khadijah Triggs-Gomez
I was very dishearted when I boarded The Carnival Fascination Cruise Ship on August 30th 2009. I will never forget it was the first day of the Cruise and the assistant head of security from India knocked on the door saying there was a noise comlaint he was very hostile and Beligerant. I was surprised because this was my third cruise and I see drunks, no shirts, noisy people, and even drinking in the children's pools. My husband and I had a disagreement but I feel that we were targeted. This guy went behind my back and suspended all liquor rights. I don't drink but I was buying liquor for my sister to take back to New York City. This was so ridiculous because you can't get this liquor until you get off of the ship. He was from India and Carnival is known to have 55 nationalities working on board. The harassment continued anytime my children would laugh or cough too hard they were knocking. What am I to think? I have to assume that these minorities had a problem with African desendants who wore locks they definetly had some kind of problem. The real nightmare was on the last day of the cruise when they wouldn't let me and my children have breakfast they rushed us off of the ship because my husband had to report to customs. Unfair with a capital U because I am a US citizen and so are my kids. Why did we have to sit in Customs for hours after we paid. The custom officers felt so sorry for us that they gave us juice and coffee and they also joked and talked to us. I need to handle this man he was awful. I continue to send messages and complaints coast to coast until my voice is heard. Discrimination in America will not be tolerated.I do want to add that the dining room staff and some of the staff at the desk were great They were all Europeans, but this minority was awful and he needs to get some public relations or human rights courses on race relations.
marlene
Lisa Rockwitt
A letter I wrote to Carnival today......
November 7, 2009
Carnival Cruise Lines
Miami, FL
Attn: Customer Service Manager
To Whom It May Concern:
I am an experienced cruiser with NCL and Royal Caribbean and embarked on my first Carnival Cruise on Oct 25. I am writing to tell you of my disappointment with my cruise particularly pertaining to the advertised Adult Halloween Party, the rudeness of the staff of the Splendor and the very annoying lack of communication on the ship.
As there was a planned Halloween party on the cruise, I purchased $225 worth of costume items and dragged them from New York to Los Angeles in anticipation of a great Halloween party aboard the "Fun Ship". On Tuesday of the cruise week the party rumored to be moved from Saturday night to Friday night. We began to ask crew members and even guest services for details and nobody knew a thing. Nor did anybody have valid information on ship vs. port time, the anticipated weather or any other planned activities. Over and over we got the answer that “The Captain would make an announcement” Almost no ship info (for the future) on the interactive TV and defiantly no weather or radar reports. Toward the end of the cruise I took to shoving books in the hinge of our cabin door so I could hear these valuable tid-bits from the Captain as this is the only information available!
Finally on Thursday we got the information that the Halloween party would at 9:45 on the Lido deck but with no explanation why it had been changed.
I arrived on the Lido deck 9:45pm sharp and found a very large group of costumed people mulling about. It wasn't until after 10pm anything at all began. Cruise director "Goose" was the MC for the festivities. The group was immediately launched into a costume contest of which the categories were Best Group, Most Creative, Scariest and Best Overall with a few packets of M&Ms being tossed into the crowd of 500 or more costumed people. The first judging was for Best Group and those who wished to participate were asked to line up and come by the camera for judging by the crowd via the Jumbo-tron on deck. After a short time a winner was chosen by applause of the crowd - winner, Jose and the Pussy Cats. Next was the Most Creative category which went pretty much the same with the exception of Goose yelling over the PA system every 5 minutes that we had to "hurry this up because the Show was beginning soon". After another short time that category had also been decided by the group - winner, Chick Magnet. The last two categories, Scariest and Best Overall, were quickly and off-handedly decided by Goose and the two girls helping him and announced simultaneously. There was no crowd participation or voting, only Goose reminding us again and again how "this has to be quick because of the Show". The two winners, Devil and Geisha Girls were pulled up to the camera quickly, given some kind of certificate and the WHOLE PARTY ENDED by 10:30pm! My also costumed shipmate never even made it to the party as it was over before it even started!
It was bad enough that the Adults Costume Party lasted all of a ½ hour but that it was not moved to another part of the ship! We wandered around deck 5 in costume looking for the party and found nothing. To add insult to injury everything on the ship closed early that night. Karaoke was done by 11pm, the piano bar was closed by 12:30, even the disco was dead! Why was the Halloween party moved and squeezed in on another night? If the night had to be moved, why wasn't it moved to the disco, or somewhere else after the contest? There was nothing open on the whole ship but the casino. I was back in my cabin and out of my $225 costume by 12:30 and mad as hell!
I wish this was the only issue with my vacation. The staff was quite rude as well.
Our Steward walked into our room on the first night while my cabin mate and I were sitting on our patio trying to relax after long flights, etc. My cabin mate was in her underwear and we asked that the Steward come back in a little while when Doran was dressed. The steward ignored our request and continued to come into our room and out onto the patio with us. As we protested her presence she handed us something to sign. My cabin mate could not see the paper so the steward proceeded to put on the patio light and insisted that we sign her paper. The steward's behavior was very rude and made my friend very uncomfortable to be sitting in her underwear in front of a stranger.
I opted to have a massage at Cloud 9 and booked a 75 minute massage/facial. The technician was from the Philippines and did little more to me than forcefully rub her forearms up and down my body. She then did the facial and put a serum of sorts on my face and left the room for 14 minutes (I timed it when it seemed to be too long). When she was done she then spent another 20 minutes trying to sell me products. This was not a “you may want to try this or that” sell, she wasn’t letting me out of there until I told her straight up that I WAS NOT BUYING A THING!!! I was very disappointed as I had paid good money for this service and was no more relaxed when the big sell was over than before I arrived. I could understand these tactics if the services were free and you had to accept the pitch at the end in exchange but I paid my money to walk out tense and annoyed.
As we were departing for Mazatlan I stopped at the Guest Services Desk to make change for a large bill. I asked for specific denominations and was given back completely different bills, I asked again for the denominations that I originally requested and the money was pushed back at me with the woman saying "If I give all the ONEs to you there will be none for anybody else". Was that necessary? Wouldn't it have been far less rude to ask if I would mind having fewer ONEs as they were running short of them? These basics are customer service 101.
At this point I was quite unhappy and asked to speak with a manager. I was told by the same woman that I could not speak with a manager until I told her what my issue was. Since my issue was her, I protested again that I just wanted to see a manager. I told the nicer young man in an officer's uniform of my experience with changing money and the issue with our Steward. He took a few notes and apologized.
Upon returning from Mazatlan part of our group opted to enjoy a hot tub. As I was stepping into the tub I heard my name being called across the entire ship paging me to the guest services desk. I have aging parents in comprised health at home in NY and assumed something must have happened to be paged across the entire ship! Had it been something minor I would have gotten a call or a note, right? Friends were even running to our area to find out what happened as they were so concerned for me. I grabbed my cabin mate and made my way to the elevators. I was so visibly shaken that a little child asked my friend “is that lady is ok?” while we waiting for an elevator. When we arrived at the guest services desk I blurted out my name expecting to be given a glass of water, a seat and terrible news when I was asked if I had checked back in with the ship upon returning from Mazatlan!?!? When the same rude woman at the desk from before asked me this I said “of course I check in”! She then said “Ma’am, you couldn’t have checked in, we have no record of you coming back on the ship”. I replied “I certainly didn’t jump over a balcony to get back on, and as a matter of fact I was stopped by the metal detector because there is metal ring in the brim of my hat”. There was no apology for scaring me to death, etc. Just more RUDE. It wasn’t my fault the security personnel was not IDing every person by picture as they got on the ship which would have caught that my card had not registered when I dipped it.
The next morning the Steward appeared at our door telling me that her manager wanted to speak with me and she wanted to know when I would be in the room. I gave her the time of 2:30 to 3pm, after returning from Cabo. We left the room a bit late that morning to avoid the crush of people at the tenders. As we were walking out of the room the male that assisted the Steward was in the hall and asked me "Are you finally leaving? Again, RUDE! I rushed back from the excursion that afternoon to make the time I said I would be there and the manager never showed up. More RUDE.
That night my friend ordered a drink from a cocktail waitress while we were at the Sushi Bar. My friend likes Bloody Mary's but didn't feel like having all the spices so she ordered vodka, tomato juice and lemon. The waitress proclaimed "Ewwwww" as she wrote down the order. Even when she brought the drink back she let out another "Ewwwww" as she placed the drink down. Is this necessary? More RUDE.
We spend a lot of time in the Casino and I even found the dealers to be stand-offish and rude. One man in particular who was from China but looked more like he was from Poland seemed to relish in beating and sweeping the table. Only one very tall young man from I Serbia I believe was talkative, friendly and helpful.
It was no surprise at the end of the cruise that we got all disembarkation paperwork BUT the comment cards. I can extrapolate that we did not get any as I had complained about the Steward barging into our room the first night. We looked for replacements but were told over and over we would find them in our room. So please don’t bother looking up a comment card from us as we never received one.
In closing I’ll tell you that I am one of a group of 75 from NY that were on the ship together. We originally booked for May at group size of 125 but after being cancelled due to the flu outbreak only 75 rebooked this week. We cruise annually and this was our first try with Carnival as we usually go RC. Normally I come home with a smile and complements galore and can’t wait for the next.
I invite you to verify the validity of all my claims as much of what I described should be documented.
I also respectfully request that you refund to me the $225 I spent on a costume that I wore for all of two hours with no promised party. I can provide credit card receipts to verify my claim of $225 which vary from dress to cape to gloves to theatrical contacts upon your request.
I hope to hear from a Customer Service Manager and look forward to your reply.
Thank you in advance,
M-
Posted: November 7th, 2009 | Report This Comment