Letter to Carnival Cruise Lines

(This letter is being shared online, as well as sent directly to the Carnival Cruise Lines Corporate Office.)

To whom it may concern:

I wish this letter served to express my gratitude and exhilaration of having an amazing, long overdue honeymoon. I wish I was able to solely praise the great staff we encountered (such as a Jose, our waiter), or compliment the great amenities available on the ship. Unfortunately, out of necessity, this letter is being written to express my dismay, concern, and overall shock of how horrible an endeavor my husband and I had to suffer, which carries so much more weight than just wasted time and money.

My husband and I have been married for eight years. At the time of our marriage, we were both young, and he was serving in the military. As such, we never went on an official honeymoon and instead have been saving for a great trip; just the two of us. Throughout the years, I consistently expressed my interest in a cruise with him because of a 5 day Cabo Cruise I had taken a few years that I felt that it was one of the greatest trips of my life. Now 8 years later, he is a disabled veteran, attending school, and both of us are finally starting our careers. We felt that this year we could finally have our honeymoon, because we have had several setbacks and constraints over the last several years, which have limited our ability to leave.

Adding to this, over a year ago, my husband and I moved in with my grandmother, who has dementia, to help her out with daily life. This has caused increased stress and anxiety in our lives and has essentially made us in desperate need for a relaxing, quiet, and overall much needed vacation. Therefore, despite our hectic schedules and time constraints, we were able to book a 4 day cruise to Ensenada, Mexico on “Inspiration.” This was no simple feat, given that my profession as a photographer leaves me completely confined to the needs of my clients, and we are at the will of my husband’s school schedule (which he refuses to miss, respectfully so). This is in addition to arranging proper care for my grandmother.
            Despite all odds, finally, On Monday, August 18^th, my husband and I boarded the Carnival Inspiration for what we believed was our long overdue, relaxing honeymoon. After the typical monotonous routine of checking in and getting settled, I was ecstatic to show my husband all of the amenities and features the boat had to offer. I dragged him around all over the ship, detailing all of the different places we could eat, shows we could see, everything! The initial few hours of our cruise were perfect. Just the two of us on a relaxing trip we have always wanted. That was until we returned to our room.

Upon returning to our room, at approximately 10:30pm, we could hear some construction going on very near our room. While it was annoying, we figured maybe some last minute things were being finished up that could not be done while the boat was docked. In addition, that night, as my husband was taking a shower, I noticed water coming up out of the drain outside the shower. This was not just a few simple droplets pooling together in the shower, it was enough overflow that I videotaped the water swaying with the rocking of the ship, not even knowing what was to come and that the proof might be important. The menacing water had me so anxious that as a precautionary measure I lined the shower drain with all the towels we had on hand just in case it spilled over. The most troubling part about this was that it was barely the first night! Little did I know, the worst was still to come.

            The following morning, Tuesday, August 19^th, we were woken up by the construction just before 8am. The constant banging of hammers, shrill squeaks from power drills and saws; the sounds were infuriating and relentless. I attempted to contact guest services, but there was no answer. I hung up, and called again, this time speaking to a woman who seemed uninterested in our issue at first. After putting me on hold for a minute, she apologized and said that they were replacing a generator, and the work would be done by the afternoon. I was hopeful that her words were sincere, but as the trip continued, I realized my hope was misplaced.

After our unwanted wake up call, we thought we could go rest by the pool before disembarking on Catalina Island, but were told the pool was shut down due to undisclosed reasons. We left the ship shortly after to see Catalina and returned around 4:30pm. When we returned, the pool was still closed, this time with speculation of excess green algae; however, this was never confirmed. Given the quality of the trip thus far, my fears of the closure were rightfully based on something more sinister.

At 5:30pm, while preparing for dinner in our room, the construction started again. This time it was even more obnoxious than in the morning. We attempted to call guest services and could not get through. For fear of missing our reservations, and simply wanting to make the best out of the situation, we left the room.

After returning to our room, my husband went to take a shower at 11:50pm, this proved to be the pinnacle moment of how awful this trip would be for us. This time, not only did water start coming out of the drain, but it was accompanied by the most gut wrenching, god awful sewage smell, with bits of what undoubtedly was fecal matter. I immediately called guest services to inform them of the situation.

Soon thereafter, guest services sent up a man named Elvis. Although I am sure he was competent in his work, I felt that he had no care for out plight. For example, I was completely ignored when I inquired if this was normal, or if this had occurred elsewhere on the ship. In fact, he did not speak a word to us until he said he completed the work about 10-15 minutes after he arrived, even though I could see more excrement coming out of the drain. After he left, I walked over to the bathroom only to find feces still on the floor. I was in such disbelief I even took pictures to document this horrid event. Completely disgusted and nauseous, I contacted guest services, who then had to send housekeeping up to clean the bathroom. I’m sure I don’t even need to mention the sanitary issues and health risks that accompany this problem.

            Following the night that would never end, we were awoken at 7:30am on Wednesday, August 20^th with what had become our customary banging, shrieking, and increasingly obnoxious construction wake up call. However, this time noxious fumes from the metalwork were seemingly being pumped into our cabin from the ventilation. The fumes were so bad that within moments of waking up, both my husband and I had horrible headaches. We left the room as soon as possible, and attempted to get guest services involved, again to no avail. We left the ship thereafter to the sanctuary of Ensenada. This greatly saddens me to say, sincerely, that the quality of air, cleanliness, and customer service was better in a Mexican port, than what we had experienced thus far on our “honeymoon cruise”.

We returned on board at 3:20pm and went straight to the guest services desk. This time, guest services was willing to listen to our pleas about our room and document everything and see what could be done. At first, I was speaking with Vladimir, who, after hearing what was going on, stated that what we were going through was “completely unacceptable”. However, shortly after a man named Ante ended up taking over our case. Ante said that the woman I spoke with the first time I called about the construction did not document my call. He decided he wanted to come to our room to hear the construction. I informed him we had not yet been back to our room since returning on board, so I was not sure if the construction was going on at that time.

While walking to our room at 3:40pm, we encountered an incredibly strong odor of metalwork in the hallways and elevator area (which was a typical occurrence throughout the ship and entire cruise- smells of sewage and metalwork became common). The scent was so strong that it left a nauseating taste of copper and iron in my palate that saturated for hours. As he walked us back to our room, two other guests even made a comment to Ante to complain about the awful and strong smells.

When we got to our room with Ante, there was no construction going on. He took the time to check the drain in the bathroom to make sure that the horrendous issue from the two previous nights was satisfactorily corrected. After being in the room for about 5 minutes, Ante did not hear any construction and was about to leave, when the banging and shrieking of construction began again. We thought, finally someone from guest services will understand the uncomfortable and annoying sounds that we have had to suffer. Ante just said, “Oh, yeah. Yeah. I’m so sorry.” His response was that of someone who realized we were not exaggerating, and he said there was nothing he could really do being that the ship was completely booked up and there were no rooms to move us to.

Thereafter, Ante told us he would document everything, and apologized about the woman not documenting my call the first time. After Ante left, we knew we didn’t want to stay in our room listening to the construction. We decided to go to the Serenity deck, thinking it would be a relaxing space on the ship. However, soon after getting out there, we could hear the construction again, which seemed to be coming from the floor just below. Other guests out there at the time complained about the noise, as well. Almost laughingly, we couldn’t even find reprieve in the Shakespeare Library (which we tried visiting on a few occasions), as none of the games in there were complete, leaving us unable to even escape with a simple board game.

            The next day, Thursday, August 21^st, our day at sea, we were awoken once again to the sounds of construction at 7:41am. At this point I had become completely exasperated with this whole trip and I attempted to call guest services four times with no answer (8:13am, 8:15am, 8:16am, 8:17am). I called the Steward to see if they could connect me, which, of course, they could not. At 8:21am, I was finally able to speak with someone at guest services. This time a man named Fernando said he would document the occurrence.

Later that day, at 3:47pm, I called guest services to notify them of the strong noxious fumes of metalwork coming into our room through the air vent. I spoke with a woman named Nevena. I explained that these fumes had been ongoing and that my husband and I were once again stricken with headaches from the strong smell. She insincerely apologized and said she would document everything once again, just like the other members of guest services. After dinner/shows, we returned to our room to the sound of grinding once more, which proceeded late into our final night on our “relaxing vacation.”

As a final farewell from our much needed and completely anxiety filled vacation, on the morning of debarkation, Friday, August 22^nd, the construction woke us up again, this time at 4:17am! To which, I was actually thankful to be able to get off our adventure filled ship.

It has been my life’s policy to never complain about something, unless it is necessary. Here, the quality of our vacation is one that I desperately need to, and deservingly should, complain about because it IS necessary. The overall experience was horrendous! The fact that I enticed my disabled husband for so many years, with promises of the great experiences and even greater memories, only to go through 4 days of hazardous fumes, fecal matter, and early morning construction wake up calls is unacceptable. The fact that even after contacting guest services repeatedly, begging them for assistance, only to get insincere apologies time after time, is unacceptable. The fact that, for our “trouble”, we were offered a measly $40 and 10% off of a future cruise felt like a slap in the face.   The fact that I trusted a company, which once gave me the one of the greatest trips of my life (something I wanted to share with my husband), is just heart breaking.

Therefore, this time instead of calling, I am writing to you. Urging you to please right the so many wrongs that you made my husband and I endure. Please give me some semblance of confidence that someone actually cares that what was supposed to be our relaxing honeymoon vacation, was nothing but stressful, tiresome, and anything but relaxing, all the while I cannot even get a sincere apology. Please, just prove to me that Carnival Cruise Lines actually cares about their customers.

Sincerely,

Stephanie Overstreet

Edit:
Links to hear some of the construction from our room-
http://clyp.it/bf2r3z34
http://clyp.it/ih2lpg2m


Possibly not for the squeamish, but here are the photos of some of what came up from our bathroom drain: