Searching for Passengers left @ Port

[mrdood]

Considering a ship the size and speed of these could get to the Bahamas within an hour or so makes this even more humorous in a not humorous way. A lot of people don't realize how very close the Bahamas are to the East Coast of Florida. Get a map out, it might surprise you. To say that they "might not make it to the Bahamas in time" is asinine given that 90% of the voyage down is floating very s-l-o-w-l-y around in the Atlantic so that it does take over night to get there. Speed the ship up, cut a straighter line there, but "can't get there on time" is ridiculous.

 

90 mile trip, should take about 4 hours at normal cruising speed, they had 18 hours to do it.

 

They must have sailed around a heck of a storm....:eek:

[smgardner]

Wow- this is absolutely horrible. You should be fully reimbursed and then some. Now I am a bit paranoid.

I am crusing(first one) the Carnival Pride out of Long Beach on 4/01/07. I am getting married the night before, so I can't fly in the day before. But, we are just an hour out as we live in PHoenix. My flight arrives in Long Beach at 11:00 A.M and we cruise at 4:00 P.M. There are no connecting flights or anything like that. The LOng Beach airport is about ten minutes from the ship..Wish me luck...

Good luck with your issue. I think they should and probably will take care of you...SG

[steveaaaa]

I strongly feel that Carnival should have waited for these passengers seeing that they were on a Carnival bus. When you purchase the transfers I think it is an implied contract that Carnival will provide transportation to the airport to the ship.

 

They were not on a Carnival bus!

They were on a Mears bus.

 

Implied contract? Please explain? If they purchased cruise air and the transfers and the plane broke down and did not arrive until the next day or it was delayed as a result of weather as in this case,should CCL hold the ship?

The contract on your tickets resolves them from all liability from contractors and it clearly states "TRANFERS".

 

Steve

[Vanessa L]

90 mile trip, should take about 4 hours at normal cruising speed, they had 18 hours to do it.

 

They must have sailed around a heck of a storm....:eek:

 

Oooo, ooooo, I know, they sailed through the Bermuda triangle and suddenly reappeared at the Bahamas at the designated time. Anybody sure they had radar contact at all times??????? Hmmmm?????

[cdnprincess]

They were not on a Carnival bus!

They were on a Mears bus.

 

Implied contract? Please explain? If they purchased cruise air and the transfers and the plane broke down and did not arrive until the next day or it was delayed as a result of weather as in this case,should CCL hold the ship?

The contract on your tickets resolves them from all liability from contractors and it clearly states "TRANFERS".

 

Steve

 

I was wondering where you were.

I was on the bus at 2:50. Had we left at that time we would have made it. They were not holding the ship for the 6 or 7 passengers on the bus, there were holding it for the 5 that were late from the Delta flight. Should I not be compensated in some way? They did not at no time tell us we would have any problem. By THEY I mean CARNIVAL EMPLOYEES. I know what the contract says but it is Carnivals fault we were late. The supervisor admitted it to us. She held the bus not Mears. Even if there was some mis-communication along the way between the bus/ship/port it was at no point our fault. We were there and if the bus left at that point (which we were told it would) we would have made it before the 3:30pm time.

[cdnprincess]

90 mile trip, should take about 4 hours at normal cruising speed, they had 18 hours to do it.

 

They must have sailed around a heck of a storm....:eek:

 

 

Do you know if there was a storm. That is what I am trying to find out. I know there were storm warnings north of Orlando but not anywhere south. I am thinking that maybe (and this is opening a whole new bag here), because of the funeral of Anna Nichole Smith the ship thought the port in the Bahamas may be really busy and they wanted to get there earlier. (just one guess of many)

[cajun cruiser888]

I was booked on Sensation Mar 1-4th and Bus was late and we missed ship. I am looking for the other passengers out there that were on the same bus. Are you there?

noway!

[Iamthesea]

cnprincess - I found this thread from a passenger that was on your cruise. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=510489 . She frequents this board often, so you may watch her profile and catch her when she is posting, or post a thread using her name. Perhaps she can fill you in on some missing facts. From looking at her embarkation photos, the weather did look a tad stormy.

[mrdood]

I am thinking that maybe (and this is opening a whole new bag here), because of the funeral of Anna Nichole Smith the ship thought the port in the Bahamas may be really busy and they wanted to get there earlier. (just one guess of many)

 

Now you are really barking up the wrong tree... woof! woof!

[cdnprincess]

Now you are really barking up the wrong tree... woof! woof!

 

I thought so too, but my mind is racing!!!

[truecruiser]

yeah, it must be racing fast LOL. i don't think there were a large influx of people attending the service who were arriving via cruise ship.:p

[Mikel1733]

Did you ever contact the reporter whose name was referred to you?

[steveaaaa]

. Should I not be compensated in some way? .

I don't want to sound mean,but to answer your question.NO!

 

 

If you had/have travel insurance which I am still not sure from your prior replies, you had a covered event which was a "travel delay" as a result of a portion of your trip. You would be able to salvage the trip at the expense of the insurance company including flights,hotels,food,ect.Everything is covered.

 

If you did not,then that is the reason for having it. If all carriers are held responsible,then why is there travel insurance?

 

I still don't really understand why you would not catch the ship the next morning and salvage the trip.You only lost 16 hours.

 

I know Mears owns Mears and its employee's get paid from Mears,yet they let someone from another company control them? You will probably find out that there was no supervisor from CCL there.A regular employee,could be there but they have no more pull than a flight attendent. The bus driver is in charge.I assume that the more bodies on a bus that holds 50 people equals more money for mears and knowing that you needed to be at the pier at 3pm (leaving at 2.50)is no big deal for them as you were late already and that is contractually going to protect them.

 

You still had a vacation.

 

Just out of curiosity,what type of compensation would be acceptable to you?

 

Steve

PS. I am just thinking how a jury would have to think.

[cdnprincess]

cnprincess - I found this thread from a passenger that was on your cruise. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=510489 . She frequents this board often, so you may watch her profile and catch her when she is posting, or post a thread using her name. Perhaps she can fill you in on some missing facts. From looking at her embarkation photos, the weather did look a tad stormy.

 

Thanks I had read it and actually if you look at one of the posts she or he said it was cloudy and it rained briefly but otherwise it was great weather. I left a post but I have not recieved anything yet from them.

[mrdood]

Thanks I had read it and actually if you look at one of the posts she or he said it was cloudy and it rained briefly but otherwise it was great weather. I left a post but I have not recieved anything yet from them.

 

...thanks to the great effort of the Captain sailing around the storm!!!

[cdnprincess]

I don't want to sound mean,but to answer your question.NO!

 

 

If you had/have travel insurance which I am still not sure from your prior replies, you had a covered event which was a "travel delay" as a result of a portion of your trip. You would be able to salvage the trip at the expense of the insurance company including flights,hotels,food,ect.Everything is covered.

 

If you did not,then that is the reason for having it. If all carriers are held responsible,then why is there travel insurance?

 

I still don't really understand why you would not catch the ship the next morning and salvage the trip.You only lost 16 hours.

 

I know Mears owns Mears and its employee's get paid from Mears,yet they let someone from another company control them? You will probably find out that there was no supervisor from CCL there.A regular employee,could be there but they have no more pull than a flight attendent. The bus driver is in charge.I assume that the more bodies on a bus that holds 50 people equals more money for mears and knowing that you needed to be at the pier at 3pm (leaving at 2.50)is no big deal for them as you were late already and that is contractually going to protect them.

 

You still had a vacation.

 

Just out of curiosity,what type of compensation would be acceptable to you?

 

Steve

PS. I am just thinking how a jury would have to think.

 

I have asked for full re-imbursment. I will not get it but it won't hurt to ask. I don't know what would be acceptable. I don't want a voucher for a future cruise. This was supposed to be a special trip for us because all the stars were aligned and we had time off work and babysitters for our kids. They are still young and I would not take them on a cruise and from what I understand there is a time limit issue with these vouchers. Honestly I would even accept 1/2 and then I will go after my travel agent for the remainder.

 

I did not have insurance. We were told it would not have made a difference because they are not taking responsibility for the delay, they are blaming the airlines and that is not covered (unless you know otherwise). I was told by customer service at the Carnival 1-800 number.

 

I took 2 airplanes to get to Orlando. We were told we would need to take another flight to Miami and sit around the airport on Stand-by to get a flight to Bahamas. There was no guarantee we would get a flight. So if we did not we would need to get on another flight to go back to Orlando to get our flight out to our home towns on Sunday. If we did get to the ship we would have taken 3 airplanes to a ship just to sail back and take 2 more home. This was just a 3 day trip and I would have be traveling for all 3 days. Does that sound like a vacation? I don't think so. If this was a 7 or 10 day cruise I can understand. I wanted to see the Bahamas from the ground and not the air.

 

I did not have the vacation I paid for and wanted. I stayed in Orlando for 3 days and did not sit by the pool while being served "drinks of the day" I had to pay for my food and entertainment, where it was already paid for.

 

I can only tell you what we were told and how each person introduced themselves. I don't care who drove the bus or if someone was wearing a Carnival uniform but was not a Carnival employee. The point is I got screwed and I will not stop untill I get some resolution. The people who had insurance were not being helped either because Carnival is not taking responsibility.

[cdnprincess]

...thanks to the great effort of the Captain sailing around the storm!!!

 

Yes great effort or maybe he has a special relationship to mother nature

[fourcruisin]

Don't know if this helps or not but we sailed on the 3/3 Liberty out of Ft. Lauderdale. We spent 2 days in Lauderdale ahead of time because we know the lesson of arriving a day ahead and in this case, weather predictions were not good so at the last minute we bit the bullet, paid a change fee and flew in on Thursday 2 days ahead.

 

We me some people on the ship from RI and they told us that they booked CCL air and transfers. Their flight arrived on time and they were put on a Carnival bus and proceeded to sit at the airport for about an hour while they waited for other passengers to arrive. They were literally the last people to board the ship. We were supposed to leave Lauderdale at 4 p.m. but did not get under way until around 4:30 or 4:45. I don't know if it was because the ship waited for the late arrivals for for some other reason.

 

We only used Carnival transfers once and knew from that experience not to trust them again. We were put on bus and had to wait at the airport for over an hour for it to fill up.

 

Regardless, I hope that Carnival makes good on this for you. Sounds like they really dropped the ball.

[mrdood]

Yes great effort or maybe he has a special relationship to mother nature

 

Well what is on radar one minute can totally dissipate within an hour, so if they used weather as an excuse for departure, NOBODY can call into question that decision, it is the captains decision at that moment in time.

 

What weather that is actually encountered is totally irrelevant... nor are they responsible for it increasing or decreasing in intensity.

[cdnprincess]

Well what is on radar one minute can totally dissipate within an hour, so if they used weather as an excuse for departure, NOBODY can call into question that decision, it is the captains decision at that moment in time.

 

What weather that is actually encountered is totally irrelevant... nor are they responsible for it increasing or decreasing in intensity.

 

 

I agree. I would never put passenger's in harms way, but then why were we not told that we would never make it to the ship in time? Last communication that I knew about, we were 10 minutes out. (oh I know I know, you will tell me that the captain probably did not know we were late, I still don't believe that!) That is what we are disputing here. I think weather was just an excuse. "we were in constant communication with the ship" is what I kept hearing. Also when as we were watching the ship leave, the reps were on the phone with the Head Office and the HO was in communication with the captain and If he did not know about us, why did he not use that as an excuse instead? (of course this is what we were told.) What we are upset about is there was mis-communication somewhere and they (Carnival) are not taking any responisibility, but it seemed like they were blaming us!

 

Ok I now need to go find my Happy Place!!!

[westwingjazz]

...most experienced Carnival cruisers DO NOT book air through Carnival, but would know that flying in the day before is best. Arriving anytime after 1pm into MCO is a huge risk for making the ship. Sorry you did not do your research.

 

 

:eek: I must agree! If you absolutely have to travel the day of, select a 6:00 am or 8:00 am flight. That way you leave room for error. And always, always never depend or trust anyone to do what you can do. For example, if you had carnival's number to the ship, you could of informed them yourself that you and various other passenger were fourthcoming.

 

My next question is did you have a passport? And were you flown to the next port?

[cdnprincess]

:eek: I must agree! If you absolutely have to travel the day of, select a 6:00 am or 8:00 am flight. That way you leave room for error. And always, always never depend or trust anyone to do what you can do. For example, if you had carnival's number to the ship, you could of informed them yourself that you and various other passenger were fourthcoming.

 

My next question is did you have a passport? And were you flown to the next port?

 

I was coming from Canada, so yes I did have a passport.

we were going to be flown to Miami and then put on stand-by to Bahamas. so it was not certain. If we did make the plane we would have been there by 4:30pm on Friday and the ship would leave 7:00 Sat. It was only a 3 day trip so we did not think it was worth going to Miami and sleeping on the airport floor in case we got on the flight.

[kml2000]

Okay, I have read this entire thread and followed it for a few days. I wasn't going to post, but figured, why not?? My post is my humble opinion only.......

 

If I were to be in the OP's shoes with the same level of cruising experience, I believe I would expect some sort of compensation also. Now, I am not THAT experience with cruising, but I did learn (ONLY from these boards many years ago) to travel the day before. Had I not been an avid reader of message boards, that fact would have never occured to me.

 

If I was travelling from as far as she was, had the same level of experience, and I booked a Carnival transfer, I would have relied on what the Carnival staff aboard said also. I know that ANYTHING you do, ANYWHERE you go, the fine print resolves ANY SORT of liability. To me, it seems it would be a good will gesture of Carnival to extend some sort of compensation ALL THINGS BEING AS THE OP DESCRIBED.

 

Okay....this is where I disagree with the OP. In one of the above posts, she states she doesn't want a future cruise voucher. THAT is where I have to say that I disagree. Because of the fine print, etc, a voucher would seem acceptable to me as a good will gesture.

 

I know....I know.....this is not the "correct" legal answer, but my opinion of an appropriate good will gesture AND my OPINION only.....

 

Happy Cruising!

[cdnprincess]

Did you ever contact the reporter whose name was referred to you?

 

No I have not. I do have her name though. I am an optimist and I want to wait to see what Carnival does first before I go that route. I am in Canada, would she be able to do anything?

[cdnprincess]

Okay....this is where I disagree with the OP. In one of the above posts, she states she doesn't want a future cruise voucher. THAT is where I have to say that I disagree. Because of the fine print, etc, a voucher would seem acceptable to me as a good will gesture.

*****************

 

The only reason I would accept a voucher is if it does not have an expiration date (if that is the correct way of saying it) It was very difficult to get someone to watch my 4 yr old twins for me for a few days, and I feel bad asking again if Carnival gave me the vouchers and told me I need to use them in the next year. I do travel with my kids, but I am not sure a cruise would be good for them at this young age.

 

That would be the only reason I did not want it. I also do not want to be unreasonable and I am willing to take blame here for not doing my homework, but being that I am not an experienced cruiser I put my trust in Carnival and my travel agent.