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Within 24 hours of Panorama's 7 day cruise, already regret it.

ashkir

By ashkir,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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ScottsSweetie

ScottsSweetie

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

Carnival has thousands of crew members hired but US govt visa processors are moving at the speed of government.  The CD on Mardi Gras said they are trying to bring crew members onboard via other countries since the US isn't helping.

That's all fine and well. None of us can make the government move any faster, including Carnival. But they could lessen the impact on the cruising customer by lowering capacity until staffing becomes a non-issue.

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ontheweb Holiday Sharing Rare

ontheweb

Posted
Posted
36 minutes ago, ScottsSweetie said:

That's all fine and well. None of us can make the government move any faster, including Carnival. But they could lessen the impact on the cruising customer by lowering capacity until staffing becomes a non-issue.

Agree, but it is so much easier to blame it on the government. 🤦‍♂️

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Elaine5715

Elaine5715

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, ScottsSweetie said:

That's all fine and well. None of us can make the government move any faster, including Carnival. But they could lessen the impact on the cruising customer by lowering capacity until staffing becomes a non-issue.

So by denying access to cruising for some guests and lowering potential revenue for shareholders would lessen the impact?

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ScottsSweetie

ScottsSweetie

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

So by denying access to cruising for some guests and lowering potential revenue for shareholders would lessen the impact?

Haven't they already been doing this to a degree? Can't cruise if you're not vaccinated. Can't cruise if you're on oxygen. For several months you couldn't cruise without an exemption if you needed one. I'm a shareholder, and a cruiser - and I do not want a diminished product when I'm on the ship. I want adequate staffing in proportion to passenger capacity. 

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icft

icft

Posted
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33 minutes ago, ScottsSweetie said:

... and I do not want a diminished product when I'm on the ship. I want adequate staffing in proportion to passenger capacity. 

You have hit on a key point in my opinion. While some seem to be saying that Carnival has crunched the numbers and decided that they are better off maximizing passengers while providing a diminished product I have my doubts. I think this was unintentional and management miscalculated either demand or crew supply or both with the result they messed up big time. And I think they are now failing to quickly take action to minimize the consequences of their mistake and are instead playing the covid violin and "government is bad" card in search of forgiveness.

 

While I have seen companies go for the quick buck at the cost of their brand image, I haven't seen any that didn't decline in the years thereafter. But in this case I have to ask "what buck?" They are almost giving cruises away, and in some cases actually are giving them away. So any short term gain is small at the cost of a permanently devalued brand.

 

But they are free to do what they want. I just enjoy watching.

 

 

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countrydanceteacher

countrydanceteacher

Posted
Posted
On 5/8/2022 at 3:43 PM, ashkir said:

Guest services fixed the incorrect bar charges. They filed a complaint with the spa manager and apparently I’m not the only one in that line about it. Luckily I had the ad that showed they didn’t give me what is included. 
 

they said they’re aware of the app to being incorrect information and are working on fixing it. 
 

I paid full price for my cruise some time ago. Now when walking around I am noticing almost everyone had a blue card. The staff must be overwhelmed. 
 

tbis is far from my first cruise. But it’s the ONLY time I’ve ever had an issue with them. 

What is this "Blue Card" a few folks have mentioned ?

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Wennfred

Wennfred

Posted
Posted

Crazy to read this, I’ve sailed on Panorama 3x, Sept, Nov and Dec. all were the best cruises out of 28 now and did not experienced anything like what you went through. Currently  onboard Conquest now and arrive Miami at 4:15am so that they can go get Carnival Freedom passengers and bring them back home. Ashkir, time to start sailing with Royal.

 

have a good day.

 

 

Fred

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icft

icft

Posted
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16 minutes ago, MJSailors said:

@ashkir There is a saying...

 You get what you pay for. Keep that in mind when you book your next vacation.

Geez! Might want to look before you jump on a cliché. OP already said the cruise was booked long ago at regular prices.

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Itried4498

Itried4498

Posted
Posted (edited)
15 hours ago, icft said:

Geez! Might want to look before you jump on a cliché. OP already said the cruise was booked long ago at regular prices.

 

If the OP truly booked long ago at regular prices, than she would've been eligible for price protection, and thus the deeply discounted rate.

 

In recent weeks, we've seen a lot of negative reviews from veteran Carnival passengers who know every single trick & hack there is... except for price protection on the "full fare" they booked long ago.  

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Amadawn1

Amadawn1

Posted
Posted
On 5/8/2022 at 4:42 PM, mz-s said:


i have never seen the deli open that late, it’s always closed at 11pm.

I was on that same Panorama cruise.  The deli was closed at 9:30 PM.  The only non-fee dining available (post casino) at 10:30 pm was pizza.  With over 30 people in line. The late night snacks (11:30 pm-1 am) available on the Vista (4/9/22 - 4/16/22) are not available on Panorama.  Not sure if it's cutbacks due to staffing issues, or cutbacks to save money. Perhaps Vista is now doing the same thing.

 

My first time out of Long Beach and the embarkation was the worst I've ever experienced.  Thousands of people, with zero Carnival representatives.  I saw one port employee telling everyone there was only one line, and no way to see that there were 3 lines once you came around to the front/side of the building. Cruising solo made it impossible to hold my place in line to investigate further. I was sunburned by the time I boarded 😎    

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cruisingguy007

cruisingguy007

Posted
Posted
45 minutes ago, Amadawn1 said:

I was on that same Panorama cruise.  The deli was closed at 9:30 PM.  The only non-fee dining available (post casino) at 10:30 pm was pizza.  With over 30 people in line. The late night snacks (11:30 pm-1 am) available on the Vista (4/9/22 - 4/16/22) are not available on Panorama.  Not sure if it's cutbacks due to staffing issues, or cutbacks to save money. Perhaps Vista is now doing the same thing.

 

My first time out of Long Beach and the embarkation was the worst I've ever experienced.  Thousands of people, with zero Carnival representatives.  I saw one port employee telling everyone there was only one line, and no way to see that there were 3 lines once you came around to the front/side of the building. Cruising solo made it impossible to hold my place in line to investigate further. I was sunburned by the time I boarded 😎    

 

This was an anomaly, The Carnival Long Beach terminal is run very well. Lots of employees and never much wait.    

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Amadawn1

Amadawn1

Posted
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7 minutes ago, cruisingguy007 said:

 

This was an anomaly, The Carnival Long Beach terminal is run very well. Lots of employees and never much wait.    

That's good to hear.  My next cruise from there is to Alaska in September next year.  Hopefully things will be much smoother.  Plus the Miracle is a lot smaller.  Really looking forward to that cruise!

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southbayerLA

southbayerLA

Posted
Posted
On 5/8/2022 at 12:46 PM, ashkir said:

Hello all! I'm usually very quiet, but, I've been on CruiseCritic for many years. I usually don't have much to say because I enjoy cruise ships. But I just boarded the Panorama yesterday and my experience was anything but pleasant. I've been to Mexico and Alaska before on the cruises. Always enjoyed it. Never once had a bad experience... Until now. 

 

I've had issue after issue and am honestly pretty unhappy and already a day into this. 

- Checkin process/embarkation was chaotic. They disembarked late, which is okay. But there was no staff telling passengers anything. The luggage drop-off was almost non-existent and things were getting mixed up of things going on / off the ship.

- There was no organization of embarkation.

- There were limited check-in staff and security tables that made the process last until almost 4pm. 

 

Now we got to our cabin:

- We waited until the time we were told we can go.

- The bathroom was unclean. We had roaches as well. Never seen that before!

- Our stateroom had broken furniture.

- The laundry bag, and other standard forms were missing. Our steward had to give them to us so we can get a shirt pressed for elegant night.

 

Got our sail and sign cards!

- We found we were already charged almost $50 at a bar we haven't been to! 

 

Okay, maybe just a bad start yep? Went on the spa tour. We were promised a $249 deal for a couple. We were told we can get complimentary scrubs each day. Went today:

- They want $9 per person now. 

- $108 more in fees basically if we continue to use the facilities.

 

We went to Vista for breakfast. We used the app to check in. 

- Chaotic. One hostess. 

- There were massive lines of people down to the staircases just waiting. Everyone's table stated ready. They obviously weren't. The notifications were wrong. Nobody was ready and the movement was so slow because people who didn't checked in yet, were standing there and getting priority over people who did check in which caused a bigger mess.

- no regular orange juice. We were told they only have the specialty orange juices. 

- Took about 35 minutes before we even saw our server. 

 

Guest services

- Waited in a line for 2 hours to fight the bar contests yesterday (Before the spa issue). 

- Guest services only had 2 people the entire time we’ve been here that we've noticed. The one girl looks like she’s about to faint. I saw her at 10 pm last night and again at 8am when walking by. Again at noon just now. 

 

Kiosks

- The card readers are broken on the sail and sign places in the third floor. 

 

Food

- We wanted to go eat about 10pm. They already closed all the restaurants. 

- We went to the pizza place. 

- The only food is the pizza. Their pizza quality declined. We were given black burnt pizza. They ran out of basil as well. 

- Had to wait in a 25 minute long line, to only be told my preferred pizza isn't available, and told to wait and stand aside. Once it was available, they gave it to the next person in line... Three times! So it took me almost 45 minutes to get a pizza. This ordeal cost me almost an hour and a half

 

Our only enjoyable experience so far was the Italian restaurant dinner and the cabin bed is relaxing.

 

I'm already regretting this and we're only 1 day in. I skipped my college graduation to spend the travel money on a cruise instead. 

Other than that, you are having a great cruise!  Sorry, sounds like you are having the cruise from HELL

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ashkir Great Review Rare

ashkir

Posted
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Posted
1 hour ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

The cruise started May 8th so I'm sure the cruise from hell as you called it is way in the rear view mirror. 

It definately is. Second half 100% better. Huge amount of staffing issues in the first half. 

 

I'm going to Alaska for 10 days in September and Rome for 25 days next year already. 

 

This was just the worst experience I had on Carnival.

 

I 100% like the Spirit ships better. Vista class is too crowded. 

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