Carnival Cruise Line Reviews 450

This cruise line has to be the bottom of the barrel. I would never sail with Carnival again. We had cruised b4 with NCL and it was night and day. The food at the buffet was the same nasty unseasoned food everyday. Very unimpressed

Where do I begin! I had to calm down before writing this review. We were on the Carnival Cruise ship The Legend 13 d. This was my 2nd trip *but have done many previously) on Carnival that was terribly horrible. This was just the last straw. I DO NOT RECOMMEND to anyone to EVER do Carnival Cruises. Shaq is being paid; we are not. The normal port was down, so the transfer info was not forwarded, had to call numerous numbers before finding out 3 days prior to sail date. They went in my suitcase and took my steam iron (I felt violated) The cabin had holes in the balcony curtains (looks like rat hole). This big boat blocking our view or sit on the balcony (the rm was not priced less). A huge crack in the glass door and a visible unsightly repair job of the bottom of the glass door. Dirt filled balcony flooring. I have pics of it all. I was appalled. I couldn't use my balcony. The food was tasteless and clearly reused in other tasteless dishes. Some of the meats were not medium rare but actually raw. Some of the workers were clearly over worked and unhappy because it was so few workers, but that's not the customer's fault. That's a whole other subject. The shows were ok, great performers, but limited, clearly there were budget cuts. The gym was horrible; broken down and very old equipment; wipes were not kept filled, not being properly or efficiently maintained. Excursions were triple the cost of the local areas, and received less for the money. I had a form to get my steam iron back at the end of the cruise. I got such a run around/wrong answer from several people. when I got to the last point, was told to go back on the ship. Of course, I was could not get back on the ship, and had a plane to catch. I was so, so, so upset. I tried to get in touch with them once returning home only to meet resistance and no understanding or help. CUSTOMER SERVICE IS NOT NUMBER ONE WITH CARNIVAL CRUISES! YOU DON'T GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. I lived way below my standard for 13 grueling days on the Carnival Legend. I could'nt wait to get off. What was good, the guy that cleaned our room and Ron Mitchell (outstanding singer/performer). I would rate Carnival Cruises a 0, if it was on the scale. I can say so much more, but I think you see and feel my pain. JUST DONT DO IT!!! Spend your money elsewhere.

Departure terminal port information not provided, had to call customer care multiple times, even after calling multiple times, they were not avle to tell to which port we need to go to board the ship.
We called just 2hrs before our selected boarding time, still customer care was not able to tell us the port terminal from where ship departs, we had to roam around with our 4 bigger bags to figure out ourself which was teh departure terminal.

Then Pixels gallery photo cost is too too much for a single photo, they are stealing away money from customers by showing them their good edited photos. jsut for one printout of portrait photo they were charging, $22. which doesnt include the digital copy of the photo & we need to pay $10 if u want digital copy on top of $22 for one photo click, so total we end up paying $32+taxes if we want to buy digital + physical copy & they are not giving oly digital copy, they were telling tehy will giv e digital copy only if we buy the physical copy also. Also they were threting us that if we dont buy soon teh prices wud go up once we reach miami port as we have to pay taxes on top of it.
They were soo money minded that trying to steal money where ever they can.

So I sent a complaint in April 16. I’m finally heard back from employee. Nefertiti Who of course could do anything. So we went on a 10 Day Cruise Ave., New York on the Venetia worship ever I’ll go back to Baltimore. Never had these issues on the Pride or the Legend. People snuck weeded onto the ship. We had to smell it all over the ship the entire cruise we told several security people of course they do nothing waiters were not outgoing like on the other ships hardly ever talk to you didn’t joke around with you. Nothing the food on that ship is absolutely terrible, and in the dining room terrible. The only person that was nice on that ship was our room attendant. He talked to us, made a point to talk to us. Everybody else very very rude staff in the Lido deck at the buffet. We’re not motivated the tables you walk in there and during lunch and just stand around or take a good old time and clean the tables and crew at night time very very rude. I asked for something and the ignored me and my husband was a Witness , and he saw them laughing at me. The dinner crew on the buffet line don’t keep it clean. There was food laying everywhere. It was dirty and disgusting. I’ve been through three hurricanes and at least on the other ships if you go down to the main lobby, you don’t feel the shaking, but we had high winds down by grand Turk, and it didn’t matter where you went on this ship you could feel the rocking bad Next worst complaint was I’m sitting there at lunch on a Saturday had a bowl of fruit sitting in front of me next thing I know I see this arm come in from the right and this girl one of the servers goes and takes my bowl that I was still eating and didn’t ask me if I was done. Just grabbed the bowl I said now wait I’m not done with that. She goes to put it back down. I said no you take it. You put your dirty hands on it I’ll go get another one. She says you want me to go get you one I said no no I have clean hands. I’ll go get my own. Told management and of course they do nothing and I spoke to guest services. Of course they can’t do anything. We’ve heard people like I said complain the entire cruise about this one. I do not recommend this ship. This ship is not a true carnival ship. They do not follow carnival standards.

I wish I could give them a zero or minus rating but unfortunately there is no option for that and I had to give them 1 star. The people who work here are the worst xenophobic I have ever seen in my life. They are also a thief. They stole my hard-earned $2000 and did not let me board the ship. To be honest there was no good reason to deny my boarding. I will take legal action against them but I am facing a lot of unnecessary hassle for no reason. I could easily avoid that by choosing Royal Caribbean instead. Please please do not ever think about going to this Cruise line.

I booked a cruise online and paid for the whole cruise at that time. Never was I advied that I had a deposit that was going to be charged. Also was told that I have up to September 2024 to cancel. After that, if I canceled my trip, I would get a fee. So after talking with my sister, she wasn't going to be able to go. So I canceled the cruise well before September. When they refunded my payment, they stated that they where going to deduct a deposit fee. I called several times to get a refund and they still will not refund me the deposit. Carival lost a customer for life over it. The sad part about all this is that it's only 100.00.

We sailed on Carnival Elation to the Bahamas and felt it was an incredibly chaotic experience. There was something wrong with the boat which delayed our departure time and ended up canceling one of our port visits.

Communication was very confusing and disjointed. Our morning in Nassau, our catamaran and snorkeling excursion was cancelled due to "not enough interest." When we arrived at the information desk we saw a long line of people who received the same message. Come to find out the cruise actually meant to say it was cancelled due to weather. We booked a dolphin excursion instead. As we got off the boat we learned the dolphin excursion was cancelled and same man who minutes before had sold us the dolphin excursion got us to book a swimming with the pigs excursion. We got on a small boat, arrived at the island, and learned the pig excursion was cancelled but we were trapped on the island for the next four hours. As soon as we arrived back on the cruise ship they informed us the second excursion was also cancelled.

Overall incredibly poor communication and customer service. Nothing was done to assist besides a $100 cruise credit per stateroom not passenger. I felt very disappointed with this use of half my vacation days for the year and very disappointed in the response from carnival. I would not recommend carnival to anyone.

I just cruised Carnival Liberty from April 22-26. I had a nice balcony view. Other than the fridge not working everything seemed great. After the first night I began sneezing uncontrollably. After The second night I woke up with a skin rash all over, swollen eyes, itching throat accompanied with serious throat itching. I used my epi pen and was ok I thought. The third day was the worse as my hubby scanned the room to find what was causing this and he discovered mold in the bathroom in the shower. I’m highly allergic to mold and pet dander. I took photos of my body and the mold and headed to guest services. They offered me a trip to the nurse at my expense at which I declined. They said they needed to clean the room but I had to be out of the room for 4 hours. So as they inconvenienced me with a 10 month old who also began sneezing and coughing I had to sit outside for 4 hours. When I returned to see if the room was ready I was told by guest services that they didn’t find any mold. However, when I returned to the room it was bleach fumed. Which upset me even the more. Because if there was no mold WHY BLEACH THE ROOM?? Causing more breathing issues. Also they totally forgot the photos I had taken and showed them earlier. At that time they offered me a bottle of champagne and strawberries sent to my room. I explained to them that this was a slap in the face as my vacation was ruined and I don’t drink Champagne. I received a blank stare and was told I could change rooms. I was exhausted and declined. I absolutely Love Carnival Liberty. My room attendant YanYan was the absolute Best I’ve had on any cruise line and Milo in the dining room was the best. But I will never Cruise Liberty again. I’m now back home still suffering from symptoms from the mold and Sad to say my vacation was ruined.

I have a cruise out of Baltimore scheduled for 5/5/2024. I have been checking daily my emails and Carnival website for updates on the port closure. Carnival finally sent an email today advising they are moving this cruise out of and return to Norfolk. Was told there would be a $300 cancelation fee (as I am out of NY and I can't purchase their insurance). And it's $300 because it's past the cancelation. Was told the cancelation charge would be $300 because it's after the cancelation date. As everyone knows this wasn't a natural disaster, but man made (both the government for not maintaining bridges and the ship captain. I checked and the flight to Norfolk is cost double what it is to Baltimore. I'm over 5 hours away from Baltimore and Norfolk adds another 5 hours. They are offering bus service, but do not guarantee you a seat. For the inconvenience they are offering a $100 shipboard credit. This is upsetting and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I called and was just read what the email I received today said. I just want to cancel and put the money that I have paid towards a cruise when Baltimore becomes operational again. I'm sure there are a lot of other angry cruisers especially those with plane reservations that can't be changed. To fly into Baltimore in the afternoon, there is no way you would make it to Norfolk prior to ship leaving. Carnival needs to be a bit more flexible.

Had issues with our room location on the ship as we were located right below the kitchen. The noise from this was insane. Was Kept up all night throughout the cruise so we enjoyed very little sleep on our vacation. Additionally, we had hundreds of dollars in mysterious charges on our bill. We tried to call carnival to discuss our experiences over 20 times and it’s literally IMPOSSIBLE to speak to anyone on the phone who can help you. It’s been 4 months since we sailed and we’ve emailed probably a half dozen times or more and called 20+ times and no one has ever even got back in contact with our family. If you call the phone number to discuss an issue, it’s literally impossible to get someone on the line to help. However if you tell them you are considering spending your money, you’ll literally have someone on the line in seconds. Quite honestly, that really describes what appears to be the values of their company. They will take your money, but when it comes to actually CARING for their customer, they could care less. Truly horrible customer service

My first and last time on a cruise with Carnival. Apart from the boat and food etc being very average, the staff were shocking. I booked two rooms and my kids (who were in one room) decided to leave the cruise in Sydney. Upon boarding after our day trip they gave my room to other passengers without even asking me. I booked and paid for that room, along with internet etc for the entire trip. The customer service staff both on and off the boat are shocking.

I am disgusted with how Carnival treated some friends of ours. They refused to let my friend on because her birth certificate was her original (which the team member checking us in said she accepts all the time). They were told they would be able to rebook or possibly get their money back and now Carnival is refusing to do either. They banked off of them and are refusing to make it right. I am disgusted with them and will NEVER give another cent to them. I will also ensure that everyone we come in contact with knows how they treated our friends and encourage them to use another cruise line. So disappointed in Carnival. We have cruised many times with Carnival and have loved it but NEVER AGAIN.

I am filing a complaint because conditions were very unsanitary around the buffet areas and foods were definitely NOT as you pictured them on your flyers and websites for example the Burger cafe served only ultra thin patties that were so thin the sides got burned. The deli did not make what was on the menu, a panini was toasted white sandwhich bread as were most of the other items. The salads were luke warm and I felt they were not safe to eat. Tables were full of left over food plates for hours and nobody cleaned the tables or wiped them down. You post that there is no waiting for buffet foods on the ship yet there were 30 minute + lines for most buffets. The ice cream machines were filthy because kids ran rampant and made messes that were not cleaned up at all. Dirty spoons in a jar right next to the clean ones near the coffee machines and I witnessed that most people grabbed from the wrong jar. When I complained to one of two managers, the first evening, I was told they would talk to someone. Understaffed pizza and hamburger cafes where the one poor cook had to serve lines that went around to the seafood shack the whole cruise! Not enough cleaners to keep the food areas sanitary. My daughter developed a type of mouth ailment that made her lips and mouth burn which is a candida transferable contagious disease typically caused by unsanitary dishes. The whirlpools were extremely unsanitary overloaded with way too many kids (30 in a regular sized whirlpool) with the adult whirlpool being the same and no personnel on duty to check or correct capacity, we observed one lifeguard attending the pool area. So we did not use them, wanted to, but decided we did not want to end up with health issues. The hallways leading to the rooms reeked of marijuana and sewage. The casino allowed smoking which permeated to other inside areas and to get to the Silver restaurant we were assigned to for dinner and breakfast, we were told to go through the casino and as I have lung problems it caused some breathlessness and distress. The portions in the restaurant were too small (2 spoons of mashed potatoes, 2 small glazed carrots, with a tiny steak and three medium sized shrimps for an appetizer, or half of a waffle (where the menu stated waffles) for breakfast. A croissant without butter nor jelly served, and if I asked the attendant for more, he did not bring it. I weigh 135 lbs so the portions even for me, were tiny. Scrambled eggs seemed to be made of a powdered substance really I can go on and on. Yes, it was that bad. The maitre d was a rather gruff man who got very short when I complained because although I selected 6 pm dining, they changed it to late dining without notice. They are so severely understaffed that sanitation, quality and quantity suffers. It was embarrassing at times and what should have been fun turned into a frustrating experience. What we also noticed is that marine protocol was not followed about safety measures while onboard. Nobody explained to us when we boarded where life vests were located or what to do in an emergency. The lady that was supposed to just asked to see our badge to check us in. I felt very unsafe and I have been on cruises before with Carnival, Disney and P&O but this was really a trip that I don’t elect to remember. I am filing a complaint with the VSP Inspectors and Consumer Advocate Office Florida Attorney General. I have filed a complaint with Carnival with no response except automatically generated emails. I welcome other cruise guests with similar experiences to contact the VSP inspectors or FL attorney General.

Had to cancel my cruise for June '25 because of another commitment and tried to transfer the deposit to another cruise this December and was told today they couldn't do it!! 😡 So Carnival pocket my substantial deposit and i'm left empty handed!! 🤬 I'm so ticked off!!! It was supposed to be my first cruise with them too!! Obviously I won't be booking with them ever again!! Especially since they knew it was for my 50th birthday!! #BeWarned Don't let them ruin your birthday too!! #AvoidCarnival

I don’t have any complaints about the actual cruise, but their website makes me want to shoot myself in the head every damn time. I cannot believe such a well established cruise line has such a crappy website.

After a rude interaction with a customer service agent, who hung up on me when I asked his name, I received a form letter apology today saying he is "receiving training".
But also... They can not "locate" the staff member who had been assisting me with requests over the past 2 months. Can't locate. Their staff member!
Needless to say, it was a bulls£1t apology and I don't believe a word.

We purchased a photo package for $199 for 10 pictures, and we never used it and were told that we might be able to get our money back. The reason we did not use it was that we bought pictures that were $17/picture and were never told that we could use them towards our photo package of 10 pictures for $199. I spoke with the manager and asked why they would not tell us about this and have us pay more money for pictures that we could have used toward our photo package. He then retorted because there are to many people buying pictures and we do not need to ask them if they purchased a photo package. I asked for a refund and was told that I may or may not get it back but could choose 10 pictures if I liked. Of course I did not want another 10 pictures because we had already spent about $170 on the pictures we wanted. The manager told me to email carnival and see if they could issue a refund.
Our stateroom was flooded and we had to use the towels in the room. We were told we would get new towels sent to our room which never happened, we had to share two towels between 5 people. It was a big mess and we just had to deal with it. I understand things happen but the way it was handled was terrible. My family and I will not be using carnival again.

Carnival Magic: The barely functional rust bucket of the sea

My husband I spent $2,600 on an 8-day cruise on Carnival Magic from February 24th to March 3rd, which turned out to be the worst vacation we have ever taken. This was our first cruise every and we will never cruise again. We were left feeling unsafe and uncomfortable. Carnival should be ashamed for how broken and rusty this ship is and how they have trained the majority of their staff. Carnival promises FUN, which was hard to find on any day on this cruise. Carnival owes refunds for the experience it provided.

Water Damage: Upon arriving on the ship and heading to our stateroom, the first thing we experienced was a water leak outside our room, with water running down the walls of the hall. Leaks happen, but not a single day went by where we didn’t notice leaks on multiple levels of the deck, including a leak my sister’s statement halfway through the cruise. The water damage is evident in many places and rust is unsightly and dangerous in specific areas if you aren’t wearing shoes.

Stateroom Issues: We struggled to report issues unless we were able to physically find someone to report as our stateroom phone did not work (it didn’t work the whole cruise despite stating it was broken). Our toilet seat was broken only to be replaced with a seat that wouldn’t stay open. The bathroom door didn’t lock, the sink water sprayed the whole bathroom if you turned it on, and the plugs were so loose, most adapters and plugs just fell out if not propped up with items. The balcony was covered in areas of rust (watch your feet!) and the balcony divider was broken, so even the gentlest wind would send it flying open into our balcony furniture and waking us up in the middle of the night. Our TV remote was broken and most of the functions reversed when we could get it to properly turn on.

Ship Features: We opted to pay for the chat feature, as our party was 8 people and it was would be important to stay in communication. I found other reviews on this after the trip and most folks are in agreement that it works about 40% of the time, with Wi-Fi being constantly disconnected, unavailable or messages being delivered HOURS after they were sent or simply never delivered. There was no enforcement of the majority of the no smoking areas, even when reported, so you could pretty much smell smoke on most parts of the ship. There were never enough chairs for people on the ship, so you could spend hours trying to find a place to lay down if you wanted to relax. The 21 and over Serenity deck was simply people holding places to lay (and often people not returning for hours), so you were never able to find a place to relax there either. We were on the 7th floor, which was outfitted with 3 washers, with only 1 washer ever working at any moment, creating an hours long back up of people wanting to wash clothes. Hours upon hours spent trying to find working items to only be met with long lines as everyone was funneled to what was working. On several days, the upper decks smelled like sewage, but we never found out why or what the problem was.

Ship Staff: We had only a couple highlights here, mostly because our stateroom attendant was incredible. However, the majority of the staff are trained to upsell over making customers feel comfortable. The alcohol upsells in the dining room were incredibly uncomfortable, to the point, we didn’t go as often as we wanted, because we didn’t want to constantly hassled multiple times by the same person every meal despite saying NO. We went to the first art auction because we wanted to experience it as well as enjoy some of the incredible art on the ship. But once the art auctioneers knew our names and stateroom, it was an onslaught of harassment to come back and try to convince us to spend money, even after saying NO. We eventually stopped walking anywhere near the art to avoid this staff.

People: We met some very nice people on the ship, but it was overshadowed by inappropriate behavior, including anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. I was no prepared for profanity on t-shirts and angry political discourse. We even experienced a drunk individual was policing who could enter a hot tub (spoiler: you had to be Republican to enter), as well as a group of individuals yelling about LGBTQ individuals being pedophiles and anti-trans rhetoric (I won’t go into the disgusting details here).

Did not get one night of sleep! Two cabins across from us had low class thug “LSU and Alabama football players” (per them, haha LIES). Loud and obnoxious ALL hours of the night, especially around 2AM when the club closed. And don’t forget all of the little thots coming in and out of the room all night long. All of them were using profanity and even racial slurs. We called front desk MULTIPLE times and they did put a person at the end of our hall. That was a waste of time because the thugs would just talk back and do as they please in the hall way. The first night we called guest services at 3am, someone came down, knocked on the thugs door and told them we were the ones that complained. Very upset about this because I literally felt threatened every time I walked out of my room, not knowing what the thugs would do in retaliation.
Carnival cruise is definitely the least expensive cruise line but just remember,
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!!
We will never waste our money on a carnival cruise again!

The food was mediocre at best. Amenities were not kept up-to-date, jacuzzi was lukewarm, water slide was broken.

Most frustratingly, I purchased 2 Premium Wi-Fi passes prior to sailing ($170) because we had scheduled our mornings for work and Zoom meetings. Their "Premium" Wi-Fi was anything but and I could barely send an email, let alone take a Zoom call. Guest services was unhelpful and stated I needed to reach out to Customer Service after the cruise was over. I was unable to do any of my scheduled work during the week of the cruise nor take any meetings, which had a domino effect after coming back.

After sailing, I reached out to the Customer Service team and explained the issue. They refunded $60. I lost a lot more than $110, as there were significant delays and consequences with work after the fact. Won't be sailing with Carnival ever again.