I did a group booking a couple of months ago for the Fascination in September. The girl who is rooming with me informed me that when she called to make her final payment on the room she got us an upgrade. I asked her if she made sure that the rest of the group will still be next to us and she said she didn't know. I have since sent the Carnival travel agent TWO e-mails asking whether the rooms will be next to each other and have gotten no response. Before the final payments were due the agents we VERY attentive to us, now that we've all paid in full it seems like they don't want anything to do with us. Has anyone else had this problem with their agents?

This one is not an issue with Guest Relations except that they haven't returned your calls or answered emails. The girl rooming with you took responsibility for accepting the upgrade. When this happens, keeping cabins together is usually not an option. Upgrades are rare and can be declined but if accepted you go to where the upgrade cabin is. I suspect the agent is avoiding the contact because he/she knows you're going to ask a question he/she is going to have to provide the above answer to and is not comfortable with confrontation. Did you, in your correspondence make it sound as though you expected your group to remain together? No excuse for not getting back with you but be kind if he/she does. It was not a forced upgrade and was most likely requested. I'm sure the agent thought he/she was doing something you'd be thrilled with and now doesn't want to face a situation he/she can't resolve.

Cheers, Neil

Neil is right... I do not think that I have ever heard of a group upgrade. It would have to be an almost empty ship and it would still be a surprise.

and if you really want an answer that bad maybe try a phone call instead...emails are much easier to ignore...but i would expect the same answer as what others said above

Well Neil, in my e-mail I expressed my somewhat frustration with my roommie for doing that, not putting the agent in anyway at blame. We only have one other room booked in our group so it's just two rooms total. As far as calling, FORGET IT! When I called to pay the remainder of my cruise I sat on hold for OVER 1/2 hour!

A little clarification is needed here. If you made a true group booking then everything should be going through the group department. There should be a group coordinator assigned to your booking. I have worked many Carnival groups and most of the time my groups get an upgrade. But it is the whole group. A true group booking would have a "group" booking number and as payments are made on cabins then an individual booking number is given. The group booking number ties you all together for cabin assignments, and dining. It sounds like you may have booked your cabins in individual reservations. If so, your bookings may or may not be cross referenced to each other. If not then when your roommate called in her payment, the reservation agent wouldn't know who you were traveling with unless you specifically gave them the other booking numbers. Never the less; someone should have the courtesy to return your email. As mentioned, you will probably have to call.

Do you have the name of the person you booked through? I was assigned a PVP with my first booking and call him direct. I have never had a problem getting ahold of him when I need something. If he is off for a few days someone else is assigned to cover for him.

Sorry for the misunderstanding! YES, we have a group booking number AND each individual cabin number. So we ARE considered a group. So, hopefully the agent kept us together. Fingers crossed.

Hmmmm... now I'm really confused. If there are only two total cabins, how did it get booked as a group? I don't work groups so my knowledge is VERY limited but it was my understanding that with CCL a group started at 8 cabins or more.

Cross referenced for dining is different from a true group booking. Do you mean that you booked into an agency's group (block of cabins sold individually) maybe?

Cheers, Neil

Well, originally I did contact the group agents and have been working through them all along, thought I was going to get more people on board but only got 4 total but they still used a group booking number I guess because we have one. Does that make sense? Because now I'M confused!