Complaint Review: Carnival Cruise Line

You booked (and paid for) an inside cabin.

You got an inside cabin (hence, what you paid for).

Where is the rip off?

It's certainly not your travel agent or Carnival's fault that you ended up with an inside cabin. you booked an inside guarantee and you got an inside cabin. that's what you were guaranteed.

Now, the fact that you should not have been on a Carnival ship could be your travel agent's fault because it seems that she did not qualify you to the correct product. However, if you picked the ship and the accommodations then you are the only one to blame for your experience. You Sir, seem to have champagne taste on a beer budget. that's not an insult, I do too.

F.Y.I. 99% of the time a cabin number will be assigned prior to documents being issued.

When you book a cruise on a "guarantee", you are usually getting a slightly reduced rate, in exchange for be willing to take whatever cabin they give you. In the case of Carnival, if you booked an Inside "Guarantee" you are guaranteed to receive a Category 4A "or better". If you booked an Oceanview "guarantee" you are guaranteed a Category 6A "or better". The person filing the ripoff report seemed to be upset because somebody else got a better cabin than they did. Again, with a guarantee, you are willing to take what they give you, in exchange for a slightly reduced price. If somebody got a better cabin than you, it is not a "rip-off".

I took several cruises in the 1970's. You took transatlantic ships on the major lines - Holland America, Cunard, French Line, Italian Line, etc. You got the same service throughout the ship on your short cruise that First Class passengers got transatlantic. The waiters spoke English, too.

Taking a plane? Back before deregulation they had coach lounges in wide bodies. You got a meal and there were all sorts of advertising gimmicks to encourage you to fly one airline in coach over another -first class seating in coach, steak flights, etc. etc.

This is all gone. The only difference between air coach and a bus is that legroom is better on the bus and the airline is faster. Cruise lines are mass transit -get em on, give em something to eat and get em off.

Carnival is a budget cruise line. If you want service book Crystal or Seabourne at thousands of dollars per day. If you want service , legroom, and food on a plane book first class. The reason that people are dinappointed or mad when they get aboard is cruise line advertising. The "Love Boat" is dead but you would never know it when you look at a cruise ship brochure. I've given up on cruises.

I fly Southwest or Hawaiian (which still serves a meal in coach ) and I go to a location, rent a car, and stay at a hotel or condo. It is much cheaper than an upscale cruise line and I don't travel with 2500 people. The old days are gone forever. Service is a bygone unless you pay a stiff premium for it.

This report on Carnival is typical of many others. Frankly the complainer is expecting more than he is paying for. He should but times have changed.

In an effort of full disclosure, I work for a cruise ship. Not Carnival, but another, higher end ship. I am a waiter. I work in our fine dining restaurant. My assistant waiter used to work on Carnival, so I consulted on this issue you were having. Here is my feedback

#1 Room Service should never be ordered on the first day right when you get on. Guess what they are doing? Getting luggage on board. Same as on my ship. Sure, 30 minutes is a long time to wait while calling, but to complain about 25minute wait for food? Ok, when you order here is what happens. They write it down, call the kitchen. The kitchen prepares the food, calls room service. Room service goes to the other side of the ship and up several floors and and then takes it to you. That can take upwards of an hour depending on when, and what, you order.

#2 The lights would have irritated me too. Was it too dark to see? Did you call Reception? Did you notify your room steward? (not the one in the hallway, YOUR room steard) Did you call for maintenance? Anything?

#3 Your waiter should not have "passed the buck" He should have apologized for the wait, and maybe offered a drink. But don't be mad at him because it was taking a long time. I promise, it REALLY WAS the kitchen's (galley's) fault. More than likely, the restaurant was full (just because all the tables aren't full does not mean it is not packed...this can be deceptive, trust me) and the Galley was busy.

#4 Ok, I know you are mad about the alarm. That is fine. Not a huge issue. Definately not a rip off. But irritating. The announcement? gee why don't they make one in the a.m.? Because some people are sleeping. You should have simply left your room.

#5 The Coffee cup. Ok, this is a personal issue for me. So here goes. My restaurant served soft serve ice cream. We used cloth napkins (fine dining, remember?). Not one table would order ice cream without asking for paper napkins. My response. We don't have them. (the bar has them, we don't and NO i will not give you any). Why don't we have them? A few reasons: too much waste, not enviro friendly, tacky tacky tacky, they WILL get left all over the ship. You could have ordered room service, you could have taken one of the plastic or ceramic cups to your room, you could have gone to the coffee bar. Maybe the coffee person was rude, ok, but come on! Just because other ships don't give a darn about the enviroment, doesn't mean you should be mad at those that do.

Oh and to those who don't understand our "waste" process. All of that "paper" gets burned. Right on the ship. Which means smoke. The more paper, the more smoke. We try to eliminate it.

#5 You got what you paid for. A cheap, inside stateroom. On my ship, there are almost no inside rooms. 95%+ have a balconey. And let me tell you, I CAN TELL who has an inside room. It isn't the guy that paid $35,000 for a week of his room (no joke) that chews me out for not having the right napkins, it is the family of 4 that squeeze into a two person inside stateroom down on deck 4.

Look, give up on Carnival. They are not luxury, by any means. They serve their purpose. Some people are just too demanding.

Oh and the tipping issue. I hope you know your waiter probably makes less than $50 a day in wages. On Carnival it is probably closer to $20. Shame on you for complaining about his tips. Luckily, my wages are not tip based. His are. Whether the service was fabulous or mediocre, do not punish him because you disapprove of his management.

Oh, and the boat drill caught NO ONE by suprise. That was just bad management. And everything should have been closed. No need to plan for it.

I used to work on Cruise Ships and now I Cruise for the enjoyment and love of the water. I write this out of the goodness of my own heart because there is a place in the industry for Carnival Cruise Lines and I believe this complaint to be unreasonable and overblown. I tried to provide you with the facts and a bit of inside knowledge in the hopes that they will put an end to your stress but you are not ready to admit that there is nothing to fight about.

I really don't care if you cruise on any Cruise Line ever again and maybe cruising just isn't for you. That's your choice. I just want you to get your facts together and do your research so that next time you are not disappointed!! So I'm going to try one more time and then you're on your own.

You booked an inside cabin on a Carnival Cruise Ship and expected to be treated as someone in a Suite on Crystal .. so yeah! Saying that your expectations were too high for what you paid for is bang on. Just remember that they are too high for any of the family style cruise ships industry wide.

You got a sale on your stateroom and the Inside Staterooms that were on sale were nearly sold out. That is where the Guarantee kicked in. You were Guaranteed an inside stateroom at the sale price on the date that you wanted to sail. That is the guarantee and that is what you received. There are different categories of inside staterooms and if you were to go back and do a bit of research you will more than likely discover that you did receive a one or two category upgrade even though you remained in an inside stateroom. You pay LESS with a Guarantee not MORE.

It is not Carnival's fault or your Travel Agents Fault that you didn't understand the terms of your agreement. Read the fine print, ask your Travel Agent for clarification before you cruise and next time if the Balcony is the make it or break it for your cruise book and pay for a Balcony Cabin.

If you want more staff to attend to your needs spend the extra money and book a Cruise Ship that offers a higher staff to guest ratio. They are out there, they cost more money and you can find out this information before you cruise. It is available on each of the Cruise Line websites or in the brochures.

I can assure you that the Boat Drill didn't come as a surprise to the Management onboard. They are standard, regulated and happen at least once every cruise. They are as standard as raising the anchor before the Ship sails.

The term seasoned cruiser upset you? Would you prefer savy cruiser or perhaps well-traveled individual because none of those terms are exclusive to Carnival. My goodness!

If you honestly feel that hard done by then exercise your rights by taking your business elsewhere. It honestly doesn't sound like anyone will be able to help you resolve your issues so I'm going to stop trying. Hopefully this information will be beneficial to someone else then.

Good luck in the future Timothy.

Namaste,
Chris

p.s. For Chris in Santa Monica:

Paper vs. Plastic? Were you being ironic? We aren't talking grocery bags where the plastic cups end up in a land-fill site at the end of the cruise we are talking reusable items. A plastic cup will get used again and again whereas a paper cup get used once and then will get thrown away. Why not porcelain? The ship moves, people drop them, they break, kids, barefeet Really? For real? Sheesh.

Chris asked: "Since when is plastic more environmentally friendly than paper?"

When plastic cups are washed and re-used multiple times, rather than thrown away after one single use like paper. Common sense, right?

Since when is plastic more environmentally friendly than paper?

Obviously my standards are way too high for Carnival. I should not have expected to be treated with dignity or even respect. The staff was far to thin to cover the guests, and the muster drills were so much of a suprise to the management, that they had no idea to adequetly prepare for them. any seasoned cruiser (Customer relations slingo, you work for Carnival, its your job to reply to these)


Does the fault of the guaranteed room lie with my travel agent or with Carnival? We will never know. However, when given an opportunity to " make it right" carnival chose to refuse any responsibility, and actually place blame on the customer. This was the M.O. of the entire staff and seems to be present thoughout the whole company.

No actually I'm not very hard to please I just dont like being treated like sxxx, being handed s**t, being served s**t and paying for it.

Honestly it doesn't look like I'm alone in my experience either. Both of you should go to your boss (At Carnival) and tell them to actually start taking a look into hospitallity, the missing ingredient. Stop making excuses for horrible customer care.

I am sorry to hear that your cruise was "ruined" over a paper cup, a broken light bulb, not knowing your waiter's name, and having to WAIT for room service and dinner . I agree, you should definitely avoid Carnival in the future, and stick to the cruiseline where you can get your "organic bees honey pankaces on a stick with marmalade imported from Thailand served with a porcupine quill and two Ostrich eggs over easy with a Basil cream sauce" and all the paper cups your heart desires.

Honestly, it sounds like you are extremely difficult to please, and that nothing any of the staff could do would have made you happy. A cruise is supposed to be a time of fun and relaxation. Don't let little things like a paper cup stress you out. Put it behind you and move on! Relax and enjoy the food, entertainment, excursions, not to mention quality time with your wife for crying out loud!

Hi Timothy,

I too have worked for many different Cruise Lines and your concerns, although irritating, are not enough that they warrant a rant on the Rip Off Report.

Where is the Rip Off?

First of all, as a former travel agent I can tell you that a Guarantee comes up in the system when a special rate on a series of rooms are close to being sold out and you are next in line should one of those reserved rooms becomes available. It is not a guarantee for an automatic upgrade. Your guarantee is for the price that you paid and the Guarantee is that you are guaranteed a room equal to the price that you paid for the date of the cruise that you booked. The person that received the Upgrade could have received it because there were maintenance issues with their original room and it was the only other room available at the time for that Cruise. Or maybe because they were super nice to someone and they wanted to reward them for it. It happens on ships the way that it happens on airlines.

You start off by saying that you were both looking forward to a luxurious cruise but Carnival is not a luxury cruise line. They are Family Fun Ships. If you want a luxury cruise book your cruise on one of the luxury cruise lines.

Your next complaint is that you called room service as soon as you got to your room. Any seasoned Cruiser would know that this is an improper time to contact room service as every available set of hands are currently in the process of embarking 2500 guests onto the Ship just hours after 2500 guests have left the Ship. There is also a Boat Drill about to happen. If you want refreshments they are available up on the pool deck but that also closes down for Boat Drill and reopens once Boat Drill has commenced. This is by rule of the US Coast Guard and has nothing to do with the company you are sailing with. Getting your order in only 25 minutes is actually remarkable and I hoped you tipped them when they arrived.

You mention that you had already received your luggage which is wonderful considering some guests won't receive theirs until up to 8:00pm that evening. It's nothing personal there are just thousands of bags changing hands in a very short period of time.

The light bulb's being burnt out is unfortunate and probably would have been serviced if you had notified your own room steward or had even called down to the pursers desk instead of handing it off to a random person in the hallway. That's just common sense. There are people employed on ships that it is their sole job to replace light bulbs but they can't replace what they don't know about.

The waiter didn't pass the buck since he can't deliver what is not ready. Again, this is the same as in any restaurant on land and did you happen to notice how many other people were in that restaurant at the same time you were? Also, is it such a very big deal that he put the plates down in the wrong spots? Is that enough to ruin a vacation? If you wanted extra service it is available every night of the week in the Ship's Supper Club. If this had happened in the Supper Club instead of the main dining room I think you would have a valid concern considering it is a reservations only establishment that you pay extra for and you are assigned two service staff to personally look after your every whim while you are there. Otherwise you must wait your turn along with everyone else in the dining room. This is the same on every Cruise Line.

The wake-up calls always work but are unreliable because they are easy to set wrong. Always take a travel alarm with you or set the internal alarm on your cell phone as a back-up. The staff would not have been allowed to accuse you of setting it wrong so they would have blamed the system knowing that it was simply a human error on your part.

I am honestly astonished that you would be upset that someone said the word No to you. All of these minor things, some of which were not even proper issues and your final straw is the word no. With all due respects sir, this was not a chartered ship that you hired. It's a family cruise ship with 2,498 other guests to attend to. Should they have perhaps had better manners and said I am terribly sorry sir but we attempt to be as environmentally friendly as possible and don't supply paper cups onboard anymore. May I direct you to the plastic cups that are directly beside the coffee maker and are available for you 24 hours a day? There is also a Starbucks style coffee bar located on deck seven and all of the coffees are served in paper cups. There is a small charge for this premium coffee but it is so yummy and convenient that it's worth every penny! Or perhaps, may I suggest that you order room service and that will save you the trouble of carrying the cup down to your room yourself? It is also a free service that we provide onboard 24 hours a day. Have an excellent day sir! Sure. That is how they SHOULD have reacted, but, perhaps they were just having their one human moment of their contract where they had had enough of rude behavior.

And, to punish the hard working staff by robbing them of their wages by recruiting others not to tip? Sir, you should be ashamed of yourself.

I hope if you ever walk onto another Cruise Ship anywhere you do so with realistic expectations. Do yourself the honor of looking over the side of the ship at the beautiful world around you and take a moment to realize how truly lucky you are. If only to realize that life is too short for this sort of banal nonsense.

Namaste.