"BEWARE" Carnival Cruises
 

Please look carefully into the Carnival ships before you consider booking any cruise on their line.
Their ship Tropicale is the most awful ship I have ever been on. Everything from horrible food, to flooding cabins, to major construction going on-the kind that it should be put in drydock for. To the worst problem, very rude staff. If you consider all of this and still decide to book on carnival, if you have a problem, settle it before you leave the ship. Once you are off, carnival will not even acknowledge that you were ever on their ship. If these problems were only found by us, I would have never posted this message, but I have spoken with many past passengers that ran into the same problems. Carnival advertises that they are the largest cruise company in the world. What they should say is that they are the cheapest. It's well worth spending a little more to vacation on a real ship that you will look back and remember with a smile. If you are considering their cruise guarantee, forget it, we tried to use it and they would not let us speak to anyone in charge.
To all of you that think Carnival is wonderful, try another cruise line just once, it's worth the price.

It must be terrible to finally go on vacation, and then encounter problems as you did. But,I have to say that I totally disagree with your opinion that people should stay away from Carnival. We are going on our third cruise in October, and I wouldn't go on any other line. We never had any problems. The crew, the food, the entertainment, etc, were all great. Our room was always clean, and we even got room service delivered within 10 minutes. Perhaps you should investigate the Carnival Web Site. There's a cruise opinion poll there. You will see that many agree with me. Again, I think you just had bad luck.Hope you don't mind me sticking my 2 cents in, but I really enjoyed cruising with Carnival.

Sorry to hear about your cruise. i've been on 10
cruises, 5 on Carnival ( the latest last March) and
5 on Norwegian. Bad cruises can happen any where at any time. Friends of mine got stuck for two days in the middle of the ocean on Disney. Overall, all of my experiences have been great- and I intend to take many more cruises.

The age of a ship is extrememly important- the older a ship is the more like to have problems. It's also important to check in the last refit of the ship. This is usually listed in the brochure. You are right about solving any problems while on board it's much easier at the time then it is later. Please try again- don't give up cruising. Good luck

Mary Ann have you cruised with any other lines ? If not , try some thing other than Carnival , I think you'll be pleasently surprized . Hamburger is great until you try steak . Adios !

Thank you SA for your comments! Regardless of how wonderful the experiences of SOME of Carnival's customers, if your experience was horrible - it's the one that counts. Who wants to book a trip that might be fabulous, but might not? Consistency counts, no matter where you go or what you're paying for. Whenever a provider of services is not reliable, well - they're not reliable. And, worse, if they are not interested in repairing their deficiencies subsequent to your experience, why should anyone bother with them?

I have to agree with S.A. I took a trip on the Tropicale also. This was a few years ago, but right after our cruise it was supposed to be going into dry dock to get ready for a different route (we took the one that went to Caracas, etc.) It was awful. Construction going on at all times, parts of the decks were closed off (and its a small ship to begin with). Try laying on the deck with suntan lotion on and having sawdust blown down on you from above! Not pleasant. But what really was awful was that I had convinced my friend to come cruise on Carnival because I had taken a cruise on the Holiday and it was the best vacation I ever had. So it was really embarassing to me when this vacation was so lousy. It wouldn't have been so bad, except Carnival refused to even do anything to keep in our good graces. I think I finally managed to get $100 bucks out of them so my friend and I "could have dinner on them." Gee, how generous. We spent over a couple grand on your cruise and WOW $100 for dinner. I think they also offered certificates for 20%25 off of - guess what - another Carnival cruise! And not only was that a laugh-the certificates expired in a year. So I think you're best bet is to make sure you get on a newer ship. The old ones seem to have problems. Cruising is fun and I wouldn't want to stop. This Tropicale was an awful experience, but I keep remembering what fun I had on the Holiday!

Debbie: you think sawdust is bad? The entire ship was told to go out on deck for the evening to watch the lava flow as the ship went past. We sat there for hours. All of a sudden they deceided to blow out the stacks on the ship, which sent red hot embers all over the outer decks. The decks we were told to watch from. We were running for cover while red hot burning embers were landing all over us. We had burn holes and black marks all over our clothing. We allerted one of the staff, they sent up the HEAD WAITER from the dining room to check it out. He said "not to worry". Needless to say, they really didn't care that our clothes were burned and black. The next morning they had a crew out scrubing the decks to remove the black marks. No announcements were made to go inside, nothing was ever said about it. This was just a LITTLE problem compared to the other huge problems that we lived with for 10 days. it boils down to THEY JUST DIDN'T SEEM TO CARE WHAT THEY DID TO INCONVIENCE THEIR PASSENGERS. Unbelievable huh????

I must say that this message you posted is becoming very interesting!! I wanted to add that I did not mean to defend Carnival. They should have recognized these problems and compensated for them. I know that I would feel the same way as you do if I had these experiences. Since most of us don't have the opportunity to travel often, and we all look forward to our vacations, they should be as close to perfect as possible. My reply was intended to state simply that we did not encounter any problems, and had a pleasurable time on both cruises with Carnival. I'm still going on Carnival in October. I'm a little nervous now, but I'll let you know how it goes!

Thanks for the warnings. Wow.

S.A. - I responded on one of your other posts about Carnival and will reiterate that I also had a bad experience on my first cruise, which was Carnival. Very RUDE treatment by excursions office, poor luggage handling and treatment by workers on the dock, waiting in unnecessary lines, being solicited to buy drinks on the sun deck and in the lounges nearly every five minutes. I've been on four wonderful cruises since then. Anyway, to put this all in perspective, it seems that about 50 percent of the people who have responded to this post and others about Carnival have some complaints and warn others NOT to cruise on them. However, how many posts or criticisms have you seen about Princess? RCCL? Holland America? Norweigan? Not many, if any at all. Nearly 100 percent satisfaction on the other lines, but complaints abound for Carnival. This should be an indicator and warning to others--if there is a 50-50 chance that your vacation will be less than perfect after the cruise line already has your money, why take the chance on them? And it should reaffirm what you've experienced--no we're not Carnival bashers, just informed travelers passing the word along so others don't have similar incidents happen to them on a cruise. If there's a 50-50 chance you're going to get hit by a car crossing the road, would you cross anyway?

I wanted to go back into this site to thank you all for much e-mail backing us up our warning!!

folks, you get what you pay for!!!! I've been on
a dozen or so cruises- loved the Fantasy, the Sensation, the Destiny- however the Carnivale
(an older ship) was DISGUSTING!! it also cost
a mere 300 bucks for the trip. SO???
also loved the celebrity Zenith that ran over a grand for the trip.
the Norway flat out sucked it smelled awful, and the lowering of the tenders in each port was the most clatter I've ever witnessed. but hey- less than 500 bucks for a week and 3 different islands-
you get what you pay for- and you make the most of it!!

I wish we only had paid a few hundred for our cruise. We trusted Carnival's FORMER reputation!!! WRONG! WRONG! Boy were we wrong! We have gone on some inexpensive cruises, and we have gone on some in excess of $8,000.00. This was what I would call a medium priced cruise. With all that went wrong, we still could have made the best of it, if CARNIVAL'S STAFF had not been so RUDE throughout the whole trip, and afterwards. I'm not talking one or two rude staff members, I'm talking 95%25 of the staff that we encountered. Even worse was the fact that CARNIVAL did not want to hear about it, and really didn't give a hoot what conditions their ship was sailing under. By the way, just where and on what line would you go on a weeks cruise for a few hundred dollars? I've never heard of one, anybody else?

Hey Debbi I'm quite adept at "making do" on bargain cruises . If you could find a couple of $3oo & $500 week cruises for me I'd be forever grateful .I've cruised more than a dozen times myself and I'm always looking for a "good deal".

For all of you, I suggest spending some time on cruiseopinion.com. It provides hundreds of detailed opinions, submitted by passengers, on every major cruise ship. In addition, there are descriptions of the ships, cabins, etc. In regard to the Carnival line, it seems to be an age and temperament thing - if you're young and like to party, Carnival is for you. Also, after 27 cruises, I can assure you that in general you get what you pay for.

My husband and I have been on 5 cruises in the past 7 years. I have found that I much prefer the newer ships such as Majesty of the Seas, Zenith and Horizon. We also cruised on the older Starward and Meridian. We found many faults with the older ships, such as repairs ongoin, odors, not as stabile, less selection etc. I love the grandness and space available on the newerships. We are hoping to go on the Inspiration next summer because of the route. Any comments?

After years at sea in the U. S. Navy, in combat ships and aboard troop transports, I was not about to take a cruise. But my wife prevailed (she always does), and off we went on Holland-America's Statendam to the Caribbean. Oh, did my old prejudices change -- marvelous service, spotless clean quarters, scrumptious food, smiling staff. Would I go again? You bet! All these horror stories make me shudder; I'm on Holland-America for life.

Message to Rod Hoots: I did check out cruiseopinion.com and it gives the Tropicale a pretty good rating. I know of at least three cruise reviews that were submitted by three different people to that sight on the Tropicale. None of which were good, in fact they were very bad reviews. They have never been posted on the site, which tells me that they only post the fair to good reviews and do not post the ones that are not praiseing that ship in some way or another. I removed that site from my favorites menu long ago when I realized that they are only telling you what they want you to know. I tried!

Sorry you had a bad experience. I agree when the problems happen to you, who cares about others who don't experiece what you did. We have been on four cruises in seven years, three of them on Carnival. Most recently sixteen of us cruised on the Carnival Destiny. We only had good experiences with Carnival with the exception of mediocre food on the Fascination. The people were nice and friendly.(those that spoke English) We have nothing but nice things to say about Carnival.
My advice though, is to take a more expensive cruise. Your travel agent knows who the top cruise lines are. By the way, in international survey, Carnival never is picked as one of the top ten cruise lines. You now know why. Next cruise, pick one of the top five.

Last April I went on a 10 day panama canal cruise on Regal Princess and found it just wonderful. The entertainment, food, and programs were all top of the notch. Princess has the biggest, and best ships in the sea, along with the best shore exursion department. I would definetly consider cruising with them

RCCL was a great cruise experience. Also, last year, we went on a Premier cruise and were happy with the activities on board, the dining, and especially the staff who made you feel like a king/queen. I met a woman on that particular Premier cruise, who had just finished taking a Carnival cruise and she informed me...NEVER again with Carnival! We didn't get a chance to get into details, but she said the difference was like night & day. So I find this topic rather interesting.

This message was posted on 1/18/98 and I am amazed that it is still recieving responses. It should have been buried way down at the bottom on the page if not in the archives by now.
It does show the varried opinions about the Carnival Cruise ships by a wide variety of past passengers and onlookers. I have yet to see anything like this about any other cruise line.

It's interesting to hear all the kudos for Holland America and all the complaints for Carnival. Carnival Cruises is actually OWNED by Holland America. If Holland America is more responsive, maybe those of you who have had these Carnival horror stories to share should complain to the CEO of Holland America. From what I've read, I'm surprised lawsuits for breach of contract don't abound against Carnival. I'm sending my folks on a cruise for their aniversary and DEFINATELY won't go Carnival given the word-of-mouth I've found here.

Just to note. We also went on a cruise in March of this year on the Fascination. We had a great time - first cruise so have nothing to compare against. We had a terrible time during the debarkation and our "tour" of San Juan after the cruise. I wrote Carnival a detailed letter outlining everything that went wrong that day. I also provided them with input - both good and bad - regarding their food, entertainment, staff, etc. They did respond and provided us with an incentive to cruise again in the next 2 years. We were pleased that they acknowledged our letter and hopefully will do something about the things we mentioned.

They responded to us too, after several months of letters and pictures that we took of the ship, to show them what we had to endure for the 12 days. They sent us a 25%25 off coupon for a future Carnival Cruise, which I promptly sent back to them. I would not go on another Carnival Ship if it were a free cruise.

We took a Carnival cruise Thanksgiving week. Our teens refused to go back to camp carnival's activities for teens after the first day. Lots of teens were wandering around the ship saying, this is so boring and stupid! The pools were closed most of the time. Karaoke was fun at first.. but every day? My daughter spent half the time reading in the state room. 6 months later, my kids say it was the worst vacation we've ever had! I absolutely loved eating breakfast out on the windy deck... but most of the cruise was a disappointment. If you love dirty jokes, gambling, bare bunned dancers, and getting drunk then Carnival is for you!

Holland American is owned by Carnival, not the other way around.

Note:

Sue also goes by the name of S.A.
She has been going to several board trashing Carnival.
Now if things were so bad on Carnival, how come there have been no lawsuits?
Yet, NCL did not provide air conditioning on the Norwegian Star and immediately got hit with a class action suit.
I guess the bashers can't find a lawyer's telephone or they are simply people who are:
HAPPY TO BE UNHAPPY.

Sara

On Legend of the Seas, the food was so bad, it made going to a cafeteria seem like gourmet. The waiter and cabin steward were pushy insisting that they get a good rating. They both did not. Poor service equals poor rating. Right. Royal Caribbean is over rated.

Joe

You guys think you know it all. Check this out. You think that people who like Carnival are not as smart as you. Well, now you may think that the list of reputable businesses listed below are not as smart as you too. Carnival is like any large company and there will be a small fraction of customers who will have complaints. Your mouths are just louder, so it gives you an impression that you are more that .05%25 of the passengers that sail on Carnival.

These businesses have direct tie-ins with Carnival or recommends then to their readers.

Universal Studios
Busch Gardens
Sea World
Wet & Wild

Modern Bride magazine picked Carnival for best honyemoon cruise value.
Bride magazine did the same.
And now for a sophisticated organization if I may say so myself: World Ocean & Cruise Liner Society, in December 1997, for the 4th year in a row, bestowed on Carnival," Best Cruise Value." In addition, they also elevated Carnival's classification to a 4-star cruise liner.

Now isn't it something that all you bashers are smarter than all of these. WoW.

A little education:

Carnival owns:

Holland America
Windstar
Costa Cruises
Seabourn
Cunard

So only thing to beware of is if Carnival decides to buy Royal Caribbean Internation.

replying to Sara's post....how do you know there are NO lawsuits against Carnival?

Just saw this. I was on the HOLIDAY in September last year. It was on a seminar from Australia. The ship and crew were fabulous. The food was great and everyone had a great time.

There are always stories of bad cruises. P & O in Australia (Princes in US) has had a number of problem. Even QEII has had it's problems.

By the way I do not think Carnival own Cunard. It is a public listed English company.

A reply to mars....well, if there are lawsuits, how come the bashers have not told us about them. Unless, you have filed one yourself.
As soon as the suits were filed against NCL, the new flooded the internet.

In response to Author: Richard ([email protected])
Date: 5/25/1998 2:02 am. I simply say...THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT. Personally I have never been on a cruise yet. I have been searching for an affordable yet delightful one to try. I've done much investigating and have discovered that Carnival does have the best prices on the market. Nevertheless, as the saying goes, or sayings I should say go... "You get what you pay for", or "if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is" Carnival is appearing to live up to that billing. I will in fairness to Carnival admit that I've only heard negative and not experienced. But I can't discount the words of other travelers who have been-there-done that! Magazines and awards mean absolutley nothing, when you have the customers experiences to go on. You must realize that many corporations have a invested interest in certain cruise lines and will say whatever when necessary to protect said interests. Plus Carnival's recieving a "promotion to 4 star liner" or whatever, means what to us as consumers? How many times have you see some one receive a promotion when they really didn't deserve it?? (Perhaps the person bestowing the "stars" went on one of Carnivals "good" criuses) I will continue to look for a great cruise, but I will at this time immediately cross Carnival off my shopping list. The risk is too great.

I have to agree with Clayton. After reading all of these responses, it seems that the ones that this is upsetting, are protesting wayyy too much. When you find someone that will defend a company that has done something wrong, either they have stock in that company or it is because they deal strictly with this company. I would like to know if Sara has ever cruised on any other line? I am not reading where anyone is attempting to talk anyone out of anything, just warning them that when you deal with a cutrate company, expect cut rate services.
The customer is always right is the main issue here. When a company starts getting so large that they don't care about unhappy customers, that company will soon have these problems (class action suits) that are being decussed here. I also understood this to be an informatin/opinion travel site. There are some that need to get off their pedestal and come back to earth where right is right and wrong is wrong! This Carnival debate that I have witnessed throughout the net is very interesting, I must agree that I to have never seen anything like it. But it might be worth searching the internet for class action suits involving the Carnival line.

In reply to John........yes, I have been on 6 cruises. Carnival 1, RCL 2, NCL 2 and Princess 1. I enjoyed Princess the most and Carnival was second. RCL was forgetable.

I have recently been contacted by e-mail from someone that has cruised on the Tropicale and also read on other boards that the Carnival Ship Tropicale has been refurbished. That is wonderful news for future passengers. But still in my opinion does not change the issue that Carnival problems should be settled before disembarking your cruise. As I have stated before, the actual cruise was not the entire issue but the fact that Carnival would not stand behind their services. I have been asked to retract my above statement about the cruise we were on. This ship being refurbished in no way changes what happened to us on Carnival, or the treatment that we received.

Very interesting responses, I have sailed on the tropical aroung 1990, had a great time, didn't find it unkept and nothing out of the ordinary. I have also sailed on RCCL and NCL. Sorry to hear your trip of so dissapointing. Cruises are ineresting and you have to take some things less serriously then others when travelling anywhere, if you look for every bad thing you don't have time to appreciate things that go right. This cruise line markets and sells its cruises line with what I feel is pretty honest, they cater to those who want to have a fun time, basic food, party stuff. They do not advertise gourmet meals and romantic hideaways, I think people really need to study the cruise lines before going on a cruise, not all cruises are ment for everyone. There are times I feel I would not sail on Carnival again and there are time I would it all depends on my mood and state of mind and what I want out of a cruise. I think they have a good product and if they did'nt people would not be cruising with them. I find cruisopinion to be a great site and have found both negative and positive remarks on most ships, its gives you a great guide to choosing a ship, once again look to have fun, not everything can be perfect, and enjoy yourself. Its the attitude you have that brings happiness, don't expect others to make you happy. I will sail on any ship, and find a good time.

I believe some of the concerns aobut criseu lines could be avoided by doing thorough research before booking a cruise. Often complains arise due nothing more to the passenger booking a demographically incorrect ship or cruise. For example, I have spoken with people who think Canrival is the worst thing this side of hades -- they wer in their late 40's and early 50's. Others thought Carnival was the greatest thing since rock music -- they were in their early to mid 20's. the point is different ships are for different folks. The best thing to do is find out the demographics of the curise and ship and book accordingly.

As for service - there is never an excuse for bad behaviour or rude service on a ship. One cruise line has a policy of terminating a waiter/waitress upon receipt of two written complaints. This is ture irrespective of whether the passenger is right or wrong -- the theory is that a good service employee will take care of any problem before it reaches the written complaint stage. I did make a written complaint once - and the reponse was prompt, swift and most satisfactory.