Carnival Long Lines for Everything

[JP350]

I just got off a 4 night cruise on the carnival sunrise. (Which was my first carnival cruise) There were lines for everything related to food all hours of the day. The only exception to this rule was the mdr where service was slow but manageable. Other than that howeverI waited in an hour line for guys burgers 3 days and a 45 min line for the deli 1 day. Pizza had an hour and a half line the whole time as well. Is this normal on carnival to wait for food like this because that could effect if I cruise them again. The cruise was a 90% capacity which idk if that was a factor. I’ve been on 16 Royal Caribbean cruises one on symphony where we had 6400 passengers on bord and I still had to wait no more than 5 min for any food. Other than that the crew was excellent.

Edited June 14, 2022 by JP350

[JT1962]

Carnival, like most cruise lines and other businesses, are having staffing shortages. I was on the Ecstasy last week and experienced lines and slow service at all food venues, but not as bad as what you mention (10-20 min at most locations unless peak times). I think this will continue to be an issue for a while.

The cruise lines need to get back to full passenger capacity to make money, but that may be a mistake in the long run if passengers are disappointed in the onboard experience and decide not to return in the future.

[mz-s]

I have never seen the line for Guy's burgers anywhere near an hour. An hour line there means the line would be wrapped around the Lido pool.

[BoozinCroozin]

I was on Magic and there are two lines for Guy's. For it to be an hour long, one would have went and wrapped through the entire Marketplace. On the other, it would have wrapped around the entire pool deck and both bars. Different ships, but I find it impossible to believe this. As for pizza, yes, I can understand that at night since Carnival has absolutely no other food options.

[Saint Greg]

Are you sure this isn't an exaggeration? The only time I've seen an hour long guy burger line was when COVID first happened and they kept us over an extra day and Guys was the only food place open. And that was just when they first opened it. It slowed down later. The hour long line went from Guys to the red frog rum bar on Panorama.

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by Saint Greg

[thundercrack]

Was on the Legend two weeks ago and only line encountered was for Pizza.  No issues anywhere else.  Deli and Guys was maybe 5-6 people ahead of every time I went.

[phoneman69]

was the bathing suite completely dry ? had the shadows moved completely across the pool? I guess i have just never experienced a 1 hour wait at Guys

[csm5986142]

To be fair I don't think you can compare symphony to sunrise at all. Completely different class of ship. 

But I will say, I'm on Radiance right now and it's hit or miss. On embarkation day when the buffet shut down after lunch, the lines for Guys & pizza were the longest I have seen (out of many carnival cruises). 

We boarded around  2:00 (plane was late) and there were no (or minimal) lines at Guys, pizza, buffet.

Dinner in the MDR around 6 had hardly anyone. Quickest service ever. Then today no wait at all for water taxi to Catalina (but then again we  weren't trying to be the very first ones off either).

Sometimes its just timing.

Please forgive typos...I'm walking around catalina.

Edited June 14, 2022 by csm5986142

[ProgRockCruiser]

Guys Burgers seems to be able to serve about 10 burgers a minute with one station open.  Maybe even more if you don't ask for anything special.  But let's assume 10, and only one station (doubtful).  In an hour, that's 600 burgers.  I've never seen a line of 600 people for anything on a Carnival ship except embarkation and debarkation.  So perhaps they weren't able to cook the burgers fast enough?  And three different days?

 

I dunno, I'd be pretty upset too if those figures are accurate.

[WendyVF]

I was on the Magic last week and the lines were long at Guys.  One of the problems was people started lining up at 11:30 when they didn't open until twelve.  When it was open, people were ordering 2-4 burgers at at time which I had never noticed before.  It also looked like they were short at least 1 staff person.

[pcvtmom]

Even with cruise industry-wide staffing shortages, I've never experienced extremely long lines.  I noticed last week (on Carnival Magic) that the Lido Marketplace restaurant near the main pool area was slammed in the morning, but there are duplicate stations near the aft pool.  Lots of fellow cruisers were unaware of this, so lines near the back of the Marketplace were never long, and I always breezed right through.  😉

[Guest BasicSailor]

2 hours ago, mz-s said:

I have never seen the line for Guy's burgers anywhere near an hour. An hour line there means the line would be wrapped around the Lido pool.

That must have been some damn good burgers 😁

[JP350]

2 hours ago, phoneman69 said:

was the bathing suite completely dry ? had the shadows moved completely across the pool? I guess i have just never experienced a 1 hour wait at Guys

 

2 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

Perhaps time for a new watch?

 

2 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

Are you sure this isn't an exaggeration? The only time I've seen an hour long guy burger line was when COVID first happened and they kept us over an extra day and Guys was the only food place open. And that was just when they first opened it. It slowed down later. The hour long line went from Guys to the red frog rum bar on Panorama.

 

 The line for Guy’s burgers was on one end wrapped around the lido deck back to the swirls ice cream machines on the blue iguana side and it was wrapped through the marketplace back outside to to the aft pool on the other. This was right at lunchtime though so probably bad timing.

[JP350]

2 hours ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

Guys Burgers seems to be able to serve about 10 burgers a minute with one station open.  Maybe even more if you don't ask for anything special.  But let's assume 10, and only one station (doubtful).  In an hour, that's 600 burgers.  I've never seen a line of 600 people for anything on a Carnival ship except embarkation and debarkation.  So perhaps they weren't able to cook the burgers fast enough?  And three different days?

 

I dunno, I'd be pretty upset too if those figures are accurate.

Yes they are different days the guys burger figure was from key west day right at sailaway time of 2:00

[JP350]

1 hour ago, WendyVF said:

I was on the Magic last week and the lines were long at Guys.  One of the problems was people started lining up at 11:30 when they didn't open until twelve.  When it was open, people were ordering 2-4 burgers at at time which I had never noticed before.  It also looked like they were short at least 1 staff person.

That’s the same problem we had people were ordering 2-4 burgers at a time and not finishing them. Also everybody in the pizza line was taking whole pizzas with a few exceptions.

[JP350]

 

2 hours ago, mz-s said:

I have never seen the line for Guy's burgers anywhere near an hour. An hour line there means the line would be wrapped around the Lido pool.

 The line for guys was wrapped around blue iguana to the ice cream machines on the blue iguana side. The other line was wrapped through the marketplace and ended in the aft pool area. 

[JP350]

I will have to admit that on the final sea day I only had to wait for 30 min so it did get better. I figured this wasn’t at all normal.

[Saint Greg]

13 minutes ago, JP350 said:

 

 

 The line for Guy’s burgers was on one end wrapped around the lido deck back to the swirls ice cream machines on the blue iguana side and it was wrapped through the marketplace back outside to to the aft pool on the other. This was right at lunchtime though so probably bad timing.

 

There's absolutely no way I'd get in a line like that. It would have to be the only food they had on the ship. Which is what we had when they kept us the extra day for COVID-19 in 2020. That produced the longest Guy's line I've ever seen. I'm in it here.

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by Saint Greg

[BlerkOne]

13 minutes ago, JP350 said:

Yes they are different days the guys burger figure was from key west day right at sailaway time of 2:00

Poor timing. Probably everyone got back on the ship at the last minute, took a short break, and headed for lunch.

[BlerkOne]

16 minutes ago, JP350 said:

 

 

 The line for Guy’s burgers was on one end wrapped around the lido deck back to the swirls ice cream machines on the blue iguana side and it was wrapped through the marketplace back outside to to the aft pool on the other. This was right at lunchtime though so probably bad timing.

If you went at noon, that's when they open. Some people who hadn't eaten in over a hour usually line up 30 minutes before venues open. The line was probably shorter by the time you got through.

[Ilovesailaway]

I'm not a patient person and I absolutely cannot stand waiting in long lines. I embark and debark after the crowds just to avoid it. If I saw a line like that no way I'm getting in it. I would find a friendly bartender, order my lunch on the app, and have it brought to me.

[tallnthensome]

4 night cruises are booze cruises and foodie cruises....... They aren't good for anything else as this is the draw and thus the long food lines. 

[lazydayz]

14 minutes ago, tallnthensome said:

4 night cruises are booze cruises and foodie cruises....... They aren't good for anything else as this is the draw and thus the long food lines. 

 

Most three night cruises are the booze cruises.  The four night cruises can go either way - if they are not over the weekend, they tend to be more sedate.  However, we are taking our three grands on a three night (weekend) cruise on June 24, and there is plenty for a family to do.  For us, the big draw on this one is a chance to check out Bimini, and to celebrate DH's birthday at the steakhouse (a first for the two younger grands, who are 13 and 15 - and a big risk for future cruises - LOL).  

 

If we encounter lines like the OP did, we will either wait for the lines to die down or find something else, even if it has a delivery fee. 

 

And note to the OP, this is not normal.  We were on the Mardi Gras in May, at 100% capacity and waited less than 10 minutes for Shaq's Big Chicken. 

[thundercrack]

1 hour ago, JP350 said:

That’s the same problem we had people were ordering 2-4 burgers at a time and not finishing them. Also everybody in the pizza line was taking whole pizzas with a few exceptions.

Aren't the pizza's "personal" sized?

[Indytraveler83]

I've never experienced a line like pictured above or an hour long.  A few thoughts though:

 

1) Summer cruising can be very crazy.  Combined with staffing shortages, things like this are most likely to happen now.  

 

2) For me, every cruise it feels like the passengers get obsessed with one or two things.  Herd mentality kicks in and everyone flocks there.  Guys, the piano bar, the omelette station and other places will get swarmed, while some places are empty.  My mentality is: If everyone is here, there's no wait somewhere else.