Complaint Review: Carnival Cruise Lines - Miami Florida

The purpose of this letter is to inform you of the events that took place on my Carnival Cruise. I was aboard Carnival Destiny which left San Juan, Puerto Rico on January 28th 2007 and returned Sunday February 4th 2007. The group I traveled with brought aboard over 40 passengers. The occasion was my honeymoon, one couple's 25th anniversary and yet another couple's 50th anniversary. Besides being unsatisfied with the cleanliness, service, and food on the ship there is one set of events that must be brought to attention for those who would like to know what can take place aboard one of your fun ships. That is assualt and battery.

On the morning of January 31st, which is also my birthday I was in the Point After Disco club located on the ship. I was accompanied by my wife and a few other guests that were in the group we booked the trip with. I noticed another group of passengers with a camcorder filming my wife and another woman who had accompanied us on the trip. These male passengers were acting unruly and yelling obscene things and making obscene gestures toward my wife and the other woman. My wife felt uncomfortable and decided to go back to our stateroom because the guys were creeping her out I made sure she was accompanied with a guest who I knew as she was leaving and watched to make sure none of the guys followed her out.

At this point to save her embarrassment, I went up to the guests and asked if there was a particular reason that they were yelling at my wife and filming her. They responded with something along the lines of because we like the way she looks only used vulgar words instead of putting it so mildly. I proceeded to tell them not to continue doing this, that it was disrespectful, and was shoved. Before I could recover from the stumble of being shoved I was struck over the head with a chair in the bar and knocked unconscious.

Upon, regaining consciousness I was in the infirmary. My head was split open and I was told I needed stitches. I was at first relieved to hear that the incident was on surveillance because I was going to press charges against the man who struck me with the chair. I asked the crew if there was a way for them to take pictures of my head and face to document the damage that was done. They would not comply and seemed as if they wanted to RUSH everything along, keep in mind, this was not a life threatening cut. I told them I would not allow them to stitch anything until my wife came down to take pictures in which case she was called and rushed down with a digital camera and took several photos. She signed a waiver for the work to be done. A total of 7 stitches were put in my head from the top of the forehead into the scalp, I believe the length of the gash was around 6.5 cm. I was out of the infirmary early morning.

Hours later, while still dazed, there was a knock on my stateroom door. It was the Barbados police as well as a few members of Carnival security asking me to come down to the security office. I was asked to write a statement, I told them I was still very much dazed, they were not concerned. The thing they seemed most concerned about was getting what they could out of me on paper while I was dazed. In my statement several words were repeated, thoughts were scattered, and words were spelled wrong. Coming from a person with 2 BA's in college, this was not my typical writing style. I told the police and security I would like to press charges. I was assured that the man who did this would not be starting trouble the rest of the trip and he was in for a rude awakening when he got off the ship according to their head of security.

This could not be further from the truth. In fact, the man who struck me got off the ship without a problem. He also continued to make trouble with his group of friends the rest of the vacation. Nobody in our party felt safe. This man continued to get drunk and party the whole trip. I was in my stateroom most of the trip from Wednesday to Sunday upon disembarking. However, everybody in my party traveled in packs, following each other everywhere even to public bathrooms. The group made several comments to those I was with and complaints were made, but security did nothing! The man who struck me over the head even blocked my wife as she walked and said how would you like your head to look like your husbands? She complained, and nothing was done. The harassment even continued when we got off the ship, the group surrounded our bus to the airport and we had to call the San Juan police for an escort. Security was too incompetent to let us off at different intervals, they waited only about 10 minutes which isn't even enough time to get through customs.

Also, while I tried to use my room card the day after the assault and battery to access the internet MY privileges had been revoked! When I spoke to the head of security as to why others had seen the man getting drunk and why his card wasn't revoked he stated it is of no use, his friends can just buy him drinks. I was beside myself. Not to mention on my way off the ship to sign for the bill, I was charged $200 for my wound! This is a concussion that required CAT scans and additional medical assistance when I returned home and thus far have been experiencing cognitive problems such as short-term memory loss which hopefully will go away. You will see how horrific the wound and swelling is with the attached pictures.

Carnival has responded with we cannot control what other guests on the ship do, we hope to see you on another Carnival Cruise. Is this the way you treat your customers? Over forty people who all spent significant time and money to go on their Funship had their time ruined. Security was negligent and Carnival has done nothing to repay what was lost.

Ryan

Davison, Michigan
U.S.A.

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