We've Had The Best Now Let's Have The Worst . . . .

[kyriecat]

Hubby was one of many people who got salmonella onboard Radiance several years ago. He had a bad case and was sick for several days. During that time, ship personnel served the food in the Windjammer. I watched an RC staff member handing out donuts during breakfast. She picked her nose with her gloved hand then used that same gloved hand to give a donut to a passenger. She was using her hands, not tongs, to pick up the food. On that same cruise I wanted an ice cream cone. The staff member working by the ice cream machine had just finished wiping some tables using a bucket of greyish water. I asked him to change his gloves before handling my ice cream cone, but he refused. I had enough of the poor staff hygiene at that point and asked to speak to the WJ manager. He was completely clueless about proper hygiene techniques. His excuse for not having staff members changing gloves after picking their noses or cleaning tables was they were not expecting a salmonella outbreak and did not have enough gloves onboard. Staff members were instructed not to change gloves because they needed to make them last. :rolleyes:

 

I would rather have people use their bare hands and wash their hands often than use dirty gloves to touch my food!!!!

[relaxatsea]

We were on the Carnival Mardi Gras sometime in the 70's in an inside cabin with bunk beds.

 

I had the top bunk and in the middle of the night I felt the ship "listing" to the left. It kept listing in this one direction and I was afraid we were sinking.

 

I woke up my DH who turned on the light and found that my bed was slowly folding into the wall with me in it. I was by now in a sort of "V". He pulled the bed down and all was well. What a scare!

[ebonybee]

You win. You said your "first cruise". I am glad to see that this didn't stop you from never cruising again.

 

 

I agree, I think we have a winner....just seeing the ship sailaway is enough to make one panic.

[mjldvlks]

Seeing one of our table mates [on Jewel] yelled at [loudly] by the waiter because she had the audacity to eat the dish he had served her [he had mistakenly served her someone else's plate]. The service that whole cruise was horrendous, but the rules of the thread limit me to one. And yet it is still one of my favorite cruise because of where we went and the people we were with.

[waterbugohio]

Self disembark from a ship the size of Liberty, and from a short itinerary where more people use self disembark were the elements of a perfect storm. We did self disembark last February from LOS and it was a nightmare. It was a 4 night cruise and it seemed half the ship was using self disembark. Just trying to get down to the gangway was chaos, and then the line, from ship to cutoms, was about an hour wait.

 

Liberty, on short cruises, really needs to use Terminal 18 (Oasis Terminal) if they disembark on a day it is open.

 

Ok so we are doing a five night on the liberty. Do you recommend self disembark or not??

 

Our flight isn't till late day, but we have a car rented and had hoped to make the most of our last day in the sunshine

[blondcat]

Defo not as bad as the nearly sinking or being left behind but worst ever was an incident on my first ever cruise - Explorer of the Seas in 2009.

 

The reserved seating at the pool there is great - it's on the graduated / tiered type section between the pool and the bar. If I recall there were only about 12 loungers and my mum, son and I had 3 (mum was getting ice cream). The rest of the two rows were empty.

 

There was a chap guarding the rope all the time (never saw him leave in fact!) stopping people from walking in. Anyway on one of the sea days, a woman went up to the rope and tried to side step the chap - he stopped her and asked to see her gold sea pass. She asked how you got one of those and he explained you need to be in a suite. The lady said she didn't have one but was a diamond plus member and proceeded to try and move the rope. At this point in time I had never heard of cruise critic and had no idea what diamond plus was. The guy said she was not allowed into the reserved section on that basis. The lady at this point kind of lost it and started ranting about how many cruises she had been on and how much she had spent with royal. I'm cringing behind my book and wishing the ground would swallow me right up. Then she starts shouting at me saying who the hell do I think I am buying my way in, how can I afford a suite etc etc. The poor guy was stuck in the middle of me on the lounger and the screaming woman behind the rope. He told her to calm down or he would have no choice but to call security. She left shortly afterwards - but bumped into her twice again on the cruise.

 

The whole experience was mortifying and needless to say we did not go back that section again!!! :(:(

[ryano]

The worst thing Ive ever experienced on a cruise is the last day when they make me leave the ship :mad:

 

 

Ive had it pretty good in fact. No complaints here. None!

[Alphadah]

By far our worst was an entire cruise. We booked a guarantee balcony on a Princess New England cruise and were assigned a cabin on the pool deck (with an obstructed view) between the elevator and the door to the outside. It drizzled and was foggy pretty much the entire week and every minute or so the ship's fog horn sounded. On a ship basically built for fun in the sun there was woefully inadequate indoor public space so there was no where to escape. Sad to say I was very happy when that cruise was over.

 

Debbie

[Daycare Provider]

:mad:A crying baby in the dining room while the parents continued to enjoy thier meal while the little tyke(SCREAMING) was ruining others...

[AWOL]

The five day cruise to nowhere.

We were doing a short 5 day trip from Galveston to go to three ports to do some diving. When we got on the ship, they told us that they were having a problem with an engine so we would be leaving late but would be making all the ports. The first day was a sea day but towards the end of the day, they told us that we were not going to be able to make the planned port but would be going to an alternate port. This never happened and the rest of the cruise was the same, no problem, we are going to make the next port and later in the afternoon, we were not going to make it but the next port was no problem. After five days we were back in Galveston never seeing land, much more touching any.

[birdylady]

I would have to say the worst (and hope it never gets topped) is when we were on FOS in Cozumel. We took a ship excursion to the Mayan ruins. The ferry, or as my hubby refers to it 'barf rocket' was so bad that within 5 minutes of pulling away from the dock the employees on the ferry were handing EVERYONE plastic bags. Granted as soon as I got on there and saw garbage pails in the aisles I was not looking forward to the trip. When we finally docked, everyone was looking around to see if there was some other way to get back to the ship afterward the excursion.

 

Erika

[Pricetag]

Probably not THE worst thing and not as bad as watching the ship leave you, but on our last cruise we had THE worst couple show up at dinner on the second night. We were at a table for 6 with another couple who were really nice, but the new couple had requested a table change because they weren't "meshing" with the others. We found out why. The only reason we continued to go to dinner was so the other couple didn't have to deal with them alone. Our poor servers had the week from Hell as well with these two.

[cmaygar]

Was on a Caribbean cruise and a fellow passenger died while scuba diving in Grand Cayman.

[jennmaybe]

The worst thing is and I experience it on every cruise......the crew members booting us off the ship and telling us to have a safe trip home! ;):D We just don't want to go!!

[wowcruisers]

On a snorkling excursion in St. Maarten, my water-wallet floated out of my swim trunk pocket. Had all our CC's, Sea Pass Cards, and some cash. We were young and inexperienced cruisers, and thought that they wouldn't let us back on the ship, and we'd be stuck there forever with no money and no identification.

 

Luckily a wonderful lady found it floating in the water, and after opening it and seeing our picture id's WAITED on the pier until we retured and gave us everything back. Never got her name, but did get her cabin # and sent her roses and a bottle of champage.

[somersettop]

Worst Moment was the Force 11 weather that we cruised through on P&O Oceana. The Bay of Biscay was not nice, and we had to slow down so we were in the weather longer. The Ship crashed through waves and it was not fun. At one point there was a blare of siren and a damage crew called to the 12 deck where the sign on the side of the ship had been smashed! (Yes Deck 12) The captain was great and kept us informed all the way through the journey, (He said it was the worst experience in the Bay of Biscay he had ever experienced) Oh and I had the entire buffet to myself for brunch - Me and 14 staff! On the way back (my mum almost got off and flew home!) it was a smooth as glass

[MM4M]

I have two...sorry:

 

Breaking three toes on my foot while walking to the platform area in Labadee and stubbing my toes.

 

Sitting at the pier waiting for the photocopies of three of my sisters (ages 35-40) passports because they didn't listen to my REPEATED demands for them to bring them on the cruise. This was in 2001 (11 days after 9/11). It took a few hours for them all to come through, but we were travelling with a family group of 14 and everyone else brought exactly what I instructed. I told my three sisters at the pier that if the photocopies didn't come in time, I was leaving them there. It ticked me off because I even asked at the airport-before we even left our state, to make sure everyone had passports in their hands. At that point my mom had to run back home because she forgot hers, but thankfully she only lived down the road from the airport, but this would have been an excellent time for the others to do the same. ugh!

[attilamom1217]

Having noro virus on the Summit, the Dr. not wanting to admit it was that, then getting stranded first in San Juan, then Dulles trying to get home when a blizzard struck the northeast shutting down the airports for two days! Cruise disembarked Sat. morning and we didn't get home til Monday. Our luggage showed up on Weds.

[ticktoneer]

This is an easy one, and its awful. On my AOS cruise I decided to check my messages in port. There were numerous messages and texts to call the people who were babysitting my dog. As I was listening to all the messages my phone rang and it was my significant other, who informed me that my beloved dog Moose had died in his sleep that morning. While he was old, he had not been sick and this was a complete shock.

 

My dogs are not pets, to me they are family and I was devastated. Sorry to post this, but you asked for the worst thing and this was definitely it.

Oh my god. That's sad :-(. I've got 4 Bernese Mountain Dogs and would be REALLY upset if anything happened to them while I'm away

[ticktoneer]

Some racist $#@% repeatedly accosted us on the ship at different times asking us - more like telling us---that we were in a suite because (1) family member worked on the ship? (2) We sold drugs? (3) We work on another ship ? One of the stops was St Thomas and he again inquired if we had a drug connection on the island. He was just so concerned about us, I guess we made his cruise.

 

Just recently on Oasis another couple we met stated that on embarkation another couple came into their suite cabin and asked them "when will the room be ready." They said they told them they should go to guest services with their inquiry. The other couple had the wrong room and floor.

That sort of behaviour is unacceptable !

[ticktoneer]

Ok give us more - lol

[printingchick]

About seven years ago, I took my 18-year-old daughter, her best friend and my 12-year-old son on a 5-day cruise out of Tampa. It was a graduation gift for my daughter and the budget was tight. I'd only been on one cruise prior to that and hadn't learned the importance of trip insurance!

 

We traveled during the week of Presidents' Day. Schools in the northeast have that week off so we could use that time to escape the cold and snow.

 

Our first flight was extremely delayed. It had nothing to do with weather, the airline had just over-booked and no one was willing to give up their seats. We were stressed about making our connecting flight in Nashville, but got there just as the plane was boarding. RELIEF!!

 

Then, snow flurries began to fall. There was NO snow in New England, but there in Nashville, they were getting a dusting.

 

Nashville had ONE...and ONLY ONE...de-icing machine. We took our place in line. We were scheduled to hit Tampa with about four hours to spare, so I didn't IMMEDIATELY panic. After all, the pilot was assuring us we'd be off the ground in 30 minutes.

 

30 minutes passed. We hadn't moved up much in the line. The pilot repeated his assurance that we'd be in the air in 30 minutes.

 

This scenario repeated at 30 minute intervals until I was in a state of total panic. I began calling the cruise line from my cell phone with regular status updates, basically BEGGING them not to leave without us. I had the flight attendant ask for a show of hands of other passengers destined for that ship. (Assuming the cruise line would be more likely to delay departure if a large group was involved.) My son began to tear up. I began trying to determine what I was going to do in Tampa with these three kids for five days... particularly given the fact I'd be getting NO $$ BACK if I missed the ship.

 

We touched down in Tampa at about 3:30 for a 4:00 departure. The 90-minute rule had not yet been instituted. In the only stroke of good luck we'd had to that point, our bags were the first off the plane. We grabbed them, hailed a taxi and asked him to STEP ON IT!!

 

We were NOT the last to board. There were others who had been delayed and they were on the cruise-line shuttle bus. (Our taxi had been faster!!) The muster drill was being presented as we boarded. We missed it. My daughter and I took a cruise a couple of years ago and I laughed when she mentioned that it was her FIRST muster drill!

 

I've never cruised without travel insurance again! The cruise was GREAT, but it was an incredibly stressful start!!

[jocap]

The worst thing we remember was disembarking from our first cruise at Fort Lauderdale, and having to stand in a queue for immigration for 1 &1/2 hours- no seats, no refreshments, and close scrutiny. It put us off that port for good.

[ticktoneer]

...

[wwcruisers]

The worst experience we had was a severe weather-related delay on the flight to our ('07) cruise on Freedom of the Seas. After a truly nerve-wracking journey, we barely made the ship -- but our luggage did not. I spent the first morning of the cruise going through all the shops on the Grand Promenade -- only to learn that there was not one single ladies' bathing suit for sale, anywhere on the ship! :(

 

[silver lining -- our luggage (with my bathing suit) caught up to the ship, half-way through the cruise. And, now I ALWAYS pack a bathing suit in my carry-on! :o]