Conquest 10/23/2005 Just back and very disappointed

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dpetty121263

Guest
Just got home from from the Conquest and I have to say overall I was was disappointed in how the ship was managed, Carnval Cruise line's managment to the whole FBUR'd process of getting on and off the ship. I am tired and will write a more detailed report tomorrow but overall this will be the last time I travel with Carnival Cruise lines.....
 
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dpetty121263

Guest
BTW it took 4 hrs to board on 10/23 and 6 1/2 hrs to get off today, while RC was totally unloaded at the same port in 2 hrs.......
 
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serene56

Guest
other then getting on and off the ship--I'd like to know how the cruise was.

What is the hold up of getting people off the ship? Was it customs? people not paying their accounts?
 
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dpetty121263

Guest
Reasons for long, long delays at Port of Galveston.

1Port is undersized for the Conqest.

2 U.S Customs office is understaffed and to be honest they have a don't care attiude(first hand experience).

3 For some reason U.S Customs yet unexplained require the entire crew to get off the ship before the the passengers which is silly at best.

4 From speaking to the locals they told me Carnival holds Chinese fire drills every time they arrive into port since coming to Galveston. Royal Cribb docks the same time ,different terminal and they can be completely unloaded in 2-3 hrs tops from what I was told and I did inquire.

5. Getting your bags after debarking the ship is a cluster, period!! They do not place them in the marked areas, they just dump them in long lines and you sort and fetch.

6 Traffic is horrible, backs up for blocks, took us 2 hrs to haul ourselves and bags to the car 2 blocks away.

7 Loading is crazy, stood in line for 4 hrs to get boarded, finally got on board at 5:30pm after arriving at about 1:30 pm.

8 They canceled Mexico and the way they told us was they passed out a letter and told the person they gave it to pass it down the line that we would not be going and please accept a $25 credit per person to your ship board account. I spoke to the "Helpdesk" and they had the attuide hey be glad you are even going to get to stop anywhere!!! I explained nicely to her I was paying for 3 stops and she just couldn't understand that concept!! She did give me the number to the Carnvial's Corp office to call so I did standing right there and got a answering machine telling me they were closed. So i called the folks I made the reservation thur and they told me to contact the Purser's office on the ship which I did, they told me 3 times we WOULD be going to a new port, guess what, later that evening they announced no new port and enjoy hanging at sea a extra day but they had worked very hard and gotten 2 hr extra in Grand Cayman for us, LOL. Arrived in Grand Cayman and found out from our Privite Dive guide that the Grand Cayman Port offered Canvial a whole extra day in port and they turned it down.


9 Lastly the Cruise director kept coming on the intercom during debarking saying he didn't know why they were dragging there feet in getting started but just be patient. I know a number of people missed flights due to this.

Lastly we drove down and I called at 4 am to verify everything was still on, they assured us it was, come to find out they had 450 travel agents on board,I spoke to a number of them and they told me they knew 3 days earlier we were not going to Mexico or making a differnet port becasue the Carnival told them via call and email. A couple of agents told me they generally do not tell the passengers till they arrive for fear they may cancel.

Another point I got different stories from the Purser's office and other dept's on the ship concerning where we were going, if we were going etc......the prior cruise made a new port and for some reason I have not been able to determine we couldn't.

WIll be traveling RC from now on.......
 
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dpetty121263

Guest
The U.S Custom's agent that checked me in had a piss poor attuide about things she stated if I have to be here 8 hrs then so do u and I really don't care how long it takes to get you processed, that was a quote.
 
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dpetty121263

Guest
Far as the cruise was I had a decent time, had a wonderful time in Jamica and Grand Caymans but the on board actitives got pretty boring last 3 days. The entertainment was piece meal, some acts didn't even show up and so they had repeat shows. The Casino was pretty tight expect on the 1st and the 5th day. I think they allowed folks to win due to not stopping in Mexico, I counted from just hearing the people yell and all when they won over 30 wins that day. The food was decent overall, on day 6 I think I got some bad food as I was and g/f were both sick but we were perpared for that so it didn't last long.
 
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Cruzman

Guest
It all makes me wonder about some of the decisions that the cruise lines have made since Katrina. For example, we have a wonderful state of the art cruise terminal right here in Mobile. Since the Holiday has now repositioned to Pascagoula, MS, there are no ships using the facilities until next March 27. In light of the problems being encountered in Galveston, why should it be necessary to lay off the entire terminal staff as well as most of the customs agents here; go figure ! We could easily handle the Conquest here!
 
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Sweetpea29488

Guest
Did they allow self debarkation? Just was curious if they were doing this?
 
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rachelm1083

Guest
Is this typical Carnival activity? Now I am a little worried because my flight is leaving at around 11:30 the day the cruise arrives back in Miami.... will we be able to make it off the ship in time??
 
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canner

Guest
I just got off the Victory at the Miami port on Sunday ... we actually docked about 7am ... self assist ran from 8 until 9:10 am ... deck 7 was called, then decks 11, 10 & 9 ... then 8 ... which is what I was on ... I had my luggage on was in a cab for 10am ...

Now, I would not say that this happens all the time as there are various factors that come into play ... but this is how it worked for us ... I also would not schedule a flight before 1 and would normally book for later then that ... this is to relieve any stress that would occur if things just did not go smoothly ...

Candy
 
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Sweetpea29488

Guest
On our last cruise in May we were on the Triumph. We debarked in Miami. We did the self debarkation and we were in our car and on our way by 8:30 a.m. We've been on 4 cruises all with Carnival and have had a great time on all of them. We will be on number 5 April 1st-Carnival Liberty and plan on doing self debarkation since it's worked so well for us on our last two.
 
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serene56

Guest
There is no way you can compare the Port of Glaveston to the Port of Miami.

Remember that this is not the port that conquest was made for. The reason RCL can get their ships cleared is because its a lot less people and they have been doing it for a long long time.

Having a flight at 11:30 from Mia if sailing from Mia is very doable.. get off with the first group or do self assist.
 
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dpetty121263

Guest
No Miami is very differnet, no they will not allow self debarkation , matter of fact they would turn you back if you attempted to leave and your color group wasn't called, a number attempted it I saw it first hand. U.S Customs would only allow 50 to leave at once and true RCL has less passengers but still they should have a better system. I also was told Princeness cruise lines will me repostioning another ship equal to Conquest to Galveston and by adding another 3600+ people to the nightmare I do not see Galveston as an option now.
 
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scottmalinowski

Guest
I am sorry to say but I am not sure why you said you would never sail Carnival again. I havent read anything that is Carnivals fault. The whole travel industry is at an orange alert level because of this that have happened in New York. Thats not there fault. Customs agents have "piss poor attitudes", is not there fault. Galveston is not probably staffed to handle over 3000 people weekly. The port is to small, why do you think that Elation was there and not the Conquest. Now if you had other problems on board than fine, but it sounds to me your biggest problem was nothing to do with Carnival. I have sailed them three times, and Royal Caribbean once. It took me longer to get off Royal Caribbean than any Carnival cruise I have been on combined. We were in the port of Miami at 1130 for our cruise Oct 9th , and there were still people disembarking Explorer at that time. Its a problem everywhere. Not one cruiseline to another. I would allow more time for sure anywhere you go.
 
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lizardstew

Guest
I agree with Scott. This can happen to any cruise line at any port. I sailed the Mariner of the Seas out of Port Canaveral last year and they had some sort of debarkation problem - never found out what it was for sure, but I think it had something to do with customs. They were still debarking people as late as noon...and the port there is much bigger and more equipped to handle loads of people than the port of Galveston.

rachelm1083, I wouldn't worry. I've been on 3 Carnival cruises and have never had a problem like this. I suppose it could just be good luck on Carnival's part, but the only time I've ever had any sort of embarkation/debarkation problem, it was on RCI...twice, actually...on the Radiance of the Seas and the Mariner of the Seas. In no way would I blame the cruise line for it, though. AND, I certainly wouldn't boycott RCI for it either - I've sailed them 5 times and am booked for my sixth. Just go with the flow and realize that sometimes things will happen that are just beyond our control...and don't let it ruin your vacation.
 
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machllz

Guest
We sailed the Conquest out of NO and it was amazing!!! I think the problems described are due to the changes that were made due to the hurricane. My thoughts about Carnival and RCI~ Customer service is Carnivals weakest point and RCI's strongest. I think it has so much to do with the tipping process. No Carnival employee ever went out of their way for us. They did the minimum of what was asked therefore they got the minimum tips that were already charged to my account. RCI staff went above and beyond and were tipped accordingly. I mean on RCI you can't pass an employee in the hall without them acknowledging you! That does not make or break a cruise for me, it just determines their tips. If Carnival staff would see that by giving that little extra attention to passengers they may just get that little extra in return in the form of extra tipping! We are sailing Carnival for the second time in a few months and can't wait! But we sure don't expect the same kind of customer service we saw on RCI, but if an employee does try harder then we would be thrilled to tip them something extra.
 
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Snoozeman

Guest
rachelm1083 Wrote:
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> Is this typical Carnival activity? Now I am a
> little worried because my flight is leaving at
> around 11:30 the day the cruise arrives back in
> Miami.... will we be able to make it off the ship
> in time??
>
> Rachel
>


Probably not typical for CCL, but seems to be typical for Conquest!
 
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dpetty121263

Guest
I just felt from boarding the ship till debarking Carnival upper managment wasn't "customer friendly", I had no issues with the employees on the ship I got decent service but no one went out of there way to do the little extra's either. I guess the thing that will always stick out in my mind about this cruise is the lady at the help desk at the Galveston Ship terminal. I spoke with this woman about what other port we would be going to since Cozumel was out of action and she said " hey be glad you are going to get to stop anywhere at all" then she said " Why would you want to even get off the ship for anything!" I explained to her that was the sole purpose of even going at all was to debark and visit the ports! I saw from her facial expression I was getting no where.
At that point I waited till I could talk with the purser's office and I spoke to 3 different people in that dept and was told we would be stopping elsewhere then about 8 ish the Captain came on the intercom and announced we would NOT be stopping anywhere else. Luck to have it I was standing nearby the Purser's desk and I asked why the different stories and I was told well our information is we are stopping at a 3rd port.
I could go on about conflicting stories I got about one thing or another but it just seems that the right hand isn't aware of what the left hand is doing at least on that Carnival ship. All I wanted was a straight story about things and not to get the song and dance I was getting.

David
 
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CruiserfromOhio

Guest
dpetty121263 Wrote:
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> All I
> wanted was a straight story about things and not
> to get the song and dance I was getting.
>
> David


We were also on the Conquest 10/23 and we enjoyed our trip. We went through the same thing everyone else did. We were one of the first people to check in for the cruise that day, and we were NEVER TOLD that there would be a posible 3rd port. IN FACT, at check in we were TOLD & GIVEN a letter explaining why we were not going to Cozumel and saying we would have a Credit on our Sign & Sail acoount for that reason. So I am not sure why some people say they had no idea what was going on??

And for the people that said they waited 4 hours to get on the ship, what time did you arrive at the port? Our Docs said they would board at 1:30, they actually started boarding about 2:00 and everyone in the waiting room was on the ship within 30-45 minuites or so. If you get there to early & have to wait, thats your fault not Carnivals.
 
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CruiserfromOhio

Guest
We were a little disapointed in the entertainment, but it was NOT Carnivals falt. Some of the airports were closed due to the storms, and the entertainers couldnt fly in.
 
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