G.S.P..

Number of Cruises: 1
Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Jubilee
Sailing Date: September 21st, 2002
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

We were set to sail from Galveston, Tx on Sep. 21, 2002. Unfortunately this was at the time the hurricane Isadore was gathering strength near Cuba. We were scheduled to sail to Cozumel and Calica. The night before departure, Carnival changed the itinerary to Veracruz, Mexico. They didn't tell us this, and we only happened to find out after we called the customer hotline. On the weather channel, it was obvious that the hurricane was going to hit Veracruz as well. Carnival should have just cancelled the cruise.

But they didn't. They insisted that we were still going to Veracruz, only to announce that we were going to New Orleans a day into the cruise. Not only was this a huge disappointment to most everybody on board, but we were also in the middle of The Gulf of Mexico in very choppy waters. In fact, many people got sick (publicly) and the halls were strewn with cat litter to cover up vomit. Gross!

There was no apology made for going to a non-exotic location, and most people from Texas had already been to New Orleans several times. In fact, the cruise director made it sound like it was no big deal to have to spend two days in New Orleans and that we were getting our money's worth.

The purser's desk was completely unhelpful until most of the boat started to demand a refund of some sort. In the end, they said they would let passengers disembark at New Orleans and get a partial refund (we hope this is the case because we haven't sent off our paperwork as yet.) The fine print in the passenger contract states that if a passenger is unsatisfied with the cruise before reaching the first port of call, he or she can get a partial refund of unused nights and reimbursement for travel back to the port of embarkation. Carnival didn't make an announcement to this effect, however. Their response to this refund procedure was to give several hundred passengers standby tickets from New Orleans to Houston (not Galveston) and not guarantee transportation from Houston to Galveston (n.b). this might have changed since we got a rental car from New Orleans and drove back to Galveston on day 3 of 5.) Unfortunately, those passengers flying standby were only flying out the day after we arrived in New Orleans, so they still had to pay for another night on board. We hope everybody got home safely because the storm hit New Orleans the next day!

On the boat, the food was mediocre. If you are expecting gourmet food, this is not the place to get it. Dining room food was erratic, with strengths being the soups and some desserts. Entrees were only average, some being bland or overly salty. Breakfast was our favorite meal; everything seemed to taste fine. On the Lido deck, there was an array of random food, ranging from turkey and stuffing to burgers and fries and weird scary looking salad mixes. We ate there one time and were not impressed. The pizza bar was ok, if you asked for a fresh pizza. However, we didn't come to the cruise to eat pizza, and we ended up eating a lot of it! They had an ice cream soft serve machine which was always available. The free beverages consisted of water, lemonade, a few juices, and tea and coffee..the juices all tasted watered down. We didn't get the fun pass for unlimited soft drinks because we thought that was a rip off. They make their money off of soft drinks and alcoholic beverages. As a side note, the room stewards and the waitstaff were very pleasant, despite being seasick themselves.

As for ship activities, the swimming pools are tiny, and they were empty since we were in extremely rough waters and swimming would be dangerous. They gym is small, but adequate. The "jogging track" featured in many advertisements is just an area of wooden deck on which they do not allow lounge chairs. It is much less than 1/16th of a mile, which means many many dizzying laps if you actually want to jog. Activities such as dance classes/etc. always seemed to conflict with our lunch seating, and they were only offered once, and they only lasted half an hour.

Half an hour seems to be the time limit for all activities on this cruise! Adults normally have a greater attention span, so half an hour was quite disappointing. Our "Vegas Style" show was cancelled because we were in such rough waters and they were afraid that the dancers would fall off the stage. Instead we had a lounge singer who was quite talented, but he only sang for half an hour. The comedian spoke for nearly half an hour. Other activities consisted of bingo and gambling and art auctions (framed prints). Duty free liquor is a good buy. The other stores seemed to have worthless tourist trinkets. In room movies were complimentary, but staying in the room during our cruise was not an option due to the extreme rocking of the boat and the sounds of people next door being seasick.

The rooms were old and dirty. We had stains on our bedspread, and the bathrooms were dingy. There was a musty smell and often the room was humid. Bring air freshener! the bathroom grout was gray with mold. Some of the lounges also felt damp and mildewy. In the morning, all the public areas smelled like the morning after a fraternity party.

As for the destinations, this was a cruise to nowhere, so we cannot comment on Cozumel and Calica. Carnival should have listened to the weather reports and realized that we would not be able to comfortably go anywhere in the Gulf of Mexico, and should not have made the pretense that we were going somewhere. We had our suspicions that they knew all along that we were going to New Orleans and not to Mexico, and they kept us in the dark so that they could get as much money as possible. Of course, that is only speculation. If they really did not know that we were going to have to divert to New Orleans, 1). they need better weather forcasters and 2). they should have simply taken us back to Galveston asap because New Orleans is NOT a destination that we would pay all that money to go.

In conclusion, we believe that all Carnival wanted was to keep as much money from the cruise as possible, and in doing so, gave us a terrible bumpy 2 days and dumped us right back in the United States and tried to call that a Caribbean Cruise. We will not be repeat Carnival Customers. When we read cruise reviews before the trip and saw people's disgruntled reviews, we thought, oh, this will not happen to us. But it did. Carnival is not trying to make its customers happy. If it keeps this up, word will soon get around and no one will travel on Carnival.