Destiny broke a propeller

[SlickRick]

We are beginning to plan our next cruise tomorrow. "Plane, Trains and Automobiles" was only a movie. We were living the real thing! Life is always an adventure!

It's good to see that even though I hate this happened to you that you are able to look at the situation in a positive light. My philosiphy: Take life to seriously and it will take you. Thanks for the input.

Did they say it was a permenant fix or just a patch job? I'm on the next cruise 3-26-06 and just curious to see if all my stops are going to be on time. I've only planned one none carnival excursion but it should be fine it's earlier in the day.

[boatsmate]

From reading everyones posts I would have to say Carnival did a good Job of finding rooms and flights for everyone considering what happened and where it happened. I know All the cruise lines have a department whos job it is to handle all these things when this happens. Just look at what happened last year with all the Hurricane relocations.... problem is they happened in the US where it is poss. to get more flights and hotels and buses to accomidate everyone. it happens that this problem occured in San Juan and there resorces are very limited. I think CArnival did a great job and should be commended. remember to read the fine print on your contract, they don't even have to do what they did. Just look at the air lines and what they do when they cancel a flight ..... tough luck pal heres the waiting list for the next filght, sorry you will have to wait here no hotels or food.

 

just my 2 cents worth form a well traveled person.

 

Capt Bill

23 Carnival cruise over the last 15 yrs.

[chicagochas]

From reading everyones posts I would have to say Carnival did a good Job of finding rooms and flights for everyone considering what happened and where it happened. I know All the cruise lines have a department whos job it is to handle all these things when this happens. Just look at what happened last year with all the Hurricane relocations.... problem is they happened in the US where it is poss. to get more flights and hotels and buses to accomidate everyone. it happens that this problem occured in San Juan and there resorces are very limited. I think CArnival did a great job and should be commended. remember to read the fine print on your contract, they don't even have to do what they did. Just look at the air lines and what they do when they cancel a flight ..... tough luck pal heres the waiting list for the next filght, sorry you will have to wait here no hotels or food.

 

just my 2 cents worth form a well traveled person.

 

Capt Bill

23 Carnival cruise over the last 15 yrs.

 

I agree. The airlines are a perfect example for poor customer relations.

[Kpstill]

Dear Katherine,

Thank you for your message. We believe the propulsion system problem with the Carnival Destiny has now been resolved. We are operating our scheduled itinerary this week and do not anticipate any additional problems with this malfunction.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience to our guests that sailed on the March 12, 2006 cruise. Unfortunately, due to our delayed arrival, virtually all of our guests missed their air connections. We were able to locate hotel rooms and protect all of these guests on flights home, however it was a difficult task because of the limited air and hotel availability in San Juan. Given the limited advance notice we had to work with, our Carnival team did everything possible to minimize the inconvenience for our guests.

We are also very sorry about the embarkation delay for guests that sailed on the March 19, 2006 cruise. Again, we did everything we could to assist these guests and get them onboard as soon as possible after the ship arrived.

I hope this information is helpful for you. We sincerely appreciate your business and look forward to welcoming your group aboard the beautiful Carnival Destiny this Sunday.

Sincerely,

Bob Dickinson

[Cruzin' Daddy]

Oops, meant to start a new thread!

[vic from vic]

Kpstill, thanks so much copying the letter for us.

Being a naturally sceptical person, Uncle Bob is sure trying to cover his behind here - He believes the propulsion system problem with the Carnival Destiny has now been resolved and does not anticipate any additional problems with this malfunction. (No, I don't always try to find the bad things).

I do agree that it sounds like Carnival did a commendable job on the transition, but not so great on the information side. But then, human nature is to want to know everything that's going on and sometimes that's just not possible.

Keeping my hopes up that all is fine for departure on the 2nd (after the departure I don't really care what happens! :D )

[sdirector77]

Bob's letter was only sent after his Marketing Department and Legal Department blessed the content. That is what big business does before sending out any communication that could result in extensive liability. Sympathic and vague that is the standard practice. You can't blame him for that just doing the right thing. I thought the letter was appropriate.

[mamagina]

Has anybody heard how the rest of this cruise went? Leaving 4/9--getting nervous! I guess we have to wait to see what time they get back tomorrow.

[zydecocruiser]

I think no news is probably good news. If something was wrong I think the whiners would be popping out all over.

[mnovak61]

We Are Leaving Tomorrow On The 3-26 Sailing And I Got An E-mail Today From Wacky Rollers In Dominica Saying That We Would Probably Be In Port About 2 Hrs Later Than Scheduled And That They Will Be Switching Us To A Later River Tubing Excursion. I Am Still Hoping They Were Just Late Last Week Because Of The Time They Made It Back To San Juan And Got Everything Turned Around!!

[mamagina]

Wow! It is really great that Wacky Rollers is keeping tabs onwhat is going on and notifying you. I read that people have lost money with independant tour operators when the ship was late or missed a port. I guess it is a very reliable operation!

[amstm]

Disembarkation March 19th after a beautiful 6 days at sea:

The weather’s beautiful, the balcony is peaceful and I’m sitting here very early Saturday morning thinking that maybe Carnival Cruise Lines has vindicated itself from the fiasco of our last Carnival cruise in March, 1993 (That was the year of the ‘storm of the century’ and Carnival was the only cruise line that decided to sail through the storm and not around it). As I continue to look out to sea, I see an island and realize I’m looking at Aruba which we supposedly left at 10 pm the night before! I also realize that the ship appears to be crawling. Warning bells go off, yet again….

We go down for the 11 am debarkation talk from Skip the Cruise Director and listen to his advice for over 1 hour of our time. The Captain Gianpaolo Casula is introduced at the end of this time and proceeds to tell us that a passenger had needed to be taken back to Aruba at 1am and upon leaving Aruba, the propeller had been damaged. We were going to be very late and flights were going to be missed etc. No apology at all. The ship’s staff had been caught totally unaware, they had known nothing of his announcement. Disgusting communication between staff and management!

I realize the holiday is over. People are in shock.

Well it’s now 10:45 am on Sunday March 19th. We are crawling toward San Juan. We still have not been informed of our new flight number. We don’t know our flight times, or if we go today, tomorrow or Tuesday. We’ve been given no complimentary emergency phone calls. I call the purser’s desk to explain that at sea our cell phone did not work and I needed to make an emergency phone call to my son to explain what was happening. I was told it would cost $6.95 a minute, emergency or not. Really good customer relations!

Workmen are working noisily in the hall outside so hearing announcements is difficult unless they are put through directly into the cabin. We are spending our day waiting in the cabin to hear what to do. At around 1:30 a letter is slipped under our door with our new flight. At 4:30 we are told that we must exit our cabins and go to the Paladium Lounge for hotel and flight assignments. When we arrive at the Paladium no hotel assignments are available for us. We are told to sit and wait.

My husband had forgotten his book in the cabin and when he tried to go back up to get it he couldn’t…fire doors had been closed.

The staff from Miami were without name tags…interesting! By 7:10 pm March 19th we are still waiting, cold (high air conditioning), hungry and very frustrated with the total lack of emergency preparedness. At 9:20 pm we still have no hotel. Older people, special needs people are still sitting here in the Paladium,cold and hungry and thirsty…no concern or help from Carnival staff. We are hearing horror stories about the thousands of people waiting on the street to get on this ship, no food, bathrooms, water.

A gentleman makes an announcement that we are not to get off this ship without hotel reservations or Carnival will wash their hands of us. We remain seated….waiting. Finally they bring in blankets, food and drinks and we try to rest. At least we aren’t freezing anymore.

At ‘1 AM’ we march up to the people from Miami and demand to know why we have no hotel yet since it was common knowledge that there were rooms at the Caribe Hilton that have been available all day. The Miami people pronounce the person ( who called her sister on the cell) a liar…that there were no rooms. We demanded they call the Caribe Hilton. Amazing! There were rooms!!!

(It’s past 1 am and people are still waiting in line to board this ship!) We were sent to the Caribe Hilton and arrived around 2 am, slept til 6 and were down in the lobby at 7. Carnival people were supposed to be set up by 8 am to help with buses to the airport and flights. At 8:15 they arrived.

We took a bus to the airport and arrived for our 11am flight at 9am. After a very long wait we finally boarded our flight, which left at 12:30 and headed for Toronto, a day late for work…a day’s pay lost. Relaxation gone. Stress level very high. Totally exhausted. I’m going back to teach, more tired than I was when I left.

The ports were beautiful, the staff were wonderful but in the face of an emergency Carnival failed miserably.

[kate564]

The ports were beautiful, the staff were wonderful but in the face of an emergency Carnival failed miserably.

 

It was the same on both ends. After finally being told to be in line by 7pm to get your card and be boarding the ship at 8:30. No word until 9:30 that people won't get off no water,no food no chairs, no bathroon just we will board anytime. 12:05 boarded ship, sail and sign will not work from setting up earlier in the day no badly need cocktail. We have a snack on lido head to pursers desk with another 5 mile line and decide to go to bed and good luck getting us up for muster drill now 2 am which they did not have until St. Thomas at 6pm. Engine trouble could not be helped the way we were treated could. This was my 5th and last carnival it has gotten worse EVERY TIME.

 

Katie

[cruzdirector]

Have any of you other lucky people who were on that cruise 3/12 gotten a reply from Carnival on refund requests for meals in San Juan. Just wonder how long that will take.

We too were in the Caribe Hilton but we were lucky enough to be off the ship around 6 pm. Had to stay until Tues. evening though.

[Kpstill]

Leaving 4/9--getting nervous!

 

There were no problems at all on our 03/26 sailing from these mechanical issues. Everything was on time and efficient. No worries for you.

[Snowball]

There were no problems at all on our 03/26 sailing from these mechanical issues. Everything was on time and efficient. No worries for you.

Glad to hear it!!! Thank you so much for letting us know that things are back to normal now. :D

[greggrass]

I've been meaning to post this for awhile--

On Saturday, after we found out that the ship was going to be late, we were traveling at 10 knots with 350+ nautical miles to go. I didn't look like we would get back to San Juan until Monday morning. We stopped at the purser's desk and a very nice lady told us that Carnival was in the process of rebooking our air 24 hours later, that we would spend Sunday night on the ship and disembark Monday morning. Fine. She told us that by the end of the afternoon we would have personalized flight plans delivered to our cabins. Fine.

Around 4 PM a note was slipped under my door that all passengers to Philadelphia, Newark or LaGuardia airports would be on a charter flight to Philadelphia. No detail as to how we were going to get to Newark (where we had to go).

Sunday morning, it was obvious that the problem had been fixed somewhat--we were traveling at 16 or 18 knots. Around 1 or 2 PM our cabin stewards asked us to leave our cabins. We went to the Lido. Announcements were made that we would arrive in San Juan about 3 PM and that hotel accomodations were being made for those that had missed their flights. After arrival in San Juan, at about 3 PM they announced that our colors would be called--we were to go to the Palladium and get our hotel info and then disembark. The first color was called--dining companions of ours were in this group and we said good bye to them. The colors were slowly being called. About two hours later, the first group came back to the Lido. Although they had rooms at the Condado Plaza, they were not allowed off the boat yet, since customs was still clearing it. Then they stopped calling any colors to go to the Palladium. No information. Certain colors were informed that they could get off the ship. At around 9 PM, they said that everyone left had to go to the Palladium. It was a mad scene. Carnival people had lists with passengers and their hotels. If you weren't on the list, which we weren't, you had to wait for a hotel assignment. No one was giving us any direction. There were tables set up on the stage with some people sitting behind them, but no one was telling us what to do. An impromptu line had formed to the right of the stage. Young Destiny staff were trying to get us to fill out forms stating 'our needs". When we got up to a desk on the stage, a Carnival staffer (touted as "our team from Miami") disdainly fully looked at the form and said, "what's this?" We said, "the form you gave us to fill out". She tossed it aside and proceeded to take all the same info again. She asked us our flight plans. We told her we were on the charter you put us on. She said, "what charter?" We were told to sit and wait. And we did just that. People were getting anxious as no one else was getting off the ship and rumors circulated that they couldn't get any more hotel rooms. Finally, a young woman announced that, indeed, they were having trouble finding rooms and that they were calling all over Puerto Rico to find a place to put us. By now, it was after ten. People were yelling at them to just let us spend the night on the ship (of course, we didn't know what they had done to the 3/19 people). We were not allowed to leave the Palladium. We were told that if we left the Palladium, we had to exit the ship. They had crew parked at the door. A Carnival staffer from outside was telling her colleagues to shut the doors so that the 3/19 people couldn't see what was going on. I assured the (young) staff that if they shut the doors there would be a riot. Passengers getting on saw us and asked what was going on. The staff refused to tell them and basically told them it's none of your business. By the way, all this dirty work was delegated to young people on the boat--no cruise director in sight or anyone in authority.

Now, some of the people waiting in the theater were from the first color called. They had been sitting there since 3:30 waiting. At least on the Lido deck they had opened the buffet and fed us. These people in the theater hadn't eaten. People were getting up on the stage grabbing the mike and saying things like "Carnival cruise line sucks". The gentleman somebody referred to above grabbed the mike and made a speech about not getting off the ship until you had your hotel and flight plans in hand.

Finally, around 11 PM they called us and told us we were going to the Courtyard by Marriott and that someone from Carnival would be there in the morning to tell us how we were getting home. We got to the Marriott about midnight. As we got off the boat we could see a line of people a mile long waiting to get on.

I told the desk clerk that I was from the Destiny. He said that there was a problem--the credit card Carnival had used would not give authorization. He told me I would have to give him mine to check in. He said that they had no idea what was going on--that Carnival had called the night before and reserved 65 rooms but never said why. In other words, these rooms were there all day long. There was no way that 65 Destiny cruisers were in that hotel--because the next morning when we went looking for the agent we were promised would be there at 8 am, there was nobody. There were at most a dozen of us in the lobby looking for information. The only person was a bus driver from the company they had hired to transport us. He walkie talkied to one of his co-workers who found out that there were three agents at another hotel. Finally, around 11, somebody materialized but he didn't know anything. He had been flown in from Miami, but couldn't get through to anybody to get information. He asked us to call on our cell phones and sit on hold. By now, I had called Continental Airlines to see if I could switch our own flights. Continental said that Carnival had NEVER called them and told them anything--our tickets were cancelled as no shows. We told the agent that we had all been basically lied to, that these assurances that our airlines were being notified were false. We were all stuck at their mercy. One couple was going home to Denmark! Their airline hadn't been called.

Our flight to Philadelphia was scheduled for 5:20--still no idea how they planned to get us to the New York metro area. By bus, by plane?? What time would we get there?? As we were getting ready to board the bus to the airport, the agent apparently used a hook and called someone he knew in Miami and told us that there would be a bus.

The plane was late, and to end the story I got home at 2 a.m.

So, some of the people were nice, some were not so nice, they spent some money on us, but I would never cruise with them again. Alot of the aggravation could have been saved if they had been better organized and told people what was going on instead of doing the big corporate clamup routine. By the way, true or untrue, we heard that the Destiny had been having problems for months, that it really needed to go into drydock to be repaired, and that it had been having difficulty keeping its schedule.

[sisabell]

Was anyone ever refunded replacement flights or hotels paid out of pocket after this cruise?

 

Lisa

[greggrass]

Was anyone ever refunded replacement flights or hotels paid out of pocket after this cruise?

 

Lisa

They did pick up the hotel bill and gave us a food allowance and provided the charter flight home. A friend I was traveling with recently tried to get something off a future cruise for our aggravation, but got a letter that the problem was not their fault (!) that they had spent 250 dollars on the hotel room and chartered the plane and that was all the compensation they were going to provide.