pzsdd6

P.S. Was able to upgrade classic to premium drink for $80 for entire cruise. Hope others can find a break, take anything we can get. Happy Sunday!

FWIW - Another data point. We had a casino offer for the Summit, premium inside deck 11, tips, classic, Wi-Fi. Dec 16th Decided to check the Black Friday sale just to compare. Not sure how it came to this…. Upgraded to premium Aqua class, same deck, all current benefits move across, Captains points go up. ding ding ding…..net, $25 per person. $99 cost but they give back $50 OBC. Go figure! Take the time to check any of your already booked cruises…..just might find a duck!

Hello Everyone! I have been frustrated with all the lines and the way they prioritize “solo” cruisers. My understanding is they all give solo travelers a lower priority, even when adding a supplement of between 0-100%. One reason is only 1 person to”buy” things. This usually goes away when you have a sailing that is below a threshold, usually low bookings. It’s all business algorithms. As stated by the quoted post, it happens, just have to play the wheel and hope you’re checking constantly. I was fortunate enough to catch the same cruise as above. I was able to book solo, no supplement, inside guarantee, 3 days ago, for 226.00 (love quick last minute getaways). Within 24 hours my cabin was assigned, ended up with a deluxe balcony deck 15. So the story is…..it’s frustrating for solo travelers, but with perseverance, occasionally a deal can be had! Keep trying…….feel free to share deals you may find with all our solo travelers here.

Thank you for all the responses and suggestions. Took me a minute to get back here. Seriously, I’m making fun of this but I’ve check quite a few places and the results are the same, the cruise lines, most of them, have just eliminated or quashed single category. One TA told me that’s it’s not just the supplement but the cruise lines count on the additional money they “expect” each cruiser to spend while on the trip. Sell, sell, sell! I mean I get it but I have to say it definitely plays a huge part in deciding where to next spend my cruise travel dollars. State of the business…….😤

I am wondering if anyone has encountered difficulties trying to make a booking for a single cruiser? I’m hoping that’s is just me an a user error, however every booking I have tried for the next 4-5 months in the Caribbean gives a pop up message stating the cruise is fully booked. If you try with 2 people, no problem. Again, I hope it’s something I’m doing incorrectly, otherwise I’m going to be really offended that they have chosen to treat single cruisers this way, definitely not the right thing to do. I will add this for clarity, I have no issue with paying the usual single supplement, but to purposefully exclude singles…..not right, just my opinion.

Nope……..and realistically never thought I would. As long as she’s getting her millions in salary that’s all she really cares about. When Carnival starts floundering a bit more, I expect her to leave just as the others before her. My only hope is that on the way out she takes John Heald with her!

If she is, I’m sure her experience will be vastly different than mine and others…..lol

Very true Tom. A lot of people get what they pay for without any issues, we will not hear from those, however any good executive will honestly and openly listen to criticism. If they are unwilling to listen them you have your answer………they should never be in a position to render decisions.

Quite possible……but there are ways around that. The only reason the NCL president was spotted was because they were always followed around by several camera men trying to make a show. Pretty easy to figure that one out.

Im glad you had a great time, I’m sure many do, but have to be blind, deaf, and ignorant to not see all the complaints from others here on the boards, and that just the ones that don’t get removed.

She will never answer or take me up on this, for several reasons. 1) she really doesn’t care. 2) this way she can keep denying the issues. 3) they can keep doing business as is (screwing the customer and hiding offshore) I took approximately 30 small videos documenting everything that I’ve posted about, including take aways from multiple crew members (yes, even they are disgusted). I’m working with a friend to see the best way to post them so that as many people as possible can see them, then let’s see their response. Posting them here will only allow Carnival to complain and have them removed.

Run Forest Run!!!

Rather than continually complain here about all that is wrong with Carnival, I offer up the following: Ms.Duffy, I will personally book and pay for a cruise for you to travel on a ship of your choice for any cruise you are willing to take under the following conditions: 1) Must travel undercover ( different name) 2) no prior notice to anyone else within Carnival, no videos or photos ( other than those you personally take) This way you can really see and experience the problems that a huge number of your customers have to endure. I sincerely doubt that you have any frame of reference regarding what the everyday passenger deals with, from booking, boarding, food, customer service, employee interaction. While I won’t hold my breath on this one, it will most likely be ignored just like Carnival ignores customers.

OP here, back from the cruise from hell! Still no resolution on my ruined luggage, Carnival is absolutely the worst when it comes to customer service. People think that their service is bad prior to the cruise, it’s even worse after the cruise. The customer care dept is a joke. Never again will we sail on Carnival! If you do cruise with them, you will be sadly disappointed. With all the information shared from thousands here on cruise critic clearly showing that they are really nothing more than a sham company. They lie to everyone about what they will deliver. To me this more and more becomes a clear case of fraud which we all know but are powerless to do anything about because they hide off shore and make you sign away any and all rights to say or do anything about their crappy service. I have decided to refocus my disappointment and energy towards finding a way to hold them accountable here in the US. It has to start somewhere.

P.S. forgot to add this: While trying to find something edible at the market place buffet, I was in line behind a gentleman and his wife. I over heard him tell his wife that at the prison where he works the inmates get better food! That alone should sum it up for everyone!

Part 2: Carnival cannot feed all the passengers in the restaurants. That’s why currently Cucina and Chibang which are supposed to be pay to eat venues, are free. They have to get passengers to eat there or the restaurant would back up indefinitely. Tried to eat the shawarma, got a pita filled with burnt pieces that looked like over cooked hamburger. Street eats, another free food venue, except it hardly ever open and when it is it’s staffed by 1 person, who has to cook, prep, plate and serve. Average time per customer was almost 5 minutes to be served ( because they have to keep stopping to cook and prep. So you imagine the lines…… 10pm: tried to get pizza, over 100 people in line, 6 ovens all empty while 2 guys try to pre make enough pizzas to fill the ovens, again 2 people! Guest services: over 200 people in line, wrapped around the entire deck area, diamond line was over 50 people waiting. 4 guest service employees. Carnival Mardi Gras magnifies all of their issues exponentially! Talk about herds, OMG…..you can’t walk anywhere, it’s a fight to get thru the inconsiderate herds and their kids (1400)…. 3 days in and it’s horrible. We are so disgusted that we even tried to get a flight out of San Juan just to get off the ship, unfortunately we could not get a flight ( Christmas holiday)! part 3 next port…maybe

Hello all, OP here. Live update from the Mardi Gras! First let me put this in perspective. This is a 7 day cruise over Christmas week, so every issue be it good or bad is multiplied exponentially. Currently sitting in San Juan, 3 days in and this cruise has verified everything I originally posted and more. First let me say that the ship is beautiful, everything is sparkly and new. That’s it for the good. Started out with our luggage. Dropped off with the baggage handlers at 10:30, as a diamond, one of the very few perks left is supposed to be expedited priority luggage handling. They couldn’t locate our bags until after 5pm. I tried several times to work with them to locate the bags, gave them detailed descriptions…etc. Brand new luggage and they destroyed my hard case bag, cracked the case all the way thru. It would take me hours to tell what I had to go thru with no resolution. Their resolution was for me to go shopping in San Juan on my vacation time, buy a bag, lug it back to the ship for reimbursement (typical of Carnival, they cause problems and pass it along to you to deal with). The food is almost inedible, I say almost because there is still ice cream! Carnival has built a ship that cannot support the number of people on board. The Palm restaurant, check in….wait 1 1/2 hours to get seated, entree showed up an hour later, food was cold ( the gravy had re-solidified) real appealing! All told, 3 1/2 hours to have dinner. (continued-on part 2)

Thank you. I was not saying goodbye to Carnival, just pointing out some of the most recent experiences and trends we have been seeing. No……clean bathrooms do not smell! On Celebrity most restrooms have an attendant on duty, always willing to help with a clean fresh linen cloth to wash or dry…….and always clean. As a matter of fact, we continue to try and sail with Carnival. We are booked this week for the Christmas cruise on the Mardi Gras. We are sincerely hoping that on their new ships that they do a better job, although I’m seeing mixed reviews for the ship, still a lot of the same issues especially the food in the buffets and main dining rooms, but we will see. Several have mentioned the “herds” causing issues, we have see this all too often on Carnival, as well as the way too many drunks staggering about the ship causing even more problems. I have never seen anything like that on Celebrity, no herds, no drunks, and definitely no fighting amongst the herds……

You are correct! No need for you to say goodbye from this thread!

As a longtime Carnival customer, Diamond with 50+ cruises, I’m personally disgusted with the current state of affairs on Carnival ships. Just take a look at all the comments from Carnival customers that really want to cruise with them, but can no longer stomach the crap shoveled out that’s supposed to be food. The horrible customer service, bathrooms that smell like a toilet……it’s like going to a concert and pissing in a trough. So, with that said, my DW and I have been moving over to Celebrity. Yes, it will cost you more! But you will get so much more for your money. It’s like cruising used to be…….quality, class, and caring. I recently saw a comment that sums it up best “death by a thousand cuts” all brought on by Carnival because they have no clue what people who cruise today are looking for. I realize that some people will disagree and that’s OK, but for the rest that really want to enjoy cruising again like it was, take a look at Celebrity………amazing!

As a longtime Diamond member, I think Diamond and above should get a free “axe” throwing with Christine Duffy as the target!

Had the same thing happen on cyber Monday. Tried to help friends book their very first cruise, for their 50th anniversary When booking, we got a grey screen and the spring wheel. 10 minutes and nothing, so we did the old shut down and restart (couldn’t get out of the screen), did it again, same thing. This time waited 20 minutes and finally went thru. Now lo and behold, they have 2 cruises booked. Had to call Celebrity, 2 hours later, they cancelled the 1st one but now they won’t get the 2nd $500 deposit back for 6-8 weeks. Extremely poor service from Celebrity, should never have happened in the first place and then keep their deposit for 2 months…..pretty crappy. And before anyone jumps in and says it’s the Cc company’s fault…..Bullsh$t! spoke with the Cc company and they said that was Celebrity’s policy. So to continue, they paid in full while fixing the first problem. Next day, received a bill from Celebrity for $245……wth? So, another 2 hours to find out they still bill you for tips then reverse it, again, very poor customer service. Tried to act as a brand ambassador for Celebrity and talked them into using Celebrity. Guess how they feel now!

Seriously, this is a terrible change. I understand that there may be issues with San Juan, but substituting Nassau. This has to be the most overdone, over visited, over hyped, and most importantly, underwhelming port in the so called Caribbean. I Say Caribbean because this was supposed to be a “Caribbean” cruise. Once again Carnival disappoints. Why not just make it another sea day and refund the port charges, that way the majority would most likely be happy.

Yes, I have tried and was able to access my info thru the phone, but it is not easy to use or see. Simple point is everything worked fine up until 4 days ago. Again, why is no one from Celebrity responding to this thread? Why isn’t the moderator trying to get help for the people here.

Switched to Chrome…………still doesn’t work. Where is someone from Celebrity? So much for switching from Carnival, seems Celebrity uses the same customer service call center in India. Apparently they don’t care either……