Carnival Cruise Lines
Reviews and Complaints

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.

Not being a first time cruiser I was rather supprise at the level of service received by myself and the 27 other people that were in my unusal small group of only 8 cabins. Dinner service started off bad with people with poor communication skills to being served cold food by the time it got to the table as well as a unfriendly wait staff to our kids. By the second night we had spoke to the manager of the dinning room and was moved downstairs were we treated like roalty by the new waiter and his assitantant. Camp carnival had the most unkind staff. We leave our 3 kids in a day care center durnning the week and comes monday mornning that they want to be back there again. The other thing that was very distubing was said by a crew meber holding an event on the deck where we sitting poolside. That the cruise would be better with out kids on board to bad you could not afford to leave the kids at home. When we went to complain every body said call customer service and when you call customer service they say you should have done on the ship. To end on more of a sour note customer service sends back a letter 1 week later to say they were sorry about what happen but please come sail with us again and when I try to reach the people I spoke to already I cant get them on the phone. I guess with us already planning our next cruise now for 2012 we will be on royal caribbean

Talk about trailer trash on a cruise.
A group of so called men on a "divorce cruise" drunk beyond reason and shouting their play by play sexual encounters loud enough for all to hear.
At 7am lido deck, with families going to breakfast, women and children in earshot, while soaking in a hot tub (they should have drowned) these fools decided to re live their frat party days. To bad for them they seemed in late 20's to early 30's. A little to old to act the fool.
The real travesty is the security team nearby, one man and one woman, did nothing to quiet this boorish group.
Even after being approached by offended guest trying to protect the innocence of nearby children, the security man could only make the ridiculous statement that they are prohibited from engaging with guests who behave badly. The guy has got to be wrong; a letter is going out to Carnival Cruise line for an explanation.

I recently had planned to go on my first cruise with Carnival Cruise Lines. My entire family have been using Carnival for over 15 years. I was in the military so I did not have time to travel since I stayed deployed to war zones. My family was excited that this was the first time in over 20 years our entire family was able to get together. My sister and her husband had both retire from the Navy and myself from the US Air Force. We all served 30 years each. I had never cruise and everyone told me it would be a great time. I listen to my Carnival Cruise Agent. (Raul Lorie) He informed me that all I needed to cruise was a birth certificate and a photo ID. I had checked with him on 3 different times about this information. He insisted that this is all the paperwork I would need. Well after waiting months to leave. My wife and I arrived with my brother and his new wife in Miami Florida. We just spent 2 days traveling down to Miami since we wanted to do the trip first class. We stayed in very nice hotels near the port. We arrived at the port and checked in. Only to have Carnival Cruise personnel tell me that my wife would not be able to cruise since her birth certificate was issued by a hospital. This was the first time we had heard this information. We did not print off our boarding passes or luggage tags since my sister did this for everyone traveling on the cruise. My family had booked I believe 9 cabins on the Carnival Glory leaving on the 13th of Feb 2011. Most of family was celebrating some type of anniversary. The Carnival agent informed me that we needed my wife vital certificate card. We called our daughter at College and asked her to go to our home and get the card faxed to Carnival. We did this only to have Carnival change their minds and say this is not good enough. They told me and my brother that it was a immigration law and that they could be fined by federal government. The agent(Dominque and Jason) told us to go the immigration office at the end of port and asked them to look at our paperwork to see if we could get back into the USA. I took my vehicle out of parking at a cost of 20.00 bucks. I went to the office and spoke to Officer Morrell and the Major and Lt in charge of the shift. They said we had more paperwork than needed. (Birth Certificate, Marriage License, Military ID, State Issue Driver's License). They actual called Carnival Cruise Lines for me and spoke to Evette. They explained to Evette that my wife paperwork was fine to get back into the USA without problem. Evette told them to send me back to ship that we only had 2 hours left to get on the ship. Now we arrived at 9:45 and the ship leaves at 4:00 Pm I got back to the port and went to the embarkation office to see Evette. They paged her and she came out and told me. She had to go to the Supervisor Office to let them know we were cleared by Immigrations. After waiting nearly a hour and half another Agent came out and told me that regardless of what immigrations says that Carnival Cruise Policy (POLICY) is that they do not allow customers to cruise on Hospital Birth Certificate. No matter what our Carnival Cruise Agent told us. So we sat and watch the ship leave. The agents were just giving me and wife the run around. I told them they kept us there all day. They stated we could have left at anytime. I told the agent this was not true since they had our luggage onboard the ship and it had not been returned to us. A few seconds later several porter came by me with my luggage and I said to them that is my luggage. They actual dropped the bags and left without a single word. Now my wife has cancer and I am disable vet. I asked for help with the bags but it came on deaf ears. We struggled to get our bags back down stairs and loaded into the car. The agent told me to have a nice trip home and that I could fly to Nassau on Wednesday and catch up with the cruise there. She explained this would give my time to get a good birth certificate for my wife. Now the birth certificate she intended to use was used to enter the military, get married, registered to vote etc. So we left to head back to Columbia SC. It took us almost 2 days to get home. When I got home on the 14th of Feb. I called our agent to let him know about the trouble. He insisted that a hospital birth certificate was good and that he would call first thing on the 15th to get this resolved. Now my entire family is on the boat and their cruise was damaged since we were not there to enjoy it with them. Our agent did not call us like he said he would. I ended calling him. After staying on hold and having to call 4 times I finally got through to Carnival. Carnival cruise said that we would only get a refund for our taxes and port fees. Our cabin money my father put into each cabin would be lost as well. My father gave us 1500.00 for christmas present for our use while on the cruise. Well after sitting at home for 2 days and finally convincing my wife to fly to Nassau and catch up on the crusie. We obtained her birth certificate from GA on our way home. I went to the Airport to buy the tickets only to find out I can fly to Nassau on birth certificate as previous told to me by Carnival agent. So I called Carnival again to let them know I was given more bad information. The Supervisor told me there was another problem with flying to Nassau. Since our ship was in ST Thomas instead of Nassau. Now after everything that has happened no response from Carnival at all. My family has complained as well. Still No response from Carnival after waiting more than a month. I hear they have a lot of complaints to handle. I have a GOOD Suggestion for Carnival. Do the right thing by your customers and you will have a lot less complaints. It can take years to earn a customer but only a few seconds to loose one or never get one in my case. I just wanted to let everyone know how Carnival handles their Vets and Cancer Patients. A cruise ship is nothing more than a floating HOTEL. I have never received such poor service from any company in the world. I have travel all over the world in my past 30 years in the military. I had hope for a resolution by now or at least a call or letter or email or something. Doing Nothing is unacceptable. Thanks for nothing other than bad memories.