Carnival Cruise Lines
Reviews and Complaints

I am an avid cruiser. I absolutely love them. They are relatively inexpensive with many cruise lines to choose from. One of the reasons I cruise is because they are so inexpensive and I usually find a good deal if I wait long enough. This time I decided to book early, against my better judgment, because I was assured that with Carnival, if the price ever was lowered, they would honor that price. With my “Early Saver Rate” I couldn’t go wrong, right? That is absolutely incorrect! What a mistake! Their manipulative wording leads one to believe this is the case, but when the price is lowered on all travel websites one usually books through and you actually call about it, they say it has to be lowered on their website for it to be valid. It has to be a “Carnival advertised rate.” Now wait, is Travelocity paying the difference to Carnival to give their patrons such a better rate, or is it indeed a “Carnival advertised rate!” So essentially, they can lower their fares everywhere they get actual bookings from, and can continue to keep their fares high on their website, so as to not honor the lower price guarantee. And this is not considered wrong to them! The fact is, if I were to book this cruise today, it would be $150.00 less, so that should be the price given to me, as that was my belief when I originally booked the cruise.
This upsets me most because it is deceitful and dishonest. I feel as though they are actually stealing the money from me because of the way this is portrayed on the travel site I booked from. I have lost my extremely hard earned 150.00, but YOU don’t have to! DO NOT book the early saver rate! You can shop different cruises closer to the date of your planned vacation and can always get a better rate with the cruise line or one of their many competitors.
The service level on Carnival is also terrible compared to other cruise lines. The staff is obviously angry and overworked (and I know they all are overworked on cruises but with these people you can see it). The staff is sometime curt and rude. I actually felt threatened once when I fell asleep the night before departure and forgot to set my bags out the night before as I was supposed to. They came to the door the next morning, three men questioning why I did not put my bags out, in a threatening manner, and then said that they are sure I will never do that again. As if I had committed a crime! I know I had created more work for them and I was sorry, but I couldn’t believe that they were actually willing to scare me because of it! I had passed it off as one angry porter and not the cruise line, but now that I have spoken with their customer service agents, I am assured it is the entire cruise line that is the problem also. Don’t have someone threaten you, lie to you, manipulate you or be rude to you on your hard earned vacation!
I for one will never travel on Carnival again, because if they are willing to be that deceitful with their fares, what else are they being deceitful about when you are trapped on their ship for a week! Apparently they are not beyond threatening their guests for making a mistake. Fortunately, there are many other cruise lines, so I do not see a problem with finding another one, and this time, I will wait and shop around. I have never had a problem with Royal Caribbean and they are just as “fun” as Carnival advertises to be, but without the mistreatment of their customers. They also are frequently less expensive when you get to the bottom line because I’ve noticed Carnival adds more to the price for a better room than Royal Caribbean does. Enjoying your cruise is essential, so do not make the same mistake I did, just say no to Carnival!

recently traveled on one of Carnival's Cruise lines March 30- April 1st.

We went to dinner the first night a little late because we had open seating. We got there a little late but before the restaurant was supposed to close. We didn't understand why but they said we are not longer seating. Come to find out Sunday night that they turned us away 30 minutes before the restaurant closes. Even on Sunday night they were serving dinner and seating people 20 minutes after they closed. We were turned away to go eat hamburgers and fries.

Also there was some unexpected even that made us come back to long beach a day early. Well because of the circumstances they had to drive twice as fast and get from Mexico to Long Beach in one day. Well guess what because of the choppy water and the ship moving at such a fast speed we both got sea sick. We couldn't eat could do anything...we had a full 1 1/2 days wasted on a 3 day cruise. We only really got one night and one day that was somewhat enjoyable. I tried to contact Carnival by mail and email and they never responded. I called a few weeks later and they said to bad. They will not do anything for me or couldn't say why I was turned away for dinner. Honestly is this the way you treat people who had a bad experience. I went on a Carnival cruise before and everything was fine but this trip was horrible. I then started reading some complaints about Carnival. Let me tell you I will never go on another cruise line with them. Also when I told them that they seemed to not care. People go on any cruise line other than Carnival...they are the worst!

On March 18 through March 25th I sailed on the Carnival Glory from Miami, FL for a 7 night vacation, before departing you were notified of a food borne allergy in which I could not have certain foods, then once I boarded the ship I meet with the people in the dining room to go over my allergies once again.

The first 2 nights on the ship went out off without a problem, the third night however I became sick following eating food that had been prepared with foods that I cannot have, and having to pay extra to eat in the steakhouse. I then spent the next 2 days sick in my room feeling completely miserable. Good thing the next day we were not able to port due to weather in which I had excursions planned.

Once I was feeling well enough I tried to take care of the problem asking they just give me my money back considering what had happened. From that point one I was completely ignored by the food service director and customer service in the unwillingness to help.

On the final day of the trip my order at dinner was to be prepared based on my food allergy requirements. However this was not the case halfway through a bowl of soup I discovered the soup had been prepared with food I am allergic too. Within a matter of 30 minutes I had gotten sick prompting me to leave and go to the restroom.

Back at the table the matri'd, the chef and others were there asking what had happened. This time i was sent to the clinic in which I was given meds to counteract the allergy to some degree. I spent the next 3 days sick from this incident.

Following returning I have called, filed a report, emailed carnival. One person I contacted and filed a report told me "we will fill out a report and send it to the appropriate persons so this doesn't happen again".

Three weeks later and after calling my credit card companies, I receive an email from Carnival on the incident telling me to return as a guest and giving me 15% off my next cruise as a good will gesture.

That is not a good will gesture, not is not good customer service, that is nothing more than a blatant attempt at smacking me in the face and telling me we don't care, we're not sorry, and we have no intentions of making it right.

The severity of my allergies has the potential of sending me to the hospital and or causing dehydration due to the vomiting and diarrhea that is caused by my food borne allergy.
Carnival failed on many aspects of this as there is no excuse in this happening twice in one week. My wife and my mother both had to take time out of their vacations to ensure that I was alright and not becoming dehydrated, they had to take time to deal with customer service and the food service director who both were completely dismissive. We all have had to take time out to call and email. Three weeks after the incident telling me I can get a 15% off through email as a good will gesture is a smack in the face.
I expect better for Carnival. I expect a resolution that is fair and not just a smack in my face. This was my health, someone failed at Carnival, and to this day you still are failing to make it right.

What I'm about to post I've learned has become indicative of Carnival after reading other cruisers’ posts. Unfortunately, I learned it too late. Do not waste your money on this cruise line like our family did. This vacation was so bad that if I could turn back time, I would had stayed home and worked 70 hours a week rather than waste my time and money on what was a nightmare of a “vacation”.

I was not surprised to learn about the captain who abandoned the ship on one of their other cruise lines. That is generally the attitude of the staff on the entire ship of the Valor as well as their customer service at corporate headquarters.

Do not expect to be treated with any decency from their customer service. If you did not ready every page of their website like they expect you to, then you’re out of luck.
1. Pool and deck area
a. Our son couldn’t go in pools/whirlpools because he had a swim diaper on. We were kicked out of the pool numerous times. The staff said it was on FAQ section of site however we cannot find it. This would have been a major deciding factor in taking a cruise had we known this ahead of time. Why do they still charge the same price if we cannot fully use ship?
b. Hot tubs were cold and closed early. They closed the adult section at 10-11 p.m. at night. This was especially frustrating since there was a lack of other activities planned on the boat.
c. Closed main pool down during some of the main events on the pool deck.
d. 90% of the time just played a constant real of other ships on the big screen TV. Why not put something on there that other people would enjoy watching?
2. Music everywhere was so loud that you couldn’t hear the person next to you.
3. Spa
a. Worst facial I ever received.
b. Table was extremely uncomfortable and room was loud.
c. Gretchen spent more time mixing her lotions and cleaning things in the sink than she spent on actually giving me a facial.
d. Massaged my feet. Not sure why when she was supposed to work on my face.
e. My mother-in-law and her mother also didn’t care for their facials.
4. Damaged luggage
a. Several new luggage pieces were damaged
5. Cabin
a. Beds were hard even after they put additional duvet cover.
b. Room was hot and never fixed.
i. Someone came in to take the temperature and that was it. Didn’t do anything else.
ii. You could tell a difference in the temperature as soon as you got to our part of the hallway.
c. Refrigerator never was cold.
6. Food and service
a. Buffets always had the same food day after day.
b. Service at dinner was horrendous
i. Couldn’t get bread or water. Couldn’t get drinks refilled.
ii. Server did not do anything besides take our order and serve dinner. Never checked back with us to see if there was anything else we needed or ask how our food was.
7. Staff overall just had a “don’t care” attitude.
8. Shore excursion
a. Father-in-law paid for a shore excursion. However they never printed the tickets and put them on his bed like they did for the rest of the group. He had to go to the customer service deck 5 times and fight with them to get the tickets.
9. Housekeeping left door open to adjoining room and didn’t say anything about it during the check-out process.
a. Our 2 year old got out and went down the hallway. We thought our son was just playing in between the rooms like he had done all week. Thank God my sister-in-law found him going down the hall way. He knew where the elevators were and how to work them. Who knows what could have happened had she not found him.

Every issue we had was met with a "don't care, can't do anything about it, or too bad" attitude. Our experience with Carnival is not what we have experienced in the past. Every year we take a family Christmas cruise. Several of them have been with Carnival and we always had a great time. However, of the 21 members in our group, no one had a pleasurable time. We all felt as though we wasted thousands of dollars. We all tried on multiple occasions to work with Carnival to rectify the experience we had to no

I am highly disappointed with Carnival. My wife and I went on our honeymoon on the fantasy. There were a few very disrespectful employees on ship. The rudest one was a woman from Romania named Bilana or Biliana. She had no problem cashing me out at the casino but failed to state that using your own money to get quarters was forbidden. I did it twice for my wife and noticed that my card became deactivated. She had an attitude and stated it was a rule. She stated that I would be completely denied access for the rest of the cruise if I did it again and did so in a very aggressive manner. She also mentioned that they were the direct words from her manager who never showed their face. I asked her where the rule was and she stated that it wasn’t written and walked away from me. I felt that if I was spending money on your ship, I should have at least been informed. We also repeatedly checked our balance at guest services each day. Our last check was the night before we disembarked from the cruise. Out of $500, the ship held $100. Out of the $400 to spend, we spent $388 and went to bed. We awoke to a paper under our door saying "FINAL NOTICE". When we opened it up, it stated that we spent $644 on the cruise ship rather than $388. It was amazing to see how even after checking repeatedly with guest services, our bill could almost double on the last night when we did not really do anything. The employees became very mysterious and would only give us one or two word answers. The manager was "unavailable" but the girl would come from the back and say that her manager stated that there was nothing he could do and we had to pay right then and there. We were treated like dirt at the end and regret going on Carnival for our Honeymoon.

I’m filing a complaint regarding the room promised to us by a carnival rep several days prior to the cruise, We were promised by upgrading from a regular suite to a grand suite for $400 charge it would have the same amenities only larger size. We were quite disappointed to find out after we boarded that it was a stripped down and set-up for handicapped with many amenities removed. We complained the 1st day to the ship guest services. They told us the ship was full and there was nothing they could do. We got lucky and in the middle of the cruise someone got off the ship and we were able to move to a regular suite, Carnival refuses to give us a reimbursement for $400, We did get $200 ship credit but we lost 1 day of our vacation complaining and changing rooms. I would like the other $200 back since the merchandise that was promised was not as described. We felt like we were lied to and sold something we didn't want. On top of it my wife is going in for surgery in a few weeks and the handicap room didn’t make her feel comfortable,

We sailed on the Carnival Sensation on January 1st, 2012. We are constant cruisers and had avoided Carnival due to bad reviews, however we decided to give them a try. We were traveling with our extended family and chose Carnival because they said they would allow our grandson (5 months away from the age cutoff) to be with his sister in the 9-11 kids club. Once there, they refused and the Kids Director was extremely rude. He was put in a large group of 2-8 year olds with only 2 staff members watching them. Needless to say, he never returned. In addition, when entering Nassau, the boat collided with THE DOCK. This caused a lot of damage to the dock and we were concerned about the boat. No announcements or explanations were made at any time from any one in charge. Many people were concerned, but no information was forthcoming. Finally, my camera was stolen off the deck somehow while I was there. Customer service was "very sorry" but did nothing about it. There is very little kid friendly activities unless they are in the kids club. Even many of the "family friendly" events were anything but. While bad things can happen on any cruise, I don't think that rudeness by staff and a complete lack of any type of helpfulness is something any cruiser should have to deal with. Personally, I will return to Royal Caribbean and never book another Carnival cruise.

My wife and I went aboard the Carnival Splendor Dec 24th - Jan 1st, 2012 for the Holidays. We had to share our table with strangers at the golden pearl restaurant dinners which was aweful. Moreover, we complained to hostess Joanna & manager Gariel who were neither sympathetic nor helpful. Very dissapointing! We will tell our friends to think twice about Carnival cruises because of this.

I have a simple request.

We have booked 2 cabins on Carnival Liberty on Dec. 24th. Our sister is in the hospital and she is dying. She can die anytime and we sail in 10 days.

Try imagining having fun when you just buried your sister.

We would like to postpone the cruise until next year, but booking policy... not a chance

Booked 4 day cruise on carnival cruise lines july 2009 scheduled for december 2009 as 25th wedding anniversary getaway. Prepaid for a shore excursion in Freeport in october. Left on cruise as scheduled and took shore excursion as scheduled on monday in freeport bahamas. The cruise so far had been ok. Not as good as one we had previously taken as the service was definitely not up to par. On Tuesday upon arriving in Nassau, Bahamas, I attempted to withdraw funds from the ATM to take with us onshore to purchase souveniers and ride the bus to the beach. The ATM receipt advised that I had no funds available. I called the bank from my cell phone ($13.00) and was told that the funds I should have had available had been placed on hold by carnival cruises. I spoke with the customer service desk and was told that I had been billed for a shore excursion. I told them that the shore excursion had been paid for back in October. She told me that she knew that but they had to put through another charge in order for the tickets to be printed out. She apologized and said that the money had been returned to my sail and sign account and that I could use that to purchase whatever I wanted on the ship. I asked her to return the funds to my debit account so that I could get cash and she advised that she was sorry but any unused funds would be returned to the account after the completion of the cruise. I advised her that this was unacceptable because I needed cash in order to go ashore. Her response was that there was nothing she could do. We spent the day on the ship doing absolutely nothing worthwile, seeing Naussau Bahamas from the dock only. Some 25th wedding anniversary this turned out to be. We contacted ship management the day of debarkation and requested half of the cruise amount refunded or another cruise to this destination as recompense. We were issued a complaint number and told to call. We called the day after we returned home. Our funds had been returned to our account minus the $88 gratuity. We objected to that as the service was lousy and it was refunded but were told that while they were very sorry that this had happened, there was no way we would receive any further refund or cruise. They advised they had the right to hold funds at their discretion based on the spending exhibited on the cruise. We spent $8.99 on a picture the first day in Freeport which was applied to the sail and sign card. Carnival regularly puts a $50 hold on your card when you board then up to $200 per person while you are on board. I knew that and I knew that they would also charge me $11 per day per person for gratuities. The money they held was in addition to all of this that I had in the account already available for their holds. The money they held was for a service that had already been paid in full 2 months before the actual sailing. All I wanted was to be able to see Nassau up close and personal and their unnecessary hold on my available funds left me stranded with no cash and nowhere to go except their boat. We have since heard from them again as they again advised us that we would not received anything more from them regarding our complaint. We asked them not to send any additional cruise information via email or regular mail and no more phone calls from their agents and even this went unheeded as we recently received a flyer asking us when we were going to sail with them again. When the agent called again I asked him why he thought we should choose carnival after our experience. He told me I should have cashed a check at the service counter on the ship so that I could have had cash. Do you think anyone ever even offered this during any one of the 5 trips to the service desk? NO! Unbelievable.

When i board the ship i put my things in my stateroom and went to have fun. The next day when we getting off the ship in the bahamas i got ready to get off and i went to get my items; georgia id, birth certificate, 400.00 in cash, and my boarding pass, it was gone. And when i went to tell the ship security what they so called did i was not pleased what they call them self doing they just said it was nothing that they could they sent me home wit nothing i had to get home the best way i can cause that was the only money i had, i could not even pay for the parking at the port.

I booked a 6 day cruise out of Mobile. Tropical Storm Lee hit the coast the day we were suppose to board and leave. Because of the storm, the trip was delayed one day which caused the cruise line to be shorten the trip and one port of call to be canceled. Thus the trip was 2 days at sea, 12 hours in port and 2 days back home. Not my ideal of a fun trip. Thus I requested to cancel the trip. I was told I could not but they would give me 20 % discount back on the trip (two weeks after the trip). I know they do not control the whether but they should allow people to cancel, when they have shorten/change the trip because of a huricanne.
IF they have the right to change anything and I am expect to just except it, I suggest DONT USE THE CRUISE LINES ...FLY ! to the destination

I book a cruise for my family in 2 cabins at the same time. Instead of putting all of us in staterooms close to each other the day before the cruise they split the cabins and gave my Children 18, 21, 23 a upgraded cabin in the aft of the ship While I got stuck 2 deck below in the the midship. When I called to see if we could switch the cabins I was told this could not be done because the ship was full. When I mentioned that we only wanted to switch cabine they refered me to my agent. Who told me this was the cruiselines decision and there was nothing that could be done. When I told the cruise line and the agent that they had neglected the upgrade to the person who funed the trip they only offered an apology. Had I known this would be the best part of a Horrible cruise I would have cheerfully canceled the trip and donated my money to the cruise line who by all account desperately needs the revenue. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY. This was only a warning of how bad the company customer service policy is. I cruise every year this was the first and last I will ever be on a Carnival ship.

I received a post card saying I was chosen to receive a free cruise. The post card had the Carnival Cruise Line boat on it so I originally thought it was carnival all I needed to do was claim my prize by calling the 800 number on the card! Turns out you have to attend a 90 minute presentation that is Not a time share but a travel discount club. The membership fee is $8999.00 plus an annual fee of $299 for discounted travel fees: hotels airline tickets car rentals cruises ect... I listened to my gut that's said No Way! I was asked again to join by 2 other sales reps again I declined! I received my Free Cruise voucher which is a scam because in order to activate the voucher you must mail in a cashiers check for $249 by certified mail! :( the deposit is non refundable and Ultimate Executive Travel won't even talk to you on the phone or email until you activate your certificate! I was mislead by World Travel and would recommend to others not to waste your time even going to the over 90 minute more like 2 hour presentation!

I planned a vacation for July 9th - July 16, 2011 on the Carnival Miracle cruise Line. It turned out to be the cruise from hell. Carnival staff took my luggage in NY at the port. only to load it on to the norweign which was also leaving the same day. For 5 days i had no clothing to change into, I washed my underwear daily. and did lots of crying on this vacation. I'am one to understand that nothing is error proof. My concern is how the carnival staff treated me as a guest. I was treated as if I had forgotten my luggage. This was my forth vacation with Carnival and I am very surprised that they did not take full responsibility for my vacation being a total disaster. My cabin was 7109 It was a vacation I had longed for after the passing of my husband.

I have made oral and written complaints. But I didn’t get any responses. So I make this complain again. We were on board the carnival pride on March 27, 2011 and planned to celebrate my parents’ 50th marriage anniversary at Paradise island Bahams. My parents traveled all the way from China for this purpose. However, the ship didn’t go to Nassau due to the mechanical failure at Port Canaveral (Orlando), FL. The reason is that the crew failed to handle the situation appropriately by dropping the anchor too fast. As a direct impact, our celebration plan was totally ruined. So as a remedy, we booked a shore excursion at free port Bahamas, but not till the last minutes we didn’t learn that the shore excursion was canceled. The person in charge the excursion even lied to us that he noticed everyone at his/her cabin. The fact is that we stayed in the cabin till the last minute and no one ever knocked our door or left any notes at the door:. This incident left us stayed on the ship without any other choice; all other excursions were not available at that time/. This incident totally ruined our travel and our mood as well;. Last thing I want to complain is that during cruise disembarkation at Baltimore port, we were told to wait for a group people pass the gate first". We waited for 40 minutes until that group was gone; the crew member told we can’t *** on this side and we spend another 1:.5 hour lined up on the side of the ship/. Over all, the management of the ship was chaos, and the crew should take full response of missing the port of Nassau/.

I have made oral and written complains. But I didn’t get any responses. So I make this complain again. We were on board the carnival pride on March 27, 2011 and planned to celebrate my parents’ 50th marriage anniversary at Paradise island Bahams. My parents travelled all the way from China for this purpose. However, the ship didn’t go to Nassau due to the mechanical failure at Port Canaveral (Orlando), FL. The reason is that the crew failed to handle the situation appropriately by dropping the anchor too fast. As a direct impact, our celebration plan was totally ruined. So as a remedy, we booked a shore excursion at free port Bahamas, but not till the last minutes we didn’t learn that the shore excursion was cancelled. The person in charge the excursion even lied to us that he noticed everyone at his/her cabin. The fact is that we stayed in the cabin till the last minute and no one ever knocked our door or left any notes at the door. This incident left us stayed on the ship without any other choice; all other excursions were not available at that time. This incident totally ruined our travel and our mood as well. Last thing I want to complain is that during cruise disembarkation at Baltimore port, we were told to wait for a group people pass the gate first. We waited for 40 minutes until that group was gone; the crew member told we can’t take off on this side and we spend another 1.5 hour lined up on the side of the ship. Over all, the management of the ship was chaos, and the crew should take full response of missing the port of Nassau.

Carnival does a bait and switch, watch out for it. This is how one of them works, carnival promotes discounts on the site and then switches when you click on the site for the promo. In other words the promo isn't there and you have to click on something that favors them. This is a complete scam and is illegal wtadch people/peoples.

Booked a cruise with Carnival two days before my wife got laid-off. Paid for the extra insurance thinking we could cancel if something happened unexpectedly. Called them within three days to ask them to cancel the trip due to my wife's lay off. They refused because I had booked a cruise via their early-saver program that didn't allow for cancelations. That info was, of course, buried deep in their contract that you only see when you confirm your booking. They're total fraudsters. I say stay away. Or have your lawyer review the contract before you agree to booking anything with them. Also, the women who I discussed our situation with was argumentative, very rude and unsympathetic.

I booked a cruise on feb 18th, at that time I specifically asked the sales associate if my wife were to get pregnant what would I need to do to get my money back. He said cancel before the refund deadline or buy the trip insurance. I asked so the trip insurance will cover pregnancy and he said yes. I purchased 300 dollars of trip insurance and went about my time. One month later we find out my wife is pregnant so I call to cancel. Now there is a 750 charge to cancel my trip, I say well I bought the insurance they say well pregnancy is not covered under that plan.