Tips for future guests on Venezia

[mleng]

We just came back from a 10-day cruise on Venezia out of Manhattan.  I posted my review and it’s waiting for the censor to approve, but I thought to provide a few more practical tips to folks on the boards here. 

 

1.    We had Oceanview Cabins on Deck 2 Aft.  Very spacious.  The best part was that the cabin had one and half bathrooms:  one had a shower, a toilet, and a sink, and the second one had a bathtub and a sink.  It’s great when I and my wife both needed to get ready.  If you are trying to squeeze 3 or 4 people in a cabin, having 2 bathrooms would be a life saver.
2.    Maybe due to the location of embarkation, the clientele of this cruise was much more multi-ethic and multi-culture.  What you may take for granted of certain etiquette and standard practices on a cruise are not necessarily the modus operandi by these folks.  My advice is that just be prepared as you go into this and try to be more patient.
3.    A lot of the guests on our cruise chose to eat in the Lido buffet than MDR. We did MDR 5 nights out of 10.  It’s never busy.  Each time, I used the App to “check in”, and a table was assigned to me within a couple of minutes.  And when we were in the dining room, we could see that the room was never more than half full.  On the other hand, dinner in Lido often required a 10-15 minute standing in line. On other cruises, when we had to eat in Lido, I managed to make it a similar experience as in a real restaurant by getting only one food item at a time – get the salad first, wait until my wife and I both finish the salad then go back for an entrée, then go back for dessert.  But with such long lines in Lido on Venezia, I had no choice but to pile up all the food on one plate.  The different foods were touching, the flavors were mixing, and I felt the need to eat everything quickly before it got cold, instead of leisurely eat and talk and focus on the interaction with my eating companions.  Basically, the crowdedness and the long lines in Lido totally destroyed the eating experience.  So my tip here is that during peak time of 6~7 PM, you can probably finish a dinner in MDR quicker than in Lido. 
4.    Manhattan Cruise Terminal is not good. We have done more than a dozen cruises mostly leaving from Ft Lauderdale and Bayonne.  In comparison to those 2 ports, the Manhattan Cruise Terminal looked old and ill equipped.  They paused the check-in process during embarkation because too many people were backed up on the gangway.  We had to stand in line for more than 30 minutes, with no water, no bathroom (because we didn’t know when the pause would be over).  Finally we made onto the ship an hour and half after arriving at the port.  On our 3 recent cruises, we never spent more than 20 minutes to embark, so this 90-minute process was a stark contrast.
5.    Disembarkation was just as bad as embarkation.  We opted to do self-assist.  The announcement was made at 7:30 that people could disembark, and we left our cabin at 8, but we didn’t get off the ship until 9. The gangway was on Deck 3, and we were on Deck 2, but they blocked off the hallways on Deck 2 and Deck 3 in mid ship without anybody stationed there to direct traffic, so we had to carry all the luggage from Deck 2 to Deck 4, walk from Aft to Fwd, then go back down to Deck 3. Once on Deck 3, there was this meandering long line that literally took us more than 30 minutes to go through.  As far as I could tell, the bottle neck was at the gangway where there were only 2 stations to scan people’s cards.  I am wondering if it’s a limitation by the port.  There was only one gangway during embarkation also. At all other ports, there were 2 gangways, but in NY, when the entire ship is trying to get on and off in the shortest time span, they only put out one gangway?  If you are flying out of NYC, don’t try to book any flight before noon, since you would not be off the ship by 9 AM at the earliest. 
6.    My last advice, and probably the harshest, is that if you don’t like cigarette smoke, don’t go on this ship. Unlike some cruise lines, Carnival still allowed smoking in the casino.  It’s located in the middle of Deck 4, with a stairwell right at the entrance of the casino, and the open Atrium of San Marco Piazza at the other entrance of the casino.  The smoke from the casino often wafted up and down to other decks.  On a couple of days, we could even smell it on Deck 2 Aft outside our cabin.  My wife was sensitive to smoke, so after the first day, we basically stopped going to the San Marco Piazza and the surrounding areas on Deck 3, 4, and 5.  We essentially missed out on all the shopping places and a lot of the entertainment options. 
 

[WhiteOptima]

For me the biggest issue with embarkation was the terminal employees were telling people to get in line as they were coming through the building.  We were sitting and our group A02 wasn’t called yet so we said screw it and went in line too.

 

Agree about the buffet!  If this is a Vista class ship they dropped the ball in the buffet because the other ships are way better.

 

There are some great itineraries coming up but not sure if I want to cruise out of Manhattan again.

[kona_wahine]

We cruised end of October and had pretty much same experience. People on  this cruise were very nice OR extremely rude. That was quite a turn off for me, but I was warned on TripAdvisor before hand that NY’ers have a tend to be rude, just the way of life there. 🤷‍♀️ casino smoke was horrible and worse when they tried to clean it with an overwhelming smell of air freshener. Yuck. Embarkation was actually pretty good for us, debarking was a bit ridiculous. We had the shuttle to JFK and what a mess out there trying to find the bus! That poor bus driver, I felt so bad for him. Rude, rude, entitled people. 

Edited December 13, 2023 by kona_wahine

[pe4all]

Even though NY is our homeport, we have waited on booking Venezia due to some of the problems Mieng mentioned.  We were hoping they would straighten out the embarkation/debarkation issues by now.  As far as Kona_wahine's comment on NYers tending to be rude - not all of us are - lol!  We have had the same issues with some Miami cruises.  As far as smoke on CCL ships go - I entirely agree.  Wish they would make the casino non-smoking, as the smell does tend to build up and drift to other parts of the ship.   We have embarked on CCL ships, walked through the empty casino and the smell of smoke could knock you off your feet.  They definitely need to work on their filtration systems.

[Haljo1935]

Sept embarkation was a smooth process - long, but smooth. We waited until our group was called. Disembarkation was beyond a disaster. There were 8 of us (not traveling together, just 8 random passengers) who all had pre-paid for JFK shuttle. It was pouring down 🌧 no shuttle to be found and nobody to help. The driver for the LGA shuttle was trying to help and eventually learned no shuttle was ordered so "they" were working on it. He eventually left to drive his shuttle and a woman came over to get 1 woman to go on a shuttle. We all followed and were told it was only for the 1 woman. That happened a few times and about 90 minutes of waiting my group of 2 were put on a huge shuttle by ourselves and taken to JFK.

Worst way ever to end a cruise!

As for the casino- the smoke was so bad at the 7 mid ship elevators we thought someone was smoking there. Cabin steward said it's always like that and he has a hard time breathing. The person leading the Behind the Fun tour said the ventilation system has issues and cannot keep up...

The cruise itself was great, couple minor hiccups as no cruise is perfect, crew fabulous, but we won't sail Venezia again until we hear the ventilation is improved - it was beyond horrible. 

[mleng]

@pe4all @kona_wahine Regarding the clientele of the ship, I don't think it's fair to simply say "New Yorkers are rude".  A big factor is that people that live in big cities (NY or Miami) tend to be louder and are used to smaller personal space.  It's just a different social norm. I had a friend in college who came from a different country. He was told "back off, you perv" when all he did was standing maybe a foot away from the middle aged lady in front of him at a supermarket checkout line.  Obviously that lady preferred to have more personal space and felt that he was encroaching to the point of being offensive.

 

Regarding Venezia, I noticed that a much higher percentage of the guests were black, appropriately reflecting the racial makeup of the population of major cities of NYC and Philly.  Also, a lot of them were first time cruisers -- I knew this because the comedians always asked the audience, and they were always surprised to hear the answers from the crowd.  And, (I don't know if it's correlated), based on what I saw, almost all the first time cruisers were black, at least on this ship. 

 

So, it's a combination of regional culture (tough Northeast vs polite Midwest), social norm (urban vs surburban), cultural difference (black vs white), and cruise experience (new vs old), that makes this cruise different from the typical cruise that people would expect with an overwhelming Caucasian AARP crowd.  Just to be clear, I am not making any judgment.  One is not better than the other.  I am just making an observation and trying to come up with an explanation why some people would consider the guests on Venezia "rude".  

 

[Crusin Karen]

I agree with everything everyone has said! I was on the 3rd sailing in June and hoped some issues had been worked out. I too was on deck 2 aft and spent a LONG time stuck in the middle of a line waiting to debark. I live in NE NJ and cruise from here exclusively  since I’m now solo and have 3 more cruises booked on her. I had to laugh about the food getting mixed together on your plate at the buffet. I HATE that but I can hear my dear mom saying to me when I was a little girl: it all gets mixed together in your stomach anyway. 🙄💓😋

[Frank12]

12 hours ago, pe4all said:

Even though NY is our homeport, we have waited on booking Venezia due to some of the problems Mieng mentioned.  We were hoping they would straighten out the embarkation/debarkation issues by now.  As far as Kona_wahine's comment on NYers tending to be rude - not all of us are - lol!  We have had the same issues with some Miami cruises.  As far as smoke on CCL ships go - I entirely agree.  Wish they would make the casino non-smoking, as the smell does tend to build up and drift to other parts of the ship.   We have embarked on CCL ships, walked through the empty casino and the smell of smoke could knock you off your feet.  They definitely need to work on their filtration systems.

You are correct about those extreme south Floridians! 😆  I think it's a big city thing.

[havanadaydreaming]

Had no issues ar embarkation. Debarkation is a hot mess. 

 

Longest lines ive ever seen at comedy shows.  Busiest casino ever. It tis smokey. Trivia always packed. 

 

Solid MDR. Great meat lasagna.   Folks in buffet often tried to cut in line. Otherwise guests pretty chill. 

 

I liked CD and fun squad. 

[Carnival Queen]

I agree with most of what has been said.  Will never cruise from NY again, although we live on Long Island - an absolute fiasco!!  We've sailed for 30 years and mostly in winter out of different Florida ports.  Hated having so many colder sea days (although we were actually lucky with good weather in the 60's, so we could be outside up on Serenity deck those days).

 

The first cruise we've ever been on that I was actually looking forward to going home!  The most diverse and interesting group of cruise passengers I've ever seen - and as it turns out, many of those cruising were not from the New York area, but from all over!!  I mentioned to several people that if you had to get on an airplane to get to a cruise port, why would you choose to sail out of NY than Florida in the winter???

 

Almost an all-out brawl watching NFL game on the big screen - Eagles vs. San Francisco - crazy fans going at it.  Have heard alot about fights on this ship.  Never had that experience on any ship/cruise before.

 

We are platinum and had early seating - requested a table for 2 - and wound up at a table for 8, which turned into 6.  Even after meeting with the maitre de on day 1 and getting on a list, we never got moved.  First time in almost 30 cruises that we never got our request.  Table mates were very nice, but just the principle . . . 

Food in MDR was mediocre.  Our wait staff team were great, but service was pretty slow.

 

We saw 4 comedians, all of who were very good -  but had to get there about 1/2 early to get a seat.

 

Not a fan of the Playlist Production shows - one was good early on with live musicians; magician and juggler weren't bad.

 

All in all, this was probably our least favorite Carnival cruise, and thinking our cruising days may be over.  Cruising certainly isn't what it used to be - so much has changed and so many cutbacks.  😒

[mz-s]

9 minutes ago, Carnival Queen said:

Cruising certainly isn't what it used to be - so much has changed and so many cutbacks.  😒

 

The special touches on Carnival are all gone. It may just be me but the overall vibe on Carnival is completely different than it was when I started cruising.

[MaryZ]

On 12/13/2023 at 12:48 AM, kona_wahine said:

We cruised end of October and had pretty much same experience. People on  this cruise were very nice OR extremely rude. That was quite a turn off for me, but I was warned on TripAdvisor before hand that NY’ers have a tend to be rude, just the way of life there. 🤷‍♀️ casino smoke was horrible and worse when they tried to clean it with an overwhelming smell of air freshener. Yuck. Embarkation was actually pretty good for us, debarking was a bit ridiculous. We had the shuttle to JFK and what a mess out there trying to find the bus! That poor bus driver, I felt so bad for him. Rude, rude, entitled people. 

Well it seems the "Rude, rude, entitled people obviously are NOT the New Yorkers....
We don't have to get on a shuttle to JFK to go home.  LOL

 

[Cherries Jubilee]

I enjoyed Venezia despite a few of its flaws. I planned on writing a review but the holidays are taking all my time at the moment. I’ll be sailing her again in February and I hope it’s at least an equally enjoyable experience.

 

I wouldn’t suggest this ship for anyone who loves spending most of their time on the lido deck because it is small and incredibly stuffy and hot when the roof is closed. I also don’t like the buffet setup. I think some of the passengers were more rude and irritated because of the lines unfortunately.

 

I thought the ship was beautiful and the food was pretty good. 
 

I didn’t mind the cold days because we still had a full cruise worth of hot days. I personally wouldn’t take a 7 day from NY in the winter but I’ll gladly take these longer itineraries. It’s too bad Carnival decided not to do winter in NY again.

[jimbo5544]

30 minutes ago, Cherries Jubilee said:

I enjoyed Venezia despite a few of its flaws. I planned on writing a review but the holidays are taking all my time at the moment. I’ll be sailing her again in February and I hope it’s at least an equally enjoyable experience.

 

I wouldn’t suggest this ship for anyone who loves spending most of their time on the lido deck because it is small and incredibly stuffy and hot when the roof is closed. I also don’t like the buffet setup. I think some of the passengers were more rude and irritated because of the lines unfortunately.

 

I thought the ship was beautiful and the food was pretty good. 
 

I didn’t mind the cold days because we still had a full cruise worth of hot days. I personally wouldn’t take a 7 day from NY in the winter but I’ll gladly take these longer itineraries. It’s too bad Carnival decided not to do winter in NY again.

Money pays bills

[Cherries Jubilee]

13 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Money pays bills

From the outside looking in it doesn’t look like Carnival had any trouble filling Venezia for the upcoming winter cruises but I understand if that’s not the case. They have to do what they have to do.

[jimbo5544]

2 minutes ago, Cherries Jubilee said:

From the outside looking in it doesn’t look like Carnival had any trouble filling Venezia for the upcoming winter cruises but I understand if that’s not the case. They have to do what they have to do.

This ships design is perfect for northern cruises, as we all know she was designed for another line and has been “adapted” to CCL.  They have a strong amount of experience sailing out of NYC and also sailing out of there year round.  Overall, I am sure they are pleased with cabins sales, but it comes down to revenue optimization. Add the weather variables (like right now as an example) and how they can affect itineraries, port missing, the cruise experience (nor’easters as example) and it is a pretty easy decision to make.  As I mentioned before, the options of ports from the northeast is limited (revenue limitation), fuel costs, etc, etc.  Add to that the Carnival marketing plan clearly tries to put the most ships in the most homeports in the US.  

[ZoeyVictoria]

We are currently on the Vista, experiencing our absolute worst cruise out of ninety-five on different cruise lines. I thought people were exaggerating about inedible and disgusting food, but now understand exactly what they were saying. They were also correct about the horrible design of the Liquid Lounge, and of the smoke. We are booked on the Venezia in January 2025 but will be canceling it as soon as we get home. Thank you to all of you who have posted here for confirming our concerns. 

[ZoeyVictoria]

26 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Inedible and disgusting food comments always win people over in the credibility department,  Tell us about your 95 cruises, which lines?   

 

Last night’s crawfish fettuccine was lukewarm and contained 2.5 pieces of crawfish the size of a small green pea and not a single one of the scallops listed in the description. The lobster was mushy and bland. The prime rib was full of ugly chunks of fat and was unappetizing enough to ruin the meal on its own. Yesterday’s lunch at JiJi’s (free) was carmelized pineapple pork noodles. There was one small piece each of pineapple, red pepper, and broccoli on the top of the large bowl of bland noodles, along with five small pieces of pork. They looked like garnishes instead of ingredients actually listed in the description of the dish. I was served an Emeril’s salad with peppercorn dressing in the description, absolutely dry, without a drop of dressing. When I requested salad dressing, I was eventually brought a container of garlic mayonnaise. The key lime pie in the buffet had not a drop of lime juice, was just sweetened condensed milk. The bass with Charleston grits was served in four small bites placed evenly over the grits, but that was fine because it was too hard and dried out to eat anyway. Even the tall cakes had more fluffy, flavorless icing made of vegetable shortening than actual cake.  The poblano and corn soup was a lukewarm and thin, like chicken broth thickened with potato flakes and has four carrot slivers on top - no peppers, potatoes, corn, or flavor. Mushroom soup pretty much the same, very watered down.  By the beginning of day three, instead of hunger as lunch and dinner times approached, I feel my stomach just clench and a feeling of dread. Only the second cruise ever where I was ready to go home days before the end of the cruise. 

My cruises have been about 50% Royal Caribbean and 30% Carnival, with about four each on Princess, Celebrity, and MSC. We have been on all five in 2023. We have also cruised on Norwegian three times but will no longer book with them. There have been cutbacks on all five lines, but none come even close to what Carnival has done. 

 

[jimbo5544]

1 minute ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

 

Last night’s crawfish fettuccine was lukewarm and contained 2.5 pieces of crawfish the size of a small green pea and not a single one of the scallops listed in the description. The lobster was mushy and bland. The prime rib was full of ugly chunks of fat and was unappetizing enough to ruin the meal on its own. Yesterday’s lunch at JiJi’s (free) was carmelized pineapple pork noodles. There was one small piece each of pineapple, red pepper, and broccoli on the top of the large bowl of bland noodles, along with five small pieces of pork. They looked like garnishes instead of ingredients actually listed in the description of the dish. I was served an Emeril’s salad with peppercorn dressing in the description, absolutely dry, without a drop of dressing. When I requested salad dressing, I was eventually brought a container of garlic mayonnaise. The key lime pie in the buffet had not a drop of lime juice, was just sweetened condensed milk. The bass with Charleston grits was served in four small bites placed evenly over the grits, but that was fine because it was too hard and dried out to eat anyway. Even the tall cakes had more fluffy, flavorless icing made of vegetable shortening than actual cake.  The poblano and corn soup was a lukewarm and thin, like chicken broth thickened with potato flakes and has four carrot slivers on top - no peppers, potatoes, corn, or flavor. Mushroom soup pretty much the same, very watered down.  By the beginning of day three, instead of hunger as lunch and dinner times approached, I feel my stomach just clench and a feeling of dread. Only the second cruise ever where I was ready to go home days before the end of the cruise. 

My cruises have been about 50% Royal Caribbean and 30% Carnival, with about four each on Princess, Celebrity, and MSC. We have been on all five in 2023. We have also cruised on Norwegian three times but will no longer book with them. There have been cutbacks on all five lines, but none come even close to what Carnival has done. 

 

Thanks for the reply

[mz-s]

50 minutes ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

We are currently on the Vista, experiencing our absolute worst cruise out of ninety-five on different cruise lines. I thought people were exaggerating about inedible and disgusting food, but now understand exactly what they were saying. They were also correct about the horrible design of the Liquid Lounge, and of the smoke. We are booked on the Venezia in January 2025 but will be canceling it as soon as we get home. Thank you to all of you who have posted here for confirming our concerns. 

 

I have spoken at length about the disgusting food I ate on my last Carnival cruise. It was so bad I knew people would accuse me of hyperbole. I am sorry that you realized it was the truth too late.

[pe4all]

Terrible that people are going hungry on CCL ships due their dislike of the food.  We have never had that problem.  Have always found something  to eat- and have never come back down weight.  I am looking forward to our upcoming Magic cruise. Reading through jam19872016f's ongoing Magic review (food pics) it looks like I will have to do a lot of walking to work off the calories.  Btw - we never booked Royal after our first (and only) cruise on them due to the inedible food.  To each their own.  Hope everyone has only good cruises to end the year, and all future cruises.  Happy Holidays!

Edited December 15, 2023 by pe4all

[jimbo5544]

10 minutes ago, pe4all said:

Terrible that people are going hungry on CCL ships due their dislike of the food.  We have never had that problem.  Have always found something  to eat- and have never come back down weight.  I am looking forward to our upcoming Magic cruise. Reading through jam19872016f's ongoing Magic review (food pics) it looks like I will have to do a lot of walking to work off the calories.  Btw - we never booked Royal after our first (and only) cruise on them due to the inedible food.  To each their own.  Hope everyone has only good cruises to end the year, and all future cruises.  Happy Holidays!

Bingo, we are in the VAST majority.  Love your view.

[Frank12]

11 minutes ago, pe4all said:

Terrible that people are going hungry on CCL ships due their dislike of the food.  We have never had that problem.  Have always found something  to eat- and have never come back down weight.  I am looking forward to our upcoming Magic cruise. Reading through jam19872016f's ongoing Magic review (food pics) it looks like I will have to do a lot of walking to work off the calories.  Btw - we never booked Royal after our first (and only) cruise on them due to the inedible food.  To each their own.  Hope everyone has only good cruises to end the year, and all future cruises.  Happy Holidays!

We were just on the Liberty and the MDR food was some of the best in recent memory! The new Emeril's selections are the bomb! The crawfish fettucine was loaded with crawfish...and it was delicious!

[ZoeyVictoria]

1 hour ago, pe4all said:

Reading through jam19872016f's ongoing Magic review (food pics) it looks like I will have to do a lot of walking to work off the calories. 

His great review was the main reason I was looking forward to the new menus. For instance, I couldn’t wait to try the pepper steak with “cheesy potato straws” because of @jam19872016 ‘s photo. What I was served was the same pepper steak, but topped with plain, cold, unsalted, crinkle French fries. There were literally three spots of a watery yellow substance scattered  on top of the dish.  When asked by the waiter, I very nicely stated that I expected cheese sauce on the fries.  He pointed to one of the spots and said, “See that yellow spot?  That is the cheese.”  Apparently it is specifically the Vista that is having trouble producing meals that actually match Carnival’s menu descriptions. 
 

Edited to add:  I don’t mind the lack of tablecloths, but I was not thrilled with the waiter removing my used fork from my appetizer plate and laying it on the table so I could use it again for my entree. 
 

 

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by ZoeyVictoria

[MsTabbyKats]

Watch out for me on the Venezia next month....as I'm a rude NYer.

 

Our "subway and elevator etiquette" involves "keep to your right getting off and keep to your right getting on".  That way there's a flow of traffic.

 

Also...when on a bus...first one to stand up is the first one to get off.

 

This may not be how things are done in the Midwest or in small towns or cities....but if we didn't do it this way, we'd be left on the platform waiting for the next train...or the bus would start moving before we reached the door.