Travel industry executives like to boast that the majority of people who go on a cruise are very satisfied with their experience, and research backs them up. But that doesn’t mean every cruise is smooth sailing.
On any cruise, many small things can happen – slow service in the dining room or an excursion that’s less than enjoyable – that can have a big impact on your experience.
Sometimes, these cruise ship problems are on a very large scale.
What should you do if your sailing experience does not meet your expectations? Here’s a look at the most common cruise ship problems people encounter and what you can do about them.
The most common problems of a cruise ship
Like land-based hotels and resorts, cruise lines receive many complaints about accommodations, especially regarding noise levels in cabin areas. Food quality issues are also a common topic.
Unlike land-based hotels and resorts, cruise lines also have to deal with customers’ unhappiness about travel changes caused by weather conditions. In the event of a hurricane in the Caribbean, for example, it is not uncommon for ships to change course to avoid the storm, drop off or change scheduled port calls in the process. Similarly, cruise ships in Europe sometimes change itineraries when low water makes part of the river unnavigable.
Who can you talk to about a problem?
On most cruise ships, the most public-facing crew member is the cruise director. This is the person you will see presenting on board shows and leading activities. But this is not really the person you should talk to if you have a problem.
It is usually best to seek out the department head that is the focus of your complaint. If it’s a problem with your room, that can be the main caretaker of the house. If it’s a problem related to the restaurant on board, you can look for a food and beverage manager. For payment issues, it’s the purser. They are the people who are in the best position to fix the situation.
How do you find out who these are? Here’s the hack: Almost every ship has a wall in a prominent public area with portraits of senior officers and department heads. You can find the right person’s name there. Or you can ask the appropriate person at the front desk and ask to set up a meeting with that person to address your complaints.
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Related: Why you should use a travel agent to book a cruise
If talking to the head of department doesn’t do the trick, the next step would be to go to the ship’s hotel manager or one of their assistants. Aside from the captain, the hotel director is usually the chief executive officer on any ship and is in charge of all “hotel” operations, including housekeeping, dining and entertainment.
Don’t be shy about raising issues with board members. If you don’t bring up the problem with the ship’s crew while on board, they won’t get a chance to fix it. And they will want to fix it. No cruise line wants an unhappy customer. Bad for business.
What cruise complaints apply
At some level, there are no complaints too frivolous to air while on board. If a customer is unhappy about something on the trip, no matter how minor, they should say something — as soon as possible.
“Everyone has a different level of tolerance [for perceived errors]. What makes sense to one person doesn’t make sense to another,” Kristin Karst, owner of river cruise line AmaWaterways, told TPG in an interview a few years ago, and the advice still applies today.
As Karst noted at the time, cruisers are eager to hear about problems early in the trip so they can fix them. “A guest should have a good time on a boat – the time of their life,” he said.
Karst recalls a passenger a few years ago who was unhappy his ship did not serve gluten-free beer. Although it seems like a small thing, it was important to this customer, and she’s glad she spoke up. The ship sent a crew member to the next stop to buy gluten-free beer for him, and what could have turned out to be a bad thing turned out to be a good thing. The line has begun carrying gluten-free beer on every cruise.
Sometimes, however, the issue is more linear. Karst said one of the most common complaints AmaWaterways staff hears from passengers is that other ships park too close to their ship, blocking the view from their cabin windows.
Karst said that there is not much you can do to fix the situation other than to explain that their ships have no authority over which ships stop near them. They will also point out that the number of hours on any given trip where a ship is docked next to another ship is very small.
Some complaints are obviously more valid than others. If there’s a problem with the plumbing or air conditioning in your room, it makes perfect sense to file a complaint, travel managers told TPG. If you don’t like the decoration of the room, making a complaint is wrong. The latter is something you might want to research in advance before booking.
Or to put it another way, an active complaint is when the cruise line doesn’t deliver the level of service or vacation components promised prior to purchase. An invalid complaint is when the customer himself does not like something.
What to ask for when things go wrong
Many small mistakes, such as a dirty room or slow delivery of room service, can be corrected quickly if brought to the attention of the manager. Some things are hard to fix.
Not happy with your room? Upgrading is often difficult, as the cruise business model revolves around ships that sail full. Often, the ship won’t even have a single open cabin to move into.
That said, it doesn’t hurt to ask, especially if your complaint is about a functional aspect of the room and not related to its size or decor. In such a case, the cruise line will do its best to make things right.
Karst of AmaWaterways said he was once on a Mekong river cruise in Cambodia when he saw a couple who seemed unhappy. He asked if they were okay, and they said that the air-conditioning in their suite was not keeping the room as cool as they would have liked. It was the very situation where one had to speak up, he said, and the line did its best to make things better.
Since the ship was full and there was no other room, Karst gave the couple his room, where the air-conditioning system worked much better. Since it was a low-class cabin, he also refunded the couple for the fare difference between the cabin types, then called the hotel where the couple was staying after the cruise to upgrade them to a better room.
Although expensive, such a gesture makes sense for shipping companies that want to create long-term loyalty, Karst said. The couple, he says, have continued to be regular customers.
“They’ve been making all the sailboats we offer,” Karst said. “They’re almost like our family now.”
Professional travel agents tell TPG that cruise lines are generally okay with their mistakes and going the extra mile to keep customers happy. In addition to correcting the situation when something goes wrong, that usually means a small token of appreciation and an apology.
For something small, a guest can find a lot of fun in his house. For more serious cases, financial compensation may be offered.
In the case of a changed itinerary, passengers may be surprised to learn that cruise lines have no obligation to provide compensation. The fine print on cruise contracts clearly notes that lines reserve the right to make changes to itineraries as needed.
That said, lines sometimes offer passengers some form of compensation when itineraries change, even if the situation is beyond their control.
If a cruise is completely canceled, customers can expect a full refund, a credit for the cost of switching flights and a credit for a future trip of some sort.
TPG recommends that prospective cruise passengers purchase travel insurance to cover any additional costs they may incur if the cruise is seriously damaged or cancelled.
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