DisneyDatknee

With a very unique situation at hand, the Valor is set to arrive in Galveston on Friday 9/1 and not depart until the following Monday 9/4.

 

Do you think Carnival will take advantage of this opportunity in some way? With a couple of days sitting, they could utilize this time to do minor repairs or upgrades that normally couldn't be done while in service.

 

 

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I highly doubt it. They need time to ship parts/furnishings to the ship for some upgrades, but I usually, I think these upgrades occur in dry-dock in Freeport. The crew deserves a nice break. ;) Minor repairs are done all the time.

I'll let you guys know what happens. I'm planning to do a full trip report with my new Sony. :) I'll take a pic of the cash if it appears. I'm just not going to think about it anymore and hope for the best.

So GM talked to them today. Honestly, I would not be cruising if I had debt, but here's what the solution is. They will pay us back on the day of departure $700 including the gratuities. They will open a cash OBC account separate from ours. My great uncle is waiting on a large check from one of his contracting jobs-- still working at 80, so that's what they said is to blame for the delay.

Is this the solution I wanted? What if they don't have the money the day we leave? No. But this is the solution GM would only agree on.

But thank you for all the responses. We can always cancel them later as really, the majority of our refund would only be port taxes.

GM has decided not to cruise with them again and just make the best of it. I don't see them as deceitful people and my GM is very close to her sister, but I think it was just an impulsive decision as they once were very frequent cruisers. My great aunt worked for RCL and NCL and since they only live 10 minutes away from POM, they could go last-minute anytime. But times changed.

But anyways, the $145 OBC that came with our booking, we are keeping it ;p.

This is a crappy situation, but my family and friends are worth more than a thousand bucks to me and I would eat the loss and pray for the power to forgive in time to have a good trip. You never know when your last trip with people will be and I think you people are being really short-sighted in saying to cancel.

 

Yeah it sucks that OP may not be reimbursed but I would assume OP knew these folks are relying on just their SSI $$$ and to be honest it probably wasn't fiscally responsible to expect them to have 5-600 wiggle room in their budgets. If this were an expense like camping fees or dinner, I can see an argument for splitting the cost equally, but I wouldn't invite my unemployed cousin on an expensive trip if I weren't going to pay for most of it. Apologies if I missed some fact that indicated these money issues were unknown to OP and his or her grandma. Just my two cents, I hope maybe this is all a big misunderstanding.

Good advice. One of them is employed however. The reason they cannot pay is that they have a lot of debt bills as they maxed out all their cards according to my Grandmother.

Nope. Only by the minute or minute packages. They did a trial run on the Westerdam, but it ended as far as I know.

Maybe things changed between April and now. Not sure.

Can you have room service on debarkation day? I have cruised CCL several times but always went to the buffet.

 

Also can someone post the recent room service breakfast menu ?

 

Thanks :D

Yes, you can do the door hanger menu for continental breakfast.

I will take all of your advice into consideration.

I'll put the energy into a live trip report etc.

Thank you all.

You can figure out how much the cruise would cost you to pay (don't give them access to your credit card...all on board expenses are up to them, including tips)....and say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Birthday" from you and Grandma. Then you come out the winner.

 

Believe me, I know dysfunctional families....I have the SIL from hell. You really don't want perpetual disharmony.

Good Idea.

You have to buy a "cruise" package with AT&T to use it on the ship. I would highly suggest buying a WIFI package on the ship and enable wi-fi calling (if you have an eligible smartphone) before departing.

Sorry to read this. Am I understanding this correctly, it is your Grand Aunt and Grand Uncle (your Grandmother's Sister)? Your Grandmother is upset by the situation ("grandmother in an emotional state")? And, the money is not an issue?

 

If all that is correct, I have one question and one comment. Have you asked them for the money? I get that they should have paid you without asking, but since they have not, I would ask them if they still intend on going.

 

If it would make my mother happy (She is 84, so I am thinking of her instead of my grandmother), and I had the money, I would probably just pay for the cruise and hope for the best in terms of getting it back. I know, for me, peace in the family is what my mother would want the most.

 

But you are certainly justified in any decision you choose to make.

Totally agree with everything you said. That's what she wants, peace.

Wow. I'm shocked at the number of responses. So GM and I were discussing over the phone today and it came down to, if they don't pay by tomorrow, we will cancel them off the booking. GM told me that's when there SSI comes, but they should have said something by now on when they were going to pay. It's been weeks and we've asked multiple times.

I booked through Costco and I'm not sure if they charge a service fee or not as it says "vacation changes are $50 per person", so I'm not sure if that's cancelling a person off the trip.

I was going to call Costco today and ask how much we would get back, but GM told me to hold off tomorrow. The fares listed on my reservation is "$535, $335, $10, $10". $10??? But I looked down and it was "$185 in Taxes/Fees" per person. I know as of right now, the cruise fare is 75% penalty and we would get taxes back.

I checked to see the price of the room for two and it's a $391 difference.

I did try to see if two our past cruising buddies could come with us, but they are unfortunately busy that weekend and my brother cannot take off work either.

I did try to text her sister last night at 10 PM, but I have not got a response as of 9:30 PM the next day. GM does not have the courage to call her. I have no clue why.

Sigh. Thank you all for the responses. (Y) I hope there's some light tomorrow, but it's looking pretty cloudy.

Whoa, when did Costco start selling Carnival Cruises? I stopped looking there after several years of checking and finding that they didn't offer them...

That's what I thought.

So, we booked a cruise on the Victory for a quick getaway this month and paid extra for an Ocean Suite for my grandmother and I and our roommates, her sister and her husband. Well, we booked the cruise around 50 days before departure and were promised to be paid the next day. Well, it's been 4 weeks. If I cancel, I'd only get about $300 back for them. I'm just trying to weigh my options. I just don't want this to be an ill vacation where I have to stomach the fact that the lied and used us. It's not like they are going through hard times, they lied when they said they would pay me back. She just happened to tell us that she maxed out all her credit cards and has not had money for months!

Next time, we will require it up front. It's put my grandmother in an emotional situation. So yes, our fault, but it's just hurtful and deceitful. Money isn't a problem, it's the fact that they used us.

Lesson learned.

We were looking to take cruise in February and saw Carnival with "sale". We priced out a cruise for Magic on Feb 3rd. We then looked at our favorite wholesale club site and found same cruise for $80 less and also included $70 "cash card" and there was a special "buyer club" offer of $50/per person onboard credit.

Oh yes ;). That's where we got our Victory Deal!! I thought they didn't give out discounts on Carnival. We got a great deal on an Ocean Suite, better than my interline discount.

Thanks for a credible review. I wanted to see a recent review from cruiser with experience instead of a newbie. We were a little concerned about the Victory, but we got a great deal. An Ocean Suite on the Victory vs an Interior on Royal for the same price? :) Yeah, I'll take the suite. Thanks for the tip about the internet. I was just about to purchase the internet package.

Just buy the Social Package. $4 a day if you buy before the cruise! I used Facebook Messenger to call home. You won't get any charges as long as it's in airplane mode. If you want to be even more careful, just turn off Mobile Data before you leave Jacksonville. I use my phone the entire cruise for taking pictures. I haven't gotten a charge.

AT&T btw offers a $10 add-on for 24 hours on each line if you have a Mobile Share plan. You can use your data in the Bahamas like you do on your normal plan (for us it's 15 GBs). I will probably pay this when I'm in Nassau next month. But IMO, just cruise! Turn off your phone for a bit.

Avoid the Empress deck at all costs. I would do Upper. We stayed on the Upper Deck past the forward elevators.

Symphony for sure if you want the Mega Ship experience.

No need to post the thread on different boards. You'll get the same answer on all three.

You would have to have "cancel for any reason" insurance in order to make a claim, as your claim is not valid at all for covered reasons. You are using the weather of a current cruise to justify the weather of a future cruise. ✗✗✗

The cruise line is doing the best they can do. Mother Nature is just being testy at the moment.

Just a tip, If you cruise again with Carnival, Highly suggest to book the "Past Guest" rate so you won't have to deal with the limitations of Early Saver. Past Guest Rate was only $25 more a person and you don't have those strict limitations of Early Saver.

There was a magnifying mirror in the the drawer of the makeup area that we noticed after several days. However, it's not lighted.

On the Magic, there's no difference. The "sofa bed" is not really like a pull out. We had a 1A upper lower porthole on the Breeze with the "sofa bed" for the 2nd person. My mother actually slept on it and she said it was comfortable. It beats having to go up the ladder in the upper bunk, but then again, I've never had a room in the aft!!

We were thinking about using this as they come with the flight protection. If I'm using a TA, do I call them or Carnival?

I wouldn't even attempt this at all. Too much could go wrong. When we went to Ireland in June on American, weather made half the plane miss their flight to CLT, therefore missing their flight to Ireland (and the next flight was in 24 hours). But hey, we each got our own row of seats to lay down :D.

Sorry, but I wouldn't chance it on this one.

Yikes. I would have ditched the cruise if I had to pay $900 to get back on. I do agree with one of the posters that they could have had some time in the Keys. Carnival could have refunded their port taxes which is about $100-$150 per person.

Passports are better. :hearteyes: