I am very dissatisfied with Carnival primarily due to the implementation of Carnival’s alcoholic beverage policy. While their website states a guest is allowed one bottle of wine per person at embarkation, two bottles of wine were taken out of our luggage when we arrived (for five adults.) Carnival Guest Service’s only response was, “that is Carnival’s policy” and no effort was made to explain the policy or problem solve. If fact, “Gustav” told my husband it was his fault for not reviewing the website more carefully. Then the Guest Services Manager, Freddy Esquivel told me that my checking the box required to print my boarding pass indicated my acceptance of this policy. I went back and looked at this check box and it is associated with 22 pages of small print. It is likely that few people print and read all 22 pages. The issue isn’t that some small print exists in the bowels of Carnival’s website making me responsible anything that might be there, it is that the policy wasn’t clear.
I went back and reviewed Carnival’s website and confirmed their policy. Under “FAQ” – Frequently Asked Questions there is no mention of “carry on luggage”. But, I did find the phrase “in carry on luggage” under the alcoholic beverage policy which I had inadvertently missed in previous readings. That makes Carnival’s website inconsistent and ambiguous. While we queued up at the dock for embarkation not one single person mentioned the policy, even while screening our luggage with bottles of wine in it. We could easily have carried it on in compliance with Carnival’s policy IF WE KNEW TO DO SO. Further, when we disembarked I searched for any signage indicating this policy and could not find any sign anywhere on Seattle’s Pier 91. Please note, when flying to the city of departure in the US it is required by the United States Transportation Safety Administration that liquids NOT be carried in carry on luggage. Carnival’s policy is 180 degrees backwards from United States policy.
The key points are that we thought we were doing the right thing - we were not trying to sneak something on board or cheat Carnival. We just wanted our two bottles of nice wine for the dinner to celebrate my husband’s birthday and retirement – the whole purpose of the cruise. We didn’t get our wine and our experience with “Guest Services” completely soured our experience and we hadn’t even left port yet.
Any of the Guest Services personnel could have explained the process and said, “I’m sorry. Instead, Carnival personnel took an entrenched position of “Carnival policy” stated with a slight smirk. In an effort to problem solve and since we had not left port I asked if I could go back, retrieve our wine and carry it on per Carnival policy and was told abruptly “NO.”
As I said to Carnival Guest Services, we are just now poised to start traveling more and will never travel on Carnival again. Further, we will make it our mission to discourage anyone from traveling on Carnival. My sister was planning an Alaskan cruise and I’ve steered her away from Carnival – two points (or customers) for me. Our friends were going to take their extended family of six on a cruise and now they aren’t traveling with Carnival either. That’s six more points for me. I’m up to 8 lost customers/points for Carnival. My goal is at least 30 lost customers. Carnival needs to feel the impact of poor service and the poor implementation of policy.
I give high marks to our room steward who took the time to explain the beverage policy and why it was now an issue. He reported that Carnival’s policy change three weeks before we departed and they did not have the bugs worked out of the system. He apologized and sounded genuine – the only one that did.
I work in the satisfaction survey research field and have extensive experience with theoretical and practical customer satisfaction philosophy, service recovery and mystery shopping. My suggestion to Carnival is to hire some mystery shoppers and hold some cross cultural sensitivity sessions. Customer satisfaction standards vary by culture and while the Carnival Spirit is of Panamanian registry, it departs the U.S., the major destination is in the U.S. and a large percentage of guests are U.S. or Canadian citizens. Your staff, primarily Guest Relations staff need cross cultural training and need to understand their unhelpful and hostile behavior does a disservice to Carnival.
