I have been on 4 Carnival cruises, but never again. I just got back from the 5 day Caribbean on the Sunrise out of PortMiami. Booked it specifically for the ports, and because it was my birthday. Took my 18 year old granddaughter and adult son with me. First cruise for both of them.
I WILL NEVER GO ON A CARNIVAL CRUISE AGAIN!
Yes, I said it. I've been a Carnival fan for years and was REALLY looking forward to this. Overall, ship was nice, crew was awesome, activities were fun and food was good (not as good as in the past, but good) but overall, CARNIVAL FAILED.
I am not a complainer, but here goes:
1. Randomly moved my room, an "upgrade", but didn't move my son's. (Same booking, right across the hall from each other). I called (after some detective work to find a phone number). On hold for 45 minutes. Customer service person literally said "so what do you want me to do about it? Everything is sold out". So I'm on a different deck on opposite ends of the ship. Finally resolved this prior to sailing, but it was expensive. Not close but on the same deck.
2. Changed ports of call. I paid for a trip to Jamaica and Grand Cayman. I got a trip to Jamaica and Nassau. Nassau is the armpit of the carribean (actually Freeport is, but close). I understand that places are still closed, but no refund or credit for a later cruise. It was Nassau or lose your money... in 1981 I was literally kidnapped and dumped by a taxi driver in Nassau. Not a fan of that port.
3. Randomly charged my granddaughter's room card $42.02 as we were leaving the ship. I had checked balances at 7am and we were all square, and she didn't charge anything after that. But that popped up. I paid it in cash because they were holding us hostage.
4. Our next door neighbors in our "upgraded" cabin smoked weed on their balcony 24/7. They started before we left port in Miami and kept it up day and night. Last bowl was as we docked back in Miami. They had quite the thing going, with all their cruising group coming in and out of their main party room to smoke on the balcony, with fans set up to divert the smoke out to sea. Except it didn't. It came on to our balcony and was sucked into our room.
Of course I complained. To Guest Services. To security. To cabin steward. To Guest Services. To Security.... over and over. We got a letter from the captain saying they were strict with their policy and something would be done.
Nothing was.
We could not use our balcony, and eventually our room reeked so badly we had to go out on the upper deck by the spa deck to sleep.
5. Our debit cards were frozen so I ended up paying all our fees in cash. Everything settled including the $42.92 mentioned above. I thought it was the bank, but no, it was Carnival. Home for 4 days now, 2 days til Christmas and my $$ is still being held hostage by Carnival.
So sail. It's fun, safe, a good deal and I will do it again.
But not on Carnival.
#carnivalcruise #CarnivalCruiseLine #carnivalsunrise #carnivalfail
