Just a Point of View

[jimbo5544]

18 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

We are also among those who have not experienced unruly passengers on a Carnival cruise.  Full disclosure, we have been on one Carnival cruise since covid with previous being 10 years or so ago.  Our previous experience on Carnival was good.  The most recent was lacking but that had nothing to do with passengers acting up.    

 

The number of out-of-line people creating the bad reputation, is likely a small percentage of the total passengers.   I think a lot of the generalizations about Carnival passengers are very unfair.   Sadly, even though from a relatively small number of troublemakers, the reputation has been earned and needs to be dealt with.    

All part of why Christine has come out with a policy to deal with this very subject.  The reason for my posts was in reference to a poster that more or less said it was CARNIVAL that had the issue.  I have seen unruly people on many lines, it happens.  To single out a particular line is pure folly. 

[silverturtle]

We have been on carnival twice in the last 12 months. Once out of NO and once out of Baltimore. But both were 7 day cruises. We didn't see a fight or anything like that. On the Legend (and during spring break!) we did go up on lido during the late hrs, there were 2 security guards standing there watching the crowd of dancing younger adults and kids. Now, I'm sure there were more but we didn't see them. It seems that Carnival knows there is a problem and are dealing with it. We'll be cruising out of NO in 2 yrs on spring break, we'll see if having a 5 day cruise vs a 7 day on spring break makes a difference.

[jimbo5544]

2 hours ago, LatinaInTexas said:

That is my point, because MSC doesn't sail out of as many homeports as Carnival I don't think they get the variety of different people like Carnival does. Since you mostly have to cruise out of Florida to sail MSC it seems like they get a lot more people from other countries which seemed to me on my cruise to be for the better lol. 

Compared to say people cruising from NY or Texas or New Orleans for example. I see a lot of complaints about the type of local people getting on the ships from these ports. More than likely a majority of them won't fly to Florida to cruise on MSC versus the convenience of cruising from home. Multiply that by all the homeports Carnival cruises from. That's what I meant by MSC probably doesn't get the same type ofvariety that Carnival does. No data to prove it was just a total random thought, observation.

Understand, the different home ports bring a somewhat different clientele, and they may or may not bring with them cultural differences.  On that we can agree.  Not necessarily on you, but it was implied that this meant Carnival was worse than other lines that sailed with this mix.   

[ldubs]

1 minute ago, jimbo5544 said:

All part of why Christine has come out with a policy to deal with this very subject.  The reason for my posts was in reference to a poster that more or less said it was CARNIVAL that had the issue.  I have seen unruly people on many lines, it happens.  To single out a particular line is pure folly. 

 

I am not sure I agree completely.   Certainly incidents have happened on other cruise lines.  I have had very enjoyable Carnival cruises, and feel a lot of the previous reputation was undeserved. Sadly, I do believe that Carnival has earned the current bad rep with unruly passengers.  Hopefully the policies being implemented will turn this around.  

[Bostwick girl]

22 hours ago, icft said:

You have a valid point of view. I largely disagree but if you haven't experienced the problems it is understandable.

 

We have cruised Carnival exclusively since 2001 and since reopening have been cruising five or six times a year with all cruises being a week or longer. Pre-covid we were very happy with Carnival. Post-covid, during the masking period, we didn't like the masking but understood and the lower number of passengers about made up for it. But once the masks were off and the ships full again things seemed to fall apart.

 

At that point the food quality went downhill fast and that decline continues. The service overall has gone downhill. The real killer though is we started, for the first time, feeling not totally safe. A different class of cruiser became more common; people who are rude, aggressive and don't know how to behave in public. We have not seen any fights, but we have seen a small number of assaults. It only becomes a fight when the person shoved, or whatever, reciprocates.

 

Our unease with the new class of passengers (though they be a small percent) caused us to book a cruise for next January on NCL as a test. Then on our Carnival cruise last month my wife was assaulted so we have booked more NCL cruises and will be making them our primary cruise line going forward. They have not tried to be the low cost cruise line so we are hoping for better passengers. But we recognize that in today's society boorish people may be unavoidable on cruises. If so we will give up cruising.

 

At this point our thinking is that Carnival's attempt to be the low cost cruise line has attracted low class people. While we will probably continue to take some Carnival cruises (fourteen day Journeys cruises have always had more genteel cruisers) I don't see us ever being regulars again.

 

We don't think Carnival gets a bad rap. People are just recognizing the reality.

We’ve been on 43 cruises, exclusively Carnival. Until restart, never saw any crazy or violent behavior. December 2021 on a 3 day Liberty (part of b2b) there were so many young, very loud, very drunk people doing stupid things on board we said never again would we do a 3 day! But then on the John Heald FFS5 cruise in February on Magic, we saw our first and hopefully last fight! If you’ve ever cruised on any of the ships where at dinner you get off the elevator directly into the mob that’s waiting for the dining room to open, you will know what I’m talking about. The area was packed more than usual as it was elegant night, and you could hardly move, more people kept coming off the elevators, very chaotic and those by the doors didn’t want to move. Well, some older gentlemen actually got into a knock down drag out fight right by the doors as they were opening them! Took a few minutes for security to get there and both guys had gone to their tables. Guess they knew who they were because we saw security leading one out and talking to the other. My point is that it’s not always the young people drinking nor the number of sailing days that have a different clientele that cause these things. This was the last thing I’d have expected on this particular cruise! If you read some of the other forums occasionally, you’ll see Carnival isn’t the only cruise line that these things happen on.

[jimbo5544]

55 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

I am not sure I agree completely.   Certainly incidents have happened on other cruise lines.  I have had very enjoyable Carnival cruises, and feel a lot of the previous reputation was undeserved. Sadly, I do believe that Carnival has earned the current bad rep with unruly passengers.  Hopefully the policies being implemented will turn this around.  

We can agree to disagree then

[ldubs]

5 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

We can agree to disagree then

 

Do we?  You shared that Carnival's senior management recognizes they have a problem with unruly passengers.  I'm just kind of saying the same thing.  

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, ldubs said:

 

Do we?  You shared that Carnival's senior management recognizes they have a problem with unruly passengers.  I'm just kind of saying the same thing.  

Ummm that would be a stretch.  Having an issue and them being the bad line with a rap is NOT what I interpret.   Them realizing that CRUISING has an issue they are being proactive, now I would buy that

[ldubs]

29 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Ummm that would be a stretch.  Having an issue and them being the bad line with a rap is NOT what I interpret.   Them realizing that CRUISING has an issue they are being proactive, now I would buy that

 

If that is seriously what you think, then yeah, we disagree.   

[Elaine5715]

The only unruly groups I have seen are traveling together, large family groups complete with matching shirts.  My guess is that is their normal behavior no matter where they are.  

[spleenstomper]

DH and I have discussed moving from Carnival. It’s the drunks for me. I don’t care about the marijuana smell but the loud boorish drunks are enough for me. (Though my January cruise had no pot smell and the drug dogs sniffed everyone on the way in). 
 

The issue for us is going out of Nola is just too easy, and Carnival has the most cruises and itineraries from there. 

[icft]

1 minute ago, spleenstomper said:

DH and I have discussed moving from Carnival. It’s the drunks for me. I don’t care about the marijuana smell but the loud boorish drunks are enough for me. (Though my January cruise had no pot smell and the drug dogs sniffed everyone on the way in). 
 

The issue for us is going out of Nola is just too easy, and Carnival has the most cruises and itineraries from there. 

Same boat for us. Driving an hour to the terminal and hopping on the ship is just so easy. Unfortunately NCL only sails out of New Orleans or Galveston December through March or April. We have been sailing about once a month between September and March or April so moving to NCL we will have to cut down on the number of cruises. Also, the NCL itineraries out of New Orleans have no variety so we will be doing Galveston a lot. But NCL does have some nice longer cruises out of Galveston that we are looking forward to. So fewer but longer cruises. 

 

But it is kind of our last shot at cruising. Driving to Galveston is about as complicated as we are willing to get since we don't want vacations that are a lot of work. If NCL doesn't give us the cruising experience we once had with Carnival then we will just cross cruising off our list of activities.

[teaach02]

We were on the Splendor going to the Mexican riviera in 2009 out of Long Beach, CA. We headed to Mexico and the WHO declared a Swine Flu emergency. Carnival cancelled all ports in Mexico following the WHO warning. We had to go to Mexico to drop off an injured person and fulfill The Jones Act requirement. People were very upset there would be no ports and there were reports of people getting upset at the main desk. I think Carnival was serving free drinks at dinner and we recouped the port charges. I didn't witness unruly people but I think it made the nightly news. We returned to Long Beach as some people wanted to get off and end their cruise. We went on to San Francisco and docked in a very dilapidated area. It was pouring rain and we stayed there over night. I was ok bc the cruise contract doesn't guarantee ports. I just enjoyed the cruise and disembarked in Long Beach on the original cruise end date. That was my only experience with unhappy rowdy cruisers on my 9 Carnival cruises. It was understandable but Carnival was following their safety protocols.

[spleenstomper]

26 minutes ago, icft said:

Same boat for us. Driving an hour to the terminal and hopping on the ship is just so easy. Unfortunately NCL only sails out of New Orleans or Galveston December through March or April. We have been sailing about once a month between September and March or April so moving to NCL we will have to cut down on the number of cruises. Also, the NCL itineraries out of New Orleans have no variety so we will be doing Galveston a lot. But NCL does have some nice longer cruises out of Galveston that we are looking forward to. So fewer but longer cruises. 

 

But it is kind of our last shot at cruising. Driving to Galveston is about as complicated as we are willing to get since we don't want vacations that are a lot of work. If NCL doesn't give us the cruising experience we once had with Carnival then we will just cross cruising off our list of activities.

This month will be my 3rd cruise (if I go, Currently have pneumonia) where I traveled to the ship. But then you have to get there 2 nights before because of possible travel issues. So it makes a longer vacation which is hard for DH to accommodate and there are added hotels in expensive areas etc.

We might just trailer our boat to Pensacola beach houses for vacations. We have done that twice and it’s been great.

 

We don’t want to drive to Galveston. Not fundamentally opposed to it… just no desire to do it 

Edited April 16, 2023 by spleenstomper

[spleenstomper]

11 minutes ago, teaach02 said:

We were on the Splendor going to the Mexican riviera in 2009 out of Long Beach, CA. We headed to Mexico and the WHO declared a Swine Flu emergency. Carnival cancelled all ports in Mexico following the WHO warning. We had to go to Mexico to drop off an injured person and fulfill The Jones Act requirement. People were very upset there would be no ports and there were reports of people getting upset at the main desk. I think Carnival was serving free drinks at dinner and we recouped the port charges. I didn't witness unruly people but I think it made the nightly news. We returned to Long Beach as some people wanted to get off and end their cruise. We went on to San Francisco and docked in a very dilapidated area. It was pouring rain and we stayed there over night. I was ok bc the cruise contract doesn't guarantee ports. I just enjoyed the cruise and disembarked in Long Beach on the original cruise end date. That was my only experience with unhappy rowdy cruisers on my 9 Carnival cruises. It was understandable but Carnival was following their safety protocols.

I remember once a cruise line was supposed to go from maybe Boston or NYC to Bahamas but hurricane so they went to cold Canada with everyone in shorts lol

[SRQbeachgirl]

4 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

The only unruly groups I have seen are traveling together, large family groups complete with matching shirts.  My guess is that is their normal behavior no matter where they are.  

 

^^^This right here. It's a shame that getting on a cruise ship doesn't magically impart manners. 

[fair-winds39]

Thanks everyone for all of your responses/opinions. For us, we’ll continue to book our cruises with Carnival, as we always have a great time. As many folks have stated they are trying to change things when there are issues as are other cruise lines, so that’s a good thing.

I wish for all “Fair winds and following seas.”

[skywalkr2]

My history is not as long as most, but in my case if I ever encountered any issues... they were minor in comparison to the fun I had.  So no issues here on my end.  I know there will always be someone that is drunk.. as that is just unavoidable... as it is any time you go out anywhere on land or sea.

 

As someone mentioned above regarding locations where you are sardines... combine that with overindulging on alcohol and its inevitable.  I don't think there is a real solution other than to go to a less fun cruise line for folks that are upset about it.  For me.. I kind of like being around young people having fun... makes me feel less old.

[pc_load_letter]

I think Carnival's "rep" started with the infamous poopy cruise. Kinda went downhill after that.

 

The social media exposure (click bait youtube titles) and the condescending language from loyalists from other brands have helped along the misconception.

 

 

[Bandman]

We have cruised Carnival exclusively since 1994. Over the years, in every decade we have witnessed the occasional fight, family brawl, seriously inebriated obnoxiousness, kids running, guests yelling at waiters, smelled pot, etc.. Most of these incidents involved middle-aged folks. 

 

We have also experienced all of the same at Disney World, Las Vegas, our local mall, and on and on.  
 

That said, it does feel different when you are “trapped on a ship” with these types. But the bad moments are usually fleeting. 
 

People seem more rude and agitated everywhere now days. This might be an accurate statement or I might just be turning into an old fuddy-duddy… 

Edited April 18, 2023 by Bandman

[May1cruiser]

we have seen two incidents on carnival. An older gentleman that appeared drunk fell downstairs in aft stairwell. Also, a younger person at a bar that somehow broke a glass and got cut. Zero fights or drama in 21 cruises. I am sure there is drama, but we do not look for it nor stay up all night. FWIW. 

 

[jerseyjjs]

On 4/16/2023 at 9:06 AM, LatinaInTexas said:

That is my point, because MSC doesn't sail out of as many homeports as Carnival I don't think they get the variety of different people like Carnival does. Since you mostly have to cruise out of Florida to sail MSC it seems like they get a lot more people from other countries which seemed to me on my cruise to be for the better lol. 

Compared to say people cruising from NY or Texas or New Orleans for example. I see a lot of complaints about the type of local people getting on the ships from these ports. More than likely a majority of them won't fly to Florida to cruise on MSC versus the convenience of cruising from home. Multiply that by all the homeports Carnival cruises from. That's what I meant by MSC probably doesn't get the same type ofvariety that Carnival does. No data to prove it was just a total random thought, observation.

 

 

      Guess MSC is going to find out real soon as the Meraviglia will arrive in NYC (Brooklyn) in 2 days to start year-round sailings.

[Tapi]

On 4/15/2023 at 11:45 AM, fair-winds39 said:

I think that most of the mainstream cruise lines have experienced the same behavior as has been mentioned about Carnival.

I do agree with you that other mainstream cruise lines have experienced poorly behaved guests, but I believe that the key difference is that, on Carnival, it has become more prevalent; a byproduct of the “fun” atmosphere that they promote. To make things worse, it gets magnified by social media. 

 

I’m one of the “lucky ones” who did get to witness a fight during a Carnival cruise. It was a full on brawl in the middle of the atrium on the Sensation. It was BAD. 20-30 people got in it, with fists and glasses flying everywhere, We had to run for cover. Never have I ever witnessed something like that on a cruise before or after. 

 

I have a dear friend who, for years, was a die hard Carnival fan. He video messaged me from his last Carnival cruise a few months ago, showing the out of control behavior unfolding in real time. He concluded by saying that he can no longer in good conscience continue sailing on Carnival or recommend it to others. That to me was sobering. 
 

I’ve been sailing other cruise lines for the last few years and none of my upcoming cruises (in my signature) are on Carnival either. I’m getting older. I’ve been cruising on lines like Holland America and Celebrity 😱 . Not as lively as Carnival, but they have become more appealing to me. Carnival continues to have a very special place in my heart though. I think that they still provide a solid product, specially with their newest and latest ships. But they need to keep working on cleaning up their image and suppressing poor behavior. 

Edited April 19, 2023 by Tapi

[thesmiths]

We're Carnival people, we have yet to experience anything crazy.

We are 8 Day or longer cruisers, so I think this means a lot.

Aft Wraps is our thing and hang out there a lot.

 

We do an early dinner, early show, take our walk after show for Ice Cream or snack , hit the sack and back up at 06:00 to do it again.

 

We'll hit the Lido, during the day for Burgers etc..not hang out there unless we want to see something that intrigues us, . But we have our quiet places on the ships when not on our wrap.

 

We've only done Disney Cruises years ago, so can't really compare, but anything can happen, can happen anytime, anywhere.

 

If something were to happen, we would just keep on moving, nothing to see here ! 

 

Would we jump ship for a couple of isolated incidents we ran across. No

 

With 2500 to 5000 people on board any ship at any given time, you never know who an idiot is and who is not!

 

I know what Carnival has been referred to in the past, but heck we shop there weekly and never had an incident at our local store either!

 

Lot of it people blowing up a smaller incident and yes, I saw Isolated videos on line.

 

Just one cruisers perspective!

Edited April 19, 2023 by thesmiths

[Eli_6]

I have more often than not just encountered inconsiderate, rude and entitled people rather than actual "unruly" people.  And, fwiw, it isn't specific to Carnival as I have encountered it in many places. I feel like a lot of people forgot how to behave in public during the Covid shut down.