Carnival cruisers want one big onboard change

While most cruisers don’t plan to do any work onboard, there is a small but significant minority of passengers who do.

As someone who regularly works on cruises, I can tell you firsthand that it’s not always as easy as in, say, a hotel room. The standard cruise ship cabin is roughly half the size of the typical hotel room. There isn’t always a convenient work area – and that’s especially true if you’re sharing a room.

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On one recent cruise, there was a small area with a chair that could be used as a desk, although I believe its primary purpose was as a makeup area. On another cruise, the closest thing to a desk was a small coffee table in front of the couch, which was completely across the room from the only outlet.

Public areas can present challenges as well. On Carnival cruise ships in particular, it can be difficult to find a relatively quiet area that is conducive to getting work done. Some ships have small library areas that can work. 

I used this space on Carnival Sunshine a few months ago, although finding a spot to plug in a laptop was a challenge. There are also some areas on the public decks with plenty of tables to use, but only if you’re very good at tuning out lots of crowd noise.

It's also worth mentioning that although cruise ship internet is generally much more reliable than it was just a few years ago, it’s still quite common to find dead zones on the ship. A couple of years ago, for example, our internet worked fine pretty much everywhere on the ship except our stateroom.

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Should Carnival transform its coffee shops?

A Carnival cruiser recently left a comment on brand ambassador John Heald’s widely followed Facebook page, requesting that the cruise line turn its Java Blue coffee shops into work-oriented spaces. The full comment was:

“Carnival please transform your Java, coffee places to places where people can work. There should be multiple charging points, places where serious work can be done. More and more Americans are working remotely. They should be considered silent spaces.”

Heald conducted an informal poll on the matter, which had received about 54,000 votes as of this writing. Carnival cruisers voted to leave the coffee shops exactly as they are by a margin of about 10-to-1.

To be fair, this result isn’t completely surprising. As I mentioned, most cruisers don’t work on the ship, so it’s only natural that the bulk of cruisers don’t really want quiet, work-oriented coffee shops.

However, there were quite a few people who like the idea of a more work-friendly area. Brenda Davis Plummer commented, 

“More ports at the coffee shop for people to connect would probably be a good idea it gets them out their room,” she said.

Kathryn Meyer halfway agreed.

“I also sometimes have to work during the cruise, so I wouldn't mind some charging ports in the Java Cafe, but in no way should it be a quiet area,” she added.

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On the other hand, one surprising part of the comment section was that several people who regularly work on ships were opposed to the idea. As Heald follower Kimberly Davis said, “I can work perfectly fine in my cabin, and have done so on my last few sailings. I don't need a dedicated space for that.”

Some cruisers suggested that Carnival’s larger ships could easily accommodate more than one coffee shop. Presumably, there could be one location that’s more work-oriented and others that are the lively coffee counters most cruisers know and love.

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Carnival could offer middle ground

Now, I work frequently on cruise ships, and I don’t necessarily agree with the original commentor that work-friendly coffee shops need to be “silent spaces.” 

On the other hand, it would absolutely be helpful to provide some tables with modern outlets and USB charging ports, perhaps off to the side so working passengers could enjoy some relative calm away from the crowd. 

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