Back from Conquest 6/4 - 6/11/06 alotta good 1 bad!

[miktams]

We took our family of 7 on this cruise:

Me, wife, daughter 25, her husband, daughters 19, 13 and sister 29 we had a wonderful time absolutely no complaints at all from any of us.this was my second, my wifes third and everyone Else 1st all with carnival. and are all planning to book Liberty in May 2007 as soon as schedules are all checked. the only bad thing that we encountered was Vinz Brown the carnival staff member that ran the Karaoke show every night he was rude to my daughter on numerous occasions and would not let her sing on others he even went as far as to say to different crowds on different nights and i quote "I do not need any of the guest to get up here and sing I get paid whether you do or not!" and he also said "I don't need this crowd I will get a new one next week!" not to sound like a disgruntle guest because i am not i just think his statements were wrong and he definitly does not need to be in the service business. I just think that his actions towards his guest should be known because in the real world without the guests his JOB does not exist.

 

Has anyone else ever experienced problems like these?

 

 

Carnival Destiny 5/18/1997

Carnival Conquest 6/04/2006

[mrdood]

Hopefully you talked to the Cruise Director and appropriately filled out as many comment cards as possible naming Vinz and being specific about his attitude. That would have had the most effect.

[tkportersat]

Vince was great on our cruise, very funny and personable. He dealt with a bunch of obnoxious grads from Louisiana and there parents in a very classy way. I felt terrible for the way people acted towards him. I went to karoake every night and although not a participant he never gave anyone a hard time that I saw. The Louisiana folks were mad the crowd had not selected one of their friends as Garth Brooks in the Legends show - one of the moms went and stuck her finger in his face. This is why I want out of customer service.........people are inconsiderate all the time, you have no idea what those crew members have to deal with. People at my job probably thought I was rude at times too - after I came back to work after my husbands suicide. You have to remember these people are human and have life experiences just like you do.

[slick52]

Vince was great on our cruise, very funny and personable. He dealt with a bunch of obnoxious grads from Louisiana and there parents in a very classy way. I felt terrible for the way people acted towards him. I went to karoake every night and although not a participant he never gave anyone a hard time that I saw. The Louisiana folks were mad the crowd had not selected one of their friends as Garth Brooks in the Legends show - one of the moms went and stuck her finger in his face. This is why I want out of customer service.........people are inconsiderate all the time, you have no idea what those crew members have to deal with. People at my job probably thought I was rude at times too - after I came back to work after my husbands suicide. You have to remember these people are human and have life experiences just like you do.

 

I knew you were single but had no idea you lost your husband that way. I'm sorry for your and your children's loss.

[Starspangle1]

I remember on my second cruise on the Norway, a lady (that had never been on a cruise before) asked one of the ASSistant cruise directors (snotty young guy) a question while people were lining up to to get off the ship at our first port. Instead of saying I will answer your question in a second he just kept ignoring her. She in turn didn't think he was hearing her so she repeated herself. His response to her was I heard you the first time and I will anser you when I'm ready & if you people don't shut up I'm walking away because I don't get paid for this. I just couldn't help myself and told him "you do get paid for this and alot of other things too, so if you can't deal with people then you have the wrong job". If I spoke to people like that at my job my boss would give me a good talking too or maybe even fire me. Even if I was having a bad day or a bad month for that matter I can not speak to customers that way.

[jshawnh]

Vinz(who's real name in Ule by the way), runs an adult oriented, sarcastic, comic karaoke show. There is a sign that sais, no one under 18, although there are youngsters that happen in. I think he didn't mean any harm by his statement, but you obviously didn't see the humor. he is really a nice guy, and if you had approaced him after the show, I'm sure he would have appologized.

 

Shawn

[tkportersat]

I knew you were single but had no idea you lost your husband that way. I'm sorry for your and your children's loss.

All is well now, thanks :) Still single but moving on with life and making the best of things! - like going on cruises. I am trying to plan a 4 day w/ my mom in September, wish me luck!!

[tkportersat]

I remember on my second cruise on the Norway, a lady (that had never been on a cruise before) asked one of the ASSistant cruise directors (snotty young guy) a question while people were lining up to to get off the ship at our first port. Instead of saying I will answer your question in a second he just kept ignoring her. She in turn didn't think he was hearing her so she repeated herself. His response to her was I heard you the first time and I will anser you when I'm ready & if you people don't shut up I'm walking away because I don't get paid for this. I just couldn't help myself and told him "you do get paid for this and alot of other things too, so if you can't deal with people then you have the wrong job". If I spoke to people like that at my job my boss would give me a good talking too or maybe even fire me. Even if I was having a bad day or a bad month for that matter I can not speak to customers that way.

I was just trying to make a point that people complain all the time about individuals in customer service when half the time customers come in with such attitudes and immediately start complaining about things. We are not here to be a punching bag........Some people are NEVER happy, and there are always two sides to every story. I used to love customer service and meeting people - I have a lot of great customers, but the bad eggs have made me want to get out. There are some very inconsiderate people out there.

[tkportersat]

Vinz(who's real name in Ule by the way), runs an adult oriented, sarcastic, comic karaoke show. There is a sign that sais, no one under 18, although there are youngsters that happen in. I think he didn't mean any harm by his statement, but you obviously didn't see the humor. he is really a nice guy, and if you had approaced him after the show, I'm sure he would have appologized.

 

Shawn

I immediately sent an email to Carnival praising Vince when I read the post above, watching the karaoke was one of the highlights of my cruise. He made me laugh every night, I very much enjoyed his sarcastic humor! And he was very nice to everyone, even the Louisiana folks when they decided to come back....after they had been awful to him.

[slick52]

All is well now, thanks :) Still single but moving on with life and making the best of things! - like going on cruises. I am trying to plan a 4 day w/ my mom in September, wish me luck!!

 

Good luck, take care. Hope you and your Mom have a GREAT cruise!! :D

[tkportersat]

Good luck, take care. Hope you and your Mom have a GREAT cruise!! :D

Thanks, I hope you enjoy the Conquest! Take your own ice - haha. Everytime I went to get ice the dispenser was out :( No biggie, still had fun.

[slick52]

While you're still on, would you mind telling what type of things you did with your kids in MoBay, GC and Coz? The more info the better.

 

Thanks ;)

[tkportersat]

Slick-

 

Jamaica - Sunset Beach $40 for adults/$20 for 18 and under. This pays for all day use of water park, lazy river, three pools, all food and drinks (yes alcohol too), putt putt, kayaks, snorkeling, paddle boats. This was our favorite stop ever, had a wonderful time. Don't get the hamburgers though.......not real meat. Taxi from port will be $2 pp.

 

Grand Cayman - Hell/Turtle/Stingrays. Turtles ok, Stingrays awesome - although my daughter didn't think so :( Skip hell, total waste of time unless you are set getting a Been to hell and back t-shirt. If you send me your email, I will forward a pic we took w/ the stingrays. They are huge!

 

Cozumel - Took a taxi on our own to Paradise Beach. Free to get in, $8 wristbands for kids will give them access to kayaks, snorkeling, water trampoline, climbing glacier. Great restaurant, the guacamole is very good. Nice clean beach. Can also rent catamaran, parasailing, hair braiding, cheap massages on the beach etc. Taxi I think was about $14 for all three of us each way.

 

Hope that helps!

[slick52]

Slick-

 

Jamaica - Sunset Beach $40 for adults/$20 for 18 and under. This pays for all day use of water park, lazy river, three pools, all food and drinks (yes alcohol too), putt putt, kayaks, snorkeling, paddle boats. This was our favorite stop ever, had a wonderful time. Don't get the hamburgers though.......not real meat. Taxi from port will be $2 pp.

 

Grand Cayman - Hell/Turtle/Stingrays. Turtles ok, Stingrays awesome - although my daughter didn't think so :( Skip hell, total waste of time unless you are set getting a Been to hell and back t-shirt. If you send me your email, I will forward a pic we took w/ the stingrays. They are huge!

 

Cozumel - Took a taxi on our own to Paradise Beach. Free to get in, $8 wristbands for kids will give them access to kayaks, snorkeling, water trampoline, climbing glacier. Great restaurant, the guacamole is very good. Nice clean beach. Can also rent catamaran, parasailing, hair braiding, cheap massages on the beach etc. Taxi I think was about $14 for all three of us each way.

 

Hope that helps!

 

Thanks for the update, thought we'd do Drs Cave Beach, already reserved Captain Bryan's catamaran for a 3 stop snorkle, 1 stop SRC + 2 more (did SRC back in 02), going to see Tom at PB in Coz.

 

I see you updated your sig, going again already? Sounds great. Talk to you later. :D

[miktams]

in response to all of everyone one comments

 

I do agree that people in the service business do have a difficult job no matter what the service may be whether it is a high paying job down to a minium wage job we are all people, have different personalities and all for sure have "bad days". we gave him a chance thinking that he might of had a bad day.We continued to go to his show every night and was early to get good seats my daughter loves to sing (who is 25 by the way) and after the first nite he got to the point that he would skip her time and time again and when she did finally get to sing he would shot out the 2min time limit and only hold to it for her and the next 2 performers following her then everyone after would sing the entire song and when he did not have any performers he would sing himself. instead of letting our daughter who typically had 3 to 4 song slips filled out every night. so we continued to go night after night thinking it would get better and it never did until thursday night he skipped her again and it upset her so bad she did try to talk to him. and he didnt want to hear it at all he made her cry and we did talk to the purser as well as the cruise director. they then said it would be handled if it was great, if not ok it is not going to keep us away from carnival by no means i just think he is in the wrong business. as far as his sarcasim i can handle that fine i am a pretty sarcastic person myself but i know when to be and when to stop. Vinz started picking on a lady pretty hard and it was funny for awhile but he just kept on and on you could tell it made her very uneasy and the biggest man i have ever seen up close and off a nfl football feild stood up and told Vinz enough was enough. and he did stop. i do have to say as well we are not the only group to complain as there were several other complaints even before ours was made thursday. i was just courious if anyone else has had the same experience or were we just obnoxious folk from louisiana?

[albean99]

I don't know why he was like that to your daughter, Miktams. It's surprising to me because it's not how I ever saw him. On our spring break cruise we really enjoyed the karaoke and went almost every night. Vinz was very good handling the drunk college students and also the good or bad singers. Our Legend show was great.

[w0209666]

I wait tables (I am a Louisiana Folk) and I know that the last thing people want to hear about is my day, my mood, or if we are understaffed....when you work with people you have to realize that you can't make everyone happy but you sure better try!!!!!! Being a waitress I rely completely on customer's tips, so I learned real fast what not to say to a customer even if you are thinking it. Working with people takes a GREAT deal of self control, which this Vince guy obviously did not have much of!

[LSUtraveler]

Wasn't there but it sounds like the young lady from BR was doing an audition. Surely there are more things to do than karaoke every night.

 

But I wasn't there so I may be off base. There are generally always two sides to every story and we've heard both.

[Maxax]

Karaoke?!?!? EVERY SINGLE NIGHT?!?!?!

[albean99]

Karaoke?!?!? EVERY SINGLE NIGHT?!?!?!

 

I don't know about anyone else but my husband and I were entertained by the karaoke for the most part. It wasn't all we did but we're not gamblers, dancing's no longer our thing, and it was better than the house band. We did like the piano bar guy, though. My favorite part was watching the auditions for the Legends concert. We missed most of them which we were sorry about later.

[enchantress13]

And what's wrong with Karaoke every night?? :eek: I happen to love to sing and so do all of my friends I am sure we will be in the Karaoke bar at least 5 nts of our 7 day trip!!! If its not your cup of tea so be it, but for alot of folks it is!!! Here back home we used to go 3 to 4 times a week. So you see if that was his daughters wish to sing on the ship its her vacation and she should be able to do it!!! :D

 

Another note, I will be on Conquest 8/27/06 and if we're are told to cut our songs short I can tell you now I will be upset. Most songs are 2-3 mins tops and most everywhere we go back home people wait nearly an hour to sing one song during the night. So not being able to complete the song would be upsetting to say the least. If the host has time to sing multiple songs then each guest should be able to complete a full song as well. Does anyone know wether or not the DJ was expecting tips did this perhaps influence (though it shouldn't) the way he treated the guests??

[Karshrimp]

TKPOTERSAT,

I know this is not about the topic, but I just wanted to say I know how you feel about working with the public. I started in 1992 in a job where I dealt with the public all day. It's just like you said, I made alot of good friends, but lately the bad eggs are outweighing the good. I don't know where alot of people's manners have gone (if they had them in the first place)! I have been cussed out, spit on, and just down-right rudely treated to name just a few (and this was on a daily basis). When I realized life is too short to have a job that I hated getting up and going to everyday, I had the opportunity to go to work in a "closed" pharmacy where you don't have to deal with the public. I jumped at it, and it's the best move I ever made! I am no longer stressed out and unhappy. If you have a job you hate, it affects you more than the 8 hours you are there, believe me!

Now back to the topic....;)

[albean99]

And what's wrong with Karaoke every night?? :eek: I happen to love to sing and so do all of my friends I am sure we will be in the Karaoke bar at least 5 nts of our 7 day trip!!! If its not your cup of tea so be it, but for alot of folks it is!!! Here back home we used to go 3 to 4 times a week. So you see if that was his daughters wish to sing on the ship its her vacation and she should be able to do it!!! :D

 

Another note, I will be on Conquest 8/27/06 and if we're are told to cut our songs short I can tell you now I will be upset. Most songs are 2-3 mins tops and most everywhere we go back home people wait nearly an hour to sing one song during the night. So not being able to complete the song would be upsetting to say the least. If the host has time to sing multiple songs then each guest should be able to complete a full song as well. Does anyone know wether or not the DJ was expecting tips did this perhaps influence (though it shouldn't) the way he treated the guests??

 

I didn't see him taking tips but didn't sing myself so don't know. I also didn't see him cutting people off, even the bad ones. Earlier in the week it was pretty quiet so some people did do more than one song especially the ones that ended up in the Legend's show.

[LHP]

The OP did not say which daughter was not allowed to sing. If it was the 13 year old, then she was excluded because at night it is suppose to be adult only. I would think (and hope) that Victor explained that to her.

 

Having sung karaoke every night on all of our cruises, the biggest problem the adults have had is getting the karaoke host to keep it "adult only". There has always been a "family" session in the afternoons, as well as the kids have their own private (no adults allowed to sing) karaoke several times during the cruise as well. So the karaoke at night is suppose to be only for the adults. I can tell you that out of 13 cruises, we have only had ONE karaoke host that was brave enough to keep it adult only. So, if this was the case with Victor...then BRAVO to him.

 

For some reason, on every cruise (without exception) there have been parents that "dropped" their precious little ones (as young as 5 YEARS OLD)

off at night at the adult karaoke for "us" to babysit. These kids want to play with the microphone (and sing along with you) when you are singing. They swam the karaoke hosts table and want to take the cds out of the protective sleeves to "look at them". They are constantly bugging the karaoke host to let them sing. If you bring your own custom cdgs, these kids want to "look at them as well".

 

So allow me to use this time to inform all those parents to grow up and take care of your own children!!! I have never used other people to baby sit my sons on a cruise. I can assure you that no one else on this cruise wants that "pleasure". "Adult karaoke" means just that!!!

 

Here again, this is an area that Carnival needs to be very clear about in the Capers and then see that their karaoke hosts adhere to the policy.

 

As for cutting a song short, I have never had that experience on any of our cruises. In general, with a normal size crowd, a person can get in 3 songs in one night. If the karaoke host uses the sign up slips, I will tell him/her to just put my next song in the rotation after every one has had the chance to sing at least once. If they use the sign up sheet, then I will list my selections at least 10 songs apart.

 

The only exception to this rule is during the first couple of nights (on a 7 day cruise) when there are not alot of people signing up. It generally takes a few days for folks to get brave. And during these times, I will sing as much as possible if (and only if) there is no one else there that wants to sing.

 

It is also during these early sessions that I will get to know folks and sometimes, if they are unsure about a song, I will sing it so they can help the melody of the verse...then usually by the next night, they are ready to give it a try. I will also help them select the right key. That makes a huge difference. There are lots of folks that don't think they can sing, when the real problem is that they are trying to sing it in the wrong key. Or sometimes folks want to be the Supremes or the Pipps (backup singers) and they get you to sing the lead so they can "perform". That is a lot of fun.

 

Max ( I don't know if he is still with Carnival) was by far the best karaoke host I have ever had the priviledge of sailing with. He was so entertaining and kept it strickly "adult". We even did crazy karaoke (where you have no idea what song you are singing until you turn around and the music has started) and his selections matched the people singing perfectly. He was truly talented.

 

BTW, about the tips. I have never tipped a host in cash. However, if they drink, I buy them a drink or two every night. If they don't "drink" I will buy them a speciality tea or coffee from the Starbucks or a soda from the bar. What ever it is that they drink.

[billsrobb]

First of all I have never heard of adult only karoake nights. I have been to a few at night and have seen younger children there partiscipating and some of them were pretty good. Now if this was adult only night then the host should of made that very clear before he let the gal sing. I would venture to say that the guy was not only rude he was obnoxious. I would think that he got a good reprimand from his boss. I can not understand why people are defending him. It was wrong for him to do what he did no matter if it was adult only or not.