Carnival = World's Worst Web Site

[6 of us]

I have become disillusioned/annoyed with their website as well. My current beef with them is the lack of real privacy. Sometimes I go to look at some current pricing and possible future cruises and go through the steps to see what rooms are available and end up later getting a call from one of their travel agents (PVP?) that I've booked with in the past. I am not interested in talking to a travel agent, nor getting emails from a travel agent. I only want to explore with the privacy of my own computer. When I am ready to book with the travel agent I will. I feel like it's Big Brother in control of my computer. Some may think it's good business practice but I don't.

 

YES!!! I love to search, because you just never know when you will stumble upon something! I get calls, from not only my own vaca planner I have used in the past, but new ones, "Hey, saw you were on our site looking to cruise & I wanted to help you book". I don't mind an email, but I have to pay for those minutes when they call HAHA, I need that $$ for my next cruise!

[cofgren]

I find their site easy to navigate, easy to use. Boy, Talk about fussing over nothing.

[curlydog]

It blows

[dustyroad]

YES!!! I love to search, because you just never know when you will stumble upon something! I get calls, from not only my own vaca planner I have used in the past, but new ones, "Hey, saw you were on our site looking to cruise & I wanted to help you book". I don't mind an email, but I have to pay for those minutes when they call HAHA, I need that $$ for my next cruise!

 

i thought about giving a phony phone number but '' what if the upgrade fairy had too get ahold of me :eek: ". i dont want too miss that call :D. sometimes i log off and poke around. i dont know if it helps or not but i feel like i might be evading the phone calls somehow.

 

and as for '' making a fuss over nothing '' remark, that person is either the lucky one ( or patient one ) that isnt annoyed with the new site. maybe they dont know how much easier the old site was. anyway, it is a pain for me and i admit it. :D

[debster11]

I have become disillusioned/annoyed with their website as well. My current beef with them is the lack of real privacy. Sometimes I go to look at some current pricing and possible future cruises and go through the steps to see what rooms are available and end up later getting a call from one of their travel agents (PVP?) that I've booked with in the past. I am not interested in talking to a travel agent, nor getting emails from a travel agent. I only want to explore with the privacy of my own computer. When I am ready to book with the travel agent I will. I feel like it's Big Brother in control of my computer. Some may think it's good business practice but I don't.

 

I agree! I have gotten called just about every day this week by a different PVP. Frustrating! I should look without logging in.

[ccczzz]

I don't ever post on these message boards but had to respond to this one. YES!!!!! Carnival has the least internet friendly website ever, and I don't say that lightly. I've had trouble with every browser and it is frequently down or only parts of it are operational. It also seems to look different on different browsers, so when I'm telling my husband on a different computer to "look in the upper right hand corner - see that link?" it may not actually be there if he's not using the same browser as I am.

 

Last year when we went to fill out the Fun Pass it kept kicking me out at the end of every page and I had to log back in again before I could continue. Then I kept getting dunning emails to finish my Fun Pass. I can't win for losing. Their customer service was prompt, however, to fix the issue.

 

One thing that is GOOD on Carnival's website is that you can actually book the cruise at the rate quoted in their sales emails. That's not true of some other cruise lines. Try to book the rate in some other cruise lines' sale emails and see if there's any cabins available at that price for any date listed. I get all excited and then find out there is no actual availability at that rate. Kind of like the bait and switch that car dealers use ["One at this price"]. If Carnival sends me an ad and I follow up promptly there is a cabin available at that rate. Good for them! Now if they can just get that website working reliably.... :)

[mk695]

The site works fine for me and I've never had a frustration using it. But, then my expectations with Web sites is probably lower than most. Yes, it could have more features or improvements, but otherwise, it is what it is.

 

And blaming I.T. for the problem isn't nice. "We" in I.T. get blamed for everything, but most problems are because of politics/delays from other employees and management. I.T. is simply the slave to management -- we are told what to do, we usually don't make content or other subjective decisions on how things operate -- that's what management is for.

[2goinagain]

Love their cruises, but just despise their Web site! Every time they 'improve' it, it gets more cumbersome and harder to use.

 

We used to be able to look at all of the fares for a cruise at once, regardless of inside/OV/balcony/suite. Now the process is so cumbersome as to make me want to book with Royal :eek: - you can't go from price-shopping for insides to OV's or balconies without backing completely out and starting over again, and answering the same questions (# of travelers? location? deck?) each time.

 

Want to save some cruises in the search engine? Forget it - the save function isn't working today (probably for several days).

 

Want to search for more than one cruise/ship/embarkation port/etc at a time? Not so fast, my friend - that used to be easy, but now you'll stumble on the page that lets you do that only by dumb luck, and then it will crash if you're trying to modify a search you've already made.

 

This has been going on for MONTHS - since long before my last cruise.

 

If I were Carnival, there would be heads rolling in the IT department. This is about as poor as customer service gets. If they really want passengers to book online instead of through TA's (subject for another thread), they need to get their act together.

 

I agree. I use other sites to search. Carnival's site is just to cumbersome.

[cofgren]

Love their cruises, but just despise their Web site! Every time they 'improve' it, it gets more cumbersome and harder to use.

 

We used to be able to look at all of the fares for a cruise at once, regardless of inside/OV/balcony/suite. Now the process is so cumbersome as to make me want to book with Royal :eek: - you can't go from price-shopping for insides to OV's or balconies without backing completely out and starting over again, and answering the same questions (# of travelers? location? deck?) each time.

 

Want to save some cruises in the search engine? Forget it - the save function isn't working today (probably for several days).

 

Want to search for more than one cruise/ship/embarkation port/etc at a time? Not so fast, my friend - that used to be easy, but now you'll stumble on the page that lets you do that only by dumb luck, and then it will crash if you're trying to modify a search you've already made.

 

This has been going on for MONTHS - since long before my last cruise.

 

If I were Carnival, there would be heads rolling in the IT department. This is about as poor as customer service gets. If they really want passengers to book online instead of through TA's (subject for another thread), they need to get their act together.

 

World's Worst Web Site, just despise their web site, as to make me want to book with Royal

 

Really

[Durangler]

I've been tring for the last 6 hours to explore the Excursion page.

 

The Port of Call drop down menu is blank, the "Experiences" "Minimum Age" "Activity" "Duration" and "Price range" tabs don't work.

The "Find a cruise" tab on the page doesn't work.

But... the Ports & Destination, Ships & Starerooms, Experiences and Community Buzz tabs sure do BLAST you in the face if the cursor touches them!

-sigh-

Maybe tomorrow it'll work. -shurgs-

[mikaula]

i don't like that when you put in 3 pax it changes the price so that all pax pay the same rate. You can never see the actual price for the 1st two pax and the reduced rate for the 3rd. Then if you try to fill out the early saver reimbursement form they say it's only good for the first 2 passengers and you need to use the correct price you originally paid - but they won't tell you what it is. YIKES! Very confusing.

[6 of us]

i thought about giving a phony phone number but '' what if the upgrade fairy had too get ahold of me :eek: ". i dont want too miss that call :D. sometimes i log off and poke around. i dont know if it helps or not but i feel like i might be evading the phone calls somehow.

 

and as for '' making a fuss over nothing '' remark, that person is either the lucky one ( or patient one ) that isnt annoyed with the new site. maybe they dont know how much easier the old site was. anyway, it is a pain for me and i admit it. :D

 

No one has ever once called me about an upgrade! hmmmm

[dustyroad]

No one has ever once called me about an upgrade! hmmmm

 

me either, but i always hope she will call. but i might get lucky some day :D.

[Durangler]

I've been tring for the last 6 hours to explore the Excursion page.

 

The Port of Call drop down menu is blank, the "Experiences" "Minimum Age" "Activity" "Duration" and "Price range" tabs don't work.

The "Find a cruise" tab on the page doesn't work.

But... the Ports & Destination, Ships & Starerooms, Experiences and Community Buzz tabs sure do BLAST you in the face if the cursor touches them!

-sigh-

Maybe tomorrow it'll work. -shurgs-

 

For What It's Worth:

 

After accessing the Carnival "Excursion Page" from 2 other laptops, I discovered the problem may lie in Internet Explorer 9. The other 2 machines are running IE 8 and the page loaded just fine.

The other day, I performed a "recommended update" on my MS Vista machine, that installed IE 9. After my problems accessing the Excursion Page, I searched for IE9 reviews and problems.

I found there are indeed issues loading some web pages throughout the internet.

 

Just a "Heads Up" for anyone who has or are planning to install MS IE9.

[dustyroad]

For What It's Worth:

 

After accessing the Carnival "Excursion Page" from 2 other laptops, I discovered the problem may lie in Internet Explorer 9. The other 2 machines are running IE 8 and the page loaded just fine.

The other day, I performed a "recommended update" on my MS Vista machine, that installed IE 9. After my problems accessing the Excursion Page, I searched for IE9 reviews and problems.

I found there are indeed issues loading some web pages throughout the internet.

 

Just a "Heads Up" for anyone who has or are planning to install MS IE9.

 

i dont update anymore past IE 8. it took me awhile too get things open just from updating too that. i will stay where i am at for the simple things i use my laptop for.

[nasa1974]

For What It's Worth:

 

After accessing the Carnival "Excursion Page" from 2 other laptops, I discovered the problem may lie in Internet Explorer 9. The other 2 machines are running IE 8 and the page loaded just fine.

The other day, I performed a "recommended update" on my MS Vista machine, that installed IE 9. After my problems accessing the Excursion Page, I searched for IE9 reviews and problems.

I found there are indeed issues loading some web pages throughout the internet.

 

Just a "Heads Up" for anyone who has or are planning to install MS IE9.

 

 

I have heard the same thing about IE 9. When I was looking for information about cruises with Carnival it was hit or miss getting the dates to load-up. The curser would just spin snd spin. Then a couple of days later it would load up. Very frustrating. I finally booked through Government Vacation Rewards becuase I could find the information I needed. I will say that once I registered with Carnival, everytime I log in it seems to work fine.

[Cool Waters]

The site is ok...not the best, but just ok.

[glrounds]

The decline in the webpage is directly proportional to the decline of service and entertainment. Cutbacks affect all aspects of the company. This is from a Carnival Platinum who is recently disappointed in all these areas for which Carnival was formerly praised.:cool:

 

This Carnival PLATINUM also agrees with you completely.:(

[DGP1111]

This Carnival PLATINUM also agrees with you completely.:(

 

And you are not alone in that agreement.

 

.

.

[MIZZ_K]

Why do they require an excessively long password for account access? It isn't like I am trying to access my online checking and even that lets me use a simple word as a password, not some 12 digit meaningless code.

My password is only 6

[bolivar5599]

The site works fine for me and I've never had a frustration using it. But, then my expectations with Web sites is probably lower than most. Yes, it could have more features or improvements, but otherwise, it is what it is.

 

And blaming I.T. for the problem isn't nice. "We" in I.T. get blamed for everything, but most problems are because of politics/delays from other employees and management. I.T. is simply the slave to management -- we are told what to do, we usually don't make content or other subjective decisions on how things operate -- that's what management is for.

 

should be held to the fire? The janitor? The pilot? The Captain??? Of course this is IT and they must be grossly incompetent - perhaps outsourced to India or Bangladesh or something??? The Carnival site is woefully inadequate and the coding is very sloppy. Finesse is required to make html sing and these guys just don't have it. The site used to be extremely easy to use and trouble free but, they could not leave well enough alone.

 

New is not always better and to blame anybody other than the people responsible for it is silly. The Carnival IT dept. should be given notice - improve or find another job. It is not amateur hour folks - we need information in a forthright and easy to find manner. The current site is virtually useless and blaming registry errors or browsers is not gonna cut it. The code is lousy and the people doing it have either no clue or just don't care. Just my two cents.

[ronnyclicks]

i agree. it stinks as bad as the home depot and netflix sites

[Texas_firefighter]

Love their cruises, but just despise their Web site! Every time they 'improve' it, it gets more cumbersome and harder to use.

 

We used to be able to look at all of the fares for a cruise at once, regardless of inside/OV/balcony/suite. Now the process is so cumbersome as to make me want to book with Royal :eek: - you can't go from price-shopping for insides to OV's or balconies without backing completely out and starting over again, and answering the same questions (# of travelers? location? deck?) each time.

 

Want to save some cruises in the search engine? Forget it - the save function isn't working today (probably for several days).

 

Want to search for more than one cruise/ship/embarkation port/etc at a time? Not so fast, my friend - that used to be easy, but now you'll stumble on the page that lets you do that only by dumb luck, and then it will crash if you're trying to modify a search you've already made.

 

This has been going on for MONTHS - since long before my last cruise.

 

If I were Carnival, there would be heads rolling in the IT department. This is about as poor as customer service gets. If they really want passengers to book online instead of through TA's (subject for another thread), they need to get their act together.

 

 

I agree! Waaaaaay to many steps!!:eek: