Carnival Cruise Lines
Reviews and Complaints

Was on a cruise for my 20th anniversary on the Carnival Victory on the week of July 10th. I originally had scheduled for our room to be decorated and a cake to be delivered to our state room on the first day. Since our anniversary wasn't till the 3rd I changed the cake to be delivered to our dining table on then. Well the room didn't get decorated till day 3 of a 5 day cruise and the cake was delivered then to. when I asked the fun shop why my room wasn't decorated on the first day they said its because it was a packaged deal. when I scheduled on the computer it clearly had both days. When I told the customer service people on board to cancel the package, since the decorations would only be up for a day, they told me tough luck. We have always sailed Carnival but must say I was very disappointed. We just scheduled a fall cruise with a rival this week. VERY VERY SAD.

I was supposed to leave in 5 days for my cruise. I bought this for my mother an I. An emergency has came up to where she can no longer go. Due to last minute, fostering my niece, and keeping her away from the state, she is not able to go. 1 out 5 people I spoken to was actually nice about the situation. And due to the fact that it's not a medical emergency, or death, I'm told that i will lose over $1000 that I've already paid. I could later, send in court documents to prove whats going on and it's still not guarenteed a credit. I've offered to sale both my tickets, as i had someome to by them, I was told no, it would be cancelled and I'd lose my money as well. I'm left with the choice of going by myself, (and losing the money for tje other ticket), which i still do not feel comfortable going that far alone, or losing it all. It has been such a headache, I hardly see myself booking with this cruise line again.

My husband and I have sailed on Carnival several times and always had a good experience, That is why when my co-workers and I decided to book a cruise that is the first place we went. We booked in March for a 7 day cruise on December 16, 2017. I put 500.00 dollars down on my cruise, and i bought the cruise insurance to be on the safe side since the cruise was so far away. My place of business always closed the week before Christmas so that is why we booked the Dec 16th sailing.One week after I booked and put down my down payment we found that the Christmas break was changing this year and we wouldn't get off until Dec 24th. The idea was for all of the girls in our dept to go together and we couldn't find another time to make this happen so, I canceled my booking. I got 53.40 back which was what I had put extra on the cruise and I lost all of the rest of my money. Aon Infinity Insurance would not help me because they said I would only get money back if it was a medical reason. I had only had the reservation for about 2 weeks when I had to cancel it. Here are the details of the reservation. 7 day cruise on the Carnival Magic. Departing from Miami on Dec 16th. Booking # 6LG3P8, group # 5VL5V3. Shirley and Michael Minogue.

We called twice to reschedule or cruise to a later date due to the fact my 94 yr old father has bacame deathly Ill and is on his last living days we are not able to leave him at this time.. we're not asking for our money refunded we just want to reschedule our cruise to a later time when things are right with our family.. they told us we can not get a refund nor reschedule they would only refund our taxes and port charge which is $200 something verses $1700. This is not a fair rule family emergencies come up and can not be helped or controlled at the time we booked this everything was fine like I said we are NOT asking for a refund just reschedule trust us we wish we didn't have to be going through this situation either...thank you mrs.Barber

Hello. I have sailed a few times in the last 3 years with Carnival and anxiously awaiting the day to finally purchase my bathrobe on the ship. We finally made the purchase on our last week's sailing. We followed label instructions and did it's first wash and it has unravelled and come a part. I have taken a picture and would like it replaced. It hasn't been a week since my husband surprised me with it on the ship. We had an awesome steward that made sure if was an awesome surprise for me. We were so happy with our recent sailing that we booked another sailing before leaving the ship for April 2018. I continue to share the news of how happy we are with Carnival and I hope and expect this to be resolved. Thank you

Cabin 5056, Queen Elizabeth, 1/7/17

Hi We sent in by post to Carnival uk our copy share certificate and letter confirming cruise details.
Copy attached:
Shareholder Benefits
Carnival plc
100 Harbour Parade
Southampton
SO15 1ST

5th June 2017

Dear Sirs,

Shareholder Benefits

We are booked on one forthcoming cruise and would like to apply for shareholder benefits. Please find enclosed our proof of ownership by Nettie and also details below of the cruise:

QUEEN ELIZABETH Q723 1st July 2017 Booking Ref  XHWNMM

Please can you kindly apply Nettie’s onboard allowance.

Yours Sincerely

James and Nettie Lumsden

Carnival didn't acknowledge receipt. They never do. Only way to know is when you go onboard.
We saw no allowance on our account and went to clarify with Hayleigh in Cruise sales on board. She took up the case but Carnival denied receipt of letter. Hayleigh sent them our copy letter and share certificate.
They then said that the share certificate need to be reissued. Nothing was said about this to us before. We are on the register with our 100 shares.

We are platinum, about to diamond with Cunard.
What a way to treat loyal customers!

We booked a 5 Day Exotic Eastern Caribbean Cruise – Booking Number 7PNOV9. Our trip Sail Date is today 7/1/17. This morning when we arrived at the airport our flight was cancelled due to crew problems. We were told there were no available flights until the evening. Which means we would have missed the ship's Boarding Time. We received a letter of apology from Spirit Airlines, which is attached. We are requesting a voucher or credit for a future cruise because our cruise was cancelled due to no fault of ours. The airline refunded me with airfare credits.

I spent of 2 hours trying to book a last minute 4 day cruise. The master card company had no clue how to answer my questions about redeeming points and sent me to call 3 other agencies, neither of which could answer my question. When booking my cruise online, my request could not be processed (twice) and when I called to book, the transaction was declined because my credit card was temporarily authorized yet I never entered my card number. When I called Carnival back after speaking to the card company I asked to speak with a supervisor regarding some compensation. I've been cruising with carnival for 21 years and it should never take 2 hours and over 8 phone calls to find out if I can use my points and to book a cruise. The supervisor was unwilling to help in anyway. Carnival has lost all of my business and I'll be booking in the future with Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and Celebrity. What a terrible way to teach an long time customer. They lost my respect and my business.

On Mar. 21 2017, I booked a Carnival Liberty 4-nights Bahamas cruise from port Canaveral from Dec. 31 2017 to Jan. 4th 2018 for my daughter and myself through Expedia. The $300 deposit was made on the same day. Originally, I had provided a Visa card, then I switched to MasterCard for the $300 deposit.

One month later, in April, after I received both bank statements, I found out that Carnival charged $300 on both cards. I contacted Expedia and Expedia talked to Carnival, who said that $300 was charged to MasterCard only. Then, I contacted Visa to dispute the $300 charge on my Visa card.

On June 27, I received the letter from my Visa card company. Visa told me that Carnival thought the charge was valid. So, Visa is still going to charge me $300. The letter included a copy of a reservation to validate this charge. However, this evidence that was provided by Carnival is for a different guest, not me.

On June 28, I contacted Expedia again to find out which card was charged $300 by Carnival. Expedia then noticed that this reservation was cancelled by Carnival without notifying Expedia or me. Expedia contacted Carnival to find out why. The Carnival rep told Expedia that Carnival cancelled this reservation when they received the dispute from my Visa company. Now, I am charged with $600 without any reservation. I planned this trip a while ago with my brother's family in the UK, and it is a highly anticipated trip for both our families. Now, my daughter and I cannot go. We want Carnival to fix their mistake to rebook this trip for my daughter and me. We need to be on board with the rest of my family and my brother's family. Please help.

I attached my original reservation with Cruise Line booking # (6MS9G5) for your reference.

We had confirmed reservation on carnival breeze for three for balcony for 2nd july sailing from Galveston TX. We made a wait list booking with 500 deposit on June 21st to accommodate our booking . We found cabin available on 22nd. We called in . Repo booked for us this cabin to add out daughter to booking. He said on 27th June it will take rest of the money from the card on file. So we had 5 days to make flight bookings etc for for. Today when we called to check her in, we were told they cancelled her booking as this was not booked by the rep on the waitlist but rather on separate booking. The rep had told us that the deposit is moved to this one and reservation was confirmed and wont be cancelled. Carnival customer service have repeatedly accepted it as their fault. We want our daughter to be with us for the celebration we have for our son with 5 other families on board this cruise we have arranged for. We want help. Please help us accommodate her.

I am writing in regards to my family, friends, and relatives cruise on Carnival’s Liberty out of Port Canaveral, Florida on June 01-04/2017.
To celebrate my only daughter’s high school graduation, I purchased three ocean front balcony cabins to accommodate my daughter, her two friends (cabin 1), myself, wife, and son (cabin 2), and my in laws (cabin 3) at a cost of $4, 300.00. This may not be a large sum of money to some, but I saved for nine months to pay for this cruise. We also had my wife’s sister and her husband in a 4th cabin.
As we have previously sailed on Carnival twice, the Disney ships twice and several times on Port Canaveral’s Premier Cruise Lines (now defunct), I thought I knew what I was in for. I was wrong.
We had big plans for our stay in Nassau; Golf, deep sea fishing, Atlantis, visiting friends I have meet through my job in Port Canaveral. All were part of our plans until we found out that the Liberty would only be docked from 10a.m. to 6 p.m. Passengers could not disembark until 10:45 and when we did manage to get off the ship at 11:30 a.m., I asked Carnival ground personal when we should be back at the ship. I was given answers ranging from “I don’t know, “4pm”, 4:30pm”, “5pm”, and “if you are late the ship will leave without you”. We sailed all the way to the Bahamas to be at the only Port of Call for five hours?
Let me regress. The last time I sailed with Carnival, the ship arrived at 10 a.m. Friday and you had to return to the ship by 5 a.m. Saturday morning, a stay of 19 hours in port. Thinking I might be confused, I contacted my travel agent about the time Carnival stays in Nassau. She confirmed that it did in fact used to dock those hours but “that changed a few years ago”.
As we had so little time in Port and didn’t want the ship to, in the words of your staff, “leave without us”, we did virtually nothing in Nassau. Some vacation!
But I had to ask myself why so little time in Port? We were originally booked on Carnival’s Valor and that ship was swapped with the Liberty because the Liberty was a slower ship and the Valor would replace a slower ship on a Mexican destination. A possible explanation but not really. The Liberty took approximately 16 hours (5 p.m. Thursday until 9 a.m. Friday) to get to Nassau. To return to Port Canaveral it took 35 hours (6 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Sunday) to return to Port Canaveral.
The Liberty was at Sea Saturday doing slow circles or idling and still I wondered why. Why would passengers no longer have that 10 p.m. to 5 a.m opportunity to experience Nassau?
I believe I know why. Someone in the corporate office realized those additional 11 hours were time passengers could spend in Nassau’s bars, gift shops and casinos. By cutting the time passengers spend in Nassau by eleven hours, that is time they would spending money in Carnivals’ bars, gifts shops, and casinos. Plus, that is 11 hours Carnival would not have to pay dockage to Nassau. Is this my imagination?
I probably could have let all this go as poor planning on my part, but there is a kicker to the story. My wife has diligently taught mentally handicapped children for 23 years in Brevard County Schools here in Florida. She loves her job and loves her students even more. I mentioned to her that I was impressed with the accommodations that I witnessed on the ship that you make for children and adults with disabilities. Guess what? I suggest to my wife to go to the Liberty’s comedy show. We were very aware of the R rating but to our surprise Mr. Macy belittled children with disabilities. I don’t know if she was more appalled by the comedian or the fact that his delivery had 100’s of adults laughing at his insensitivity to persons with disabilities. Do you call this a “fun ship” vacation? Put yourself in our shoes. How do you plan to rectify this?

June [protected] 2TJ6K5 Carnival Splendor, Horrible service, always looking for someone to buy a drink, waiting for up to hours for ice, had early dinner at 6:00 pm didn't get main course til close to 8:00 p.m had to skip dessert because the next dinner guests were arriving and had to leave. Was this crew new or have a staff problems? We alway cruise out of Galveston Texas, and the staff is on top of things, this cruise was horrible. And want to be compensated for my grievances and my husband took a shower and the shower head fell off and broke on his head! Please contact us asap [protected] The Parker Family email [protected]@yahoo.com home is 5227 Terrace Wind San Antonio Texas 78223

Thank you for your response. I think it would be very appropriate for you to share my comments with Carnival Cruise lines since they are the business operator that has to deal with the Charleston Port Authority as a tenant in their port terminal. You have my permission to share my name and contact information and offer that I would be glad to give them any feedback they would like to have. I can guarantee you that we were not the only cruisers that had very negative reactions to the check in, parking, and facilities. My understanding from some Charleston residents that we talked to during our weekend on land before the cruise was that the city was looking into a new facility that would allow them to increase the ships sailing out of the port and replace the old ferry terminal, but was running into significant opposition that was objecting to growth of the cruise business in their city. Thanks again for receiving my comments. We absolutely had a wonderful cruise once we left port. The Carnival Sunshine is a spectacular ship with a great crew.

Yours truly,

Doug Vandergriff
[protected]

Booking # 7BQ6L9
Carnival Sunshine Bahamas
May 29 2017 12:00AM

To whom it may concern my name is d'wana tigue booking # 6lj6c2 sail date 6/17-6/22. I'm sitting here at home typing the complaint when i should be on my cruise, i was attempting to get my medication out my luggage when the porter told me that by time i reach my room my luggage would already be there. So not the case. So me and my daughters walked around the ship to get to know our way around and had a little lite snack. Went back to the room and my chest started to hurt.I could not take my medication because i did not have my luggage. So my daughters went to ask were could they get my luggage from because they needed to get my meds for me. They were sent to the doctors office and when she stated that i was having just pain all hell broke loose. The doc's came into the room asking if i was breathing and told them that i was fine just some chest pain that's when the said i had to go with them to have and ekg done and be check out and they call the ambulance to take me to the hospital i stated to them i did not need to go to the hospital i have chest pain all the time just needed to take my nitro and rest. The paramedics arrived check me out ad asked if i wanted them to take me to the hospital and i told the no that i was fine my blood work came back negative and my ekg was the same. I want to know will i receive a refund or receive another cruise date.

During debarkation, I tried to retrieve a hold souvenir my kid purchased during progresso port visit. The guest service staff by the name of aaron so told me that my hold item was lost and nothing he can do about it. That sounded very unusual to me, so I took my camera and asked him again so I could have it on record. He then threatened me by calling security. I am still not sure why since I just needed to have what he said on record because I don't believe that is carnival policy telling their guest that there's nothing carnival can do given my item was lost while on hold by carnival.
Instead of helping me, aaron so tried to intimidate me the over and over again by calling security more than once, and at one point a security personnel asked him why he was needed. Aaron so used rude language and pointing his hand at my face in a threatening manor more than once. I was very frustrating and upsetting because of his unprofessional and ill manor. Fortunately, there was a supervisor walked by and he has helped me to open a case. He also provided me with aaron's last name so I could report this incident by filling a complaint. They never contacted me about my lost souvenir. I will never use carnival again. They are thief.

It was our first cruise ever and we spent months planning, saving, and prepaying all we wanted to do . Our bill would be the biggest complaint of all . There were at least 4 duplicate charges of totally different categories. From expensive ( couples massage ) to smaller ( internet). In the middle Day of our 5 night cruise my card was declined - problem - carnival put over 1, 000 dollars holds and that was mostly errors . In fact over half . Responsiveness to our concerns about the bill was awful. Once the holds were put on its was a day and a half of our cruise before anyone would do anything about it therefore - we could do nothing. The internet we did order never worked, HUB didn't even work and that's there app. Air wouldn't work in room 2nd night - called the desk and was told 15-20 min. No one ever came so my husband and I fixed it . Phone didn't work in the room for one whole day. To make up for such issues we were told a bottle of wine would be sent to our room. We don't drink wine but just said ok. Guess what? It never came . Room was not cleaned one day. I had to meet with the head person over guest services about the bill while on board mid week and was handed two $5 arcade cards. Really people? I'll never ever cruise with them again nor will I stop telling anyone thinking of it our experience. Spend 5 hours off and on, mostly on the phone the Monday after returning with carnival and my bank trying to resolve their mistakes- not mine! Asked for upper management to be able to speak to and the lady on the phone with me tried to convince me for the better part of 15 minutes they wouldn't do anything. I'm sure they won't but I just wanted to speak to them. Maybe it could prevent someone else from having these issues . It's now 10:30 pm and my upper management call was going to call me before 5:30. We made good memories with our children and learned a ton- but it wasn't bc of anything about this cruise or carnival period . Like I said - NEVER NEVER AGAIN!

I booked a cruise to the Bahamas with Carnival. This would have been our first cruise and we were very excited. Planned this trip for months even looking forward to having a well deserved and needed vacation. The trip was scheduled for 6/16/2017 reservation #5U2595. On the night before our cruise we got an email from the airline stating our flight was cancelled due to inclement weather. We were told there were no available flights the next morning and to try to get on the standby list. We arrived at the airport 4 in the morning got on the list but were denied multiple flights because the flights were full. I contacted Carnival and was told the only thing they could do was refund taxes and the prepaid gratuities $402. I paid $1, 349. I am a single mom with two kid one in college. I don't have money to waste or lose. I am requesting a voucher or credit for a future cruise because my cruise was cancelled thru no fault of mine. The airline refunded me with airfare credits.

I just recently got back from a cruise on Carnival Valor that was 4 days. I went from June 8-12th. I had not had a great experience with them from the beginning. I initially booked an Ocean View room and later upgraded to a balcony. When I initially booked (which we paid in full for both of us) we got a $50 credit. Well that was lost when I upgraded and the rep that upgraded me, made no mention that I would lose the credit. I call when I noticed it was gone and was told there was nothing they can do. After asking to be transferred to a supervisor she gave a $25 for me and my friend to share so 12.50 each, Rip off. I sucked it up because this was my birthday trip and my first cruise. Well when we began our cruise we started noticing more and more where we were being ripped off. We paid upfront gratuity and was still being charged automatic gratuity on purchases we made, like drinks, Spa services, ect. I think it was absolutely ridiculous that we were being charge this for the services we received. Don't get me wrong, some of the people were excellent, and others had attitudes and were horrible. But we still had to pay them gratuity. Why do I have to pay this for terrible service. We spent a little over 2k on this trip and we have nothing to show for it. Most of the food was nasty, and we did not even receive the steak and lobster we thought we would receive on the Captains Dinner night. If we wanted it we had to pay extra. The food that was on the ship was Deli, Pizza, Burgers and Tacos. The cruise was also very crowded, beds uncomfortable and rooms very old and outdated. I paid all of this money to have a mediocre cruise, at best. I will never cruise Carnival again. My mother-in-law warned me to do [removed], but I did not listen. She did Carnival once and never went again. I tried to resolve this by calling in to the customer service line and they told me they couldn't do anything for me "sorry". I guess that's because they already got over 2k from me. The best form of advertisement is "Word of Mouth". I will definitely make sure that everyone I know, knows about this experience and I will recommend [removed].

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1 Review
Ma
mattreid on Jun 9, 2017
Mark as Resolved

I just got off a Costa Pacifica cruise for a 11 days from Genoa Italy. It only two English channels on TV. The entertainment was mostly cater to Germans with out the ship including the Cruise Director by only speaking in German. She cater to her own period. I felt trapped in a room with no English TV even excursions where in German. English is most dominant language in the world. When I went to the buffet some of the employees in the white dress shirts gave me a racist look thru the ship. The entertainment was cater to Germans mostly, Even on a Latin night music event they had only 3 Spanish songs on the whole cruise. I have been on 18 cruises. The food for breakfast was mostly sweet rolls and donuts. No choice breakfast. I went on Holland America and a Carnival Vista Cruise line I took where similar stops was a perfectly normal cruise. This was totally a racist cruise. Lunch had no coffee. For lunch and dinner it was mostly Fish and Pork Chicken was to a minimal with curry flavor which was nasty. Breakfast Orange juice was bad in its taste. The only two other music groups on board where be hound mediocre to put you to sleep. I want my money back. This cruise by far was the worst ever. The reason why I'm contacting you is because you own Costa. I want a respond.

This was my first cruise and it was in the Triumph and possibly my last. I was shocked at the constant smell of marijuana smoke coming from a cabin next to mine and having to explain the odor away to my child. I thought there was NO smoking allowed in cabins, much less something illegal. It was totally inappropriate and unfair to myself as well as others. I had told the front desk, but it continued on as if I said nothing! It was from the first day, 6-1-17 until today 6-5-17. I'm still in disbelief over it!
Second, I asked if I could book my excursion at an earlier time with no penalties and was told that I could. I check my statement and it shows that I was double billed for it. When asked, I was told that I would get my money credited back, but have yet to do so, 11 hours after disembarking.
When reaching home tonight I called carnivals complaint #, and they were closed for the day. Will try again tomorrow.
Carol Jung