Searching for Passengers left @ Port

[Vanessa L]

Does anyone know if travel insurance covers you if you are left at the dock by a cruiseline error?? I'm not asking speculatively, but realistically by someone who's either had this experinence and been reimbursed or someone who truly knows the ins and outs of the insurance policy. The only reason I ask is I know that insurance companies tend to give us the same run around that Carnival is giving OP and look for a reason not to reimburse us. Even if they do eventually reimburse, they make us jump through so many hoops to get it that it borders on not being worth it.

[BettyB2]

I did not book my flight through Carnival (another error I now know) and I never thought of taking a cab.

 

I never book air with CCL, resorts or any other cruise lines we have traveled with - much MUCH cheaper to book your own airfare. We just fly in one day early and try to find hotel with free airport to hotel and free hotel to port transportation

 

Best advice - fly in one day early!!!

 

I am so sorry you missed your cruise - it would have broke my heart

[turkeytoes75]

I'm so sorry you missed the cruise, and I hope that Carnival takes care of you. I think if I were you I'd call them serveral times and talk to several different people. It seems that every time we call to ask something, we get a different answer!! We'll be going on our 5th cruise in Sept. and the first two we flew in the same day, but now we always fly in the day before. We have gone on a few other vacations that weren't on cruises and our flights were way messed up. So we have learned to always go early.

[cdnprincess]

Unfortunately too many people feel that they do not need travel insurance...do you have any idea how much it costs to be airlifted off of an island in a medical emergency and how many personal health insurance policies do not cover it??? Young or old anything unexpected can happen...at one point I never took travel insurance, but after reading some bad stories here on the boards I never go without it...I am traveling on the Carnival Freedom next week and purchased insurance as I did for my Carnival Glory cruise 2 yrs ago...

 

Good luck with your situation...I do not blame you for being upset...when I took an Alaskan cruise a few yrs back I also flew in the day before as I am doing for my Med. cruise...too many things can go wrong especially when bad weather is involved.

 

 

I would never travel without medical insurance. I have travel insurance with my company that is why I did not purchase it with my travels. I usually get cancellation ins. but I was not planning on cancelling and it was last minute. I am waiting for a response from my own ins. to see if anything is covered.

 

But I was reading the Carnival Ins. and it does not say that we would be covered unless there was a medical emergency and we could not get to the port in time, so I doubt we would have been covererd anyway.'

[Iamthesea]

Just out of curiosity, what did you do in Orlando while awaiting your next flight home?

[Mary Louise]

For my FEB 17 cruise on the Liberty, both my husband and I booked our air on our own. We too fly out the day before so we would not miss the ship. This time our flight was 4.5 hours late (not storm related) and we missed our connecting flight to FLL. We could not leave Washington DC until the following morning. Because this was a peak travel week, we had to fly to 3 airports to get to FLL. Our flight was scheduled to arrive at 2:55 and the ship was leaving at 4:00 PM.

 

I called Carnival to let them know that we may miss the ship. The person that I spoke with told me that every minute that they ship stays in port, there is a $1000.00 fine per minute.

 

We touched down at 3:55 as our flight was delayed flying into FLL. We jumped in to take a cab and arrived at the pier at 4:25. Luckily the ship was there. The reason why it was, is because a Carnival bus picked up passengers at FLL and took them to the Port of Miami to a different Carnival ship. Upon this error the bus drove to Port Everglades. The ship did wait for them.

 

This certainly was to our advantage. Had this not occurred we would have missed our ship.

 

I always felt that flying out the day before gave us a comfort level, but now I know different. Our Flight was scheduled to leave at 2:08 so it was not an evening flight. I think in the future I will fly our the first flight of the morning the day before.

 

 

 

ML

[njs]

For my FEB 17 cruise on the Liberty, both my husband and I booked our air on our own. We too fly out the day before so we would not miss the ship. This time our flight was 4.5 hours late (not storm related) and we missed our connecting flight to FLL. We could not leave Washington DC until the following morning. Because this was a peak travel week, we had to fly to 3 airports to get to FLL. Our flight was scheduled to arrive at 2:55 and the ship was leaving at 4:00 PM.

 

I called Carnival to let them know that we may miss the ship. The person that I spoke with told me that every minute that they ship stays in port, there is a $1000.00 fine per minute.

 

We touched down at 3:55 as our flight was delayed flying into FLL. We jumped in to take a cab and arrived at the pier at 4:25. Luckily the ship was there. The reason why it was, is because a Carnival bus picked up passengers at FLL and took them to the Port of Miami to a different Carnival ship. Upon this error the bus drove to Port Everglades. The ship did wait for them.

 

This certainly was to our advantage. Had this not occurred we would have missed our ship.

 

I always felt that flying out the day before gave us a comfort level, but now I know different. Our Flight was scheduled to leave at 2:08 so it was not an evening flight. I think in the future I will fly our the first flight of the morning the day before.

 

 

 

ML

 

Which is why, if at all possible, we fly in a day early and we fly direct- yes I know, a direct flight can also have problems and be delayed, but you dont have to worry about flight connections

[Boston6]

Above he said he was on Carnival's bus.

 

He's looking for people that were on the same bus, not for everyone to ask questions and jump on the Carnival bandwagon.

 

 

Carnival out of MCO uses Mears Transportation. Anyone can walk up and pay $25 or so to go to Port Canaveral. Certainly, Carnival should have waited for this bus to arrive before leaving.

[dan40]

The thing that amazes me is that, IF the bus was in contact with the ship, it makes NO sense to leave 17 pax at the dock. 1. Its a problem that WILL have to be addressed by CCL sometime. 2. 17 pax will spend up to $500 pp and more! 3. Once expenses are covered [and by sailing day they are well covered] EVERY extra dollar is almost pure profit. So from a PR point of view or an administrative or a financial view, it makes no sense. The $1000. a minute fine I disregard, the info from a min. wage clerk is hardly gospel. And if true it is almost a wash money wise knowing the pax were within sight of the ship.

This is a crazy situation.

 

Dan

[Mary Louise]

I certainly agree that direct flights are great. The airport that I fly out of does not have direct flights to FLL. This was not an option.

 

I have a friend who flew on a direct flight to TPA, but the airline made an unscheduled stop in NC to pick up flight crew.

 

This delayed them and they missed their cruise by 10 minutes as well. The airline told them that they guarantee destination and not time.

 

I am now seriously considering insurance for future cruises. I have been lucky so far, but this really did shed some light on what could go wrong.

ML

[DolphinFan]

We have about two hours in New York. I have been checking the long range weather report constantly since last Friday when we had an ice storm but the weather looks fine for this weekend.

I actually do the meet and greet for Air Canda (not sure which arline your flying into) but you have to figure if your plane actually lands at 2pm, it will take you 15 minutes to get to your luggage and sometime it can take up to 30 minutes for the luggage to roll (I have seen it take American up to 45 minutes!). I would absolutely try to get an earlier flight as the last buses are now leaving NO LATER THAN 2:45 and that is cutting it close!

[DolphinFan]

For my FEB 17 cruise on the Liberty, both my husband and I booked our air on our own. We too fly out the day before so we would not miss the ship. This time our flight was 4.5 hours late (not storm related) and we missed our connecting flight to FLL. We could not leave Washington DC until the following morning. Because this was a peak travel week, we had to fly to 3 airports to get to FLL. Our flight was scheduled to arrive at 2:55 and the ship was leaving at 4:00 PM.

 

I called Carnival to let them know that we may miss the ship. The person that I spoke with told me that every minute that they ship stays in port, there is a $1000.00 fine per minute.

 

We touched down at 3:55 as our flight was delayed flying into FLL. We jumped in to take a cab and arrived at the pier at 4:25. Luckily the ship was there. The reason why it was, is because a Carnival bus picked up passengers at FLL and took them to the Port of Miami to a different Carnival ship. Upon this error the bus drove to Port Everglades. The ship did wait for them.

 

This certainly was to our advantage. Had this not occurred we would have missed our ship.

 

I always felt that flying out the day before gave us a comfort level, but now I know different. Our Flight was scheduled to leave at 2:08 so it was not an evening flight. I think in the future I will fly our the first flight of the morning the day before.

 

 

 

ML

Mary, you are right. When the ships are told to leave, they are issued HUGE fines if they wait. Carnival and Mears can call all they want, but when the Captain is told to go, he must.

[deborahjo]

We always fly in a day early and look at it as another day of our vacation. We just explore the area around the hotel.

[cdnprincess]

What we were told was that the bus is in constant communication with the ship and they know where we were and how far out we were. I was sitting behind the Carnival rep and could here her say "we are 10 min out". We were never told about the fines. If there were fines, why would we wait for the Delta passengers and not leave with just the 12 on board? We waited for 5 passengers. I keep telling people we were only 10 min out. I can't believe it myself but it was 10 minutes! We are not talking hours like I have heard before. I just find it hard to believe they could not wait 10 min. I don't know if there were other concerns or problems because all we are told was that the captain was concerned about weather. The weather seemed fine to me and I did check reports on the internet and nothing. I don't know what he knew, but even so we were right there driving into port. It is not like we were still hours away. I am still shaking my head.:confused:

[StuartLittle]

Mary, you are right. When the ships are told to leave, they are issued HUGE fines if they wait. Carnival and Mears can call all they want, but when the Captain is told to go, he must.

 

This really makes no difference. Carnival is still responsible to their customer. The customer boarded the bus within the set time period. They had a duty to get them on board and they didn't. They owe the customer compensation.

[cdnprincess]

Just out of curiosity, what did you do in Orlando while awaiting your next flight home?

 

 

We could not fly home because Toronto was having a bad storm and we did not know when the planes could take off again. We were told we can "hang out" at the airport and go on stand by, but the thought of spending my romantic getaway in the airport made me want to cry. So, we booked a hotel and got a rental car and did the tourist thing in Orlando. The money we could have spent on the cruise we spent in Orlando and went to Seaworld and Universal Studios.

[Vanessa L]

What we were told was that the bus is in constant communication with the ship and they know where we were and how far out we were. I was sitting behind the Carnival rep and could here her say "we are 10 min out". We were never told about the fines. If there were fines, why would we wait for the Delta passengers and not leave with just the 12 on board? We waited for 5 passengers. I keep telling people we were only 10 min out. I can't believe it myself but it was 10 minutes! We are not talking hours like I have heard before. I just find it hard to believe they could not wait 10 min. I don't know if there were other concerns or problems because all we are told was that the captain was concerned about weather. The weather seemed fine to me and I did check reports on the internet and nothing. I don't know what he knew, but even so we were right there driving into port. It is not like we were still hours away. I am still shaking my head.:confused:

 

All valid points, cdn, and you and the other 16 people have certainly been in my thoughts. I just feel so bad for you and cannot fathom how I would have reacted if this had happened to me. As we say in the South (where I am originally from)...bless your heart.

[phlydude]

We fly in a day early and take the earliest flight of the day we can. Usually, no matter what the circumstance of the previous day, that 5:55 AM flight will be there when you arrive. Failure to have the plane there causes the airline to be off it's schedule on every leg that they were depending on that plane for along with holding planes at other aiprorts to accomodate those passengers.

 

As for long wait times...you have never flown dealt with PHL and US Air, have you? I have waited 2 hours for my bags in PHL...not fun

[Mary Louise]

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.

 

CDNPRINCESS Good luck with Carnival. Hopefully they will see that they were wrong and make it right for you. My heart does go out to you.

ML

[Illinoisgal]

Carnival must have gotten a hefty fine on 11/11/06 the Elation was to leave at 4 we left closer to 6 never found out why. the glory was ahead of us in the canal and left 1.5 hours late that day.

[Adeena62]

If she was on a Carnival bus they should have waited.

End of story.

 

Exactly

[cdnprincess]

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.

 

CDNPRINCESS Good luck with Carnival. Hopefully they will see that they were wrong and make it right for you. My heart does go out to you.

ML

 

I forgot to tell you all that there were 2 people at the pier (not from our bus), and I don't know how they got there, but they were left stranded too. I did not see a bus or anything so I assume they got there on their own, but they did not look happy. If I got there on my own I can understand the hesitation, but being the gullable gal that I am, I believed we would be on the ship or if not we would be somehow compensated. Boy did I learn my lesson, travel the day before!!!

[Vanessa L]

Carnival must have gotten a hefty fine on 11/11/06 the Elation was to leave at 4 we left closer to 6 never found out why. the glory was ahead of us in the canal and left 1.5 hours late that day.

 

If I'm understanding what I'm reading, they are not fined if they just don't leave on time, rather, if they are told by the port authority (or whomever directs that sort of thing) to leave and they don't for whatever reason. It's been ages since I've been on a ship that actually left on time (whether it's a few minutes to an hour or more), I don't think they fine them each time or they would way be in the red, I think.

[cdnprincess]

If I'm understanding what I'm reading, they are not fined if they just don't leave on time, rather, if they are told by the port authority (or whomever directs that sort of thing) to leave and they don't for whatever reason. It's been ages since I've been on a ship that actually left on time (whether it's a few minutes to an hour or more), I don't think they fine them each time or they would way be in the red, I think.

 

I did not know about the fine. Carnival's excuse was weather related and the possibility of fines were never mentioned.

[aimo]

Booking cruise line air is no guarantee of anything. They are only "acting as your agent" and take no responsibility for you making the sailing. They will usually wait as they know how many pax they have on any given flight. Unless there are only a few pax, then, like or not, the ship will sail without them. Sounds like they are applying the same rules to the bus transfer and that sucks. I would have bet that they would wait for 17 pax on their own bus. [and I would have lost] I wonder that the bus actually was in contact with the ship, seems hard to believe they would sail knowing EXACTLY how far out 17 more pax were.

 

I would be way beyond upset with the cruise line, the airline, the bus people, the Delta group, my mother-in-law, my 4th grade spuling techur, eveybody.

 

 

 

Dan

 

That is so funneee!