Gift card warning!!!

[CuplACruzrs]

Here is a Gift Card Warning!! My daughter is a Disney travel planner. She applied a clients gift cards to their cruise account. Last February they had to cancel that cruise. She requested a refund of the gift card. Shortly after that, while expecting the return of the first gift card, they bought another gift card and booked another cruise for April 2018. So she applied the new gift card to the new cruise. Unfortunately, in December, they had to cancel that cruise also. Family emergencies do happen. Both of these cruises were cancelled prior to the final payment due date.

 

She requested a gift card refund each time the cruise was cancelled. No response for EITHER gift card. Basically, Carnival has almost $700 of their money!! :mad: When she called Carnival about it she was told that the Carnival "gift card research" department can only be reached by email!! She has emailed weekly since mid December and they have never responded!! She called again and requested to speak to a supervisor and was told again, that they have no way to contact the gift card re-issue department. Only by email. She advised them that she had been emailing them for 6 weeks and they again advised her that their was nothing they could do. :confused:

 

So my WARNING is this: Save your gift cards, whether physical or ecards, and apply them to your sail and sign account AFTER you are on board. DO NOT use them prior to traveling just in case you have to cancel.

 

And if any of you have any phone numbers, contacts, etc. that you know of to help with this situation please let me know.

 

I just used my AARP ecards on my Miracle cruise that we just got off on Saturday and it was handled very efficiently. Best way to go and to save some money also!!

:mad::mad::mad:

[firemanbobswife]

Could it be that they booked under Early Saver, therefore, not eligible for a refund but rather future cruise credit minus the $50pp administrative fee?

[bakersdozen12]

Exactly what firemanbobswife said. Most likely she’s not receiving a refund because she’s not entitle to one.

 

Also, what does a “Disney travel planner” have to do with a Carnival cruise?

 

 

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[Computer Nerd]

Here is a Gift Card Warning!! My daughter is a Disney travel planner. She applied a clients gift cards to their cruise account. Last February they had to cancel that cruise. She requested a refund of the gift card. Shortly after that, while expecting the return of the first gift card, they bought another gift card and booked another cruise for April 2018. So she applied the new gift card to the new cruise. Unfortunately, in December, they had to cancel that cruise also. Family emergencies do happen. Both of these cruises were cancelled prior to the final payment due date.

 

She requested a gift card refund each time the cruise was cancelled. No response for EITHER gift card. Basically, Carnival has almost $700 of their money!! :mad: When she called Carnival about it she was told that the Carnival "gift card research" department can only be reached by email!! She has emailed weekly since mid December and they have never responded!! She called again and requested to speak to a supervisor and was told again, that they have no way to contact the gift card re-issue department. Only by email. She advised them that she had been emailing them for 6 weeks and they again advised her that their was nothing they could do. :confused:

 

So my WARNING is this: Save your gift cards, whether physical or ecards, and apply them to your sail and sign account AFTER you are on board. DO NOT use them prior to traveling just in case you have to cancel.

 

And if any of you have any phone numbers, contacts, etc. that you know of to help with this situation please let me know.

 

I just used my AARP ecards on my Miracle cruise that we just got off on Saturday and it was handled very efficiently. Best way to go and to save some money also!!

:mad::mad::mad:

 

Why would a DISNEY travel planner be booking someone on a Carnival ship???

[CruiseGal999]

Hmmmm....good to know. I have seen a lot of posts re: gift cards.

[Stefanosthecruiselover]

The same thing happened to me with an excursion. I cancelled the excursion on December 21st and sent multiple emails throughout January with no response. I finally received a response from the gift card company yesterday (February 4th) asking me to send my address.

[Keith1010]

Thanks for sharing this experience.

 

Keith

[Schoifmom]

It’s likely that as a “Disney travel planner” she is not familiar with Carnival’s fare rules and booked under an ES rate. Those funds are held as a future cruise credit and will not be refunded.

 

I, personally, have had items paid for by gift card refunded and have never had an issue. They arrived at my door within 10-14 days.

 

 

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[teknoge3k]

Why would a DISNEY travel planner be booking someone on a Carnival ship???

 

That's the first thing that stood out to me also. Between that being an odd factor and probably booking an ES rate I can see why a refund wasn't issued. I've paid numerous cruise balances in full as well as all of my on-board spending with the discounted gift cards as well as numerous other people on this board. It seems like someone didn't know what they were doing and is now mad and trying to discourage others from using the benefits of the gift cards.

[darton]

You can call the Carnival Gift Card phone number at (866) 270-1064

[thewynn]

If the rate fare didn't entitle them to a refund Carnival should at least still contact them back and tell them "sorry, no refund due to fare type"

[Wolfhunt]

I have had some cruise lines refund the amount back to the cards used. Not sure about Carnival but I always had Disney tell me told hold onto the gift cards I used since, if I had to cancel and a refund was owed, those funds would go back to the gift card used.

 

They might want to check the balance of the used cards, it might have gone back to them if a refund was allowed.

[Schoifmom]

I have had some cruise lines refund the amount back to the cards used. Not sure about Carnival but I always had Disney tell me told hold onto the gift cards I used since, if I had to cancel and a refund was owed, those funds would go back to the gift card used.

 

They might want to check the balance of the used cards, it might have gone back to them if a refund was allowed.

 

Carnival gift cards are not reloadable.

[Wolfhunt]

Carnival gift cards are not reloadable.

 

Good to know, I’m using a bunch of the AARP ones to pay off our upcoming cruise.

[summersigh]

A good reason to have insurance.

We had to claim after final payment in December due to a med reason. The insurance didn't care what was used to pay for the cruise - only it was paid and sent us a check for the amount paid less the immediate refund from Carnival for taxes and port charges.

It was a nice relief for us.

[BookDragon]

A good reason to have insurance.

We had to claim after final payment in December due to a med reason. The insurance didn't care what was used to pay for the cruise - only it was paid and sent us a check for the amount paid less the immediate refund from Carnival for taxes and port charges.

It was a nice relief for us.

 

THIS^^^^ We chose to purchase travel insurance that covered cancellation for any reason. It was a little more expensive but I think worth the cost.

[coevan]

We recently had to cancel a cruise due to a family emergency. We had paid Cheers with AARP gift cards $1600 for a 2 week cruise. Within a week we had a $1600 gift card sent to us , port charges and taxes were credited back to my Capital One card. So far Carnival has been very compassionate, even though we had Nationwide Cruise insurance, Carnival said we could write a letter with a death notice and they "might" credit me another cruise.

[Purvis1231]

A Disney travel planner is a travel agent that specialize in Disney travel but they can book any kind of travel. They are not Disney employees.

Edited February 6, 2018 by Purvis1231
typo

[Computer Nerd]

A Disney travel planner is a travel agent that specialize in Disney travel but they can book any kind of travel. They are not Disney employees.

 

Fair enough but shouldn't someone who is a travel agent know what they are doing when working outside their area of expertise?

[Lottacruises]

I have has similiar issues in obtaining refunds with cancelled shore excursions paid with gift cards. I am happy that some of you receive your refund as promised, but there are many of us, through NO fault of our own, do not get the promised refund.

 

I am not saying this will happen to you, but beware of the possibility that it can!

[StolidCruiser]

Thanks for sharing the story of your daughter’s client having to book and cancel a cruise not once but twice having paid the deposit with gift cards not once but twice.

 

I know I would not have waited 10 months (now over a year) to question the refund of the first cancellation but apparently both your daughter and her clients did just that.

 

Why would you need phone numbers, emails and/or contacts to deal with the issue of your daughter’s clients? Isn’t that her job to know and/or have?

 

If I were to venture a guess, the issue isn’t Carnival or the gift card so your warning about using them for pre-cruise purchases is nothing more than a scare tactic to stop people from buying them.

[Lottacruises]

I doubt the op is using scare tactics, rather sharing their experience. Once you get the run-around from carnival you will understand.

As far as being nonrefundable, carnival will tell you it is non-refundable upon cancellation. They don't have an issue telling you that. What they have an issue with is refunding by means of a carnival gift card. Sometimes you get it quickly, other times you may not get it it all. I have received them quickly, and I have not received others, regardless of the amount of calls and emails that I have sent. We are all free to decide to use them or not.to me, any benefit is not worth the risk. When it happens once to you, you will understand.

[KrisB0414]

We had a similar experience using gift cards for an excursion. I cancelled the excursion and then had to make numerous phone calls for the next 8 weeks asking where my new gift card was. Each time I called I was given different information and no one seemed to know what they were doing. It was a nightmare and I will never book anything with a gift card through Carnival ever again.