My family and I were looking forward to the Inaugural Season when cruising on the Carnival Firenze in May 2024. I made them change our west coast cruise we had planned for 2025 and we ended up booking a cruise the year after our 2023 cruise because I wanted us to be among the first to sail on this ship. Excitement was ablaze for all of us we had so many amazing things planned to make sure the trip would be one of the best on our list of cruises. It was our first time cruising from the west coast so there were a few things we did not plan for that made it a bit rocky, but we were making the best of it all. The last thing we expected was for Carnival to end up making it one of the worst experiences we have ever had while cruising and to this day they have done nothing to try to fix it, not even an apology.
Where Are the Tenders???
Our cruise was short only five days long. We noticed a lot was different from others we had been on, even the one we had traveled on last year. For this cruise, we received a letter on our door to pick up bracelets for when we would be getting off the ship for our tender to the port. Immediately that was an issue because that letter was not placed on our door until after lunch, so we received horrible numbers for getting off the ship. When we received our bracelets it didn’t seem like that big of an issue we figured we would be off the cruise ship maybe two or three hours or so after we docked. When we arrived at the port in Cabo and saw another cruise ship we realized there may be a problem when the tenders were going to their cruise ship and none were coming over to ours.
Heatwave In The Hallway Waiting for Tender
Soon it was noon and announcements were flying around that passengers should not go down to the deboarding area until their bracelet information was called. At this point, we would only have five more hours left in port if we got off the cruise ship. Finally, our group got called and we headed down to the area only to get down there and hear another announcement that no passengers should go down at all. We were left baking in a hot hallway waiting for a tender to arrive to pick up our group for over 45 minutes. No crew members came to offer the guests down there some water to drink, despite Carnival being aware of at least 60 guests awaiting the tender in that heated hallway. We have a son with special needs and he was mortified by the situation being in the heat. What’s worst about being in that hallway, was once we arrived, most people could not leave to go back to any other parts of the ship or they would lose their place in line unless they had other family traveling with them.
Finally On a Tender
Our tender finally arrived and we celebrated hoping we could have at least four hours in port to experience some things. We lost another 35 minutes awaiting the tender to fill up because there were not enough passengers in the hallway baking, so we baked some more on the tender waiting for those on the cruise ship who did not come down to the hallway to come down and board the tender finally. This gave me time to fully think about my entire day and how I would discuss it with guest services. I had a major issue getting off the cruise ship, I almost tripped – which was dangerous and could be a huge problem for someone in a wheelchair. Our tender set sail for Cabo leaving us with three and a half hours to enjoy in port. It was such a huge disappointment and one of the worst experiences I’ve had ever since sailing with Carnival.
Another Cruiser Point of View
The video above includes footage of one cruiser’s day and how they went through the whole process of waiting for a tender and arriving at Cabo.
Other Cruiser’s Thoughts
I like joining groups geared towards the specific week you are traveling on the ship, and the cruisers the group for the Firenze for our week had lots to share about their Cabo experiences. Some gave their point of view as to why it happened and blamed guests, while others shared more personal experiences with staff and negative feedback. I’m including some of those below to share what other people experienced, to show that it wasn’t just my family and I that had a horrible experience but lots of people shared this common experience as well.
Sadly we gave up ! Really a huge disappointment that was where my family was most excited to Visit for the 1st time. We where 1st time cruisers and had zero guidelines. 90 % of the wedding party we were with missed out on Cabo. By the time we could get on a tender it was 245 so we just stayed in ship .. the one and only time I went to quest services I was treated horribly .. I understand they we’re inundated with angry guests but the lack of professionalism spoke volumes put a very achy taste in my mouth about cruising don’t know if I’ll want to do another again – Brandy G.
My daughter didn’t get off til almost 4 and were the last ones back on. She said that Carnival only contracted so many tenders from Mexico and they didn’t add more for us since Panorama was already there. They should stagger their arrivals. – Suzy S.
My party got 26 and when we realized we had to wait to be called we went and played cards and had a bite to eat while we waited. The only thing that I did notice was a lot of the people that bought excisions were in line with regular folk and some newbies, alot of entitled folks and some Karen’s and kens were messing it up but that is the norm
. But it wasn’t so bad that I will never do it again – Janice W.
Piotre was the officer on deck and when someone went to get him to explain why things were messed up, he proceeded to yell at me until I cried. I was one of 4 brides on this ship. It was not a magical experience I was promised. They should not offer a service (vip wedding experience) that they are unable to fulfill properly. Anyway, if you wanna complain about the tender situation, please be sure to mention Piotr by name. It was his responsibility that he messed up big time. Kristi M.
Our only issue was we did get a late # to get off (#42) when attempting to ask if the line was by group #, a group of “Karen’s” informed us that group # does NOT matter to go to the end of the line. No one was available to instruct us in this situation and another group of ladies invited us to go ahead of them. Some people ahead of us had no #. We waited over 2 hours due to the confusion. We waited for our group to be called. That seemed to be the problem. Many ahead of us ‘decided they were tired of waiting and lined up anyway. Because they lined up, they decided our # didn’t matter’.. sounds like corrections are being made. Good for Carnival moving forward. Karen C.
Q&A With The Captain
That night the captain and cruise director had a Q&A session to answer questions from passengers about the whole day. They received and answered a ton of questions regarding the tenders in Cabo. According to them, each boat, the Firenze and the Panorama were supposed to have a certain number of tender boats dedicated to them. Unfortunately, there was a mix-up with the company on shore, and the Panorama ended up with more tenders than they were supposed to. The captain also stated there were times when they thought a tender was coming for the Firenze, so they would call people to come down; but at the last minute, it would take a hard turn and go to the Panorama. But by then people had started coming down and there was nowhere for them to go which resulted in the pileup, excess heat, and ultimately just not enough space for everyone to wait.
Ultimately they said the backup was further escalated due to the return time for the Panorama being 2:30; so there were a ton of people trying to get back to the Panorama at the same time as people were trying to get off of the Firenze which again confused shore and backups. They also blamed the backup on first-time cruisers. They said there were over 2.3k first-time cruisers. So they said they were working on ALL of that. But they discussed with the company that handles the tenders on shore, both ship personnel, and some others.
According to them, changes were being made immediately and they probably would not be docking at the same time as the Panorama going forward.
Blame & No Apology
This whole experience had to be one of my worst on Carnival, and as a back-to-back cruising experience, I was hoping that was not the case. My family and I were now going from semi-annual cruisers to annual cruisers, we chose this ship because it was new. This was supposed to be its second sailing and already it was betraying up before we even set sail. Weeks before setting sail Carnival added a sailing before ours, so we were not the third sailing. We did not let that bother us at all, the ship would still be pretty new so we were still excited. However, looking at all the blame for the tender confusion, lots were placed on new cruisers. The fact remains though by the time the Firenze docked and started to tender passengers most of the passengers should have been off the Panorama. Just the same, when it was time for the Panorama to leave the port most of the passengers would have been off the Firenze and would not been searching for tenders.
Instead with all the confusion, it was reversed. At 2:30, when passengers from the Firenze were still attempting to get off the ship for a chance to see Cabo, tenders were loading passengers on the Panorama to leave the port. This mess was horrible, and when I went to guest services to complain, I had issues there. They said a letter would be delivered to our room apologizing for the problems we had that day. A letter never arrived on the ship, I called a filed a complaint, and even as I type this post now, not a single person from Carnival has responded to that call apologizing. I even submitted a complaint from both of my cabins that I booked from the ship and still not a single apology from Carnival nor a small bit of onboard credit for that day. An apology letter was the least they owed me once the call was made.
Next Post & Giveaway
My next blog post will share tips from other travelers with special needs children or people traveling with special requests, they want to share with you. Traveling with a child with special needs is hard and, one thing I enjoy sharing is these tips from parents like myself.
My sister & I would like to post a special cruise duck bubble pen giveaway like we did on the cruise. Entering is super easy. Follow the directions in the entry form below:
Cruise Duck Bubble Pen Pack
