Carnival’s Text Alert Service

[Organized Chaos]

There's been a lot of discussions about being notified of the cruises that have been cancelled thus far, as well as those that will more than likely be cancelled next month, and possibly beyond that. We were discussing alternate means of being notified, in addition to the emails, in another thread and I was reminded of Carnival's text alert service. At some point before our cruises, my wife & I have always gotten text messages asking us if we wanted to opt in to the service for that particular booking. You accept by replying "ALERT" and you'll get a confirmation text.

 

You can read more about it here: https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2541/~/carnival’s-mobile-text-travel-alert-service

 

In reading the Terms of Service, one of the features that's specifically mentioned is being alerted to cancellations. I realized that I haven't seen anyone on here mention receiving one of these text messages for their cruises that have already been cancelled. So the big question is, has anyone who's already had your cruise cancelled, and who opted in to this service, received an alert to notify you of said cancellation?

 

We always opt in when we get the text. It seems like a logical way to get the word out about cancellations. What say you?

Edited March 30, 2020 by Host Carolyn

[Joe817]

I replied in the other thread about not being able to sign up for the Text Travel Alert Service. In following the link, I cannot find out WHERE to sign up. I cannot do online check in until after June 15. Am I out of luck before then. I'd really like to sign up for it. 

[bury me at sea]

Joe I honestly can't remember but something is tickling my brain about doing it in response to a text message and doing it more than once.

 

Is it possible Carnival sends a mass text for each cruise after a certain date - possibly check-in?

 

I hope someone with a better memory than mine chimes in.

[xDisconnections]

Thanks for pushing this discussion topic. A simple SMS message is the quickest and most effective form of communication these days. It would be a shame if Carnival wasn’t using this to advise passengers if their vacations were cancelled. A simple message with a couple of words, followed by a shortened link for full details, would be great when combined with the official email.

 

Passengers shouldn’t be finding out about cancellations through a message board. It’s unacceptable.

Edited March 30, 2020 by xDisconnections

[bury me at sea]

2 minutes ago, xDisconnections said:

 

Passengers shouldn’t be finding out about cancellations through a message board. It’s unacceptable.

 

In my opinion it is also unacceptable to make official announcements via Facebook and Twitter.

 

Texts and/or e-mails in addition to banners on the Website are all acceptable for official communication.

[Organized Chaos]

1 hour ago, Joe817 said:

I replied in the other thread about not being able to sign up for the Text Travel Alert Service. In following the link, I cannot find out WHERE to sign up. I cannot do online check in until after June 15. Am I out of luck before then. I'd really like to sign up for it. 

 

I don't think there's a way to sign up for it manually. They first have to send you the initial text in order to opt in. You opt in by replying "ALERT" and your booking number. The bit about online check-in says you can opt out of the messages using the online check-in. But you have to opt in to them first. You can also opt out by replying a certain phrase to the original message.

 

For our 12/2/19 cruise, we got the first text on 9/3/19. That date wasn't significant. Our final payment date wasn't until October. For our 3/7/20 cruise, I got the text on 12/22/19. Again, no real significance to that date; although, it was the day before our final payment date, but I don't think that was relevant. My wife, on the other hand, got it the first time on 12/7, but she didn't reply to opt in. So she got it again on 12/21, and opted in. It seems like it's sort of random as to when you get it.

 

Do you remember getting one for your cruise last year?

Edited March 30, 2020 by Organized Chaos

[Organized Chaos]

15 minutes ago, bury me at sea said:

Joe I honestly can't remember but something is tickling my brain about doing it in response to a text message and doing it more than once.

 

Is it possible Carnival sends a mass text for each cruise after a certain date - possibly check-in?

 

I hope someone with a better memory than mine chimes in.

 

Evidently, they'll (sometimes) send it more than once if you don't opt in the first time. Or at least that's what they did with my wife. I never got one when she got hers the first time. Also, if you have more than one booking, it looks like they'll send you a text for each one as long as you have your cell number listed for the booking. For example, on our Horizon cruise, our son and his friend had their own cabin. I guess my wife's cell number was listed under their booking because she got a text for our booking and for theirs. They came one right after another. As noted in my other post, it doesn't appear to be related to online check-in or final payment date.

[xDisconnections]

13 minutes ago, bury me at sea said:

 

In my opinion it is also unacceptable to make official announcements via Facebook and Twitter.

 

Texts and/or e-mails in addition to banners on the Website are all acceptable for official communication.

Agreed.

 

Despite social media having a very high potential reach, it should only be used to supplement an announcement.

[TomCruise48]

Had a CCL cruise booked for 3/22 and a S2S RCCL cruise booked for 3/28 from same port.  Received multiple texts and e-mails from RCCL regarding their cancellation, but just one e-mail from CCL.  RCCL has done a much better job of keeping us informed.

[Organized Chaos]

4 minutes ago, TomCruise48 said:

Had a CCL cruise booked for 3/22 and a S2S RCCL cruise booked for 3/28 from same port.  Received multiple texts and e-mails from RCCL regarding their cancellation, but just one e-mail from CCL.  RCCL has done a much better job of keeping us informed.

 

That's a shame. Carnival has this system in place, but doesn't seem to be using it. As I mentioned in another thread, they say another feature of this alert service is payment reminders. When our final payment date was approaching last Dec. for our cruise earlier this month, we came right down to the wire paying off the last little bit of balance because we were waiting for one of our discounted gift cards that had been delayed because of the holiday season. That would've been a perfect time for Carnival to issue a "payment reminder" via their text alert service, but we didn't get one. They're missing a great opportunity to reach A LOT of people with important messages.

 

I hope more people reply to this thread with their experience. I'd love to know if anyone got one of these texts alerting them to their recent cancellation.

[xDisconnections]

21 minutes ago, TomCruise48 said:

Had a CCL cruise booked for 3/22 and a S2S RCCL cruise booked for 3/28 from same port.  Received multiple texts and e-mails from RCCL regarding their cancellation, but just one e-mail from CCL.  RCCL has done a much better job of keeping us informed.

Glad to see you found use of this and were satisfied by the service you received from Royal Caribbean. Whenever someone’s experience is going to be impacted or interrupted, the provider should be taking every step possible to share the information and assume responsibility of ensuring said passenger is aware — or at least, make every attempt possible. A single email simply isn’t enough.

 

How would you (the general you, not you directly @TomCruise48) feel arriving at a closed hotel due to Covid-19 or arriving at an oversold hotel at 1:00am to find out you were being relocated without any prior communication from the company? I’m sure you would be disappointed.

Edited March 30, 2020 by xDisconnections

[Wanna_Cruize]

1 hour ago, Organized Chaos said:

There's been a lot of discussions about being notified of the cruises that have been cancelled thus far, as well as those that will more than likely be cancelled next month, and possibly beyond that. We were discussing alternate means of being notified, in addition to the emails, in another thread and I was reminded of Carnival's text alert service. At some point before our cruises, my wife & I have always gotten text messages asking us if we wanted to opt in to the service for that particular booking. You accept by replying "ALERT" and you'll get a confirmation text.

 

You can read more about it here: https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2541/~/carnival’s-mobile-text-travel-alert-service

 

In reading the Terms of Service, one of the features that's specifically mentioned is being alerted to cancellations. I realized that I haven't seen anyone on here mention receiving one of these text messages for their cruises that have already been cancelled. So the big question is, has anyone who's already had your cruise cancelled, and who opted in to this service, received an alert to notify you of said cancellation?

 

We always opt in when we get the text. It seems like a logical way to get the word out about cancellations. What say you?

 

I've already signed up for Text Alerts for my April 11th cruise and have received nothing (yet). I always sign up for the text alerts when I do the online check-in, but I never got anything for our March 13th cruise that was cancelled by Carnival, just the email.

[Organized Chaos]

If anyone isn't familiar with these texts, they look like this. Opt In (left) & Opt Out (right)...

 

 

 

The blank spaces are our old booking number. Before anyone comments about me being paranoid, I have no idea how Carnival's system handles old booking numbers to past cruises. This being the internet and all, I didn't want to take the chance of that info. still being relevant somehow, so I chose to err on the side of caution.

[Joe817]

Don't blame you at all O.C. !  Wise judgement on your pare, IMO.  And I honestly don't remember them sending me an invite to join them on this text alert thing. But I've slept since them and I'm prone to seniors moments. LOL.   And of course, I can't check my cel phone because the battery's dead & I'm charging it right now. But I do have the hub app installed on it. I might be able to gleen some info off of it and log in that way.  As always, thanks for your response. 

[Organized Chaos]

I can see where this is going. It doesn't appear that Carnival is using this texting service as it was intended. Why not? It's such an easy, efficient way to reach a lot of passengers. Combined with the emails, they could probably cover every passenger on any given cruise. Or come real close to it. It's dumb not to use it.

 

Here's an excerpt from their TOS: "Payment reminder and cancellation texts will be limited to five (5) texts before the commencement of your voyage. The number of sailing alerts will depend on the voyage booked but will not exceed ten (10) per voyage. Consent is not required as a condition of purchase."

They clearly thought it through when they created this system. Now they just need to follow up after sending out the opt-in messages. Why even send them out if they're not going to use it?

[Mike1733]

Where and How can you sign up for it.  Anything is better than the nothing I am getting now.

 

[Organized Chaos]

5 minutes ago, Joe817 said:

Don't blame you at all O.C. !  Wise judgement on your pare, IMO.  And I honestly don't remember them sending me an invite to join them on this text alert thing. But I've slept since them and I'm prone to seniors moments. LOL.   And of course, I can't check my cel phone because the battery's dead & I'm charging it right now. But I do have the hub app installed on it. I might be able to gleen some info off of it and log in that way.  As always, thanks for your response. 

 

The Hub app won't be of any use right now. About all it's good for when you're not on a ship is acting as a countdown clock.

 

My wife and I just happened to still have the text messages saved on our phones. In fact, they all came from the same number (a 6-digit number with a dash in the middle), so each Opt-In text for three different cruises were all in the same string of texts.

[Joe817]

Thanks. I'll keep searching as I don't think that will benefit me any. I think my best bet is to keep digging until I find something. Besides, it's kinda fun to dig. 

[Organized Chaos]

4 minutes ago, Mike1733 said:

Where and How can you sign up for it.  Anything is better than the nothing I am getting now.

 

Mike, you should get an Opt-In text from Carnival (post #13 above) as long as you have your cell phone number entered in your booking info. There doesn't seem to be a set date as to when they send these out. Look at post #6 above to see an example of when we got ours. But it's looking like this alert system isn't going to do you any good either because it appears they aren't even using it for these recent cancellations.

[Mike1733]

8 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

Mike, you should get an Opt-In text from Carnival (post #13 above) as long as you have your cell phone number entered in your booking info. There doesn't seem to be a set date as to when they send these out. Look at post #6 above to see an example of when we got ours. But it's looking like this alert system isn't going to do you any good either because it appears they aren't even using it for these recent cancellations.

Thanks, I will check our booking page and see if there is an option I did not check.  Any Idea if and when this big announcement will be?

 

[Organized Chaos]

39 minutes ago, Mike1733 said:

Any Idea if and when this big announcement will be?

 

Nope, no idea, and since that's a hot topic in another thread, I'm going to steer clear of it in this one. LOL

[TomCruise48]

1 hour ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

That's a shame. Carnival has this system in place, but doesn't seem to be using it.

We booked both our CCL and RCCL cruises through the same TA.  RCCL seems to send out information to the guest and TA simultaneously.  CCL seems to send information to the TA and relies on the TA to pass it on to the guest.  I hope CCL reconsiders this policy.  With things changing so rapidly, the situation could have changed again before the TA is able to contact the guest. 

 

The only e-mail that we received directly from CCL was on 3/14 at 12:38 am alerting us that our 3/22 cruise was cancelled.  We received both a text and e-mail from RCCL on 3/13 at 8:32 pm telling us that our 3/28 cruise was cancelled.  (Trump had already tweeted a few hours earlier that cruises would be canceled for a month, so we were expecting to hear from the cruise lines.)  I had assumed that those who booked directly with CCL were being notified directly by them.  

[xDisconnections]

2 minutes ago, TomCruise48 said:

I had assumed that those who booked directly with CCL were being notified directly by them.  

Guest feedback suggests Carnival only sent the same email that you received.

 

If you weren’t aware from the social media post by the President several hours earlier and you weren’t expecting any communication from the cruise line, do you think what you received was enough?

[jimbo5544]

14 minutes ago, xDisconnections said:

Guest feedback suggests Carnival only sent the same email that you received.

 

If you weren’t aware from the social media post by the President several hours earlier and you weren’t expecting any communication from the cruise line, do you think what you received was enough?

I was sailing the next day and only received the email.

[xDisconnections]

Just now, jimbo5544 said:

I was sailing the next day and only received the email.

Yikes.