Carnival Spirit Cruise Review - Page 2
< Continued from page 1
The spa. Well, we both attended the "special draw" on the first day for the $500 Special prize. About 100 of us had to listen to a half hour sales pitch for their services which was expected prior to the draw. The prizes however, were finally given out in the form of "coupons" for minor discounts on these services, no large prize was given out at all as far as we saw. These "coupons" eventually appeared in everyone's mailbox at our rooms everyday anyway.
If you were unfortunate to purchase their services in the first couple of days you paid full price. Some discounts were offered as the week passed to fill the time slots. My wife purchased a 50 minute treatment for me which started at 4:00 PM sharp. When the girl finished, it wasn't until I was signing out at the reception desk that I noticed that it was only 4:40 PM... and she had finished a few minutes before! I mentioned this shortcoming to another staff member who was at the desk but she clearly couldn't have cared less. To be fair, I did book a massage a few days later and the massage therapist was great and the time was spot on.
Disembarking the ship back in San Diego was the worst. For some reason, in the 30 year history of Carnival Cruises, they have not figured out how to streamline this. All it takes is one old man who locks himself in his room and refuses to come out to stop the whole process. (This is what happened) No one gets off the ship until a particular group (non US and non Canadian citizens) register at 6:30 AM in a certain area.
Even if it causes an extra hours wait for everyone else (2600 people)! Imagine the response if, after flying home, a 7 hour flight on a 747, you and your fellow 300 passengers are not allowed to disembark because one person has locked himself in the bathroom and refuses to come out, even if it's an extra 1 or 2 hour wait! You can tag your bags for pick up in the terminal off the ship. Once the bag in out of your hands though, and in the terminal, anyone can just walk off with it. There is security but no one checks for any sort of ID or baggage tags. One of our bags just disappeared with little hope of recovery. The staff were very helpful in filling out the lost luggage form and gave us phone numbers of the security company that finds lost baggage but guess what - they're closed on the weekends. If you disembark on Saturday morning you can't even talk to someone about this until Monday AM! Most people will be home or out of the country by then!
Comment cards. It seemed very important that all the guests fill these in and drop them in the box on board. Interesting that there is no "mail-in" option listed on the comment cards and although given, the staff seemed somewhat reluctant to give the mailing address to the head office of Carnival to sent these directly. I've worked at chain resort lodges before and we also had a similar system of comment cards for our guests. Those cards which carried negative comments were generally trash-canned prior to forwarding to the company offices as these would reflect badly on the staff there.
In the end we found that this type of holiday could potentially be an incredible experience. Unfortunately, it seems that the Carnival cruise line is going the same route as the airline industry -- extra fees for everything, seriously overworked and underpaid staff who give little feeling of welcome or even friendliness, that feeling of being herded like cattle and always looking over one's shoulder for the next hidden cost. Unfortunately we have to put up with this on flights. We don't have to cruise. On a holiday we just want to relax. Charge me extra at the onset but don't bug me about the small stuff. We do a couple of major trips a year traveling and will probably do another cruise one day but certainly not on Carnival. We both desperately needed some vacation time to de-stress from work but the effort was totally wasted here. Cheers.
The spa. Well, we both attended the "special draw" on the first day for the $500 Special prize. About 100 of us had to listen to a half hour sales pitch for their services which was expected prior to the draw. The prizes however, were finally given out in the form of "coupons" for minor discounts on these services, no large prize was given out at all as far as we saw. These "coupons" eventually appeared in everyone's mailbox at our rooms everyday anyway.
If you were unfortunate to purchase their services in the first couple of days you paid full price. Some discounts were offered as the week passed to fill the time slots. My wife purchased a 50 minute treatment for me which started at 4:00 PM sharp. When the girl finished, it wasn't until I was signing out at the reception desk that I noticed that it was only 4:40 PM... and she had finished a few minutes before! I mentioned this shortcoming to another staff member who was at the desk but she clearly couldn't have cared less. To be fair, I did book a massage a few days later and the massage therapist was great and the time was spot on.
Disembarking the ship back in San Diego was the worst. For some reason, in the 30 year history of Carnival Cruises, they have not figured out how to streamline this. All it takes is one old man who locks himself in his room and refuses to come out to stop the whole process. (This is what happened) No one gets off the ship until a particular group (non US and non Canadian citizens) register at 6:30 AM in a certain area.
Even if it causes an extra hours wait for everyone else (2600 people)! Imagine the response if, after flying home, a 7 hour flight on a 747, you and your fellow 300 passengers are not allowed to disembark because one person has locked himself in the bathroom and refuses to come out, even if it's an extra 1 or 2 hour wait! You can tag your bags for pick up in the terminal off the ship. Once the bag in out of your hands though, and in the terminal, anyone can just walk off with it. There is security but no one checks for any sort of ID or baggage tags. One of our bags just disappeared with little hope of recovery. The staff were very helpful in filling out the lost luggage form and gave us phone numbers of the security company that finds lost baggage but guess what - they're closed on the weekends. If you disembark on Saturday morning you can't even talk to someone about this until Monday AM! Most people will be home or out of the country by then!
Comment cards. It seemed very important that all the guests fill these in and drop them in the box on board. Interesting that there is no "mail-in" option listed on the comment cards and although given, the staff seemed somewhat reluctant to give the mailing address to the head office of Carnival to sent these directly. I've worked at chain resort lodges before and we also had a similar system of comment cards for our guests. Those cards which carried negative comments were generally trash-canned prior to forwarding to the company offices as these would reflect badly on the staff there.
In the end we found that this type of holiday could potentially be an incredible experience. Unfortunately, it seems that the Carnival cruise line is going the same route as the airline industry -- extra fees for everything, seriously overworked and underpaid staff who give little feeling of welcome or even friendliness, that feeling of being herded like cattle and always looking over one's shoulder for the next hidden cost. Unfortunately we have to put up with this on flights. We don't have to cruise. On a holiday we just want to relax. Charge me extra at the onset but don't bug me about the small stuff. We do a couple of major trips a year traveling and will probably do another cruise one day but certainly not on Carnival. We both desperately needed some vacation time to de-stress from work but the effort was totally wasted here. Cheers.
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