Back to Carnival after 5 years. What's Changed?

I have not sailed on Carnival since our 8 Day Southern Caribbean cruise on the Miracle in 2010. We are back to Carnival for the Miracle 15 Day Hawaiian cruise out of LA in 2015.

I have tried searching CC for this info, but can't find a list of what's changed during our five year absence. I am interested in any and all changes-the good, the bad and the ugly. Forewarned is forearmed.

I have started the list with what I do know. Please and thank you add to it. :D

1. Loyalty program changed and is now called VIFP (I will be gold one day into our Hawaiian cruise). Points are awarded per night now, not per cruise.

2. FTTF added for $49.95 per cabin giving priority check-in, express boarding, express luggage, guaranteed stateroom availability, priority dining reservations, priority tendering as some of the benefits.

Anyone?!

Anyone?!

Some ships are 2.0 with guys burgers and blue iguana. And new production shows. They were ok. What ship were u thinking of next?

2.0 is the big buzz word around Carnival in recent years, and it seems that many people have been fooled by it. Many people see 2.0 as something different, which they like just for something different. Many people see 2.0 as a downgrade: a change that resulted in something that we prefer being taken away from us, and just making it's replacement seem like it's better with a disguise of the label "2.0". Many things are exactly the same as they were; they just renamed it & labelled it as 2.0 to make it seem like there was a positive change. In my mind, it's a good thing that your ship (Miracle) has been almost untouched by 2.0. I've been wondering when is 2.1 or 3.0 or 5.0 or 1000000000.0 going to come out. Can you tell I don't care at all about what kind of number is slapped to something.

Most of the notable changes do not apply to the Miracle. There is the new menus (elimination & downgrade of certain items & some shared food at the table) and the Dr. Seuss thing, which are being slowly rolled out, and I'm not sure if they will spread fleetwide. Part of 2.0 is the renaming of some bars, renaming the candy store, & renaming the comedy club. With the renaming of the bars came some new drink options. On some ships, Guys burgers replaced the grill that included burgers, chicken strips, nachos, sandwiches, etc, etc, etc. And Guys has very limited hours, never at night. The burgers are better, but it came at a high price. With branding comes restrictions. The Blue Iguana cantina replaced the burrito bar, and added some other items, plus breakfast burritos. The price paid for it is the elimination of the late night Mexican buffet during the deck party, but only on the ships with those things. Miracle has neither. Pizza has changed. No more calzones. Some like the new pizza better, some don't. I honestly haven't tried the new pizza, as the ships with the grill usually have what I'm looking for late at night. Ships without the grill (such as Breeze) had an insanely long line for pizza at night, as that's the only food option after 8:00.

My recent cruises have had 2 deck parties instead of 1. It's a bit awkward to have 2, but since I enjoy them, I'm all for it. Half the Carnival fleet has severely downgraded their shows in the theater, eliminating all live music, cutting the shows to 30 minutes, removing almost all props, and cutting the cast of performers in half. Fortunately, Miracle has not done this yet.

No more breakfast in the dining room on sea days. Now there is a brunch on sea days in the MDR. I am one that did not like this change since we eat an early breakfast and brunch did not start until 8:30am. Had to eat breakfast at the buffet. We did eat in the MDR for lunch (brunch) and it was good.

There is a live dj now on the lido deck playing music and on every cruise we have been on over the last 2 years it has not been a good experience. The music is way too loud and a lot of hip hop which we do not enjoy. We tend to stay away from the main lido deck pool.

I am not a fan of 2.0 and IMHO you are lucky that you are sailing on the Miracle which has not received the 2.0 upgrades (or downgrades in my opinion).

Punchliners comedy club is in the Mad Hatter Lounge and has family friendly and adult comedy shows. The sushi bar has been replaced by the Taste Bar which features a small plate representing one of the specialty eateries fleet wide. The sea day brunch is pretty good. We also like to eat an early MDR breakfast so we've mainly had the breakfast offerings and lunch items only once. For breakfast there's steak and eggs, omlettes, eggs Benedict, cereal crusted French toast and Huevos rancheros to name a few. There are menus out there. We sailed Miracle in 2011 and 2012, but that's all the changes that I can remember right now. A 15 day Hawaiian cruise sounds wonderful, enjoy!

I can't remember if it's been more or less than 5 years for some of these changes, but I'll just throw them out there in case you don't know of them. The Lido deck no longer has the free fruit punch; the machines have only lemonade or tea after the breakfast hours. They no longer have the sun dried tomato bread in the MDR. Actually, they no longer have it anywhere on the ship. I know President's butter has been gone more than 5 years, but I'll mention it. Some of my favorite dishes have disappeared from the MDR, Spring Lamb being one, or changed somewhat. There is still something tasty every evening. You will find your cabin steward is much more friendly than in the past. Anytime he/she sees you in the hallway, he will speak and call you by name. I'm really impressed with that since they have more cabins now and yet learn everyone's name. Your wait staff in the dining room is a team of 3 instead of 2, but they have more tables. They work hard but you still might notice a delay in service. Formal night is now called Elegant night, the Capers are now the Fun Times, most ships no longer have live music on the Lido. The Sail Away part has a DJ. The big production shows have been scaled back on most ships use canned music instead of live. I could probably go on and on, but I will say Carnival has kept its prices low and is still a good value for what you pay. The longer the cruise, the better I've found! I'm sure your 15 days will be great.:D

2.0 is the big buzz word around Carnival in recent years, and it seems that many people have been fooled by it. Many people see 2.0 as something different, which they like just for something different. Many people see 2.0 as a downgrade: a change that resulted in something that we prefer being taken away from us, and just making it's replacement seem like it's better with a disguise of the label "2.0". Many things are exactly the same as they were; they just renamed it & labelled it as 2.0 to make it seem like there was a positive change. In my mind, it's a good thing that your ship (Miracle) has been almost untouched by 2.0. I've been wondering when is 2.1 or 3.0 or 5.0 or 1000000000.0 going to come out. Can you tell I don't care at all about what kind of number is slapped to something.

 

Most of the notable changes do not apply to the Miracle. There is the new menus (elimination & downgrade of certain items & some shared food at the table) and the Dr. Seuss thing, which are being slowly rolled out, and I'm not sure if they will spread fleetwide. Part of 2.0 is the renaming of some bars, renaming the candy store, & renaming the comedy club. With the renaming of the bars came some new drink options. On some ships, Guys burgers replaced the grill that included burgers, chicken strips, nachos, sandwiches, etc, etc, etc. And Guys has very limited hours, never at night. The burgers are better, but it came at a high price. With branding comes restrictions. The Blue Iguana cantina replaced the burrito bar, and added some other items, plus breakfast burritos. The price paid for it is the elimination of the late night Mexican buffet during the deck party, but only on the ships with those things. Miracle has neither. Pizza has changed. No more calzones. Some like the new pizza better, some don't. I honestly haven't tried the new pizza, as the ships with the grill usually have what I'm looking for late at night. Ships without the grill (such as Breeze) had an insanely long line for pizza at night, as that's the only food option after 8:00.

 

My recent cruises have had 2 deck parties instead of 1. It's a bit awkward to have 2, but since I enjoy them, I'm all for it. Half the Carnival fleet has severely downgraded their shows in the theater, eliminating all live music, cutting the shows to 30 minutes, removing almost all props, and cutting the cast of performers in half. Fortunately, Miracle has not done this yet.

I don't say this too often on the Carnival boards, but I really enjoyed your post. It was very honest and detailed exactly how you feel about Fun Ship 2.0, without being blinded by the new branding.

Didn't Carnival get rid of that Freddy Whale Tail mascot? Last Carnival ship we were on was the Miracle - didn't see any changes to speak of.

Didn't Carnival get rid of that Freddy Whale Tail mascot? Last Carnival ship we were on was the Miracle - didn't see any changes to speak of.

Has he been replaced with something else for the kids? I will have my DS 10 with me.

Formal night is now called Elegant night, the Capers are now the Fun Times, most ships no longer have live music on the Lido. The Sail Away part has a DJ. The big production shows have been scaled back on most ships use canned music instead of live. I could probably go on and on, but I will say Carnival has kept its prices low and is still a good value for what you pay. The longer the cruise, the better I've found! I'm sure your 15 days will be great.:D

I knew about Carnival dropping the Lido music and cutting back on live music in other venues, because that is why we left, but I did not know this had now extended to the Production shows. Too bad. :(

On the positive, I am looking forward to Carnival deserts, which I always thought the best of any line we've sailed. Still have the WCMC? It is too sweet for me to eat more than a couple times per sailing, but I have missed it.

Punchliners comedy club is in the Mad Hatter Lounge and has family friendly and adult comedy shows. The sushi bar has been replaced by the Taste Bar which features a small plate representing one of the specialty eateries fleet wide. The sea day brunch is pretty good. We also like to eat an early MDR breakfast so we've mainly had the breakfast offerings and lunch items only once. For breakfast there's steak and eggs, omlettes, eggs Benedict, cereal crusted French toast and Huevos rancheros to name a few. There are menus out there. We sailed Miracle in 2011 and 2012, but that's all the changes that I can remember right now. A 15 day Hawaiian cruise sounds wonderful, enjoy!

Is the Taste Bar on the Miracle? If so, is it a free choice? Does the Miracle have any pay restaurants besides Nick and Nora's Steakhouse (if it is still called that, lol!)

I just had a friend just come back from a 7 day Carnival Cruise. At first she stated that she and her husband had a great time. But the more she talked about the cruise, the more she remarked about problems, this incuded:

1) Guy's Burgers- Her husband said it was great, but it had very limited hours and there were long wait times.

2) MDR: She said that due to service she and her husband preferred to eat at the buffet.

3) Shows: She said the shows were short and not to be compared to the previous Carnival Productions. She only went to one.

4) Food at Buffet: She found it eatible, her husband prefered to wait for the burgers at Guys.

5) No live enteertainment at the pool, but a D.J.

6) Movies: Older movies which have been out for years

7) Children: She felt most of them were out of control with a lot of vandalism done to the ship. For example the soft service ice-cream machine had to be repaired several times/day

It seems to me, and this is my opinion, that most of the changes that Carnival has made has come with serious drawbacks. It appears that the ships are overcroweded. It you like long wait times, mediocre food, poor service, but the cheapest price you town, Carnival may be the cruise for you.

P.S. My wife and I sail on Princess, and we have also noted, although not as severe, many of the cost cutting measures that Carnival has done, have begun to appear on the Princess Cruise Line.

No more breakfast in the dining room on sea days. Now there is a brunch on sea days in the MDR. I am one that did not like this change since we eat an early breakfast and brunch did not start until 8:30am. Had to eat breakfast at the buffet. We did eat in the MDR for lunch (brunch) and it was good.

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On the Hawaii cruise they alternate on sea days between the brunch and the breakfast/lunch MDR menus. At least they did on ours. It was nice to switch it up a bit from day to day.

Mrs Squirrel, Im sorry I cant answer your questions, as I dont know either since my last Carnival cruise was in 2010 also, but I look forward to one more this coming November then I am looking to branch out and try something new.

I read and enjoyed your review of the MSC Divina, and am now looking at a cruise on that ship for 2015. So thanks for planting that seed in my head.:)

On the Hawaii cruise they alternate on sea days between the brunch and the breakfast/lunch MDR menus. At least they did on ours. It was nice to switch it up a bit from day to day.

Thanks, that would be nice. Since your sailing was the same time of year, may I ask at what point in the crossing did the weather get warm enough to be outside and were the seas rough? I do see in your sig that you missed Kona. Was that your only tender port?

Is the Taste Bar on the Miracle? If so, is it a free choice? Does the Miracle have any pay restaurants besides Nick and Nora's Steakhouse (if it is still called that, lol!)

Yes, on the Miracle, and free. It's right outside the Sports Bar unless they moved it somewhere else since then. No other pay eateries that I'm aware of besides the steakhouse.

Mrs Squirrel, Im sorry I cant answer your questions, as I dont know either since my last Carnival cruise was in 2010 also, but I look forward to one more this coming November then I am looking to branch out and try something new.

 

I read and enjoyed your review of the MSC Divina, and am now looking at a cruise on that ship for 2015. So thanks for planting that seed in my head.:)

Thank you for your kind words. I hope you go for it and have a great time!

It seems to me, and this is my opinion, that most of the changes that Carnival has made has come with serious drawbacks. It appears that the ships are overcrowded. It you like long wait times, mediocre food, poor service, but the cheapest price in town, Carnival may be the cruise for you.

Lol, That pretty much describes my day-to-day life! :eek: I'm not the greatest cook, and I live in the land of the chain restaurant. . .at least Carnival will be taking me somewhere warm and lovely with ocean views!

Miracle still has live band on stage and production shows. No adjusted menu yet, except for the brunch. Taste bar is available. No other pay restaurants. Still have WCMC and creme brûlée.

I was on the ship in Feb before it went to Alaska and I doubt much has changed, excerpt for changing Karaoke from discs to programmed.

The farewell party has been gone for a couple of years now. All repeat cruisers get a free drink coupon that can only be used in the MDR for breakfast/lunch or brunch.