:( Well Bye bye Carnival :(

[Mikel1733]

We were on the Dream recently and I think the food overall was still pretty good. We had a MDR waiter with zero personality so the overall experience was a little subdued, but I still gained 3 pounds during the cruise so what can I say. :D

[bigsteve5]

It may be my cynical side, but it appears to me that Carnival is using the poor economy as an opportunity for corporate greed.

We got off the Triumph on Saturday. The seas were light to moderate, but the ship was moving at times like we were in heavy seas. There was no evidence that the stabilizers were deployed. Using the stabilizers creates some drag and uses more fuel to be sure, but when did the comfort of the passengers lose its importance. Penny wise and pound foolish! How many first time cruisers on the Triumph will never cruise again?

 

I have issues with the new food selections and the quality of the ingrediants. I do not agree with putting comfort food and simple fare in a dining room where elegance is supposed to be the order of the evening. However, if that kind of fare is to be on the menu, then it should be the most amazing meatloaf/chicken fingers/hamburger/etc. that ever hit a plate.

 

I was excited to see chateaubriand on the menu until I found that it could not be stabbed with a fork. It was not just my serving. Everyone at the table had tough tenderloin. I do not even know where to go to buy tenderloin that tough.

 

Steven Faber

[firefly333]

I was wondering when I read the first post when I would see the first person who just wrote "Bye" as their post. Someone always does this when someone says they had a bad cruise and are going to try a different cruise line. It's pointless, adds nothing to the thread, and frankly comes across as a little rude. Please if all you have to post is "Bye", don't bother posting at all.

 

I can totally understand the post.. the person posts as if they are never cruising on carnival again .. why announce it?

 

If you want to say you had a bad cruise and give a review, but posting that you are leaving to me the OP is just as much as fault for such a headline.

 

If you are leaving Carnival .. why post in the Carnival threads at all.. ??

[elcuchio24]

When you start pricing other lines ;):D

 

Next years cruise $715 pp lido deck Carnival couldnt find anything close to matching that.

 

I am not a Cheerleader. I book for price/itin.....but about 70% time that works out to be CCL:)

[lla887]

I can totally understand the post.. the person posts as if they are never cruising on carnival again .. why announce it?

 

If you want to say you had a bad cruise and give a review, but posting that you are leaving to me the OP is just as much as fault for such a headline.

 

If you are leaving Carnival .. why post in the Carnival threads at all.. ??

 

True and a good point.

 

The "Bye" posts are just a personal pet peeve of mine. You can always tell when they are coming and I always cringe when I see them. They just seem mean spirited and unecessary, but like you said thread the original post is probably equally unecessary.

[I082692]

Fam of 5 here.. The best CCL ship 5k-6k dollars stand Balcony. Best RCCL ship w/ comparable room 9k-10k for 7 day voyages. So i stay w/ CCL and pay for the steakhouse a couple nights for my fam and you cant beat the quality there. Looking fwd to the Magic this year and trying the Italian restaraunt as well. Also, i was on the Dream end of July.. The Mongolian and the pasta bar are great lunch options.. And yes i have been on the best of both lines..

[firefly333]

True and a good point.

 

The "Bye" posts are just a personal pet peeve of mine. You can always tell when they are coming and I always cringe when I see them. They just seem mean spirited and unecessary, but like you said thread the original post is probably equally unecessary.

 

The name of this thread is bye bye carnival. If someone says bye to me, I automatically say bye back.

[H82seaUgo]

Just Got off of the Dream on Saturday and even though we did have a great trip, the boat is beautiful, service is good (not GREAT) but all the things said about the food is true. When we cruised a few years ago every night we were so impressed with the dishes that we tried but, this cruise we actually sent some back, not one dish was very good and some of them were actually down right gross. I had the Prime Rib one night it was ALL fat a couple of nights later someone else in our party had it and experienced the same thing. Most of the meals just were not good at all. Even some of the staff were not friendly at all!! This makes as sad because our last cruise was FANTASTIC!! Next we are going to try NCL of Royal Caribbean. :(

 

yup. our last ccl cruise, before the menu change, the food was horribly downgraded. the food was fatty and poor quality, and we couldn't escape it, as the ship did not have a steakhouse.

 

i knew something was wrong the first night when the spring lamb, which used to fall off the bone, was full of fat and grizzle, even when we requested a second one.

 

and to top it off, our waiters got our orders right only once the entire cruise.

 

we actually ran off the ship in each of our ports to eat, which we had never done before.

[frito58]

I am not a Cheerleader. I book for price/itin.....but about 70% time that works out to be CCL:)

 

Me neitherand I would rather go RCI as I like thier the Voyager class ships better , but I also like to my money and to be able to go more often and the difference in price is so great , I can overlook the food and some of the other stuff at least for now.

 

And as for the post about the stablizers , I agree with that one as well , had a cruise on the Victory and I said the same thing way to smooth of waters to have that much movement. I will give them one more try on the Liberty next year but if we run into some of the same stuff , well I might have to rethink my vacation dollars as well , not a threat just a statement of fact.

[arpie05]

When you start pricing other lines ;):D

 

Next years cruise $715 pp lido deck Carnival couldnt find anything close to matching that.

 

 

I hear ya! As you will note in my signature line we sailed NCL and quickly and twice year since sail CCL. While the up charged NCL restaurants were good - I don't want to pay more to cruise + pay to eat. We only sailed NCL that year because CCL wasn't sailing out of Seattle and NCL was (cheaper to fly to Seattle).

 

While Holland is part of CCL, I couldn't see paying almost twice our cruise rate to go to one place the other cruise didn't sail to (PEI) that I want to go. I'm sure we'll have a chance to go one day. We are looking forward to 7 days on the Glory for $500 pp.

 

If I have a bad meal on CCL, I send it back or order something else. The appetizers are always so good - I'm usually happy with just 3 appetizers (okay so I usually have to have two different soups - I like the cold ones too!) and a dessert.

 

I have had better servers than others- hmmm. just like at any restaurant at home. You can also always ask to move! just because you're assigned does not mean you can't move.

[iTouch]

Luckily food doesn't make or break a cruise for us....:)

 

I used to feel the same way until our last cruise on the Spirit....especially the selection for dinner in the buffet.....there really was none:eek:

 

When you start pricing other lines ;):D

 

Next years cruise $715 pp lido deck Carnival couldnt find anything close to matching that.

 

I guess that's why I have such an awesome TA. She gets us great deals on Princess and RCCL also.

 

OP if you want to try another line for the food I would recommend Princess, I don't think you will be disappointed. After our last Carnival cruise we are going back to Princess next month and food was one of the many reasons;)

However we will be back next year because of the new food menu and upgrades on the Liberty........variety is the spice of life.....

[H82seaUgo]

Me neitherand I would rather go RCI as I like thier the Voyager class ships better , but I also like to my money and to be able to go more often and the difference in price is so great , I can overlook the food and some of the other stuff at least for now.

 

And as for the post about the stablizers , I agree with that one as well , had a cruise on the Victory and I said the same thing way to smooth of waters to have that much movement. I will give them one more try on the Liberty next year but if we run into some of the same stuff , well I might have to rethink my vacation dollars as well , not a threat just a statement of fact.

 

we avoided rccl because of the perception that the food was not good. when we were "forced", we found it was not bad, but still not as good as carnivals. but they have remained consistent, and are now better than carnival.

[halos]

If you are leaving Carnival .. why post in the Carnival threads at all.. ??

 

I see nothing wrong with that.

[H82seaUgo]

 

If you are leaving Carnival .. why post in the Carnival threads at all.. ??

 

do you only read a local newspaper, or do you want all the news?

[AirStang7]

Just a quick question---why WOULDN'T there be meat in a Lobster tail? I've caught many lobsters, and none of them had empty shells:)

 

I couldn't restrain myself from answering this. True when you catch a live lobster it will usually have a good amount of meat. However if they sit without being fed they start feeding off themselves and it's very possible to have lobsters with nearly no meat. We learned this the hard way once lol :(.

[MagSeven1413]

We just got off the Legend last week and I was surprised at the changes in the menu. I knew ahead of time (how could you not if you read CC) but some of the selections just didn't do anything for me. Don't get me wrong, the food is fine but I noticed that the overall quality has gone down. My wife couldn't get a hot baked potato if her life depended on it.

The lobster was excellent and I enjoyed the gator fritters.

 

I had a chicken/pasta dinner one night and for some reason I wasn't expecting bone-in chicken...don't ask me why.

 

Our son absolutely enjoyed the Indian vegetarian meal one evening.

 

We ate in the steakhouse day 4 and my wife and I each caught a cold on day 6 so we ended up sleeping through dinner. Since we packed our suitcases for debarkation before dinner on day 7, none of us ate in the MDR that night either. We did have some great chinese up on the lido, though.

[suzski]

I just got off a cruise on Princess and the changes are there too, unfortunately.

[frito58]

I guess my wife are the type that can have a hamburger one night on RCI Johnny Rockets for example for the that small upcharge and be happy as change and will may do the same thing on the Liberty and it will be included or make a meal of the Burritos and rice , we dont cruise just for the food always figure its a bonus.

[iTouch]

I just got off a cruise on Princess and the changes are there too, unfortunately.

 

What changes? Have you been on the Grand class?

[elcuchio24]

I couldn't restrain myself from answering this. True when you catch a live lobster it will usually have a good amount of meat. However if they sit without being fed they start feeding off themselves and it's very possible to have lobsters with nearly no meat. We learned this the hard way once lol :(.

 

'sitting without being fed?' I'm really not sure what you're talking about. I mean, they do die after a few days out of the water.....but even dead ones have full tails. Maybe it's a rock lobster thing. I've worked at hatcheries, docks, boats, pounds, and never seen a live lobster with an empty tail:rolleyes:

[AirStang7]

'sitting without being fed?' I'm really not sure what you're talking about. I mean, they do die after a few days out of the water.....but even dead ones have full tails. Maybe it's a rock lobster thing. I've worked at hatcheries, docks, boats, pounds, and never seen a live lobster with an empty tail:rolleyes:

 

I mean in an aquarium, if they're living in an aquarium and they don't get anything to scavenge they eventually feed off of themselves if there aren't other lobster to cannibalize.

[elcuchio24]

I mean in an aquarium, if they're living in an aquarium and they don't get anything to scavenge they eventually feed off of themselves.

 

Ah, that sounds possible. Sorry, I never even think of them sitting in a tank. I figure we ship them out and someone eats them on the other end. But the tails on the ships aren't aquarium lobsters, they are flash frozen, so they would not have spent much, if any, time in an aquarium.

[sjn911]

We were on the Dream recently and I think the food overall was still pretty good. We had a MDR waiter with zero personality so the overall experience was a little subdued, but I still gained 3 pounds during the cruise so what can I say. :D

I'm afraid even if food is "bad" service is "zero personality"..i can do the same and find "something" good.

 

It is sad to hear across the board things are going a little downhill in the mainstream dining rooms..by reports here only (??)..it's the economy I think, so more good starches and more lbs on me..i see it all now for next cruise...LOL...sarah:D

[Kidsgoneletscruise]

It's okay to cruise other lines. I don't understand why you felt you needed to start a whole thread and advertise your dislike. Move on, life is too short. :rolleyes:

[sjn911]

Ah, that sounds possible. Sorry, I never even think of them sitting in a tank. I figure we ship them out and someone eats them on the other end. But the tails on the ships aren't aquarium lobsters, they are flash frozen, so they would not have spent much, if any, time in an aquarium.

 

Yes..same things apply for purchasing and moving cattle....especially natural hormone free small ranch raised beef situations..where no feedlots or cruel slaughter houses involved...where folks maybe even keep them on their places until...