Carnival Long Lines for Everything

[BoozinCroozin]

Just now, JP350 said:

If I tools videos we would post them, but taking videos for cruise critic is the last thing I would have thought about during my cruise. If you don’t believe it when you take ur next carnival cruise and see it you’ll be in for a rude awakening 

So far the only time there are 1-hour+ lines is when no one on the cruise ship has a cellphone out to post it to the internet. If that is the case, I wish the whole world was a cruise ship then.

[Hoosierpop]

27 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

I think it's worthwhile for us to discuss what Carnival is doing poorly as well as what they are doing well. That is how things improve. Just throwing up your hands and saying "well if you're not 100% satisfied then leave and never come back" as you seem to be, is not productive.

My issue isn’t discussing what can be improved. It’s the sky is falling and Carnival is killing their brand overreaction. 
 

I don’t mind people coming up with things Carnival can do better. 

[JP350]

4 minutes ago, Hoosierpop said:

The stock price says otherwise? Man, there are so many financial experts in these forums. It’s awe-inspiring. 
 

Let’s keep this simple. My opinion is the number of people who are not cruising on Carnival because they are not happy with the cruise experience is small and is not the reason why Carnival’s stock price is down. And my reason for that opinion is the full ships and talking to people who are continuing to cruise. 
 

Some people here are almost offended that others are having great times on these cruises. It’s OK that you didn’t have a good time and others are. 

I don’t need to go into my career on a dumb forum, but I have some experience in corporate America. And I’m not offended that people are having great times on cruises just last week I had an amazing time on SYMPHONY OF THE SEAS

[JP350]

4 minutes ago, Hoosierpop said:

My issue isn’t discussing what can be improved. It’s the sky is falling and Carnival is killing their brand overreaction. 
 

I don’t mind people coming up with things Carnival can do better. 

Carnivals brand was already not in the greatest of shape before the pandemic, and this restart plan is starting to trash it. 

[BlerkOne]

32 minutes ago, JP350 said:

I know I’m under the impression that it would be better to sell rooms at higher rates, but limit capacity. Look at the airlines and rental cars their rates are up over 200 percent post pandemic and people are still traveling at record numbers. It would still contribute to the bottom line, and the guests would have a more enjoyable experience.

Hertz went bankrupt. All car agencies cut their fleets, didn't replace their cars, and now they can't. Have you tried to shop cars lately?

 

How many thousands of flights have airlines canceled this year? Relatively few cruises have been cancelled. Flying to Heathrow? It might be days before you see you luggage, if ever.

 

Unlike vacations, transportation is essential and people have to use it.

[BlerkOne]

People were spoiled by low capacities when cruising restarted. Welcome back to semi-reality. This is summer - the busiest season for cruise lines. On stock prices? The stock market is in the toilet today, but cruise lines stocks are UP. One reason is because oil is falling.

 

Carnival is far from the only cruise line with staffing issues. They all are including Royal. Celebrity Infinity has had up to 2 hour waits just to be seating in the main dining room and some are complaining about food service in the middle of the night?

[1kaper]

14 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

Hertz went bankrupt. All car agencies cut their fleets, didn't replace their cars, and now they can't. Have you tried to shop cars lately?

 

How many thousands of flights have airlines canceled this year? Relatively few cruises have been cancelled. Flying to Heathrow? It might be days before you see you luggage, if ever.

 

Unlike vacations, transportation is essential and people have to use it.

 

Not just Heathrow.  Two major international airports in Canada are experiencing the issue with both luggage and cancelled flight.  Personally, I won't check baggage right now.  I've read to avoid EWR at all costs. 

 

The ONLY reason we did a cruise this year and booked for a couple more upcoming one was the price.  I realize I may not be the majority but we are cruising more this year and next than we have in the past 7 years and it's all due to low prices. 

I ended up enjoying the cruise more than I expected and have not had the negative experiences some are describing here.  So for now, we will continue to cruise. 

ETA - I don't smoke weed or fight 🙂

Edited July 5, 2022 by 1kaper

[JP350]

10 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

Hertz went bankrupt. All car agencies cut their fleets, didn't replace their cars, and now they can't. Have you tried to shop cars lately?

 

How many thousands of flights have airlines canceled this year? Relatively few cruises have been cancelled. Flying to Heathrow? It might be days before you see you luggage, if ever.

 

Unlike vacations, transportation is essential and people have to use it.

Relatively few flights have been canceled as well. Although more flights have been canceled this year rather than other years. This isn’t a result of the airlines canceling because they can it’s staffing and pilots on strike. Airline cancelation rates still hover around 3% and my point being is that that is not detering people from traveling. As for hertz the pandemic was the final nail in the coffin not at all the cause they were in financial trouble long before Covid and would likely have gone bankrupt anyway. Sorry my job in the travel industry is starting to show 

[BlerkOne]

2 minutes ago, JP350 said:

 Airline cancelation rates still hover around 3% and my point being is that that is not detering people from traveling.

As I stated, travel is essential. It is why planes were still flying during the worst of covid. Business goes on.

 

Normal airline cancellations are more like 1%. 2019 was the busiest year, and still it was only up to around 2%.

 

But as we know, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics. Averages don't matter to all the families that were left hanging this past weekend.

 

[JP350]

7 minutes ago, 1kaper said:

 

Not just Heathrow.  Two major international airports in Canada are experiencing the issue with both luggage and cancelled flight.  Personally, I won't check baggage right now.  I've read to avoid EWR at all costs. 

 

The ONLY reason we did a cruise this year and booked for a couple more upcoming one was the price.  I realize I may not be the majority but we are cruising more this year and next than we have in the past 7 years and it's all due to low prices. 

I ended up enjoying the cruise more than I expected and have not had the negative experiences some are describing here.  So for now, we will continue to cruise. 

ETA - I don't smoke weed or fight 🙂

If you guys think Canada or the UK is bad come the US and you’ll be shocked. Sure it used to be just Newark, but those problems have spread nationwide.

[BlerkOne]

15 minutes ago, 1kaper said:

 

 

ETA - I don't smoke weed or fight 🙂

at least since I discovered cruising. 😁

[BlerkOne]

1 minute ago, JP350 said:

If you guys think Canada or the UK is bad come the US and you’ll be shocked. Sure it used to be just Newark, but those problems have spread nationwide.

I AM in the US and we avoid flying. However, for us, cruising is essential. 😁

 

When forced to fly to a cruise, I now plan on arriving at least 2 days before a cruise. After a cruise? Who cares?

[JP350]

3 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

As I stated, travel is essential. It is why planes were still flying during the worst of covid. Business goes on.

 

Normal airline cancellations are more like 1%. 2019 was the busiest year, and still it was only up to around 2%.

 

But as we know, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics. Averages don't matter to all the families that were left hanging this past weekend.

 

I agree families who were left stranded don’t care about statistics people need to understand that this is the time we live in is very uncertain travel wise

[1kaper]

2 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

I AM in the US and we avoid flying. However, for us, cruising is essential. 😁

 

When forced to fly to a cruise, I now plan on arriving at least 2 days before a cruise. After a cruise? Who cares?

I actually wished that our flight would get cancelled on the way back.  We booked to leave the day of our cruise and wasn't ready to go home.  We were late leaving and had a short connection in Toronto which is notorious for taking forever to get through customs.  I thought for sure we'd get to spend the night in TO.  Was going to take my kid to the CN Tower.  Turned out to be the easiest connection I ever had through there, including pre-covid. 
We sadly made it home as scheduled. 

[Top_of_the_Cube]

Simply put (and just my opinion), cruising is not back - for everyone.

 

My wife and I can live with long lines and decreased service and staffing in order to get back on a ship.  As long as we feel the ship is safe, a certain level of qualify food is available, our rooms are clean and comfortable, and the price is right (very subjective), we want to cruise.  If you expect and require more from your experience, I can definitely see why your vacation might be a bust.

 

This in no way is to say my view is right and your expectations are wrong.  Ones not right and the other is wrong, they are just different.

 

There will come a time that wife and I will look to Carnival to up their game as conditions in the world and industry improve.  We will evaluate then (also, very subjective) if we will continue to accept the product Carnival is providing.

 

Read the discussions and consider the reviews and experiences to determine if cruising is for you right now.  As for me and my house, we are glad to be back on the ships.

[MississippiMom]

1 hour ago, JP350 said:

What rccl cruise did you go on? I’m back on RC next week and I cruised them in June as well and didn’t see any lines. I asked guest services what our capacity was and they said that it was limited to 82 percent bc of staffing issues, and I admit that their island is sort of a gimmick it’s still the best cruise line island out there.

We were on a 5-night Mariner of the Seas sailing.  I never heard the statistics, but I would guess we were at 100%.  There were definitely people EVERYWHERE.  The lines were long at every counter at Cafe Promenade, the Windjammer buffet and at guest services.  Nothing was a one hour wait, unless you were waiting on a slide in the waterpark area of CocoCay.  (Two ships docked, though, so the island was PACKED.)

 

It was our first experience with private cruise line islands.  We enjoyed both Labadee and CocoCay, but we missed seeing an actual port destination.

 

Oh . . . And we were one of those families who had to deal with a flight cancellation.  Flight canceled on a Friday, about an hour before scheduled departure.  Since they couldn't get us to our destination until Monday afternoon and our cruise was departing on that Monday, we chose to rent a car at the airport and drive.  Super annoying!!!

Edited July 5, 2022 by MississippiMom

[Eli_6]

So, the useful point I have taken away from this thread is that my family and I better fly with only carry ons  only to London Heathrow. Or, at least, not put much in our checked luggage. If we weren't going to be un the UK for three weeks, I would be flying with carry on only. 

[Eli_6]

20 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

I AM in the US and we avoid flying. However, for us, cruising is essential. 😁

 

When forced to fly to a cruise, I now plan on arriving at least 2 days before a cruise. After a cruise? Who cares?

The people who have businesses and/or have to get back to work?

[Eli_6]

FWIW, my flight from LHR to IAH has been canceled twice already and I am a month out from it... 

 

My sister-in-law recently spent 5 days in DFW airport with 3 kids aged 8 and under.  They would give her a hotel for the night but then she had to repack, check out and go back to the airport each day to "wait to see" if she would get a flight out. She was by herself with the three kids. The youngest is still a toddler and a complete handful.  She was flying from San Antonio to DFW to Colombia.  I would have rented a car and driven back to San Antonio after 2-3 days of that nonsense. 

[1kaper]

9 minutes ago, Eli_6 said:

So, the useful point I have taken away from this thread is that my family and I better fly with only carry ons  only to London Heathrow. Or, at least, not put much in our checked luggage. If we weren't going to be un the UK for three weeks, I would be flying with carry on only. 

 

I would check what the airline provides if luggage is lost.  I would also check the credit card that I booked with to see if there is any insurance.  I'd simply just pack my essentials in a carry on and buy stuff there if my checked bag didn't arrive. 

The issue with checking bags here (in Canada) is that if you end up with a close connection, they'll let you on if you can make it to the plane and no checked bag.  If you have a checked bag and they know it won't make it, you get bumped off the flight. 

[BlerkOne]

12 minutes ago, Eli_6 said:

So, the useful point I have taken away from this thread is that my family and I better fly with only carry ons  only to London Heathrow. Or, at least, not put much in our checked luggage. If we weren't going to be un the UK for three weeks, I would be flying with carry on only. 

The takeaway I got was not to fly on British Airways. and maybe invest in some Airtags or similar.

[BlerkOne]

30 minutes ago, 1kaper said:

I actually wished that our flight would get cancelled on the way back. 

It seems like the only flights I have that are overbooked are outbound. They never ask for volunteers when we are returning.

[BlerkOne]

14 minutes ago, Eli_6 said:

The people who have businesses and/or have to get back to work?

Call in sick?

[Eli_6]

2 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

The takeaway I got was not to fly on British Airways. and maybe invest in some Airtags or similar.

Well, my options for a direct flight are British Airways or United and I have had far worse experiences on United. 

[BlerkOne]

5 minutes ago, 1kaper said:

 

The issue with checking bags here (in Canada) is that if you end up with a close connection, they'll let you on if you can make it to the plane and no checked bag.  If you have a checked bag and they know it won't make it, you get bumped off the flight. 

We encountered the opposite in Germany a few years ago. There was some kind of strike and they stuffed all planes full, deliberately leaving luggage behind in Frankfurt (planes would have been overweight). It took a couple of days to sort it out. One of our bags barely made it to the Carnival Vista Inaugural.

 

That was one time travel insurance was worth it. The insurance company dealt with the airlines and airports and kept us informed as to where the bag was. These days the airlines don't seem to know anything.