I was called by Carnival two weeks before my cruise and offered a discounted balcony room. The agent told me the view was "partially" obstructed and all else was normal. I bought it and when I arrived found the view to be totally obstructed by life boats and maitenance walkways. Every morning we would wake up to chains clinking and workers right outside our window performing maintenance on the walkway. The room was also next to the crew elevator and till 2 am all nights we heard doors slamming and general noise that kept us awake. Also the customer service on the boat was horrible. I was humilitated at a bar due to my age and asked for ID. Carnival sail and sign cards list restrictions such as under 21 when the staff swipes the card and when I told him I dont carry my DL on the boat just to swipe my card he stated, "Look its not my fault you look like child, give me drivers license or no drink" THis occurred in a packed area and was humiliating. When I got home I called Carnival and attempted to obtain a refund on only the room upgrade in the end and was told no compenstation would be given due to it being my fault I did not know the room's view was obstructed. Craziness. Through emails and phone calls I got no help. I filed a complaint with the better business bureau but of course nothing will come of that. If you are considering a crusie spend a little extra and go on a quality cruise liner not owned by carnival because chances are if you have issues they will not care or attempt to rectify the problems. Its getting to the point now days that as consumers we have no recourse with the companies when we are wronged.

Long story short we never got our cruise our refund for airfare and cruise. We booked our cruise and airfare through carnival with guarantees that by doing so would insure our arrival in time to board the ship. Well, American airlines overbooked our flight at 6:10 a.m. and we tried to get on subsequent flights to no avail and contacted our carnival cruise emergency number and was not offered any solutions or even the promised to call us back. It was a horrific experience. WE could ill afford the cruise to begin with, but I felt given the past couple of years of never having a vacation that we as a family needed this. Try telling an 8 year old that we won't be going when he is saying prayers to God that we will make the subsequent flights. I even tried to pay for tickets for other airlines and there were none available. I was told all airlines were over booked. American did noting for us, Carnival did nothing for us. And people wonder why the travel industry is down. I will tell you why it is down, this is exactly why it is down. No custumer service, totla lack of empathy and it seems a legal means to rip you off!

I recently took a cruise on your cruise line and I was grossly disappointed. The cruise was the Carnival Destiny which set sail on Saturday January 16th 2010 from Miami FL. This was my second cruise and I was expecting a great experience, especially since I was cruising with a self-proclaimed leader in the cruise industry. The misery began when we boarded the ship and found out that we would be delayed in our departure from port. After not leaving on time we were advised that there was a problem bringing portable drinking water onto the ship. I find this to be disconcerting knowing that there was enough time to reprint that day’s edition of “Capers”, this indicating that the problem was known well in advance. Considering what happens in the next several hours one has to question whether your staff was being completely honest with the passengers about the true problem. Once we left port, nearly four hours late, we set out to sea only to be told that there was a problem with the ships propulsion system. Here is where one might ask if the true problem was being dealt with at the port? Although only a mere passenger, I am very well aware that if that ship were to never leave port, your cruise line would stand to lose a substantial amount of capital and suffer quite a tarnished reputation. However once the ship sets sail all passengers now become prisoners of the fine print of the sailing contract. To be brief, this cruise never made the two original ports of call, which I was planning my vacation around seeing as I had never been to these places; this is why I selected this itinerary. What transpires next is the complete addition of insult to injury.
In an attempt to compensate the passengers for this “technical problem”, you offered each passenger $75.00, which was deemed a refund of the port taxes for the non-visited ports of call. No other compensation was offered. This money, by law would have to be returned, as these ports were never called on. During the nearly three days at sea, the mood of the passengers was, as expected terrible, with no help from the staff to pacify the passengers. No offering of a complimentary cocktail or even a smallest token of apology from your cruise line. One particular instance to make note of was the insults delivered to audience by one of your entertainment staff during a karaoke performance. The staff member while moderating karaoke, tried to make jokes about the missed ports of call and, when booed, told the audience, “I’m not the captain and you can just leave”. My mother called Carnival cruise lines and asked where our location was and she was told we were in Grand Cayman meanwhile we were in Nassau, Bahamas. I think this bothers me the most especially since a 5.8 magnitude earthquake was felt on Grand Cayman the day we were supposed to be at that port and my mother was scared for my safety. All of these experiences combined with the fact that the two original ports of call were missed made for what I consider the worst vacation of my life. On top of that, this was my second cruise experience with Carnival, which has brought me to never want to board a cruise ship ever again. I am incensed at the fact the Carnival made such a feeble attempt to compensate passengers for such a major problem. I am also concerned by the idea that this problem was known, prior to the ships departure however the ship still set sail. Seeing as Carnival is refusing to offer any other compensation, I find no other alternative than filing a class action lawsuit against your company. I also plan to file complaints and inquiries with maritime safety authorities regarding the sailing of this vessel, especially considering the same problem occurred in September of 2009.I am grossly disappointed in the business practices of your company and plan to enlighten the world and show them that you are clearly not the leader of the cruise line industry. I have already made contact with several news station investigative reporters to share this experience with them. If you truly are the leader of the cruise line industry you will try to make good on this and show the industry that you stand behind your commitment to quality.

Carnival is a rip off. My cruise was scheduled for Sept 11 to 16, 2009 from Miami. Around 10:30am on the morning of our scheduled departure, I received a call from a Carnival rep stating that the ship (Destiny) was going to be late docking and that I should not report to the port before 2:30pm. I was already in route to the port. I arrived at the port around 12:30pm. I could clearly see Carnival's Destiny ship. As I was getting out of my car and a gentleman came to retrieve my luggage from the trunk, my cell phone rang and again it was a another Carnival rep with the same conversation as the first rep. I asked the gentleman if the ship I was looking at was the right ship and he replied "YES". The Carnival rep insisted it was not the ship. I told the rep that I would call back I was going inside to find out for sure. The gentleman assured me that was the right ship on the dock and directed me to embarkation. As I opened the door I was given a letter informing me that my itinerary was changed from Jamaica to Bahamas due to a malfunction with the ship's propulsion system. I asked the worker who was handing out the flyers a few questions about the change and she informed me that the ship malfunctioned a few days earlier and it had not been fixed. By this time I was furious. If Carnival knew a few days before my scheduled departure date then it was their responsibility to notify the customers. They didn't do that and were still not truthful on the day of the departure. I shared a cabin with 1 other person. We requested a refund and was told that we were only entitled to a $273.00 refund even though we paid double that amount. This was my very first cruise and will be my last with Carnival. They are really getting over on their passengers. I contacted guest services and was told there was nothing they could do. Over 1, 000 signatures were collected on our cruise and the young lady who collected the signatures wrote to Carnival and the BBB. Carnival only apologized for the inconvenience and offered a 20% discount on a future cruise. This is unacceptable because the Jamaica cruise was much higher than 20% of the Bahamas cruise. Customer service was terrible aboard the ship. What makes them think that I would want to sail with them in the future? I will never sail with them again. I do not recommend anyone to sail with this cruise line.

Janetha Dean
[email protected]
Georgia

5-day cruise was booked and paid. Upon arriving to the docks we were informed by a representative that the engines were not working up to par and that the itinerary was changing from Jamaica to the Bahamas [which we visited just 3 months prior]. We were not informed, not called by my Carnival Agent, even though I called her immediately upon receiving this information about our changes. Others told us that they were informed a few days prior, yet we were not. Also, we had prepaid air fare which was not reimbursable anyway. We were given the option to cancel but, as teachers we only get 2 person days off per year, and we could not get another chance to go...not to mention the air fare costs. Later we found out that this "engine problem" had been an ongoing issues on this boat for the previous 2 cruises. I can not believe that a company this big could not find an engineer in the world could not be flown in to fix this after 3 weeks. The $50/pp compensation was a drop in the bucket compared with the savings in fuel they saved, since we were basically in the Bahamas for the entire time. It also seems likely that they have cut staff since the rooms were never cleaned on time, breakfast was late, the entertainment was BAD, the Jacuzzis in the adult area were broken the last 2 days, there were kids in the adult jacuzzis the first couple of days, the water was cold on the excursions [due due the fact we were many miles north of Jamaica], the hot water in our room did not work, there was a septic spell due a plumbing problem on out floor, elevators did not work, ...just to name a few things. This company should be out of business, yet they brag about their successes as if oblivious to their many short comings. Everyone we spoke to was very, very upset. One couple had actually planned a wedding and guests were flying to Jamaica...where, of course, we did not go. And finally, upon returning to Miami, the engines miraculously were back at full speed. Someone should file a class action suit vs this company. I thought about getting people organized and signing a petition to file but we had to catch a flight.