Carnival's Overbooked Oversold Liberty Europe

[Glorious]

I have just talked to a Carnival regional sales manager at a travel show who told me that Carnival's Europe Cruises on the Liberty are extremely oversold by as many as 150-200 cabins per cruise and they are not getting the normal cancellations. Could this spell another bout of dissatisfied customers that have planned their dream cruise for more than a year only to be told they have been bumped as did 130 people booked on the Miracle out of Baltimore last September?

 

How will Carnival compensate all the travel plans airfare and tours booked already?

 

How long can Carnival get away with selling something they don't have?

 

We will see starting in July.

 

Gloria

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

I can't wait to start reading the BALTIMORE type posts...lol

 

When CCL has to cancel a cruise because THEY overbooked it, I feel they should OWE the people NOT ONLY a full refund, but some type of PENALTY fee - say 10-25%.... something like that may eventually cause them not to sell more space than they have. I understand that they factor in cancellations, but get real - if I was on the receiving end of a cancellation I would have serious words with them...:rolleyes:

 

 

Tom

[Littlegoo75]

OOH, I will be steaming mad if we get bumped off. We are booked on the October 12th cruise, with a balcony cabin.

However, since final payment is not due until the summer, I bet there will be a lot more cancellations then. It's still too early to tell right now. There may be a lot of people who aren't totally sure they will be able to go, but don't want to let go of their great, locked-in rate right now.

The deals they were offering back in September for these cruises was terriffic, that is why I booked so far in advance, and why a lot of people did the same.

[winewanderer]

That would really stink to have to cancel people who booked so long ago. We're on the Liberty Transatlantic Oct. 24th.

 

Fairly stupid on Carnival's part. This is their first time cruising Europe and they do have a loyale following, DH and I are two of them. I don't know why they think they'd have the usual cancellations.

 

Fortunately we haven't booked air or pre-cruise hotel yet. Maybe that's a good reason to wait.

[smores]

i guess i don't understand it. . .we have 2 cabins booked for 8/1. we already know the room numbers--does this mean other people could have been given our same cabin number? or are they all booked as guarantee. who do they cancel? guarantee? is it by reservation date?

[madelinerose]

Never in my wildest dreams did I think Carnival would allow the overbooking to occur again! What are they thinking???:mad:

 

Here we go.......a repeat of the Baltimore scenario. Those who were bumped from the Miracle last year from here were absolutely livid - and with good reason!!! Many who were bumped had booked over a year in advance! DH and I had booked the Miracle 15 months in advance and we were spared Carnival's wrath. I assume that because we booked through a huge national organization, Carnival didn't want to deal with any future cancellations from this annual Carnival moneymaker.

 

You would think that after The Baltimore Sun ran a large article about the overbooking including interviews with the cancelled cruisers, Carnival would have viewed the whole overbooking mess as a learning experience, never to be repeated. I suppose not every corporation learns from its' mistakes.

 

How much bad p.r. is Carnival willing to deal with? Sounds like they're willing to deal with as much bad publicity as they can get???!!! At least it's publicity, right?

 

Way to go, Carnival! :eek:

[Glorious]

I too am on the October 12th cruise and specifically the CCL manager told me that cruise was the most oversold because of a lot of back to back passengers going through transatlantic to Fort Lauderdale. I would believe CCL would protect these passengers first from cancellation.

 

Gloria

[smores]

why are they still selling cabins if they are over booked?

[madelinerose]

When they cancelled the Miracle reservations from Baltimore, there was no rhyme or reason, no common thread. Some had guarantees, some had booked specific cabins, some were from Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, some had booked early, some late. Go figure? I was just waiting to be cancelled because we live 15 minutes from the port, but we were not cancelled. :confused:

 

Carnival thought more people would cancel the Baltimore sailings - didn't happen! It turned out Baltimore was one of the most booked ports without cancellations in 2004. Hence, there are no Carnival ships here in 2005.

 

i guess i don't understand it. . .we have 2 cabins booked for 8/1. we already know the room numbers--does this mean other people could have been given our same cabin number? or are they all booked as guarantee. who do they cancel? guarantee? is it by reservation date?

[madelinerose]

Good question!!!

 

why are they still selling cabins if they are over booked?

[MyImagination]

I have just talked to a Carnival regional sales manager at a travel show who told me that Carnival's Europe Cruises on the Liberty are extremely oversold by as many as 150-200 cabins per cruise and they are not getting the normal cancellations. Could this spell another bout of dissatisfied customers that have planned their dream cruise for more than a year only to be told they have been bumped as did 130 people booked on the Miracle out of Baltimore last September?

 

How will Carnival compensate all the travel plans airfare and tours booked already?

 

How long can Carnival get away with selling something they don't have?

 

We will see starting in July.

 

Gloria

 

Just wondering why would a regional sales manager tell you this?

[Glorious]

I made a 200 mile trip to talk to him about the promise I was given in July 04 by my TA to make 1 name change before final payment in July 05. I was told by my TA and now by Carnival directly they have put name change restrictions on this and other Liberty Europe cruises to force more cancellations.

 

Gloira

[GoinCruisin]

why are they still selling cabins if they are over booked?

 

Carnival is not alone in doing this, cruiselines do this and most of the time they are okay... they have "history" of bookings/cancellations and most sailings turn out okay... I am not sure I would do it with a new ship/itinerary, since they have no history to base this on. But rest assured that cruise lines overbook to ensure they have a full ship.... MANY cancellations occur around the time of final payment and it usually works out. I'm not sure why anyone would tell a passenger that the ship was oversold by this many cabins. It is true that once a ship is oversold it goes into a "restriction" status, and no changes can be made... but they should have just said it was oversold... and ended it there. Generally many cabins WILL open up by the time final payment comes rolling around...

[tarbashchaputi]

Does anyone have a link to this article? I would be interested in reading it.

Derf?!?!?

 

Thanks

BJG

[GoinCruisin]

BJG, you can probably do a search for it... way back when this happened in Baltimore, the article was all over the place....

[MCEdmond]

I would hope that any cruise line worth their salt, would try to negotiate with people whose travel plans are flexible.

 

We are leaving for a cruise on the QM2 in February, having originally booked for January 22nd. We were happy to postpone when we were offered very generous compensation to delay. (basically, to cruise for free)

 

The cruise lines need to do some extra work and absorb the losses when they gamble and overbook. An unhappy customer is a costly entity which can cause future problems and loss of business. As a marketing person, I cannot imagine why they would risk this.

[smores]

here's the quote from my pvp when i asked her about this situation. . .

 

The rumor mill - appears to be just that. I'm internal and we've

received no such updates. However, we would of course let you know in

advance if there were any changes in your sailing. Ships are capacity

controlled "overbooking" a ship by some 150 cabins is very unlikely.

[madelinerose]

tarbash...try this and scroll to Post #4 from plyman69:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=63405&highlight=Miracle+overbooked

 

 

Does anyone have a link to this article? I would be interested in reading it.

Derf?!?!?

 

Thanks

BJG

[Glorious]

Overbooking Leaves Some Cruisers Without a Berth

 

http://www.thewgalchannel.com/print/3759198/detail.html

 

BTW I asked the CCL manager 3 times to be sure about the 150-200 cabins being oversold because he was whispering it.

 

Gloria

[madelinerose]

IMHO, a pvp would surely say this. It's the pvp's job to sell cruises. ;)

 

here's the quote from my pvp when i asked her about this situation. . .

 

The rumor mill - appears to be just that. I'm internal and we've

received no such updates. However, we would of course let you know in

advance if there were any changes in your sailing. Ships are capacity

controlled "overbooking" a ship by some 150 cabins is very unlikely.

[GoinCruisin]

Gloria, it could also be possible he was just trying to get you off the phone? Of course it's not right to use tactics like that, but if he told you it was oversold, by the "usual" amount it was oversold by, you probably would have continued pushing and pushing (I know, i've been there and spoke to over 40 people at Carnival when mine was oversold and they were trying to get me to cancel! LOL! Sometimes, I have found, they will say anything!!!!) Sad but true... I find it hard to believe they overbooked by 150-200 cabins, I certainly HOPE it ISN'T true!!!! Good luck!

[Glorious]

It was not on the phone it was face to face with the CCL manager. I was questioning him about Carnivals greed in reselling the cancelled cabins at a higher price and he told me they couldn't sell any more at any price because they had already sold too many.

 

Gloria

[GoinCruisin]

I'm sure it's oversold, no doubt about that... most popular cruises seem to be these days. Our cruise on 2/13 was oversold, and now there are several cabins available... so keep up the faith, you are still a good ways out and there should not be any problems. Our cruise in October had been oversold since May and it all worked out for everyone.... good luck!

[tef43]

I was questioning him about Carnivals greed in reselling the cancelled cabins at a higher price

Greed? :rolleyes:

 

It's simple Economics 101. Price elasticity, supply and demand, all that good stuff.

[JrMafia90]

Do you think since they did so good in Europe that they wil.l do it again? I hope they do because I will not be able to go this year. Maybe they will do a world cruise. :0