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Carnival Cruise Line Consumer Reviews - Page 4

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Poor Service, the Cruise Has Not Even Started...
By -

January 31, 2011. What happened to resolving customer issues? Especially when the company brought the issue upon themselves, and now they are not willing to compromise or fix it. Let'€™s start from the beginning. My wife and I have been cruising for many years and have traveled on Celebrity, Norwegian, Carnival, and Princess cruises over the past 10 years. In August of 2010 we decided to take a cruise with our 2 young daughters and invited their Great-Grandmother and a friend to join us.

Considering we have cruised Carnival 4 times prior including a 40 passenger booking that my wife lead the charge on we naturally were drawn to re-book with Carnival Cruise Lines. This will be the first cruise for our family friend that is joining us. In August my wife and I booked our reservations and made payment on our deposits with the intentions of booking our daughters at a later date when we paid the cruise in full. At that time we informed Carnival of this so they noted it on our account and placed us in a room that accommodated the 4 guests.

About 2 months ago I called Carnival to make final payment on our cruise and to book our daughters on our cruise. At the beginning of that call I was informed by the agent on the phone that because we were past cruisers with Carnival we were eligible for a 5 category upgrade which would give us the option of a balcony room. Naturally, I was ecstatic and for a moment I could not wait to get off the phone and tell my wife the great news.

As we got further into the call and booked the children I was then informed that since I was booking additional members in my cabin that I would not be eligible for the upgrade. The agent on the phone was extremely apologetic and explained that she had spoken out of turn before reviewing the details of the reservation and at that time there was nothing she could do. For obvious reasons I was disappointed and not because I expected something for free. I thought to myself wow; I am actually being recognized for my loyalty to a brand. Typically you hear these types of things happening but it never happens to you.

In the end I thanked the agent for her help; we booked my daughters on the cruise, made full payment and ended the conversation. At that time the representative told me to continue to call back and check because upgrades become available on a regular basis. Not knowing this or expecting it I made a mental note and mentioned it to my wife.

About six weeks ago my wife made another call to Carnival to confirm a few questions about the cruise. Mainly we wanted to ensure our dining arrangements were in place to have dinner with our other party and that the seating time was noted on the account as we are traveling with small children and wanted the early seating.

During this call another representative brought up the fact that we were eligible for a 1 category upgrade. Again, my wife was excited. To be not expecting something and then to be offered an upgrade is fantastic even if it is a single category. The agent went over options with my wife discussed actual cabin numbers on the ship and what was available within that one category upgrade. The two of them decided on a cabin with the recommendation of the agent as far as location on the ship and the vicinity to our other guests. According to the agent she was going to have to get the "€œCustomer Solutions" department on the phone to finalize the process.

My wife waits on hold for several minutes, still excited about being offered something for being a past cruiser but that quickly came to an end. The agent returned back to the line and explained that she had made a mistake and that we were not eligible for the upgrade because we had paid an early booking rate and the rate did not apply to the upgrades. She was extremely friendly, sweet, courteous, and could not apologize enough for her mistake.

The agent again told my wife that upgrades are constantly changing and to reach out to Carnival about a week prior to check on availability. Let down again my wife thanked her for assistance, ensured she her questions answered and ended the call. At the time my wife and I even discussed how ironic it was that both times the agent brought up the upgrades to us when that was not even the reason for our calls and both times we got our hopes up to be let down by gracious but ill equipped customer service agents that are incompetent in providing their customers correct information about the brand that they represent.

Tonight, 11 days from our cruise my wife calls Carnival Cruise Lines with the intention of asking about the possible upgrades available to us considering we are past cruisers with Carnival and the past two customer service agents have advised us to do so.

The first agent flat out advised us that there was nothing available for an upgrade within our available categories. She also advised us that there were upgrades available but we did not qualify for them including the balcony rooms which 2 months ago we were told it was an option. She also advised us that no notes had been placed on our account regarding the previous conversations. We should have expected that they would not document their mistakes.

At this point my wife is just angry. Not because the people we have talked to have been rude or made mistakes but the fact is that we had been told on multiple occasion to contact Carnival to discuss our options, been given details about possibilities of alternate rooms and in the end nothing. We asked to speak with a supervisor tonight because it just seemed like nobody cared to address our concerns.

We were given another agent (Guest Solutions) who explained to us the same thing and that there were no options available that they were allowed to upgrade us to and that there were no managers or supervisors at the call center. She could not recollect the agent who transferred our call to her. She offered to transfer our call to the Elite Services desk to handle our problem which is simply another area of customer service.

My wife asked for the name and number to reach out to someone tomorrow. The agent became defensive until my wife explained to her we have every right to ask these questions to ensure our issues are addressed. In the end she provided us with the name ** but could not provide a phone number or email address. In the end we spoke with a Hilda at the Elite Services desk who assured us we would hear from a manager or supervisor in the next 48 hours.

After she learned we already had ** name she said she would bypass the supervisor and send our inquiry directly to Sheila. We will see what the outcome is of this experience. In the end it is just truly unfortunate that a cruise line would rather a room go empty and lose a loyal customer than to do the right thing and take care of the customer. Our cruise has not even started and I hope this is not a sign of things to come.

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Medical Emergency prior to cruise date/No refund
By -

Booking number ** / Medical Emergency Cancellation Complaint, 1/14/2011. On Friday, January 14th, my wife slipped on the ice in the drive way and broke her arm and wrist in several places. As the weather for this area in and around Charlotte was very bad for several days, there was much ice and what not on the roads.

We and another couple had booked this cruise a few months ago as we typically cruise on Royal Caribbean and had never experienced Carnival. We had heard allot about Carnival and decided to try the experience. Needless to say, the doctors basically told us that we could not go anywhere for the next couple of weeks and the reconstructive surgery require us to stay within the area due to potential complications with infections and what not. Our friends, the other couple, were disappointed and sorry for us at the same time, but are still going on the cruise, as like us, they had paid in full.

I called Carnival to see what they could do for us and they told us to contact AAA Vacations as we had booked through them. We called AAA and explained what had happened. They were very understanding and nice to us and told us that under the current policy with Carnival, we could only get half of our money back. With this said, we were very appreciative and understood this and graciously accepted their explanation and thought, “At least we got half of our money back, $614.83.”

Later on that evening, we received a call from AAA saying that they simply could not explain why Carnival would not honor the original terms by giving half of our money back, but that Carnival refused to even let us reschedule for a later date or put the funds towards a future cruise. I was stunned at this sudden reversal. I was told to write this letter by AAA as they assured me that they value their customers and felt that we should, at least, express out feelings in a letter.

My friends and us, we cruise every year. We have never missed a cruise and I'd say the odds are, we will not miss next year's or the year after that. With that said, do you think that we and our friends and my family, sisters, brothers, etc., will recommend Carnival for a cruise vacation? What would you do?

My wife is a registered nurse and has been for 27 years. The hospital where she works and the doctors whom she knows on a first hand basis are appalled by us not getting, at least, a partial refund. They have said that should we need assistance or verification of the accident and the reasoning that they recommend we stay at home for the next 3 weeks, would not be a problem. I wonder if any of the doctors or her co-workers will consider Carnival after this as well. It simply states a bad precedence with no compassion what so ever.

To summarize, my wife's health is worth a lot more than $1,229.66. It is the principal of the thing that bothers us. We will cruise again and I told my wife that when she gets well, we'll take vacation then. Do you think it will be with Carnival?

We will continue to use AAA Vacations because they are upfront and honest with us and we like their benefits in many of the facets of business that they offer. I'll be 50 years young in 2 months and I can't wait to get my AARP discounts. With all of this said we would hope that you (Carnival) would go back and look at this situation. We really would like to experience Carnival sometime and perhaps something can be salvaged from an already distraught situation here.

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Is Carnival Canceling Cruise Bookings the Day the Final Payment Is Due So They Can Charge More When You Rebook?
By -

MIAMI, FLORIDA -- I would like for you to share this story with your readers. It is something all potential Carnival Cruise customers should be made aware of so they too do not fall victim to what I view is an under handed scam. Is Carnival canceling cruise bookings the day the final payment is due so they can charge more when you rebook? Are they preying on their passengers to generate more revenue for CCL? It sure seems this way.

When I booked on September 1st for my January 9th cruise I was told by the CCL booking agent that my balance would be due in November. He assured me I would receive an email with my booking confirmation which I received shortly after I hung up the phone. He also said that sometime before the final balance was due I would receive an email with a notice to pay the final balance. He said that in the body of the email there would be a hyperlink that would take me to the CCL website where I could pay off the balance online.

A few days later, I received another booking confirmation from CCL except this time it was for a different passenger and not even on my cruise ship. I noticed that the passenger had the same first name as me “Vanessa”. Although we had different last names and were booked on different cruises I decided the right thing to do is to alert Carnival and I did so by emailing them to make sure that they did not send me this person's information anymore. Four days later I received another email for the same family even though I alerted Carnival of the mistake.

During our Thanksgiving dinner this past Thursday the discussion about the upcoming 70th birthday cruise for Grandpa came up. My mother in law mentioned that she received notice that the balance was due and that she had paid for her two cabins. I told her I had not received any emails from CCL relating to final payment. So I decided to go online to pay the balance. When I logged in to CCL my booking number came up invalid. I decided to email them and received an auto generated email response to call in to their call center.

I called the call center this morning and they instructed me that they had cancelled my reservation and if I still wanted to take the cruise they would have to rerate my fare, the new fare would now be 20% more than the reserved fare I had previously booked. The woman explained that they had sent numerous emails to remind me that my final payment was coming due. She also said that they even sent a letter to my home warning me that if not paid that the cruise would be cancelled.

I explained that the only email I had received was for the original booking on September 1st and the two other emails I had received were for Vanessa **, a family that had no relation to me. She had me look at my original booking confirmation and lo and behold it said Final Payment due on November 11, 2010. However, nowhere did it state that if not paid by this date that the reservation would be cancelled.

I explained that I had not received any emails from CCL requesting final payment and offered the chance that perhaps the other party I did receive emails for was perhaps receiving mine. She said that she does not have the permission to honor the old reservation even with the email mix up and that a supervisor would be able to help resolve this. She also agreed that the email mix-up could be the reason I did not receive any emails from them, she offered no explanation for the letter never being received.

When Mr. Orion ** from Guest Solutions came on the phone he made it very clear that CCL does not have a policy or a standard procedure in place that would alert passengers that their final payment is coming due. He also said it is not Carnival's responsibility to warn customers that they need to pay their final balance by email or letter. He also told me that they do not owe me anything and that it was my fault solely that they cancelled because I did not pay by November 10th. He also said that they never know when a reservation will be cancelled and that CCL does not need to provide any of this information to the customer.

He stated that Carnival can cancel a reservation at anytime they choose including the day it is due solely at their discretion - all without notice. In my case they cancelled my cruise on the day it was due according to Mr. **. He also did not see that any letter was sent (even though the previous Carnival representative said one was sent) but he did say an email reminder to pay the final balance was sent to me on the day it was due November 10th and then a cancellation notification was sent the very next day on November 11th stating that my cruise reservation was cancelled on November 10th.

He said the only thing he could do for me was to re-price the fare as my cabin was still available. He said the new rate would cost 20% more than I my originally booked fare. I told him before I shelled out more money for the cruise that I would like to verify that I truly did not receive these emails. I told him if they truly were sent and it was my oversight that I would call back and pay the additional fare. I searched the company email server and confirmed that none were received from Carnival on the subject dates in any folder, received, deleted including the spam folder.

Mr. ** did say that if I could confirm with the other passenger Mrs. ** that she was receiving emails relating to my reservation from Carnival that then he could accommodate me. At this point I was scratching my head - and how will I reach Mrs. **? Calling Carnival back appeared to be a mute at this point. I am completely baffled about this situation especially on the heels of the recent bad press received for their Carnival Splendor disaster. My only guess is that they are trying to recoup some of the refunded monies and free cruises they had to give away as a result of the Splendor.

One would think in an economy like this where people are very cautious about their spending that Carnival would institute a much more customer service focused process and less self absorbed approach to their customers. I still have not decided if we will go on this cruise or not. I must admit it really is a disappointing experience as a past cruiser on Carnival and at one time a cheerleader for them. I am hoping you will write about this undocumented cancellation policy Carnival has with your readers as I think this is important information.

Resolution Update 11/30/2010:

I received a call from Carnival Cruise today. They have decided to honor the fare I was originally promised. They apologized for the inconvenience caused. I am content with this action and am hoping they will develop better customer resolution processes.

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Cruise From Hell
By -

I'm not sure where to start, so I'll just start with our arrival at the Carnival Cruise Terminal on Oct 23rd. Arriving early with hopes of getting unpacked in our cabin so that we can begin our cruise with the usual sail away deck party, we soon learned that arriving early was a waste of time. The ship arrived late from it's previous trip with propeller problems and a boat load of late travelers that had to get off. We were told that we could shuttle to a nearby area for lunch at the expense of the cruise line. We also quickly learned that in doing so, we would have to stand in the long line again when we returned.

Next we learned that we would not be going to our originally scheduled destinations (Jamaica and Cozumel). The original destinations were picked by us, partly because we had never been there before. Since we were using my only week of vacation time to take this trip, we basically had no choice but to stay and hope for the best. After spending most of day 1 of our 5 day cruise in the crowded terminal, we finally got to our cabin. It soon became obvious that we were on a very old and not so clean ship. During these 5, no 4 days, we saw a very worn out vessel that has been painted over & over.

The door frame to our bathroom was rusted badly, as well as many other places around the ship including the pool. There was noticeable mold on the balcony handrail, even after the balcony was closed for a few hours for cleaning during our trip. The balcony deck had some sort of food scraps on it, the used robes of previous travelers were in the closet, and the bathroom tile had some very dated mold on the caulking. The bathroom sink looked as though it was from the 60's along with several scratches and marks. The cleaning staff vacuumed daily around the elevators, which was good, except they totally disregarded the safety of travelers trying to jump over the cords.

Three "officers" in white uniforms watched as 2 of the cleaning staff scrubbed the empty main pool under a rope net in front of several hundred travelers attending a concert where the band played directly above the pool. This looked as though the 2 staff members were being publicly punished for something. Two officers in white, on at least 2 days, watched as 2 staff members removed lounge chairs from the deck and stacked them along the wall, even though travelers were searching for a place to relax. The public restrooms were nasty. Just basic nasty. I had to stand in pee, to pee at the urinal. Kids were allowed to jump & splash in the hot tubs.

The food was not cruise worthy, especially the 3 days of Mexican buffet. Three days!!! The pizza had yellow rubber for cheese. I ate no ice cream from the ice cream machines, simply because of the nasty mess. Here's another good idea: Let's close a section of the upper deck so that we can all get high from the paint fumes from the painting of the deck rails. So that meant only the smoking side of the upper deck was open. But really that was not a big problem, because everyone pretty well smoked wherever they wanted to. Nothing makes for a better afternoon in the rusted pool, than the added paint fumes and smell of Cuban cigars.

Only one person in the dining room looked as though he enjoyed his job. He served our drinks with a huge smile and a happy greeting. He should lead customer service courses to the other dining staff members (starting at the top). The daytime activities were lacking in activity. Bingo, bingo, and more bingo, which was played by only a few. There were less than 15 travelers at the "Guess That Face" event. The big "Bean Bag Toss" event was putting the bean bag toss game by the pool and leaving it. No organized game, no staff involved, just a few kids throwing the bean bags at each other.

Even though the Karaoke times were well attended, they kept pushing them into a smaller lounge. The musical show was okay, but only 2 nights. I'm guessing the guys attending were only there because of the female dancers' attire. They might as well went bottomless, since what they wore, covered nothing. All we can remember from those shows is female butts. Who knows what they sang or did. This entire cruise was a ride down the ocean on a nasty beat up "funless" ship with bad food, lousy activities, and crappy service. My recommendation for this ship is retirement. Not only the ship, but also the management.

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Advertisement
Carnival dream, what a nightmare
By -

On August 28, 2010 my girlfriend and I began a cruise which was supposed to go to the Eastern Caribbean. Once onboard ship we were informed that because of bad weather the ship was to be diverted to the Western Caribbean. I understand because of safety the reasoning of that decision, but we had no choice in the matter of whether or not to go. Since our last cruise was to the Western Caribbean, I would much rather have been given the opportunity to decline the trip and go at another time. So needless to say the trip was not off to a good start.

Then when we stopped at Cozumel. We got to talk to a passenger from one of the other cruise lines. According to our new friend the NCL ship Epic that he was on with his family had offered everyone onboard 50% off their next cruise for being diverted to the Western Caribbean. When we returned to our ship I went to the purser's desk to ask whether Carnival was offering any thing of that nature and was told that "Iœt'€™s not our policy." We had planned this cruise a year in advance because we wanted to be one of the first to experience the new "€œDream€." This turned out to be more of a nightmare.

The ship held 4500+ passengers this cruise and after two days there was no hot water anywhere on board for a period of almost 36 hours. So we thought maybe now we would be given some sort of compensation. Well the only thing they came up with was to give everyone free drinks for an hour and ½. The only thing wrong with that equation is that we don'€™t drink. And even if we did, it looked like blood in the water and the sharks are on a feeding frenzy. This ship was touted as bigger and better, so we couldn'€™t wait to see it. But the only thing bigger was the amount of people onboard. The amount of elevators were the same, albeit smaller in size.

Most of our time onboard was spent waiting for elevators and then when one arrived it was packed like sardines. We had to climb stairs most of the time to get where we needed to be in a timely manner. But some of our friends traveling with us couldn'€™t use the stairs because of limitations. Why on earth would you build a bigger ship and not plan to accommodate all passengers? The pools, restaurants, atrium, clubs, and all other areas were the same size as the much smaller ships. So in essence what you have here is more people with the same amenities which makes for more crowds everywhere. Even the casino seemed smaller with not that many slot machines.

One other area I had an issue with was the laundry facilities, or should I say lack of such. The other ships had laundry rooms on every floor. This one had two rooms for 4500 people and with a total of four washers, two of which were broken. This was my fifth cruise, my third with Carnival.

Until this cruise I was a big fan of the Carnival cruise lines. {The fun ship} No fun this trip, the activities were severely lacking as well. And when we did find something to do it was rushed. This cruise director, Butch was a real dud! Even the evening shows seemed dull and the funny thing is at the end of the cruise, they put on the exact same show that I had seen 4 years ago. Talk about deja vu.

The one thing I did notice was the amount of get togethers for LGBT. If you are a friend of Bill or Dorothy you got it made! But what about the single straight people onboard?? We were traveling with some single friends who would have liked to have been included in a meet and greet for straight singles if there had been any. Why does Carnival discriminate against straight people? It's a good thing this wasn'€™t my first cruise because this one was a big disappointment. As I mentioned before we were traveling with some other friends, a total of 8 people. Some of which had never cruised before and they were not big fans. Unfortunate because cruising can be great fun.

I'€™m not going to say I'll never cruise Carnival again, but I can tell you one thing, it won'€™t be on the "Dream"€. Since I live in the Orlando area I have the option of going on Royal Caribbean, Holland America or Disney. So €œbon voyage€ Carnival!

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Rip off!
By -

I went on a cruise with a then co worker of mine in May of 2010. We booked the cruise in March 2010. Before setting sale there is a "funship pass" or something that each person is expected to fill out with information such as passport identification number, CC information for the card you intend to charge everything on the ship with name address all that good stuff. I filled out the fun pass with the proper information and expected my cabin mate would do the same. Apparently she did not fill out the information.

When I went to check in and board the ship, the gentleman that was there asked me for my credit card. I handed it over to him and he gave it back to me and then gave me the key for my room. Then my cabin mate started talking to him and he then handed her the key for the room. I wasn't listening to what he was saying to her or asking her for as it was none of my business. We go on our cruise and had a great time not because of the Carnival experience though and when I return I get a bill from my credit card company for nearly $200 more than what I spent.

I called Carnival and they stated that my cabin mate did not fill out her "funpass" so they just charged everything to my credit card. I was obviously furious. I explained that I never gave permission for them to make charges especially for another unrelated adult to my card. They should have asked me when we checked in if her charges were supposed to go on my credit card and would have stated ABSOLUTELY NOT. We actually both stopped working for that job very shortly after this cruise and I am not even in contact with this person.

I explained to the representative on the phone that it is their job to obtain the proper information from everyone on board not my job and they need to collect it from the person that made all the charges. I did not sign for any of her purchases nor did I reap the benefits of them so I will not be paying for them. If they are bringing people in international waters they should have some idea of who is on the ship and since they have her information they need to collect from her. This is not my problem.

So the representative stated that she was going to put in a dispute to see if they will refund the money and I should get a call back within one week. OF course I never received a call and I once again had to call them. The representative I spoke to this time said that she was sorry and they must have still been working on it but she was personally going to call me when she gets an answer. Surprise surprise... still no phone call.

I did receive an email about a week later stating that they did not have any information for my cabin mate so since I was the only one that filled it out it gave them permission to charge me for her charges. Also that I should have gone down and talked to them while I was on the cruise because they slipped a bill under my door. (Which I never received) I had to dispute it with my credit card company to get this resolved. This was my second and last time cruising with Carnival. They are shady liars with crappy cruises!!!

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Don't Waste Your Money on a Carnival Cruise!!!
By -

This was my first cruise, a four day cruise in April 2010 from San Diego to Catalina to Baja. The only "Elation" I felt was when I finally got off the ship. Honestly, I don't even know where to start. I guess I would begin with the 80.00 I was charged to pay for "prepaid tips". I prepaid this figuring I wouldn't have to be bothered at each and every turn. WRONG! When I wasn't charged again for it on my bill for drinks and other services, I was being asked several times a day by various people to "not to forget to tip" this person or that person because the money I had prepaid wasn't available to them!

MEALS:
The dinners (I've had better meals at the local nursing home while visiting) were pathetic. Our centerpiece on the table at our "formal" dinner was a large 1.5 liter plastic bottle of water. The first night, we opened it and drank it. At the end of the meal we were presented with a bill + tip for the water we drank! For the meals in the "Tiffany" the food left much to be desired. On the last night we went to the Romeo and Juliet Bar, the three people behind the bar were talking and laughing. After waiting about 5 minutes to order a drink, we left. They were too busy socializing to actually be concerned about doing their job.

EXCURSIONS:
The "Wine and shop" trip for 30.00 each was a total joke, they drove us to a big old abandoned warehouse that had several large wine casks, NOT a winery!!! Then to another abandoned old building and served "margaritas" in dixie cups and lead us to a central plaza for some "good deals" on shopping, it amounted to about 10 street vendors selling beaded bracelets and some pottery. We were horrified that we got completely taken by Carnival. They had promoted all day before about their fantastic excursions. On the morning we pulled into the Mexico port, I looked out my window to see a bay filled with floating garbage. Much to my horror, I saw a beautiful dog, a shepherd mix, large and gray dog floating next to our ship.

ENTERTAINMENT AND USE OF POOL
There were children running wild all over the ship the entire time, they filled the pool so it was not possible to even use any of the services on the Lido deck. People were smoking all over the ship, it was hard to get away from the 750 children or the smokers. As for the entertainment, Steve the cruise director held a game called the "marriage game" or something along those lines. One of the question we heard before we left, went something like this: when your husband gets out of the shower, what kind of car does his ** look like? A limo or a pink VW bug... ARE YOU KIDDING ME? This is Carnival's idea of entertainment?

DEPARTURE
On the morning of departure, I woke up vomiting and with diarrhea. I begged the housekeeping staff to stay in my room until we were called to leave the ship. Unfortunately, we were the last to be called, of the 25, we were 23. It would be about a 3 hour wait in the lobby filled with hundreds of people and misbehaving children. I was told I had to leave my room, so I called the infirmary to see if I could rest there near a bathroom. I was told that would not be possible, when I ask why, I was told it would be VERY expensive. At this point I went to guest services and was told to just go sit in the lobby.

I told the woman, that would be fine, I would be throwing up in her lobby! She then gave me a pass to leave the ship immediately. By then I was in tears, it was the final straw. Without a doubt, the worst vacation my husband and I have ever had, and we're in our mid 50's, so we've had many vacations over the years. We will never cruise again. What a pathetic vacation they offer.

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Discrimination and Rude Treatment
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CARNIVAL PLACE, 3655 NW 87 AVENUE, FLORIDA -- I am very upset with the utter disrespect and discriminatory treatment my group received from Carnival Cruises. We had so many issues on this trip it'€™s shocking. As there are so many issues I will list them by location and then by day.

Rex Lounge: Monday night several members of our group were in the Rex Lounge. There was an incident that began with the DJ. When J approached the DJ booth the security guard allowed her to enter the DJ booth to request a song. When she approached him to request €œBirthday Sex he told her "€Back up **".€ I cannot imagine what could possible happen that would cause this type of response. The group was sarcastically told that it was the end of his contract, which apparently meant he didn't care about repercussions. Regardless of the length of his €œcontract€ he is still a representative of Carnival.

The next issue that even was also in the Rex Lounge, J was dancing proactively in the adult club and while dancing became overheated and removed her upper shirt revealing a sports top underneath. This prompted security, Franklin, to demand they leave the club due to this incident. I do want to call attention to other similar incidents we videotaped in the Rex Lounge. There were some homosexual men that removed their shirts revealing only their bare chests and proceeded to lick one another'™s chests. This same evening there were women scantily clad with very revealing tops that resembled bandeau bras.

On Tuesday evening there was a bachelorette party in the Rex Lounge between 12-2 am who were performing pole dances and erotically simulating sex acts on one another on the dance floor in front of the DJ. Shortly thereafter there was a man sitting along the wall across from the DJ bar who removed his shirt and began giving a lap dance to another male. After this incident a member of our party was sitting at the bar and another member climbed on to the stool she was on and was hugging her from behind. Interestingly enough they are sisters.

Immediately the security approached our group and advised that Jessica would need to leave the bar immediately because by climbing on to the stool she was €œendangering the safety of the other travelers. I can certainly agree this was not safe behavior but I do not feel it was handled appropriately. In a normal bar setting this type of display would result in the bar staff warning the culprit. However in this instance Franklin removed her from the bar.

I find it disturbing that the ethnic individuals in my party seemed to be discriminated against. I don'€™t know if this is race-related because the bachelorette group were all composed of Caucasian female and the males that were performing oral acts on one another were also of Caucasian descent. Yet another example was during the Carnival sponsored hairy chest contest when a contestant, at the direction of the Carnival staff, told to parade down the stairs and upon performing he nearly fell from the middle of the stairs. Not only did our group capture this on film Carnival has included this in the DVD from the sailing.

On Tuesday I wanted to request a song, but felt very worried about the complaints and reports I had received about the DJ. I gently approached security and asked if the DJ took requests. He smiled and said yes. I asked where to go and he told me to enter the DJ booth. I stepped about 2 feet into the DJ booth and politely said "Excuse me, may I request a song?"€. At this time the DJ glanced to his side at me with nothing but disdain and turned back around. He was incredibly rude and didn'€™t have enough respect to nod or give me any kind of acknowledgement.

After he played the wrong song I returned to the booth and again tried to have a song played. He was visible angry for some reason. Certainly employees have bad days but Carnival is advertised as the fun ship and is marketed as a vacation getaway. All of the internal issues within Carnival should be invisible to guests.

On Thursday my group was to have a happy hour. I gathered my group of 37 cruisers and one member entered the Rex Lounge and asked where to go. My group member was told that the staff member didn'€™t know what he was talking about. A moment later I received the report from my group member and went into the Rex Lounge personally. The bar staff member yelled at me stating, "I don'€™t anything about your group. That is Linda'€™s party, they are old ladies". I was furious and left the lounge to retrieve the letter from Carnival placed under my door the day before. Upon returning I spoke with Lancelot.

He saw that my group was on the list and Emil was just being lazy. I demanded to speak with Clarke the contacted listed on my paperwork. Prior to Clarke arriving the F&B Manager came. I spent additionally time retelling the story. I was assured my group would get their full hour as we agreed to with Carnival. I was trying to enjoy our get together but found myself running around calming everyone down over yet another issue and rehashing the issues with the various members of the management staff. The F&B manager assured me my group would get a full hour, however our time was cut short due to the issues. Yet again I had 37 upset travelers.

Paris Restaurant: The staff working with the Paris Restaurant all seemed to be unhappy; none smiled or acknowledged the cruisers. I saw numerous travelers trying to get some attention from the staff for ketchup, mustard, or assistance. I personally was in the buffet line on Mexican night at 11 pm and there was a female employee preparing the tacos who was involved in a very intense conversation with another staff member regarding how upset she was that another employee was not back yet to help her and apparently she was supposed to have a break.

The traveler in front of me stood there for several minutes waiting for her attention. This held up the entire line. Also waiting for her conversation to finish I attempted to get serving of the taco meat for my plate and I was immediately reprimanded.

Destiny Dinning Room: I arranged for my group to have a bottle of red wine during the cruise. On the first night there were bottles of wine on the 4 tables assigned to my group in the Destiny. As members started being seated some bottles were opened. As the wait staff was opening the bottles we were asked to sign a document acknowledging receipt. During the dinner bottles were taken from some tables and given to other tables I believe because not all members of attending the dinner.

At the end of dinner I was approached by the headwaiter advising he was missing one signature and he was unable to locate the 1 bottle of wine. He approached me and other members of our group many times. So much we felt uncomfortable and just signed the slip. Due to the issues on Monday night 33 travelers in the group did not attend dinner in the dining room two nights. On Thursday night I returned to the Destiny for another try and I was again approached about the bottle of wine because one couple did not get their bottle.

I was so frustrated, irritated, and embarrassed that he would continue to draw attention to this issue I finally just told him to give them a new bottle of wine and I would pay. I believe that if there was a bottle of the wine missing it was the fault of the wait staff for failing to get the signatures or paying attention while opening the wine. The entire group complained about the headwaiter but wanted to make note of the other waiter, although we cannot remember his name we do remember he is from St. Vincent. The maitre d' and this gentleman from St. Vincent was the only redeeming quality of the dining room.

Pool Side Bar/Bar Staff: The bartenders at the poolside bar and the America bar were clearly bitter and uninterested in refilling sodas or performing any form of customers that did not yield a tip. We were all educated on the œslave like€ wages they were paid and how dependent the wait staff was on the tips. These are terms and opinions that were articulated to several of use. There was many times the poolside bartender (an older gentleman on the smoking side with glasses) that members actually had to wave him down and plead for his attention.

J was unable to receive any assistance on Monday that she finally gave up and went to her room to retrieve soda. This same evening S, L, D, and myself had to stand up and wave our arms around to get his attention. I would understand if he was helping another customer or performing any of his job duties but flirting with a few drunk bachelorettes should be done on his break or personal time, or if anything have a helper at the bar.

Each member of my group ascribes the continual agonizing, annoying, badgering from the wait staff to buy the drink of the day as harassment. It became so bad nobody wanted to be near the pool and we opening joked that a restraining order may be necessary. I am also very concerned with the alcohol beverages that were served to a 16 year old.

Lastly, I believe her name is Melanie who conducted the section E muster drill, the game show on Monday night, helped with Bingo, and introduced the comedian made it a point to tell us at each opportunity that it was the end of her contract. I can certainly understand being eager to return home but the emphasis that was placed on her leaving certainly made it abundantly clear the ship was not the fun place we were sold on. This behavior does not seem to be appropriate and certainly got travelers to talk and discuss the unprofessional staff.

I want to draw attention to the fact that each member of my party became so resentful of Carnival all gratuities were removed from each traveler. Many had planned on making various purchases in the duty free stores but opted to forego the savings because they were so bitter about the ongoing disrespect they received from Carnival staff. You will see that each member of the group also took significant time to fill out the comment cards in great detail. I would also offer you the photos and video we began taking of the issues. We were all so frustrated that we began recording some of the issues that we saw as evidence.

My group ranges from 35-53 individuals and we book a group cruise once a year. In the past we have always traveled with Royal Caribbean and had no complaints. We have all raved about being treated like royalty on the Monarch of the Seas and the Pride. However, on the Paradise we feel like we were treated like trash. We selected Carnival this year due to its reputation and price. We were all very upset with how poorly we were treated. I would request that each member of the group is personally contacted and receive an apology.

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Carnival Cruise Does Not Do as It Says
By -

Mobile on 12/14/09 (12/15/09) Carnival Cruise Lines: We are writing to inform you about our experience with your cruise line. First, let me explain that back in 1998 my family, and fifty of our guests, sailed with Carnival for our wedding. We had a great time and most everything went as planned. We took this shorter cruise (12/09) as we were seeing if our children (6 and 8) are ready to begin to vacation as cruisers. We were hoping for a great cruise so that we could begin a yearly summer tradition of taking Carnival cruises. We were extremely disappointed in this cruise and the way that Carnival handled it.

As I am assuming you are aware, Mobile had heavy fog on 12/14/09 – our day to begin cruising. We were told through our hotel that Carnival had directed us to drop off our luggage as typical and at the luggage drop off we would be directed somewhere else. After calling Carnival, well over 20 times over the next 2 days (as I was instructed “We don't know anything, call us back in an hour”), I didn't hear the same thing consistently, so we did what all the other passengers seemed to be doing, and dropped off our luggage and then were directed to the Civic Center in Mobile. We were traveling with my parents and our two small children.

Even after the flashbacks of the Katrina people being shuttled into a civic center, we were pleased to see that Carnival seemed to be trying to handle a bad situation well. This was at 11:00 AM. After many hours and no updates, things didn't seem to be going well.

Then the official spokesman for Carnival got on stage (about 6 or 7PM) and said we weren't going to be sailing out and that Carnival would provide hotel rooms and transportation for us. We would just have to wait for an official list of hotels. He also said we could cancel our cruise for a full refund. After hearing that one out of the two ports would be canceled, and that the one port we arrived at would be shortened, we seriously considered this. Our children and parents (and ourselves) were not doing too well after being left in limbo for over 12 hours.

Then the spokesperson got on stage about 30 minutes later and said, “No, Carnival would not offer refunds, just a credit toward another cruise AND there would be no hotel room provided. If we waited around, we could get group rates that may drop the price 10 or 20%.” Well after people were yelling and shouting (oh and upset that they were told they could get their luggage, but then turned away by the police after getting a taxi or shuttle to the dock) and throwing things at your spokesperson, we saw the police presence WAS necessary. Our children saw a man get carried away in handcuffs and more yelling and screaming was going on.

Fearing for the safety of our family, we took our children and walked (as we had no car and no money left for another shuttle service) through the streets of Mobile and luckily found the hotel we stayed at the previous night. So instead of enjoying a cruise we paid an additional $40 for shuttle fees earlier in the day, $40 for dinner, $10 for breakfast, and $158.46 in hotel fees. We lost over 50% of our cruise (as we consider the ports the reason why we booked our cruise) and the one fabulous private excursion we booked in Calica.

Fortunately, the hotel was wonderful and allowed us to use their computer to cancel our excursion and hopefully he was able to rebook with other people. The less than $200 we are supposed to receive back from Carnival does little to make up for the misinformation that Carnival officially provided to us. We paid well over that amount to stay the extra night in Mobile. We suffered through a very difficult day in the Mobile Civic Center where we were given little information, and while did patiently wait for your spokesperson to update us – you then lied to your passengers and did not back up what your spokesperson said.

This is a true disappointment to us. We would love to begin a Carnival cruise each summer; however, if this is how you treat your passengers, I will never book another cruise again through Carnival. We were planning a “reunion type” cruise for our wedding and will not consider Carnival if this is the end result of our 12/09 cruise. Also, once on board, no one ever mentioned our previous day's challenges or even apologized.

We left Mobile late, even though the ship arrived earlier that typical. It was past 5:30 (not 4 as we were told) when we left Mobile. One worker told us it was because Carnival was trying to rebook the canceled cabins. If this was true, I do not feel it was appropriate to punish us even more. The rest of the cruise was difficult as you may know. Our “Fun Days at Sea” were confronted with two major cold fronts. On our return the pools and top decks were closed down and “sickness” bags were full and throughout the ship. That did not help seeing when you were already sick.

Luckily, the few hours on 12/16 that the slides were open (the only time by the way) my children went on them. The water was gray/green and we asked why and the attendant said it was because of something with the engines. My daughter did come out with a huge black grease stain on her suit. I would be happy to send you pictures of this water. Is this typical? It sure doesn't show that in your website pictures. Another cost for us to incur – a new swimsuit!!

What we would like is for Carnival to do as promised. We would like our hotel and meal to be repaid. We also incurred additional cost of shuttles back and forth between the hotel, dock, and civic center totaling $60 (or $40 additional as we would have paid $20 no matter what). We also feel we received less than 50% of our cruise because you canceled one port and shortened another. I wonder if we had left Mobile on time if we would have had additional time at Cozumel or even a stop at Calica. We have yet to receive our $199.02 back as promised, but we feel we should receive $498 (1/2 of our cruise), plus hotel and other expenses.

While we all understand that you were not in control of the weather, we do however expect you to stand by what your official spokesperson in Mobile said. You are/were considered a reputable cruise line and we will make sure we tell our friends, family, travel agent, and web review friends your response to this letter. On a positive note, most workers (most elderly) in Mobile were helpful with whatever they could help with. They were kind and understanding. We look forward to your response.

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Cruise From Hell
By -

MIAMI, FLORIDA -- I'm a single mother and my daughter goes off to college next year. I knew money would be tight then, trying to support her education and this would have to be the vacation to remember. So, I went all out on my credit card and booked a Carnival cruise for me, my son, and my daughter for August 2 through August 9. The second day of our Carnival cruise proved to be gut-wrenching, horrifying, humiliating and mentally and physically damaging for the three of us. The event on this day caused me to fall to my knees in anguish. I could only compare this day from hell second only to the day that I was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm 3 years ago.

On the second day of our Carnival cruise we docked in Nassau/Bahamas and the three of us went on a ship-sponsored shore excursion (interacting with dolphins). Afterward, we made our way back to the ship (I don't walk as fast as others, as I have advanced osteoporosis). When we got to the dock where our ship was, we noticed the ropes of the ship to the dock had been pulled and the ship was idling. We started to scream and wave to the ship personnel (recognized by their white uniforms) that we needed to get on board. These ship personnel started to laugh at us. With sheer horror we watched as the ship started to pull away without us.

We were hysterical and out of our minds. My anti-seizure medication as well as other important medication was on the ship, as well as our money, credit cards, laptop computer, cell phone, jewelry, clothing, etc. I fell to my knees as my body felt as though a huge vacuum sucked all the air out of me. We alerted dock personnel who assured us that a pilot boat would be sent for us and we would be able to board the ship. There was no pilot boat.

The hysteria started all over again. We had nothing! A woman who said she was an agent for Carnival brought us to her office and said there was nothing Carnival could do for us. Hysteria again. Finally my daughter called her aunt and was able to secure her aunt's credit card information so we could secure a hotel for the night. We got the hotel and my daughter spent at least 6 hours trying to arrange flights and another hotel so we could meet up the ship and retrieve our belongings. This was no easy task. The ship was to be at sea for two days and then dock at St. Thomas.

There were no direct flights from Nassau (where we were) to St. Thomas. After spending the night in the hotel in Nassau we boarded a plane for Miami (we are still in our bathing suits from the shore excursion because that was all we had to wear). During this time we had one meal at Mcdonald's in Nassau--my son found a small amount of money in his bathing suit pocket. From Miami we flew to St. Thomas (still in our bathing suits, no hairbrush, no toothbrush, deodorant, nothing!). I did contact the US Embassy in Nassau but they said they couldn't do anything for us and that Carnival told them that Carnival had booked and paid for our hotel in Nassau.

Carnival did nothing of the sort. Carnival did nothing for us at all. I might add that we were labeled VIP status by Carnival because we had taken several cruises on Carnival before. Ha! VIP my foot! We had to spend another night in a hotel in St. Thomas because the ship wasn't due to dock there until the following morning. I endured severe headaches for lack of my anti-seizure medication and my son was wracked with nightmares that we were going to be left behind again.

When we did finally board the ship in St. Thomas we would have loved to have gone directly home but we were already seriously in the red--almost $7000 for the cruise and almost $3000 to my children's aunt for the hotels and flights.

My son had found some money in his bathing suit pocket which was enough for us to eat at Mcdonald's in Nassau, but substantially that's all we had eaten in two days. When we got back on the ship in St. Thomas, many guests of the ship recognized us as the people that were left behind because they had witnessed the whole scenario from the December of the ship. One man who recognized us was at least 70 yrs old told us he saw the entire episode from the ship's deck, which leads me to believe that those ship personnel saw and heard our desperate cries for help.

When we got back to our room on the ship I asked the purser if we were going to be compensated at all for what had happened to us and they emphatically stated "no!" There ought to be laws to prevent this from ever happening to another human being (or animal for that matter). September came along with my son's 16th birthday. He was so anxiously awaiting birthday money for a down payment on a car. Did he get it? No.

I had to pay back the money I borrowed to sustain us through the nightmare in Nassau. Did my children get new clothing and shoes for the start of school the first week in September? No, I couldn't afford it - had to pay back the money I owed. Did we celebrate labor day weekend? We had sandwiches. Did I get two new tires that I desperately needed on my vehicle so I could travel the highway safely to get back and forth to work? No - I had to pay back the money I owed.

We have memories alright, nightmares are more like it. I have written to Better Business, the Attorney General of NY, and consumer complaints among others. Did I get a dime back from Carnival? No. They claim they have no control over their ships.

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Carnival Cruise Line
3655 NW 87th Ave.
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