Why has carnival changed the way it books on their web site?

[AmberTeka]

I HATE it. I have an inside cabin on Deck Three. I am happy with it. It has one of the mini fridges which I need for Meds. and I keep Diet cokes in there.

BUT my husband is a little claustrophobic. Not a lot. But he likes the Outside seat at the Movies. And we have sailed in Insides On Carnival twice, and had a good cruise both times. Once......booked late. All we could get. Once booked 5 days from Sailing. Happy to be on the ship in anything. Family issues. Everyone got mad. We left ( retired and could do that) .....when we got back. Issue solved. Best anger management "class" I ever heard off...........

 

So....................I cannot see which cabins are open on each deck. I am thinking I will try to upgrade to an ocean view. They keep GIVING me a cabin on the First Deck. I want to see the cabins on Deck Five and NO. I do not believe they are sold out. That cruise is new to the schedule. Most TA web sites don't even have it listed yet. I think they are being held for large families. Which is their decision but It irks me. We spend money too. Casino. Buy Carnival Shore excursions. We are well behaved passengers. Like to play Trivia. JUST LIKE YOU.

 

and NOW we have NO CHOICE in picking our Cabin. Is it just me? Operator Malfunction? And Holland America has the worst web site in the World. Princess has an easy one. Norwegian is so bad.......I don't even go there. I use a TA to book RCI. BUT I loved Carnival Web Site. I fooled around there a lot. Wound up booking and taking a lot of cruises.

This is a long post.

But I am irked

Is everything in the World turning complicated? I mean.........you click a ship. You see what is available. All of the Cabins. You see the Price.

can you swing it without resorting to eating beans and cornbread ( which I like) every night for six months? OK. You can afford that cabin. So YOU BOOK it........ IS that not what a booking engine should be?

[michellej804]

I HATE it. I have an inside cabin on Deck Three. I am happy with it. It has one of the mini fridges which I need for Meds. and I keep Diet cokes in there.

BUT my husband is a little claustrophobic. Not a lot. But he likes the Outside seat at the Movies. And we have sailed in Insides On Carnival twice, and had a good cruise both times. Once......booked late. All we could get. Once booked 5 days from Sailing. Happy to be on the ship in anything. Family issues. Everyone got mad. We left ( retired and could do that) .....when we got back. Issue solved. Best anger management "class" I ever heard off...........

 

So....................I cannot see which cabins are open on each deck. I am thinking I will try to upgrade to an ocean view. They keep GIVING me a cabin on the First Deck. I want to see the cabins on Deck Five and NO. I do not believe they are sold out. That cruise is new to the schedule. Most TA web sites don't even have it listed yet. I think they are being held for large families. Which is their decision but It irks me. We spend money too. Casino. Buy Carnival Shore excursions. We are well behaved passengers. Like to play Trivia. JUST LIKE YOU.

 

and NOW we have NO CHOICE in picking our Cabin. Is it just me? Operator Malfunction? And Holland America has the worst web site in the World. Princess has an easy one. Norwegian is so bad.......I don't even go there. I use a TA to book RCI. BUT I loved Carnival Web Site. I fooled around there a lot. Wound up booking and taking a lot of cruises.

This is a long post.

But I am irked

Is everything in the World turning complicated? I mean.........you click a ship. You see what is available. All of the Cabins. You see the Price.

can you swing it without resorting to eating beans and cornbread ( which I like) every night for six months? OK. You can afford that cabin. So YOU BOOK it........ IS that not what a booking engine should be?

 

 

 

I was just on the site and don't like the changes. Don't know why they changed it. Guess they will be getting more phone calls.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Frank12]

Call and talk to a PVP. They can tell you every available cabin on every floor of the ship.

[darth frosty]

It does suck!!!

 

I too like to check on which cabins are available and this makes a quick lookin impossible

[quickrate]

I agree! Was just up there looking for a short cruise in October, to tide me over to December cruise, LOL!! Very aggravating and takes all the fun out of it. too much work!

Pat

[AmberTeka]

I agree! Was just up there looking for a short cruise in October, to tide me over to December cruise, LOL!! Very aggravating and takes all the fun out of it. too much work!

Pat

 

"Takes the fun out of it:

 

Exactly. Well Said. the thrill of messing around and finding a 4J on Sunshine. Hitting a price reduction when you had no idea one was coming.

Reading Cruise critic....knowing the Cabins to Avoid.........and you can't avoid them.

 

It was FUN on the old web site. sitting and dreaming and What "If" and sometimes a What "if" came true.................

 

A booking engine. These are the vacant cabins. This is what they cost. they have these limitations on them. and then you BOOK. YOU chose. Is that not what it should be?

[bUU]

I provided some probable explanations on the other thread on this that you're participating in. The changes provide a far superior experience than was previously offered to those users using certain form factors that have become prevalent among the most sought-after customer segments. Carnival is following best practice by driving more of the interactivity into the browser and replacing full page server swaps with targeted web services data acquisition and persistence. That makes sense given that the customers that Carnival is trying to attract to their cruise line are increasingly using Intel 6th or 7th generation-based (or Apple analog) desktop or laptop computers, or similarly high-powered tablets and smartphones, all with reliable high-speed broadband connections.

 

And yes that does mean that they care a lot less about customers who don't have these top shelf devices and services. Folks shouldn't be surprised or insulted by that; it's not personal; it's strictly business. They clearly realize that they add more to profit from targeting and catering to the folks who are quite to spend extra discretionary income on the top shelf devices and services than they lose from the folks who give up on the cruise line entirely (rather than calling a travel agent or the cruise line by telephone) because they are frustrated by how the website works on their older or less high-powered equipment. Someone else in that thread pointed out that many people today feel that they should live for today and do not concern themselves with saving for their future. These are the folks mass market product and service providers salivate over.

 

Since the specific things that people are complaining about are things that almost surely the cruise line did deliberately in the interest of fostering revenues it is reasonable to expect that not only will the website not go back to the way it was but if anything further changes will drive the website further down the path that it is on.

 

The websites for some other cruise lines have been changing over the past few years in similar ways aiming in a similar direction.

[Krisco]

I HATE it. I have an inside cabin on Deck Three. I am happy with it. It has one of the mini fridges which I need for Meds. and I keep Diet cokes in there.

BUT my husband is a little claustrophobic. Not a lot. But he likes the Outside seat at the Movies. And we have sailed in Insides On Carnival twice, and had a good cruise both times. Once......booked late. All we could get. Once booked 5 days from Sailing. Happy to be on the ship in anything. Family issues. Everyone got mad. We left ( retired and could do that) .....when we got back. Issue solved. Best anger management "class" I ever heard off...........

 

So....................I cannot see which cabins are open on each deck. I am thinking I will try to upgrade to an ocean view. They keep GIVING me a cabin on the First Deck. I want to see the cabins on Deck Five and NO. I do not believe they are sold out. That cruise is new to the schedule. Most TA web sites don't even have it listed yet. I think they are being held for large families. Which is their decision but It irks me. We spend money too. Casino. Buy Carnival Shore excursions. We are well behaved passengers. Like to play Trivia. JUST LIKE YOU.

 

and NOW we have NO CHOICE in picking our Cabin. Is it just me? Operator Malfunction? And Holland America has the worst web site in the World. Princess has an easy one. Norwegian is so bad.......I don't even go there. I use a TA to book RCI. BUT I loved Carnival Web Site. I fooled around there a lot. Wound up booking and taking a lot of cruises.

This is a long post.

But I am irked

Is everything in the World turning complicated? I mean.........you click a ship. You see what is available. All of the Cabins. You see the Price.

can you swing it without resorting to eating beans and cornbread ( which I like) every night for six months? OK. You can afford that cabin. So YOU BOOK it........ IS that not what a booking engine should be?

 

Keep hitting continue and when you get to the screen where they have chosen your room, look on the left side and you can edit the location and deck. When you choose another deck or even the same one, the available rooms will show up like the old site. Takes a little to get used to but you can still see available cabins.

[cobraman302]

Yeah, it is actually pretty easy, click on "confirm room and deal", then just click on "edit" on the left next to "Room #". I actually like how you can edit the section of the boat, the deck, and the room, and the type of deal "early save, etc) all on the same page. Will take a little bit to get used to, though.

[JaniceB]

Call and talk to a PVP. They can tell you every available cabin on every floor of the ship.

 

This is why I use my PVP if I have a specific requirement. Sailing with my daughter and we need 2 cabins and the website would not give us one near each other. He was able to.