Carnival has lost control

[Aplmac]

6 minutes ago, mz-s said:

They have parenting classes in the US too!

 

Delighted to hear that - and to know they're working

for the wider cruising populace too,

as evidenced in this (appalling-behaviour) thread!

GO USA!

[mz-s]

Just now, Aplmac said:

 

Delighted to hear that - and to know they're working

for the wider cruising populace too,

as evidenced in this (appalling-behaviour) thread!

GO USA!

 

Do they have Driver's Ed in Barbados? Why do they still have car wrecks then?

[jimbo5544]

3 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

Do they have Driver's Ed in Barbados? Why do they still have car wrecks then?

Ed is quite a good driver….

[Aplmac]

Just now, mz-s said:

Do they have Driver's Ed in Barbados? Why do they still have car wrecks then?

No we don't have driver's edu. classes here...
and btw we love our car wrecks - lol.
 

We spend our days eating roasted breadfruit on the beach

and dancing the nites away... to the bongo drums!

 

I live on this beach: address all fan mail

to Aplmac, Barbados. I'll get it!

 

[RockHoundTX]

I have sailed Vista 3 times in 2021 and 2022: once on Christmas, once on Spring Break, and once at the very end of the summer. I have two teen children (who have been on 30+ cruises) so very "informed" on the drama.

 

The December cruise in 2021 was pretty much what the OP described. It was absolute chaos, The ship had zero control of the kids. There were 3 or 4 roving bands of kids that were absolutely terrorizing the ship. 2 of the bands were kids in the 10-12 age group, 1 was in the 14-16 age range, and the other was mixed (12-14). I know roughly the ages since many had been banned from Circle C and Club O2 as per my kids. Once they were banned from CC and 02, they had no-where to go except roam the ship. The way the kids were talking would make a sailor blush (ESPECIALLY those in the younger 10-12 year old range). Every other word was a swear word. Fights between kids were happening daily. Parents on that cruise were not much better. This was when fares were super, super cheap and it was clear that this was the first cruise for many. LOTS of drunk, yelling adults on that one. Per security, "there are just too many of them. We can't do anything.". 

 

Contrast that to the Spring Break cruise where there was actually MORE kids. On that cruise, there was no issue. There were a few groups of kids being loud or a little over-active but nothing like the previous cruise. Worse I saw was some kids (12-14 age group?) doing some sort of "challenge" at the ice-cream machine and making a mess at around 11PM. 

 

On the summer cruise (which only had about 2/3 the number of kids) the kids were some of the most polite I had seen. There were still a few trouble-makers but on the whole the super polite kids were by far the majority. Did not hear any swearing and my kids did not report any fighting on that one. 

 

On absolutely ever trip I have been on Vista (I think we have been on it 7 or 8 times?), security tends to be positioned at Circle C and O2. That is completely normal. 

[cmukid87]

Unfortunately I think the "stereotypical demographic" of Carnival makes these rowdy kids more likely to happen.  This falls solely on the shoulders of poor parenting.  Don't get me wrong, my kids are spoiled and I do allow them freedom on the ship but they know from the jump that the leash is short and consequences of stern and steep.  On the flip side are the parents who have a selfish view of the cruise and think it's their vacation from everything, including their own kids.

[mz-s]

11 minutes ago, Aplmac said:

No we don't have driver's edu. classes here...
and btw we love our car wrecks - lol.
 

We spend our days eating roasted breadfruit on the beach

and dancing the nites away... to the bongo drums!

 

I live on this beach: address all fan mail

to Aplmac, Barbados. I'll get it!

 

 

I look forward to sitting on that beach enjoying the bongo drums, just as soon as the whiplash heals!

[mz-s]

Just now, cmukid87 said:

Unfortunately I think the "stereotypical demographic" of Carnival makes these rowdy kids more likely to happen.  This falls solely on the shoulders of poor parenting.  Don't get me wrong, my kids are spoiled and I do allow them freedom on the ship but they know from the jump that the leash is short and consequences of stern and steep.  On the flip side are the parents who have a selfish view of the cruise and think it's their vacation from everything, including their own kids.

 

I reject that - the wild kids are everywhere these days. People and kids that don't know how to act in public transcend social strata. 

[LatinaInTexas]

50 minutes ago, Butterbean1000 said:

I work in a major department store and I have stories.  It's depressing to see how parents refuse to see what their children are doing. We see babies,  yes babies in strollers with their faces in a cell phone.  Usually this cell phone is at maximum volume.  These kids will never learn discipline or how to interact with society.   

Me too! To add to the mix we are located just a few blocks from a high school so our biggest issues are kids grabbing beers from the coolers and drinking while they shoplift. And the new one, having sex in the unattended fitting rooms🤷

[StephPS79]

7 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

I reject that - the wild kids are everywhere these days. People and kids that don't know how to act in public transcend social strata. 

 

100% agree.  I don't want to get into the "'stereotypical demographic' of Carnival" discussion, however, it tends to be looked down upon as lower-income families.  I have seen some very privileged children misbehaving in public, with no interference from their very wealthy parents.  

[Butterbean1000]

Just now, LatinaInTexas said:

Me too! To add to the mix we are located just a few blocks from a high school so our biggest issues are kids grabbing beers from the coolers and drinking while they shoplift. And the new one, having sex in the unattended fitting rooms🤷

OMG, don't get me started on what we've found din the fitting rooms!🤢

[Butterbean1000]

20 minutes ago, cmukid87 said:

Unfortunately I think the "stereotypical demographic" of Carnival makes these rowdy kids more likely to happen.  This falls solely on the shoulders of poor parenting.  Don't get me wrong, my kids are spoiled and I do allow them freedom on the ship but they know from the jump that the leash is short and consequences of stern and steep.  On the flip side are the parents who have a selfish view of the cruise and think it's their vacation from everything, including their own kids.

I cannot disagree with you more about the demographic.   I see every walk of life coming through the store everyday.  I can tell you social status has nothing to do with disobedient kids.  There are kids with their parents that you can tell have been raised with a present parent.  

 

Also, with all due respect, if " they are spoiled" (your words) and you allow them freedom on the ship, how do you know what they are up to?

[crazy4themouse]

So many parents now seem to just wave their kids off at embarkation and tell them "See you in a week!" It's like they view a cruise ship as a "closed environment"... not like a mall or a theme park where the kids could wander off onto a freeway or something. And hey, they paid for their vacation and there are plenty of staff around to babysit their brats, so line 'em up, bartender! 🙄

[AFS1970]

I worked in security in a shopping mall for several years, I can tell you that private security is always a balance between enforcing the rules and customer service / perception. Corporate would generally take a customer is always right, even if they were clearly wrong, if they complained attitude. I suspect Carnival, despite their press releases to the contrary, works on the same basis. 

 

As an example, in our food court there was a kids play area. It was height restricted to shorter children for safety reasons. Very often bigger kids would go in there and one of our jobs was to make them leave.  This was usually accomplished by speaking to parents. There was a sign, and a cartoon character with his hand out as the height indicators. One of my coworkers saw a kid in there that was too tall and called him over to tell him to leave, this angered a parent. The officer said it was because the kid was "too big" and pointed out the height guides. The parent went to the management office and complained that the security guard called the kid fat and made them ashamed. Family got a $50 gift card and an apology, and we all got a memo saying to use the word tall as opposed to big. Funny thing is that no matter if the size measure was in height or weight, this rule was put there (by the same management) to keep someone form accidentally hurting a smaller / younger child. 

 

I can absolutely see the same thing happening on a cruise ship, especially if the parent / family in question are repeat cruisers. Carnival wants to enforce the rules, but they want customers more. 

 

BTW: I scrubbed the story of demographics, because it was sadly a universal trend I observed working there. 

Edited June 5, 2023 by AFS1970

[jerseyjjs]

3 hours ago, Joebucks said:

Carnival hasn't lost control, America has. Not only this, but the worst offenders have been conditioned to think of themselves as victims.

And then revered as "heroes".

[skrufy]

Have been on 17 Carnival cruises and never saw anything close to what you describe.

 

[bassmk]

My husband and I just got off the Horizon yesterday. On our last sea day (Saturday), we were on our balcony and witnessed a man PISSING OFF HIS BALCONY. Keep in mind...the balconies aren't over the water. The roof of the sushi restaurant was directly under us, and a promenade was beyond that.

 

I was absolutely appalled, and it's hard for me to be appalled by anything anymore.

[ColeThornton]

1 minute ago, bassmk said:

My husband and I just got off the Horizon yesterday. On our last sea day (Saturday), we were on our balcony and witnessed a man PISSING OFF HIS BALCONY. Keep in mind...the balconies aren't over the water. The roof of the sushi restaurant was directly under us, and a promenade was beyond that.

 

I was absolutely appalled, and it's hard for me to be appalled by anything anymore.

 

 

Hopefully you reported him.

[bassmk]

Just now, ColeThornton said:

 

 

Hopefully you reported him.

We did mention it at Guest Services, but I don't know what they could do besides make sure there were no...residuals...in public areas. We could tell happened two decks below us, but it was over before we could could how many cabins down it was.

[notscb]

3 hours ago, Joebucks said:

but the worst offenders have been conditioned to think of themselves as victims.

Uh..what do you mean by this? Be specific.

[Elaine5715]

2 hours ago, Butterbean1000 said:

I work in a major department store and I have stories.  It's depressing to see how parents refuse to see what their children are doing. We see babies,  yes babies in strollers with their faces in a cell phone.  Usually this cell phone is at maximum volume.  These kids will never learn discipline or how to interact with society.   

The preteens inside the shopping carts while Mom pushes them so they can stay on their phones kills me.  

[starstruck05]

The cruiseline is not responsible for disciplining children. The parents are the ones responsible. If their child can't be controlled they shouldn't have taken them on vacation.  Every single sailing is different and no way can anyone one say "the Vista has too many bad kids" when a whole new group joins the next week. That's insane. There are bad kids at Disney, Universal, the mall, the movies, everywhere! If the parents aren't doing their job, why is it anyone's else's job to do it for them??

[Elaine5715]

2 minutes ago, notscb said:

Uh..what do you mean by this? Be specific.

Like when you suggest kids are behaving poorly and someone jumps in to say that they may have a disability as an excuse.  The parents I know of kids with disabilities would be mortified if their kids behaved poorly and used that as an excuse.  Manners are taught.   

[notscb]

4 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

Like when you suggest kids are behaving poorly and someone jumps in to say that they may have a disability as an excuse.

 

I appreciate you jumping in, but I'm genuinely curious what the original poster of the comment meant.

[sydney dog]

10 hours ago, bigdaddyyo said:

I’ve been on 14 cruises from Carnival to Disney to RCCL and what I saw last week on the Carnival Vista blew my mind.  I have never seen kids behave so badly on a cruise ship.  From food fights to throwing ice cream on the walls in hallways and stairwells.  One kid was beaten so badly by another that part of his ear ripped from his head.  I saw kids opening access hatches near the arcade and were climbing in those hatches and were walking in between the walls of the ship. I was told of other kids pushing over carts that crew were moving.  Kids cussing out crew members and other guests.  It was absolute chaos.  When I mentioned the behavior of the kids to Guest Services, I was told that they are a little rowdy, but they are young and to keep that in mind.  I had two kids onboard and if either acted like these kids it would be their last cruise.  I was told by crew members that this is how the kids act on every cruise.  Sometimes it is better but for the most part it is awful. The kid that assaulted the other kid was told to stay with his parents for the remainder of the cruise but that only lasted a day.  The Mom said she was pressing charges on him.  
 

Again I’ve been on many cruises before and I’ve never seen anything like this.  I’m just wondering if it is Carnival or are all cruise lines experiencing the same craziness.  One thing is for sure, Carnival does not have control of the Carnival Vista ship. 

This is why I travel in October...not a lot of kids!!!