Carnival cruise lines
 

as some of you already know, I went on a caribbean cruse recently.

it was a 5 day cruise that was supposed to go to the Grand Cayman island and Cozumel Mexico. the Grand Caymans was wonderful but, in route to Cozumel, Carnival decided to cancel the port-of-call. I do think it was the right decision because of the swine flu situation that Mexico is dealing with right now. the bad thing was that they waited so late to make the decision that they couldn't go anywhere else. this within itself wasn't that bad. we had another sea day instead.

here is the kicker. instead of 2 ports-of-call, we only had one. you would think some sort of reimbursement would be in order. it was.

$20 per person for our troubles. I worked it out and it is less than 4% of the overall cruise price.

I have contacted my travel agent and carnival directly and this seems to be there policy. funny that I never saw this before but now it is in big bold letters on their web site.

just to let anyone that is wondering know, I am a 4th time cruiser with carnival and have been cruising with them since 2005 and I really do love the cruise vacation lifestyle.

I am writing this for two reasons:

1) to show how carnival has treated me to others who may be considering a cruise
2) has anyone ever cruised with norwegian cruise lines? how was it?

*edit* if you have a similar story from a carnival cruise during the last week of april where you got the same $20 treatment, please post here as well

i went on a similar cruise with my wife for our honeymoon last fall. its a good cruise line but when it comes down to reimbursement for things like that you're right they're the pits. one guy at my dinner table had tried to take his son on a cruise several months prior before he was stationed in afghanastan (he was a canadian soldier) and they ended up losing his baggage i believe. either way, it completely screwed over the family vacation.

so get this - at first carnival doesn't want to do anything. after being pushed a little they agree to give ONE person a free cruise. thing is by this time the guy's son was already gone on duty. oh and its only good for a year. so being a school teacher he went on his own during some week long break (it was year round schooling) while his wife was working.

so yea they're bastards like that. personally i had a great time, but it is something to be aware of for sure.

actually, I had a great time on the first 3 cruises. as you can imagine, the entire tone of the boat changed once everyone got the very official looking letter saying we were getting a 20 spot.

security was called on a few people. I thought to myself "that's OK I'll just talk to my travel agent when I get back" I ended up calling him from the boat. he said he would do what he could. late last night is when I got the news.

I think the worst thing is that me and my wife got a group together. 13 of us in all had the same experience. most were first time cruisers. I don't think they will ever cruise again because of this and that is sad because cruising is an awesome vacation.

norwegian seems to have reasonable rates and good ports. I have to find out what their cancellation policy is before I do anything with them though.

I wonder what the cost difference is between a sea day and a land day for them? Not that it directly matters, but I wonder what other impact the change had.

I know there are port taxes and dock fees that the boat has to pay (these charges are passed on to the customer) not sure if they got that back.

the negative to a sea day for them:

1-more fuel spent
2-more food eaten
3-more activities to plan
4-potentially didn't get to refuel or replenish other goods on board
5-more personnel (many employees had that day scheduled off including our waiter that had to work instead)
6-probably get money to send tourists to the island and shop (certain shops were recomended)
7-also negative coments because of the situation (damaged reputation)

the positive for a sea day:

1-potentially didn't have to pay for port taxes
2-people drown their sorrows in very expensive bottles on the boat (more drinks sold)
3-the duty free shops on the boat were booming because we couldn't get souvenirs any other way.
4-casinos also see increased action

I couldn't say whether they profited from not going to port or not but my trip was greatly impacted by the decision.

What do they do about the time difference anyway? Just go slower on the way to the next stop?

they slowed it to a snails pace. maybe they were pulsing and gliding.

they slowed it down so much that the 6 foot seas tossed us around like a john boat. the ship was 855 feet long and 105 feet wide.

the thought of a big cruise boat doing pulse and glide makes me laugh:)

what boat did you get? when we went it was the triumph. nice boat, newly renovated supposedly. looked like it. wasn't carnival's biggest but not the smallest by far.

we went on the inspiration.

we (my wife and I) have been on the liberty which was their biggest at the time. they had already started on a larger one. we were on it's second run. I don't like maiden voyages (it just makes me think of the titanic)

a bit of an update.

no, still no new resolution to my situation. BUT....

one of the people that went with us talked to a travel agent. he was told that all the other cruise lines were waiting to see what carnival was going to do first. after carnival announced the $20 credit thing. the rest of the cruise lines decided to give back nothing.

I don't know that for a fact. it has just been passed on to me down the stream.

if anyone can confirm this or refute this, please feel free.