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Carnival Cruise Lines

Carnival Cruise Lines • General Complaints • Bad Food • Billing Errors • Cancellation Policies • Children's Programs • Crime on Board • Crime in Port • Damaged Luggage • Disabled Passengers • Medical Care • Missed Ports • Overbooking • Poor Service • Safety Issues • Wedding Services • "Branded" by Carnival News • Imagine! Our Man Truman on a Carnival Cruise • Carnival Cruise Lines to Refund $40 Million in Fuel Surcharges • Illness Strikes Carnival Ships Cruise Notes • Medical Care Spotty • Health Care Guidelines • Consumer Fact Sheet

To say that Carnival gets more than its share of complaints would be quite an understatement. We get more complaints about Carnival than about all other crise lines combined. We'd recommend reading this section carefully before you put down big bucks -- not after.

Here are just a few of the more recent complaints ...

william of hickoryhills , IL August 3, 2009

guests held at carnival shuttle bus. will and cab drivers charging any fees they wanted to airport because of carnivals partnership with these union drivers. shuttle one and half to 2 hours late for front gate departure to trains and trsp from carnival ships. carnival negeligent and responsible. luggage left behind at airport or miss flight or choice new ticket to chicago. 1000 dollars. over 300 fines for 1 bag and lost items and camera etc

Desiree of Jonesboro , GA August 3, 2009

My Grandmother that I lived with for 20 years died on June 21, 2009(Father's Day, the day before I was to sail.I had just flown to Miami,Fl to leave on my cruise and had to turn around and take a flight right back home. I sent a letter to Carnival Cruise to explain that my grandmother died unexpectedly, and I was unable the take my cruise vacation. I did not ask for a refund but a voucher to be used at a later time within 6 months.

I received a form letter from Carnival Cruise telling me that because I did not cancel my reservation within 7 days, they would not honor my request. How do you predict someone is going to die? I want to make a complaint against Carnival Cruise Lines because I had no control over the death of my Grandmother. Therefore there is no way I could cancel my reservation 7 days in advance. I should receive my money back or a voucher for the money I paid for a future trip. It took me a long time to save for that trip and it was my first cruise. Please help.

John of Buckhannon, WV July 29, 2009

My wife and I took a nice cruise on the 20th of November of 2008. We were so excited. The food and the company was great. It was our 32 wedding anniversary on the day we parted. Which was the 20th of november. We had a (great cruise)until we got to a gas station on our return home by car. My wife had 2,000.00 dollars stolen and her credit card. The credit card was a chase card.

We are the bad ones for taking a cruise and having a credit card. That is the way we are treated.I would like you to know that we are very honest people. We never had an opertunity to take a cruise or even have a honeymoon. When we got married I made reservations at Snow Shoe in WV. We drove to what we thought was a reservation and they had forgoten.(bad luck followes us) Back to my littl tid bit. We no longer have a chase card. We will be known as the bad ones. When all our life since we were married did for other and made payment on time.

This would make a good person go bad. I just shake my head and say don't worry honey we will get this taken care of. We were issued a new credit card and found it expired on 6/09.I had no knowledge it would be taken care of like that. We even had fraud protection. How do we look to you? Yea! The bad person. I want you to know that we will pay every cent we owe the credit company and the cruise line. The next time we take a trip I will put the money in her care again. My wife was at no fault. That is the bad thing. It happened to us and We pray it doesn't happen to anyone else. That would be wonderful.

Rick of Lutz, FL July 27, 2009

Cruised Carnival Victory out of P.R. roaches in my room dirty nasty roaches in my bathrrom and my clothes drawers. Balcony room no contact from anyone but 3rd level management and then it was 2 days later also they inspected my luggage as to suggest that we brought them in when I asked if this is what he was thinking the roomperson said that this is not uncommon and sneered I was furious. My wife and I had to stay in a room the was full of roach traps. Rude Guest services people. Asked questions about things to do from the rude shore excursion person threw the shore book on the desk and said to us look it up then let me know.32nd aniversary cruise, average food, full of curry and heavy sweet spices (Indian Chef,Food and beverage Director who I only seen once checking the food explain the spices.The whole trip was absolutly horrible to many things to say Just avoid carnival and the Victory or any ship.

Lesley of Rodeo, CA July 19, 2009

I have faxed serveral time Carnival to give them my complaint. They will not answer back. Its been about2-3 months. We could not get into port and Captain said her woudl figure out another possibility. He did not we stayed out at sea.............they whole time. Not cool. No money back no on board credit, nothing. At least Mexican government gave us back our taxes. We could not get into Mexico because of the swine flu. But they knew this before we left port and nothing was said to us. Also my mother got very sick with a heart problem 2 hours before we were to board. Her Dr said under no circumstances should she get on board. He sent a letter of explination to the Cruise lines and they never returned any letter of any sort. This is very bad business and I will go and do what I have to to get answers or let the public know how carnival handles their guest! And we are past guest at that.

michael of meridian, TX July 18, 2009

We had been promised that carnival was totally prepared to handle a 2 and 4 year old. Our 2 year old was left in a diaper for 7.5 hours. we complained and then were not allowed to leave both boys anymore. we had issues with gladys and a couple of other child care workers on the ship, but 2 others said our children were angels for them. the only complaint was that the 2 brothers argued with each other. we had to miss dinners and excursions. carnival with several contacts on the ship and off refused to help, care or do anything for us. i was met on the gangway at disembarktion by one of the child care workers appologizing for Gladys' actions during our cruise

Susan of Waxhaw, NC July 11, 2009

We have been on cruises before and choose the Carnival Imagination because of our 8 yr.old twins. Well first off the ship has poor customer service, wait staff is poor, they have only one deck they serve a buffet on and it is crowded. When you ask a staff member a question they don't know anything or cannot understand you. Asked several times for a comment card never received. Staff serving alcohol and you say no they were very rude to you. Took a excursion to Playa Mia and everything was broke, the boats, the straps to the ice berg, trampoline. on the morning of departure I asked for a iced tea and took a huge drink and what I had was what I am guessing was the night before BBQ, dirty water and had to drive home sick after vomiting.

Told the Matra D that morning and on several occasions that service was horrible and nothing was done. This was the worst cruise I have ever taken. We tried to get things corrected by the customer service on board ship and they didn't want to hear it and said we would need to make it on the comment card which I previously stated that they never delivered them to our room. I have called corp. but they say they will place their comments only in writing to us. DO NOT CRUISE ON CARNIVAL IT IS A WASTE OF YOUR TIME AND MONEY! IF YOU WANT CHEAP AND NASTY THEN GO ON CARNIVAL!

Rod of Miamisburg, OH July 10, 2009

I paid for a week-long cruise on Carnival Cruise Lines for a specific ship because of it having a water slide. However, they kept it closed for no reason even though the weather was nice and sunny with almost zero winds. no one knew why the water slide was closed and I contacted Carnival's Corporate Office about 25 times trying to get a partial refund of the 1,300 we paid but they said they don't compensate people for things like that! We paid double the price of other ships just because this one had the water slide and my 7 year-old daughter loves water slides and was heart-broken over this along with many other kids who wanted to "do the slide" I have filed a fraud report with my credit card issuer for non-receipt of goods and services. I also got the flu onboard and my daughter got a skin condition that last for a week and a half but we did not ask for compenstion for that. We only asked for 200 for not getting to use the slide like advertised in the brochure but Carnival refuses to give my anything! We also got cold raw beef on several occaisions and I was amazed they would serve undercooked beef with how much danger undercooked is known to be.

Jack of Copperas Cove , TX July 8, 2009

We boarded our ship the "Conquest" in Galveston on Sunday June 21st /09. The 1st day the spa billed our account for over 600.00 dollars ( we did not even visit the spa?) I noticied the charges and complained to the Spa personnel. A " Bridget" explained that 4 people had had spa treatments and had charged them to me. I told her I was traveling with my wife only and no one else was authorized to charge on my account. She stated she would fix the problem that evening. On Monday More charges were added to our account.

I again went to the Spa and spoke with "Clint" who was the spa manager. He stated again it was a mistake and the charges would be removed that AM. In short more and more spa charges kept accumulating on our account. I complained a total of 9 times without any resolve. My account was billed for over 2500.00 dollars by Wednesday- all from the spa. Each and every time I filed a complaint I was told it would be "fixed" Each and every time it was not.

On Wednesday evening I have to make a ship to shore phone call to dispute the credit card charges. My complaining finally got the the 3rd man in charge of the ship. he at first stated I had to pay for the charges because I authorized them (?) I ask him to produce ANY documentation that I authorized any of the charges- of course he could not. Then I was told I could dispute the charges later (?) Then I was ask why didn't I complain earlier? (?) I was in line at Customer desk and I heard more people complaining about Spa charges that were not theirs.

Finally on Thursday, after I instructed my credit card company not to pay the charges- and they inquired to the cruise ship why the charges were being made- the charges were removed. I strongly feel If I had not taken action with my credit card company I would be paying for spa treatments. I strongly feel this is an ongoing problem and should be investigated by Carnaval Cruise Lines (unless they don't care) and corrections made. This "word of mouth" advertisement can discourage others to book with Carnaval Cruise lines. Come on guys your reputaion is at stake.

Manuel of Doral, FL June 28, 2009

We had what it seemed a great experience on Carnival Valor, however just before disembarking in Miami, we received our statement from the the sign and travel and found out that we were overcharged on items we did not purchase or used. I spoke with a black gentleman at the guest services and he turned deaf ears, I even mentioned that if were his director, I would immediately buy him a plane ticket and send him home. I spoke with other personne about resolving my issue, to no availability. I told a supervisor that the logic told me that an employee/crew was in the business of duplicating numbers on the cards for their on benefit. We were stuck for over 1 hour at the counter and nothing was resolved.

I have heard that whatever happens inside Carnival, you are ou of luck, as they could care less, since they do not have any obligations in the USA. I am very dissspointed, after what I thought, was a wonderful trip. NOTE: We were traveling with 30 plus family members and friends. No more Carnival for us. o

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