This happened before the riot occurred. So an infirmary doesn’t carry instant ice bags for injuries? How is that possible? What a joke.

The staff in some areas was awful. Prior to the riot we asked for a wait person at the adult pool why a plate of leftover fruit rinds was left out for 3 1/2 hours in the sun. Answers – Rudeness. First person said sure and walked away. Second one said it was because they were short staffed.

I do agree the people on the boat from NY were quite hostile . But the crew was responsible for setting the tone and they did from the start. Rude and nasty.

My next carnival will not be the boat. Never again.

Those that were great at service I gave tips to directly. My waiter was awesome, as was my bartender. I had a good rapport with the staff who made up the room as well.

However, Room Service was horrendous. Anyone who finally answered the phones was rude. The food wasn’t great. It was ok. The shows I did attend were fair.

****Please note I don’t complain once about the ports. ****

I enjoyed Freeport with my family. It only rained on one side of the island for a short time so we had a great time on the beach for a couple of hours. We also enjoyed the shopping for a couple of hours.

I do not think that paying $1500 for a trip should entitle me to step into an elevator that reeks of urine!

As I’ve already mentioned, the food was not consistent at all. You can’t serve undercooked ribs and fish or meat that is completely dried out. I’m not a snob but I know when I’m being served bad food.
The service on the ship was absolutely horrible. I was one of the only people out on the outside decks at night (most people stayed inside because of the wind) and there were plenty of food trays, cups etc.. still on the deck. On any other ship I have been on, everything was cleaned and removed constantly.
I kept seeing trays of food on the inside decks and most had been there since morning. This is not a way to run a ship.
Once again, Norwegian was 10 times better than Carnival and NCL is not even a “luxury” cruise line. I have been on other cruise lines such as Royal Carribean but if we get into that comparison, Carnival will get crushed.

I repeat that it was not just the fact that the itinerary was changed that made people upset but rather a COMPILATION of things.

The fact that the captain does not make the decisions (is he not in command of the vessel after all?) makes no difference whatsoever. The highest ranking officer on the ship should not say things like “the women should not complain because they won’t have to cook and clean for 8 days”. That is not only sexist but extremely unproffessional from someone in his position.

Even if Bermuda was not an option, we could have gone somewhere else.

ON THE OTHER HAND, IF THE SHIP HAD ENGINE PROBLEMS, THE DECENT THING TO DO WOULD HAVE BEEN TO CANCEL THE TRIP ENTIRELY.
OF COURSE THE TIGHTWADS AT CARNIVAL WOULD NEVER GO FOR THAT….

I DON’T UNDERSTANDHOW SOME PEOPLE WHO WERE ON THE SHIP STILL CAN’T FIGURE OUT THAT WE’VE ALL BEEN ROYALLY SCR–ED.

FYI – I knew about the ships engine problems back when they switched from Tortola to Grand Turk. Secondly, I disagree with you about the captain. The “suckers” comment refered to the hurricanes coming through ike and Josephine…and he said we have some more of these suckers to deal with next week. The staff was attacked at every turn from people – I was there and saw how horribly they were treating people that didn’t make any of the decision. How would you feel if you got attacked and verbally assulted for days on end.

Lastly, do you really think the captain makes these decisions?? The corporate offices has to tell him where to go.

BOTTOM LINE – if you want to get to your ports don’t go this time of year….and let those of us who really don’t care enjoy the trip no matter where it takes us.

AS PER HIM “THAT WOULD BE OUT OF THE WAY…”

HE COULD HAVE VERY WELL WENT AROUND IT. HE DECIDED NOT TO. IT WAS SIMPLY ONE BAD CHOICE AFTER ANOTHER. SAN JUAN WAS NEVER EVEN HIT! AND ONCE THE ENTIRE BOAT KNEW THIS HIS RESPONSE “HOW COULD WE PREDICT IT…”

THE ONLY MISTAKE I SEE WAS PUTTING HIM IN CHARGE

Second off – Everyone on the boat had a diffrent “story”. no one had anyidea what the hell was going on. COMPLETLY A MESS!

I understand totally about the weather but come on! a company this big! not having any “backup” plan?! to take us to RHODE ISLAND?! THATS A JOKE!

AND ON TOP OF IT ALL!

After much digging, I managed to get some inside information from an insider at Carnival Operations Centre. The reason we never made a run for San Juan, St Thomas, and Grand Turk had nothing to do with sailing into the Hurricane or through the tail of it. As had been reported months earlier, there is a problem with the Miracles engines that affected the vessel’s top speed. The isuue was the return leg to New York. As we all know Hurrican Hannah moved up the East Coast, and hit New York on Saturday. The folks at Carnival were worried that the ship would have been moving up the coast to New York with the storm/Hurricane seeing that we were due in New York on Saturday as well, and that the ship would not have been able to outrun it at the current top speed. The only safe option was to send the ship up the coast a day earlier to avoid traveling with the Hurricane, which is the unfortunate reason that we had to go to Rhode Island and not say Virginia or Bermuda.

Yes taking the tips away to everyone was a HORRIBLE move…. but to the captian and his people….HORRIBLE!

As far as bermuda….we talked to some of the staff and even the captain mentioned that we couldn’t go to bermuda because there were already 2 ships in port. Carnival also doesn’t have a contract this time of year with bermuda and we didn’t have priority. I heard 800 times that we could tender in….BERMUDA didn’t want us!! We can’t just go there and say were here.

As far as Hanna – that storm did weird stuff and it was really large. I really think they were hoping it would pick up speed and get out of our way and it didn’t and we couldn’t get around it. I don’t know I just think that if you choose to travel this time of year this can happen. If you let it ruin your trip then that sucks for you.

It’s not the core argument of your post, but your sweeping generalizations here beg for clarification.

While “Hurricane season” sweeps over almost half the year — actually from June 1st to November 30th — the storm activity peaks, and is exponentially worse, in August and September; almost no major hurricanes (Cat 3+) ever occur outside of this period. Cruising through the tropics in those months is virtually a guarantee of itinerary change, and is why staterooms tend to be cheaper during this period.

Further, peak time for Caribbean cruises is between the start of Christmas school break and the end of Easter break — which is why several ships head to Europe and elsewhere between May and September. Your “ALMOST EVERYONE” statement could not be more incorrect, related to cruising in the Caribbean.

This is just another thing that reinforces my conviction that they stopped in Port Canaveral, Freeport and Rhode Island in ordet to save money.