Fresh off the Venezia: The Good, The Bad, The NYC

[MsTabbyKats]

We had excellent service...cabin, MDR, buffet...no complaints.  As a matter of fact, DH was using his cane, and staff in the buffet went out of their way to bring him beverages when I was off getting food for him.

 

We absolutely never had a problem with buffet seating....always lots of room.  And never long lines....we at at the rear buffet.

 

My only critique, probably not important to most....is that there is NO incline in the theatre, so if you're short, run to get first row seats.  In general...whomever designed that space needs to go back to "Theatre Design 101".

 

We had a balcony on the Lido....quiet and convenient, with lots of storage room.

 

The brunch was excellent, much better than the breakfast buffet.  Dinner in the MDR wasn't for us...much preferred the lunch/dinner buffet.  Also....sharing a table with strangers is ok for 30 minutes, but then small talk is awkward.  Hamburgers (my first in about a decade) was great.

 

A note about my husband's cane:  On the last night he left it "somewhere" and nobody turned it in to lost and found.  Why would someone keep a cane???  Anyway, it was a miracle in disguise...I was panicking about him getting off the ship.  But was like an instant rejuvination (think "Elmer Gantry"....he walked perfectly (fast too) without it.

 

To sum it up....based on the initial reviews I set the bar really low.  We were both so pleasantly surprised about what a nice cruise this turned out to be!

[MadManOfBethesda]

On 1/21/2024 at 3:59 AM, matymil said:

MarQ: We sailed with him before, but it was back in 2016 when he was part of the Vista fun squad with Cookie, Nono and Matt Mitcham. You can see a blend of Cookie and Matt Mitcham with his energy and quick wit. Everyone in our group and everyone else we talked to all seemed to love him. He is easily our favorite Carnival CD now. 

That just goes to show how everyone's tastes and experiences are different. We were on Venezia over Christmas and my wife and I both agreed that he was our least favorite CD in over 40 years of sailing. I found him to be extremely irritating and dreaded anytime he began making an announcement.

[IntrepidFromDC]

6 hours ago, MadManOfBethesda said:

That just goes to show how everyone's tastes and experiences are different. We were on Venezia over Christmas and my wife and I both agreed that he was our least favorite CD in over 40 years of sailing. I found him to be extremely irritating and dreaded anytime he began making an announcement.

Agreed that different people view cruise directors differently.  Some people love them, rank them, love talking about them.  I find them annoying without exception.  It's just a matter of how annoying they are.  To me, marq was up there with the "more annoying than average" but not "most annoying".  I love the Alaska cruises because the naturalist/scientist boards and takes over with announcements and cruise director takes back seat.  The naturalist announcements are interesting and add to the cruise experience.

[Butterbean1000]

On 1/22/2024 at 2:32 PM, matymil said:

Probably not. It's our least favorite ship but that's just our opinion. Again it's absolutely gorgeous but logistically you can tell it just wasn't meant for our market or for a crowded ship tbh. 

We did it, we booked Venezia for next Christmas.   She'll be in Canaveral and closer to home.  The hubs is really looking forward to a different type ship.  I'm sure we'll enjoy our cruise, we always do.

[skywalkr2]

12 minutes ago, Butterbean1000 said:

We did it, we booked Venezia for next Christmas.   She'll be in Canaveral and closer to home.  The hubs is really looking forward to a different type ship.  I'm sure we'll enjoy our cruise, we always do.

 

I think you will love it.  My only complaint about Venezia was the Theater being too small for our Canada cruise.  I am sailing again on her in April on 10 day Caribbean, and hopefully that itinerary will decrease the theater traffic.

[MsTabbyKats]

1 hour ago, skywalkr2 said:

 

I think you will love it.  My only complaint about Venezia was the Theater being too small for our Canada cruise.  I am sailing again on her in April on 10 day Caribbean, and hopefully that itinerary will decrease the theater traffic.

That theatre was the most poorly designed theatre I've ever been in.  No raise in the ochestra level and weird angles from the sides.  MarrQ invited the early show attendees back to see that later show, so space wasn't an issue (9 day Jan cruise).

[MarkieMarkNYC]

We are day 3 of our trip. Our fellow passengers remain friendly and polite and the staff are uniformly great. Seriously, the staff are amazing. 
The kids on board are well-behaved. Maybe I’m just super lucky. 

[momof3cruisers]

deleted comment

Edited January 26 by momof3cruisers

[dandeck]

On 1/21/2024 at 2:59 AM, matymil said:

Ive had afew days to process our cruise on the Carnival Venezia and I wanted to give my honest thoughts of the whole experience. It seems like the Venezia and departure port of NYC are pretty polarizing amongst cruisers these days so just remember that this is my honest opinion of my experiences. We may not have the same opinion but it doesnt mean that either are wrong 🙂 Quick background; I was on the Venezia sailing leaving on 1/5/24 (HMC/Nassau/Freeport) out of NYC with my wife and 5 year old son. This is my 14th cruise, all with Carnival, 4th out of NYC and 1st on the Venezia.

 

The Good:

The ship: It is absolutely gorgeous. It looks nothing like any other Carnival but at the same time still seems very familiar because it is essentially a Vista ship. The attention to detail is nothing like any other ship in the fleet that's for sure. 

Nassau: I cant believe it but Nassau is actually a port worth getting off and exploring now. We had been to Nassau a bunch like most cruisers and like most cruisers we knew that unless you were doing an excursion, you really didn't need to get off the ship. After our excursion we came back and explored the new port area and honestly it is 1000% better. We didnt even get harassed after we left the gated port area. Its honestly like night and day.

The food: Did not have a bad meal on board. Everything from the MDR, lido, guys, etc was all great. La Strata was a great surprise. It takes the place of Guys BBQ on deck 5 outside. Very good quality all the way around (aside from the late-night snacks which basically the same on all ships)

MarQ: We sailed with him before, but it was back in 2016 when he was part of the Vista fun squad with Cookie, Nono and Matt Mitcham. You can see a blend of Cookie and Matt Mitcham with his energy and quick wit. Everyone in our group and everyone else we talked to all seemed to love him. He is easily our favorite Carnival CD now. 

 

The Bad: 

The staff: Another thing i can't believe because in all of our sailings we've always had awesome staff across the board with very few exceptions. Aside from the fun squad and our room steward it seemed like most of the staff did not want to be there. We never had the same MDR wait staff twice which was weird, i heard multiple people say that they think they may have been training? Some of the MDR staff seemed downright rude. I was used to long waits but afew of the nights our dinner took almost 2 hours which is tough with a 5 year old, plus our friends with us had an 18 month old. We talked to some of the staff and afew of them openly told us that they weren't happy. The casino pitboss openly told my friend "its the worst ship ive ever been on, my contract is done at the end of this cruise and im never coming back". The rest of the staff weren't necessarily rude but I always come off of a Carnival cruise with afew names of staff that I remember so I can praise them in the email survey. Aside from MarQ and afew fun squad members, I could not tell you one name of a staff member. This could very well be because of the clientele that deal with on a regular basis but either way it was the worst service weve ever had from Carnival by far. Not only did the other people in our group share the same opinion but others we talked to on the ship did as well. 

The layout: After we got settled in and we quickly started to realize that this ship was not designed for us. At first it was little things like there not being any laundry rooms (I was told its more custom for people to send away for laundry in Asian culture, which was the market this ship was meant for). Then we began to notice things like how crowded places like the MDR and lido seemed because of the design. Most lido decks have three tiers, this one has two but it also has a large stage that takes away several rows of deck chairs. Because its only two tiers, the screen is much lower. Not to mention that the second deck of the lido is very sectioned off (same with the MDR). You'll see lots of nice looking marble pillars but when youre trying to watch the screen, it makes it very hard to see and seating at a huge premium. The layout in the gym is also by far the worst I've ever seen. You can tell that the machines are European but if the weight area had more than one person in it, it felt crowded. I even went at off hours and it was still a mess. 

HMC: Got cancelled because of the rough seas. It is what it is but i can't wait for the pier to be built 🙂 

 

The NYC:

I'm probably going to offend NYC locals but my wife and I agreed that this is the last cruise we ever take out of NYC, no matter the time of year or the price. My last cruise out of NYC was last July and to say that was a disaster is an understatement. About a week after I got back from that cruise, Carnival announced the new curfew and cited the behavior of the kids on the Magic (sailing out of NYC) as being a main reason. 

First issue: we had was getting into the building. For some reason there was a delay getting us on board and we ended up having to wait outside in the cold, in a 5-block line for over an hour. 

Second issue: 30 seconds after boarding, we encountered our first (of many) extremely rude people. A lady who filming the atrium bumped into our 5-year-old son without saying anything and then proceeded to give my wife an instant attitude, which lead to a very heated argument. Granted my wife did not handle it the best but we had just got done waiting for almost 2 hours to get on board at this point and my wife gets very defensive when it comes to our son. Our friends saw the same woman later in the cruise with her arm in a sling so may she tried the wrong one🤷‍♂️

Third issue: The day that HMC got cancelled, we were up early so we decided to go to the back pool. We found 3 open lounge chairs next to three other chairs that had towels on them. We only took two chairs because my son did not need one. After about 20 mins he wanted to go to the splash pad so my wife took him and left her bag on the open chair. At this point, the open chair to my right was taken now. About another 25 mins past (45ish minutes after we took the chairs) and I hear this nasty lady yell "HEY!!!! YOU TOOK OUR CHAIRS!!!" I looked around, looked to my side and said "me?!?" She yelled back "YEAH!!!! We had 4 chairs saved and now we only have 3!" And this point a lady she was with starts chirping to. Side note; it was extremely windy and items weird blowing around the area including shirts, a flip-flop and.....(wait for it) the almost empty can of sunblock that the woman used to reserve the 4th chair for at least 45 mins. At no point did i move anything for any chair which I told the woman but that did not stop her from yelling so i responded by taking my bag, my other stuff and getting up. I said to her "You know what! Take both chairs because I dont want to sit next to someone like you anyway." I went off to the side, got dressed and texted my wife to not come back to the pool. As i walked back by the scene of the crime a group of people sitting on the other side stopped me and said "Hey! We saw the entire thing. You did nothing wrong. If you want, you can have one of our seats." To which i replied "Thank you but i have to meet with my wife and its not worth it" The lady heard and saw all of this so i really hope her made her feel fantastic. 

Final straw: Im gonna keep this one as brief as possible because it wasnt my kid in the center of this issue but this is the main reason we arent sailing NYC again because I dont want him around this behavior. I was taking my son to play mini golf when a group of about 15-20 kids came running towards us yelling about how they just beat some girl up. Me and my 5-year-old walked up on a lifeless girl, with her glasses on the ground, laying on the deck (about 13 years old ish) who wasn't responding to me. I ran and got security. When I got back to her, she was sitting up and crying. At this point security had said that they saw her messing around before and were basically blaming her which made her cry even harder but it wasnt my kid, wasnt my business and figured that it was under control. About 20 mins later im with my son in the arcade and the same group of kids come in and they start talking about how they are gonna beat up some other kid so i decide to go to guest services. While waiting i find out that i am standing behind the mother of the daugther who is talking to guest services. I take her off to the side and explain what i saw and give her my information if she needs someone to write a statement. At this point shes in tears and tells me that her daughter is autistic, and she has been getting bullied by these kids for the whole cruise. She told me that even her 9 year old was complaining about getting bullied. After that this is not an environment that i want my kid around. I know you get bad kids on every ship but I don't care what anyone says, there is a huge difference when it comes to sailing out of NYC.

Thats pretty about it. Thanks if you made it this far 🙂 

Thanks for the informative review!  I doubt anyone is surprised about unaccompanied kids on a ship out of NYC.  Wife & I are diamond, closing in on 50 cruises each.  We are waiting until this ship starts sailing out of Cape Canaveral before we try her.  NYC?!  No friggin way.  Again, Thanks for confirming our suspicions!  (-: 

[pc_load_letter]

On 1/25/2024 at 7:43 AM, MsTabbyKats said:

That theatre was the most poorly designed theatre I've ever been in. 

 

Someone correct me if I am wrong but this is the design for the Vista class...no? Panorama has it as well. I hate that theater. I get why they do it...shows can come out into the audience, turns it into a multi-purpose style room. But not a fan. One (of many) of the reasons I am not excited for our Firenze cruise in May. But perhaps I am making more out of it than I should. 

[Jamman54]

45 minutes ago, pc_load_letter said:

 

Someone correct me if I am wrong but this is the design for the Vista class...no? Panorama has it as well. I hate that theater. I get why they do it...shows can come out into the audience, turns it into a multi-purpose style room. But not a fan. One (of many) of the reasons I am not excited for our Firenze cruise in May. But perhaps I am making more out of it than I should. 

Yes, this is the design for all the Vista Class ships. What we liked about the Venezia, and soon to be Firenze,  is that there is no center aisle and only the first three rows center have the removable chairs. The rest of the seating is fixed and has cup holders. 😎

[Jamman54]

Here are some pictures that help explain what I mentioned above. This is the Liquid Lounge which you will find on the Vista, Horizon, and Panorama.....

 

 

This is the Teatro Rosso on the Venezia, and will be the same on the Firenze....

 

 

Don't understand how people can say that the theater on the Venezia feels smaller than the other Vista Class ships. 

Edited March 8 by Jamman54

[grimpil]

Just a week off the Venezia after 30 days of cruising (Feb2-Mar3) I witnessed some of the rudest behavior ever on a ship, not by children but entitled adults. A dude yelling at the Deli girl making a sandwich because she didn't make his sandwich the way he wanted. When someone confronted him he went on about free speech and his loyalty status. Partial plates of food left on the elevator floor several times. There was always a cup or plate on any stairwell despite the staff constantly vacuuming and cleaning stairwells. Insistent saving of chairs in the limelight(comedy venue) despite announcements before every show. Do people forget how to que in lines? Saw many confrontations about this. My wife sat on a cushion in the lido and it was soaked (not from a wet bathing suit) A lady in the casino yelling at a bar server that she should be getting her drinks every 5 minutes. I did see a lot more presence of security on this ship however that could be fleet wide now. The issue with smoke in the casino has been mentioned many times and I thought "oh well they are all smokey".  It was much more prevalent on this ship. The ventilation system needs to be addressed as I could smell the smoke in the MDR some nights and up the stairwell to the 8th floor

 

Despite the behavior we did have a great cruise and I would sail the Venezia again. Beautiful ship, friendly hardworking staff, great itinerary (journeys cruise). We enjoyed all the meals we had in the dining room but did hear about inedible food (perhaps we are not foodies). Our servers were all great, remembering names and wine choices. Went to the steakhouse twice, once was nice the other time mediocre. Il Vaggio was a pleasant surprise as I was expecting Olive Garden. First time doing Teppanyaki and we both loved it. We also met some of the loveliest people, many from New York and area. The Fun Squad was mostly engaging. I thought MarQ was a fantastic CD. His Motown routine in atrium was so entertaining. The fitness room had plenty of equipment and was never too crowded when we went. Enjoyed the pool in the aft of the ship although it was often overrun with children. 

 

We stayed in New York one day before and has a lovely evening. We did hop on hop off bus, dined out and saw Moulin Rouge, to times square after and felt safe. Heard from many New Yorkers on the ship that they were moving out of the city because of safety/crime but that is a topic for a different site

[Crusin Karen]

4 of my cruising pet peeves:1) rude people. I just can’t tolerate, excuse or get my head around people who are rude and/or nasty. 2) people who DROP. Drop dishes, cups, wherever they want. I once saw a banana peel in front of an elevator. PLEASE…and speaking of elevators. 3) people who RUSH on to elevators before  others have gotten off/out. 4) runners. Mostly kids/tweens running and bumping into people. How many times I’ve stepped over to the side while carrying a plate of food and/or a drink so as not to be bumped into by runners. I’ve had these issues twice on Venezia. I have another cruise on her over spring break/Easter. I’m thinking of packing a football helmet and full length bib to protect myself! Venezia is a beauty, the crew are amazing and yes, MarQ and his Motown were awesome! 👍👏🕺 

[happycruiser220]

On 1/21/2024 at 3:59 AM, matymil said:

Ive had afew days to process our cruise on the Carnival Venezia and I wanted to give my honest thoughts of the whole experience. It seems like the Venezia and departure port of NYC are pretty polarizing amongst cruisers these days so just remember that this is my honest opinion of my experiences. We may not have the same opinion but it doesnt mean that either are wrong 🙂 Quick background; I was on the Venezia sailing leaving on 1/5/24 (HMC/Nassau/Freeport) out of NYC with my wife and 5 year old son. This is my 14th cruise, all with Carnival, 4th out of NYC and 1st on the Venezia.

 

The Good:

The ship: It is absolutely gorgeous. It looks nothing like any other Carnival but at the same time still seems very familiar because it is essentially a Vista ship. The attention to detail is nothing like any other ship in the fleet that's for sure. 

Nassau: I cant believe it but Nassau is actually a port worth getting off and exploring now. We had been to Nassau a bunch like most cruisers and like most cruisers we knew that unless you were doing an excursion, you really didn't need to get off the ship. After our excursion we came back and explored the new port area and honestly it is 1000% better. We didnt even get harassed after we left the gated port area. Its honestly like night and day.

The food: Did not have a bad meal on board. Everything from the MDR, lido, guys, etc was all great. La Strata was a great surprise. It takes the place of Guys BBQ on deck 5 outside. Very good quality all the way around (aside from the late-night snacks which basically the same on all ships)

MarQ: We sailed with him before, but it was back in 2016 when he was part of the Vista fun squad with Cookie, Nono and Matt Mitcham. You can see a blend of Cookie and Matt Mitcham with his energy and quick wit. Everyone in our group and everyone else we talked to all seemed to love him. He is easily our favorite Carnival CD now. 

 

The Bad: 

The staff: Another thing i can't believe because in all of our sailings we've always had awesome staff across the board with very few exceptions. Aside from the fun squad and our room steward it seemed like most of the staff did not want to be there. We never had the same MDR wait staff twice which was weird, i heard multiple people say that they think they may have been training? Some of the MDR staff seemed downright rude. I was used to long waits but afew of the nights our dinner took almost 2 hours which is tough with a 5 year old, plus our friends with us had an 18 month old. We talked to some of the staff and afew of them openly told us that they weren't happy. The casino pitboss openly told my friend "its the worst ship ive ever been on, my contract is done at the end of this cruise and im never coming back". The rest of the staff weren't necessarily rude but I always come off of a Carnival cruise with afew names of staff that I remember so I can praise them in the email survey. Aside from MarQ and afew fun squad members, I could not tell you one name of a staff member. This could very well be because of the clientele that deal with on a regular basis but either way it was the worst service weve ever had from Carnival by far. Not only did the other people in our group share the same opinion but others we talked to on the ship did as well. 

The layout: After we got settled in and we quickly started to realize that this ship was not designed for us. At first it was little things like there not being any laundry rooms (I was told its more custom for people to send away for laundry in Asian culture, which was the market this ship was meant for). Then we began to notice things like how crowded places like the MDR and lido seemed because of the design. Most lido decks have three tiers, this one has two but it also has a large stage that takes away several rows of deck chairs. Because its only two tiers, the screen is much lower. Not to mention that the second deck of the lido is very sectioned off (same with the MDR). You'll see lots of nice looking marble pillars but when youre trying to watch the screen, it makes it very hard to see and seating at a huge premium. The layout in the gym is also by far the worst I've ever seen. You can tell that the machines are European but if the weight area had more than one person in it, it felt crowded. I even went at off hours and it was still a mess. 

HMC: Got cancelled because of the rough seas. It is what it is but i can't wait for the pier to be built 🙂 

 

The NYC:

I'm probably going to offend NYC locals but my wife and I agreed that this is the last cruise we ever take out of NYC, no matter the time of year or the price. My last cruise out of NYC was last July and to say that was a disaster is an understatement. About a week after I got back from that cruise, Carnival announced the new curfew and cited the behavior of the kids on the Magic (sailing out of NYC) as being a main reason. 

First issue: we had was getting into the building. For some reason there was a delay getting us on board and we ended up having to wait outside in the cold, in a 5-block line for over an hour. 

Second issue: 30 seconds after boarding, we encountered our first (of many) extremely rude people. A lady who filming the atrium bumped into our 5-year-old son without saying anything and then proceeded to give my wife an instant attitude, which lead to a very heated argument. Granted my wife did not handle it the best but we had just got done waiting for almost 2 hours to get on board at this point and my wife gets very defensive when it comes to our son. Our friends saw the same woman later in the cruise with her arm in a sling so may she tried the wrong one🤷‍♂️

Third issue: The day that HMC got cancelled, we were up early so we decided to go to the back pool. We found 3 open lounge chairs next to three other chairs that had towels on them. We only took two chairs because my son did not need one. After about 20 mins he wanted to go to the splash pad so my wife took him and left her bag on the open chair. At this point, the open chair to my right was taken now. About another 25 mins past (45ish minutes after we took the chairs) and I hear this nasty lady yell "HEY!!!! YOU TOOK OUR CHAIRS!!!" I looked around, looked to my side and said "me?!?" She yelled back "YEAH!!!! We had 4 chairs saved and now we only have 3!" And this point a lady she was with starts chirping to. Side note; it was extremely windy and items weird blowing around the area including shirts, a flip-flop and.....(wait for it) the almost empty can of sunblock that the woman used to reserve the 4th chair for at least 45 mins. At no point did i move anything for any chair which I told the woman but that did not stop her from yelling so i responded by taking my bag, my other stuff and getting up. I said to her "You know what! Take both chairs because I dont want to sit next to someone like you anyway." I went off to the side, got dressed and texted my wife to not come back to the pool. As i walked back by the scene of the crime a group of people sitting on the other side stopped me and said "Hey! We saw the entire thing. You did nothing wrong. If you want, you can have one of our seats." To which i replied "Thank you but i have to meet with my wife and its not worth it" The lady heard and saw all of this so i really hope her made her feel fantastic. 

Final straw: Im gonna keep this one as brief as possible because it wasnt my kid in the center of this issue but this is the main reason we arent sailing NYC again because I dont want him around this behavior. I was taking my son to play mini golf when a group of about 15-20 kids came running towards us yelling about how they just beat some girl up. Me and my 5-year-old walked up on a lifeless girl, with her glasses on the ground, laying on the deck (about 13 years old ish) who wasn't responding to me. I ran and got security. When I got back to her, she was sitting up and crying. At this point security had said that they saw her messing around before and were basically blaming her which made her cry even harder but it wasnt my kid, wasnt my business and figured that it was under control. About 20 mins later im with my son in the arcade and the same group of kids come in and they start talking about how they are gonna beat up some other kid so i decide to go to guest services. While waiting i find out that i am standing behind the mother of the daugther who is talking to guest services. I take her off to the side and explain what i saw and give her my information if she needs someone to write a statement. At this point shes in tears and tells me that her daughter is autistic, and she has been getting bullied by these kids for the whole cruise. She told me that even her 9 year old was complaining about getting bullied. After that this is not an environment that i want my kid around. I know you get bad kids on every ship but I don't care what anyone says, there is a huge difference when it comes to sailing out of NYC.

Thats pretty about it. Thanks if you made it this far 🙂 

Being a NYer I sailed Magic 2x on an 8 and 7 day and had no issues.  Last year did the 15 days and no issues. I go again next month and November for 11 days I shouldn't expect an issue but if I do I'm quick witted and can give the NY attitude with no problem. Sorry about what you experienced. 

[Crusin Karen]

56 minutes ago, happycruiser220 said:

Being a NYer I sailed Magic 2x on an 8 and 7 day and had no issues.  Last year did the 15 days and no issues. I go again next month and November for 11 days I shouldn't expect an issue but if I do I'm quick witted and can give the NY attitude with no problem. Sorry about what you experienced. 

I’m from NE NJ so have a NY attitude too but I’m too shy to express it lol. I just fume inside and grit my teeth and I have eye rolls down to perfection. But if anyone bumped into me and spilled my $15 drink I would probably be pushed over the edge. And when the quiet ones are pushed over the edge-WATCH OUT! 🤬

[happycruiser220]

On 3/9/2024 at 2:06 PM, Crusin Karen said:

I’m from NE NJ so have a NY attitude too but I’m too shy to express it lol. I just fume inside and grit my teeth and I have eye rolls down to perfection. But if anyone bumped into me and spilled my $15 drink I would probably be pushed over the edge. And when the quiet ones are pushed over the edge-WATCH OUT! 🤬

Gotta hang out with me in the hood 😂😂

[Mike45LC]

On 1/22/2024 at 4:06 AM, mfs2k said:

As a life long New Yorker who has sailed numerous Carnival cruises out of NYC in the past 40 years, I often joke: “The problem with cruising from NYC is the ship is full of New Yorkers,”

I stopped cruising out of Ft Lauderdale and Miami because the ship was full of my grandparents and their neighbors (all retired New Yawkas).  They did NOT want to fly to San Jaun, so San Juan became my embarkation port of choice.  

[happycruiser220]

On 3/11/2024 at 9:12 PM, Mike45LC said:

I stopped cruising out of Ft Lauderdale and Miami because the ship was full of my grandparents and their neighbors (all retired New Yawkas).  They did NOT want to fly to San Jaun, so San Juan became my embarkation port of choice.  

I like leaving from San Juan. 

[jimbo5544]

On 1/21/2024 at 11:53 AM, mjkacmom said:

I’ve sailed out of NYC 4 times on NCL, never had any issues at all with other passengers. Been to NYC dozens of times, no issues. My young adult kids having been going to manhattan since 16 or so, they go often, again no issues.

I lived in CT for many years and my daughter lived there for 4 years and spent a ton of time there.  I can tell you with 100% certainty that part of New York City culture (the city and part of the ethnicity) and what the OP described is absolutely part of the city life.  We have sailed from NY on 3 lines and saw it on all 3.  

Edited March 14 by jimbo5544

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, happycruiser220 said:

I like leaving from San Juan. 

Well if you like sailing on Carnival, then you have a def problem.

[jimbo5544]

On 1/21/2024 at 4:42 PM, Travelling2Some said:

Assault seems to be the knee jerk first response of those who have not been socialized normally.  The police are now not allowed to intervene so they are further emboldened.  One of my kids, when she was about 6 and trying to figure out how the world worked observed that "The police are like parents for the big people".  I thought that was very astute of her. 

Bingo, NYC has brought that on itself.

[jimbo5544]

On 1/23/2024 at 10:46 PM, Saint Greg said:

After cruising from Spain, Alaska, Seattle, California, Texas, New Orleans, Florida, and NYC, I really haven't noticed a huge difference in people's behavior. I'd say the biggest difference I've noticed is the sports teams they cheer for.

 

If I noticed anything different about New York, I'd say the night club was more packed there. Like to the point where you couldn't get inside it. Even on the last night when I would expect more people to go to bed earlier.

Well said.

[jimbo5544]

On 1/21/2024 at 11:05 PM, MaryZ said:

We sail out of NYC all the time.  I was on this same cruise but it was a Ultra casino cruise.  I was surprised to see so many kids as school is in session here in NY    We were on from New Years eve so things were a little different from that cruise.  We saw much more security out and about on the January 6-14, 2024 cruise. 

I would never bring my grandchildren on a Carnival cruise.  Period.  Especially out of NY.
We always sail on Royal from Bayonne with them.   It's a totally different environment and the Oasis class ships are much more awesome for kids than carnival anyway.

Our first cruises back in the early 90's with our kids were on Carnival. 

We don't spend time up by the pool, so our experience with all that on a ship is totally different.    We had no issues with staff not being friendly. 

Try Royal.  Try NCL  much better for families out of NY. 

Wow…..just wow. 

[happycruiser220]

2 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

Well if you like sailing on Carnival, then you have a def problem.

How you figure I have a problem? To each his own right? I paid for my cruise so why should it matter to you what line I choose to spend my money on? 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️