Have You Ever Experienced a "Bad" Cruise? Really?

[suedon70]

Okay, this is kinda off-topic from Disney Cruises in general, but I just got off the CruiseCritic boards and to hear it from many, many seasoned cruisers over there they have had just absolutely miserable experiences on some of their cruises over the years and are constantly complaining about specific ships, cruise lines in general, etc.

So my question is this: Have you ever experienced a "bad" cruise overall? And I'm talking about things beyond your control, not that you got sick, were hung over most of the time, missed the ship at a port, etc.

My personal experience is this: I have been on 8 cruises (four with Disney) with two currently booked for next year (one on Disney, one on Princess). In my experiences I have never had a "bad" cruise! Maybe I'm just lucky so far *knocks on wood*

What are your experiences?

 

[erionm]

I've been on 15 or so cruises across 4 different cruise lines and never had a "bad" cruise.

 

[Dug720]

Okay, this is kinda off-topic from Disney Cruises in general, but I just got off the CruiseCritic boards and to hear it from many, many seasoned cruisers over there they have had just absolutely miserable experiences on some of their cruises over the years and are constantly complaining about specific ships, cruise lines in general, etc.

So my question is this: Have you ever experienced a "bad" cruise overall? And I'm talking about things beyond your control, not that you got sick, were hung over most of the time, missed the ship at a port, etc.

My personal experience is this: I have been on 8 cruises (four with Disney) with two currently booked for next year (one on Disney, one on Princess). In my experiences I have never had a "bad" cruise! Maybe I'm just lucky so far *knocks on wood*

What are your experiences?

While I generally loved the group I was with and Alaska, I overall count my time on HAL as "bad". The "guest services" crew members were snooty and condescending and acted like you were bothering them (and couldn't even do something as simple as closing out an account at the end of the cruise correctly). None of the crew smiled or acknowledged you - and looked at you like you had three heads if you said hello to them. The dining room servers we had were barely capable of handling one table let alone a section - they had to be called over to correct things repeatedly, and more than once forgot the sauce that was to go with desserts. I went back to Alaska the following year with the same group but on Royal Caribbean and it was night and day difference. That one experience was enough to make me say absolutely 100% never again on HAL.

 

[mcgluvint]

Okay, this is kinda off-topic from Disney Cruises in general, but I just got off the CruiseCritic boards and to hear it from many, many seasoned cruisers over there they have had just absolutely miserable experiences on some of their cruises over the years and are constantly complaining about specific ships, cruise lines in general, etc.

So my question is this: Have you ever experienced a "bad" cruise overall? And I'm talking about things beyond your control, not that you got sick, were hung over most of the time, missed the ship at a port, etc.

My personal experience is this: I have been on 8 cruises (four with Disney) with two currently booked for next year (one on Disney, one on Princess). In my experiences I have never had a "bad" cruise! Maybe I'm just lucky so far *knocks on wood*

What are your experiences?

I would consider my second cruise on the magic to be the worst but not necessarily bad. We skipped pretty much skipped every port except CC. We couldn't go outside. It was just a mess. Not Disneys fault.

 

[suedon70]

While I generally loved the group I was with and Alaska, I overall count my time on HAL as "bad". The "guest services" crew members were snooty and condescending and acted like you were bothering them (and couldn't even do something as simple as closing out an account at the end of the cruise correctly). None of the crew smiled or acknowledged you - and looked at you like you had three heads if you said hello to them. The dining room servers we had were barely capable of handling one table let alone a section - they had to be called over to correct things repeatedly, and more than once forgot the sauce that was to go with desserts. I went back to Alaska the following year with the same group but on Royal Caribbean and it was night and day difference. That one experience was enough to make me say absolutely 100% never again on HAL.

I only know anything about HAL from public perception and that's surprising to me that the crew would have attitudes like that! Thank goodness DCL CM's are not like that AT ALL! Of course DCL is fabulous but I was almost equally impressed with our first Princess cruise last year - excellent service, friendly crew and the MDR food was outstanding.

 

[suedon70]

I would consider my second cruise on the magic to be the worst but not necessarily bad. We skipped pretty much skipped every port except CC. We couldn't go outside. It was just a mess. Not Disneys fault.

Yeah we've had issues on a few cruises over the years where we couldn't dock or tender due to bad weather but we always try to make the best of the situation.

 

[SteveMP]

I've found over the decades that there are certain people who will complain about anything and everything, and usually the most vocal(possibly attempts to get attention). The people who complain about how aweful their cruises were are most likely the same people who complain about your favorite restaurants on yelp, and your favorite profducts on Amazon. They make it hard to trust reviews when you see 20 5 star reviews and 20 1 star reviews. I feel bad for people who can't enjoy things.

That said, like "no bad days" i have "no bad cruises"

 

[suedon70]

I've found over the decades that there are certain people who will complain about anything and everything, and usually the most vocal(possibly attempts to get attention). The people who complain about how aweful their cruises were are most likely the same people who complain about your favorite restaurants on yelp, and your favorite profducts on Amazon. They make it hard to trust reviews when you see 20 5 star reviews and 20 1 star reviews. I feel bad for people who can't enjoy things.

That said, like "no bad days" i have "no bad cruises"

Agree 100% with you Steve!

 

[Dug720]

I only know anything about HAL from public perception and that's surprising to me that the crew would have attitudes like that! Thank goodness DCL CM's are not like that AT ALL! Of course DCL is fabulous but I was almost equally impressed with our first Princess cruise last year - excellent service, friendly crew and the MDR food was outstanding.

Perhaps it was just the Westerdam crew, but I swear they would not look at you when they passed and when I said "Good morning!" with a smile and being very friendly, they looked at me like I had three heads.

Like I said, the group I was with was fine and Alaska was beautiful. But I could not get off that ship fast enough at the end. (Literally due to the incompetence as closing my account - I had to go back there and ask her to please click the button she needed to click to let me off the ship.)

And just for the record, I am NOT generally a complainer. If there is a problem I will bring it to the appropriate person's attention to give them a chance to improve things. But in this one particular case, it felt pointless - when you already feel condescended to and like you're being a bother, why would you want to let them know about an issue?

 

[MickeyD]

Terming a cruise a "bad cruise" is so subjective. Like you mentioned all the complainers on CC. I have read some of the reviews over there and if those are the things that cause them to have a bad cruise, then they really should stop cruising!
I have been on quite a few, not all Disney, and despite missed ports, rough seas, less than stellar service (yes, even on DCL), and overcrowded ships, I don't think I would ever term any of my cruises "bad," even the Carnival one. Not to sound pious, but I feel it is a privilege to be able to travel like this because I know so many cannot afford to, that I tend to overlook a lot of inconsequential things and try to enjoy each moment. Sorry, that really does sound Polly Annish and that is not me, but if you are looking for bad (which I think a lot of the gripers on CC do), you will find it. If you are looking for the good, you will find it.

 

[jrabbit]

Sailed on NCL Jade in the Med. Ports = Awesome. Weather Pretty good considering it was January. Ship: still looked like on the inside like she was still called "Pride of Hawaii". Totally Polynesian (not that its bad, but Disney has done Polynesian very well)

Food: Awful unless you went to an up charge restaurant. If you went to the breakfast buffet, you were likely to catch a case of food poisoning.

Shows: Some Great, many good and some aweful

Crew: everyone EXCEPT for the cruise director - pretty much useless. No eye contact, no smiles and don't even try to talk to them. And the servers at the buffet (we couldn't serve ourselves - norovirus maybe) would be visiting with each other, sever one person in line, then turn around with their backs to you, after a while would turn back around and serve you, then turn around again - even though there were MANY people in line!!

DCL has "ruined" us for other cruise lines, but their prices are making us need to look elsewhere.

 

[wilkeliza]

While the trip over all was great I don't think my service on Silverseas was good and the experience on board did not equate to the cost so I gave the ship a bad rating.

Dinning was impossible. They took the money for the 5 kids 5 and under and two teenagers who were in our party but then would not accommodate us in any way possible. This is the first ship of theirs to have an official kids room but they had a hard rule that you had to be 7 to use it. The oldest they never questioned because he looked 7 but with all the other kids even with their adults (it was not a closed situation like kids clubs it was a room with crafts and 1 leader that kids and adults could come and go from) they were told no. People complained about the mere sight of children or from children's laughter. When the kids were rowdy or too loud they were corrected or moved out of the area but being irate and complaining about just general happiness on a cruise that was not sold as adult exclusive was ridiculous. Also they tout themselves as the best and the most luxurious but any time we had a question or request we were met with a responding no.

Top that off with a lack of activities and crappy food and it was just a bad cruise. The only saving grace was that we were in port so long you didn't have to be on the ship most days.

 

[CamColt]

I have taken 18 Disney Cruises(with 3 more booked), and 3 on other Cruise Lines, and nope I cannot say I've had a bad cruise.

 

[M<3'sMickey]

My husband has sailed Carnival and Norwegian. He said that the Norwegian cruise was bad because they had a medical emergency and were let to every port then after it happened (clearly he felt bad for the person who had the medical emergency). Carnival he just said was eh. He sailed for the first time on DCL this past June and said he doesn't think he can ever sail another cruise line again, that's how amazing it was.

I've sailed DCL 9 times now and Celebrity once. The Celebrity cruise wasn't bad; it just wasn't DCL.

 

[ChicosWife]

I would consider my second cruise on the magic to be the worst but not necessarily bad. We skipped pretty much skipped every port except CC. We couldn't go outside. It was just a mess. Not Disneys fault.

What happened that you couldn't go outside and you skipped most of your ports?

 

[erionm]

What happened that you couldn't go outside and you skipped most of your ports?

I would guess it was weather related.

 

[gary in florida]

I've found over the decades that there are certain people who will complain about anything and everything, and usually the most vocal(possibly attempts to get attention). The people who complain about how aweful their cruises were are most likely the same people who complain about getyour favorite restaurants on yelp, and your favorite profducts on Amazon. They make it hard to trust reviews when you see 20 5 star reviews and 20 1 star reviews. I feel bad for people who can't enjoy things.

That said, like "no bad days" i have "no bad cruises"

agree, use Amazon a lot and read the reviews, and laugh when I get item and have no problems. Example, we bought 2 walkers, rolators, had them for over a year, some of the reviews had them falling apart as they took them out of the box. Then the people who complain about DCL and when you read between the lines, the problem was theirs. You can't start out with a chip on your shoulder and expect everybody to jump. I always say, that if your nice to people the people will in turn be nice to you, everybody has a bad day even CM'S

 

[scgustafson]

Yes, my one and only cruise on Carnival in the Western Caribbean on Carnival Inspiration in July of 2002. Between the noticeable lack of customer service, behavior of and incidents by other passengers, incidents on Carnival-provided excursions, and a propulsion casualty that they tried to keep from the passengers until it was too noticeable to ignore and caused a major delay on returning to port, there were very few enjoyable moments in the overall trip.

 

[oakleycat]

I've only cruised DCL and only 4 cruises in, but they have all been great!

 

[AquaDame]

Yep, I've had a bad cruise.

As others have mentioned it wasn't one or two things but just a general bad experience. Stateroom had maintenance issues (including my shower suddenly losing all COLD water and I scalded myself/had to have my husband dump cups of water on me in the shower from the slighly less hot sink to try and get the conditioner out), bad service (being scolded for showing up at the time we reserved for dinner and made to come at a different time every night despite the misnomer "my time"), bad drinks (watched the bartender look up how to make a drink on the menu - a maitai and it came out awfully), had to wait in long lines at the bar to get bottles of water when we were thirsty (from the tap it was yellow), had racist and/or misogynistic "comedians" as our entertainment on several evenings in the main theatre and just a myriad of other things also that to be honest I wouldn't complain about normally but it does add up.

I'm not picky, I don't send my steak back if it's a little over or under, I never tell people to hush or get into confrontations. A room has to have more than a couple things wrong with it before I'd ask sheepishly if I may have another and I am so so sorry to be a bother but I'm sorry that WAS a bad cruise... ^^;