Ship of doom
 

Flyertalk folks considering a trip on Carnival Cruise Line's HOLIDAY out of Mobile Alabama to Cozumel and Progresso Mexico should take a look at NBC Channel 15's report titled "Ship of Doom" or Fox 10 News report 'Broken cruise ship upsets passengers."

In a nutshell, Carnival has been sending out their cruise ship Holiday with a broken engine. The remaining good engine doesn't have the power to get the ship to their scheduled ports of call. Stops are being cancelled. Passengers are missing their flights home because the ship is late returning to port. No time for shore excursions, etc.

The ship has been scheduled to go into drydock in Mobile on Feb. 28th. for nine days of annual maintainance. But instead of cancelling the cruises schedule till then, Carnival continues to let the ship limp along ... and the passengers get burned.:td:

May I ask where the article about this can be found? I would very much like to know more about this.

Ship of Doom
 

I was on the Holiday from 01/31 - 02/05. Everyone is more upset at the fact that Carnival knew about the problems weeks in advance, and never attempted to notify anyone. That's what's got everyone so mad. They waited until everyone got to Mobile before they broke the news to everyone. It wasn't all just about missing the port. I left with the impression that Carnival has already given up on that ship since it's leaving in November. Below is my take on all the events that went wrong on my first and last cruise with Carnival.

Carnival should be ashamed of the way they treated their guests on the Holiday that sailed 01/31 and returned 02/05. It was the most horrible vacation I have ever experienced. The experience was a disaster from beginning to end. We arrived at the port in Mobile and were handed a piece of paper explaining changes in the itenerary. Carnival explained that they had an issue with the propulsion system which would reduce speed so we'd have to miss out on our port at Progresso. We were very upset about this since this was our first cruise, and we we're also celebrating our birthday which was on 01/30. We attempted to cancel our cruise but we were told we would not receive a full refund. The next day, we complained at the pursers desk and they told us that we had the option of canceling for a full refund. We told them that we were given a different story before embarrking. We tried as hard as we could, but it was very hard since there was nothing for us to do on the ship. The shows were very second rate. I've seen better quality at a 10 year old's school's talent contest. The only thing available was drink and gamble. If I wanted to gamble, I would've gone to a real casino and not a cruise. Our food was horrible!!! The portions were sized for toddlers. We always had to ask for two of each item if we wanted to get full. My lamb chops were still breathing. I could've filled a coffee cup with blood if I would've squeezed the lamb chop over the cup. The buffet was horrible. The hot dog buns felt and tasted like they had been sitting out for days. There was always a 15-20 minute wait to get your food at the buffet. The options were extremely limited. The potatoes looked and tasted like something you'd get out of a vending machine. The coffee was always running out. The milk was always kept at room temperature. I was shocked to never see the milk refrigerated or at least with ice around it to keep it cool. It was ALWAYS freezing everywhere on the ship. Everyone we met on the cruise complained about the cold temperature, but the crew never did anything to relieve the freeze. The water for the sinks and showers was a redish brown color. You could soak a rag in the water, and it would stain the rag the redish brown color. We finally got to Cozumel at 6pm and were told we had to be back on the ship to set sail at 11:30am the next morning. There was no time to do much of anything. While in Cozumel, we found out that the Holiday had been broken for several weeks. The locals were telling us to not get on the ship because it was broken. I couldn't believe that Carnival would do this to their guests. They knowingly stole our vacation, birthday celebration, and our first cruise memories. This was a nightmare, and it was all created by Carnival. We were really looking forward to finally getting back to Mobile so that we could finally get off that horrible ship. Even that was ruined. An announcement was made that we'd be arriving back at Mobile at 12pm instead of 8am. Four more hours of hell. Once we got off the ship, we tried to warn the new set of 1500 passengers what was awaiting them. Turns out, Carnival had issued them all letters stating that a "propulsion" problem had occurred on our cruise and it was going to affect their cruise. I talked to some people when I got back, and they all said Carnival pulled the same exact problems when they took their cruise two weeks ago. Carnival even set up a loud radio where we entered the building back at Mobile to try to drown out all of our pleas to the incoming passangers about the diaster they were about to embark on. Even the media was there waiting for us to do a story on the horrible experience. All Carnival "offered" was a $20 credit for missing port at Progresso. Carnival didn't give us any form of compensation nor did they even have the decentacy to offer an apology. They wouldn't have even given us the $20 credit if they didn't legally have to since it was the taxes we paid to enter Progresso's port. Carnival responded to the media's inquiries that the propulsion mishap happened while we were at sea. Not true since we were given a letter before we even set sail. Carnival could never get their story straight. We were told the reason for the delay in arriving back at Mobile was because of bad weather. There was never any bad weather. We sat dead in the water for a couple hours because they had to shut down the only working engine because it was in danger of malfunctioning due to the extra work it was having to perform. Carnival knew about this problem long before our cruise, and they had ample time to contact me to let me reschedule. Never once did I hear from Carnival. Carnival is legally robbing their customers. That ship belongs at the bottom of the ocean. Carnival should do what's right, and offer all of the guest that endurred this misery another cruise. If they don't want to do that, they need to at least refund everyone for their stay. This is a clear indication of what Carnival's coorporate officers truely represent...GREED. They want to make as much money off unsuspecting victims that chose their cruise line over everyone else. Not next time though. If Carnival doesn't make this right, I'm going do everything in my power to make sure everyone knows of this horrible act they call "doing business".

Wow - I'm so sorry to hear about your bad first cruise experience! My family cruised on Carnival once a few years back, and we've never had the urge to sail them again. We experienced many of the issues you cited (poor food, poor shows, poor temperature regulation, poor service, etc) even on a ship that was in service a few years (Carnival Conquest).

I'm surprised that Carnival's allowed all this negative PR to build from one cruise to the next...I hope this comes back and bites them in the butt later.

Please don't let this experience completely steer you away from cruising. Though we occasionally hear of these horror stories, the great majority of cruises are very fun, memorable experiences. :)

Well, look at it this way.....

Those who have missed Progreso, known to those familiar with the Yucatan as "Noprogreso", ought to be pleased, ought to be pleased, willing to pay Cram-eval for avoiding the pestilent port. Compared to its sister city on the Rio Grande, Nuevo Progreso, a single broad avenue of pharmacies. eye doctors, cheap dentists and a few bad saloons, Progreso is a warren of narrow streets double parked with peddlers pushing merchandise discarded by Neapolitan vendors after the fall of Mussolini. If you had complaints about the ship's food, you obviously had not taken nourishment ashore.

Progreso is an entirely artificial "resort", for decades a PEMEX oil terminal with a giant finger pier/causeway extended out into the Gulf several miles to a depth where deep draft vessels can come alongside. At the "Fleet Landing" are a handful of modern stores, essentially "curio shops", straw hats, TShirts and embroidered pillows. Carnival charters buses for the 15 minute or so ride into the "center of the city", populated by vendors of an aggressiveness surprising to one who has spent his life near Mexican Border Towns.

Essentially, Progreso would remind old Mexico hands of Matamoros, Villa Acuna or Tijuana cerca 1950. I first visited Progreso in 1957, and found it at least unspoiled except for oil. I was apprehensive when friends and family induced me to join them on a "cruise" calling there, having spent too long as sea in large grey vessels with numbers painted on either side of their bows seeking respite from the long days at sea in calls at little known ports which even shipwrecked mariners hastened to avoid. My apprehension was deserved, but after reading the posts above, apparently Cram-eval has really scr*wed the pooch out of Immobile.

I thought Cram-eval's food was about as I expected....not near as bad a Columbus's crew must have endured, and fully up to the standards of the wardroom mess of an ancient aircraft carrier aboard which I gained my sea legs. The breakfast special, "Eggs Benedict" was appalling, and to be served those giant tasteless artificially colored pre-cooked frozen and defrosted shrimp while crossing the Campeche Bank, source of some of the world's best shrimp, was a little off-putting, but I survived on daily double orders of bottom of the product line smoked salmon, even the lowest grade a safe haven in any storm of modest cuisine.

No excuses for Carnival. I'd be pretty pissed at them punting a stop without a refund.

In defense of Progreso, I was there in 2001, and I agree that the town itself is nothing to write home about. But if you are adventurous, the very interesting Mayan site Dzibilchaltun is about a 45 min drive from the port, and you're about an hour or so drive to Merida, the capital of Yucatan.

Both places can be visited over the course of a cruise day stop and both are pretty cool. We hired a driver in Progreso, and he carted us to both places and helped us with translation/bargaining in Merida. $90 for the day (in 2001) well spent.

All cruise lines drop port calls, and all of them are protected by their contracts of carriage. Every time you buy a cruise ticket, you are informed that the cruise line can cancel or reschedule port calls for any (or no) reason. If you can't stand the idea of spending your entire cruise on the ship, then cruising is not a realistic vacation alternative for you.

Its one thing if weather or local conditions prohibit them from docking at a particular port of call. Its entirely another if they knowingly have a faulty engine and cannot deliver on a port of call until the engine is fixed.

On that same Progreso cruise I listed above, a storm moved through on our first day and we had to punt Key West. Carnival apologized profusely, gave everyone a $50 shipboard credit and added Costa Maya as a "make up" port. People were disappointed in losing Key West, but understood weather is beyond the company's control, and were happy with the new port and the credit.

Carnival should have clearly communicated ahead of time that the cruise was now only a single port, and given people a chance to back out. Failing that they should have given the pax more than their $20 port tax back. Some shipboard credit in the $50-100 per person range to make up losing 1/2 the ports on the itin would have been a decent gesture.

(14 cruises in the last 10 years)

Even if it had been weather or a justified reason for missing a port, the report of the terrible food, non-working showers and such is enough to steer me in a different direction.
I usually cruise RCCL or Celebrity, although have been on other lines including Carnival, but this is really scary.

I had a friend buy a Mexican cruise (not sure which line). Anyway, when they got on board they were informed that, due to a possible hurricane south, they would be headed NORTH TO VANCOUVER. No refund of any sort, as- after all- the ship was cruising.

Everyone got $200 shipboard credit and all sweatshirts in the ship stores were half price.

But everyone froze, as they had packed for Mexico.

Again, weather: understandable. Broken ship: Not Understandable.

I've recently been thinking of taking one of these cruises from Mobile because they're so cheap, but the girlfriend has been resisting because she says it would be too "redneck". Now I'm glad she kept me from booking anything.

Print media coverage
 

I think the television coverage of this story has been comprehensive and fair.

To my knowledge, however, the print media coverage has been zero. True, living in the north I don't see a hard copy of the Mobile Press Registrar. But their website www.al.com has HAD NOTHING. Carneval's decision to change a Carribean cruise to Cozumel and/or Progresso into a "cruise to nowhere" circling the cold waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico is receiving no coverage in print down south from my understanding. With a lot of their readers taking the cruise to get away from the cold, don't their editors find this newsworthy?

Or is there an element of "boosterism" trumping "journalism" here? Getting a cruise ship based in Mobile was a big deal for tourism boosters. The city of Mobile built a parking structure. I believe state government paid for the cruise port facility. Mobile gets a cruise ship. New Orleans is losing theirs (Carnival is moving it to Mobile to replace the HOLIDAY when the Holiday is transferred to Costa Mediterranian Cruises in November).

But without media coverage, the passengers lose too --they lose their warm weather vacation, they lose what they paid their money for.:td:

First time pre-Cruiser's thoughts
 

We are going on our first cruise this summer to Alaska. I did a long survey of various forums and had come to the conclusion that Carnival is the walmart of cruises with highly variable quality, Celebrity is like the target chain and Princess Cruises etc though of Target quality have prices like Eddie Bauer. The interesting thing is that Celebrity prices are pretty close to Carnival prices this summer mainly because RCCL is in a very poor financial shape (BB2 junk bond rating and there is a sell rating) whereas CCL owner of Princess and Carnival is more sound. Thus from a consumer point of view, if one thinks RCCL will not go bankrupt this year, then Celebrity offers best value for money. Anyway this is my arm chair surfing finding and will know for sure only after a few cruises. Anyway we are booked on the Celebrity Millenium for a July South bound Alaska cruise:) Though I am still looking for a 2 for 1 offer from Princess. But summer bookings have picked up and the possibility of further mark downs is decreasing.