Anybody ever make a formal complaint?

[JackieH]

Have any of you ever made a formal complaint to Carnival? If you have made a formal complaint, did you write a letter, email or did you call?

We had a wonderful time on the Valor Aug 20-27th.. I am not going to bad mouth Carnival at all.. However, for the price we paid, I expected a little better service. There were several things that just added up on their service. Certain aspects of the service was simply Wonderful...It is a great ship. But, the things that have happened have just been bothering me. My TA suggested calling them directly, even gave me the extensions to use as well. She said they receive thousands of letters and a letter may just sit there.

If anybody has ever made a formal complaint, how did you go about doing it, and did you ever get a response.

Honestly, Ive tried to focus on the good things on the cruise when people ask. I try not to talk about the negative things too much. And, in no way am I bad mouthing Carnival. I just think somebody in a higher up position should know what when on thats all.

Thanks in any help you could offer.

[Hendricks Clan]

We had to make a complaint after our cruise on the Inspiration back in 2004. It was becuase they charged my credit card twice for the sail and sign account at the end of the crusie. My travel agent contacted Carnival, and got them to credit my card back...We didnt ask for anything, but to be credit the amount they over charged, so this wasnt about trying to get something for free. We were on the Valor in March and had a great cruise!

[Wennfred]

 

It would be nice to know what actually happened, most complaints could be answered here on Cruise Critic or even suggestions on how to handle that problem. Carnival does read these boards and it can also help us from having those same problems once we board.

 

We read yesterday that a person missed their Past Guest party due to the invitations sent a day or 2 late. Now I can be more aware of this and will ask my Steward about the Invitation as soon as I see him.

 

Its info like these that keeps us all informed.

 

Fred

[JackieH]

It would be nice to know what actually happened, most complaints could be answered here on Cruise Critic or even suggestions on how to handle that problem. Carnival does read these boards and it can also help us from having those same problems once we board.

 

We read yesterday that a person missed their Past Guest party due to the invitations sent a day or 2 late. Now I can be more aware of this and will ask my Steward about the Invitation as soon as I see him.

 

Its info like these that keeps us all informed.

 

 

 

Sometimes I get hesitant to post the complaints because I do not want to be bashed for it. I know sometimes things get misunderstood on here. This was our first Carnival cruise. I had a great time,and would sail with them again.

 

I understand The Valor is a big ship, and I understand the amount of people that come on to it. After we checked in(which ran smoothly)they told us to enjoy a nice lunch at Rosie's... Ok no problem. I read the boards I knew all about Rosies. There were 7 of us, 5 in my family and my sister in law and brother in law were on the cruise as well. We got to Rosie's about 12:30 ish.. maybe a little earlier. The lines were all long for each food area. Again let me say, I know this is a big ship and a lot of people coming and going.After waiting 25 minutes in line at the buffet, 75% of the food was gone, I mean empty platters etc.. Nobody was behind there refilling the trays either. I heard many under the breath/whisper comments with the other people in line close to us. Ok, I figured,no big deal, dinner would be better.

We sat down with a very small plate of food for all of us, and it seemed very crowded in there. Again, understandable first day etc... I saw dirty dishes stacking up everywhere. They were slow to clean/take away.

At 1:30, we were allowed to go to our room. We were on the Lido deck. I LOVED being on the LIDO deck.. great floor. We get there, meet our room steward. He was very nice, and friendly. We told him we were "Suppose" to have a crib... He looked at us confused, checked his sheet and said "You were???"...He said he would find one. Ok.. no problem, although it was nap time for my 2 yr old, she could sleep on the beds.

We start to unpack, I open the first 2 closests put stuff away. I get to the 3rd closet and I find dirty towels and dirty robes shoved in there as well as a bag of panty liners...Hmmm...didnt seem like room steward did his job well.. we didnt say anything. Again, first day, we were all in good spirits....Around 4pm, I was beginning to wonder where crib was, and then again around 5pm... I saw room steward, he stated crib would be there at 6pm... A little before 6 he brought it to us, said he would come back later to set it up, and left. My husband set it up, and we put our own sheet from home on it.

Being that we were on the Lido deck, I walked to the outside area a lot. Everyday of the cruise, there were tables of dirty dishes on the outside tables, and the wait staff was VERY slow on cleaning them up. We have only crusied once before on RCCL, and I kept thinking "They picked up almost immediately"...again, I had to keep reminding myself, different ship, much bigger, different staff...

Many times we ate lunch inside of Rosies, and we walked around for a bit finding a clean table to sit at.

One of our stops was at Belize. We did a tour, and then waited in line to board the tender to the ship. The line was fairly long. It was a hot day, and it seemed that most guests were tired and hot and wanted to get back to relax on the ship. We were about half way in line and were just waiting our turn. I turned to my right, and I see 2 Carnival employees coming up to the line, and just "decided" to stand right next to me. I look behind me to check out the line, which by now is fairly long. I wondered why they thought they were special and didnt have to join at the back of the line like the rest of us. Ok, line starts moving,and Im carrying my 2 yr old daughter in my arms. I get to the tender, and Im about to step down and the 2 Carnival employees step right in front of me.I was in shock, and said out loud, "I cant believe 2 Carnival employees just did that.."...Many guests on the tender saw all this happen. Im sorry, I find this rude, and I find this does not represent Carnival in a positive light. Granted, they were just 2 people out of a thousand employees... but still... I find that so not acceptable. I thought about it for the rest of the day. Early next morning as I was walking the ship, I stopped at the Pursers desk. I made a complaint to the lady who was there. She listened to my story and then asked "Are you sure they were Carnival employees?" I said that I saw their tags, and when we got back to the ship I saw that they went into the Crew only area. She apoligized to me. She said sometimes when crew members are running late, they do that. I said that is no excuse, that we are paying guests. She agreed saying she understood that.

We loved going to the Dining room for breakfast. For the first several mornings we sat at the round table right by the plastic/glass wall where you can see the hostess.. Great servers at this stations. 2 other mornings we were put back in the back of the dining room... not so great back there. We timed it 2 times, it took the server 25 mintues to take our order. They sat us, gave us menus, took drink orders and then we sat, and sat and sat....The 2nd morning it happened, I was fuming... again I didnt know what to do. Do I sit and just stew about it.. I talked to the Hostess.. she walks back with me, sais something to one of the servers back there. The server has a blank look on his face. Ok, thought it was taken care of... but we sit, and sit and sit... So I go back to the hostess and tell her she said "Still nobody took your order...?" I said NO... she calls the Maitre d over. I explain to him what was going on. He looked MAD... he follows me over to the table. As we were walking the server comes to our table. After the server took our order, the Maitre d had a stern talking to him... Apparently in the morning some of the servers are confused on who is serving what table.

One evening at dinner, we found a big hard mold spot on our tablecloth. The Hostess argued it was a crayon mark. We turned the tablecloth over and showed her that it indeed WAS NOT a crayon mark but mold. We even got the Maitre d to look at it. Again, we got apologizes.

My sister in law had a couple complaints herself, which I wont mention since they are hers not mine LOL..

Again.. please no bashing.. Im just explaining my complaints. We are a one income family who only travels once a year.Since our first cruise was RCCL, I expected the same sort of service..

[Cotton]

While I agree that these were annoyances, I think that's about it. Nothing is perfect, anywhere, anytime. Sounds as if some of the crew could have been (and probably were) reprimanded. I don't think any of what you described warrants a 'formal complaint'.

[finoky]

You can write a letter to Guest Relations at the address listed below. Be patient though. It could take a while for them to respond back to you.

 

Carnival Cruise Lines

Attn: Guest Relations

3655 NW 87th Ave.

Miami, FL 33178-2428

[salty dingo]

I agree with Cotton... on vacation I am MUCH more tolerant of things like dirty dishes on deck and slow table service - more tolerant than I would be at home. I am relaxed, and have a live and let live attitude. I am in no hurry, usually have no place better to be.

 

This may just be a case where the expectations were a bit too high. Now they know how it is for real, and will be better informed next time.

 

FWIW, I as on Valor in March, and while things may have changed in six months, I certainly had no complaints about the service. Sure, it could have been better, but it was good enough for me!

[texas greeneyes]

I, too, am very tolerant while on vacation. Especially so while cruising. Maybe it is the waves talking. :D

Anyway, if you want to contribute your comments, cover all your bases. Calling via telephone is fine (always note names/time/date etc), but email/snail mail too and keep hard copies of everything.

[judyjbest]

As a travel agent, I've had guests return with complaints that needed attention by the cruise lines. I ask them to write a letter to the cruise line and copy me. I then write a letter of my own, attach theirs, and fax it to guest relations, asking that they copy me in their response to the guests. In each case, the various cruise lines respond with an apology and an appropriate correction to the problem.

[EngIceDave]

Some of that stuff, seems annoying.

Some of it sounds like the OP is a bit demanding and/or exaggerating.

 

Makes it sound as if the entire ship a mass of dirty dishes and unkempt tables.

While I can see a dish here and a table there, I cannot see it as explained.

I'd like to hear for another cruiser on Valor Aug 20-27th.

[LHP]

I hope you also used your comment card to record the deficiencies in the service. I know that does not help you at this point, but it may make a better cruise for the next folks coming onboard.

 

Personally, I would write a detailed review to the address given above. And as with any situation (where you get more flies with honey than with vinegar) I would start with the positives and then say "However, there were some problems we would like to address..."

 

That is the only way Carnival is going to know exactly what is going on. And they want to know because they certainly want your repeat business!

 

This would at least give Carnival the opportunity to make it up to you in some fashion.

[BirthdayGirl30]

I'm planning on getting on the ship early like you did, but not letting anything that's going on until after the ship actually leaves the port bother me. It sounds like you kind of got of on the wrong foot since you boarded early.

[LSUtraveler]

Darn it! How come nothing like that has ever happened to us. I'm dying to have something to complain about. It just isn't fair. Next cruise I'm going to look for something to complain about so I can write a letter!;)

 

This is obsurd no complaints yet, white gloves coming with me next time and I just better not find a dirty table that hasn't been cleaned for 1 minute, there'll be hell to pay!:rolleyes:

 

Seriously I know that there are some legitment complaints just wanted to poke a little fun today. I must be getting cruise giddy!:p

[osiebosie]

I wrote a letter after one particular Carnival cruise, and got a response. It wasn't what I was hoping for, but I did get a response.

 

Be unemotional if you write a letter; just state facts. Keep a copy. Send one to your TA.

 

Good luck,

 

Shay

[Wennfred]

JackieH, Im so sorry you had a horrible time onboard the Valor since she gets great reviews all the time. One thing I do agree with you is the Waiters, I am shocked no one would take your orders right away. We are used to having them on top of us as we sit down for dinner.

 

As far as Rosies, thats amazes me since we had TONS of food on lido deck and it just kept coming and the Lido Deck staff always kept those tables cleaned immediately. Most people like myself take our trays up to their cleaning stations after we are done eating, it also opens up a clean spot for the next person, I noticed others doing the same. But maybe on that day something was going on. Maybe they had a massive shift change, who knows.

 

One thing thats not really going is the Grille, at 11:30am they are getting ready to cook those burgers but by Noon the grille is up and running.

 

Write your Complaints to the address above so that someone can investigate, who knows you could be 1 of 100 that will be also writing them about the same problems.

 

Fred

[GROUCHPUSS]

I have had to file a complaint once over my bed. We had a Cat 11 on the Holiday when we arrived at our cabin I noticed that our bed looked like a U in stead of a ___ we let our room steward no he told us that he would let house keeping know, couple hours went bye with no reply, so we went to the pursers office and they called my room steward back to the room to look at the bed so I went back to my cabin and waited some more, when the steward arrived I tried to explain that the bed frame was broken, but that is not what any one wanted to hear.I was told that it was just the mattress and they were going to take the new one out of the room next door and just switch the two out because it was new. I was think at this time how nice is that to my next door neighbor. Only because I new that it was the bed frame not the mattress I went along with the move and guess what the bed still have a sag in it. I then went back to the pursers office and asked for a new room and guess what they were "sold out" by now I am pretty mad so I went back to my room turned my bed over and took pics of the broken bed called Carnival asked for a supervisor email pics to him on my way back down to the pursers office. When I got to the pursers with my pics of the bed and the sup from Carnival on the phone I showed the purser the pics of my bed and again told him I needed a new room or a new bed. Now it is getting later in the day like sailing time. Now I was told that they did not have a bed but they could move to a inside cabin. lets see pay for a suite move to inside, I declined, Finally they some how for a different cat 11 for me and told me that some one would come and help move my room and bring me a key. jump ahead PM no one ever showed up to help nor bring me a key to my new room so back to the pursers office I go. They apologized gave me a key and I moved my self. Now it is about 9:30 and we are finally moved in.

 

Even before we left the ship I had sent a e mail to customer service, on the last night we received a letter from the pursers office with a long apology and a 25% off our next cruise.

[2Ports]

some legitimate complaints, but...you want something to complain about, try NCLA!!:mad:

[rvrgirl]

I have had to file a complaint once over my bed. We had a Cat 11 on the Holiday when we arrived at our cabin I noticed that our bed looked like a U in stead of a ___ we let our room steward no he told us that he would let house keeping know, couple hours went bye with no reply, so we went to the pursers office and they called my room steward back to the room to look at the bed so I went back to my cabin and waited some more, when the steward arrived I tried to explain that the bed frame was broken, but that is not what any one wanted to hear.I was told that it was just the mattress and they were going to take the new one out of the room next door and just switch the two out because it was new. I was think at this time how nice is that to my next door neighbor. Only because I new that it was the bed frame not the mattress I went along with the move and guess what the bed still have a sag in it. I then went back to the pursers office and asked for a new room and guess what they were "sold out" by now I am pretty mad so I went back to my room turned my bed over and took pics of the broken bed called Carnival asked for a supervisor email pics to him on my way back down to the pursers office. When I got to the pursers with my pics of the bed and the sup from Carnival on the phone I showed the purser the pics of my bed and again told him I needed a new room or a new bed. Now it is getting later in the day like sailing time. Now I was told that they did not have a bed but they could move to a inside cabin. lets see pay for a suite move to inside, I declined, Finally they some how for a different cat 11 for me and told me that some one would come and help move my room and bring me a key. jump ahead PM no one ever showed up to help nor bring me a key to my new room so back to the pursers office I go. They apologized gave me a key and I moved my self. Now it is about 9:30 and we are finally moved in.

 

Even before we left the ship I had sent a e mail to customer service, on the last night we received a letter from the pursers office with a long apology and a 25% off our next cruise.

 

Now that sucks:mad:

[BlueJacketsFan1]

My wife and I had several problem during our first cruise. Two of which were with Carnival transportation transfers. One from the airport to our hotel which never showed up. Then the one from the hotel to the pier was 1 hour and 45 minutes late. The other problem involved a High Sea Honeymoon package from Carnival. Which took about a dozen or more phone call from the ship to get straightened out.

After arriving back home we contacted our TA and were told to write everything down in a letter and it send to her. She would then write a letter and send along with ours to Carnival. We received a letter a few weeks later which satisfied us. It addressed all of our problems one by one. We received a free gift on our second cruise and also a check to refund us for our cab fare for our missed transfer.

On our second cruise we did not get quite a good of service from our room steward as we did on our first cruise. Nothing worth complaining about to Carnival though. It was just simple little things that were missing from our stateroom. Items like paper, pens, and water and soda. Just those simple little things we had on our first cruise and our tablemates had on our second. We just thought our steward was probably new and was still learning. Plus English wasn't one of her strong suits either. We had a wonderful time and can't wait to do it again in 2007.

[surfklutz]

I am a pretty laid back person - but poor service from an service industry drives me to distraction - especially since I am the one that is paying their wages.

 

When you accept bad service, it becomes the standard. If you expect better service - then that becomes the standard.

 

A couple things that I get from this particular post is 1) larger is not better. The OP kept giving Carnival a pass because the ship is so large. When the build large ships they need to know how to deal with the increased number of people. 2) Carnival is in need of better onboard hotel management. To let a bed get in such disrepair - then to not correct it before embarkation - hoping the guest would not "notice" is inexcusable.

[JackieH]

JackieH, Im so sorry you had a horrible time onboard the Valor since she gets great reviews all the time. One thing I do agree with you is the Waiters, I am shocked no one would take your orders right away. We are used to having them on top of us as we sit down for dinner.

 

I did not have a horrible time onboard. We all actually had a great fun time. I didnt let all these little things ruin my cruise. I just expected better service thats all... Money is not easy to come by for us, and just went in with too many expectations.I just felt the service could of been better.

 

 

As far as Rosies, thats amazes me since we had TONS of food on lido deck and it just kept coming and the Lido Deck staff always kept those tables cleaned immediately.

 

I did not see this happen at all. I did not see any of the staff clean the tables immediately. Again, we did go during a busy time, lots of kids and people around. Maybe they had a new crew onboard. I dont know. Im just posting my observations.

 

 

Most people like myself take our trays up to their cleaning stations after we are done eating, it also opens up a clean spot for the next person, I noticed others doing the same. But maybe on that day something was going on. Maybe they had a massive shift change, who knows.

 

One thing thats not really going is the Grille, at 11:30am they are getting ready to cook those burgers but by Noon the grille is up and running.

 

Write your Complaints to the address above so that someone can investigate, who knows you could be 1 of 100 that will be also writing them about the same problems.

 

The problems we encountered would not stop us from sailing on Carnival again.

[JackieH]

You can write a letter to Guest Relations at the address listed below. Be patient though. It could take a while for them to respond back to you.

 

Carnival Cruise Lines

Attn: Guest Relations

3655 NW 87th Ave.

Miami, FL 33178-2428

 

Thank you for posting this address.

[JackieH]

As a travel agent, I've had guests return with complaints that needed attention by the cruise lines. I ask them to write a letter to the cruise line and copy me. I then write a letter of my own, attach theirs, and fax it to guest relations, asking that they copy me in their response to the guests. In each case, the various cruise lines respond with an apology and an appropriate correction to the problem.

 

Do you think a letter and a phone call is too much? Our TA adviced us to call them stating letters just sit around. My husband plans on calling them. He is more calm , I get flustered easily. I do think I will sit down and write them a letter. I plan on stating all the postive things we encountered as well. I am no way a cruise snob LOL... this is only our 2nd cruise. Our first cruise was 3 yrs ago on RCCL... We did not experience anything like this the first time. So perhaps, we went in with too many expectations. We have wonderful vacation memories from the Valor. I just think sometimes the higher ups need to know what is going on to correct some minor problems.

[mrdood]

Since this is a public forum, I will just say that I think you are a pretty impatient person, cribs up in the evening is pretty standard, my son just took his nap on my lab in a lounger, we worked around it, didn't bother us.

 

...75% of food gone, hard to believe, but that still leaves 25% for you, how much do you need:confused: You didn't say you went hungry...

 

Just as an FYI, you will find reviews from other on your same sailing that had a completely different experience - meaning good, you will also find, as I have read over and over, the same kind of complaints on every cruise line - some really nasty ones on RCCL, so it is nothing specific to Carnival for sure. Sorry you had a bad time, but I think your expectations, impatience and desire to compare and judge things got in your way.

[JackieH]

Since this is a public forum, I will just say that I think you are a pretty impatient person, cribs up in the evening is pretty standard, my son just took his nap on my lab in a lounger, we worked around it, didn't bother us.

 

...75% of food gone, hard to believe, but that still leaves 25% for you, how much do you need:confused: You didn't say you went hungry...

Never said we went hungry. Just stated an observation.

 

Just as an FYI, you will find reviews from other on your same sailing that had a completely different experience - meaning good, you will also find, as I have read over and over, the same kind of complaints on every cruise line - some really nasty ones on RCCL, so it is nothing specific to Carnival for sure. Sorry you had a bad time, but I think your expectations,

 

Again, never said we had a bad time.. just observations on service.

 

impatience and desire to compare and judge things got in your way.

Thanks for all your comments though.