“That’s it! I’m outta here!”

Lawsuits in this country are, I bet, at an all-time high. It seems that people sue each other over the most ridiculous things. This is not one of those ridiculous things. This is what lawsuits are meant to handle. If you exhaust all of the reasonable avenues and get stonewalled, go to court. Unfortunately, it seems that the strategy applied by corporate America is to deny, deny, deny, stonewall, ignore, and never admit anything. Some beancounter somewhere figured that this strategy will save you X amount of money over the long run as folks just get tired of fighting and simply give up. They force you to sue, instead of just sitting down and dealing with the situation reasonably. There’s not a sane person in the world who wouldn’t think that Ms. Walker is entitled to compensation for her ruined vacation.

As a reporter who writes about cruises, I advise passengers who have problems to go right to the front desk (the purser) where it will be fixed. The ship’s staff handled this dreadfully, which surprises me. She certainly has ground for a refund and I suggest pressing it harder. This is dreadful service, bad ship maintenance.

wow – i’m very sorry to hear about iesha’s experience with the bugs. we cruised on destiny last year and had a wonderful time. sure, the ship is old, but that doesn’t mean bugs in the room are okay (though that does mean that it’s expected that everything won’t be in mint condition). it sounds like the reason they weren’t offered the 3rd cabin initially is because it obviously needed some work – hence the story about the ship being at capacity – and they thought she’d be more satisfied with the 2nd cabin, which was fine except for being tiny. since we don’t know how much she paid, we cannot tell whether the refund provided was adequate. it might have been… those cruises can be pretty cheap, and i’d be shocked if they sent her anything more than her fare. though the fares for her cabinmates should, of course, also have been refunded.

I have to admit: I had to wonder about some of what I was seeing. However, I did see the nasty toilet seat in the corner of a picture, the broken, dirty shower tiles and the broken panel above the bed. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t see the bugs. Nevertheless, the purser’s office did admit there was an infestation, rendering the room uninabitable. That’s a whole lot of bugs.

And let’s see: buckets catching water on a SHIP? Sounds like the Destiny has serious problems with leaking. Do I have to say right out this is not a good thing? A leaky ship has problems with seaworthiness — you know, like it’s supposed to be watertight. I mean, that is the ideal condition, true?

The management didn’t exactly trip over themselves in their attempt to fix the problem, either. I don’t think they cared that one of their passengers didn’t exactly have a “FunShip Cruise.” And sitting in the lobby until 3 a.m.? For heaven’s sake. Or, she could have jumped ship, but been responsible for the airfare home. Ye gods and little fishes.

Sounds to me like the Destiny needs to go into dry-dock and be completely refitted, from stem to stern, paying careful attention to those watertight seals.

Oh yeah–and Iesha deserves her entire cruise fare back. No question. For the cruise line putting her safety at risk in a ship with leaks, if for no other reason.

All commenters seem to be forgetting.. she was moved to a SMALLER cabin. The $420 is likely the difference in cruise fare. I truly believe that piddly amount is not any type of compensation for the experience she had.

After having to fight with them and ‘prove’ the bugs existed (after all, the steward did nothing..), I can only imagine what type of ‘infestations’ they suffer behind the scenes… say in the kitchen? Blech!

No thanks, I think this cruiser will avoid the Destiny completely.

Farrow says “Carnival is a well known brand.” You are correct – it is known for complete mediocrity. I experienced a 3 night Carnival cruise once. Never again. I’d rather go to the local Wal-Mart.

ratherbfishin on cruise critic points out that the facts are likely wrong in this story. carnival has a policy that it will refund the unused portion of a person’s cruise fare AND pay for the flight back. http://www.carnival.com/CMS/fun/cruise_control/vacation_guarantee.aspx if iesha was that unhappy and her vacay was guaranteed ruined (understandable), she should’ve just taken them up on that offer.

traveler – glad to hear you’re sick of all those “tired port cities.” hopefully everyone else is too and the crowds will be light in st. petersburg, copenhagen, stockholm, barcelona…

chicky – the leaking is from plumbing/air conditioning issues. i wouldn’t be worried about destiny’s seaworthiness.

carver – as for the poor condition of some things on the ship, anyone could have been made aware of these issues before ever booking the cruise. check out the member reviews on cruise critic. destiny has gotten some pretty bad ones for a while now, so iesha really shouldn’t have been surprised about the condition of the ship (other than the bugs and, if true, the dirty bathroom).

mtp – you went on a booze cruise. of course it was terrible! no 3 night cruise can be compared to a 7 night cruise. they attract a different clientele. i’d highly recommend reconsidering carnival for a real cruise.

What can I tell you that you don’t want to hear. Cruising is becoming the new Motel 6. You get what you pay for. Carnival, RCCL, Princess, NCL especially are after 100% sold out ships while only being able to satisfy 75% of the perple. The 25% loss is an attrition that they will accept as who cares, we’ll get somebody else. I have never heard or read about problems on Holland America, Celebrity, or Crystal. They cost more, they carry less clients, and they have people on the ships that seem to hacve the answers. No letter needed to be written, action needed to be taken. Any line that does not save a few cabins for oops, is too greedy to sail on.

Carver posted:

My question would be, how does one protect themselves from such an experience? Carnival is a well known brand.

Carver, there is no way to protect ones self from this type of experience. It all comes down to how the cruise lines handle the situation. It is clear that Carnival failed to provide this customer a satisfactory answer to her issues.

Again, Carnival is not known by those in the industry as being a leader of nothing other than delivering a mediocre product. They aim for first time moderate income cruisers. I have found that those most happy with Carnival love the 24 hour pizza and ice cream and as long as they have that, they’re happy.

None of the cruise lines are perfect but some handle issues better than others.

Carnival’s Vacation Guarantee is spelled out on their website. As long as an unhappy passenger informs the purser’s office prior to arrival at the first port of call, they are supposed to be allowed to disembark. Carnival will refund the amount they spent on economy airfare back to their point of embarkation – upon receipt of the copy of the ticket. I’m sure there is fine print somewhere in there, but that is the course I would have taken. But perhaps I didn’t read the comments as closely as I should have. My family and I just returned from a 12-day Med cruise on Carnival’s Freedom and we couldn’t have been more pleased. Sorry she had such a terrible time.

I can’t see the insects in the video either, but I’d venture a PRETTY strong hunch that from the types of locations she’s pointing to and with all the travelers that ship has seen, those were Bed Bugs. ( I hate to think what she would have found, had she looked under the edge of the mattress pads.) If I’m right, that’s no small problem, as bed bugs are VERY hard to eliminate. When you find bed bugs in one room of a domicile, just assume they are in every room, even if they aren’t visible. They have ways of attaching or smuggling themselves to any and every surface and traveling freely. They are becoming highly resistant to pesticides and have a terrible habit of quickly attaching themselves to your luggage, clothing or person and riding along back to your home. They’ll even hide themselves in the nooks and crannies of the soles or trimming of your shoes. So, even walking through an infested room or setting down your luggage in one is appropriately a cause for alarm and shouldn’t be treated lightly. Again, if my hunch is right and these were indeed bed bugs, the true problem here is that you bring these unwanted guests home. By the time you identify that they’re there (from tell-tale bite marks you find in the morning), they’ll have bred so many additional buddies, you’ll possibly end up having to throw away your mattresses, pillows, bedding and even, up to and including, furniture or carpeting. Then you still will need to keep spraying and watching for 4-6 nervous weeks. So, even if the cruise line refunds your travel fares, you’re still out additional pest control costs at home. The least they can do for this traveler is give her a full refund and give the public a frank explanation of how they are dealing or plan to deal with this problem. Oh…and good luck trying to get a decent night’s sleep for months after all of that.

She apparently forgot to read Carnival’s policy. Not happy, get off the ship and Carnival will compensate. I saw nothing besides broken tiles in bathroom. You want to enjoy your cruise, don’t be a cheapskate and book a new ship. I have no sympathy for stupidity.

Christopher, I read some of those comments on the Cruise Critic Carnival board. Funny to say the least but keep in mind that those are the cheerleaders for Carnival and they are very vocal. You should see any thread where Carnival is positioned in a negative way. They attack like locusts. LOL!!!!!!! Post #19 on that thread is a very good example.

Carnival does not do a good job in the housekeeping department. I think many of the room stewards are stretched thin and have too many cabins to handle to do a thorough job. Also, it is plain to see in that video that the bathroom tile was nasty and contained mildew. That is totally uncalled for. Again, you get what you pay for.

Please note, that the desperation you hear on the video was built up over time. We attempted the video only after four phone calls to the Purser’s Desk and 3 very professional in person conversations to the Purser’s Desk. At 2am after travelling all night, I’m sure I’m not the only person who would be upset. This is the first time we have ever had a bad experience on Carnival. This was my 9th cruise with Carnival. This was actually the 4th cruise on Destiny over nine years. And yes, it was a 7 day cruise. We cruised from Sunday, July 13 thru July 20th. I, Iesha, never heard of the Cruise Critic. I am not familiar with blogging or any of the such, so I was not aware of the problems others were having with Carnival. Again, this was my 1st problem in 9 cruises. My mother and father have cruised with them for over 15 cruises and never experienced these problems. We did ask them about Carnival’s “Guarantee” on the advice of a Carnival reservations agent we contacted when we tried to contact Guest Relations, but were told by the manager, Jorge, that they could not guarantee that we would be reimbursed our expenses for travelling back home. He said we would have to take that up with Guests Relations when we returned home. Since I would have had to disembark that next morning with two kids on an island, I could not afford to do so. There was no way that I could afford to gather up money for three “Same Day” airline tickets from St Thomas to the continental US. The airfare alone would have been $636.90 per person ($1,910.70 for myself and two kids). As a single mother of two, I don’t have $2k laying around, especially since they couldn’t guarantee it would be refunded. $2,686.61 was spent on the 7-day cruise for myself and two kids which doesn’t include the air which was over $1,200. This may not seem like much money to you, but it was to me. We wish we had known about the Cruise Critic and the rest of the sites ahead of time. I don’t see how anyone can call me stupid for wanting to take a trip with my kids and family. We will never be travelling with them again. We didn’t even care about the broken tiles and scratches on the wall. We cared about the bug infestation (which is the wording the manager, Jorge used to describe the conditions) and dirty grimy room and bathroom. By the way, the wires hanging over the bed were from a light above the bed which was live.

I’m astonished at the harsh tone other posters have taken with Iesha Walker. Calling her stupid, telling her to read the contract, and more–this is an experienced cruiser who did read the contract that Carnival was refusing to honor.

I have worked on board Carnival and have cruised with them. While I personally have not experienced the problems Iesha did, I do know that the pursers are dealing with chronic complainers on a daily basis. These are the folks who complain that the ice in their drink is too cold, or that somehow it’s Carnival’s fault that the ship had to be re-routed due to hurricanes. So when a legitimate complaint arises, as it did with Iesha, often the pursers cannot tell the difference. Even so, pursers are duty-bound to treat everyone with dignity, courtesy, and respect regardless of the passenger’s mood–which in this case, her bad mood was entirely justified. We plan these vacations and fork over our hard-earned money for them, we shouldn’t have to walk on eggshells to report a serious issue as well. She had a right to be angry and I didn’t hear anyone get personally abusive.

I do agree that Carnival appears to have subscribed to the capitalist notion that apologies lead to liability and therefore stalling is better than good customer response. Carnival had an excellent opportunity to gain themselves not only a lifelong loyalty in Iesha (not to mention the can’t-be-bought word of mouth advertising she’d have spread), and they blew it.

How can you tell if an exposed wire protruding from the wall (which would violate just about any building code for a commercial property I ever heard of) is live or not without touching it–or perhaps you expect passengers to equip themselves with a portable electronic test kit?

Dripping water, whether from condensation or a leak, is still moisture that leads to mold that leads to serious respiratory problems. The liability for that will be a lot higher than the cost of a cruise.

Do you think Iesha shot video of blank walls just to claim that there were bugs everywhere and get a free cruise out of it?

Finally, people: if you disagree, why be nasty about it? She had legitimate beefs and you treat her like this? She didn’t take anything from you–why be so cruel to her?

@ Everyone saying “you get what you pay for”

Ms Walker paid for a nice, reasonably priced getaway with her family. She decidedly did NOT get what she paid for.

If I go out to Applebee’s and order a steak, its going to be a very different experience from going to Ruth Chris and ordering a steak. I know from the get that I’m getting a lower quality of beef, going to have to put up with noise from the bar and maybe some rowdy families or college kids. I accept that and pay for that as part of going to family chain eatery. I have no right to complain that its not the same experience as Ruth Chris.

However if I go to Applebee’s and get salmonella, that is completely unacceptable. I went out to a reputable chain that promises a certain level of product. Just because I spent $15 on a steak instead of $60 doesn’t mean the restaurant has some sort bizarre *right* to poison me.

Ms. Walker is not complaining because she bought Carnival and expected Seabourn service, she is complaining because she got the cruise line equivalent of a steak with salmonella.

Ms Walker, I sympathize with you. I hope Carnival investigates your case further and comes up with more appropriate compensation. It is a travesty that the staff onboard the Destiny were unable to stand behind Carnival published guarantee.

I don’t think being a person of color had anything to do with this. I myself have witnessed many African Americans traveling on Carnival and I don’t think that they would treat a person different just because they have a different color skin. This person stated in one of their posts that both them and their family are repeat customers with Carnival so if they had felt slighted in the past, I doubt that they would have returned.

Carnival just screwed up here. Again, they are not known for their customer service on land or at sea.

Why do people continue to go on cruise ships? They are nothing but a floating prison designed to separate you from your hard earned money. I’ve went on a cruise once. Never again.

Just wondering if Chris or Ms. Walker ever head back from Carnival regarding this issue. I’m really curious to know how this one turns out.

I just had to comment after reading this, even if it is old. I’m very glad that the last bunch of people finally seem to have gotten their thoughts straight. there is absolutely NO excuse for anyone to get a room in serious disrepair and dirty, regardless of how much it cost or was discounted. I do not have much money, so when I travel anywhere, my family and I stay at some of the cheapest places possible. I’m talking Motel 6, Super 8, HoJo, or anywhere else that is literally $40 a night or less. Even when i go to vegas I stay at the Strat. Why waste money on a room when all the fun is somewhere else? Given the attitude that some people here have, it would make sense for me to say that if they ever got a free room because of a complaint that they should expect rodents, trash, and feces strewn about the room. After all, it’s free right?

The one common theme that everyone should always expect is a CLEAN room with furnishings that work as they should. In used and older accomodations it would be normal for wear to be present and for things to be scratched up. What would not be normal is for the things to be present that were. -It’s as someone posted above in that it’s not acceptable for you to get food poisoning just because it wasn’t a $60 steak.

The OP does deserve a FULL refund and more. She was in no way given the accomodations contracted for, nor was the staff helpful at all. if anything, they should have moved her group, all expenses paid to a different ship in a much better cabin. Just because something is cheap doesn’t make it normal or OK for people to be treated like garbage or be made to endure the nonsense that the OP had to.