Some traditional parts of cruising, at least on the larger family-friendly cruise lines, have slowly gone away.
The most obvious one may be people dressing formally for dinner. Cruise ships have broadly gotten more casual, but while some people will still dress up on formal nights, tuxedos for men have become almost a novelty.
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You still see them occasionally, but Carnival and Royal Caribbean ships no longer rent them out, and on formal nights you're likely to see more men in t-shirts than tuxes. That wasn't a decision either cruise line made; it simply happened over time.
Covid likely accelerated that trend. As business meetings became remote and people worked from home, dress codes relaxed. For workers, it was a year or so of nice shirts on top, pajama bottoms, leggings or sweatpants on the bottom.
You can blame Covid for other changes in behavior as well. People began to think more about how any item they touched had been handled before it reached them.
That likely contributed to Carnival Cruise Line's major decision to remove a longstanding feature from its cruise ships and not adding it to any new builds.
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Carnival is getting rid of libraries
Traditionally, cruise ships have had libraries stocked with books. Passengers could take a book, leave a book, and use the space for quiet activities. That concept fell out of favor when the cruise lines returned from Covid.
The idea of shared books that had not been sanitized became distasteful, given the easily spread virus. Royal Caribbean, which also uses its library spaces as card and game rooms, has kept its libraries, although its newest class, Icon, does not offer a library.
Carnival made a clear decision to sunset libraries on its ships, a move that Brand Ambassador John Heald addressed in response to a passenger question in September 2023.
"We have stopped building new ships with libraries," he wrote. "The reason is so we can have other bars, restaurants, etc. there and the reason is also that, well, the amount of people who want to borrow a book and sit, in library silence on their Fun cruise was we saw getting less and less,"
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Carnival rejects a new library request
Opinions on getting rid of libraries were mixed at the time, and Heald still gets asked about them. He recently answered a bold question about bringing them back.
"John, why is it on every cruise that I am on I rarely see the gym being used? I use the steam rooms and saunas so always have a curious look inside & they are empty always. You are a bloater too John and the question is why does Carnival give so much space to a place used by 1% of the pax but then you guys take away the libraries that are more popular? If you are getting new bigger ships ditch the gyms & use that space for something more of the people will use," the unnamed poster wrote.
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Heald was fairly incredulous at the request.
"Thank you and I can assure you that far more than 1% of the guests use the gym, a lot more. And if we didn’t have a gym then I am sure that we would receive a massive bollocking from those who do," the brand ambassador wrote.
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Heald also addressed the not-subtle insult that was in the request.
"I do want to thank you sir for reminding me and 582,000 other people that I am a 'bloater'...brilliant," he said. "However, I don’t need reminding of this because I have been watching the Olympics. Sitting on my couch, eating a bucket of KFC with my knackered knee in a brace watching the 6-packed toned-to-perfection men taking part in the various events, I wasn’t sure if indeed I am of the same species."
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