I understand that the Company has the right to change the itinerary. However, when your primary destination is cancelled, not due to weather, not due mechanical problems, but due HUMAN ERROR....and the ship runs aground!! I do not look at this situation as "Itinerary Change". I look at it as a screw up on Carnival's part or the Harbor Pilot's part. I do not feel that passengers should suffer the consequences without fair compensation. I do not feel that $100 per person is adequate nor do I feel the discount on future cruises is worth anything because we may not get to take another cruise with our entire family anytime soon.

Sinbad,

I feel for you and the messed up cruise.

But when you sign the documents you are agreeing to the terms written in the small letters.

Carnival really was only obligated to give a $20 credit for a missed port. They did mess up by only giving $50 to start I agree.

If turns out to be a Human error and were neglecting the training and their obligations of those posted in the position that day..you may have a case. But then it would go to actual damages suffered and you would be back to square one with missing a port and them adding up everything you ate and accomodations.

This is such an unfortunate thing to happen, but people should realize Carnival does not Guarantee ports of call.

If you or anyone finds a loophole for a class action let me know..It has happened before with the over charging of Port Fees and recieved a $150 voucher.

Not a Lawyer, just watch Judge Judy and People's Court

I totally agree with you when they sell you something based on the destination. But read the small print of the contracts.

Island_Cruz-

I agree with you about the legalities of what was offered. Per the "contract" which you are forced to sign in order to buy the tickets to cruise, they do not gaurantee ports. However, what is at debate her is not what CCL is legallly obligated to do to reimburse their CUSTOMERS for a messed up (or missed) vacation due to CCL's staff's mistakes. The debate is about what a business that cares about their customer's should have done. I think what was offered to the passengers on the cruise that missed Nassau is probably reasonable. But what was offered to passengers of the cruises the following weeks when the ship was being repaired was not sufficient. Many of those passengers lost airfare because of the short notice. Many were not told their vacation was lost until the day before. There is a lot of expense associated in getting to the port that was incurred. Many people have to arrange to take vacation time from work. Many of these people basically when without a summer vacation because there really isn't much you can affordable book with a days notice. Carnival, should realize that they need to make sure their customers are happy or they won't return.

Jim C
Thanks for the great example of why it's important to buy Travel Insurance.

Jim,
I was only speaking to the original cruise debacle. I agree with you too. Now that we have both agreed I will agree further and say those people got pretty much..what was that thing that broke again?

Well I have written to Carnival and also sent to the CEO of Carnival and the CEO of Carnival corp. My letter was very nice I detailed the issues and did not complain about missing the port but rather that the poor customer service resulted in the rest of my vacation being less than enjoyable. I felt that the way they handled the situation on the ship led to the anger and provoked the passengers, which in turn led my family not to enjoy the last 3 days of the cruise to our fullest.

I was polite, and detailed and said I hoped they would learn from this experience so that other people would not have a similar experience if something like this ever happened.

I received a form letter back apologizing for missing the port "but as my cruise contract clearly states....." I called them to say I did not complain about missing the port and they did not address my issues and was told that if "I thought they had the time to respond to everyones letter individually then I did not have a grasp of how many compaints they deal with. A form letter is the best thing I can hope for!" I was always polite and civil and was stunned by that response.

Guess that puts the punctuation mark on my letter about poor customer service!

Cruise Fanatic-

Sorry, but I don't agree with you. Why should I be expected to spend more of MY money to buy insurance to pay for Carnival's mistake. Travel Insurance is great for things beyond my or the cruise lines control (weather, injury, sickness etc) But I should not have to insure my vacation against a ship not sailing because the crew can't figure out how not to damage the ship.

I'm with you on Travel Insurance being a good thing for most causes of vacation issues. But not in this case.

Sorry Jim, but I don't think your statement is making much logic. Think about it. The unexpected is exactly why you buy insurance. Unexpected sickness, death, accidents, weather delays, trip interuption, trip delays, lost luggage, even getting robbed on vacation. Nobody plans any of those things. You can't pick and choose what's going to happen in life. Therefore you buy insurance to protect your investment no matter what.

I am sorta on Jim's end of thinking on this one.

So convince me. If someome had Travel Insurance in this instance what would it have paid them for the claim?

I mean what would they have paid them for the missed port on the original cruise?

If they drove to the port and was sold Travel Insurance, what would be paid?

On the missed and shortened cruise what would they have been paid? Do they pay them their Air Fare, Hotel, extra Air etc.?

Do the Travel Agents make substantial profit by selling it?

Also, is this an un-biased opinion from someone that does not sell Travel Insurance?

Thanks so much, Just trying to learn.

IslandCruz,
There are many different travel insurance companies and many different policies. So I won't go into all that. If you like you can go to our sister site www.cruisereviews.com and read an article written by Tom Ogg on Travel Insurance. It's on the left hand side in the blue, scroll down to "All about Travel Insurance"
What I was trying to point out to Jim C, is his statement of "he shouldn't have to pay money money for something that was the cruise lines fault." That statement isn't logical because he is talking about something that happened "after the fact". You buy insurance at the beginning when you book your cruise. Ofcourse you hope you won't need it. But if something happens, you'll be glad you had it, regardless if it is needed because of something the cruise line did or because of other reasons.

Thanks for the info. I read the article and was informative. I guess one should research the companies Tom mentioned and see what would be covered etc. The fine print can be tricky as would apply to the situation we are discussing. Thanks again for the info.

CF.. Maybe you misunderstood my point so I am making another stab at it. The people who didn't get to cruise because the Celeb was in dry dock.. They did not know until right before the cruise day that their planned for vacation had just been cancelled. Travel Insurnace or not. THEY NO LONGER HAVE a vacation. They are also no going to be able to replace that vacation for the same price. So the time they have taken off of work, any expenses incurred in preparing for the cruise (clothes, luggage etc etc) is now wasted money. The travel insurance may have covered airfare for non refundable tickets depending on type of insurance purchased, but they will still be out a vacation. My point was that travel insurance will not make up for that. For our case when CCL moved ships into NO to help Katrina victims, they cancelled our cruise. I wasn't out any money, but instead of putting me on the Conquest (sailing the exact same dates, and the exact same itinerary) they expected us to re-book at $1000 MORE for the same trip I have already paid them for. Travel Insurance won't cover poor customer relations. I decide that I would go off and book with someone else or go to Disney. Niether of which I could do affordably due to the very late notice. Insurance would not cover that difference...

Travel Insurance is great for the most part. Especially if you have an accident while on the cruise. But saying that Carnival didn't have to do anything further to provide good customer statisfaction because the cruisers should have purchased travel insurance is the non-logical statement in my book.

I really don't when to be "fighting" with you CF. Let's just agree to disagree and move on because we are agrueing about opinions here.

Hi Jim,

Just a note..I too got "screwed" by CCL last year when our original ship the Elation got moved to help the Katrina victims. Only cruise left for same dates was on the Conquest. They were glad to switch me over at $1000 more..plus there were conveniently no discounts available on that booking. Go figure! Since we had already taken time off work and the cruise was less than a month away we went ahead and paid the diffference, I thought CCL should have honored our original price,but they only gave a $100 pp credit, of course that was onboard credit so they would get their money back. Just my imput on the subject of CCL customer service.

quote:

But saying that Carnival didn't have to do anything further to provide good customer statisfaction because the cruisers should have purchased travel insurance is the non-logical statement in my book.

I really don't when to be "fighting" with you CF. Let's just agree to disagree and move on because we are agrueing about opinions here.

Jim,
I just have to correct one thing and then we can call a truce, because I don't like to argue either. What I would like to correct is that I never once made the above statement that Carnival shouldn't have better customer service. I only said Insurance can help when unexpected things like this happen. Happy Sailing

Ok.. fair enough... maybe I read too much into your comments.

Ok .. truce on!