Carnival Cruise Lines - Destiny jamaica and caaman islands Review

The following letter details the events that occurred on the Carnival Cruise ship “The Destiny”, which have led to our dispute against charges made from Carnival Cruise Line. On September 12, 2009 my husband and I boarded the Carnival Destiny whose itinerary included Grand Cayman and Jamaica. Upon stepping into the ship’s lobby, we overheard a fellow guest complaining about the ship’s safety and engine not working properly. IMy husband immediately went to the information desk and waited for over 20 minutes in line to be told that the ship’s propeller was not working properly and that the cruise was no longer going to the destinations that we originally purchased this cruise for. He was offered a 20% discount on a future cruise and directed back to the ship’s terminal to speak with a Carnival Cruise Line Supervisor to get further information and to find out all of our options. He left me in the lobby as I have difficulty standing for long periods. When he entered the terminal it was a mad house, people were confused, angry and told that they would be able to speak to a supervisor if they signed up and got in line.  He immediately signed up and was told repeatedly by a cruise associate that I would be the next in line to speak to the next available supervisor. He waited for over 2 ½ hours without speaking or meeting with one supervisor, even though all guests were told the ship would not leave the terminal until each guest was able to speak with a supervisor. Instead he was given a generic card for guest services to contact after the actual trip. With no options he had to return to the ship, as the horn was blowing indicating that the ship was leaving port. I  was waiting on this ship, as were our belongings, though we did not know the location of our luggage and were told if we got off the ship, it would be without our luggage, which wouldn’t be returned to us until the ship returned from the cruise. Some medications, personal care items and all of our clothing, shoes were in our luggage. This fact left us with no options, but to stay on a ship sailing to places we didn’t want to go. They never offered in any way to compensate us or return any of our money, and stated that if passengers didn’t take the cruise, their money wouldn’t be returned until 10 days after the cruise. We did not have additional funds for a hotel and did not have the ability to replace our clothing, medications, personal care products etc. We were therefore trapped, as we never received the letter that some passengers had received during the check in process, even though we had to wait in three separate lines to gain access to the ship.  During the check in process at the terminal we waited in three different lines w/o any communication by the staff that the itinerary had changed. We had no way to get off the ship, as we didn’t know where are belongings were and couldn’t get our money returned to us that day. We did not have any money to take another flight home, as we were not scheduled to fly home until September 19th 2009 and on April 29th we had already paid $300.00 to change our airfare and travel destination in order to take the Carnival Destiny to Jamaica, as we had thoroughly enjoyed our last brief time in Jamaica several months ago, through the Carnival Freedom.

Not only were we devastated about not going to Jamaica, we were very angry that we were never given the opportunity prior to entering the ship and handing over our luggage to not take the cruise, as we never received the paperwork, period. We was promised we would have the ability to speak to a supervisor when my husband spoke with a customer service representative in the terminal and  never got the opportunity to find out what our options were, until the ship’s horn blew. Our trip was the absolute worse trip we have ever experienced in our entire lives. Not only was the staff rude, illiterate and unhelpful, they had no skills in terms of customer service. We were put in lines for breakfast and lunch that were obscenely long, in which 50-60 people were in one line as the staff closed other lines that could have reduced the 30-40 minutes it took to get our food. Food particles were frequently found on our plates, bowls and silverware, which we attribute as the source of the viral infections we acquired during our stay onboard.  Unbeknownst to me I ended up using a spoon that had dried on food particles and once this happened we frequently had to change utensils, bowls, plates for the fact that they had dried on food, which could have led to more than the food poisoning, and viral infections we obtained. Specifically, my husband obtained food poisoning on the first sea day after eating an undercooked hamburger during lunch. He also found my fork had dried on food particles on it as well. Vomiting, sweating, diarrhea ensued for over 24 hrs, which occurred less than one hour after eating the meal. Food borne illness is a serious issue. Hepatitis A, and other chronic diseases are a few of the diseases we could have acquired while unknowingly eating from utensils and plates, bowls that were not cleaned properly and when the issue of my food poisoning was brought to the attention of the kitchen staff, they never even responded to the seriousness of this issue, only saying it sometimes happens . Room service failed to even come one day when we called,  another day our room service tray sat out in front of our cabin for over 5 ½ hours.  On the last day of our trip in port, we were told we could have breakfast until 9:30am and when  my husband attempted to get some at 9:00am, the cruise attendants were putting it away, before he could even get to it. PLEASE SAVE YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY AND DON"T SAIL W/ CARNIVAL CRUISE LINE.