaside years back but are trying MSC again in February. Heard they have made great strides in trying to appeal to the North American market.

 

The no drinking in the pool was also my complaint. I was told that it varies from ship to ship. Also don’t love set dining. No comedy club doesn’t bother me. 
 

Not sure if you’ve seen but one other big thing that many people don’t like is the room stewards tend to be much more in the background than typical American ships. I’ve read it’s more of a European way. They don’t try to be your friend. Very polite and helpful but not over the top friendly and always around. I didn’t mind it. Some do. 

[KyloRen]

I've been on 5 since the restart and another 3 weeks from now. I defo notice the difference but so many of these cruises im taking are so cheap! I really look forward to sailing on something else but carnival keeps giving me fabulous rates. 

 

Things I've noticed

 

~it takes forever to get a drink

~ Not as nice service at the Alchemy bar

~Rushed/rude service at Steak house

 

Everywhere else I have 0 complaints

Edited November 11, 2022 by KyloRen

[cruisequeen4ever]

I read all the major cruise line forums on here, and I’ve heard similar

 feedback across the lines. Don’t get me wrong; plenty of people are still having great experiences, but I’m just saying that this experience is not limited to Carnival. Also, I read similar experiences on one of the new Carnival ships, so new doesn’t guarantee better. Times are tough right now for cruise lines. I hope things improve! 

[cruisingguy007]

2 hours ago, cruisequeen4ever said:

I read all the major cruise line forums on here, and I’ve heard similar

 feedback across the lines. Don’t get me wrong; plenty of people are still having great experiences, but I’m just saying that this experience is not limited to Carnival. Also, I read similar experiences on one of the new Carnival ships, so new doesn’t guarantee better. Times are tough right now for cruise lines. I hope things improve! 

 

Indeed. I think most of this is a visceral reaction to a culmination of cutbacks and changes. This is a pretty normal reaction actually, most folks with have a conniption fit when they feel something has been taken away or to changes they don't approve of (myself included). Upon further reflection, these cutbacks and changes should be seen as they are, careful scalpel (titration) work vs chopping. Most of these won't affect my cruising experience when I really think about it and cuts have to come from somewhere, better to trim fat than meat. Some are irritating, like the removal of bottles from the fun shops, 50% off happy hour and reducing brunch hours. Even some of these aren't so bad if you got a great rate or caught a sale, it's easier to justify paying for cheers, up-charge dining or paying for room service, etc., when you have a nice discounted rate already. I feel many will still find Carnival a good value in many cases, when they do the math anyways, some will try other lines and end up coming back also. In the end, cooler heads will prevail and most will end up realizing that they don't really miss these cutbacks/changes as much as they thought they would, they were just more irritated with the thought of them than the actual efficacy on their actual overall cruise experience.       

[Cruise a holic]

We have been on four carnival cruises of the past 15 years.  Never again.  We much prefer Celebrity cruise line and Royal- now the only lines we go on.  We have tried a few Princess cruises, but they were not great at all.  We also tried NCL and Disney- again, not for us.  

 

I think once you have the opportunity to try Celebrity- our favorite the S and Edge class, you will be spoiled. On Royal, I suggest Oasis class is the best. 

[Sillyjilly]

And yet you did. Welcome to getting over Covid.

RCI was worse.

Princess was good, We shall see how Celebrity does.

[d12j28]

On 11/10/2022 at 3:15 PM, momof3cruisers said:

That whole assign you a room thing is one of the big reasons I won’t sail on. Virgin. What they think is best might not be what I think is best. 

October—other than the lobby bar, every bar on Spirit had very long waits depending on timing. 
 

OP, I totally understand what you are saying. After our recent B2B, we don’t need to branch out as we have sailed many other lines already and liked them. However, due to lack of service in general (and a few outright lies) my husband is DONE with Carnival. I have another cruise scheduled in Feb on Paradise. I was on Paradise last March and it was great. If it’s not back to the same levels, I’ll be done too. 

 

On 11/10/2022 at 3:30 PM, Raysgirl said:

Our last cruise was on the Spirit in October when we had the worse issue with bar lines, this is when we decided to cancel our cruise in March on the Sunrise and try someone new.  We do have a cruise booked on the Celebration next September and hopefully we will enjoy that ship.

We were on the 10/16 Spirit cruise, which was an elite cruise. Had no issues getting a drink (5 min wait tops) at any bar. Honestly the only really long line I saw was at pizza one night after a show got out. The only thing I would complain about was the music on the ship. Missed having a good band playing. 

[hillbillycruisers]

Just returned from our first Carnival cruise.. since before covid... on the Vista. Easily our least favorite ship and least favorite cruise. The MDR service was slow and they made an unusual amount of mistakes...makes me wonder if they are covering too many tables. Our cabin service was subpar compared to all previous cruises. I ask for an ice bucket on our first day aboard...had to ask again on day two, finally getting one that night. Some mornings they didn't serve bacon at the Lido buffet. No bacon!!! That's poor! The Vista has the worst main show room arrangement of any ship we've sailed on. Very few tables for drinks. Plus, I was unhappy with things from the start, as they confiscated my small scissors during check in...because...I was told...they could be used as a weapon. They were very small...I use them to trim my beard daily...and I've carried them on all ten previous cruises with no issues. Suddenly, they are a weapon. I told the man if I wanted a weapon it'd be much easier stealing a dinner knife from the Lido buffet. All that, plus the Vista's usual propulsion issues made us late getting back to Galveston. Carnival is losing its appeal. 

[UPNYGuy]

after 40 some cruises, DW and I sail on a variety of lines. We also visit all inclusive resorts. You will find the more you cruise, the more you sail on different lines.