Old man with time

I stated facts, I am not into unicorns and rainbows .....

Take what you wish, depose of the remainder ....

Jamie, the cruise director, is female. Yes she was great.

I should have tipped a restaurant $194.00 that was unacceptable even though we didn't go there? Somehow that makes me cheap? I must live in a different world.

The folks that provided service were rewarded ..... even on the Lido deck there were exceptional people.

I mentioned the shows seemed to be performed by college students.

Of course the ports were great .... it was Hawaii ..... which I have sailed on Carnival before ...

The greatest honor was to visit Pearl Harbor a few days before the remembrance activities, and we did not go to the Arizona, since we have been there before and the tickets are limited, deferring to those who have not. Visited the Missouri ..... wore myself out .. these old knees screamed in protest.

I'm done with this thread ...... happy cruising y'all.

Do you have pictures from room 5229? I'm booked in that room next March and would be interested to see the poor view you described, as it doesn't seem to mesh with other things I've heard.

 

I'm sorry it seems you had such a miserable time. I hope there was at least some good that was had.

We had a great time ..... just some irritations .... here is a link to the view ....

Yep, first post I have ever made here, and I catch grief for it .. sorry it took so long to come back to the forums to answer all the petty quips.

So, I have done many, many cruises, and most of them on Carnival, I have never had the listed complaints before ... as for the internet, it didn't work IN port either, I was willing to accept "middle of the ocean" excuse, when we were actually in the middle of the ocean.

As for the actual booking, we can thank the travel agent for that ..... I will question their choices more closely in the future.

I do have pictures, now to figure how to post them .... Guess I will have to upload them to another site, then copy the url ...

Keep smiling y'all .. no matter if I do complain about not receiving the service I paid for, and anticipated ....

And yes, I do have a lot of time on my hands, perhaps to much ... but I also have disposable cash ... wonder which cruise line want's it the most.

:p

1. Embarkation was easy, we were some of the first guests to arrive.

2. Once on board and able to enter cabin we found dust, our traveling friends found stained linens on their bed and a shower that had not been cleaned. It took several calls to have them correct the problems. Our cabin remained dusty the entire cruise, where could dust be collected at sea? I suspect either dirty vacuum machines, or a dirty a/c system.

3. There was black mold in our shower, they came and removed the silicone which it was growing in, and replaced it.

4. Through some investigation, I found the cabin steward had been assigned 30 cabins, and increase from the previous 25, and had his assistants reduced from 3 to 2. Apparently this is fleet wide and not a ship only issue.

5. The coffee was THE WORST I have drank. The only way to make it drinkable was to dilute it with a 1/3 cup of hot water and add cream. I mentioned this several time to the management staff, they said it was "calibrated" that way. I suggested the re calibrate them and add less coffee and more water.

6. The dining room we only visited twice. 1st time was poor service, 2nd time was cold and not prepared to our directions. We never went back. Investigation seemed to find the staff there had also been reduced, making excellent service unrealistic. The maitre d' actually called the room, and that of our friends, at which time we relayed our concerns. Our meals were consumed on the Lido deck, and we had no complaints with them at all.

7. The $16.00 a day Internet service was terrible! I had some time sensitive material I need to attend to, and it never happened. (One morning at 330 am I was able to almost complete it, but that failed also). There was a perky young college student onboard who had test results she need to submit to her university, she was pretty much in tears over it. It was mentioned by the guest services desk it was because we were so far at sea, not buying that one, because it didn't work in port either.

8. NEVER book cabin 5229, the view is not "obstructed" it pretty well is non existent. We were looking at the top of lifeboat 15, and there was a wall 10 feet away ....

9. The evening shows left a lot to be desired, not up to our previous Carnival cruising experiences, (we are Platinum with them). The sound was to loud, the performers were not top quality, seemed more like a school internship.

10. Our last previous cruise with Carnival was in October 2011 when we took the last cruise of the season to Alaska on the Spirit. The only complains we had there was the food quality, in the dining room, was already on the decline. Since 2011 we have sailed Celebrity and NCL ..... both were much more enjoyable.

11. Smoking .. ah yes that evil thing, something some of we dinosaurs still do. Restricted to the forward pool area, outside deck 3 and the casino bar. Not bad, however .... even we vile, ugly smokers might also enjoy a smoke in a quite area .... perhaps a small nook on the Serenity deck, after all the smoke would be sucked away over the rear of the ship. And yes, I know we smokers are a dying breed, (pun intended) but we still might enjoy a few pleasures.

12, We will soon be booking another Carnival cruise, if it provides such a disappointing experience, proving it was not ship specific, we are finished with Carnival forever.

13. We cancelled all gratuity's billed to our account, except the one that was passed to the Lido deck folks. We did, tip individuals we found to have served us well. Including the cabin steward who, in my opinion, was lax in his performance also.