cruises?

[sarack]

anyone been on a cruise for less than a week? 3-5 days? did you like it?

[jennlin]

DO NOT RECOMMEND!!!!!!!!!

gimme like 15 minutes, it's in my work-computer. i'll dig up my complaint letter i wrote to carnival cruises.

[sarack]

lol. i thought you liked cruising??

[jennlin]

i LOVE cruising, but a 3 day cruise, never again. it was too inexpensive, that it was just a huge 3 day long frat party.

[madDawg228]

May 18, 2012 13:13:56 GMT -5 jennlin said:

i LOVE cruising, but a 3 day cruise, never again. it was too inexpensive, that it was just a huge 3 day long frat party.

jen, thank you for giving me an idea present for my Sorority Pledge Class 10-year Pledge Anniversary next year!!! I can just hear the other chicks squeeing already, lol

[jennlin]

here is my complaint letter (sorry got distracted by bJL)

June 9, 2011

Dear Carnival Cruise Lines Staff;

I was a passenger onboard the Carnival Paradise departing Long Beach, CA on Friday, XXXXXX 2011 and I was very displeased with my experience on this vessel. I was on this particular cruise attending a wedding taking place in the XXXXX Lounge at approximately 2:00 pm, XXXXXX. I am a frequent cruiser although this was my first with Carnival. I have only had pleasant cruising experiences until now.

Before the ceremony, my husband and I, with a friend, spent some time on the deck near the pool. During this time we were stopped mid-conversation roughly every three or four minutes by the bar-staff, pushing the daily special on us. We were not interested in purchasing a cocktail, but nobody seemed to get the message.

When we had first arrived in the XXXXXX Lounge, we noticed a sour smell coming from the rear of the room. I, as well as several other guests, located the source of the smell coming from a large black spot on the light colored seats. It was not until about ten minutes before the ceremony began did staff members finally begun scrubbing at the spot, and raised a bright yellow barricade. Thankfully they paused during the short ceremony, but immediately after-during the reception, the scrubbing recommenced as well as four additional crew members all working on a thin, plastic, noisy covering to disguise the affected area.

In addition to this issue, during the ceremony, the sound quality was not acceptable. The music was turned on too loud where the sound was distorted, and there was a point when the song stopped shortly after it was played, and restarted.

During the ceremony, the ship photographer was very intrusive and often had a lens six inches away from the couple. He often stood between the guests and the couple, blocking all of our visuals of the couple. I was sitting in the second row, and I missed the first-kiss because the photographer was not discreet at all and blocked our view.

Later that evening, when I arrived in our stateroom- there were still stickers (from new clothing items) on the wall from the previous passengers. The stickers were eventually removed after the room servicing on the second evening (xxxxx). In our stateroom, there was a placard which is standard in most hotel rooms- if we’d like our towel replaced, leave it on the floor, if we want to keep our towel, hang it up. My husband and I decided that we would not mind reusing our towels each day and we hung them up on the multiple hooks available throughout the room. Yet, during every servicing, our towels were replaced with new ones. While fresh towels are luxurious, this was an unnecessary step at the cost of excess waste in our environment.

My party had dinner scheduled at 6:00 pm in the XXXX dining room. Each night, there were shows performed by the service staff. The sound quality in this room was similar to the sound quality in the Queen Mary Lounge. The announcements and music were too loud, very distorted, and hard to hear.

On the night of xxxx, my party and I had decided to watch the family-friendly early showing of country music singing and dancing-I was shocked at what was considered to be “family-friendly”. The female costumes covered hardly more than a swimsuit would, and when the girls wore long skirts, they simply twirled until everything showed underneath anyways. If I had young children with me- I would have immediately walked out.

My husband had often visited the onboard casino while we were on this ship and he was also very displeased with his experience there. His favorite casino game, “Craps”, was understaffed, and also staffed by inadequately trained employees. On a standard Craps table, there are typically four employees watching all moves and bets placed- there were only three at this table at all times. With the understaffing, this resulted in the passenger next to him to be underpaid for one of her bets. She had spoken up, and was eventually paid out correctly for that turn. The staff also seemed to implement rules that do not exist in a typical casino, such as “no tapping the dice before you roll”. The staff also rushed guests to “speed-up” their betting.

On our “fun day at sea”, I spent much of the day near the pool on a lounge chair. During this time, I had noticed the deck completely littered with empty beer bottles, cups and at one point, I even noticed a small pile of vomit on the outside tiles of the swimming pool. The severe intoxication of the guests was very disturbing- I saw two separate occasions where friendly wrestling matches occurred between passengers less than 20 feet away from where I was-this made relaxing very difficult as these people could have easily toppled over onto me.

During this time near the pool, we were in the non-smoking area; however the area was continually filled with lit cigarettes. One of the members of our party repeatedly reported these incidents to nearby security officers. We did not understand why we, the passengers and not security officers, needed to be the ones policing the non-smoking areas.

In addition to all this, my overall worst experience happened during this “fun day at sea”. I was standing in line to use the restroom near the pool- a line formed behind me. One of the intoxicated guests in line expressed her urgency to use the stall before all others. I had told her that she could use it in front of me, given that it was okay with the people behind me-they declined. I let each person behind me go ahead of me. When it was almost the turn of the intoxicated woman, she began urinating down her leg which had splashed onto me, as well as other passengers. I immediately tried to leave the area to avoid further contamination, and ran into the just-open stall where the urinating-intoxicated girl nearly attacked me. I tried to close the door to get away from her, but she held the doors open and stood on top of me and continued to urinate. I pushed her aside and ran out of the restroom and jumped into the pool to get whatever I could off of me. I reported this incident to security.

Needless to say I was very disappointed with my overall experience on this ship. I did not feel as if this vacation was relaxing at all, as it was filled with negative experiences and ambiance. As it currently stands, I would not recommend Carnival to friends or family and would not choose to cruise with Carnival again. I would like to see improvements in the future in order to enhance passenger experience for everyone. I highly enjoy cruising and would hate to have the need to eliminate Carnival Cruise Lines as a contender for future vacations. Please contact me if you would like me to answer any questions about my experience- I have already filled out the online-survey that was distributed via email.




Thank you for your time,

[jennlin]

mgoss--i suppose if that's what you're looking for, then it's perfect!! it was only $350 for the weekend (flight additional, obvs)

sarack-- i think most of the issues stem from being a carnival cruise...i've heard pretty negative things about them as a company as a whole..but overall, i was just SOOOOO displeased.

[llh0211]

STBXH & I went on a 5 day Carribbean cruise for our honeymoon. While our honeymoon was a bit of a fiasco (lost luggage, and the run around from the airline) the cruise was okay. The ship was a bit older, but I didn't get the frat party feel that Jennlin mentioned. It was mostly family reunions with matching tshirts. The entertainment was pretty cheesy. We popped in a couple nights, but didn't stay. It was like cheap Vegas lounge act type stuff... I don't know how else to describe it. I will say that we felt like cattle or rushed during our excursions, but I think that's just the way it was, or we chose poorly for excursions.

Years before, I had gone on a 7 day cruise with a girlfriend, and we had an absolute blast. Loved it. I wound up getting strep throat (my luck with vacations, right?) but I still had a really good time. The ship was beautiful, the entertainment was great. An all around fabulous time.

ETA: Both cruises were on Carnival

[madDawg228]

May 18, 2012 13:48:21 GMT -5 jennlin said:

In addition to all this, my overall worst experience happened during this “fun day at sea”. I was standing in line to use the restroom near the pool- a line formed behind me. One of the intoxicated guests in line expressed her urgency to use the stall before all others. I had told her that she could use it in front of me, given that it was okay with the people behind me-they declined. I let each person behind me go ahead of me. When it was almost the turn of the intoxicated woman, she began urinating down her leg which had splashed onto me, as well as other passengers. I immediately tried to leave the area to avoid further contamination, and ran into the just-open stall where the urinating-intoxicated girl nearly attacked me. I tried to close the door to get away from her, but she held the doors open and stood on top of me and continued to urinate. I pushed her aside and ran out of the restroom and jumped into the pool to get whatever I could off of me. I reported this incident to security.

OMG that is the grossest thing ever. If she had to go so bad, why didn't she just go back to her room?

[sarack]

i feel like getting married on a cruise would suck. no?

[jennlin]

May 18, 2012 14:04:02 GMT -5 sarack said:

i feel like getting married on a cruise would suck. no?

i think so, but it worked for my friend, so..oh well. as long as she's happy.

[jennlin]

May 18, 2012 14:03:45 GMT -5 madDawg228 said:

May 18, 2012 13:48:21 GMT -5 jennlin said:

In addition to all this, my overall worst experience happened during this “fun day at sea”. I was standing in line to use the restroom near the pool- a line formed behind me. One of the intoxicated guests in line expressed her urgency to use the stall before all others. I had told her that she could use it in front of me, given that it was okay with the people behind me-they declined. I let each person behind me go ahead of me. When it was almost the turn of the intoxicated woman, she began urinating down her leg which had splashed onto me, as well as other passengers. I immediately tried to leave the area to avoid further contamination, and ran into the just-open stall where the urinating-intoxicated girl nearly attacked me. I tried to close the door to get away from her, but she held the doors open and stood on top of me and continued to urinate. I pushed her aside and ran out of the restroom and jumped into the pool to get whatever I could off of me. I reported this incident to security.

OMG that is the grossest thing ever. If she had to go so bad, why didn't she just go back to her room?

too drunk, having fun by the pool?

[FrozenSunshine]

When I lived in Tampa the locals would always tell you to avoid short cruises that were around long weekends or spring break due to the partiers.

[jennlin]

Yeah, definitely not funny at the time- I can see the humor in it now unfortunately. They wrote back basically just saying sorry and that was it. It was a generic apology, saying they can't control other guests and yadda yadda. I was hoping for some sorta discount- I would've given carnival another chance, but I probably won't anymore. And definitely no more 3 day cruises in june.