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Just off the Liberty post transfer


silverpenguin
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We were not impressed, and a lot of other people felt the same way (or worse) than us. Apparently, there were electronics issues with the ship that were causing problems with the arcade, casino, and tvs. We had to have our sail and sign cards replaced twice. We were so glad we got FTTf because the guest services line was backed up almost to the theater every single time we walked passed. And there was usually only 1 or 2 people working the whole counter. We also heard there were people with no hot water, no cold water, or no water at all. We were glad we didn't fall into that group.

We missed our embark photo because the area wasn't set up (and they had 5 extra hours to do that???). Our room was not ready when we boarded at almost 7pm & the ship had been in port by noon. We didn't leave until almost 11 because muster took over an hour of us standing in the cold. Times were wrong in the fun times, and Carnival just didn't seem to have their stuff together on this cruise. Most people we talked to said this was by far their worst cruise ever & wouldn't be so eager to book Carnival next time.

Carnival claimed the ship would be "refreshed" for us while in dry dock, by it was clear nothing was refreshed on the inside. The ship was dirty, the bathrooms smelled of stale uh...waste, and there was a lot of stuff that just didn't work.

The food was cold, the entertainers were expressionless, and the lines were the longest anybody had ever seen. There was no food to be found after dinner except for pizza (we didn't want pizza every night, and we also didn't want to have to go back to our room to wait on room service...just needed a quick snack after the show).

On the positives: In all, we made the best of it and tried to have fun. We understood the risk of taking a cruise immediately after dry dock (even though we got the switcheroo pulled on us). We were expecting problems, but not quite as many. Guest services did their best to accommodate us, but they usually had a hard time understanding exactly what we needed & offered us the same solution several times in a row. The crew were always working & nice. I think they knew it was bad and tried to make up for in the best way they knew how. We will probably book another Carnival cruise in the future, but if we have 2 experiences in a row like this, we will be looking for another line.

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We were not impressed, and a lot of other people felt the same way (or worse) than us. Apparently, there were electronics issues with the ship that were causing problems with the arcade, casino, and tvs. We had to have our sail and sign cards replaced twice. We were so glad we got FTTf because the guest services line was backed up almost to the theater every single time we walked passed. And there was usually only 1 or 2 people working the whole counter. We also heard there were people with no hot water, no cold water, or no water at all. We were glad we didn't fall into that group.

We missed our embark photo because the area wasn't set up (and they had 5 extra hours to do that???). Our room was not ready when we boarded at almost 7pm & the ship had been in port by noon. We didn't leave until almost 11 because muster took over an hour of us standing in the cold. Times were wrong in the fun times, and Carnival just didn't seem to have their stuff together on this cruise. Most people we talked to said this was by far their worst cruise ever & wouldn't be so eager to book Carnival next time.

Carnival claimed the ship would be "refreshed" for us while in dry dock, by it was clear nothing was refreshed on the inside. The ship was dirty, the bathrooms smelled of stale uh...waste, and there was a lot of stuff that just didn't work.

The food was cold, the entertainers were expressionless, and the lines were the longest anybody had ever seen. There was no food to be found after dinner except for pizza (we didn't want pizza every night, and we also didn't want to have to go back to our room to wait on room service...just needed a quick snack after the show).

On the positives: In all, we made the best of it and tried to have fun. We understood the risk of taking a cruise immediately after dry dock (even though we got the switcheroo pulled on us). We were expecting problems, but not quite as many. Guest services did their best to accommodate us, but they usually had a hard time understanding exactly what we needed & offered us the same solution several times in a row. The crew were always working & nice. I think they knew it was bad and tried to make up for in the best way they knew how. We will probably book another Carnival cruise in the future, but if we have 2 experiences in a row like this, we will be looking for another line.

 

 

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. I would have thought the best time to sail a ship is after dry dock. Maybe they had a new set of crew after the dry dock who were just not sure what to do.

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Sorry to hear about your bad experience. I would have thought the best time to sail a ship is after dry dock. Maybe they had a new set of crew after the dry dock who were just not sure what to do.

 

We thought this, too. We expected a few technical glitches, but as far as the maintenance, cleanliness and "refreshing" of the ship, we thought they would have plenty of time. In talking with the crew, it seems it was the same crew as before dry dock, but they weren't with the ship through dry dock. They only boarded on Port Canaveral a few hours before the passengers. I think this is poor management on the part of Carnival, but that is JMO. There may be laws preventing sailing just the crew from dry dock? Idk...

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We thought this, too. We expected a few technical glitches, but as far as the maintenance, cleanliness and "refreshing" of the ship, we thought they would have plenty of time. In talking with the crew, it seems it was the same crew as before dry dock, but they weren't with the ship through dry dock. They only boarded on Port Canaveral a few hours before the passengers. I think this is poor management on the part of Carnival, but that is JMO. There may be laws preventing sailing just the crew from dry dock? Idk...

 

The Glory will be out of Dry Dock in March and I will sail her in April. I am hoping to see some good renovation and a clean ship. Maybe the Liberty's maintenance was a rush and this is not the norm. I have seem reviews where people say the ships they were on were sparkling clean after dry dock.

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this is an email I just sent to Carnival...not that it will help or that I will get response but it's worth a try to hopefully have them see what's going on - I have never complained about a cruise before and hated doing it now...sorry it's kind of long...

 

Hello,

 

I will be calling also but wanted to send an email – I had 3 cabins, all Oceanview (2288), (2286) and (2372) on the Liberty 12/15-12/18 from Port Canaveral. This was my 6th Carnival Cruise but 2 of the people I was traveling with it was their 1st. I have loved the ships and the crew this cruise was Rezal in the Silver Dining room and Dadong was my Cabin Steward.

 

BUT – I have to say this was THE most Disappointing cruise I have ever been on with Carnival. We have cruised with RC, Princess and Norwegian along with the previous Carnival Ships. I tried to visit Customer service while on the ship but every time the line was at least an hour long – which when our time on board had already been reduced from 3 quick days to barely 2 – I was not going to stand in line and waste a minute of my vacation time.

 

When I got the email about the Ship change from Valor to Liberty – I was somewhat disappointed because I had been reading that Liberty was suffering from propulsion problems and this was why it was being moved to Canaveral so it could do shorter distance cruises. I wasn’t thrilled with the change but accepted it since there would be nothing I could do to make the situation any better – I could not cancel because this time frame was the only weekend that worked for us – this was also a gift for my niece as part of her high school graduation and would be the only weekend she could travel after her Fall term in College and as she is on the Cheerleading team for her college she had winter practice and competition along with next weekend being Christmas. Plus, my Brother in Law has to request vacation time off many months in advance and we could not change his time off. So, the dates were important so we stuck with our plans. Luckily we don’t have a long drive and didn’t have to change and other plans.

 

We arrived at the port for check in…I tried to tell the man assigning everyone to a check in desk Queues that our 3 cabin group was together because my sister and Brother in law had not cruised before and needed to place cash on their account so I would like to help them – plus my son and my niece were in the cabin with my mother so they would need to be mirrored onto My sail and Sign account and my sisters sail and sign account respectively – but he refused to listen and even went on to the people behind us and told us to figure out what we were doing and let him know…HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE. I don’t know if the agents are Carnival employees or Dock employees but they all wear Carnival name tags so they are representing your company. My husband and I got checked in fine, we have passports so it was quick - my sister got checked in fine (or so we thought) – but then the agent checking in my mother, son and niece was CLUELESS on how to do her job. She didn’t know how to apply a gift card on my mother’s account, she didn’t know how to mirror my son to our account. And then when she had to mirror my niece to my sisters acct she told us that my sister and brother in law weren’t actually checked which was funny since my sister and BIL both had been given cards and boarding passes – turns out that the agent that checked them in didn’t finish the process and didn’t enter their birth certificates or activate their S&S acct. Plus the agent checking in my mother kept telling us it wasn’t her fault and for us to calm down – we weren’t over excited, just ready to be on the ship and start our vacation. I asked numerous times for her to get a supervisor to help her but she just replied “calm down the ship doesn’t leave until 10:00pm we have time to figure this out” – UM no…we had already been dealing with this for over 30 minutes – 10 zones had been called while were standing there while she clicked through screens talking to herself that she just needed to figure it out…finally a supervisor noticed she was struggling and came over – it took that supervisor literally 2 minutes to fix it and have us on our way.

 

So, now it is 6:30pm almost 7 hours later than we have ever gotten on a ship - head to our cabins (which on Valor were all near each other but on Liberty, mother and kids are now WAY down the hall from us and thus in a different muster station which made my mother very nervous). Dropped off luggage and headed to golden dining room, right above us, because the document we were handed at check in said all dining rooms would be open seating tonight – only to be told no go to your assigned dining room – so off to Silver we go. Oh but we don’t sit at our assigned table with our waiter, we are sent to another table (we will be at our assigned table tomorrow night?) 2 hour dinner… now it’s going on 10pm – go up for sail away which has been delayed because Muster Drill took so long. My Niece LOVED room service on her first cruise and was counting down the days until this cruise so she could order again – but surprise no room service the first night. (or the last night) so 1 night on a 3 night cruise.

 

Sea Day was fine – really wish Carnival would follow suit of other lines and not insist that everyone in same cabin has to purchase the beverage package – because I don’t drink – also since we had basically an entire day removed from our time on board we would be paying for a 3 day cruise but only drink on 2 days (with a 15 drink limit pp pd). We did tea and trivia and relaxed. Dinner was Formal night “FEAST” but the food was subpar. The Prime rib was low quality and the Sea Bass tasted bad – not flavor bad but like the fish had gone bad. Disappointing.

 

Bahamas day – port time was only 8am (said 7 am in the Fun times but weren’t allowed to disembark until 8am)-2:30pm. VERY SHORT. We were good little cruisers and made our way back to the ship and were on board by 2:30 (2pm to be exact) but then we didn’t leave until almost 4pm – waiting on late comers…HORRIBLE disorganization of people trying to get back on board no one directing traffic to the second gangway, no one there to welcome you back to the ship (the DJ was setting up on Deck 3 outside to play music) a fight breaks out with a woman almost pushing someone off the gangway. The Comedy club host even made a joke about the craziness later that night in the comedy club. And now that we are under way we are moving quite fast to get back to port the next morning on time – the ship was really rocking – several people were swaying in the hall ways – my niece was so sick she had to leave dinner and return to her state room.

 

My mother and I purchased some photos since this would be a perfect opportunity to take some family pictures (me 11sheets and her 12sheets) paying the crazy prices but our choice I know – Princess does an all-inclusive package which would be nice if Carnival did or a price break for the more you purchase. Anyways I got 2 canvases and she got 2 canvases…when we picked them up one of Mine was printed in Black and White – seriously the person printing didn’t notice it was black and white? So they offer to reprint it “free of charge” UMMM yeah since I didn’t request B&W thanks for doing me the favor of giving me what I paid for…I also paid the extra $9.99 for the digitals and the copy right. I got home last night and went to upload my pictures - NOTHING IS ON THE JUMP DRIVE!!! It has the stock pictures of the ships but nothing else – my mother had her pictures loaded onto her jump drive so I know what the file should have looked like – nope, nothing on mine. Line on my receipt has #7731 Copy Sheet Package $9.99. I spent $253 and she spent $289 – again our choice but getting what you paid for should be a priority.

 

Debarkation day – we carried on our own luggage so we packed up headed to the dining room and have one last breakfast – my sister says she now LOVES cruising which I knew she would. But wasn’t sure she’d like to sail carnival again too many little things added up to wanting to book another line. Which I totally understand. Waiting and waiting for our deck to be called for self-debarkation – only to be told they only have 1 gang way open – they can’t get the other one to work – so now 3500 people have to disembark off one gangway. We finally get called – MASSIVE disorganization no one directing people on deck 3 by the stairs, people coming down the stairs just merging into the line instead of being routed to the end of the line.

 

I hope that someone reads this and doesn’t assume I’m a complainer – I’m not. I LOVE cruising, one of my closest friends is my TA and has many time asked me to buy into her business and become a partner – I am an Executive Assistant at my company, I plan many functions in my day to day life – I appreciate when things go right and I work diligently to make sure things do go right and that’s just for my co-workers – we pay them to work they aren’t paying me…so when I do pay for a vacation with money I worked hard for – I want to enjoy it. And I want the others that I paid for to have a good time. If/when I become a TA I want things to go right for the people that are paying me to organize their trip. But if Carnival isn’t interested in keeping up their end of the deal then I will encourage people to spend their hard earned money elsewhere.

 

Your time is appreciated. Your response would be even more appreciated. I’m sure that the $350 x 7 + $500 x 3 Sail sign accts is not much to the Carnival Cooperation as a whole, but the $4000 to us is money that could have been spent somewhere else and not result in repeat business. The $21.85 per person in refunded port charges and token credit was almost laughable.

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Thanks for the review and information. We'll be on the Liberty this weekend, and it will be interesting to see if things changed after dry dock, and after your cruise. Besides Guest Services, I have no problem emailing Carnival Headquarters while on the ship to get issues resolved. Most of the time the GS staff, just want to move on to the next guest without resolving the previous guests problem. As a note, if you do speak with someone at GS to report a problem or issue, make sure its documented, or escalated so that it goes to Carnival HQ in Miami.

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I hope Carnival pays attention to your email, too. We have never had acceptable responses from them, so we just decided to write a review instead of complain this time. I'll be doing a full review on here later when I have a little more time. Usually their standard answers are "what are you complaining for, you're on a cruise?" And "it's a fun ship".

I got sick for the first time ever on the way back, too. I told DH that if we could just slow down it would be better. And we still weren't back in port by 8! I know I've only been on 3, but this was the most disorganized vacation I have ever been on. That was probably the worst part. I get things go wrong, but organization and communication usually make up for the glitches. Lack of it usually makes them worse.

I'm sorry everybody had such a bad time. We all work hard for our money and we're expecting a much nicer vacation. None of us knew we were signing up for a sailing immediately after dry dock and we couldn't reschedule for one reason or another. I feel like for all that went wrong, we should've been better compensated.

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Thanks for the review and information. We'll be on the Liberty this weekend, and it will be interesting to see if things changed after dry dock, and after your cruise. Besides Guest Services, I have no problem emailing Carnival Headquarters while on the ship to get issues resolved. Most of the time the GS staff, just want to move on to the next guest without resolving the previous guests problem. As a note, if you do speak with someone at GS to report a problem or issue, make sure its documented, or escalated so that it goes to Carnival HQ in Miami.

 

I"ll be interested to see your review! I hope things are better for you!

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it was delayed due to the dry dock and repositioning (switching Valor out and bringing Liberty in) - we were scheduled for embarkation starting at 6pm - we were supposed to sail at 10...Muster took about an hour we sailed a little after 11. So, our 3 day cruise was literally 2 days and a couple hours. If I could have cancelled I would have but this was THE ONLY weekend we could cruise between College Fall Term and College Spring Term for our kids. Very upset with Carnival and the poor job that was done with this cruise.

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it was delayed due to the dry dock and repositioning (switching Valor out and bringing Liberty in) - we were scheduled for embarkation starting at 6pm - we were supposed to sail at 10...Muster took about an hour we sailed a little after 11. So, our 3 day cruise was literally 2 days and a couple hours. If I could have cancelled I would have but this was THE ONLY weekend we could cruise between College Fall Term and College Spring Term for our kids. Very upset with Carnival and the poor job that was done with this cruise.

 

Thank you. Sounds like you got a raw deal. Hope your next vacation is much better.

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We were not impressed, and a lot of other people felt the same way (or worse) than us. Apparently, there were electronics issues with the ship that were causing problems with the arcade, casino, and tvs. We had to have our sail and sign cards replaced twice. We were so glad we got FTTf because the guest services line was backed up almost to the theater every single time we walked passed. And there was usually only 1 or 2 people working the whole counter. We also heard there were people with no hot water, no cold water, or no water at all. We were glad we didn't fall into that group.

We missed our embark photo because the area wasn't set up (and they had 5 extra hours to do that???). Our room was not ready when we boarded at almost 7pm & the ship had been in port by noon. We didn't leave until almost 11 because muster took over an hour of us standing in the cold. Times were wrong in the fun times, and Carnival just didn't seem to have their stuff together on this cruise. Most people we talked to said this was by far their worst cruise ever & wouldn't be so eager to book Carnival next time.

Carnival claimed the ship would be "refreshed" for us while in dry dock, by it was clear nothing was refreshed on the inside. The ship was dirty, the bathrooms smelled of stale uh...waste, and there was a lot of stuff that just didn't work.

The food was cold, the entertainers were expressionless, and the lines were the longest anybody had ever seen. There was no food to be found after dinner except for pizza (we didn't want pizza every night, and we also didn't want to have to go back to our room to wait on room service...just needed a quick snack after the show).

On the positives: In all, we made the best of it and tried to have fun. We understood the risk of taking a cruise immediately after dry dock (even though we got the switcheroo pulled on us). We were expecting problems, but not quite as many. Guest services did their best to accommodate us, but they usually had a hard time understanding exactly what we needed & offered us the same solution several times in a row. The crew were always working & nice. I think they knew it was bad and tried to make up for in the best way they knew how. We will probably book another Carnival cruise in the future, but if we have 2 experiences in a row like this, we will be looking for another line.

 

So sad to hear this. Sailed Liberty back in April and loved it. Great crew, clean ship, the works. However this was before any technical issues and I believe there has been a crew change with the switch.

 

We even booked Liberty again for this coming Feb but got switched to Valor...apparently that may be a good thing.

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Same request as above. I'll be on the Liberty in 3 days and curious if anyone has sailed since the OP and can provide any further feedback.

 

Of course, I'll still go in with an open mind and have an awesome vacation despite any setbacks.... impatiently waiting for Thursday [emoji41]☀️[emoji568][emoji907]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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I hope that someone reads this and doesn’t assume I’m a complainer – I’m not.

 

Unfortunately, it reads like just a laundry list of complaints, some of which have absolutely nothing to do with the switch or shortened nature of the cruise.

 

These types of emails are not easy for a company to respond to...there's too much there and way too many details that don't matter. (like explaining why you had to go this particular weekend, niece's graduation, cheerleader in college...etc). If someone has to try and read through this extra stuff to find out what the real problem is, you'll lose them.

 

Your issue with the things like the beverage package has nothing to do with the switch in ships...so why even bring it up? If it doesn't suit you or doesn't seem to be fair (in your eyes) that everyone has to buy it, then don't buy it. Problem solved. But mentioning it in this particular email only distracts from what your real complaint may be.

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Sorry to hear you had a bad cruise. We were on Carnival Liberty in September and had a great time. It was one of our best cruises.

We sailed Carnival Triumph three times and we had one stinker cruise. I guess it happens. Had it been our first cruise... it may had been our last.

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Unfortunately, it reads like just a laundry list of complaints, some of which have absolutely nothing to do with the switch or shortened nature of the cruise.

 

These types of emails are not easy for a company to respond to...there's too much there and way too many details that don't matter. (like explaining why you had to go this particular weekend, niece's graduation, cheerleader in college...etc). If someone has to try and read through this extra stuff to find out what the real problem is, you'll lose them.

 

Your issue with the things like the beverage package has nothing to do with the switch in ships...so why even bring it up? If it doesn't suit you or doesn't seem to be fair (in your eyes) that everyone has to buy it, then don't buy it. Problem solved. But mentioning it in this particular email only distracts from what your real complaint may be.

 

Sorry if it sounded like a laundry list of complaints - I was just giving details of why all the little things added up to an unenjoyable cruise. And it did matter why we couldn't change weekends because we were originally given the option to cancel or switch and we couldn't.

 

Also, I did not buy the beverage pack for just the reason I listed - just saying we would have purchased it, if we would have had the option to mix and match the Alcohol with the soda...I offered my opinion to Carnival, that is frequently stated on this forum, others would like to purchase the package if it didn't require that everyone in the same cabin purchase it - no harm in giving them one more persons opinion.

 

But no worries if you don't agree with the way I wrote my email to Carnival - they are handling my issues. I am happy to cruise Carnival and all other lines again. Already have 3 upcoming cruises booked.

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Sure hope things get worked out before March 2. Group of 12 booked for the Tim McGraw Live cruise. Wondering if I should give Carnival a call with my concerns, or if it would even matter. Hoping for the best. I have always had good experiences with my past Carnival cruises.:(

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Sure hope things get worked out before March 2. Group of 12 booked for the Tim McGraw Live cruise. Wondering if I should give Carnival a call with my concerns, or if it would even matter. Hoping for the best. I have always had good experiences with my past Carnival cruises.:(

 

 

I really don't think calling Carnival to 'pre-complain' is a smart thing to do. One person posted here with their perception of their trip. Go on your cruise with an open mind and a positive attitude and I'll bet your cruise will be fine.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

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I really don't think calling Carnival to 'pre-complain' is a smart thing to do. One person posted here with their perception of their trip. Go on your cruise with an open mind and a positive attitude and I'll bet your cruise will be fine.

 

Enjoy!

How will always start a cruise, and ending up with all our money's worth.

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