Never Cruising Carnival Again - PLEASE read and give me a chance !

[dec2007w3boys]

 

 

 

P.S. Can I ask .... what is this John's Blog on Facebook !?

 

Here is his blog and I did post a link to this thread there. He is a long time cruise director. http://johnhealdsblog.com/

[dec2007w3boys]

And here is his facebook page:

 

http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Heald/1013687612

 

 

I am still feeling for you!

[calgarygary]

I want to interrupt this thread with a couple messages from the Carnival Cruiselines training manual on customer service.

 

Yes we are done :D NEXT !!!

 

 

 

Fred :)

 

OK, OP didn't have a tux.

Carnival told him to cram sand.

 

Are we about done here?

 

Dan

[dan40]

Thank-you again for all the comments .....

 

I fully understand some people feel Carnival has done what they needed to but I ALSO agree that the majority of people who have replied agree that Carnival cound have done better.

 

Again ... it is not the dollar figure per say but more of "We have an upset costumer with a fair complaint ... how do we keep them as a customer".

 

To show you how bad their customer service line is .... I called them tonight and asked for the name of the president as I figure I will write one last letter to his attention and see if I get a response.

 

:eek: SHE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO SPELL HIS NAME !!!! :eek:

 

If and when I get a reply back from him I will post the reply and then put this thread to rest.

 

P.S. Can I ask .... what is this John's Blog on Facebook !?

 

Way way back post #28, I asked if there was any part of the cruise that was good. You didn't answer.

 

You have stated you will NOT cruise Carnival again.

 

Yet this post tells me you still want to pursue this issue with Carnival. The MOST you will receive, if anything, is a discount for a future Carnival only cruise and that discount will be non transferable. Since you won't cruise Carnival again, why would you want a piece of paper?

 

They will not send you money.

 

Dan

[tess2cruz]

A few thoughts...

 

1. Any TA worth their weight would have known this was a bad idea to begin with. If you're going to blame Carnival (and I agree, they're at fault...to a degree), you need to blame them, too. And if you didn't let them know? That's on you, and you should have.

 

2. If you save and plan for a long time for a trip, it's common sense to do a bit of research. Googling "cruises" brings up this site, as well as a few others. Was this Carnivals fault? Yes. But you, too, need to take your share of the blame for not researching where you were sending your money to. Carnival services thousands of first time cruisers weekly, and it's not their responsibility to give them a crash course in Cruising 101. That's up to the consumer to find out what they need to know, and up to their TA to make sure they know that. If you had researched your travel insurance before traveling, for instance, you would have known that the tuxes would have been covered.

 

3. I think you kind of discredited your claims by demanding compensation. I'm not saying you don't deserve it (I believe some OBC or a % off your next cruise would be appropriate), but cruise lines don't look kindly upon people demanding compensation. It invalidates your claims, a bit, and makes it seem like you're out for something and the focus is taken away from what wronged you and is put on the fact that you now want compensation for it.

 

Again, I think the treatment they're giving you now is disrespectful and slight, but there's nothing here that clearly broke any contract you had with them and that's probably why you aren't being offered compensation. I haven't seen you take any responsibility for your part in this (lesson learned: if you're traveling ANYWHERE, do your research. "Not knowing" because you're a first-time cruiser doesn't negate the fact that the information is out there and it's your responsibility to find it, not the cruise lines responsibility to spell it out for you...they do that in your cruise documents and contract), or blame your TA for not warning you. Any TA who knows ANYTHING about cruises would advise you to fly in a day early, or at least take an early morning flight.

 

In any case, I hope this is resolved in a manner that's acceptable to you and you enjoy your next cruise. Hopefully, this will make you wiser for your next travels.

 

I am glad you said, I so wanted to.:D

[Nunu]

I sympathize with you, but you should have known something wasn't right and cancelled the flight portion out and booked your own flight/hotel for the day before.

 

 

 

 

 

How on earth would he as a first time cruiser know this?

[kicia]

I think Carnival is handling this whole episode very poorly. We are Platinum and shareholders and think that Carnival could have done a little to make the OP happy and keep him as a customer.

 

It's true that Carnival does not control the airlines but it is their responsibility if they are going to book cruise air for customers that the flights are reasonable. The OP was assured twice not to worry and he took them at their word. The employees are representatives of the company and the company should stand behind what their employees tell customers.

 

We have been very lucky and have had good service with Carnival but there were a couple of instances where I sent a letter after the cruise with all the good things and mentioned something that should be corrected concerning a privacy issue. I received the 45 day letter back and said my concern would be addressed and they would get back to me. Never heard from them and this happened twice. I wasn't a big deal and I just wanted to let them know about it and then dropped it.

 

Hope Carnival does something to correct this problem. John Heald's blog is johnhealdsblog.com and I did post something there asking him to read your post.

[jessemon]

Folks .....

 

First THANK-YOU for commenting about my personal info being on the letters ... STUPID me ... didn't even think of that.

 

For those who MAY want to read my story ... feel free to.

 

The purpose of this post is for new cruisers to learn from our mistake ... that is all.

 

ALL I AM SAYING IS THIS .... I trusted Carnival to take care of a first time, inexperienced cruiser.

 

We feel that they did not ... could have made some simple gestures to keep us as a future client and it simply appears that THEY DON'T CARE.

 

Here are my letters …..

 

http://www.racemedical.com/Letter-1.pdf

http://www.racemedical.com/Letter-2.pdf

http://www.racemedical.com/Letter-3.pdf

http://www.racemedical.com/Letter-4.pdf

 

Letter 1 & 3 are from myself …. Letter 2 & 4 are their response.

 

Dave

All I had to read were the first two paragraphs of your first letter to Carnival and that was it.....

What were you thinking flying the morning of a cruise from Canada to Tampa ????

You do know we have many hotels here that you can stay in the night before the cruise....Carnival will even fly you in the day before and have hotel packages to go with it.

I have no sympathy on this one. Don't even want to read further in your letters. You were trying (in my opinion) to save a buck by not flying in the day before on hotels....

You planned improperly and now it is all Carnival's fault you missed the ship.....

You should have left the day before and stayed a night here in Tampa. ;)

[Nunu]

All I had to read were the first two paragraphs of your first letter to Carnival and that was it.....

What were you thinking flying the morning of a cruise from Canada to Tampa ????

You do know we have many hotels here that you can stay in the night before the cruise....Carnival will even fly you in the day before and have hotel packages to go with it.

I have no sympathy on this one. Don't even want to read further in your letters. You were trying (in my opinion) to save a buck by not flying in the day before on hotels....

You planned improperly and now it is all Carnival's fault you missed the ship.....

You should have left the day before and stayed a night here in Tampa. ;)

It's pretty obvious you didn't read much of it at all.

[calgarygary]

Way way back post #28, I asked if there was any part of the cruise that was good. You didn't answer.

 

You have stated you will NOT cruise Carnival again.

 

Yet this post tells me you still want to pursue this issue with Carnival. The MOST you will receive, if anything, is a discount for a future Carnival only cruise and that discount will be non transferable. Since you won't cruise Carnival again, why would you want a piece of paper?

 

They will not send you money.

 

Dan

 

Asked, answered, commented on by others - yes the OP enjoyed his cruise, he even advised Carnival of same in the email that he sent with the original pdf complaint file.

 

Dan, I noticed no one commented upon my example of how Celebrity stepped up to the plate in a situation that they were not responsible for. Amazing how one line can do the right thing even though it wasn't their fault and another line that did have a shared responsibility can not do the right thing.

 

For those that continue to beat the drum that Carnival is not responsible, I would suggest that Carnival first provide a disclaimer to all passengers considering their flight arrangements before booking (not after) that the flights will likely be inconvenient times, could lead to missing the cruise, and Carnival accepts no responsibility. Wonder how many flight arrangements they would get afterwards?

[neverpar]

All I had to read were the first two paragraphs of your first letter to Carnival and that was it.....

What were you thinking flying the morning of a cruise from Canada to Tampa ????

You do know we have many hotels here that you can stay in the night before the cruise....Carnival will even fly you in the day before and have hotel packages to go with it.

I have no sympathy on this one. Don't even want to read further in your letters. You were trying (in my opinion) to save a buck by not flying in the day before on hotels....

You planned improperly and now it is all Carnival's fault you missed the ship.....

You should have left the day before and stayed a night here in Tampa. ;)

 

 

Gawd you got to love the people who comment and don't even bother to read the thread or in this case the letters......he DIDN'T MISS THE SHIP..

Please if you have to comment at least take the time to read (at least the letters)

Amazing......simply amazing! :rolleyes:

[happy cruzin]

All I had to read were the first two paragraphs of your first letter to Carnival and that was it.....

What were you thinking flying the morning of a cruise from Canada to Tampa ????

You do know we have many hotels here that you can stay in the night before the cruise....Carnival will even fly you in the day before and have hotel packages to go with it.

I have no sympathy on this one. Don't even want to read further in your letters. You were trying (in my opinion) to save a buck by not flying in the day before on hotels....

You planned improperly and now it is all Carnival's fault you missed the ship.....

You should have left the day before and stayed a night here in Tampa. ;)

 

 

YOU really should have read all of his letters before making your statements :rolleyes:.

[*Mach*]

How on earth would he as a first time cruiser know this?

 

 

I know that the OP is a first time cruiser but I'm sure that he has heard about flight delays and cancellations...

[calgarygary]

All I had to read were the first two paragraphs of your first letter to Carnival and that was it.....

What were you thinking flying the morning of a cruise from Canada to Tampa ????

You do know we have many hotels here that you can stay in the night before the cruise....Carnival will even fly you in the day before and have hotel packages to go with it.

I have no sympathy on this one. Don't even want to read further in your letters. You were trying (in my opinion) to save a buck by not flying in the day before on hotels....

You planned improperly and now it is all Carnival's fault you missed the ship.....

You should have left the day before and stayed a night here in Tampa. ;)

Over 10000 posts and you haven't learned to read before posting? I think before posting this you really needed to have read the complaint letters and understood exactly what the OP tried to do. Jessemon, you were not the only one to have jumped on the OP before reading, some have apologized and I think you might want to consider it.

[happy cruzin]

Gawd you got to love the people who comment and don't even bother to read the thread or in this case the letters......he DIDN'T MISS THE SHIP..

Please if you have to comment at least take the time to read (at least the letters)

Amazing......simply amazing! :rolleyes:

 

 

And he certainly did not "plan improperly" as she states ;).....

[Vanessa L]

If you read the original post you will see that he called Carnival more than once to ask about the flight. They kept assuring him that there would not be a problem. Since Carnival made the reservation, and Carnival assured him that the flight would get there in plenty of time, how is a first time cruiser supposed to make the leap that Carnival is WRONG.

 

By finding this site BEFORE they cruise as quickly as they found it when Carnival scre*ed them over is how. Only one or 2 days of reading or God forbid, actually ASKING the question, would have told them that that air route was insane and needed to be changed immediately. I don't know, I'm beginning to think that I am the only one who does research when I am about to drop 4 figures on a trip. How does it happen that people pay that kind of money and then do nothing to find out what they are spending their money on??? I mean, I know the uberrich just don't even care, but it seems to me that the average Joe would want to know what his money was paying for and what he could do to enhance his vacation and make his money well spent. Just me, but I think that [maybe] I am not alone when it comes to not just dropping my money off somewhere and then expecting the perfect vacation to drop in my lap.

[calgarygary]

I know that the OP is a first time cruiser but I'm sure that he has heard about flight delays and cancellations...

 

 

Which is why he tried to contact the company that arranged the flights. I agree we might not be having this conversation if he went to his TA but he didn't and Carnival did not direct him back to the TA. This whole thread is a great example of why cruiselines should get out of the business of arranging flights.

[happy cruzin]

I know that the OP is a first time cruiser but I'm sure that he has heard about flight delays and cancellations...

 

 

But....in his defense...he did call and question it...twice.

When Carnival kept telling him it would be ok...why would he question that - especially as a first time cruiser.

[LemurCat]

All I had to read were the first two paragraphs of your first letter to Carnival and that was it.....

What were you thinking flying the morning of a cruise from Canada to Tampa ????

You do know we have many hotels here that you can stay in the night before the cruise....Carnival will even fly you in the day before and have hotel packages to go with it.

I have no sympathy on this one. Don't even want to read further in your letters. You were trying (in my opinion) to save a buck by not flying in the day before on hotels....

You planned improperly and now it is all Carnival's fault you missed the ship.....

You should have left the day before and stayed a night here in Tampa. ;)

 

It's never made clear in the letters, but the OP apparently had a clueless TA. ;)

[mzloolue]

Dear Racemedic,

 

I totally understand your experience with Carnival customer service.

Been there, done that, you know?

 

So, they provide a decent cruise at a decent price, but when something goes wonky they just don't seem to care.

 

It's one of those attitude is everything sort of situations.

When they could win a customer for life with a sympathetic helpful reply they come back with a defensive "too bad-so sad-get lost" kind of response.

 

I guess they get so many first time cruisers that they really don't care about repeat business.

 

Someone suggested that you contact Bertha Espinosa.

You can e-mail her and get a prompt response.

Not necessarily a helpful response, but something.

 

John Heald can, if he chooses, cut through the red tape and get this resolved.

 

Anyway, good luck.

[stegosaurus1]

All I had to read were the first two paragraphs of your first letter to Carnival and that was it.....

What were you thinking flying the morning of a cruise from Canada to Tampa ????

You do know we have many hotels here that you can stay in the night before the cruise....Carnival will even fly you in the day before and have hotel packages to go with it.

I have no sympathy on this one. Don't even want to read further in your letters. You were trying (in my opinion) to save a buck by not flying in the day before on hotels....

You planned improperly and now it is all Carnival's fault you missed the ship.....

You should have left the day before and stayed a night here in Tampa. ;)

 

Just think, should you ever find youself in a court of law, (s)he might be on the jury. :eek:

[jessemon]

Over 10000 posts and you haven't learned to read before posting? I think before posting this you really needed to have read the complaint letters and understood exactly what the OP tried to do. Jessemon, you were not the only one to have jumped on the OP before reading, some have apologized and I think you might want to consider it.

Nope...Never leave for a cruise the day of the cruise when flying is rule number one......;)

[calgarygary]

It's never made clear in the letters, but the OP apparently had a clueless TA. ;)

The TA may or may not have been clueless however Carnival dropped the ball by not directing the OP back to the TA when concerns about flight times were raised.

[tess2cruz]

It's pretty obvious you didn't read much of it at all.

 

YOU really should have read all of his letters before making your statements :rolleyes:.

 

I read all 4 letters, twice, and this entire thread, and agree with him!!!

[calgarygary]

I read all 4 letters, twice, and this entire thread, and agree with him!!!

So you agree with the statement about his missing the cruise???? Or do you agree with the statement about saving a buck????