Carnival 'Special touches' gone?

[EngIceDave]

On 2/18/2023 at 8:16 PM, N7786W Flyer said:

 

See attached from our 1984 cruise on the Mardi Gras...

So was the nighty a gift or was the room steward rummaging through your unmentionables to find one to display?

[EngIceDave]

On 2/18/2023 at 11:31 PM, Honolulu Blue said:

If this were to show up on a cruise ship today, I don't know if people would think it was 20 years ahead of its time - or 100 years behind the times.

Be banned in Florida

[mom2tcdx2]

On 2/19/2023 at 7:17 AM, pe4all said:

And horse races.  The fun we had "buying" a horse, naming it, decorating it and having our DD be the "jockey!"

Totally loved when they redid that on one of our Journey's cruises, but sadly the second Journey's cruise we went on the CD had no idea how it was done and they didn't do it the same and it was just awful.  First one we bought our horse, though we didn't get the option to decorate like they used to, but ours did when the final race.  

[scoobysnacks70]

20 hours ago, nybumpkin said:

Here's my placemat collection. Our server from Liberty (2007) autographed that set.

Those are awesome!

[Guest BasicSailor]

On 2/19/2023 at 3:43 PM, Viajera7 said:

 

Were they placemats? I thought they were posters because of the nature of the paper material not suitable to put things on them unless you laminate them. I also got only one per cruise,

They were, I framed a few of ours and still brings a smile to our faces. Remembering the real Carnival.

[mizLORInj]

I have the placemats from my very first 2 cruises--Victory and Imagination.   Framed!   

 

Cruising is still fun, but I do miss some of the little things of by-gone days as mentioned in this thread.

 

NCL and Celebrity used to welcome you aboard with a glass of bubbly. . . long-gone too.   I will admit I really loved being welcomed that way! 

 

Are the Fun Times no longer a paper?    I was just on Celebrity early February and still got paper although used the app too.   

 

 

[MrsPhim]

People keep mentioning late 90s but some of these things have just disappeared within the last 2 years 😭😭😭. I’m on Radiance now and there was no late snacks buffet last night, last year we had them. That was a shock, hubby and I were asleep and we woke ourselves up specifically to go hit the mini midnight buffet and all we saw when we got up there was the staff cleaning dishes. I believe we had no charge room service before 10pm up until 2021? It completely sucks too, I absolutely loved getting free room service BLTs. Last year they served fries with the sandwiches from the deli, this year only potato chips or cole slaw 😭, that was also shocking. And no more bacon bits in the Guys burgers topping bar, there seemed to only be 6 toppings now 😭.

 

We were lucky, in the Panorama in early 2020, we had an Indian gentleman that did hypnotism in the empty Lido buffet room after dinner, all the kids knew what time he’d be there and ran to him. Did anyone else catch him, it was a blast. We had a hypnotist stage show on Elation sometime in the last 10 years I believe, one of the best shows I’ve ever seen, they need to bring it back. We had magicians on stage, breakdancers performing in the atrium on music nights, I’m sure we had the steel drum pool deck 3 man band within the last 2 years, and Hasbro game show,  Is that all gone? 
 

We also had a carving station, noodle station, and like fried foods station (chicken, potatoes) on one of the cruises I took not too long ago, maybe it was Panorama. And we definitely had things like more dance classes, Zumba, photos with towel animal mascot.

 

I miss photo opportunities with the pirate, birds, dressed up girls in Mexico, etc outside the gangway during port days. Do they still do those? I know it was wasteful but I miss seeing all of the pictures posted in the halls of everyone taken on the cruise. Also maybe it’s just the Radiance but karaoke is so short, it goes from 5:30 till 7:15 and I remember one ship, had it only on alternating nights, not even every night. Definitely lots of things missed, I can’t believe so much has changed just in the latter part of a decade. Same with Vegas with things like resort fees, no more free parking, and a ton of buffets permanently closed.

[Woody14]

It has been fun looking at all the things that have changed with Carnival.    It definitely seems that my experience of pulling up beside a carnival ship in the 90s and seeing all the neon and hearing the party going on had tarnished my impression of Carnival.   If all the things people have missed were there back then the experience would have been similar to the NCL experience I had at the time.    Not that I am not saying the NCL hasn't changed as it as probably changed more than most and in my opinion for the worse not better, but I went on my last NCL cruise in the early 2000's.

[crazy4themouse]

Was just going through my pictures looking for something else, and came across this from our cruise on Magic in 2016. Not really that long ago, but feels like eons since we had little touches like fruit and an umbrella in our drinks... Not a deal breaker by any means, but it did make me kinda sad to see it again and remember little extras like that. 😞 

[scoobysnacks70]

52 minutes ago, crazy4themouse said:

Was just going through my pictures looking for something else, and came across this from our cruise on Magic in 2016. Not really that long ago, but feels like eons since we had little touches like fruit and an umbrella in our drinks... Not a deal breaker by any means, but it did make me kinda sad to see it again and remember little extras like that. 😞 

I think that is more do to environmentalist than cost...The umbrellas left with the real straws

[staceyglow]

3 hours ago, MrsPhim said:

 

 

I miss photo opportunities with the pirate, birds, dressed up girls in Mexico, etc outside the gangway during port days. Do they still do those? I know it was wasteful but I miss seeing all of the pictures posted in the halls of everyone taken on the cruise.

 

I don't mean to get all politically correct, find some of the costumed photo ops to be a little ... problematic.  I can't help but think that local people finding someone not of their heritage dressing up in costumes from their native culture to be disrespectful. Imagine if a ship stopped in the U.S. and there were crew members from the Philippines or Croatia dressed up like Native Americans?

 

And I believe that is still going on.  I saw it one of the last cruises I took.

[scoobysnacks70]

47 minutes ago, staceyglow said:

I don't mean to get all politically correct, find some of the costumed photo ops to be a little ... problematic.  I can't help but think that local people finding someone not of their heritage dressing up in costumes from their native culture to be disrespectful. Imagine if a ship stopped in the U.S. and there were crew members from the Philippines or Croatia dressed up like Native Americans?

 

And I believe that is still going on.  I saw it one of the last cruises I took.

Those are not crew members.  They are locals earning a buck.  Just like the star impersonators in LA and NY

[Viajera7]

6 hours ago, BasicSailor said:

They were, I framed a few of ours and still brings a smile to our faces. Remembering the real Carnival.

 

4 hours ago, mizLORInj said:

I have the placemats from my very first 2 cruises--Victory and Imagination.   Framed!   .

I have the Fascination and Destiny placemats framed too.

 

Are the Fun Times no longer a paper?    I was just on Celebrity early February and still got paper although used the app too.   

 

NCL does have a paper freestyle too but you can also see them on the app.

There’s a compact paper version of the Fun Times now which you could get at the coffee shop or guest services

[shof515]

31 minutes ago, scoobysnacks70 said:

Those are not crew members.  They are locals earning a buck.  Just like the star impersonators in LA and NY

be careful of the Elmo's in time square in nyc

[MarkS]

On 2/18/2023 at 3:10 PM, ShakyBeef said:

PSA:  Carnival didn't leave a "mint on the pillow."  The Room Steward provided fake chocolates on top of the paper Funtimes (previously, on top of the Carnival Capers), beside the towel animal near the foot of the bed.  This may seem nitpicky of me, but so be it.  This oft-repeated "mint on the pillow" line is fiction.  They were "chocolates" (and I use that term in the loosest sense) on the bed, but not on the pillow.  And they haven't had any mint component since at least 2011, if they ever did.

 

For those interested, a very scientific😉 study concerning the cutback in quality of said "chocolates" (before they disappeared altogether) was conducted and reported on this thread, several years ago:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/1796910-those-quotchocolatequot-quotmintsquot-cutback/

 

PSA over, please continue with your discussion.

Thank you.

 

 

 

want a taste test?? hehe

[staceyglow]

1 hour ago, scoobysnacks70 said:

Those are not crew members.  They are locals earning a buck.  Just like the star impersonators in LA and NY

Even the ones working with the Carnival photographers?  

[ShakyBeef]

23 minutes ago, MarkS said:

 

want a taste test?? hehe

 

 

No thanks, been there, done that (and very scientifically, I might add) in the linked thread.

 

From Left to Right: Carnival 2010 (with a slight mint flavour), 2011, 2012, 2013, and then some Celebrity 2010, thrown in for fun.  Don't ask me why I still have these.  It's ridiculous.

[balcony bound]

I can't believe no one has mentioned the topless deck... if someone did I missed it, sorry!

[Sundsgn]

Good news for all the FunTimes peeps!

[Honolulu Blue]

21 minutes ago, Sundsgn said:

Good news for all the FunTimes peeps!

I approve of this!  Thank you for sharing!!

[cruisinfamily7609]

On 2/16/2023 at 4:11 PM, nydney1 said:

Excellent post. You hit my thoughts exactly 

mine too. I remember how wonderful our honeymoon cruise was - even on Royal Caribbean. I’d rather be on a cruise ship of that size, with those amenities and that kind of service/food/etc. It was special, and we loved it. I don’t need the water slides, or massive ships, but the problem is I do want the service, and finding it is tough. Not even the ultra-luxury lines do a lot of what I remember from my first cruises. 

[Pellaz]

On 2/21/2023 at 5:42 PM, balcony bound said:

I can't believe no one has mentioned the topless deck... if someone did I missed it, sorry!

 

I was trying to remember when the infamous "Funnel Decks" went away.  It was a bit "before my time" on Carnival, alas.  

[ShakyBeef]

2 hours ago, Pellaz said:

 

I was trying to remember when the infamous "Funnel Decks" went away.  It was a bit "before my time" on Carnival, alas.  

Carnival Inspiration still had one on my first cruise in 2005.  This is not one of the "special touches" I miss.🙄

[pe4all]

1 hour ago, ShakyBeef said:

Carnival Inspiration still had one on my first cruise in 2005.  This is not one of the "special touches" I miss.🙄

Our first CCL cruise was also in 2005 (Liberty) and they definitely had the topless/nude funnel deck, as dh had to go up to see if it was really topless/nude!

Edited February 23, 2023 by pe4all

[BTromboneFrack]

Yes, these are things we miss.  Here is a list of some of the things that we are very thankful for (based on our first cruise on the Festivale - 1988:

- TV's in every room

- bigger rooms

- more balcony rooms

- a toilet that isn't in the shower - this happened on our first cruise

- shipwide internet

- more than one or two restaurants on the ship

- more than one pool on a ship

- stabilizers

- atriums and great ship designs

- more ports

- more ship choices

- better entertainment (although the live big bands were always nice back in the day.  The closest we come to that today is the Center Stage Bands and Singers on the Mardi Gras and Celebration)

- water parks

- Serenity Deck

- IMAX theaters

- roller coasters

- prices that are actually cheaper than they were 35 years ago.