Carnival Website is Not a User Friendly site

[Barkingowl]

I only use Carnival's site to buy Bon Voyage gifts & book shore excursions.

[SunnyinMA]

As someone who works on and manages several very large technology websites, I've tried to understand what they are trying to do with the website but gave up quite awhile ago. I just use the gnome travel site to figure out what I want to know/see.

 

They are in desperate need of a UX expert over there...I'll volunteer for free cruises :D

[Azure Moon]

manmachine, thanks for the tip about the Edit button. I'll give it a try.

[BlueC5Kitten]

I only use Carnival's site to buy Bon Voyage gifts & book shore excursions.

 

And sometimes, depending on how far in advance you try to book excursions, they aren't all listed on the website!

[dan40]

I am in the process of searching for a cruise.

I'm having a difficult time looking for specific staterooms.

It's very frustrating.

 

You may want to rethink that completion cream you are using.:eek:

 

Dan

[zqvol]

Are you trying to book a certain stateroom? I think you need to call to do that now.. Before you could just enter the room.

 

If you are just trying to look at the map's then you can do that online.

 

You can still do it on line. No problem at all.

[Sandytoes]

You may want to rethink that completion cream you are using.:eek:

 

Dan

L:DL!

 

Your right!

Skin does get a little dry, flaky and irritated by the harsh weather.

 

Boy do I need a cruise.

 

:D

[gargoyle999]

Are you trying to book a certain stateroom? I think you need to call to do that now.. Before you could just enter the room.

 

Yes, there must have been some reason they took this away. Like to try and get people to call a PVP so maybe they could be talked into booking more cruises or just take a gty cabin or something. I liked I was able to pick my own cabin when I made my plans for next Feb and in 2010 and book them myself online.

 

From now on I'll have to call...:mad:

[gargoyle999]

You can still do it on line. No problem at all.

 

If the cabin you want is not in the small list they show you then you can't do it online. You used to be able to manually enter a cabin number that wasn't on the list. If it was available then you would continue with the booking, it if was not available it would give a little error message.

 

If you can figure out how to do that now please provide the details. I'm not finding a way!

[Sandytoes]

Princess has that.

I can enter a specific cabin number.

It tells me whether or not a cabin is available.

Nice feature.

 

If the cabin you want is not in the small list they show you then you can't do it online. You used to be able to manually enter a cabin number that wasn't on the list. If it was available then you would continue with the booking, it if was not available it would give a little error message.

 

If you can figure out how to do that now please provide the details. I'm not finding a way!

[Crewmates]

About a month ago, after getting no response from messages left for our PVP telling him I want to pay for our cruise, I tried to pay for our cruise on-line through the website and it wouldn't even let me do that. Can you imagine any company making it difficult when someone wants to give you money?

[julia]

I can't imagine why anyone would want to book their cruise directly with the cruise line itself (and yes, Carnival's sight is VERY POOR!).

 

Rules prohibit me from naming the online booking agency that I've used for ALL but our very first cruise. Their website is very user friendly (especially when looking for a specific cabin), their prices are MUCH lower (than booking with the cruise line), and they offer great perks and OBC's. The few times I've had to call to discuss a booking, the service was prompt and informed.

[zgwortz]

I've managed to find my way around Carnival's site, but then again I program websites for a living and know how to get around various issues.

 

Part of the problem is deliberate -- the site is designed so that if you're booking a cabin, they aim to get you into the cabin they most want to sell by default. Thus, if you're a past guest or resident and click on one of those rates up front, expect it to drop you into an area where you've got more limited cabin and category selection than if you go for the saver or GTY rates. If you want a 1A, in most cases you can only get it by going to one of the more expensive base rates, then going to the category button - they won't even show those rates otherwise. And I've found no mechanism on Carnival's site to select rooms other than the cabins specifically listed -- if you're unhappy with the choices, your only options are either to call Carnival or use a different site which may or may not give you different choices.

 

Part of the problem is not deliberate - The site has been extraordinarily buggy over the last year. I even reported detailed descriptions of some of those bugs back in March, that are *still* not fixed. I use a Mac, mostly. If you use Safari, you can't complete some of the forms. If you use Firefox, you can't read your online documents (sometimes), and if it ever pops up a window (like when you try to accept terms) you may not be able to click on the controls on the page again afterwards. If I move to a Windows machine and use IE, a whole slew of different problems show up. I've found Firefox is overall the least buggy when booking, IE gets used when filling out your Funpass, and I use Safari for reading the online docs.

 

Someone really needs to get on the ball at Carnival on this - given it's many people's initial first impression of the cruise line...