ohioNCLcruiser

Carnival can never issue a gift card to the same gift cards that you originally used. When I purchased cheers packages and paid with gift cards online, once I canceled that for a refund I called Carnival online shop support and after a couple minutes Carnival sent me a refund via a new gift card that came via fedex. Sorry it's taking so long to get a Carnival rep to just issue a new gift card to "refund" you. 

1 hour ago, CarnivalShips480 said:

Yes, I would think so. But what could this be? Something like a sport square expansion? Something new? What does everyone think?

Hopefully it's not a "it is fascinating how many extra cabins we can fit into these former lounges" type of thing 😂 I'm excited to see what the Pride gets besides some TLC.

The Pride has been so neglected in the past couple years. It's almost like she was the next ship on the chopping block if the shutdown lasted any longer. Nothing is fun about not getting good sleep on vacation. I feel for ya there! I agree with you that the bed looks awful but disagree it was neglect from the cabin steward. They don't have the time (management's and corporate management fault) or the inventory to just swap out beds. For all we know they have reported the mattress issue their entire contract there. 

Really hope the Pride gets the TLC she deserves in the dry dock. She is a great class of ship when in decent condition. 

I wanted to add one thing to the review since I just realized this: I sent my clothes to laundry since I was boarding another cruise after this and just realized almost all my clothes were really stretched. Just a warning about the ship laundry. They can def stretch things.

5 hours ago, Navybikermom said:

I had a similar experience with the Baked Alaska on the Zaandam. The meringue smelled and tasted like fish. I hate fish, so I was immediately grossed out. I tore it open to eat the insides, but the ice cream was about the size of a small melon ball. Not worth it. 

Yeah it was really odd. Def a drop in quality. 

53 minutes ago, raesive said:

We're on right now, I agree about the hot plates in Lido! Did they make everyone sign receipts for drinks on your sailing too? We have the bev package but still required. They definitely weren't doing that last April and I find it annoying and a waste of paper. 

Yeah they sure did. First time that was the case for me on HAL. Even my compd drinks in the casino I had to sign a full price ticket for.

I wanted to provide a quick review on my cruise on the N. Statendam from Feb 4-11^th 2023.

About us: We are three guys aged middle 30s. My partner and I have sailed on HAL 4 times before and 51 times on other lines. Our friend, the third person was on his first cruise with HAL and 9^th cruise overall.

The ship: The ship is in wonderful condition with the only minor maintenance items I saw were discoloring around the hot tubs. Overall, she is in great shape and clean! I love the artwork throughout these Pinnacle class ships. We enjoyed the variety and loved walking up and down the stairwells looking at each piece.

In my opinion, I think you can really tell these ships hold 600ish more people than the older ships with similar designs. Unlike my sailings on the Westerdam and even the N. Amsterdam and Eurodam, this ship felt quite crowded on deck 9. Long lines at the buffet and trying to move around people at times. If the Noordam, Westerdam, Oosterdam and Zuiderdam had the Tamarind restaurant, I would think it would be perfect. I don't like how the upper decks of this ship are very divided from each other. A lot of going up, over, down, back up, in, out etc.

The service: We thought the service was good and was pretty much as expected. We noticed compared to other cruise lines that the bartenders are a lot quieter when working. A lot less small talk while you sat at the bar and they didn’t get to know you as I have experienced on other lines. If we engaged them then they were happy to talk but it almost seemed like they are instructed not to do that unless the passenger starts it. That does not mean the service was bad it was just different. The casino bar service was very slow at times. I feel like Carnival bartenders could have made 3x the amount of drinks that it took for one drink to be made here.

Sadly, the worst service for me was not even on the ship. On the tender from HMC I was sitting across from the Piano singer and she was talking with one of the dancers next to her. I complimented her on how well she did this week (her conversation was her saying she did not know if she had the ability to sing a particular song that night) and she ignored my comments but the entire time was also making fun of guests and was being pretty loud about it. I worked on cruise ships for a long time and have always hated the attitude that entertainers often have towards the “crew” and this just provided me more flashbacks of that. Not all the entertainment and cruise staff department but some.

Shout out to Gage our Cruise and Destination Director who did a great job. He was there when you needed but did not bombard us with announcements. He was always smiling and greeting people whenever we saw him.

Our housekeeper was wonderful and I was very thankful that HAL still provided service twice a day. We used the laundry service and everything returned the next day and any requests we had were quickly taken care of. No complaints!

I have read that people notice service cutbacks in the main dining room but luckily I experienced none of that this cruise. Meals were all completed in a reasonable amount of time in my opinion.

The food: The food was great! The buffet food was always hot (sometimes too hot. Almost impossible to hold some of the plates) and tasted fresh. Holland America has always offered a great variety of food in the buffet in my opinion. Our friend who was on his first HAL sailing was very impressed.

The main dining food was always hot and fresh and tasted great. Some nights the menu options were boring and underwhelming in our opinion. I forgot that they do not have a lobster night in the main dining room so was a little disappointed in that.

Our dinner at the steakhouse tasted great but had the worst tasking Baked Alaska ever! The ice cream went bad, the cake part was dry and tasted old. Usually the HAL steakhouse knocks this out of the park but not this time. Everything else with the meal was delish.

Our favorite restaurant onboard the ship is Tamarind. We went twice and *everything* was delicious. I could probably go four times a week. Just a warning many of the desserts are very sour from all the citrus. Make sure to have a Tums-A-Tini cocktail after. Two parts tums with two parts Pepto.

The Pizza Deli had good chicken wings but I thought the pizza was just alright. Perhaps it was the long wait that left me feeling over it by the time the pizza arrived. Sometimes it took almost 40 minutes from ordering.

The entertainment: If you love music you will love HAL. The variety of venues from BB King Blues to the rock band was wonderful. The dueling pianos were also very talented but the story I mentioned about the female singer verbally making fun of passengers with a dancer on the tender really left a sour taste in my mouth. I know it was her last week of the contract and she was probably exhausted but no excuse.

Things that were weird: We were joking that this ship has a pool deck dome operator lookout like the Titanic did for icebergs. “Captain we spot a small cloud 10 miles ahead. Close the dome!” The dome was closed a lot when it seemed to be perfectly fine to keep it open. Even the bartender at the pool bar joked that they are always moving the dome. At night it could get very warm and muggy without it even opened a few feet.

Overall we had a great time and my friend is a big fan of HAL now. Next up is the Westerdam out of Tokyo March 13^th. I’m sure I missed a lot of details so feel free to ask any questions you might have.

I was lucky to have only caught it once during my 5 years working onboard and 54 cruises as a passenger. It is *awful* as you mention. Some people with a standard stomach bug think they have norovirus but it doesn't even come close! Luckily it only lasts a couple days. Enjoy the weight loss! 

So much drama in here

On 1/30/2023 at 6:40 AM, geovet said:

My son is 19 years old. Can he drink beer or wine. Do I need to do anything?

 

Thanks 

So much drama in these replies. Here is my drama free answer to you: It is against Carnival's rules and the staff won't serve him. However you can order multiple drinks with your card at once as long as you don't have Cheers and paying ala carte. Whoever you give the additional drinks to is up to you and the staff won't care or think twice if you give some to your son. I see it on every single cruise and usually an adult offspring enjoying a drink with their parents is a lot less impactful on others than some complete drunks being overserved on their cheers. Enjoy!

I think the Oasis class of ships are some of the best designed ships ever made. The flow of everything, variety of spaces etc just hit the spot. I have never felt crowded on those ships. The Celebration is very nice also but felt crowded at times. I felt bad for anyone with mobility issues that needed to get into an elevator, especially on embark and debark days. What a mess!

Having done Allure and three weeks on Celebration I would put the edge into Oasis. I think they are hard to beat and I love the outdoor neighborhoods. 

However if you want really non-biased answers I would not post this question on a Carnival page or a Royal page like this is. I would ask the question on a generic, non cruise line branded forum or facebook page that is more just about cruising in general. Some people here believe Carnival can do no wrong and no other cruise line can even come close just like people on the Royal page do the same about their brand. 

Either would be great but I would say Oasis is a step up. 

I highly doubt Carnival will put the Firenze in Europe for a season to start her off. I think a big part of this deal is to reduce capacity over there and to show off the Costa style to Americans and try to get them to book Costa when they choose Europe and looking outside of Carnival. 

I also hope the 2024 Europe season has more Southampton sailings than Dover.

1 minute ago, kwokpot said:

Here's a great website that detailed all the changes to the Millenium:

https://www.traveloffpath.com/celebrity-millennium-renovation/

 

As it pertains to this thread the point of it was that even at it's debut the stylistic choices of Carnival Farcus interiors where not mainstream in taste but purposely provocative to be different and 'Fun'. Whatsmore the money spend by Celebrity in their Revolution renovations are similar in scope to what Carnival did with their Sunshining program. It remains to be seen to what extent Carnival, post pandemic with cash problems, renovates the Spirit Class. I venture to guess it's not going to be like the Sunshine renovation projects.

 

I think you're right that it won't be a Sunshine level renovation project. The problem that Carnival has with the Pride, and I know you mentioned it before (I always love your posts btw) but so many of the Farcus design items on the Pride are broken and simply can't be fixed. All the Oscar award looking statues all around the atrium for example. Half are broken in half with another 25% totally missing. The faces of the girls all around are also half broken. It's not like Carnival has spares of those sitting around and they surely won't re-create new ones since that is the old design style. I'm thinking it will be similar to the Radiance's atrium. Replace those items with pure white panels with different color LEDs behind them etc. I'm actually looking forward to updating the Pride. I love that class of ship but felt too many rooms were way too dark and gloomy. I don't want to feel like I'm having cocktails in a damp, poorly lit basement. The other good news is I can't think of any lounge that would make sense for them to turn into more cabins except for maybe the butterfly deck 1 lounge.

1 hour ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

Is that after photo an actual photo or rendition? It looks almost (too good) computer generated.

 

Tom

Here is a non-rendering photo

I was just wondering the same. I have some casino offers I need to book by the end of Feb and I'm pretty booked full this year already. Really hoping they announce some new stuff for summer before the promo deadline. 

3 hours ago, mz-s said:

 

My last few cruises I feel like they haven't been as good as they were before, but maybe my tastes are changing (I can't eat as much greasy foods as I used to be able to) or maybe I wasn't getting fresh ones as I usually only go when there's no line.

 

I do sorely miss the grilled mushrooms topping as well.

I also think the Guys quality has gone way down. My last few this year on several ships were pretty disappointing. 

8 hours ago, Oceansaway17 said:

wow well now if any inspectors read cc ya just tipped them off.   perhaps next inspection might now include crew areas too.   boo hoo

Most crew areas are checked, but every ship has their secret/hard to find areas. 

10 hours ago, CeleBrat said:

Just...ick.

 

Why was the dust not found and mitigated in the normal day-to-day cleaning?  And after "throwing something down a stairwell" did the crew just pick it up and place it back on the buffet without cleaning it or dust and/or floor germs/dirt?

 

 

It was nothing that would impact a guest or employee's health. It was for things that were so ridiculous that it was more to avoid the risk of inspectors looking to find something because they felt they had to find something. A plastic flower display that is dusted daily *might* have slight dust deep inside it. Some inspectors feel they need to find something so their bosses think they are being effective. We were dinged once for storing a consumable (coffee sugar packets) next to a non-consumable (wooden stir sticks). Cruise ship kitchens are the cleanest kitchens in the world, including on ships that have failed health inspections. The only place I would never go near are the hot tubs but I also wouldn't go near those at a hotel. 🙂

14 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

I've done many USPH inspections with NCL, and there is no way that the inspectors would tolerate a "restricted access" inspection.  Part of the inspection and score is to witness actual meal service.  And, if they then walked out to the buffet area and found stacks of dirty dishes, that would be a major ding, and would be a strong indicator to the inspectors that things were being staged.  Inspectors also insist on questioning crew while doing their assigned duties, so not sure how staging an area with nothing going on, yet meal service coming from that area, would be "doing normal duties".

I am a BIG fan of you on here and really respect all your knowledgeable posts on here whenever you post. Us crew (not staff or managers) was definitely restricted from entering the kitchens or dishwashing areas during our USPH inspections on certain ships ordered from some managers. I don't know if some were allowed in but we were 100% cut off from entering when they were ready for inspection or being inspected. If senior leadership wasn't aware of this our mid-level managers of those locations sure were. I know it was happening because I also went through many of these on the crew level, not an officer level, including all those deep clean nights. I was also not a manager during these times making those decisions. I only became a manager when I left F&B.

1000% I would go for the natural light option. At the end of the day unless you have some mobility issues a ship isn't miles long or high. A quick elevator ride or a 30 second walk to the back of the ship is no big deal without that wonderful light. Helps with your body clock also. 

6 hours ago, AllAboardatSea said:

This is awesome news, as I’m one of those that has been working from ships since the restart. For the naysayers, here is my result I just did two minutes ago (I’m on Oasis of the Seas currently):

 

I was on Symphony last month as well with it and can honestly say Starlink is a game changer for the most part.

 

I will say the Celebrity approach is concerning and hopefully Carnival won’t go that path. Even with Starlink, Celebrity severely throttles the basic (included) Wi-Fi to being worthless to force you to upgrade, and it’s very expensive. 
 

I’m on Celebration in a few weeks so here’s to hoping (Carnival has always had bad wifi unless on the premium variety, and even then…)!

Thank you for this information! I have done three weeks on the Celebration (2 on the transatlantic and one in the Caribbean) and on all 3 the internet was great. I was able to conduct work video meetings without issue.

7 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

I don't have experience with this type of inspection but similar ones. In my experience, the best scores were at locations that did dumb stuff like this in order to pass. 

 

The managers that learned what was being looked at and made sure they were perfect at all costs always did the best even if it meant literally closing the kitchen during meal service. 

 

Sad but true.

Yup and that was exactly what was happening in the OP's photos. You make the galley and dishwashing area perfect and then make it restricted access until the inspection is done. We even had crew only stairwells we knew the inspectors wouldn't find and we would throw any item down it from the buffet that might have dust or something on it. The plastic flowers etc.

At the time at Norwegian our General Managers were called Hotel Directors and we did not have anyone onboard with the General Manager position. Once we got word that the surprise inspectors were on the pier we would have an all ship PA announcement, including i side crew cabins, that said "Will the General Manager please report to the Front Desk" which was code to everyone that the CDC was boarding.

3 hours ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

And what exactly is or was your title where you had the captain demoted and you fired staff captains?

Sorry that poor wording is my bad. I did not personally have those people demoted and fired but they were my Captain and Staff Captains when our surprise FDA inspection resulted in horrendous scores. I will still *never* go into a hot tub on a cruise ship from what I have seen from those inspections. 

2 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

I have no idea how NCL gets around the law then, but the law in Texas is that you can't have "all you can drink" packages.  Technically, neither package is truly all you can drink. Maybe NCL is simply more comfortable with pushing the limits than Carnival or less concerned about being sued or getting fined by TABC.  Or maybe they don't worry as much about it since they don't sail as much out of Texas.  Carnival has three ships going all the time out of Galveston.  

Sorry I was talking about New York. On NCL they also had a limited menu out of Houston for our first afternoon but can't remember what the deal was on the unlimited package. 

Were you in San Juan or St. Thomas when you took these photos? They have been anticipating the surprise CDC/FDA inspection to show up any week now when they were docking in a US port. If that is the case I'm sure that's what the inspection is she was talking about. While it def interferes with the passenger operation the ship and crew cannot afford to miss easy points on that and they are definitely all focused on that. I have had Captains demoted and Staff Captains fired on ships I worked on from the results of these surprise inspections. When I was onboard the Celebration in December last they were already stressing waiting for them to show up. Regardless though they could still have some crew move those dishes aside. 

1 hour ago, Eli_6 said:

NCL probably doesn't market it as an all you can drink package and therefore somehow gets around it.  

They do and actually NCL is more unlimited than Carnival is. No 15 drink cap, can get two beers at once ec.