Carnival cancels cruise for 110 passengers

[Julia’s Journey’s]

We were booked on Disney when hurricane Frances hit and Carnival where much more organized at PC, with reps letting everyone know the changes, they were given better compensation than us on Disney and I am sure CCL will pull thru for these folks as well. I'm sure it was not easy for CCL to decide to cancel the group and had there reasons to choose them (location, group size etc). I would wait to hear more of this story before knocking the cruiseline.

[Cruising89143]

There is this same subject right now on the Princess board. Princess has been doing this for years but the difference between Princess and Carnvial is that Princess does it with class. They actually contact TA's to get their customers to either move to different sailings or accomidations. They sweeten the pot to get this accomplished. How many times have you flown and the airlines offer those great vouchers to get people off of the plane to open up seats? Those nice vouchers usually work. Carnival could have done that if they wanted. They did not.

 

This incident with this large group was not the first time that this happened. I also read that with this particular group, Carnival offered them the choice of changing to one of their ships departing on the west coast or the Legend out of New York or a refund. That is not adequate in my book. The passengers would have had to suck up the additional charge for transportation to those ports. Carnival was the one that screwed this whole thing up and they should have done the right thing by making it right to those passengers.

 

There have been some posts on here in the past from some of the ones bumped from the Baltimore sailings. Carnival offered them bascially the same as above. Also the TA from the group above posted on another cruise related website and basically stated what the article did. So in this case I will believe what the article stated.

[cmitch9999]

I am disappointed in how Carnival has been handling this mistake of theirs. The passengers who have booked in Baltimore specifically because it is their home port are being targeted for bumping...just cuz it reduces the $$ to Carnival for reimbursement for air/transport costs. I can't believe their cruise contract allows them to do this after final payment. I live near Baltimore and would love the opportunity not to have to fly to get on a cruise..but this pattern of overbooking has made it a choice that I won't make with Carnival.

 

I agree the Princess method of finding passengers to move with compensation packages is the preferred way to handle things. The ripple effect of the poor customer service with bumping passengers in Baltimore is going to make an impact. Too bad Carnival has chosen to take this path that causes them to lose customers for life.

 

Chris Mitchell

[derf5585]

There is this same subject right now on the Princess board.

 

Our cruise is overbooked

from

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=83322

[CanTex]

I've never seen Carnival advertise cabins at the guarantee rates -- it's always the lowest in each major category (4A, 6A, 8A) where you do have a choice of a specific stateroom.

 

Not defending Carnival's actions on this one, but this seem to be a chronic problem with Baltimore sailings -- I haven't read that this is a problem at other ports. Obviously they're doing a really lousy job of projecting passenger loads.

 

 

I was planning my next cruise and was considering Carnival. However, I am adamant now that I will not book with Carnival. I intend to book with RCI who will not intice me with the "guarantee cabin", but instead will let me pick an acutal cabin at the advertised low price.

 

This is insane! These people were booked for over a year! They should have bumped the people who just booked recently.

[judyf]

I feel so bad for anyone that is bumped from thier plans. It would be nice if CCL did like the airlines and offer something to reschedule.

[TBR]

Miracle from Tampa is also being overbooked,we have two groups sailing in nov and dec. CCL has taken back cabins from clients who were late getting in their final payments,some got bumped from balcony cabins to insides,we were able to get two balconies back,but three are going to cancel because CCL won't give back the balcony cabins. Some people want to wait till the last minute to pay and they are now suffering the consequences of paying late.

[TexasAlexus]

I think this is a terrible way to do business, but I agree that Carnival is not the only cruise line that does this. Many years back when my husband and I booked our very first cruise , we booked about 6 months in advance with Royal Caribbean. We chose a specific cabin and had made final payment, but we notified through our TA that we had been bumped. No explaination and no compensation what so ever. Our TA got us tranferred to another ship but we had to come up with another $500.00 to pay the difference. We were young and inexperienced booking cruises so we paid the money. Fortunately we had a wonderful cruise, so it did not turn us off of cruising. We have sailed 7 times since, but the cruise lines risk losing potential customers for many years to come when they bump passengers. I agree, a waiting list seems like a great alternative.

[disneylynn]

Now I'm scared, I booked the miracle 14 months early for my feb 2005 cruise.

I have a large group going and we got a great rate.

It looks like the ship is selling out. I will be sick if they cancel our cruise.

My family is so looking forward to this trip.

[ArkansasFish]

This is the reason to pay with a credit card (So they can get their money back)

[steveaaaa]

Who is everybody kidding here.Come on!

Not going to sail CCL again because of this is a load of bull. It may take some time but when it comes right down to it CCL is the largest in the world and whether you sail HAl,Costa,Princess,ect you will still be with CCL corp. This company is so big that they can tick off many people and never even feel it. They apparently needed more rooms for all their business so they are not hurting.Should you be mad? Absolutetly,I would. It will only be a matter of time before another ship comes to the area and then those who were scorned will come back.Pricing is also an issue here and CCL seems to have some good rates compared to the rest of the industry. I would want to speak to a lawyer in FL for a possible class action. I thought fully paid passengers were protected? Unless there is something we don't know about this story. What was the exact compensation they were given?

Steve

[WhozyerMAMA]

My husband and I got bumped from the Miracle going out of Baltimore on 10/24. We had booked two balcony cabins, one for us and one for my father in-law and his lady friend. They gave us the choice of a full refund and a 50% voucher off of a future cruise or an eight day cruise on the Legend out of New York. We choose the eight day out of New York. In addition they gave us both $100 per cabin on board credit and transportation to the port.

I live in Kingsville near Belair and a bus will be picking us up in Carney and taking us directly to the ship. That means instead of a 30 minute drive to the port we only have a 15 minute drive to get the bus. We really wanted to go on the Miracle but I am really pleased with how they came through with the changes. I have never cruised out of New York and am really looking forward to cruising on the Legend. I think that Carnival did a great job and if anything I hope this shows Carnival if they make Baltimore a permanent port they will fill every ship.

 

Betty

[CoBob]

In situations like this why doesn't Bob Dickenson get on the boards and explain his company's actions? This would be a perfect time to make this right. You can only hide in the ivory tower for so long Bob....

[voyagerfl]

here is this same subject right now on the Princess board. Princess has been doing this for years but the difference between Princess and Carnvial is that Princess does it with class

Sorry....there is no way to bump overbooked cruise pass. With Class.

 

Poeple plan thier Vacation, time off, saving money, airline res., the excitement (I still get just as excited at almost 20 cruises as I was with my first)

 

It's not the Same as with the airlines......where you can get another flight out. There are planes leaving every few minutes. A ship only leaves once a week.

 

And it's not the same as a Hurricane.

 

This is just plain GREED.:(

[Cruising89143]

Sorry....there is no way to bump overbooked cruise pass. With Class.

 

Poeple plan thier Vacation, time off, saving money, airline res., the excitement (I still get just as excited at almost 20 cruises as I was with my first)

 

It's not the Same as with the airlines......where you can get another flight out. There are planes leaving every few minutes. A ship only leaves once a week.

 

And it's not the same as a Hurricane.

 

This is just plain GREED.:(

Princess does not just bump you off. They find passengers that will take some kind of substitute. It may be a lower accommodation or another sailing date but the bottom line is the passenger has the option. Princess just sweetens the deal to get passengers to do this. That is what I meant by that statement.

[bob mac]

My wife an I were bumped from the October 24, sailing out of Baltimore. We are not with the Pa. church group. We were with another TA in Maryland that had approx. 60 cabins booked. All were cancelled. We have already received our refund and were told that we would be receiving a voucher for 50% off on another Carnival cruise as long as we booked within one year.

 

I contacted Carnival and spoke with a lady who was extremely appologetic but would only say that they frequently over book but usuually receive enough cancellations that no one gets bumped. However, the Baltimore cruises have not been cancelling. We booked this cruise in May of 2003 and were advised that we were bumped this week.

 

I also sent an email to Carnival but, have not gotten a reply. Had we gone on the Miracle it would have been our 5th Carnival cruise and we are booked on the Destiny in January! I am MAD AS HELL!!!!! Frustrated and don't know what to do about it!

 

bob mac

[bob mac]

We were not offered the Legend deal. Who is your TA?

[Hlitner]

I am really surprised that anyone would defend Carnival or any other cruise line who follows this type of practice. To the individual who questioned whether this would affect people booking with "the worlds largest cruise company" the answer is yes. We book several cruises a year (the last with Princess in Asia) and would have to consider this policy in future bookings where we do our own air. As to the remark about the media,,,I saw the story on WGAL (the major station in Central PA) and they interviewed some of the passengers. The bottom line is that this group booked far in advance...it was a church group...they had planned vacations, time off..coordinated with their friends, etc. Personally, I think this kind of use of "yield managment" is very short sited. At the very least, Carnival owes this group a free cruise. My heart goes out to those folks..for whom this was the "trip of a lifetime." Carnival seems to be following the path of the major airlines who have long ignored passengers,,,,and we now see many of those same airlines in bankruptcy. This kind of mistreatment of customers has a way of coming back to haunt!

 

Hank

[voyagerfl]

cruisingator2

 

Sorry......did not mean to slam you.......

I'm sure we agree on the basic idea...

Keep Smiling.......;);) vbmenu_register("postmenu_2101418", true);

[erRN2be]

Are they mainly booking the larger group reservations or are they bumping out of state individuals also? We are booked on the Miracle April 2005. We live in Indiana. I would be devastated if they bumped us...especially since that's spring break time and even finding a land vacation would be next to impossible where the weather was warm on such short notice...

[cmitch9999]

We are booked on the cruise critic Miracle 2/13 cruise and have a guarantee cabin. Just bought our air tickets so it is a GO for us. I am worried about this group being bumped if the ship is oversold. (heads will roll on this board tho!) Just read thru the Carnival cruise contract and it looks like they have their butt covered in there for bumping for no reason.

 

. "Carnival has the right without previous notice to cancel this contract at the port of embarkation or any time during the voyage and shall thereupon return to the Guest, if the Contract is completely canceled, his passage money, or, if the Contract is partially canceled, a proportionate part thereof. Under such circumstances, Carnival shall have no further liability for damages or compensation of any kind. "

 

It appears that Carnival will target groups that live near the port for being bumped so that they don't have to compensate for their transportation costs... I did read on another board a group of 58 from California being bumped in Baltimore so that is not always the case.

 

Messy way to do business. XX fingers that Carnival 'yield management' is getting better at crunching those numbers and future passengers are not bumped.

 

Chris Mitchell

[WhozyerMAMA]

bob mac

 

When the Carnival Rep said she could not do anything I asked to speak to her supervisor. The rep said there was nothing that the supervisor could do but she was wrong. Just keep insisting. Now I know that the Legend for the 10/14 is full but you might be able to get another sailing.

 

Betty

[emerald777]

Bob Mac - Hi! I'm also from Waldorf!

 

I was booked for the 9/19 Miracle sailing. Due to all the bump talk back in June, I went ahead and cancelled and rebooked on RCCL. Didn't want to even take the chance of getting bumped. So Carnival lost about 4,000. just from me (spend too much time in the casino)...... But apparently there are plenty of others to take the place of those who took their business elsewhere. I just hope whoever got my cabin didn't drink or gamble....... So sorry for all those who were bumped.

[cynic957att]

To condemn Carnival for using normal/standard travel industry practices is a bit unfair.

 

 

How is it unfair? They overbooked the cruise..........

 

Of course they are to blame - just as Southwest is to blame for overbooking to rediculous extremes.

 

They may not be unlike the industry but to call them coniniving profiteers and cold hearted businessmen is certainly not false and is not unfair.

 

 

They are big boys ,,,, they worse thing is they do not disclose the overbooking policy so they deserve every piece of bad press they get.

[atonal1]

Carnival is not returning to Baltimore in 2005 due to the lousy terminal facilities and the indifferent attitude of the MPA. Overbookings occur in every area of the travel industry. Airlines, hotels, car rental agencies and, yes, cruise lines all routinely overbook based on computer models and past experience. Unfortunately for Carnival, the cancellation rate in the Baltimore market has been much less than expected. All the cruise lines have had overbooking problems at some time. To condemn Carnival for using normal/standard travel industry practices is a bit unfair. However, I do believe a better compensation package should have been offered. Bumping this group so close to their cruise date has a tremendous psychologial impact as well as a monetary impact.

Yes this is true, but why don't we hear about RCI bumping people out of Baltimore?