Carnival Cruise Lines
reviews and complaints

I have written several letters to the cruiseline concerning an injury my son suffered on the ship "Glory" . The last letter was sent many months ago and I have heard nothing back from the company representative. My son had a broken wrist that was misdiagnosed by the ship's doctor. My child upon coming home he to undergo many exams by several doctors and had to have surgery to realine his badly broken wrist. He had several casts, various proceedurs such as removal of the pins and additional exrays.
We deserve better than we have been treated. Ignoring us is disrepectful and rude. I am a widow and my husband died of brain cancer. It wiped us out. We got to go on the cruise because my mother-in-law took the whole family on a group vacation. I have tried to deal with you on my own because that is what I could afford. If I don't hear from you very soon, I'll either have to find a lawyer in your jurisdiction or possibly see if someone from the media would be interested in a story about a special needs child and widow being ignored and denied their rights by a big shipping company that has already had a very notable problem in 2010.
I really just want to continue to be reasonable and cooperative, but you must be cooperative too. I look forward to hearing from you very soon.
Sincerly,
Mrs. Norma Thal 7336 N. Kenneth Lincolnwood, IL 60712

rather than spend thousands on a carnival cruise just go to your local ghetto and rent a cheap hotel there, ship had 50% african americans morbidly obese and i kid you not fought over the fried chicken at the all you could eat buffet, my fault though i usually go royal carribean, but wanted to save money.food, entertainment, service was awful, if being on a ship with 1200 blacks does not bother you than go ahead, they make the ship look like there hoods even with the smell of urine in the staterooms as if you were in an alley.

According to Carnival Cruise lines there were standards in place pertaining to no-smoking rooms and areas, guest boom boxes and protection from the other guests.

Guests smoked in the rooms and Carnival Cruise lines would do nothing about it, our room and the corridor were always smelling of smoke. As we were leaving the ship I smelled an ozone machine in use. This machine is used to remove the smoke from the rooms that had been smoked in, they only repair what was wrong but do nothing to stop it. In the food service area people were allowed to smoke within a few feet of food being served on the outside deck. Smoking was not allowed at the rear of the ship or the port side yet people were free to smoke wherever and to bring aboard portable boom boxes and play them loudly though Carnival Cruise lines states no personal music or radio devices may be used without earphones.

I was involved in an incident on the last day where a younger man was cussing profusely in the hot tube below where we were sitting at the back of the ship. I asked him to watch his language and a barrage of filth then came from his mouth directed at me. I went to the attendant and complained about the verbal abuse from the passenger. He went to get security. I walked over and stood across from the man hoping he would continue his barrage of profanity and insults until security arrived; he did. After only a few minutes security did arrive and acknowledged I was being harassed; they told me to just forget it and move on after requesting my stateroom number and name. After being called an old man, a pencil dick, a-hole told to f-off continuously not to mention accused of being un-American by the man who claimed to be an attorney; I was not OK with just moving on. I went to file a formal complaint against the guest at the main desk. They called security and the security guard that was present and the assistant chief of security arrived. They took me across the lobby in the main atrium and ordered me to sit down on a low bench - three times before I complied. With both of them standing over me they then informed me the if I filed a complaint it and I would be turned over to the Mobile Alabama Police and I would be detained in Mobile until it was cleared up; they also stated the other party would file a complaint against me. The man accused me of being dangerous, profane, unstable and that he was afraid of me though he had a east European couple who standing with him and joined in with accusations and continued to do so in front of security. I was alone and 25 years their senior. My wife watched the whole thing from one deck up. I guess the smart thing would have been to move to another area but we had been moving most of the cruise or staying locked down in our smoky stateroom. We spent much of our time on deck trying to find an area where no one smoked or was loud and obnoxious. The rear of the ship was just outside one of the food areas and had been up to that point Ok with the exception of a boom box two days before.

That was that and the to say the least, and as always it’s about money. They will not enforce and standards or protect any guest from anything if it might create a negative impact on the basic cruise ship traveler. From what my wife and I saw it was a vulgar, obnoxious, thundering bass filled music floating bar designed to allow stressed out Americans the chance to blow off steam – no holds barred.

This is not a place for those over a certain age seeking rest and relaxation, it is not a place to bring children and it certainly is not a place for church groups or other civic minded groups to find solace on the open sea. As far as I could tell it was a red light district just short of prostitution.

If you are the type to live "Spring Break" well into your 40's this is the place for you but not for the general population looking for the "advertised" cruise boat experience.

I'm a married 50+ small business owner that was looking for a peaceful vacation, but what I received was exposure to almost every bad habit a human has from vulgarity to intimidation to obnoxiousness to assault on passengers. Perhaps some of the other cruise lines have regulations that are enforced and are willing to protect their passengers but Carnival is the bottom of the barrel cruise line.

I spoke to a Guest Solutions Agent named Glenna at Carnival Cruise Lines, the greediest, most distasteful company I've ever dealt with, about canceling my cruise. I am a survivor of the downed flight number 1579 that crashed into the Hudson River in January of 09. When I spoke to the Agent, I advised her of this fact and that I had become very nervous about being on board the ship when only a week ago it had been stranded in the middle of the ocean for 3 days. I told her my story and stated that I really didn't feel comfortable sailing after this occurrence and she advised me that they could give me my money back but were going to keep $500 dollars as a penalty. I was shocked by this news and given the excuse that because I booked so early (almost a year ago) and got the best rate, there was a penalty for canceling. I thought it was incredulous that they have our money and have had it for almost a year and are refusing to give it back simply because I booked early. I tried to explain again my circumstances, she put me on hold ( 4 times total) for more than 5 minutes then came back to say they would not waive the penalty. She said she was talking to the supervisor above her and that was who was saying no. She said she would like to help but couldn't which was obviously a load of crap.

I got very angry as the hour progressed and our conversation deteriorated. Finally, I informed her that if she didn't give me all my money back I would call my lawyer, the same one who represented me with US Airways in the crash. I asked her for her name and job title as well as her supervisor and the CEO's name and address. My lawyer is calling them today. I find it unreasonable that after their own ship has been broken down for 2 weeks, they are unwilling to refund my money simply because they don't want to. It is ridiculous. Don't go on Carnival Cruise Lines.

I'm not sure where to start, so I'll just start with our arrival at the Carnival Cruise Terminal on Oct 23rd. Arriving early with hopes of getting unpacked in our cabin so that we can begin our cruise with the usual sail away deck party, we soon learned that arriving early was a waste of time. The ship arrived late from it's previous trip with propeller problems and a boat load of late travelers that had to get off. We were told that we could shuttle to a nearby area for lunch at the expense of the cruise line. We also quickly learned that in doing so, we would have to stand in the long line again when we returned. Next we learned that we would not be going to our originally scheduled destinations (Jamaica and Cozamel). The original destinations were picked by us, partly because we had never been there before. Since we were using my only week of vacation time to take this trip, we basically had no choice but to stay and hope for the best. After spending most of day 1 of our 5 day cruise in the crowded terminal, we finally got to our cabin. It soon became obvious that we were on a very old and not so clean ship. During these 5, no 4 days, we saw a very worn out vessel that has been painted over & over. The door frame to our bathroom was rusted badly, as well as many other places around the ship including the pool. There was noticable mold on the balcony handrail, even after the balcony was closed for a few hours for cleaning during our trip. The balcony deck had some sort of food scraps on it, the used robes of previous travelers were in the closet, and the bathroom tile had some very dated mold on the caulking. The bathroom sink looked as though it was from the 60's along with several scratches and marks. The cleaning staff vacuumed daily around the elevators, which was good, except they totally disregarded the safety of travelers trying to jump over the cords. Three "officers" in white uniforms watched as 2 of the cleaning staff scrubbed the empty main pool under a rope net in front of several hundred travelers attending a concert where the band played directly above the pool. This looked as though the 2 staff members were being publically punished for something. Two officers in white, on at least 2 days, watched as 2 staff members removed lounge chairs from the deck and stacked them along the wall, even though travelers were searching for a place to relax. The public restrooms were nasty. Just basic nasty. I had to stand in pee, to pee at the urinal. Kids were allowed to jump & splash in the hot tubs. The food was not cruise worthy, escpecially the 3 days of mexican buffet. Three days! The pizza had yellow rubber for cheese. I ate no ice cream from the ice cream machines, simply because of the nasty mess. Here's another good idea: Let's close a section of the upper deck so that we can all get high from the paint fumes from the painting of the deck rails. So that meant only the smoking side of the upper deck was open. But really that was not a big problem, because everyone pretty well smoked wherever they wanted to. Nothing makes for a better afternoon in the rusted pool, than the added paint fumes and smell of cuban cigars. Only one person in the dining room looked as though he enjoyed his job. He served our drinks with a huge smile and a happy greeting. He should lead customer service courses to the other dining staff members (starting at the top). The daytime activities were lacking in activity. Bingo, bingo, and more bingo, which was played by only a few. There were less than 15 travelers at the "Guess That Face" event. The big "Bean Bag Toss" event was putting the bean bag toss game by the pool and leaving it. No organized game, no staff involved, just a few kids throwing the bean bags at each other. Even though the Kareoke times were well attended, they kept pushing them into a smaller lounge. The musical show was okay, but only 2 nights. I'm guessing the guys attending were only there because of the female dancers' attire. They might as well went bottomless, since what they wore, covered nothing. All we can remember from those shows is female butts. Who knows what they sang or did. This entire cruise was a ride down the ocean on a nasty beat up "funless" ship with bad food, lousy activities, and crappy service. My recommendation for this ship is retirement. Not only the ship, but also the management.

Got a noisy room located near the stairwell and elevators for which Guest Services, Glen Albrecht, Head Supervisor, did not give us another room. Next, because we needed to catch an early flight out of the San Juan, we needed a lower luggage number to embark early, so we spoke to Glen Albrecht to explain our situation; he, in turned gave us number 24 (which allowed us to embark LATE at 11am and our flight departure was 12:20pm that same day). Obvious to say, I will never book with Carnival Cruise again and would discourage others from doing so too.

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.

i am 50 married 33 years we go some were 2 times ayear .we took a carnival cruise 8-28-10to9-2-10 from new orleans to carabean.for starters expedia charged me 50.00 per person more for rooms.our room got changed by carnival.took almost 2 hours to get on the boat.elevators take forever.tea is horrible cokes are to and are extra and must be gotten from bar ANOTHER WAIT .shock water ok .ate fine dinning 5 nights, very, very, very small portions and i had one good item.buffet was good exept not much to choose from and so many people i felt like i was in the pen with a bunch of hogs and we were all after the same bucket of slop.can you feal that?drinks-horrible tea, lemonade, and ok water.deserts[what].if you want service you need luck. house keeping and fine dinning service was great everything else did not exist .if you were lucky enough to find someone out of the 1100 crew they did not speek english.all the entertainment combined did not equill one show at branson mo.i will admit i did enjoy all the drunks.the rooms were better than i expected .its all abought money and thats ok except it is so obviuse.once they closed the stairway during a buissy evening on an already overcrowded boat.every were you go its crowded.you need to love to be close to a lot of people for a week.they ran it there way.it was nothing for them to close something and run you out.even a food bar.every thing is prompt so do not be late getting back on the boat.check your FUN CARD they charged me for 106. 00 they should not have.i found out who had the most FUN.they practically throw you off and it still took over an hour in line.then i was mad and in a hurry and carnival had no one watching or checking the luggage they had piled in the parking lot so i took a bag just like mine.THAT COST me another 45.00.a trip that started out to be 700.00 ended up costing about 1900.00.do not forget to have 80.00 up front for parking.bottom line.night mare on elm.NEVER BOOK EXPEDIA nor CRUISE with carnival.

During hurricane Earl, Carnival has been unresponsive to inquires regarding a ships safety and itinerary. The Carnival Miracle is scheduled to dock in NY on Saturday 9/4/2010, 8am and we don't know if that will occur, or where the ship is as hurricane Earl moves up the East coast.
Carnival's ship Miracle was in the Atlantic during the Hurrican Earl event. On Aug 31, 2010 Carnival's website had a "Weather Update", giving the status of it's ships during Earls movement. Good. Unfortunately, Sep 01, 2010, the link disappeared. Why? An email to Carnival asking for status of the Miracle, resulted in a response with a phone number [protected]. The recorded message instructed the caller to check a website www.sharedusage "for your marketing" needs. Are you kidding? This seems irresponsible. People are being evacuated, Navy ships are rushing to ports, train routes are being changed, and airports are acknowledging impacts of Earl on flights BUT Carnival deems it appropriate to ignore the public when merely asking for a staus of the safety of loved ones? TERRIBLE! Shame on you Carnival for your callousness in an emergency situation.

Message from Carnival:

From: Carnival Cruise Lines [[protected]@carnival.com]

Thank you for contacting Carnival Cruise Lines. We appreciate the opportunity to be of assistance.
You will need to contact a cruise consultant at [protected], and they will advise.

If there is anything else we can do for you please don't hesitate to ask.

Cordially,
Carnival Cruise Lines

First the cruise before us lost power coming into shore that made us behind that's ok so they could fix the problem. The check in was like you were a heard of cattle going to the market not using very good safety procedures. When we finally get on board we did not do the muster drill we were called to a meeting room to have it explained to us. Left port very late, we were not told of the changes in the itinary until the next day when we happen to go to the customer service and to book excursion's which was all cancelled cause of our change. We arrived at Nassau the next day and could only stay there for 5 hours instead of 8 so our excursions were all cancelled. We arrived at Free Port the next day at 0700 and had to be back on by 1130 to leave by 1200 once again all excursions were cancelled except for the tour of the city which was booked by the time we tried to book. The whole trip was very rush rush and did not hear one announcement about the changes. Sunday evening the ship was going 19 knots very rough all night to make it back to port on time for the other cruise to be on time. So after dinner we thought that we would go swimming, they closed the pool @1900 so they could clean it for the next cruise! We also took the kids to the 9-13 party at night they were mad when we picked them up there wasn't any party they were put in with the 5-6 years old and they were screaming and not very pleased with that also. This was my first carnival cruise and I will have to think twice to book another on this line again. And I have been on a cruise before so I know the end and outs of a cruise

I have recently just got back from what might be one of the worst vacations i have ever been on! June 26th was our first day on Carnival Ecstasy everything started out good we got to our room very nice and clean but our balcony was very small ! we could not sit together on it thats how small it was and for us nearly paying $3000 dollars for our trip i would expected alot more. We had the early dining room time at 6pm the food their was more about them wanting to show fancy presentation on our plates than taste (the food was horrible)and many of the guests around us were asking for seconds and thirds because their was not enough food on the plates to be full ! it also felt like we were getting rushed out at dinner service we would be finished our appetizer and not two seconds later our main course would be sitting right in front of us i did not like this dont get me wrong their was always buffets on board to keep you satisfied if you were hungry later on but to tell you the truth i have had better food at golden corral ! their was long lines and not enough seating to hold 2000 plus passengers and the ones that were vacant still had dirty dishes and cups on them their seemed to be dirty plates laying everywhere all over the ship and not a sole picking them up ! sodas were extremely expensive they were 2 bucks each we finally gave in and got a unlimited soda card for the each of us not which was 35 dollars a piece their seemed to be not enough entertainment on board just for adults only alot was also kid/teenager included most entertainment was finished by 11pm myself and my boyfriend just looked at each other most of the time and said what now ? we had to go back to our room and watch the book of eli or alvin and the chipmunks for the 5th or 6th time ! to many teenagers running wild and security not doing a thing about it alot of the time we would be standing waiting for the glass elevators to take us down or up a floor coming to find out kids were sitting on the floors of the elevators giggling and texting on their cell phones with security on the bottom floor talking to guest services not doing nothing about it i was also told by my carnival booking agent that the adults had their own private pool and hot tub area kid free zone come to find out their is only one pool on board with a barrier down the middle not sure why maybe one side is suppose to be the adult side ? if so this was never enforced their is a adult serenity area on the very back of the ship AGAIN never enforced by the staff that the hot tubs and lounging area is for adults 21 and over signs clearly posted in that area but i observed 17, 18 yr olds their night after night. we were also lied to by our booking agent that we had a steak restaurant on board our ship that we could pay extra for if the food on board wasnt good i was really excited for this after the first night i did not like the food i asked guest services about this and they just looked at me like i was stupid or something so AGAIN i got lied to it seems to me that carnival just likes to sugar coat alot of their ships. on your 3rd night aboard you get your billing statement slipped under your door just to see what your total is so far we were shocked when we seen a 400 dollar bill just on drinks alone but we looked closely and 100 of that was for our staff we went down to guest services to ask because it was very confusing we thought it was 50 dollars a day! come to find out it was 50 dollars per person for 5 nights i dont have a problem with tipping the staff on board most of them were wonderful to us but what i do have a problem with is this automatically been taken out of our credit card it should be the passengers decision to be tipping staff members (which we did at the end of the trip) but when we were at guest services trying to lower our tipping percentage the ### behind the counter started to get a rude attitude with me and my boyfriend we are high paying customers on board and should not be talked to like we are nothing she totally disrespected both of us all because we wanted to lower our percentage and just give cash to the staff who helped us most at the end of our vacation some of what happended on the ship is out of carnivals control i get that one being out in a hurricane 5 days turned into 6 days which was fine we were just ready to get off like alot of passengers we talked to was also like us alot of passengers were also lied to by carnival in carnival restricted items list on their website no where does it say we cannot have wine i was told AGAIN by our booking agent one bottle of wine per person upon getting my luggage back my wine was gone ! they said because my suitcase did not qualify for check in they had to take it from me and thats why my wine was confiscated absolute bull if you ask me a lady somehow got 2 12 packs of soda on board "which is a prohibited item" this was a afful experience for me and my boyfriend we ended up spending about 5000 dollars and i do regret spending every penny with carnival the ports of call were we went to was cozumel mexico and progresso yucatan. cozumel was horrible no beaches just pure shopping progresso is very unsafe especially if you have children soldiers everywhere carrying m16"s seems to me that carnival booking agents cannot wait to make that commission everytime i would have a question he would not return my calls and now that i have complaints will not return my emails either imagine that if this doesnt say anything about carnivals reputation and the way they treat their guests then i dont know what will !

I took a cruise on the Carnival Paradise on June 21-25, 2010, out of Long Beach, CA.

The check in experience was ok and they accommodated my disability in the manner I expected.

The problem I have was the shipboard experience.

There was a dance competition aboard, the Celebrity Dance Competition company was holding their Nationals at Sea program. There were 600 kids on board, with inadequate adult supervision. The Dance leaders did little to stop the problems of these kids running up and down the halls at all hours of day and night. In one instance a chaperone told my wife to "Go to hell" when one of the kids was stopped and told to stop running in the corridors (waking us up). The leaders insulated themselves from passengers and we could not get at one to voice our complaints. The kids were rude the chaperones were rude, and I would not have booked this cruise if the presence of these kids were known to us.

In Mexico I observed what appeared to be underage kids drinking at a bar and smoking. What would their parents say? That their kids weren't supervised.

Many complaints were made to shipboard guest services, but all we could get promised was more security below decks. No consideration from the cruise line for inconvenience, no positive action to deal with the dance group. The cruise line refused to put us in direct contact with the Celebrity Dance Competition leadership on board -- which means that Carnival is now responsible for this travesty.

The worst part -- my wife suffered leg trauma (which a week later has not healed yet and is still bruised) when she was knocked over in a stairwell by one of the kids. Carnival would not entertain a free trip to the shipboard doctor (was told we'd have to pay ourselves) to have it looked at.

WE purchased a childs tee shirt at pirana Joes store because of the guarantee promised by the cruise ship. before we disembarked we washed the shirt and it shrank so much that our 9 year old could not wear it. We took the shirt to Rudy, the on board shopping specialist and he agreed that it definately shrank. We filled out the PPI insurance form and we have been in contact numerous times trying to get our tee shirt replaced with no satisfaction. This was from the cruise during the second week of February. I know that Carnival gets a $$$kick back from all of the stores that it recoments to the shoppers but Carnival does not follow thru with its promise to guarantee everything for 30 days of purchase. The Port Shopping Buyers Guarantee is a FRAUD.

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!

We went on our first cruise in December 2007 on board Carnical legend. let me start by stating that our entire cruise was wonderful. We had great service from almost all personel. Even now, comparing this cruise with other cruises, I still think we had the best service on Carnival. However, we had one very frightening experience. i was on the upper deck track with my 3 year old son. He was sitting on a bench with a glass of water. I was jogging toward him, saw a man come up a side stair case, looked away for a few seconds, and looked back to see him missing and his glass of water on a bench. I immediately thought he must have ran to the other side of the track in which was out of my view despite the simple fact that it didn't make sense that he could dissapear that quickly. I ran to the other side, to find only my husband. I asked him if he saw our son. he replied no, I thought he was on the bench. we circled the small track again. no sign of him. We each ran down one of the two stair cases to find people at the bottom of each shuffle boarding. They claimed to not see him...so what could have happened to him. My husband started to strategically search this deck with all of the pools from compartment to compartment. I on the other hand started to panick. i frantically ran to the spa, as this was where i knew i could find personel. I told them to notify security at once that my 3 year old went missing. they did not do so...instead they put me on a phone to the persurs desk personel who could barely speak english. what i made out of the call was to go to the persers desk on the other side of the ship, with a picture of my son. This took 5 minutes to figure out since she spoke broken english. I felt like i was in the Twilight Zone. I began to freak out more. I felt as if nothing was being done. I asked them to put me through to security...and this request was not fulfilled. I also wanted a notification overhead via intercom...but nothing was done. I was crying hysterically at this point, and other passengers were offering to help me search. so now me and a small group of passengers began searching for a missing 3 year old, but no staff assisted us. Almost 20 minutes later, I saw a security personel and he asked me a few questions. Finally, I took the One security personel to the last place i saw my son. As we walked up the stairs, there was my three year old jogging out of the fog on the track. He would not tell us what had happened. There were alot of doors that only personel could get in or out of on the track level. The worse thoughts went through my mind that a worker stole my child, and next port was a 3rd world county. Or...he climbed the side of the railings...ect. I was so happy to have found him, and angray at myself for losing him. I realize that losing him was our fault, however, we were shocked and appalled to find out, that no sytem exhisted to find a missing person, especially a child on this cruise line. My only wish from this complaint is that possibly, some sort of system gets set up to locate missing persons on board in a quick manor. Our son later revealed to us, that he saw a stranger come up the stairs and climbed behind a solid wooden bench chained to the wall, that was slid out and had apparently enough room for him to hide.

This was my first cruise, a four day cruise in April 2010 from San Diego to Catalina to Baja.

I don't even know where to start, I guess I would begin with the 80.00 I was charged to pay for "gratuities". I prepaid this figuring I wouldn't have to be bothered at each and every turn. WRONG!
When I wasn't charged again for it on my bill, I was being asked several times a day by various people to not to forget to tip this person or that person.. because the money I had prepaid wasn't available to them.

The dinners ( I've had better meals at the local nursing home while visiting)... were pathetic. Our centerpiece on the table was a 1 1/2 liter plastic bottle of water. The first night, we opened it and drank it. At the end of the meal we were presented with a bill +tip for the water we drank!

The "Wine and shop" trip for 30.00 each was a total joke, they drove us to a big old abandoned warehouse that had several large wine casks, NOT a winery! Then to another abandoned old building and served "marguaritas" in dixie cups and lead us to a central plaza for some "good deals" on shopping, it amounted to about 10 street vendors selling beaded bracelets and some pottery. We were horrified that we got completely taken by Carnival. They had promoted all day before about their fantastic excursions.

There were children running wild all over the ship the entire time, they filled the pool so it was not possible to even use any of the services on the Lido deck. People were smoking all over the ship, it was hard to get away from the 750 children or the smokers. As for the entertainment, Steve the cruise director held a game called the "marriage game" or something along those lines... one of the question we heard before we left, went something like this:
when you husband gets out of the shower... what kind of car does his penis look like? a limo or a pink VW bug... ARE YOU KIDDING ME? This is Carnivals idea of entertainment?

On the morning of departure, I woke up vomiting and with diarrhea. I begged the housekeeping staff to stay in my room until we were called to leave the ship. Unfortunately, we were the last to be called, of the 25, we were 23. It would be about a 3 hour wait in the lobby filled with hundreds of people and misbehaving children. I was told I had to leave my room, so I called the infirmary to see if I could rest there near a bathroom. I was told that would not be possible, when I ask why, I was told it would be VERY expensive. At this point I went to guest services and was told to just go sit in the lobby. I told the woman, that would be fine, I would be throwing up in her lobby! She then gave me a pass to leave the ship immediately. By then I was in tears, it was the final straw. The worst vacation my husband and I have ever had, and we're in our mid 50's, so we've had many vacations.

We will never cruise again. What a pathetic vacation they offer.

I am very upset with the utter disrespect and discriminatory treatment my group received from Carnival Cruises. We had so many issues on this trip it’s shocking. As there are so many issues I will list them by location and then by day.

Rex Lounge:

Monday night several members of our group were in the Rex Lounge. There was an incident that began with the DJ. When Jessica Bowles approached the DJ booth the security guard allowed her to enter the DJ booth to request a song. When she approached him to request “Birthday Sex” he told her “back up ###!” I cannot imagine what could possible happen that would cause this type of response. The group was sarcastically told that it was the end of his contract, which apparently meant he didn’t care about repercussions. Regardless of the length of his “contract” he is still a representative of Carnival.

The next issue that even was also in the Rex Lounge, Jessica was dancing proactively in the adult club and while dancing became overheated and removed her upper shirt revealing a sports top underneath. This prompted security, Franklin A, to demand they leave the club due to this incident. I do want to call attention to other similar incidents we videotaped in the Rex Lounge. There were some homosexual men that removed their shirts revealing only their bare chests and proceeded to lick one another’s chests. This same evening there were women scantily clad with very revealing tops that resembled bandeau bras.

On Tuesday evening there was a bachelorette party in the Rex Lounge between 12-2 am who were performing pole dances and erotically simulating sex acts on one another on the dance floor in front of the DJ. Shortly thereafter there was a man sitting along the wall across from the DJ bar who removed his shirt and began giving a lap dance to another male. After this incident a member of our party was sitting at the bar and another member climbed on to the stool she was on and was hugging her from behind. Interestingly enough they are sisters. Immediately the security approached our group and advised that Jessica would need to leave the bar immediately because by climbing on to the stool she was “endangering the safely of the other travelers.” I can certainly agree this was not safe behavior but I do not feel it was handled appropriately. In a normal bar setting this type of display would result in the bar staff warning the culprit. However in this instance Franklin removed her from the bar. I find it disturbing that the ethnic individuals in my party seemed to be discriminated against. I don’t know if this is race related because the bachlorette group were all comprised of Caucasian female and the males that were performing oral acts on one another were also of Caucasian descent. Yet another example was during the Carnival sponsored hairy chest contest when a contestant, at the direction of the Carnival staff, told to parade down the stairs and upon performing he nearly fell from the middle of the stairs. Not only did our group capture this on film Carnival has included this in the DVD from the sailing.

On Tuesday I wanted to request a song, but felt very worried about the complaints and reports I had received about the DJ. I gently approached security and asked if the DJ took requests, he smiled and said yes. I asked where to go and he told me to enter the DJ booth. I stepped about 2 feet into the DJ booth and politely said “excuse me, may I request a song.” At this time the DJ glanced to his side at me with nothing but distain and turned back around. He was incredibly rude and didn’t have enough respect to nod or give me any kind of acknowledgement. After he played the wrong song I returned to the booth and again tried to have a song played. He was visible angry for some reason. Certainly employees have bad days but Carnival is advertised as the fun ship and is marketed as a vacation getaway. All of the internal issues within Carnival should be invisible to guests.

On Thursday my group was to have a happy hour. I gathered my group of 37 cruises and one member entered the Rex Lounge and asked where to go. My group member was told that the staff member didn’t know what he was talking about. A moment later I received the report from my group member and went into the Rex Lounge personally. The bar staff member yelled at me stating, “I don’t anything about your group, that is Linda’s party, they are old ladies.” I was furious and left the lounge to retrieve the letter from Carnival placed under my door the day before. Upon returning I spoke with Lancelot, he saw that my group was on the list and Emil was just being lazy. I demanded to speak with Clarke the contacted listed on my paperwork. Prior to Clarke arriving the F & B Manager came. I spent additionally time retelling the story. I was assured my group would get their full hour as we agreed to with Carnival. I was trying to enjoy our get together but found myself running around calming everyone down over yet another issue and rehashing the issues with the various members of the management staff. The F & B manager assured me my group would get a full hour, however our time was cut short due to the issues. Yet again I had 37 upset travelers.

Paris Restaurant:

The staff working with the Paris Restaurant all seemed to be unhappy; none smiled or acknowledged the cruisers. I saw numerous travelers trying to get some attention from the staff for ketchup, mustard, or assistance. I personally was in the buffet line on Mexican night at 11 pm and there was a female employee preparing the tacos who was involved in a very intense conversation with another staff member regarding how upset she was that another employee was not back yet to help her and apparently she was supposed to have a break. The traveler in front of me stood there for several minutes waiting for her attention. This held up the entire line. Also waiting for her conversation to finish I attempted to get serving of the taco meat for my plate and I was immediately reprimanded.

Destiny Dinning Room:

I arranged for my group to have a bottle of red wine during the cruise. On the first night there were bottles of wine on the 4 tables assigned to my group in the Destiny. As members started being seated some bottles were opened. As the wait staff was opening the bottles we were asked to sign a document acknowledging receipt. During the dinner bottles were taken from some tables and given to other tables I believe because not all members of attending the dinner. At the end of dinner I was approached by the headwaiter advising he was missing one signature and he was unable to locate the 1 bottle of wine. He approached me and other members of our group many times. So much we felt uncomfortable and just signed the slip. Due to the issues on Monday night 33 travelers in the group did not attend dinner in the dining room two nights. On Thursday night I returned to the Destiny for another try and I was again approached about the bottle of wine because one couple did not get their bottle. I was so frustrated, irritated, and embarrassed that he would continue to draw attention to this issue I finally just told him to give them a new bottle of wine and I would pay. I believe that if there was a bottle of the wine missing it was the fault of the wait staff for failing to get the signatures or paying attention while opening the wine. The entire group complained about the headwaiter but wanted to make note of the other waiter, although we cannot remember his name we do remember he is from St. Vincent. The maitre de and this gentleman from St. Vincent was the only redeeming quality of the dining room.

Pool Side Bar / Bar Staff

The bartenders at the poolside bar and the America bar were clearly bitter and uninterested in refilling sodas or performing any form of customers that did not yield a tip. We were all educated on the “slave like” wages they were paid and how dependent the wait staff was on the tips. These are terms and opinions that were articulated to several of use. There was many times the poolside bartender (an older gentleman on the smoking side with glasses) that members actually had to wave him down and plead for his attention. Jennifer Milligan was unable to receive any assistance on Monday that she finally gave up and went to her room to retrieve soda. This same evening Stephanie Henry, Linda McLain, Donna Gates, and myself had to stand up and wave our arms around to get his attention. I would understand if he was helping another customer or performing any of his job duties but flirting with a few drunk bachlorettes should be done on his break or personal time, or if anything have a helper at the bar.

Each member of my group ascribes the continual agonizing, annoying, badgering from the wait staff to buy the drink of the day as harassment. It became so bad nobody wanted to be near the pool and we opening joked that a restraining order may be necessary. I am also very concerned with the alcohol beverages that were served to a 16 year old.

Lastly, I believe her name is Melanie who conducted the section E Muster’s drill, the game show on Monday night, helped with Bingo, and introduced the comedian made it a point to tell us at each opportunity that it was the end of her contract. I can certainly understand being eager to return home but the emphasis that was placed on her leaving certainly made it abundantly clear the ship was not the fun place we were sold on. This behavior does not seem to be appropriate and certainly got travelers to talk and discuss the unprofessional staff.

I want to draw attention to the fact that each member of my party became so resentful of Carnival all gratuities were removed from each traveler. Many had planned on making various purchases in the duty free stores but opted to forgo the savings because they were so bitter about the ongoing disrespect they received from Carnival staff. You will see that each member of the group also took significant time to fill out the comment cards in great detail. I would also offer you the photos and video we began taking of the issues. We were all so frustrated that we began recording some of the issues that we saw as evidence.

My group ranges from 35-53 individuals and we book a group cruise once a year. In the past we have always traveled with Royal Caribbean and had no complaints. We have all raved about being treated like royalty on the Monarch of the Seas and the Pride. However, on the Paradise we feel like we were treated like trash. We selected Carnival this year due to its reputation and price. We were all very upset with how poorly we were treated. I would request that each member of the group is personally contacted and receive an apology.

I look forward to your attention to this matter.

Went on carnival cruise triumph from new orleans, la.on 1-9-10 return 1-16-10. return to find out that 1 of our luggage is missing. they could care less if you lost your luggage. i've cruised with carnival 5 times and that will be the last time. they're telling us now that we have to wait 30 days, they're saying not liable for it because we didn't take the insurance. they're the one that lost our luggage. i'm also going to call the better business and making a complaint and whatever else that can be done. they may not care but it's my luggage and items that is in it.

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.

We and paid for a 5 day cruise on Carnival (departing 1/25/2010) and 2 days before we departed got a phone call that they were having engine trouble and had to change the itenary. Instead of going the distance to Grand Turk island but now are going to Freeport (just 50 miles from Miami). It is clear from simmilar posts that the line is saving money by shortening the trips after they book you on the line. I smell a class action coming soon or a bankruptcy of the line. If they can't aford to go where they say they are going then they need to disclose that to the customer. the $50.00 in room credit is NOT enough of a perk to excuse this practice. Besides if you have engine problems how can you sail at all and if you can sail then go to the places you say your are going. I will NEVER sail Carnival again.