Cruise Line: Carnival Cruises
Cruise Ship: Carnival Liberty
Cruise Destination: Eastern Caribbean
Cruise Dates: June 5 - June 12, 2010
Guest Contributor: John Oles

My wife booked a cruise to surprise me for our anniversary and a honeymoon we never had 37 years ago. When she booked it she advised them that I was on peritoneal dialysis and a diabetic with mobility issues and the representative said it was not a problem.


We drove from Youngstown, Ohio to Miami, Fla and took all my own meds and dialysis solution so we would be able to relax knowing there was not going to be a problem.
We boarded the Liberty without any problems, in awe of how big and beautiful this ship was that we would be on for 7 days. We were directed to our cabin which was 7404 and went out on the balcony and couldn't believe that we were really doing this. Being on a fixed income my wife had saved for many years to surprise me with this and wanted it to be a wonderful experience.
WRONG.....They announced for everyone to come to the safety meeting, which we followed directions to get there, while there, it came over the loud speaker for John Oles to come to guest services which again we followed directions and did. Once there a very unpleasant woman dressed in white told us to come with her. We were scared to death that we did something wrong. While waiting for the elevator she asked my husband how important his dialysis medicine was and he told her he has to do it 3 times a day.

She took us to the infirmary which was locked without saying another word. She called someone to come open the door. Once it was open she told us to go inside. She and what I think was a nurse said that they could not find my dialysis solution which was given to a porter by me along with our luggage which was in our room already. The nurse said she had to call the doctor to see what to do. She said we would have to get off the ship because he could not be on the ship for 7 days without it.

I took the phone and was talking to the doctor and he said that we would have to leave the ship immediately because they couldn't find the solution, and they had to leave port and we were holding them up. I told them that I had more solution in my car out in the parking deck and the dr said they couldn't wait for me to go get it, I told them that I needed our luggage, and he said that they would ship it to us and I told him that there was medication in there for my wife and myself and he said there wasn't time. I was very upset and angry, my wife was crying and no one even cared that I didn't lose the solution, they did!

As they were escorting us off the ship a porter called and asked what the boxes looked like and I told them they had Baxter written on them, he said that he found the 3 boxes. They told us to go back up to our cabin and someone would deliver it asap. My wife and I were both in total shock. No one ever said I am sorry, no one ever comforted my crying wife, they were very rude. We went back to our cabin where my wife cried for over an hour, we didn't know what to do. We finally got ourselves together and went to the formal dining room for dinner.

My husband told them he is on a special diet and that they were informed of that, the waiter told some big shot about it and he came over and said maybe it would be better for him to eat at the buffet where he could pick and choose what he was allowed to eat, unbelievable. We then decided to book an excursion for each port of call and went to guest services to do so. Once in Mexico we got off the ship to go on our excursion only to find out that they sold us the wrong tickets on the ship, great, nothing to do but walk around since we didn't have tickets to do anything else. Once we got on the ship guest services gave me a attitude when I wanted our money back but I finally got it, again very rude.

They were advised of my mobility issue and never told us that we had to rent our own wheel chair or scooter and once we found out that they do have wheel chairs available every time we asked for one we were told they didn't have any available but we seen them just sitting there next to guest services. The only time I was offered a wheel chair was in Jamaica and we were off of the ships boundaries.

Needless to say it was a trip from hell. The whole time no one ever offered apologies or anything. The crew on the ship were not friendly at all let alone speak English or carry on a conversation with you. They could of at least sent us a bottle of wine with an apology or something. My wife and I have written to Carnival multiple times via emails, written to them by mail and called them numerous times, all we get from the people we talk to is that they only accept incoming calls and will give our complaints to the right people. We have gotten one response online and it says that they are sorry for our bad experience but there is nothing they can do and they hope when we cruise again we will choose Carnival. First of all it took my wife 4 years to save up for this one, second, I would not book a cruise with Carnival if it was the last cruise line on earth. Do not believe any of their promises because they do not stand up to them at all. Thank You. John Oles