What's your worst cruise story?

[cruiselife4me]

I've been truly blessed in all my cruises, not having anything less than a stellar time. However, I've read some really heinous stories lately and what's happened to people before and during their cruise.

Maybe we can keep this from happening to anyone else. Mary

Edited June 23, 2014 by silver_cloud

[Adayatatime]

Can honestly say, touch wood, haven't had a bad cruise on any cruise ship. The worst part has been having to get off at the end.:(

[ryano]

Only 4 cruises so far but all have been fantastic. My worst cruise story I have to tell is not having anything currently booked right now :(

[BillOh]

My worst cruise story is having 2 royal sponsored shore excursions canceled on the same trip. coincidentally that was almost the same cruise I am about to repeat (-Ocho Rios, add Fallmouth)

 

I could almost say that missing one port out of 2 ports on a 5 day cruise would have been the worst, but we ended up making Costa Maya (a docked port) anyway despite early problems.

 

Hoping my luck holds.

[wild0826]

It was about 15 years ago on the Monarch of the Seas. My bad experience was not really about the ship itself but events. I was traveling with my 2 yr old son my 2 sisters and my mom. Woke up in port of Antigua and went to Windjammer for breakfast. Son's eyes looked glassy and checked his forehead and he had a fever. Decided to stay on ship and everyone else left. Went back to room and ordered lemons from room service and used the juice to add to ice water to keep cool cloth on his head. His fever suddenly spiked after a while and he went into convulsions. Ran to bathroom and dunked his head under water. He began vomiting. Ran out of room with son in my arms and asked for help. Someone that worked for the ship took me to ship doctor. They poured alcohol on him but decided he needed to go to the hospital . They called ambulance and took us. Diagnosed with throat infection. Gave a prescription for antibiotics . Since I ran out of the room on ship and left it open I had no money on me. I didn't even have any shoes. The shops doctor gave me some slippers to put in my feet. Luckily the hospital called the ship and the ship paid the hospital for me and for a cab ride back to the ship. I did have to reimburse the ship however. When I returned the ship doctor called my room and asked what were the results. Since I couldn't fill the prescription in town due to lack of money at the time the ship doctor have me antibiotics for my son no additional charge. Later on however I did discover that the jewelry my mom had bought for me for my birthday in the previous port was all stolen out of the nightstand. I guess it happened when I ran out and left the door open. Upon my return the door was locked and my room steward had to let me in. Still a mystery who stole my jewelry. Next day I had a fever . Not pleasant.

[foxgoodrich]

Worst cruise story, huh! Well our story is truly not very bad, but we are zero for three on CocoCay. Over the past nine years, we've been on 3 different cruises destined for CocoCay and haven't made it there yet.:(

 

Now DH and I are starting to wonder if we'll ever get there….

(We have to keep trying, right?)

Judy

[bigque]

Never had one! :cool:

[aurelius180]

I've seen some rude passengers with regard to crew interaction but all my cruises have been great.

[dplusd]

Not a terrible experience, but we were stuck in Galveston fog for 2 days in December 2009. Boarded on Sunday and didn't leave port until Tuesday and missed one port.

 

Once we sailed it was a great cruise, as 900+ passengers took a full refund offer and left the ship on Monday. It was the least crowded ship I have ever sailed on!

[jules815]

My worst cruise, EVER. It was so bad, I don't even like to count it as a vacation.

 

October, 2012, Carnival Dream meets Hurricane Sandy. This is not meant to slam Carnival. We've been on nice cruises with Carnival, including Dream in 2010, plus, most of what went wrong wasn't Carnival's fault.

 

7-day, eastern Caribbean with two other couples. Flew in the day before and spent the night at the Residence Inn at Port Canaveral. First day on board, sail away was fun, but HORRIBLE service in the MDR our first night. I have never had such slow, confused service EVER.

 

Second day, Nassau, our first time being at this port. Get a bad headache at the straw market that's so bad I find a pharmacy that sells advil. Night 2 in the MDR, even after talking with Matre'd about service the first night, second night service is bad again. (Example, bottle of wine we ordered at the end of dinner on the first night from our wine package, to be served on the second night (should have been at the table when we arrived), didn't arrive until our meal was almost over -- and we asked about it, nicely, more than once.) After dinner I skipped drinks with my husband and friends because my headache is back, and now I'm feeling nauseous.

 

Monday - Wednesday, don't leave cabin because I'm very sick with what appears to be noro, but also with a high fever. Watched a lot of tv, and by now they're talking on CNN, a lot, about Hurricane Sandy, and the captain makes his first announcement regarding the situation. The room next to us was occupied by smokers who were out on the balcony a lot. I wouldn't hear them out there, so I'd think "great, I can go out for fresh air, maybe that will help me to feel better." The second I would sit down in my chair, I'd hear their door open and the flic of the lighter. I have never been bothered by smoke before, but the smoke wafted into our deck two cove balcony and seemed to just hang there. Maybe it bothered me more because I didn't feel good.

 

Thursday I'm feeling better and venture to the MDR for breakfast with my husband to START my vacation. The seas are getting very rough, and when we get back to our room, our balcony furniture is stacked inside in the corner, and our balcony door is covered and bolted shut. We now have an oceanview room. And our next door neighbors, and some other people on deck two, decided they would smoke inside their staterooms now. I swear it was making it through the walls somehow. I'm NOT making this up. And Carnival never did anything about it. It was so obvious, too!

 

Dining room service continued to be very bad while I was confined to our room, so we gave up and ate the remainder of our dinners in the steak house, which was excellent and empty.

 

Friday, very rough seas, ship seems empty, barf bags at elevators and captain made an announcement that we wouldn't be arriving at PC until Sunday due to the port being closed to cruise ships. Our cruise was extended a day! We spent all of Saturday bobbing off the coast of south Florida with a few other ships in very rough seas. The ship made a horrible creaking sound as we "dolphined" through the Atlantic.

 

Kudos to Carnival for handling the situation as well as they could. I never really felt unsafe. Activities were planned, Fun Times activity schedules were printed and on our bed that night. You'd never know it was an "added" day. We were given free use of the phone lines for changing our travel plans, although it was nearly impossible to make a call. We managed to get an email message to our daughter and she was able to change our flights.

 

Quite the adventure. Back to RC, but sailing again in the fall. Our weather in port was very nice and there are good deals that time of year. :)

[jules815]

It was about 15 years ago on the Monarch of the Seas. My bad experience was not really about the ship itself but events. I was traveling with my 2 yr old son my 2 sisters and my mom. Woke up in port of Antigua and went to Windjammer for breakfast. Son's eyes looked glassy and checked his forehead and he had a fever. Decided to stay on ship and everyone else left. Went back to room and ordered lemons from room service and used the juice to add to ice water to keep cool cloth on his head. His fever suddenly spiked after a while and he went into convulsions. Ran to bathroom and dunked his head under water. He began vomiting. Ran out of room with son in my arms and asked for help. Someone that worked for the ship took me to ship doctor. They poured alcohol on him but decided he needed to go to the hospital . They called ambulance and took us. Diagnosed with throat infection. Gave a prescription for antibiotics . Since I ran out of the room on ship and left it open I had no money on me. I didn't even have any shoes. The shops doctor gave me some slippers to put in my feet. Luckily the hospital called the ship and the ship paid the hospital for me and for a cab ride back to the ship. I did have to reimburse the ship however. When I returned the ship doctor called my room and asked what were the results. Since I couldn't fill the prescription in town due to lack of money at the time the ship doctor have me antibiotics for my son no additional charge. Later on however I did discover that the jewelry my mom had bought for me for my birthday in the previous port was all stolen out of the nightstand. I guess it happened when I ran out and left the door open. Upon my return the door was locked and my room steward had to let me in. Still a mystery who stole my jewelry. Next day I had a fever . Not pleasant.

 

OMG! Horrible!

[richardb]

Would I get any sympathy if I say the worse thing that has happened to us is running out of drummets and/or blue cheese in the diamond lounge? :eek:

 

Hmmmm, didn't think so.

 

 

 

Don't flame me, I really can't think of a seriously bad experience.

Edited June 23, 2014 by richardb

[Teeara]

My worst cruise, EVER. It was so bad, I don't even like to count it as a vacation.

 

October, 2012, Carnival Dream meets Hurricane Sandy. This is not meant to slam Carnival. We've been on nice cruises with Carnival, including Dream in 2010, plus, most of what went wrong wasn't Carnival's fault.

 

7-day, eastern Caribbean with two other couples. Flew in the day before and spent the night at the Residence Inn at Port Canaveral. First day on board, sail away was fun, but HORRIBLE service in the MDR our first night. I have never had such slow, confused service EVER.

 

Second day, Nassau, our first time being at this port. Get a bad headache at the straw market that's so bad I find a pharmacy that sells advil. Night 2 in the MDR, even after talking with Matre'd about service the first night, second night service is bad again. (Example, bottle of wine we ordered at the end of dinner on the first night from our wine package, to be served on the second night (should have been at the table when we arrived), didn't arrive until our meal was almost over -- and we asked about it, nicely, more than once.) After dinner I skipped drinks with my husband and friends because my headache is back, and now I'm feeling nauseous.

 

Monday - Wednesday, don't leave cabin because I'm very sick with what appears to be noro, but also with a high fever. Watched a lot of tv, and by now they're talking on CNN, a lot, about Hurricane Sandy, and the captain makes his first announcement regarding the situation. The room next to us was occupied by smokers who were out on the balcony a lot. I wouldn't hear them out there, so I'd think "great, I can go out for fresh air, maybe that will help me to feel better." The second I would sit down in my chair, I'd hear their door open and the flic of the lighter. I have never been bothered by smoke before, but the smoke wafted into our deck two cove balcony and seemed to just hang there. Maybe it bothered me more because I didn't feel good.

 

Thursday I'm feeling better and venture to the MDR for breakfast with my husband to START my vacation. The seas are getting very rough, and when we get back to our room, our balcony furniture is stacked inside in the corner, and our balcony door is covered and bolted shut. We now have an oceanview room. And our next door neighbors, and some other people on deck two, decided they would smoke inside their staterooms now. I swear it was making it through the walls somehow. I'm NOT making this up. And Carnival never did anything about it. It was so obvious, too!

 

Dining room service continued to be very bad while I was confined to our room, so we gave up and ate the remainder of our dinners in the steak house, which was excellent and empty.

 

Friday, very rough seas, ship seems empty, barf bags at elevators and captain made an announcement that we wouldn't be arriving at PC until Sunday due to the port being closed to cruise ships. Our cruise was extended a day! We spent all of Saturday bobbing off the coast of south Florida with a few other ships in very rough seas. The ship made a horrible creaking sound as we "dolphined" through the Atlantic.

 

Kudos to Carnival for handling the situation as well as they could. I never really felt unsafe. Activities were planned, Fun Times activity schedules were printed and on our bed that night. You'd never know it was an "added" day. We were given free use of the phone lines for changing our travel plans, although it was nearly impossible to make a call. We managed to get an email message to our daughter and she was able to change our flights.

 

Quite the adventure. Back to RC, but sailing again in the fall. Our weather in port was very nice and there are good deals that time of year. :)

 

That's ridiculous that they kept you bobbing in South Florida waters with that monster storm. When I was on Mariner it was during the approach of Hurricane Jeanne. We were due to dock at Port Canaveral exactly when Jeanne arrived. Our captain told us early that we would end up with two extra days at sea so he opted to take us to Labadee rather than bob up and down in the water for two days. The next day we (along with a bunch of other ships) just did lazy circles in the Gulf with great weather and no big swells. We ended up docking at Miami because PC was damaged by Jeanne. RCI offered busses to Orlando for those of us who didn't change their flights to out of Miami. Took 4 hours to get there and we saw lots of damage from the hurricane. I felt RCI treated us very well in this instance. But after that we decided no more cruises during hurricane season! I'll pay the extra $$$ to sail in April instead.

[ryano]

I really can't think of a seriously bad experience.

 

That is AWESOME considering the # of cruises you have been on! :)

[DCPIV]

We've been fairly lucky in that our worst really isn't so bad. Back in 2008, the Voyager was getting some work done on her plumbing system. On three of the seven nights, the water to our room was cut off with very little warning (i.e., sent after we had left for dinner). It's no fun having to go down 4 or 5 decks with small children to use the use the public restroom.

 

On one or two nights, the work led to a great deal of noise just down the hall from our room--lots of yelling and metal banging.

 

After my brother and I had a little chat with the Hotel Manager, the noise stopped (for the most part) and RCI also made things right in other ways. We all still had a great cruise, despite the problems.

 

 

D

[jules815]

That's ridiculous that they kept you bobbing in South Florida waters with that monster storm. When I was on Mariner it was during the approach of Hurricane Jeanne. We were due to dock at Port Canaveral exactly when Jeanne arrived. Our captain told us early that we would end up with two extra days at sea so he opted to take us to Labadee rather than bob up and down in the water for two days. The next day we (along with a bunch of other ships) just did lazy circles in the Gulf with great weather and no big swells. We ended up docking at Miami because PC was damaged by Jeanne. RCI offered busses to Orlando for those of us who didn't change their flights to out of Miami. Took 4 hours to get there and we saw lots of damage from the hurricane. I felt RCI treated us very well in this instance. But after that we decided no more cruises during hurricane season! I'll pay the extra $$$ to sail in April instead.

 

We weren't exactly bobbing, we were making big, lazy circles off the coast. We could see land very clearly. It was so rough. We were at sea with an NCL and Disney ship. Crazy watching the other ships in the distance and thinking, "we're doing that too!"

[Mrs_Tiki]

I feel very lucky that my worst cruise story does not compare with what others have been through!

 

But relatively speaking, our 1994 3-day Baja Mexico cruise on the Viking Serenade would win our personal "worst cruise" award. It was the definition of a booze cruise with revelers jumping from the rail of the deck above the pool into the pool below. The ship was a converted European car ferry (and felt like it!), our "suite" had a nasty sewage smell, our dinner companions were sullen and unfriendly, and our one port was Ensenada.

 

BUT, we still had a good time, and I've even managed to drag DH back onto Royal Caribbean after a less-then-stellar first cruise!

[smeck]

My worst cruise story. They made me leave the ship!

[Adayatatime]

I won't do transatlantic as I feel I'm too far away from land. Figured I can swim to shore otherwise. Lol!!

[Shelli]

My worst cruise was my latest one-- my 18th. It happened to be on NCL, but other than the fact that we didn't care for the ship's layout, it certainly wasn't NCL's fault. I got ill (with noro-like symptoms, although the ship's doctor didn't think that's what it was) at the first port. Thanks to getting a shot that knocked me out, I slept for the next couple of days. The first day I felt better, our port was canceled due to rough seas. The last port, Cozumel, was one I'd been to a zillion times, so I didn't plan to get off the ship... but I was SO happy to finally see land, I was more than happy to get off!

 

We were also on a cruise affected by a hurricane, and spent two extra days at sea. We didn't mind that, however! Our captain took us to a calm area, and other than the dinner menu being repeated, it was all fine.

[wendychloecruiser]

My mom and I were on a 7 day NCL several years ago. On the second day my mom said passingly that she could have sworn she brought such and such. I just rolled my eyes as all good daughters do and thought she was just being mom. Well by the third and fourth day it was getting ridiculous. Mom was down to one pair of underwear and maybe two tops. Her drawers were practically empty and her closet was looking barren. It became clearly evident that someone was stealing her clothes. She didn't want to report it at first because mom being the good person she is felt that who ever was stealing may really need it more than her but someone was going through our things and she didn't have a whole lot left to wear! It turned out the cabin steward was the culprit and apparently my mom was the same size as his mother and he was sending the clothes to her. Mom was able to get a few things back but we had a port or two in the mean time and he had already mailed the stuff to his mother.

 

We hadn't sailed with NCL prior to this nor since.

[cruiselife4me]

Wow! Those are some STORIES! Between missing clothes, Novo, cancelled ports, a hurricane...I feel especially blessed!! Mary

[Fergus]

My mom and I were on a 7 day NCL several years ago. On the second day my mom said passingly that she could have sworn she brought such and such. I just rolled my eyes as all good daughters do and thought she was just being mom. Well by the third and fourth day it was getting ridiculous. Mom was down to one pair of underwear and maybe two tops. Her drawers were practically empty and her closet was looking barren. It became clearly evident that someone was stealing her clothes. She didn't want to report it at first because mom being the good person she is felt that who ever was stealing may really need it more than her but someone was going through our things and she didn't have a whole lot left to wear! It turned out the cabin steward was the culprit and apparently my mom was the same size as his mother and he was sending the clothes to her. Mom was able to get a few things back but we had a port or two in the mean time and he had already mailed the stuff to his mother.

 

We hadn't sailed with NCL prior to this nor since.

 

 

O.M.G. That is the craziest, funniest, saddest story I have ever heard!!! :eek:

[celebrity]

My mom and I were on a 7 day NCL several years ago. On the second day my mom said passingly that she could have sworn she brought such and such. I just rolled my eyes as all good daughters do and thought she was just being mom. Well by the third and fourth day it was getting ridiculous. Mom was down to one pair of underwear and maybe two tops. Her drawers were practically empty and her closet was looking barren. It became clearly evident that someone was stealing her clothes. She didn't want to report it at first because mom being the good person she is felt that who ever was stealing may really need it more than her but someone was going through our things and she didn't have a whole lot left to wear! It turned out the cabin steward was the culprit and apparently my mom was the same size as his mother and he was sending the clothes to her. Mom was able to get a few things back but we had a port or two in the mean time and he had already mailed the stuff to his mother.

 

We hadn't sailed with NCL prior to this nor since.

 

I sure hope you reported the theft and the cabin steward was fired. 😡

[celebrity]

Ok, here is mine.

We were on Explorer of the Seas to Canada N/E a few years ago .

It was the first formal night with DH and son at a fabulous table enjoying dinner. As it was time to leave, my son got up first, followed by me and DH got up from the table last. Somehow, he caught his foot and fell hitting the lamp behind his chair and was face down unconscious!

I turned around to see where he was and saw people running toward him and we were all certain he had a massive coronary and was dead. :eek:

You heard the Alpha call and there I was hysterical in the middle of the dining room with a staff trying to keep me calm.

I cannot emphasize enough how quickly the ship's doctors responded to the Alpha call. He came to when they roused him, took him to the infirmary, did a skull xray, stitched his head and bandaged him.

RCI really stepped up to the plate at a time when I was totally losing it and couldn't have been more kind, compassionate or professional.

They also gave him antibiotics and even though we had trip insurance there was no charge for the infirmary or meds as well as a follow up visit.

I had no idea that I was covered in blood from his wound and a kind nurse cleaned me up and they sent my beautiful dress off to clean at no charge,

He didn't want to be seen in the dining room again as he looked like " Beeker" from the Muppets so the next evening we dined in the Windjammer and after that, my son and I convinced him to go back to the dining room.

He was so glad that he did as our Maitre'd and everyone in tne vicinity made a big fuss over him and wished him well.

Fast forward to the following year and the same Maître D was on Explorer and arranged to have us on her deck.

Wonder why I'm Loyal to Royal?