Ecstacy dead in the water....

M

mikesteg

Guest
curejunkie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks Mike for responding...
>
> Yeah it was very frustrating with the going back
> and forth with our refunds like that. I have
> EVERY letter that we were issued...and will keep
> them for further reference if needed.
>
> yes, they printed in a letter about the $100 per
> stateroom, then printed another letter without it
> when they decided not to go to Progreso.
>

It sounds like they *really* screwed this up, and might wind up paying for it since there is documented evidence. The contract protects them from just about anything, but when you print a letter and hand it out that really forms a promise...

>
> Personally, I would have loved to go to a port -
> ANY PORT!!! I just wanted to walk in some white
> sand!!!! But I might have been less satisfied
> about the refund package they offered us. So, I
> don't know.

I think that is the way most people feel. I'm not really sure how they could justify changing the compensation package based on ports, but I guess they have to have some logic to it. Kind of odd to advertise it though.... the one thing they told you true and it was probably the worst thing they could have chosen!

>
> And your 12 day cruise, how many kids were on that
> ship?? I would have gone absolutely nuts! We
> couldn't even escape the kids!

You're right about that. The longer cruises have less kids. As a matter of fact, at 34 I was probably one of the ones considered a kid. *Lots* of older folks.

To one degree or another, there are always kids in the adult spaces. I think with spring break you were probably over run, but the cruise lines seem terrified to enforce even the most basic and straightforward rules.

>
> Anyway, people should not try to make light of a
> situation like this, some people spend $10000 on
> trips like this and a 50% refund would not cut it
> for me if that was the case!

I agree. Of course, if I could afford to spend $10000 on a cruise I would go on 5 cruises instead, strictly to make sure they were (on average) great! ;-)

> If you weren't
> there, you should not pass judgement on the people
> that were.

Sorry, I didn't mean to come off that way.

I totally sympathize, especially with you since you seem to have a level head (thinking about the crew, etc). We just value different aspects of the cruise differently, but of course we're both right for ourselves. :D

>
> Oh - and gourmet food? I thought the food was
> pretty mediocre. I mean it wasn't bad, but people
> always say the food is just spectacular, so I
> guess I was expecting more. Mostly fast food type
> of stuff, and a lot of waiting in line. I think
> we waited in line at least 20 hours the whole
> time!!!!
>

Yeah, I'm not really sure what ships these people go on with the "gourmet" food. Of course, most of the "gourmet" meals I've had on land aren't outstanding either so maybe I just can't tell the difference! I really enjoy the variety and the chance to try different foods, but I'm happy to get one really good item per meal (usually the soup... I love the soups).

What are you thinking of as fast food type? Wasn't most of it buffet? Admittedly, they did see a lot of me at the pizza bar on Elation, but that was my choice. :) Heck, after I asked them 3 times for the veggie burgers that were on the menu everyday, they finally got some!

> We got served in the dining rooms, but
> still morale was low with the crew. They did the
> best they could though, I think. Those poor
> people work for nothing too!!

You're right. I imagine the morale was lower on this cruise than most, cause those folks knew they were going to get stiffed on tips by a lot of people. They really make nothing and work for the tips. The direct charged tips probably help, but I doubt they as much extra cash as usual.


> Anyway, wonder what's going on with the 3/12
> ecstasy cruise...??? No headlines today yet...
>



FWIW, I almost didn't cruise again after my first cruise. It was on Jubilee and the cruise director was incredible pushy. He was on the PA like every 15 minutes all day long. Without finding these internet boards, I never would have known that most ships aren't like that. If fact, that bozo probably did more sales-related announcements than my following 5 cruises combined!
 
L

lizardstew

Guest
curejunkie,

Please, please, please don't let this experience scare you away from cruising altogether! I promise you that you were incredibly unlucky to have had this happen. I'm about to go on my 10th cruise, and I've never had any mishaps (knock on wood). Once we had to divert to an unscheduled stop to drop off a sick passenger, but it didn't disrupt our itinerary.

I agree with mikesteg that you have a level head and seem to have a good attitude - it seems that you really tried to make the best of a bad situation....good for you.

Give cruising another try when you can...choose a newer ship (although that doesn't necessary guarantee it won't "break down") and a time to cruise when the kiddies are in school. :grin
 
K

KcFanNindy

Guest
man i sure hope they get this corrected before i sail on 03/31/05 or i will persue legal action also. That sounds like a bait and switch tactics. Plus did they refund the port charges for each port?
 
T

twobit383

Guest
I was also on the Ecstasy. Curejunkie pretty much told it like it was. I must make a few additional comments....
Carnival was not up front with us and made it sound very unlikely that we would not reach port. Also, we were notified of the boat not being fixed at 11:30pm as we boarded the cruise. At this point we waited 12 hours in Galveston, traveling home late at night was not a good option, especially since Carnival was "optimistic" that the repairs would be made.

After 5 days trapped on board, I think they knew they needed the part. How fast can they get a part and technician to Mexico from Finland??? If they found out it was not repairable on Tuesday (when they told us), could they have made the arrangements to get someone to Progresso and through customs by Thursday? There is some dishonesty here. I think they knew before we boarded that they needed a spare part. Being optimistic and giving everyone a 50% discount is cheaper than canceling. Also, extra days on the ship mean extra money for Carnival.

Finally, as far as entertainment and morale.... The staff on the Ecstasy was great. They were worn down, but mostly professional and very kind. The shows were pretty good too. Here is where I had issues. The Ecstasy has one real pool that is about a 10 x 20 foot pool. There are 3 ping-pong tables and one shuffleboard for over 2000 passengers. The daily entertainment on the deck is very bad (hairy chest contest, water balloon toss, and that is about IT!!) No basketball or volley ball (the could not find the needle to inflate the balls). What else....oh, 2 exercise classes in the morning 7 and 8am are free, the rest cost $10 each. Bingo is $10-20 per 3-5 games (rip off), and internet access starts at $28 for those with lap tops. Many activities cost extra money and that also bothered many people.

For 2 or 3 days in transit, you can deal with some of these issues, but 5 DAYS was way too much. I personally will never go on Carnival again. Corporate handled this very badly. When the mini-mutiny began, they took over 2 hours to address the crowd. This was scary for many small children and some of us adults.
 
F

Fullspeedahead

Guest
We will be sailing on the Ecstasy on 4/23. We almost went on 3/7 since our kids were on spring break but decided to go in April instead. I'm sure glad we switched. We went on the Ecstasy in Oct and had a great time. But I have to agree with most people and feel that this incident was not handled properly. First, is this how Carnival would treat their Cunard passengers or Seabourne? I seriously doubt it. The fact that bookings are way up and a majority of the cruises are full or almost full gives Carnival the upper hand. Because Carnival employees can cruise almost anytime for very little, they have lost sight on what it is like for the average family to plan a cruise. Many people plan a year or so ahead of time and save their hard earned money to be able to take a cruise. I know that when you spend 9 months counting down the days left until your long awaited cruise, it must be very upsetting to get to the port only to find that your vacation isn't going to be as planned. Passengers were given a choice to cancel and get a full refund. Does that mean they are going to reimburse you for your airfare, hotel, gas, parking and other cost associated with transportation? What about time and hassle? What about trying to juggle vacation time? Years ago, almost all the cruise lines operated cruises that were 7 days or longer. Each cruise line would have one or two ships that sailed the 3 & 4 day cruises. Carnival was the first the recognize the demand for shorter cruises and now have quite a few cruises that are less than 7 days. If I recall correctly, Carnival realized that there was a growing market for the shorter cruises due to people not having enough vacation time to take a 7 day cruise in todays fast paced and hard working economy.
I just think Carnival needs to try and see it from a guest perspective and compensate accordingly. What is a vacation worth? Someone referenced the airlines in an earlier post. An airline is simply a mode of transportation to get you from A to B. Yes I understand that a ship can and will break as any mechanical thing can. However, unlike an airline, the cruise ship is your destination and your vacation. There are people celebrating honeymoons, aniversaries, reunions, birthdays, divorces etc. In the brochure it says something about "a vacation of a lifetime". Certainly these people didn't have a that.
Brian
 
C

Coppertone Girl

Guest
In response to GlamDoll's:

"%50 off would be good but the %25 off for future cruises is probably 25% off of the BROCHURE RATE, which we all know we can get much more off than that."

I asked my TA, since my cruise is upcoming and I am concerned... and as far as she knows, the 25% discount is off of the rate offered by the reservations department.... where EVER can you get something lower anyway??? PLEASE PLEASE do share.... Not really, I want to know because I will book it right now

Thanks!!!!
 
M

mikesteg

Guest
Fullspeedahead Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> However, unlike an airline, the cruise ship is
> your destination and your vacation.

Well, that is really the catch. If you get 5 days at sea and miss ~20 hours in port, how much of a refund is really appropriate? 75% seems like a pretty good deal to me. Of course, that is a separate issue from the public relations mess they seem to have created. Maybe they ought to consider buying some spare parts too.

It sounds like the weather was bad and the ship was over run by kids, but that was going to happen on this cruise regardless. Carnival can't control one and is never going to do anything about the other. That is why people who don't have kids in school usually avoid spring break cruises like the plague...

> In the brochure it says something about "a vacation of a
> lifetime". Certainly these people didn't have a
> that.

Certainly not in a good way...
 
M

mikesteg

Guest
Those are 10 stories, but several of which are from the same ship/problem. The first two are Legend. The 3rd, 4th and possible the 5th are all from Celebration. Some of the others aren't clear. So that is 8 problems in a 3 year period. Carnival has ~21 ships in service, so that is roughly 1000 cruises per yer. That doesn't exactly rise to the level of a "typical practice". Of course, we know there have been many more incidents that this webpage shows, even just this year there have been a few.

Did your research find anything that has some type of comparative rates, maybe classified into weather vs. mechanical? The link you put up is interesting, but it is all individual stories,,, pretty much useless to determine how Carnival compares to other lines, which would be the only fair basis for claiming Carnival is not playing nice.
 
T

tnelson01192002

Guest
anyone know if the current trip is also on a cruise to nowhere? We drive to Galveston tomorrow. I wish I could say I'm excited.
 
C

Coppertone Girl

Guest
Okay okay okay, WHEN YOUR CRUISE GETS RUINED IT BLOWS!!! it's the worst and it sucks big time... I mean, you wait all year and save all your money and then you don't get what you expect... but I CAN'T HELP MYSELF!!! some of those posts at http://www.consumeraffairs.com are legit, but others are just retarded!!!!

Here's my response, just for laughs people... don't burn me at teh stake...just have fun and hope your cruise does not turn into a vacation from hell... and that you don't get this people as your ship mantes!!!!


"It was obvious that the boat had been put together too quickly to reach its inaugural cruise. Much of the mural work was uneven, paint was peeling, and the floorboards we already buckling on the back part of the ship. We also noticed a great deal of marble was already cracked. I hate to see what happens to this boat in 1 year’s time. " Fantastic! A BOAT EXPERT!

"It was unacceptable how your pursers desk wanted to give us no information about your ports of call and what to do" Now, and here I was complaining about that stupid "talk" that kept going on and on about the ports of call on cabin TV... NOTHING ELSE TO WATCH ON TV man!

"The part of the forced tipping on the drinks had your bartending staff works slowly and nonchalantly" COME TO MIAMI BEACH! you have to tip for breathing!!!

"We also noticed your dancers and Dining room personnel smoking and drinking in the Artists Lounge" Did you call the principal?

"We had to go through 3 entrees and still finding nothing palatable." did you ask for a refund of your meal? I would have DEMANDED IT! where's the restaurant manager!!!!?

"Thank you, Carnival, for ruining our honeymoon." now that does suck! dirly linens you say?

"Carnival did nothing to help us with changing our airline reservations" yeah, maybe they were too busy fixing the air for people who BOUGHT AIR FROM THEM???

"On Questioning members of the crew we found out that the ship had been having engine problems during the last few cruises. In fact as we were boarding the ship there were severe engine problems" yeah, My name is Inga, I'm your bartender but I moonlight as a rocket scientist/Ship Engineer!

"We also found out that it was never the intention of Carnival to fulfill our contract but to go to Bermuda" man, you've got to stop listening to that eightball! Look what happened to Stacy in the Apprentice!

"I believe that taking a ship out in defective condition while severe weather conditions existed -- there was a hurricane going through Florida at the time " Did you not just say you're sailing from NY to Bermuda??? There's been heavy rains in California, you better get your umbrella.

"Daughter was given a $150 on-ship credit - $80 of which was eaten up by gratuities - leaving a paltry $70 compensation." TIPPING... WHAT A CONCEPT!

"Then, to put icing on the cake, I fell down the ship stairs on the last day of the cruise because my tennis shoes were wet" did you contac NIKE???? you ought to sue them! selling you wet shoes!!!!!
 
E

Erinm

Guest
Yah, some people are pretty "special"! If you like getting kicks out of peoples frivoulous complaints, another good one is www.complaints.com That is a website full of "special" people too. I would be pretty ticked off if I was on a cruise that went no where, but they were given pretty good compensation. This could happen on any other cruise line, but it just happened to be Carnival. If you weighed the # of good cruises to bad ones (and I mean bad for ligit reasons, not "my waiter didn't remember my name and it ruined my entire vacation."), the good ones would far outweigh the bad.
 
F

Fullspeedahead

Guest
I agree Erinm! Some people will complain about anything and everything. Your also right about the odds of having this happen to you when you compare the number of uneventful cruises to the ones like this one. It's not very common. But this is why Carnival should be a little more sympathetic to their passengers spring break vacation being turned upside down in the way that it was. Carnival can afford to give those passengers more than they did. Everytime something happens aboard a Carnival ship, it gets nothing but bad PR. Imagine this, if Carnival had refunded all pax 100% of their cruise fare and given them some sort of discount on a future cruise, most of the pax would have been very happy. I say most because there is always that few that will never be satisfied. Then when these passengers are getting off the ship and being interviewed by the media, it turns into positive PR for Carnival. This will help reassure passengers booked on future voyages as well as give confidence to those who are undecided about taking a cruise. Ships do break, but it's mostly about how it is handled. Most people are very understanding of these things, but don't want to feel like they are being robbed or have waisted their money.
Carnival may have refunded those pax 50% of their cruise fare but Carnival also saved money on this cruise as well. Fuel consuption had to be quite a bit less. What about port taxes in Cozumel and Calica? I am sure CCL won't have to pay for that week. I would also suspect that the bar sales were probably quite a bit higher for those 5 days when compared to a normal week. What about the casino which is normally closed for the entire day the ship is in Cozumel 9am-12am, and Calica. On this cruise I bet the casino was open the entire time.
 
C

Coppertone Girl

Guest
I cannnot thank you enough for introducing me to this site!!!! I can't stop reading it! Some complains are legit but please read this one I found and tell me HOW is Carnival responsible for this???

"Dan of Martinez GA (12/9/03):
A Carnival crew member researched my telephone number from an email that I had sent my girlfriend. I did not know she was still involved with him, but obviously she is. He telephoned me and threated me and my family with extreme violence and prejudice. This makes me very nervous to go on any of their cruise ships. He stated he was once involved with the Italian mafia and that if I didn't leave her and let him have her, he would come and destroy me and my family the next time he was off the ship. This person is a danger to anyone who doesn't give him what he wants and I will never go aboard another one of their ships do to this fact. I refuse to put me or my family in jeopardy, because of someone else's obsession."
 
M

mikesteg

Guest
Coppertone Girl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Here's my response, just for laughs people...
> don't burn me at teh stake...just have fun and
> hope your cruise does not turn into a vacation
> from hell... and that you don't get this people as
> your ship mantes!!!!
>


You're wrong wrong wrong wrong WRONG!!!! :grin

Now, here is my favorite one: ;)
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/carnival_overbooked.html

If I'm doing the math right, they were trying to make final payment *50 days out*. The $250 deposit indicates a 7 day cruise, so that would be 20 days late. Also, the $1000 deposit is clearly the TAs fault... assuming the TA didn't do this intentionally as a cancellation penalty. By the Carnival policies stated in the brochure, even at 50 days out Carnival should only have kept the $250 deposit pp. To me, it sounds like the TA really screwed this one up and Carnival got the blame.
 
M

mikesteg

Guest
Fullspeedahead Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Imagine this, if Carnival had
> refunded all pax 100% of their cruise fare and
> given them some sort of discount on a future
> cruise, most of the pax would have been very
> happy. I say most because there is always that
> few that will never be satisfied.

I'm not sure that most of the pax aren't already fairly happy with the 50%+25%. The people who have posted here seem fairly content with that, but have a problem with the poor communication and such. I'm not sure Carnival could have bought good PR at any price, but improved customer service would have made a huge difference...
 
E

Erinm

Guest
I was hoping to make a point that other cruise lines get complaints too, but was surprised at how few there were. I think that Royal Caribbean and Princess etc. have problems too, but do a better job of making the people happy. Fullspeedahead, you made a great point! You're right that Carnival probably made a pretty-penny with the casino, drinks and other onboard purchases. People were prepared to spend money in port, but instead spent in on the ship.

The other thing I don't understand is why they couldn't just get everyone together and say "here's the problem, here's what we're trying to do to fix it." If they had taken the time to explain what was going on, I don't think there would have been the "protest" on the ship, and people could have enjoyed their vacation more. There is nothing more frustrating than the feeling that you're talking to a wall. I don't blame the people at the pursers desk, because they're just the messanger, and they had no message to give. Someone should have done more to inform everyone.
 
F

Fullspeedahead

Guest
I was being hypothetical with the 100% refund just to show that with little cost to the company, it could have been a great opportunity for CCL to get some positive recognition for a change as well as instill some confidence to it's pax that are already booked for future cruises.
 
C

Coppertone Girl

Guest
Something tells me that news like a full refund would not make it to our local 10 o'clock news cast!!!

LOL!!! WE NEVER hear anything positive, and anytime there's something wrong on a ship, no matter what ship, cruise line or what the problem is... theres' that darn video of the Ecstasy burning!!!! I've seen it like 10 times!

oh and BTW, here in Miami we are going thru a horrendous stomach virus... my mom, my boss & her kids and almost all the kids at my son's daycare have it... I would not be surprised to hear about it on a ship two weeks from now!
 


Write your reply...
Top