What was the Worst Carnival Cruise?

[Rogueperson]

My worst cruise would be my first on the Carnival Holiday in 2001. Nothing was really "bad" about it other than the massive amounts of drinking. It was my first less than 7 night cruise (4 nights) and I found it to be a huge party. Too much for me actually.

 

It wasn't until 2008 that I gave Carnival a second chance and ended up with to date, the best cruise on the Carnival Liberty.

 

But it is true, that even bad cruises can addict you. My friend's first cruise was on the Explorer of the Seas to Bermuda...in October, 2012. Yep, he sailed through Hurricane Sandy. He claims there were 30 foot swells or higher and the ship was pitching like crazy.

[Warm Breezes]

Don't think I've had one yet.

[pegatha]

Holiday February 2002. Last sailing before dry dock and the crew were more interested in getting their leave than providing any service to the passengers. I didn't cruise Carnival for a long time after that cruise. It was the worst.

[fmrlkr]

Waiting for Triumph horror stories.......................:eek:

 

This did happen on the Triumph, but...

 

We were on B2B on the Triumph 9/1/11 a 4 day and 9/5/11 a five day. On the first cruise a storm (I think TS Lee?) made for rough sailing and bad weather. On Sunday night the Mississippi was closed to traffic and we were unable to sail up the river. Anyone who has sailed out of NOLA will know that it is 8 hours from NO to the gulf. The river was not reopened until 8am Monday morning, when we should have already been docked. We were at breakfast as we entered the river and the ship lurched to one side. Dirty dishes slid off the stands. Our table mates were quite concerned. We did not arrive in NO until afternoon and embarkation was not completed until 1am. People leaving were mad because of the delay, some missing flights etc. People getting on said it was complete chaos, no one knew what to do, they were relocated to various places, no information, no food. (The NCL ship which sails Sunday to Sunday had to come in the river after us and wasn't able to leave NO until Tuesday.)

 

So this was the worst cruise we have ever been on, just not for us. Since we were B2B we didn't have to worry about getting off or getting back on. No change of travel plans. The best part was going up the river and back down during the day. Usually the ship sails the river at night, leaving at sunset and arriving at dawn, but we had 8 hours during the day to sit on out balcony and watch LA go by. I have a great picture of the shadow of the ship on the banks of the river. The crew was great, did the best they could under the circumstances. We do not mind rough seas so the first leg was fine for us and the second was beautiful weather. We often talk about this cruise. We still love the Triumph. Have had 4 cruises on it.

[tkportersat]

Mine isn't really a "worst", I have enjoyed all my cruises but I would say the Conquest was my least favorite. Nothing horrible happened really from Carnival's part, but the food both times was not as good as my other Carnival cruises.

 

The first time we went on Conquest was started off wrong by my kids and not anything Carnival did....It was 5/28/06, my son's friend told him the world was going to end on 6/6/06 and so he was freaked out the whole time. That set the tone, he barely left the room all week. Also that first night my daughter puked all over her bed.

 

Other than that we have had smooth sailing :)

Edited September 23, 2014 by tkportersat

[LindseyButlerWilson]

I am wondering what was the worst Carnival ship you've been on. You have to include what happen with it and when you got on. I never been on a bad ship.

 

I cannot call this a 'bad' cruise, but our last cruise on the Magic we had some service issues. We ended up switching away from our dining table because the waitress was rude and combative (and we didn't like our table mates), and several bartenders were very obviously unhappy that we had the Cheers program and made our drinks so strong we couldn't drink them.

 

That said, we had an amazing trip, our dinner situation was corrected, and most of the time we enjoyed the bar staff, just random problems where we expected none. We booked again for this Thanksgiving. :o

[tmac04]

The worst cruise was Carnival Fantasy. It was a lot of little things that added up to not enjoying myself. If it weren't for the ports we visited I would have really been annoyed. One of the worst was the kids club. I would drop my daughter off and was told to return there at such and such time. NEVER were they where they said they would be! I spent a lot of time hunting the kids down to get mine! The passengers were very hateful...I went to GS the last night and witnessed some truly uncool behavior. the entertainment was awful, they shut the pool down on the last sea day, and the MDR service was pathetic!

[Shaded Lady]

Worst cruise- Big Red Boat... 1996

 

We had an inside, 2 twin beds. Steward just said 'No' when we asked they be put together. He never tidied the cabin, just made the beds most days (most but not all!). He left garbage from another cabin in the middle of our cabin floor and wouldn't come to pick it up. DH put the bag of garbage in the hall that night and he yelled at me for it the next morning!

 

Only time he smiled was when he showed up the last night looking for his envelope (tips). DH suggested that he go to Guest Services to find his tip.

 

The bed I slept in had a HUGE hollow in the middle. I have a bad back and had to put the blanket on the floor and sleep beside my bed... I think that's the only reason the cabin steward made the beds each day!

 

Same cruise, Main Dining room- we were the early seating. Service was so slow that we were asked each night of the 4 day cruise to please vacate our table so the late seating could dine. The 2nd night, when this happened, we called the Maitre d' over to tell him that we were being asked to vacate, but hadn't yet received our meals! Only our appetizers! He didn't apologize, just asked that we eat as quickly as possible! Never got dessert that whole cruise and the Maitre D' did nothing...

 

I was not surprised that they were no longer a cruising entity 2 years later!

 

I've only cruised Carnival other than that, and never had a cruise bad enough to complain about!

[Herbaltees]

My worst cruise was my first CCL cruise, on the Inspiration. I didn't know the shorter cruises were labeled "booze cruise". It seemed like there were hoards of drunk ppl everywhere!! Throwing up and carrying on in a fashion, I found disturbing.

 

I was also 5 months pregnant and had scoured the shops and internet for a (cute) maternity bathing suit. When I finally got up the nerve to wear it to the pool, one passenger looked at me w/disgust and asked if I was pregnant. It really made me sad. But then again, I could have been extra sensitive. :D

 

It didn't sour me on CCL, I still had fun but now I book longer cruises.

[dbenlee]

Worst cruise...we haven't ever had a "worst cruise" situation. Like others, we have had little incidents, but nothing that would qualify as "worst". But, no matter how wonderful the cruise is or how much fun we have, every cruise seems to end with on a bad note. The cruise lines seem to have this BAD attitude that when they return the ship to the home port, we have to get off! Its just so disappointing! :)

[GoofyDog]

Never had a bad cruise. Disconnections, what was so bad about the Magic TA? I was on that cruise and I thought it was FANTASTIC!

[Herbaltees]

Worst cruise...we haven't ever had a "worst cruise" situation. Like others, we have had little incidents, but nothing that would qualify as "worst". But, no matter how wonderful the cruise is or how much fun we have, every cruise seems to end with on a bad note. The cruise lines seem to have this BAD attitude that when they return the ship to the home port, we have to get off! Its just so disappointing! :)

 

 

This really annoys me too!

 

 

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[aenglish1609]

Mine isn't really a "worst", I have enjoyed all my cruises but I would say the Conquest was my least favorite. Nothing horrible happened really from Carnival's part, but the food both times was not as good as my other Carnival cruises.

 

The first time we went on Conquest was started off wrong by my kids and not anything Carnival did....It was 5/28/06, my son's friend told him the world was going to end on 6/6/06 and so he was freaked out the whole time. That set the tone, he barely left the room all week. Also that first night my daughter puked all over her bed.

 

Other than that we have had smooth sailing :)

 

I saw in your signature about trying an AI in Cancun. This is what we did for our Honeymoon, and LOVED it. I was curious as to how you liked it, and thought it compared to cruising??

[Disconnections]

Never had a bad cruise. Disconnections, what was so bad about the Magic TA? I was on that cruise and I thought it was FANTASTIC!

 

Mostly, we had some issues in the dining room and it just wasn't that great of a cruise for us, with a different situation each night. I remember you from that cruise and I believe I posted more in detail on the roll call. Changing waitstaff three times didn't even solve anything. It seemed that most crew and staff were unhappy during the crossing because of the long European season, followed by many sea days in a row. In addition, they had difficulty accommodating a special dietary restriction, which is the reason we did not continue sailing with Royal Caribbean, at the time.

 

Some of those are probably because of the recent implementation of the three man team and on that type of cruise, putting an extreme workload on the waitstaff. However, the same service issues were carried over to the Carnival Ecstasy, just two weeks later. On the Magic, instead of booking a January and February cruise, we just bought Future Cruise Certificates to see how our already booked sailing on the Miracle was before booking anything else. As many from our Magic TA roll call were going on the Miracle Panama Canal, we expected things to be better when we boarded and were going to book the cruise. Unfortunately, they weren't and the day we got home, we cancelled all of our active sets of FCCs.

 

As an aside, the Carnival Magic forgot to return some custom items to us from Malaga and we arranged through Vicky Rey to meet up with the ship in Key West the following weekend to pick them up. We were down there anyway, so we figured it wouldn't hurt if they were able to locate them. We saw Christian and others that we remembered from that cruise while at The Westin and everyone seemed so much more alive, friendly and happy. There was only one week, actually just a six day cruise, in between. The Magic TA wasn't a bad cruise for us... it just wasn't that hot. My expectations were obviously too high, based on previous Carnival cruises. My best Carnival cruise was only one month before the TA and it was on the Freedom, but my best overall cruise was on the Sapphire Princess.

 

Edit: We may have been on the same ship for the same dates, but so were 3,000 other people and everyone has a different experience.

Edited September 23, 2014 by Disconnections

[adriennerm]

Carnival Valor June 2012.

 

We did not have a problem with the staff, it was the cruisers. There was a family reunion on board and they dominated each area they were in. For example my husband and I went to the lido deck for a late evening drink. There was only one bar open. This group took over the bar and the tables next to it. After we managed to get one stool, the other members kept complaining the drinks did not have enough liquor in them. I felt so bad for the bartender. They were really going in on her. Then one clown at a table thought it would be funny to flick playing cards at someone sitting next to me at the bar. One time he almost hit me with no apology. Next time one went right by bartender. We took our drinks and left b/c my husband was getting to the point where I knew the situation would not end well

 

This group also messed up two trivia games. They arrived late and did not hear the rules. Instead of writing down the answers this group keep singing the songs (which were the answers) during the Motown Trivia. Then during the Riddle Trivia they were yelling what they thought was the answer. Several times they were told they needed to write it down but refused to listen.

 

The dance club only played hip hop music. No top 40 or at least some pop. All he played was Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Tupac, Drake and similar. It was deplorable. I felt like I was trapped in my daughter's IPod. It's sad when you look forward to hearing Miley Cyrus or Taylor Swift on the lido deck....:o

 

Bad service for ATD. 1st night dinner took 2 hours. We figured it was the first night and things happened. Another night we waited 40 minutes after eating our entrees to never receive the dessert menu. We ended up leaving. We complained and were seated in another area. This night after placing our orders it took about 40 minutes to receive our apps. Only to have the wrong food. We sent it back and waited and waited. They came back with our entrees. After explaining we never received the apps she took away the food and brought back menus to order again. We declined and ate at the buffet after that.

 

With that being said, we still had a nice enough time. The ports were great and we managed to have fun in our own way. My husband isn't ready to cruise Carnival again but I'm hoping I can convince him to go next summer. So far I am not winning...... but I will go down swinging:D

[SMSACE6]

I haven't had a worst Carnival cruise. But I did have a worst cruise! Doesn't matter which cruiseline it was, because there was nothing wrong with the ship, service, could have been an excellent cruise. One person in our party, just was unhappy from the moment he stepped on the ship, till he got home, and moped, sulked, did not want to do anything and made the rest of us miserable.

 

This is also one of the reasons I now love to cruise solo:)

Edited September 23, 2014 by SMSACE6

[bobandalice]

Have never had one. Just lucky we guess.

 

Bob and Alice

[queenerin]

My least favorite ship was the Glory. The lido deck was always crowded/congested, I wasn't a fan of the CD (Cannot even remember their name), and the debarking/re-boarding process in the ports always seemed very unorganized.

 

With that being said, I still had a great time. Just in comparison, it was my least favorite cruise overall. (I was on the Glory in 11/2011)

 

 

On the flip side -- my favorite ships are the Pride and the Legend. Maybe things were laid out in a way that there never seemed to be "overly" crowded areas on the lido, etc. on these ships. It's been a long time, but I didn't have any issues that stayed with me on either cruise. (I was on the Legend in 1/2011, the Pride in 10/2004)

[Eileenfa1]

My worst is the holiday ship. Cut my hand on the blaster going down the main stairs the first day. Blood coming out- nobody would help. My husband got food poisoning on the 3 day. The staff thought he was drunk - keep messing with him on the lido deck. The ship smell bad - like rotten eggs. Could not wait to leave.

 

 

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[Jimmy Geegitz]

Carnival Miracle in March of 2012. Let's just say it started off without working "hotel amenities" and only escalated from there, without a single care from all those involved. This set the tone for the cruise and service failure after service failure was being shown from crew and staff. I won't publicize the overall experience that drove us away from Carnival. There are a few people who are aware of the situation on Cruise Critic, but it does not belong here or on social media, as I have no malicious vendetta against Carnival.

 

This cruise was after a not so hot cruise on the Carnival Ecstasy, which was less than a month after a not so hot cruise on the Magic transatlantic. At this point, even after being offered free cruises from Carnival, we are still not ready to return.

 

Good to see your still sailing with the Carnival Corp.

[Disconnections]

Good to see your still sailing with the Carnival Corp.

 

You are aware that each subsidiary is operated independently, correct?

 

Princess is part of The Holland America Group led by Stein Kruse, which falls under the holding company of Carnival Corporation.

Edited September 23, 2014 by Disconnections

[OCruisers]

Our least favorite Carnival cruise was Fascination out of JAX. :(

LuLu

[elliair]

Hoping kids were not drunk because they are not suppose to drink alcohol. They would of got in alot of troble for doing that.:confused:

 

I should have clarified by saying "adult children." I felt sorry for the staff who had to clean up the barf! :eek:

[Cruise life]

Our worst cruise was on the Dream when our spa balcony cabin was directly under the free weights. Despite the gym closing at 10 pm every night, there were a couple employees that lifted every night from 10-11 or midnight. We were in a quad with young kids that thought the ship was falling apart. The noise from crashing weights reverberated extremely loudly and unexpectedly for that time period; security was asked to control the problem, but it reoccurred every night. If we were four adults in there and stayed out of the cabin until midnight it would have been no issue....

 

 

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[A2Mich]

Carnival Fantasy Class - these cruises are too old, small, ugly, and noisy. All the other Carnival classes are good. It's time for Fantasy Class to say bye and retire. Thanks...

 

 

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THe Fantasy class ships aren't in that bad of shape, and still have some good years left in them, though it wouldn't surprise me if Carnival began to sell them off soon.