Colleen F.

We have been on 42 cruises and 19 of them have been on Carnival. We have great memories with Carnival... traveling with friends and traveling with our children thru the years when they were young and now grown with families of their own. We experienced Carnival when it was at its height of popularity. The boats were unique with larger than usual rooms in the industry. The food was delicious and abundant; the entertainment was fun and varied, their casinos huge. Fast forward... we rarely choose Carnival and now probably wouldn't even consider it as an option. We began to see a decline in the ships as they aged. It appeared Carnival had their best staff on the newer ships and better leadership... so we began to only sail on Carnival on their new ships... now even that doesn't offer a good experience. A few years ago we went on the Breeze s(a new ship) and had a great experience! We thought maybe we would go back to Carnival more... but not any longer. We went on the Carnival Vista last month with a family of seven... included were 3 children ages 1 to 9. First the good things... the entertainment... which included evening musicals and Dr Seuss character breakfast were all outstanding! The Cruise Director was named Matt. Out of 42 cruises, he wins the award by far of the best one we have ever sailed with. He was everywhere and led everything, He started the sailing with dancing and music at the pool area. Young and old on 3 full decks looking down joined in. It was by far the best sailing ever. Most people just went to the decks to watch the boat leave port, but ended up dancing, laughing and smiling. Last, our cabin steward did a great job... but unfortunately, we were told by him that there were cutting the staff (keep in mind this is a full boat) and each team of 2 stewards would now be responsible for 32 rooms. I can imagine the Norwalk Virus will be an unwelcome effect from this cut back. It gets worse from here on... As a family, we dress and attend the main dining room. The food was poor, the wait staff just seemed to be going thru the motions... and not very well. One might think we would develop a rapport with waiters since we were there every night... you would think. They made no attempt to connect with us nor the children. Our children are used to dinners out and are well behaved and stay seated from start to finish. They have had great staff over the years but this staff confused them... they wouldn't really talk to the children at all nor did they try to tailor service to accommodate their age group. Next... THERE WAS NO BAR SERVICE! If we wanted a drink we had to find a bar on the way to dinner to get a drink to bring with us. I tried to get have our waiter get me a glass of wine... but I got it when I was having dessert. Also, bar waiters POOLSIDE were hard to find... we saw 3 our entire week! We had to go up to the bar ourselves. I don't know if this is the result of people buying the drink packages and Carnival wants to avoid having the liquor available or what the issue is. Is a self service draft beer where you have to swipe your card and pour up your own draft. It seems they have cut back their staff at lido buffet too... tables are full of dirty dishes and tables going out to the pool area are especially dirty. The staff seem dulled and lead me to conclude they are less than happy at their jobs. I know times have changed... heck, years ago there was a nightly midnight buffet night... then only one every cruise... then, a buffet luncheon once a cruise... now nothing. Room service was available free 24 hours with the full menu... now menu decreased after eight and there is now a service charge after 11! Lastly..., The casino... they have a non smoking section... which means nothing. The smoke is so thick and floats into the main dining room. It smells like an overfull ashtray. I was a smoker for 35 years but this is ridiculous. It's the only cruise line that I am aware of that still allows smoking in the casino... so I think possibly smokers choose this line because there is still smoking... and there is ALOT of smoke! It's difficult to demonstrate the decline of this cruse line but I hope I was able to portray some of the issues... one last tidbit... it probably seems small to most but... my granddaughters look forward to finding a chocolate on their pillow every night... and as you may have guessed by now... they were disappointed.

The worst customer service I have ever encountered! I would rate it lower if I could! We booked airfare to Rome. Months after we booked, the flight time were changed from a morning arrival to an evening, missing our train in Rome. Then the real hell begins... try to find a way to contact them. Their phone seems to be a closely guarded secret... after 2 EChat (which thank goodness I kept the transcript from) I was finally able to speak to a live person. A refund was supposed to be given... but EBooker said the airline gives it... that is not how it works... EBooker apparently issued us 11 tickets instead of 3.8 of them were blank. They never communicated the refund correctly. I am left with 11 ticket numbers. The airlines and my credit card company are stepping in to help get the refund. The airlines administration actually said it was so screwed up that they would help me themselves. Never again... book directly with th airlines!