Carnival Victory "No Victory for us"

[Nocarnical]

Just returned from the 16-20 January Carnival Victory Cruise to Key West and Cozumel with my family. Booked two balcony rooms. The Victory is supposed to have mini bars in each stateroom, various restaurants, entertainment - all the things one looks for on a cruise. Victory has no mini bars in the staterooms. There were no restaurants. The only food available was in the general dining area - which was not open very often - and the two dining rooms where you have to be seated. We waited in a lot of lines to eat. The food was mediocre and the selection of food was not good. Frankly, I got better food in the Army. The ship was dirty. The staff was surly. You cannot get from one end of Victory to the other without going through the very dirty casino. Even the bar tenders were rude. I bought a diamond. I asked for the certificate of authenticity and was told I had to attend a 10 PM raffle to get the certificate of authenticity for the ring I had already paid for! "Entertainment" is an interesting word. If people continuously trying to sell you stuff is entertainment, then Carnival did well.
It was my Sister's birthday and I wanted her cabin decorated. I bought her cruise dollars and a cake. The cruise dollars made it. The cake showed up later.
We all returned with colds. Sanitation was not a big issue on this ship.
The mandatory "safety" briefing on day one was a total and disorderly cluster. In fact, everything was disorganized. When we tried to reboard in Key West, we were behind three elderly women on walkers who were told they had to climb two flights of stairs if they wanted to reboard! There was no elevator.
This was my second and last trip on Carnival. Please, pay a little extra and avoid Carnival. They care nothing for their customers.

 

[connie seabee]

Hello Nocarnical,

I'm sorry to hear that your Victory cruise was a disappointment. We have been on several cruises, two were on Carnival years ago. Both ships the Truimph and Destiny were well mantained. Fortunately, we didn't run into any problems. I can't remember if there were any specialty restaurants on board.
We just booked the Carnival Dream for next Dec, hopefully it will be as uneventful as the two previous Carnival cruises.

You mentioned that this was your second Carnival cruise. How was the first one?

 

[Mbandy]

Sorry to hear your Cruise on Carnival Victory was less than you expected.

In all fairness, I was on the Victory a few years ago and found the dining options to be quite adequate. There was a great Bar-B-Q place on Lido Deck Aft right next to the 24 Hour Pizza place. The Ruben sandwiches in the Deli were awesome as usual and we always enjoy the afternoon cook-out by the pool. I'm pretty sure they still offer these options.

I am sad to say that it has been my experience that the customer service on Carnival does seem to have declined a bit in the last few years. Never bad service, just not as stellar as it used to be.

Oh well, I have never met a ship, cruise or Island I didn't like. Some better than others but never a bad one... 17 Days and counting to Ruby Princess :beach:

 

[waleed121]

If you prepaid it during the booking process, you are probably stuck with it. If you didn't prepay it then it will be added to your onboard account at the rate of $11.50 pp per day and you will have to go to the pursers desk and have it removed, they argue it sometimes and may even tell you that it can't be done, but it can be done, it just requires persistence. Once it is removed you will then be responsible for all the tipping except for drinks which automatically gets 15% added to each bill. Reality wise it is really easy to just let the auto tip go and not worry about it, only thing would be is if you wanted to give someone a little extra.