No Customer Service after booking wedding with Carnival

[Soccerfan]

Hi,

 

I am a platinum guest with Carnival, I have travelled with them more than 20 times in the past 6 years and I have introduced many 1st time cruisers to Carnival who have become repeat guests.

 

I planned for my wedding to take place on the Carnival Freedom when it is docked in Key West on April 2nd, 2012. I have 10 guests coming with us from the UK.

 

I have the luxury package wedding scheduled to take place at 10.30am. This will be the 2nd day of the cruise.

 

I didn't realize that this date is Spring Break in the USA and subsequently the ship is almost sold out. (Had I known I would have booked another date, but it was too late to cancel)

 

I have made the request to Carnival that my guests be allowed to board with us in priority boarding, as we will be getting married less than 24 hrs after getting on the ship. We have that one afternoon only to prepare for our special day.

 

I dread the thought of trying to get everyone on deck together after seperately boarding. We need to review the location where we are to be married, where everyone needs to be at what time, check the tables layout at the Sun King restaurant for our wedding dinner, check flowers, music etc etc. It will definately be less stressful if I can keep our group together on this day.

 

I really didn't think that this was a big request and didn't anticipate there being a problem as the staff will be in place anyway to process the Priority boarding, it won't cost Carnival anything extra, really what is the big deal ??? There are no weddings taking place that day or on our day other than ours and we are a small group.

 

Well, apparently it is a big deal and I have spoken to 4 different people requesting this. No one can give me a valid reason for it not being allowed other than to say "If we let you do it everyone will want to do it" ??? What a Cop Out.

 

 

HOWEVER

 

I have been told that If I am willing to put all my guests on my Sail and Sign card they will allow us to board together in priority boarding :cool:- Can someone please explain why this would make a difference, all this would do would be to leave me with the headache of trying to sort out 12 accounts, no thank you.

 

I am at the point of cancelling the wedding, incurring $1,000 cancellation fee and scheduling a wedding on land instead. If I do this I will make sure that we never sail with Carnival again.

 

I am so annoyed at Carnivals lack of assistance to us to help us out on our special day, being a long term customer means nothing.

 

Is it unreasonable of me to request this ? I'm paying for the wedding, photographs etc etc. so giving more revenue to Carnival than if we had just cruised. I have a matter of hours to prepare for the wedding and I don't think I am being unreasonable. AM I ?

[Ksea1961]

I'm sure everyone in your party will be able to find the locations on the ship just fine. I would relax and let Carnival do their thing. I'm sure they have done this before. Good luck and Best Wishes!

[LHP]

Yes, this is an unreasonable request.

 

Groups (with all kinds of immediate group activities) book Carnival all the time and they are not allowed to do this.

 

IF you want everyone onboard immediately, then have them all arrive early and they will be onboard literally within minutes of VIP.

 

Btw, just because Carnival won't give in to your demands does not mean they do not have Customer Service. It just means they are not allowing you to break the rules.

[firefly333]

If its at the debarkation point, all wedding partys board first. If this is just a cruise with folks to celebrate your wedding .. everyone wants this "little" favor. If everyone continues to try to circumvent the rules .. pretty soon VIP is meaningless and its faster to board regular.

 

We had over 300 debarking once on little Ecstasy .. because folks and all their best friends said they all had early flights .. so because they cant plan better, they should get VIP debarkation?

 

VIP continues to erode.

 

Dont worry .. if you are getting married on the ship .. then you will board BEFORE VIP. (I was a little confused if you were getting married on the ship or not when you mentioned the shp being in dry dock)

[loxley]

Yes, it is unreasonable and I am glad Carnival is sticking to their guns.

 

There is no valid reason your guest should all be allowed VIP boarding the day before your wedding.

 

If you are not happy with Carnival's response, maybe you should cancel so you can get things done the way you think they should be maybe.

[KenMo]

If you all get to the port early, your non-Platinum guests will be boarding right behind you. You can all agree to meet on Lido or where ever.

 

I just don't see this as something to stress over.

[pe4all]

Just have everyone meet at your cabin at a certain time when you embark. I guess CCL figures that, since you are getting married the next day, it is not urgent that you all board together. And congrats, btw!:)

[LHP]

If its at the debarkation point, all wedding partys board first. If this is just a cruise with folks to celebrate your wedding .. everyone wants this "little" favor. If everyone continues to try to circumvent the rules .. pretty soon VIP is meaningless and its faster to board regular.

 

We had over 300 debarking once on little Ecstasy .. because folks and all their best friends said they all had early flights .. so because they cant plan better, they should get VIP debarkation?

 

VIP continues to erode.

 

Sadly, you are correct. Most times it is not even a matter of them planning poorly...it is a matter of them simply ignoring Carnival and booking flights to soon...because they know they can.

 

Personally, Carnival should give them Zone 2...and leave Zone 1 for VIP. period

[sparks1093]

Congrats on your big day. Take a deep breath and relax. As others have said it will be easy for you to meet up with everyone at a specified location in plenty of time.

[russianmom]

 

I dread the thought of trying to get everyone on deck together after seperately boarding. We need to review the location where we are to be married, where everyone needs to be at what time, check the tables layout at the Sun King restaurant for our wedding dinner, check flowers, music etc etc. It will definately be less stressful if I can keep our group together on this day.

 

 

When I had a destination wedding all of my guests were there to enjoy my wedding celebration and were not part of the planning and set up.

Why would your guests care about the table layout, music and flower planning?

 

Let them board when they are supposed to, get a DOD and meet up with you and your fiancee after you do all the logistics with the wedding coordinator. Then you can share the time and place for the wedding with them.

[klmorg]

I sympathize with the OP, having spent mega bucks for the wedding & such, but I have to agree with Carnival and some of the others... since your wedding is not being held until the next day, the guests should not all get priority boarding. They would have to allow that for everyone.

 

However, I'll bet you all will be able to get everything done that first day as long as everyone arrives at the terminal early (just as you had planned anyway). I predict that this may not turn into a big deal afterall & you will have plenty of time. Have an awesome wedding cruise!!

[Capette]

Okay...relax lol. I think we have all sufficiently told you what everyone who reads your post is thinking. You don't need everyone to plan. It will all happen no matter what. The most important people are you and your spouse. If you are sweating all of these small things now, boy oh boy, you are going to drive yourself crazy.

[happy cruzin]

Just have everyone meet at your cabin at a certain time when you embark. I guess CCL figures that, since you are getting married the next day, it is not urgent that you all board together. And congrats, btw!:)

 

Or......make arrangements through Carnival for a room/lounge at a particular time for everyone to meet once all are on board.

[nonna5]

Sadly, you are correct. Most times it is not even a matter of them planning poorly...it is a matter of them simply ignoring Carnival and booking flights to soon...because they know they can.

 

Personally, Carnival should give them Zone 2...and leave Zone 1 for VIP. period

 

 

I totally agree with you. Zone 1 should only be for true VIP. A lot of the time they do not even have early flights, they just say they do so they can be the first off. When I am traveling with family or friends that are not VIP I wait to embark/disembark with them.

 

That should be one VIP perk that is left to VIPS.

[happy cruzin]

Hi,

 

I am a platinum guest with Carnival, I have travelled with them more than 20 times in the past 6 years and I have introduced many 1st time cruisers to Carnival who have become repeat guests.

 

I planned for my wedding to take place on the Carnival Freedom when it is docked in Key West on April 2nd, 2012. I have 10 guests coming with us from the UK.

 

I have the luxury package wedding scheduled to take place at 10.30am. This will be the 2nd day of the cruise.

 

I didn't realize that this date is Spring Break in the USA and subsequently the ship is almost sold out. (Had I known I would have booked another date, but it was too late to cancel)

 

I have made the request to Carnival that my guests be allowed to board with us in priority boarding, as we will be getting married less than 24 hrs after getting on the ship. We have that one afternoon only to prepare for our special day.

 

I dread the thought of trying to get everyone on deck together after seperately boarding. We need to review the location where we are to be married, where everyone needs to be at what time, check the tables layout at the Sun King restaurant for our wedding dinner, check flowers, music etc etc. It will definately be less stressful if I can keep our group together on this day.

 

I really didn't think that this was a big request and didn't anticipate there being a problem as the staff will be in place anyway to process the Priority boarding, it won't cost Carnival anything extra, really what is the big deal ??? There are no weddings taking place that day or on our day other than ours and we are a small group.

 

Well, apparently it is a big deal and I have spoken to 4 different people requesting this. No one can give me a valid reason for it not being allowed other than to say "If we let you do it everyone will want to do it" ??? What a Cop Out.

 

 

HOWEVER

 

I have been told that If I am willing to put all my guests on my Sail and Sign card they will allow us to board together in priority boarding :cool:- Can someone please explain why this would make a difference, all this would do would be to leave me with the headache of trying to sort out 12 accounts, no thank you.

 

I am at the point of cancelling the wedding, incurring $1,000 cancellation fee and scheduling a wedding on land instead. If I do this I will make sure that we never sail with Carnival again.

 

I am so annoyed at Carnivals lack of assistance to us to help us out on our special day, being a long term customer means nothing.

 

Is it unreasonable of me to request this ? I'm paying for the wedding, photographs etc etc. so giving more revenue to Carnival than if we had just cruised. I have a matter of hours to prepare for the wedding and I don't think I am being unreasonable. AM I ?

 

Not sure that would have helped! Even a different date this ship is going to sail full :cool:

[chasinraynbowz]

Sit back and take a deep breath.

 

So your party won't be able to board with you. Whats the problem? Your getting married the next day, not the day you board the ship. You won't be making plans and seeing where everyone has to be when as soon as you board. Make arrangements for everyone to meet up at a certain place and time.

 

Relax. Don't become a "bridezilla"... lol. This is supposed to be a happy time.

[tracyanns]

Carnival is doing what they are supposed to do. VIP is for VIP only, and because you are not getting married on the day of the cruise, this does not qualify for you to board before everyone else either because of the wedding party rule...

 

My question to you, is if it is not big deal for them to board VIP to be with you, then it shouldn't be a big deal for you to board Non VIP so you can all board together. When we travel with others that aren't VIP I certainly don't expect them to let them in VIP just because we are...I would never even ask. But if we did need to be with these other people, we would just wait in the Non VIP area with them and board with them with their zone...

 

We have gotten to the port many times early enough that zones one and two are literally walking on right behind us...

[bmckim]

We need to review the location where we are to be married, where everyone needs to be at what time, check the tables layout at the Sun King restaurant for our wedding dinner, check flowers, music etc etc.

 

Do you have a time to do this with the Ship's crew? If you were scheduled to do it early on the first day, I can see where you are coming from, but if it is anytime, or later in the day, I can see how agreeing to your request could open the door for anyone having a reason to board early.

[tracy12502]

you say you have mere hours to get everything together? Your wedding is the second day of the cruise. You will have all night. I have mere hours...as I will get married on embarkation day. Hope to be on the ship by 11:00 a.m. at the earliest and a wedding at 1 p.m. You will be fine. Prepare your guests ahead of time. Write up a welcome letter to give them while they wait to check in. Describe the location of things and encourage them to explore the ship when they get on. As far as checking flowers and tables...well that's on you, not the rest of your guests. So when you get on early go for it and check everything you need to. Sorry, from one bride to another, you can't stress about this.

[happy cruzin]

Yes, this is an unreasonable request.

 

Groups (with all kinds of immediate group activities) book Carnival all the time and they are not allowed to do this.

 

IF you want everyone onboard immediately, then have them all arrive early and they will be onboard literally within minutes of VIP.

 

Btw, just because Carnival won't give in to your demands does not mean they do not have Customer Service. It just means they are not allowing you to break the rules.

 

Good point!

 

If I am reading this correctly....the wedding is not even embarkation day - but rather the NEXT day.

 

No need for the guests to get early boarding that I can see! Which begs another question.....is the OP getting priority boarding because of the wedding - which is not until the next day :confused: :confused:

[Soccerfan]

Ok, Got the message !

 

Thank you for taking the time to post :)

[OceanDreamin]

Which begs another question.....is the OP getting priority boarding because of the wedding - which is not until the next day :confused: :confused:

 

No the OP gets priority boarding because she is Platinum with Carnival, not because of her wedding, since it is the next day.

[scubababy]

I'm on your side on this issue. You've paid for the luxury wedding package in addition to your cruise fare. You're not talking about getting a large group through - only 10. Plus, you are flying in from the UK and there is the jet lag factor. And, like you said, less than 24 hours to make sure everything is in order. I can see where you would want to have everyone together and getting things organized.

 

All said, I think your request is fair and Carnival should be able to accomodate.

 

If all else fails, maybe when you check in at the VIP lounge, they can help you in getting your wedding party all on board at the same time.

 

Congratulations, and I hope your wedding plans go off perfectly.

 

Oh, and I have 40+ cruises with Carvinal - and it wouldn't upset me at all to have your wedding party/guests in the VIP lines/lounge, etc.

 

Patti

[ryanpatricksmom]

I have a hunch you're just in stress mode....relax. I'm an over-planner, so I get worrying over every detail, but.....try to look at it as an opportunity to check things out before you have to deal with any guests/family/friends. I find it's easier to get things done when I'm not distracted by others; you may find that it works for you as well.

 

Anyway, just wanted to say congrats!

[happy cruzin]

No the OP gets priority boarding because she is Platinum with Carnival, not because of her wedding, since it is the next day.

 

Good point! She did say that - and I went right past it :o Sorry!