She is on a dry dock now..that's all I know.

A couple of you were wodering what happens to people who have air connections that now need to be cancelled. Here is a situation that happend to me

I booked a 5 day trip on the Imagination for Oct 23/2005, but that schedule was wrecked due to Hurricane Wilma. I purchased air tickets through Carnival from Toronto-Miami. A day before the original departure, they informed me the trip is now a 4 day,and gave me new airline reservations. We showed up at the airport, found all flights to MIA were still cancelled, I was in touch with my travel agent/ Carnical Rep, we tried switching to a cruise out of Tampa, but all departures from YYZ to Florida had aleady departed. The port of MIA was still closed, so the ship was still at sea waiting for clearance to come in. Carnival gave me the option of a full refund including air - so I regretably accepted.

My travel agent phoned me back about 2 hours later, told me if I still wanted a cruise, they could put me on the Fascination, but we would have to pay for air separately. She said carnival agreed to use the original funds for the Imagination cruise to purchase this trip, and they would refund the difference. I wond up with a $1000.00 CDN refund to compensate for loosing a 5 day Cat 11, and getting a 3 day cat 6B. The new air tickets were approx. 200 CDN more because they were last minute.

Either way, I would have wound up on a 3 day trip to the Bahamas, the only problem was I was downgraded from a Cat 11 to a 6B, but we were still able to salvage our honeymoon.

WE WERE TOLD TWO YEARS AGO ON A CRUISE THAT ITS THE HARBOR MASTER THAT TAKES THE SHIPS OUT AND BRINGS THEM BACK IN TO DOCK I BELIEVE HE SHOULD OF KNOWN HOW SHALLOW THAT WATER WAS ITS HIS JOB TO KEEP TRACK OF ALL THESE THINGS WHEN DOCKING SOUNDS LIKE SOMEONE WAS REALLY OFF JUST AN OPINION

I really believe was an unexpected mechanical failure of the Ship.

So, whats the latest? If they are going to be out of dock and back into Florida before the next cruise starts I would think they would need to be finished fixing her by today. Any word on further cancelled cruises?

I've been doing Google seaches for the past 3 days and have learned nothing new. Carnival had a link on their homepage but it is gone and they have posted no updates. So I assume everything is well and no more cruises will be cancelled.

Ah, a man of faith.. I like that, its refreshing.

Repairs have not been completed on time and Carnival is again modifying the schedule for the Celebration. Read about it here.

Thanks for the update Dave. I figured that they would be cancelling another cruise. Maybe the people will get lucky and they will still get a cruise. (Well lucky is a stretch seeing as the cruise only goes to Freeport instead of Key West/Nassaua) But I find it poor form on CCL's part not to have that info on their website... you had to fidn it on a news site somewhere else. They should be keeping their customers informed.

Jim

It does seem strange. The only reason I can think of why they might not post it on the website is because it would be too confusing to those whose cruises aren't affected, and it would generate a flood of calls. It's just human nature to panic at something like that. If someone saw the Aug 25th cruise cancelled on the website, CCL would be flooded with calls of everyone asking "What about the Sep 5th sailing, or the Sep 10th" etc. Carnival is directly contacting Travel Agents, and clients whose cruises are affected. I'm sure it's a nightmare when they have to cancel a cruise. Not only do they have to contact all the Travel Agents, and clients that booked direct. Which probably takes days to get ahold of everyone. But they have to go through all the air reservations, and all the pre or post hotel stays, they have to contact logistics for food and supplies that were set up for delivery to the ship. Meanwhile they have to get all the people affected rebooked, refunded,or whatver. There's probably several other departments that are affected too that I can't think of right now. It must be a nightmare.

Oh, I don't doubt that its a nightmare for Carnival. And most people won't understand that (or even care). All that they will understand is that their cruise got cancelled. And that affects them and they will be mad. I have had a cruise cancelled, and it was not fun. Could Carnival have handled it better? I think so, but then again, there is probably a lot more to it then just suffling things around. But I do not agree with this 50% credit business. If I booked a 5 day cruise in a balcony suite, then I should get a "voucher" for another 5 day cruise in a balcony suite. Why should a guest have to pay MORE money to get the cruise they already paid in full for when it is not the customers fault? Oh well, its not like I can change anything..

Just hoping that Dave or Nancy or Raoul can fix my signature. Somehow my permission to use HTML in my posts got taken away. BUt I see none of the admins are on the forum now... so if one of you see this... help

Jim,
I'm not sure what you mean with the 50% credit. Those affected by the Aug 26th sailing have the option to take a 3day sailing., Plus get 50% of their 5day sailing cost back,plus a 50% 0ff on a future 3-5 day cruise. Or they have the option to cancel completely with a full refund or full credit toward a future cruise.

I was on the August 12 sailing. It really is insulting that Carnival messed up and is really not offering a fair compensation. Considering the cruise that was cancelled received more compensation than we did (50% off a future cruise and a full refund). They were at least able to rebook something else hopefully and not have to deal with the mess on the ship. We all understand weather or mechanical issues, but pure screw ups should be handled differently. One thing to note is that the crew really could not control the passengers who came to near riot situations at several times. Passengers were scared that the situation could erupt because of the anger on the ship over the poor treatment by Carnival. I have to say that for a company that makes its living with customer service they were anything but customer service friendly.
I have sent letters to both the CEO of Carnival and the the CEO of Carnival corp as well as guest relations. I have not even had the courtesy of a response from anyone.
Any advice on how to get someone to respond or get more compensation?

Shipwrecked- I would not hold my breath on getting a response. I sent the same people letters when after Katrina, Carnival "leased" ships to FEMA for housing. Basically Carnival was making as much or more money from the government as they would have by selling out each ship at higher than normal rates. They didn't have to provide food nor entertainment. Then they turned around and out right cancel our cruise because becuase they then moved the Conquest into Galveston to take over the 7 day cruises and moved our original ship onto the 5 day cruise schedule. Now rhe "good" customer relations move would have been to simply rebook the booked passengers to the Conquest since it was the SAME cruise. BUt Carinval got gready and cancelled everyone and expected them to re-book on the Conquest at higher rates because "she's a bigger ship" For our trouble they gave us $100 ship board credit for our next cruise. That didn't even cover the extra cost of sailing on the Conquest.

I never did get a response. If I had not have already booked the cruise on the Spirit, we would not have gone... I ended up booking the Conquest because with a 2 week notice, you don't have a whole lot of vacation options.

So, I forgot to ask, is the Celebration cruising again? from other posts it sounded like "she was almost out of dry dock" but until she is on the water, there is no guarantee of that.

Jim,

I guess the Celebration is back in service. There are no more updates on her at the Carnival website.

Shipwrecked,
It is my understanding that everyone on the August 12th sailing received a $100 credit and 25% off a future sailing. You were on day 3 1/2 of a 5 day sailing when the accident happened. You had already enjoyed three nights of accommodations, entertainment and food for three 1/2 days. To expect a full refund is unreasonable. I think the $100 and 25% future is adequate. Also, whenever writing to a company 4-6 weeks is normal before hearing a response. It is unrealistic to expect a response so soon.

It really does not matter if you write or call. I called and got a case/issue number type thing a few years ago for an issue. They did say would be 4-6 weeks but was resolved in about 4 weeks. I did not get what I wanted, but I did get more than was originally offered. This was a different type issue though.

I re-read Shipwreck's post and is a little scary to think people would get nearly worked up to riot over missing a port. I think may be because was their main port they wanted to cruise to. I had St. Kitts cancelled once because we could not dock, no one got that upset but we had 5 ports on a 7 day. So I can see them being upset, but to get close to riot over something is nuts.

I think Shipwreck should calmly call Guest Relations at 1 800 929 6400 and try to speak to whomever can give them a case number.

I know Carnival covers their butt in the legal, but Shipwreck sorta has a point since was a mechanical failure on their part and not an act of nature. I think 50% of the cruise fare is more in order for this 5 day Bahama Cruise in which no one set foot on the Bahamas. Just my opinion as to how to build good will and repeat customers.

Thanks everyone. I never thought we were entitled to a full refund because we did enjoy our first few days of the cruise. Many on the cruise thought they should recieve a full refund, had Carnival offered 50%off a future cruise the angry crowds would have been dispersed and the peer pressure to shut up would have stopped the people who were over the edge upset. No one takes a 5 day cruise to just go to Key West! If the weather had prevented us from going anywhere else that would have been fine with everyone. Not sure if you read this but it was on the third try to dock that the ship angled far over and ran into the bottom. After running aground we moved to out in the ocean and sat for quite a while. Maybe an hour later an anoucement was made that due to the weather we would not dock. No mention of running aground. Only hours later did they admit they had a "techinical" problem! Passengers were obviously upset about not going to the Bahamas but could have easily been pacified with better compensation and honest timely information. It took them 7 hours to say the ship was seaworthy, long after we were out at sea! They said they thought that should have been obvious! The flow of information was pathetic. And the fact that Carnival let their cruise director and staff take the brunt of the anger was crazy. One of the staff said she felt threatened when she was confronted by an angry mob near a railing! The passengers were all rational people just pushed to the brink by poor customer service. Some of these people were on their once in a lifetime dream vacation - they had a right to be upset and heard. Thankfully I have had others and God willing will have more - just probably not on Carnival.

Hi! I'm new to this site, but thought I'd throw in my two cents since I was scheduled for the August 25th cruise to the Bahamas.

I understand that things happen and can't be controlled, but we were not contacted until 5 p.m. the day before we were scheduled to leave that the trip had been rescheduled. I had someone flying in that night and we couldn't cancel her flight without penalties.

When I made the decision to go and receive the refund, I asked for shipboard credit for the sheer hassle and the fact we had to make additional arrangements because of the rescheduling. I was told no because others on the ship might find out and want credit. Is this my problem?

Anyhow, on the ship, we were notified by quite a few passengers that Carnival had advertised the cruise for $100 (includes taxes and fees) so they could fill the ship. This did not sit well with those of us who had been screwed out of a 5-day Nassau cruise.

We went to Freeport. What a joke! We literally got off the boat for maybe an hour. There was nothing to do or see.

We were pretty miserable until we found the Blackjack table. The casino personnel were probably the nicest ones on the boat.

I'm not happy with Carnival, but for the most part we've had really good experiences with them. I'll try to put this one behind me since we have to cruise with them before the end of 2008 (50% refund ) I do feel much more fortunate than those who were on the boat when the incident occurred or those who had their trip cancelled altogether.