Fascination Stinks, literally smoke and urine scented cabins.

We went on our third Carnival Cruise on Nov.7 on the Fascination and it was so far below Carnivals other cruises and Carnival's lack of caring has led me to post this review.  I have been trying both onboard the ship and since our return to resolve this and Carnival has not bothered to call us back or offer anytype of resolution.  I was told a supervisor would call me back today before 5 pm and no one has.  I have also emailed Carnival and filled out their survey since the 14th and not heard anything from them.  Their customer service reps on the phone have said sorry but smoking is allowed on board the ship so there is nothing they can do.  I tried to get a supervisor by the first rep today and she refused to give me one.  She transferred me to Chris in E-Solutions because I was having trouble logging into the website so I could post this review about our experience.  Chris was fantastic, he is the only representative who actually sounds like he cares about the customer experience.  He got me over to Patrice who promised a callback, but this did not happen.

Our cruise left 6 hours late and we waited online from 12:30-6;30 to board the ship because of tides being high for the ship coming in that morning, luggage conveyor belts being broken and they only had 4 working computers. This should have warned us to run the other way before we were trapped onboard the ship with no way to escape.

We finally got to our room and as soon as the door was opened we gagged from the smoke.  I guess I should have read the web and not believed the girl on their 800 # when I was advised that all the rooms were non-smoking, the only place you can smoke is in some of the bars and on some areas of the deck so we didn't have to worry about requesting non-smoking rooms.  We never had any problem with the other two Carnival cruises we had been on so I didn't think about it again until we opened the cabin door.  I had not bothered to read the reviews online before the trip because our other trips were so nice, I wish we would have because I would have delayed our trip another month.  My fault for not doing this but why should I have to check a website when their representative advised me the cabins were non-smoking.  We called guest services, they said they would have the room refreshed and we would not have the smoke smell any longer.  We went to dinner and came back and it was still bad.  Then they came in with some kind of an oxygenator and refreshed the room again, it did not help very much.  Next they tried to do something with a wet rag and box of snuggle fabric softener.  Each time we had to leave the room for an hour or so so it could be cleaned.  I am not talking a cigarette or two smoked, it caused my husband to have an asthma attack because it was so bad.  I went down to guest services when I was told there was no rooms available over the phone because I hoped they might "find one" if I went down there in person.  They stated all the rooms were full and no one had missed the cruise, I would think not because we left 6 hours late.  I did finally get an inhaler for my husband, he doesn't usually use one of the emergency inhalers, his maintenance ones do the job under normal situations.   I admit, I got agitated in the lobby when I was told at first that there would be a charge for the inhaler.  They did give us this at no charge but the cost should never have come up in this situation.  We spent a sleepless night coughing and gagging.  We were told by one of the Stewards that the crew has some kind of lounge right over or outside of our room and this is why our room was so bad and that most people were moved out of the room U1 because of the smoke.

The next day they kept trying to clean the room out, we wasted so much time going back and forth testing the air in the room.  Finally, I called guest services and advised the representative that we were considering sleeping on the deck so we could breath and having Carnival put us in a hotel in the bahamas for the rest of our trip and flying us back to Jacksonville.  Amazingly, a room appeared about an hour later.  We took it after dinner and moved in.  We went to see a show and came back in and realized that the bathroom stunk like urine.  Called down to the desk and they sent someone in to clean it.  Yes the smell did go away until the deodorizers or cleaning products smell wore off and then the urine smell came back.  It stunk but urine is much better than smoke.  We had to keep asking the stewards to clean the bathrooms several times a day. We kept telling them it was coming out of the vent in the bathroom but nothing was done to clean this out. The desk would call and ask if it was better right after the room was cleaned, duh, of course it was until the urine smell overpowered the cleaners again.  I told them we needed to have the room cleaned several times a day for the smell and were not really able to enjoy the room but it was definately an improvement over the smoke.  Needless to say, we basically had to stay out of our rooms except to sleep at night and shower.

I used one of the bathrobes as a throw because the room was a little chilly and was appaled to see ring-around-the-collar stains on it.  I went to put it back in the closet and the other one had the same thing.  I wet a washcloth and rubbed it on the stains, it was from makeup or sunscreen and rubbed off on the cloth.  Disgusting.  They did not even clean the robes between cruises.

It gets worse, the top edge of the shower had black mold on it.  I tried to show the head steward this and he did not understand it.  I know this is not what caused the urine smell but it is disgusting to pay so much for a trip and everything was so nasty.

I asked at the front desk if there would be some type of refund because we were downgraded to an interior room and was advised that it was our choice to downgrade so we would not get any credit for the difference in the room.  We wasted so much time on our cruise because of the room situation that I really feel like we did not have a vacation.  There was so much stress on the trip because of the smells and air quality in our rooms.  To be told by customer service when we got back, sorry but too bad, we don't credit back for smoke is insulting.  She was looking at the notes from the trip and I advised her of what we went through.  At first I just wanted a real apology but after hearing and seeing on your site what has been given to customers who have cruised with Carnival for much smaller problems a mere apology will not be enough.  Carnival has left us no choice except to make sure that everyone knows what a horrible experience our trip was.    Stay away from the Fascination.

Please keep us up to date on what the out come of your situation is.  Future Fascination sailors need to know.

I'm sorry that  your room wasn't what you expected, but you mentioned that you "basically had to stay out of your room except to sleep at night and shower."  That is what most people use it for, and enjoy the rest of the cruise out on deck mingling, and eating, and dancing, and swimming, soaking up the sun!  Why are you even cruising? The fun is outside your room!

I am sorry you feel like you had such a bad experience but let me say this, I have been on the Fascination 3 times and am booked again in February. Not once have I left or arrived back at port late although I do understand that with the weather and tides especially during hurricane season this can be a problem. I have stayed in a IS, OV and a Suite and all three have been impeccably clean with absolutely no odors. The robes have always been clean but if yours were not you could have simply had the steward bring you 2 more. The only times I have ever seen messes were when inconsiderate guest made them but there was always crew there to immediately clean it up. I am not trying to trivialize your issues but it does sound a bit like you would have complained no matter what and that nothing they could have done would have ever pleased you. I do not believe that Carnival should reimburse you because they clearly tried to do everything they could to resolve the problem for you but there was just NO making you happy.

Actually, we usually never complain and did not even discuss the horrible time we were having with our tablemates because that is not our style.  Our first two Carnival cruises they never heard from us except for the fact that they distroyed our suitcase with the forklift putting them on the ship in South Carolina and we went down to guest services in answer  to the tag they put in what was left of our our suitcase when they put it on the bed.  Those two cruises were fantastic.  I have never been on any kind of forum or blog until Carnival never bothered to respond to our issues.  I am not one that believes in getting something for nothing.  I would call unhealthy rooms that are so bad they cause an asthma attack  a real issue.  Normally we are not in the room much and don't use them except for showering and sleeping at night.  I broke my back last January and had surgery in July, unfortunately I did need the room to rest in the afternoon so I could enjoy the shows at night.  This cruise was to celebrate the fact that I could do fun things again instead of being stuck in bed.  We had a horrible experience that was caused by Carnival's not taking care of this ship like they should have.  We probably never would have complained about the mold or robes if we had not had the problem with the smoke or urine.  It was the fact that they did not even care that caused me to go online and make the post. 

I am glad you had a great time on the Fascination.  We tried but unfortunately were not able to enjoy our cruise as much as we hoped because of the problems.  I know many of our shipmates were constantly complaining about the rocking of the boat and the fact that there was so many sick.  This was not Carnival's fault.  Not to be gross but they could have been a little quicker in cleaning up the vomit in the main areas like the stairs outside the dining room.  It should not have still been there after we ate our dinner but there were so many people getting sick on board that it was not an easy job to do.  But again this was not Carnival's fault, our problems were Carnival's fault.

I'm not going to try and down play your issues. I'm just going to put my two cents in there. I sailed on the Fascination on the Nov 26 - Dec 1 sailing and I had a wonderful time.

I will admit that the rocking of the ship was FAR more noticeable than my Caribbean cruise out of Miami. I suppose the Atlantic Ocean is a little more rocky than the Gulf. But thankfully my mother-in-law came prepared and brought seasickness pills which we took twice a day and it helped tremendously.

As far as the smells go, all I can say is I never ONCE smelled anything unpleasant on the cruise after we left Jacksonville. I didn't even smell cigarettes on the Lido deck on the smoking side. This is coming from someone with a terribly weak stomach (as far as odors go) and anything that smells remotely unpleasant makes me very queasy.  I did smell an odor that resembled rotten eggs while docked in Jacksonville, which I presume came from the water in the sound. I also smelled a similar odor at the Wal-Mart  by a small body of water, in Jacksonville. I'm not up to speed on what urine smells like, as I don't typically go around sticking my nose in a toilet getting the fragrance of what fecal matter smells like.

And if your husband has asthma, then the responsible thing to do would be to bring the emergency inhaler on any extended trip away from your own home, even if he doesn't typically have to use it on a regular basis. I always plan for a worst-case-scenario that way if anything doesn't go the way I hoped or planned then at least I'm as prepared as I possibly can be. I always presumed that every other responsible human did the same. Especially getting on a cruise ship, where you're pretty much locked on a ship for days a time. 

I brought a battery-operated motion sensing air freshener because of this post; and this is the type of post one would be thankful to have in advance, to avoid a less than desirable experience.  I boarded on Monday, December 5th.  On that note, the air freshener is still in my bag, and I noticed nothing but fresh air in my cabin.  Of course, in order to compare, I would have to be in the same cabin as the OP.  I'm in a mid-ship cabin, so it could be just the forward cabins.  I did notice, too, that they have very plain notices that state a huge fee being charged if smoking is done in the cabin, to allow for the intense cleansing that has to take place to remove the odor.  Maybe that's new as well.

-Stephanie

We were in one of the forward cabins on U deck.  Just underneath the employee lounge which is where the steward told me the smoke was coming from through the vent.  According to Carnival, the no smoking in cabins policy came into effect on 12/1.  If you are still onboard try going into the hallway at the front of the ship on Udeck, especially late at night or early in the morning.  It was very obvious when you went near the front.  The steward also advised us that they had to move customers from our cabin on many cruises so we were not the only ones who have complained about the smoking.  It is really bad that their 800 line customer service person told me prior to booking the trip we did not have to worry about smoking in the rooms because they were all non-smoking.  After the trip the representative basically told me that I was stupid for not reading the blogs before going on the trip or I would have known about date change in the smoking policy.  I never, ever went on blogs or forums on anything until I posted here.  I hope you have a great trip and don't have to deal with the issues we did, it was nothing like our first two cruises and a total turnoff on Carnival Cruise Lines. 

We did not bring an emergency inhaler because he hadn't used one in several years.  We had no issue with smoke on our other cruises and did not expect to have this problem.  We were told by one of Carnival's own customer service agents on their 800 line that all cabins are smoke free so we did not worry about the smoke as we know we wouldn't go into the casino.    It was not the sulfer smell that you experienced in Jacksonville, it was definately cigarettes in the first room.  We don't usually stick our noses in toilets but the smell was unmistakable, even with the language barrier it was obvoius what the steward was callling the smell.  I am glad you had a good trip, ours was not. and it was a shame we had to endure the problems on our trip.  We work hard and get one vacation a year and were not able to fully enjoy it because of Carnivals negligance. 

debntim:

We work hard and get one vacation a year and were not able to fully enjoy it because of Carnivals negligance

Perhaps "negligance" is the legal term for "stuff that makes you pout" - I don't know.  I've never heard it before.  However, there's a similar concept called "negligence", and nothing in your sad litany qualifies.

It is negligence if your cabin has open sewage for several cruises in succession, and Carnival knows about it, and Carnival does nothing about it.  Yes, that is negligence.  If you tell Carnival, and they they try to do something about it and you couldn't keep the raw sewage off your floors ... that is not negligence.  It is "unsuccessful resolution of a customer complaint".  It would seem they took quite a number of extraordinary measures to satisfy you.

Now that does not mean by any stretch of the imagination [which I'm going to take a wild guess and assume is strong in you, young paduan] that you are not still entitled to feel put out about the conditions of your cruise.  You wanna hate it?  Go ahead; hate it twice for all I care.

But you don't get to toss around words that convey specific meaning when there is no basis for it.  That would be just as improper as me calling you a pathological liar.