Your verdict on new Carnival ships: Great for newbies, not so much for regular guests

• Carnival Encounter and Carnival Adventure have begun sailing as Carnival Cruise Line ships.
• Cruisers have been complaining about poor service after their first cruise on the new Carnival ships.
• The rapid handover of the ships appears to have created some teething issues for the cruise line.

The two P&O cruise ships that are being converted to Carnival ships have been all the talk of the Australian cruise industry for the past few months. Now, the ships are finally sailing and we’re hearing the first comments from passengers.

The two ships, now called Carnival Encounter and Carnival Adventure had extremely quick turnarounds in Melbourne, getting a new lick of paint as well as general maintenance to get the vessels ready for the rebrand.

The general expectation was that the ships wouldn’t change too much over the short term, and would get a more significant refresh when they dry dock in Singapore, which will be in 2026 for Encounter and 2027 for Adventure. However, keen cruisers have still been hanging out to hear what has and hasn’t been tweaked for the two ships and their next chapter.

Deb Robertson, a long-time cruiser who has sailed several times on the P&O ships, shared her experience on Carnival Encounter with Cruise Passenger.

While Robertson wasn’t thrilled about her first experience, a couple of things should be noted.

The first is that the ship’s harshest critics could well be those who already liked the P&O ships as they were, and Robertson herself notes that plenty of newer cruisers on board seemed chuffed with the new ships.

Furthermore, given the rapid speed of the transition from P&O to Carnival, as well as how little time the crew has had to adapt to a new ship, it’s natural to expect some issues over the coming weeks and months as kinks are worked out and the crew adapts to their new ship.

With that in mind, here’s some of what Robertson shared with Cruise Passenger.

Her overall summary is that despite expecting some initial issues with the handover, she wasn’t thrilled with the experience.

“To be honest, it was underwhelming. I have been on many cruises with P&O and Carnival and other cruise lines. I expected some teething issues and the staff tried their best.

“I was excited about seeing some of the changes as we do love Luminosa and how Carnival does things, so excited to see how they implement that on Encounter. But what I felt was that more was taken away,y and it was more regimented and not as fun as before.

“I was hoping it was going to be close to the Luminosa experience, but I feel there was more taken away than given.”

“Vibe-wise wise it was poor overall, especially for experienced cruisers. The staff were frustrated and stressed.

“New people onboard though loved it.”

Some observations

Robertson observed several differences from the experience she’s accustomed to. Some of them are listed below

• “The 80s boombox band was amazing and the theme nights were good.”
• “Build a Bear was good, and glad that came over.”
• “Food menus were the same as before changing every two days and only small changes.”
• “First night we had a two-and-a-half hour wait for dinner, the second seating came in and we were still going, we were not the only ones.”
• The pantry had the same food as normal. And there are no late-night snacks? I would have thought that was an easy win to bring in.”
• “Entertainment-wise, it seemed like there were a lot of gatherings on the agenda, but I barely saw the fun squad, and to be honest, apart from the parties, I never saw our Cruise Director.”
• “Casino Reno is good, good range of machines and tables and plenty of staff, however not as many competitions and giveaways as normal.”
  

Robertson also noted that guest services seemed a bit overwhelmed by requests, that the Carnival store didn’t yet seem fully stocked, and the Carnival app experienced some outages. She also noted that staff seemed to have trouble attending to her dietary requirements, her priority boarding didn’t eventuate, and access to the Byron Beach Club was no longer possible through the Spa, only through the outside decks.

Hopefully the majority of her observations can be put down to teething issues and will resolve themselves shortly.

Furthermore, other guests reported that there were Carnival staff onboard who were surveying customers and taking feedback, meaning cruisers like Robertson will hopefully have their voices heard and service changes will reflect this.

Other customers share their experience

It does appear that the handover may have been perceived as a little rusty by many cruisers. With some suggesting that the cruise should have had a discounted price to reflect its nature as a ‘trial cruise’ of sorts.

Kellie O’Donnell said: “The cruise was definitely an April Fool’s cruise! One-and-a-half hours for the first drinks to arrive at dinner and then two hours for the main.

“Bar lines were out of control, there’s not enough staff! I was charged 6 times for the one meal and told I would have to wait till after the cruise for it to be refunded.

“Should have done a trial cruise and offered at a discount rate, and expectations would have been adjusted. Everyone on that cruise that paid good money deserves and apology and an excellent offer for that.”

Alan Gray also felt unhappy about his first time on the new ships.

“How about you supply enough staff to man the bars or have the electronics work so you don’t charge people twice for things?

“It took three hours in Luke’s for dinner, then an hour in the guest services line to get the $80 I prepaid removed from the bill.”

Carol Moynihan also reported being extremely unhappy with the service.

“I may have just received the worst service I have ever had in my life. I could not have imagined it would be on a cruise. 

“The spa baths were green and out of order, it was low-quality food, we were waiting in long queues for drinks, there were mistakes with reservations at restaurants, there were unavailable wines after purchasing premium wine packages, and then being told we can’t choose another from the menu.

“Issue after issue, I spent half my time in queues or at a desk waiting for a new problem to be rectified.

“Every time we thought it had been resolved, we woke up to a new day with all the same problems again.”