Carnival Cruise Line Reviews 453

Carnival Magic: The barely functional rust bucket of the sea

My husband I spent $2,600 on an 8-day cruise on Carnival Magic from February 24th to March 3rd, which turned out to be the worst vacation we have ever taken. This was our first cruise every and we will never cruise again. We were left feeling unsafe and uncomfortable. Carnival should be ashamed for how broken and rusty this ship is and how they have trained the majority of their staff. Carnival promises FUN, which was hard to find on any day on this cruise. Carnival owes refunds for the experience it provided.

Water Damage: Upon arriving on the ship and heading to our stateroom, the first thing we experienced was a water leak outside our room, with water running down the walls of the hall. Leaks happen, but not a single day went by where we didn’t notice leaks on multiple levels of the deck, including a leak my sister’s statement halfway through the cruise. The water damage is evident in many places and rust is unsightly and dangerous in specific areas if you aren’t wearing shoes.

Stateroom Issues: We struggled to report issues unless we were able to physically find someone to report as our stateroom phone did not work (it didn’t work the whole cruise despite stating it was broken). Our toilet seat was broken only to be replaced with a seat that wouldn’t stay open. The bathroom door didn’t lock, the sink water sprayed the whole bathroom if you turned it on, and the plugs were so loose, most adapters and plugs just fell out if not propped up with items. The balcony was covered in areas of rust (watch your feet!) and the balcony divider was broken, so even the gentlest wind would send it flying open into our balcony furniture and waking us up in the middle of the night. Our TV remote was broken and most of the functions reversed when we could get it to properly turn on.

Ship Features: We opted to pay for the chat feature, as our party was 8 people and it was would be important to stay in communication. I found other reviews on this after the trip and most folks are in agreement that it works about 40% of the time, with Wi-Fi being constantly disconnected, unavailable or messages being delivered HOURS after they were sent or simply never delivered. There was no enforcement of the majority of the no smoking areas, even when reported, so you could pretty much smell smoke on most parts of the ship. There were never enough chairs for people on the ship, so you could spend hours trying to find a place to lay down if you wanted to relax. The 21 and over Serenity deck was simply people holding places to lay (and often people not returning for hours), so you were never able to find a place to relax there either. We were on the 7th floor, which was outfitted with 3 washers, with only 1 washer ever working at any moment, creating an hours long back up of people wanting to wash clothes. Hours upon hours spent trying to find working items to only be met with long lines as everyone was funneled to what was working. On several days, the upper decks smelled like sewage, but we never found out why or what the problem was.

Ship Staff: We had only a couple highlights here, mostly because our stateroom attendant was incredible. However, the majority of the staff are trained to upsell over making customers feel comfortable. The alcohol upsells in the dining room were incredibly uncomfortable, to the point, we didn’t go as often as we wanted, because we didn’t want to constantly hassled multiple times by the same person every meal despite saying NO. We went to the first art auction because we wanted to experience it as well as enjoy some of the incredible art on the ship. But once the art auctioneers knew our names and stateroom, it was an onslaught of harassment to come back and try to convince us to spend money, even after saying NO. We eventually stopped walking anywhere near the art to avoid this staff.

People: We met some very nice people on the ship, but it was overshadowed by inappropriate behavior, including anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. I was no prepared for profanity on t-shirts and angry political discourse. We even experienced a drunk individual was policing who could enter a hot tub (spoiler: you had to be Republican to enter), as well as a group of individuals yelling about LGBTQ individuals being pedophiles and anti-trans rhetoric (I won’t go into the disgusting details here).

Did not get one night of sleep! Two cabins across from us had low class thug “LSU and Alabama football players” (per them, haha LIES). Loud and obnoxious ALL hours of the night, especially around 2AM when the club closed. And don’t forget all of the little thots coming in and out of the room all night long. All of them were using profanity and even racial slurs. We called front desk MULTIPLE times and they did put a person at the end of our hall. That was a waste of time because the thugs would just talk back and do as they please in the hall way. The first night we called guest services at 3am, someone came down, knocked on the thugs door and told them we were the ones that complained. Very upset about this because I literally felt threatened every time I walked out of my room, not knowing what the thugs would do in retaliation.
Carnival cruise is definitely the least expensive cruise line but just remember,
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!!
We will never waste our money on a carnival cruise again!

The food was mediocre at best. Amenities were not kept up-to-date, jacuzzi was lukewarm, water slide was broken.

Most frustratingly, I purchased 2 Premium Wi-Fi passes prior to sailing ($170) because we had scheduled our mornings for work and Zoom meetings. Their "Premium" Wi-Fi was anything but and I could barely send an email, let alone take a Zoom call. Guest services was unhelpful and stated I needed to reach out to Customer Service after the cruise was over. I was unable to do any of my scheduled work during the week of the cruise nor take any meetings, which had a domino effect after coming back.

After sailing, I reached out to the Customer Service team and explained the issue. They refunded $60. I lost a lot more than $110, as there were significant delays and consequences with work after the fact. Won't be sailing with Carnival ever again.

gary anderko with carnival cruise went out of his way to try to help us. In the day of no customer service I must say it was pleasure to work with him

Reservation hold beware … I made a reservation with Carnival & received a booking number. I asked for a reservation hold so I could pay the following day.

Less than 24 hours later while I was placing my credit card info on their website, without warning I found my reservation canceled.

I called customer service and attempted to pay over the phone only to find out they gave my reservation away.

I asked to speak with a manager and told him Carnival was not honoring their 24 hour hold. I was literally trying to make payment when they canceled the reservation from underneath me.

I was told there was nothing he can do & they had a complete booking. When asked why Carnival was not honoring their 24 hour hold I wasn’t given a straight answer.

Carnival has no interest in making it right for a customer when they screwed up! My gut tells me this the norm with them. Read other reviews before booking.

As a seasoned Carnival cruiser, we've been at this for over 20 years. It seems Carnival is heading south again. It seems to come in waves. Buckle up for the ride...
Upon arrival to LongBeach parking terminal, there was a line to get into the parking structure. The parking ticket machine had run out of tickets. Asking the attendant monitoring ingress to the structure, he stopped me ; "Wait! where you goin?" I advised the cruise. Looks like they are hiring the thugs that had been rejected from San Pedro ports of call.

Parked the vehicle and off to luggage check in. Another thug advises "over here guy" as he was too lazy to get the bags. He also advised "tips were welcome." Not trying to ruin my first impression and to not have him rob me, I gave him a couple bucks.

We were early for checkin; about 1 hour, so we waited by the outer court area. Other groups would be whisked in by us that did not seem handicapped. Dont know what that was about. Finally our turn to embark. It went reasonably smoothly....

On the ship; Carnival Panorama, has updated elevators that seem a bit confusing. You waken up a tower and pick the floor you want. The tower then speaks and shows you a letter designating a certain elevator headed to your location. Unsure how efficient this is but I'm sure someone did the numbers.

Checking into the room, the room attendant NEVER bothered to introduce himself to us. According to his business card, his name is I Made. Yes you heard me right, as in I am a Maid. My wife asked for a "Do not Disturb" sign and the attendant barked "Hold on ill get it!" Later when we never received a sign, she asked again. He barked off "Wait a second, ill get it!".

Well my wife filed a complaint at the front Customer Service Desk. This is when the retaliation began. Room was always not 100%. He would give us the "evil eye" unless people or his bosses were around. It made for a miserable 8 day trip.

I attempted to get another room but CS advised there were no other rooms. I did however get another person to clean our room. We decided to have minimal cleaning as we did not trust this guy I Made to spit in our water.

Enough of "I Made", the food on the boat seemed on par as usual. The "help" were extra rude this time. I love to tip but it was a struggle to tip even a couple of Waiters. They were either lazy/ stupid or ignorant. Our table told the waiter we were just having water to drink. He never came back thinking we only wanted water. Good grief.

Barking to another waiter asking for direction, he just walked away. I'm thinking they are short staffed because this was rediculous.

The shows; Comedy was failing and we didn't bother with the "vaudville" shows as they are mostly pathetic. We came with family as a couple in our group had never been on a cruise.

Disembarkation; Was a cluster. Up for a sit down breakfast. I found one waitress that smiled and gave her 20 bucks. That's it; they all seemed to not want to be there. Everyone around us eating seemed to have a cold as they were coughing and miserable. Heard about all the EMF on the boats tend to make people sick. It was quite sad.

Well after breakfast it was into a line to disembark. Getting our luggage and getting back into line to exit was a cluster as well.

Out to the parking lot and security, who barley speaks english tries to direct us to the staging area to load up our luggage.

In short ... Never again... In long...NEEVVVERRR AGGAIINNNNNN...

We missed our shore excursion and were told getting a refund would be no problem. We stupidly disembarked without getting the refund (almost $500) and now they won't honor their word. Nothing! They apologize profusely, but because we can't produce the excursion papers they brought to our room before the excursion, they say we must have used them. I threw them away as soon as I got back to the room, thinking they weren't important anymore, so word to the wise, if they give you any papers, keep them!!! Or just skip sailing with Carnival period, the food is NOT good anymore, and their integrity is in the toilet!!! We won't be using them in the future and we tell everyone we talk to about vacations, not to use them either!

February 4-11 Australia.
Very disappointed cruise. Very cheap and not caring. No fun. No performance. Rude comedian. Horrible food (I am a chef). No independent restaurants. Some Staff passive aggressive (not happy). Room and a balcony with a view was only a pleasure. DJ’s looks like self made and not professional starting at 11.30pm when I am sleeping. Cruise director young self indulgent unprofessional. As I said only the ocean view made our trip enjoyable. Carnival a cheap embarrassment for red necks and bogans. Never again!

Dont waste your money! We went on a cruise to the Bahamas and Bimini and because of the horrible weather most of the outside movie (only theatre) was canceled. We didnt get to go to the second port which was Bimini( the reason why we chose that cruise) because of the bad weather so they reimbursed us a whole $5 per person! Wow! Thanks Carnival clown service! To bring our kids to their teen club we had to walk thru a smoke filled casino and no one on crew could tell us an alternate way around to the club. We found it on our own after the 3rd time filling my young kid’s lungs with horrible smoke from passengers. All the inside activities were so packed full of people there was almost never a seat to sit and enjoy non gambling things like trivia. Absolutely the worst cruise line ever! We’ll never return. And once we filled their garbage survey, no one reached out! You’d be better off with renting a row boat and drinking dirty water then go on any carnival cruise!

Carnival Cruise Chaos: Paid Twice, Cabin Cancelled & ZERO Refund! #Help!
Carnival Splendour - Departing 28 March 2024

Planning my daughter's 21st birthday cruise with Carnival was meant to be magical, but it's become a frustrating and frankly, outrageous experience. Here's what happened:

Double Payment Debacle: Initially, payment for our cabins went through smoothly. Then, a technical glitch on Carnival's end with PayPal caused my bank to release the funds, even though Carnival claimed they never received them. To secure our reservations, I had to pay twice, essentially throwing money into a black hole while waiting for the first payment to magically reappear (spoiler alert: it never did).

Random Cabin Cancellation: As if double payment wasn't enough, get this: one of our cabins was randomly cancelled due to that "missing" refund! When I reached out for clarification, they claimed it was linked to the bank dispute caused by their own glitchy system. Unbelievable!

More Money, More Problems: After countless phone calls and emails, they "reinstated" the cancelled cabin, but demanded another payment. So, to recap, I've now paid twice for one cabin and they still haven't returned the initial payment!

Endless Emails, Calls, and ZERO Progress: Despite endless communication attempts, emails, and hours on the phone, I'm still stuck waiting for the refund and facing the possibility of a cancelled cabin. The stress of this ordeal is overshadowing what should be a joyful celebration for my daughter.

Is this really how Carnival treats its customers? This isn't a dream vacation, it's a Carnival nightmare. #CarnivalFail #CruiseChaos #Help!

P.S. Sharing this story to hold Carnival accountable and hopefully prevent others from experiencing the same mess. Stay tuned for updates!

Back in August I booked a cruise to the Bermuda. Because of hurricane Franklin Carnival rerouted our cruise. I understand that Carnival can't control the weather but it seems that they didn't put a whole lot of thought in making us whole. We went to all the roughest spots in the Bahamas and was given a $200 on board credit. They laid out food that wasn't covered and bugs were flying all around the food that wasn't fit to eat. I've taken several Carnival cruises but this was by far the worst cruise ever.

My husband and I embarked on a Carnival Dream cruise for our honeymoon from January 27 to February 2, 2024, anticipating a delightful experience. While the overall journey offered commendable aspects, it's imperative to highlight a significant disappointment in customer service, which marred our experience. Regrettably, our interaction with the spa manager, Naomi—a blonde British lady—was far from pleasant. Despite our genuine inquiry for an itemized receipt, following an overcharge at the spa, Naomi's response was not only dismissive but shockingly inappropriate. Her public questioning of our casino expenditures in front of other guests was unprofessional and deeply humiliating.

Moreover, a simple request to cancel an appointment resulted in the cancellation of all our bookings, accompanied by a dismissive remark that left us astonished. As a disabled veteran seeking relief for chronic pain, this disregard for our appointments was particularly disheartening. Efforts to escalate our concerns were met with resistance, and the lack of a sincere apology from higher management was disconcerting.

While Carnival offered a $150 gift card as compensation, our request was for a meaningful resolution to the oversight—an apology, a refund, or appropriate compensation. After persistent discussions, a $150 credit was reluctantly applied to our account, a gesture that fell short given our additional $2000 expenditure onboard.

This experience has led us to reconsider our patronage of Carnival. It serves as a reminder of the importance of empathy and professionalism in customer service, especially in the hospitality industry. Our hope is that Carnival will take this feedback to heart, ensuring no other guest endures such disappointment. The essence of hospitality lies in treating each guest with respect and dignity, something we hope will be reflected in Carnival's future practices.

Took a cruise last February and my wife left her cellphone in the room when we got back to home port. We contacted Carnival within a half hour of leaving the ship. We were told that we would hear from someone about the phone. We told them the location of the phone and they said file a claim. We did that and call for months with no response from Carnival Cruise personal at all. We have sailed with them on 6 trip. We had another trip booked for April last year and the state room had a loud noise they came to the room 4 times trying to fix it. They did not fix the problem nor move us to another room. They gave us a $100 room credit that was not the answer. We paid $2600 for the trip. Horrible Service

There is no option for a score of 0 so they get a 1.

My wife and I sailed on the Carnival Dream on December 2, 2023. On December 5 my wife was badly injured on the Lido deck of the boat. Here are my complaints/concerns:

• We were told by your security team that we would be provided a copy of the accident report. This has not happened.
• We were told by your security team that the event would be investigated applying facial recognition to try to identify the person who injured her.
• I have made calls to the number that your security team provided and only become frustrated. It seems if I was wanting to purchase a new cruise I would have had better luck talking to a person.
• My wife was badly misdiagnosed aboard the Dream. She was rightly told her left elbow was broken and dislocated. She was told her right wrist was badly sprained. This was false. The wright wrist was broken and dislocated. Sounds a lot like malpractice. This broken wrist was wrapped in an Ace bandage with no support.
• Gayle was given "Naxproxen" which is about the strength of Aleve according to her surgeon. Her pain was a level 10+.
• We were told there was not an ice pack on the ship. This is amazing!
• We were stranded on the Dream for an extra day because we were at Carnival's private island and there was no airport. While stranded on the boat there was not a single Carnival representative that made an appearance or showed any concern for our plight.
• When visiting Customer Service to arrange getting off the ship there was no effort to help with arrangements. We were simply told to be at the library the next morning at 6:30 AM with airline tickets and passports in hand. We were not even asked if we may need help with luggage.
• We were made to pay more than $700.00 for the poor medical care to be allowed to exit the boat.
• After sharing my displeasure on the survey, no responded.... nothing happened.
I could go on...............

Since being home my wife has had surgery on both arms. It is unknown if she will ever regain total flexibility of the elbow. The surgeon had to reassemble ten pieces of the bone. She is in for a very long recovery. Again, Carnival seems not to care.

Today, I am insisting that we are emailed a copy of the accident report we were promised with the results of the videos with facial recognition. I would also insist on a bit of compassion but I know that is probably not going to happen.

This letter was sent to guest services on January 8th, so far….. nothing.

We had a cruise scheduled for July 2022 we bought cruise protection and had to postpone due to positive Covid tests. We spoke to a Carnival Cruise representative who rescheduled our cruise for January 2023 they did not specify that more protection needed to be purchased only charging us the additional cost of cruising in January. When January rolled around my mother became very ill and had to have an unplanned surgery which prevented us from being able to go again. We just needed/wanted to book a later cruise and pay whatever additional fees we needed to pay and Carnival would not allow us to do this. We lost thousands of dollars even though we had documentation of purchasing cruise protection. We will never use Carnival again. We have sent email after email and phone call after phone call without any reply or help other than there is nothing we can do by someone with no authority.

I am a platinum cruiser and never been more disappointed as this cruise.
Sunshine out of Charleston.
Bar service was extremely slow.
Casino (most popular table) had no dealer for over 2 hours. When we asked supervisors they would walk away to find out (so they said) but never came back with an answer. They changed .any dealers at other tables. Finally told us they were short staffed. Explained this is when management needs to step up and deal. Food was a c-.
Organization on this cruise was very poor!
My travels will not be with Carnival anytime soon.

The casino is fraudulent steeling money from the carnival guests and customer service can’t do anything because it’s contracted out
They are showing on your casino app that you have money you go take it out and say you have no money on your card
They are saying the app is wrong but the card is write when speaking to the manager Eric he couldn’t even keep His poker face full of lies his face was beat red
They are keeping your winnings and won’t let you cash out so they are always winning
Lots of complaints people were saying the same thing that when they are getting their winnings they are saying there is no money this is fraudulent and they don’t care because they are on open waters
Carnival Venezia from New York dec 28 2023

Terrible. Not honouring our cruise credits, despite them canceling and changing our cruise 4 TIMES. We have lost over $2000 due to them.

Background below.

* 1st cruise booked – cancelled due to Covid understandably.  So we booked again.
* 2nd cruise booked – booked during COVID time, however cancelled due to Covid again. So we booked again.
* 3rd cruise booked (April 2024) – cancelled due to the Carnival ship being in the USA for longer than expected. So we booked a different cruise again.
* 4th cruise booked (Dec 2024) – Carnival changed the country of origin.  Instead of going overseas, they changed it to sale in our state and country. It’s a location that gets very hot that time of year, plus one we have been to many times.
 
My husband and I thought we would find another cruise to do in December 2024 instead, since the cruise we wanted to do was changed by Carnival.
We want an overseas location, not one in our home state/country.  
 
We found a cruise in USA in December 2024 to swap to. This cruise was more than twice the price.
 
I called to transfer over our deposits and cruise credits, however was told to make this change we will completely loose our onboard cruise credits which are around $2000 AUD. Even though we are only changing due to them canceling our 4th cruise.

I was on the phone for over 1 hour with Carnival.  I requested 3 times to speak to a manager, but no manager ever spoke to me.
 
Apparently our onboard cruise credit expired in March 2023 and they made an exception to apply the cruise credit to our last two bookings (April and December). I wasn’t advised verbally or in writing at the time that this was the case and an exception was being made.  

This is poor customer service, as the only reason we needed to change the cruise was because they changed our cruise for a fourth time.

We were told on the phone they couldn’t do anything else and to send an email onto a particular area. We have now waited 5 months for a reply to our initial and following up email, and have heard NOTHING.

We are going back to cruise with Royal Caribbean. We have done 6 cruises with them and have never had an issue.

I booked a cruise 3 months ago. I booked 3 rooms and paid the deposit for 2 adults and 5 children. Leaving from Miami on 12/22/23. A month later I received an email that I needed to make the final payment. I paid and went about. Last week I went online to add drink packages and check in only to discover they canceled one of our rooms. I called immediately only to be told there was nothing they can do. That my payment went through for the 2 rooms but not the 3rd. I never received a call nor an email. Now I’m told the ship is completely sold out but I could pay $300 to be put on a waitlist. I asked what happens if nothing opens up and again told there is nothing they can do. I said then can we at least get a refund for the other 2 rooms so that we can all be together for Christmas and use that money for something different or maybe another cruise during a different time? Nope . Sorry your out $5000!!! Not including my flights from NC to Florida. I have called everyday. One sales lady suggested I leave my kids with family and me and my husband go alone. Are you kidding me!!!???? That’s your solution?? Leave my kids at Christmas??? There has to be rooms that Carnival puts aside for mess ups and emergencies. I have called everyday now for a week and nothing. I have pleaded for some type of management to reach out. Nothing. If it wasn’t Christmas I would say ok but the fact that our options are forfeit $5000+ or breakup our family over Christmas is so upsetting. We came to the conclusion today that if 2 people have to stay behind my husband and one of my sons offered to stay back so I called Carnival to change the name of the reservation for my son staying behind ….. I was told in order to do that I would have to pay $638!!!!!!
Wow! Ok Carnival!! Home of the family boat????
I get this is a business but $638 to change a name on a reservation. How sad!! Shame on you! Shame on your company!! It truly is disgusting. This will be my 10th cruise with carnival buT never again.

Cruise line lost my luggage between port and ship. It was a 4 day Caribbean Cruise and the front desk took zero responsibility for my satisfaction. I am reasonable and understand accidents happen, however the lack of empathy and responsibility was mind blowing. Thousands of people on the ship and with a clothing store on ship they offered nothing until day 3 of 4 in the way of credit to get clothing.