By James Limbach
ConsumerAffairs.com
December 29, 2009
What could be more relaxing than a cruise? Pretty much anything, according to consumers who have written of their woes to ConsumerAffairs.com.
Lucinda of Statesville, NC, tells of a cruise on Carnival's Sensation ship that featured "bad food, lots of drunks everywhere, pre-teen children running around everywhere playing on the elevators, horrible stench in our bathroom, rude employees."
She says it all started upon finding at check-in "our bathroom had a stench so bad we could not even go in! We called our cabin steward and she said she would handle the problem. Several hours later met her in the hallway and she said (in broken English), 'I had a plumber come and drain the sink and the smell should go away now.' Well, it was not as bad, but still it was horrible." The food, Lucinda tells ConsumerAffairs.com, was a major disappointment.
"We had been expecting gastronomical delights with the food, but all we got was frozen microwavable food. Breakfast was no better than McDonald's. In fact, McD's is better than what we had!"She continues, "Our lifesaving drill the first day aboard ship was a complete and utter disaster. I doubt seriously anyone aboard ship would have known where to go to their muster station! It was held 4 hours after being on board and by then 1/3 of the ship was drunk.
"We decided this was our first and last cruise," Lucinda concludes.
"I have been on several cruises," writes Gladys of Nolensville, TN, but one on Norwegian Cruise Line, she says was "by far the worst." Gladys tells ConsumerAffairs.com of four complaints: "the ship was extremely cold, the room steward never introduced himself, we were not given clean towels -- our dirty towels were folded neatly on the racks -- and lastly, the food in the main dining room was not good."
She says, "My previous cruises left me feeling like a queen. In this case I felt like I had been to a no-star motel. I called and filed a complaint but have not heard anything from the company."
Heather from Hammond, LA, writes us, "I have not even gone on the trip yet, but there are already problems."
She tells ConsumerAffairs.com that she booked her cruise with Carnival over the phone, and with the cruise in the near future had yet to hear anything from the company.
After checking with the company, Heather says she discovered that the wrong last name had been entered for one of the members in the cruise party and that it would cost $50 to correct the mistake. "Since a Carnival employee made the mistake by typing in a name incorrectly, and since we are spending thousands of dollars on this trip, you would think Carnival would drop the $50 penalty fee for informing them of THEIR mistake."
Heather concludes, "We are out $50.00.... although not for long. I figure we will take that out of the tips we leave to employees on the ship. In fact we will most likely leave nothing!"
Another point of view
But hold on, says Samper from Madison Heights, MI. After reading about ten pages of complaints he says, "Most of them are frivolous and the compensation expected is ridiculous." He believes people need to "read and understand" the contracts they are signing. "It's time for passengers to take responsibility for themselves, their passports, their contracts, and their reaction to minor issues. All this boo-hooing because you didn't get everything you demanded is tiresome and stupid."
Our very own Truman Lewis decided to explore the Carnival experience recently. He not only escaped the Legionnaire's disease that felled other guests of a posh Miami hotel but also lived to tell the tale of four days, three nights of endless FUN!!!, Carnival-style. Read his account if you dare.
