Unfortunately, Carnival was an incredible disappointment in so many ways.
We're stunned as to how this company remains in business. We've resisted
writing this review but finally decided it is important for others to be
aware of our experience. Please seriously consider our insights below and
spend your hard-earned money elsewhere.
From our experience, the key areas where Carnival falls dramatically short
of delivering their services are:
(1) THE CREW: Overall, Carnival crew members simply do not care about their
guests. The general attitude is that they are just there to do the minimum
of their jobs. There are a handful of crew members who did seem to care but
they are unfortunately grossly outnumbered. Even the purser's desk
personnel repeatedly gave either wrong information or no information. They
were generally not helpful at all -- even though they are the primary source
for information/help on the ship. We even found some crew members in very
customer-facing roles to be flat out rude. As noted on other reviews as
well, many of the crew members do not speak English very well. We love the
international experience yet firmly believe that if you are interacting with
the public in a service industry, a mastery of the primary language is a
must. We also agree with other reviewers that the Carnival crew members do
not do anything about the very loud and overpowering guests. They blatantly
disregarded signs at the pools and hot tubs yet Carnival employees did
nothing, even when it was quite clear that guests were disturbed by this.
While we all certainly want to have fun, we are also looking to Carnival to
keep some order, enforce their own 'rules' and help all guests have a good
and relaxing time.
(2) THE FOOD: I'm not surprised by other reviews that state there was an
outbreak of stomach flu. The food and serving stations were flat out
disgusting. We definitely enjoy our share of high-caloric food. However,
the quality of the food was incredibly poor. The lowest quality buffet near
your hometown would have outshined the majority of the food. Furthermore,
even though we were in the tropics, fresh fruits and vegetables were nearly
non-existant. We ordered the grapefruit and orange slices multiple times in
the dining room and each time received a total of four tiny slices each
about one inch long. It was truly pitiful. Weren't they embarrassed to
serve this to their guests?! Also, if you're interested in a chocolate
fountain or a famous midnight buffet, this is not the cruise for you. The
only 'decorations' were hunks of carved cheese with fake flowers stuck in
them behind the buffet. The same 'sculptures' stayed there all week and
were quite disgusting by even mid-cruise. There weren't any Purell stations
anywhere, which led to very gross buffet tongs etc. I would not be
surprised if many people got sick during or after the cruise.
(3) THE ENTERTAINMENT: While better than the crew's attitude and the food,
the entertainment was generally poor. One comedian was okay. The rest of
the acts were tacky and pretty much a waste of time. The cruise director
was entertaining when he appeared but otherwise was MIA. Even the purser's
desk said they could not reach him or let us know where he would be when.
The 'entertainment crew' was also generally MIA. The deck 'games' were
completely lame or non-existent. No 'not so newlywed' game or other cruise
classics -- or any new, innovative games/events. The decks were generally
just filled with loud, obnoxious guests and Carnival pushing
overly-expensive drinks. Also, the magician was incredibly unprofessional
by actually getting angry at the audience when he could not convince someone
to be a helper during his show. If he is going to have audience
participation, he needs to be professional enough to handle possible
'rejection' and to have a plan B -- not to get mad at people who have paid
to be on a cruise and receive entertainment. Furthermore, events were
published in the daily Carnival Caper but they never happened. We spent our
vacation time going to these events but Carnival was so disorganized they
repeatedly disappointed their guests by not showing or doing the advertised
event.
What was good? The ports and the shore excursions. We loved being able to
visit so many ports in only one week. Waking up at a new island each day
(with no 'sea days') was fantastic! Those running the shore excursions were
all professional, well-organized and personable. Our favorites were the
aerial tram ride over and through the rain forest in Dominica and the trip
to the wildlife reserve in Barbados. Note that there are very few 'green
monkeys' at the reserve though. The fun part was the 4x4 wild ride through
the sugar cane fields!
Thank you for reading and happy cruising!
