Help! Connecting rooms question!

[mommareds]

Ok, my husband and I are taking our family on the 12 day southern caribbean on the freedom leaving 2/2. We booked through a TA, mainly because I used to work with her and have booked 2 prior cruises with her.

We have 5 children, oldest age 14, youngest age 3. I was very specific from the first contact that we MUST HAVE TWO CONNECTING ROOMS for obvious reasons.

we are booked in 2330 and 2334, stupidly I never checked it past looking on the deck plans to see where they are. Tonight I was looking through some things and it seems very clear to me that these are NOT connecting rooms. :confused::(:mad:

Assuming im not going to be abke to get in contact with anyone until friday at the earliedt, ive turned to you...

if you can tell me I'm wrong and they have interior connecting doors, I'll love you forever.

If you can tell me I'm right and they're merely adjoining not connecting...well....

 

I'm really, really upset, because I don't know what we could possibly do at this point. Oceanview are sold out, and we don't have the money to upgrade to balconies. Quite honestly at this point we don't have the money to upgrade 7 people to oceanview! I can't imagine spending 12 nights sleeping like I'm in a college dorm, hubby in one room and me in the other. And dressing/bathing times have everyone crammed into one tiny room???

 

Oh man....this is really upsetting.

[Aviendah]

They connect!

 

Cabin 2230******* 6B *********** 220 sq ft ***************************** cabin connects to: 2234

Beds: twin/king-1 upper-single sofa bed**** ************************

View: window

Bathroom: shower-toilet-sink***

Features: TV, telephone, 110 AC current, individual climate control, hair dryer, safe, minibar, 3-closets, sofa and coffee table

 

Cabin 2234******* 6B************ 220 sq ft ***************************** cabin connects to: 2230

Beds: twin/king (CQ FD GL)****************************************

Beds: twin/king-single sofa bed (LI VA)

View: window

Bathroom: shower-toilet-sink***

Features: TV, telephone, 110 AC current, individual climate control, hair dryer, safe, minibar, 3-closets, sofa and coffee table

Edited December 25, 2014 by Aviendah

[SadieN]

The deck plans have the white triangle between them. So, according to the deck plans on carnival.com they do connect.

[mommareds]

:( we are 2330 and 2334, not 22xx. No white triangle on carnival deck plans I'm looking at. Thank you, though.

[k2excursion]

:( we are 2330 and 2334, not 22xx. No white triangle on carnival deck plans I'm looking at. Thank you, though.

 

Oh, I think we see where the TA might have been confused too. Maybe the TA also was looking at 22xx & not 23xx. It doesn't look like your rooms connect, I'm sorry to say. I'm not seeing any connecting interiors that would accommodate more than 4 people in total on the ship. Only the box shaped interiors on deck 6 connect, and they all sleep 2 each.

 

When you get on board the ship, you can get extra room keys, so that you & your husband can sleep in the same room, and move one of the kids over to the other room. And you never know, maybe all 5 will want to stay in the same room at night. You don't have to sleep in the room that you are booked to be in. (Although I do understand the desire for keeping an eye on all the kids.)

 

One thing you could do with the showers is to send the guys upstairs to the gym, where they have individual shower stalls that are much larger & better than the room's shower. Or your 2 staterooms can be a boys room & a girls room for showers & getting ready.

Edited December 25, 2014 by k2excursion

[Annietoo]

Merry Christmas. I might be able to help you out. We are in 2335 which is a connecting room with 2334. We would be willing to make a trade if possible. I assume this might be done with guest services on board. Can you call carnival to check on this? Enjoy your holiday.

[IndyDenise]

Merry Christmas. I might be able to help you out. We are in 2335 which is a connecting room with 2334. We would be willing to make a trade if possible. I assume this might be done with guest services on board. Can you call carnival to check on this? Enjoy your holiday.

 

 

 

 

 

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[IndyDenise]

This is one of the nicest things I have ever seen on here! Merry Christmas and I hope you have the brightest and most joy filled holiday ever.

 

 

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[bury me at sea]

Annietoo. Wow. What a kind offer. Merry Christmas.

[May2894]

Annie, you brought tears to my eyes. What a beautiful thing to do for this family. Merry Christmas!!

[finoky]

Merry Christmas. I might be able to help you out. We are in 2335 which is a connecting room with 2334. We would be willing to make a trade if possible. I assume this might be done with guest services on board. Can you call carnival to check on this? Enjoy your holiday.

 

In my mind you just won the nicest person on Cruise Critic ever award!!!

[jenng1976]

I agree Annie ... How kind of you to offer to help this family! What are the odds you would have even seen this post AND had the connecting room next door! Merry Christmas! :)

 

 

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Edited December 25, 2014 by jenng1976

[mommareds]

Merry Christmas. I might be able to help you out. We are in 2335 which is a connecting room with 2334. We would be willing to make a trade if possible. I assume this might be done with guest services on board. Can you call carnival to check on this? Enjoy your holiday.

 

annietoo, thank you so much. you're unbelievably kind to make the offer. but 2335 is an outside? we're inside...looks like the cabin on the other side of 2334 is 2338.

I really, truly appreciate so much you offering!!!!

have a wonderful day!

- Shannon

[springs741]

I am so sorry this has happened to you. I often book for the family and honestly connecting staterooms are sometimes tough to find. I gave the Freedoms deck plans a quick glance and I didn't see any that would accommodate 7 total in two connecting interior rooms.

 

Your TA might be able to assist you with upgrades to balconies. There are still a few that would work for you. Since the TA has been in business for awhile (since you have used them before) I would not have thought they would have confused connecting and adjoining.

 

At this point, take a deep breath, know that there is little you can do until Friday.

Edited December 25, 2014 by springs741

[HollandAvery]

Merry Christmas. I might be able to help you out. We are in 2335 which is a connecting room with 2334. We would be willing to make a trade if possible. I assume this might be done with guest services on board. Can you call carnival to check on this? Enjoy your holiday.

 

WOW! Very awesome of you! Happy Holidays (:

[mommareds]

I am so sorry this has happened to you. I often book for the family and honestly connecting staterooms are sometimes tough to find. I gave the Freedoms deck plans a quick glance and I didn't see any that would accommodate 7 total in two connecting interior rooms.

Your TA might be able to assist you with upgrades to balconies. There are still a few that would work for you. Since the TA has been in business for awhile (since you have used them before) I would not have thought they would have confused connecting and adjoining.

 

At this point, take a deep breath, know that there is little you can do until Friday.

 

Someone else said this too (no connecting interiors for 7)....and that has me worried. Initially we were planning on oceanview. But the TA gave us the price for interior, and we decided to go with that and put the difference into some fun excursions for us all. At this point it looks like oceanview is sold out, and balcony is simply not an option--it would cost us as much as we've already paid plus more (more than double our cost for interior cabins)... never mind the fact that we simply do not want a balcony with small children. (not that I wouldn't accept it gladly and gratefully if the CarniVal Fairies wanted to give us a free upgrade to solve this problem ;) )

 

I am extremely frustrated, especially with the TA. I looked back at my emails with her and like I thought it was literally the FIRST thing I said--please check the availability of connecting rooms, because that will decide if we book this or not.

I did call carnival this morning, they are definitely not connecting rooms, only our TA can make any changes, and there are "some" connecting rooms still available. However what she DIDN'T say was there are INTERIOR connecting rooms available.

 

What upsets me the most is that I think we're going to get a "too bad, so sad". Seriously doubt a reasonably priced jump from an interior to connecting balcony cabins is going to happen (if we promise not to go out on the balcony? Not even open the curtains and just treat it as an interior? Lol) and we will be left with adjoining rooms and a very chaste vacation for dh and i :D;). I know some may be comfortable with letting the kids sleep in another non-connecting room, but I am not Ok with my 14, 12, 10and possibly 6 year Olds being unsupervised like that....not because I don't trust them, but because I don't think it's safe.

 

Anyway, thanks everyone for your help and suggestions, and especially a huge thank you and xoxo again to Annie for her offer.

[mommareds]

Oh, I think we see where the TA might have been confused too. Maybe the TA also was looking at 22xx & not 23xx. It doesn't look like your rooms connect, I'm sorry to say.

 

Yes, maybe that's what happened. Doesn't help my annoyance though...considering that's their job and all...

 

 

One thing you could do with the showers is to send the guys upstairs to the gym, where they have individual shower stalls that are much larger & better than the room's shower. Or your 2 staterooms can be a boys room & a girls room for showers & getting ready.

 

I've heard people mention the gym showers, which is something I will keep in mind for my 6'4, 225 lb husband haha. Us girls certainly get the shaft on splitting by gender---4 daughters and 1 son :rolleyes:

 

Thanks!

[springs741]

I respect your thoughts regarding the kids sleeping in a non connecting room. I will share with you my experience with a balcony and kids. The door to the balcony is difficult to open and the railing is high enough that you shouldn't have to worry unless the wee ones climb on the table or chairs.

When I said the TA might be able to help with the upgrade I was tactfully trying to say they should cover the cost. Since your request for connecting rooms was made from the start and the Freedom doesn't have the configuration to accommodate 7 in two interior rooms the TA should have never given you a price for interiors. You could have booked OceanView but they are as you know sold out. This leaves you with balcony options unless there are some OV that are being held in blocks by other TA's.

If it were me, I would just call the TA and ask what they are going to do it fix the problem.

 

Thank you for sharing your story as it should teach us all to always have a paper trail and to double check every arrangement made.

[Annietoo]

I am so sorry that I can't help you out. It was late when I read your post, quickly, and just noticed that our numbers were adjoining but did not notice the interior/0ceanview difference. I wish you the best.

[BullDawg91]

I agree that you need to put it back on the TA. That person made a serious error.

[thomarvin]

SHE needs to make this right and upgrade you at HER expense if need be.

[mommareds]

(cross posted from my roll call forum)

 

Well, as I expected, I got an "oops, sorry!" from the TA. She called Carnival, said there was nothing.

I'm kind of stuck here, I use this TA basically to be nice. I worked with her years ago, and she's worked with my dad for...forever. Cruise TA is kind of her side gig. I'm pretty computer savvy, I found the cruise myself, and called Carnival to make sure there were connecting cabins before ever talking to her. The carnival guy wanted to book me right then, I waved him off because I'd rather give my business to a "friend". Honestly, that's the only reason I used her. Now I feel like I'm between a rock and a hard place...if this was a typical business relationship I'd be giving her a piece of my mind. But because I don't want to make things awkward I'm trying to find a nice way of saying "sorry" doesn't cut the mustard. I just drafted an email, haven't sent it yet....(actually trying to be very tactful even here...not like it's impossible for her to be on this board :cool:)

I'm trying not to be a big baby...the fact is we will have a wonderful time on a 2 week vacation, not something many large families get a chance to do. But I have worked SO hard making sure everything is perfect, my i's are dotted and my t's are crossed. And as far as I'm concerned this isn't my mistake.

[Cruising4]

Any chance you purchased "cancel for any reason" insurance?

 

Send the TA a polite but firm message. Thank her for helping you but refer her to your original email requiring connecting cabins. Ask that she does everything possible to meet your requirements immediately.

 

After that, it's up to her. You should be able to know her intentions based on her reply. If she admits to messing up and is apologetic that's one thing but if it's "too bad, so sad" then you can reply appropriately.

 

Her true self will reveal itself. I hope she does the right thing.

 

Worst case is adjoining cabins and not using her services again. Best is she upgrades you and eats the cost. Either way, I hope she is honest.

 

Best wishes ... either way, you seem like the kind of person what will make the best of it!

[SadieN]

(cross posted from my roll call forum)

 

 

 

Well, as I expected, I got an "oops, sorry!" from the TA. She called Carnival, said there was nothing.

 

I'm kind of stuck here, I use this TA basically to be nice. I worked with her years ago, and she's worked with my dad for...forever. Cruise TA is kind of her side gig. I'm pretty computer savvy, I found the cruise myself, and called Carnival to make sure there were connecting cabins before ever talking to her. The carnival guy wanted to book me right then, I waved him off because I'd rather give my business to a "friend". Honestly, that's the only reason I used her. Now I feel like I'm between a rock and a hard place...if this was a typical business relationship I'd be giving her a piece of my mind. But because I don't want to make things awkward I'm trying to find a nice way of saying "sorry" doesn't cut the mustard. I just drafted an email, haven't sent it yet....(actually trying to be very tactful even here...not like it's impossible for her to be on this board :cool:)

 

I'm trying not to be a big baby...the fact is we will have a wonderful time on a 2 week vacation, not something many large families get a chance to do. But I have worked SO hard making sure everything is perfect, my i's are dotted and my t's are crossed. And as far as I'm concerned this isn't my mistake.

 

 

FYI if you want to be nice next time. Book with the cruise line then transfer it to the TA.

[mommareds]

Any chance you purchased "cancel for any reason" insurance?

 

Send the TA a polite but firm message. Thank her for helping you but refer her to your original email requiring connecting cabins. Ask that she does everything possible to meet your requirements immediately.

 

After that, it's up to her. You should be able to know her intentions based on her reply. If she admits to messing up and is apologetic that's one thing but if it's "too bad, so sad" then you can reply appropriately.

 

Her true self will reveal itself. I hope she does the right thing.

 

Worst case is adjoining cabins and not using her services again. Best is she upgrades you and eats the cost. Either way, I hope she is honest.

 

Best wishes ... either way, you seem like the kind of person what will make the best of it!

 

No, we didn't purchase cancel for any reason. And we wouldn't anyway. 7 very VERY disappointed people.

 

Sent her an email last night, basically laid it all out and said " this is not MY fault. I did everything in my power to make it clear what we wanted". Stopped short of out-and-out saying it was her fault. She called this morning, said she'd called carniVal 4 times, and had the CarniVal lady on the other line right now (I started getting my hopes up) and they'd found 2 balcony cabins (yeah?!?!) And it will be $3300 additional to upgrade. ::record screech::

I almost feel...offended? Not suse if that's the right word....what exactly did she expect me to say? "Well gosh, lemme just pull out the Ole credit card and tack on about 95% of what we initially paid because you screwed up."

Maybe if I could have afforded that I wouldn't have gone with insides in the first place? :confused:

I feel like she did that just to be able to say "see, look! I worked hard to fix this "miscommunication", but you didn't like my solution, so soooorrrrrreeeeey."

 

But that wasn't really a solution at all.

 

I feel like I should point out that we have booked with her 2 times before. In 2007 my family booked 10 people in 3 cabins for a 9 day on rccl, and last year I coordinated 4 couples for a 7 day on rccl--8 people in 4 cabins (we all had anniversaries to celebrate) we my not be the most frequent cruisers ever, but I don't think that kind of business is anything to sneeze at, especially considering I did ALL the leg work--found the cruises myself, priced them out, I even found our price drop on the 2013 cruise...so I'm not a super high needs customer. I don't think I'm too far off base thinking that even if she's not going to foot the bill for an upgrade, we deserve some sort of financial compensation. And I'm not crazy...yeah, an upgrade would be awesome, but if she said look, I'm sorry I screwed up, here's $100 credit on each cabin....I'd be ok. Put your money where your mouth is, you know?

At least a guy I work with came up with one idea--get a baby monitor for the rooms, that way we can keep an "ear" on the kids at night, and DH and I can sleep together. Still less than ideal....plus we're out $30 fora baby monitor I'll never use again (our baby days are D.O.N.E. :p)

 

Ugh...I keep telling myself to stop whining, I'm still getting an awesome vacation....but this has put a very large damper on my excitement....

 

 

Edited to add: I have no idea why my tablet has decided carnival should be carniVal?

Edited December 27, 2014 by mommareds