VIFP website- CS says wait til Tuesday

[Another ship trip]

I logged on yesterday to the VIFP and to see my currently booked cruise, and the site asked numerous questions and ultimately gave me a new number. (Could not find the original one nor did it prompt me to enter it since I have it right here). Now I have two past guest numbers and my account says I am a brand new cruiser with zero days. I called yesterday regarding the many glitches in their systems and was told they were working on it and to call back today. I logged on today and same problem. The site says you need to merge the accounts and to call 1-800-CARNIVAL. So I did. Long wait until a real person comes on......................................................

Now they say they can't help me, though I pressed the prompt for computer support, and they won't be working on the system until Monday when "the people come in". They said don't call again until Tuesday.

What kind of IT program doesn't have a sandbox to test their new system before going live with numerous glitches such as plugging in random addresses for its customers and saying it can find no active bookings to name a few? Since most of what Carnival does is online, this has got to project negatively on the company that they can't get the website working right. Whoever wasn't savvy enough to test the new system before its release should be released themselves.

[yesaccasey]

Wait, Carnival messed their loyalty program up after telling people one thing for 3.5 years and doing something completely different.....? And they didn't test it? Well, at least we know one thing they didn't do during the 3.5 years.

[karenh1127]

Yes I know! I have 10 cruises with 2 more booked and I have 0 vifp pts! I go to "missing cruises?" to enter my cruises but I cant remember all the sailing dates! It has been over 7 years of cruising! Ugh!!:mad:

[Rainbowfalls]

Do you have to complete your first sailing to get a number?

[BeeCruisin]

I just tried "joining" the VIFP program as well.....with the same issue....entered my past guest number...yay, it found me.....But....

Then received the error message about needing to "merge" my info/profile??? I cruise on my eighth CC cruise on next Monday, June 18th....but have "0" Days credited to me?? Hope they fix the issues in the next 9 days! : (

[coachj]

Talking to a CCL employee on one of my cruises this year he stated that all guests past and new will be assigned a new number which will follow them on every cruise they take. It will replace the folio numbers that are different on each cruise. It will allow easier management of all billing and the bean counters can look and see exactly what u are spending. It is very possible that is what is occurring now and the system hasn't reassigned your cruise data to the new number. OR it could be the usual Carnival IT screwup.

[Chigirlcruzin]

Seriously? I've been through many system implementations. You can test until you're blue in the face, but there will almost always be bugs at go live. I'm confident they did test, and I'm sure they had people working over the weekend to sort through these bugs.

[cruzn buckeye]

Do you have to complete your first sailing to get a number?

 

no, you dont even have to BOOK your next sailing to get a VIFP number. all you need to do is register, and you get the same discounts as past cruisers..

[RWolver672]

Seriously? I've been through many system implementations. You can test until you're blue in the face, but there will almost always be bugs at go live. I'm confident they did test, and I'm sure they had people working over the weekend to sort through these bugs.

 

They should have hired a teenager to make the changes. He/She would have had it up and running within minutes. ;)

[rickechambers1@aol.com]

I logged on yesterday to the VIFP and to see my currently booked cruise, and the site asked numerous questions and ultimately gave me a new number. (Could not find the original one nor did it prompt me to enter it since I have it right here). Now I have two past guest numbers and my account says I am a brand new cruiser with zero days. I called yesterday regarding the many glitches in their systems and was told they were working on it and to call back today. I logged on today and same problem. The site says you need to merge the accounts and to call 1-800-CARNIVAL. So I did. Long wait until a real person comes on......................................................

Now they say they can't help me, though I pressed the prompt for computer support, and they won't be working on the system until Monday when "the people come in". They said don't call again until Tuesday.

What kind of IT program doesn't have a sandbox to test their new system before going live with numerous glitches such as plugging in random addresses for its customers and saying it can find no active bookings to name a few? Since most of what Carnival does is online, this has got to project negatively on the company that they can't get the website working right. Whoever wasn't savvy enough to test the new system before its release should be released themselves.

Ive seen this many times with new sites. Geesh. Two days of waiting or post complaint on cruise critic? How many times has THIS site had issues? Patience may serve you well.

[trvlqueen]

Patience is one thing - but for people sailing SOON that can't access their docs or where the system doesn't see their cruise history - this is going to be somewhat of a cluster.

 

My booking numbers are different on my cruise docs and on the site now - and it shows me booked twice on the same sailing ... two different booking numbers and everything. I wouldn't complain if it was two different sailings, I'd just print the docs and go - but I can't sail twice on the same ship on the same date. :rolleyes:

 

They should have rolled this more slowly - I work for a rather large corporation and they tend to roll west to east - in regions. They could have made the announcement and then rolled out all the diamonds, then the plats, then the golds ... etc. That might have saved them the system issues they're having now. It would really stink if you were, for instance, boarding Imagination today, thinking you'd print your docs on Saturday (because they said the changes were happening today) and then couldn't access your cruise ... not smart, Carnival - not smart at all.

[pamelajs]

It is good to see that other prople are having the same issue as me. I could not join from the email they sent because they did not recognize the past passenger number then like everyone else when I got on the site it said I had complete 0 cruises.

I was really upset thing with thier new system that I had lost all of my previous cruises.

[RambleRocket]

I logged on yesterday to the VIFP and to see my currently booked cruise, and the site asked numerous questions and ultimately gave me a new number. (Could not find the original one nor did it prompt me to enter it since I have it right here). Now I have two past guest numbers and my account says I am a brand new cruiser with zero days. I called yesterday regarding the many glitches in their systems and was told they were working on it and to call back today. I logged on today and same problem. The site says you need to merge the accounts and to call 1-800-CARNIVAL. So I did. Long wait until a real person comes on......................................................

Now they say they can't help me, though I pressed the prompt for computer support, and they won't be working on the system until Monday when "the people come in". They said don't call again until Tuesday.

What kind of IT program doesn't have a sandbox to test their new system before going live with numerous glitches such as plugging in random addresses for its customers and saying it can find no active bookings to name a few? Since most of what Carnival does is online, this has got to project negatively on the company that they can't get the website working right. Whoever wasn't savvy enough to test the new system before its release should be released themselves.

 

Same thing happened to me :( Luckily, I have my past guest number, along with the booking numbers for my past cruises. Hopefully, they will be able to sort this out soon. Here's hoping!

[FlaGrl4Evr]

I tried to activate our accounts yesterday and also had a huge problem. I think it had to do with having my past two cruises booked in my maiden name and my upcoming booked cruise in my now married name. I read a thread here on CC and there was a post that gave some instruction to try. I followed her instructions and everything worked fine. My profile has my correct last name and the correct number of points on both mine and my DH account.

 

Here is the thread if anyone is interested. The post that helped me is #2

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1650174

 

 

Good luck to everyone. It is frustrating.

 

:):)

[H82seaUgo]

I logged on yesterday to the VIFP and to see my currently booked cruise, and the site asked numerous questions and ultimately gave me a new number. (Could not find the original one nor did it prompt me to enter it since I have it right here). Now I have two past guest numbers and my account says I am a brand new cruiser with zero days. I called yesterday regarding the many glitches in their systems and was told they were working on it and to call back today. I logged on today and same problem. The site says you need to merge the accounts and to call 1-800-CARNIVAL. So I did. Long wait until a real person comes on......................................................

Now they say they can't help me, though I pressed the prompt for computer support, and they won't be working on the system until Monday when "the people come in". They said don't call again until Tuesday.

What kind of IT program doesn't have a sandbox to test their new system before going live with numerous glitches such as plugging in random addresses for its customers and saying it can find no active bookings to name a few? Since most of what Carnival does is online, this has got to project negatively on the company that they can't get the website working right. Whoever wasn't savvy enough to test the new system before its release should be released themselves.

 

maybe this fiasco exposed the real IT problem:

 

it took them three years to log in. vicky freed took the password with her.

[tbjl24]

I guess I am not understanding the issue people are running into.

 

Did you go to carnival.com and create a brand new VIFP account from scratch? I would think that's got to be the issue.

 

All I did was go to carnival, login with my credentials I've had for the last years and it recognized me. Clicked on access VIFP account, logged in again with the same credentials.

 

VOILA! All my info is there, and correct!

[tbjl24]

I logged on yesterday to the VIFP and to see my currently booked cruise, and the site asked numerous questions and ultimately gave me a new number. (Could not find the original one nor did it prompt me to enter it since I have it right here). Now I have two past guest numbers and my account says I am a brand new cruiser with zero days. I called yesterday regarding the many glitches in their systems and was told they were working on it and to call back today. I logged on today and same problem. The site says you need to merge the accounts and to call 1-800-CARNIVAL. So I did. Long wait until a real person comes on......................................................

Now they say they can't help me, though I pressed the prompt for computer support, and they won't be working on the system until Monday when "the people come in". They said don't call again until Tuesday.

What kind of IT program doesn't have a sandbox to test their new system before going live with numerous glitches such as plugging in random addresses for its customers and saying it can find no active bookings to name a few? Since most of what Carnival does is online, this has got to project negatively on the company that they can't get the website working right. Whoever wasn't savvy enough to test the new system before its release should be released themselves.

 

Sounds like you created a new VIFP account, added your old past guest #(which had probably already been assigned to a VIFP account for you) and now you have duplicate accounts.

 

Granted, the system SHOULD have been built to not allow this.