Carnival Room Service Change Upsets Loyal Passengers

Carnival Cruise Line has officially jumped onto the bandwagon for charging extra for late night room service. Yesterday, Senior Cruise Director and the line's ambassador John Heald posted on his Facebook page that within the next week, the $2-6 fee (depending on the item) will go into effect across the fleet. Carnival will also no longer be offering room service on disembarkation morning, though breakfast on regular days is still included.

The extra charge will be in effect from 10 pm to 6 am, earlier than other lines which usually start charging for room service at 11 pm or midnight. According to Heald, many tired and possibly over-imbibed cruise guests often get the nighttime munchies and decide they need to order, for example, four sandwiches, three salads, and five desserts. The result is a lot of food waste, because we all know that on a cruise, our eyes can be much larger than our stomachs. Some items on the room service menu, including continental breakfast selections, will remain free between 6 am and 10 pm, Heald said. Heald also indicated that if a guest didn't want to pay to sate their late night hunger, the deli and 24/7 pizza would be open as usual.

Many angry cruisers were quick to point out that there is all that waste and more in the buffet on a daily basis, and suggested that this is just another excuse for Carnival to charge their guests even more once onboard. Other commenters suggested that instead of following Royal Caribbean and Norwegian (who also charge for room service), Carnival could have simply put a limit on the number of items that can be ordered at one time per cabin.

Check out some of the comments that John received on his post:

"Normally I stay out of this stuff.. but this one really pisses me off. They need more late options other than pizza if they are taking away my free room service. There are not enough options." - Wendy

"Not that CCL really cares anymore, that's obvious, but taking out the option of having breakfast (aka-coffee) on debarkation is BS. This is a really big deal for me. Guess what, doesn't matter. As long as CCL is making money hand over fist, they will continue to provide less and less while charging more. I have definitely been cruising less since all of these changes started, but it's obvious I'm the minority, not the majority." - Cynthia

"Not happy about no room service on disembark morning. My husband is partially disabled. I am a very early riser. Between 3-4AM. I always a couple pots of coffee and bagel to enjoy until my husband awakes and gets ready. We can then leave cabin early. We are booked on a B2B and now that service is not available." - Kathy

Other cruisers were also not happy about the changes, but offered ideas so that passengers can still have their late-night snack. 

"I'm going to start bringing foil sheets with me and start wrapping up sandwiches from the lido to keep in my fridge every day for "late night snacks"
The pizza line is normally a mile long and everything else closes up by 11." - Joelle

"So you bring baggies with you, order a sandwich early put in your mini fridge for a late night munchie. I always bring baggies to keep cookies for shore excursions so I’ll just bring a few more that’s all." - Nancy