I wrote this FINAL letter on August 3 to Ms. Lynn C. Torrent (Senior Vice President of Sales & Guest Services) and received their standard "sorry but nothing we can do about it" reply in yesterday's mail.
Dear Ms. Torrent:
As I prepare to take my third cruise with Carnival, I feel I must once again put my feelings on paper this is my sixth contact with Carnival (past correspondence has all been with Guest Relations but to no avail and my last contact was directly with the Customer Service/Pursers desk during our last cruise in March. After waiting for more than a month after returning from that cruise for a letter, I wrote to Carnival Guest Relations again and NEVER received a letter in return.
Ill keep this short...
1st Experience: Mexican Riviera Cruise Carnival Elation June 29-July 6 [reference deleted])
My family and I took the horseback riding tour in Puerto Vallarta on July 2 and purchased the video. We gave the videographer $40 and he came back to us during the bus ride to tell us he didnt have change but assured us that our change of $15 and video would be delivered early evening to our Cabin 79R on the Carnival Elation. The video and money was never delivered to us. We contacted the ships Customer Service and were told that we were not the only ones this happened to but that the tape would be mailed directly to our home. A very, very low quality tape was received WE NEVER RECEIVED OUR $15 in change and were only told by your Guest Relations Department that... These tours are independently operated, Tour Video would be in the best position to address your concerns. Of course, Tour Video cared as much as Carnival and I still havent gotten the $15.
2nd Experience: Mediterranean and Greek Isles Cruise March 13-27 [reference deleted]) Our flight arrived in Rome at 2:40 PM. As you can imagine, after flying cross-country from California, we were eager to get on board, shower and relax before dinner and were confident that our transfers with Carnival would get us on board quickly. We were wrong! We sat on the bus w/engine offno airtold we COULD NOT EXIT BUS for over two hours!!! Waiting for two other families. Our ship was scheduled to sail at 6PM Of course, we arrived after 6PM We literally boarded and they closed the planks after us. This is certainly not the way anyone wants to start their vacation especially an anniversary celebration. Even the photographer was absent for our embarkation photo. 2) After hearing Senior Cruise Director John Heald talk about the Vatican & Highlights Tour scheduled for March 25, we signed up. We had made arrangements with two other Carnival guests that we met on the cruise for a private tour which we canceled after hearing John go on and on about this tour stating that the Vatican is closed on Sundays but they are opening it just for us. We paid for and were promised that we would not wait in line at the vatican we waited 2 hours in line. Please see the signed petition I left with your Customer Service/Pursers desk and NEVER received any letter. This petition has been signed by 28 Guests and states that John lied to us and we feel mislead No warning at all that we would wait so long in the cold rain. We were also told that you could not get into the Vatican today unless we were on a tour. Not only could you get in, it was FREE! So the lines were even longer. John said that only Carnival Cruise with special permission could get into Vatican, anyone can get in no special arrangements necessary FALSE ADVERTISEMENT.
Carnival should not be able to conspire to defraud their guests this way. As I mentioned, I was not the only guest this happened to as evidenced by the attached petition signed by 28 guests.
Carnival Cruise Lines needs to know that it is not ok to conspire with their tour operators to scam their customers. Cruise customers should be able to buy shore excursions through the ship with confidence! Our table mates during our Mediterranean and Greek Isles Cruise never booked an excursion through Carnival they ventured out on their own, always got a great deal and saw a lot more than we did. We didnt follow in their footsteps because our cruise director basically stated that theyre unreliable and not trustworthy. Hmmmm... Sounds like Carnival to me. I could have gotten the same excursion on the pier independent of Carnival for a lot less; my husband and I chose to go with Carnival thinking we were paying for the piece of mind that if something went wrong, that Carnival would have our back... Not. They dont even acknowledge our letters.
You may be asking yourself if they are so dissatisfied, why are they booking with Carnival again? Well, obviously, I had planned on sending this letter out before booking our third Carnival cruise but that didnt happen. Im hoping the adage third times the charm comes true on this one. We are currently booked on your Alaskan Southbound Cruise for August 26 ([reference deleted]). We did make the decision to not book our transfers directly with Carnival this time around just dont want to be sitting on a bus waiting for 2-4 people for over two hours.
Well, I said I was going to keep this shortthat didnt happen. Rest assured that this will be my last contact with Carnival. Im hoping that after reading this, you will agree that we are entitled to some restitution and not Carnivals standard reply stating that you have shared my letter with the department administrators. [Contact details deleted]
Sincerely yours, Attachment: 1 Page Signed Petition
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