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Voyage Report: Carnival Cruise Lines MS Fascination returned to service this past weekend following two weeks of renovations with what was advertised as an overnight "Cruise to Nowhere". Unfortunately, a combination of Carnival miscues turned the voyage into a "Cruise to Hell" for many of the 2000+ passengers on board.
The cruise fare included unlimited free drinks and many of the passengers on board seemed determined to take full advantage of the situation by making the bars their first stop after boarding the ship. Unfortunately, at the time only two of the Fascination's bars were open and the staff was quickly overwhelmed by angry mobs of thirsty passengers.
The open bar environment contributed to one of the most unorganized and unruly lifeboat drills we've ever seen. Many passengers failed to don their life jackets and continued drinking throughout the drill. Carnival officers and staff seemed ill prepared to deal with the situation and the drill ended without the customary roll call for each lifeboat and some passengers never having been directed to their lifeboat station.
Things got worse at dinner when the ocean started getting rough and many of the passengers who had been assigned dinner at the early seating crashed the late (second) seating. The dining room staff made no attempt to control the flow of extra passengers and as a result, over one hundred late seating passengers were forced to eat at a "late, late seating" beginning at 10:15 PM.
By the time Carnival decided to offer a third sitting, it was too late for the stranded passengers to make it to the early entertainment and by the time they left the third sitting the entertainment was over. Service at the late, late seating was rushed as the dining room staff urged passengers to order quickly and became annoyed when the pace of dinner slowed to civilized levels.
From the bars to the restaurants to the front desk, Carnival staff consistently refused to take any responsibility for the situation and responded by blaming the passengers for all of the problems. If this comedy of errors had not involved the safety, comfort and money of the passengers it might have been amusing. Unfortunately for all those on board - it did, and was not.
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If you do have open bar, make sure you get to dinner early...
Joe at TravelPage.com
[This message has been edited by RICHARD CHUDY (edited 08-16-2000).]
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