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Carnival 'Special touches' gone?

Woody14

By Woody14,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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Guest BasicSailor

Guest BasicSailor

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, mosiegirl said:

i used to enjoy the little white dish in the bathroom that had samples in it..toothpaste, floss, nose strips etc..a nice treat to find..  i do also miss the mint on my pillow at night.. 

You forgot men's hair dye 😉

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HappySails4U

HappySails4U

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 2/16/2023 at 3:13 PM, nessz79 said:

The main dining room service isn't like it used to be. Not because the workers don't work hard- they do!! But there used to be more staff

In comparison to years past, it takes so much longer to eat in the MDR.   We often skip dessert just so we can make to a show on time.    Also amazing how long it takes them to clear the table between courses.

Edited by HappySails4U
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HappySails4U

HappySails4U

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, mosiegirl said:

i used to enjoy the little white dish in the bathroom that had samples in it..toothpaste, floss, nose strips etc..a nice treat

Yes that bathroom gift basket was a nice touch!   There was a time when a paperback romance ❤️ novel was included!!

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sanmarcosman

sanmarcosman

Posted
Posted (edited)
16 hours ago, ShakyBeef said:

 Too late to edit my PP.  So edit follows:

 

Edit: I forgot that a mild mint flavour was detected during the very scientific study in a batch of Carnival "chocolates" from circa 2010, so I deleted (rather, I would have deleted, if it hadn't been too late to do so🙄) the "if they ever did" clause about mint flavour.  Just keepin' it honest, y'all.😁

I don't miss them. They were mostly lecithin, not chocolate, and were akin to the same product used to make cheap easter confections like bunnies, etc. Now if Carnival had been putting Ghirardelli Chocolate Squares on the beds, those I would miss. Chocolate Caramel Squares | Ghirardelli

Edited by sanmarcosman
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Viajera7

Viajera7

Posted
Posted
On 2/16/2023 at 3:06 PM, Sundsgn said:

If looking back to when I first started cruising, late 90’s, things no longer that I remember, but were fun and just a nice touch: 

-mints or chocolates on pillows every night at evening turndown

-first night would also leave a brand new deck of Carnival playing cards, notepad, pen

-bar snacks at all the bars and half price happy hours of a specific drink of the day

-late night snacks/mini buffet on the plaza at midnight, grand gala buffet

-sample baskets in the bathrooms of toiletry items

-actual steel drum band on the lido

-live house orchestra/band pit for the main theater stage shows

-the ports were much different, way less built up and contained by the cruiselines themselves, more rustic if that makes sense

-super cheap morning bloody mary’s

-and call me crazy - I miss gazpacho! LOL

 

I know I’m forgetting something. It seems like every time we cruise, I tell my husband I miss something or they used to do this, etc…

Something else to add to the list: On the last day of the cruise, the waiter would give you a poster of the ship in the MDR. I liked those.

 

I don’t like to use my phone to make reservations for restaurants, to see the menu, to reserve shore excursions on board and to see the daily activities. I like to mark the activities on paper so I have to go to the coffee shop every morning to get the Fun Times because Guest

Services usually has a line.

 

Carnival was my first cruise  line and the one that hooked me to cruising but I am an equal opportunity cruiser and I compare things.

 

Carnival is charging for popcorn, It is still free on NCL ( back from the Joy about a week ago), the waiter still sweep the bread crumbs before the desert and coffee and the Freestyle Daily is still delivered in your cabin or by the door every night.

 

I still like Carnival. That’s why I still have cruises booked with them in August- September and October-November but this thread is not about that but things that we miss.

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nybumpkin

nybumpkin

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, sanmarcosman said:

We liked the set of 6 paper placemats they gave out at dinner near the end of the cruise. We would take them to our kids when we got home as part of our "we're back" gifts. Anyone else remember the placemats?

We have them from Victory (multiple cruises), Conquest, Liberty, Valor, and Legend - I think the latest was Valor in 2008. I'll post a photo if I can. I've been meaning to get them laminated.

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PA Dutchman

PA Dutchman

Posted
Posted
On 2/17/2023 at 4:48 PM, smwc71alum said:

My first cruise was in 1975.....You have no idea the changes for the good and the bad !  The good for example...endless food options.  The bad Mega ships !

The Mega ships just are to Mega, the new system sucks even to get a reservation , stick it on a app that dosen't work when you want it to, 

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Viajera7

Viajera7

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, nybumpkin said:

We have them from Victory (multiple cruises), Conquest, Liberty, Valor, and Legend - I think the latest was Valor in 2008. I'll post a photo if I can. I've been meaning to get them laminated.

 

1 hour ago, nybumpkin said:

Here's my placemat collection. Our server from Liberty (2007) autographed that set.

IMG_5484 (2).JPG

Were they placemats? I thought they were posters because of the nature of the paper material not suitable to put things on them unless you laminate them. I also got only one per cruise,

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nybumpkin

nybumpkin

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, Viajera7 said:

 

Were they placemats? I thought they were posters because of the nature of the paper material not suitable to put things on them unless you laminate them. I also got only one per cruise,

They were designed like placemats, but I wouldn't use them as such without laminating them. We got one per person (there were five of us).

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simplelife

simplelife

Posted
Posted

Lots of changes, for sure, but not all of them are bad. Booking and management of your cruise, and  embarkation and disembarkation are much more efficient than in the "pre-electronics" days. Back when we first cruised in 1998, there were no specialty dining choices - it was MDR (with fixed dining only) or Lido Buffet. Though some lament the relaxation of dress codes, packing is much simpler now. Does anyone else remember the days of envelopes for tips (before autotips)? You had to be sure to have cash (by the end of the cruise!) in the right denominations. There was no comedy club, no alchemy bar, no dive-in movies. 

 

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EngIceDave "Live from...." Rare

EngIceDave

Posted
Posted
On 2/18/2023 at 3:10 PM, ShakyBeef said:

PSA:  Carnival didn't leave a "mint on the pillow."  The Room Steward provided fake chocolates on top of the paper Funtimes (previously, on top of the Carnival Capers), beside the towel animal near the foot of the bed.  This may seem nitpicky of me, but so be it.  This oft-repeated "mint on the pillow" line is fiction.  They were "chocolates" (and I use that term in the loosest sense) on the bed, but not on the pillow.  And they haven't had any mint component since at least 2011, if they ever did.

 

For those interested, a very scientific😉 study concerning the cutback in quality of said "chocolates" (before they disappeared altogether) was conducted and reported on this thread, several years ago:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/1796910-those-quotchocolatequot-quotmintsquot-cutback/

 

PSA over, please continue with your discussion.

Thank you.

 

 

Change your name to "ShakyChocolate"

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