Oh Man, This Is Hard......

[inco]

Sometimes things happen and people can't always be happy. I'm sure there are other very good cruise lines out there that we could try, but won't, for now.

 

We did our first cruise in 2008 - the Carnival Freedom in the Med and loved it. We loved the cruise, the ship, the people and of course the food. We loved it so much we went back last year and did the TA on the Magic. Again we loved it - so much so we decided to buy the shares and reduce our cruising costs even more.

 

We made a decision that we liked the cruising life and we have decided that Carnival delivers what we want and so there isn't a valid reason for us to try any other line. We did another in January and as you can see we are headed to Australia for a 17 day cruise.

 

Maybe we have lower expectations or standards compared to others, but golly Carnival delivers what we want and so we will stay. And then there is the JH factor as another added rumpy pumpy attraction. You gotta love John. As the brand ambassador, he is priceless.:rolleyes:

[klmorg]

Change is good, and variety is the spice of life, and life is short... so go enjoy!

[Seago2]

Putting down RCL mega ships without having tried them.. people will use anything to justify their choices me thinks. :rolleyes: Oasis was so wonderful that I had to book Allure. I did Oasis twice btw. The price is worth it. The food is better than other RCL ships a step above.

 

If you want to do other cruiselines fine, but I never can understand someone who says I would not like something else because its too expensive for me.. but others should open their wallets and try HAL and Princess and X?? Your logic is strange.

 

I have done Princess twice and have Celebrity booked. I only can cruise so much and cruising too much as it is according to my family.. or I would do a lot more lines. I was thinking NCL but the Carnival Hawaii came along. I can only do so much .. but I dont put down lines and ships I have never tried.

 

Open your own mind.

 

The people who I know that have tried Royal absolutely LOVE it. My son had a great time on the Liberty shake down cruise. No doubt that people adore that cruise line. That said, I am about to put my head down to sleep on a cruise ship for the 100th time and I know what I like by now in terms of size of ship and amount of fellow pax. I am all for trying everything- after all, I did a ten day on MSC and there are so many people who won't set foot on an MSC ship- but the large ships are not for me.

 

Thank you for the advice to open my own mind. Keep it classy, San Diego!

[zqvol]

really, really hard. 1st of all, I absolutly LOVE Carnival. :D That being said, I just wanted to say Good Bye (for now) to all my Carnival friends. :( I do believe that Carnival is a wonderful line and I have had many amazing cruises with them. However, with the new "improvments" (meaning Fun Ship 2.0), I can see that they are trying to get away with as little of everything as possible with still having people sail with them. On my last cruise (which was not only wonderful but also a B2B, we had no lido band (other than a DJ who doesnt't count), and other cut backs in entertainment (dining, nightlife, entertainment, etc) that tell me that don't care about repeat passengers. I could tell you many stories about what we went through to get our Platinum recognition (and no, we aren't the kind to just want things for free or complain about a line just so we freebees, this is the 1st time I've complained). It took us almost 2 weeks (which were 2 seperate 7 Day Cruises) to get what we we were intilted to. It shouldn't be that hard.

 

I feel like the only way to tell Carnival what we (their most loyal passengers) want to to give them the finger (so to speak) in the only way I can. I really hope I'm not the only one who's disappointed with Carnival.

 

My next cruise will probably be with RCI (who I have never been really fond of because of their negative attitude towards Carnival) or NCL (who I know nothing about).

 

No flaming please, I do love Carnival I just thing that for now, until they get things straight, tough love is the best love and that mean going with other lines (for now).

 

I would love to hear other's opinions on this!!!!

 

Like I said, I had an AMAZING B2B cruise on the Dream and I really hope to sail with Carnival again in the future!!!! :D

 

Just please dpon't dis or pick on or be rude to me. I just am trying to help the line I love.

 

Carnival, I hope you get your act together and I can't wait to sail with you again sometime!!!! :D

 

It seems that you have seen first hand what a number of people have been saying for the past two or three years.

[halos]

as a company, CCL does not care about you. Same for RCL, NCL. Of course they want your business, but they care for you about as much as McDonalds does after you eat a burger and leave.:)

 

See, I don't believe this.

On Cruise Critic ALONE, NCL addresses issues that posters have.

Threads over there seldom get out of hand like they do here...why?? Bceause NCL reads them and responds to the person who has questions or issues or complaints, right then and there.

What happens to complaints, questions or concerns here??? Let's see...what happens now is that people drag the comments over to JH and he posts them, mocks them and the cheerleaders all gang up to support him.

THAT is my new impression of the 'care' of a Cruise line that I used to adore.

 

On the times I have written NCL with reviews of my cruises, not only have they CALLED me to follow up, but on two occasions, officers that I have complimented hand wrote me letters of thanks for the compliments that I sent to corporate....

CCL seldom responds to letters sent to corporate any more (good or bad) and when they do, it is basically a form letter with a few personal changes in there. Also, not everyone is even given an email survery after they cruise. It's random and I haven't gotten an email survey yet.

 

I have no idea how Royal is, but from my experience the level of care is different between NCL and CCL....which is just a small part of why my loyalties have switched.

[firefly333]

The people who I know that have tried Royal absolutely LOVE it. My son had a great time on the Liberty shake down cruise. No doubt that people adore that cruise line. That said, I am about to put my head down to sleep on a cruise ship for the 100th time and I know what I like by now in terms of size of ship and amount of fellow pax. I am all for trying everything- after all, I did a ten day on MSC and there are so many people who won't set foot on an MSC ship- but the large ships are not for me.

 

Thank you for the advice to open my own mind. Keep it classy, San Diego!

 

My post was in regard .. have you tried Oasis or Allure specifically before you condemn all mega ships?? since you avoided the question, Im guessing thats a no. ..they are fascinating in their own way. I dont think people can know they would not like these ships because they did other semi large ships. To me only Allure and Oasis are mega ships, the others are just large and larger. So you fell back to how many cruises you have done as proof you would not like what you have not tried.

 

I think you cant condemn what you have not tried. Sorry, but I also would condemn someone on the RCL boards who would say they dont like Carnival, but have never tried it.

 

Keep it classy .. ok. I just think if you have not tried something you might be surprised before you condemn it.

[Fireball027]

Over the last few cruise I have witnessed some of the cutbacks, but I still choose to have a great time and go back again. No matter what ship, cruise line, or itinerary people choose there are going to be some people that absolutely love it and some that do not. I personally and also my family have done other cruise lines and each one has there pros and cons.

 

With price being a factor at this point I do continue to choose carnival. When a 4 hour flight to the port costs almost $400 a person and I can spend a whole week on the ship for just slightly more which includes all my food and accommodations. I really can’t complain about the cruise and have a great time.

[stevenr597]

Oh yeah, that should do it. I am sure they will be working double overtime to fix things so you will come back, or more likely, they could not care less. Somebody will take your spot and have an amazing cruise.

 

Enjoy your new line.

That is a rather mean comment

[Azure Moon]

O.P., Avril, I agree with the other posters saying there is nothing wrong with trying other lines. Nothing says you can't sail on Carnival again someday.

 

I know my husband and I may sail with Carnival again someday, but for the moment we're happier sailing on another line that gives us the kind of experience we're wanting on our vacations.

 

 

People say Carnival doesn't really care if people stop sailing with the line, that there will be other cruisers to take their place. True. But at some point, they'll want - and need - their prior cruisers to return.

 

When the Costa Concordia went down, I bet more people who haven't been on a cruise second guessed doing a cruise for the time being, while seasoned cruisers weren't quite ready to step away from the pier. That's one time when having your previous cruisers still wanting to sail with you comes in handy. Another time is when the economy is bad, as we've seen in the not too distant past. Cruise fans will cruise, come heck or high water, while others might stick closer to home or do an all-inclusive, or some other type of vacation.

 

We've recently gotten a couple of e-mails from Carnival saying something to the effect of Where have you been? We want you back, etc. I don't remember getting anything like that before now. So either they have a lot more ships with cabins that need filling, they've seen a reduction in the number of past cruisers booking with them, or whatever, but they've put it in my mind that they have a need, and want me to fill it.

 

About the e-mails, I thought from the sound of one of them that they were going to ask why we haven't been sailing with them, but it didn't. Too bad, because I think they'd do themselves a great service by finding out that information. What current passengers and past passengers think about their experiences on the line is important and could help them when deciding what needs work and what doesn't.

 

Problem is, from what I've been reading about Carnival since my last cruise with them in 2008, I don't think I'd be a very happy sailor with them right now because some of the things I wasn't too crazy about on my last sailings are still going on, and in some cases, gotten worse.

[Azure Moon]

See, I don't believe this.

On Cruise Critic ALONE, NCL addresses issues that posters have.

Threads over there seldom get out of hand like they do here...why?? Bceause NCL reads them and responds to the person who has questions or issues or complaints, right then and there.

What happens to complaints, questions or concerns here??? Let's see...what happens now is that people drag the comments over to JH and he posts them, mocks them and the cheerleaders all gang up to support him.

THAT is my new impression of the 'care' of a Cruise line that I used to adore.

 

On the times I have written NCL with reviews of my cruises, not only have they CALLED me to follow up, but on two occasions, officers that I have complimented hand wrote me letters of thanks for the compliments that I sent to corporate....

CCL seldom responds to letters sent to corporate any more (good or bad) and when they do, it is basically a form letter with a few personal changes in there. Also, not everyone is even given an email survery after they cruise. It's random and I haven't gotten an email survey yet.

 

I have no idea how Royal is, but from my experience the level of care is different between NCL and CCL....which is just a small part of why my loyalties have switched.

 

I couldn't agree with you more, NCL does seem to care about their passengers thoughts and experiences - when we're on their ships, when we're at home, and when we're on message boards wishing we were on one of their ships :D.

[DGP1111]

. . . but from my experience the level of care is different between NCL and CCL....which is just a small part of why my loyalties have switched.

 

I'm another person in total agreement with that statement.

And in about 24 hours, I might agree with it even more!! :D

.

.

[MrPete]

See, I don't believe this.

On Cruise Critic ALONE, NCL addresses issues that posters have.

Threads over there seldom get out of hand like they do here...why?? Bceause NCL reads them and responds to the person who has questions or issues or complaints, right then and there.

What happens to complaints, questions or concerns here??? Let's see...what happens now is that people drag the comments over to JH and he posts them, mocks them and the cheerleaders all gang up to support him.

THAT is my new impression of the 'care' of a Cruise line that I used to adore.

 

On the times I have written NCL with reviews of my cru ises, not only have they CALLED me to follow up, but on two occasions, officers that I have complimented hand wrote me letters of thanks for the compliments that I sent to corporate....

CCL seldom responds to letters sent to corporate any more (good or bad) and when they do, it is basically a form letter with a few personal changes in there. Also, not everyone is even given an email survery after they cruise. It's random and I haven't gotten an email survey yet.

 

I have no idea how Royal is, but from my experience the level of care is different between NCL and CCL....which is just a small part of why my loyalties have switched.

 

Funny that you typed this.

 

I was just over there reading and I guess the new Carnival thing is to publish customer complaints, leaving all the readers to publicly poke fun at that poster and their complaint.

 

Reminds me of grade school, and not a multi million dollar company.

 

A bit odd if you ask me.

[old sole]

from my experience the level of care is different between NCL and CCL....which is just a small part of why my loyalties have switched.

 

Add another one to the "me too" list for Halos' perceptive post. We still enjoy Carnival and our next two cruises are already booked and are with Carnival.

 

But having recent NCL experience also, I can say that their level of attention to Guest's comments, opinions, and questions really stands out. Just one shipboard example - CC Meet & Greets on NCL cruises I have been on have been attended by Sr Officers including the Captain or Staff Captain, Head Chef, Maitre 'd, Hotel Director, and Cruise Director, all of whom addressed the group on what their areas of responsibility were, what we had to look forward to, and asked for feedback during and after the cruise on how they were doing. And to prove the point that they really were interested, each of them handed out business cards with their direct numbers. More importantly, you got the feeling that they were sincere about it.

[halos]

Funny that you typed this.

 

I was just over there reading and I guess the new Carnival thing is to publish customer complaints, leaving all the readers to publicly poke fun at that poster and their complaint.

 

Reminds me of grade school, and not a multi million dollar company.

 

A bit odd if you ask me.

 

Funny you should mention THAT..I just saw what you are speaking of and it made me upset...

Now, don't get me wrong, the complaint was a bit insane...(if you are talking about the FB one) and even if I had witnessed/heard someone with that complaint while on board a ship, I probably would have come here and posted it.

BUT I am not a Carnival employee.

All I could think was, I used to work with the public, so I know how crazy people are and if I had 'one of those' people, I would often come home and rant to my dh about the insanity.

However, even though I only worked for a small business, if I'd have posted about that person on a blog or a FB page...just to get a very predictable response from my followers...I'd have been fired in no time flat.

I just don't understand this. I have been saying this for months. It makes NO sense to me how Carnival is OK with it.

:confused::confused:

 

It is such a turn off. WHY would you treat your customers like this???

 

 

Add another one to the "me too" list for Halos' perceptive post. We still enjoy Carnival and our next two cruises are already booked and are with Carnival.

 

 

 

But having recent NCL experience also, I can say that their level of attention to Guest's comments, opinions, and questions really stands out. Just one shipboard example - CC Meet & Greets on NCL cruises I have been on have been attended by Sr Officers including the Captain or Staff Captain, Head Chef, Maitre 'd, Hotel Director, and Cruise Director, all of whom addressed the group on what their areas of responsibility were, what we had to look forward to, and asked for feedback during and after the cruise on how they were doing. And to prove the point that they really were interested, each of them handed out business cards with their direct numbers. More importantly, you got the feeling that they were sincere about it.

 

 

 

Absolutely. And on every NCL cruise I have taken, the Hotel Director is out and about on the ship all day, every day, talking to people to find out how his team is doing, and is there anythign he can do to make their experience better....

 

I have never seen ANY Hotel Director on any of my CCL cruises except at the end of the cruise at the farewell show.

 

 

 

IT's a very small touch..it costs NCL nothing so I don't want to hear how CCL is cheap and I shouldn't want a BMW at a Honda price.

 

NCL has quite a few of those little touches, just like following up on written letters/reviews that cost them nothing and make my experience that much better..on top of the ones that do cost them money, like more live music (which is what I miss on CCL the most)..and my cruises on NCL are not much more than what I pay to sail CCL.

[topofE]

Was it the post about what movie was being played in the pool area? I had to stop reading the comments because of all the "Go Sail Disney if you don't like it!" Like that's a real mature insult...Carnival has made their name by being a "family cruise".

[topofE]

By "live band" you don't mean the calypso band right? They're still there?? :o:eek:

[halos]

Was it the post about what movie was being played in the pool area? I had to stop reading the comments because of all the "Go Sail Disney if you don't like it!" Like that's a real mature insult...Carnival has made their name by being a "family cruise".

 

No...I did see that one but in a similar fashion there was a person who had issues with the sea conditions....obviously nothing any cruise line can do about mother nature, but I don't think the woman's complaint needed to be facebook conversation.

 

It's constant...Ridiculous things get posted, some real and some I imagine are just trolls, but either way, the groupies all pounce.

It's SO unprofessional.

 

 

 

By "live band" you don't mean the calypso band right? They're still there?? :o:eek:

 

Live music: NCL has a LOT more of it...out on deck and inside the ship as well.

[pe4all]

They say variety is the spice of life. Unfortunately, the prices of the other lines are veeery expensive for when I can cruise. (school vacations) We, too, will "wander" in the future - after I run out of itineraries I like on CCL. I still have Hawaii and Alaska on my bucket list!:)

[zqvol]

See, I don't believe this.

On Cruise Critic ALONE, NCL addresses issues that posters have.

Threads over there seldom get out of hand like they do here...why?? Bceause NCL reads them and responds to the person who has questions or issues or complaints, right then and there.

What happens to complaints, questions or concerns here??? Let's see...what happens now is that people drag the comments over to JH and he posts them, mocks them and the cheerleaders all gang up to support him.

THAT is my new impression of the 'care' of a Cruise line that I used to adore.

 

On the times I have written NCL with reviews of my cruises, not only have they CALLED me to follow up, but on two occasions, officers that I have complimented hand wrote me letters of thanks for the compliments that I sent to corporate....

CCL seldom responds to letters sent to corporate any more (good or bad) and when they do, it is basically a form letter with a few personal changes in there. Also, not everyone is even given an email survery after they cruise. It's random and I haven't gotten an email survey yet.

 

I have no idea how Royal is, but from my experience the level of care is different between NCL and CCL....which is just a small part of why my loyalties have switched.

 

 

Exactly!

[larkz]

Well, I think the OP should be sure to contact Carnival (if they haven') and air their complaints. I still think Carnival is by far the best bang for the buck, and I'm overall quite satisfied with the four cruises I've been on -- but in a free market a consumer has a right and responsibility to be his or her own advocate. Any company worth its salt will monitor the opinions and comments of customers, and will then do whatever it can to strike a balance between the quality of service and profit.

 

If I receive acceptable meals, clean lodging, and a week on a ship at sea, I'm 90 percent satisfied. Pretty simple. A few irritating issues really strike me as important: I wish they would upgrade their satellite Internet service, I wish they knew how to manage a website, and it would be wonderful if their customer service representatives had a clue about Carnival or cruising in general. Everyone has their own list of gripes.

 

All in all, I'm still happy. But part of the reason that I'm happy is that customers have raised their voices in the past and let Carnival know what they like and don't like.

[PROCRUISE]

CCL is what it is: a fun way to take a cruise at a value price. It is smart, if one can, to branch out and try other cruise lines, as we've done. The way one is treated aboard a Celebrity ship is phenomenal compared to CCL. However, you are indeed paying a higher price and X has put a great deal of effort and training into making sure that EVERY staff member and officer interacts with passengers continually. If you never try another cruise line you won't see this subtle difference. Being finally retired I can now choose to go X, HAL if I want this upscale cruising experience which is why I'll be back with X next Jan. out of Singapore, certainly an itinerary not offered by CCL. However, I'm also booked on The Breeze at the end of this year because naturally I want to see the decor changes but also because I know I'll still have a good time on CCL too.

[e150club]

My Brother took a cruise on "X" last month. He thought the MDR staff were overworked and sevice was slow. I guess all the lines are cutting back and over working the crew. I hope we enjoy our next cruise as much as we have in the past.

[tntornadox]

All cruise lines are facing cutbacks, it's been an issue since the recession began and will probably get worse before it gets better thanks to the Concordia collision. Cruise lines have to make money and somewhere someone (or all of them) crunched the numbers and decided it would be more cost effective to make cuts instead of hiking fares, which would probably drive away more people than the cuts have/will.

[petesweet]

I know Im sleepy .. but what report .. about what? If you think Carnival will buy out others, no. I cant figure out what you mean. Carnival is trying to ... what>?

 

I thought I was alone in not understanding this.

 

Kathy

[jenninlaca]

Avril, I hope you enjoy yourself and find something better on other cruise lines! Absolutely nothing wrong with trying any or all of them. It seems like they all have something a bit different to offer. We are going to try Allure of the Seas next June because we have heard such great things about it. I think you don't know until you try.

 

Its funny and strange to me how some people on these boards seem personally offended when someone criticizes Carnival or says that they are going to try something new.