Emergency, please read.

[CanadaJulie]

Maybe I missed it .. but didnt see the OP say the other family had insurance.

 

I didn't see it mentionned either - I was kinda hoping for their sake that they did...

[deborahjo]

I hope you are able to go and enjoy your cruise the best you can. Willbe waiting to see the other familys decision in the morning. I take it you live close to the cruise port?

[Noreno]

Keep us posted. I am keeping their ill family member in my prayers! Enjoy your vacation

[crzycick]

I don't know if you were leaving today or not so it may be too late, but in this situation, would it be important for the children to stay home? If it's somebody the children aren't really close to maybe they could still cruise with your family. I also think that if the cabins aren't too far apart it might be nice to have your son stay in the other room that's already paid for. Unless there are personal reasons that wouldn't work of course.

 

Good luck with everything and I hope you're still able to enjoy your trip.

[quickrate]

Why thank you! Of course I am going to call them!! I figured I'd get responses quicker than I could get a hold of Carnival which turned out to be true as I'm STILL on hold!!

Plus, I assumed you wanted some input on how to handle talking to Carnival and the best way to approach it. Isn't one of the reason's for this board is to help each other?! Ignore the snarky comments!

Pat

[Chigirlcruzin]

Maybe I missed it .. but didnt see the OP say the other family had insurance.

 

She didn't say one way or the other. If the other family does have insurance, I think they have to officially cancel to get reimbursed.

[FLCruiser001]

I don't know why you would even bother posting this question. Just get on the phone to Carnival, and you'll have your answer!

 

 

For me, I can understand why you would post this. On a message board a person can get dozens of replies and answers, none of which might be correct. Regardless of the replies or answers received here, OP must STILL call Carnival. Carnival couldn't care less about the replies or answers received here.

[happy cruzin]

I was hoping that she would stop by today and let us know what was decided. :cool:

Oh well....hopefully "no news is good news" and we will hear from her when the ALL get back that they had a fantastic time! ;) :D

[FLCruiser001]

I was hoping that she would stop by today and let us know what was decided. :cool:

 

Oh well....hopefully "no news is good news" and we will hear from her when the ALL get back that they had a fantastic time! ;) :D

 

 

Agreed! :) Hoping for the best! :)

[Noreno]

I hope everything went ok

[Cushing985]

I haven't read this entire thread but I'm sure someone will tell you about insurance and why it's so needed.:rolleyes:

 

Anyway, I would call Carnival (as you are) and keep escalating until you get the help you need. Sometimes the higher you go in the food chain the bigger the corporate heart. Good luck!

[BeccaBecca1713]

It is absolutely ridiculous the day before cruise, Carnival said they'll need to move to a triple. Do they really have a group of 4 on the phone wanting to book? I upgraded to a quad for me and DH a few months before our last cruise and we were never moved.

 

The only wrench I could see in OP's situation is if they booked ES, since name changes aren't allowed, wouldn't moving her kid into her room to "replace" the other kid be a name change? Again, I'm only giving this scenario if they booked ES and OP didn't say.

[bythehex]

What I don't get is why she had her son booked to stay with her friends in their cabin, and her friend's kids booked to stay with her in her cabin?? Why not just have her son booked in her cabin from the get go? Obviously I'm missing something here. :confused:

[kayhold]

What I don't get is why she had her son booked to stay with her friends in their cabin, and her friend's kids booked to stay with her in her cabin?? Why not just have her son booked in her cabin from the get go? Obviously I'm missing something here. :confused:

 

Because teenagers are funny like that and like to be close to their friends. She's letting the 2 16's year olds sleep over and taking in the sibling so the 16 year olds can do so.

[happy cruzin]

Because teenagers are funny like that and like to be close to their friends. She's letting the 2 16's year olds sleep over and taking in the sibling so the 16 year olds can do so.

 

Yep - the two older boys are friends. So they were staying together in the same cabin - which happened to be the cabin of the other family.

[bythehex]

Because teenagers are funny like that and like to be close to their friends. She's letting the 2 16's year olds sleep over and taking in the sibling so the 16 year olds can do so.

 

But once they were onboard the ship they could have easily put the kids wherever they wanted them at that time (including adjusting the room cards and appropriate charges to those cards); it didn't need to be done at the booking level. As she found out the hard way, linking HER son to THEIR FRIENDS booking complicated matters tremendously.

[BeccaBecca1713]

But once they were onboard the ship they could have easily put the kids wherever they wanted them at that time (including adjusting the room cards and appropriate charges to those cards); it didn't need to be done at the booking level. As she found out the hard way, linking HER son to THEIR FRIENDS booking complicated matters tremendously.

 

AMEN!! If anything, we can learn from this thread to always book family with family (especially if booking ES!) then you can do swaps once on the boat.

[westcruzer]

AMEN!! If anything, we can learn from this thread to always book family with family (especially if booking ES!) then you can do swaps once on the boat.

 

I booked my kids in my friends room and their kids in my room just because the past guest rate was alot less. None of them had been on a cruise and all of my family had. Then when we got on board we switched back.

 

You never know why people do what they do but jumping to conclusions is not going to help their situation.

 

I hope that everything went well and they enjoy their cruise. Hopefully they come back and give us an update.

 

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk

[BeccaBecca1713]

I booked my kids in my friends room and their kids in my room just because the past guest rate was alot less. None of them had been on a cruise and all of my family had. Then when we got on board we switched back.

 

You never know why people do what they do but jumping to conclusions is not going to help their situation.

 

I hope that everything went well and they enjoy their cruise. Hopefully they come back and give us an update.

 

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk

 

 

Wasn't jumping to conclusions, just offering some advice for folks who book ES. As evidenced by the numerous questions about ES on these boards, many folks don't truly understand the restrictions, one being no name changes.

 

Yes, I'm aware we don't know OP's booking status, as I stated in a previous thread, but it's a great opportunity to educate and show, in this scenario, booking ES could have made it a nightmare.

[crzycick]

Even if they booked early saver, wouldn't the parents be able to cancel 3 out of 4 from one room and 2 out of 4 from the other? They aren't getting any money back from Carnival (unless they had Carnival insurance which is valid for their situation) so the only thing they'd be doing is claiming there will be 5 less passengers onboard. The son would still have access to the extra room and then could sleep with mom and dad if that's what is preferred. I could be wrong, that's just my understanding of how it works. It would be different if it were months in advance and they son had to be back in the parent's room to drop the other room for credit or something.

 

 

 

In my opinion (which doesn't matter), I would have kept my son and brought the other 16 year old over to leave the other 2 children with their parents. Then only 1 child is mixed up instead of 3. HOWEVER, there could be so many reasons for this. Maybe the other 16 year old needs to be close to mom and dad, perhaps some sort of physical or mental disability or behavior issues. Maybe the 2 younger kids (I think I'm assuming they're younger, I don't really know) see the other family as aunt/uncle types and it would be really fun for them. There are lots of reasons this might have been done, maybe the 16 year old going with the other family is a past guest which gave them a discount like another person mentioned.

[BeccaBecca1713]

Even if they booked early saver, wouldn't the parents be able to cancel 3 out of 4 from one room and 2 out of 4 from the other? They aren't getting any money back from Carnival (unless they had Carnival insurance which is valid for their situation) so the only thing they'd be doing is claiming there will be 5 less passengers onboard. The son would still have access to the extra room and then could sleep with mom and dad if that's what is preferred. I could be wrong, that's just my understanding of how it works. It would be different if it were months in advance and they son had to be back in the parent's room to drop the other room for credit or something.

 

 

 

In my opinion (which doesn't matter), I would have kept my son and brought the other 16 year old over to leave the other 2 children with their parents. Then only 1 child is mixed up instead of 3. HOWEVER, there could be so many reasons for this. Maybe the other 16 year old needs to be close to mom and dad, perhaps some sort of physical or mental disability or behavior issues. Maybe the 2 younger kids (I think I'm assuming they're younger, I don't really know) see the other family as aunt/uncle types and it would be really fun for them. There are lots of reasons this might have been done, maybe the 16 year old going with the other family is a past guest which gave them a discount like another person mentioned.

 

One of my concerns was, even if the other family "no-shows" not sure if the 16 y.o. can check in "alone" into that stateroom. Looking at Carnival's FAQ page it states minors 13-17 can be booked in seperate staterooms so long as they are within 3 staterooms distance and it can't be a balcony room without an adult present. Just a lot of what ifs.....

[happy cruzin]

One of my concerns was, even if the other family "no-shows" not sure if the 16 y.o. can check in "alone" into that stateroom. Looking at Carnival's FAQ page it states minors 13-17 can be booked in seperate staterooms so long as they are within 3 staterooms distance and it can't be a balcony room without an adult present. Just a lot of what ifs.....

I am pretty sure that was one of the problems!

[packard89]

Sorry I didn't reply back sooner.....well, they did cancel! And we ended up staying in the quad with only the 3 of us. The ship was sold out. My friend did have insurance, she's in the process of filing her claim. My son was devastated that his friend wasn't coming but he quickly recovered because he had a few classmates on the ship. (We live 20 minutes from the port.) So we basically NEVER saw him except for at dinner. Yes, he promptly showed up every night. The adults actually skipped a night in the MDR but the teenagers didn't.

Although I was very disappointed that our friends cancelled, we had the best time ever. We ended up befriending the classmates parents and they moved to our dinner table in the place of our friends that cancelled. So everything worked out. We're even planning another cruise with our new friends.

Anyway, thank you all so much for the advice. That's why I posted about my dilemma before calling Carnival just to have an idea of what I was up against, I'm not an expert in this department.

Kirsten

[CanWeGoYet?]

I'm glad you had a good time anyhow, my condolences to your friends & sad they had to cancel but this must have been the best solution for them.

 

Thanks for coming back to update us all, not everyone does that.

[packard89]

I booked my kids in my friends room and their kids in my room just because the past guest rate was alot less. None of them had been on a cruise and all of my family had. Then when we got on board we switched back.

 

You never know why people do what they do but jumping to conclusions is not going to help their situation.

 

I hope that everything went well and they enjoy their cruise. Hopefully they come back and give us an update.

 

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk

 

That was why we did it that way. We have cruised with Carnival, they have not. So their reservation was put in my son's name so they could get the past guest discount AND to guarantee our cabins to be next to each other. I have learned a valuable lesson, trust me! I will NEVER do that again. The stress it caused...... mere hours before we left.