Carnival Cruise Lines HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE Miami Florida
My boyfriend and I just got back from a 7 day cruise on the Carnival Triumph, The Eastern Caribbean Cruise. It was the worst experience of my life. I spent a lot of money to travel from California to Miami to go on my one vacation of the year and it was all ruined by Carnival. It was my boyfriend's birthday and he was completely let down as well.
First off, they knew before we boarded the ship that they were going to have to cancel the Bahamas port, and didn't tell anyone until we were already on the ship and moving, which was so horrible. They said it was the weather, although on the way back the Bahamas port was great and sunny, but they still kept us on the boat the whole time. We had 5 days at sea and only were able to get off the ship two times.
The service was the worst I have ever experienced. The people were rude, and grumpy. Everything fun to do cost money, and the free activities were repeated, exactly the same. They were s****.>
The food, o my, where do I start, the food was just plain disgusting. I eggs every morning were soggy. The bacon stuck in clumps and tasted horrific. The lunch was hard, chewy, most of the time overcooked, whatever it may be, and if you ordered a chicken sandwich and opened it up to take off what you asked them to not put on in the beginning, you would find that there was barely any chicken on it at all, once time in my Chicken Fajita Wrap I opened it up to find ONE piece of hard chicken, it was awful. I threw up almost every meal, because it caused me a stomach ache.
When they told us they were cancelling the Grand Turk port. They offered us $20.00 a person, just like they did with the Bahamas port. Can you believe that, from a $2000.00 dollar cruise, I saw 2 places, and got $40.00 bucks back. All my excursion were cancelled and it took days to receive my refund. Which still has not posted to my bank account? I won money in the casino, which was great, but nowhere near compensated for the time, money, efforts, and everything else I put into trying to make this a nice cruise for my boyfriend's birthday. I would have been happier staying home.
I found out Royal Caribbean was at the Bahamas the 5 day we were at sea, why could they have not taken us to the their private owned island? Because another one of their ships were using it? Come on...we were supposed to go there earlier in the week, why not take us there on the way back, because they knew the more they kept us on the ship, the more money they made, on drinks, games, gambling, and all the other bogus activities they had that somehow always cost money. I felt totally freaked out by all the characters they had as well, they would pretty much force you to take pictures with these creepy looking things. So annoying. Someone trying to sell you something everywhere you looked.
The sushi was the worst, totally fishy, and pretty much I had the worst vacation of my life. I have cruised Royal Caribbean before, and it was a wonderful experience, in fact it was also in hurricane season, September, and it was an amazing time. The ship was cleaner, the food was soooo wonderful, the service/people working on the boat was wonderful, and the activities were amazing ;) If you want to cruise, take Royal Caribbean ;)
Nicole
Huntington Beach, California
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Ken
8103 N Drury Ave,Missouri,
U.S.A.
I had fun on my Carnival Trip
#3Consumer Comment
Fri, April 24, 2009
My girlfriend and I just got back from a 4 day Mexican Cruise on the Carnival Elation. Neither of us had been on cruise before so we chose a cheaper line that met our needs. After a fair amount of research, Carnival was definitely the cheapest line (Royal Caribbean Cruises were $100-200 more per person).
Both of us enjoyed our trip. While everything wasn't perfect, for the money we spent, I wasn't expecting it to be.
The food was decent. At the dining rooms, they tried to make it feel like it was something you could get at a 4 star restaurant. The atmosphere was spot on. But the food wasn't quite there. Most of it tasted good, but nothing spectacular and it was quite obvious everything was pre-made. For breakfast lunch and snacks, the buffets were pretty good. I'd rate it at just above what you'd get at a place like Country Kitchen or what not. Again, nothing special. But for the price we paid, it was actually better than I expected.
The boat had plenty of free activities. Varied between shows, trivia, lessons on how to play table games at the casino, dance competitions, ect. Certainly there was a fair amount of down time. But we used that time to do what we got on the boat to do (lay in the sun).
The staff was friendly. Our cabin stewert was wonderful and most of the other crew was polite and helpful. There were some cases where members of the crew weren't up to American standards of politeness, but often times there seemed to be cultural barriers and I don't hold it against the guy from Bulgaria who hasn't completely mastered the ins and outs of American culture. No crew member seemed to be intentionally rude and most went out of their way to attend to any needs or concerns.
All and all we had fun. It was by no means perfect, but for the money we spent, I was completely satisfied and frankly it was more fun than I expected. For our next cruise, we are looking into something more higher-end (and we are willing to spend the money). But if something comes up and we end up having less vacation money than we thought, I would happily vacation with Carnival again.
Peter
Pony,Alabama,
U.S.A.
Carnival Triumph
#3Consumer Comment
Mon, September 08, 2008
First of all, if you are going to shell out thousands of dollars for a Caribbean cruise and do not want any issues with the ports of call, may I suggest not scheduling your trip during hurricane season?? Since you've stated that you've "just gotten back" from your cruise, I can assume that the three active hurricanes in the Caribbean had some impact on the way the ship was re-routed.
Now on to the rest of your post. The Carnival Triumph is one of the oldest, most deteriorating ships of the Carnival line. It is also one of the cheapest. This is a cruise line used by families with children, college students looking for a party cruise, and low-class people who are not used to "real vacations." Carnival is not a luxury cruise line. Mass-produced food is never going to be cooked to your individual perfection no matter what the cruiseline, nor is service from third-world individuals going to be stellar. I find your comments about the "horrible sushi" interesting, as the Triumph is one of the few ships that does NOT have a sushi bar.
So let me ask you this, at what point did you bring any of your complaints/concerns to the attention of on-ship management? It seems like certain issues like holes and stains on your sheets could have easily been addressed and rectified. If you did not like the "chicken fajita wrap," then why not try something else? The food choices are plentiful and do not cost extra. If you did not want your photo taken, why not politely say "no thank you" and keep walking? I find it hard to believe that you were absolutely helpless and at the mercy of Carnival for an entire week. There were many situations in which you could have had some control.