Craziest thing you admit to OR actually heard someone complaining about on a cruise?

[notentirelynormal]

This may seem a little ridiculous but just back from a Mariner Asia cruise...and my complaint was no "yellow mustard" really something I have never even given a thought to after 20+ cruises with RCI. They finally found some and sent several packets to my cabin that I would take with me to the WJ when needed...Never thought I would be a "mustard hoarder"...my cabin steward must have thought we were crazy.:D:D

 

On my one and only RCCL cruise they didn't have any either. I asked and they looked at me like I had two heads. We have Grey Poupon! That is what every one uses on their hotdogs they declared in a huff. Ummm okay. I was so talked down to by my simple request that I was stunned. I asked at another venue and was again told they they never carried yellow mustard. Hard to believe you and I are the only ones that cruise that like yellow mustard on their hot dogs and sandwiches but apparently it is so. This ended up being the least of my concerns of all the reasons I choose not to sail with them again. When I think about mustard and cruises this always springs to mind.

[headhunterke]

Great post to read :-)

I can go on for hours with this. I can also write a book about all the crazy complaints and quotes people make at my work environment, but I'll stay on topic and stay to what I've heard on cruise ships. Sometimes you wonder if these people are part of a candid camera show or if they are truly that ignorant/stupid

Here's a grasp from some that jump to mind now:

 

- A lady onboard HAL's Eurodam complaining the elevators inside the ship did not have such pretty glass walls as the ones at the side of the ship

 

- Last year during the Superbowl show on the big screen, the signal of the channel froze for 1 or 2 minutes. There was this guy shouting: "Why didn't they put more antenna's up so we could at least see this game" The game hadn't even started and the rest of the game went on smooth. But he went down the front desk to "make a formal complaint about this cr*p"

 

- I actually had a couple see coming onboard at embarkation day with a complaining list. Yep, they were going to complain about all the things they had written down before they even stepped foot on that ship (and I could see by their keycards they were not returning guests or B2B'ers)

 

- A lady just came out of the sauna and complained at the spa counter "that little hut shouldn't be so hot, I'm having a hard time catching my breath"

 

- A woman was berating an officer because she could not stand on the front of the ship "like that gal in the Titanic did"

 

- On my second cruise, I was waiting in line to pickup a DVD I ordered to rent when a guy was already being served by one of the front desk agents. He was telling her he didn't care of all them old movies in that catalogus and he'd already seen all the rest. (you have to know there's about 2,000 titles or so that can be rented free of charge)

 

- On my last voyage there was this young couple demanding that they would see the captain to tell him he should let "that boat bounce a whole lot less from side to side" because their kid liked to build houses of cards and now they were collapsing all the time and it made him upset. (there was hardly any swell)

I think this was the first time my mouth fell open by hearing the stupidity some people actually tell. It amazes me these people are even allowed to have kids...

[tip]

- I actually had a couple see coming onboard at embarkation day with a complaining list. Yep, they were going to complain about all the things they had written down before they even stepped foot on that ship (and I could see by their keycards they were not returning guests or B2B'ers)

...

 

Of the dozens of items posted thus far, this has to be the best (or I suppose the worst)!

[headhunterke]

Indeed. I did not know if I had to be shocked or should be laughing at the same time.

[fishywood]

I'm sure I've seen worse in the past by my most recent memory is of a 2.5 hour marathon MDR breakfast courtesy of a trio of women haranguing the poor waiter with truly sub-trivial utter nonsense. I did my best to tune much of it out but I do recall a lengthy debate over whether the French Toast was sprinkled with cinnamon or cinnamon sugar. This went on so long that eventually someone walked into the dining room and asked if lunch had started.

 

And I will confess to an outrageous act of pique on my own part. I was relaxing in the spa when my cabinmate had me fetched by one of the attendants. The front desk had been calling the cabin (and possibly paging me, which cannot be heard in the spa) to bring my passport for inspection. This had been an ongoing issue on this Northern Europe cruise with only 200 non-UK/EU passengers onboard; whether the purser needed to hold passports for inspection or we Yanks needed to bring them ashore for a face-to-face changed with every port. When I presented my damp and chlorine-scented self to the desk they offered no apology, stating they were absolutely sure our steward had left a note in our cabin the night before with instructions to return our passports that morning. Well, I nearly lost it--but remained calm enough to demand that I be refunded the value of one day's spa pass (I had bought the pass for the full cruise). Which of course netted me the are-you-a-complete-idiot stare from the purser on duty who had been called out to deal with me. I wisely walked away and sanity was restored.

[notentirelynormal]

You just reminded me of a story. One of our cruises our port was the Bahamas. All NON US people had to meet in the lounge for pre-approval/immigration check. I sat next to this woman who bit*ched and bit*ched about how inconvenient it was for them to have to spend the time doing this. I commented how inconvenient it must be for bad people to gain entry (before we had the "terrorist" word so vocal) to do this. A couple of days later she came up to me to apologize for her rude behavior.

 

It wasn't after reading these boards that I realized that I am an idiot. I should have been demanding payment and/or gifts for any and all inconveniences I ever had. We once had our toilet back up - a lot. Staff personnel arrived. I felt SO bad for our poor room stewardess that she had to clean our bathroom area. I could barely stand the gag smell to be in the cabin. I was so busy worrying about her having to deal with it it never occurred to me to ask for compensation.

Edited April 2, 2015 by notentirelynormal

[OzKiwiJJ]

Oh dear! After this lot I guess my minor grumble to DH about the Park Cafe on Rhapsody being closed between 10am and 11am, just when I wanted a mid-morning snack, was rather trivial ;) :D

Edited April 2, 2015 by OzKiwiJJ

[LoisGriffin1]

My first cruise was to Alaska leaving from Vancouver. We were at the front of a long queue to check in and a porter placed an elderly couple in front of us (the wife was in a wheelchair). They were apologetic for pushing in and we replied that it was not a problem. After we had all checked in we sat waiting to be called for boarding and as we were all Brits we got chatting about cruising and where abouts in the UK we were all from. They seemed really lovely.

 

Next thing a large group of people came through and the wife said very loudly 'ugh those Chinese get everywhere' then proceeded to make some further remarks that were very inappropriate. I was quite stunned especially because those 'Chinese' sounded very Canadian to me so it was us who were the foreigners getting everywhere. We managed to avoid the couple for the rest of the cruise. We really didn't want to associate with people who would be so nasty about others.

[vacation luvver]

This thread just reminded me of some crazy Guest Relations employees on a Celebrity cruise. I was on the cruise with my friend "Jane Smith.' We shared a cabin. We had made a reservation through a TA, and our boarding documents showed that both of us were sharing a cabin, and we each got our own keycard.

 

One day, someone from Guest Relations called our cabin. I was in the bathroom at the time, so Jane answered the phone. The Guest Relations employee asked to speak to me. Jane said that I was in the bathroom. The Guest Relations employee asked her who she was. She said that she was Jane Smith, my cabinmate, and the Guest Relations employee insisted that she had no record of my sharing the cabin with ANYONE. Eventually, Guest Relations left a note for us addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Smith. So one Guest Relations employee thought that our cabin was occupied by just me, and another employee thought it was occupied by Jane and some man who never existed. (My last name is nothing like Jane's last name, and my first name is definitely a woman's name.) After the cruise ended, we laughed and laughed as we wondered if the Guest Relations employees would go looking for Mr. Smith, because he never swiped his keycard to indicate that he had left the ship.

[JimAOk1945]

This is a great thread! My thanks to the OP for starting it. I hope the comments will keep coming.

 

Happy cruising everyone. It's a fantastic way to travel!

[GUT2407]

Oh dear! After this lot I guess my minor grumble to DH about the Park Cafe on Rhapsody being closed between 10am and 11am, just when I wanted a mid-morning snack, was rather trivial ;) :D

 

 

Sounds like a serious complaint to me.

 

Mid morning snacks are very important, as are mid afternoon snacks and midnight snacks, and early morning snacks and early afternoon snacks, late afternoon snacks are in a class of their own if you have late diner.

[john watson]

I was standing at the poolside bar on Caribbean Princess. Next to me was a black lad of about fourteen years old drinking coke and complaining to his father. Dad was at the bar facing the barman as he was concluding the sale. The lad was observing the whirlpool hot tubs; one had four girls in and the other a guy on his own. Another girl walked over to the hot tubs and got in with the four girls, but it was clear she did not know them. The lad said he was surprised that the girl got in that tub as it already had four people in whereas the other tub only had one person in it and had much more room. These guys at the bar were clearly genteel and the lad says "That tub was nearly full when the girl got in it, if it had of been me I would have got in the other tub" (with the single guy!). Dad is now looking round at the tubs and laughing in a knowing way but trying to suppress it.

 

I though I better explain to the lad what was happening. So I said "The hot tub on the left has four girls in it because it is warmer, thats why they are all in that one and if it had been me or your dad we would have got in with the girls because it's obvious that one is nice and warm."

 

His dad laughed.

 

Lol John

Edited April 3, 2015 by john watson

[SewMuch]

This is such a fun thread. I really hope it doesn't get shut down because of the turn it has taken.

Anyway, for every complaint overheard by the people here, I bet the employees working the desk have a hundred more amazing examples!

[jeph]

Sauna is hot? "Boat" rocks from side to side? Too many Chinese people? Hate passengers like that, but love threads like this! :D

 

A few years back-- not certain which cruise or ship-- I was approaching the service desk to resolve some minor question when I happened upon a very angry middle-aged woman in a lovely sparkly black dress. She was so put out because this was her formal night dress, and she had only just understood that tonight's dress code was merely "semi-formal", (one step above "smart casual",) and was berating the poor girl at the desk-- why didn't they (the cruise line) anticipate that these terms would be so confusing for people to follow? NOW what was she supposed to do for formal night tomorrow-- wear the SAME THING?? (I suppose popping back to the cabin to change outfits would simply have been out of the question...)

 

The baffled desk staffer could only murmur a vague apology for the confusion, which did nothing to placate the woman, who stalked off in a huff. To her retreating back, I spoke out in my best Billy Crystal "Lorenzo" impression: "But darling, the mos' important thing to remember is-- you look MAH-velous!" Whether she heard it or not, she never looked back-- but at least that girl behind the desk got a good laugh out of the absurd situation.

Edited April 5, 2015 by jeph

[DirtyDawg]

Sauna is hot? "Boat" rocks from side to side? Too many Chinese people? Hate passengers like that, but love threads like this! :D

 

A few years back-- not certain which cruise or ship-- I was approaching the service desk to resolve some minor question when I happened upon a very angry middle-aged woman in a lovely sparkly black dress. She was so put out because this was her formal night dress, and she had only just understood that tonight's dress code was merely "semi-formal", (one step above "smart casual",) and was berating the poor girl at the desk-- why didn't they (the cruise line) anticipate that these terms would be so confusing for people to follow? NOW what was she supposed to do for formal night tomorrow-- wear the SAME THING?? (I suppose popping back to the cabin to change outfits would simply have been out of the question...)

 

The baffled desk staffer could only murmur a vague apology for the confusion, which did nothing to placate the woman, who stalked off in a huff. To her retreating back, I spoke out in my best Billy Crystal "Lorenzo" impression: "But darling, the mos' important thing to remember is-- you look MAH-velous!" Whether she heard it or not, she never looked back-- but at least that girl behind the desk got a good laugh out of the absurd situation.

 

I think that women is a member of the 20,000+ club here at CC.:D:p

[cbr663]

Passengers who complain about people smoking in designated smoking areas. Really? That's like complaining because someone is eating in the dining room.

[BeagleOne]

On my last cruise I was selected for some reason to be part of a passenger group meeting with the cruise director and hotel manager to discuss good and bad things about the trip. An older man was also part of the group, and he spent literally fifteen minutes complaining that the tissues in the bathroom were not sufficient to accommodate his morning nasal emissions. He went on and ON about this, despite being told several times that the tissues were thin because they had to be flushable, since so many people didn't bother to throw them in the trash can. It was ridiculous.

 

When I was asked what I thought could be improved, the only thing I could come up with was to show more movies, because I like to watch movies on ships and I otherwise had no complaints or suggestions. The man just stared at me and informed me curtly that I could just watch TV in my cabin.

 

I camethisclose to saying, "We just spent fifteen minutes listening to you talk about snot. The least you can do is listen to what others have to say." But I refrained. Kind of wish I'd said something.

 

His poor wife just sat through the entire meeting without saying a word. I imagine she'd been doing that for decades.

[donaldsc]

I was standing at the poolside bar on Caribbean Princess. Next to me was a black lad of about fourteen years old drinking coke and complaining to his father. Dad was at the bar facing the barman as he was concluding the sale. The lad was observing the whirlpool hot tubs; one had four girls in and the other a guy on his own. Another girl walked over to the hot tubs and got in with the four girls, but it was clear she did not know them. The lad said he was surprised that the girl got in that tub as it already had four people in whereas the other tub only had one person in it and had much more room. These guys at the bar were clearly genteel and the lad says "That tub was nearly full when the girl got in it, if it had of been me I would have got in the other tub" (with the single guy!). Dad is now looking round at the tubs and laughing in a knowing way but trying to suppress it.

 

I though I better explain to the lad what was happening. So I said "The hot tub on the left has four girls in it because it is warmer, thats why they are all in that one and if it had been me or your dad we would have got in with the girls because it's obvious that one is nice and warm."

 

His dad laughed.

 

Lol John

 

Maybe I am being dense but what does the race of the 14 year old boy have to do with the story? Am I missing something?

 

DON

[notentirelynormal]

On my last cruise I was selected for some reason to be part of a passenger group meeting with the cruise director and hotel manager to discuss good and bad things about the trip. An older man was also part of the group, and he spent literally fifteen minutes complaining that the tissues in the bathroom were not sufficient to accommodate his morning nasal emissions. He went on and ON about this, despite being told several times that the tissues were thin because they had to be flushable, since so many people didn't bother to throw them in the trash can. It was ridiculous.

 

When I was asked what I thought could be improved, the only thing I could come up with was to show more movies, because I like to watch movies on ships and I otherwise had no complaints or suggestions. The man just stared at me and informed me curtly that I could just watch TV in my cabin.

 

I camethisclose to saying, "We just spent fifteen minutes listening to you talk about snot. The least you can do is listen to what others have to say." But I refrained. Kind of wish I'd said something.

 

His poor wife just sat through the entire meeting without saying a word. I imagine she'd been doing that for decades.

 

Funny

[john watson]

Maybe I am being dense but what does the race of the 14 year old boy have to do with the story? Am I missing something?

 

DON

 

Basically Don,

 

In a previous posting people were berating a family and citing their race in a negative manner. In my case the two people concerned happened to be black and extremely genteel. This in my book is a very positive image and contrasts with the earlier example where a stereotype had been inferred by the poster unfairly about people of an implied similar race. So I thought it pertinent to mention it.

 

Regards John.

Edited April 5, 2015 by john watson

[biker@sea]

I read a complaint here on Cruise critic maybe a year ago or so .

 

A " lady " was so upset because her terrible butler did not cut up her little boys meat to the right size for him . :eek:

[ducklite]

I read a complaint here on Cruise critic maybe a year ago or so .

 

 

 

A " lady " was so upset because her terrible butler did not cut up her little boys meat to the right size for him . :eek:

 

 

I suppose he didn't wipe their (fill in the blank) properly, either. :D

[Philob]

"There's nothing to eat here (buffet)"

[headhunterke]

"There's nothing to eat here (buffet)"

 

Oh, this reminds me of another one :D

On my last cruise there was this woman who was pretty annoyed because she had to wait in order to get her grilled cheese grilled every single day. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up. Where do these kind of people even come from?:confused:

[Lulubelle45]

My favorite is the lady complain ing it was too cold on the deck. In Alaska. Hello??? (It was 35F at the glacier)