TYinPalmSprings

Ok. Are you ready for a novel..?

 

I'm going to explain everything that happened in details but first, note that we're not picky people at all. We enjoyed our cruise even with all the problems we had.

 

We checked-in the cruise terminal on May 5 around 1:30 PM. We were told our cabin would not be ready until 5:00 PM. No problem. We got a complementary lunch at the Farenheight 555 Steakhouse (wine included). Only this worth around about $100 for two.

 

We arrived in our Cloud 9 Spa Balcony cabin #11016 on deck 11 around 5:30 PM. I had ordered a dozen of red roses for my wife on Carnival's website about two months ago to surprise her (after all, it was going to be the trip of our lives). The roses were on the table in a vase without water in it. Still, they were in good condition so we simply added water in the vase ourselves. End of case. I'm not being picky, I'm just writing everything in details so you can realise that everything was done at a crazy pace.

 

I went immediately to the balcony as it was the first time we had a balcony on a cruise. As soon as I turned around the bed, my feet were soaked. Our carpet was flooded about 25 square feet (from the patio door to halfway underneath the bed).

 

I tried to call guest services but our phone wasn't working. I went down to deck 3. There was a one hour line-up. A couple crew members were wandering through the line taking notes trying to help people. One of them finally came up to me. I explained him our issue. He told me he would forward the info to the authorities ASAP.

 

When I came back in our cabin, my wife told me the toilet wasn't flushing and that the safe and TV weren't working either... ok... so we went down to Promenade deck 5 and found "public" bathrooms. What we didn't know at this point is that we would have to use these for 2 days.

 

We took showers (yes, the shower was working! LOL) We went for our dinner at the Sunset Restaurant - Late Dining 8:15 PM. Awesome dinner and great service! We went to see the show in Liquid Lounge and came back in our room around 11:30 PM. We noticed that nothing had changed in our room. Our carpet was still soaked-wet, the toilet didn't flush, the phone, safe and TV didn't work...

 

Also, surprisingly, we didn't get any turn-down service... no towels changed, no clean-up, no towel animal... our stateroom stewards never showed up! (???). We went to bed.

 

When I woke up I tried to call guest services. Of course, the phone wasn't working. I went down to deck 3 and waited in line. Another crew member came to me. I explained him our issues. He told me he would forward the info to the authorities ASAP. Sort of déjà-vu...

 

When I came back in our room, I saw one of our cabin steward in the corridor. I politely told him that he had forgotten our room the night before. He said that he was really sorry and that this was because he was really tired yesterday. I couldn't believe it... but I didn't argue with him as we had bigger problems than that at the moment...

 

We went to get breakfast. Then, we went to visit the ship and noticed that the main pool (Beach Pool) and that the Sportsquare & Waterworks were closed. There was a panel saying "we're doing the finishing touches and doing our best to get these sections operational as quickly as possible".

 

We came back in our room around 1:45 PM as the ship was leaving Venice at 2:00 PM. We wanted to see it leave from our balcony. When we arrived in our room, no change... carpet soaked, toilet, phone, safe and TV still didn't work... Ok, now that was just too much for me and I was starting to boil inside (at this point, you must agree it's understandable). I went to get a bunch of Cloud 9 Spa towels myself (the big and thick yellow ones) on Serenity - Deck 14. I put them on the carpet and jumped over to absorb the water from the carpet as much as possible as it was starting to smell (humidity). We really enjoyed the vision of Venice's Grand Canal from our balcony (no kidding).

 

Then, we went visit the ship again. When we came back in our room, someone had came to suck the water off the carpet with a "shop vac" and a big and noisy blower was drying the carpet! Yahoo! Finally! Toilet and safe were also fixed!

 

Two days later, carpet was dry so I unplugged the blower in the afternoon. I left everything there hoping they would put everything back in place (bed was move further from the patio door to help the drying).

 

When we came back in our room around 10:00 PM, nothing had changed so I removed the blower myself. I put it in the corridor. I replaced the bed where it's supposed to be and we had to use the towels we had left on the floor as our cabin steward didn't show up again... unbelievable!

 

I saw him in the corridor the next morning and made it clear to him it would be in is interest to not forget us again as I would do a complaint. Everything was OK for the rest of the cruise, without towel animals but I didn't care... all I wanted is clean towels and a room done.

 

3 or 4 days later, still no phone. That's minor, but I was too curious... so I decided to remove the drawers from the desk were the phone was. I checked under and there were unplugged wires coming off the wall and the phone wire was hanging below... Ha-ha! The AT&T guy didn't do his job! LOL! So I went to guest services and told them what was the problem. They fixed it 3 days later.

 

Sportsquare & Waterworks opened 2 days before the end of the cruise...

 

In details, here are the refunds we got:

 

- Because our room wasn't ready when we arrived : $230 ($115 / person)

- Because Sportsquare & Waterworks we're not ready for almost the entire cruise: $150 ($75 / person)

- Because of all the problems we got in our room (20% off our cruise rate): $368 ($184 / person)

- We don't know why: $32 ($16 / person)

 

Total: $780.00

 

We also got a complementary lunch at the Farenheight 555 Steakhouse worth about $100

 

We think the refunds we got are reasonable and we are happy. Carnival did "everything possible" to resolve the problems we had. It took quite some time because there were problems all around the ship and some far more worse that ours (entire cabins flooded, toilet not working for the entire cruise, no shower, no water, luggage lost etc.)

 

We think that the Destiny/Sunshine transformation should have taken at least a couple more weeks in order for the ship to be 100% ready. They didn't have enough time to test it. Also, the crew were totally exhausted and overwhelmed. There were also many inexperienced crew members. This is not what you usually expect on a cruise especially when you pay big bucks for it...

 

Nevertheless, we will cruise with Carnival again as this is the best and funniest cruise line, but never again on an inaugural...

 

I hope reading this was informative/helpful and for those of you who will be on the Sunshine shortly, don't worry. I'm sure everything will be back to normal very quickly.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

 

Marc[/quote

 

Mark, the $115 credit was for overcharges for port taxes that we all got. At first someone told me that it was for the inconvenience if the workers still completing the ship. When I had time with the hotel manager and guest services manager, I got the straight scoop.

 

About your cabin...wow... we were lucky in comparison. Before the cruise we had the opportunity for a free upgrade and we went from deck 1 to deck 7. In retrospect, it was a lucky move as, curious, we went down to our originally assigned cabin, and there was water leaking from inside the door, Our Deck 7 cabin had no bathroom or plumbing issues other than a bathroom that smelled like a barnyard. The emergency exit on Deck 1 where our friends were had an emergency exit blocked with old ceiling materials. It took me 3 days of requests, but they finally cleared it out. Deck level meant nothing, though as we met people on upper levels including balconies, with water pouring out of the ceilings and down on electrical wires, or no water at all, right up to the day of departure when I bumped into people in the hallway asking about a place to shower and use the toilet as their bathrooms were non functional.. I just worried for them and future passengers about the dangers including mold, as many cabins had wet rugs, and some with overflowed feces from somewhere else.

 

We had little tv, and a phone that didn't work, and a thermostat that did not work. We learned that none of the thermostats worked on the ship. Our cabin was very, very, cold, but I took care of that by wearing sweats to bed, including a hoodie, and got extra blankets from my cabin steward.

 

I learned that when they piled the additional decks on the ship they did something to disrupt the equipment associated with the tv reception and that is why they did not work.

 

We were fortunate that we had so many wonderful ports as the smell of silicon fumes on the sea days gave me and others horrible headaches. This, like you with outside air options were fortunate to have some way to vent it out.

 

I was stuck in the elevators 3 times in the first 4 days. The emergency alarm did not work either. After the first time and hearing stories from others, I carried around a dining room bread knife that helped me force open the doors enough to get my hands in there to open them.

 

Il earned from the ship that many staff were left at Venice as they did not have cabins that were finished. Some of the staff also walked off along with some passengers at some of the ports due to the conditions. Many of the staff members had to double up on work, and at the end of the day their cabins were worse, they advised, than the passengers. Some of the crew ended up being housed in passenger cabins. Our cabin steward was wonderful. We had towel animals every day of the cruise, not that it mattered to us, 2 mature men, but we did hear from people like you who had seen none.

 

One of the very worrisome things was the lack of passenger safety. The wires hanging out of walls and ceilings and the holes in the floors caused some problems. I also watched workmen applying paint and others adhesive, both extremely flammable materials, and the guys had lit cigarettes in their mouths. When I finally got with the safety engineer and showed him my photos, his eyes nearly fell out. That was the reason for the announcement over the loudspeaker about smoking that you heard at the end of the cruise.

 

When they finally opened a small potion of the watersports deck the line repeated over and over was "if they can't get the toilets to work, and have not finished the ship, how can we trust our butts in those tubes above the ship".

 

Like you, we tried to make the best of it, and it got to the point where we started laughing about the stuff, but that was very difficult at times. I felt so bad for those passengers and crew alike who were plagued with severe problems. It was hilarious when I walked into a public men's room at all of the urinals were on the floor, not installed, and the bathroom outside the Liquid Lounge, the main performance area, and for just about all of the cruise the urinals were covered with red bags with a sign HAZARDOUS WASTE and the cubicles locked with that very familiar sign to us all "Sorry, we are not yet finished...blah blah blah"

 

This ship needed a few more weeks and a quality and safety check before it was set lose. They took quite a risk. I just hope it is better for those after us.

 

I had one other problem that I considered just as serious, and that was a HATE speech that was done by one of the performers. When I expressed my concerned the CD asked me what kind of money I was looking for, to which I responded "this is not about money". They gave me a 20% discount on the rest of my cruise days after that anyway, and a commitment that it was in the hands of Adrian Fischer VP at corporate.

 

I have been on 28 cruises including many with Carnival. I think I will give them a rest for a while.

The ship looks very nice, but the atrium looks very "tacky" especially with the Balls hanging from the ceiling. Does it look "tacky" when you see it in real life?

Yeah, I was on it as well, and there looked a bit strange. Some of the crew told me quietly that they referred to them as a"al beads.