Travel advisories issued by the U.S. State Department include serious travel warnings for many destinations visited by cruise ships every day.
Naturally, these warnings can be concerning for cruisers and often lead to questions about whether it’s still safe to cruise to certain ports.
Related: Carnival Cruise Line calls out cruise food complainers
Carnival Cruise Line Brand Ambassador John Heald receives these kinds of questions every day from Carnival passengers who follow his popular Facebook page.
In one of his latest Facebook videos for his more than 600,000 followers, Heald spoke about travel advisory concerns and explained how the cruise line determines whether ports are safe to visit. He also shared some important advice that the cruise line offers for certain ports with heightened safety risks.
Sign up for the Come Cruise With Me newsletter to save money on your next (or your first) cruise.
Carnival Cruise Line continues to sail to Caribbean destinations with travel warnings like Nassau, Bahamas.
Image source: Dan Kline/Come Cruise With Me
Carnival brand ambassador speaks out on travel advisory concerns
Transcript:
John Heald: Hello, and a very happy Monday to you. Good morning, good afternoon, and to my friends in Australia, New Zealand, and Cleveland, Ohio, good evening, and welcome to this morning’s three-minute video. Live long and prosper.
Right, let’s get straight into it. And I want to talk about a question that I’m asked a lot.
Occasionally, you will see that the United States government issues these travel advisories, and they are very, very important.
And then a lot of you — and I mean a lot of you — write to me and say, is it still safe to go to (name a place)? And I want to reiterate two very, very important things to you if I can with that.
We will always take you to places where we have done due diligence. We have worked very closely with government agencies, both in the United States and with the governments of the areas that we go to.
Related: Carnival Cruise Line drops popular port from multiple sailings
And that’s why we and the other cruise lines continue to go to these places. If it became the advice from those agencies that we stop, of course, we would do so. We would never put your safety in jeopardy.
But I do want to remind you to please remember that you will see listed in the Fun Times, and you’ll also hear the cruise directors tell you, that in some of the places, not all, but in some of the places we go to, to please only take an excursion through the ship and stay in the tourist areas. It’s pretty basic advice — advice I used to give as a cruise director as well in a lot of the places we went to, and it’s still the same case today.
So please, please, remember those very, very important words. Stay safe, have fun, and remember to listen to the advice of the captain and the cruise director in some of the places that we go to — very important.
Carnival reminds passengers not to flush wet wipes on board
Now, also very important is we do not want to make angry a very important gentleman. He’s on every ship, and here he is:
“Hello, I am Luigi Di Plumba. I am Luigi, I ask you again and again, please, please, please, don’t be stunad. Only flush in the toilet, the toilet paper that we give you. I do not want to put on the long glove and put my hand in the sheet.”
Thank you, Luigi. We had a case again on Friday where somebody put something in the toilet they shouldn’t have done. It was those notorious wet wipes.
Related: Carnival Cruise Line shares two critical warnings for passengers
Please, because again, it didn’t just involve their cabin on the Sunshine/rise — can’t remember which one. It involved cabins right across the section. And then everybody writes to me and says, you know, my toilet didn’t work for an hour.
And yeah, I get it, it’s awful, it’s terrible, but this isn’t a fault of the ship. It’s because people put things in the toilet that they shouldn’t. So please, I’ve said this before and I say it again, please only use the ship’s lavatory paper and don’t put anything else in there.
More Carnival cruise news:
Carnival Cruise Line pushes back on key drink requestCarnival cruisers pick surprising home port for next megashipCarnival Cruise Line begs cruisers to follow a crucial rule
Carnival brand ambassador shares funny false teeth flushing story
I do remember though, when I was a cruise director, well, the toilet jokes I used to do, most of which I couldn’t do now, but this is an absolutely true story. We did have a very naughty child who was cruising with his grandparents, and his grandparents, well, they took their teeth out at night and put it in a glass of water.
My grandparents used to do that and I used to sneak into their room; change the glasses over. Granddad would get up in the morning; pick up my teeth.
Anyway, this is an absolute true story, I promise. So, the kid, his grandparents are asleep. He takes the false teeth and he put them in the toilet and pressed the button and flushed away grandpa’s false teeth. And, of course, the suction sucked the teeth through the piping and up into a cabin next door.
Now, can you imagine you go to the bathroom all innocently at seven o’clock in the morning? “Oh, I’m so excited. We’re going to the Cayman Islands. I’m here on the Carnival Triumph.” And he sits down on the toilet and stands up and looks down and there’s a pair of teeth staring at him.
Please only use the toilet paper down the toilet. Luigi doesn’t like it.
(The Arena Group will earn a commission if you book a cruise.)
Make a free appointment with Come Cruise With Me’s Travel Agent Partner, Postcard Travel, or email Amy Post at [email protected] or call or text her at 386-383-2472.
