Cruise Line: Carnival Cruise Lines
Sailing Date: May 19th, 2002
Southern Caribbean

I am writing to you in regards to a recent cruise my wife and I took aboard the M/S Carnival Destiny.

We boarded in Puerto Rico on May 19th with Ports of Call including St. Thomas, Martinique, Barbados and Aruba. The highlight of the cruise, we felt, was Aruba. My wife’s family booked an all inclusive there last year and when we saw pictures we knew Aruba was an island we definitely wanted to see.

We arrived in our room approximately 8pm on the 19th and checked everything out. Things looked quite impressive to start off with, but shortly we began smelling an odor. I thought it was just me so I asked my wife and she said, “It smells like sewer or rotten eggs!” We ignored it. (1st mistake)

We chose late sitting in Galaxy Dining Room (8:30). We were seated with three (3) other couples whom all happened to be on their honeymoon, now this was ok, however, they were all at least 10 years or more younger. We thought we should have been seated with individuals closer to our age. Once again…we ignored it. (2nd mistake) Continuing on…our headwaiter, Garfield, was simply horrible. Every night I would ask for a glass of milk with dessert and every night I would be choking my last bite down before getting my milk. Two other nights we were just getting our meal and the table(s) parallel to us were finishing dessert.

As the week progressed it managed to only get worse. Thursday, May 23, M/S Carnival lost complete power. My wife stumbled out of bed to go to the bathroom. She said to me, honey, it is terribly quiet. Since we heard the constant noise of the air handlers (Lido Deck -Cabin 9134) I knew something was up. My wife put her robe on and went out on the balcony to find the ship dead in the water. She proceeded to walk out into the hallway and to her surprise there was no power. When I say no power, I mean not even emergency power. We awaited the announcement but to our surprise we were kept in the dark (no pun intended) for quite sometime before knowing what was going on. Finally, we hear that the coast guard had been notified but not to worry the engineers were working diligently to restore the ships power.

Several hours later the ship cruise director, Jorge (which was quite a rude comedian, as he called himself) came across the speaker informing all 3000 guests that we would be arriving in St. Lucia. I said to myself, “did I hear him right?” Unfortunately I did. I was angered since this was the purpose for booking the Southern Caribbean Cruise. You see I spoke with a crew member only to find out that this very ship broke down a few weeks before we cruised and better yet had to be towed in a few years ago. You think this ship may have issues?

We wandered outside to find the pools empty, no food except fruit and cereal (if you like warm milk on cereal that would’ve been fine.)

We arrived in St. Lucia and took the mountain bike tour. We scurried along due to the short time we had on this island. We were told to be back on the ship at 7pm and to our surprise the time had changed. By this point I was beyond angry so we took a taxi and went to a little hut to eat, “Coal Pot”, good food, very pricey didn’t really care. I couldn’t take another night of nasty food and service.

We boarded the ship at 9pm and meandered around. We became acquainted with the activities director who told us that we really didn’t miss anything in Aruba, because the only thing on the island was shopping, beaches and gambling. What else is there? Thanks for the encouragement, but it didn’t work.

I could not wait to get home. On Saturday, I had been in the blistering sun and decided to come back to our room to get a coke and water. To my surprise the soda and water had been removed from the room, and the basket in the bathroom with our razors, lotion etc. was gone leaving these necessities scattered all over the sink.

Last, but definitely not least when we received our sale and sign bill, and found we had been overcharged. There were charges posted early afternoon on Friday and my wife said, “Honey we were on our shore tour at this time.” We marched to the pursers desk waited in line for ONE HOUR, explained the situation and after arguing with them they admitted they had overcharged us and would adjust our bill. After researching our charges we noticed all the gratuities were included in the bill. This I felt was an insult I had all the gratuities removed and we decided on the amount we felt suitable for each individual person and let me tell you by this point it was looking pretty grim for most everyone.

My question is, how long will this ship sail before someone is injured or God forbid killed? I understand that it could have been worse (ship sinking, etc.,) but I feel Aruba was 1/3 the cost, if not more and I feel $50 was not compensation enough for ruining our biggest trip of the year.

I want everyone to know my wife sent a letter to Carnival’s home office in Miami 3 days after coming home and there has been no response and there probably won’t be.

I can safely say this was the worst vacation I have ever experienced.

Thanks for reading!!

David Wendell
Huntington, West Virginia