kpwhalen830

I have yet to go on the perfect cruise but this one was exceptionally awful. 
At one point I asked my wife if she thinks Carnival ever sends their executives, cruise directors or, higher up decision makers on the competitions cruises. Or if they ever actually sail onboard their own brand incognito to compare processes. It appears that they do not and they should .

2 hours ago, ema773 said:

Virgin Voyages earliest embarkation time is 1:30-2:00.  If Carnival waited until then for embarkation the rooms would be ready as well, but people would be complaining that boarding is too late.  If you want your room to be ready and your cards waiting for you then board at a later time.

I have no problem with a 1:30 boarding. I just feel it is a bit archaic that carnival still makes the process extremely long and that they haven’t figured out how to streamline the process like Virgin and some other lines have. 

5 hours ago, Robpuffdaddy said:

1.  The reason they do not give you your sail and sign card is now it is your cabin door key. This way you can not access your rooms till they are ready.  At least you can use that sheet of paper to start drinking

2 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

The keys available at the cabin also prevents people from heading right to their cabins when they are not ready.  Sometimes you can go to your cabin and drop off carryons, but the key card won’t be there until the cabin is ready.  EM

Yes that is ridiculous. We went on Virgin in February, they gave us our bracelets for room access and purchases in the terminal. Entire embarkation took 20 minutes. Cabins were also ready at embarkation. 

1. We had the fast pass or whatever it’s called and did arrive at our time. Other lines get you onboard a lot quicker. I also thought it was bizarre that I had to carry my boarding pass around to make purchases until my pass was ready at my room. It’s 2024 that should be handed to me while I walk onboard. 
2.yeah the water sucked the entire cruise, kind of weird.

3. All the other venues had crazy lines. I’m a seasoned cruiser and know where to go for short lines, they just didn’t exist here.Went to the BBQ place right when we walked on. They need to make stations at the Lido Buffett to break up the lines. 
4. I don’t mind a 2 hour dinner. Just take my drink order when I’m seated, 30 minutes is ridiculous. Especially when there are 3 children wanting more than an ice water. 
5. Other lines seem to manage their elevators better better. Typically long waits on day one and then it’s good. 

We sailed the 4 night, disembarked yesterday. It was by far the worst cruise ever. We last sailed carnival in 2009 and that was not very good either. We gave the line one more shot and will not cruise again on carnival.

1.The embarkation process makes no sense and takes forever. In the last 24 months we have sailed royal Caribbean, celebrity and Virgin. Their process is fast and streamlined. 

2. The water on the ship smelled and tasted like sewage. It wasn’t bad but noticeable. Very annoying since I could not get more than 1 bottle of water or a drink at the same time. 
3. Lines, lines, lines and more lines. What is the deal with lines for all food? We waited 45 minutes for pizza during dining hours. My daughter waited in line 3 times over a half hour for pizza. I wanted pizza more than once but I refused to wait in the line. Guys Burger joint? Forget about it. 
4. Do they put the newbies in the my time dining room? It took 30 minutes before we placed an order for drinks on the first night. They fumbled our orders for food around. It was just a mess. The 2nd night our service was great then it was garbage again on the 3rd night. 
5. why can’t I order a alcohol drink and a bottle of water at the same time? Some servers/bartenders were cool and let us do that but a majority did not. They received handsome tips and continued visits from us. 
6. the elevators suck, why the long waits all the time? I used the stairs more than ever. It’s not always cool doing a ton of stairs with a 5 year old. 

7. the wine list for the drink package is lousy, 2 Cabernet Sauvignon are available.

8. The food was not good, maybe ok. This seems to be a trend over all the lines. 
THE Short list of good stuff:

1. Our room steward Julius was probably the best we have had in years.
2. When the line for tacos wasn’t long they were good. 
Flame away or ask away. 

Following! We are sailing on Friday. 

Can you post a picture of the laundry/dry cleaning prices? I can't seem to get anyone to give me pricing. 

Thanks! 

We are sailing on Silhouette this weekend, is there a bar that will air the Bills game? New to sailing with Celebrity. 

Thanks!

1 hour ago, Jimbo said:

People have to understand that Royal Caribbean is not a premium cruise line, so know going in that the food may not be great.  You pretty much get what you pay for.

When I cruised with Royal Caribbean in 2006 and 2008 the food was much better than it is now. 

I forgot to mention Coco Cay. It was our first time there and it was very nice. It did rain and we had to go back on the ship but we all really liked it. The food was better than the ship food as well. 

2 hours ago, Cdude said:

“Tens of thousands sail every day...a handful come here and complain about the food”

Exactly! That’s why RCI needs to monitor their surveys. I would have loved it if Applebees was served in the MDR on my recent cruise. It would have been a nice upgrade.

Applebee's would have been an upgrade and applebee's isn't that good. 

Just got off the 4/9-4/16 sailing. 

The ship is very nice, not very crowded considering it was at 80% capacity. At times the bar waits were long due to crowds. 

The ongoing trend I am noticing with Royal Caribbean is the food going downhill. The menus have not changed much over the years, the presentation and quality reminds me of an Applebees or worse. 

The main dining room food needs a complete overhaul, it was not good. We ate there 5 nights and not a single meal was good, one night I had the braised short rib that was "ok". The service was very good, they just need a new menu with better food and presentation. 

The Windjammer had food that was expected for a cafeteria setting. My only complaint there was with the table hogs or table holders. I had a family of 5 and it was very hard to find a table. If you don't hold a table while the rest of your party gets food it will actually help the flow of tables becoming open because they are not occupied as long. 

Park Cafe was pretty good, no complaints and it was usually pretty fast. I ended up here for breakfast everyday except out first morning. I also did lunch and snack there often. Standouts were the "beef on weck" and egg, ham and swiss on ciabatta. The chips hogs wiped the place clean by Thursday. 

We did Jamies Italian for dinner on the 2nd night, it was a solid 1 out of 10. If I didn't have to pay an upcharge I would give it a 3 out of 10. Nothing was good, nothing was plated nice, it was just bad. The service again was good but that does not make the food any better. 

Cafe Promenade and Sorrento's were both good.

150 Central Park.....Well we finally had a good meal. It was exceptional! I was very apprehensive to go here after the lousy dining we were having. I don't have any complaints. Everything was plated nice, tasted good and was the proper temp. Our server did bring out the scallop appetizer that wasn't that great but everything else was fantastic. Whoever runs this place needs to run the entire food operation on the ship. 

Feel free to ask any questions.

thanks! Already packed 2 cups.

Are half pints of milk or chocolate milk available in Park Cafe or Windjammer on Symphony? We are sailing next week with a 3 year old that enjoys a milk when she wakes up? Availability for room service complimentary breakfast would be nice as well. I can't seem to find the breakfast menu anywhere. 

rare beef will not make you sick.

Anyone know if Symphony is back to self serve? I hope so. 

13 days for Symphony 🙂

It's only a matter of time that the government realizes that this can't be contained. When that happens they can focus more on treating people with it. After all most people will not have major issues. 

Escape only does eastern Caribbean.

Thanks for the review, a shame some of the specialty dining restaurants are going downhill. Maybe cutbacks b/c of promo offerings.

 

 

Do people complain about the loud music to NCL while on the ship? I read this often in reviews and seems like something they would be willing to change; doesn't cost them anything. Seems unlikely there will be corresponding complaints some can't hear music if it's turned down a couple notches.

 

 

"It was also insanely loud on sea days, so loud I had a hard time ordering a drink when I was passing through one day. "

I have read about a lot of complaints about the noise. The loud music is not for me but I don't have a problem with it as long as there is somewhere else to go like Spice H2o. On one of the sea days it was so loud it sounded like there was normal volume music playing in Spice.

We did Palm 2 years ago, great beach!

Spice H2o was rocking well past 2:00am most nights on our Escape cruise last week.

Thanks for the review. I am taking my first NCL trip on Escape this fall after many cruises on RCI and CCL. I hope I enjoy it more than your group seems to have. Bad service and Bad food make for a bad trip in my book as well.

You will have a great time. It wasn't a bad trip, it just didn't meet my expectations. I was really looking forward to cruising on the Escape with NCL and it just fell short. Maybe it was a bad week, maybe this how they are all the time, I don't know. The food was better than my last cruise on RCCL Adventure, but I was expecting more based on reviews I have read.

I will probably give NCL another shot in the future. Right now we are looking into RCCL Oasis class again, we really enjoyed the Allure. Allure's food was average but the service and ship were great.

Nassau: We were going to treat Nassau as a sea day or briefly get off for some Conch fritters but after reading Gambee's review we decided to look into the British Colonial Hilton. It's about a 15-20 minute walk through the shopping area from the ship. $60 per person gets you in with a $40 per person credit towards food and drinks at the poolside bar and restaurant. You get assigned a server, find a place to sit, get a towel and enjoy the day. All 12 from our group came along for this so we parked ourselves by the pool. The servers and staff are very nice, friendly and fun. Food and drink prices are really high but that is why you have the $40 right? $18.75 for a chicken sandwich with fries! :o The food was all grilled right next to the bar. I wasn't going to buy any but it smelled so good! The beach was nice, white sand, blue water, you can see the ships, it was great.

We all agreed that we would go back here again!

Tortola: We went to Cane Garden Bay/Beach, $8 per person for the cab ride. You go up and down some really steep hills on this ride, I enjoyed it. The cab driver talked over a loud speaker the entire ride telling us about the island and other tidbits of information, it was a nice ride. The locals here are a lot more friendly than the St. Thomas people. $5 chairs, $10 umbrellas, $15 buckets of beer. $5 less than St. Thomas and no attitude (y):cool: Mixed drinks were also less money and lacked the bad attitude :cool:. I think we got to the beach around 8:30 and left at 1:00pm(cab driver recommendation).

The beach was almost as nice as Coki, the water just a shade darker and not as clear. I would take this beach over Coki due to the friendly help and locals.

Next Up Nassau and the British Colonial Hilton