Cruises offer a type of experience that sets them apart from other vacations. But for one couple, their experience on a Carnival cruise was one they’d have gladly missed.
Carnival Cruises has faced its fair share of virility on TikTok in the past. One lawyer TikToker revealed that their client was awarded $300,000 after claiming the ship “overserved” them. Meanwhile, a second TikTok user shared how, when they got drunk on a Carnival cruise ship, workers took her doorknob away.
However, one TikTok user, who shared his account @thenewbys.1 with his wife, wassn’t impressed by their experience.
Three days ago, the TikToker shared a video of himself on the windy boat, along with one of himself drinking a tequila shot on board.
That same day, he posted a TikTok that went viral with 7.6 million views. The clip, which was set to foreboding music, was a tour of their Carnival cruise cabin. Once they entered the room, footage showed a heavily stained carpet, a narrow walkway when entering, and a bathroom with the toilet at an unusual angle. Accompanying the video was a description reading, “Carnival will not be seeing us again!! Royal we love you!!! Call us bougie but we cannot 2/10 for us!”
BroBible reached out to the TikToker and Carnival via TikTok direct message and email, respectively.
What Did Commenters Say About Their Carnival Cruise Experience?
For the most part, commenters didn’t seem to understand the concern.
“Am I poor because why didn’t I think it was THAT bad?” one asked.
“Y’all got the cheapest option ofc it’s gonna be.. dull ,” a second said.
A third said, “I’ve never been on a cruise… is that not good?”
However, there were those who took the TikToker’s side.
“They would have had to let me off the ship,” a fourth remarked.
“Only people that have been on Royal Caribbean boats understand his pain,” a fifth agreed.
And a sixth exclaimed, “THE CARPET IS FILTHY TOO!”
Carnival Vs. Virgin And Norwegian
In his first follow-up, the TikToker said that he “should have listened to people who said Carnival Cruise is ‘ratchet.’” He remarked that they usually cruise with Royal Caribbean or Virgin Voyages but noted that the cruise did have a few benefits. This included Guy’s Burgers, good drinks, and more welcoming/sociable passengers.
However, in terms of shows and entertainment, the user said Royal was better than Virgin and Carnival. While on the Carnival cruise, he complained that they were bored and that the only activity to do was drink. He repeated that the ship was “ratchet,” “dirty,” and “hood” and noted how there was a fight right across from their room. According to the wife, the man was holding the baby while they were fighting.
“From now on, if ya’ll ask, ‘Oh you must think you too good to go on Carnival?’ Hell yeah, we too good for Carnival,” he concluded. “We gonna be on Royal and Virgin and Norwegian, but shout out to y’all and shout out Carnival.”
‘What Were You Expecting, The Ritz-Carlton?’
In a second follow-up, the TikToker responded to a comment that read, “I mean, you booked a ship that was launched in 2011. What were you expecting, the Ritz-Carlton?”
He replied, saying that the key difference is that Royal Caribbean’s old boats are nicer and that Carnival should “revamp” its old boats. The TikToker described the carpet as “filthy” and claimed the room “smelled bad.” He said that everything smelled like wood.
‘I get it’s an old boat, but if you say that ‘Oh, we revamped this boat,’ and then we get on it and it looked the way it looked, it’s not it,” he said.
“And then another thing with Carnival, Carnival’s price point attracts a certain type of people to get onto the boat that Royal kind of sways away because it’s more expensive. Same with Virgin. Same with Norwegian,” he added.
“Because their price point, it attracts a different type of clientele. The only reason we went on Carnival this time is because we wanted to see if it was as bad as people said it was. And they are not lying,” he said. “It is as bad as people say. We only went on it to get our own reference point.”
He concluded by saying the experience was “trash.”
In his last two videos, the TikToker shared footage from different rooms from different cruises as a source of comparison. The final video, which was in response to a commenter saying it was “two different rooms,” was accompanied by a video description reading, “The issue wasn’t the space of the cabin from Carnival; it was the cleanliness of the cabin.”
Is This A Common Issue On Carnival Cruise Boats?
On the r/CarnivalCruiseFans subreddit, one Redditor complained about the “dirty, smelly ship.”
The user, who went on the Panorama, explained, “One major issue I couldn’t get over was how DIRTY and SMELLY the ship was. Good lord was it bad. The pools were green and murky to the point that it was hard to see the turtle mosaic on the pool bottom. The stairs on the lido deck had the same spilled frozen yogurt on them for days. Every chair and lounger around the pool decks had old bits of food and actual black grime (reminded me of the grime you’d see on a New York City subway platform) in all the little crevices of the chairs and around the deck.”
“The iconic red Carnival sm*ke stack, which was always squeaky clean on other ships, had giant brown and black stains down one side,” they added. “The steam room in the spa area had strands of long black hair on the tile floor that remained there for days. The lido buffet area smelled of spilled milk as did the main dining room. One day the lido fruit buffet with the canteloupe and honey dew melon was swarming with fruit flies. I felt so dirty on this ship. Have never experienced anything like it on our prior cruises.”
Despite this, other Redditors didn’t believe the user’s assessment.
“Just got off of the same ship, same cruise that you did yesterday,” one wrote. “I really didn’t notice a single damn thing you’re talking about. I think this may be a competitor or troll post just because of how dramatized your language is.” They added that they “hesitate to call falsehood, but after getting off yesterday it’s just not adding up.”
And a second agreed, “We were just on that ship in early July, didn’t see or experience any of this. It was fantastic, we thought it was the second cleanest ship we had been on. Everything actually worked too. Except the big funnel screen in the casino had pixels out. I find this rather interesting and a rather quick decline in cleaning.”
@thenewbys.1 Carnival will not be seeing us again!! Royal we love you!!! 😂😂 call us bougie but we cannot 2/10 for us! #royalcarribean #carnivalbreeze #thenewbys #fyp