Complaint Rating:

Company information:
Carnival Cruise Lines
United States
carnival.com

There were twelve of us who decided on Carnival Triumph (June 29 - July 4, 2009). Reserving alone was a NIGHTMARE. Holding time is a full time concert and the adds tore our eardrums open!! Every five minutes was the message, "thank you for your patience, please continue to hold." The reservations person, a Neisha ?, did not/would not return our call. Given that she was out sick for two days, there was no one else to pick up her business? So six of us (my daughter, her husband and their 4 kids) reserved with Cruises Only. Ms. Neisha finally touched bases with the other six of us and did the booking. She couldn't get one name straight and we kept going back and forth with her with a very simple name a Ms (she put Mrs.) Mary Jane Smith (not real name) that was recorded on the reservation sheets as Mrs. Mary Jane. Then there was the frustration over the Carnival website. It took days just to log in. Upon checking our reservations, the message was forever "your name does not appear on this booking. Please check your entry and try again." It's a impossibility too to reserve a preferred dinner time (a month away, two weeks away, a week away, a day away = Ms. Neisha kept saying it had to be done on the ship). BS - my daughter and her brood got their preferred time with Cruise Lines. Ms. Neisha (with a sigh) walked us thru (not too clear either). The website from hell showed the sailing ship on the screen that kept prompting us to log in and we've had to change email addresses each time or the message says "email already used." OMG c'mon Carnival, take a tip from the unobtrusive Sight and Sound of Pennsylvania where it's website quickly (but oh so quickly) takes you from a seat reservation to printing your ticket to the show!!

Now, as for the on-board experience: the check-in was a breeze but no one ever asked us for our dinner time preference. Arbitrarily printed on our ticket was: 8 pm dinner reservation. The cabin was naturally cramped, but it was way uncomfortable to have the queen-sized bed flushed to the a wall. The poor person designated to sleep against the wall, had to crawl out of bed to go to the bathroom at night. The cabin steward was almost always out of-reach out-of-sight. The food on Deck 8 was so-cafeteria, altho' the dessert table was good. Then the food gets quickly devoured and there are no replenishments until early evening. The sit-down dinner was acceptable, with some entrees being so plebeian and tasteless. The junkfood eating sites (hotdog, pizza, burgers and fries) really should revert to healtheir choices.

Also, why can't there be prominent signs by the elevators to show arrows going to Paris, London or Rome? It's the simplest of directions instead of passengers doing a dance to right and left and then asking someone else where the Casino is located.

After a few days from our precious cruise, Ms. Neisha very sweetly called each of us. It was a too-late-the-hero telephone PR. Some of us accepted her call and were polite enough to say that the cruise was okay. Diffidence does make cowards of us all. As for me, she left a syrupy message on my voicemail that can only deserve a smirk from me.

Carnival - improve or you'll be written off.