Valor mismanagement

[awhcruiser]

Like. Now I know why I dont post much..

 

For heaven's sake, complainers on this and other threads, get a grip. Anyone who's travelled a lot has experienced delays and inconveniences.

 

You're either just getting off a cruise ship or just getting on one. You're ALIVE and you're SAFE. Your tent home hasn't been blown away, like in Haiti, and most of you don't have a huge storm bearing down on your home along the Gulf Coast.

 

Yes, it's unfortunate if you missed dinner or it was late. Not too many of us cruise passengers would starve to death because of that. :D It's unfortunate if your cruise was extended by a bit in rough seas, or is shortened by a day or two, or if a port or two is missed. It's unfortunate if you missed your flight and have to stay in a hotel for a day or so. It's unfortunate if you're having to put out some extra money, and/or if you're unhappy with what the cruise line offered you as compensation.

 

But geez...try to keep things in perspective!

 

Back to the webcam. Flame away!

[Jacobs4]

When you announce to 500 passengers that they are being shuttled to double tree for lunch snacks you throw away your vending machine snacks. That was at 3 pm which did not materialize. *No explanations. But at 7 pm they said they were serving a full buffet dinner in the terminal but nothing happened till 10 pm by which time the passengers were ready to riot. As for me I believed in their announcement and took my insulin injections only to be treated for hypoglycemia after 3 hours of the announcement. Fortunately we could board and have our combined lunch and dinner by midnight. Safety drill was at 2 am and departure at 2:40 am. For our family that was 14 hours sin e the last meal

 

All that is fine. But the ground crew should not have announced lunch and then dinner if they could not deliver. We would have fended for ourselves *till the vending machines ran out. Having spoken to the two supervisors in the terminal, I understand the problem was that senior executives overruled them after they made the announcement. On the second announcement staff did not want to set up the buffet in the terminal.

 

The aim of this letter is in the hope that the Carnival management will not promisae food when they are not in a position to deliver. Sadly when they realized they could not deliver, instead of making an announcement about it they kept quite.

 

Now more on the adventures of the actual cruise, standby

 

Sent from my iPhone

[Jacobs4]

To all the people who's asked why 800 or so people got to the port early - the ship docked at 3:35 pm and the terminal was open and check in started at 1:30pm. The change from 2 pm boarding to 8 pm boarding was by an email sent out at 3:57 pm. Perhaps the website had the data earlier but our hotel checkouts were 11 am. The double tree waiting was announced by carnival after the terminal got full by 3:30 pm

[Crusing Nut]

When you announce to 500 passengers that they are being shuttled to double tree for lunch snacks you throw away your vending machine snacks. That was at 3 pm which did not materialize. *No explanations. But at 7 pm they said they were serving a full buffet dinner in the terminal but nothing happened till 10 pm by which time the passengers were ready to riot. As for me I believed in their announcement and took my insulin injections only to be treated for hypoglycemia after 3 hours of the announcement. Fortunately we could board and have our combined lunch and dinner by midnight. Safety drill was at 2 am and departure at 2:40 am. For our family that was 14 hours sin e the last meal

 

All that is fine. But the ground crew should not have announced lunch and then dinner if they could not deliver. We would have fended for ourselves *till the vending machines ran out. Having spoken to the two supervisors in the terminal, I understand the problem was that senior executives overruled them after they made the announcement. On the second announcement staff did not want to set up the buffet in the terminal.

 

The aim of this letter is in the hope that the Carnival management will not promisae food when they are not in a position to deliver. Sadly when they realized they could not deliver, instead of making an announcement about it they kept quite.

 

Now more on the adventures of the actual cruise, standby

 

Sent from my iPhone

 

 

Sorry but by being a diabetic you should have known NOT to take the insulin until the food was available.

 

BBM

I do not believe that anyone had a right to promise anything on their own. Either the promise came directly from Carnival Corp or it didn't.

[Jacobs4]

Why not just leave get a bite and come back. Really? How complicated this isn't.

 

Because the 500 people seated in the terminal were security cleared and checked in with another couple of 100 people outside the terminal in the lineup. The crew could not guarantee that if you went out you would be let in or go back to the end of the lineup and wait out side....

[TriciaEMTB]

and who doesn't travel with pop-tarts or granola bars or something just in case something unexpected happens?

 

i don't.

[hbrote]

I've read all of the pages in this thread and all I can say is, that personal responsibility is at a all time low. If your diabetic you should know how to deal with it. Don't you carry hard candy in case of hypoglycemia? Every diabetic I know does. Carnival should not have stated you would get a meal, with this I agree but even if you had to go to the back of the line if you left was a choice you did not want to make. Sorry for your problems with your treatment by Carnival.

[howielovescruisin]

Talking about Valor mismanagement, if any of you are on FB go to the official Carnival page. There is quite a tale there from a passenger onboard now. Broken glass in room, a female crew member flashing people, just to name a few. There are 2 different posts about it, you'll have to go down to the moms to get all the juicy details. Unbelieveable!

[jaxonboy]

Talking about Valor mismanagement, if any of you are on FB go to the official Carnival page. There is quite a tale there from a passenger onboard now. Broken glass in room, a female crew member flashing people, just to name a few. There are 2 different posts about it, you'll have to go down to the moms to get all the juicy details. Unbelieveable!

 

I do not believe this, sounds like a fairy tale.

[howielovescruisin]

I do not believe this, sounds like a fairy tale.

 

I am not the OP. I think it's exaggerated, but Michelle @ CCL is going to have the ship talk to them to get to the bottom of it. Did you read the post yourself? It was entertaining if nothing else.

[CELTICGIRLCRUISER]

when I complained how Carnival handled my Ike Cruise. That they handled it poorly, lack of communication and other problems.. I got so sick and tired of people WHO DIDNT GET WHAT I SAID. I complained about how Carnival handled the emergency.. I never complained about the weather.

 

Sometimes posting problems on CC .. the cheerleaders just cant seem to understand basic communication and keep saying.. you cant control the weather. I was ready to scream after I tried to explain why Carnival mishandled the emergency.

 

I agree with your here, it grinds at times.

 

We had similar problems in the inaugural sailing of the Ecstasy out of PC. It was initially a weather related delay and before any of the you book in hurricane season you dummy posts it wasnt!

 

I wasn't unhappy about the weather delay, I was pissed off to high heaven with the way it was handled and we were left for hours and hours outside the terminal and in the pouring rain. No food or drinks once inside hours and hours later. We eventually got on board at 21.30hrs and sailed after 23.00hrs which is about when we finally got something to eat too (pizza slices - not exactly the MDR service we were hoping for).

 

I got the cheerleaders giving it the usual it wasn't Carnivals fault about the weather, but they missed the whole point about the handling or not handling of the situation and believe me there were literally 100s and 100s of unhappy passengers swearing never again.

[laumicmah]

Because the 500 people seated in the terminal were security cleared and checked in with another couple of 100 people outside the terminal in the lineup. The crew could not guarantee that if you went out you would be let in or go back to the end of the lineup and wait out side....

So, to keep your seat in the terminal you sat there for all that time and didn't eat (or feed your kids, if you had kids with you)? I would have taken my chances and left to eat and sit it out somewhere else and then arrived back to the port at 8pm (or later, if I could get updated info of when they'd begin boarding). I'd just go through security again...no biggie.

[Scott34787]

and who doesn't travel with pop-tarts or granola bars or something just in case something unexpected happens?

 

Always travel ring-dings and Pepsi.

 

[RuthlessBoss]

I've read all of the pages in this thread and all I can say is, that personal responsibility is at a all time low. If your diabetic you should know how to deal with it. Don't you carry hard candy in case of hypoglycemia? Every diabetic I know does. Carnival should not have stated you would get a meal, with this I agree but even if you had to go to the back of the line if you left was a choice you did not want to make. Sorry for your problems with your treatment by Carnival.

If there was a terminal full of disgrundled people, we have heard from no one. All we got was OP's perspective and that was his feet weren't kissed.

[bride91501]

I was also on this sailing, and the OP is right- the way Carnival handled the last day of the sailing was horrible.

 

They'd been doing a very good job pre-cruise of communicating with passengers about possible delays, and what they planned to do about them. Excellent actually. But something happened on that last day, and chaos ensued.

 

The email/text about not arriving to the port until 8pm was sent WAAAAAAAY too late (6:29PM). Way after most folks would have already either been there, or on their way there. So there was really no way of avoiding the port chaos. Unless you're a super-last minute person who leaves for an appt at/after the time you're supposed to be there.

 

My family arrived at the port early - 2:00pm, expecting check-in to begin at 4pm as we were told it would. There were probably close to 100 people already there when we arrived. Finally, around 3:30pm, the line began moving, and they began processing folks for check-in (or so it seemed). However, when we got the front of the line, the Carnival staff member manning it promptly told us that we needed to get on the "bus". What bus? Why can't we go through security like the others? Mind you, there had been no announcement at all from staff about what was going on. Just - get on the bus to go to the hotel, and Carnival will let you know if the ship will sail today. No mention of food, port attempting to re-open, NOTHING.

 

The way I found out that the port was going to re-open was by logging on CC and and seeing the POM webcam someone had linked. Thank God for this site.

 

After waiting at the Doubletree by nearly 7 hours, my family and I decided to take a taxi to the port to see for ourselves what was going on. Only then did we find out that there were 1000+ angry, pissed off passengers at the port who weren't given much info either.

 

It was a mess.

 

So, NO - the OP is not exaggerating, nor complaining just for complaining sake. It was bad.

[klfhngr]

The cruise of 26th August was delayed due to storm Issac. But the subsequent management at Miami port was nothing short of mismanagement and poor communication. If not set right shortly there will be chaos and retribution from the passengers gathered here since 2pm and it is 9pm. People have been prOmised food (lunch earlier and dinner) with nothing turning up and staff throwing up their hands. Ship is not ready and no food served here for about 9 hrs. Families on warpath. Total mismanagement leaving passengers without food in addition to 34 hour delay. If u have any plans of cruising on CARNIVAL you need to fend for your own if this is how their management team works

 

Talk to God!

[mrsfecura]

talk to god!

 

oy.