Just off the Magic - The Great, The Good and the Horrible - Serious Problems Onboard W/ Fighting & Kids

[ohioNCLcruiser]

Just got off the Magic and wanted to provide some quick thoughts.This was a 6 day sailing out of Miami to Amber Cove, Grand Turk and Half Moon Cay this past week.

 

The great:

 

Service: Service onboard the ship was wonderful, as it usually almost always is. You can definitely tell that they are short staffed in certain areas, but they power through it. I felt terrible for the solo coffee shop worker at times who had a huge line of guests and suddenly Fun Squad members thought it would be a good time to go right up to the counter to order their drinks, then act visibly annoyed when it was taking a while. This is the type of behavior that makes the crew often feel the staff onboard feels like they are above them.

 

Alcamy Bar: All mixologists were wonderful at the Alcamy bar, but a huge shoutout to mixologist queen Zora from Serbia. Zora remembered me from a few of her previous ships and made me feel welcomed back, made me feel special and just treated everyone like she understood the hospitality mission. I was sailing with a friend who had not cruised in years and she left a really wonderful lasting impression on him.

 

Cruise Control Band: This band is great! They are so engaging with the audience, remember peoples names and are just overall really talented. I cruised with them on the Freedom for her post dry dock TA and a few cruises around NYE and every time they were so full of energy.

Cleanliness: Staff was always around cleaning and making sure everything was tidy and clean. This was the first time in a while I didn’t sign off the ship feeling a cold coming on and never once did I see a public restroom that needed attention.

 

Guest services: I bought the premium internet package and almost never had signal in my cabin and around the ship I was lucky if I recieved 1mb speeds. Guest services was great to quickly refund and apologized. No arguments needed! 🙂

 

The good:

 

Food has continued to be elevated compared to the time leading up to the new menus. Everything was cooked as ordered, served hot and service was quick in the main dining rooms. Blue Iguana was tasty as always, Guy’s Burger was decent, and the buffet is the usual miss for me. I was really impressed that 1am room service came within 25 minutes.

 

The awful:

 

Carnival feels like they have two brands within one based on the sailing. This cruise the kids and crowds were completely out of control. The worst I have ever experienced, including my five years working onboard ships. They completely took over areas, would block entire stairwells and not allow people to pass, screaming and yelling knocking on people’s cabin doors at 2, 3 and 4 am. Security had zero control of the situation and didn’t even bother enforcing curfew.

 

The other issue was we had multiple, and I mean multiple, fights happen onboard. The last night of the cruise a guest attacked another with a knife and they had to do a “Code Charlie” where even the staff said they have never seen the Staff Captain running so fast through the deck 5 promenade with security like that before. I left the Magic on Saturday and boarded the Horizon on Sunday and night 1 there was already a passenger with his face completely covered in dripping blood from being beat up.

 

I honestly don’t know what Carnival has to do to take control of these situations, but it is getting out of hand. At the Diamond gathering and debark area so many were saying they are just about done with Carnival. If it wasn’t for a few fantastic crew members I love cruising with, I would probably move on. No cheap deal is worth dealing with that. I almost feel like Carnival needs to rebrand their summer and booze cruise division to a different name lol.

Anyway, feel free to ask any questions and I’ll be happy to answer. I didn’t do much in port as it was a total beach cruise with stops in Grand Turk, Half Moon and Amber Cove.

 

Thanks!

 

Edited August 28 by ohioNCLcruiser

[hard_eight]

Yikes, I'm sure it was crowds of future scientists and engineers...

 

I've seen one of the videos from the deck. Insane.

[ohioNCLcruiser]

I thought I would share some of Zora's amazing creations at Alchemy.

[StephPS79]

Unfortunately, the unruly kids are not specific to Carnival.  I was on a different cruise line and experience the same problem.  Large groups of kids, and even late teens, congregated on steps and blocking people, hootin' and hollerin' well past a reasonable hour, not far from passenger cabins.  I thought to myself I'd be so annoyed if my cabin were on that deck.

 

There were several groups playing games in the elevators.  Some kid just camped out on the floor, riding them up and down.  When I finally got in the elevator, the door almost closed and then opened about 4 times, as they kept pressing the button for whatever game they were playing.  I'm not the one to say something, but I did give a few angry looks.  One kid had enough sense to say "Sorry, sorry" after about the 4 time.

 

Also lots of running and screaming through hallways.

 

I guess I've been lucky enough to not experience fighting on any cruise line, so I won't comment on that, but my first-hand experience regarding misbehaved kids isn't specific to any cruise line, and seems to be a general problem with society.  I do remember thinking though that specific cruise on another family-friendly line was probably the worst I'd experienced when it came to kids I could do without.

[LatinaInTexas]

Wow am I ever grateful that after cruising on 4 different lines I have never had to experience such craziness. Wouldn't doubt my day will come though.

I guess it has a lot to do with timing, cruise length, and itinerary because on all my cruises it never seemed there were more than a handful of kids onboard.

[Jeafl]

48 minutes ago, ohioNCLcruiser said:

I thought I would share some of Zora's amazing creations at Alchemy.

Do you remember the names of these drinks?  They all look fantastic!

[Jeafl]

1 hour ago, ohioNCLcruiser said:

Just got off the Magic and wanted to provide some quick thoughts.This was a 6 day sailing out of Miami to Amber Cove, Grand Turk and Half Moon Cay this past week.

 

The great:

 

Service: Service onboard the ship was wonderful, as it usually almost always is. You can definitely tell that they are short staffed in certain areas, but they power through it. I felt terrible for the solo coffee shop worker at times who had a huge line of guests and suddenly Fun Squad members thought it would be a good time to go right up to the counter to order their drinks, then act visibly annoyed when it was taking a while. This is the type of behavior that makes the crew often feel the staff onboard feels like they are above them.

 

Alcamy Bar: All mixologists were wonderful at the Alcamy bar, but a huge shoutout to mixologist queen Zora from Serbia. Zora remembered me from a few of her previous ships and made me feel welcomed back, made me feel special and just treated everyone like she understood the hospitality mission. I was sailing with a friend who had not cruised in years and she left a really wonderful lasting impression on him.

 

Cruise Control Band: This band is great! They are so engaging with the audience, remember peoples names and are just overall really talented. I cruised with them on the Freedom for her post dry dock TA and a few cruises around NYE and every time they were so full of energy.

Cleanliness: Staff was always around cleaning and making sure everything was tidy and clean. This was the first time in a while I didn’t sign off the ship feeling a cold coming on and never once did I see a public restroom that needed attention.

 

Guest services: I bought the premium internet package and almost never had signal in my cabin and around the ship I was lucky if I recieved 1mb speeds. Guest services was great to quickly refund and apologized. No arguments needed! 🙂

 

The good:

 

Food has continued to be elevated compared to the time leading up to the new menus. Everything was cooked as ordered, served hot and service was quick in the main dining rooms. Blue Iguana was tasty as always, Guy’s Burger was decent, and the buffet is the usual miss for me. I was really impressed that 1am room service came within 25 minutes.

 

The awful:

 

Carnival feels like they have two brands within one based on the sailing. This cruise the kids and crowds were completely out of control. The worst I have ever experienced, including my five years working onboard ships. They completely took over areas, would block entire stairwells and not allow people to pass, screaming and yelling knocking on people’s cabin doors at 2, 3 and 4 am. Security had zero control of the situation and didn’t even bother enforcing curfew.

 

The other issue was we had multiple, and I mean multiple, fights happen onboard. The last night of the cruise a guest attacked another with a knife and they had to do a “Code Charlie” where even the staff said they have never seen the Staff Captain running so fast through the deck 5 promenade with security like that before. I left the Magic on Saturday and boarded the Horizon on Sunday and night 1 there was already a passenger with his face completely covered in dripping blood from being beat up.

 

I honestly don’t know what Carnival has to do to take control of these situations, but it is getting out of hand. At the Diamond gathering and debark area so many were saying they are just about done with Carnival. If it wasn’t for a few fantastic crew members I love cruising with, I would probably move on. No cheap deal is worth dealing with that. I almost feel like Carnival needs to rebrand their summer and booze cruise division to a different name lol.

Anyway, feel free to ask any questions and I’ll be happy to answer. I didn’t do much in port as it was a total beach cruise with stops in Grand Turk, Half Moon and Amber Cove.

 

Thanks!

 

I don't think the fighting and obnoxious behavior is exclusive to cruises, unfortunately.  People i are horribly behaved wherever we go.  Society in general needs a massive reset and I don't know how that is going to happen.

[UPNYGuy]

1 hour ago, ohioNCLcruiser said:

No cheap deal is worth dealing with that.

You said it right here. IMO the prices are too low, and need to go up. Low prices tend to cause this demographic to come out of the woodwork. We do not cruise for less than a week unless the price is high and it is a very specific itinerary we want. 

[ohioNCLcruiser]

56 minutes ago, StephPS79 said:

Unfortunately, the unruly kids are not specific to Carnival.  I was on a different cruise line and experience the same problem.  Large groups of kids, and even late teens, congregated on steps and blocking people, hootin' and hollerin' well past a reasonable hour, not far from passenger cabins.  I thought to myself I'd be so annoyed if my cabin were on that deck.

 

There were several groups playing games in the elevators.  Some kid just camped out on the floor, riding them up and down.  When I finally got in the elevator, the door almost closed and then opened about 4 times, as they kept pressing the button for whatever game they were playing.  I'm not the one to say something, but I did give a few angry looks.  One kid had enough sense to say "Sorry, sorry" after about the 4 time.

 

Also lots of running and screaming through hallways.

 

I guess I've been lucky enough to not experience fighting on any cruise line, so I won't comment on that, but my first-hand experience regarding misbehaved kids isn't specific to any cruise line, and seems to be a general problem with society.  I do remember thinking though that specific cruise on another family-friendly line was probably the worst I'd experienced when it came to kids I could do without.

I think Carnival should mystery shop Disney and NCL to see how they do it. Disney doesn't turn a blind eye to their rules and enforces it. I'm definitely aware the high price point probably helps with the kids onboard though. 

 

The real problem is the adults fighting though. I have never experienced anything close to it on other cruise lines and land based resorts. Just like in Vegas, on a Carnival cruise nothing good comes after 1am. (This cruise the fighting happened at all times and the Code Charlie was around 8pm)

Edited August 28 by ohioNCLcruiser

[ohioNCLcruiser]

34 minutes ago, Jeafl said:

Do you remember the names of these drinks?  They all look fantastic!

Unfortunately none of them had names and were all created on the fly. "Something sexy with...." and then the drink was created lol

[mfs2k]

2 hours ago, ohioNCLcruiser said:

At the Diamond gathering and debark area so many were saying they are just about done with Carnival.

This is why I don't cruise in the summer and try to cruise during the kids back to school seasons.

Hopefully I don't experience this described behavior on our September Med cruise. I suspect it's a different vibe, but we shall see. 

[ledges1]

Cruising on the Magic 11/2 for some of these reasons.

[CruisinArn]

1st and only time we saw a fight was on the Breeze out of Miami in Aug. First & last time we will be cruising out of Miami, by far the worst cruise we have been on.

[UPNYGuy]

27 minutes ago, CruisinArn said:

1st and only time we saw a fight was on the Breeze out of Miami in Aug. First & last time we will be cruising out of Miami, by far the worst cruise we have been on.

Right now DW and I are on Celebration, which goes out of Miami. We haven’t had any issues with the ships that go to Miami (as of yet, and we have been on many). IMO, the issues *usually* tend to be on the under 7 day cruises. This is not always the case, but usually is. The price points are lower, and they tend to attract people who do not travel very frequently. 

Edited August 28 by UPNYGuy

[ledges1]

I will not do a 4 day booze cruise. I am very selective on 5 day cruises. I will not cruise during the summer, Spring Break, early Fall or holidays. Cruises are too expensive to be ruined by the heat, rude kids/adults, bad weather and/or excessive pricing.

[UPNYGuy]

2 hours ago, mfs2k said:

This is why I don't cruise in the summer and try to cruise during the kids back to school seasons.

Hopefully I don't experience this described behavior on our September Med cruise. I suspect it's a different vibe, but we shall see. 

Or if you cruise during summer, make sure it is last week in August / first week in September. 
 

And yes, a med cruise will have a much different vibe. The people that fly over from the US will actually have financial means to travel, not the “f it lets do a weekend booze cruise for giggles and get hammered because it’s cheap” type. 

[UPNYGuy]

Just now, ledges1 said:

I will not do a 4 day booze cruise. I am very selective on 5 day cruises. I will not cruise during the summer, Spring Break, early Fall or holidays. Cruises are too expensive to be ruined by the heat, rude kids/adults, bad weather and/or excessive pricing.

I will cruise mid summer… if it is to Alaska, or the Baltics and/or Norwegian fjords. The last week in August is really the earliest I will do a Caribbean cruise. 

[tradewinds traveler]

Did you dine in any of specialty restaurants?

[Stick93]

Carnival attracts the wilder passengers and their diversity which could be their greatest strength is in turn not necessarily brought together appropriately. People need to be thrown off the ship, individuals, families and anyone who is involved in an altercation. They don’t enforce and in turn security is scared for themselves. The passengers are bigger and stronger than them. I was on the receiving end of this once where a guy twice my size yelled he was throw me over the railing because he got splashed by my 8 year old in the “Splash zone” while watching his little daughter. I yelled security and they. Amex but did nothing until I started t9 film with my phone and telling them that if I died the video would serve as proof to the fact carnival did nothing to help me. Then 10 more security people came running - but it should not have taken that long. 
 

I witnessed a passenger this summer to tell a crew member in the buffet line who was holding a sign this side is closed to go F-Herself. This was a grown up woman large/oversized and I guess hangry threatening a skinny small woman who was just doing her job. The crew have to endure this every week and day. 
 

Wake up Carnival. Everyone is welcome on the ship but if you cannot behave like you belong maybe they should walk the plank! 

[KarmaCruisers]

3 hours ago, Stick93 said:

a guy twice my size yelled he would throw me over the railing, because he got splashed by my 8 year old, in the “Splash zone, while watching his little daughter. I yelled security and they came, but did nothing until I started to film with my phone and telling them that if I died; the video would serve as proof to the fact carnival did nothing to help me. Then 10 more security people came running

If someone legitimately threatened my life like that..ANYWHERE…then 

“This blade in my boot must spill blood before it goes back in my boot.”

 

TBH; for security, they need to hire some big ass Samoan dude’s who just don’t give an eff (think of The Rock) or maybe some East European heavy hitters. 
too many people don’t fear security because they’re “company” employees, and won’t absolutely destroy you…

lol or just hire suicidal people as security..so when someone gets outlandish just have the “security” people grab them and dive off the boat TOGETHER.

[KarmaCruisers]

3 hours ago, Stick93 said:

Everyone is welcome on the ship

Maybe everyone SHOULDN’T be welcome.

[MsTabbyKats]

@Stick93The problem is that "Carnival Security" are generally small guys from the Philippines...who are not trained law enforcement officials.... and Carnival passengers are very often drunken extra large Americans.  Not a physical challenge at all..........

 

They can't even enforce anti-chair hogging rules....

 

For me, Carnival is good for longer sailings when schools in session.

[ColeThornton]

Edited.  😉

 

Edited August 29 by ColeThornton

[Earthworm Jim]

18 hours ago, UPNYGuy said:

Low prices tend to cause this demographic to come out of the woodwork....

 

 

 

The people that fly over from the US will actually have financial means to travel, not the “f it lets do a weekend booze cruise for giggles and get hammered because it’s cheap” type. 

 

I think we need to be cautious with saying those types of things. It could be misconstrued into the implication that people with less money are inherently less well behaved.

[UPNYGuy]

1 minute ago, Earthworm Jim said:

 

I think we need to be cautious with saying those types of things. It could be misconstrued into the implication that people with less money are inherently less well behaved.

that wasn’t the implication. The implication was exactly what I said. Carnival tends to cater to the cheap weekend booze cruise crowd. People will spend less on a weekend cruise simply to get the cheers, and get blasted all weekend. 
 

and DW and I have seen a marked difference in demographics sailing on the cheaper vs more expensive sailings on carnival. Cheaper = booze cruise. More expensive = older, more well heeled and well traveled.