Carnival Strategies

[GRBadger]

These boards have been very helpful to me in planning my vacations. I have read many reviews and postings about ships. We have now cruised on Princess, RCI, and Carnival with our last 2 cruisings. Having just returned from the Freedom, I thought I would post some of my thoughts on how we avoided some the issues that come up in the negative reviews.

 

Kids: Our sailing (12/17) had a ton of kids. Which means more people jammed 3-4 to a room and larger crowds. It is easy to predict when there will be lots of kids. During winter/spring breaks and summer. If you dont want to be frustrated with kids and more crowded ships, avoid these times. I would be surprised if there were many kids on the 12/3 or 1/13 sailings. Choose wisely based on the experience you want to have. That being said, there were alot of older folks and honeymooners having a great time.

 

Buffet crowds: For breakfast, all of the ships have multiple identical buffet lines. The longest line will be the one that most people see first when they arrive. On the Freedom, the forward buffets lines were consistently more than double the length of the aft buffets. This is because most of the cabins are forward of the buffet. Also, there were always tables available on the aft side. It may appear that tables are full but there is constant turnover. There is no need to grab a table and then eat in shifts (this is a repeated complaint in reviews). Just as you are ready to sit down, others will be leaving. We ate at prime time every morning and never had a long line or could not get a table immediately for our family of 5. Also, check to see if there is not another dining area upstairs from the main buffet. On the Freedom, this was the fish and chips station. Even if the food station is closed, the seating is still open. We ate up there one morning and it was us and one other table. Same general principles hold for lunch on sea days.

 

Main Dining: Again, in reading the reviews, there is quite a range of experience with the main dining. We ate dinner in the main dining room every night except for the night that my wife and I did the Chef's Table. The Chef's Table experience gave us insight into how the dining rooms are organized and how they feed so many people so efficiently. We had a great experience in the dining room every night. My 22 yo son is a culinary student and was prepared to be very critical. Why did we have such a good experience versus other reviewers? FWIW, here is my opinion. First, have reasonable expectations. This is not to be compared to fine dining in a restaurant where everything is made specific to order. Instead, expect a very good banquet style experience. Even a very good wedding/gala facility would struggle with 3-4 menu options for large numbers of people. Carnival does a great job with the variety and numbers served. Second, ask your staff for recommendations. They know what is good and what guests have liked the best. Third, make it a point to learn your staffs names, home countries, family, etc. Have fun with them and they will have fun with you. Finally, (most controversial) use the set dining times. The structure and organization of the kitchen is designed to serve these times. It is my theory that the food is best at these times since they can prepare more predictably. Also, the staff has a set group of tables. After the first night, 20-30% of the people dont show up on any given night. We found the service to be consistently good with our 8:15 dinner time. It is more likely to be inconsistent with YTD in my opinion.

 

Shows: Dont get caught up in trying to get the front rows in the theaters. We found that we could get great seats for 5 in the balcony about 10 minutes prior to showtimes. Dont be afraid to sit with other people in the lounges and public areas. We met some super people this way.

 

Just my opinions but we have had 2 great Carnival cruises. Hope it is helpful.

[jimbo5544]

These boards have been very helpful to me in planning my vacations. I have read many reviews and postings about ships. We have now cruised on Princess, RCI, and Carnival with our last 2 cruisings. Having just returned from the Freedom, I thought I would post some of my thoughts on how we avoided some the issues that come up in the negative reviews.

 

Kids: Our sailing (12/17) had a ton of kids. Which means more people jammed 3-4 to a room and larger crowds. It is easy to predict when there will be lots of kids. During winter/spring breaks and summer. If you dont want to be frustrated with kids and more crowded ships, avoid these times. I would be surprised if there were many kids on the 12/3 or 1/13 sailings. Choose wisely based on the experience you want to have. That being said, there were alot of older folks and honeymooners having a great time.

 

Buffet crowds: For breakfast, all of the ships have multiple identical buffet lines. The longest line will be the one that most people see first when they arrive. On the Freedom, the forward buffets lines were consistently more than double the length of the aft buffets. This is because most of the cabins are forward of the buffet. Also, there were always tables available on the aft side. It may appear that tables are full but there is constant turnover. There is no need to grab a table and then eat in shifts (this is a repeated complaint in reviews). Just as you are ready to sit down, others will be leaving. We ate at prime time every morning and never had a long line or could not get a table immediately for our family of 5. Also, check to see if there is not another dining area upstairs from the main buffet. On the Freedom, this was the fish and chips station. Even if the food station is closed, the seating is still open. We ate up there one morning and it was us and one other table. Same general principles hold for lunch on sea days.

 

Main Dining: Again, in reading the reviews, there is quite a range of experience with the main dining. We ate dinner in the main dining room every night except for the night that my wife and I did the Chef's Table. The Chef's Table experience gave us insight into how the dining rooms are organized and how they feed so many people so efficiently. We had a great experience in the dining room every night. My 22 yo son is a culinary student and was prepared to be very critical. Why did we have such a good experience versus other reviewers? FWIW, here is my opinion. First, have reasonable expectations. This is not to be compared to fine dining in a restaurant where everything is made specific to order. Instead, expect a very good banquet style experience. Even a very good wedding/gala facility would struggle with 3-4 menu options for large numbers of people. Carnival does a great job with the variety and numbers served. Second, ask your staff for recommendations. They know what is good and what guests have liked the best. Third, make it a point to learn your staffs names, home countries, family, etc. Have fun with them and they will have fun with you. Finally, (most controversial) use the set dining times. The structure and organization of the kitchen is designed to serve these times. It is my theory that the food is best at these times since they can prepare more predictably. Also, the staff has a set group of tables. After the first night, 20-30% of the people dont show up on any given night. We found the service to be consistently good with our 8:15 dinner time. It is more likely to be inconsistent with YTD in my opinion.

 

Shows: Dont get caught up in trying to get the front rows in the theaters. We found that we could get great seats for 5 in the balcony about 10 minutes prior to showtimes. Dont be afraid to sit with other people in the lounges and public areas. We met some super people this way.

 

Just my opinions but we have had 2 great Carnival cruises. Hope it is helpful.

All good points..

[navybaby1113]

Very good points.

 

Are you planning on doing a review of your Freedom cruise?

[sonicbuffalo]

very good ideas...:)

[nhraformula00]

Nice review and I agree on everything . We were on the 12/3/11 sailing of the Freedom and there were only a handfull of children,most were under school age. Fish and chips is a great spot to eat,most people don't want go upstairs.We ate all of our lunch meals there.