Elation Propulsion + 72$

[beaming90]

OK, I have not seen this question asked, and I am sure I am not the only one wondering so here goes....to the OP and others, IF Carnival had been forthcoming the very second they knew there was a problem and told you that you were dead in the water, would miss Calica, etc., would it have made one iota of difference???? You would have STILL been dead in the water and missed Calica. I guess I just don't understand what difference it made if you knew sooner rather than later, the outcome would have been the same. Can you explain?

 

I was on the cruise and they announced to us on Tuesday evening about 10 PM that we would be late arriving in Cozumel. I heard a lot of people complaining about it and even heard a lady say that she was going to guest services to tell them that she had not slept at all the night before and they had caused her personal distress and she was completely stressed and upset and could not sleep at all and it was all Carnivals fault! I thought the whole thing was fine, and I was not stressed. I still got a 5 day cruise and even got some money back! What is the big deal? :confused:

[beaming90]

I am too tired after a 19 hour trip home. I can't sit here and read through all this, but when did they offer an open bar? I never heard that!

[dan40]

I truly think this is the key. Not just Carnival PVPs, but all Travel Agents.

 

We have so many new cruisers (some who have never traveled much) that it is only fair to them to fully explain to them what is in the contract they are signing.

 

To be perfectly honest, I think most newbies think of the cruise ship as a bus.

 

And to education new cruisers at the very beginning when they are booking their cruise that this is not the case, would do both the cruiser and the cruise lines a great service.

 

Personally, I think this piece of information should be as big as the pictures of the ports in the advertising.

 

They could make it in 10 foot high fluorescent red neon lights blinking on and off every second with a loud buzzing noise. It STILL would not be digested if even read.:D:D

[RN2BDFW]

I am too tired after a 19 hour trip home. I can't sit here and read through all this, but when did they offer an open bar? I never heard that!

 

 

I never heard about an open bar either! If there was one we certainly would have taken advantage of it!

[LHP]

I never heard about an open bar either! If there was one we certainly would have taken advantage of it!

 

Perhaps they are talking about the one of free drinks that are given away at the Fun Farewell Party at 5PM on the last sea day???

[LHP]

I am too tired after a 19 hour trip home. I can't sit here and read through all this, but when did they offer an open bar? I never heard that!

 

WOW ... 19 hours....

 

I thought us driving 17 1/2 was bad enough.

 

Glad you got home safely.....

[Jabee]

When we missed two ports last time on Conquest and the waves were going up and crashing down .. it obviously affected newbys attitude toward things.

 

quiet money or whatever .. Carnival, Id like some quiet hush money. please.

 

Carnival only owed them the taxes on the port charges ... and gave them open bar and extra $50.

 

Firefly was talking about on the Conquest they got an open bar...

I am a bit surprised Carnival did not do this here are well...a bit of tradition going back to the first every Carnival Cruise, which ended up on a sandbar, so everyone got an open bar and talked about what a fun ship it was.

[RN2BDFW]

Perhaps they are talking about the one of free drinks that are given away at the Fun Farewell Party at 5PM on the last sea day???

 

 

Maybe so? Or maybe they did credit some drinks back - we had more than the $72 PP credited on our final bill and were scratching our heads where the rest came from.

 

Frankly, we were surprised to get the $72 itself and felt pretty sorry for all the folks spending their day at sea standing in line for guest services to try to get more and to lodge a complaint. I thought it was common knowledge that ports are not necessarily going to happen every time. As I said, we were a lot more laid back about this than a lot of people on board. Cozumel sucks due to weather and no Calica going to happen? Fine, let's have a drink and get in the hot tub. However, there was a lot of speculating, fretting, griping, fighting, complaining, panicking and what have you overheard among many cruisers all around the ship. And the line to guest services was long, long, long. Better communication may have helped the overall atmosphere of misery turn itself around.

[dan40]

Firefly was talking about on the Conquest they got an open bar...

I am a bit surprised Carnival did not do this here are well...a bit of tradition going back to the first every Carnival Cruise, which ended up on a sandbar, so everyone got an open bar and talked about what a fun ship it was.

 

The Marti Gras hit that sandbar before it even got out of Government Cut. They ran aground right at the south end of Miami Beach, still in the harbor channel.:D:D

The "pundits" predicted that was the end of the upstart Carnival Cruise Line!:eek:

[lovintheship]

In Carnival's defense, I would have been one who wanted to go in circles, and not go back to Mobile where it was freezing cold. Id have rather gone to Cozumel as they did.

 

But since they never got up to speed on the way back, no one really knows if its fixed or not.

 

The weather in the south has been usually cold this past week... so its not totally unexpected if it was cooler than usual in Cozumel as well.

 

Im on both Ecstasy and Elation in the next month .. so I get a double dose of whatever winter is giving us cruisers.

 

 

The originial statement made by carnival is incorrect....we arrived bout 2 pm. then instead of keeping us in a warmer place they head back and ccircled mobile.....freezing. I am so disappointed in this cruise. And they actually only gave us 50....they had to give us back the the other 22 cuz they were port fees we never got to go to.

[lovintheship]

Maybe so? Or maybe they did credit some drinks back - we had more than the $72 PP credited on our final bill and were scratching our heads where the rest came from.

 

Frankly, we were surprised to get the $72 itself and felt pretty sorry for all the folks spending their day at sea standing in line for guest services to try to get more and to lodge a complaint. I thought it was common knowledge that ports are not necessarily going to happen every time. As I said, we were a lot more laid back about this than a lot of people on board. Cozumel sucks due to weather and no Calica going to happen? Fine, let's have a drink and get in the hot tub. However, there were a lot of speculating, fretting, griping, fighting, complaining, panicking and what have you overheard among many cruisers all around the ship. And the line to guest services was long, long, long. Better communication may have helped the overall atmosphere of misery turn itself around.

 

 

I agree.....they should have informed us better of what was actually going on

[lovintheship]

Im sure noone will agree with me but I dont care. I had taken 3 brand new cruisers with me and talked it up like they would be in heaven for 5 days. It was chaos for the most part. People were bi%$hy for the most part and it was just an unpleasent experiencce and no I do not believe $50 OBC was sufficient compensation. The bar staff became very short and rude due to so many people complaining. I kept my mouth shut and made the best of it. but it makes me sad my friendswill never go again now

[lovintheship]

Well just back from 5 days of circles and 6knots... I guess one can say a bad day on a cruise is a better day than at work.

Rumor has it the ship experienced problems just after we left Mobile. Not sure if thats true. If it is I would be really ticked off. Was told that they thought it was fixed so we kept on.

On the second day I felt a lurch and watched us go from about 20knots to about 6 or so. The whole next day we would go slow then speed up.

My issue was that they didnt inform us very well. It wasnt till around 9ish or maybe later on the Cozumel port day that they told us we would port late..No "ship". We didnt actually port until close to 3. I knew at this point it was a good bet we were not going to Calica. They made that anouncement while we in port. So yes we had port day in Cozumel but alot of stuff closed at around 5ish.

When we got back on they informed us no Calica.. so we went about 6 knots or so all the way home..making sure to circle in international waters for about 15 hours so they could keep the casino open and sell more booze..at least more than the "Mobile" booze.

I know they could not port us early due to immigration and what not. Gee they did give us half price bingo one day and gave each of us 72$ in compensation. Well wasnt that nice.. I was on that ship like a trapped rat so of course I spent the 72$.

All in all it could of been a lot worse.. I think had we had one day of sun would have made it more bearable..but circles, clouds and rain was not the ideal vacation. One guest put it best.. "I just spent 4 days riding around the gulf of Mexico drinking!"

Oh well... whats a cruiser to do??

 

I couldnt agree with you more!!!!!

[lovintheship]

$72 to me seems most generous. We missed 2 ports on Conquest, and got approx $20 pp for both ports together.

 

We did get money off a future cruise which I probably wouldnt use... as I dont plan on booking more Carnival cruises.

 

I do thank you for your report as Im on Elation in a few weeks and wondering if its really "fixed"

 

Im wondering if it really is fixed .. then why the slow speed all the way back to Mobile? Did they say they were just going slow because they were ahead of schedule, or why?

 

There was someting wrong with engine and they did it to keep us out roaming to rack up the money ....my opinion only

[lovintheship]

Where do you go to get that info of where the ship is at and how fast it is going?

 

 

 

I think its channel 13 in your room

[kbalman]

Open bar hmmmm I DONT think so - that would have been nice though. I am upset with the fact we didnt go to Calica especially since my Ruins excursion was there. However that is not the reason I will probably NEVER cruise again with Carnival. I was more upset as a first time cruiser with the customer service, lack of communication, food activities and entertainment staff. I would like to note my room steward and assistant waiter were awesome. My boss sent me on the cruise so I could get familiar with the cruise industry and assist her in our companies second business which is a trave agency. Well I learned all right about bad cruises and to not recommend tthe Elation until they get a new staff and propulsion system.

[kbalman]

also for those people asking if knowing in advance we weren't going to Calica would have made a difference it would have made a BIG difference for us because we would planned to do something more exciting in Cozumel (other than shop), and not returned to the ship so early. we also would have know we had more spending money because our excursion was cancelled in Calica. They could have at least warned us there was a chance we would not make it - but they didnt. Then for the extra day at sea they had nothing exciting planned!

[lovintheship]

Agreed!!! And the knife is dug in even deeper when one reads about cruises that missed a port or two who received more compensation for similar issues.

 

Mach, if a line is going to have an all encompassing 'we promise nothing' clause then they really need to have a no exceptions clause too to the compensation. It's either all in or all out - no making up the rules as you go along. That is my biggest argument with the line.

 

 

 

I felt very insu;ted with the 50 OBC also and the 22 was what they HAD to give us for port charges we never made it to

[lovintheship]

It sounds to me that the $72.00 was possibly port fees re-imbursed...could this be the situation?

 

 

 

It was a 50 OBc and the rest was port credits

[lovintheship]

I am a first time cruiser and now last time. I cant believe I spent over $400 to ride around in a boat playing bingo. (due to the weather the lido deck was windy and very cold therefor unenjoyable). But the weather I realize carnival cannot control, so for that I dont blame them for. What I am not happy about is the fact that I took a week off work to go on a 5 day cruise for 2-3 hours of daylight in mexico. The communication was absolutely horrible. We weren't told but very few details ahead of time. We didnt find out we werent going to calica until AFTER I had gotten back on the ship from cozumel(where every water activity had been cancelled). So what do they give me as compensation for my 400+ trip? $50. plus $22.50 for ports taxes and whatever from calica(that they have to refund). That seemed like an insult! We all were told that "theres nothing we can do" by the guest relations staff. BULL. I love how the person directly above the guest services staff was nowhere to be seen. He just let everyone complain to those poor people behind the counter. All this because of an engine malfunction 2 months after the splendor incident. Ive heard alot of rumors and whatnot concerning the engines, but since they are only rumors I will not post them. All we were told is a propulsion issue was the cause...but there was an announcement before we even left Mobile (causing a late departure) of some technical issues or checks being conducted. Im not sure what that was about but Im sure thats where the rumors are coming from. All in all with my experiences and the way I was treated by the guest relations staff. I will NEVER sail with them again. I will make pretty darn sure that everyone I know wont either.

 

 

 

Awwww please dont let this ruin it for you. I have 9 cruises under my belt and this is my first bad experience. contact Carnival and hopefully they will give you incentive to cruise again on a fun one

[kbalman]

lovintheship - and the $50 they did give us they got right back really no loss on their end. Most spent it drinking, gambling or playing bingo since thats all there was to do!

[lovintheship]

No, the mistake people make is they expect to get the vacation that they paid for. When it is less than what they expected and paid for, they are upset. No amount of rhetoric, inaccurate "official" statements, one sided take it or leave it cruise contract quoting and cheerleader bandwagoning is going to make them feel better.

 

And this had nothing to do with weather at all, it was mechanical failure by a Carnival ship that caused the problems.

 

 

Mach....please top saying the same thing over and over. You are drivinng me nuts

[lovintheship]

OK, I have not seen this question asked, and I am sure I am not the only one wondering so here goes....to the OP and others, IF Carnival had been forthcoming the very second they knew there was a problem and told you that you were dead in the water, would miss Calica, etc., would it have made one iota of difference???? You would have STILL been dead in the water and missed Calica. I guess I just don't understand what difference it made if you knew sooner rather than later, the outcome would have been the same. Can you explain?

 

 

They knew there was a problem before we left because they announced "we will be leaving late to do some "routine maintenance".........BULL!!!!!

[lovintheship]

I am too tired after a 19 hour trip home. I can't sit here and read through all this, but when did they offer an open bar? I never heard that!

 

 

There was no open bar on Elation

[lovintheship]

lovintheship - and the $50 they did give us they got right back really no loss on their end. Most spent it drinking, gambling or playing bingo since thats all there was to do!

 

 

totally agree