Unbelievable experience with security
Carnival Valor Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 6
4 Night Western Caribbean (Galveston Roundtrip)
Sail date: January 18, 2018
Ship: Carnival Valor
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 8367
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 6 years ago
Review summary
I bought this cruse for Christmas present for my fiancé everything was OK except for the experience I had with security. 10 years ago I was on a carnival cruise and on the very last day I had some things come up missing in my room so on this cruise I elected to have total privacy in my room by leaving the snooze tag on my door handle at all times and just would get the fresh towels from the sweart when I saw them in the hallway. She was always nice asking if everything was ok. Well, we returned from dinner one night and found the door cracked and the was a male and female security officer in a room going through our stuff. I ask what the hecks going on here and was told that when the snoozing tag is left on the door at all times that alerts them to some type of criminal activities. I was made to feel like a criminal, nothing was found at all! And there was no apologies whatsoever and was shocked about how I was treated and made to feel that I was some type of criminal. The male security officer was very aggressive and seem very displease when a ship upper management guy showed up and basically made him stop these ridiculous accusations and searching through our stuff . I was told that there had been a report of someone with a fishing pole fish from the balcony while at port in Cozumel and I did have some fishing gear that we used while in Cozumel but no fishing pole only a handline and I was on the eighth floor. I don’t see how anyone could fish from these heights much less land a fish from way up there. but he was sure that it was me and it was not !!!! That night I didn’t sleep at all and the more I thought about it the more I got upset!!!!!! The next morning I asked guest services to get me in contact with management which never happened !! Finally in the disembark meeting, they had all of the upper management team up on stage and I caught the guest services administrator on her way out and asked her to sitdown and talk with me. She got me in touch with me the second in command of security. I let them know how I felt about this policy and had to ask for an apology which he gave . I suggested that they review this policy and let the guests know before they enter thier room. I have never been so embarrassed and felt so violated especially in front of my new special fiancé that I love . This Ruined our entire trip and I will never take another carnival cruise in my life. And to top things off when we were at guest services the night befor we where to get back to port , we were reviewing our statement and noticed there is a two $51 Stewart gratuity charge on our bill and we never used the Stewart room service once!!!! After an embarrassing heated argument with the guess services attendant he finally removed the gratuity charges. What a bad experience !!!!! unbelievable!!!! unbelievable !!! Unbelievable !!!!Embarkation
Good
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Food was good
Onboard Activities
They were fine
Entertainment
Shows were good
Children's Programs
We have no kids
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Small
Ship tip
If you decide you want total privacy and leave the snoozing sign on the door let security know.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Port Canaveral, Florida Did not visit port
Nassau, Bahamas Did not visit port
Disembarkation
Long wait!!!!!
Traveler Photos
25 Comments
Jeffreey 6 years ago
Hi, Andrea
Just wanted to follow up with you and inform you about The conversation I had with xxxxxxwith carnival corporate in Florida today. I waited until about 1 o’clock and gave up on her returning my requested 12 o’clock return call and made a call on my own to her. she was nice and explain to me all the rules like all of the responders to my review which made me understand the process more.
I’m not one to stand down when I feel like a process or a policy of a corporation deserves !!!!!! To be given at least a quick once over review , with the right team members of upper management decision-makers!!!! I’ll always be curious about if this ever happened.
The reason I feel so strongly about this is. After I proposed to her in Cozmel I fill like this should have been one of the most exciting, most rememberable, celebrated evening, that couple may ever have leading up until the big day come ahead and then ????? how it can be so easily taken from them. With what I know and understand now !!!! This could and would have been so easily avoided by something as simple as have the 48 hr snoozing tag room check policy printed clearly on the snoozing door tag itself!!!!! . This simple solution would have avoid all of this in the first place. (((((To me that’s a no brainer.))))) Hind sight is 20/20 I know !
And like I mentioned earlier I’m no scum bag looking for any type of cheap excuse asking for any type of refund or anything like that!!!!
Sadly Janice did return my request via voice mail on how there is no system in place on how I would go about getting the hostess Natalie and our waiter in the Lincoln room table 305 the Gratuities they so absolutely deserve . You have my permission to forward my email to either of these people and I will get right with them via some type of transfer through Facebook or something like that!
Jeff
Jeffreey 6 years ago
Hi, Andrea
Just wanted to follow up with you and inform you about The conversation I had with xxxxxxwith carnival corporate in Florida today. I waited until about 1 o’clock and gave up on her returning my requested 12 o’clock return call and made a call on my own to her. she was nice and explain to me all the rules like all of the responders to my review which made me understand the process more.
I’m not one to stand down when I feel like a process or a policy of a corporation deserves !!!!!! To be given at least a quick once over review , with the right team members of upper management decision-makers!!!! I’ll always be curious about if this ever happened.
The reason I feel so strongly about this is. After I proposed to her in Cozmel I fill like this should have been one of the most exciting, most rememberable, celebrated evening, that couple may ever have leading up until the big day come ahead and then ????? how it can be so easily taken from them. With what I know and understand now !!!! This could and would have been so easily avoided by something as simple as have the 48 hr snoozing tag room check policy printed clearly on the snoozing door tag itself!!!!! . This simple solution would have avoid all of this in the first place. (((((To me that’s a no brainer.))))) Hind sight is 20/20 I know !
And like I mentioned earlier I’m no scum bag looking for any type of cheap excuse asking for any type of refund or anything like that!!!!
Sadly Janice did return my request via voice mail on how there is no system in place on how I would go about getting the hostess Natalie and our waiter in the Lincoln room table 305 the Gratuities they so absolutely deserve . You have my permission to forward my email to either of these people and I will get right with them via some type of transfer through Facebook or something like that!
Jeff
Jeffreey 6 years ago
After pasting these follow up emails I had whit a the booking agency I AM DONE everyone can form their on option or be as rude or nice as they fill.
Hi Andrea,
Sorry for the late response but my Fiancé and myself have been flat on our backs with the flu every since we returned. We are starting to come around now and thanks for your response from, what I assume the review that I had left on cruseline.com . You can fill confident it was nothing that DirectCruse has done to prompt this review everything from booking and everything that y’all had anything to do with was perfect.
About a day or so after we returned I did call Carnivals corporate in Florida and spoke with a real nice gentleman and he took all the information down and told me to be expecting a call which I have received the second attempt today which was a voice mail. I have been so sick I only listened to it this evening . It was a voicemail from a lady by the name of xxxxxxx she gave Her number but must’ve called outside of her work hours. I let her attendant know what my phone numbers were along with my emails a told her tomorrow around lunch would be a good time to get a hold of me.
Andrea I want to make for sure that you and Carnival understand that I am not asking for any kind of refund on anything like that !!!! And actually after reading some of the responses to my review I would like to pay the Gratuities to all of the staff members that had anything to do with the meals. They went above and beyond taking care of my fiancé’s food allergies,!!!! she’s anaphylactic on dairy products and we had no problem whatsoever please help me figure out a way to make sure that they get these monies and how’s the best way for me to do it , they were all so so wonderful Especially, I believe her name is Natalie, she’s a hostess that I believe is from Hungry which really got everyone on board about her allergies and took the bull by the horns and made us feel safe.
But as far as it being the fun trip that I had hoped for my new fiancé and myself I’m afraid that the negative experience with Carnivals security and guest services department’s will not be forgotten !!! I will no longer book or advise anyone else to book a cruse with this cruse line.
The night that all this happen was the same day I proposed to her in Cozumel Luckily she said yes
Please have Carnival contact me with the Gratuity amount for the food service department and I will gladly give my cc number
Jeff
Jeffreey 6 years ago
Thanks everyone for you’re comments. A few have made me rethink some of my feelings, Mostly the one’s that referred to the Las Vegas massacre. I would totally understand that!!!!! and personally thank maybe getting rid of snoozing signs altogether would be a better approach in hotels. (But Please People) I can not remember ever having any of my luggage or my personal items being sent through X-ray machines (& BTW mine was flagged for secondary inspection do to the fishing equipment that was in my cary on) or having to walk thru metal detectors when I check in. We all want to be safe at all times but I never heard about this policy from any of the welcome aboard staff meetings (not saying that I went to all of them) or once read anything anywhere about it nor was there anything about it on all the instructions that was playing on the TV when we first got to our room . I would think maybe they should put the warnings about room inspection policy if snoozing sign is left on door any longer than 48 hrs on the snoozing sign itself !!!!!!
We made contact with the room Stewart every morning when we would get our fresh Linings. I would think that alone would be enough to verify that we were both ok and still aboard.
I do like to fish but fishing 80 to 90 feet above the water with a hand line would be a real trick especially when room 8367 is directly above one of the emergency lifeboats that’s at least 12 foot wide . Lol
I’m not blaming everyone and I’m even open to getting the Gratuity to the Hostesses, chefs,waiters, and staff, that really went above and beyond preparing my fiancé’s meals especially for her. She Is anaphylactic on any dairy products and she had no problems what so ever. If someone knows how I could do so please let me know.
The only reason I’m so upset is because the way the male security made me fill like a criminal and how I had to not only convince him but for the next 10 min after they left I had to convince my Fiancé also that I had nothing absolutely nothing wrong. Simply unbelievable and embarrassing.
And as far as locking up our valuables . It’s funny that one of you commented about this because ten years ago when when I lost my cell phone , 60 gig iPod and $150.00 it was locked up in the safe!!!! I just made the sptuid bad mistake on using my room key as the safe access device. BTW I noticed this is no longer a option of locking or unlocking the safe. I wonder why this has changed to D.L. or C.C. Only Now hummmmmm???????? I must have not been the the only one that got burned!!!! ya think.??????
dezidu1217bellsouthnet 6 years ago
Hanging a do not disturb sign on the door for extended period of time is a red flag. If you had a medical problem or died in there your family would be asking why no one checked on the room. I think people forget we are guests on those ships and they make the rules. I would not let past problems especially ones over 10 years carry over to current situations .it is up to each person to secure their property. Act like a guest
JesikaDawn 6 years ago
Lot of hotels have the did not disturb sign policy, and like others have mentioned, Vegas has forced new changes, including some places going from checking every 72 hours to every 48 hours. You should have forewarned why you were doing it, otherwise very suspicious. I don't feel bad, if you were up to something criminal and they didn't check and something happened to other passengers, I would be pissed.
epicgoddess 6 years ago
I just don't understand people sometimes. You breeched security protocol so therefore they checked. My thing is people are saying they did not have to go through their stuff that isn't true. In order to find what they need they have to look. Idk I don't feel bad because the charges were dropped and he got an apology though it wasn't when he wanted it.
pappasmurf22 6 years ago
I understand your issue with what happened ten years ago. Anybody would be upset to loose personal items to a thief. But I have to agree with Summerholiday, from your writeup I'm thinking a lot of your problems stemmed from your attitude. The fishing from the balcony story itself seems very "fishy" to me. Are you sure theres no guilt there? Just asking, you don't have to answer. 21 cruises and no issues ever with staff on a Carnival ship. The security folks have never been less than courteous and as far as not wanting to pay the gratuity for the people that made your cruise enjoyable (I say you enjoyed it based on your ratings even though you say it was a bad experience) I think "you" owe some folks an apology for being disrespectful of their labors for you. I'm thinking you may be one cruiser Carnival probably wouldn't miss!
caprigoode 6 years ago
Y'all can't read he started off with bad experience 10 yrs ago this situation just happened
Sorry u had to go thru that. Maybe u didn't know policy and the maids had to tell them they coudlnt get in ya room to clean. But next time I suggest speaking with someone beforehand n telling them u don't want nobody in room cuz of bad experience. Don't let it ruin ya next trip or just take a different cruise. 🙂
Shay1920 6 years ago
Sorry this happened to you. But it will likely happen on other cruiselines and hotels as well. After the attacks on Vegas, keeping a do not disturb sign on your door for days could be a sign of criminal activity. I've even seen notices that warm that someone has to enter the room at least once a day.
Summerholiday 6 years ago
Why did you not put any valuables away ...they have safes you could of kept your suitcase locked .. the stewards are there too do a job and had every right to report the situation ..if they didn’t they would not be doing there job .. this type of thing is no good but it can happen any where hotels .. Etc and you are going to blame all ..and all they were doing was trying to do there job ..it sounds like the issue you had with customer service had something to do with your attitude as we have always found customer service polite and extremely helpful ..also chargers are sometimes put on other peoples account it happens ..and once you explain to customer service they check then the charges are removed .. no problem ..you can’t go blaming everyone for something that happened to you once..
Having the charges removed just shows that you blame everyone for this one incident that happened to you ..your poor steward did not do anything or the waiter Etc ..i bet your fiancé was embarrassed by your attitude and your lack of respect for the staff that was just there to ensure your vacation is the best ...