Carnival Cruise Lines
Reviews and Complaints

I booked my June 2008 cruise nearly a year in advance. At that point there were three to share our cabin. One had to cancel. I was told there would be a $250 penalty and agreed. Initially there was no charge for the fuel supplement, $70 per cabin. I was charged on March 31 even though on March 31, Carnival announced they would refund fuel charges for passengers booking prior to the announcement which came in November 2008.

I received receipts from my travel agent showing what was to be refunded which agreed with the figures I had anticipated. Somehow a refund of $971.53 became $621.33. Despite numerous calls to my travel agent and to Carnival, I was told I could not have it explained because I went through a travel agent. The travel agent tells me Carnival won't tell her anything 'It's just how Carnival does business'. I have disputed the charge with my credit card company.

Even a letter to the president of Carnival yielded 'Guest Relations Manager has discussed my inquiry'. The only thing the Guest Relations Manager discussed with me was that she could not discuss it with me. The travel agent says she doesn't know. Well, I know my $350.20 went somewhere. I guess I will file a complaint with the Florida Attorney General's Office, regarding both the travel agent and Carnival. Accountability please!

Date: 11/23/08

Carnival,

Please find following a copy of an email that was sent today for the second time to the Cruise Director of the Glory. We have yet to receive a response from the email that was provided in a caper for this person. The written statement pertaining to the altercation with your crewmember is likely to be of great interest to your company. This cruise was by no means acceptable, and your pursers refused to assist in correcting the problems. We were told “if you leave the boat, you lose your cruise fare”. We asked, “what about the guarantee?” All that was said to that was, “does not apply to act of God” The blonde (can’t remember her name, but she was from the country of Hungary) said she would notate our complaint.) The manager was even unable assist in any way. (wonder if you’ll be able to find that complaint, or any of the other 100’s that were in line with us that day, getting the same responses?)

Now even after all these other problems, the one and most respected of the whole cruise will not even respond to us. This is proving more and more par for the course.

Is this normal and routine for your company? What is your plan of action to correct these problems? Or is there a plan to correct them, or just to try and avoid them? What should be “our” next move? Can, OR WILL, anyone please tell us?

Thank you,

Donnie and Amanda Nichols
DnA Services, LLC
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RESEND OF EMAIL FROM NOVEMBER 20, 2008 – HAVE NOT HAD A RESPONSE - DONNIE NICHOLS

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From: DnA [mailto:[protected]@knology.net]
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 1:35 PM
To: '[protected]@yahoo.com'
Subject: Glory 11-13-08 approx. 2300 hrs.

Butch,

My name is Donnie Nichols, I had the misfortune of scheduling a cruise with Carnival for the week of Nov. 8th on the Glory. The week started badly when with two hours before boarding while still at the hotel, we called the “hot-line” to see if the cruise would be diverted due to the hurricane. “no it is not” was there answer. We were wanting to know because my wife is a travel agent and had made our own arrangements on each island rather than the “normal” touristy things that are provided by most agencies. We like to get away from the large tourist “trap” areas and see the real life of the places we go. Well, knowing that hurricanes are “bad” as we live and work as a Police officer on the Gulf Coast, we knew that the cruise was most likely going to be changed. This would give us a couple of hours before leaving land to make some changes even if it was using aircard on our computer. This would avoid the high cost of the internet on board the boat and the high cost of phone calls. (which these ended up adding up to over $200, time it was done) anyway. As we walk up to the boat. Then we find out that the route has been changed. “hotline” not know what is going on? Or just waiting to get everybody there so less people drop out.

OK, the ticket agents tell us unless we get on the boat, we will loose all our ticket money. We had to go to the pursers office. When we get to the pursers office. All they would say is “ we cant do anything about this.” “we will notate your complaint.” My wife even went to the deck to call the main phone line of Carnival and attempt to get help that way to only be told “the pursers is the only one that can help you.” Talk about a run around. “AND SHE IS A TRAVEL AGENT, ” All we were asking was for sometime of restitution for the added costs of having to reroute our selves. Like maybe not be charged for the internet or phone calls or credit for some amount to our sail and sign card for these services. Again, NO HELP. So, you can see, we started this, our first taste of cruising with a very bad aroma. There were two other couples with us. One of them had their room registered under the wrong name. Did not get the “returning guest” items they were expecting. The meals we had been told of and seen on brochures never had the beautiful carved food or ice sculptures. Playing the game of the Ninjas, my wife and her two friends together found him the first night, he promised they would receive the two “trophies” to make up the total of three. It took a total of eight phone calls to the purser over three days for these to be seen. The second night, of this search, my wife and I met two other young ladies that were also looking, he was to be near the glass elevator. We must have missed him by a minute of two because that was our first place looking, along with the other ladies. After about 45 minutes of up and down the glass elevators and to all the floors, (looking like idiots) we finally called the pursers desk to find out if the ninja had been found or if he would still be on station. They advised he was not found and he stayed on station until he was found. We looked for another 20 or so minutes until one of the other crew members called someone and told us that the ninja was found right where we had been looking.

The next night the ninja was to be at the wine bar. We were 20 minutes early with our two other couples, and four other people we did not know. The ninja did not show up. The crewman that said he was in charge of the ninja came by and took care of getting us our trophies.

Now to the night of 11/13/08 at about 2300 hours my wife and I had been to the casino bar a couple of times but with the crowd would not afford a seat for us to be near the guy providing the country music. We could tell he sounded great. On this night as we passed through the bar we saw there was very few patrons sitting near the stage area. We decided this was awesome and sat in the couch about 12 feet from the stage. It only took about two songs to realize why no one was around. There was a white male and a white female carrying on a conversation at the corner of the bar nearest the stage. This conversation was at such a volume level that even over the music (which we were near the speaker) we could understand the content of the words the two were saying. The male was talking about his day off the boat. I recognized this gentleman as one of the Carnival Crew. This continued over several more songs. I approached this gentleman after a time in hopes that my introducing myself as a guest on this boat and that we could understand their conversation, he would cease in his actions. Another gentleman that was there with him, looked at me and told me that I “better leave here, before you piss me off”. I told that subject that “thanks to these two, I’m already there, dude.” I chose to walk away at this time rather than proceed with the confrontation. I was unsure if this second individual was a crewmember or not.

I went to my cabin, but, it continued to boil in me that a crewmember had been running people off from such entertainment. I called to Guest Services and wound up in the security office over this deal.

I later learned that we could have requested to be refunded our unused portion of our trip and been returned home by plane at the first Non-US port. Had we known this, We would have done this. This was absolutely not what we were told. The pursers stated. If we left the boat we lost the cruise and our money.

The Murder mystery, solved it and the murderer was to be the art auctioneer. When talking with the one that originally gave the story, we questioned that the art auctioneer was not a suspect. He told us that at the last minute the auctioneer had been changed. It was supposed to have been the Spa Manager. We questioned that because that was not our suspect. He again told us that the spa mgr was to have been the auctioneer. My wife even talked with him about how she didn’t see “that lady talking that fast”. So as we know, spa mgr was not the murderer. Was this a crewmember being mischievous or plain wrong.

The principle of this cruise had merit. I think under other circumstances we may have enjoyed it. But, we were not helped to overcome the things that were defeating the good. You as a cruise director appeared to do great. The ideas on here were great. The Ninja was fun, looking for an hour after he left, PISSED ME OFF. Looking for one that does not show up. PISSED ME OFF. The crew member that was louder than the entertainment on speakers. PISSED ME OFF. Pursers desk that never answered one question for us or our friends, (and they are supposed to be the know-it-alls ) PISSED ME OFF.

My question is, “is this normal actions on Carnival Cruises, and what actions were taken in reference to the crew member that created the problems of 11/13/08. I am afraid that we have been turned away from cruising again, or at least from cruising with Carnival. I know she will think hard as a travel agent, before suggesting Carnival. I know she is only a new, single agent, but, she is with a very large agency. We had hoped this trip would be the first of many for us, as we are reaching a station of life where we are much more able to take “real vacations” not just a “day at the beach” in the past eight years, we have been to and spent time in Jamaica, Hawaii, Washington DC, and now “HELL WEEK” on Carnival Glory. It definitely was a let down.

Thank You and awaiting your reply, Donnie Nichols

We booked with Carnival because their brochure (confirmed by our travel agent) promised shore excursions for 14-17 yr. old teens as part of their "O2" club. We have a 16 yr. old who doesn't want to spend his days visiting museums with his parents. NO shoe excursions materialized and we complained complaint to the Purser and requested to speak to the Teen Director ; he never contacted us. We changed our shore plans to accomodate or reluctant son. He was very unhappy. This was a material misrepresentation made in writing by Carnival.
Our room on Freedom, #1367, was directly over a service hatch and we were interrupted by constant banging. Luggage, garbage were off/on loaded at each port. On our last night, we were wakened at 4:44 am by 30 minutes of metallic ratcheting as we came into port. So much for arriving "rested". This cabin should not have been rented without full disclosure of these problems and then, only at a discount.
Carnival offered a "low brow" cruise experience. The food was unexciting and my wife passed on dinner rather than eat their gorp. For several nights the Cruise Director campaigned for tips for the staff and Maitre D'. It was tawdry.

Carnival Cruise serves carnival food - If you only like corn dogs and cotton candy great! If not, stay off the ship. 09/10/2008

If the name fits wear it! Carnival may be big, but you do get what you pay for. If you've cruised Celebrity, Royal or others you'll be greatly disappointed with Carnival Cruise Lines. Pack your breakfast, lunch and dinner because the food quality still lives up to the companies historical complaints regarding food quality. It may look good, but wax food examples would taste much better than what you'll actually eat. Reality is that many who have cruised with Carnival say that the food tastes like you were eatting at a carnival. If you like corn dogs and cotton candy then you'll love Carnival Cruise Lines quality, or should we say lack of quality. Dry, undercooked, cold and greasy seem to be the trend. If you ever remember the worse food you've eatten, Carnival food is below that. Don't even try to complain. Nothing will gain you any satisfaction. Even if you bring your complaint to the Presidents office, it will fall on deaf ears. It's a classic case of take your money and run. Don't be fooled by the company wanting to "Exceed your expectations." Service is good if things are good. If you have a complaint the service is horrible, unskilled and lacking pure common sense. The horrible service drops so quickly, it's like a sinking ship! Do your research. Don't end up gravely frustrated and disappointed. It's your hard earned money and your vacation you've waited all year for. Spend it on a cruise line that pride themselves in service, quality and most importantly - integrity.

My boyfriend and I just got back from a 7 day cruise on the Carnival Triumph, The Eastern Caribbean Cruise. It was the worst experience of my life. I spent a lot of money to travel from California to Miami to go on my one vacation of the year and it was all ruined by Carnival. It was my boyfriend’s birthday and he was completely let down as well. First off, they knew before we boarded the ship that they were going to have to cancel the Bahamas port, and didn’t tell anyone until we were already on the ship and moving, which was so horrible. They said it was the weather, although on the way back the Bahamas port was great and sunny, but they still kept us on the boat the whole time. We had 5 days at sea and only were able to get off the ship two times. The service was the worst I have ever experienced. The people were rude, and grumpy. Everything fun to do cost money, and the free activities were repeated, exactly the same. They were soo boring, I would rather have sat in my stateroom, which was dirty, and I had holes in my sheets. Blood Stains on my sheets. It was disgusting; they play the movies over and over again instead of having new ones daily, like advertised. The food, o my, where do I start, the food was just plain disgusting. I eggs every morning were soggy. The bacon stuck in clumps and tasted horrific. The lunch was hard, chewy, most of the time overcooked, whatever it may be, and if you ordered a chicken sandwich and opened it up to take off what you asked them to not put on in the beginning, you would find that there was barely any chicken on it at all, once time in my Chicken Fajita Wrap I opened it up to find ONE piece of hard chicken, it was awful. I threw up almost every meal, because it caused me a stomach ache. When they told us they were canceling the Grand Turk port. They offered us $20.00 a person, just like they did with the Bahamas port. Can you believe that, from a $2000.00 dollar cruise, I saw 2 places, and got $40.00 bucks back. All my excursion were canceled and it took days to receive my refund. Which still has not posted to my bank account? I won money in the casino, which was great, but nowhere near compensated for the time, money, efforts, and everything else I put into trying to make this a nice cruise for my boyfriend’s birthday. I would have been happier staying home. I found out Royal Caribbean was at the Bahamas the 5 day we were at sea, why could they have not taken us to the their private owned island? Because another one of their ships were using it? Come on... we were supposed to go there earlier in the week, why not take us there on the way back, because they knew the more they kept us on the ship, the more money they made, on drinks, games, gambling, and all the other bogus activities they had that somehow always cost money. I felt totally freaked out by all the characters they had as well, they would pretty much force you to take pictures with these creepy looking things. So annoying. Someone trying to sell you something everywhere you looked. The sushi was the worst, totally fishy, and pretty much I had the worst vacation of my life. I have cruised Royal Caribbean before, and it was a wonderful experience, in fact it was also in hurricane season, September, and it was an amazing time. The ship was cleaner, the food was sooo wonderful, the service/people working on the boat was wonderful, and the activities were amazing ;) If you want to cruise, take Royal Caribbean ;)

This was our second (and last) time on the Glory, the first time with two teenagers. The teen club manager let them play truth or dare with physical contact and did nothing to stop this kind of activity. If you didn't participate in their activities he would call you "gay". Our teens didn't even like going there after the second day. Not enough alternate activity to participate in. We paid extra to have a balcony room but were told on one of the days that we weren't allowed to go out on the balcony during that day so they could clean them. I used to love being a part of the talent show but now they only let you audition to imitate one of their legends and no choice of song. It's okay, except they force you to wear wigs and ungodly outfits or you're out and they treat you like you're a diva if you dare ask not to wear the wig. (I was belittled and caught the costume person talking about me to another dancer). I paid a lot of money for 4 of us to do this, I don't need to be imitated or belittled by some little ship dancer! The ship's excursions were way overpriced. The Purser's desk would take calls while you were in line and then roll their eyes to the customers in line if they person on the phone didn't understand what they were saying. Not only did I lose money in the laundry room but I lost money in one of the machines in the casino and the attendant just shrugged his shoulders and walked away! Our head waiter was great but had to do twice the work of the second waiter and you can't change the ratio of their tips, they are charged together. Best to take cash and have the tips taken off your room so you can tip the people who work hard and not the ones who don't. We did this but when we asked the Purser to change this, we got big attitude. The Red, White and Blue contest was fun but when we went to our "rally" for the white team, as soon as I walked in a dancer smeared white makeup on my face without asking! What if you're allergic? I had to go back to my room and wash it off and missed most of the fun part. Don't fall for the "you can use your cell phone and computer" advertising. Oh you CAN use them, but at a high international roaming on the cell and you have to pay for wifi and can only use it in certain areas anyway. It was my 12th cruise. I had already booked my 13th on Carnival this fall but not sure if I'll actually go. I think I'll cruise Royal Caribbean or Princess instead.

Passengers engaging in sexual behavior on the decks in front of young children. Only one pool for ALL those people? The beef could not be chewed! Never met the captain. And my brand new suitcase had wooden splinters in it! I'm wondering why I got a Carnival credit card to build points for another cruise when now I'm wondering if I'll ever go on another Carnival Cruise! Obviously, this was an extremely disappointing cruise. One elevator was broken on several occasions. I scheduled a massage & waited 28 minutes because the person before me was late. Nobody said a word to me. Instead I sat like a *** waiting. An unsatisfactory cruise all the way around!

On July 28, 2008: It's seems to be like a beautiful day. It's the first cruise that I've with my family. A five days cruise. Wow, very exciting. Around 11am to 12pm before registration my boarding pass inside the building, I left all my luggages to the carnival staffing team in front of the building so they can deliver them to my room. It's extremely a breathtaking experience while touring around the ship... Around 4pm, while approaching to my room, I realize one of my luggage is missing, omg. Instead of giving me my proper luggages, it was replace by a black purse. Obviously, I returned it and ask for my backpack that is filled with all my camera equipments. The Carnival staffs told me that I will be getting all my luggages by 8pm. The day is definitely getting very gloomy. The trip is really a frustrating cruise. They never found my luggage. I made myself look like a fool because I was at the information desk almost few hours to ask the whereabouts for my luggage.

THE CROOKS STOLE MY BACKPACK! BECAUSE OF NOT BUYING TRAVEL INSURANCE, CARNIVAL CRUISE INFORMATION DESK TOLD ME THAT THEY NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR MY DISAPPEARANCE OF MY LUGGAGE!

IT'S NOT HARD TO BACK TRACK TO FIND OUT WHO LAST HANDLED MY PERSONAL BELONGINGS. DEFINITELY BAD MANAGEMENT SYSTEM! EITHER THIEVES PROTECTED BY CROOKED MANAGEMENT SYSTEM! OR UNPROFESSIONAL BAGGAGE HANDLERS DELIVERING TO WRONG ROOM NUMBERS, STILL PROTECTED BY CROOKED MANAGEMENT NOT WILLING TO BACKTRACK AND INVESTIGATE.

IT'S DEFINITELY A FRUSTRATING AND SANDING TRIP. DON'T LET ANY CARNIVAL CRUISE STAFFS HANDLE YOUR IMPORTANT PERSONAL BELONGINGS OR ELSE YOU MIGHT END UP TO BE IN A WORSE SHIP EVER... TO THIS DATE, I HAVE NOT GOTTEN ANY WORDS WITH MY LUGGAGE...

I went on a Carnival Cruise on The Sensation and I meet a very nice gentlemen name Giovanni 2nd engineer. He was very respectful. My friends and I had a wonderful time with him. Talking, walking and just having fun. I tried looking him up after the cruise and i find out that he is not on the ship but at home. This strange, crazy, wrongful, issue is caused by a complaint from a scornful jealous women of sorts. This complaint is because he was with me and some friends and not her. It is unfair and wrong that he is not continuing his work due to one lonely, vindictive women. Who only wanted to hurt him anyway she could. This is simply wrong. If one angry women can cost him his work then several very very happy professional women insist his work as 2nd engineer continue!

My family and I (wife and two children) took a 5 day cruise on the Carnival Inspiration going to Cozumel, Mexico and Grand Cayman Islands departing on March 29, 2008 and returning on April 3, 2008 from Tampa, Florida. I paid $3107.12 for two rooms for this voyage.

We left port in Tampa, Florida and on the following day were notified that we would only go to Cozumel, Mexico and not Grand Cayman Islands due to mechanical problems with the ship’s propulsion system. We received notification via letter and over the intercom.

The only compensation we received for these problems is $50 added to our sail and sign cards and a 25% discount on a future 3-5 day cruise departing prior to December 15, 2009 and they say this excludes holiday travel.

I believe that the problems experienced by Carnival is a reflection of the organization cutting corners to save money to included taking short cuts on maintenance. I also believe that we should not bear the burden of their bad decisions. If I hadn’t paid the complete cost of the voyage, we would not have been allowed to travel on Carnival. It was their expectation to receive full payment prior to travelling. It was my expectation to travel to Cozumel, Mexico and Grand Cayman Islands on a 5 day cruise. That is what we (the cruise line and I) agreed to, that was what I paid for, and that is what I expected. The only circumstance that should have interfered with this plan was weather problems.

However upon these change of events, Carnival Cruise Line management felt that the only compensation we deserved was $50 and the opportunity to spend another $500-$1000 on their ships (my family and I spend about $1000 on this cruise outside of paying for the trip itself) at a future date, and then they place restrictions on using this discount. I have no intentions of travelling on Carnival again so I guess we are screwed.

I looked on the Carnival website and noticed that they have a 4 day cruise to Cozumel, Mexico from Tampa, Florida. In my opinion, we took a 4 day cruise because we only went to one location during this trip. The organization should take the lost on the extra day for inconveniencing their customers. I looked at the cost of the exact same accommodations my family had on this cruise and found the cost to be $532.74 per person including tax and the fuel surcharge. The cost per person for our voyage was $776.78 including tax and fuel surcharge. This is a difference of $194.04 after subtracting the $50 credit to my sail and sign card. This difference multiplied by 4 (my family) is $776.16.

I have no intention of travelling on Carnival Cruise Line ever again and believe that they owe me $776.16 for the maintenance deficiencies and not fulfilling their commitment to my family.

My husband and I decided to take a cruise for our honeymoon. We were first time cruisers and relied on the vacation specialists at Carnival to help us get the best out of our experience. Carnival provided us with our very own vacation planning specialist. He was very pleasant and helpful and answered all of our questions and helped make the process easy.

My husband has ALS/Lou Gehrigs's Disease and is 99% wheelchair bound. In speaking with our vacation specialist I stressed the need for a wheelchair accessible room with handicap bathroom. He stated it was no problem. He actually told us that for a little more, he could upgrade us to a balcony suite. I asked him over and over again about the wheelchair accessibility and handicapped accessibility for this room, and he stated it would be the same, the room itself would just be bigger. We thought this sounded good and booked it. We were really excited about our trip.

We got the the ship, check in was a breeze. We got to our room and the wheelchair could not fit through the door. There were no rooms available. The ship was full. My husband is six feet tall 260 pounds. I am five foot three inches. To get him in the room, I had to help lift him out of the chair, help him balance and have him lean on my shoulders to walk him over to the bed to sit down. I then checked the bathroom. The was about a foot step up into the bathroom. This was going to be another problem. It was. For the next four days, It would take us a half an hour to just get my husband into the bathroom to take a shower. Then another 20 minutes to get him out. He needs assistance using the restroom and so every time he needed to go, we had to go back to our room. I had to lift him from his chair take him to the bed so he could use the urinal we brought so he wouldn't have to try to get up into the bathroom.

Overall we had a good time, we didn't let these things ruin our honeymoon, it just made it a little harder to enjoy. I now know a little more about cruising will never let this happen again.

My wife and I are booked on a cruise to Mexico which leaves on January 9th, 2008.

About two weeks ago my wife fell off a ladder and broke five ribs. I am 78 years old and she is 73 years old. At our age that is a pretty serious injury, of which I am sure you are well aware.

My wife called Carnival and explained the situation. She then asked if it were possible to postpone the cruise to a later date. She was informed that to cancel the cruise would entail a fee of around six hundred dollars. My wife explained that she does not wish to cancel the cruise. We are both very much looking forward to this cruise. She was told that it did not matter, she would still have to pay that fee if we did not go on the cruise as scheduled. The person she spoke to kept saying that this was the standard cancellation fee. The person she spoke to would not accept the fact that we did not want to cancel the cruise. We simply wished to go at a later date due to my wife's injuries. The person she spoke to became more and more belligerent bringing my wife almost to the point of tears. This person finally just hung up cutting my wife off in mid sentence.

To take a seventy-three year old woman who has suffered great trauma and severe physical pain, verbally abuse her and then hang up on her as she tries to explain her position, is certainly no way to engender good will and insure future business for The Carnival Cruise Line.

My wife is determined to take the cruise no matter how sick she may be because we cannot afford to spend that much money on nothing. But you may rest assured that anyone we meet on that cruise will know how The Carnival Line treats its senior citizen passengers.

Sailed on September 1st, 2007 for a 7 day cruise with my mother who is 68. One of the first things that happen before you disembark is a fire drill, which is totally understandable. Well, its hot in September and there were a lot of people engaging in this fire drill~to make a long story short, my mother fainted right outside Floor 5 by the casino. I immediately called over to the bartender in the casino area to have the paramedics (or nurse) on board for help. She was out cold. She could have had a stroke, heat stroke, or possibly died, and no one showed up to help! Again, frantic calls to the bartender, who probably didn't know any English just looks at me with the deer in the headlights look. Finally a man stopped and stayed with me and my mother until she regained conscientious. I practically had to BEG for a wheel chair to get my mom back into the room. So much was just wrong with this cruise and I will not get into detail, but please be forewarned, I would NEVER go on this cruise line again, and this was my second cruise with them. BUYER BEWARE!

Our family cruised in 2001 and I recently discovered that my husband has been carrying on a 6 year internet relationship with a Carnival waitress who he met on the ship. I am disgusted by the intimate content of the messages which they exchanged. The waitress gave my husband her e-mail address before we left the ship. My husband is no saint to have responded. We are in couselling to try to save our marriage. Be assured that this was our first and LAST cruise!

My husband and I recently cruised on the Carnival Freedom, a brand new ship which departed from Rome, Italy. This was our dream vacation, a 12-day Mediterranean cruise visiting Italy, Croatia, Sicily, France and Spain. But our dream trip quickly became our worst nightmare. It all began when we missed a connection stateside due to weather delays. We were put on another flight and our bags were lost in transit. When we arrived in Rome, we immediately made a claim with our airline and we did the same thing on-board the Freedom. We were assured that our bags would likely catch up with us in the first or second port. They didn't. In fact, my husband didn't receive his luggage for 10 days! I never received mine. Upon arrival at the Rome airport on our way home, I was finally able to locate my luggage which according to the airline sticker had been sitting at that airport for 11 days!

On the Carnival Freedom, we were repeatedly told by the pursers Carnival had agents in the airport checking for bags daily. If that was the case, why were they unable to find ours? Maybe because they weren't actually looking? My bag had a carnival tag on it with the ships name and my name which was visible from the top of the bag. In addition, there was another tag with my name and address visible from the outside, and a copy of my passport was placed inside the bag. The bag was being held by the Spanish airline, Iberia, who we were originally scheduled to come to Rome on. However, when we missed our connection, we were put on Air France instead. We repeatedly asked Air France agents as well as the carnival pursers to tell their people in Rome to search with Iberia. Apparently, they didn't.

In addition to the baggage trouble, Carnival refused to do anything to make our plight a little more bearable. Specifically, we asked if they would wash our clothes for us since we only had 2 changes of clean clothes, which got a little stinky after a few days. They refused. In addition, while in Venice, we were told our bags had been forwarded there, but the customs agents were refusing to release the bags to Carnival. So we asked if they would pay for a transfer for us to go and get our bags. They said no. We went with two other couples who were also missing luggage and we paid 70 Euros for this trip. We took taxi's. We didn't find our bags there, but the other couples did. Carnival refused to reimburse us.

Upon our return to the States, I wrote two letters, one to Air France and one to Carnival detailing the specifics of our trip and asking for compensation. From Carnival, we requested to be refunded for half of what we had paid for the trip. We just received a letter back stating that they are not responsible and cannot offer any compensation. Typical. Needless to say, we will NEVER cruise with Carnival again! Not only that, we will make it our life's mission to make as many posts we can and tell as many people as we can how awful our experience was in hopes that they will never cruise Carnival either. We were grossly disappointed with everything about this cruise. Besides the baggage, everything was over-priced, the service was mediocre and the people were often rude. I hope that everyone considering a Carnival cruise will seriously consider going with a different cruise line. We went with Carnival because it was the cheapest. We now know why.

To: Carnival Cruise Paradise,

We sailed on the 6-1-07 weekend, I played bingo in the Normendy room for the grand prize to be a cruise giveaway. I won on card number 91695. The numbers would be B 2,5 I 20,23 G 50, 57 O70,62 this makes the letter X. The last number called was B2. They said they could not give the cruise to , two people so what they did was the next ball out of the machine. It was to be who would get the highest number. Well the person on stage said since the other lady got to the stage first she could have the first ball out,which is totally unfair considering the fact she was on the first floor and I was not, not to mention I am handicap. The other unfair thing is you could plainly see te ball was an ) ball ... tell me who doesn't know that , that is a high number. Needless to say she won the free cruise with O67 and I was given G47 and a bottle of Champagne. How unfair is this? I was completely outraged. It put a damper on the rest of the cruise. I was reminded how unfair it was but people on the pool deck, for they recognized me, also at the dining room or dinner. Ladies from two other tables came over to say how unfair it all was. It's hard enough to win let alone win and then lose. I have such a bad taste in my mouth due to this I am not so sure I can get past this. Everytime Carnival Cruise comes up this horrible story does to. This does not make for good advertisement for your line. I would appreciate an explanation of this behavior. Cindy MacDonald... Cindy. [protected]@yahoo.com

We went on a New Years Carnival Ecstasy cruise to celebrate a wedding anniversary. The previous Ecstasy return voyage was several hours late to port according to officials on shore prior to departure. As a result, embarkation was a nightmare, with 2 hour waits to board. Because we were the last in priority of the three cruise ships to load potable water for the trip, the port water pressure was very low by our turn. Consequently, we left over 8 hours late. We missed our first port of call (Cozumel) by 10 hours, and had only 1 or 2 hours of real daylight there, depending on how long it took you to get off the boat, so we had most of the excursions cancelled or shortened, some on the mainland dock as we lined up to leave. Because of the high number of excursion cancellations ,we waited for over an hour to attempt to find an alternative. There were also water pressure problems on the boat during the cruise, resulting in either no water (all morning) to rusty water later. We had water pressure problems for one entire morning, and rusty water for several hours afterward. Because of the dire need to make up for time, the boat was pushed to its limits, causing pitching and rocking that made us sick the entire first day. We had very limited activities on board and no compensation for the missed excursions/late port of call. The second port was also abbreviated due to "unforeseen circumstances with the port authorities waiting to approve our docking" (why do we have to wait over an hour if they know we are arriving? Whats THAT all about?). The lunch buffet was unfit to eat, consisting of vegetables (of which we would not eat, not knowing the cleaning standards of the ourdoor buffet) and some breadsticks. When we returned to the ship, and complained to request our money back, the lines were always long at the Shore Excursion booth, with ONE person attending at excursion times, and during complaints. When you finally got to the head of the line, they either sent you back to the info booth to repeat the story again, and then you were told to return at a later time, wait your turn again that you had to come back when the purser was there and available to answer your questions. We were finally told we HAD we had to complain to Miami, that they were NOT authorized to reimburse any amounts to customers. Now we are being told by Miami that if we did not correct the problems and notify the purser to remedy them immediately, once we left the ship the complaints will not be resolved. There has to be some sort of guarantee of performance these cruise lines are required to provide. If not, someone SOMEWHERE should find a way to put them out of business until they deliver what they promise. I am certain we will never receive compensation, and the promise of 10% off our next cruise is a JOKE. Thanks alot, Carnival! You ruined our anniversary, and we can't replace a milestone such as this, but do you care? No way! So just keep on booking people who are mistaken enough to think these are just one time occurrances. Also, customers are on to your ploy of having Carnival employees who respond to these complaints with rebuttals about their own "utopia experiences", hoping that people will discount the complaints. All they have to do is take a look at the wrongful death suits and the barrage of complaints about their customer service. In fact, I challenge them to find an ACTUAL CASE that was handled to the party (ies) complete satisfaction that can be verified by written/verbal confirmation. Let's see if they meet that challenge like they meet their complaints - empty handed!