After a successful test run on the Carnival Dream, the company began rolling out their new menus fleet wide this week. The new menus bring more variety to its dining room offerings with dozens of new dishes curated by Chief Culinary Officer Emeril Lagasse in conjunction with Carnival chefs. Over 60 new dishes will be mixed into the dining room rotation. John Heald has been posting some of the new menus over on his Facebook page if you would like to see how these dishes are being incorporated in with the old favorites. The new Elegant night menu has some dishes I am looking forward to including the Crispy Butter Milk Calamari and the Crawfish Fettuccini. I also like how you can opt in to purchase food from some of the specialty restaurants right in the MDR. This is perfect for those sailing with someone that doesn’t want to indulge in specialty dining.
There were some complaints that were fielded by Carnival Ambassador, John Heald, over a few favorite dishes that seemed to go missing from the new menus including the chilled strawberry soup. While I would never want to have what I can only assume is something similar to melted ice cream, many people love the cold fruit soups and Mr. Heald assured everyone that the strawberry soup at least wasn’t gone forever.
Carnival also launched their new late night menu this week which means guests will have the option of more than just pizza and ice cream. Now guests will also be able to enjoy soup and salad along with chicken tenders, hot dogs, cookies and more. While the menu is limited, it does offer a lot more option for those who like to grab something to eat while watching a late night Dive in Movie or are headed back to their cabin from the clubs and casino. Opening and closing times will vary, so check when you get onboard your next Carnival cruise! I sometimes like to get a pizza before the late night Dive In Movie, but it will be nice to have some other options!
Carnival Cruise Line is expanding its use of facial biometric technology to speed up the debarkation process and its partnership with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to the improve customer experience. Carnival President Christine Duffy said they are working to make the debarkations process as simple as possible for guests. When disembarking, guests stop at a kiosk with a camera to take a photo and the image is biometrically compared to their passport or visa photo within seconds to verify the guest’s identity. Nine of Carnival’s fourteen U.S. homeports are using the technology, including Miami, Port Canaveral, Tampa, Jacksonville, New York, Baltimore, Mobile, Galveston and Long Beach. At these homeports, the debarkation process has been expedited by an average of 30 percent.
We did this for the first time on our recent cruise on Norwegian. It really did make debarkation that much easier. We like to get on the road as quickly as possible on debarkation day due to the long drive ahead of us, and this just speed that process up even more! Have you used one of these biometric scanners?
The Carnival Jubilee was officially floated out this morning. This construction milestone marks a significant moment in the ship’s progress as final outfitting is begun in a nearby wet dock.This float out is particularly significant as Carnival Jubilee was never originally intended as a Carnival Cruise Line ship, and instead the vessel had been ordered for AIDA Cruises. The incredible success of Mardi Gras, however, prompted Carnival Corporation to switch the new ship to its namesake line, making Carnival Jubilee the first vessel Meyer Werft has ever built for Carnival Cruise Line. The ship will now be tied up at a nearby wet dock, where interior work – furnishing the ship, interior design, etc. – will commence. This will take several weeks, as final details are put into place. As channel regulars will know, we are scheduled to be on the Jubilee in January shortly after it is launched, so I love seeing every new milestone.
The Carnival Pride has been a big story this week, which means you have probably heard all about it, so I won’t go into a lot of detail, but let’s go over the high notes and talk about the latest in this saga. We first learned that propulsion issues caused the ship to stall while sailing in the Baltic on Tuesday. Guests had to skip their last port of call as the ship limped back to Kiel, Germany for repairs. Popular Cruise Tubers, Sharon at Sea, were onboard and have a great video documenting everything from the first moments they heard a loud noise and a shudder went through the ship. They posted video of The Pride being helped back into port at Kiel by a tug boat. When you are done here, I recommend you head on over there and check that video out. I did see this morning that there must have been some issues getting people from Kiel back to the UK to meet their flights home because John Heald posted an apology on his Facebook page early this morning. I am sure it was no easy feat trying to get almost 2,000 people on charter flights at the last minute!
Carnival has done just about everything they can to make things right for both guests sailing onboard when the ship broke down as well as those booked on the next cruise scheduled. Guests on the original 12-day cruise were compensated for the missed port and transportation from Kiel to their final destination of Dover taken care of if needed. Those on the 9-day cruise that was originally supposed to sail on Friday are now being offered a shorter, 6-day cruise leaving out on Monday. The original letter sent out from Carnival to those set to sail were that they would be given a full refund and 100% cruise credit if they had yet made it to Europe. However, as many had already flown in for their cruise, Carnival said they were going to be given vouchers for hotels (up to $300 a night), a $100 per diem for food, and Carnival would cover unexpected travel costs including penalties for flight changes. From the beginning Carnival stated they were hoping to sail a shorter cruise if possible, so those already in Europe were kind of in a holding pattern waiting to see when and if that would happen.
Yesterday John Heald posted information that had been relayed to those waiting to see if their cruise would continue or not. Guests were told that their cruise would continue with the ship leaving out from Dover on Monday on a shortened 6-day itinerary visiting ports in Ireland and Wales. Those choosing to sail are having their cruise fare pro-rated and being refunded the cost of the days they missed out on and given a $500 onboard credit. Those who chose to cancel their cruise will still be given the originally offered full refund and a 100% future cruise credit.
Which would you choose? I think for me it would have depended on whether or not I was already across the pond. I know on our cruise around Norway we are planning flying in two days prior to embarkation and wouldn’t have been in port already in this instance, but many came in days early to get the most out of their vacation overseas by doing some sightseeing by land first. I’d love to hear your thoughts on if you think Carnival has done enough to compensate for this unexpected mechanical malfunction or not. I think they have done more than most companies would do, especially those not in the cruise industry!
Cruising From The Ozarks 