UPDATE ON YOUR CUCINA DEL CAPITANO RESERVATION

[Laplayaperson]

Just got this email...kinda bummed was looking forward to trying something different:

 

May 16, 2022   Dear Carnival Guest: The challenge of securing visas for cruise industry employees has impacted staffing levels, particularly in our culinary team.   We are making some modest adjustments to some of our service offerings for the time being, so that we can maximize the guest experience and our guest service. Most of these will have a negligible impact. However, one change that will impact your cruise is that we are temporarily suspending dinner service at Cucina del Capitano across the fleet through the end of June. Note: Cucina on Mardi Gras will continue to function as normal.   We regret the disappointment this may cause as we know our guests enjoy this specialty dining venue. It will remain open for lunch, and we will also be offering featured Cucina entrees on the main dining room menu each night, at no additional charge.   A full refund of your pre-cruise dinner reservation for Cucina del Capitano will be processed to your original form of payment.  Again, our apologies, but thank you for your understanding. And of course, thank you for making Carnival Cruise Line your favorite way to vacation! Sincerely,

Neil Palomba Chief Operations Officer

[BaronArroz]

It’s also the chef’s table fleetwide

[mz-s]

That is a shame, it is good that they'll be offering Cucina entrees in the MDR. That's a nice gesture.

 

Frankly I like that they're closing Cucina rather than offer a sub-par experience.

[Laplayaperson]

Curious though why it still shows under our ACTIVITIES & SERVICES ORDER HISTORY

[shof515]

Someone in my roll call was effected by this too. sailing on the Magic in June

[Laplayaperson]

Sorry that was a cut and paste not trying to shout 😉

[ashkir]

Wow! I went 3 times on Panorama! It was the best part of my trip. 

[cruisingguy007]

Wonder if it's going to be replaced fleet wide with something else? Seems to be the least popular option for up charge dining. Hopefully, if they change it entirely, it's something great.   

[proudpatriot07]

I'm sailing on the Sunshine in a few days, and it's been sold out for awhile on the website where you book excursions. I thought it was odd for it to be completely sold out so early, but I guess these problems have been ongoing.

 

With that said, if it's closed on our sailing, I really hope we have some of those items in the MDR! Crossing fingers.

[Saint Greg]

I have cucina booked on Magic in august and I didn’t get this email. I won’t be upset if they’re canceling half of the reservations to put in JiJi’s.

[Guest BasicSailor]

40 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

I have cucina booked on Magic in august and I didn’t get this email. I won’t be upset if they’re canceling half of the reservations to put in JiJi’s.

Seems to be setting the internet on fire today along with a few other new updates .

[Saint Greg]

Just noticed the letter said through June. That's why I haven't heard about August.

[KmomChicago]

13 hours ago, cruisingguy007 said:

Wonder if it's going to be replaced fleet wide with something else? Seems to be the least popular option for up charge dining. Hopefully, if they change it entirely, it's something great.   

Rudi's could be added to some ships instead, but I don't think that's what's going on right now. I think it's just the staffing problem.

[jsglow]

I'd be SHOCKED if this portends any re-branding of those specialty spaces.  Rather, I agree that this is another staffing issue.

 

I think I agree that Carnival has made a strategic mistake forcing all the ships back into service and not simultaneously capping the capacity at something the existing crew compliment could handle.  I suppose they wanted to be 1st to announce 'full fleet operations'.  But they could have quietly capped capacity at 75% and made this work.  There's lots of 'first time since the restart' cruisers onboard.  If the problems are as significant as has been pointed out, many won't be back. 

[Joebucks]

15 minutes ago, jsglow said:

I'd be SHOCKED if this portends any re-branding of those specialty spaces.  Rather, I agree that this is another staffing issue.

 

I think I agree that Carnival has made a strategic mistake forcing all the ships back into service and not simultaneously capping the capacity at something the existing crew compliment could handle.  I suppose they wanted to be 1st to announce 'full fleet operations'.  But they could have quietly capped capacity at 75% and made this work.  There's lots of 'first time since the restart' cruisers onboard.  If the problems are as significant as has been pointed out, many won't be back. 

 

Bringing entire ships to operation is far more important to showing a viable business than staffing a slow restaurant.

[jsglow]

I don't disagree Joe.  But I probably would limit guest capacity some.  There's been a lot of POed cruisers lately.

[nlktx49]

2 hours ago, jsglow said:

I'd be SHOCKED if this portends any re-branding of those specialty spaces.  Rather, I agree that this is another staffing issue.

 

I think I agree that Carnival has made a strategic mistake forcing all the ships back into service and not simultaneously capping the capacity at something the existing crew compliment could handle.  I suppose they wanted to be 1st to announce 'full fleet operations'.  But they could have quietly capped capacity at 75% and made this work.  There's lots of 'first time since the restart' cruisers onboard.  If the problems are as significant as has been pointed out, many won't be back. 

All of the special things we got used to before the shutdown will probably never be reinstated no matter if the staffing shortage is overcome. I agree with you on reducing capacity to match the number of crew.  The three times I  cruised before ships went back to full capacity there were no problems, the four since did have problems. Carnival's PR ploy of announcing being the first line to get back to full operations has come back to bite them in the "aft" -

[modes]

On 5/16/2022 at 3:28 PM, ashkir said:

Wow! I went 3 times on Panorama! It was the best part of my trip. 

I totally agree , I went 4 times!

[kitten816]

Does anyone have the update menu's reflecting which items from Cucina are on the main room menu? 

[ArchieCruise]

Does anyone know if the Cucina menu items being added in the main dining room will be available on the ships that didn’t have a Cucina in the first place?  

[cruisewiththekids]

It mentions dinner in the letter.   Will it be open for the free lunch?

[BubbaD123]

13 minutes ago, cruisewiththekids said:

It mentions dinner in the letter.   Will it be open for the free lunch?

Yes, it is open for the free pasta lunch during sea days only. 

 

On 5/19/2022 at 7:09 PM, kitten816 said:

Does anyone have the update menu's reflecting which items from Cucina are on the main room menu? 

The only items that make it to the MDR menu are the 'penne al ragu' and the chicken parmesan. 

[Silent Penguin]

On 5/16/2022 at 5:44 PM, BaronArroz said:

It’s also the chef’s table fleetwide

I just got off the Elation, and the Library was set up for Chef's Table on 2 different nights, so maybe it's not the whole fleet.  

[mz-s]

2 hours ago, Silent Penguin said:

I just got off the Elation, and the Library was set up for Chef's Table on 2 different nights, so maybe it's not the whole fleet.  

 

That's good news, hopefully the staffing issues are getting better.

[WKUTopperFan]

4 hours ago, Silent Penguin said:

I just got off the Elation, and the Library was set up for Chef's Table on 2 different nights, so maybe it's not the whole fleet.  

That's awesome news. I don't sail again until August and this gives hope that I won't starve to death on the Magic (or have to eat in the steakhouse 5 nights which is a possibility). I have Chef's Table booked 1 night and Cucina booked 2 nights (steakhouse 2 and will do the Seafood Shack the other 2) and the news was so disappointing.  I hope the staffing issues ( AKA cost savings) will be sorted out by then.

 

Thanks for the update.