ScrappinCSI

Yes the ships still have them. I don't think they are quote "subpar" on purpose. They are formulated to help the ships sewer/wastewater system function and I imagine also to meet both U.S. Federal and International pollution regulations.

Thank you for a great pic filled review! It brought back many great memories. The Epic might just be our favorite ship. The odd bathrooms everyone warned us about seemed to work out better for my husband than other ships. It also seems to have the most covered/shaded deck space. Being from Fl. we find no need to seek out the sun. I'd have to say that for a big ship everything seemed easy to get to, not too far a walk to and had incredible live entertainment, at that time The Blue Man Group and Cirque.

Next month, we'll sail our 17th on Carnival since 2004. Yeah, there have been changes and cutbacks, but for us, CCL still offers what we are looking for, a budget friendly getaway. While we enjoyed the shows and the "fluff" on our earlier cruises, we are to the point of happiness simply walking around the ship, enjoying the experience that we are fortunate to have. We don't sail for the shows, and dang sure not for the Cruise Director, mints, or robes. We sail for the experience and fun of exploring the ports. It is what you make of it, plain and simple. If you go in thinking you're supposed to be pampered, and it will be like a fairyland tale, then you are setting yourself up for disappointment, regardless of which line you sail with. JMHO.

Amen....

Have you been on a Journey cruise, or looked into them? I can tell you that there weren't more than a couple kids, and the lectures were quite popular. By picking Carnival sailings without lectures, that are complimentary on Journey sailings, that's in a way, kind of cheating too. Why complain?

I don't know "journey" cruises from whatever they call their other cruises. All my Carnival cruises have been 7 or 8 day southern to the A.B.C.'s. I'm not complaining about lectures, their availability or lack there of. I'm complaining about those who have complained on here crying for them....you I believe!

And just why do you think an older crowd wants lectures and craft classes? Sounds like some are trying to turn a Fun ship into an old folks home.

Yes Nerd, that was my point, that some are trying to do just that. Would I mind if they did? Nope! Some are also just complaining because they want to pay walmart prices for their cruise but get a eco tourist top shelf cruise to compete with whoever in their life they feel the need to. Other than stating I entered my first Caribbean Carnival cruise to be greeted by a 2 story tall twerking buttocks pumping away at blasting pornographic rap bombardment. All the while expecting the steel drums so many are so offended by, I haven't made a complaint about Carnival....only its passengers.

Despite all my complaints about our last cruise, Carnival is doing something right here, for a mostly older crowd.

Is a healthy conscious person, not allowed to cheat and eat Guy's Burgers? do I lose the right to complain, if my sailing only had sweet tea?

I don't see your idea that Carnival is doing something right mostly for the older crowd. If so we would see more lectures, craft classes and such instead of scaffolding over our heads full of kids. As far as 'your rights', I'll fight to the death to protect your 'right' to cheat but that doesn't mean it has a rightful place on the list of complaints of Carnival.

Wow....now the thread includes a cry for lectures and health conscious folks searching for more salad ingredients complaining that Guy's Burgers closes at 6! To honestly think that the "Fun Ships" should provide cake decorating lectures or eco tourist wildlife lectures, seems unreasonable. That is the realm of what someone earlier called a cruise line not for cattle. Could a "Fun Ship" have enough passengers interested in lectures to direct manpower to that? They'd be better served putting that manpower into a anti deck chair hog patrol unit!

Sounds like cruising is for you.

Only way to go. I've gone 4 cruises without speaking to a passenger. Love the crew though, they are always a pleasure to converse with.

So just how many things offend you on a Carnival cruise? ;p:')

Guess it depends on how many passengers there are. Frankly passengers are 99% of what offends me on any cruise line.

I believe that cruising is a middle-class endeavor, not matter what line you choose. It's delusional to think otherwise.

 

If you let delusional people hurt your feelings about putting down your preferred cruise brand, you probably need to work on stepping out of yourself and situation and analyzing the bigger picture!

How you got that from what I said I'll never know....nor care

I've got to say, the CCL boards seem to attract a lot more t-words that rhyme with rolls than the other lines' boards because people on here react to negative opinions with such vitriol and outrage such as saying someone isn't "Carnival material".

The other day in my doctor's waiting room I became engaged in conversation with a female retiree over cruise lines removing 'do not disturb signs' as a new safety precaution. She immediately displayed a snarl, flipping her hand in arrogance and said "you must be talking about Carnival or those other little lines", "Royal and HAL would never do such things". She thought I was a downright liar when I said "Do you know HAL is owned by Carnival?" . Most if not all my friends who cruise, scoff at Carnival and tell me its to low brow for them. Then I found out they all take 4 day or less cruises to the Bahamas, Key West or Cozumel at the very most. When I tell them I don't even consider a cruise unless its at least 7 days and goes to farther reaching places than home, they don't even want to talk anymore.

What is considered a cutback to one person may be an enhancement to someone else. For example, I can't stand the steel drums that used to/possibly starting to again play on the Lido deck. Sounds like nails on a blackboard to me. So while many complained of the supposed cutback I was happy as a clam at the enhancement to my vacation.

Really... Funny because the first thing to offend me on my first Carnival cruise was the fact that we were cruising the Caribbean and instead of mood music like steel drums, we had screaming rap music and a giant screen detailing closeups of huge shaking butts in spandex. I thought I was on a late night walmart shopping trip! I'm glad to hear that Carnival might actually think that Caribbean music might just fit a Caribbean cruise.

that's part of the reason why i prefer the mdr!

ditto!!

I haven't cruised before-should I assume that the buffet is the same everyday?

Yes. Always crowded with people who have no grasp of personal space or hygiene. Seating limited, chairs moved from their places by folks who demand on trying to fit 7 people at a 4 top.

I pay too much money for my cruises to ever eat in a buffet full of rude pushy people no matter what meal, time or situation. MDR every breakfast and I dislike Carnival's idea of brunch and its odd limited menu.

Wifey is a serious crafter and rockhound. Grand Turk is supposed to be a renowned spot for Sea Glass but our previous trips only yielded tiny bits and pieces. Anybody know of a good spot? I'm suspecting the eastern side of the island is the windier side and may be better?

Holland America might work!

That's what I keep telling the wife and her girlfriends. But they are not as ready to acknowledge and accept it. They plead a woman's right to deny their age. Soon though it'll be my turn to decide the cruise. I'm next in line to pick and they are in for a surprise.

Interesting the things that make or break a cruise/cruise line for people. Mints and robes.... I found even my Alaska cruises too warm in my stateroom to ever ponder a robe let alone wearing one in the humid hot Carribean. Frankly I'd rather have the closet space it once took up. I'm always amazed by people's fascination over cruise directors. 10 cruises on various lines and I've never even paid attention to the C.D. or bothered to hear their name let alone remember it. Am I the only one who finds C.D.'s and their staff sophomorish no matter what line I'm sailing? Frankly is there a need for a cruise director when you bother to read the daily letter? Never seeing officers? I don't want to see officers. I want them behind the scenes working and leading and directing. I want them busy. I don't mind old ships, I actually prefer them if they are clean. The only things that make a ship of any age feel unclean is the ratio of unsupervised entitled juveniles who run amok sucking on ice cream machines and vandalizing at a pace faster than the poor overworked staff can keep up with. If anything is unpleasant on some Carnival ships it may be their rather tacky interior design but I think the company no longer has the Italian designer that invented the giant Mad Hatter and gilded gold grapes on the Miracle. I think as we age, we as a passenger, change our opinion of a line or ship. Its a natural thing, turning into our parents so to say. As I age I see all the lines getting lesser in "quality" but its really the quality of fellow passengers that I see degrading. And, they greatly affect my "cruise experience". I find it impossible to stand silently by when I see passengers rude to staff. I find it impossible to watch juveniles not know their place, but I've always been an @$$ looking for a fight. Maybe entertainment quality is governed more by where you come from. With the exception of the Blue Man Group and Cirque on the Epic years ago, I've never found Beatles imitators or dancing in general to be entertaining. Again an age thing. I find a quiet shaded deck devoid of noise and frequently patrolled by bar staff to be much more entertaining than anything ever presented in the theater. Food quality on all lines has degraded in some way or another in the name of profit. If it be the strange red yolked eggs I get on NCL or the less than warm dinner caused by a lines cut in staff. But at least on Carnival the staff has anticipated that and been watchful for my satisfaction. Very much unlike the staff on NCL which were once the best and now become totally disinterested thanks to anytime dining. Oh....there's my Dad popping up in me again! With every price increase Disney thrusts on to the public, cruise lines become a more common solution to many. Maybe instead of lines popping out more city like ships with pipeline hairdos of scaffolding for the young to hang on or slide around on, they might be better served adding a couple of ships devoid of slides and monkey bars for us complaining curmudgeons to quietly float on by in!

I am by no means trying to sound like a jerk, but how can a 15 minute muster drill impact your enjoyment of the cruise?

5 Carnival cruises so far 10 total. I've never had a muster drill that didn't take near an hour. Always because of idiot fellow passengers who just won't be adult enough to show up on time. My wife is claustrophobic and has great difficulty being sardine'd in mass. While still young I have Veinious Insufficiency Syndrome, a knee that needs replacing but won't be thanks to Obumma care and a bad case of rudeness. A muster drill the length that I normally experience has a definite way of impacting the enjoyment of more than just 'my' cruise.

Well, quick embarking/disembarking is something.....

I know this must have been asked a hundred times but I cannot find anything using the search button. Hubby and I are arguing! He says we will not get FTTF automatically as suite passengers. I say we will get priority embarking and disembarking as suite passengers. Can anybody clarify this? Thanks

We use the Holiday Inn the night before every Miami cruise. Never thought it was a poor choice. Its so close to the port, less than walking distance from Bayside that its age, which frankly didn't seem any older than all the others, didn't matter. Besides it seems every hotel in Miami seems stuck in a 1984 Miami Vice episode!

Just curious is the main dining room very busy on the last morning?

We never do breakfast anywhere but the MDR any morning of our cruises. To tell you the truth the MDR never seems busy for breakfast even before debarking. We never can understand why folks serve themselves at the cattle lines when you could be served on your vacation.

Look back a couple posts...

Good luck, we have yet to here a reply.

fttfinfo@carnival.com

Thank you

Is there a special email address to achieve this? Our April Breeze cruise is sold out of fttf and our PVP wasn't able to help. Hubby walks with a brace and cannot stand in lines for a long time and I was hoping fttf would help his situation.