I made a BIG mistake!!

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

I can honestly say that I've never had anyone "pushing" drinks on any cruise I've been on, on any cruise line.

 

How nice for you! Anytime I go to karaoke or the theater or to find a deck chair, I get the "what can I get you?" constantly. If you ask for a water, you can expect them not to come back. (a bummer for karaoke. I just go to the bar to get water so I can sing now, since the servers rarely bring it.)

 

And the tactic of handing a drink to a newly boarded cruise guest as they embark and then saying "Give me your ship card" must not have happened to you (several times for me) and I'm sure new cruisers who have no idea they just bought a drink for $9 instead of a 'welcome board, guest, have a drink!' probably fall for it all the time. If that isn't pushing, I don't know what is.

[Andoria]

I can honestly say that I've never had anyone "pushing" drinks on any cruise I've been on, on any cruise line. I'm stretched out in a deck chair, the waiter comes by and asks me if I'd like anything and I say no and he moves on. Is that considered "pushing"? And as for a waiter "waking someone up" to ask if they want a drink.....??? I seriously doubt that.

 

As for the food....if I haven't had to shop for it, prepare it, cook it, serve it, listen to the complaints about it, clean up afterwards and wash the dishes it was in...then I consider I am well ahead of the game. Off the top of my head, I can only remember once having to ask for something else. Everything else ranged from definitely edible to WOWZA! THAT WAS GOOD!!!

 

Short of a trip on the Titanic or the Andrea Doria, I can't imagine how any cruise could be "horrible".

 

Do you find the photographers pushy? I'm fine with being asked if I want a drink once in awhile but when I'm asked every 10 minutes, I find that pushy behavior.

 

I should ask for water next time I feel like I'm being bothered.

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

i should ask for water next time i feel like i'm being bothered.

:d :d :d

Edited December 16, 2013 by TwinPrincessMermaids

[deborahjo]

Did you read Carnivals rules on Carrying Wine on Board? It states very clearly only 1 (one) bottle per person.

 

Loved the Dream. Will be sailing her again soon.

 

Hope you find another line that best serves your needs.

[LuvCruising01]

Thanks for your opinion. Sorry you had a bad experience.

At least it wasn't like you're enchantment of the seas experience from August.

Maybe princess is more along your lines since it has had no issues?

Better luck on your next cruise experience.

 

"We also were on the enchantment in August. We have been on about 15 cruises.....this one was the cruise from hell. It was the worst cruise that you could imagine. My wife wrote a letter to RCCL....they never responded. DO NOT GO ON THIS SHIP.

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Forums mobile app"

[Blk_Amish]

I can honestly say that I've never had anyone "pushing" drinks on any cruise I've been on, on any cruise line. I'm stretched out in a deck chair, the waiter comes by and asks me if I'd like anything and I say no and he moves on. Is that considered "pushing"? And as for a waiter "waking someone up" to ask if they want a drink.....??? I seriously doubt that.

 

As for the food....if I haven't had to shop for it, prepare it, cook it, serve it, listen to the complaints about it, clean up afterwards and wash the dishes it was in...then I consider I am well ahead of the game. Off the top of my head, I can only remember once having to ask for something else. Everything else ranged from definitely edible to WOWZA! THAT WAS GOOD!!!

 

Short of a trip on the Titanic or the Andrea Doria, I can't imagine how any cruise could be "horrible".

 

I posted about the waiter waking me up and now you are implying I am lying, why? Do you doubt they bug people about taking pics as well.

 

That's the difference, it would take close death or dying for some to consider the fun is overdone. Others value their life and time more than the boat ride!

Edited December 16, 2013 by Blk_Amish

[retiring soon]

Hi all!

 

Sorry you didn't enjoy your cruise on the Dream. That was my 1st Carnival cruise in April & I loved it so much I went on Breeze in November. OTOH I did the Emerald Princess TA in Oct'08 & haven't been back. Different strokes eh?;)

 

 

~ Jo ~ :)

[timbom]

Best way to handle a pushy waiter is to order a water. They really hate it as they get no tip. Most of the time it only takes one water order but if they keep on coming just order more water. They will get the point and quit bugging you.

 

As far as photos just ignore them.

 

It is all a game to them play along. No one is forcing you to purchase anything.

[elliair]

Best way to handle a pushy waiter is to order a water. They really hate it as they get no tip. Most of the time it only takes one water order but if they keep on coming just order more water. They will get the point and quit bugging you.

 

As far as photos just ignore them.

 

It is all a game to them play along. No one is forcing you to purchase anything.

 

True. We politely walk past the photographers especially when disembarking at a port and say "no thank you." Even when they push, I say "I told you no!" On Princess this last cruise it was hard to find a photographer and when we did, we had to stand in line. We did purchase two 8x10 pics and took them to WalMart for more pics (I purchased the disc).

[Kudos2Fly]

Funny as we just got back from the same cruise.... And it was a good cruise. No pushy waiters either. Sometimes it was a bit hard to find one, but when we did order we received our drinks in a timely manner. I have now been on 15 cruises and never seen a waiter wake anyone up for a drink order. Plus never had any experience of being asked a drink order ever 10 minutes. I went all day sometimes with out being ask.

 

As for the portion sizes in the MDR that is all relative. As hubby and I had more then enough stake for us to eat. We could have split "1" prime rib and that would have been plenty for the two of us.

 

Other then the weather which Carnival can't predict it was good. Although I do have to say I probably will not book close to the Lido deck again. When they did have the deck parties you could hear the music. But it did shut down at 12am. So couldn't complain about that. Dream didn't the "party" feel to it like the 3-4 day cruise.

 

We bought on our two "allotted" wines with out any problems also. It was our NA beer they took... :D But we went to the front desk and got it back. Since it does say NA beer on the bottle.

 

Goes to show you that "opinions" are just that opinions. Everyone's experience to totally different...

[GranthamMommy]

We are just back from a cruise on The Breeze. I've always liked Carnival's food and the variety, but this trip the food was lousy and the service in the MDR was horrible. We had breakfast in the MDR one morning,- it took over 2 hours to get our food. Fellow passengers started filling water glasses etc.

 

The ship was beautiful. Our cabin steward perfect, but the food was poor. My son and I both ordered steak one night. You wouldn't know it was the same cut of meat.

 

Granted - my BIL had a spice company, my sister writes a food column and our son's are chef's. I do expect buffet food - but Vegas sure knows how to do it.

 

Will I sale Carnival again, probably for a great price and itinerary.

 

My two cents

[HENDRICKSFAN01]

Thanks for your opinion. Sorry you had a bad experience.

At least it wasn't like you're enchantment of the seas experience from August.

Maybe princess is more along your lines since it has had no issues?

Better luck on your next cruise experience.

 

"We also were on the enchantment in August. We have been on about 15 cruises.....this one was the cruise from hell. It was the worst cruise that you could imagine. My wife wrote a letter to RCCL....they never responded. DO NOT GO ON THIS SHIP.

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Forums mobile app"

 

 

Man don't tell me that.... We were huge fans of the Monarch and I believe Enchantment replaced it. :o

 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Forums mobile app

[tkportersat]

Bye :rolleyes:

 

This was our FIRST AND LAST Carnival cruise Very little was good. They pushed drinks EXTREMELY hard.....ALLthe time. Give me a break. We were on the DREAM. It was a nice ship....but little to do but PARTY AND DRINK.Fortunately they had Punchliners Comedy Club. I noticed many people like us at every performance....excellent comedians. Most of the crew was friendly....but slow.We waited an average of 30-45 minutes in the dining room for our dinners after ordering.....totally unaceptable. Most food very blah....andVERY small quantities. I ordered 2 prime rib dinners to get 2 pieces of meat the size of a soup spoon. The cold soups were excellent.....but you cant survive on soup.

 

There was sewer smell, diesel exhaust smell, dirty balcony windows and balcony glass.......etc etc.

 

They took 2 bottles of wine from us at check in..........left the 2 of us with 4 bottles........go figure. On the other hand...........walked on from Cozumel with 2 liter bottles of Crown Royal................NOT A WORD hehehehee

 

END RESULT: never Carnival again.....back on Princess ......

 

This was Our experience.....off the ship inPort Canaveral yesterday. I hope all of you that love Carnival have a better experience. You can have our spot on the ship............we will NOT be on Carnival again!!!

 

 

 

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Forums mobile app

__________________

FireBadge1

 

Veendam-76

Sea Princess-99

Grand Princess-2000

Grand Princess-2000

Sea Princess-2001

Golden Princess-2001

Grand Princess-April 14, 2002

Grand Princess- Nov 9, 2003

Caribbean Princess-Nov. 19,2006

Caribbean Princess- December 23, 2007

Grand Princess- December 19, 2008

 

Emerald Princess- January 2011 B2B

[WetToes]

I ordered 2 prime rib dinners to get 2 pieces of meat the size of a soup spoon.

 

Exaggerate much? :rolleyes:

Edited December 17, 2013 by WetToes

[LuvCruising01]

Man don't tell me that.... We were huge fans of the Monarch and I believe Enchantment replaced it. :o

 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Forums mobile app

 

 

I was quoting from the OP's previous review of an RCCL cruise that is mysteriously not in their signature (not to mention the lack of the one carnival cruise). I was pointing out their last cruise was worse, at least this was an improvement.

[lukeduke07]

Grrrrrrr! I hate cruising so I keep booking cruises so I can complain to a bunch of cruise people on cruisecritic. Grrrrr! (Read this in the most sarcastic condescending tone possible)

[bvhboat]

If you dont mind me asking why did you switch from Princess to Carnival in the first place?

[kinggartk]

This was our FIRST AND LAST Carnival cruise Very little was good. They pushed drinks EXTREMELY hard.....ALLthe time. Give me a break. We were on the DREAM. It was a nice ship....but little to do but PARTY AND DRINK.Fortunately they had Punchliners Comedy Club. I noticed many people like us at every performance....excellent comedians. Most of the crew was friendly....but slow.We waited an average of 30-45 minutes in the dining room for our dinners after ordering.....totally unaceptable. Most food very blah....andVERY small quantities. I ordered 2 prime rib dinners to get 2 pieces of meat the size of a soup spoon. The cold soups were excellent.....but you cant survive on soup.

 

There was sewer smell, diesel exhaust smell, dirty balcony windows and balcony glass.......etc etc.

 

They took 2 bottles of wine from us at check in..........left the 2 of us with 4 bottles........go figure. On the other hand...........walked on from Cozumel with 2 liter bottles of Crown Royal................NOT A WORD hehehehee

 

END RESULT: never Carnival again.....back on Princess ......

 

This was Our experience.....off the ship inPort Canaveral yesterday. I hope all of you that love Carnival have a better experience. You can have our spot on the ship............we will NOT be on Carnival again!!!

 

 

 

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Forums mobile app

__________________

FireBadge1

 

Veendam-76

Sea Princess-99

Grand Princess-2000

Grand Princess-2000

Sea Princess-2001

Golden Princess-2001

Grand Princess-April 14, 2002

Grand Princess- Nov 9, 2003

Caribbean Princess-Nov. 19,2006

Caribbean Princess- December 23, 2007

Grand Princess- December 19, 2008

 

Emerald Princess- January 2011 B2B

 

In case you didn't know...Carnival owns Princess, so the problems you had on Dream are just as likely to happen on your princess cruise.

[HENDRICKSFAN01]

I was quoting from the OP's previous review of an RCCL cruise that is mysteriously not in their signature (not to mention the lack of the one carnival cruise). I was pointing out their last cruise was worse, at least this was an improvement.

 

Oh I see now. Good unreliable review. Phew. :rolleyes:

[SWSSMH]

For what it's worth, we did *not* enjoy our cruise on the Dream last February either. We experienced some of the same issues as the OP, ie: poor dining room service, food that was not hot when (and if) it finally arrived... boring menu choices, horrible DJ on deck. Although it certainly had some good points (we found the ship spotlessly clean and the crew friendly), it - combined with our boredom with the Carnival redundancy after 5 cruises with them in a row - finally compelled us to look at another line.

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

For what it's worth, we did *not* enjoy our cruise on the Dream last February either. We experienced some of the same issues as the OP, ie: poor dining room service, food that was not hot when (and if) it finally arrived... boring menu choices, horrible DJ on deck. Although it certainly had some good points (we found the ship spotlessly clean and the crew friendly), it - combined with our boredom with the Carnival redundancy after 5 cruises with them in a row - finally compelled us to look at another line.

 

Yep. The Dream was our "lets not go on a Carnival again" vacation too. It has that 'special something' of waay to many people that the crew can't care about mixed with poor marks across what normal cruisers would recognize as standard (ie; not pouring your own beverages self serve in the MDR.) Decent shows, when they had them, and a really funny entertainment staff. But horrible dining room service and room attendant (only saw him once in the middle of the trip and he asked us for more tips).

 

You went NCL, we went DCL.

 

Btw, our CC Dream was the last week of Feb. What was yours? I had a theory that our trip was SOO badly serviced due to massive cutbacks from all the bad Triumph press a few weeks beforehand.

Edited December 18, 2013 by TwinPrincessMermaids

[awhcruiser]

This. I would love to see pictures of the soup spooned sized prime rib..:rolleyes:

Exaggerate much? :rolleyes:

[yogimax]

This. I would love to see pictures of the soup spooned sized prime rib..:rolleyes:

 

Of course it wasn't actually soup sized.

 

Ever hear of hyperbole, an accepted literary device?

[Cindy]

For what it's worth, we did *not* enjoy our cruise on the Dream last February either. We experienced some of the same issues as the OP, ie: poor dining room service, food that was not hot when (and if) it finally arrived... boring menu choices, horrible DJ on deck. Although it certainly had some good points (we found the ship spotlessly clean and the crew friendly), it - combined with our boredom with the Carnival redundancy after 5 cruises with them in a row - finally compelled us to look at another line.

 

Yep. The Dream was our "lets not go on a Carnival again" vacation too. It has that 'special something' of waay to many people that the crew can't care about mixed with poor marks across what normal cruisers would recognize as standard (ie; not pouring your own beverages self serve in the MDR.) Decent shows, when they had them, and a really funny entertainment staff. But horrible dining room service and room attendant (only saw him once in the middle of the trip and he asked us for more tips).

 

You went NCL, we went DCL.

 

Btw, our CC Dream was the last week of Feb. What was yours? I had a theory that our trip was SOO badly serviced due to massive cutbacks from all the bad Triumph press a few weeks beforehand.

 

Wow! Dream was our "let's do something different for a while" cruise too.:( The only difference is that ours was back in the summer of 2011.

[detroitlions]

This was our FIRST AND LAST Carnival cruise Very little was good. They pushed drinks EXTREMELY hard.....ALLthe time. Give me a break. We were on the DREAM. It was a nice ship....but little to do but PARTY AND DRINK.Fortunately they had Punchliners Comedy Club. I noticed many people like us at every performance....excellent comedians. Most of the crew was friendly....but slow.We waited an average of 30-45 minutes in the dining room for our dinners after ordering.....totally unaceptable. Most food very blah....andVERY small quantities. I ordered 2 prime rib dinners to get 2 pieces of meat the size of a soup spoon. The cold soups were excellent.....but you cant survive on soup.

 

There was sewer smell, diesel exhaust smell, dirty balcony windows and balcony glass.......etc etc.

 

They took 2 bottles of wine from us at check in..........left the 2 of us with 4 bottles........go figure. On the other hand...........walked on from Cozumel with 2 liter bottles of Crown Royal................NOT A WORD hehehehee

 

END RESULT: never Carnival again.....back on Princess ......

 

This was Our experience.....off the ship inPort Canaveral yesterday. I hope all of you that love Carnival have a better experience. You can have our spot on the ship............we will NOT be on Carnival again!!!

 

 

 

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Forums mobile app

__________________

FireBadge1

 

Veendam-76

Sea Princess-99

Grand Princess-2000

Grand Princess-2000

Sea Princess-2001

Golden Princess-2001

Grand Princess-April 14, 2002

Grand Princess- Nov 9, 2003

Caribbean Princess-Nov. 19,2006

Caribbean Princess- December 23, 2007

Grand Princess- December 19, 2008

 

Emerald Princess- January 2011 B2B

Since we all can read that you have only cruised Princess Exept 1 time on HAL and must be on the south side of 50 you did not like CCL which also runs Princess I am sure you knew that. Also we will no longer see you on the Carnival boards so good bye. I am no cheer leader trust me but from your complaints sound very lame.