sammygoose

what cabins would you say are affected?

On 5/5/2019 at 8:12 AM, catl331 said:

No, but annoying to us.

 

oh yes, forgot about you. Carry on.

I'm 6 ft  tall and I don't remember anything that makes me think deal breaker or anything at all. Maybe I forgot my engineers calipers. I really liked the shower doors and the little bar to shave my legs though. 

Nope.

I am loving your cruise review. You have a wonderful family and a great way of taking us all along for the ride. THANK YOU.

Terrible news. So sad for the families.:loudcry:

ally posted by sammygoose roses313-

My only guesses after having experienced are.........that ship is the end of the line for staff and they know it..........or Viking has poached all the good staff and this is a training ship--god help HAL....but even then I just don't know. So many things were good about that cruise- the itinerary, the ship was in good shape, the cabin attendants great...but holy cow any staff that had to deal with the guests in public areas nope no way....they huddled together and talked amongst themselves...and not an officer to be seen....except to expedite our immigration departure in San Diego....lots of officers there.

I had no sense of any of this on my recent Veendam cruise. We thought the crew good, cheerful friendly and happy to help in whatever say. I had wondefu l cabin stewards and very much liked our dining team in MDR. I won't go into the awful Pinnalce stories again.

 

 

I am glad to hear that Sail7Seas. There was lots to like about our Bermuda cruise on the Veendam but there was this funky vibe that I hadn't felt on our other cruises. No matter, if whatever it was is gone great. Hopefully the Pinnacle will sort itself out too.

Smooth Sailing.

Right but the Veendam isn't sailing on the west coast.

 

 

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Yes you are correct. I erred in saying San Diego when I meant Boston. San Diego was our Feb trip, clearly to much of a good thing. :p

Expedite immigration in San Diego? We talking about the same ship?

 

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I saw every officer on the Veendam helping Immigration process us to get us off the ship. Getting past immigration was the fastest part of the process. Physically getting off the ship was a whole different matter that had nothing to do with Immigration. In any event were in our car at 915am and we dragged our feet.

We were on the June10th Boston/Bermuda cruise. Our Pinnacle dinner was not a pleasant experience. I agree with much that has been posted...indifferent manager, serving staff made basic serving errors. The entire staff acted/carried on as though we were imposing on their chatting/socializing with each other. I wrote a scathing report on the HAL survey.

 

There was a thread in either late June/early July about the Pinnacle on the Veendam.

roses313- I agree 100% with you on your comment "The entire staff acted/carried on as though we were imposing on their chatting/socializing with each other."

We experienced the same thing on our May 20th cruise....to the point where a guy vacuuming the staircase said Hi to us and we laughed to ourselves and said he must be new her and not got the memo.....other gems included us wondering if the crew was going to mutiny against the officers which were not to be seen- we assumed they were hiding.....The Pinnacle and Simone/staff was the only place that we were actually treated like we were guests and not schmucks intruding on the staffs party.

There seemed to be such a disconnect between what the Captain thought how his ship was running and how it actually was that I didn't or couldn't even begin to summarize it on a the end of cruise survey. Hence I chalked it up to the Bermuda Triangle.

My only guesses after having experienced are.........that ship is the end of the line for staff and they know it..........or Viking has poached all the good staff and this is a training ship--god help HAL....but even then I just don't know. So many things were good about that cruise- the itinerary, the ship was in good shape, the cabin attendants great...but holy cow any staff that had to deal with the guests in public areas nope no way....they huddled together and talked amongst themselves...and not an officer to be seen....except to expedite our immigration departure in San Diego....lots of officers there.

We were on the May 20th Boston to Bermuda sailing on the Veendam and had lunch and Le Cirque in the Pinnacle. The PG Manager Simone was excellent and very personable in our opinion. We had such a nice relaxed time at lunch that we decided to do Le Cirque even though we'd done it on our Mexican Riviera cruise in Feb. We did overhear her tell other diners that her contract was up in a month.

There was a very strange staff vibe on that ship and we found the PG the friendliest place staff wise. I chalked it up to the Bermuda triangle. :o

Kazu - Have a wonderful time! What a fantastic itinerary! I am looking forward to your posts and your thoughts on the Rotterdam.

Cheers!

I'm sorry.....my previous post sucked. It really did.

I was so excited to see a new Chardonnay Sisters post and when I ready your awfully sad news I was floored.

So tonight I had some Chardonnay and want to say how sorry I am. No one tells a better story than my sister...except for the Chardonnay Sisters.

My thoughts are with you,, :(

Sorry for your loss. The Champagne Sisters adventures were always a raucous read.

My 2 cents:

 

- Carnival is partly responsible for the reputation that they have. Their advertising reflects a fun atmosphere at budget prices which does attract many, but it's also off-putting to cruisers who expect something different from their vacation. As others have said, the product may be similar to what other mainstream cruise lines offer, but the way that it's marketed doesn't come across as a quality product, but as a cheap product. It may not be cheap, but it's perceived as cheap, specially by those who haven't tried it.

 

- Carnival in my opinion is a solid product for the price, specially what's offered on their newer ships, but it's not for everyone. As some of you know, I've spent the last few years bouncing from one cruise line to another (Royal, Holland, Princess, MSC, and coming up Disney and NCL) after many years of being loyal to Carnival. If there's one thing that I've learned is that there are a lot of different people out there who wouldn't be caught dead on a Carnival cruise just like there are a lot of Carnival cruisers out there who wouldn't be caught dead on any of these other cruise lines. They would be absolutely miserable. People have different expectations based on what they like and what they have experienced in life.

 

- Some people do care for the little things that Carnival doesn't offer. I'll use my parents for this example. They've traveled all over the world and have experienced the finer things in life. They've sailed on Carnival a few times as well (including everything from a cheap 4 nighter on the Imagination to a 12 night European sailing during the Liberty's inaugural season). But they don't like Carnival and prefer to sail on other cruise lines.

 

My mother said that the difference is in the details. For example, we sailed together on Holland America to Alaska a few years back and she was thoroughly impressed with the product while I couldn't put my finger on what was so wonderful about them, so I asked. That's when my mother pointed out the little details like the fresh flowers daily, the white gloved service, the room service delivered in fine china (not plastic), the quality of linens and bedding, the throw blankets for balcony use, the laundry delivered in tissue paper with a gold seal in a wicker basket, the full restaurant menu available for stateroom delivery. The non-intrusive announcements, the quality of everything from decor to the brand of toiletries, and dinnerware, and the level of service throughout the ship, specially at restaurants, which followed the highest level of etiquette and protocol.

 

As I said before, for most people these things may be of little to zero importance, but for those who do care, it's a big thing. My parents are at a stage in their life where those things matter but I'm not there yet.

 

- We spend a lot of time on these boards complaining about chair hogging, dress code, booze smuggling, line cutting, etc. While I understand that people want to relax and enjoy their cruise with as few rules as possible and as casually as possible, there are a lot of people who would prefer to cruise in an environment where these basic social rules are followed. You can't fault them for that. While you can find this type of behavior on any cruise line, what I've experienced during the last few years is that, the more strict and upscale the cruise line is, the less you'll encounter this type of behavior (partly because these cruise lines will have less tolerance for this type of behavior and partly because cruisers who don't like this type of structure will go somewhere else). Just reading the boards from various cruise lines here will reflect that. These are hot topics on the Carnival board but not so frequent on others.

 

- With al of this said, there's ZERO excuse to bash, put other people down, or make them inferior because of what cruise line they prefer. That's just mean spirited. But at the same time, people shouldn't take it as a personal attack when someone bad mouths their cruise line of choice.

 

We all know why we cruise and why we gravitate towards a specific cruise line over another. Who cares what someone else thinks?

 

 

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Can we jut submit this for post of the year? I'm serious.

I'll readily admit to cruising HAL exclusively but I do enjoy reading the Carnival board. Why is that? Because I enjoy reading others cruise experiences and I do think that cruise lines are like relationships- you have to find one that fits-not one that is better or worse but that works for you.

I can't agree with the above poster more.

Cheers! :D

Kaartdam?

Have a great time all!

Fantastic pic!

Just to add to Krazy Kruizers post here is a pic of the Le Cirque wines for the $20 up charge.

I don't have a picture of it but the melon and yogurt soup with shrimp was excellent

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Lobster salad

Caesar salad............this was an unexpected hit with the egg.

Foie Gras amuse Bouche

Chateaubriand

I was at Le Cirque last Saturday and it was excellent. It was on the Westerdam though.

Nice review thanks. I appreciate your insight.

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Thanks! If anyone needs a picture of anything let me know.

I also will actively avoid Toronto for all the above reasons and go through Pitt, Philly, Washington if at all possible.

Toronto is run by a cabal that has just been renewed for the next 10 years. Awful.