3/23 Sensation Cruise NOT Sensational

[Cruising89143]

I think the OP is more interested in getting some more $$ from Carnival than in giving us a fair review of the entire cruise.

 

News organizations don't help either. When was the last time you saw a news report of a great cruise? Only bad news is news.

 

I don't defend everything Carnival did. They certainly should have, and could have, ordered food and brought in canned or bottled drinks (although I imagine there were water fountains there). They did offer compensation for minor problems like the water and the renovations. After all I have heard, I am not convinced it warranted cancelling the cruise. And they did not know in advance that the ship would be delayed.

 

Lastly, let everyone be warned who books right after drydock - if you paid a very low price, there was a reason!

 

Well I'm glad that you know what the OP's motives are. Must be nice to be able read peoples minds. Also do you happen to know what each passenger paid for this cruise?

[hobbit81]

Holiday just pulled out 5 hours late. I bet we get a flood of hater threads by Friday and Saturday.

 

Was this the Holiday's first cruise out after FEMA?

[Lakeman953]

Lakeman, No actually I agree with you about the rust and sitting with no water. Just curious that with all those people on the ship in NO, strange that no water was going through the pipes. That's all. Just a comment. But let me ask this. I would have thought that in the drydock time they would have scrubbed the rooms and bathrooms down, thus using water. So how did they clean them and how much water needs to run through to clear the pipes of rust?

 

So all you cruiseres who just got off, did the rooms appear to be clean?

 

Actually, as long as that ship sat in the river, I'm not suprised that there are more problems. I imagine they did try to maintain it best they could. But just sitting in the river for an extended period of time would not be good for a ship, would it?

 

You will only need to run the water for approx. a minute and it should clear up( Note that that is in a house with approx. 2 1/2 Bathrooms and a kitchen) Now on a cruise ship it may take a bit longer as there are hundreds of faucets onboard.

And to answer your question about needing water to clean Bathrooms, I would be assuming they have cleaning products and probably uses water from a bucket and not from every units bathrooms, But this is speculation not fact. Good question tho, You would think they would use every bathroom for water.

[sugarstick]

See #68 for my SECOND POST!!!

[Timmys_mom]

See #68 for my SECOND POST!!!

Okay, Sugar now has three posts, so she must be legit. :D

 

Sorry for the interruption..........party on, Wayne.

[salty dingo]

Well I'm glad that you know what the OP's motives are. Must be nice to be able read peoples minds. Also do you happen to know what each passenger paid for this cruise?

 

Just stating my opinion, Gator. My theory about cruises right out of drydock being discounted may be wrong, but they certainly *should* be discounted, because there seem to be an unusually large amount of complaints from these cruises.

[cruisecastle]

I am going to try to answer all your questions in one post (drum roll please...)

 

1) This is my 18th cruise. First one on Carnival. I have been reading these boards for years and have appreciated the helpful tips i have received. I was trying to do the same for you, sorry.

 

2) Patrice1 - I hope you never have to face the reality we did. We were NOT allowed to leave the terminal. We asked to leave and we were told if we did leave we would not be allowed to return. We sat on the floor because no chairs were provided. We were given no food,and finally water was provided after 5 hours. My daughter was bruised from being trampled in an attempt to get one of those bottles of water. Sandwiches were brought in after 7 hours for diabetics and children first. Two hours later sandwiches were provided for the rest of us. As far as the diapers, we were guaranteed our luggage by 8:00pm.

 

3) We were not allowed to use our cell phone or cameras while in the terminal. We were supervised by security at all times. While trying to call my parents I was approached by security and told to disconnect immediately or my phone would be confiscated. The pictures I took of the mayhem were asked to be deleted by security although I didn't.

 

4) Once on board at 11:00pm we were charged gratuity for the whole day. They were out of food on the pool deck already, there was no toilet paper in the bathrooms, there was no shampoo or soap in the rooms (it was not delivered until two days later), The carpet in our cabin was wet, and many areas of the ship were under construction (Golf, Pool bar, Water-slide, bar stools were broken, rusty water coming out of sink, etc.)

 

5) The weather was fine. We did not arrive in port on time due to time constraints. Many people missed their shore excursions. We saw the people who were thrown off the ship in Nassau. We were told to have no communication with them or we would be thrown off ourselves.

 

6) We did complain the first night but were told to take it up with corporate. After the stories we heard we were afriad to complain anymore while on board.

 

7) I appreciate all of your responses. However, I would like to hear the perceptions of fellow passengers from the Sensation on 3/23.

 

 

So you have absolutely no complaints about your cruise right? I've yet to see one. Just the preboarding situation. Of course once you leave you cant comeback and of course you cant use your cell phones that's commons sense and of course you had to pay your tips.

[cheekie]

Sugar Stick

Thanks for posting YOUR OPINION & EXPERIENCE... guess some people tend to forget the meaning of those 2 words...

 

But.. hey..what do I know...my post count is still fairly low.

 

Hope your next experience is better. ;)

[big_duck]

Of course once you leave you cant comeback

 

Why?

 

of course you cant use your cell phones that's commons sense

 

While true, I hardly think it is common sense or common knowledge.

 

of course you had to pay your tips.

 

Not true, should be paid, but not true.

 

edit: last sentance changed for clarity

[cruisecastle]

Why?

Security

 

 

While true, I hardly think it is common sense or common knowledge.

 

agains security

 

Not true, should be done, but not true.

Of course she has the right not to pay any tips as all passengers have that right. Don't expect the cruise line to do it for you though just remove them yourself. I think that's a ridiculous response to a pre-boarding situation however but that's just me. I'm not into stiffing hard workers from 3rd world countries

[Cruising89143]

So you have absolutely no complaints about your cruise right? I've yet to see one. Just the preboarding situation. Of course once you leave you cant comeback and of course you cant use your cell phones that's commons sense and of course you had to pay your tips.

 

A pre boarding situation that could be been prevented if Carnival had the ship ready to sail. It wasn't the passengers that failed the safety inspection.

[salty dingo]

I think everyone agrees Carnival should have had the Sensation in ship-shape before boarding. That did not happen. Now the question is: what could Carnival have done differently during the delay and during the cruise, and what should Carnival do now?

 

Some would say they have already done enough, others may say nothing short of a full refund of the entire cruise would be acceptable. That is one of the meaningful topics of debate here.

 

Another topic would be: did Carnival know the ship would need more time to get ready -- what did they know and when did they know it? What could the responses be?

• Tell passengers to arrive a day late (not feasible in my opinion)
  
• Cancel the cruise (a huge waste if there is any alternative)
  
• Make the best of it

Give me the sea and a bottle of liquor and I am happy as a clam. I sleep under the stars, eat whatever they give me, and be thankful I could be there. I don't care if the pool is not open. I won't compain if some carpet is wet. I am sure others require more than I do. But my point has always been that Carnival is a basic, mass-market line. You take your chances and get what you pay for.

[Brenda Bell]

I can'nt get my housework done because I'm unable to get off of this board. I'm sorry that everyone had a bad time on the sensation ship. Only the people that was on the ship can tell us what we want to know and it may not be what we want to hear. But it give me a ideas of what is ahead for me in June.

Again, thank you Martyfan for your post it was helpful.

[big_duck]

Why?

Security

 

 

While true, I hardly think it is common sense or common knowledge.

 

agains security

 

Not allowing people to come and go had nothing to do with security, it had to do with containing the situation and ensuring people were in place when boarding was to commence. Anyone who did leave would only be required to pass the security checkpoint when returning.

 

As for the cell phone thing, I didn't know about that until this thread started. The policy is not written anywhere that I can find.

 

Of course we know (now) that the ship wasn't ready to sail, and we know (now) that the refurbishment period wasn't long enough. Carnival has been scheduling drydocks for like 30 years, so I think they are pretty good at knowing how long something like this should take (the same could be said about RCI and the Sovereign).

 

Once the problems were obvious, Carnival had a choice to make: "sail or no sail" (I slay me LOL). I would like to hear from the OP or others on the cruise what there HONEST NO 20/20 HINDSITE answer would be if they walked up to check-in and were told that because the ship wasn't ready there cruise was cancelled.

[Cruising89143]

Not allowing people to come and go had nothing to do with security, it had to do with containing the situation and ensuring people were in place when boarding was to commence. Anyone who did leave would only be required to pass the security checkpoint when returning.

 

As for the cell phone thing, I didn't know about that until this thread started. The policy is not written anywhere that I can find.

 

Of course we know (now) that the ship wasn't ready to sail, and we know (now) that the refurbishment period wasn't long enough. Carnival has been scheduling drydocks for like 30 years, so I think they are pretty good at knowing how long something like this should take (the same could be said about RCI and the Sovereign).

 

Once the problems were obvious, Carnival had a choice to make: "sail or no sail" (I slay me LOL). I would like to hear from the OP or others on the cruise what there HONEST NO 20/20 HINDSITE answer would be if they walked up to check-in and were told that because the ship wasn't ready there cruise was cancelled.

 

Don, I used my cell phone back in December down in Miami while waiting to get on the ship inside of the terminal. Many others were also doing the same thing. I have never heard of this and if that was the case no one from RCI said anything to any of us and there was a security person standing right there by us at the escalator. There was a sign for not taking photos. Carnival was more than likely trying to keep anyone from contacting the news agencies.

[martdm]

I'm not going to flame you :D But I hope you don't take this the wrong way... I'm not sure if it is the color, or the font, but your post is extremely difficult to read :( Maybe it's just me... but I couldn't get past the first 2 lines... Please don't be offended :o

 

I agree completely...I don't know why people feel the need to use anything other than the standard typeface of the message board because it only makes their posts very hard to read. Use of paragraph spacing might help as well in this case.

[GoinCruisin]

Hey guys... I have seen signs in every terminal (Tampa, Miami, New Orleans and PC so far) that state "no cell phones or cameras inside the terminal"... I have also in every cruise, seen someone yelled at for using their phone, me being one of those people, and one of our great hosts as well :p One of my business partners was scolded in the PC terminal last month, 3 times :o They told him the 3rd time they should have taken the phone, but he sweet talked his way out of it...;)

[martyfan]

I think everyone agrees Carnival should have had the Sensation in ship-shape before boarding. That did not happen. Now the question is: what could Carnival have done differently during the delay and during the cruise, and what should Carnival do now?

 

Some would say they have already done enough, others may say nothing short of a full refund of the entire cruise would be acceptable. That is one of the meaningful topics of debate here.

 

Another topic would be: did Carnival know the ship would need more time to get ready -- what did they know and when did they know it? What could the responses be?

• Tell passengers to arrive a day late (not feasible in my opinion)
  
• Cancel the cruise (a huge waste if there is any alternative)
  
• Make the best of it

Give me the sea and a bottle of liquor and I am happy as a clam. I sleep under the stars, eat whatever they give me, and be thankful I could be there. I don't care if the pool is not open. I won't compain if some carpet is wet. I am sure others require more than I do. But my point has always been that Carnival is a basic, mass-market line. You take your chances and get what you pay for.

 

Here's what they could have/should have done:

 

1) I'm not sure when the ship actually arrived in Port Canaveral. Even though the ship was to have sailed on Thursday, it was in port on Wednesday. A private party was held for travel agents on the Sensation on Wednesday. The inspection should have taken place PRIOR to this private party on WEDNESDAY (or preferably....where ever this ship was held in dry dock prior to arriving in Port Canaveral.)

 

2) Carnival should have done a better job at communicating what was happening and what progress was being made. All we were told was "I don't know what it going on, I don't know why it is taking so long."

 

I understand the captain was probably busy with the CG inspection, but how about sending one of the officers or the CD out to make a general announcement along the lines of "We're doing an inspection, there are some things that need to be fixed, they're being worked on right now." An hour later or so come out again and just give everyone a progress report. (What's been fixed, what's left, etc.) That might have gone over a little better than "I don't know."

 

One other thing they could have done was to steal an idea from the airlines and made up individual lunch bags consisting of a sandwich, cookie, a piece of fruit, and a bottle of water and passing them out in an orderly fashion so that EVERYONE got something rather than bringing out the sandwich trays and cases of coke. People were grabbing entire CASES of cokes and water and HANDFULS of sandwiches.

[GoinCruisin]

Of course she has the right not to pay any tips as all passengers have that right. Don't expect the cruise line to do it for you though just remove them yourself. I think that's a ridiculous response to a pre-boarding situation however but that's just me. I'm not into stiffing hard workers from 3rd world countries

 

I would never stiff a worker as well (not all are from 3rd world countries though, by your logic, it's okay to stiff them right?)... but people weren't on the ship until 11PM... why should they pay a full day of tips, when they didn't use any of the dining facilities, their room did not have to be made up again or anything, no cleaning, etc. I think the cruise line should pay the employees extra for days like that and not make the customers make up for it. They didn't utilize the service. They were on the ship for an hour of the day. I wouldn't have reduced the tips, but I can see why people would feel awkward about this.

[big_duck]

Here's what they could have/should have done:

 

1) I'm not sure when the ship actually arrived in Port Canaveral. Even though the ship was to have sailed on Thursday, it was in port on Wednesday. A private party was held for travel agents on the Sensation on Wednesday. The inspection should have taken place PRIOR to this private party on WEDNESDAY (or preferably....where ever this ship was held in dry dock prior to arriving in Port Canaveral.)

 

2) Carnival should have done a better job at communicating what was happening and what progress was being made. All we were told was "I don't know what it going on, I don't know why it is taking so long."

 

I understand the captain was probably busy with the CG inspection, but how about sending one of the officers or the CD out to make a general announcement along the lines of "We're doing an inspection, there are some things that need to be fixed, they're being worked on right now." An hour later or so come out again and just give everyone a progress report. (What's been fixed, what's left, etc.) That might have gone over a little better than "I don't know."

 

One other thing they could have done was to steal an idea from the airlines and made up individual lunch bags consisting of a sandwich, cookie, a piece of fruit, and a bottle of water and passing them out in an orderly fashion so that EVERYONE got something rather than bringing out the sandwich trays and cases of coke. People were grabbing entire CASES of cokes and water and HANDFULS of sandwiches.

 

I yanked this from another thread:

 

I have friends who know the inside story. This is her story;

 

The Coast Guard inspectors apparently in response to the recent cruise ship fire conducted a long and extensive inspection. They did this the day of the cruise rather than the day before when the ship came to port. They found another of issues and it can be debated whether these issues would have been brought up had the fire not occured. The ship also just had an inspection after the renovation and these things passed.

 

CCL tried to bring food and water off the ship and whatever government controlling entity is in charge of overseeing the food said no. CCL had to go off terminal to get this.

 

I don't know if the part about the CG is true or not, but it sounds plausible; especially given that this was immediatly after the Star incident.

[martyfan]

[quote name='big_duck']I yanked this from another thread:



I don't know if the part about the CG is true or not, but it sounds plausible; especially given that this was immediatly after the Star incident.[/quote]

There was a travel agent standing in line with us. She actually called the owner of her travel agency and was told by that person that the CG was "probably being extra critical due to the fire on board the Princess earlier that day". (None of us knew anything about the Princess prior to this phone call.)

As for the food, not sure about that. We were standing/sitting at the window in the terminal and could see what/who was boarding the ship and what/who was coming off. The food and drink we received came directly from the ship. We did hear, however, that pizzas and hamburgers were ordered from offsite vendors (ie Wendy's and Dominos) for the people standing outside the terminal.

[echo]

"I agree with you completely. It amazes me that many people lower their expectations and make poor excuses for bad planning, service and execution of a promise. Taking these things as the norm just breeds worse service and performance. Stand up for wanting what you are expecting and the cruise lines will have to conform.

This situation sounds like a mess of Carnival's own making."


I agree

[salty dingo]

[quote name='echo']Stand up for wanting what you are expecting and the cruise lines will have to conform.[/quote]

Have you tried that attitude with the airlines lately? When they delay or cancel a flight? How far did "standing up for your beliefs" get you? People want low costs, which often means low service. Then they complain about bad service.

I agree people should expect good service. But once problems happen, complaining about what "should have" and "could have" been done serves little purpose. Carnival knows they messed up and probably lost some business for good. What good does kicking and screaming about it now do? Let's have some constructive criticism instead.

[K.T.B.]

Under the circumstances, I think security could have allowed passengers to call and inform their families of the situation. Every single time I've boarded the ship, the second thing I do (I head to the buffet first :) I have my priorities you know!) is call family and friends to let them know we're safe & sound. Plus it's fun to tell them we're aboard and in the sun.... :D

[Cruise, J.D.]

To the OP, thank you for taking the time to relate your experience. I am sorry for the terrible way your cruise started. It looks like to me you were the victim of several factors outside your control, i.e., (1) a rushed return to service of the Sensation, (2) an unusually aggressive Coast Guard inspection, and (3) lack of an acceptable response to the situation by the port authorities and Carnival.

Fortunately, your experience is rare, but it does not deserve to be discounted by those who defend Carnival at all costs. I loved my experience on the Carnival Conquest, but I can see how your experience at the terminal would affect the remainder of your cruise. Most humans are not robots who can instantly turn on the "fun" button after a miserable situation has passed.

If you desire a response from Carnival, I suggest you write a detailed letter citing specific instances of conduct you find unacceptable. I would relate facts rather than conclusions. The more detail you provide, the more credible your letter will appear. I hope Carnival can provide a satisfactory resolution to you, I don't think you will get a free cruise, but if you do, GREAT!