Security question ~ what will cruise line do about obnoxious neighbors?

[CanadaJulie]

Quote:

Waiting for the "it's their vacation, they can do what they want" posts. Followed by the "I learned long ago to not worry about other people and enjoy myself" posts.

 

Quote:

You forgot the "a cruise is what you make of it" and "a bad day on a cruise is better than a good day at work" contingency.

 

 

That is hilarious !!! :D

[kwagmyre]

What guarantee is this?

 

Carnival offers a mostly unconditional moneyback guarantee, and I believe they are the only major cruise line to do so. The gist of it is, if you are unsatisfied with the cruise, you can exercise the guarantee so long as you do it before the first non-US port. My understanding is that they will return you to your port of embarkation at their expense, and refund your unused portion of the cruise.

 

They don't want people to take them up on this for obvious reasons, so it is a viable last-resort option sometimes if an issue comes up early enough and is not getting resolved.

[gottahaveabeach]

Thanks for your replies (except fishtaco) I hope this doesn't happen again, but I definitely will be more assertive and try some of these suggestions. Why do some people think its ok to attack the OP if they don't like the tone of the thread? Everything I posted is accurate, I DID contact security and the other comments were related to me by my own experience on the ship and by Carnival personnel. It has nothing to do with sympathy. Some people don't know what the purpose of CC is. I enjoy cruising and use this forum to learn and share.

[jimbo5544]

Here's what I would do in this situation: Record the nonsense on cam. Complain again. Show the video to security. If they still don't help, raise hell until the hotel director talks to you. Show him/her the video. If that fails... I would find some inexpensive wi-fi at the next port - upload the video to youtube. Raise hell on Carnival's Facebook & Twitter. Post the link to the video everywhere, including on this board. Post the video on John Heald's Facebook. Blog about it. Post it on Consumerist. Raise some more hell. If someone isn't outraged and does something about it, then I must be overreacting...

Wow, good points

[LibraByTheSea]

I am very suprised that Security didn't help. I had the opposite action on a cruise on the Destiny last April. I was several cabins down from a group of college "age" guys, celebrating Spring Break. There were 4 guys in the cabin and when I arrived at my cabin they were in the hall and inviting me to the "Party" (I am 50+ so initially I was flattered...lol)

1st Sea Day, I came to my cabin for my afternoon nap (a tradition I relish on my cruises)

I could hear the Boom Box as soon as I got off the elevator. As I rounded the corner to my hall I saw more than 20 people dancing and drinking in the hall. I freaked but tried to deal. (I was invited again :p)

When I got in my cabin you could literally see the cabin walls shaking from the bass. I tried to ignore it but it was impossible. Realizing that I was probably not the only one upset about the "Party" I called the front desk and asked if someone would come down and take the Party elsewhere.

Within minutes the music stopped and the crowd disbursed. I received not one but two calls to tell me to call if they started back up. The Party had moved for the remainder of my cruise....My Hats off to the Security Team and the Purers Staff for helping me relax on my cruise...:D

[gottahaveabeach]

@ librabythesea: I'm glad you got a response to your complaint, probably because they could "see" the issue. I'm sure they were able to carry on their party elsewhere. My neighbors weren't having a party from what I heard! My opening post was to see what I could expect from security, I appreciate hearing from fellow cruisers. I intend to continue cruising with even more knowledge gleaned from you.

[opshannon]

You're being obtuse. There is a HUGE difference between wearing a freaking bathrobe and clearly disrupting others. If you can't see the difference then you have larger issues than someone wearing a bathrobe in front of you. These 2 things are not even close.

 

 

They are only as close as a chihuahua and a wolf. I was being satirical in my post. At the bottom line, both bathrobes as clothing and obnoxious neighbors are related to behaviors that go beyond what most people accept as socially appropriate. I was making the point (satirically) that most people wouldn't use as a defense "it's my vacation I'll do what I want" for the incident mentioned here. But many would accuse people of "focusing on things that don't matter" with the bathrobe issue. To me, they are not the same, but (going back to my opening analogy) they are both definitely canines.

[bplazo]

I might have just gone out on the balcony and start singing a stupid song as loud as I could until they left.

[luddite]

What an odd comment from security: they didnt see it so they could do nothing about it ???

 

What if the neighboor had assaulted you, or destroyed their furniture, or thew the coffee table overboard ? Uh, sorry. We didnt see anything, nothing we can do...

 

Certainly, they are never going to "see" anything if they dont bother getting off their butts and coming down to where to problem is... If they HAD walked to the cabin, they might well have heard it for themselves...

 

Then you say "let's go to the videotape!!"

The passageway is being taped. Well, pretty much everything but your cabin and maybe (stress maybe) the public water-closets.

[alreadypacked]

My DH took a rather unique - but effective - approach to loud neighbors on a 3 night cruise. He bought them a bucket of beer, and told them NICELY that we had no problem with them partying and having a great time, but would REALLY appreciate it if they would take their party out to the public areas of the ship, and try to be quiet in the hallways, as we were probably not the only people they were disturbing.

 

They were really apologetic. They were a bunch of young military guys on board for a buddy's batchelor party, and it hadn't even ocurred to them that they were disturbing anyone else - they were just caught up in their own fun. (How they could have been that oblivious, especially when marching up and down the corridor at 6:00 a.m., blowing a whistle, I don't know.:eek: I told DH that whichever one of them had the F*&$ing whistle shouldn't get a beer, but I was overruled.:cool:)

 

Anyway, after buying them the beers and asking them nicely to be quiet, we didn't hear a peep out of them for the rest of the cruise.

 

Of course these guys weren't rude and belligerent like the OP's balcony neighbors, but I thought my DH's solution was brilliant. You get more flies with honey than with vinegar.;)

 

Great approach. While this may not work in every situation, I agree with "You get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar."

 

My mom taught me this, and it has worked for me in a number of situations.

 

Sometimes greeting bad behavior with anger, bravado, and/or more bad behavior simply escalates the situation.

 

If the "true" goal is to deflate the situation and get the person(s) to see things your way, being "nice" about it may get the desired results.

[gottahaveabeach]

Great approach. While this may not work in every situation, I agree with "You get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar."

 

My mom taught me this, and it has worked for me in a number of situations.

 

Sometimes greeting bad behavior with anger, bravado, and/or more bad behavior simply escalates the situation.

 

If the "true" goal is to deflate the situation and get the person(s) to see things your way, being "nice" about it may get the desired results.

 

This is true but doesn't apply here....I did not greet their bad behavior with any anger, I never spoke to them to keep from giving them a reason to escalate the situation.

[gottahaveabeach]

Then you say "let's go to the videotape!!"

The passageway is being taped. Well, pretty much everything but your cabin and maybe (stress maybe) the public water-closets.

 

I tried this on the last night when they were in the hall cussing/yelling. I looked out and their were plates up against my door as if put there to deliberately trip me. When I called security, he said can you see them? I said yes and he said he would look. They went in their rooms. Then he calls and says he doesn't see anything and that he was outside my room. I asked can't you just look on the security cameras? He says they don't show all of the hallways. That really makes you feel safe. As soon as he left, they came back out yelling to each other as they went to their other cabins. So I go back to bed at 3:30 when I have to get up in a few hours for debarkation. Don't get me wrong I did enjoy the cruise that didn't involve the trashy neighbors.

[rybreadsmomshubby]

I tried this on the last night when they were in the hall cussing/yelling. I looked out and their were plates up against my door as if put there to deliberately trip me. When I called security, he said can you see them? I said yes and he said he would look. They went in their rooms. Then he calls and says he doesn't see anything and that he was outside my room. I asked can't you just look on the security cameras? He says they don't show all of the hallways. That really makes you feel safe. As soon as he left, they came back out yelling to each other as they went to their other cabins. So I go back to bed at 3:30 when I have to get up in a few hours for debarkation. Don't get me wrong I did enjoy the cruise that didn't involve the trashy neighbors.

First off, it's a shame that you had to deal with this kind of trash and that the security failed to adequately handle the problem.

 

Hopefully you never have to suffer such morons again, but if you do...(and assuming you are not the retaliatory kind of person ;)) when you call security, just tell them a little white lie or two. Maybe you saw one of them holding a knife on the balcony, you saw/heard them fighting, you heard things breaking. You know, create a picture that will demand that the security people do actually knock on the door to check things out for themselves. I would hope that a visit from security would be enough to make the morons calm down a little. :)

[bbohbbneedacruise]

I know they were low-class cuz they stiffed the steward by having all the tips reversed.

 

I know plenty of mid to upper class that would remove their tips as well.

For all you know they could have been more affluent than yourself.

 

No matter what class they were they simply put had no manners or respect for their fellow cruisers.

[janabm81]

We had a similar situation a few years ago...I tried to be nice and ask our neighbors to keep it down (3am) and they cussed at me...the first & second time I called security they refused to do any thing... the third time I called (1 hour later) I did what the above poster said and told security that there seems to be a domestic dispute going on (they were really just playing music, bouncing around, and cussing up a storm but hey how could I tell?;)) Security came up within 2 minutes and we didn't hear from that room for the rest of the cruise.

[Mikel1733]

We had a situation where the room next door had kids left by parents alone in the room each night and they were loud and banging on the walls well after midnight. My wife ended up calling their room and she said she was from the front desk and there were complaints about the noise in the room and was it going to be necessary for security to come to the room? The shut up for the rest of the cruise.

[CanadaJulie]

when you call security, just tell them a little white lie or two. Maybe you saw one of them holding a knife on the balcony, you saw/heard them fighting, you heard things breaking.

 

I second this idea ! Tell them you think one of them is being beaten, or at least that's what it sounds like (;)) either that or they are just throwing furniture around...

 

Think of security as 'mom'. When one kid says "Mom ! Billy's bugging me..." mom doesnt jump. But if you say "Mom ! I think Billy's bleeding all over the place !" - mom flies up the stairs in record time !! ;)

[rybreadsmomshubby]

I know plenty of mid to upper class that would remove their tips as well.

For all you know they could have been more affluent than yourself.

 

No matter what class they were they simply put had no manners or respect for their fellow cruisers.

The reference to their being "low class" was obviously not related to their socio-economic status, moreso their standing in what we'd like to call a civilised society. Calling them 'trash' would have worked equally well.:)

[WES143]

Thanks for your replies (except fishtaco) I hope this doesn't happen again, but I definitely will be more assertive and try some of these suggestions. Why do some people think its ok to attack the OP if they don't like the tone of the thread? Everything I posted is accurate, I DID contact security and the other comments were related to me by my own experience on the ship and by Carnival personnel. It has nothing to do with sympathy. Some people don't know what the purpose of CC is. I enjoy cruising and use this forum to learn and share.

 

This is the main reason that I don't post much or get involved in many threads or post because a good amount of people feel like they should "advise" you on what you should say, think or feel about your experiences like they are the only ones with good sense. I'm not passive agressive and my personality doesn't do well under those conditions. I just read and keep going. I don't feel there was anything wrong with your post and hope it doesn't deter you from cruisin.:)

[PAPERBKWRITER]

You forgot the "a cruise is what you make of it" and "a bad day on a cruise is better than a good day at work" contingency. :rolleyes:

Guess you didn't hear about Concordia. (lol) Seriously, you are right.

[peachpitts]

We had an aft balcony on the Liberty New Year's Eve cruise and luckily it was a quiet neighborhood. One day there was a group above us and two rooms down that had a party on their balcony, it did get a little loud, but after they all got drunk they passed out for the remainder of the day and it was blissful. There was a cigar smoker above us, but he only smoked in the afternoon for a few minutes. I guess were lucky, but it seems that the longer cruises done not during college breaks attracts a better clientele. The waiters commented on that at dinner on several occasions, they said they loved working the Christmas and New Year's cruises because the travellers were so much more high class.

[golfadj]

We had a situation where the room next door had kids left by parents alone in the room each night and they were loud and banging on the walls well after midnight. My wife ended up calling their room and she said she was from the front desk and there were complaints about the noise in the room and was it going to be necessary for security to come to the room? The shut up for the rest of the cruise.

 

Great idea

[gottahaveabeach]

Well, I think I have a better idea IF this happens again (hopefully not). I like the idea of saying they had a knife, lol, I really wouldn't do that but Hey, how did would I know it was just a butter knife? J/K Since the phones don't have caller ID, how would they know if "someone" called from "guest services" to tell them to keep it down? lol ;) If these people cruise again, I sincerely hope you don't get them for you neighbors! In the meantime, I will shop for my next CRUISE!

[Laurie S.]

Some of the phones have caller id.

[gottahaveabeach]

Laurie S. That's good to know, even though I was just kidding. :D