Complaint Review: Carnival - Miami Florida

We set sail out of Charleston, SC on February 12, 2011 for our HONEYMOON cruise. First thing, we noticed around 7pm that our one extra large black suit case full of everything that we would wear for the entire trip, still had not shown up to our stateroom. We asked the room steward about it and he said to contact Guest Services. So we did, and they wanted us to come down and see if any of the bags they had down there belonged to us. I went in hopes that our bag was there, but it was NOT. Security had two additional bags-neither of those were ours either. I wear contact lenses, and I needed to take my contacts out, because I was ready to go to sleep. They actually tried to make US pay $13 for contact solution, that we already had in our bag! I told them Hell no- we were NOT going to buy something that we already had in our luggage! So Guest Services bought it from the Galleria, as well as some tooth paste, and they did give us a "kit" with a small fold up brush in it, some generic deodorant, and a sorry excuse for tooth brushes. This is what we used the entire trip, because they never found our luggage!

The days that followed, we were given a small on board credit to use to purchase more clothes, so we could have a change of clothes. We also had to use the case we brought with us for tours and souvenirs to purchase swim clothes, because we weren't allowed to get in the hot tub on the ship unless we were in swim attire. The Guest Services SUPERVISOR told us for the next 5 days that our luggage was somewhere on the ship-they had checked with the port staff TWICE and had been ensured that our luggage was indeed put on the ship. Getting back to not having any clothes- I purchased a very uncomfy pair of $34 shorts from the Galleria that I asked if I could exchange for a dress because they just did NOT fit for comfort whatsoever. The clerk said sure no problem. I explained to her that I had wore the shorts for a little bit, but had just decided they were too uncomfortable. I went and got the shorts, handed them to her, and proceeded to look for a dress. I look up at the counter and she was SMELLING the shorts I took off. I blew it off, and grabbed a dress. I go up to the counter with the dress and she looks at me and takes a long whiff of my shorts. I laughed and asked her if there was a problem. She was VERY rude and told me the shorts had been worn-which I already explained to her, and she said they smelled of cigarette smoke. I told her "Well, I smoke. Can I not return them?" She was still very rude but said I could return them. I noticed her foreign name tag, and asked her nicely how to pronounce her name. She asked me hatefully why I needed to know how to pronounce her name, and smelled my shorts again.

At this point I am finding the entire situation humorous, and laughed a little. I told her I was just curious how to say her name. At this point, there are other customers staring at her, and people are standing everywhere in the store! She looks at me and shrugs her shoulders and rolls her eyes and says, or yells " My name is on my name tag! I am not telling you how to say my name!" She then snatched up the shorts and zips around and yells "Carlos!Replace me!" At this point, an elderly lady came up to me and said "I wouldn't stand for that Miss" so I head down to Guest Services to report her, and another guest comes up behind me while I was explaining the situation and said they were there to report the same situation. No one ever called to apologize to us for this employee's unprofessional behavior, etc. On day four, I became highly frustrated because I couldn't understand how our luggage was still missing and I was getting SICK of wearing the same clothes, not having my toiletries, PANTIES, etc. I was also upset because we were spending money to buy things that were in our suit case.

So I asked the Guest Services Supervisor if I could have our $20/day/person gratuities that I prepaid when I booked the cruise, credited back to our account, since in my opinion, no one was trying very hard to locate our luggage. He said sure, no problem, but that someone would have to go down to Guest Services to sign for it-so my husband went down. He comes back a little while later, and said nope they didn't do it. So I call Guest Services and of course he apologizes and said since we prepaid the gratuities, he could not credit it back to our account. At this point we just wanted OFF the ship. We debated flying home from the Key West port, because we were miserable with all the frustrations-at this point, it wasn't the fact that our luggage was lost. It was the horrible way the staff were HANDLING the situation, or lack there of.

On day 5, we met a couple that the wife had caught food poisoning from the buffet, and had been quarantined in her room for 24 hours-how is that fair? Of course there was also the $175 charge she had to pay to see the onboard doctor. Again, how is that FAIR? So the last evening on the ship, we were getting ready to go to dinner, and the stateroom phone rings. Guest Services-they told us they had found our luggage. It was still in the port! If they had found our luggage ANY sooner, they could have flew it to one of the ports of call....but no, it was still in Charleston. Even though the Guest Services Supervisor had checked with the port staff in Charleston TWICE, and had ensured me that the luggage was indeed ON the ship. Oh and of course we got a certified letter offering 20% off any FUTURE cruise with Carnival, excluding holiday sailings, and can't be combined with any other discounts.

After the way we were treated on this ship, and with all the IDIOTS running around how could they have the audacity to think for one second that we would ever consider cruising with them again? I did mention it was our honeymoon, right?? To top it off, we couldn't call and check on my child because I own a rare phone that the charger was in our bag, and they don't sell those chargers in the caribbean! However, when I did get my phone charged somewhat at the airport, I contacted Guest Care via the 1800#, just to be extended a sincere apology when I asked for a partial refund on our honeymoon from Hell cruise.