The BEST holiday complaints
On the rare occasion, there is cause to make a complaint about your holiday but luckily, due to the exceptional standards and service offered on cruises, it doesn’t happen often.
These are actual, real life complaints received by Thomas Cook. Scroll down further for Cruise related complaints too 🙂
1. “They should not allow topless sunbathing on the beach. It was very distracting for my husband who just wanted to relax.”
2. “On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don’t like spicy food.”
3. “We went on holiday to Spain and had a problem with the taxi drivers as they were all Spanish.”
4. “We booked an excursion to a water park but no-one told us we had to bring our own swimsuits and towels. We assumed it would be included in the price.”
5. “The beach was too sandy. We had to clean everything when we returned to our room.”
6. “We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as white but it was more yellow.”
7. “It’s lazy of the local shopkeepers in Puerto Vallartato close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during ‘siesta’ time — this should be banned.”
8. “No-one told us there would be fish in the water. The children were scared.”
9. “Although the brochure said that there was a fully equipped kitchen, there was no egg-slicer in the drawers.”
10. “I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local convenience store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts.”
11. “The roads were uneven and bumpy, so we could not read the local guide book during the bus ride to the resort. Because of this, we were unaware of many things that would have made our holiday more fun.”
12. “It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England. It took the Americans only three hours to get home. This seems unfair.”
13. “I compared the size of our one-bedroom suite to our friends’ three-bedroom and ours was significantly smaller.”
14. “The brochure stated: ‘No hairdressers at the resort.’ We’re trainee hairdressers and we think they knew and made us wait longer for service.”
15. “When we were in Spain, there were too many Spanish people there. The receptionist spoke Spanish, the food was Spanish. No one told us that there would be so many foreigners.”
16. “We had to line up outside to catch the boat and there was no air-conditioning.”
17. “It is your duty as a tour operator to advise us of noisy or unruly guests before we travel.”
18. “I was bitten by a mosquito. The brochure did not mention mosquitoes.”
19. “My fiancée and I requested twin-beds when we booked, but instead we were placed in a room with a king bed. We now hold you responsible and want to be re-reimbursed for the fact that I became pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked.”
And for the cruise complaints:
(Survey conducted by external independent agency).
1) Â One couple were extremely disgruntled after the Captain of the ship failed to comply with their request (made via a note they left in their own cabin) to wait for them in port as they had so much to do and would be returning to the ship a couple of hours after the scheduled departure time. Â He didn’t wait. Â The passengers had to fly to the next port to catch up with the ship then requested compensation for their extra travel expenses.
2) Â A lady, during the course of her Mediterranean cruise, complained that the sea was too loud and was preventing her from having a decent nights sleep.
3) Â A woman complained to her travel agency that she’d had to reschedule her holiday as she’d not been advised that she needed to take her passport on a cruise sailing from the UK, only found out upon (attempting) check-in and that she thought she only needed her passport if she was flying to another country.
4)  A man who believed that ‘all cruises should be hot’ stated that he wanted reimbursing for the warmer clothing he’d had to purchase whilst on an Alaskan cruise.  He also claimed that he wanted compensation for not being able to swim  in the pool each day and not getting ‘an impressive tan’.
5) Â An older couple demanded a full refund for their cruise after they were not provided with a packed lunch each day as they left the ship.
6) Â After taking a Celebrity cruise and not seeing any ‘actual’ celebrities on board, a refund was demanded by a passenger.
7) Â One couple tried to claim compensation for the money they’d ‘had’ to spend on tips because the service was so good and the staff so helpful.
8) Â Recently, a lady complained that she had no window in her inside cabin and was not impressed that no one was able to come and ‘install’ one for her.
9) Â On a Hawaiian cruise, a young lady complained that Gary Barlow wasn’t on board. Â She’d heard that he’d holidayed on that cruise before and thought he’d be on again when she travelled.
10) Â And finally, a gentleman (one half of a newlywed couple) complained that the staff hadn’t strewn petals over their cabin each morning or bought them champagne and strawberries each day via a private butler. Â The groom then admitted that he’d not advised the cruise line of his new status, nor had he requested the extras he expected.
What’s the funniest complaint (cruise related or not) that you’ve ever heard?
About Me
I've worked in the Travel Industry since 1998. Â I started straight from college after obtaining an Advanced GNVQ Qualification in Travel and Tourism. I specialise in Cruise and Cruise and Stay Holidays so if that's what you're after, you've come to the right place. I have 3 children - Aimee…
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