My experience on the Carnival Triumph 10/13

[master029]

Hello All,

 

I just wanted to share a letter which I am mailing to the customer service department. I don't expect anything in return, but I think it is important for them to be aware.

 

10/26/2007

 

 

To Whom It May Concern:

 

 

I am writing this letter because I feel it is important that you receive customer feedback.

 

I was onboard the Carnival Triumph 10/13/07 sailing. My stateroom was Cabin #9215 on the Lido Deck. This was my fourth Carnival cruise and I must say I enjoyed every moment of it (except one, read below)!

 

I felt that the Triumph is a beautiful ship. From the décor to the clubs/rooms/casino available on Promenade Deck 5, the facilities were perfect. I was kept entertained from the moment I woke up until the very late hours of the night and this is truly why I continue to sail on Carnival. The staff (with the exception of my cabin steward) were some of the friendliest I have encountered on all of my cruises. The waiters, bar waiters, hotel stewards, photographers, and entertainment staff were superb. I would also like to personally thank the Maitre D’ in the London Dining Room, as well as his Assistant Maitre D’ on the lower level and Galina the hostess. All of them helped make my cruise a very special and memorable vacation.

 

Unfortunately, I did have one negative experience that I feel is very important I share with you. I had an inside cabin and located to the right of my door (when facing it) was a septic locker. Upon boarding I did smell a septic odor coming from it, but decided to ignore it, figuring it had to do with being in port and it would work itself out. However, it went from a minor odor/inconvenience to an absolute foul smelling one.

 

On Day 2, I approached my cabin steward (whom I still hadn’t formally met), and I asked her to look into the smell coming from this locker. She said that she was already aware of it and would make a report. I said thank you and continued on my way. This is my vacation and the last thing I wanted to do was complain! During the summer, I am the Director of Operations are children’s overnight summer camp in Pennsylvania and one of the many areas I deal with is septic. So, the last thing I wanted to be dealing with was septic onboard this ship!

 

The odor continued to worsen and after talking to the steward and the assistant housekeeping manager about the problem once each day, I decided to phone the pursers office on Day 5. By this point, the smell was unfortunately emanating into my cabin (as the steward had actually commented on) and there was a stench of urine coming from this closet right outside (and inside) my cabin. The steward masked it as best should could inside my cabin and I spoke to the purser’s desk. An initial report was made and nothing was resolved. I kindly asked to speak to the purser supervisor, who at the time was Radka. She was extremely friendly and professional and she actually came up to outside my cabin with the plumbers to rectify the situation. Later on in the day, I saw her during her time off on the Promenade and she came up to me and informed me that they fixed whatever was wrong and she had asked Housekeeping to steam clean the carpet and the walls. When I returned to my cabin that evening, the foul odor was back.

 

On Day 6, I once again went down to the purser’s office (spent about 20 minutes there) and Radka accompanied me to my cabin. She was extremely embarrassed that nobody was responding to her repeated pages and assured me she would speak to the plumbing supervisor and get this resolved. In addition, Radka did send me a bottle of champagne, which was extremely nice and thoughtful on her part. Once again, unfortunately nothing was resolved and on Day 7 we left the ship.

 

I must say that this left a bad taste in my mouth for Carnival. I understand things happen and things certainly go wrong. I understand that we are on a ship with 3,000 passengers in the middle of the ocean and things go wrong and need to be fixed. However, I believe there is no excuse for why I need to smell a septic odor my entire cruise. Why nothing was done about this earlier in the week, boggles my mind. Furthermore, my cabin steward had told me that this was occurring previous weeks and had been a known issue with no resolution in sight. She almost found it comical that this was occurring and seemed extremely disinterested in getting this issue fixed. I did not want to spend time during my vacation communicating with the pursers, visiting their desk, phoning them, etc. and was forced to do this due to the foul odor.

 

I hope that by the time you receive this letter, the problem was fixed although I am not so confident that it was. You truly have an environmental issue when the passengers are able to smell urine and feces outside and inside their cabin from a septic locker.

 

I would appreciate the opportunity to speak to someone further about this. Again, I would like to reaffirm that I have enjoyed the past 4 Carnival cruises and this is the first time I have ever felt the need to write a letter. I am not one who tends to complain a lot, whine, and get upset, because it is vacation and I am very easy going. If something goes wrong, I deal with it and go with the flow. However, this was unacceptable from a company as great as Carnival and must be resolved.

 

Thank you for your time. I can be reached at XXX-XXX-XXXX or by email at XXXXX@gmail.com.

[Glama]

I think your letter was very well written, concise, and to the point. I absolutely don't blame you for being upset over this issue, who wants to smell &%$# all week, on their vacation??? You did the right thing about complaining at the Pursers desk, they keep a record of customer complaints, and as Customer Service looks into this complaint, it will hold more merit because they will see that you tried to resolve it while on the ship.

 

I do hope you are compensated. We complained about an issue on our Glory cruise (our cabin was above the piano bar, we were kept up til 2:30am every morning), and were compensated with a $200 pp voucher on a future cruise. I'd take the piano bar over septic smell, anyday.

 

They probably already know this is a problem, and I'm hoping they do the right thing by you. Good luck.

[Stircrzy]

Thanks for posting your unpleasant experience, and please let us know what Carnival's response is!

 

I hope I would have handled things as calmly as you did!

[Minn.cruisers]

Oh. my.

I have been seeing a few posts stating a foul smell on those decks.

I sure hope it is resolved by the time we cruise in Dec. We are on deck 10, and odor has a way of going UP.

Hopefully you get credit for all the trouble you went through, if not offered, ask...and make sure you get it.

[sandy toes]

Well written letter. Sorry for all your while on vacation PIA stuff. I hope CCL does offer you a nice OBC for a future sailing. I also hope they fix this problem as we will be sailing on the Triumph in 2 weeks. As Minn.cruisers stated, "...odor has a way of going UP". Our group will be in various places in ship on decks 9,10,11. One in 9211 a bal cabin across from your cabin!