Opinion/Experiences Please

[SadieN]

You have to use google with ship name and date. But sometimes nothing comes up.

Our aforementioned 3day cruise had almost nothing online when I looked for it after the cruise. It was buried as a PDF in a solo TA website.

[MikeMA]

Moongal,

 

I would suggest as Sadie said, use google. Type in the cruise ship, date, port etc every few weeks. Also when I did call Carnival the rep I spoke with did confirm my finding. I don't know if they all would be so forthcoming or if he just knew I had already found out. But bottom line is I just learned the situation is very frustrating.

 

Where I stand now is to switch to the Magic instead. But it's already $170 more for the trip on a less preferable deck.(not to mention airfare is $200 more). I'm going to call Carnival and open a complaint and strive to have them offer an inboard credit for the difference. I don't know if I'll get anywhere, but if I don't Carnival will have to blow me away before I'll ever book with them again. In my previous 10 cruises (2 w Carnival) I never have experienced a major issue like this.

 

I'll keep everyone posted on what happens.

 

Since carnival doesn't have a notification policy in place to notify people that any particular cruise will be "themed" does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on how to go about checking to see if a potential booking will be a themed one? Or how to monitor and check for a "theme/group" that might have taken over the already booked cruise?

 

I've only been on one cruise and am contemplating another but would be extremely upset if my trip were taken over by any particular theme/group especially since vacations are very rare for me. The next cruise I am considering will likely be my last for several years and would hate for it to be not as anticipated due to the ship being overrun with a specialty group. Seems like it would only be fun if you were in the specialty group. Everyone else not so much.

[MikeMA]

Hi all,

 

Just an update. We switched our booking to the Carnival Magic leaving a day later.

I had to work my way up the guest services ladder in order to do so without penalties as we were booked on the Early Saver fare and Carnival was trying to charge us administrative fees to do so.

At the 3rd level up(2nd supervisor) I finally got someone with compassion and good guest service skills. She sympathized with our situation and allowed the change.

The only downside was that the price of the Magic was up about $62 PP than when we initially booked. We were deciding between the Freedom and Magic so I have all the pricing still from the Winter months. Overall the price from the Freedom to the Magic was about $160 more for cruise and $110 more for air, but for the piece of mind of enjoying our vacation I did it anyway.

 

Thank you all for your opinions/suggestions.

[RuthlessBoss]

Hi all,

 

Just an update. We switched our booking to the Carnival Magic leaving a day later.

I had to work my way up the guest services ladder in order to do so without penalties as we were booked on the Early Saver fare and Carnival was trying to charge us administrative fees to do so.

At the 3rd level up(2nd supervisor) I finally got someone with compassion and good guest service skills. She sympathized with our situation and allowed the change.

The only downside was that the price of the Magic was up about $62 PP than when we initially booked. We were deciding between the Freedom and Magic so I have all the pricing still from the Winter months. Overall the price from the Freedom to the Magic was about $160 more for cruise and $110 more for air, but for the piece of mind of enjoying our vacation I did it anyway.

 

Thank you all for your opinions/suggestions.

 

It's lucky you found out ahead of time. I just remember my cruise when so few conversed in English and we were left out. Even if they were bilingual they immediately returned to each other in their primary language.