Branman

Just off the Breeze, Adam Sayer was great.

Interested in the "new CD system "

 

please explain

Wee Jimmy explained it in his Q&A yesterday:

On most ships, the CD is the head of the Entertainment Department reporting to the Hotel Director. S/He is in charge of many things in this role: scheduling of activities, producing the fun times, handling personnel issues (e.g. performance reviews), going to senior officers meetings, and fighting fires (e.g. it's the CD's problem if something malfunctions with the stage equipment). Basically all of the things that you would expect the head of a department in a company to do. The cruise director would have to do this in addition to being the voice of the ship and hosting shows.

Now, the department administration is handled by the entertainment director. The CD is now free to predominately do guest-facing activities. One result of this is that there is no assistant cruise director on the Breeze since the CD is now free to host way more things. Seriously, he spent a few hours on Lido yesterday hosting groove for St. Jude, a random air guitar competition that he just made up on the spot, and observing Orlando (the other big social host) host the Ms. Carnival Breeze competition.

3. Halloween costume contest. Anything Wee Jimmy hosted was hilarious (which was pretty much every event -- I couldn't name or identify a single other member of the entertainment staff because Wee Jimmy was everywhere. Not sure what that says about his staff but he was great!).

I'm also immediately off of the Breeze. I just wanted to add that this point for everyone else reading. The Breeze is the one of the first ships to move to the Entertainment Directory/Cruise Director system. Because Wee Jimmy didn't need to run the entertainment department, his job is now to host pretty much every big event on the ship. It was really cool seeing the cruise director out and about in so many events.

Not a real show critic but cruising since 1978 (70+ cruises) just off the Freedom and thought the new concept was great.

The more I hear reports like this, the more I'm beginning to think that Carnival has started to figure out the new concept and how to deliver more entertaining shows. It could just be a learning curve thing and a large misstep by converting theatres to the new big screens before they had good shows.

The biggest thing to determine if entertainment is actually going downhill is comparing the latest playlist productions to the original 4 that debuted with the Breeze to the ones that came on the Sunshine and Freedom. If the newer ones are better, then it's useful to cut Carnival a little slack since they are learning how to make use of their new setup. Carnival probably jumped the gun in deploying the original 4 to all of the 2.0 ships, but, since the new version allows them to swap out shows without going into drydock, they have the opportunity to quickly correct their mistake.

I haven't seen these new productions yet, but I'll see them in October. I'm not looking forward to a lack of live band, but I'll see what these are all about.

The forward Lanai on Dream class ships is usually extremely quiet and uncrowded.

The important part is that they trend upward. Based on reviews, the 3 of the original 4 shows on the Breeze were absolutely terrible, and one was ok. The new shows on the Sunshine got better reviews, and Epic Rock won some award or something. If the shows on the Freedom are also of good quality, then hopefully that means that Carnival's new show creator has figured out how to create good quality shows.

Another thing to note: Playlist Productions can be swapped out on ships without going into drydock. You can go look at the entries on John Heald's blog:

4/29/2014:

http://johnhealdsblog.com/2014/04/29/wash-and-dry/

7/17/2014:

http://johnhealdsblog.com/2013/07/17/show-me-shows/

For example, the Conquest originally had The Brits / Motor City / Divas, and they added Studio VIP; the Glory had Latin Nights / Motor City / Divas, and they added Epic Rock.

There should be 8-day versions of the American Table out soon. Liberty should have just started doing 8-days out of Canaveral, and Freedom is getting American Table very soon.

One side of the Lanai (deck five exterior) is usually in the shade. That deck is almost always the most quiet outside space on the ship.

Yeah my husband just told me that!! I really know nothing about basketball!!

Yea, it's to the point where the Heat's home stadium has a red frog rum bar and a blue iguana tequila bar.

It will probably be on the big screen on Lido. Since the Chairman of Carnival (Micky Arison) owns the Heat, I'm sure every ship will be promoting it.

The Dream has an 18 hole minigolf course, but it doesn't have the rest of the Sportsquare. The Dream doesn't have the dump bucket or large splash area, but it does have two one-story racer slides that the Breeze doesn't have.

Thanks for the review. I think this is the first review mentioning the new playlist production shows. I'm glad to see that you like it. If more people come back with positive reviews, then it shows a trend of an improving quality of shows.

Carnival has done a pretty good job of listening to the common complaints to the point where most people are complaining about things that have or will be addressed.

Creme brulee is back on the menu.

The cold soups are going back on as well.

The dessert selection has been expanded from the initial deployment on the Glory and Liberty.

They are evaluating tablecloths vs. hard wood tables.

Most importantly, at no time has there even been required sharing of any appetizers. The newest menus don't even have "for the table" listed on the menu.

By the time you actually have to choose between Magic and Freedom, Magic will probably have 2.0 upgrades as well since it's going into drydock in Spring 2015.

Expect to see more Eastern itineraries once Amber Cove is finished.

While that's true, this past week a cook on an NCL ship was murdered while standing in front of the mini mart across from Coxen Hole using their wifi. The guy who shot him was after the cook's tablet. Now NCL ships are canceling their cruises to Roatan.

While that is a tragedy, that's a single instance. You cannot make decisions based on anecdotes when there is actual statistical information. Furthermore, you cannot say that you want to be absolutely safe or have zero tolerance because that is impossible.

The appropriate thing to do in this instance is to see how Honduras reacts to this incident. It is in everyone's best interests to continue to sail to Roatan and for Honduras to improve security around tourist areas.

Remember, there's a big difference between what goes on on Roatan Island vs. mainland Honduras. It's not like crime is evenly distributed throughout the country; I would hesitate to many any conclusions of Roatan island based on mainland data.

Is the crème brulee on the 4th night? We didn't go to the dining room that night and we didn't have it the other 3 nights (or I would have ordered it!).

Most likely. 4 night menu is here:

http://zydecocruiser.net/menus/AT_AF/imagination/imagination.htm

Creme brulee is on the 2nd dessert menu on the page.

The Glory and Liberty still have the old, new menus. The Inspiration and Imagination have the new, new menus which have the creme brulee on the 4-night menus. These changes still need to be ported back to the 7-night dessert menus.

If I read the announcement correctly, both of those positions report to the CD, so I don't think it's a demotion.

International Talk Like a Pirate day has been a think for a long time. It's September 19th every year. Carnival is just deciding to celebrate it.

Deck 5 hot tubs. Rarely crowded with great views.

The lido blue iguana can probably be replaced by the Dream/Magic deck 5 bbq on sea days. They routinely serve tacos and quesadillas, and it's pretty amazing.

Wouldn't these be hooked up through the bottom of the container? That would be a more permanent hookup for several months-to-years use; you could protect the hookups from weather and directly connect the replacement generator to the switching box used by the emergency generator.

Also, I wouldn't claim that they could be "for show." If they're not hooked up, then there's no reason to spend money renting a generator.