We (my wife and I) booked a Western Caribbean cruise directly with Carnival Cruise Lines. The total vacation cost was slightly more than $1500.00. With our excursions and on board purchases our total outlay was over $2300.00. Customer service was non-existent on this cruise with failures to delivery advertised service experienced almost daily.
On December 9th the embarkation day we stood in line for over 5 hours waiting to board. We saw no Carnival staff during that time, there were inadequate explanations for the delays. Carnival did provide us on board credit of $30.00 for the delay. We did not depart that day as scheduled and did not depart until after 1:00 P.M. The next day. The excuse given was fog, but other commercial ships entered and departed the Port of Galveston while we were waiting to leave.
Because of this delay, Carnival canceled our first port-of-call, Jamaica. A $75 dollar/per person on board credit was provided for this change to the itinerary. Two days into our cruise Carnival canceled the second port-of-call, Grand Cayman, because of Tropical Depression Olga a storm that did not hit Grand Cayman. So we spent our forth day at sea sailing to Cozumel. After leaving Cozumel Carnival announced wed be stopping on the sixth day of the cruise in Progresso. This stop was supposed to be a substitute for Grand Cayman what a joke. Progresso was a dump nothing to see or do, just a poor excuse for a port-of-call to allow Carnival the option of not reimbursing us for another missed port.
Aside from the fact that we only visit one of the three ports-of-call promised, the customer service on this ship was non-existent. The staff was surly, rude and indifferent to the fact that our vacation had been ruined. When calling for in-stateroom repairs we were met with excuses and reasons why they would not fix problems such as AC outages and burned out light bulbs. House cleaning was shoddy food and debris could stay on hallway floors for several days. You could not find a place on the ship that it didnt smell of tobacco. House cleaning never cleaned the balcony we found vomit and cigarette buts from the upper decks on our balcony daily and requests to clean that area were ignored.
Entertainment was marginal, almost moronic. But it was provided. Activities included hairy chest contest and equally sophomoric high school like activities.
The one high point was the food and service at the fine-dining rooms this was near perfection.
At the end of our cruise we were literally kicked out of our stateroom before our floor had been call to disembark. We were literally told get out; we have to clean for the next cruise. When we asked where we were suppose to go the answer was I dont care, just get out.
Our complaint in a nutshell is this: We were told lies daily about port-of-call changes and we were not given fair opportunities to disembark at the beginning of this cruise. When we asked about Carnivals guarantee, we were told that we could disembark at Cozumel, that airfare from there to Huston would be provided (our car was at the Port of Galveston), and that they could not guarantee when we would fly out of Cozumel so our hotel length of stay and costs would be our responsibility. And finally, the pitiful compensation for this seven day cruise to nowhere was totally inadequate, a total of $180 for two missed ports-of-call and standing in line for 5 hours to initially embark.
We felt like we were on a dirty prison ship, not knowing what disaster would occur next. Never in our adult vacation experiences have we been treated so poorly
0 comments