Cruise Line: Carnival Cruise Lines
Destination: Eastern Caribbean from New York
Date: May 31, 2004
Guest Contributor: Vishal Khubani
vishal@khubani.net
The Carnival Legend is my third cruise experience and my second on Carnival. Previously, I have been on the Carnival Triumph and the Norwegian Dawn. Overall, the Legend is a fair cruise experience, but the management failures of Carnival shine through in almost every aspect of the ship’s services. They clearly have the resources to provide us with a better cruise experience, but it is the mismanagement of those resources that causes all of the problems.
A cruise ship is really just a segregated marketplace on the sea. This is a dream come true for any manager since all the money spent in any of the shops, cafes, casinos, etc. eventually comes back to the cruise company. The cruise companies have full control over the market and all its activities and therefore control both the supply and to some extent, the demand as well. This allows them to have precise command over the level of service they can and will provide to their customer while still being able to maximize their revenue in every case.
Embarkation from New York City
Embarkation is always tough from New York. Since we have sailed on Carnival previously and had a Category 11 penthouse, we were entitled to VIP “Skippers Club” embarkation; unfortunately almost none of the staff knew what that was and gave me blank stares as I asked them about “Skippers Club.” We finally found a man who knew what he was doing and he directed us to the correct VIP line. How convenient! We only had two or three people ahead of us on line compared to the 20-30 people we would have had standing on the non-VIP line. The hostess taking our information refused to accept dining preferences at that time so we had to contact the Maitre’D once on board. When I called the purser’s desk to see how I could speak with the Maitre’D, they told me he did not have a phone. Very strange. I had to go down in person, stand on yet another line, until the dining staff would even listen to my requests. Very unfriendly. Shame on you, Carnival.
The Cabin
I was in cabin 6258; empress deck aft. This is supposed to be a category 11 penthouse … HA! The room is much smaller than a comparably priced category I sailed on in the Norwegian Dawn. NCL also offered huge bonuses such as Butler and Concierge services with their room. Carnival has never heard of these. NCL also gave us a flat screen TV and a DVD player – nothing like this was on the Legend. For a newer ship, such as the Legend, I would expect at least a DVD player, not just the VCR they gave us. The “refrigerator” is actually a mini bar that has no room for personal items. The room itself is actually not very comfortable. The lamps were nailed into the tables – not very classy at all. However, other features of this cabin, such as the double sinks, the whirlpool tub, oversize balcony and storage spaces were all welcome additions.
When we arrived at the cabin, it too had several problems. The electricity was not working right, the air conditioning was inoperable, and we found several items in our cabin that were left behind by past cruisers. I should note that all problems were promptly solved after phoning the purser or seeing our room steward.
A new policy on Carnival is pay-as-you-go beach towels! I have never heard of this before. They actually leave your beach towels in the room for you and make you responsible for returning them to your cabin before the last day of the cruise. And what if you don’t? Twenty dollars is charged to your on-board account! Beach towels are no longer available freely on the deck. It’s a BYOT policy; Bring Your Own Towel – whether it be to the decks or to the shore.
Another thing that made the room very uncomfortable was the fact that the ship was extremely unsteady. There was lots of rocking and vibrating throughout the 8 days. It was so bad that we couldn’t walk straight at times and bumped into each other often. The Captain claimed that since we had a lot of sea to cover (New York to the Caribbean), the ship had to travel faster than normal resulting in extra motions. I disagree because even when the ship was not required to move so quickly (like in between the ports-of-call), we still had the same problem.
Our room steward, Atthaya, was very friendly and efficient. She was always around when we needed her and was able to answer all of our questions with ease and accuracy. You can just tell when people love their job and are highly motivated – she was one of them.
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