Carnival has changed

Cruises: 2-3 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 51

Review summary

All negatives aside, we'd rate this cruise as an 8 or 9 out of 10. However, the negatives were significant. Think long and hard about cruising on Carnival if you are disabled. Their website specifically says that therapy dogs are NOT allowed. So what do we see when we first board the ship? A woman with a tiny chihuahua on her lap that helps with her anxiety attacks, same as my son's, who was not allowed to bring his dog because it was not a seeing eye dog. They would, however, allow him to use a wheelchair....for a fee of $150.00 for the week, no matter if he used it one day or all seven. When told that we felt that Carnival was taking advantage of handicapped passengers, the clerk at Guest Services shrugged her shoulders. We informed the legal representative from Carnival that we would be filing a grievance with the Americans with Disabilities Act because of their ambiguous wording on their web site regarding Service Dogs. The embarkation process was quick and efficient, though, and there was someone to push my son up the gangway onto the ship (an all-uphill process). Our room steward, Herry, was top notch and was ready and willing to supply all our needs as soon as he was asked. He made a towel chimpanzee one evening and hung it from the ceiling. Very cute. We left it there until the end of the cruise. The beds were comfortable, and the pillows very "cushy." The food, for the most part, was good with a few caveats. When we sailed on the Victory in 2005, food was available almost all day and night, 23 hours of the day. This trip, the buffet lines were open set hours and if you didn't eat during those hours, you either ate pizza, which wasn't very good, or you waited until the next meal. For late night, until 1 AM, they had one buffet line open, which only served burgers or hot dogs and fries. The only drinks available 24/7 at no charge were lemonade, hot chocolate, coffee and tea. The only free water was fountain, not bottled. Ice cream and frozen yogurt was also available 24/7. When we booked our cruise, we were assigned early dining at 6 PM. I later edited our dining time and changed it to Anytime Dining, which would allow us to have dinner in the main dining room any time between 5:45 and 9:45. Carnival didn't get the memo. Our time was not changed on our Sail and Sign card. We only had dinner in the main dining room twice, but each time I had to explain that I had changed the time, but it was not changed on our card. It caused a problem the second time, because the girl who was manning the desk informed us that we had missed our assigned dining time, and we couldn't eat. We had to speak directly with the Maitré d, who was very gracious and seated us immediately. Believe it when other cruisers say that the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake is to die for, because it is! They serve it every evening, with the other dessert selections changing on a daily basis. The cold strawberry bisque soup was equally luscious. They had one cold soup every evening. As far as the entertainment goes, we frequented the Punchliner Comedy Club every night. They have five shows each night, the first two of which are family friendly. The other three are very adult oriented. Three of the four comedians we saw were very good. There were several trivia contests every day, including Beatles, 70s, 80s, 90s, and others. The casino was very smoky, as it was one of the very few places on the ship where smoking was allowed. We did not gamble, even though they have a smoke-free section. I had planned on playing Bingo, but paying $20.00 for ONE bingo game did not sit well with me, and so there was no Bingo on this trip. There were several prize drawings in the Fun Shop, which is the ship jewelry store. I found the proprietor of the shop, who did the drawings, to be, to say the least, obnoxious. His attempts to be "fun" were juvenile and, in my opinion, demeaning, even though he was trying to make the experience enjoyable. And the prizes? Nothing to write home about. One prize was won by a six-year-old girl. There was one big, huge, sad negative that occurred on the trip. I won't go into details, but suffice it to say Ladies, please, please, PLEASE be aware of your surroundings and with whom you are "partying." I feel I owe it to this unfortunate young woman, who we saw crying in the elevator, to at least mention this, because the cruise line will bury it. The bottom line is that in comparing the 2005 cruise to this one, it is our opinion that Carnival is attempting to protect its "bottom line" in view of the Europe tragedy. Sadly, they are doing it at the expense of current passengers.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Children's Programs

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Baltimore, Maryland

Port Canaveral, Florida

Nassau, Bahamas

Freeport, Grand Bahama Island

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