Carnival a diminishing cruise line

[Sanchelg]

Carnival cruise line is going down hill real fast. Besides the very run down ships in need of severe repairs and upgrade, poor service, no staff, poor food, the same cheap shows day after day, the poor activities, now they want to charge you $5 anytime you order something extra for dinner.

This has now become the ghetto of all cruise lines I would never go with them again after having experience so many other cruise lines that are head and shoulders above this poor excuse for a cruise line. They are trying to make up as much money as they can due to the loss they had.

Yes this was a cheap fare cruise line now it has become just a cheap run down cruise line. They will need to come up substantially if they want all 7 of my family to return.

 

[glo-ree-bee]

Carnival cruise line is going down hill real fast. Besides the very run down ships in need of severe repairs and upgrade, poor service, no staff, poor food, the same cheap shows day after day, the poor activities, now they want to charge you $5 anytime you order something extra for dinner.

This has now become the ghetto of all cruise lines I would never go with them again after having experience so many other cruise lines that are head and shoulders above this poor excuse for a cruise line. They are trying to make up as much money as they can due to the loss they had.

Yes this was a cheap fare cruise line now it has become just a cheap run down cruise line. They will need to come up substantially if they want all 7 of my family to return.

My daughter, 3 grandsons, one male friend and 2 girlfriends were on Carnival in November. They came home VERY disappointed. We have cruised with them about 4 times out of our 11 cruises but our daughter said she would NEVER EVER go on a Carnival cruise again. Poor food, only one night of entertainment, not enough time in ports, charged to see a movie on board when 2nd night of stage entertainment was canceled. Not too clean. very limited selections of food in buffets. Dinners in dining room were just ok. So the time and money we would spend on Carnival will not be a choice again. We have loved Royal Carribean and Celebrity. So far prices have been a little too high to take a big family bunch on the sea.

 

[red stripe]

Unfortunately we have seen a decline in service on most cruise lines these days. Usually accompanied by a slew of extra charges.

we did about ten cruises last year. HAL, Celebrity,….4 on princess.. 4 on Celebrity, 3 on HAL.. OK..eleven lol
we were gone over half the year. During that time you get to see the changes up close.

Our upcoming cruise is on Princess, but we already know that we will not cruise with them again.
On the last cruise with them.. I asked for plain yogurt and berries for breakfast. We were told that to get berries we had to pay for an upscale “ club class”. I cant recall the cost, but it would not give you much change for a $100 bill. Times 34 nights!

so on the next port we bought blueberries in port, and each morning I would take some down to the dining room.. we did this for the whole 34 days! buying those berries was a great deal cheaper than paying for their “ club class”
there was other price gouging, but I thought this one was a really cheap move.

on this upcoming cruise we have already received notice that if we pay more..we can get special desserts, and drinks on the drink package up to $20.

we had already paid for a premium drink package When we booked!

you know what this means.. when we board we will find that the only thing covered in our purchased drink pkg is Ripple! as they will have raised the prices on everything.

At this moment, the only cruise lines we are still happy with are HAL Cunard and Celebrity.

but we know all too well how fast things can change.

We started out with RCI, Celebrity, Princess, HAI and Cunard.
we dropped RCI a few years ago,

We are dropping Princess, so now we are down to three. If this keeps up, we will do more VRBO!
this was what we did during Covid, and had a wonderful time.

But it is sad…we know the cruise lines took a big hit, but so did most people.

The cruise lines appear to be trying to get all that money back in two years.

 

[glo-ree-bee]

Red
You hit the nail on the head!!!

 

[CaptainBollo]

Hello everyone, there are some very interesting obervations here. Coming from the UK I have a rather different perspective. Most of the UK lines seem to have kept things the same - the food has perhaps dipped a little in quality but the main restaurants are all well stocked. I refer to Fred Olsen, P&O and Cunard. The other change is that the cover charge to eat at the speciality restaurants has increased. AND the cost of drinks packages seems to have increased too - not that this affects us as we don't drink very much. I share your view about Princess who seem to want to charge for absolutely everything. Fresh air in your cabin will soon be charged at £5 per day!

 

[Carla D]

We are Platinum members with Carnival so we have been on many cruises with them. We went on the Conquest in November and that will be our last with Carnival. They were shortstaffed and it showed. The food was terrible most days and the staff was frustrated and quarreling amongst themselves. If we wanted a table in the buffet we had to clean the dirty dishes off ourselves to sit and eat. Most days Guys' Burgers were the only thing decent to eat but after a week that gets a bit old. The wait for the dining room was long each evening, even though you could see many empty tables. Once we got seated the service was terrible. I'm sure they were doing the best they could with the limited staff but they took your order, served the food, and never returned to fill a glass or check on the tables at all. On the bright side, our room Steward did a wonderful job.

 

[BSeabob]

Through thick and thin all of the cruise lines have changed. The one constant however on all the ships I have travelled on (but one) the room guys and girls on the odd occasion have been top notch. I guy was a slacker and was dealt with shortly at the next Port.

 

[John]

Unfortunately we have seen a decline in service on most cruise lines these days. Usually accompanied by a slew of extra charges.

we did about ten cruises last year. HAL, Celebrity,….4 on princess.. 4 on Celebrity, 3 on HAL.. OK..eleven lol
we were gone over half the year. During that time you get to see the changes up close.

Our upcoming cruise is on Princess, but we already know that we will not cruise with them again.
On the last cruise with them.. I asked for plain yogurt and berries for breakfast. We were told that to get berries we had to pay for an upscale “ club class”. I cant recall the cost, but it would not give you much change for a $100 bill. Times 34 nights!

so on the next port we bought blueberries in port, and each morning I would take some down to the dining room.. we did this for the whole 34 days! buying those berries was a great deal cheaper than paying for their “ club class”
there was other price gouging, but I thought this one was a really cheap move.

on this upcoming cruise we have already received notice that if we pay more..we can get special desserts, and drinks on the drink package up to $20.

we had already paid for a premium drink package When we booked!

you know what this means.. when we board we will find that the only thing covered in our purchased drink pkg is Ripple! as they will have raised the prices on everything.

At this moment, the only cruise lines we are still happy with are HAL Cunard and Celebrity.

but we know all too well how fast things can change.

We started out with RCI, Celebrity, Princess, HAI and Cunard.
we dropped RCI a few years ago,

We are dropping Princess, so now we are down to three. If this keeps up, we will do more VRBO!
this was what we did during Covid, and had a wonderful time.

But it is sad…we know the cruise lines took a big hit, but so did most people.

The cruise lines appear to be trying to get all that money back in two years.

You should try Viking sometime.

 

[George C]

I did one carnival cruise about 35 years ago , will not do another.

 

[glo-ree-bee]

My family went on a Royal Caribbean cruise last fall and even that cruise line was truly not the same. They came back very disappointed. As much as it costs to fly, rent an overnight stay so you won't miss the cruise and the cruise and tours it is getting to where it just is not as important to go on cruises any more. Think I'd rather go to an exotic place and just stay a week at an all inclusive instead. Sorry I even have to write this downer of a comment but it is what it is.

 

[Texas Sue]

WOW - I remember so many of you and it saddens me to hear this. We have only done 1 cruise since covid and that was a year ago and was NCL out of New Orleans and was a good cruise. Yes there were changes some I didn't like but over all a good cruise.
We are booked on Carnival in November and is a music group cruise out of Texas and with so many of us we will make our own fun. Will be interesting to see all the changes and how everything is.

 

[BSeabob]

Yep like I said its industry wide and flights and hotel transfer issues just seem to pile up and takes a lot of fun out of the "Cruising" experience. Might be an a bit age thing also. We had it good and our bodies were once good too. LOL. I'm really looking forward to our next cruise out of Vancouver. No hotels, no flights . We are just drop and go and pickup and home kinda guys now. Vancouver Port can get a bit crowded though with boarding delays. Departures except for taxis is OK.

 

[Texas Sue]

That's kinda the way I feel about Galveston as we can drive and are in control. Will be the first one out of Galveston since COVID so will see.

 

[George C]

That's kinda the way I feel about Galveston as we can drive and are in control. Will be the first one out of Galveston since COVID so will see.

Need to look at MSC they will start sailing out of Galveston late 2025 , love there yacht club

 

[Texas Sue]

Need to look at MSC they will start sailing out of Galveston late 2025 , love there yacht club

I'll do that for sure. Love new experiences. Will check out the yacht club or is a an earned thing.

 

[George C]

I'll do that for sure. Love new experiences. Will check out the yacht club or is a an earned thing.

No it’s a unique ship within a ship with their own restaurants, lounge with live music , swimming pools and bars . It does have a fairly inexpensive inside cabins , we are doing them again in December from Florida, hopefully next year will b from Galveston.

 

[Mark D]

Unfortunately we have seen a decline in service on most cruise lines these days. Usually accompanied by a slew of extra charges.

we did about ten cruises last year. HAL, Celebrity,….4 on princess.. 4 on Celebrity, 3 on HAL.. OK..eleven lol
we were gone over half the year. During that time you get to see the changes up close.

Our upcoming cruise is on Princess, but we already know that we will not cruise with them again.
On the last cruise with them.. I asked for plain yogurt and berries for breakfast. We were told that to get berries we had to pay for an upscale “ club class”. I cant recall the cost, but it would not give you much change for a $100 bill. Times 34 nights!

so on the next port we bought blueberries in port, and each morning I would take some down to the dining room.. we did this for the whole 34 days! buying those berries was a great deal cheaper than paying for their “ club class”
there was other price gouging, but I thought this one was a really cheap move.

on this upcoming cruise we have already received notice that if we pay more..we can get special desserts, and drinks on the drink package up to $20.

we had already paid for a premium drink package When we booked!

you know what this means.. when we board we will find that the only thing covered in our purchased drink pkg is Ripple! as they will have raised the prices on everything.

At this moment, the only cruise lines we are still happy with are HAL Cunard and Celebrity.

but we know all too well how fast things can change.

We started out with RCI, Celebrity, Princess, HAI and Cunard.
we dropped RCI a few years ago,

We are dropping Princess, so now we are down to three. If this keeps up, we will do more VRBO!
this was what we did during Covid, and had a wonderful time.

But it is sad…we know the cruise lines took a big hit, but so did most people.

The cruise lines appear to be trying to get all that money back in two years.

Sounds like what we are thinking to. Lets see how it changes in the next 5 years. Hope for the best

 

[red stripe]

We are also hoping that they up their game. But although we still have cruises booked for the next few years, it is nothing like we have done in the past. This year we booked three months up in the mountains, right next to beautiful Lakes….( in three different locations) through VRBO.
three months.. beautiful places and settings.. and for a fraction of what cruising would cost for that length of time.

yep, no one is cooking for us
but we shall see.. after all.. there is water right there.