Carnival Cruise Line takes on main dining room controversy

Regular cruisers of a definite age often have a nostalgic attachment to the manner things used to be.

For some, they omit people dressing up for dinner. That used to be a key a section of cruising. Some ships even had tuxedo-rental shops for formal night.

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On family-friendly cruise lines, including Carnival and Royal Caribbean, formal dress slowly fell out of style. Neither cruise line did away with it. As a substitute, they relaxed dress-code standards as their passengers demanded it.

In other cases, both cruise lines have had to make changes that passengers did no longer dictate. The classic middle of the night buffet has disappeared, as an illustration, because while it changed into a staple of cruising, it changed into also in point of fact wasteful.

Passengers liked to go to the buffet, take pictures of the ice sculptures, and perchance eat a dash something, but they did no longer eat a lot food at that hour. That resulted in tremendous waste, which made offering the buffet a poor economic proposition for the cruise lines.

Waste and environmental concerns have also resulted in other changes within the foremost dining rooms. These consist of menu changes, charging for anyone who orders a 0.33 entree (and for every entree after that), and a controversial change that Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald addressed on his Facebook page.

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Carnival wouldn't ask for forgiveness for change in main dining room

Technically, Carnival does no longer use the term "main dining room" anymore. Management, which Heald calls "the Beards," wants it often called a "restaurant."

Heald responded to people posting on reasonably an even deal of of cruise message boards a couple of change Carnival years ago made to what the general public still remember as the foremost dining room.

"There are a choice of people posting on the cruise boards that they are going to stop sailing Carnival unless tablecloths come back to the MDR. 'We all will move to other cruise lines John,' read the headline on a post to me this week. This changed into presented to me as some very bad news — something I should be troubled about over my bowl of breakfast grits," he wrote.

Heald made clear, on the opposite hand, that he had a demanding time taking the threat seriously.

"I desired to reply 'we didn’t mean to upset you. We didn’t realize how important a chunk of cloth changed into to you and the way you felt about all this. We're all very sorry,' he posted.

"Excluding I couldn’t lie because I didn’t feel sorry. I’m afraid my first reaction changed into a ummmm, OK, cheerio. You do what is better for you and we can do something about without you I'm sure."

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The emblem ambassador does no longer feel bad because Carnival had a fine reason for stopping the usage of tablecloths.

"OK, so truly I didn’t write that and responded with the reason of the big environmental impact the showering of thousands of tablecloths has on every ship on a on a every day basis basis and hoped that he would think again and base his return on the affordability, the fun, and the bright crew," he added.

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Some Carnival passengers are no longer happy

An awful lot of the greater than four hundred responses to Heald's post took issue with him being dismissive of the passenger's issue.

"I always awaken amazed you continue to have a job. I may care less about tablecloths, but you in truth seem like burnt out and it shows. Your humor used to be fun, but now it’s always directed at someone. I omit the old you," shared Kimberly Brooks.

Tracey Beck Chandler wants Heald to peer the bigger point being made.

"I believe the same way. The passive-aggressive way he presents anyone’s view that doesn’t agree with him or Carnival is annoying at best. I also may care less about tablecloths but for some people, they represent the many cutbacks that have come within the last few years," she wrote.

Many other people, on the opposite hand, jumped to Heald's defense.

"Wow, he’s best saying what the majority (obviously no longer you) of us are thinking. He makes me smile every morning," posted Peggy T. Ricouard.

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Katherine Anne offered an identical defense.

"I believe he is brilliant and says what has to be said instead of sugarcoating the complete lot for you sensitive people. He does no longer call out any specific person by name. Put yourself in his shoes and get a lot hate on a on a every day basis basis, while you do not add humor to life that you just is likely to be miserable. Also, there is likely to be an unfollow button. Use it while you do not equivalent to the manner he talks," she wrote.

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