Complainers and freebies

[Kakidoll]

Serious question folks. I've been hearing lots of moaning and groaning about Carnival lately, and have a little research going.

What is your take on what should be expected for 'complaints' and what is a legitimate complaint?

And if legitimate, what type of compensation do you expect?

 

Don't need flamed, just your honest opinions or experiences please. Heck, or even stories you think are 'over the top' if ya like ;)

[drenee73]

We had an aft wrap on the last Pride cruise we did. The 2nd formal night, we were enjoying a glass of wine on the balcony after dinner and they were cleaning the lido.

 

They squeegie'd or sprayed or something and water dripped over the edge of the Lido right on my head.

 

It didn't RUIN my dress, but needless to say our plans to go back out with mom and dad (first cruise) for fancy family pictures was not happening. I was kinda angry.

 

I called GS and they offered to clean my dress and DH's suit - but we may not have them back before we had to put our suitcases out the next night. We may have to hand carry them. Ugggg.

 

I wasn't satisfied at ALL with their response.

 

I would have been happy if they would have OBC'd the cost of laundry so I could at least have a couple of drinks to drown my anger.

 

I didn't make issue of it after the cruise - I was ok after my dress cleaned ok.

 

Just imagine - aft wrap, warm breeze, dressed up fancy with your man, looking at the moon, enjoying a nice glass of wine, getting all romantic - and then WHAMMO - dirty Lido water on your head!

[lottsomom]

We were on the Triumph for the Dec. 15th sailing and the room that my adult kids were staying in began to flood for the room next door, so bad that when they were moved the path to the door every step was splish splash. And this all started on the first night of the cruise at 2am. Crew was great helping them move to another room. Two days later there was a letter left in their room to come down to guest services. They wanted to say how sorry they were for the inconvenience that this had caused and gave them a percentage of one day rate, which only came out to be 17 dollars and some change for each kid. I thought that was very nice, since we never had asked for compensation.

[sarah85]

I have made 3 complaints out of my many cruises.

 

The first one was on RCCL. I had a new swimsuit my husband and I went in the hot tub. An hour later my swimsuit was suddenly "stripped" with bleach stains. I made a complaint, showed proof of the bleaching. They looked into it, I presume checked the levels of the hot tub and then provided me with $60 obc to buy a new swimsuit. I was very happy with the response.

 

The second complaint was on the same RCCL cruise. It was a

Shore tour that was in Turkey. We were due to go on a sailing vessel, which was not the type of boat we went on, and we didn't do anything as described in the excursion... Everyone on the tour was given a 50% refund so I guess there must have been a lot of complaints.

 

My third complaint was on Carnival Glory. We had an interior cabin and all night from 9pm till 6am every few minutes a bang could be heard that sounded like a door slamming. They had staff members inspect the noise and did hear it and moved us to a cabin of the same class on the second night after being unable to determine where the sound was coming from. We were again very satisfied with the response.

 

Out of the 15+ cruises I have done, I find these are the only issues I've encountered that I would complain about.

Edited January 7, 2015 by sarah85

[pwickum]

I once received compensation for a noise complaint. We had a room above the Piano Bar on the Legend and they had a crew party in there with music so loud it vibrated the bed, walls, etc. until 430a - Really? I think we were compensated 1/2 day cruise rate for the inconvenience. I was not the only cabin that complained. I think there were 3 other people down at Guest Services at 3am complaining. I think that was just rude and disrespectful to disrupt paying guests in the middle of the night. There are plenty of places on the ship to have a CREW party that wouldn't bother anyone.

[Smiling Cruiser]

A bottle of champagne, a plate of strawberries and a rush job on the dry cleaning would have been nice.

My dd (9 at the time) had a pitcher of beer dumped on her head at a land based restaurant. She was presented with a basket of trinkets to select from and encouraged to take many. Everyone at our table was treated to desert and profuse apologies. Luckily she had a change of clothes in our car so she dried off , changed clothes, and our celebratory dinner continued.

I think the beer might have been better than the dirty water.

[Joanne G.]

Our Freedom cruise was canceled last year when Carnival put the ship into dry dock. We were offered a $100 cabin credit plus reimbursement for airline change fees. We kept our airline reservations and picked another cruise the same week. We were disappointed as the itinerary was less to our liking than our original cruise, but we thought the offer was fair.

 

This was the 3rd time we have had a booked cruise canceled for one reason or another, and each time we got small OBC for the inconvenience. Now we see there is a certain risk of a schedule change when booking a year or so in advance. As long as we have at least a few month's notice, we are OK with it.

 

If we ever faced a serious issue in the cabin that wasn't promptly fixed such as flooding, inoperable air-conditioning, or a non-flushing toilet, I would expect to be moved to a different cabin, with a pro-rated refund (not future credit) if the new cabin is in a lower category. I understand mechanical issues can happen at any time, but I expect Carnival or any other cruise line to take reasonable steps to prepare for situations that makes a cabin uninhabitable, such keeping a certain number of cabins empty so they are available if people need to be moved. I would be complaining with the loudest of them if forced to stay in a cabin with such problems.

Edited January 7, 2015 by Joanne G.

[hhalliv]

I sailed on the Splendor last March out of New York, and was traveling with one of those "indestructible" suitcases. Set me back a few Franklins, and when I dragged it from the hallway and laid it on my bed, I could see straight through to my clothes! There was red paint scratched across the sides, and a fist-sized hole punched right through the front.

 

I took pictures before muster, and waited in the enormous line at guest services and showed them. They asked me to empty my clothes from it, and bring it back down. So after sail away (didn't want to miss the Statue of Liberty) I brought my suit case to guest services and the lady and manager looked at it, and she asked me how much it cost. She then looked it up online and told me that I had paid too much for it (ha ha ha).

 

She said they would tape up the hole for me and have the bag sent to my room, and in Port Canaveral I could buy a new suit case (up to $150) and they would credit my account with a receipt. They also told me they would pay for my taxi. So my day in Port Canaveral was spent at a Macy's. I bought a smaller bag to fit inside my broken one, as I did not want to wheel two bags since we took the train to New York.

 

Got back on the ship, and dropped off my receipts for the bag and taxi, and went to my room. That night after turndown, found my luggage tags from my old bag in my room. I went to guest services and asked about it, and the same lady who told me they would tape up my bag and return it to my room proudly informed me that she had returned the tags to my room for my convinience, and when I asked her why they didn't just leave them on the bag, she informed me that my bag had been "put off the ship" in Port Canaveral.

 

So in return for my fancy suitcase, I got a smaller suitcase from Macy's that barely fit my belongings, and had a nice shopping mall experience in Port Canaerval. They never did reimburse me for the taxi (just saying), and I still think some Carnival employee has my suitcase somewhere using it lol

 

Overall, I think the situation was handled well, just some miscommunication probably caused by a slight language barrier.

[Liverpoollovely]

Serious question folks. I've been hearing lots of moaning and groaning about Carnival lately, and have a little research going.

What is your take on what should be expected for 'complaints' and what is a legitimate complaint?

And if legitimate, what type of compensation do you expect?

 

Don't need flamed, just your honest opinions or experiences please. Heck, or even stories you think are 'over the top' if ya like ;)

 

 

I can only think of two nightmare situation recently that happened on the liberty ..

 

* we are from the Uk when we fly in for the cruises (we b2b a lot) we fly in a few days before, on departing for Orlando in our duty free i purchased 2 limited collection rum for a relatives birthday present .. I have never seen in the Caribbean before, or in the US, needless to say security took the rum but this was ok we didn't make no attempt to conceal it was a gift and it had to be brought with us. When we get off for our second leg of the cruise and come back on we were told we couldn't collect the rum until the day of departure from our second week again we were fine with it ... Comes to the last day to collect and the rum is not there, it has been stolen, started talking to others in line who were collecting also and there drinks had also been taken without trace and carnival couldn't say where they had gone in total I think there was five or six people with various alcohol stolen. Carnival eventually understood we hadn't tried to break the rules by bringing alcohol but that it was a gift for a close relatives birthday and we had no intention of drinking it, at first they tried to make it our fault, not their fault for allowing it to be stolen as it was supposed to be secure with security in the hull of the ship .. Eventually they refunded the cost of the rums, I did raise my concerns regarding the thefts however as throughout the week I had heard from other guests on board of mobiles being taken, iPads, etc.

 

* we had a bit of an incident with our room steward also on the liberty. Our room steward knocked on our door to tell me off for phoning house keeping for clean towels and sanitary napkin bags, as he hadn't left any towels for the next morning nor the napkin bags I had asked would it be possible to have more of the bags that night before I went for dinner at the main dining room. He told me I had gotten him in trouble and I would have lost him his job, he was very aggressive, my sister did not like the way he spoke to me and went to the guest relations desk to report it as she seen it had upset me and she wasn't comfortable with the way he had approached me, I only wanted towels to shower the next day and sanitary napkins as there was none left when the room was turned down. The evening he came to the room with his supervisor to apologise but he ended up ranting again, which in the end resulted in him being moved to the other corridor off of the deck.

[Butterbean1000]

We were at the Steakhouse on Valentine's Day last year on the Freedom. We were a table of 6. Service was very, very slow and our head waitress was less than friendly. A half hour or mote after we had been seated a table of 4 was seated next to us. They received their appetizers and dinner before us. We complained and it was explained to us that since there were less people at that table, they get their food first. What??? Ok, maybe if we came in together, but we were there long before they showed up. The maitre'd appologized and things really got moving. A little later, she brought us a complimentary bottle of champaigne. We were really surprised and and very appreciative.

[Warm Breezes]

We had an aft wrap on the last Pride cruise we did. The 2nd formal night, we were enjoying a glass of wine on the balcony after dinner and they were cleaning the lido.

 

They squeegie'd or sprayed or something and water dripped over the edge of the Lido right on my head.

 

It didn't RUIN my dress, but needless to say our plans to go back out with mom and dad (first cruise) for fancy family pictures was not happening. I was kinda angry.

 

I called GS and they offered to clean my dress and DH's suit - but we may not have them back before we had to put our suitcases out the next night. We may have to hand carry them. Ugggg.

 

I wasn't satisfied at ALL with their response.

 

I would have been happy if they would have OBC'd the cost of laundry so I could at least have a couple of drinks to drown my anger.

 

I didn't make issue of it after the cruise - I was ok after my dress cleaned ok.

 

Just imagine - aft wrap, warm breeze, dressed up fancy with your man, looking at the moon, enjoying a nice glass of wine, getting all romantic - and then WHAMMO - dirty Lido water on your head!

 

Better than the tray of Bahama Mama's I had dropped on me when a waiter tripped behind my seat on the Disney Wonder while we were waiting for the show to start. I got drenched and DD(4 at the time) got splattered. We missed the show to take a shower and change while the rest of the family and our friends enjoyed free drinks and the show. We did get our dresses cleaned however :rolleyes:.

[Katrine822]

While not a 'disaster' we did feel that our recent NYE cruise on the Carnival Freedom was a bit of a bait and switch. We booked it specifically for the late stay (11:30 pm) in Aruba on NYE. At 11 am that day, an announcement was made that the port was closing at 10pm, we had to be back on board by 8:30 and so sorry, but this was the first the Carnival crew was hearing of it.

 

So many people were really ticked as many of their evening plans (sunset cruises, dinner etc...) had to be changed or rearranged. Unless you bought the ship's WiFi, you had no way to contact anyone, make changes or look up options until you got off the boat. IMO they should have given free WiFi from the announcement until we got into port in order for guests to mke alternative arrangements.

[Cruisin'Doc]

A year or so ago on the Conquest, we were doing a B2B in July. Our room was quite warm. I called to have them check the temp, and someone from housekeeping (a manager) came, and said the temperature was too high (high 70s). She said she would have maintenance come immediately. We waited and waited. No one came. We stepped out for maybe a half hour, and when we came back, there was a note saying they came by, we weren't there, but that everything was fine. I called again the next morning (it was around 10 pm by this time) - Day 2 of the cruise. They sent someone else, and again found the temp too high. They again had someone from maintenance come - only this time, a housekeeping supervisor came and watched them. They fixed the AC.

 

So, we went two days with minimal AC (in July). The third day, GS called to check how the temps were, and I said it was still slightly warm, but MUCH better! They were very pleased, and then told us we would be getting a 20% refund for the days the AC was not working. Quite surprised!

 

Last year on another cruise, the E-staff missed several trivias (I think I was on the Elation). One day, I went to GS just to let them know what was going on. Later, I received a SOAS and something else sent to our room (wine or strawberries? I forget). I wasn't complaining - just letting them know in case there were schedule glitches, but they were very responsive.

 

We have had some other issues which we have reported to GS which have NOT been addressed, but nothing too major.

[Out to sea!]

Serious question folks. I've been hearing lots of moaning and groaning about Carnival lately, and have a little research going.

What is your take on what should be expected for 'complaints' and what is a legitimate complaint?

And if legitimate, what type of compensation do you expect?

 

Don't need flamed, just your honest opinions or experiences please. Heck, or even stories you think are 'over the top' if ya like ;)

 

No compensation ever expected. Just resolution to the complaint, if possible.

Edited January 7, 2015 by Out to sea!

[cruise_girl2002]

On my first rcl cruise I was cruising with my mom (in the same cabin as me) and a coworker and her husband (different cabin as my mom and I). We called ahead to link our bookings so we could eat together. Once onboard we went to check out our table. We couldn't have been further from one another! So we stood in line for 10minutes to get our table changed. no luck. So at dinner that night the other couple with my mom and I were on an anniversary cruise, so asked them if they would switch with our friends that had a table for 2...they did, so all was fine with that.

 

Then comes dinner. Bread basket only came around once, and our water glasses sat empty for the first 20 minutes. Once my water was gone, they never refilled the glasses. I thought they must be having an off night. the next two nights were the same, no water refills, no bread basket, food was cold. My mom and I went to guest service to adjust our tips and complain. We were told, since we have an assigned dining time our tips have to stay as is. whatever, we walked away. we didn't let it ruin our cruise, just left us with a bad taste.

 

Then our ceiling in the bathroom was leaking. we went to guest service about that, they fixed that, but we weren't offered anything.

[DirtyDawg]

Just imagine - aft wrap, warm breeze, dressed up fancy with your man, looking at the moon, enjoying a nice glass of wine, getting all romantic - and then WHAMMO - dirty Lido water on your head!

 

Funny, it's usually my DW who pours water on my head when I'm getting all romantic.:o

 

Are you sure you didn't pay that crew member to squeegee that water? Be honest now.:D

[gone_cruisin]

One cruise, we had no hot water between the hours of 10pm-9am. We've been on multiple cruises and knew to let the water run a little before stepping in the shower. But even after running it for 30 mins, it was still freezing cold. My parents were in the adjoining rooms and also had the same problems.

 

Of course all this is discovered in the mornings on port days. We'd call guest services; they'd call maintenance; and an hour and half later someone would show up (always showing up after 9am). He'd turn the water on and miraculously it would be hot. We'd go round and round with this daily.

 

The water was always hot in the afternoons....thankfully. But it aggravated us that we couldn't have a shower in the mornings before leaving to port. If we were sun/beach worshipers, then it might not have been too bad, but we had walking/shopping tours planned.

 

Plus guest services treated us like we were crazy. After the 4th morning, I gave up hope of the problem getting fixed. However, I was persistant in annoying the guest services desk daily since we were not getting the resolution most people expect.....hot water. They needed to understand that this was a serious problem.

 

Come to find out on day 6, our other aft cabin mates also noticed the lack of hot water.

 

I was not going to let this just slide. Again, daily calls to guest services and on the final night they acknowledged that there might be a problem. They said it would require maintenance in miami. So a 7 night cruise in an aft-wrap which we paid a considerable amount of money for and zero hot water in the am....including disembarkation day.

 

We received a 25% refund off the cruise in the form of obc and 10% off a future cruise.

 

15 cruises and we had never encountered anything this bad. We never complain because we know bad things happen. However, this was a major problem I could not just ignore.

Edited January 7, 2015 by gone_cruisin

[sandij]

We've sailed many times and have had minor annoyances that we probably didn't even report. One time however we were in an aft balcony cabin (which we love) but every morning it was soaking wet from them cleaning windows a couple decks above us. We complained to GS a couple times and on the next to last day on board received a letter saying we were given a 400.00 OBC for the inconvenience, I had a lot of shopping to do that last day.

[golfb4cruzing]

On the Destiny, with a surprise Suite, for the wife's birthday. 2nd day, toilet reverse flowed and flooded the entire suite and out into the hallway and had damp carpet the rest of the week and a noisy machine blowing cold air around across the carpeting. GS suddenly went deaf mutes and no moving, no comp, no nothing. That was/is our last trip on Carnival.

[IPlayWithString]

The only real reason we've ever had to complain was last year on the Triumph when my husband went into the cabin's bathroom and got locked in. I had to call GS to send somebody down to fix it.

 

Well..they fixed it..but then the room safe malfunctioned and had to be fixed. I swear maintenance saw more of our room than we did. :eek::p

[MCFTJCH2V]

Serious question folks. I've been hearing lots of moaning and groaning about Carnival lately, and have a little research going.

What is your take on what should be expected for 'complaints' and what is a legitimate complaint?

And if legitimate, what type of compensation do you expect?

 

Don't need flamed, just your honest opinions or experiences please. Heck, or even stories you think are 'over the top' if ya like ;)

 

First time I ever complained to CArnival without expecting anything, as I just wanted them to know, I received a letter for 20% off my next cruise.

 

Second time I complained, I got another letter for 25% off my next cruise.

 

Third time I complained, I got a letter stating 30% off my next cruise.

 

I never complained again, so I don't know what came next. But I do think these letters became known as the "45 day letter", and went the wayside.

 

I'll let you know if I have any more complaints.

[beshears]

In my 25 (15 - 20 cruises)years of cruising, I really haven't had too many problems that the cruise ship staff had to deal with.

 

I ALWAYS take out insurance to cover my flight/cruise, which I find really helps, if needed.

 

There have been a couple. One did not have to do with the ship,but because I live in KC, Missouri, the weather was so bad,we could not fly out of the airport, so thus we lost one day of our cruise,but I was glad I had the insurance in that matter.

 

The other one which we will never forget. :mad: RCCL took our luggage (except for what we had as a carry-on and what we were wearing) for almost 4 days, and it wound up on one of their other ships.:mad: I was glad we had insurance, but it really didn't help, when most items on cruise ships are expensive (clothing) to buy in the first place. They did provide us with nice gowns to wear for the formal nights, but of course, they did not fit us like our own gowns would.

 

We just got of the Carnival Sensation the first part of November. We had not complained,but noticed that our toilet wasn't flushing too good. The next thing we knew, one of their maintenance men had come knocking on our door to fix the situation. I guess our neighbors had called first about this. It was sort of a bad time when he came, as we wanted to leave,but not leave him there to work on the problem, so he came back later when we were there. Thought that was nice of him.:)

[NoDayButToday]

The only bad one I've had was a cabin steward who broke my glasses by trying to make them fit on a towel animal. I wore my contacts to dinner and left my glasses on the vanity. Carnival said it was my fault because I left them in the room and only paid 50% for replacement.

 

Other than that Carnival has been great, even the cruise where they somehow allowed us to book 4 people in a 2 person room on a family vacation. We booked a long time in advance (a year maybe?) and had many conversations with customer service over the time leading up to the cruise. Wasn't flagged at check in either, wasn't discovered until our room steward introduced himself and realized there were more people than beds to the room. Carnival had my parents keep their 2 person balcony room, put my sister and I in an oceanview, and gave each room a little bit of onboard credit since we not only weren't staying together anymore, but were now in rooms a couple floors apart.

[Cruise, J.D.]

I haven't had any incident serious enough to warrant a formal complaint and/or request for compensation. For me to use my vacation time dealing with guest services, it would have to be a serious issue. Luckily I haven't had one.

[bigdog1958]

The only bad one I've had was a cabin steward who broke my glasses by trying to make them fit on a towel animal. I wore my contacts to dinner and left my glasses on the vanity. Carnival said it was my fault because I left them in the room and only paid 50% for replacement.

 

Wow.... that seems crazy to me... Carnival said because you left your glasses in your cabin, its your fault the steward broke them... I guess per carnival, if you do not take all of your belongings with you everytime you leave the cabin, if something happens to them, its your fault... Does not seem to be very good customer relations...