I haven't cruised since 2017 Pre-COVID. Are things back to "normal" concerning boarding and cruising?

[bthomas67wagon]

As the title says, I haven't cruised since 2017 Pre-COVID. Are things back to "normal" concerning boarding and cruising?

(this would be pertaining to cruising on Carnival)

Thanks

-Brent

[bthomas67wagon]

Notes:
1. I had my 2 vaccination shots in Oct and Nov of 2021 and it says the exp Dec 2021, if the cruise lines are concerned with that info.

2. Looks like the Carnival cruise out of Miami for the next 3 months (what I was looking in to) was really priced high right now!!

[ColeThornton]

44 minutes ago, bthomas67wagon said:

As the title says, I haven't cruised since 2017 Pre-COVID. Are things back to "normal" concerning boarding and cruising?

(this would be pertaining to cruising on Carnival)

Thanks

-Brent

 

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/133-carnival-cruise-lines/

[cruisinqt]

The biggest change right now is not being able to check in till 2 weeks before the cruise. And once you check in you choose a time slot to arrive. Then they board in a specific order. 

[klfrodo]

If you are asking if "any" of the cruise lines are back to what you considered as Normal pre-covid? Then I would have to say the answer is No. All the cruise lines have had to make changes. A large part of these changes had to do with the current scale of economics

Have the changes affected me and my cruise experience. Only in very little ways.

Will they affect you? I have no idea.

[EngIceDave]

We were on Horizon a year ago, so my view is dated, but also based on what I have read here...

 

Overall, service is slower.

Room cleaning is now once a day

Food portions are little smaller and quality has slipped.

 

Other than that, IMO, it's mostly the same.

 

Edited December 25, 2022 by EngIceDave

[jsglow]

1) They won't care about your vax status whatsoever.

2) After not cruising for 5 years, way more is the same rather than different.

[BlerkOne]

There will never be cruising exactly like 2019 again. There are still cases of covid on the ships (and flu and RSV), and the ticket contract still (and likely forever) contains wording dealing with covid and public health. Protocols are relaxed now, but could change with little or no notice in the future.

[EngIceDave]

There has always been cases of flu and Covid before 2019.

Covid as a whole is not unique, only these latest troublesome variants are.

 

Norovirus, flu season, etc, was all around long before this mess

[Theosprey247]

For the most part it is the same. 

[hillbillycruisers]

3 hours ago, EngIceDave said:

We were on Horizon a year ago, so my view is dated, but also based on what I have read here...

 

Overall, service is slower.

Room cleaning is now once a day

Food portions are little smaller and quality has slipped.

 

Other than that, IMO, it's mostly the same.

 

We cruised on the Vista in November and the above comment was spot on. Main Dining Room service...at least on Vista...was definitely slower, and they messed up the food order a few times as well. I believe its a staffing issue and they are trying to get by with less workers. We cruise on the Dream in two weeks, so hoping it's a better experience.

[lazydayz]

16 hours ago, hillbillycruisers said:

We cruised on the Vista in November and the above comment was spot on. Main Dining Room service...at least on Vista...was definitely slower, and they messed up the food order a few times as well. I believe its a staffing issue and they are trying to get by with less workers. We cruise on the Dream in two weeks, so hoping it's a better experience.

I agree with both you and EngIceDave.  The staffing and supply shortage has impacted nearly every area.  Carnival hasn’t had Heineken for my last three cruises. The cabin stewards have 30 plus rooms, so strictly once a day service but can get fresh towels and ice most of the time.  Service in the MDR is usually slow and somewhat less friendly (at least on the MG, our Liberty dining team were outstanding).  The specialty restaurants and bars still have pretty good service.  
 

So I would say not the same but close enough.  Way better than sitting at home.  And if you pick one of the Excel class ships, you are likely to have a much better experience.  We enjoy the MG so much we are boarding her for our fourth time this year on Saturday.  And next up after that is the Celebration.  

[sanger727]

On 12/25/2022 at 3:13 PM, EngIceDave said:

There has always been cases of flu and Covid before 2019.

Covid as a whole is not unique, only these latest troublesome variants are.

 

Norovirus, flu season, etc, was all around long before this mess

 

There were coronaviruses before 2019, not COVID-19. We have never experienced a virus before where you are forced to test, forced to quarantine, etc over a cough or a runny nose. No, it's not the same and won't be until the world has a whole accepts covid as a cold/flu and stops reacting to it. 

[EngIceDave]

46 minutes ago, sanger727 said:

There were coronaviruses before 2019, not COVID-19.

Correct.

the "19" only indicates the year discovered. There are thousands of coronavirus'

 

No one wants to really go over all that stuff again. My point was only that viruses, including coronavirus', norovirus and more of varying degrees have been around for a long time, but this one was the nastiest.

Edited December 27, 2022 by EngIceDave