not going to spoil my views

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mlzangel78

Guest
I had to post this message, for all of you:

My first cruise was to be and still is booked for Decmber 7 onboard the Grand CW. This is my fiances and I long awaited vacation, and it could not come soon enough.
Every year the husbands go hunting and my self and my girlfriend take "girly vacation" this year we decided to go to orlando for 5 days and relax at the royal pacific on universal property. At the last minute, we found that it was cheaper to do a 3 day cruise to the bahamas versus hotel fare, and we could still get in a day at disney, and half a day at universal, which was fine cause we have both been there before.

We booked with Carnival, we have no expectations at all, it was just a cheap way to go to the bahamas, and all in all saved us about 300.00

I have not booked any of my cruises directly, it has been with an internet TA:
Kimskruises.com for princess, and cruise compete for carnival. that being said:

Whenever i call princess to double check something on our booking they are the most pleasant wonderful people, though it is not booked with them they answer questins and give me all the info i need.... this is not true with carnival

Down right nasty customer service, they refuse to answer any questions, and i have been through about 6 cust serv reps who have ALL been rude.
I must say that this is kinda dissapointing as though it is only a 3 day , it will actually be my first cruise... However i know that princess will be my first real cruise, and i am still looking forward to it despite the horrible time i expect on carnival.

We will now only be booking with Princess and RCL as carnival has made me feel, like god.. were not even on the ship and weve already got crappy service,, whats it going to be like on the ship...

For those of you that have booked with carnival in the past on the fantasy only... your opinions would be much appreciated as to the difference between Princess and Carnival,, though i can already see for my self Princess has got it going on
 
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PEB

Guest
I have heard your complaint about Carnival customer service many times. I do prefer Princess however one comment I will make is that the service I have had on Carnival ships has been very good. I was very reluctant to cruise on Carnival but I have been pleased with the service on the SHIPS. I have not had any problems so that I needed to deal with Customer service from Carnival on land so I can not speak about that.

I did run into a few small problems with things on the Carnival ships but the customer service took care of them immediately and with no problems.
 
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Eoconnor

Guest
I have booked 3 cruises with Carnival 2 on the Fantasy and the next one on the Facination. We have nothing but GREAT customer service. Every time I call I get the same person and the seem to go out of the way to help. As for the 2 trips on the Fantasy
they were also good. The ship should be even better comming out of rehab. Just go and enjoy your self.
 
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Petert

Guest
Hi mlzangel,

Most cruise lines prefer you communicate through your TA so there is no chance of a misunderstanding about the information that you recieve. Most cruise lines are more than happy to answer general questions as they realize how important it is to maintain a pleasant and helpful attitude with their customers. First time cruisers should be a big plus for them since some 30% are going to cruise again and they have an opportunity to build some customer loyalty. I agree that Carnivals reaction to your contacts don't make sense and there is no excuse for the rudeness. You can be assured that you will recieve much better treatment on board, so you can look forward to your cruise without aprehension.

Peter
 
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Boatgirl

Guest
Wow. I had great customer service with my Carnival guy--Ryan. He was so cool he even sent me a birthday postcard from Carnival (we share the same birthdays!), and wrote a personal message wishing my husband and I a great anniversary card. Maybe it all depends who you get?
 
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bstarne

Guest
I have delt with Carnival agents on at least 3 seperate times and they have always been very nice....definitely depends on who you get.
 
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mlzangel78

Guest
I think everyone is missing that i did not book with Carnival i booked with an internet TA, apparently Carnival will not deal with you , unless you book thru them, i did howver find on one message board someone who gave me the email of their carnival person, and she was wonderful she emailed me all the info i was requesting, i literally went through 12 agents with carnival before i found one who would tell me my booking was ok.
 
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Cruisin Gal

Guest
The first time I cruised on Carnival...I thought I was going to have a horrible time...and it ended up being one of the best cruises I had ever been on.

I'm sorry you had problems with personnel on land, but I can tell you from past experience...when you get onboard...you will be treated wonderfully.

Enjoy yourself and enjoy the Fantasy. She's my favorite ship and she's in dry dock right now getting all spiffed up for you!!!!

Bon Voyage!
 
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frito

Guest
Have cruised many times on Carnival and feel they have one of the better customer service depts. going. I called them today about something and couldn't have been treated better.
By the way, Carnival owns Princess.
 
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Cruzmama59

Guest
Boatgirl Amy,
Your Carnival Rep. is his name Ryan McCormack(not sure of spelling) If so I had used him and he gave me great service too.
I have originally used Marcus L but he was promoted to a different position. I am now using Nelson.
I always get great service when I deal direct with Carnival PVP.
In fact their office is 5 mins away from where I live.
Marilyn
 
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SHANNON & CATHY

Guest
I've always gotten excellent service from Carnival (I always book thru a TA) that being said I usually communicate with them thru e-mail ( guestinfo@carnival.com ) . They once even went to the trouble of finding out if they serve Barq's root beer on-board (Hi My name is Shannon and I'm a root beer-a-holic) it seems no question was too small (or too strange) for them.

SDB
 
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randk

Guest
My wife and i have sailed 5 times on carnival and have had great service all the time. We book our cruises at a local travel agency. We do our own planning, and then let them book it with carnival. The reason is very simple, if something goes wrong or is not what we except, we know where their office is located and know them on a personal level. I realize you can save money on the internet but when spending large amounts of money, I prefer a brick and mortar type of place.
 
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Dan40

Guest
Mlzange178,
Many folks have posted that they received excellent customer service from Carnival. A few not so excellent. I have found some CCL people to be less than well informed about cruise details but never had one be rude.
I'm wondering if an agent telling you, "You must talk to your Travel Agent, I can't help you.." would be considered rude by you? Because their instructions are to NOT talk to people booked thru a travel agent. Not because they don't like you, but to prevent miscommunications in 3 party conversations that may take place weeks apart. ANY questions you have MUST and should go thru your TA. Look at it as your TA is CCL's customer, not you, and you are your TA's customer, not CCl's. When you're aboard. then you're Carnivals customer and they should and will treat you well.

When you buy a product from a store, you communicate with that store, not the mfg. of the product. Pretty much the same thing here.

Now if your TA can't or will not answer your questions. Bring it online as you did here and you'll find a quick answer.
Just for your info, Carnival owns Princess. And many other lines but each operates independently with their own policies.
Dan
 
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mlzangel78

Guest
Please let me convey that I am NOT bashing CCL, however when booking this last min cruise i did book thru an online TA one i had not used, and though i did check them out with the BBB i was still concerned that CCL would get all the correct info, i had done prepaid gratuities and transfers to and from the airport. I wanted to make sure that the TA placed those funds correctly.. imagine how you all would feel booking this wonderful vacation, and being stuck at the airport because some fly by night TA forgot to put transfers on.... yes I understand that this is the chance you take booking online, however i feel that since the money was going to ccl the least they could do was confirm my booking.. they would not, as i mentioned previously,, one finally did through email. But the attitude of sorry theres nothing we can do for you and "oh Well" was terrible. Whe i booked my Princess cruise thru an online TA, princess was more than happy to make any questions i had answered quickly and with courtesy. Im sure well have a good time on CCL but none the less they have left a bad taste in my mouth.
 
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Boymom

Guest
Maybe you should'n't have used a "fly by night" TA.....(your description, not mine)..... I have cruised Carnival 15 times (3 this year and going again in December).......

As everyone ahead of me has said......Carnival DOES own Princess and therefore you didn't get bad service because of the Company..... apparently it was the person you spoke with.

It does sound like you have made your mind up ahead of time that Carnival is low class.
That's really too bad for you.

I do hope you end up having fun - in spite of it.......
 
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mlzangel78

Guest
First let me say again...... i am not bashing ccl , every person i got on the phone was miserable.... and i didnt say i used a fly by night agency, i said .. say it was a fly by night agency. Furthermore if you read my post coreectly youd see that i said we are sure were going to have a good time anyway, land side left a bad taste in my mouth.. However i must say that the recption i have been getting on the princess board, with the same posting has been much more recpetive, than those of you defending carnival to the death.. whatever- a cruise is a cruise, i was sharing my opinion, in hopes that other would not find the same problems.. i was told by the nice ccl rep that it is carnivals policy not to give you any info, unless you have booked with them... that being said, we are going to have a good time,, because like jim in NC who is also on board the grand dec 7th with us says " even a bad cruise is better thsn a good day at work"
 
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frito

Guest
mlzangel78--
I don't think people here are defending Carnival to the death as you say but merely making the point that most have not encountered the rude service you claim to have had bestowed upon you. The fact is that if you use a travel agent to book your cruise then Carnival will not communicate directly with you but with the travel agent. As has been explained to you, this basically keeps down the " he said--she said--they said " things that only lead to confusion. You yourself made the statement about a " fly-by-night-travel agency ". If you were concerned about the agency you might have done well to use a well known agency. Sometimes cheaper is not always better.
I hope you enjoy your cruise but it does seem that your mind is already made up about Carnival.
 
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mlzangel78

Guest
My mind id not made up about Carnival ... like i said 3 times in a row, we are very much looking forward to vacation, and i was not concerned with the TA i used, i am just narodic when it comes to vaca details.. and like to double chck info, thats all !!!!!!!!

I made the statement of a fly by night agency,,, to make the rest of you understand the comparison, to wanting to double check details... do you all have kids, with babysitters?? dont you call to double check to see how your kids are doing?? dont you ask to speak to your children or do you just take the baby sitters word for it?? NUfF said about the topic we are going to have wonderfuL time on the cruise... i just wanted others to know IF YOU BOOK A CARNIVAL CRUISE THRU A TA THAT YOU CAN NOT ASK CARNIVAL ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT IT.


Im glad youre all so passionate about cruising and everyone has been very helpful those who wish to resort to snide remarks I desperately hope that were not cruising with you. Im not a mean person, im very excited about going on my first cruise, and over on the princess board people have been very nice, about answering any questions i have, i wish i could say the same for this board. Are we not hear to voice opinions and ask questions,,,, how come no one is criticizing all the people complaing about getting horrible massages???

I hope to have a wonderful vacation, and i hope that those wishing to leave bitter comments on the posts keep them to themselves. thank you all for your input and help, I am truly greatful to those who have been honest in answering all my questions. As you can all see from previous posts on this thread many feel that the land based customer service needs a bit of improvement.

Thanks guys :) Happy Cruising
 
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Cruisin Gal

Guest
I can understand what you're saying.

You will have the BEST time in the world! Just ignore the nasty people...they either need a vacation or they're jealous you're going and they're not! <G>

If you need anymore questions answered before you go just go to WWW.carnivalcruiseline.com and go to bottom of the page to the "contact us" tab.

They probably have more information that they can give you than the reservationists by phone anyway. I've found that a lot of times the first contact person isn't always the one with the most knowledge of what's going on with their ships.

Have a great time..and don't worry about rude people.
 
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mlzangel78

Guest
thank you cruisin gal.. we just cant wait to explore the ship :) and not be at work :)
 
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