Carnival Cruise Line Australia - Head Office — Local services in Sydney

Our cruise destination changed due to circumstances outside Carnivals control. Our shore days went from 4 days down to 2 with increased sea days.

Not a massive deal and I'm not taking any points off at all for that.

My largest complaint was inconsistent application of rules. All our power boards were taken because 'surge protection' despite none of our boards containing surge protection, just 10amp overload.

My powerboard with 4x usb ports etc was taken. My Walkie-talkie radios were taken for 'reasons' and I had to lobby to get them back quoting their own rules.

They charge $8 per person for a junk 'chat' that doesn't work (probably why walkie talkies were taken).

But my favourite and most egregious offence is what we were charged to test ourselves and do the right thing after we suspected that we might have contracted Covid on the ship but at the time we just felt sick.

Luckily only 3 of our 7 party tested positive after purchasing test kits from the medical bay. Get this....

On a cruise ship where covid is a high risk, if you're feeling sick they want $38 AUD as of 27th of May on the ship FOR A SINGLE COVID TEST KIT, NOT A PACKET 1X TEST KIT.

ANNNND if you test positive you're compelled to tell the ship and then be isolated to your room.

So while our family did the right thing and paid for the tests and people who tested positive stayed in their rooms.

The whole price gouging thing and the idea of paying to test positive then be bound to your room means 0 % compliance from dishonest people trying to get value on their holiday.

Nearly $300 for us to run the risk of ruining our holiday, yet we did the right thing. only 3 positives out of 7 tests but so pricey we couldn't re-test each morning on the last two days.

How many people would actually be compliant.

I heard a guy at the casino bar saying 'yeah it's probably influenza or something, I'm not going to get tested because we're almost home and I don't want to stay in my room, I'm just going to push through'.

I moved away and left him to cough not on me. I managed to avoid infection out of our group but I couldn't re-test every morning for the last few days due to price.

So it just meant we couldn't have group breakfast / lunch / dinner for the next 2-3 nights. effectively ending our social interactions for the last 1/3 of the cruise.

The last 32 hrs on the ship was me walking around trying to get all my confiscated powerboards, chargers, batteries and equipment back from security / collection points where I was told to collect it from 6am from a certain location to be told it was already dropped off to my room when it hadn't been.

I only got the last of my gear back as I walked over the boarding bridge. 0/5 for this part.

I can't ding the service staff / bar / room attendants etc. They were all great.

Security worked around my battery confiscation restrictions for my drone since they had to keep possession of them so they needed to charge my batteries.

Pain in the arse but they worked with me to achieve a working solution as painful as it was to pre-plan to have charged batteries for shore days... it worked.

After taking my high quality power boards, check out the garbage one we got instead in the pics.

My rating is mostly based of the pure egregious rip-off of the covid testing kits at $38 AUD PER TEST and their compliance expectactions pushes all the risk / cost onto the end users and compliance will be single digits or 0% due to costs and risks if sick.

We did the right thing, other cruisers didn't. We paid the price via infection and via paying for testing kits at extortion prices.

Cold and flu tablets were $7 a packet. covid test $38 AUD mmm value.

Of and if you pop positive after paying nearly $40... you have to stay in your room.

Who is exactly your compliance safety officer ? Does he work for cirque du soleil ? Because if he signed off on this SOP / practice... he is a clown. You should be as ashamed and embarrassed as the medical staff felt asking to approve the charge after I said 'what...

CARNIVAL CRUISE LINE – 100% RIP-OFF!!!

Firstly, Carnival Cruise Line is not even worthy of a one-star rating, but unfortunately, I cannot choose zero stars. My daughter had booked and purchased two tickets for my wife and I in January 2025 through P&O Cruises to go on a nine-day cruise from Sydney to North Queensland in May 2025. This was a birthday gift for the both of us as we share our birthdays in the same month. She did this from her heart because my wife and I have never had a decent break from our work and this was going to be our first experience going on a cruise. We were both very excited and looking forward to it.

Unfortunately, five days before the departure date, my wife became quite sick and was admitted to hospital to have emergency surgery. The surgeon and doctors at the hospital advised my wife needed six to eight weeks to recover at home and was not allowed to walk long distances or do any strenuous work during this time. I told the doctor about the cruise we were meant to board in five days' time, and he strongly advised against my wife going on the cruise as she would be unfit to travel which I already knew.

I had obtained two medical certificates, one from the surgeon and the other from the doctor at the hospital in order for my daughter to request a credit from Carnival Cruise Line to reschedule the same trip at a future date when my wife had fully recovered from her surgery. She did not request for a refund, only a credit for a future booking.

When my daughter contacted Carnival Cruise Line’s Sydney head office located in Chatswood, NSW to notify them of my wife’s inability to board the cruise due to her emergency surgery and to cancel the booking and request for a credit, she was told they could not “do anything about it” and told her she will need to send an email to their office in Miami, Florida in the US using an email address they had given her. My daughter then sent the email as advised explaining our situation, included both medical certificates and requested a credit for a future booking.

A few days later, my daughter received an email response from the US advising they would not issue a credit nor offer a refund due to us not advising them of cancelling the booking five months prior to departure date, ignoring the fact my wife required emergency surgery. They also advised travel insurance should have been purchased from their own website at the same time when the booking was made. My daughter was going to purchase travel insurance from a different insurance company a week prior to the departure date. However, I did some research to confirm if cancellations are covered by insurance and found the policy would not have covered cancellations, only incidents occurring on the cruise ship.

My daughter then sent a reply to their email reiterating that my wife’s medical emergency was spontaneous and unforeseen. She pleaded with them to have compassion and empathy in reconsidering their decision.

A few days later, she received another email response from the US advising the exact same response as the first email response. They basically said they would not offer a credit nor a refund making like it was my wife’s fault for being sick in the first place. They had taken my daughter’s money and showed no compassion in offering a credit or refunding the money due to unforeseen circumstances. Carnival Cruise Line has caused my daughter, my wife and myself great stress and trauma with their unsympathetic and inconsiderate responses to her request for a credit or refund.

This behaviour is unacceptable, especially in Australia where we are covered under the Australian Consumer Law that basically states if goods and services are not received by the purchaser, then they entitled to a full refund. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission need to investigate the practices of this company as they are ripping people off. Avoid Carnival Cruise Line at all costs. They are inflexible and purely...

We were meant to get on Carnival Splendor on the 30th of October. Unfortunately, we were denied to board the cruise due to my son not being fully vaccinated. I had filled out a form twice from the email Carnival sent to me to request exemption but never heard back. We also had a letter from our GP stating to avoid vaccinations until December this year as my son contracted COVID in September. ("If you had a confirmed COVID-19 infection you should defer vaccination for 3 months. You are considered 'up-to-date' during this period. " this is from Australia Health official website) My Husband and I went to try vaccinate our son twice but the pharmacists from both Chemist and our GP advised us against it. So, I assumed that we are able to board the cruise without any problems, because we have done online check-in smoothly by filling all the information including eneryone's vaccine status, and we successfully got the digital boarding pass, and we have received welcome letter from Carnival! But when we arrived to check in, we were told that the letter from our GP was not accepted as an appropriate reason.

The girl from the check-in counter called the terminal manager to talk to us about the situation. I saw her name tag (Angie) and she told us she is the general manager. Angie was extremely rude and arrogant. She told us we couldn't board and said we could either leave my son here for a guardian to pick up or we can all just leave together. I asked her if I could get a full refund for everyone (total 6 people including my parents) and she replied yes with credit. Then we decided to leave together as we could not just leave a 12-year boy by himself. She then asked me to sign a pre-filled form and I double checked about the refunds (which she said yes to again) before signing the form. I just quickly signed the form and left as she was rushing me. After I left the terminal, I finally got a chance to sit down and read the form and I realised that I had got lied to and had just signed a form which stated 'Please understand that you will be under full penalty and will not be entitled to a refund of your cruise fare'. My husband and I then rushed back to the terminal to speak with her about this and she was again very impatient and rude to us. I said to her "the reason I signed the form was because you told me the form was only for not boarding the cruise and how I would get a full refund or credit. I fully trusted you and you were rushing at the time". She then replied "YOU DON'T NEED TO TRUST ME! The only thing you need to do is to talk to Carnival in US!" and those were the exact original words that she said. How can a manager have such unprofessional ethics!! I then said "I would not have signed the form if you had told me I was not entitled to the refund/credit. Please give me back the original form, and I will cross out my signature from the form." She then refused my request and said "I am going to call the security TO REMOVE YOU!!!" We persisted on getting the original form which she eventually gave us and then we were sent out by security without performing any inappropriate words or actions.

We have been on a Carnival Cruise before and we had a very pleasant experience as all staff are very warm and welcoming. We have also had amazing times on other cruises such as Princess Cruise and RoyalCaribbean and the reason we enjoy cruises so much is because of the exceptional customer service you have provided. But this time, it is unbelievable how a Carnival Cruise general manager talks to the customer with no smile, no apology and no empathy. I do not think that she deserves to represent a company with such high reputation like Carnival Cruise. Today, we experienced a terrible, terrible customer service and it has not only ruined our family vacation but also destroyed Carnival Cruise's image...