And HAL regulars sail Carnival lately?

[UPNYGuy]

On 2/24/2023 at 10:57 AM, Hlitner said:

Our last Carnival cruise was back in 2005 or 2006 on the Carnival Spirit.  We were on our way to Australia, stopped in CA for a few days, and grabbed a week Spirit cruise to the Mexican Riviera.  My one memory of that cruise was that the noise from the props, in part of the restaurant (Empire) was deafening.  I had never heard such a racket on any ship (we have been on more than 60 different cruise ships) and thought it must have been an engineering fiasco or an issue with a bad prop.  I always wondered if this had been repaired, or if it is a cavitation-related problem inherent in the design,

 

Hank

oh I’m assuming it would have been repaired. DW and I haven’t had any issues like that on the sisters in that class. 

[fsufancc]

Timing plays a large part when sailing with Carnival.  Around Spring Break and summer peak, is a mess.  We sailed the Breeze during Christmas some years ago with Mrs Fan's family.  It was a great ship and we enjoyed it.  We sailed a short 5 day on the Liberty during the first week of December.  It too was a great trip.

 

So again, timing is everything for Carnival.  

[Stateroom_Sailor]

On 2/24/2023 at 8:57 AM, Hlitner said:

Our last Carnival cruise was back in 2005 or 2006 on the Carnival Spirit.

 

This is in response to the time frame, for anyone who hasn't sailed Carnival recently.  Around this time, Carnival wanted to excel above Royal Caribbean in the fun ship category.  They had a similar concept to Oasis Class, called Project Pinnacle.

 

https://www.travelpulse.com/news/cruise/revisiting-carnival-s-forgotten-pinnacle-project.html

 

Hearsay, but I was told by several on the Carnival forum that the line reversed course and started slipping in 2009.  Our first cruise was in 2011, and I noticed no issues yet.  The buffet was not bad, similar to a mid-tier casino's, and the MDR was extremely good for the money.  The beds were very comfortable.

 

Our next was the Elation in 2015.  I couldn't even sleep on my mattress.  For the first 2 days of the cruise, crew were swapping mattresses around, dragging them down the hall, for hours.  I saw no new mattresses, so assume they swapped the more worn mattresses around until they were paired with easy sleepers.  The buffet was gross, dried out and poor quality.  Luckily they had a Mongolian Wok for lunch, and the MDR had not yet changed.

 

Our 2017 Carnival Pride cruise was largely inferior on all fronts, which was our final test.  The new pizza station was better, and our reposition cruise had "Academy of Fun" enrichment talks.  Everything else was the same as our prior cruise or worse.  We brought mattress toppers in preparation.

 

If Holland America and Princess have been hit with downgrades the last couple years, I can just about guarantee that Carnival Cruise Lines has not gone unscathed.

 

Edited March 2, 2023 by Stateroom_Sailor