New Room Service Menu Coming April 12th - w/some pay items

[clskinsfan]

I usually grab a pizza on the way back to the room anyways. A couple of nights on a week cruise we will order blt's and cheese cakes. If they upcharge for room service. It will just be pizza every night :)

[perditax]

(Lurker only, and my first cruise is still months away, but with all the developments across many lines I've seen in the last month, I really feel like I picked the wrong year to start cruising.)

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

(Lurker only, and my first cruise is still months away, but with all the developments across many lines I've seen in the last month, I really feel like I picked the wrong year to start cruising.)

 

It's been changing since we started cruising. The only constant is change !

 

No worries, you're going to love it (no matter what it actually ends up being)!

 

Tom

[perditax]

It's been changing since we started cruising. The only constant is change !

 

 

 

No worries, you're going to love it (no matter what it actually ends up being)!

 

 

 

Tom

 

 

Thanks. Maybe I picked the wrong time of year/news cycle to start investigating cruises and lurking on CC. Does this happen every spring? Is it always pay more/get less each year, or does awesome stuff get added to counterbalance it?

 

(I'm not trying to troll or whatever, but to an outsider skimming all the lines' boards it looks like I missed the golden age of cruising or something. :) Lots of outrage on RCCL and NCL right now especially.)

[lettienets]

Over on the NCL boards everybody is complaining about the testing of a room service charge on Breakaway and Getaway, one at $4.95 and one at $7.95 (testing the price point) no matter what your order on room service *pizza is already $5.00) and hot items are being added. But people who only want coffee and danish for example will have to pay fee too.

JH did mention on Pride ship I got off on Sun that Carnival will add hot food to room service but never said anything about a charge.

[evanAction]

I would pay $20 for a large pizza and breadsticks delivered hot and fresh at 1am in the middle of the Atlantic......in a heartbeat! I hope CCL does revise the room service menu --- it will be for better before it will be for worse.

[MrMileStoner]

Cumulative effect, I have no intention of arguing the merits:

 

Booked balcony cabin in May.

 

July Carnival announced no smoking on balconies.

 

February announced replacing free drink with water.

 

March announced new menu effective May 31 on the ship. No chateau briand, only 2 cold fruit soups and won't go into any other details.

 

March, no chocolate at turndown.

 

If true, charging for room service would be fifth unilateral change.

 

Has the price of your cruise gone down since you originally booked?

[djcass4199]

Cumulative effect, I have no intention of arguing the merits:

 

Booked balcony cabin in May.

 

July Carnival announced no smoking on balconies.

 

February announced replacing free drink with water.

 

March announced new menu effective May 31 on the ship. No chateau briand, only 2 cold fruit soups and won't go into any other details.

 

March, no chocolate at turndown.

 

If true, charging for room service would be fifth unilateral change.

 

Wow, didn't realize that a piece of crappy chocolate coupled with the replacement of an $8 drink with a $4 bottle of water was so earth shattering.

 

And I don't think unilateral is the proper word choice here. But we will not argue that point.....

[lido deck larry]

Oh brother.. Not another Carnival cut back! 😝

[spyingeyes]

Wow, didn't realize that a piece of crappy chocolate coupled with the replacement of an $8 drink with a $4 bottle of water was so earth shattering.

 

 

 

And I don't think unilateral is the proper word choice here. But we will not argue that point.....

 

 

I think maybe you are missing his point. I don't believe these things are earth shattering to him. I think he was simply highlighting the fact that Carnival has made many changes this year in a vacuum. And a lot of the changes appear to be aimed at the wallets and pocket books of their loyal customers.

 

I enjoy cruising with Carnival and feel that even with many of the changes, I still get good bang for my buck. But I do agree that there really is no such thing as an "all inclusive" cruise anymore at this price point.

 

What's really great is that we as the consumers have the ultimate say on which company we decide to support with our hard earned money.

[nchikk]

My opinion only and don't care who flames: opened this door when they started charging for selected items in the MDR.

 

Now firmly down the path of doing away with the all-inclusive cruise.

 

You can pretend they are options. I can see a couple of years down the line when cruise ships are filled with a new group of people.

 

I have a cruise booked for June that I booked in May, 2014. If charging anything for room service comes to fruition it will be the fifth change Carnival has made unilaterally since I booked. It will be time for me to walk away and cheers to you who can't wait for the door to slam behind me.

 

No flame, but charging for selected items in the MDR doesn't mean you HAVE to partake of those items. You can still have a meal (included in the cruise fare) from several choices in the MDR. No one is making you pay this...it IS optional.

 

Secondly, Carnival has NEVER been all-inclusive.

[Frank12]

I would pay for hot breakfast on the room service menu.

[eponym]

Cumulative effect, I have no intention of arguing the merits:

 

Booked balcony cabin in May.

 

July Carnival announced no smoking on balconies.

 

February announced replacing free drink with water.

 

March announced new menu effective May 31 on the ship. No chateau briand, only 2 cold fruit soups and won't go into any other details.

 

March, no chocolate at turndown.

 

If true, charging for room service would be fifth unilateral change.

 

Thank you. Appreciate the insight. We will navigate accordingly.

[MCFTJCH2V]

I've certainly not been in the loop much lately here on CC - but just learned of a new room service menu which is due to be implemented on April 12. There are to be some pay items on it as well.

 

If this has already been covered here on CC, could someone give me a link to the thread(s)?

 

If not - I have no other information thus far. Just read it in an email from a Hotel Director.

 

THANKS,

 

Tom

 

Charging for room service food? Say it isn't so.

 

I did see a thread about NCL charging $7.95 for room service as a test on two of their ships, but that information is now gone.

[hftmrock]

[quote name='lido deck larry']Oh brother.. Not another Carnival cut back! 😝[/quote]


this is not a cut back as far as I see it. In fact they are adding something that they did not have before. They are adding more on the menu for room service. and they are charging for the 'new' items on the menu.

if this is true. this is not a cutback. they didn't cut anything and they didn't charge you for something that used to be free. these are new items on the menu. this didn't exist before so its not a cutback.

[MCFTJCH2V]

[quote name='hftmrock']this is not a cut back as far as I see it. In fact they are adding something that they did not have before. They are adding more on the menu for room service. and they are charging for the 'new' items on the menu.

if this is true. this is not a cutback. they didn't cut anything and they didn't charge you for something that used to be free. these are new items on the menu. this didn't exist before so its not a cutback.[/QUOTE]

I don't agree. If they are simply bringing you food that is already being made and being served up top, why would it suddenly be charged for and tipping "charges" still not apply. They are not delivering it any differently.

[Kentucky816]

I posted something like what I am going to say and what others are starting to say about 2 years ago. I just saw the way things in the cruise industry are going and figured over time the final objective will be achieved. Someday the ship will be just a hotel on water…..most good food will be extra $. They are slowly phasing that in now as we can see. As the old guard gets older (myself) and the new takeover it will happen albeit slowly. Many people have never cruised and those will never know any difference.

As to small changes such as chocolate on the pillow, can you imagine just that one change Carnival wide could cumulatively save them hundreds of thousands of dollars. That translates to make shareholders happy….trust me they care more about them almost than the customer. It is delicate balance…working for
the airline industry we see it well; keeping customer happy but jumping through hoops for the stockholder.

[Jamman54]

[SIZE="4"][COLOR="DarkGreen"]I will wait until I see the details before I pass judgment. Getting upset before then is a waste of time and energy. I am on the Pride this Sunday, and the new room service menu is supposed to be tested on this ship this week and next. If they ADD some new hot items and charge for them, while keeping the old items free, I would have no problem with that. Nobody will be twisting your arm to purchase them, just like nobody twists your arm to buy the upcharge items in the MDR, or drinks, or photos, or bingo, or shore excursions, or buy in the Fun Shops, or play in the Casino, etc, etc.[/COLOR][/SIZE]

[girlsjustwannacruise]

Not sure why people are getting so twisted over this. Yes, Carnival is going to continue to nickel and dime us to death. Its how they make up for having the lowest cruise fares. I would rather it be optional charges. Does anyone know when we will have more information on this ? Room service is a huge deal to my kiddos and right now we pay $3-$5 per order as tips. We might have to cut this down a bit-the ordering- if they add on a delivery charge as well.

[sailor_jimc]

Grab some popcorn and sit back.. this is going to take awhile.. the complaining on the charged room service on the NCL page was well over a 1000 posts yesterday morning.. we are already pushing 4 pages and have just got started...

[MCFTJCH2V]

[quote name='girlsjustwannacruise']Not sure why people are getting so twisted over this. Yes, Carnival is going to continue to nickel and dime us to death. Its how they make up for having the lowest cruise fares. I would rather it be optional charges. Does anyone know when we will have more information on this ? Room service is a huge deal to my kiddos and right now we pay $3-$5 per order as tips. We might have to cut this down a bit-the ordering- if they add on a delivery charge as well.[/QUOTE]

That's a lot for tips, when you think you can get an entire sit down served meal for $2.

[MCFTJCH2V]

[quote name='sailor_jimc']Grab some popcorn and sit back.. this is going to take awhile.. the complaining on the charged room service on the NCL page was well over a 1000 posts yesterday morning.. we are already pushing 4 pages and have just got started...[/QUOTE]

I'm hoping more people express their displeasure, as opposed to sitting back and letting a business take more money from their wallet. Businesses love this kind of customer.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

Since I'd be willing to pay for BUFFALO WINGS... they won't be offering that. Just like they're apparently not going to be offering hot breakfast.

Oh well - we should all still be thrilled just to be able to cruise. There are many people who couldn't fathom that thought!!

Tom

[MCFTJCH2V]

[quote name='Kentucky816']I posted something like what I am going to say and what others are starting to say about 2 years ago. I just saw the way things in the cruise industry are going and figured over time the final objective will be achieved. Someday the ship will be just a hotel on water…..most good food will be extra $. They are slowly phasing that in now as we can see. As the old guard gets older (myself) and the new takeover it will happen albeit slowly. Many people have never cruised and those will never know any difference.

As to small changes such as chocolate on the pillow, can you imagine just that one change Carnival wide could cumulatively save them hundreds of thousands of dollars. That translates to make shareholders happy….trust me they care more about them almost than the customer. It is delicate balance…working for
the airline industry we see it well; keeping customer happy but jumping through hoops for the stockholder.[/QUOTE]

They will try to scale back a little at a time hoping some things go unnoticed. Why some defend this while making their cruise experience just happier for the stock holder escapes me.

[skyeman27]

How about a $5 upcharge for a table cloth in the MDR on ships that do not have table cloths. If you order lobster or steak at the $20 upcharge, get a table cloth at no charge??? Edited April 3, 2015 by gklow