What's the Nicest Thing a Carnival Team Member Ever Did For You?

[winddawn]

When I was a young child one of my first memories ever in life was of a room steward named Abu. But I thought he was Abu the monkey from Aladdin. Every morning he let me bring him a banana and would eat it! He was hilarious!

 

Another time when I was about 10 I was fascinated with wine corks, and my grandma and I would use them as 'chips' while we played black jack in the cabin at night. So every day our server would bring me a bunch of wine corks, and on the last day he brought me three plates full, covered with the food covers, to our table and let me take them all! I had over 200 wine corks by the end of the trip!

Isn't it amazing how those small gestures are the ones we remember and have fond memories of?

 

Great stories!

[mzloolue]

cosmo cruiser, I too am praying that you both will be back in your own home soon.

 

Remember to take care of yourself too.

[sjn911]

Windawn..this is sooo wonderful..and truly needed positives for me thank you so..and thanks all!!

 

Oh that wheelchair and button story tea4ular...wow...

 

contiued prayers

[rocking-m-cruiser]

When we sailed on the Legend for our British Isle cruise 2013 one day we woke up to take our normal walk around the ship. We walked out to the pool area on the Lido deck to find a surplus of towel animals of every kind imaginable. The towel animals were everywhere, on the pool ledge, spa ledges, bar top, every table, every lounge chair. They were even all over the deck floor. People were in awe of all the creatures and taking pics. There were some animals made with huge towels to make whales, life size sting rays, dolphins and other large animals.

 

I asked one of the deck hands how long it took the crew to do this.

He said all night.

 

It was a wonderful experience by so many thoughtful attendants.

Edited January 31, 2015 by rocking-m-cruiser

[mwood0612]

Got a "free hug" from cruise director Steve Cassel on Valentine's Day!!! Such a nice guy!!! We talked to him several times throughout the cruise and he was always such a nice guy!!! Really made our cruise a great one!!!

[fourthmuse]

We sailed on Fantasy with my boyfriend, his father and stepmother, and his grandmother and her friend. Granny isn't great with directions, and if you've been on Fantasy, you know how easy it is to get lost on your way to the MDR.

 

One night, we were all getting ready to go to dinner. Boyfriend and I find Dad and Stepmom in hall, Granny and Friend are not in their room. Nobody has seen them, and it's close to dinnertime. We go looking, and find Friend on the Lido, but no Granny. Friend hadn't seen her. We're starting to panic, and considering calling security to help look.

 

Dad starts getting really upset, I'm worried she's hurt. We finally decide to look in the dining room. It's the last place we can think of that she'd go. (Even though there's no possible way she could've found it on her own!)

 

Granny is sitting at our table, looking over the menu! We're all flabbergasted, and ask how she got there on her own. Well, she said she thought we'd all gone to dinner without her. The porter for our rooms was walking by, and she asked for directions to the MDR. He chaperoned her down there himself.

 

That was several years ago, and we're still laughing over it.

Edited February 20, 2015 by fourthmuse

[SadieN]

Last year we learnt the proper way to get coconut meat out of its shell from Shaw, the table artist on the Inspiration last year. We learnt the Filipino Coconut song from the waiters when they saw us practicing our newer acquired skill.

 

Ran into one of those waiters a few weeks ago on the Inspiration. The Lido is an odd place late at night :p

 

 

Two weeks ago ran into another of the Coconut waiters on the Inspiration. (Yeah we sail that ship way too often.)

 

On the same cruise met up with a Head Waiter, Kostadinka, from Bulgaria who we've met over the course of several years. She not only remembered that we don't like cold from the fridge ribs (major issue one cruise) but also asked about my DD by name.

[jkd9977]

On our first cruise on the Conquest our oldest daughter, 4 at the time, got sick at dinner before the food came. I took her down while my wife and our youngest, 18 months then, ate. I figured I would eat at the Lido later.

 

A while later there was a knock at the door. Our waiter had brought our food all the way down to us so daughter and I didn't miss dinner.

 

Not long after that, our room steward stopped to clean and said he had heard our daughter wasn't feeling well. She had talked all cruise about how she couldn't wait to swim with the stingrays in Grand Cayman (the following day). Our steward gave our daughter a lesson/demonstration of how to make a towel stingray.

 

It sounds small, but those little things really sold us on Carnival. Several cruises later, that one night still stands out.

[RenoNanaOz]

I love wearing cute summer dresses for dinner and I put a lot of time and effort into getting ready. It was on the last night of our 7 day cruise on the Splendor. Our Steward approached me as I was leaving to meet my DH at the bar. He said "I just wanted to tell you that you have looked very lovely every night" Wow I don't even remember seeing him except for that night. Those guys are like ninjas! Anyway it was very sweet of him to notice and take the time to compliment me.

[Poseidon Patty]

I was on the Triumph in December and brought a Christmas jigsaw puzzle to work on during the cruise. When I finished it, I put the pieces back in the box and asked my steward to put it in the crew lounge for anyone who liked puzzles. I also tipped her a little extra everyday. On the last night, she left me three of the cutest little towel teddy bears made from washrags, all sealed in clear wrap, for me to take home. So sweet!

[winddawn]

I was on the Triumph in December and brought a Christmas jigsaw puzzle to work on during the cruise. When I finished it, I put the pieces back in the box and asked my steward to put it in the crew lounge for anyone who liked puzzles. I also tipped her a little extra everyday. On the last night, she left me three of the cutest little towel teddy bears made from washrags, all sealed in clear wrap, for me to take home. So sweet!

I love this story, Poseidon Patty. I've seen lots of towel animals in my cruising days, but I've never see washcloth animals. Lol. And the fact that she preserved them in clear wrap for you is priceless. That's a lovely memento of your cruise.

 

Thanks for sharing your story.

[Avril]

I love this thread!! Such wonderful people who work for Carnival, give me some warm fuzzies reading all these stories!! :D I wish I had one to add but nothing comes to mind, they've always been incredible. I do find it amazing (considering the amount of people on the ship every week) that they can remember your name after the 1st time you introduce yourself. I do always appreciate the bartenders who remember my favourite drink(s) every time I go to the bar (and it's not just one bar but every bar on the ship). Thanks to everyone for sharing their stories and please keep them coming!! :D

[winddawn]

I love this thread!! Such wonderful people who work for Carnival, give me some warm fuzzies reading all these stories!! :D I wish I had one to add but nothing comes to mind, they've always been incredible. I do find it amazing (considering the amount of people on the ship every week) that they can remember your name after the 1st time you introduce yourself. I do always appreciate the bartenders who remember my favourite drink(s) every time I go to the bar (and it's not just one bar but every bar on the ship). Thanks to everyone for sharing their stories and please keep them coming!! :D

I've enjoyed reading them all too, Avril. I agree that I get warm fuzzies reading the stories.

 

I was amazed on my last cruise which was on Elation this month that several of the Carnival team members on the ship remembered me from cruising on Elation last November. All I could think about was trying to imagine what it would feel like to have spent all that time on the ship working. It made me think about how blessed I am to have a great job and nice home to enjoy every night.

[cruse2loose]

This was on my second solo cruise last year on the Carnival Dream. At one port I did not get off the ship. I also forgot to turn the sign around to cruizin!!!

I hear my name page to come to guest services that evening.

I arrived to have security want to speak with me.

My room steward had not seen me that day & he was worried about me!!

Scared me to death, but nice to know they keep track of you. It was nice to be able to tell my family how much they look out for you :)

[cosmo cruiser]

Thank you to each of you for the kind words and all the paryers. We are finally back home and thankfully my husband is making progress toward recovery from a very rough experience. We are very blessed. We got back on Feb 18th and my husband was finally back home on Feb 25th.

 

We sailed on Carnival Splendor out of Miami on 1/11/15. Kenny had a heart attack right after sitting down to dinner the very first night. We had ordered and introduced ourselves to our wait staff when he started to feel ill. We ended up going by wheelchair (one of the waiters RAN while pushing him in a wheelchair) to the infirmary where he received amazing care in a matter of minutes. The medical staff was professional and totally knew what they were doing. We were both very impressed. It was determined in short order that he needed to be evacuated and fast. We were heading to two days at sea before our first port so he wouldn't be able to get the care he was going to need on board. We were medi vac off the ship around midnight onto a smaller boat for a long, rough, and windy ride to Freeport. Carnival diverted the ship as close to Freeport as possible even though we were not scheduled to stop in the Bahamas. Once there we were taken to a local hospital so he could be stabilized. We were there for 12 hours and then we were medi vac by air ambulance to Ft Lauderdale to the Broward Heart Hospital which is a level 1 trama center.

While the stay in Freeport was brief and the staff was wonderful you do not want to be in the hospital there. Very old equipment and out dated technology to say the least. Thankfully we were able to get to Ft Lauderdale quickly. IF he had only had a heart attaqck we would have been home in less than a week. They did a heart catheraztion and put in 2 stinks and his heart was up and running fine.

 

Unfortunetly he aspirated on the medical flight (threw up into his own lungs) while he was strapped down upon take off and things went down hill fast. He developed aspiration pnemonia which is pretty serious by itself. When they treated the pnemonia it killed all of the good bacteria in his body and he developed C-Diff which is a serious infection in his gut. Over the course of the next two weeks his kidneys shut down, his bowels stopped working, and his colon stopped processing. He had respiratory failure and was on 100% breathing machine. His became septic and went into septic shock. He was on 24 hour a day kidney dialisis for 4 days and then had an additional three days of 4 hour a day dialisis. He was sedated for a total of 19 days and was delerious for a week after that. He had two main lines put in, was tubed twice and had to have a trach put in on day 18.

 

When it was all said and done he spent 33 days in CVICU and an additional 6 days in a regular room. We had to have a medical transport home to Indiana (an RN went on a commerical flight with us) and he was on oxygen for the flight home. Once home he had to go to a rehab center to regain his balance enough to be home alone so I could go back to work. Last Thursday he was readmitted to our local hospital because he was feeling horrible after only a week or so home. He ended up being dehydrated and having a urinary tract infection as well as a stomach virus. He is home again as of yesterday and the virus will run it's course. He is on meds for the infection and hopefully he will start physical, occupational and cardiac rehab again next week.

We are praying he will make a full recovery in time. He lost so much muscle mass being sedated and in bed for 33 days that it is going to take time. He has a good attitude and wants to get better and get back to work so that is a huge part of the recovery process.

I feel very blessed that we received the amazing care in the infirmary, in Freeport as well as at Broward Hospital. I am afraid if we had been sent to a different hospital or had any other team of doctors he very well may not have made it thru it all. The team of doctors he had in Ft Lauderdale were nothing short of miracle workers with everything he was dealing with at once. They truly saved his life.

 

I had often wondered what kind of medical care you would get on a ship if you ever needed it? I now know they can do what needs to be done and they are amazing. We hope to sail the Splendor again (as of now we are booked to sail her to Canada/New England in September) and hope to have a chance to say thank you in person.

 

We were supposed to be on the Glory this week for a cruise but we had to cancel that one as he isn't strong enough yet to be on a cruise and I am out of vacation time due to being gone for almost 6 weeks while all of this was going on. We will sail again and it will be on Carnival. We will be lifetime supporters and customers after the way they took care of us in our most desperate time of need.

 

We always have sailed with travel insurance and like most people have considered not buying it a time or two just because we never used it in 25 previous cruises. All I can say is I am so thankfull we had it. The air flight from the Bahamas alone was almost 12K and every penny was covered by the insurance. I don't even know yet what all of the other things cost but quite a lot of it will be covered once I am able to get the claim sumitted. I was pleasently surprised to learn that the cruise insurance also will cover up to 10K of non covered medical costs after our regular insurance pays. We may have enough to cover most of our deductables and out of pocket costs. What a blessing it is that we spent that $90 per person just to be on the safe side!

 

Sorry this is so long but quite a few people asked how he was doing and what actually happened so I wanted to fill you all in. Thank you all again for the prayers, we felt them all the way to Florida. Safe travels :)

[beshears]

I haven't had a chance to read all these postings, but that is a very good question.

 

I have always liked Carnival ships, and still do, as we are cruising on one next month again.

 

Anyone can "nit pick," but TALK about the good people do, that is what needs to be said. :)

[pacer1]

Thank you to each of you for the kind words and all the paryers. We are finally back home and thankfully my husband is making progress toward recovery from a very rough experience. We are very blessed. We got back on Feb 18th and my husband was finally back home on Feb 25th.

 

We sailed on Carnival Splendor out of Miami on 1/11/15. Kenny had a heart attack right after sitting down to dinner the very first night. We had ordered and introduced ourselves to our wait staff when he started to feel ill. We ended up going by wheelchair (one of the waiters RAN while pushing him in a wheelchair) to the infirmary where he received amazing care in a matter of minutes. The medical staff was professional and totally knew what they were doing. We were both very impressed. It was determined in short order that he needed to be evacuated and fast. We were heading to two days at sea before our first port so he wouldn't be able to get the care he was going to need on board. We were medi vac off the ship around midnight onto a smaller boat for a long, rough, and windy ride to Freeport. Carnival diverted the ship as close to Freeport as possible even though we were not scheduled to stop in the Bahamas. Once there we were taken to a local hospital so he could be stabilized. We were there for 12 hours and then we were medi vac by air ambulance to Ft Lauderdale to the Broward Heart Hospital which is a level 1 trama center.

While the stay in Freeport was brief and the staff was wonderful you do not want to be in the hospital there. Very old equipment and out dated technology to say the least. Thankfully we were able to get to Ft Lauderdale quickly. IF he had only had a heart attaqck we would have been home in less than a week. They did a heart catheraztion and put in 2 stinks and his heart was up and running fine.

 

Unfortunetly he aspirated on the medical flight (threw up into his own lungs) while he was strapped down upon take off and things went down hill fast. He developed aspiration pnemonia which is pretty serious by itself. When they treated the pnemonia it killed all of the good bacteria in his body and he developed C-Diff which is a serious infection in his gut. Over the course of the next two weeks his kidneys shut down, his bowels stopped working, and his colon stopped processing. He had respiratory failure and was on 100% breathing machine. His became septic and went into septic shock. He was on 24 hour a day kidney dialisis for 4 days and then had an additional three days of 4 hour a day dialisis. He was sedated for a total of 19 days and was delerious for a week after that. He had two main lines put in, was tubed twice and had to have a trach put in on day 18.

 

When it was all said and done he spent 33 days in CVICU and an additional 6 days in a regular room. We had to have a medical transport home to Indiana (an RN went on a commerical flight with us) and he was on oxygen for the flight home. Once home he had to go to a rehab center to regain his balance enough to be home alone so I could go back to work. Last Thursday he was readmitted to our local hospital because he was feeling horrible after only a week or so home. He ended up being dehydrated and having a urinary tract infection as well as a stomach virus. He is home again as of yesterday and the virus will run it's course. He is on meds for the infection and hopefully he will start physical, occupational and cardiac rehab again next week.

We are praying he will make a full recovery in time. He lost so much muscle mass being sedated and in bed for 33 days that it is going to take time. He has a good attitude and wants to get better and get back to work so that is a huge part of the recovery process.

I feel very blessed that we received the amazing care in the infirmary, in Freeport as well as at Broward Hospital. I am afraid if we had been sent to a different hospital or had any other team of doctors he very well may not have made it thru it all. The team of doctors he had in Ft Lauderdale were nothing short of miracle workers with everything he was dealing with at once. They truly saved his life.

 

I had often wondered what kind of medical care you would get on a ship if you ever needed it? I now know they can do what needs to be done and they are amazing. We hope to sail the Splendor again (as of now we are booked to sail her to Canada/New England in September) and hope to have a chance to say thank you in person.

 

We were supposed to be on the Glory this week for a cruise but we had to cancel that one as he isn't strong enough yet to be on a cruise and I am out of vacation time due to being gone for almost 6 weeks while all of this was going on. We will sail again and it will be on Carnival. We will be lifetime supporters and customers after the way they took care of us in our most desperate time of need.

 

We always have sailed with travel insurance and like most people have considered not buying it a time or two just because we never used it in 25 previous cruises. All I can say is I am so thankfull we had it. The air flight from the Bahamas alone was almost 12K and every penny was covered by the insurance. I don't even know yet what all of the other things cost but quite a lot of it will be covered once I am able to get the claim sumitted. I was pleasently surprised to learn that the cruise insurance also will cover up to 10K of non covered medical costs after our regular insurance pays. We may have enough to cover most of our deductables and out of pocket costs. What a blessing it is that we spent that $90 per person just to be on the safe side!

 

Sorry this is so long but quite a few people asked how he was doing and what actually happened so I wanted to fill you all in. Thank you all again for the prayers, we felt them all the way to Florida. Safe travels :)

Great news. So happy for you and a good lesson for all those who never see the need to buy travel insurance. I wish you and your husband many more cruises.

[pacer1]

Kudos to Winddawn for starting this thread. It was so uplifting to hear all these neat little stories for a change. I know it will bring a smile to all of the Carnival employees as well. :D

 

Susann. :)

[Lovtotravel2]

when I started reading this two memories came to mind. I was on the final Destiny TA before she was revamped. I had never thought a CD could make or break my Cruise, but then I sailed with Noonan and Shorty. As a solo cruiser I stopped in at the morning show, from that day on I was greated by name and the secret hand signal. When we got to Spain and I was in a group leaving the Theater in the back, I hear over the PA system, have fun on your excursion Bill, and looked up to see Noonan waive at me.

 

Last November I was on the Triumph out of Galveston, I got the the gold / plat party late and the venue was tables that all seemed to be couples so I went and stood in back by the bar. The Assist Dinning room manager who I had met the day before saw me, stopped and asked why I didnt have a drink or snack, and I said I was late and no table, and had not see a waiter. A couple minutes later I waiter came by with a drink, then waiter after waiter came over with what was clearly the new tray from the kitchen, close to the end of the party after many drinks, and snacks he stopped by and asked if his team had taken care of me. As I thanked me he smiled and told me he wanted to make sure I had a good time since I was alone.

 

Some people say its the price that keeps people coming back, I think its the Carnival staff

[s407o]

Love love love this thread!

[CorrieCJ]

On our most recent cruise (Carnival Pride, 8/2014), my 11yo daughter really wanted to do a craft that involved making decorative flip-flops. She was late to the activity and it had already ended (it was scheduled for an hour but everyone was gone after 1/2 hour for some reason). She asked the cruise director (Josh aka "Big Sexy") if the activity would be held again and unfortunately it would not... but that night, there was a bag in our room with the flip flops, supplies, and instructions, so she could make them herself. She was beyond thrilled!

 

Also my husband was buying shots at dinner each night from the shot guy who would come around... You did the shot and could keep the glass as well. One night our youngest managed to break one of the souvenir glasses... shot guy (name escapes me) brought him a replacement the next night and threw in a free shot (or two) as well.

[festivalfrau]

When DD was 3, my sister and I took her on the Dream. Even the early sitting was "late" for her, and she usually fell asleep before the end of dinner. The staff was super helpful and always brought her 3 chocolate chip cookies "to go" that she ate the next day. One night DD knew the camp was serving grilled cheese, so tried to order that in the MDR. Technically, it was not on the menu, but the assistant went all the way to where the camp kids were eating and made DD a plate.

 

On our last cruise on the Conquest, we had the BEST dining room staff ever. Fernando and his team were awesome with DD (who was then 5). The one assistant worked at Guy's during the day and always offered to make her French fries and burgers (because they knew that was her favorite at dinner). If they noticed she didn't like something, the brought something else (even though we protested). They brought raw veggies every night after they noticed I brought some from Lido for her to munch on while we were waiting to order. They were also awesome with my dad who is diabetic, and they always made sure he was taken care of. My DD was smitten with Fernando and even named her new pet fish after him. "King Fernando" the fist is well taken care of for sure!

 

We have lots of great memories of the Carnival staff. This is a great thread! Keep it going!!

[bluehenfan]

I've shared my story before, so I'll condense it. I'm handicap and when I cruise I need a wheelchair or scooter. A couple years ago, due to a mix up, my scooter rental was delivered to the wrong cabin. My adult grandson managed to walk me down to guest service desk to see if scooter had been delivered there by mistake. The young lady at guest services immediately got me a wheelchair and said there would be no charge since we weren't sure whose fault it was my scooter hadn't been delivered. She could see I was upset but she had such a great smile and reassuring voice I found myself smiling too. She got the scooter rental company on speaker phone and when the person she spoke to implied I was pulling a scam and actually had the scooter "hidden" in my cabin. This tiny lady got that person straightened out real quick!! She asked if he'd ever seen the size of a cruise ship cabin and assured him I didn't have his scooter hidden. Next she told him to have a scooter delivered to me bright and early when we docked in Florida and finally, she took responsibility to store the scooter once we debarked in Baltimore and see it went back to Florida where it was picked up. She called my several times at my cabin to make sure I was okay using the wheelchair until I got to Florida. Without her help I'd have just been confined to my cabin all week. I rewarded her for her kindness and help but she was very reluctant to accept it.

[drosphot]

On the Magic in December 2014. We had to rent a scooter for my wife due to back issues. While I was off ship on a diving excursion the scooter broke down coming out of the elevator on the Lido. The Guest Services Manager stopped and stayed with her as he got two of the ship's electricians to look at the scooter. When he noticed she was starting to emotionally breakdown he asked if he and one of his officers could escort her to our cabin and got her some food for her while the electricians got the scooter working again and delivered it to our cabin. Awesome service as always from the staff!

[coasterjan]

May 2013. I developed a kidney infection the day before were to fly to San Juan for our cruise, went to my doctor who, unfortunately, gave me the wrong antibiotic. I wasn't feeling well from the moment I stepped on board the Valor, and proceeded to get sicker with each passing day. My room steward was so incredibly kind and attentive, bringing me anything I might want (extra blankets, extra ice, hot water for tea, etc), plus she stopped by to check on me regularly during her (very precious and very minimal) time off! By the 4th day in, when I had developed a raging fever and my husband was off the ship on an excursion, she helped me to the infirmary and stayed near my room until he got back that afternoon to make sure I was ok. Amazing, considering how much she had to do, and yet she went waaaaay above the call of duty to take care of me.

 

The dining room staff that trip was also amazing. My stomach was very unhappy, and they were so good about helping me find something I could eat. They also kept me supplied with mint herbal tea and crackers for the week - enough to take back to my room, too.

 

We hear a lot about Carnival's staff being overworked (they are), but yet, they are still so willing to take on even more work to help their customers.

Yeah, I'm a fan for life.

 

Janis