General Carnival Feedback

Screwed by Carnival Again and Again and Again..............

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:03:20 GMT

Carnival Cruise Lines is the worst Crusie Line we have ever dealt with. They have taken advantage of their customers for too long. Their travel agent Anwar made a mistake booking part of our cruise and even though it was their mistake they will not refund our $500. Now we have found that we need to change our cruise to February and they told us that they once again will keep another $500 of our money. They are happy to make the change but, we will have to pay them to provide Customer Service.

Let's talk about their Customer Service. The lady I spoke with today, Sallie, was excellent. I could not have asked to speak with anyone nicer. I feel extremely sorry for the Customer Service Reps at Carnival because their hands are tied. It is the Upper Management who are only thinking about their bottom line and not the satisfaction of their Customers. If Caarnival was the type of company that they used to be when we began cruising with them in 1988 we would not be having the issue we are having now.

Please let me tell anyone who reads this forum that they "DO NOT" want to travel with Carnival. The are many other Cruise Lines to chose from and actually believe it or not they will work with the Customer to help make sure they are satisfied or at least come to an agreement. Agian I will say this about Carnival, if you want good Customer Service "DO NOT" use Carnival.

George and Marie Howell

carnival vacation club

no quitters — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:41:29 GMT

We have received no help at all on how to deal with broken promises made when we joined carnival vacation club...anybody else had that problem??? Although we thoroughly enoyed all of our carnival cruises and even paid for cruises for our sons and their wives...but paying almost $8,000 to join this club aboard the conquest in february 2005 was a big mistake!

GUEST SERVICES VALOR 11/08/09 SAILING

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:55:06 GMT

Me, 3 daughters and my sister were on the Valor 11/08/09. 2 days into the cruise we received word my mother-in-law had passed away. Guest Services were great. They helped us with finding airline, offered us unlimited use of thier phone to call home. We were able to get 5 seats on a plane out of Belize. They took our passports and had us cleared through customs on the ship. Had all of our luggage brought down to tender area and loaded onto tender. A Carnival Rep met us at the dock in Belize, arranged for help with our luggage, took us to customs at the dock and had transportation waiting for us to the airport. They helped make a very devastating situation easier for us and helped get us home in time for the wake and funeral.

Dengue Fever

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:47:19 GMT

me and my husband just got back from Carnival Holiday...we went to the yukatan and cozumel mexico on october 24th and my husband got dengue fever from a mosquito bite at the mayan ruins. It is the most God awful feelling in the world! Please let everyone know about the Outbreak with mosquitos so they will wear mosquito repellant. He is suffering and most hospitals are not particularly aware of this virus.

Pictures

Lisa — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:23:20 GMT

I hope Carnival really reads this. I have suggestion for the photos. The price is sooo high on the pictures, especially the ones taken on formal night that you can't you buy as many as you would like to buy. Instead of printing so many photos ahead of time, is there some way you could offer a package deal? You could sell the package ahead of time for x amount of pictures. Have the pictures uploaded to a channel on the TV or kiosk's and let everyone pick the ones they want then print them. I would like to see lower prices on the pictures and less wasted paper. My daughter and I just got back from a cruise on the Ecstacy and I wanted a lot more of the pictures than I was able to purchase. If you can come up with anyway to make this more affordable I would really appreciate it. To me, that is the worst part of the cruise. Wanting so many more of the beautiful pictures and not being able to get them all. Thanks, Lisa

Freedom October 2009 Cruise

FLBowler — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:38:31 GMT

Over the last seven years I have taken six cruises with Carnival Cruise Lines ranging in duration from five to eight days. I have always been extremely satisfied with the level of service, food and entertainment provided. That is until my latest cruise on the Freedom in October of 2009. While the service by the majority of the staff was still excellent there were several areas that could stand improvement.

First was the level of service in the dining room. Although our dinner started at 8:15 we found ourselves finishing dinner well after 10:00. Several nights our table was the last one out of the dining room. Unfortunately, dinner was the only time when our entire group was able to get together therefore we felt obligated to go and basically be held hostage by the poor service.

Secondly, in addition to the lack of service we found that the food not quite as good as on past trips. The choices were limited and in some cases the posted menu was not the same as the menu we were given while dining. Specifically, on one of the nights NY Strip Steak was on the posted menu but when we asked about it we were told that there was a substitution and were served roast beef instead. It seems that Carnival has lowered the quality of the food in order to “reward” passengers willing to pay extra money for a better quality of food.

Lastly, our itinerary included the ports of Limon, Costa Rica and Colon, Panama. The afternoon prior to our arrival in Limon several announcements were made by the staff advising passengers that they needed to ensure that they booked excursions through the ship that evening. The reason that they gave was that there would be no activities or excursions available at all at the ports. While I understand that Carnival receives monetary incentives for excursions booked though them I believe it was improper for the staff to falsely mislead passengers into purchasing through them. Some people simply enjoy shopping and both ports offered plenty of shopping in and around the port. As stated earlier, I have been on previous Carnival Cruises and these ports were far more developed than Calica and Costa Maya Mexico and Belize City. This was simply a way for Carnival Cruise lines to try to make extra money from the passengers.

fraud by carnivals agencies is allowed

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:01:30 GMT

go to virtuso ads and see if you can discern they are not part of Carnival

whiteglovescruise llc is the new name everytime they get in trouble they change their name, but go to their ads and it appears they are Carnivals agency, Carnival then dodges responsibility saying they are not responsible for any agency but theirs

Carnvial won,t even give sea miles to us for a 10,000 loss because Virtuoso didnt notify us of Carnivals letter that a visa for brazil was required for the jan 31, 51 day cruise

ehayford@aol.com

VIP Embarkation in Galveston on Ecstasy

GOOD-BUCK — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:04:55 GMT

We are suppose to have VIP Embarkation - Debarkation & have had it in Miami & Long Beach. In Galveston we did have to stand in a long line to get through security before we got to the Carnival line (at the other ports, it seems like we got our paperwork first, then security). On debarkation we got our #1 luggage tags, but all the self assist people got off before anyone with luggage pick up to unload, then it was group 1-8. We then had to stand in line about 45 min. to get through customs. There was so many self assist it looked like a cattle call.

I was just wondering if we did something wrong, or should have been waiting somewhere special? The loading & unloading was the only perk we got from the Carnival Vacation Club that was worth anything,. Is Platinum the same way?. Also there were several groups picking up luggage from the 17 & 19 area at the same time we were unloading, is that normal or just some people not following the rules?

Carnival Cruise lines

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:48:34 GMT

We were denied passage on jan 31 of this year due to not having a brazilian visa

Carnival notified in writintheir Partner The vIRTUSO AGENCY

TO NOTIFY US , THEY NEVER DID THUS WE LOST 10,000

SO WE SAID OK , HOW ABOT LETTING HAVE CRUISE CREDITS FOR WHEN YOU HAVE AN OPEN ROOM AND WE WILL DO THAT TRAVEL,

ANSWER FROM GERRY CAHILLS OFFICE NO WAY, NO REFUND , NO SEAMILES

NOW WE PRESENTED THAT WE ARE IN OUR EARLY 60,S AND WOULD BE TAKING TRIPS ON CRUISE FOR THE NEXT 2O YEARS

WHAT KIND OF ORGANIZATION TAKES 10,000 AND PROVIDES NOTHING IN RETURN

CARINVAL CRUISE LINES DOES

Puerto Rico -- things that are losing you business & hurting your reputation

Tony — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:01:33 GMT

We've been on only two cruises, both with Carnival, one last year and one this year, and other than very minor annoyances have had the time of our lives. I was already dreaming of and therefore planning our next cruise. There's one I just crossed off my list and you ought to know why, because that means you just lost fares for 4-5 people. Not a lot by itself, but I am sure I'm not alone.

Initially I was excited at the possibility of going on a Southern Caribbean through Puerto Rico with an extra day or two in port. An island a day with no sea days, what could be better? THEN I went to CruiseCritic.com to start researching others' experiences with the same cruise.

Over and over I saw postings that, in summary, said that Carnival loads up all their ships at the last minute with locals at deep discounts, and in this case that means tons of Puerto Ricans who are rude and obnoxious 24/7 -- if it were just a couple posts I'd write it off, but there's a whole trail out there saying the same thing. Unsupervised rude kids running around all night LOUDLY, parents who don't care what their kids are doing right in front of them, throwing water balloons, monopolizing public areas, yelling "PUERTO RICO" through the whole cruise, pushing and shoving others out of the way to be first in line, pushing people out of the way to get on elevators, stealing everything that isn't nailed down and will fit into a beach bag. I missed a few examples there but you get the idea. Does this mean that all Puerto Ricans behave this way? Of course not, but there are an awful lot of people who DO behave this way who happen to live in and get on your ships in Puerto Rico. Honestly, saw a few folks like this on our last cruise out of Miami and you have to wonder if there's a connection (last minute, cheap, let's take the whole family...).

Now -- Carnival's website has a lot of information on it that answers questions people may have about rules, etiquette, and what to expect other than a wonderful fun week.

Might I suggest when you sell passage to folks in local ports, especially ones where you know their behavior once they get on board is a problem, that you include a prominent flyer or some other documentation outlining expectations of behavior and if you have the legal ability to do so inform these folks that they run the risk of being ejected from the boat with no refund if they can't behave themselves. Then follow through on it.

If the posts on CruiseCritic are honest, you're probably losing more money than you're making on these folks anyway between the people who don't book a cruise with you because of the feedback, the money you lose through thefts, and the people who won't go BACK to Carnival because they had a bad experience.

So why don't I pick another Carnival Cruise with better feedback? Because we did Western Caribbean twice, we're not interested in Bahamas or Eastern Caribbean, and we WANTED this Southern Caribbean cruise because of all the different islands you can see.

As a result, this year -- We're going to Orlando, booking a 3 bedroom condo (since there'll be at least 5 of us), hitting Universal/Sea World/Busch Gardens instead of doing a cruise.

Just thought you ought to know -- I'm sure for every person who posts there are several others in identical situations.

Anyone else have problems with Carnival's Seamiles credit card?

Anonymous — Sat, 30 May 2009 15:22:10 GMT

While on a recent cruise, our fourth with Carnival, they were having this promotion to sign up for their Seamiles credit card where you could earn all these double miles on that cruise purchase, low interest, and actually 0% interest on all balance transfers made within the first 30 days. Sounded great..until we actually applied. They convinced us to apply for separate cards as we'd each get 5,000 bonus miles with our first purchase. So we did..well we were told we were approved for 7500 credit line and what we ended up with when we got home was...1,000 for my husband (this cracks me up..we have never had that low of a credit line) and not to brag but we own a multimillon commercial property and he got 1,000. Even at that, he would NEVER be able to earn enough miles for anything as the minimum to even get a discount on a short 3-day cruise is 10,000 seamiles. I actually had $4,500 on my credit line, which was not worth it in the end because the minute we got home the phone calls started. Obviously, a foreign call center wanting us to buy credit protection for our cards and they called nonstop. I'm sorry but if we lose our jobs (which we do not have, we have property investments) or get sick..I think we can handle making the payments on that whopping 1,000 limit card. I was so sick of the calls that I finally called them and told them to stop and informed Carnival of the situation to which they never responded. I was told by someone that when you complain to Carnival about the credit card they only tell you that they have nothing to do with the bank. I'M SORRY..then STOP promoting this crappy bank card on your cruises then. Oh, the final straw..when we got home we paid off the card as we had put our cruise on it for our first purchase to get miles. We made the payment but then they held that, holding up our credit line for 10 days. I dont know about you, but in this day and age with electronic banking, I know it doesnt take 10 days to clear my bank. Anyway, once our card was clear, we did a balance transfer to take advantage of 0% for six months. Well, big shock..first month we were charged interest AND that low interest rate we were told we'd get for applying..15.24%. The highest on any card we have or have ever had. I immediately called and told them we signed up for the promotion of 0% and it was within the 30 days. Guess what I was told..Prove it.. Basically, they want me to prove I had gotten this promotion on the friggin cruise ship!!! Not happy and I do not know what to do other than we are paying it off and closing the accounts. I am very disappointed in that Carnival promotes this credit card as it is the worst bank EVER. I will never buy into anything again on Carnival and may cancel our cruise we have booked next. They "sell" it but wont back what they are selling AT ALL..Thanks for letting me vent. When I did an internet search, I found a lot of others who has undergone the same treatment, which is a shame because we love Carnival cruises but it makes you re-think their associations and how they handle how their customers are treated by something they pump people up to sign up for.

Sign and Sail Card SUCKS!

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:33:24 GMT

I am very disappointed in the lack of communication when it comes to the sail and sign card. I was told that I would have a hold put on but I was NEVER told it would be the same amount of what I spent. My total bill was 394.67 and carnival took out 808.34; double of what I spent. When I called the lady told me to NEVER use a debit card.. Well hello... in today's economy I would much rather use the cash I have then to charge it on my credit card. To make matters even worse I cancelled all my credit cards to help me get out of debt so even if I wanted to use one I wouldn't of been able to. Carnival reps told me it would take up to 72 hours to get my money back into my account. I think this is deceiving to customers when things are not explained throughly. So now I am out an extra 400 until carnival puts my money back into my acoount. Then if the money doesn't go back in the next 72 hours I have to call back and then who knows how much longer that will take..

Hurricane in Gulf

mikey — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:21:27 GMT

What is the damage to my cruise over Thanksgiving week in Cozumel, Belize, etc.

Ships in Port

Head Girlfriend — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:03:12 GMT

How do I find out how many ships will be in port when my ship is? We will be in Nassau on Dec Dec 8 and I am wondering how crowded it will be? Thanks.

Don't bother with Carnival Holiday - It's broke and Carnival will SCREW you over

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 01:16:19 GMT

FYI, The Carnival Holiday is only half operational. Propulstion problems over the past few weeks are keeping the boat from making the normal stops. You'll only find this out when you arrive at the port. Carnival will call you a few days in advance and try to sell you an upgraded cabin but they will not mention that your itenary will be changing. Once you arrive, what options do you have? I tried calling guest relations and was treated with total disrepect. Take my advice CANCEL YOUR TRIP NOW before its too late.

Stop going to Progresso

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:32:39 GMT

I went on Carnival Ecstasy 3 years ago. We were supposed to go to Calicia but had to go to Progresso instead. It was alright, just not a lot to do, We went on the same cruise last week, and Progresso was terrible. The water is dirty and full of seaweed. You can't relax or pla with your kids because vendors keep coming up to you. I would not recomend this cruise to anyone.

Early Saver vs. Fun Saver

Smswircz — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:22:57 GMT

Hello...

I am looking into a 5 day cruise in Sept 2010 for 4 people (2 rooms)...I understand pretty much all the workings with the price guarentees, etc.

Can anyone tell me the ACTUAL amount of the non-reimburseable deposit for the Early Saver rate pe stateroom or per person?

On the Fun Saver rate - is there a deposit for that?

Thanks,

Stacy

Webcams on ships

Catradho — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:21:46 GMT

Is it possible to make sure the webcams are working properly? We're sailing on the Liberty in a few weeks and have friends and family who would like to "follow along" via the webcam. This ship's webcam needs to be serviced so it can do what it's supposed to do. Carnival, please help!

Thanks very much.

Infant Rates

averejc — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:17:36 GMT

My entire family has booked a Thanksgiving cruise on the Fantasy this November. This includes my Brother, Sister-In-Law and newphew. My nephew will be 11 months old in November and still had to pay the full 3rd person rate. Keep in mind that he will not eat any food on board, does not need a bed, and won't be participating in any activities. Exactly what is Carnival charging him for? I would think Carnival could allow infants who are staying with 2 full fare guests to sail for free or say $100 at most.

Great Cruise Experience

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:28:06 GMT

My husband and I just got back from a Cruise on the Carnival Legend and just want to tell everyone what a great time we had. This was our first cruise and definately will not be our last. Everything from our stateroom to the friendly staff and delicious food really made this a wonderful experience. Our cruise director was John Heald and if you ever get a chance to go on a cruise on which he's the director you will not be disappointed. His shows were hilarious and his personality was the best.

Not only was our onboard experience great, but all of the excursions we booked through the ship were great as well. In Cozumel we did the ATV tour and our guides Jamie, Rocky and Jesus were energetic, fun and extremely knowledgable. They have trails for everyone from the experienced rider to the beginner. If you are a beginner, you will be on the easier trails and the guides will help you out and put you at ease so you can enjoy the experience. My husband and I went with the experienced group and we were not disappointed. We found our trails to be uniquely challenging as well as beautiful.

In Belize we did the Xunantunich ruins and again our guides Elisa and Jake were top notch. Yes, its a long 2 hour bus ride, but the scenery is beautiful and our guides told us alot about the culture of Belize. As far as the ruins go, they were absolutely unbelieveable, words cannot describe it.. Our guides taught us about the history and signifigance of the site and helped us on the long climb up. The lunch provided on the tour was great as well, the scenery was amazing and the people were wonderful!

Now that we are home, we are starting to plan our next cruise and definately intend to stick with Carnival. We had a wonderful time and look forward to the next one.

Outstanding Personal Vacation Planner

Joe_Keller — Sat, 17 May 2008 06:12:10 GMT

Our ship does not sail until 30 Sept and our Personal Vacation Planner Laura Hall has been outstanding. She returns our calls, she is very cheerfull and helpful. This is our first cruise and she has really done an outstanding job with informing us. I'm sure she keeps people coming back as this cruise was booked with her because the party who used her on their last cruise recommended her. You have a good one there. Thank you Laura !!! She also informed us of Veterans benifits, which helped out.

She can be reached @ Lhall@carnivalpvp.com 1800-810-3902 Ext# 85473

Excellent Service - Thanks Carnival!

DanOji — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:20:04 GMT

My husband and I experienced our first cruise in January 2009 aboard the Carnival Legend. Carnival did a fabulous job selling the product (our PVP was great!), and delivered an excellent experience. The highlight of our cruise was the notably competant and personal service of our table service staff and stateroom attendant. Suci, Jayson, Senvil, Inkay and Leger are some of your best assets on the Legent team!

As this was our first cruise, we chose to explore other options for our following holiday in June 2009. It was a mistake. Although RCCL offers some amenities/activities that Carnival does not, they lacked in professional dining room and guest services.

Carnival, the professional dining room service (china dishes, high food quality and well-informed servers) and guest satisfaction services (turn-down, opinion surveys, personal contact with stateroom attendants, etc) offered aboard your ships does make the difference!

We are very happy to be returning to Carnival for our next vacation in August. We hope that the Freedom crew is as talented as the Legend crew who we loved dearly.

Keep up the great work!

Phone Number

Anonymous — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:30:06 GMT

When I try to Carnival (1-888-CARNIVAL)... I get a "this is not a valid phone number" message.

Is Carnival aware of this???

Disappointed Canival Supporter

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:03:33 GMT

We just returned from a three day cruise on the Paradise. While the food was up to Carnival standards the service both in the buffet and the dining room was noticebly absent.

First the buffet - We had to bus our own tables on several occasions. The staff seemed to care less about cleaning tables but rather often stood around the area where the dirty dishes go talking to each other and not paying attention to what was going on around them. We actually sat next to a table that was left with dirty dishes at least 30 minutes with your staff walking by it dozens of times. We were with another couple and this became a joke during the entire three days (not a good joke) This was our 14th cruise on Carnival and while we have experienced lines at the buffet we have never seen at breakfast, lines this long. There had to be both mornings at least 50-60 people in line to get their food at each station. While this may be acceptable to you, it was not to us. It took 12-15 minutes each morning just to get our food and god help you if you wanted an omlet (which we skipped) as that line was even longer! Finally for the first time I noticed that the buffet staff seemed not to smile and were not (for the most part) friendly at all.

Dining Room - We all felt a huge difference in the service and attitude of the staff as "Anytime Diners". Service was slow and again a noticable difference in the attitude of the wait staff. We all agreed that we almost felt like second class citizens versus those who had scheduled dining times. There was no real desire to make us feel welcome or special. This is something that Carnival did very well previously. I will most likely will revert back to scheduled dining as this was not a good experience. As far as cocktail service was concerened it was non-existent. On neither Friday or Saturday night were we ever asked whether we wanted a drink and when we asked for a cocktail waiter it took 15 minutes to get one. Not good at all! Finally we found the same non-bussing of tables issue in the dining room. With passengers in the Anytime Dining area leaving at different times on both nights we were left sitting next to a table with dirty dishes for very long periods of time. The second night we actually had to ask to have the dishes removed.

Having 14 cruises with Carnival indicates I am a supporter of your company. I will tell you that our shipmates have been on both RCL and Princess and felt while the food was just as good on Carnival that the service was poor compared to those lines.

Just some "food" for thought.

Maitre'd on the Spirit

4bolts — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:27:45 GMT

I just wanted to say Thank you to the Maitre'd on the 10/10 spirit sailing for the bottle of sparking champagne he sent to our room and for allowing us a bottle of Kendal Jackson Reserve as one of our premium bottles of wine.

We had a bit of a problem with room service 3 days in a row. I never complained except to the woman I called to find out where the food was. Seems she mentioned it to the Maitre'd and he came to our dinner table to inquire about the problems. He told us he didn't want our cruise ruined by our experience with room service and I told him that only we could ruin our cruise and that wasn't going to happen over something like that. It was very different having someone apologize and then running into them 3 times the next day with him asking if everything was okay.

diane