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The policy is what it is, but if they’re going to use rationale that could be used to decline every single claim, why does this “guarantee” even exist? I understand that the guarantee has been granted before, so I’m just wildly confused about why mine was declined and was curious if others had experienced these same issues. Thats my real question, and maybe I should have framed my original post better by asking it that way and leaving it there because this thread turned into a whole different beast. I regret my choice to ever bring up my decision to leave Carnival following this and other reasons, I didn’t realize it would become the primary focus.

We dock at 7:00 and both Carnival and the outside vendor state the tour begins at 7:30.

Fair enough. I’m glad to answer any other questions you have about the situation!

Correct! That was the first response. The second was that we have to walk ourselves to the meeting point rather than being led there.

Oh I agree! This isn’t the only reason we’re writing it off. I’m not going to go into full detail about the issues we’ve had on our past two cruises, but it’s not about what’s been taken away. It’s about the care of the ships and staterooms and the spaces being renovated to accommodate kids (we have none). The food, onboard service, etc. are all still great. But we realized it was time for us to find something different and this situation is what drove it home for us. Edited to say - I also want to add, and I’m sure many say this same thing but I genuinely mean it, we are easy going people. We have never complained to guest services, we take everything in stride, we enjoy our vacations, we laugh about how it feels like our bed was found on the side of I-65. But those things do add up, and when you’re made to feel like you’re wrong for something that you are not in the wrong for, it really makes you feel it’s time to go.

I’m curious to see where you’re going with this, so I’ll bite 😜 I originally thought $220, which was my misunderstanding because after taxes it would have been $146.

It’s truly not the money. It’s the fact that Carnival has a practically impossible “guarantee” and isn’t honoring the guidelines. If they had a perfectly reasonable explanation, this wouldn’t be an issue for me.

Hi Fellow Cruisers! I’ve stalked the boards here at CC for years and it’s been quite a while since I last posted. In fact, I’ve only been on two cruises in the past six years 🫣 Due to the lack of cruising, I haven’t been around CC a lot, but I’m now seeing the things others saw years ago that pushed them away from what was once a wonderful cruise line. I suspect the threads here have only seen more of that over the past few years. While we aren’t as active of cruisers as many of you, my husband and I have been loyal to Carnival for over 13 years now. Family paid for us to go on a Disney cruise and we joked that we’d sneak onto a Carnival ship while in port at Nassau, we loved the brand so much! But… I want to talk about the straw that broke the camel’s back for us. Honestly, the reason I’m posting is because Carnival made me feel like I’m crazy, and I hope someone here can make me feel validated 😅 We currently have two cruises booked with Carnival, one being an Alaskan cruise next year. I came across the Shore Excursion Best Price Guarantee, which “guarantees” a 110% On Board Credit for the cost difference if you locate the same tour offered through an outside vendor for a lower cost. Of course, ALL the details of the outside excursion must match ALL the details of the Carnival Excursion. Fair enough! I don’t know that I can go into details as far as posting the vendor, but I assure you, every.last.detail of the excursion matched. I didn’t outright ask the vendor (who I emailed to make sure everything lined up), but I am highly suspicious that Carnival uses this vendor for their excursion. So I booked through Carnival and submitted a claim form. I was quickly told that my claim was denied. WHAT? They told me that guests who book through Carnival have priority debarkation and that booking outside of Carnival could cause me to miss the excursion. I’m sorry, but, if that’s the case, how can this “guarantee” exist? They could use that reasoning for every one of the claims that comes in! Not to mention, that is not part of the terms. Being declined led me to cancel the Carnival excursion and book directly through the vendor. I no longer hoped for anything monetary from Carnival, but I wanted to make sure they knew this is an issue they lost money on, so I emailed CCL Support. I told them I expect nothing but assurance that the shore excursion team will be more thorough in the future. I honestly wish they had not have even emailed me back. They doubled down on the response! The detail they provided is that guests who book outside of Carnival have to get to the tour meeting place themselves, whereas Carnival excursion guests are led to the meeting point. The meeting spot, while maybe different from where Carnival excursion folks will meet, is within walking distance. They’re considering this as different transportation, therefore it does not meet the criteria for the guarantee. Of course they offered for something to be sent to our room as a way to placate me, but I can live without a bottle of champagne that never gets opened and a plate of cookies we could get from the coffee shop. I would much prefer they adhere to their policies! Hopefully a few of you have stayed with me through this dissertation! I would love to know your thoughts so that I can decide whether I have lost my mind in feeling that Carnival has done me wrong or if I am in the wrong and completely don’t understand the conditions of the guarantee 🤷🏻‍♀️ Regardless, Alaska will be our last cruise with Carnival. Our two cruises since the pandemic have left a lot to be desired and the “cherry on top” is feeling like Carnival doesn’t value me. Thank you all!