JerryF3

Cruised on the Ecstasy 8/14 8/18 from Galveston to Cozumel. We purchased two cabins for my wife, myself, and our two daughters, 18 and 16. This is the second cruise we have taken on Carnival and our fifth overall (others were with Norwegian and Royal Caribbean). The first experience with Carnival wasnt horrible, but it paled in comparison with our other cruises with other cruise lines, specifically Royal Caribbean which was the same 4-day cruise out of Galveston to Cozumel. We decided to give Carnival a second chance. There will never be a third. While standing in line to board the ship Carnival passed out a typed memo stating that due to engine problems the trip to Cozumel had been cancelled and instead we would be going to Progresso. My wife had been looking forward to a swimming with dolphins excursion that she had booked online early. Progresso did not have a swimming with dolphins excursion. After three trips to the Pursers desk to try and make them understand that we wanted the excursion credited back to our credit card since it had been paid for in advance, we gave up. For some reason each person talked to at the desk kept charging the Sail and Sign card $507 (the cost of the excursion) and then crediting it back. We were never able to get the desk to understand that we had paid for the trip through Carnival.com in advance. We were told that the excursion did not get charged until the day of the cruise. We even logged in online and printed out our credit card statement from June where we were charged $507 and where it had been paid in full one week later. It still got us nowhere. We have started a dispute with our credit card company on the charge. Well see how it turns out. As was the experience on the first cruise with Carnival, the class of people was very low. Children constantly ran the cabin hallways making noise and knocking on doors. Carnival should consider a pen for overly drunk people instead of letting them roam the halls banging into walls and pawing at people passing by. Standing in line at the buffet was a waste of time because several people ignored the lines. They cut in where they wanted to grab food, drinks, etc. We never complained to anyone on staff because the people around us who did got either looks of complete disinterest or were totally ignored. We figured wed just note it on our now growing list of reasons to never sail with Carnival again. Other things that made the cruise frustrating were poor shows, mediocre food, slow service at dinner (this was due to the ship being beyond capacity 2,604 guests on a ship thats suppose to only hold 2,052). Our waiter advised he had three extra tables due to the overcrowding as well as being understaffed. Dinner each night averaged two hours to get through. The crew (save our waiter and room steward) was all very short and rude; especially the Pursers desk though we assumed this was due to the constant line of people with complaints during the entire cruise. The shortest time we waited in line to talk with the desk was one hour and that was at 11pm on the night before Progresso. We think the only people who actually enjoyed this cruise were the ones too drunk to realize how bad things were. Other things worth noting: not being able to port in Progresso until almost 1pm due to fog. The time in port was extended from 5pm to 8pm but some excursions were cancelled due to time constraints (ours wasnt one of them). The beaches and water at Progresso are nowhere near as nice as Cozumels but our guide on the Beach Buggy Break excursion (Amos) was very entertaining. We were charged for using the in-cabin bottled water though we never touched it (another trip to the Pursers desk to wait in line to fix that). Our eight pieces of luggage were never delivered to our rooms. We had to stand in line at the Pursers desk and claim each piece due to all stickers with our room numbers had been ripped off.