In room announcements, is it true?

[Havinsnest]

I've heard that Carnival pipes frequent announcements into your room and that there is no way to turn them off.

 

Is this true? It almost seems like an urban legend.

We heard exactly two messages while in our room last year. The first was to announce the muster drill. The second - on the debarkation morning - was a page for Terry and Kathy Havins to come to the purser's desk immediately. The first was no biggie, the second was a bit of a shock....

 

as WE are Terry and Kathy Havins.

 

They'd dropped one of our suitcases in the water and needed to let us know.

[Heidi n Lauren]

Maybe our cabin was very close to the speakers in the hall but we heard every announcment very clearly while in our room. On the other hand, when out on the Lido, we could not hear them very well.

[aggieastrosfan]

In-cabin announcements on the Destiny were emergencies only.

 

However, the speaker was pretty much right outside our cabin door, so we could hear everything pretty well. Didn't bother us too much because the configuration of the cabin had the bed pretty far from the door (corner balcony), but I could hear them plain as day while getting ready for dinner every evening.

[KULPN]

We just got off the Carnival Liberty on 12-6. The cruise director was extremely loud & spoke very rapidly. We would hear the ding & him inside our cabin (8356) but because he spoke so fast, we couldn't make much sense out of it. Other pages from the purser were not so loud. The CD made us jump. He is one loud, obnoxious guy! IMHO.

[Kurbanfan]

On the Elation 2 weeks ago the Captain made a announcement on the in cabin speaker.........it was not an emergency and thankfully I had just laid down for a nap:cool:

[tiger belle]

We heard exactly two messages while in our room last year. The first was to announce the muster drill. The second - on the debarkation morning - was a page for Terry and Kathy Havins to come to the purser's desk immediately. The first was no biggie, the second was a bit of a shock....

 

as WE are Terry and Kathy Havins.

 

They'd dropped one of our suitcases in the water and needed to let us know.

 

my jaw is still dropped from reading this one :eek: were they able to retrieve your luggage? were you compensated in some way? I have never heard of such a thing

[Azure Moon]

Perhaps it's different from ship to ship but we just sailed the Liberty, Dec 20-27, 2008 on our first cruise and we experienced both types of announcements. The most annoying being those piped into our room very loudly from our Cruise Director announcing another art auction, bingo, or show. We did hear some announcements from the hallway, but most were piped into our cabin including pages. The needless noise into the rooms and the quality of the Dining Room DINNER food were my wife's 2 complaints. We also wondered if this was the norm.

 

On the Liberty in February, announcements were clear and easily heard because they were piped into the room. We also had the cruise director announcing the sales, activities, and when the ship was cleared so we could get off in the ports.

On the Legend cruise in Sept./Oct., the announcements didn't come into our room. We could faintly hear that an announcement was being made, but we had to open the cabin door in order to hear clearly.

[brilliantseas]

No in-room announcements on the Imagination in December. Even the debarkation announcements were made in public areas only.

 

For those of you who are concerned about announcements keeping you awake at night, the latest announcements we heard were just after the late seating for dinner to announce the activities for the remainder of the evening and what time we would arrive in port the next day. They were done by about 9:30. In the morning the first announcements in public areas were made as we were tieing off at the pier at one of our ports of call. Most announcements were between 10am and 4pm, announcing various activities going on around the ship. The only place that it may have been disturbing was on the lido deck by the pool because the music and speakers are turned up so loud.

[joyluck]

You will get a schedule of events in your cabin every day and it will have a condensed versionthat will tear off so that you can track the schedule and keep it with you without the bulk of the larger version.

 

Announcements are made are not made on any schedule as far as i can figure but when it is getting close to an important event like going to tenders and such. I usually lose track of the announcements as unless you are listening for something specific it usually drowns out, or is easily ignored.

 

I totally agree. Honestly the only announcements I remember hearing were the ones telling people to get off the boat. :D I didn't want to leave!!:(

[Havinsnest]

my jaw is still dropped from reading this one :eek: were they able to retrieve your luggage? were you compensated in some way? I have never heard of such a thing

Most definitely to both questions.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=36215

 

will tell you the whole story if you are interested

[fateknows]

On the Liberty in February, announcements were clear and easily heard because they were piped into the room. We also had the cruise director announcing the sales, activities, and when the ship was cleared so we could get off in the ports.

 

On the Legend cruise in Sept./Oct., the announcements didn't come into our room. We could faintly hear that an announcement was being made, but we had to open the cabin door in order to hear clearly.

 

Ugh. The Liberty is the ship that I found that has the iternary that I wanted.

 

So far there are two posts indicatating that the Liberty does indeed post annoying announcements during in-room nap time.

 

Has anyone else been on the Liberty and seen this problem?

[Azure Moon]

Ugh. The Liberty is the ship that I found that has the iternary that I wanted.

 

So far there are two posts indicatating that the Liberty does indeed post annoying announcements during in-room nap time.

 

Has anyone else been on the Liberty and seen this problem?

 

The good news is the announcements weren't very long, and they weren't constant - several spread out over the day.

Since the Liberty has the itinerary you want, consider some ways around the announcements.

•Glance at the time when the announcements are made. After the second day you should be able to time your nap between the anticipated announcements.

•Take a pair of earplugs to use when napping and other times you want more quiet but still want to be where the action is.

•Listen to some of your favorite music on your IPOD while napping or lounging around the pool.

Since other ships seem to keep excessive announcements out of the cabin area, maybe Liberty will follow suit before you sail her (well, one can always hope :)).

The Liberty is a nice ship and well worth this one nuisance item.

Happy cruising!

[kimmimom]

are highly dependent on the cruise director. some of my sailings have had more than others.

[KULPN]

Perhaps it's different from ship to ship but we just sailed the Liberty, Dec 20-27, 2008 on our first cruise and we experienced both types of announcements. The most annoying being those piped into our room very loudly from our Cruise Director announcing another art auction, bingo, or show. We did hear some announcements from the hallway, but most were piped into our cabin including pages. The needless noise into the rooms and the quality of the Dining Room DINNER food were my wife's 2 complaints. We also wondered if this was the norm.

The Liberty is such a beautiful ship but that cruise director drove us to almost jumping overboard----like chalk on the blackboard. He announced everything over & over.

[Ehpride]

I honestly don't remember having a lot of annoying announcements. Most only last a minute or so and there's usually enough noise around that you have to strain to hear them. There was one announcement on our last sea day from the caption telling us that they had to drop a sick passenger off in Cozumel overnight, which was good to know. When we missed Grand Cayman, there were announcements about that and about them redoing the capers for the day.

 

It really depends on the CD and the Captain, but I like hearing from the captain about the temperature, speed, expected arrival times, etc...

 

It's funny because the noise they play is somewhat distinctive so that you know when they're going to have an announcement. One day, Mom and I were at a restuarant and heard that noise. We got excited for a minute until we realized that we weren't actually on a ship!

[balcony bound]

Just home, and while spending an extraordinary amount of time trying to debark, the biggest complaint from those around us was lack of announcements/information. There were only three announcements the entire cruise. Lifeboat drill, rescheduling of immigration time, and a repeated (2 hours) announcement for one particular individual to report to immigration.

 

I did not hear a single announcement inbetween those.

[sixgun8]

When we were on the conquest we even had to open our door to hear the calls for debark zones...finally we gave up and went out on deck.

[jetwet1]

Carnival must of changed it's policies in the last couple of years, in Oct we were on the Pride and only heard the muster drill etc ones, we were on the Legend before that and there were a couple "in cabin" ones a day, including one that went on for 10 plus minutes, which would not of been so bad had we not been watching a PPV movie at the time, of course one call to the pursers desk and the charge was removed for the movie.

 

Good policy change by CCL.

[Sea Born]

We were on the Liberty this last February, but we never had announcements directly in our cabin except for the muster drill. To the OP, if you are used to the HAL cruise line, Carnival is definitely a lot different - "fun ship" - HAL is not! Tried it one time, went back to Carnival, as we like the atmosphere much better, more activites, nightlife, etc. But that is just our personal opinion.

[pe4all]

Just back from Miracle, and the only time we had "cabin announcements" was one morning when, every 15 minutes from 6:30 a.m. on, they kept asking for a woman to contact the purser at 7777. (there was also a lot of security roaming around, obviously looking for someone) Finally, at 9:00, Brent Mitchell (cd) apologized for the early morning cabin announcements, but again asked for this gal to immediately call purser and "report in". She must have finally called, cause the announcements then stopped. Later found out from a guard that it was a 13 year old girl who spent the nite in someone else's cabin (a boy's), and the parents never knew about it till the other daughter in her cabin went and told the parents that her sister never came "home". Very scary!

[13point1]

Carnival must of changed it's policies in the last couple of years, in Oct we were on the Pride and only heard the muster drill etc ones, we were on the Legend before that and there were a couple "in cabin" ones a day, including one that went on for 10 plus minutes, which would not of been so bad had we not been watching a PPV movie at the time, of course one call to the pursers desk and the charge was removed for the movie.

 

Good policy change by CCL.

It must have just been that Cruise Director. I never experienced in cabin announcements on any of my Carnival cruises, other than muster drill or extreme emergencies.