Ship Libraries - going, going, soon gone!

[jsglow]

So one of the things that JH just announced was that Carnival had heard everyone regarding Lido tables being used for card games, etc and that the plan is to allocate a portion of one of the MDR spaces for things like that in the afternoon while the MDR was closed. Seems like a good use of space so long at the Lido dining team gently reminds families who 'park' for the afternoon making finding a table to eat at unnecessarily difficult.

[mz-s]

3 minutes ago, jsglow said:

So one of the things that JH just announced was that Carnival had heard everyone regarding Lido tables being used for card games, etc and that the plan is to allocate a portion of one of the MDR spaces for things like that in the afternoon while the MDR was closed. Seems like a good use of space so long at the Lido dining team gently reminds families who 'park' for the afternoon making finding a table to eat at unnecessarily difficult.

 

I was so flabbergasted when on one of my cruises last year, a group of boomers brought laminated cards onboard that said "table reserved for ______ party" and put them on 4 or 5 tables in Lido so they could play Uno or whatever. This was premeditated - as I said they were laminated. There are no laminators on the ship.

 

How inconsiderate can you be. If you want tables reserved for you, you're on the wrong cruise line.

[jsglow]

Just now, mz-s said:

 

I was so flabbergasted when on one of my cruises last year, a group of boomers brought laminated cards onboard that said "table reserved for ______ party" and put them on 4 or 5 tables in Lido so they could play Uno or whatever. This was premeditated - as I said they were laminated. There are no laminators on the ship.

 

How inconsiderate can you be. If you want tables reserved for you, you're on the wrong cruise line.

Couldn't agree more and I would have sat down at one with my lunch on purpose.

[Honolulu Blue]

2 hours ago, mz-s said:

Show us the photos of the library on the Celebration, Mardi Gras, Pride, etc...

 

Certainly a majority of Carnival's ships still have libraries. But only Carnival knows how long that will remain true.

I have no plans to visit any of Carnival's newest ships any time soon - and none of them were built with libraries anyway. 

 

I was last on the Pride in 2017. I think it had a library then, but I don't think I took any picture of it - not that it would do any good.

 

The Magic obviously survived at least one dry dock with its library intact. I don't know how long it will survive another.

[angelsfort]

5 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

I was so flabbergasted when on one of my cruises last year, a group of boomers brought laminated cards onboard that said "table reserved for ______ party" and put them on 4 or 5 tables in Lido so they could play Uno or whatever. This was premeditated - as I said they were laminated. There are no laminators on the ship.

 

How inconsiderate can you be. If you want tables reserved for you, you're on the wrong cruise line.

 

the question I have is...  did it work?   did the tables stay clear?

[mz-s]

4 minutes ago, Honolulu Blue said:

I have no plans to visit any of Carnival's newest ships any time soon - and none of them were built with libraries anyway. 

 

I was last on the Pride in 2017. I think it had a library then, but I don't think I took any picture of it - not that it would do any good.

 

The Magic obviously survived at least one dry dock with its library intact. I don't know how long it will survive another.

 

The Magic's library being off the side of the dining room is ripe for turning into a dedicated Chef's Table annex or something.

 

4 minutes ago, angelsfort said:

 

the question I have is...  did it work?   did the tables stay clear?

 

When I saw them in there, yes it did seem to work. Which explains why they do it obviously. People don't tend to go looking for conflict. The crew certainly don't do anything to stop it either.

[crazycatlady82]

The library was packed on our Alaskan cruise in August on the Miracle with people reading and playing games. We tried to go in there but there weren't open tables. I love reading on cruises, bringing books and then donating them to the library. 

 

On the Radiance, which did not have a library but had a shelf for books in the coffee shop, it was very difficult to find a quiet place inside to read. The one that I found was shortly taken over by bingo sales.

[n6uqqq]

2 hours ago, crazycatlady82 said:

The library was packed on our Alaskan cruise in August on the Miracle with people reading and playing games. We tried to go in there but there weren't open tables. I love reading on cruises, bringing books and then donating them to the library. 

 

On the Radiance, which did not have a library but had a shelf for books in the coffee shop, it was very difficult to find a quiet place inside to read. The one that I found was shortly taken over by bingo sales.

On the Radiance it is hard to walk without running into someone! 

[asalligo]

I miss the libraries. Carnival really is looking to dump anything that does not maximize revenue. Our favorite activity when any downtime on a ship is cards and we thought we had brought more than one deck and found we had none when on the Pride this year, so I said they used to give away free decks of cards, let's go get one. Nope, no free cards anymore. That's cool, probably an item I might have cut also if looking to trim the fat, so I start checking the stores and cannot find any cards. I ask the person working the stores and she says Carnival decided to remove cards from the shop, people sitting and playing cards spend less money. 

[BabyJacks17]

As someone that has to stay connected and work while on a cruise I am also bummed about the slow elimination of libraries.  I spent 2 weeks onboard the Horizon last year and I was in their beautiful library everyday as were many other passengers.

 

My only gripe is that the space had to be shared with the Art curators so they would need to setup/use the space but I'd rather take that inconvenience then have no library at all.

[ProgRockCruiser]

5 minutes ago, asalligo said:

Our favorite activity when any downtime on a ship is cards and we thought we had brought more than one deck and found we had none when on the Pride this year, so I said they used to give away free decks of cards, let's go get one. Nope, no free cards anymore.

I believe JH noted that while GS doesn't give the card decks away any more, you can get them at the Casino.  

[asalligo]

Just now, ProgRockCruiser said:

I believe JH noted that while GS doesn't give the card decks away any more, you can get them at the Casino.  

Oh man, wish I knew that while on the cruise. Thank you. We bought a set at first port. 

[Honolulu Blue]

38 minutes ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

I believe JH noted that while GS doesn't give the card decks away any more, you can get them at the Casino.  

I bought a casino-used pack at the casino many years ago on one of my first cruises. It cost $1 then and went on my S&S account, not the casino bank.

[Travelling2Some]

On 11/14/2023 at 2:38 PM, ashkir said:

The saddest part is missing out the on the quiet spot. There's no quiet spots left on these ships now I feel. 

Yes.  Seems like every time I seek out a nice place to read it ends up being destroyed within a few minutes.  Either a noisy group playing some kind of game comes in and sits next to me or one of the musical groups will use the venue for a rehearsal.  Even if they no longer have the libraries it would be so nice if they would designate one out of the way area as a quiet zone.

[staceyglow]

2 hours ago, Travelling2Some said:

Even if they no longer have the libraries it would be so nice if they would designate one out of the way area as a quiet zone.

Like your cabin?  😃

[Travelling2Some]

Just now, staceyglow said:

Like your cabin?  😃

Yes, the obvious last resort.  I usually do give up after trying to read in a few promising spots and return to my cabin.  Furniture generally not as comfortable in the cabin, bar far away and ambiance not as nice:(

[staceyglow]

3 minutes ago, Travelling2Some said:

Yes, the obvious last resort.  I usually do give up after trying to read in a few promising spots and return to my cabin.  Furniture generally not as comfortable in the cabin, bar far away and ambiance not as nice:(

I find the promenade deck away from the atriums reasonably quiet.  Most of the bars on the level (piano bar, night club, Alchemy) aren't serving but are open and have tables, chairs, and sometimes even couches.

 

[jam19872016]

17 hours ago, Travelling2Some said:

Yes.  Seems like every time I seek out a nice place to read it ends up being destroyed within a few minutes.  Either a noisy group playing some kind of game comes in and sits next to me or one of the musical groups will use the venue for a rehearsal.  Even if they no longer have the libraries it would be so nice if they would designate one out of the way area as a quiet zone.

This! I don't need a "library " so to speak. I would just like a quiet public room to sit in when I need a break from the hustle and bustle.

 

On my recent Transatlantic every room either had an event going on and when it didn't, the piped in music was turned all the way up. One day I figured out how to turn it off, and within minutes it turned into a public phone call on speakerphone room.

[five.]

19 hours ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

I believe JH noted that while GS doesn't give the card decks away any more, you can get them at the Casino.  

Hmm that will be interesting to check out. I used to always get a casino used deck but it's been years since they have given them out and they said to check with GS. So if  they've switched back that'll be cool. I prefer the casino cards over the cheap souvenir cards, though there are no jokers in the casino ones. (I think.)

[teknoge3k]

I know some people enjoy the libraries but honestly, it's becoming an antiquated space. Most people use their phone or a Kindle or other tablet device to read. It's much easier to download 100 books on your device to read. I bet it's been 30 years since I've been into a library on land, yet alone a ship. 

[staceyglow]

1 hour ago, jam19872016 said:

This! I don't need a "library " so to speak. I would just like a quiet public room to sit in when I need a break from the hustle and bustle.

 

On my recent Transatlantic every room either had an event going on and when it didn't, the piped in music was turned all the way up. One day I figured out how to turn it off, and within minutes it turned into a public phone call on speakerphone room.

 

TBH, when you are on a ship with thousands of other people, I don't think it is particularly reasonable to expect a quiet public room all to yourself, especially on a cruiseline that aggressively markets itself as "The Fun Ships".

 

Besides the places I mentioned in an earlier post, the bar area in Serenity and the outside part of Ocean Plaza on the Vista class ships can be reasonably peaceful, especially in the mornings.  If the sound bothers you, perhaps you should consider bringing noise-cancelling headphones on your trip.

 

 

Edited November 16, 2023 by staceyglow

[n6uqqq]

1 hour ago, jam19872016 said:

This! I don't need a "library " so to speak. I would just like a quiet public room to sit in when I need a break from the hustle and bustle.

 

On my recent Transatlantic every room either had an event going on and when it didn't, the piped in music was turned all the way up. One day I figured out how to turn it off, and within minutes it turned into a public phone call on speakerphone room.

You need to book a Spirit class and then sit in the interior promenade, it is a ghost town for the most part. Also very quiet on deck 3 in back near the restaurant in the mostly unused bar area. 

[mz-s]

Or book a Cunard cruise...

[five.]

2 minutes ago, mz-s said:

Or book a Cunard cruise...

Yep. On one of these sort of posts I had posted all the things I enjoy. Chief among them peace and quiet and someone else posted "maybe you should look somewhere else besides Carnival." And it got me to thinking, "yep, maybe it's time to move on." And even the wife and I were talking on one of the ships or maybe it was after watching a video and she was like "Carnival is the same as always, you're the one that went and changed. They've always been the party ships."

 

So it's something to be aware of. If you're not happy on Carnival and you seek peace and tranquility there might be other lines that are more suited to your tastes.

[ProgRockCruiser]

25 minutes ago, teknoge3k said:

I know some people enjoy the libraries but honestly, it's becoming an antiquated space. Most people use their phone or a Kindle or other tablet device to read. It's much easier to download 100 books on your device to read. I bet it's been 30 years since I've been into a library on land, yet alone a ship. 

You can still reserve the room space and call it a "reading room" that happens to come pre-populated with a variety of books for those that don't have an e-reading device. The intent is met for those that bring their own device, and for those that don't there may be something to browse through.

 

I don't like reading on tablets, etc - I will read on my desktop, but mostly information-gathering-wise, like here in forums or Wikis etc.  So I still buy physical books, preferably hardcovers that will last (vs mass market pulp paperback that may not last decades) - call me a relic, call me what you will, say I'm old fashioned say I'm over the hill...

 

Friends of ours were on a cruise to Alaska recently (Viking - yes, $$$$$).  In that ship's library were a bunch of cool books, and either they could buy some of them on board or they ordered after returning (not sure), but either way they grabbed me a cool book that I got for my birthday.  Random inspiration is cool.

 

Another anecdote, this time land-based: while on a trip in New Zealand a bunch of years ago, my wife and I stayed at a hotel (County Hotel, Napier, North Island) where the center section of a floor of the building (not huge, mind you, maybe four rooms equivalent?) was converted into a library with complimentary port to imbibe.  Now that's my kind of library.  One day we'll return, hopefully...