In light of events onboard Carnival Triumph, which is currently being towed back to port following an engine fire onboard, we thought we’d share the results of a recent poll we ran on our homepage.
While some problems onboard are obviously worthy of complaint — lack of power, working toilets and air conditioning spring to mind — we wondered how likely our readership was to actually file a complaint with the cruise company.
As you can see in the graphic above, the overwhelming majority of you either have not had reason to complain (39.03 percent) or addressed your concerns with cruise ship staff while onboard the ship (21.59 percent), adding up to over 60 percent of the 579 total respondents.
Of voters who have filed a complaint, about 18 percent considered the complaint to be minor, and 20.9 percent said the complaint was a major one.
So how do you handle problems onboard? Do you complain? And what have your biggest complaints been? Comment below, and tell us.
–Jamey Bergman
For more on Carnival Triumph and other news, click here.
3 Comments
February 13, 2013 at 2:53 pm
Yes, I have complained about minor items or cabin defects previous – esp. NCL. The largest complaint that I filed after the cruise was with Celebrity about a transatlantic cruise.
The cruise was very good – the problem was organization and proper following of INS/HLS procedures when we got to Florida. They had a number of foreign nationals aboard and they failed to assemble this group and keep track of them (as requested) and they simply disappeared!
The ship was quarrentined for hours why attempts to locate these people were conducted. They continued their pre-planned sandwiching of passengers into lounges (rather than suspending such), there was no water, failure to inform passengers of what was going on and worse THE SHIP DID NOT INFORM THE OFFICE IN MIAMI OF THE ON-GOING PROBLEM.
I contacted the office, when we finally go to the airport 4 hours late, and that was the first word they had that they had 2000+ passengers being dumped ashore with missed flights, etc. Since I had travel arrangements and travel insurance with the cruise company I was in position to tell them I expected top hotel and transport ASAP. They finally got a crew down to the airport to help but again extremely poor communication and customer relations. They later sent me a $500 voucher (good for 6 months) which I did not use.
February 18, 2013 at 12:19 pm
On RC Sovereign of the Seas about 9 years ago was the only time we complained. The ship was in dry dock getting upgraded. The first day and half on it’s 1st trip out, the computers were not working so your room keys would not work. The cabin steward was runnig up and down the halls letting everyone in the rooms. Nobody knew what seats they had at diner and after finding your seat it took forever because the waitstaff had to hand deliver all orders.
When we arrived in Nassau the next day most on the bottom floor were flying home because the toilets were over flowing.
There were also some of the food stations closed.
Things did seem to smooth out the last two days, and the staff was great.
On the way out the comment box was overflowing and the emails I sent went unanswered.
I wanted to know why this ship was sent out with so many items not done, but I guess there were to many other complaints to answer mine.
We been on mostly CCL, a few other NCL and love cruising.
February 19, 2013 at 6:24 am
We had booked NCL for a cruise around Hawaii and to Fanning Island. The scheduled ship was redeployed and was replaced by the Pride of Aloha. After the excitement our first morning and for the remaining 11 days food and service was found lacking. Complaints to on board staff and subsequent complaints to NCL went to deaf ears. Their Hawaii business failed… Might they have been better listeners or responders?