Tried Carnival

[KarinaGW]

I will be posting this in both the Carnival and RCCL boards.

 

I sailed on my first Carnival ship (The Fascination) last November. It was a four day Bahamas cruise.

 

Background: I am D+ on RCCL, having sailed on Enchantment, all the Explorer class ships & Liberty. My favorite ships are Enchantment & Liberty for different (and overlapping) reasons. I’ve always thought about giving the Carnival Pride a try since it sails out of Baltimore. I love the look of the ship but its itineraries never really grabbed me.

 

My sister moved to Jacksonville which is Fascination's home port. She figured since it was so handy, she’d give it a try and invited me to come along. What follows are notes I made to myself during the cruise. Anything in parentheses I added while getting ready to post this.

 

Good points:

• Decor, (I love the looks of the interiors of the Carnival ships)
  
• Taste of food (It was never anything all that special kind of food, but it always tasted good)
  
• Buffet drink cart (I love love love the drink cart they push around the buffet (during breakfast, maybe other times, but I loved me my giant mimosas) area.
  
• Drinks, in general (Carnival does a really nice job with drinks)
  
• Cabin & stuff (we were in an Outside cabin and got robes. Bathroom amenities were nice too)
  
• Outside eating options. (Buffet. You had poolside options, aft options. I was often alone with my thoughts on the aft…lovely).
  
• Cute, gimmicky drink cups. (Everyday, there was at least one fun drink cup that they sold a specialty drink in. I bought one in the shape of the Carnival Dolphin tail that does double duty as a bank)
  
• Drink of day discount. (This was kind of cool. You buy a drink of the day on your first day and keep the “glass”. Subsequently, whenever you brought that to get another DoD, you got 75 cents off.)
  
• Deli (okay, this was probably my favorite thing on the ship…they had a deli station in the back of the buffet (there was also a bar station and a pizza station)…OMG pastrami and corned beef on rye to order…and good flavored to boot)
  
• (Daily sushi. Yum)
  

 

Bad points:

• MUSTER (I would be terrified of the ship sinking if I had only attended musters on Fascination. There was no organization. No effort to make people pay attention. Our muster group was just sort of randomly scattered on the pool deck…mostly chit-chatting amongst themselves. I have no idea what their procedures are on that ship. None at all because I couldn’t hear.)
  
• Activities locations. (This goes hand in hand with the final comment below. They’re separate because it REALLY bugged me. Fascination had some gorgeous well-laid out and well-thought out facilities. But, they were so poorly & inappropriately utilized for the activities, it was maddening. I assume this is the fault of the CD & staff, but it might also be partially laid at the feet of the Hotel Director)
  
• training of dining room waitstaff (They were lovely. They were friendly. They were always a little like deer in headlights. Never felt they were entirely well-enough trained and were kind of muddling along. The maître d’ on Fascination sucked eggs.)
  
• Food availability - hours, room service (I just moved and haven’t dug out everything yet so I can’t specify the hours food was available. But, it was awkward and not enough)
  
• Cruise daily info... No staff info. No port maps. No Day at a glance. Wrong, missing & incomplete info
  
• Hours!!! - serenity, the anti-funship. (The adult pool area closed ridiculously early…like 7 or 8 (see moving note above). It just sat there closed and tormenting those of us who wanted to get away from the kids in the evening)
  
• Attitude towards singles, (ESPECIALLY photographers. I am a picture buyer. I spend stupid amounts. Not on Fascination. It was like pulling teeth to even get a photographer to take a picture..and then there was no direction or anything. It was take a single snapshot and get her out of the way. Couples though (of all ages) were fawned over and multi-photoed. I got a similar vibe of (friendly, however) condescension occasionally elsewhere)
  
• Poor utilization of gorgeous facilities. (See above. For example, they would do their trivia on the pool-deck from the 4 sided stage with a mediocre-ish portable sound system, competing with all the people on the pool deck doing pool-deck activities. Meanwhile a beautiful large lounge area with lots of seating was sitting empty. Weird thought processes)
  

 

Same on both RCCL & Carnival

• Personnel friendliness. (Everybody (except the photogs) were very friendly and helpful (Kudos to the nice women in the salon who were very nice when I poked my head in and asked for a quick bang trim..lovely people))
  
• Cleanliness. (Ship was spotless)
  
• Sit down breakfast (did it once on Fascination. Handled the same as on RCCL ships. Food was good)
  

 

(Oh, ports, I guess I should mention. I’ve been to the Bahamas enough that I had no real interest in going into Freeport, so I slept in a little and then went into the dock area and wound up spending a couple of hours at a really fun bar called Sparky’s I recommend it. Good music, strong drinks, good food). On Nassau, we went to Atlantis (where I’ve never been). Nice beach, half the restaurants were closed in November, but the food they had at the walk-up concessions stands were good. Not worth (for future me) the money, but glad I did it once. Oh, and, just so you’re aware. It has the finest (as in small) sand I have ever run across and it gets into everything. Body parts, cameras. And I don’t think I ever got it completely showered off for a couple days)

 

All in all, it wasn’t an awful trip by any means...especially as any day cruising is better than not cruising. But, a lot of the attitude got me down. The weird programming, the inattention to detail…none of it ever made me want to try a Carnival cruise again. AND THEN, I got into a conversation with a Carnival cruiser and she begged me not to judge Carnival by my experience on Fascination. She doesn’t even do more than tolerate it. But, she lives locally and does it once a month as a gambling trip. When she wants a real cruise experience she travels south down the coast and travels on other Carnival ships. So, I will look into giving Carnival another shot…probably on Pride since it sails 45 minutes from where I live.

[shippmates]

Have not sailed on the Fasinaction but have sailed the Pride. It was a wonderful experience out of Baltimore. The itinerary is not the greatest but we did have a good time in the adult only area. The only thing I would change is put a roof over the adult pool. The service was great, food was good and it was very relaxing. Then again we are only 75 minuets from the port.

[KarinaGW]

Have not sailed on the Fasinaction but have sailed the Pride. It was a wonderful experience out of Baltimore. The itinerary is not the greatest but we did have a good time in the adult only area. The only thing I would change is put a roof over the adult pool. The service was great, food was good and it was very relaxing. Then again we are only 75 minuets from the port.

 

Thanks for the input. I've researched the heck out of her and she appealed to me except the itinerary. DH, however, kept being of the mindset of staying with RCCL for the points until we got to whatever he felt was a comfortable level. I didn't argue, particularly, because I love RCCL's product. Gotta say though, that there are a few things that I think Carnival does better. Looking forward to trying the Pride.

[Piepkorn]

My DW and I did a 3 night trip from Vancouver to LA in Sept 2011 on the Spirit. We are also D+ on RCCL. Check-in was a zoo, as there were computer problems, and everyone was checked in manually. But never an announcement that the computers were not working until we finally got to the desk. Just herded like cattle into various holding areas.

 

My observations were very similar to the OP on all points....the only thing I would add, is I felt more like a number than a person. Senior staff was virtual invisible on this cruise. Food was better generally than on RCCL.

 

On several occasions they had several functions booked in the same place at the same time. Staff didn't know what to do. Sort of like the activities were scheduled by corporate without realizing they double-booked locations.

 

The most irritating thing was that we were almost 4 hours late arriving in port, but no announcement until 1 hour after we were due to disembark. I knew there was a problem as when I woke up and we were still at sea. Fortunately we didn't have a flight to catch....but the taxis all left thinking there was no ship that day, took a long time for them to return.

 

Will I sail on Carnival again....yes, as it's just about the only thing left out here on the west coast.

[Merion_Mom]

My DW and I did a 3 night trip from Vancouver to LA in Sept 2011 on the Spirit. We are also D+ on RCCL. Check-in was a zoo, as there were computer problems, and everyone was checked in manually. But never an announcement that the computers were not working until we finally got to the desk. Just herded like cattle into various holding areas.

 

My observations were very similar to the OP on all points....the only thing I would add, is I felt more like a number than a person. Senior staff was virtual invisible on this cruise. Food was better generally than on RCCL.

 

On several occasions they had several functions booked in the same place at the same time. Staff didn't know what to do. Sort of like the activities were scheduled by corporate without realizing they double-booked locations.

 

The most irritating thing was that we were almost 4 hours late arriving in port, but no announcement until 1 hour after we were due to disembark. I knew there was a problem as when I woke up and we were still at sea. Fortunately we didn't have a flight to catch....but the taxis all left thinking there was no ship that day, took a long time for them to return.

 

Will I sail on Carnival again....yes, as it's just about the only thing left out here on the west coast.

 

Princess?

[Piepkorn]

Princess?

 

Been looking at that November 27th Golden Princess 4 day trip....waiting for prices to come down.

[nurseone]

We've sailed Carnival out of Galveston many times and it's fine - we prefer Royal (are Diamond) have done Princess twice once out of Galveston and then the California Coastal in October 2012. Never again. 2 strikes and your out. the california cruise was soooo very disorganized and so many many little things that they all added up. Poor communication. More $$. I know there are many, many loyal Princess fans out there and I hope if you try Princess you have a great trip.

 

Susan

[jamscckmc]

I have been on most cruise lines at least once but multiple times on Princess and RC. My only experience with Carnival was the Pride. I actually liked the Itinerary as we were looking for a relaxing beach trip with my DD and her friend for HS graduation. We went to HMC which is my favorite private island so far. Grand Turk, which I loved walking off the ship and having a beach and pool right there, and Freeport where we took the open air taxi to Lucaya and went to the beach. My minor complaints were the lack of evening activities compared to Princess and RC and less food venues. I also couldn't get used to men in shorts and sandals in the MDR. I thought the food was good, the cabins spacious and beds comfortable. I would sail on her again!