OPEN LETTER TO CCL ON THE MARDI GRAS CANCELLATIONS

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

On 12/23/2019 at 5:33 PM, FSHLOT said:

I get it, i posted a year, but its only 8 months. Still have plenty of time to change plans. Not arguing the disappointment either. 

If when you booked you received the $100 from Carnival for booking that cruise. You loose it. You do not get it on the next Carnival cruise you book. I also lost the $50.00 I received from my TA for the Bar credit. So I lost $150.00 However. I did receive $100 for me and my wife OBC and a refund which was $88.00 to much. They sent me a refund that included my TAs commission. Not to worry. They are not taking it back from me and they are making sure she receives hers. So she actually makes out and so do we. Now she received another commission by booking the Sunshine for us for this coming Halloween and also rebooked the Carnival Mardi Gras for 2021. 

[gatour]

On 12/22/2019 at 2:23 PM, docsdrillers said:

Many thanks for providing your example.

 

Now I can use this precedent to hopefully get them to agree to my proposal..

after all a precedent has been set.

Legally precedents carry a lot of weight in rulings ..so many thanks..

There was no legal precedent set.  The cruise line offered it out of the goodness of their heart.  To set a legal precedent, it needs to go to court.  In your case they may or may not give you something to your liking.  If not you need to take them to court (most likely a court of their choice, see your actual contract about suing the cruiseline and the court of choice)

 

 

On 12/22/2019 at 3:33 PM, docsdrillers said:

Clearly our math calculations don’t align.

if I use my FCC of 1810.00 on another cruise then I’m in a cabin at an 1810.00 discount..so they lost 1810.00 compared to the price another person would have paid.

If I spend that 1810.00 as OBC then their loss is significantly less.

if I buy 10/day wifi pass at 120.00 on 12 day cruise what is their cost..zero..the wifi is on anyways.

If I buy a 80/ day drink package do you think their cost is 80.00..it’s probably 10-15% of that and only if I drank a lot..which we don’t...

Actually the pour cost is about 20-25% plus the drink package includes the tips along with the nominal salary of the bartenders/servers.

 

The Wifi cost to the cruise line is not zero.  They have to have the uplinks/downlinks, wifi routers along with maintaining said hardware by technicians.  The actual company that provides internet service through their satellites want payment from the cruise lines, so again their is a cost.  In summary wifi is not "free" to the cruise line.

 

Again I hope you get the compensation you desire.  You may or may not.  Eight months out you have a chance to make alternate plans.

[kgb46]

On 12/22/2019 at 10:32 AM, jimbo5544 said:

I agree with the last comment, while I do not know the reason(s) for the delay, I cannot fathom a miss by that length of time without the ship builder being at fault, especially with a similar experience on their last build.  

Jimbo554, you are correct.  It is the ship builders fault.  They are the one in control of everything that goes into that ship until they hand it over to Carnival.  I am one of those who was booked for the sailing out of New York.  Even though I am not happy, I understand that things happen but they really screwed up on this one causing 8 sailings to be cancelled.  I feel Carnival is generous with what they offered and the way they offered it.  I would not want OBC instead of a FCC as the OP suggest.  I don't shop on the ships and I will only consume a few drinks during the week.  I want it to go towards the cruise and the difference will come back to me.  I am not happy with all of the work I am having to put in to change things but I have gotten most of it done.  And I would now like for Carnival to offer me a hunk of a man to stand over me the entire cruise and rub lotion on my back and fan me if I get too hot.  But that might be asking for a bit too much.

 

[BlerkOne]

Cruise lines under the Carnival Corp umbrella are separate business units with Carnival being by far the largest under the umbrella. Corp isn't going to spread Carnival's problems or expenses to other cruise lines. Forget about it.

[BlerkOne]

If by excursions you mean non-Carnival excursions, that is all on you - you accepted all risk.

[skrufy]

On 12/21/2019 at 4:32 PM, WhaleTailFlCruiser said:

they offered all of us on canceled Mardi Gras sailings full refunds 25% FCC and if we rebook by February an extra $100 OBC.

Just to clarify. The 25% FCC is 25% of the price you booked on the Mardi Gras.

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

On 12/21/2019 at 5:32 PM, WhaleTailFlCruiser said:

they offered all of us on canceled Mardi Gras sailings full refunds 25% FCC and if we rebook by February an extra $100 OBC.

That OBC is per person. Nice.

[BlerkOne]

On 12/21/2019 at 2:17 PM, twodaywonder said:

100% correct. Plus you do not get all the perks that you would with a great TA. The cruise price might be the same but sometimes it is less, a lot less. The cruise line will not tell you if the price went down. My TA does and if there was added perks since I booked. My cruise on the Island Princess for next year went down over $1,300.00. All I needed to do was accept a 100 OBC loss. A no brainer. Doing the booking yourself you may never know.

 

Truly great TAs are likely outnumbered by crappy TAs and many more mediocre TAs. It isn't hard to monitor prices especially if you are on a Cruise Critic rolls call and others are likely doing it for you.

[Purvis1231]

This ship is being built with a new technology so it is not surprising there are delays. The same happened to other ships with this propulsion system.) I thinks a vacation set for next fall can be rearranged without too much trouble. Those who are still booked may also have to change their plans if the ship is still not ready. Be flexible and enjoy. 

Edited December 30, 2019 by Purvis1231
typo

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

27 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

 

Truly great TAs are likely outnumbered by crappy TAs and many more mediocre TAs. It isn't hard to monitor prices especially if you are on a Cruise Critic rolls call and others are likely doing it for you.

It took up some time to end up with a great TA. Even if you monitor prices. Mine does it for me and many times there company offers prices lower than you can find anywhere.They also offer nice perks and additional OBC from there company. So to each there own. I still check for myself. Just to make sure. There are things a TA can do that I cannot.

[mouche]

I was actually happy with what Carnival offered although very disappointed I will not be sailing for Halloween on our cancelled Oct 31st, 2020, we did rebook Mardi Gras for Feb 6th 2021 (Super Bowl) that made my husband a happy camper and he saved $619.00. 

[docsdrillers]

It's now January 12th and i haven't received my refund yet...never received a letter from Carnival or any form of communication from them.

 

To those of you who berated us when we complained about the cancellation,here is an update.

No one seems to know what they are doing...at least in my case.

On one hand i'm being told don't change my flight until i've been approved by Carnival and then also told to change my flight and submit the non waived fees to Carnival.

 

I've been asked to get a letter from Westjet airlines that they won't waive the fees..i've spoken to several supervisors who told me they don't give such letters and it's between me and Carnival and not for them to be involved.

 

I can't tell you how frustrating this whole situation has been..i've wasted countless hours on the phone and by email to Airlines,my Travel Agency and Carnival who won't speak to me since it was booked through an agency.

 

They won't speak to me yet ask me to send in information..seems ironic to me..

 

Once again these issues pertain to those of us who were booked on the Europe portion ot Transatlantic flights and not cancelled Caribbean cruises which were easy to rebook.

 

[rvsullivan]

1 hour ago, docsdrillers said:

It's now January 12th and i haven't received my refund yet...never received a letter from Carnival or any form of communication from them.

 

To those of you who berated us when we complained about the cancellation,here is an update.

No one seems to know what they are doing...at least in my case.

On one hand i'm being told don't change my flight until i've been approved by Carnival and then also told to change my flight and submit the non waived fees to Carnival.

 

I've been asked to get a letter from Westjet airlines that they won't waive the fees..i've spoken to several supervisors who told me they don't give such letters and it's between me and Carnival and not for them to be involved.

 

I can't tell you how frustrating this whole situation has been..i've wasted countless hours on the phone and by email to Airlines,my Travel Agency and Carnival who won't speak to me since it was booked through an agency.

 

They won't speak to me yet ask me to send in information..seems ironic to me..

 

Once again these issues pertain to those of us who were booked on the Europe portion ot Transatlantic flights and not cancelled Caribbean cruises which were easy to rebook.

 

It seems you should be dealing 100% with your TA and not Carnival? Your TA should be dealing with the airlines and Carnival on your behalf! You should not be talking to Carnival or getting any direction from them! What is your TA doing in all this??

[docsdrillers]

My agency isn't a full service one which books all your flights,transfers etc but an online large Cruise Outlet.

They have contacted Carnival on my behalf and what i posted is information they relayed to me.

 

So even agencies are getting the run around from Carnival as to what are the proper procedures to follow to get reimbursement.

 

This sin't a new problem with cruise line customer service agents...so many threads and comments deal with getting different information every time they call in and speak to another agent.

 

According to Carnivals letter we really didn't need to do anything to get the cruise deposit credited back to our card.

Since we were booked on the inaugural i assumed they would start there with refunds since we were the first sailing cancelled.

 

[silversneakers]

22 hours ago, docsdrillers said:

My agency isn't a full service one which books all your flights,transfers etc but an online large Cruise Outlet.

They have contacted Carnival on my behalf and what i posted is information they relayed to me.

 

So even agencies are getting the run around from Carnival as to what are the proper procedures to follow to get reimbursement.

 

This sin't a new problem with cruise line customer service agents...so many threads and comments deal with getting different information every time they call in and speak to another agent.

 

According to Carnivals letter we really didn't need to do anything to get the cruise deposit credited back to our card.

Since we were booked on the inaugural i assumed they would start there with refunds since we were the first sailing cancelled.

 

My personal opinion is they are waiting for the" re book by" deadline to pass.  If you are not going to re book anything, I would call Revenue Accounting @ CCL (or have your TA call) and tell them you are not re booking anything and ask for the refund process to begin. 

[lasekeye]

We had to call TWICE and talk with our Carnival PVP, requesting cruise refunds.  The first time she said she would be able to process the cruise portion for both of our B2B cruises (1 we booked with her, the other was with a big box store).

 

A few weeks later, with no refunds processed yet, we called her again where she told me  she was only able to process the refund for the segment that she booked....but she would do that right away.  I called the big box store, they had me on hold to confirm with Carnival, then within 10 min they assured me the refund was being processed.

 

As of last night, we have all of our cruise $$ back (we hadn’t paid it in full), now we are waiting for cheques in the mail for Air and hotel.

 

so...even though the “Carnival Letter” said they were going to process refunds right away....they didn’t, don’t wait...call the booking agent you originally used to purchase the cruise to get your cruise refunded.