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

[PrincessTrisha]

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

Have you never purchased something that when it came out of the box, it was broken? Just because your experience was perfect, doesn't negate what other people experienced.

I bought a coffee maker and the second time I made a pot of coffee, it basically fried - there was coffee and coffee grounds everywhere. Something was wrong with it. I exchanged it for a new one. Thankfully I haven't had a problem with the new one but it doesn't change the fact that there was something wrong with the first one.

Sometimes the problem is with the person (attitude) but sometimes it's not. There are actual issues that sometimes occur (i.e. poor service/bad food/bad beds/noisy cabin that interferes with rest and sleep) that make for a "bad cruise".

If the cruise ends and I'm ready to get off the ship, I consider that a bad cruise because usually, no matter how long the cruise is, I never want to leave.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Have you never purchased something that when it came out of the box, it was broken? Just because your experience was perfect, doesn't negate what other people experienced.

I bought a coffee maker and the second time I made a pot of coffee, it basically fried - there was coffee and coffee grounds everywhere. Something was wrong with it. I exchanged it for a new one. Thankfully I haven't had a problem with the new one but it doesn't change the fact that there was something wrong with the first one.

Sometimes the problem is with the person (attitude) but sometimes it's not. There are actual issues that sometimes occur (i.e. poor service/bad food/bad beds/noisy cabin that interferes with rest and sleep) that make for a "bad cruise".

If the cruise ends and I'm ready to get off the ship, I consider that a bad cruise because usually, no matter how long the cruise is, I never want to leave.

Well stated. I get that there are some miserable souls in the world who will never be happy. Those people exist. However, I assure you I've never booked a cruise with the intent of going & picking apart every last detail so I have fodder to go online & lament about to strangers. Crap things happen to regular ol' folks every day. Sometimes it's a whole list of crap things that happen. It's legit.

 

[wilkeliza]

It is great other posters can forgive so much wrong doings but when I say we had a "bad" cruise it isn't because of things the cruise line can't control like weather or missing a port.

Case in point on our Silverseas cruise (for those unaware it is a luxury liner but was anything but) they admitted they forgot to book the dock for the next morning in Monte Carlo so although we were overnight there we could only be on the dock until 10pm then had to go out and tender. So from 10-11 you couldn't get on or off the ship while it re-positioned and then even though we weren't leaving until 7am because of the tender contract with the local company tenders stopped at 3am. When people are paying 5 figures for even a standard room you can't simply forget to book the dock that is unacceptable. There are other issues too but that just shows how they dropped the ball on even the big things let alone the little things. I was able to ax sugar from my tea because on the entire 2 weeks of the cruise I couldn't get a single server to bring me sugar in the dinning rooms and it wasn't like I could just go get it myself or I would have. They had the sugar packets but just wouldn't bring them even if I asked multiple times. So again those are 2 of the many issues overall with the cruise. I'm not usually a complainer and I've forgiven a lot of bad but when it is is an overall experience on what is suppose to be one of the most luxurious we are here for you type of cruises you should be left wondering what exactly you paid for.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

It is great other posters can forgive so much wrong doings but when I say we had a "bad" cruise it isn't because of things the cruise line can't control like weather or missing a port.

Case in point on our Silverseas cruise (for those unaware it is a luxury liner but was anything but) they admitted they forgot to book the dock for the next morning in Monte Carlo so although we were overnight there we could only be on the dock until 10pm then had to go out and tender. So from 10-11 you couldn't get on or off the ship while it re-positioned and then even though we weren't leaving until 7am because of the tender contract with the local company tenders stopped at 3am. When people are paying 5 figures for even a standard room you can't simply forget to book the dock that is unacceptable. There are other issues too but that just shows how they dropped the ball on even the big things let alone the little things. I was able to ax sugar from my tea because on the entire 2 weeks of the cruise I couldn't get a single server to bring me sugar in the dinning rooms and it wasn't like I could just go get it myself or I would have. They had the sugar packets but just wouldn't bring them even if I asked multiple times. So again those are 2 of the many issues overall with the cruise. I'm not usually a complainer and I've forgiven a lot of bad but when it is is an overall experience on what is suppose to be one of the most luxurious we are here for you type of cruises you should be left wondering what exactly you paid for.

Oh WOW. Yeah, on a luxury line with luxury prices there should be no missed details. Not one.

 

[wilkeliza]

Oh WOW. Yeah, on a luxury line with luxury prices there should be no missed details. Not one.

Yeah if it was just the sugar I would have been fine but when there is a new problem every single day it starts to wear on you. Add that to the fact that again they knew we were a party of 19 but at no point didn't they say oh yeah part of 19 no problem let's push some tables together (even when we had reservations for all 19). It was constant we can't do that. We aren't equipped for that. etc. We quickly realized they'll take your money and make a lot of promises but then not deliver. We kept pushing for Disney because of the kids and because we knew they could handle large parties (a sister in law actually did a large party Disney cruise the month prior and only had wonderful things to say). Unfortunately our concerns were said to be nothing and it would all be fine and we were assured that the kids would be accommodated and the large party would be accommodated etc.

 

[GrannyDee]

We've cruised Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Princess, Celebrity, and Disney. For each line, I've researched far enough ahead to manage expectations for my family. Celebrity is not like Carnival; Princess is not like Disney, etc.

We've experienced missed ports, of course, food we didn't care for, and the odd indifferent staff member. But I'd hafta really reach around in my memory for these and none of them made for a "bad" cruise. All our cruises have been fabulous experiences.

The one cruise I was worried about was with Celebrity. We cruise with our children and grandchildren and we'd chosen Celebrity because our granddaughter (6 at the time of travel) had cruised Carnival with us the year before and loved all the grown up things ... didn't care much for the noise and busy-ness of the Carnival. She was completely overwhelmed.

Following Cruise Critic there seemed to be an alarming number of no-kids-on-Celebrity folk. I was so worried that might impact our cruise. The opposite turned out to be true. Staff and other passengers were awesome. My granddaughter dressed up for dinner every night and it took us ages to get to the dining room because people were constantly stopping us and talking to the "princess".

There weren't very many kids onboard - I want to say fewer than 40 - so the kids club often was a jumble of ages and even sometimes incuded parents and grandparents who wanted to stay and play. She met other children from around the world and several adopted her as a younger sister for the duration of the cruise.

The only slightly negative comment was on our first day when a woman on the elevator looked at us and said to her husband, "I thought there were no kids on Celebrity". Her husband shrugged and said, "I guess it depends on the kid".

She's since been on a Disney cruise and loved it. Yeah, go figure. Carnival was sensory overload, but Disney wasn't.

At any rate, we've never had anything but fantastic cruises, regardless of the line.

 

[Orsino]

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.

As a side story, I'm sure there is a guy out there who says Royal Caribbean has awful customer service. He asked me where something was, and I said "I don't know where that is," and walked away. He thought I worked on the ship.

 

[GrannyDee]

It seemed like a lot of the complainers have been on many cruises. As all companies seem to downsize different things or make cut backs, it would be more noticeable if you've been on a lot of cruises. I am still new enough to not know the difference. However, there are always big uproars here, too, when DCL cuts something out such as the cheese plate (which the promptly brought back) and the gold/platinum reception on cruises less than 8 days long. New cruisers won't know they are missing anything.

LOL, that is SOOOOOO true. We did our Celebrity cruise around the time they changed up their orange juice. Oh, the pearl clutching! I can only imagine how hella-delicious that orange juice must have been, based on the backlash of their seasoned cruisers.

That said, I did have the DCL cheese platter every night, so I'm glad they brought it back.

 

[mevelandry]

Have you never purchased something that when it came out of the box, it was broken? Just because your experience was perfect, doesn't negate what other people experienced.

Yes!!!! (I agree) I remember before I cruised on the Victory how the ship was apparently the worst ever and the food horrible, etc.

And then... We had such a good time and the food was awesome...

 

[Dug720]

As a side story, I'm sure there is a guy out there who says Royal Caribbean has awful customer service. He asked me where something was, and I said "I don't know where that is," and walked away. He thought I worked on the ship.

Well, unless there were people randomly walking around in uniforms and wearing name tags, that was NOT the case with me on the Westerdam.

 

[Dug720]

Yes!!!! I remember before I cruised on the Victory how the ship was apparently the worst ever and the food horrible, etc.

And then... We had such a good time and the food was awesome...

But that does not negate the experience of people who had different feelings or experiences on the ship.

Everyone experiences things differently. It doesn't mean one is right and one is wrong. It just means they experienced things - sometimes even the seemingly same thing - differently. (One of the reasons one of the first things you learn when you're doing any kind of training for a counseling role is you NEVER say "I know exactly how you feel" to someone because unless you literally are them, you can never know EXACTLY how someone else feels.)

 

[suedon70]

That said, I did have the DCL cheese platter every night, so I'm glad they brought it back.

OMG LOVE the DCL cheese platter! Nothing better than those DCL room service snacks!

 

[mevelandry]

It is great other posters can forgive so much wrong doings but when I say we had a "bad" cruise it isn't because of things the cruise line can't control like weather or missing a port.

Case in point on our Silverseas cruise (for those unaware it is a luxury liner but was anything but) they admitted they forgot to book the dock for the next morning in Monte Carlo so although we were overnight there we could only be on the dock until 10pm then had to go out and tender. So from 10-11 you couldn't get on or off the ship while it re-positioned and then even though we weren't leaving until 7am because of the tender contract with the local company tenders stopped at 3am. When people are paying 5 figures for even a standard room you can't simply forget to book the dock that is unacceptable. There are other issues too but that just shows how they dropped the ball on even the big things let alone the little things. I was able to ax sugar from my tea because on the entire 2 weeks of the cruise I couldn't get a single server to bring me sugar in the dinning rooms and it wasn't like I could just go get it myself or I would have. They had the sugar packets but just wouldn't bring them even if I asked multiple times. So again those are 2 of the many issues overall with the cruise. I'm not usually a complainer and I've forgiven a lot of bad but when it is is an overall experience on what is suppose to be one of the most luxurious we are here for you type of cruises you should be left wondering what exactly you paid for.

Sugar is one thing... Forgetting to book a dock in a port is huge, though. Did they compensate you?

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

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

Have you never purchased something that when it came out of the box, it was broken? Just because your experience was perfect, doesn't negate what other people experienced.

I bought a coffee maker and the second time I made a pot of coffee, it basically fried - there was coffee and coffee grounds everywhere. Something was wrong with it. I exchanged it for a new one. Thankfully I haven't had a problem with the new one but it doesn't change the fact that there was something wrong with the first one.

Sometimes the problem is with the person (attitude) but sometimes it's not. There are actual issues that sometimes occur (i.e. poor service/bad food/bad beds/noisy cabin that interferes with rest and sleep) that make for a "bad cruise".

If the cruise ends and I'm ready to get off the ship, I consider that a bad cruise because usually, no matter how long the cruise is, I never want to leave.

I think you are both right. That is why I always pay close attention to the specific thing the reviewers cites as unsatisfying, and I also ask myself if I feel the reviewer had reasonable expectations (IMO) going in.

For example, if I read a hotel review and they say they hated the hotel, and then cite a little wear and tear to the curtains or the hallway rug as the reason (I have seen this happen repeatedly on Expedia, etc., I'm not exaggerating), I can be pretty sure that, for me, I won't mind this hotel. But if the reviewer says there were bedbugs everywhere (I haven't seen many like this), I will (of course) take notice.

As for the second thing, expectations, it happens a lot with tech products where super high expectations mean I can ignore the review. For example, "This product (that I bought for cheap) was not of the astoundingly highest quality and when I (pushed it to extreme limits) it broke". Or "this reasonably high quality product was not (dirt cheap)." Reviews like this tell me nothing about the product, only about the expectations of the purchaser.

So it is the same for cruises, I look at what they complain about and what their expectations are before deciding how much weight to give their complaints.

There is another aspect. Sometimes incredibly rare, but bad things happen. That STINKS, but it doesn't make for a useful review either. If we all abandoned every product or service that had an occasional bad event, we'd quickly run out of places to do business. So I also have to ask myself how likely that thing is to happen again and if it was caused by bad company policies or bad luck.

My condolences to everyone who had a bad cruise, and my thanks for everyone who has shared their experiences with the rest of us!

 

[mevelandry]

But that does not negate the experience of people who had different feelings or experiences on the ship.

Everyone experiences things differently. It doesn't mean one is right and one is wrong. It just means they experienced things - sometimes even the seemingly same thing - differently. (One of the reasons one of the first things you learn when you're doing any kind of training for a counseling role is you NEVER say "I know exactly how you feel" to someone because unless you literally are them, you can never know EXACTLY how someone else feels.)

I don't understand your answer to my comment: I never said my good experience negated their experience...

I meant that one can have a bad experience and the other won't.

I see that all the time. Two cruisers on the exact same cruise who did the exact same thing and have a completely different experience/interpretation and totally "opposite" reviews.

 

[Dug720]

I don't understand your answer to my comment: I never said my good experience negated their experience...

I meant that one can have a bad experience and the other won't.

I see that all the time. Two cruisers on the exact same cruise who did the exact same thing and have a completely different experience/interpretation and totally "opposite" reviews.

I quoted and commented because the post you quoted was pretty much saying exactly what you did. How someone will open something and it's broken but everyone else is all "Well mine was fine so..." And then you said how there were all negative reviews of a ship but your time was perfect, so... It just felt like you were discounting all the negative simply because of your positive. I apologize if the post you quoted made me confused.

 

[mevelandry]

I quoted and commented because the post you quoted was pretty much saying exactly what you did. How someone will open something and it's broken but everyone else is all "Well mine was fine so..." And then you said how there were all negative reviews of a ship but your time was perfect, so... It just felt like you were discounting all the negative simply because of your positive. I apologize if the post you quoted made me confused.

PrincessTrisha said: " Just because your experience was perfect, doesn't negate what other people experienced."

And I meant that we can do the exact same thing and get different "experiences".

Nobody is negating anyone's experience.

 

[Dug720]

PrincessTrisha said: " Just because your experience was perfect, doesn't negate what other people experienced."

And I meant that we can do the exact same thing and get different "experiences".

Nobody is negating anyone's experience.

Ok, like I said, I'm sorry. It read differently to me.

 

[wilkeliza]

Sugar is one thing... Forgetting to book a dock in a port is huge, though. Did they compensate you?

Nope. Again anything that was brought up as a negative was shrugged off not even an appology. The sugar I shared to show how from top to bottom they missed the mark and for a cruise line that is in the luxury category even missing the small stuff isn't okay but to miss the big stuff is even worse.

 

[mhconley]

Never had a bad day on a cruise let alone a bad cruise.

The worst day on a cruise is better than the best day at work.

Martin