Complaint Review: Carnival Cruise Lines - Miami Florida

I would like to tell you about our vaction that has been planned for one year. Turned out to be the cruise from HELL. First of all it did not matter that we had filled out the fun pass information or not the system for boarding made for long lines and very slow... very bad system.

My husband and I travel with cruise lines frequently and are VIP members with Carnival. Apparently this doesn't mean much. Carnival said they were going to upgrade our room for us, this put us in the very back of the ship U237! How was this an upgrade? Now my husband is 75 yrs old, I have had total knee replacement and my sister who was also upgraded (U241) has a bad back. Needless to say it was a very long walk back to our rooms when we needed something.

We compained about the noise and vibration from the engines, we received a letter of apology and a bottle of champagne. We were still left with the noise, the vibration of our beds and the bottles on the dresser shaking and rattling.

We could not believe the number of children on the cruise, apparently with no suppervision. There seemed to be a lack of control by any member of the staff also. Kids were sitting on the stairs blocking our access, pushing all the buttons on the elevators so they had to stop at all floors.

If you went to the Lido deck in the evening you found them laying all over the seats, mixing ice cream on tables with salt and pepper. Bowls of ice cream were all over the place with ice cream cups placed all over the top. As the cruise went on they were also drinking alcohol. I saw a number of boys I suspect to be about 13-14 with cans of beer in front of them.

This has nothing to do with the kids, but, the lack of control by the staff. On every cruise we have been on there has been a dress code for the dining room. Not on this cruise, we saw a man with a painted t-shirt and a red baseball cap on eating dinner. No one said anything to him. Next, will we be able to come in our shorts... think about it?

When it was time to disembark we were sent to the Candlelight Lounge... VIP section for all people leaving on an early flight. We got to the lounge at 8:30 for a 9:45 departure. We were not let off ship until 11:45 which made it almost impossible to catch our 12:54 plane. We could not find all our luggage as it was placed in different sections despite the fact they all had VIP tags on them.

They also had let other people with other colored tags out before us, so, it made it twice as hard to find the luggage with all the people there. We got to the airport ticket desk at 12:25 and were told we had to be there at least 1/2 hour before flight time. Found out later from our group leader Rocky Sabella head of a group of 45) that he talked the attendant into delaying the flight departure for 10 minutes and that there was a lot of room on the plane. But, the plane left without us.

As we could not make the flight we started to make plans for stand by on later flights. We had 20 people that did not make the plane. We were confirmed for standby on the 4:49PM flight. The 4:49 had only 5 openings so we voted on who could go as we had a man who had heart problems, his wife, and a woman with ankle problems (in a wheel chair) and 3 others with problems. My brother in law also has heart problems and my sister ran out of her high blood pressure medicine. They could not leave us they were going to our house and they had no transportation or knowledge of procedures. They thus had to wait with us for the next flight.

Now, the problems really started. I got on the page phone and had them page a Carnival representative. They said there were 2 in the building but for 2 hours they never answered the page. The operator then gave me a phone number to call. I got in touch with a man who's name is Raul Roman and he tried to tell me Carnival was not responsible as we did not make air reservations with them After a lengthy conversation with him he said he would help.

Raul would ask me a question and put me on hold, this went on for about 2 1/2 hours and he then told me to go to the Tampa Bay Marriott they would be waiting for us. We hired taxis all 15 of us and went to the Marriott only to be told Carnival had NOT called them. Marriott thought maybe we went to the wrong one, but his calls to the other only cinfirmed that Carnival had not called any of them. Marriott was very nice about putting all of us up.

The next morning I tried to reach the AIR SEA division of Carnival Cruises to see if they could help us. After an hour of calls there I finally reached someone. All the while calling Northwest airlines and confirming our reservations on the two planes going to Memphis this day.

The next problem was how we were to get from Memphis to Mountain Home AR. I told woman from AIR SEA division she had to help us, as our bus left the day before with the rest of our group. After another 2 hours of putting me on hold she said she would call me back. When she did not call I called her only to find out she had left and would not be back for two days.

Our 12:49 plane we were on had computer problems and after sitting on it for over an hour we were told we may not take off. With 2 minutes to spare they said they found the problem and we could take off. We then had to wait for the 4:49 flight for the rest of our group while we waited for our bus to take us back to Mountain Home.

Ends up, the only way we were able to get home from Memphis was by Rocky Sabella out of Mountain Home getting the Mountain Home bus company to come and get us. Rocky had to pay for the bus out of his pocket before they would come for us. He had to shell out $775.

Now we have had to pay for another bus, hotel, taxis, baggage handling, tips and meals that we were not expecting to have to pay. With all the problems we have had on our VACATION we feel Carnival Cruises should have to reimburse us for all our expenses which comes to around $350.00 and that is not counting the 4 or 5 hours I spent on my cell phone. Plus all the anguish and aggravation.

Claire

Midway, Arkansas
U.S.A.

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