Changing Cabins and 1 very rude Carnival Supervisor

[Soccerfan]

Hi,

 

We had booked 4 cabins at a Past Guest Rate special.

 

We needed to move some people from 1 cabin to another for billing purposes.

 

We headed to the Evergaldes port very early at 9.30am on November 4th for the Liberty sailing to hopefully have our request taken care of before the crowds started.

 

I had written out the changes that I needed to have done to lessen the confusion.

 

We arrived at the VIP desk but they said that I needed to see a supervisor to make the changes and this would be able to be taken care of once we entered through the VIP doors when the ship was ready for boarding. No problem :)

 

The staff in the waiting area were amazing. They were full of smiles and kept the crowds in a very jolly mood by doing "the wave" which resulted in rows and rows of people cheering and doing the wave. They kept everyone's morale up even though the air conditioning was on the blink and we all were freezing!

 

Boarding was delayed due to the ship's inspection, no problem.

 

We were finally led to the door that we had to go through at about noon. We were directed to an area near the VIP booking in area and asked to wait for Ken, the supervisor. In the meantime everyone else was boarding.

 

Ken was no where to be found, we were told he would be with us soon.

 

After 40 minutes of waiting and 3 requests for Ken, he appeared out of a small office near our waiting area and told me to come over. ( No apologies for keeping us waiting, no smiles or welcome to Carnval )

 

He asked me what I wanted. I explained the situation. He said he would do this and the cost would be $50 per person to make a name change :eek: I explained that we were all already booked on the ship and asked if there was another way to be able to do this without this excessive charge. He abruptly said no and handed our papers back to me.

 

I told Ken that we had been waiting for 3 hours to see him and I would appreciate some type of customer service rather than his abruptness. If he couldn't do what we needed then that's o.k but the message can be conveyed in a friendlier way.

 

Ken replied that it must be my irritability that was rubbing off on him :eek:

 

I told Ken that I would expect more from a supervisor especially since he was acting this way in front of other Carnival staff (who appeared to look very embarresed at how he was behaving)

 

Ken said my impatience must also be rubbing off on him and he walked away !!!!!

 

We had no choice but to board the ship and not let this very rude supervisor affect our mood.

 

Every other staff member at the port and on the ship that we met were amazing, very helpful, cheery and welcoming.

 

The Carnival staff told me that Ken is moving to the Miami port.

 

My condolences to the staff at Miami.

[firefly333]

If you booked people in the wrong cabins to save money in the first place...all you had to do was go to the purser's desk after you boarded and ask for extra keys, you didnt need to request a name change which yes costs $50 pp. It would have cost you that if you did it before the cruise also.

 

Just get extra keys to the cabins, the cards are tied to each person, not to the cabin.

 

No one gets anything done at the port at 9:30 a.m. when they are trying to get passengers off the prior cruise and get ready. Noon is about average.

 

It does sound like your expectations were not meet, but that you asked for a name change, not extra keys and the fault was also with your request and getting to the port way too early. sorry you were upset though.

[Molly BPOE]

Wow! We are going to need to swap some people around on our January cruise. I thought I could do this at the pursers desk. Did you ever get switched? I hope I never have to deal with Ken! I would write Uncle Bob a letter about that one! Glad you still had a good cruise.

[*Mach*]

I'm sorry to hear about your difficulties with Ken.

 

Would it not have been easier to make the changes on board with the Purser?

 

Just a thought...

[teanbean16]

Too bad for Miami. Ken doesn't need to be moved. He needs to be RE-moved. :) :)

[boaterette]

So basically you tried to cheat Carnival out of money and are now unhappy. I guess if you had just booked everyone like you should have you wouldn't have had any problems.

[Soccerfan]

I realized later that I could have just gone to the Pursers desk and saved myself this grief. Wish I had known then what I know now ! Hopefully, someone else will learn from our error.

 

I didn't cheat Carnival out of money, Our VIP at Carnival actually booked us this way.

 

However, getting there early (other matters aside) was a good idea. There are staff allocated to checking in the arrivals at that time and they are not involved in the process of assisting the people who are getting off.

 

We generally arrive around 10.30 for a cruise. There are less line ups and confusion. Makes for a less stressful booking in process. :)

 

We ended up just getting "room keys" only at the Pursers desk and sorting the billing there. We moved ourselves as the cabins could accomodate the changes we needed.

 

At the end of the day, our cruise was amazing and we will not let the "one bad apple" taint our view of Carnival. (Uncle Bob will be hearing from us)

[kidless]

Prehaps Ken's shoes were too tight that day.

[dst]

I have a question - we booked three rooms in Jan we had to put a previous guest in a room with my sister so that she could be on the same floor with the other two cabins. We have made our final payments, is there anyway to do the switching of names prior to getting the documents or when we are already on the ship?

 

Any suggestions?

 

I am sorry that Ken was so rude, there are certain people who should not be in the hospitality industry. I would certainly inform someone at Carnival; so they are aware of the rudeness that was displayed.

[dst]

Boat: Seems you may be related to Ken......................

[SATXLady]

I hope that you either wrote this up on your comment card or sent and email or letter to Carnival after your trip to report it. The interaction as you described it was inexcusable. It sould have been handled differently although the outcome would have been the same. There is no excuse for blaming a customer (especially to their face) of causing a customer service representative's poor behavior.

[bakechef]

Rude service is unacceptable. I work with the public, and you never know what may have spurred the bad behavior by Ken. I have had my supervisors yell and scream at me for something going wrong beyond my control, and it is really hard to then turn around and have a pleasant demeanor, especially when I run into a demanding customer (not saying you were).

 

There are those that can flip a switch in their brain and be sweet as pie, then there are those people that will be affected by a bad situation and it will spill over into their customer service, that is the difference between a great supervisor, and a not so good one.

 

Glad that you were the type of person to just get over it and have an awesome cruise, many would let it fester and ruin their fun. I would definitely write a letter, let them know where their weak spots are!

 

MAC

[kidless]

So basically you tried to cheat Carnival out of money and are now unhappy. I guess if you had just booked everyone like you should have you wouldn't have had any problems.

 

Why is it that anytime anyone ever has a complaint about anything to do with Carnival some people turn it around and make it the op's fault. Do you work for Carnival or something. My goodness what ever reason he needed to switch cabins for is no excuse for rude behavior from Carnival Staff.

[firefly333]

I have a question - we booked three rooms in Jan we had to put a previous guest in a room with my sister so that she could be on the same floor with the other two cabins. We have made our final payments, is there anyway to do the switching of names prior to getting the documents or when we are already on the ship?

 

Any suggestions?

 

I am sorry that Ken was so rude, there are certain people who should not be in the hospitality industry. I would certainly inform someone at Carnival; so they are aware of the rudeness that was displayed.

 

the reason you were booked that way was to get a better rate by putting the past guest in the other cabin, so if you changed the names ahead of time (never mind the $50 name change), you would have to pay the fare that really should have been charged, not the lower fare you got by switching pax.

 

So, no you really cant change the passengers unless you want to give up the lower fares and pay the fares for non past guests you got by pretending the past guest will sleep in that cabin.

 

As several have said here...just go to the purser's desk and get extra keys, the cards you are issued in the first place are not tied to your cabins but to each of you. big duck said this better than I am.

[YoJo19]

I've run into a lot of rude staff at Carnival. I had such a bad experience with them that I swore to never cruise with them again. I'm glad to hear the majority of the employees you ran into were awesome! I'm to the point now where I might give them another shot in a year or two. I'm disappointed to see that people on here (some) are being so rude about the situation. Had you known you could have simply asked for extra keys at the purser's desk, I'm sure you would have. However, since you didn't, your way of dealing with the situation is expected. Ken could have easily made you happy by saying, "Sorry for keeping you waiting; what can I do for you." After hearing what you needed he should have said, "I'm sorry, I cannot make those changes without a $50/pp charge. But, I'm sure you could get extra keys made at the pursers desk if that would help." I'm not sure why other staff made you wait for Ken and didn't tell you of a simpler solution. Sorry he made you wait. Sorry he was rude.

[firefly333]

I didn't cheat Carnival out of money, Our VIP at Carnival actually booked us this way.

 

Surely you knew why the VIP who booked you put the other passenger in that other cabin in the first place...to get you the lower rate. The fact they did it without you asking doesnt mean you didnt know what they did, putting in a passenger who did not intend to sleep in that cabin to get you a lower rate? Maybe you didnt know and thats why you thought you could ask for a name change, if so, sorry.

 

I agree, there is never a reason for someone in Customer Service to be rude. Clearly unacceptable.

[sa_girl]

So basically you tried to cheat Carnival out of money and are now unhappy. I guess if you had just booked everyone like you should have you wouldn't have had any problems.

 

 

Boat appears his irritability is rubbing off on you as well....

[leadout_kv]

I gotta question about changing rooms in relation to this thread.

 

If someone from a large party books the correct rooms just the wrong people in the rooms would the party get in trouble if they just moved people without telling Carnival? Kinda do a switcheroo after boarding.

 

Obvously, if there were minors involved there might be more of an issue but lets assume with my question there are no minors involved just adults.

[caribbean dreams]

We did this very same thing a few months back, NO not to cheatCarnival out of money!

Just putting the kids back in their own cabin, we were also lead to the VIP desk but didn't have to wait for a Supervisor, just had the S&S cards re issued to the correct cabins, took about 10 minutes.

 

But i can see how this probably happens a hundred times a day, i was wondering when they were going to start cracking down on cabin switching.

[caribbean dreams]

I gotta question about changing rooms in relation to this thread.

 

If someone from a large party books the correct rooms just the wrong people in the rooms would the party get in trouble if they just moved people without telling Carnival? Kinda do a switcheroo after boarding.

 

Obvously, if there were minors involved there might be more of an issue but lets assume with my question there are no minors involved just adults.

 

NO but then you would be using someone elses S&S card, unless you went to the Pursers desk and just got extra key for all the cabins.

If you did that and wanted to check your S&S account on the TV, you would have to go to your original cabin to do so.

[UpstateCruizer]

We did this very same thing a few months back, NO not to cheatCarnival out of money!

Just putting the kids back in their own cabin, we were also lead to the VIP desk but didn't have to wait for a Supervisor, just had the S&S cards re issued to the correct cabins, took about 10 minutes.

 

But i can see how this probably happens a hundred times a day, i was wondering when they were going to start cracking down on cabin switching.

 

This happened on our last cruise with a family of 4 that were actually in front of us in line. During casual chit chat they mentioned they were going to ask the check in gal to handle this. We told them we had moved our boys into their own cabin on our last cruise at the pursers desk. It was simple and not a problem. They decided they didn't want to wait at the pursers desk so they asked the check in gal to do it. We sailed through our check in and they were still having it sorted out 15 minutes later. This was the early check in at the port. Hopefully by the OP sharing her story it will help others to realize this is a much easier process if done at the pursers desk. We had to book our 19 year old in with my husband and myself in with my 21 year old because of age policies with Carnival. I don't think anyone who books passengers with a past guest do it to "cheat" Carnival since this is suggested by the PVP's and the Ta's I've dealt with. They are always looking to get you to book and save money at the same time. I wouldn't consider that cheating and if it were I'm sure the PVP's wouldn't be allowed to offer it as a way to save.

[cruisersunsetbrat]

We just got off the Triumph yesterday and also had to move two people around. Went to the Purser's desk as soon as we got on the ship. There was a very long line and one of the Carnival staff asked us what we were in line for. When we explained the changes we needed to make, she recommended coming back the following day. We did and did not have any problem making the switch - and there was NO charge.

[airhead22]

The names are tied to the cabin, and to change that is $50. They cannot possibly control where you sleep nor do they care. That is why they are so accomadating as far as making new keys. My 21 yo daughter had her own for charges, and an additional card for getting in her room which we switched so she could bunk with my 17yo neice. ps, Ken still sucks, maybe he is not happy with his transfer!

[kidless]

The age policy is a bunch of bologne.....When booking thru TA's they state the age policy but though Carnival they don't if kids are traveling with parents and are to be in a seperate cabin they may be booked that way. You can book the kids in their own cabin some TA's dont' know this. On one cruise we had gone though our TA and she said we had to have an adult in each one I asked her to check with Carnival on the policy because on other cruises booked directly though them we did not have to have our kids booked that way..........she did and we were able to book everybody where we wanted them to be. :D

[firefly333]

We had to book our 19 year old in with my husband and myself in with my 21 year old because of age policies with Carnival. I don't think anyone who books passengers with a past guest do it to "cheat" Carnival since this is suggested by the PVP's and the Ta's I've dealt with. They are always looking to get you to book and save money at the same time. I wouldn't consider that cheating and if it were I'm sure the PVP's wouldn't be allowed to offer it as a way to save.

 

I think its different if you are booking children in with an adult because you have to in order to book and if you are booking two seniors in with a younger adult or a past guest into a different cabin in order to get a lower rate when you dont have to.

 

Saying well the PVPs did it doesnt mean its not skirting the system. I think someone did say cheating....skiting the system, call it what you want. Its a way to dishonestly get a lower rate....because they can do it that way. Everyone loves a bargain.

 

I can understand why folks would do it...but then claiming hey I didnt book it, the PVP did therefore its not skirting the system.....?? We know what it is, no matter what you call it. Doing it because you need to book younger children is not the same imo.