Are you as mad as me about the price gouging?

[missdenman]

I can't believe you're saying this, Carnival has the right to do whatever they want. Are you telling me it's ok with you that you book and pay for a cruise with your hard earned money, they decide to cancel the cruise and keep your funds and you're ok with that? Do whatever they want, eh?

 

they didn't keep their funds. they will be given a full refund. :confused:

[mgm61]

Lets see...how many 7day cruises does Carnival run out of Long Beach...NONE!!! So there is NO WAY to get the exact cruise, no matter what you are changing ports...so yes an inconveinience. Many of us had hotels and transportation already booked.

I tried to rebook on the Paradise for a 4day cruise...Carnival froze bookings until the price was raised...we could get 2 inside and 1 oceanview for about the same price as we paid for our Splendor cruise...Im sorry but that does not equal 2 balconies and and inside on the Splendor...smaller ship crappy ports...I refused to pay that!

 

 

We are now going to Disneyland...no other options for us to salvage the vacation. With kids school breaks and vacation days, we just dont have the option of booking another time.

 

 

We could not even change our flights for a shorter vacation as Carnival would only offer an OBC...hmm not going to be onboard!!!

It is what it is, I am trying to get over not having the vacation I planned for. I am lucky and we are able to cruise frequently, so I know I will be able to use my 25% off on a future cruise.

Am I happy with Carnival...NO! Will I sail them again...more than likely.

Please just be kinder to those that are struggeling with these changes...not allowing us to vent or be angry over the situation is unfair!!! We are not looking for a free ride, but we should not have to pay more for the same vacation either...4days to plan a new holiday vacation is not much time!

 

 

 

Sorry your cruise got cancelled and I hope you have a great time at Disneyland. That was my vote to do for all the people who were getting cancelled. At least you will have fun. Buy some booze and have some drinks in your hotel room hopefully with a balcony!:)

[boaterette]

I can't believe you're saying this, Carnival has the right to do whatever they want. Are you telling me it's ok with you that you book and pay for a cruise with your hard earned money, they decide to cancel the cruise and keep your funds and you're ok with that? Do whatever they want, eh?

 

 

They didn't keep thier funds. What are you talking about.

[cre8tive1]

I think if they did protect your price you still wouldn't be happy.:confused::rolleyes:

 

Yes, I would be happy at that point. That is all I want.

 

If you rented a vacation house for a week in Florida from a company and the plumbing goes out the week before and it is not available, I'm sure you would be offered the same type of house for your week if one was available at the same price right?

 

Or, would they say, ....To Bad, your house has issues and is inhabitable and since I know you have spent the year planning this I'm going to charge you 1.5 times as much as you originally paid and 30-40% more than it would have cost for anyone else to rent yesterday to rent the same house next door today. Oh... by the way, we will make you feel like you got a deal and we are helping you by giving you a "discount".

 

They were smart. They had a captive audience and took advantage of it. Is it right and the Godly thing to do? No.

 

In this case it would be a royal screw job right? Well our situation is no different.

 

For those of you who got lucky, and got rebooked without any or much out of pocket, I am truly happy for you. For those of you who's cruise and vacation did not get cancelled and are not personally going through this...shame on you for judging those of us who are. For those of us who are....we have to band together to stop this injustice. We have to share any victories we get.

 

Just using logic......

[cre8tive1]

The airlines are taking the high road on this. They have agreed to wave all change/redirect fees for us. Wish Carnival would be that helpful. What's next...Carnival charging us to bring bags on board?;)

[realmccoy]

That's too bad about the prices. I booked early saver for our trip in February, and since final payment is due next week, I had been checking almost daily. Once they announced the cancelations...our room went up $400pp! That's just crazy!

[iceleven]

Yes, I would be happy at that point. That is all I want.

 

If you rented a vacation house for a week in Florida from a company and the plumbing goes out the week before and it is not available, I'm sure you would be offered the same type of house for your week if one was available at the same price right?

 

Or, would they say, ....To Bad, your house has issues and is inhabitable and since I know you have spent the year planning this I'm going to charge you 1.5 times as much as you originally paid and 30-40% more than it would have cost for anyone else to rent yesterday to rent the same house next door today. Oh... by the way, we will make you feel like you got a deal and we are helping you by giving you a "discount".

 

They were smart. They had a captive audience and took advantage of it. Is it right and the Godly thing to do? No.

 

In this case it would be a royal screw job right? Well our situation is no different.

 

For those of you who got lucky, and got re-booked without any or much out of pocket, I am truly happy for you. For those of you who's cruise and vacation did not get canceled and are not personally going through this...shame on you for judging those of us who are."

 

Rhonda, what a perfect example. With all the changes we have had to deal with, this and it's 25% "bonus' is still costing us $700 plus because we now have to fly to the east coast to pick up a ship similar to the Splendor with the same amenities. That very same cruise would have cost us at least $200 less had carnival allowed us to book them when we first realized that the Splendor was not going to go anywhere. We had to sit on our hands, at their mercy, and wait for their announcement. That really doesn't sit well with me. There are other choices to be considered for our spring cruise.

[firefly333]

They didn't keep thier funds. What are you talking about.

 

I think I read refunds are taking 10 days. Some people like the OP have said they dont have savings to replace this money so they can book before the refund hits their accounts.

[missdenman]

Yes, I would be happy at that point. That is all I want.

 

If you rented a vacation house for a week in Florida from a company and the plumbing goes out the week before and it is not available, I'm sure you would be offered the same type of house for your week if one was available at the same price right?

 

Or, would they say, ....To Bad, your house has issues and is inhabitable and since I know you have spent the year planning this I'm going to charge you 1.5 times as much as you originally paid and 30-40% more than it would have cost for anyone else to rent yesterday to rent the same house next door today. Oh... by the way, we will make you feel like you got a deal and we are helping you by giving you a "discount".

 

They were smart. They had a captive audience and took advantage of it. Is it right and the Godly thing to do? No.

 

In this case it would be a royal screw job right? Well our situation is no different.

 

For those of you who got lucky, and got rebooked without any or much out of pocket, I am truly happy for you. For those of you who's cruise and vacation did not get cancelled and are not personally going through this...shame on you for judging those of us who are. For those of us who are....we have to band together to stop this injustice. We have to share any victories we get.

 

Just using logic......

 

 

Once again, I am not saying she is wrong for being mad nor am I judging anyone.

I had family on the sailing that caught fire and they didn't complain. YET someone who wasn't on there but had her sailing canceled wants to go to a news station to complain about Carnival. That's petty to me. Is it really THAT serious to take it that far?

I know they announced on their facebook page to call in and they will work with you. If they don't the first time, call again. I have friends that work for Carnival and Royal and tell me all the time how certain things can be worked out.

I don't care to judge someone on a message board. And just because I or anyone else was not booked on a Splendor sailing doesn't mean we've never experienced something like this before. I've had my share of disappointments with each cruise line.

[mariemorgan]

I did. They showed me 4 cruises that were all more money AND from the East Coast. They didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. When I told them I couldn't afford the air fare to the east coast, they said basically said to bad. So John's big "they really want to help you" statement didn't mean anything. I got the same response from that link that I did when I talked to them the very first day of the cancelations.

.

 

Try a different cruise line from the west coast... You don't have to sail carnival.. all of the lines are practically the same..

[RD64]

Just my two cents, but this is Economics 101...the basic law of supply and demand.

 

At approximately 3300 cancelled berths per week times X number of weeks, that is approximately 25 000 passengers looking for a new Mexican Riviera cruise. The supply hasn't changed,,,,,prices have to naturally increase.

[tonit964]

I thought this thread was about G'ma

 

Oops :o

 

Iv'e been wondering where she is? Does anyone know?

Kinda miss her posts too. Loved the " cease and didist" comments!!

Toni

[Kokopelli2]

I understand the OP’s original intent of this thread. It appears a lot of people didn’t. I don’t think it is about the restitution from the Splendor incident, but about what Carnival did to its west coast pricing immediately following the announcement.

 

I was not on the Splendor (although we were on the Paradise at the same time) so I was not involved in trying to reschedule. I can share my personal experience with seeing what Carnival did to the pricing.

 

On Monday, before the Splendor cancellation announcement, the price for a past guest rate for an interior room on the January 9th sailing of the Spirit was $309. I know this because my son and several of my friends were getting ready to book on the same cruise that we were already booked on (for $289). On Tuesday morning when we went to book the room with our PVP, it was now $579, with no past guest rate available. That is an 87% markup from the previous day!

 

Now if there was a civil emergency and a gas station immediately raised its price of gas 87% - that would be considered price gouging. Although the Splendor incident isn’t considered a civil emergency, Carnival did take advantage of the situation to raise its prices on west coast departures above what is considered reasonable and fair, knowing that thousands of passengers would be immediately booking because of the cancelled Splendor cruises.

 

Is it price gouging in the true definition of price gouging – no. Although there are other cruise lines to choose from, there are not a lot of west coast departures like the east coast can enjoy. Was it bad customer service to those that saw the 87% increase from Monday to Tuesday – YES!

 

Don’t get me wrong. I love Carnival, and I will probably continue to sail with Carnival. But the new cruisers that were looking to book with us, and now cannot because they saw what Carnival did, will probably have a bad perception of Carnival based solely on what happened this week.

 

Sorry for the long post. I am a Carnival stockholder and I love how they handled the Splendor incident. I didn’t like what they did with the pricing this week. Anyone who cruises understands that prices fluctuate. Raising it 87% in one day to take advantage of those thousands of new bookings may be good for business, but may have been bad PR to people that noticed the price increase.

[PJBUCHEIT]

If you are as mad as I am about the price gouging and the way Carnival is handling canceled guest then you should do what I did and contact Good Morning America.

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Site/page?id=3...ning%20America

here is the link, and I used "submit a news item" in the drop down menu

 

This link should work. But if it doesn't

1. search "good morning America"

2. click on Consumer

3. scroll to the bottom of the page (blue section)

4. click on Contact us

5. Click on Contact Good Morning America

6. Fill in the form.

 

I am not mad at Carnival for canceling the cruises on the Splendor. It had to be done. But they way they handled it was wrong!

Not allowing us to cancel and transfer the booking to another ship without penalty and then 5 days later, they cancel our cruises and that same minute the prices double and triple on the other sailings! That is price gouging at it's finest. I know all about supply and demand and the computers probably reacting to a sudden onset of cruises getting rebooked, but when we called in, we should have been allowed to rebook at the price the cruise was the day before!

I am not aking for anything for free. Just fair!

 

I totally agree with you. The day Carnival canceled our Nov. 21 sailing, I called to have our booking changed to March 13. I had been watching this date on there web site for days. I knew that the second Carnival canceled the sailing the price would JUMP up and that is exactly what happened. I still booked. We were able to get a balcony this time instead of a inside room and ended up with 6 dollars of on board credit. But had Carnival canceled just one day earlier, I would have gotten the balcony room, all of our gratuities, and the excursion that we wanted because of the 25% off. My husband was a little peeved, but we still wanted to take this trip with our two youngest daughters so we kept the booking. Well, less then 24 hours later the price dropped and I was able to get the price change and now have my gratuities paid. We are happy. We understand that what happened to the ship was not anyone's fault, but the HUGE price increases as soon as they release that cruises have to be canceled, is just wrong. It is like they are trying to make up the difference for the 25% they had to give us all.

[PJBUCHEIT]

I just started another thread but this is what I posted, it looks like the price gouging may have come to an end:

 

Howdy,

 

So...having a splendor cruise booked next May I of course have been reading, as time permits, all that I can about the "event" and the related problems everyone has been suffering as a result. I checked on prices for my cruise just a couple of days ago and the price for our cabins (connecting OV cabins on Main Deck, Cat 6C) had jumped to well over $200 per person.

 

Now I just checked again, and the price is back down to the Pre-Fire pricing. I also double checked on a paradise cruise the wife and I were thinking about going on in January and it is also down as well.

 

 

Do you think Carnival got the message that giving people whose cruise was cancelled a %25 discount on a Future Cruise then raising prices by %20 - %25 might not have been the best PR move?

 

Everyone else see that as well?

 

I too notice that prices have dropped. I guess with many complaining, Carnival got the hint. I re-booked at a higher price then I wanted to(but still not extra money leaving our pockets) and ended up calling back less then 24 hours later and getting the price drop. It just seems odd that the give us 25% off our next cruise and then HIKE the prices up.

[tracyvansmith]

Anyone who does not want to pay any additional funds....

don't book the cruise.

 

simple.....no one is putting a gun to your head and FORCING you to book a cruise.

 

Carnival does not OWE anyone the same cruise at the same price for the same day. That is ridiculous.

 

You got your money back.... you have at least a year (maybe more) to use the 25%.....

 

Do the very same thing we did when our holiday cruise was cancelled because the ships were being used for Katrina......

 

we booked a cruise 6 or 7 months later.....period.

 

Well said!:)

[tracyvansmith]

As far as me booking groups, yes I do that too. But I can also assure you that after the miracle group I have booked, I will not be booking a group with Carnival again. But that has nothing to do with this. It has everything to do with how Carnival screwed the TA's and how Carnival screwed the groups that were booking with Carnival.

 

I am a TA and how has Carnival screwed TA's? And how has Carnival screwed the groups that we book?:confused:

[morganboys]

sounds like supply and demand to me.

[wone3]

I know how disappointing it is to miss a cruise you have been planning on. In our case it was due to DGM passing away the night before our cruise and we ended up driving back home after traveling 14 hours to get to NY for our cruise. Not the same as your situation, but the disappointment of missing a cruise was still there.

 

If I were in your shoes, and I had tickets to California and the time off from work, I would start planning a California land vacation. DH and I love traveling West for land vacations. If money were an issue, I would ask for a refund of my cruise (saving my 25% off for a later time), use my credit card for the California trip and pay it off when I got my refund from Carnival. There is so much to see and do in California. To name a few...Disneyland, San Diego Zoo, Hollywood, Pacific Coast Highway, Death Valley, Las Vegas (only a few hours away). I could fill a week easily and while disappointed it wasn't the trip we were planning, we would still have a great time. I would then wait for things to calm down and re-plan a cruise with my 25% discount for our next vacation. If you are willing to look into alternatives to cruising, especially if you are stuck on that specific time span, you may be surprised at what you can come up with.

 

We ended up taking our insurance and re-booking a cruise for next week. While it is not the Canada cruise we were looking forward to on the Glory last July, we are excited to be leaving the cold of Michigan for the tropic heat of Cozumel next week. We'll try the Canada cruise again next year. Things happen all the time to change our plans. It makes life a whole less stressful if you are able to go with the flow, look for alternatives, and make some lemonade out the lemons life gives you.

 

Love this post....you have a nice credit for a cruise....you will be taking another vacation somewhere down the line...use it for then and do something else this time....how hard can it be. I do have sympathy that your plans are getting messed up because of this but it isn't worth going crazy over and trying to GMA involved etc.

Just cause you want to do it NOW ( and this goes for anyone complaining)...you will then have to deal with the simple economics...prices are going up because you have same demand and less supply. The costs for these can be cyclical anyway...I had my first cruise this past August booked a good 6 months to a year in advance...watched as prices went up and down big time. They are up cause of the stir of Splendor in a bit they will be down again.

 

Again I'm sorry your plans this time got hosed but........

[alwayshappytocruise]

They didn't keep thier funds. What are you talking about.

 

She doesn't know...she just likes to post!!! The Irish have a great word for people like her....Eejit.

[glrounds]

Anyone who does not want to pay any additional funds....

don't book the cruise.

 

simple.....no one is putting a gun to your head and FORCING you to book a cruise.

 

Carnival does not OWE anyone the same cruise at the same price for the same day. That is ridiculous.

 

You got your money back.... you have at least a year (maybe more) to use the 25%.....

 

Do the very same thing we did when our holiday cruise was cancelled because the ships were being used for Katrina......

 

we booked a cruise 6 or 7 months later.....period.

 

Excellent post.

I would also suggest to the OP, in the future VOTE with your WALLET, the real arbiter in a Capitalistic environment. Take your 25% discount on a Carnival cruise and then move on to another cruiseline if you feel you were wronged.

FWIW, I booked a cruise (a very generous gift from my son's girlfriend) 2 days ago for 7 of us on the MIRACLE Dec. 5th. While I was talking to a Carnival rep to get 1 suite and 3 balcony cabins, she said she had to wait for some of the SPLENDOR "holds" to release. She said its never been done before, but anyone that was cancelled on the SPLENDOR got the ADDED BENEFIT of a one hour hold on their inquiry to decide what to do and one of the balconies was "on hold for an hour". The wait for that balcony caused us to have to book 2 suites and 2 oceanviews to make this cruise, which was date sensitive for us.

I'm not griping, I was impressed that Carnival would show this extra consideration for their guests who had been inconvenienced by the SPLENDOR incident. And I didn't get the added suite either, was bumped to an oceanview. :(

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Excellent post.

I would also suggest to the OP, in the future VOTE with your WALLET, the real arbiter in a Capitalistic environment. Take your 25% discount on a Carnival cruise and then move on to another cruiseline if you feel you were wronged.

FWIW, I booked a cruise (a very generous gift from my son's girlfriend) 2 days ago for 7 of us on the MIRACLE Dec. 5th. While I was talking to a Carnival rep to get 1 suite and 3 balcony cabins, she said she had to wait for some of the SPLENDOR "holds" to release. She said its never been done before, but anyone that was cancelled on the SPLENDOR got the ADDED BENEFIT of a one hour hold on their inquiry to decide what to do and one of the balconies was "on hold for an hour". The wait for that balcony caused us to have to book 2 suites and 2 oceanviews to make this cruise, which was date sensitive for us.

I'm not griping, I was impressed that Carnival would show this extra consideration for their guests who had been inconvenienced by the SPLENDOR incident. And I didn't get the added suite either, was bumped to an oceanview. :(

 

Hey Glrounds,

 

You say your cruise is date sensitive so a different date would not work for you. I believe the OP is in the same boat. (no pun intended)

 

Since there is not much availability for her date from the west coast and CCL has not refunded her money yet she is kinda stuck the way i see it, but I seem to be in the minority here.

 

Bill

 

Bill

[theJAMESH]

I had family on the sailing that caught fire and they didn't complain.

 

You keep repeating this. WHO CARES that you knew passengers that "didn't complain?"(I find this hard to believe, btw.)

 

Your friends or family might be the most laid-back people in the universe, but I guarantee they're part of a minority.

 

I for one would be very upset if my vacation turned into a nightmarish ordeal filled with cold showers and "hot dog salads". I think most would. Sounds worse than water boarding, to me.

 

And you act like going to GMA is some petty crime against humanity. This is a pretty big deal, effecting lots of people. I am interested to hear about the problems. I like to know my cruise lines, and who I'm giving my money to. Have I lost some respect for CCL? Yes. Will I still book with them? Yes.

[theJAMESH]

She doesn't know...she just likes to post!!! The Irish have a great word for people like her....Eejit.

 

 

I guess you haven't been paying attention. The OP has not received her money back yet, and might not have the money saved to go on a land vacation during her alloted time off.

 

You sir, are the eejit.

[pnjkeith]

I did...I am taking my money from the Splendor and booked NYE on the NCL Star and also cancelled my Carnival trip for Feb. and booked the NCL Spirit.

 

I only wish Carnival had let us take a room on the Spirit at the same daily rate that we had on the Splendor. When we were bumped from a flight, we not only got on the next available, but they upgraded us for the inconvenience. I'm not expecting Carnival to upgrade,,,just give the same daily rate that we paid for in FULL!

 

NCL? You'll be sorry! LMAO