In a recent post, someone wrote a negative review of their experience on the imagination. The author said:

"First, this cruise was absolutely no fun. I would say that out of the 4 ½ days that we spent on this ship, the crew entertained us for a total of 6 hours. The activities were a complete joke, totally outdated. I am glad that I know how to make my own fun. I participated and volunteered in almost all of the activities only to leave them "

My question to the forum readers/members is; What activities would you like to see added to Carnival sailings? Suggests some ideas as we know that Carnival's execs review these boards and maybe we will see some changes in the future.

Personally, I've always enjoyed the activies and find most of them entertaining. However, I agree that some of the activities are outdated.

Here is my idea:

1. How about a cook-off on deck, poolside between two of the ships best cooks. Let the professional cooks give a short demonstration about an ethnic dish from one of the islands on the itinerary. Once the demonstration is complete, have each cook prepare a dish of their own in a "battle of the chefs" environment under the clock while everyone watches poolside. Give them a time limit and make it really exciting. Once complete, select a handful of passengers to taste test the finished product. Based on their reviews and the crowds cheer for best display, one of the cooks is deemed the winner. To top things off, have the recipe for the winning creation posted in the following days Carnival Caper. It would be a great momento for everyone on board and educational to.

Any other ideas? I bet we could come up with a bunch. This could be fun.

P.S. I'd like to hear Mr. October's ideas..maybe he will resurface for this thread.

Sounds fun to me.

I would really enjoy being a taste tester.

Mr.October has not been on the forum since early January. I will give Michael a "ping" for you.

Dwayne

Hi nThanks for the thoughts, My last cruise was almost a year ago this October 8 days on Liberty, since then the job Ive had for 24 years that I was worried about just kept getting better'er and better'er and I havent had a vacation since, The told me I was to ugly to work in the office anymore so asked me to build an office in my home , they gave me a truck and a wireless laptop so every morning I crawl out of bed go into my home office punch in and start my day this October 6 will be 25 years with Cox Communications and Im loving it better than ever,Plus My Mroctober show is doing real well and I sing at more Nursing homes as well as Host a Karaoke show at 2 different Venues weekly, The money is there but no time to go away. what Ive done to ease my missing of cruising is in January I bought a Harley Davidson and on weekends (i work on sat till noon) after work me and my girl go riding, she has her own Harley. weve been talking about getting away on a cruise but just have to figure when I can get away. thanks again for the thoughts,
Im Alive and doing well
Michael
sorry to Hijack this thread,

I believe the games played on ship are getting old, atleast for us veteran cruisers, such as the hairy chest contest and belly flop, its the same thing each time with just different faces, they need to figure out the percentage of repeat cruiser's on each cruise and adjust activities accordingly, anymore when I see the hairy chest contest or any other old activity Im bored with it and go to the upper deck.just my thoughts.

hey Dwayne thanks for the heads up. Ill be snooping around here agin more often.

Glad to see MrO is alive and well, we sure have missed you here. I really like the cook-off idea. I enjoy the pool games, trivia games, and the horse races. I'd like to see something like a scavenger hunt, more murder mysteries, limbo contests or a dance contest, something like a twister game, and maybe some pan lessons. Maybe a bartender challenge like the cooking challenge, I'd really like to be a taste tester for that one

Michael, we missed you on our Cruise-Chat cruise. We had a great time and the beach club we went to in Cozumel was really nice. Snorkeling was great and they let us use the pool, too. You need to drop by the forum and get yourself back on a ship!

Welcome back Mr. O.

As mentioned some of the activities are getting old. But then some are just old time traditions. It seems no matter how many times I see the Newly Wed show it is always pretty good. It of course is always the changing participants and their answers that make the show. The cruise lines can only do so much in the confines of space,time, and keeping it interesting for ALL ages. All cruise lines keep trying to come out with something new and innovative. IE: The Oasis of the Seas. NCL has their new White Nights and make it snow out by the pool. Celebrity will soon be the first to have a 1/2 acre of real grass for putting and crochet, and they will have glass blowing on the ship. They also were the first to offer acupucture. HAL has gone to culinary kitchens on the ships with cooking demonstrations and lessons. Princess has pottery, photography, and computer lessons. Many ships have naturalist and lecturers.

Keep in mind some of the things we think would be good ideas, may have to be approved for safety issues and by the CDC.

Welcome Back Mr. O!

Glad to hear from you and that all is well. I missed you too. I knew if I gave you a "ping" and you were alive you would check in.

Penny, I like the idea of a scavenger hunt too. I have never figured out the horse race. My favorite is the trivia, I have a "ship on a stick" for winning that one. I think the good Dr. has 4!

Cruise Fanatic, those activities sound interesting as well. The Newly wed and not so Newly wed game is always funny. If I don't make it to the game, I always watch it when they show it on the the tv.

I had fun playing in the slot tournament last year. It costs $20 to enter though. Fortunately mine is comped. Maybe stupid human tricks like David Letterman does would be funny.

Dwayne

[QUOTE]Originally posted by llev80:
My question to the forum readers/members is; What activities would you like to see added to Carnival sailings? Suggests some ideas as we know that Carnival's execs review these boards and maybe we will see some changes in the future.


I remember a cruise I took on the Independance around Hawaii, they did team competive stuff. As I recall the teams were selected randomly and we played, tug of war, who had the largest collective waist size, threw some rings or something, It may have been old but I liked the competitive feel of it. They had some surprises and of course some Hats for the winners and losers. No Ship on a stick please.
A Bridge tournament would also be fun, especially if it was ACBL sanctioned.

I will think some more and come back.

I've never been one who has a desire to get into the group activities one encounters on a ship. If the belly-flop contest is going on, I'm the guy at the bar totally ignoring it. I don't want to get coerced into joining a conga line - either in the dining room or at the pool. I simply don't like doing them. One thing that has mildly annoyed me on cruises is people who think everyone else needs to get involved - the cheerleaders in essence. The ones who try to use peer pressure to make someone do something they don't want to do. A cruise is supposed to be an individual thing too, and not some mandatory group exercise.

So - although the corny stuff is still done I simply don't participate or even go to it. I prefer listening to music, watching the shows, just sitting around and observing. I do like trivia and am quite good at it if I say so myself. I also like to cook and would be interested a cooking event. I liked horse racing but it seems to have vanished from my favorite cruise lines. HAL used to have a betting pool at some bars where people bet on the ship's position as announced by the Captain at his daily noon update. I liked that too.

I find the red team/blue team stuff annoying at times because there is realy no score involved. I always enjoyed the ship-board horse-racing on Royal Caribbean but have never seen it on Carnival. The synchrnized swimming contest during the pool games are a hoot to watch. Hairy chest contests can get gross but most of the pool games can be funny if people play. One thing I wish Carnival would do that Princess does is to have the "Dancing Heads" machine. Now THAT is a hoot and a great take home memory also!

Thanks for the warning guys.

I guess when I see the conga line forming or the cruise director walking around with that "who am I going to pick" look I'll just crawl into a cold one or head to another part of the ship. Similar to the statements made by Dave and others I could enjoy cooking demonstrations, wine,tequila,bourbon and scotch tastings, cocktail mixing classes, naturalist or historic talks of the area to be visited, health and wellness classes, astronomy talks, funniest story contest.

Leaving Thursday on the Fantasy, look forward to meeting you LHP

Al

I started cruising Carnival in 1981. Some of the events they had were male night gown contests, pillow fights on the greased pole by the pool, yard of beer drinking contest, and horse racing. You can imagine why some of those have gone by the wayside.

you have to leave the hairy chest contest,,, My wife won that last time,,,

gosh i hope she does not read these post.

On the Carnival Pride in 2002, I had hooked up with the group from "another forum". We had a Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant and his wife with us. He had absolutely zero chest hair. He won the hairy chest contest just based on his posing and strutting - highlighted by his doing push-ups while spread eagled across a hot tub. I'll admit I did watch and cheer for that contest.

Oohrah! Go Marines!
Dave, my son is now a Gunnery Sergeant, and several years ago, he won the Iron Man contest at Camp Lejuene, NC....he set a record for the most pushups....662! His arms were sore for several weeks, and he couldn't even bend his elbows the next day. So, I guess we could have a pushup contest on the cruise..hahaha!

I never got into the Iron Mike thing during my tour. But then I was an air winger and we didn't like to run around doing a bunch of exercises.

Semper Fi !!!

'Nuff said

BillyBuzzy

Mr. October:

Glad to hear from you and that you are doing well...and staying busy!!!

Just wanted you to know that your karaoke friends missed you!!!

As for the games...we never participate in any of those. I have not seen a belly flop or hairy chest contest for years.

quote:

As for the games...we never participate in any of those. I have not seen a belly flop or hairy chest contest for years.

If you consider contests as a game, I seem to recall a certain Aretha performance.

Dwayne

On the Destiny they had a couple of things I hadn't seen before. One was a bathrobe party at the midnight buffet. The other was a scavenger hunt, based on the "Amazing Race", where the team of 4 people had to keep their arms interlocked while they found the stuff on their list. They also had a power bingo where the grand prize was a free 3-to-5 day cruise for two.

I am pretty good at keeping myself entertained. I am one who would rather sit on deck and people watch, or watch the waves. I enjoy the newlywed/not-so-newlywed game whenever I see it, though.