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.

I'm not quite sure exactly what your analogies mean, but we did our first cruise on Princess, to Alaska, last fall, and in terms of quality, I'd rate it far above what I think of the Target chain.

Schedule: exactly as promised
Service: dining room not perfect, but other than that, excellent. Room steward was exceedingly helpful
Food: good to almost very good, portions large, lots of choices
Shore excursions: again, exactly as promised, and really pretty good
Cabin: no complaints, and the one problem we had with the sink was fixed in 45 minutes
Kid's room: my son gave that ***** in his rating.

I think that, as an "armchair" cruiser only, you don't know nearly as much as you think you do about cruising. Come back after you've actually cruised two or three times.... ;)

I am not so gullible as to believe everything posted in the whiny rant by mharris. While I certainly don't condone cruise lines intentionally running ships with malfunctioning engines (and I believe that, unfortunately, Carnival is not the only cruise line ever to have done this :eek:), the post by mharris is that of someone who is determined to have a miserable time rather than try to make the best of the situation. (And of course the miserable time is always entirely blamed on the travel provider, with an underlying expectation of mega-compensation, etc., etc., etc. :rolleyes:) Unfortunately, FlyerTalk, CruiseCritic, TripAdvisor, and other boards are full of people of the "trash and bash" mentality -- if one thing is wrong with something, then the whole experience is deemed an irredeemable disaster, and by extension, the entire company is as well. :rolleyes:

Welcome to FT mharris. It's unfortunate the port was missed and that the ship arrived several hours late at its destination. From the cruise as you describe it though, cruising may not be for you. Carnival's food is not generally of Michelin-Star quality, despite the celebrity chef endorsement, the entertainment isn't up to Las Vegas or Broadway standards, and casinos and bars are a money-making fact of life on all of the large-ship lines we've sailed, Princess, HAL, Celebrity, Carnival, QM II.

Sometimes when people are upset about one aspect of, say, a cruise or a flight or a hotel or a tour, they tend to find fault with absolutely every aspect of the experience. While all of this may be true, it actually tends to weaken one's argument, as the previous experienced poster indicates.

For example, in this Cruise Critic thread, a poster writes:

engines are fine. the problem lies within the starboard side drive that runs the prop. Some parts were put in in Cozumel, but it did not fix the problem. We were on the January 31 cruise and the ship could only run at 1/2 speed. The starboard drive was run very briefly when we left Coz, but then shut down again.

We had fun anyway..........................:) [my bold]

Skimming through the Cruise Critic review, as well as member reviews, reveals that Holiday is one of Carnival's oldest ships, and...

Many of these flaws and deficiencies are forgivable, however, taken in the context of Holiday's position in Carnival's marketing plan. Over recent years Carnival has aggressively developed the Gulf Coast by moving a Holiday-class ship to a city that had not previously homeported a major cruise line, offering short cruises to the Western Caribbean. This strategy yields a triple enticement to first-timers: short duration, affordable fares and a pier that can be reached by automobile. First-time cruisers, ipso facto, have no other ships to compare with Holiday, so it does not suffer so badly by comparison.

We've experienced late arrivals, missed ports, and mechanical problems on HAL, Oceania, and QM II but we're heading off on our third Transatlantic on Oceania's Regatta in March nonetheless. Again, do your own due diligence on FT, Cruise Critic, Trip Advisor, et al, to have a better chance of finding the holiday experience, cruise or otherwise, that will live up to your expectations.

Hope your next vacation is a better one for you! :)

Cheers,
Fredd

Yes, Carnival is awful. Please stay away so my fares drop. ;) :D

I find it suspicious that Celebrity fares are similar to Carnival fares. That may be true on a few select sailings, but I doubt it is true on a fleet-wide basis. Further, a careful reading of Cruisecritic will show that the complaints on all of the big cruise lines are nearly identical.

Our experiences in 5 cruises on Carnival, at least one in each class of ship now, have been great fun, good food, excellent service, and clean ships. It's true that Carnival ships don't have as many onboard gimmicks amenities as some of the other lines, but for me I'm there to relax so I don't really care if there is a rock-climbing wall or an ice-skating rink. Carnival also has the consistently best-rated children's program at sea next to Disney (but there's no casino on DCL, so no thanks!), so that's another big stroke in their favor for us.

Kathy,

Judging by your sharp criticism of my post, I can assume you were on the same cruise as well and had the time of your life?

I’m not that big of a fan of showering in brown water and brushing my teeth with it too. It’s not that appealing to me. I’m ok with mechanical problems happening and an itinerary change needing to be made. Not all that for holding the information from a paying customer so they don’t decide to reschedule though. If it had happened during the previous cruise, no big deal. Things like that happen. Having known about it for a few weeks and not contacting me prior to me trekking to Mobile is something I have an issue about. I wouldn’t have wanted my money back. I would’ve rescheduled for a later cruise once the issues were fixed. I guess that’s going a little too far though.

You really can spot a bad apple when you see one. You’re good!!! You see, that’s what I had in mind the whole time. I’ll fork out a lot of money, get a week behind at work, take a cruise, purposely look for anything I can twist into being something wrong, and then come home and complain about it. That’s what I live for…disappointment. Do you really think people would take a cruise and not want to have a good time? I’m not the one that built up Carnival in their advertisements. Silly me for thinking they’d deliver. Every passenger I came into contact with made sure to tell me not to let this event deter me from cruising. They all were consistent in that this was like we were being videoed on Candid Camera. Everyone I spoke with said that they had never been on a cruise that was this bad. I refuse to let this one incident keep me from taking cruises in the future. I've heard way too many people talk about how great they are. How Carnival responds to me about this incident will determine if any of those future cruises are on any of their ships or not.

Having sailed on Carnival a few times now, I'll have to disagree with the Walmart statement. Ive been on two different extreams of the fleet, from a fantasy class (albeit one that has had her evolution of fun) to a Conquest class ship. So far to this point I have no complaints about Carnival, granted nothing is perfect, I have seen unfreindly crew and some meals that were not perfect, but all in all great vacations.

I will however say that I have never been on a holiday class ship and nor do I plan on going on one. The holiday is an old ship anyway you look at it and if I am not mistaken her retirement is not too far around the corner.

Allready well into planing my next cruse, with carnival again. In the future I can see switching to Princess, Holland Amercia, Cunard or who knows maybe even Seaborn. However for us at the moment, Carnival fits very well into our lifestile, a great ballence between price and quality. I forsee having a Platinum Sail and Sign card in the resaonable future.

I would like to try RC and or Celebrity, espcially the chance to experence the Oasis of the Seas. NCL would be an option aswell espcially once the F3 class gets going.

I think the addition of Mobile as a port several years ago was a good move to attract a relatively untapped and less sophisticated market. Like dominos, I think this permitted upgraded ships for New Orleans and Houston as newer fleet additions went to the bigger markets.

Sadly, some unsophisticated cruisers have turned out to have higher expectations that anticipated and not all pax have been stunned by the sheer luxury and decadence of a rather mundane ship and itinerary. I have heard a bit of griping locally as well as what I have read on cruisecritic.com.

That said, enjoying a cruise or any travel is all about setting appropriate expectations and attitudes.

On the bright side for everyone, the aging Holiday will be leaving the Carnival fleet in the fall, and all 8 of the Fantasy-class ships are undergoing major refurbs as they cycle into drydock.

deceit from Carnival
 

Carnival needs to step up and be honest about this ship.We were on the 1/31 ship of doom cruise. It was not fun. We didn't have dark water, we had no water the first day and a mere trickle afterwards. My problem with Carnival is not that the ship was torn up, but that they had known it for a month. Three days before our cruise, they called to offer an upgrade. At that time, they knew the ship was broken but instead of telling me that, they took another 400.00 from me. My husband got food poisoning but we were not told that so did 144 others. Everything is secret. When we returned, I looked at the reviews of the ship on their website. The next day, they blocked the reviews only of the Holiday. They have now taken the word review off so you don't even know they used to be there. Check the site and see you can read reviews of every other ship.



Like I said, my problem is not the broken ship. It is blatant deceit.

The point is "cruises from Mobile because they're so cheap". Like anything, you get what you pay for. My wife and I have been on several Carnival Cruises and have always had an enjoyable time. The ships out of the minor ports are usually ships that have been around a while. If you pay for a Motel 6, don't expect a Hyatt.

Canceled port due to an engine/drive malfunction, rusty water, substandard food, no accountability from the company. All the customer's fault, right? :rolleyes:

First time cruisers are not aware of "ships that have been around awhile". With the economy the way it is, and has been, it has been publicized how the travel industry is hurting and prices are lower than ever. Why would anyone expect a suboptimal cruise because of a low price. These cruises and ships are marketed the same as brand new ships. If the company marketed them as old, crappy ships with limited capabilities, few would book them no matter how cheap.

Considering this is Flyertalk where people routinely look for cheap flights, deeply discounted hotel rooms, etc, spread the news around of good deals, and EXPECT the same product as if they paid rack rate, your Motel 6comment is really out of place. I booked a Hilton in Dublin at a half-off rate with breakfast thrown in for free, should I expect poor service, no water, no electricity just because it was cheap? No, I expect the same standard as when I stayed there at non-discounted prices. I bought an AA ticket 8 months ago, the price dropped enough to get a price refund. I expect the same service as when I paid the additional $400.

There obviously has been some real issues with this Carnival ship documented over several sailings. It isn't fair to those that had to suffer through to simply say, "You should have had a good time anyway. I ALWAYS have a good time on cruises." It looks like Carnival has dropped the ball and left many people unhappy. I hope that Carnival is somehow made to be accountable for the disastrous situation.

Celebtrity Millennium is a great choice
 

We've done a few cruises. Celebrity Millennium is a great ship, great food and service and atmosphere.

Also previously did 2x NCL cruises around Hawaii where the ship both times had an engine fail so limped around slowly misses ports and no compo or apology from NCL, but there are a lot of cruise lines out there and plenty of choices!

One of the engines blew up in port. We were by the pool when a small mushroom cloud shot up the funnel and the ship lost electrical power, think elevators! Stay calm said the PA, then the fire engines arrived. Very interesting to watch.

Also watched the crew do a man overboard practice! very scary, Think Fawlty Towers!

We've found checking cruise review forums like cruise critic to be very very worthwhile before deciding on a cruise or even a particular ship. So caveat emptor! :p

I stand by my comment, Motel 6 = Holiday. You have to lower your expectation or pay a little more. I was on the Holiday 13 years ago and it was old then. We were on the Miricale on the same day as the Holiday was in Cozumel and could not believe the ship was still sailing.

You can stand by your comment all you want as an experienced cruiser. As a new cruiser I think many were led to believe that Carnival put out a good product that was discounted due to the current economy. It is not the cruisers fault for showing up for a paid cruise and having Carnival intentionally hide major defects effecting the cruise.

The point is that on Flyertalk it is quite normal to book a hotel, flight, cruise for cheap and get good service. I don't lower my expectations when I paid for my last two cruises, getting price reductions twice on my last cruise to make it pretty cheap. I expected the same product and that's what I received.

The game on Flyertalk is to find exceptional deals AND to be helpful to others. That is what I have tried to do.

Then Carnival needs to launch another brand instead of calling the Holiday a "Carnival Fun Ship". I get that you don't go to a Courtyard expecting a JW Marriott, but if you've not been on the Holiday before, you'd want some basic expectations met, wouldn't you?

Take a look at Royal Caribbean. Their older ships (Majesty/Monarch) don't have ice skating rinks or onboard surfing, but their core cruise product, from food to service, is pretty consistent across all their ships. Does not seem to be the same case for Carnival.

Really?

Grandeur of the Seas, launched in early 1996, is one of Royal Caribbean's older vessels, but you'd never know it from the ship's sleek public spaces: a grand Art Deco-inspired dining room, the glitzy Palladium Theater and a sweeping six-story atrium.

Some of the cabins, however, are showing signs of wear and tear. Our dresser, for example, was nicked in spots. The stopper in the bathroom sink had corroded, and the mirror was beginning to lose its finish. There was an abandoned towel rack attached to the wall that, oddly enough, had never been dismantled. And the TV screen, about a foot wide, was smaller than a lot of laptops you see today.

None of this is a deal breaker, of course. But I guess I was also struck by what Grandeur of the Seas does not have...

And unless you book a suite, there are no toiletries. That's right: toiletries. I asked for a shower cap and lotion and was told those "amenities" did not come with our cabin class...

There's also no enrichment program...

More unusually there are no alternative restaurants...

As for service, our experience was a mixed bag...

And while our cabin steward was attentive, our stateroom failed to pass my white glove inspection when we first boarded....

I'm no fan of Carnival, particularly after what they did to HAL, formerly our favorite cruise line, and I hope they're doing themselves harm by trying to pass off this ship and cruise as being of the same standard as their others.

I also feel sorry for those who had a bad experience. It was certainly reasonable to expect more than they got. Still, even such generally sympathetic and "soft" reviewers as Cruise Critic enable advance research.

That, to me, is one of the core purposes of FT, and one of its greatest values to me. ^

Cheers,
Fredd

Last comment from me on this subject. I just read Cruise Critic's roll call on the Holiday Jan 31 sailing. Everyone did not have the same experience as MHarris.

I'm new here, but had to post my thoughts. I am a travel agent who specializes in cruises so I hear comments all day long from people about how their past cruises went. Regarding Carnival...I hear everything from "it is a trailer park at sea" to " We absolutely LOVE Carnival." People come from different walks of life and have different expectations. Certainly, no ship should go out in ill form...Two years ago I was on a Holland America sailing and part of the motor stopped working- Still had a great cruise because the service and ship were all in excellent form. I sell more Carnival cruises than the other cruise lines combined...why??? Because people want "the least expensive cabin." Very, very few people call me and ask for a suite or even a balcony...people tell me "who really cares what the room is like, we are never in it anyhow." My response is usually, "You might be IF you got a nice room to enjoy. It is easy to slam Carnival, but when people are calling because they want a 5 night cruise for two for under $500 total, you have to wonder what they are expecting....it won't be the Ritz! I sell a lot of Holiday and Fantasy (out of New Orleans) sailings, and strangely, people don't complain about it. If it is a health hazard it definitely should be reported. There is a great website called Cruise Bruise that reports issues on cruise ships. Take a look at it if you want to see what really happens on ships.

CruisePro, welcome to FT. I hope you'll stick around and continue to share your perspective. Most FTers are savvy when it comes to air travel and hotel stays. Fewer of us are as experienced regarding cruising. This thread certainly illustrates the range. I've cruised but my experience is limited. I've made a few mistakes of my own and avoided many more with good advice, primarily from cruisecritic.com. I know better than to believe advertising is unbiased, but I was a little surprised to discover just how little valuable information can be had from the various cruising magazine (whose titles I cannot recall). To read them is to hear that every cruise on every ship of every line is the perfect vacation.

To the OP, sorry for your loss. Thanks for the warning. I hope your next cruise is 1000% better.

Interesting that you're comparing a ship built in 1982 (Holiday) to one built in 1996 (Grandeur)

I don't hate Carnival. I've been on the Pride and enjoyed it. I think in this particular case the company did not take care of their passengers.

.

I was gently trying to make the point that, using RCCL as the example you cite, there is useful information available to compare ships before one sails, and that according to the Cruise Critic reviewer ships and service vary on RCCL too.

It's the same reason FTers compare planes. Flying experiences on UA, our airline of choice, can vary significantly depending on the type of plane, not to mention old vs. new C config.

Coincidentally, we enjoyed our one Carnival cruise on the Pride as well. Passengers also were a little younger and generally tended to be more appreciative (and less fussy) of the cruise experience, which itself was positive.

I agree that Carnival appears to be offering a sub-standard experience in this instance, certainly not one that would entice customers to sail with them again. I wish the disappointed posters better experiences in the future.

Cheers,
Fredd

True enough. A comparison to Carnival Inspiration might be in order, as it was built the same year and both Grandeur and Inspiration have undergone major refurbishments in the last few years.

Again, I wasn't comparing Carnival vs. RCCL ships. I was simply questioning the earlier statement that "their [RCCL] core cruise product, from food to service, is pretty consistent across all their ships..." and by doing so trying to point out the value of advance research.