Cruise lines rarely tell passengers when they make small changes.
Perhaps they've changed the chocolate-chip-cookie recipe or stopped serving oatmeal-raisin cookies at a particular location. Cruisers are very observant, however, and tend to notice these things.
Related: Carnival Cruise Line making major itinerary and port changes
Sometimes a change is just temporary. Maybe it’s a supply-chain snarl or another reason that stops a popular favorite from being offered on a certain cruise. Such things definitely happen with beer, wine and liquor, as sometimes supply does not meet demand.
When indeed the supply of a particular item is limited, the cruise lines generally focus on places that require that ingredient. If, for example, a certain tequila is used in a drink that’s on the menu in a specific bar, that bar will be prioritized and will get a supply of that liquor.
In other cases, cruise lines simply make changes, including taking things away. The problem is that when you are as big as Carnival Cruise Line or Royal Caribbean, (RCL) you have so many passengers that you can't just make a change and not alert them to it.
The cruise line might be getting rid of the least popular thing on the ship or making another change that it figures nobody should care about. In reality, with hundreds of thousands of people sailing, every food and beverage item probably has at least a handful of people who consider it a favorite.
Carnival (CCL) Brand Ambassador John Heald recently had to address the cruise line's decision to quietly remove a popular beverage.
Image source: Carnival Corp.
Carnival passengers notice a popular free drink has been removed
When people have a grievance with Carnival, they often share it on Heald’s Facebook page. Because Heald has more than 500,000 followers there, people sometimes learn that what seems like a problem on their sailing or on a specific ship is actually a fleetwide change.
“I'm just wondering why Carnival Australia no longer has the delicious fruit juice drink at breakfast anymore?" wrote Elizabeth Free. "I loved it so much. I would fill my bottle to drink throughout the day. Now the options are just orange or apple. Very sad."
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In this case, Heald explained that this was not a one-ship decision.
“Thank you. I will pass this to the chef because I know we’ve stopped this on every ship and replaced it with the other juices you mentioned," he wrote. "But let me see what we can do in the future as I know others have said the same to me. So I’ll send a quick note now to the executive chef."
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Some commenters brought more clarity to what was missing.
“Yeah, the pineapple, orange, guava juice is the best,” Abby Binder said.
“I do the same! I LOVE that juice! I'm sad this is no longer offered,” added Carol Millitch Leonard.
Update: Heald shared on Oct. 31 that it was not the pineapple, orange, guava juice that was being referred to. He answered a question asking about the juice.
"And they would be completely wrong. Good morning, that is completely false and it is on every ship served for breakfast. Unless, for any reason, we have not had a delivery. But it is not been discontinued and will be there on your next cruise, thank you," he wrote.
Heald did not explain which juice was removed in his original comments.
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