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I would fire Cunard's head of IT Infrastructure


Winchester Ranger
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I have lost count of the number of times I have tried to book a cruise on Cunard's website only to be greeted with the words "Error 500 - Internal Server Error" - their eCom availability is terrible, do they even have an SLA for system uptime ?

 

Come on Cunard, light a fire under your IT Infrastructure guy.

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Isn't it much easier to make a telephone call to Carnival house and speak direct to an agent, most Seasoned Cunarder's on here have their own Personal Cruise Agent. I know I prefer to talk things through with someone before I part with thousands of pounds. Most of the time when their website is working, half of the stateroom categories are not even available.

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I have done that in the past, but checking for trends and getting an idea of current pricing isn't worth wading through the call in queue. That's one of the reasons I really like NCL's website because you can chat immediately with a reservation agent on line.

 

Oh well, moan over, as of right now the website is back up and available, maybe they saw my post ;)

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I like cruise web sites to get information on itineraries, general price categories, pictures and films of ship interiors, and current sale packages. But then I always book through our TA since he does a good job of finding the best price and monitoring for price drops.

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Personally I don't like going through a cruise consultant - I much prefer to take my own time, checking out everything then deciding which cruise/cabin etc. Much prefer to do it online.

 

I cannot speak for experiences in Australia only the UK but you can do all what you say and then phone a dedicated cruise specialist TA and they will do whatever you request and in my experiences have always been cheaper than if you book direct by phone or online with Cunard.

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I cannot speak for experiences in Australia only the UK but you can do all what you say and then phone a dedicated cruise specialist TA and they will do whatever you request and in my experiences have always been cheaper than if you book direct by phone or online with Cunard.

Yes, via travel agent is the way to go for me. If there is any leg work needed including calling Cunard the agent does it all for me. My agent also answers my call or email promptly no choosing departments from phone menus and being kept waiting in a queue on a premium rate line.

 

M-AR

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Carnival recently out sourced their I.T. and it's apparent that the new programmers in Bangalore or where ever they are located haven't gotten up to speed yet.

 

 

I think you will find that computor systems and IT are far more advanced in India than you give them credit for. Its one of the fasted growing businesses in one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Probably more advanced than from where you are from.....

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I am not sure how it works in the U.K., our TA gives us great benefits and OBC and a rebate check once we complete our cruises at least on Crystal and Seabourn.

 

I would never ever book online or direct. You are not getting anything back. A strong agency is worth their weight in gold. That being said these are luxury lines that have no class system and many less people.

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  • 2 weeks later...

They do shut down their website each weekend on Sunday to perform updates etc. I have had issues a few years ago but now it is not too bad, remember the complexity the search engine is churning through each time you make a request, like 500+ voyages times X number of grades times whatever number of cabins......

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well guess what? I was trying to look into 2018 crossings and for a while the Hamburg to NYC links worked, but not the Southampton-NYC. Now they all come up with server error, try back later. Is this any way to run a Cruise Line?

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I have lost count of the number of times I have tried to book a cruise on Cunard's website only to be greeted with the words "Error 500 - Internal Server Error" - their eCom availability is terrible, do they even have an SLA for system uptime ?

 

Come on Cunard, light a fire under your IT Infrastructure guy.

I often wonder if any person of authority ever read Cruise Critics for the comments made about Cunard's failings or do they not bother and just carry on doing what they want to do knowing we can do nothing about it?

How times have changed since Carnival took over, fair enough if it had not been for Carnival no Cunard every time we go on a new cruise something's have changes and not for the better, any thing you buy on ship prices have Increased, the only thing that never changes are the

lower members of staff Waiters and their asst. cabin stewards these are very hard working members of the crew yet always have a smile on there faces. Pity top management are not from the same mould.:mad:

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It's not just Cunard. I've had various issues with Celebrity, Azamara, Oceania and Cunard websites....none of them is perfect, but if I have an actual booking problem, then I just phone up the relevant Customer Services and let them know, as well as sort out my booking.

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Things like:

 

Southampton, Southampton, Southampton, Southampton, Southampton, Halifax, Halifax, Halifax, Halifax, Halifax, New York, New York, New York, New York, New York, Southampton

 

 

Southampton, Southampton, Southampton, Southampton, Southampton, Madeira, Madeira, Madeira, Madeira, Madeira, Madeira, Madeira, Madeira, Madeira, Madeira, La Palma, La Palma, La Palma, La Palma, La Palma, Tenerife, Tenerife, Tenerife, Tenerife, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Gran Canaria, Gran Canaria, Gran Canaria, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Lanzarote, Lanzarote, Lanzarote, Lanzarote, Lisbon, Lisbon, Lisbon, Lisbon, Lisbon, Southampton

 

 

Southampton, Southampton, Southampton, Southampton, Southampton, Hamburg, Hamburg, Hamburg, Hamburg, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Stockholm, Stockholm, Stockholm, Stockholm, Tallinn, Tallinn, Tallinn, Tallinn, Tallinn, St Petersburg, St Petersburg, St Petersburg, St Petersburg, St Petersburg, St Petersburg, St Petersburg, St Petersburg, St Petersburg, St Petersburg, Kiel, Kiel, Kiel, Kiel, Kiel, Skagen, Skagen, Skagen, Skagen, Skagen, Southampton

 

I thought they had got that sorted previously.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Tried to book shore excursions the other day, very slow and then system froze so I couldn't pay for the trips in my basket. After 2 hours your basket is emptied and luckily an hour later I could log in again and pay, so I didn't have to start again but then immediately after I paid the system went down for maintenance. Not the experience I expected.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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