Attached is a copy of the letter that we forwarded and were told that we should have went to the helpdesk and made a complaint:

October 21, 2009

Carnival Cruise Lines
Attn: Mr. Gerry Cahill, CEO
3655 NW 87th Avenue
Miami, FL 33178

Dear Mr. Cahill,

Let us begin by saying we just arrived home from our second cruise with Carnival. Our first cruise on the Carnival Victory was absolutely fantastic, first class all the way. The second cruise, Carnival Triumph – New England cruise 10/10 -10/17/09 that we just returned from, was nothing less than stand-by. We were so disappointed with the appearance of the ship (dirty carpet in large guest areas) and several events that took place while on board, not to mention were never resolved. When we went on line to find your address, we stumbled on the Consumers Affair website, where numerous complaints were listed. WOW! We know now that our problems were not just flukes.

Here is a list of the problems that we encountered while on the Carnival Triumph:

1. Our trip started on the wrong foot upon arrival at LaGuardia Airport in New York. There was no one there to greet us, as had been told to us when we booked the shuttle. After asking the airport worker for help and directions, she advised us to go out by the curb and she would have someone take us to the ship. Approximately ten minutes later the representative from Carnival showed up and informed us that we needed to wait for another couple coming in on another flight before we could be shuttled to the ship. We waited another hour before their plane arrived. When we finally were taken to the shuttle bus, there was another couple already waiting on the bus. The bus had eight people on board and the driver was instructed to add three more people to the load. There was no room, we were already crowded. The driver started having a conversation with his supervisor via a hand radio and started yelling and cursing while still in the shuttle van. He did get out and continue his conversation, but when he returned to the van he was cursing about the situation and took off driving erratically. The first two people that were in the van were dropped off at a Sheraton Hotel, which we felt was way out of our way to the ship. It took almost one hour to get to the ship.

2. When we arrived on the ship, we went directly to the information/helpdesk on deck 3 to explain the problem with the shuttle and we were told that someone would get back with us. No one ever got back with us to inquire/discuss this problem.

3. Upon arriving on the ship we found out there was no heat in cabin and most areas of ship. And yes, we did close all three vents in the ceiling of our cabin. We were advised to close the vents and were brought extra blankets as the solution to this problem. We did not pay almost $2500 to stay in our cabin (# 9205), to be wrapped up in blankets for warmth.

4. Our cabin and hallway reeked of cigarette smoke. When I told our room steward (Amelia) about it, she assured me that no one was allowed to smoke in the rooms. That did not make the smell go away. I asked her if she could spray something in the cabin and she assured me she would. We never experienced any other odor than cigarette smoke. Later, the smell of men’s cologne was very pungent in the hallway. Someone was definitely trying to cover up the smell.

5. We were told not to use our balcony two different days from 0800-1200 while we were out, due to cleaning. This was never preformed until we docked back in New York, as we were disembarking.

6. The announcements were very unclear and most of the time we could not understand them. When we asked, we were advised that they don’t make the announcements in the cabins so that they don’t disturb the guests that are sleeping (or in the bed to keep warm).

7. The water in the shower changes from scalding hot to freezing cold in seconds, without warning.

8. The toilet would not flush properly. Several times it would not flush at all.

9. The elevators were not working on the last night of our cruise. We were told that they were locked down for the baggage to be brought down.

10. There were no amenities in the cabin as promised. My husband had to beg for a razor since he did not bring one and the brochure states that the cabin will be stocked with them, as well as other amenities. He finally received one after talking to several stewards on our hall.

11. On the first day of the cruise we purchased 100 minutes on Wi-Fi ( we can’t believe there was a charge for this service). The next day they were advertising that if you made a purchase on the ship, to bring your receipt to the Internet Café and you would receive 20 free minutes. After we made a purchase and took our receipt to the Café, we were told that it did not apply to anyone that had already purchased minutes.

12. On our last day with around ten minutes left on our minutes, we tried to go on-line to check into our flight. The server you have installed is so slow that by the time I had completed the check-in, the computer blacked-out. We were out of minutes. The information on the computer stated that your service would not be interrupted, that you would be charged by the minute for anything over your plan. We went down to the information/helpdesk and explained our situation, we were told that the accounts were shut down at 10pm (no notice anywhere) and we would have to come back at 0730 the next morning to complete our transaction. When we arrived at the Café the next morning, we still could not access the Internet. The Café manager told us that there was nothing we could do, all accounts had been closed. We went back down to the information/helpdesk and advised them of our situation, speaking with the same lady, from the previous night she advised us that there was nothing that could be done. A young gentleman called the Café manager in an attempt to help us. However, he was advised nothing could be done. We asked to speak to someone with higher authority and were denied. We were told that nothing or no one could help us get access to the internet long enough to process our tickets.

13. We could not get any help on the last day of our cruise at the information/helpdesk. The people working the information/helpdesk were hard to understand (broken English) and were having a hard time understanding English.

We think you should have a good idea by now, how dissatisfied we are. As a matter-of-fact, we have discussed looking into other cruise lines for our next cruise.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.