Carnival to charge for all room service!

[Lil2Angelic]

26 minutes ago, Indytraveler83 said:

 

The responses I got were something to the order of “Your concerns will be passed along to our management team, we appreciate the feedback.”

 

In the last few days, it appears they have shifted to a PR statement about going green, and trying to include the new LNG ship as evidence towards it. 

So their trying to pull a canned strawman argument with the green and LNG crap? What does that have to do with the fact that Carnival's is breaching their contract?  Well, I sure hope that "management team" includes their "legal team".

[sanmarcosman]

7 minutes ago, Lil2Angelic said:

 What does that have to do with the fact that Carnival's is breaching their contract?  Well, I sure hope that "management team" includes their "legal team".

Have you read your entire contract with Carnival that you sign and agree to? It's written in one party's favor: theirs. I'm not complaining, just stating a fact. If you want to arbitrate or sue you agree to do so only in the judicial system in Miami, Florida. I don't know anyone who could afford to pull up stakes and move to Miami to seek justice. 

Edited January 5, 2019 by sanmarcosman

[Lil2Angelic]

2 minutes ago, sanmarcosman said:

Have you read your entire contract with Carnival that you sign and agree to? It's written in one party's favor: theirs. I'm not complaining, just stating a fact. If you want to arbitrate or sue you agree to do so only in the judicial system in Miami, Florida. I don't know anyone who could afford to pull up stakes and move to Miami to seek justice. 

Just one reason for class action lawsuits

[les37b]

33 minutes ago, Aquahound said:

 

That's the key right there.  You see it time and time again on these boards.  "Carnival is the best bang for the buck."  "Carnival is always less expensive than the others."  So on an so forth.  Well what do people expect?  Booking prices are the same as 20 years ago.  For that to exist, something has got to give.  And as time goes on, for those prices to continue, things are going to continue to give.

 

But I am curious about the second part of your comment.  How do you figure Carnival is more inclusive than "most"?  

 

Impressive if prices really are the same as they were 20 years ago. Not seen anyone say that though. Is that frequently said or just a random comment?

 

I agree though that over time, prices and models do change. The same applies across the board whatever the Line is. They all do so. As I've said previously though, anyone booking today and are told "you have to pay for room service now", then thats a choice you can make to agree to that or reject it. But doing so to people who have already booked an paid is out of order. The comment made by someone you can get a refund under a price warranty isnt really what it says on the tin either, since its only applicable to US or Canadian passengers and it also says "the policy is subject to  change" - which is actually the problem isn't it? Besides, who wants to waste the time taken from work and the expenses for flights and hotels already made? What should be done? Simply. they should honour the terms and conditions made at the time of booking. This isnt something outside their control and the logic given isn't really being truthful and clearly is just to make more more and nothing more.

[sanmarcosman]

2 minutes ago, Lil2Angelic said:

Just one reason for class action lawsuits

Yeah, but you accept less in most of those cases if and when they ever settle. It's been 42 years since the Love Canal disaster and many of those people are still in litigation and waiting for a good result. The deck is stacked against us and I still cruise so I own this. 

[sanmarcosman]

7 minutes ago, les37b said:

 

Impressive if prices really are the same as they were 20 years ago. Not seen anyone say that though. Is that frequently said or just a random comment?

 

 

Yes and I can vouch for the veracity of that statement. In 1991 I paid more for a 7 day cruise on the Carnival Jubilee to the Mexican Riviera than I am spending for the same itinerary aboard Carnival's yet to be inaugurated Carnival Panorama for a comparable cabin.

Edited January 5, 2019 by sanmarcosman

[les37b]

11 minutes ago, sanmarcosman said:

Have you read your entire contract with Carnival that you sign and agree to? It's written in one party's favor: theirs. I'm not complaining, just stating a fact. If you want to arbitrate or sue you agree to do so only in the judicial system in Miami, Florida. I don't know anyone who could afford to pull up stakes and move to Miami to seek justice. 

 

And that depends on where you come from, are sailing and the country the booking was made in. Aquahound I'm sure will verify this for you as I think he'll remember being corrected on this previously. You are of course correct regarding this if you're a North American on a Caribbean cruise and I agree that sucks.

[les37b]

5 minutes ago, sanmarcosman said:

Yes and I can vouch for the veracity of that statement. In 1991 I paid more for a 7 day cruise on the Carnival Jubilee to the Mexican Riviera than I am spending for the same itinerary aboard Carnival's yet to be inaugurated Carnival Panorama for a comparable cabin.

 

Bet room service was free though! lol

 

But to be fair, that's pretty impressive.

[sanmarcosman]

35 minutes ago, les37b said:

 

Bet room service was free though! lol

 

But to be fair, that's pretty impressive.

Yes, the room service menu was very similar to the menu Carnival used as recently as two years ago. The food and entertainment were superior in 1991 but I also paid $8 for a carton of Marlboro cigarettes in the ship's store. (I smoked then.) I also used to drink and you could purchase two liters of a high quality alcohol ashore very inexpensively and have it delivered to your cabin the same day! Everyone ran to the liquor store at the first port of call first thing to place their orders and then it was off to the playa for the rest of the day.This went on for several years before Carnival realized the kick in the pants this caused their beverage sales. Guests didn't even have to carry it back to the ship, the two liter pack box of hooch was outside our cabin door in the hallway with the receipt waiting for us. Over several cruises with Carnival nothing was ever missing or stolen! 

 

I will say we sail mostly from Long Beach today because airfare is often more money than the cruise and this is the case for our Dream cruise from New Orleans next month. Air is 20% more than the cruise fare. We can take a city bus to the pier from outside our front door by transferring to the free Passport bus in downtown Long Beach. Much as you may if you lived in Southampton.

 

Life goes on and we adapt with the changes and we'll always have our warm Carnival memories from then and have time to make more. 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2019 by sanmarcosman

[Lil2Angelic]

Next question..Has anybody who has a cruise booked with Carnival received an email notifying them of the new room service policy? We have 3 cruises booked and nothing so far.

[Aquahound]

46 minutes ago, les37b said:

 

Impressive if prices really are the same as they were 20 years ago. Not seen anyone say that though. Is that frequently said or just a random comment?

 

There is a recent "remember when" thread on the RCI board.  I know its RCI, not CCl, but the message is relevant.  This commercial from 1990 is telling.  At the end, it advertises 7 night Caribbean cruises from $649.  That's $92/night.  Look at what we are paying today, especially for insides.  It's usually much less that $92/night.  

 

 

[sanmarcosman]

13 minutes ago, Lil2Angelic said:

Next question..Has anybody who has a cruise booked with Carnival received an email notifying them of the new room service policy? We have 3 cruises booked and nothing so far.

Good question. We have not and we sail next month.

[jimbo5544]

23 hours ago, Aquahound said:

 

So here's the trend.  RCI's specialty burgers were free.  Now, there is a cover charge.  NCL charges for their Margaritaville burgers.  Sit down restaurants...I get it.  Not an exact comparison to Guys.  So here's another example.  HAL...A Carnival brand...has a free specialty burger stand on the lido similar to Guys.  It's called Dive-In.  Well guess what?  HAL added those burgers to their room service menu and is charging for them.  Heck, Princess...another Carnival brand...charges something like $20 for their specialty burgers.  

 

So now you have at least 4 lines going down the road of adding charges to their specialty burgers one way or another.  That's a little different than hysterical posts about toilet paper, etc.  

 

So again, I hope you're right.  I hope CCL never charges for Guys.  However, I think it would be ignorant to convince oneself that it won't happen, especially when we all know the cruise lines mimic one another with things like this.   

While interesting and I can agree with a lot, I think you miss the point in what was included as free on RCCL and NCL and are now for fee.  Lido (or equivalent) burgers are just not comparable to the named versions.  Both the other two lines have a different way of delivery and atmosphere that they equivocate with the justification for the charge.  Carnival, much less (as well as the Shaq chicken to come - which is also free).  All the negative nannies will echo "for now" but I sincerely doubt we will see that change until something drastic in the way we cruise does....

[les37b]

1 hour ago, sanmarcosman said:

The food and entertainment were superior in 1991 but I also paid $8 for a carton of Marlboro cigarettes in the ship's store. (I smoked then.) I also used to drink and you could purchase two liters of a high quality alcohol ashore very inexpensively and have it delivered to your cabin the same day! Everyone ran to the liquor store at the first port of call first thing to place their orders and then it was off to the playa for the rest of the day.This went on for several years before Carnival realized the kick in the pants this caused their beverage sales. Guests didn't even have to carry it back to the ship, the two liter pack box of hooch was outside our cabin door in the hallway with the receipt waiting for us. Over several cruises with Carnival nothing was ever missing or stolen! 

 

I will say we sail mostly from Long Beach today because airfare is often more money than the cruise and this is the case for our Dream cruise from New Orleans next month. Air is 20% more than the cruise fare. We can take a city bus to the pier from outside our front door by transferring to the free Passport bus in downtown Long Beach. Much as you may if you lived in Southampton.

 

Life goes on and we adapt with the changes and we'll always have our warm Carnival memories from then and have time to make more. 

 

 

 

Reminds me of my first 3 week holiday to Miami Beach back in 1980 via the Freddy Laker skytrain service. Things were so incredibly cheap back then, helped by the $2.40 to £1 of course. (How I'd love that back right now!) lol

 

I agree with the gist of what youre saying though with regard to changes in pricing and whats included. There is a big but coming though. 

 

In 2016, I did an 8 day Barcelona med cruise on Vista with the kids (after doing a similar 10 night cruise on Silversea 4 months before. There was a gulf between the initial prices. But once you added the drinks packages and gratuities (which are included on SS), the gap closed considerably. The following year. we were on the same ship from San Juan for a 10 nighter to FLL. We paid less for that than we did for our Med cruise - and this came also with a free transatlantic fare open jaw fare, 2 nights in San Juan at a good hotel with all transfers. We also were given $1000 OBC and a free 2 cat balcony suite upgrade. Admittedly, this was a bargain and not necessarily the norm, if you took off the price of the flights, the drinks package and gratuities we would have paid on Carnival and the $1000 OBC , the 6* cruise would have been free. We are on a 12 nighter on the same ship in April, slightly more expensive, but we have Premium flights this time and 3 nights B&B in the FLL Hilton.

 

Whilst the start price is very much more expensive, once you take off the "extras" you would have had to pay for, its not as bad as it sounded. Especially if booked when the brochures first come out.

 

Anyway.... I appreciate this probably takes it a bit off topic (so apologies for that) but think it does kinda link in.

 

Edited January 5, 2019 by les37b

[pjhootch]

Cruising on Carnival is still economical if you know what you want and what you don't want.  Truthfully- we are paying more in cruise fare right now than we were in 2008-2012.    We sail inside cabins now instead of getting balcony cabins all the time.  The players club offers no longer give us a radically reduced cruise fare either.   Carnival has started charging for things they used to provide without a fee.  

 

I can see where a new cruiser would be bothered to learn that room service is not free (except for a service charge) as it appeared when they booked the cruise.  It would have really disappointed me when we were new cruisers.  It was a perk we took advantage of quite a bit in the beginning.  However, as the years have gone on we have used it less and less.  I tried a couple of the "for nominal charge" items on our last couple of cruises.  They were meh.  Overall the room service food has been kind of gross and cold and soggy, except for the breakfast items which don't matter much anyway.  

 

I think the IDEA of free room service items is much more attractive than the reality in most cases.  I am kind of bummed to see it go the way of the dinosaur completely, because it has certainly proven handy when one of us has fallen under the weather on a cruise.  Paying for a sandwich or something is not going to kill me and I will adjust- but I do understand why some people are really disappointed and it doesn't mean they are cheap or misguided or whiners.  😉    It is nice for people who never treat themselves in their regular life to take advantage of room service on the ship. And if you have a couple of kids with you those $4 grilled cheese sandwiches start to look like more than a "nominal" charge pretty quickly. A grilled cheese and a piece of chocolate cake and a coffee is going to cost more than I would want to pay.

 

It is not really a big deal to go down and get food and bring it back to the room UNLESS you are mobility limited or a night owl.  Those pizza lines are crazy in the middle of the night, especially on a casino promotional cruise where people stay up late at night in droves.

 

 

 

[Lil2Angelic]

36 minutes ago, sanmarcosman said:

Good question. We have not and we sail next month.

Hmmm...this is NOT good Carnival! My guess is that Carnival's legal team is going  to advise management to offer their "currently booked" guests a non-refundable, non-transferable onboard credit to each guests sail and sign account on the room service line item only. 

 

*sigh..they really need to add contract law to the "required" curriculum in all high schools

 

I gotta jets guys, playoffs are starting and it's getting crazy here in Vegas. Have a great weekend!

Edited January 5, 2019 by Lil2Angelic

[Rudyard]

9 hours ago, sanmarcosman said:

I explained to my PVP from the git go that I need them mostly as an order taker and to be an advocate for me if something goes south with the reservation. I said I did not want to receive sales calls. Not once in 5 years have I received a sales call. Some PVPs will work on this basis but I've read here others will not or they "forget" and call you anyway because you show up in their TK file of their sales program.

 

Same. I told my first PVP that I like to go in to the web site from time to time and price or compare itineraries I might be thinking of and that I didn't want to get a call every single time. He's been good enough to respect my wishes. I got a new PVP a couple of years ago when the old one left and he hasn't called either (I've done my last two bookings through him). I'm guessing there was some sort of "don't call" note put into the system by my original PVP. 

[Rudyard]

7 hours ago, Aquahound said:

 

There is a recent "remember when" thread on the RCI board.  I know its RCI, not CCl, but the message is relevant.  This commercial from 1990 is telling.  At the end, it advertises 7 night Caribbean cruises from $649.  That's $92/night.  Look at what we are paying today, especially for insides.  It's usually much less that $92/night.  

 

 

 

Adjusted for inflation, $649.00 in 1990 is equal to $1,268.79 in 2018.

[2Shoes2Go]

Just wondering—might there be a 18% (or less) gratuity (or Service Fee) added to Room Service? This is added to beverages already. Service fees are on Bon Voyage deliveries already.

[Joebucks]

10 hours ago, Lil2Angelic said:

So their trying to pull a canned strawman argument with the green and LNG crap? What does that have to do with the fact that Carnival's is breaching their contract?  Well, I sure hope that "management team" includes their "legal team".

 

8 hours ago, Lil2Angelic said:

Hmmm...this is NOT good Carnival! My guess is that Carnival's legal team is going  to advise management to offer their "currently booked" guests a non-refundable, non-transferable onboard credit to each guests sail and sign account on the room service line item only. 

 

*sigh..they really need to add contract law to the "required" curriculum in all high schools

 

I gotta jets guys, playoffs are starting and it's getting crazy here in Vegas. Have a great weekend!

 

Do you guys realize that pretty much every contract ever reserves the right for the company to change their terms, to a degree? Otherwise the court system would collapse from frivolous claims. Everyone thinks they are an expert on law. 99% of what the public says is illegal, is not. Every big decision a corporation makes is ran by their legal team.

 

No reasonable court is going to say that these cruises lured people in with free room service, and then took away a crucial part of the vacation, breaking the contract. Now if they suddenly made all food an additional charge that would be a actual problem for existing bookings. Delivery of food to a room is more of a customer service piece than anything.

Edited January 6, 2019 by Joebucks

[xDisconnections]

On 1/4/2019 at 2:35 PM, Aquahound said:

 

Heck, Princess...another Carnival brand...charges something like $20 for their specialty burgers.   

You might need a fact check... the Ernesto Burger on Princess only costs $5 for the burger or $8 for the burger with a beer.

[rolloman]

22 hours ago, grandmarnnurse said:

 There is no amount of “voicing your opinion “ on this matter that will change Carnival’s mind, as they watch the trend on all other ships, along with their bottom line, and proceed from there. So, yes, you can tell Carnival you are unhappy with the decision, but it won’t change anything, but create a whole lot of drama. 

You could not be more wrong..... there have been several instances where changes were not met with enthusiasm and forced a reversal. I will give you one.. NCL said no more food being brought from the buffet to your room. Cruisers complained, the idea was cancelled. 

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, rolloman said:

You could not be more wrong..... there have been several instances where changes were not met with enthusiasm and forced a reversal. I will give you one.. NCL said no more food being brought from the buffet to your room. Cruisers complained, the idea was cancelled. 

Just to emphasis your point, John Heald just posted on the social media site that they are re-evaluating the plan and will have a future announcement that will better serve their customers and planned food saving.  Another words, you were right on with your post.

[jimbo5544]

8 hours ago, xDisconnections said:

You might need a fact check... the Ernesto Burger on Princess only costs $5 for the burger or $8 for the burger with a beer.

How is Ernesto?   That does sound like a deal....

[firstgradefun]

On 12/31/2018 at 5:10 PM, GROUCHPUSS said:

Carnival to charge for all room service!

Starting mid January.

 

 

 

John just posted an update this morning. For now there will be no changes to room service as they are re-evaluating.

 

johnheald.pdf