Carnival cruise lines is terrible! Don't go!
Several months ago, we were booked to sail out on Oct. 25th 2007 on the Ecstasy out of Galveston on a four day cruise. We were due to begin boarding at 11:00 AM, but due to a weather delay during the prior sailing we did not even get on the ship until around midnight (12:00 PM) and did not sail until the wee hours of the morning of the 26th. We lost our entire first day on board.
We totally understand about bad weather... This being our third cruise. However, Carnival gave everyone $100 each ship board credit to make up for the lost first day. Nice, especially for people that only paid $400 or so for their entire fare... As that is about 1/4 of the total fare and is exactly the amount of the trip that was lost. But... For those of us that purchased the best accommodations at $250 each per day... That was not much comfort. My husband and I together paid $500 for each day... including the first... And only got $200 back in credits. That means that WE JUST DONATED $300 OF OUR HARD EARNED MONEY TO CARNIVAL CRUISE LINES FOR A DAY THAT WE WERE NOT EVEN ON THE SHIP!
Several times during the trip I complained to the pursers office about the situation, but was just told Sorry, there is nothing I can do. I called customer service when we got back and was told basically that I was just "shot out of luck" because they could not do anything to help me. And they said if I wrote a letter to some official it would just end up back at customer service and I still wouldn't get any help.
Ignoring that advice, I did write a very nice informative letter expressing my unhappiness and... Guess what? Customer Service was absolutely correct! I did however get a nice, placating response from the assistant to the president to which I wrote. She said that she would see that my letter was brought to the attention of people that could address my concerns. After a while I got another letter stating that there would be no refund. At that point I posted this letter on a cruise travel web site review. After that posting I got another letter from the same person who seemed to be more miffed that I referred to her prior response as placating than in defusing the situation with me... Her angry customer! (What ever happened to customer service?) All communications were rather curt and... We certainly never got a fair refund!
of course... We probably signed away all our rights in order to go on this cruise. You either sign all that stuff or you don't go! But that still doesn't make it ok to rip customers off! Right is right and these people don't have a clue as to what that means! Perhaps I should take them to small claims court.
I was so upset about this cruise that after my unproductive complaints to management... I tried to just forget about it. But even now... When I think back on how we were treated... It is still quite upsetting. So, I think I need to do my best to let as many people as possible know how Carnival takes advantage of its customers. Do not think that just because you purchase a penthouse suite... You will be treated fairly. That very fact worked against us!
And, to add insult to injury... The food was absolutely terrible and in scant supply apparently! You could sit at a dining room table for two hours and still leave hungry. Room service was the only decent food on the ship... Believe it or not. Also, upon embarkation we all had to sit on the floor in the "VIP Waiting Area" as there were no chairs... A precursor of things to come apparently. Then, upon debarkation, we were herded like cattle... Marooned in the area in front of the elevators with no air conditioning and no open doors for over thirty minutes! There were so many people in that little area that you could hardly breathe, couldn't move and... Every time the elevator doors opened more people and their luggage would unload to stand there with us! It was unorganized and very dangerous!
On the other hand... I will say that our penthouse suite and room steward were great!
After reading many, many other complaints about Carnival on several web sites... I realize that this company routinely rips off its customers... One way or another. It must be in their business plan! Let me say it again... DON'T SAIL ON CARNIVAL!!!
Madtexaslady
Trinity, Texas
U.S.A.
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