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EricJ

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  1. The bacon rationing was one of the few things I saw that struck me as excessively cheap. Well, I also think the all-purpose goop dispenser in bathrooms is excessively cheap, but that's not exclusive to Carnival, or even to cruise lines (it's at nice hotels now too). At least they should put decent stuff in there. I think Princess puts the same goop in 3 dispensers labeled "hand soap," "body wash," and "shampoo/conditioner." Yeah, the extra bath was really nice. The sink is barely big enough to rinse a toothbrush, but I made it work. It kept us out of each other's hair. I'd rather have this mini bath than a "mini suite" that mainly just offers a second TV (I'm exaggerating, but looking at you, Princess).
  2. I read a lot of review threads (thank you to everyone who writes them), so I thought I'd use my first-timer perspective to write a review. I took very short notes throughout the cruise, then sorted and expanded the notes when I got home. I also usually like to take notes to make sure I don't forget to mention major things in the corporate survey. Enjoy your cruise on Venezia! Good ducking luck!
  3. Thank you so much. Yeah, our steward was not great. And we really prefer the 2x/day cabin service. If I know when the steward is coming, I can throw the wet towels on the floor, but if I'm unsure, I end up keeping wet towels overnight. There is no air movement in the bathroom to dry them out. I suppose it's a race to the bottom, though, and other cruise brands will soon follow in this service reduction while also raising gratuities.
  4. On this trip, I don't think crowding was too bad except in the comedy club and theater. It seems there were usually chairs available by Lido, though maybe not in premium spaces. Chair hogs will do their thing: You see only 2 people in the pool, and dozens of chairs with towels or novels on them. It was harder to find a spot at the aft pool. Take my input with a grain of salt, because I didn't spend much time at pools. Loungers, couches, and tables on the sides of deck 5 were barely used and a great place to read or play a quiet game. We like the cool fresh air and used the outside spaces even when near New York. I did find there were always tables available in the buffet (usually also at the outdoor seating). It was nice that you didn't have to fight for a table. A lot of people played cards at buffet tables, yet there was plenty of room for those who were eating. I like the narrow space away from the serving lines, where it's fairly quiet. Misc comments on food: I was surprised that the wait for Guy's burgers was always short, as they are pre-cooked. I didn't love the burgers or fries, and preferred to wait in the slower line for a burrito at Tomodoro. I tried a Reuben sandwich from the deli, and it was very disappointing. Chewy meat, no sauerkraut, no butter on the bread. The lady in front of me got a "buffalo chicken sandwich, hold the buffalo sauce." That looked good. I had a hotdog on Princess Cays that was worse than any generic grocery store hotdog I could imagine. Like a canned vienna sausage warmed up on a grill.
  5. The main pool area is small, but it didn't seem over crowded on this trip. I did not spend a lot of time there, though. I only swam once, and it was at the aft pool. The aft pool area is pleasant, though I could do with less music. I don't usually eat around 10 PM, so you might want to ask others. Pizza would be open at that time, and I think the sandwich counter (deli) would be open. Guy's burgers and Tomodoro close earlier. There is a late night buffet, but not until roughly 11:00. The pizza was very good and usually very hot.
  6. About us This was our 48th and 68th cruise, and first on Carnival. We are a couple in our late 50s and usually cruise with Princess, Royal Caribbean, or Celebrity, and have tried NCL, Cunard, and some cruise lines that don’t exist any more, like Sitmar, Home Lines, and Big Red Boat. This review is for Carnival Venezia on January 23, 2024, a 10-day round-trip from New York to 4 Caribbean ports. Our most recent prior cruise was on Emerald Princess in November 2023, so I will make a lot of comparisons to Princess. Ship’s Public Areas I thought the Venezia had a pretty and interesting design. We have enjoyed several days in Venice, so perhaps I especially appreciated the Venice-themed design, artwork, and photos. I really liked the atrium design, and the inside/outside aspect of deck 5. Very few people used the deck 5 outside space, but it's a nice place to get air and enjoy some peace and quiet. I had read many complaints about the Lido deck, but I think decks 10 and 11 were an interesting and different design (though ship pools are not a major draw for me). There are some problems with the ship design. The hallway outside the comedy club is too narrow. It takes 15 minutes to get everyone out of the club after a show, mostly because you can only walk 2-wide in the deck 4 hallway due to the narrow hallway being half blocked by those waiting to get into the comedy club. Other hallways are narrow, such as hallways to midship elevators, and some elevators and restrooms are well hidden. The elevator system is polarizing. Some “expert” passengers were (without prompting) lecturing others how to use the elevators, and sort of accusing everyone of doing it wrong by not pressing twice for two people. To be fair, Carnival should make it easier to indicate multiple passengers or that space is needed for wheelchairs/scooters. The system worked OK. I am willing to believe the engineers did the math and the average wait is shorter this way, but passengers may not individually perceive that. Smoke is a real problem on this ship. It’s everywhere midship on decks 4-5 and even inside the comedy club, and all decks of the atrium. The smoke-free casino was usually packed. We saw someone hit a $10k jackpot on a slot machine, and he seemed happy and surprised, which made everyone feel good. I wish there was a casino kiosk in the smoke-free area. The theater is small with no rise in the orchestra seats, and a lot of views are obscured by poles (same in comedy club). I imagine on full sailings, a lot of passengers would not be able to attend the shows. Cabin We had stateroom 1354, which was a “Deluxe Oceanview” with the extra half bathroom/tub. Having the second sink and shower was a nice perk that I didn’t expect. First of all, I didn’t realize we had that type of room, and I had not realized the tub would have a shower. The sink is tiny and the room is tiny, but it helps a lot. Our cabin attendant did the bare minimum. I am used to twice-a-day service and I like that. We asked our cabin attendant to service the cabin in the evening. He chose to ignore that, even though we repeated the request. He cleaned as soon as we went out, and was gone off the deck by 3PM. He collected used pool towels without replacing them, even after I asked if it was his job to replace them. The cabin was big, especially compared to our recent cabin on Emerald Princess. Princess does not offer a chair in a standard cabin any more, let alone a couch like we had on Venezia. I thought it was odd that the couch on Venezia was cheaply finished in orange vinyl, but I later realized there was probably supposed to be a fabric slipcover that the cabin attendant did not want to deal with. There were drawers under the couch that were broken or off the tracks. We asked the attendant to get it fixed, but he only “proved” to us it could be opened with great force. There was a false fingernail in the drawer from a past passenger trying to open it. One curtain fell or ripped off of some of its hooks; I rigged up a repair myself. The cabin had very good noise insulation. Our recent Emerald Princess cabin was a cacophony of neighbors’ TV noise, neighbors and stewards slamming doors, and yelling in the halls. While there was some hallway yelling on Venezia, it did not penetrate the stateroom as much, and the walls don’t shake when a neighboring door is closed. Also, we never once heard voices or TV next door. That was awesome, and I think it was more cabin design than quiet neighbors, because one time the cabin attendant was cleaning next door, which I didn’t know until going into the hallway. On other ships, I usually hear the cleaning activity (talking, vacuuming, toilets flushing, lids slamming, bathroom door slamming, etc.). The TV remote was painfully slow and the minimum TV volume is annoyingly loud, especially on the Carnival programming channels. TV level 1 should be set for “background music” but it’s set to “rock concert,” so we usually had it turned off. The Closed Caption and Sleep Timer buttons did nothing. The bow camera and “aft” cam (Lido area) provided good pictures. The all–purpose bathroom goop (shampoo / body wash) was at least decent, and better than what Princess served up recently. It lathers well with no residual scent. It was nice that there was a bar of soap provided (none on Princess), but the steward took it away when it was down to a sliver, and I had to hunt him down to get more. The bedding was very comfortable for me, and I like it better than the Princess standard. Princess went with very hard mattresses, which they try to correct with foam toppers. The foam is too soft, so you sink in it, and it makes me sweat. Food and Dining We had open-seating dinner. Requesting a table for two was mercifully not a problem, and was even the default choice in the app. We usually got a table assigned in 5-10 minutes at approx. 5:30. It was a stark contrast to our recent experience on Emerald Princess, where there were long lines, limited available reservations, and long waits even with reservations. Princess dining room staff made no effort to honor reservations, badmouthed the app, and always tried to talk us into sharing tables. Service on Venezia was generally good to very good, but the staff rarely introduced themselves, and only one night were their names on a card on the table. I couldn’t tell who was the waiter, who was an assistant, or who was a supervisor. I wish they had paper menus. Even when we requested them, they sometimes couldn’t be found. The waiters seemed to have a problem finding the right buttons to push on their app to order our food, and had to ask us to slow down ordering. I predict Carnival will soon have us enter our own menu choice right into the app, because the waiters add nothing to the process. Some dinners were good to excellent (short rib/filet duet, lobster, prime rib). Some dinners disappointed (short ribs as a solo entree, beef wellington, everyday steak, herb-crusted salmon, which had too much raw herb for me). There was a big vegan menu, and what I tried was tasty. Dessert choices were more limited than other cruises I've been on. At the sea day brunch, I was looking forward to the French toast, but it was just an oily, crunchy mess. Any diner could do better, probably even IHOP could do better. The buffet had better French Toast some days. (Emerald Princess had lousy French Toast made from smashed leftover dinner rolls; Celebrity and, I think, RCL both use warmed up frozen products). This was the first cruise I’ve been on where dining room tables don’t get tablecloths. You are expected to re-use your silverware for all courses, which we learned when servers just put it aside when clearing dishes. At dinner, waiters don’t hesitate to reach over the table to serve or clear. The dining room staff never once offered coffee with dessert. The staff was unable to come up with lactose-free cow’s milk (generic Lactaid). They brought soy milk when we requested lactose free milk, without saying what it was, even after a very specific request. We’ve not encountered this on any other ship. Buffet breakfast selection was minimal and repetitive. For example, bacon was not available many days, and was usually not self-serve when it was available. Some things I like were never offered, like salmon, pineapple, and English muffins. Eggs Benedict with ham was very tasty, but the sauce didn’t pair well with salmon, which was used every other day. Scrambled eggs were probably made from powder. Omelets were good and the lines were not too bad. I often had burritos for lunch from Tomodoro, and really enjoyed them. The buffet staff never offers to help get (free) drinks and are slow to bus tables. I like how servers on Princess are happy to get coffee or water, and you don’t have to hunt them down. The dinner buffet was also limited. Princess has lots of appetizers on the buffet, choice of fresh breads, lots of desserts, etc. On the plus side, in my estimation, most of the dining room dinner menu was available in the buffet. The buffet layout encourages cafeteria-style singular lines. E.g., if you want lunch, but don’t want salad, you have to wait in the long line that starts with salad, and walk past the salad before you get the chance to take anything else. You could walk directly to the hot food, but you’d better be ready for some dirty looks. Other ships use a station approach, which works much better (there are many stations, and you walk up to the station that has the food you want). The serving area also seems small and tight. Ice cream machines are so loud, you hear the roar at all tables within 20 feet. Oh, and it’s cold and sweet and wet, but that’s not ice cream. One day at the buffet, I used a serving utensil that was thoroughly sticky. I asked a staff member to get a clean one, and I gave him the sticky one. He watched until he thought I was out of sight and put it back. All I can say is I wash my hands before and after filling my plate. One day I got a cup of water, and didn’t realize until it was half empty that there was half of a sweetener packet stuck to the inside of the cup. Yuck. Drink stations need to be cleaned up more often. The counters were always wet and ice was everywhere. Several ice machines were out of order. Activities and App The carnival Hub App is much better than the Princess App I used in November. The Carnival process for open dinner times is far superior to my experience on Princess. The activities list is fairly easy to use. On both of our phones, sometimes the app would jump to the wrong day, and we got confused about what was when. One night I could not make dinner reservations, because I did not notice the app had jumped days. It seems there is no way at all to get a table without using the app. At least it’s a good app. We twice requested paper copies of the daily program from our cabin attendant. He could not handle that. I prefer a paper copy to see at a glance what’s up. Also, the app does not provide practical info about things like gangway location, time changes, tendering process, disembarkation. Perhaps the paper does not have this info either, but I still prefer paper. Carnival relies heavily on comedians, most of which were good (but tastes vary). They could be more clear about which comedy shows were repeated sets. I’m sure the comedians don’t like seeing people walk out. Production shows and guest musicians use recorded backing tracks instead of live music like most other cruises I've been on. The production cast seemed small (8) and the singing ability varied from bad to good. Some of the production shows were pretty interesting. I think there was only one true guest entertainer over 10 nights in the theater (I am not including comedians). I brought ear plugs, which I have often needed in theaters, especially on Royal Caribbean. Surprisingly, the sound level was a good bit below painful on Carnival. But what’s with the spotlights and lasers pointed at the audience? The lights are blinding to those sitting to the left or right of orchestra seats. Are you really shooting lasers at the audience, Carnival? The cruise director, MarkQ, was great, and gave 110%. The Quest activity was maybe a little more crude than necessary, but people loved it, even if I felt a little old for it. Similarly some of the R-rated comedy was really explicit sex talk. Much of it was funny, but some of it was just shocking. I know, tastes will vary, and I could have let myself out. On the other side of the coin, the only bad comedian of the cruise was not really a dirty comedian, except for dropping the F bomb in his R-rated set. We bought the middle tier of internet service (“Value”), which seemed to work fine. Certain websites were blocked, like known video and music streaming sites. I could not connect to my home VPN using OpenVPN (port 1194). Surprisingly, I could connect to one well known public VPN, but if I name it, I will probably be the last to be able to use it. Annoyingly, I was not able to sign on to the internet until I had my folio number, which wasn’t until I got my key in the mid afternoon of Day 1. Bars, bartenders, lounge acts I like a simple gin martini made with a good gin. I could not get the same drink in two bars, as they stock different gins. One bartender took my order, printed the slip (where I’m supposed to add a second tip), then came back a while later saying they don’t stock that gin at that bar, and couldn’t get it. I also seemed to pay different prices in different bars and on different days.. The same drink was $13.50 or $14 at Fizzanti or $15 at Amari (plus tip and sometimes tax). At least they were good size drinks; definitely bigger than a martini on Princess. I was surprised that there were very few drink waiters (or none) working the tables. Except in the theater and comedy club, if you want a drink, you have to walk up to the bar. That’s different from my experience on other cruise lines. There was a good amount of live music around the ship, with talented musicians. Guitarist Ben was fun. The woman working the piano bar had an avid following and the piano bar was standing room only. The “rock band” was talented. Some musicians’ use of backing tracks is a little annoying. The strings group wants to be elegant, but plays mostly rock tunes with backing tracks of percussion etc. Fellow passengers We met several nice and interesting people, and also encountered a few selfish idiots and boors. The ship had a fairly light passenger load: At 4092 (according to the CD) it was roughly at double-berth occupancy level, and well below the max of 5260. Being a 10 day cruise, there were probably more experienced travelers and repeaters, and a smaller party crowd. There were a lot of B2B travelers, and the cruise director mentioned that 128 people were staying on board for the next voyage. There were dozens of kids onboard, but we didn’t experience any significant misbehavior as others have recently reported. A couple passengers got handcuffed and kicked off the ship in Puerto Rico. Rumors about the reason were rampant and mostly unbelievable. At the buffet, once I saw a girl take a plate full of bacon. Her father told her it was too much, so she just grabbed the bacon with her hands and put it back in the tray. Dad was horrified, but did not alert staff. Another day, a teenager had trouble getting the macaroni and cheese off the spoon and onto her plate. Her solution: fingers. She wiped the macaroni off the serving spoon onto her plate. Mom told her she should not have done that, but did not request a clean spoon from crew. I was not going to use that spoon. One idiot took a one hour business video call using a laptop and its speakers in the outside space on deck 5. You know who you are, closing a sale for offshore admin services. Did you not see the glares from the dozen quiet passengers who were there first and had to hear the whole sales call? You had enough awareness to ask your customer not to read his credit card number until you turned the speakers off! The dining room dress code says no gym shorts, no baseball caps, and no sleeveless tee shirts on men, all of which is present, even on formal nights. It didn’t ruin my meal, but I thought people might try harder. To each his own. We had mostly good neighbors. I mean, I don’t care if people want to party all night, but many party people don’t know how to be quiet when returning to their cabins or hanging out in their cabins. Similarly, I wish those getting up at the crack of dawn would not shout down the hall to say good morning to other people. Having said that, we have had cruises where the hallway noise and neighbor noise was much worse. What’s with the ducks? Holy cow. It doesn’t bother me, but wow. Ports Princess Cays: We generally love this place, especially the snorkeling, but tendering is always a chore, and the line at the buffet was insane (roughly 30 minutes). Someone walking by our table spilled an entire drink, including spilling on my wife and just kept walking. The line for the tender back to the ship was enormous. I didn’t time it, but it was probably 1.5 hours from getting in line to getting on ship, and we started about 1-1.5 hours before the last tender time. Grand Turk: We found a couple of great chairs under a palm tree, and had a very relaxing day. We went right when walking off the ship, where we heard nice relaxing live music, instead of the high energy DJ music of Margaritaville. Swimming is harder on this side though, due to rocks and coral. It was a great day. Amber Cove: I had heard there would be few shady spots, but we found chairs in the shade. We enjoyed the pool. Nice day. We also enjoyed some of the educational material in the shops area, and bought some inexpensive larimar, jade, and coral jewelry. Puerto Rico: I walked a little then got a $4 Uber ride to the beach (Balneario El Escambrón), with a very nice driver. It’s a decent beach with a lot of local families and just a few visible Carnival towels. I walked back to the ship, which I do not regret but also do not recommend. It’s hilly and the road I took was not in a nice neighborhood. Some traffic lights on major roads were completely inoperative. NYC Port We are able to easily drive to NYC, and despite the very expensive parking, decided to drive and park at the pier. Traffic at 11AM on embarkation day was insane, taking about 45 minutes from the Lincoln Tunnel to the parking lot. That’s maybe half a mile, with the last left-hand turn taking 15-20 minutes. Next time, I would try the GW Bridge, which adds tolls and miles but would require no left turns. Driving on debarkation day was easier. Both were weekdays. The terminal building is not great, but they do what they can. At least all the staff were nice. I bet there were more 4-door pickup trucks in the port lot than in the rest of Manhattan. The parking spots were not made for these giant vehicles. We found a spot between two sedans, but it was still tight. Summary We had a very good time, and I would say the overall cruise experience was a little better than we expected. I would consider Carnival in the future, but as with all cruise lines, I will try to avoid the 3-4 day itineraries, especially over weekends, hoping to avoid the party-all-night crowd. Comparing Carnival to our usual cruise lines of Princess, Royal Caribbean, and Celebrity, I would say there is more that is similar than is different. They all have strengths and weaknesses, and the experience can vary from one cruise to the next depending on the specific ship, its crew, and fellow passengers. So I guess I’m finally a VIFP.
  7. The lines were bad today on Emerald with both passengers and crew getting short tempered. E.g., 5:40 reservation seated at 6:15. Crew blamed passengers for all coming at once and blamed corporate giving out reservations. It seemed to not matter at all whether you had a reservation. Both lines led to the same person, who served both lines equally. They kept yelling "Only sharing tables." They didn't care what you had reserved. Other cruise lines manage the main dining room much better.
  8. I'm also on Emerald now. App works fine on both of our Android phones, one of which took an app update today, and the other did not. I think what your guru meant is "I don't know anything about Android, and I feel superior with my iPhone, so please don't ask me to help you"
  9. I think there is only one password shared by both RCI and Celebrity. If you change the password at one brand's site, you need to use that password at the other. This is not intuitive, especially when following generally accepted security advice to never use the same password across sites.
  10. Last week on Anthem, using the streaming package, I got only 4 Mbps down, and over 300 ms latency. I did successfully stream some video, but my VPN connection to home was fully blocked.
  11. As of last week: The only show requiring reservations was Spectra's weird Cabaret. North Star and iFly both had times that were free, and must be reserved in the app while on board. Embarkation day in Bayonne is a good time to go on North Star and see New York.
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