Julie

A warning to anyone on this site. Do not listen to Paul Therault. It appears Mr. Therault is paid by the cruise industry. He surfs this site, and others, and encourages travelers with poor informaiton. I encourage you to omit his opinions when considering your next vacation.

Paul Therault

<BR>Dear Julie, <BR> <BR>Are you finished now or are you going to post every hour for the rest of your life? <BR> <BR>Paul

xxxx

Anybody ever notice that Paul doesn't deny her allegations. Paul let's see it in print. And don't dance around the subject. Do you or do you not work for CCL outside of NORMAL fees for TA service? Remember libelous statements in your line of work could be considered fraud.

Howard

I AGREE WITH JULIE AND XXX...SO LET'S HEAR IT PAULIE BOY...DO YOU WORK FOR THE CRUISE LINES? ARE YOU PAID IN ANY WAY BY THE CRUISE INDUSTRY OR MARKETING INDUSTRY? COME ON IDI0T, LET'S HEAR IT!

phil

Did you notice that usually a comment or question is made, and your bound to get a comment by Paul. Now that people are questionning his credibilty and his possible ties to the cruise lines he has nothing to say. He's doing what the cruises lines are famous for and that is trying to avoid the subject and sweep it under the carpet. Shhh, maybe it will go away. <BR> <BR>By the way even if she did post everyday for the rest of her life she would still never catch up to you!

Sally

I swear he works for Carnival.

Bruce

Julie, et al: obviously Paul is an alien and is part of a giant, cynical plot to take over planet earth. <BR> <BR>Sheesh - don't you guys have anything better to do? This board should be sharing information about cruising in a respectful, adult way. Of course some people on the board are TA's or are affiliated with the industry. Just take everything you read with a grain of salt and weigh it against your own experience - is that so hard?

bobcat

People, quit obsessing with Paul Therault. If you don't like his posts, ignore them. By now Paul has become a celebrity on these boards, so posting warnings every hour seems redundant.

tom

To Bobcat and Bruce. The point these people are trying to make is that Paul pretends to be something he is not. <BR> <BR>He portrays himself as an objective opinion on cruises. Where in reality he works directly for them. The novice cruiser doesn't know this and is thereby given false or skewed information. We're are not talking about buying a shirt here. There could be a lot at stake. A family outing, a honeymoon, etc... <BR> <BR>So you see this guy goes beyond just being a TA. I would say infamy not celebrity is Paul's status. He is a modern day con man. A grifter. And what makes it worse is that he is paid by specific cruise lines to do it. <BR> <BR>Sheesh guys! We would like to go to this board and get honest opinions from laymen not conmen, and Paul is the biggest.

xxx

Guys he is on every channel. You can't just, "ignore" him. He posts on every possible thread on this web site. If you don't believe me try text search with his name. <BR> <BR>Originally people coming to this site were people who had never cruised before. How are you supposed to weigh what he says against your own when you have nothing to go buy. Come on man think! He portrays himself as this kindly old gentleman doling out advice to the uninformed. Where in reality he is feeding them heavily biased information prepared by the cruise companies he works for. If you're going to step into the middle of a conversation i.e. this post, at least have all your facts straight. When Paul is banished or leaves of his own accord we will be able to use this web site the way it was intended.

M.M.

Bitching about the problem has finally become THE problem.I'm to the point that I(shudder)would rather listen to Paul then all of the damn complaints.I know,I know, I don't have to read it but its getting to the point where every other thread is dissing Paul or Carnival and is hard to ignore.Please, give it a rest!!!!

trudie

M.M. there is plenty of topics to keep you occupied other than the paul/carnival posts. If your not part of the solution your part of the problem. Another thread is either up or down a mouse click away.

M.M.

Hey Trudie have you and the rest of the moaners thought of crossword puzzles,jigsaw puzzles or perhaps solitaire for a new hobby,tis more of a challenge then moaning.

Susan

As a newcomer to this site I have to say I like Paul's comments. I just wish his detractors would stop cluttering up the board with stupid anti-Paul raving! After reading threads for a month or so, I'd have to say he has a lot more credibility than you people do!

xxxx

M.M. take your own advice. And Susan. Read my earlier post. Since your "new" you don't know any better. <BR> <BR>I still have noticed the key element here. Paul with all his sanctimonious ranting has not disputed Julie's comment. If someone was making libelous statements about me, I would want to address them. Of course if they were true I would keep me my mouth shut and wait for it to blow over.

Kay

As a long time cruiser I think I would prefer to ask questions and recieve the opinions of someone that has been on more than one cruise. Paul is not always correct ( who is other than just a few of you guys?? ) but he does have a lot of experience. He has never portrayed himself as anything other than a travel agent that enjoys cruising. I have a mind of my own and would never rely on his or anyone else opinion totally but I certainly do value it. At least he adds some information instead of just bad-mouthing and making rash statements that have no basis like so many of you. When you say he gives wrong and poor information what exactly do you mean? Be specific!! As to the idea that he recieves money from the cruise lines.....well, gosh, I sure hope he does! ( I believe they call it commission ) My car dealer gets money from the car maker and my husband is paid by the insurance company he represents but that doesn't mean they don't know anything about cars or insurance.

tonya

Hi Kay. I don't want to be one of the bashers but are you familiar with the scam that Sony pulled concerning movie revues? They had puppets that they used to give themselves favorable revues on movies that otherwise would have been considered flops. If you look at Paul's comments towards Carnival they are all favorable whereas a large portion of the cruise community says otherwise. Conversely he comments negatively upon their competitors. What these people are eluding to is that Paul is being subsidized by Carnival to do this. That is not how TA's of reputable character make their money. To use your own analogy. Do you trust the used car salesman? Does your husband claim to be the one and all authority on insurance? <BR>Does he openly slam his competitors? No. Because a good salesperson knows not to badmouth his competitors because he loses credibility in doing so. <BR> <BR>The problem with Paul's comments is that people that are first time cruisers may believe him,because they have nothing to use as a gauge and therefore cannot make an informed decision on spending their money. <BR> <BR>If he is making comments based upon favorable relief from Carnival then he is not making his comments based upon his opinions, but upon the opinions of Carnival. And that is not what the web site is supposed to be about. <BR> <BR>In closing, Paul what is the deal? Let's hear it straight from the horses mouth. I'm just curious to hear how you respond.

John

I'm a travel agent so am not about to list my real address. I do want to pop in here though with a bit of info that some may find interesting. I've been on two Carnival cruises. The first was a 4 night on a bit older ship and I was not pleased at all. Our service was poor, the entertainment mediocre, ship was not in good repair. The food was very good though. The other cruise on their line was awesome! I have not one negative thing to say about our 7 days on the Victory other than the weather was a bit cool two days. I know that on this board that is also Carnival's fault but I just don't buy that. The other thing I wanted to say is that I hear so many negative things here about the line but I really so have more happy clients on Carnival than anywhere else. I just had three couples come back from a cruise on the Imagination and they rate is as one of their best. They have all cruised several times on RCCL, Celebrity, Costa, and Princess. Enough said but apparently there is a reason that Carnival has a lot of repeaters other than cheap rates. These people did not go cheaply.

Confused

John so what you are saying is that half the time you were on Carnival even you thought it was poor. I would have to say that if you can't tell me you had a good time with all you know, why in heck's name would I risk my hard earned time and money on a vacation that MIGHT be good. <BR> <BR>Still the question on this thread is Paul T's involvement with Carnival. Is it just as a TA or is there something more here? I guess only he and Carnival will know the answer to that question and neither is making any comments to address these allegations.

billyjeff

I seriously doubt CPT (Carnival's Play Toy) is employed by Carnival. It has way too much savy. However, it could well be that he gets added perks from Carnival for this constnat shilling for them. Perhaps Carnival will have a Paul Therault cruise so all of his admirers can listen to him lecture twice a day for severn days.