Report on Carnival Victory 6/30 (5 day Canada / RT New York)

Well there are quite a few observations to make - some good, some not as good. While all cruises are enjoyable, and things are what you make of them, this was probably the least enjoyable of my 6 cruises. The reason can be boiled down into one real problem: The Carnival Victory is a ship which lacks the facilities and service ability to deal with its immense passenger capacity. This is true to varying degrees for some large ships - though the Victory is a ship like, say, the Caribbean Princess, where in order to maximize revenue, they added extra cabins onto this destiny class ship without adding services, public areas, restaurants, etc. Thus, the passenger capacity of c. 2700 completely overburdens the ships facilities.

First, the lines: You should expect a line or two on a large vessel. There's lots of people. What you should not expect is lines so long that you can't get near what you need in any reasonable amount of time, and are instead forced to abandon your meal plans, show plans, pursers' inquiries, what have you. Even getting back on the ship in the middle of the day while in port was a half hour line. Read more