[MicroBob]

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My wife and I noticed this, as well. At least the wait staff on other lines pretend to smile and pay attention to us. Or even have a clue...

We never quite got the entrees as ordered. When they did arrive, they were either overcooked or way undercooked. Some we wouldn't touch again with a ten-foot pole.

The only thing we were sure about was to get the hell out of the dining room before the maitre'd or cruise director got on the PA system to announce the singing waiters (boy howdy, did we feel sorry that they had to sing! how embarassed they must be) or some other BS. Most of the time we could dine and be done with coffee and dessert in 45 minutes or less.

If I had to recommend only one dining option on Carnival, it would have to be the Supper Club (CCL's ultra-ritzy alternative restaurant). At $30 per person, pricey. But the food and service were as nice as the luxury dining options on other cruise lines.

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Don't. Get. Me. Started. About. The. Rest. Of. Carnival... [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] The December '06 Mexico cruise is on HAL's Oosterdam. Perhaps we'll see you then!

Take care,
Bruce I.

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Nice report overall.

Bringing back some memories of our experience on the PPM cruise last March (hoping to go again sometime...still working on that one).

FWIW - I've been on only one other cruise in my life. I was 18 and I forget the company.

The PPM was on Holland Oosterdam and we pretty much thought that the food and service were both outstanding.
I was equally impressed by the quality of dealers from CPC and how the games were run. Certainly better than I was expecting.

Anyway, I've since heard quite a few bad things about Carnival and your tales of undercooked or wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole certainly differed from our experience on the Holland line.

We thought the service was pretty prompt (most of the time) and extremely friendly and courteous (almost all of the time).
This certainly does make a difference.

I might have considered a carnival cruise for a future vacation if I wanted to save dough....but I think this thread is steering me in the correct direction that it's worth it to spend just a little bit more to get the better overall experience.

I would really hate to be on a cruise that had nothing but crappy food and crappy service all around.


They sell seperate packages for the PPM cruise in March (down to Cayman Isls and Cozumel this year) that don't include the $10k tourney-package and this would likely be the ultimate for card-playing cruises I suspect.
The whole boat is poker-players (or families and friends of poker-players) so you don't have the cross-over clientele.
And the main poker-room is 60 tables with lots of action (not nearly as tight on a boat with a bunch of party-poker satellite qualifiers...the games were quite crazy most of the time).
But I think the cost of the cruise alone costs a bunch more than it does on the other cruises for some reason.

Anyway, thanks for the memory re-visit. Looking forward to our next cruise (whether it be poker-related or not).