My 1st Ever Carnival Complaint

[mbglib]

To the OP: Did you have travel insurance? Some travel insurance policies will pay if the itinerary is changed before you board the ship.

[luckybecky]

It's great Carnival offers this. But, when you've been planning a vacation for months, arranged time off of work and school, coordinated schedules, paid for plane tickets, etc. it's hard to just up and abandon a vacation like that. Especially when it's more of a disappointment, than a complete and utter disaster. And it doesn't sound like they're making a huge deal about it (asking for compensation, writing the CEO, telling people not to travel Carnival, etc.)

 

I appreciate the info about Carnival deciding to change ports around like that, and understand the frustration in all the planning going down the tubes, and the excitement dwindling because of a last minute change that alters the cruise in such a way.

 

I agree completely! I have to ask for time off work months in advance. And it sounds like this family had at least six people travelling (4 teens plus I presume 2 parents) so that's a lot of airfare costs they would have wasted. The vacation guarantee is OK if you live near a port and it was a last minute deal to go on the cruise. But when you have planned for months and spent a lot of money to make it happen, it is very hard to just make the decision to get off the ship within the first 24 hours.

 

Obviously some of the issues with this cruise, in particular the port of Aruba being essentially closed, were not even apparent within the first 24 hours.

 

I'm very sympathetic to the OP. Sorry this happened to you. Yes, we all know that there are no guarantees of ports but it is still reasonable to feel disappointed when your itinerary is completely changed in this way. And, not being a morning person, I would especially not have liked the early ports and very early back on board times. I'm on vacation -- I don't want to have to get up before the sun in order to make the most of a port.

 

At any rate, I hope OP and family were able to make the best of it and had a good time anyway.

[maxydu]

We too were on this cruise. It was our 14th Carnival Cruise. We were also disappointed with the changes but realize that they come with the cruising territory. The biggest disappointments were in Aruba where everything was closed and we were there from 10am-11pm. If staff had checked to see if it was a holiday in Aruba and the cards lined up right, it would have been better to go to

Curacao first and then Aruba after the holiday. In any event, we made the best of the changes as did the OP.

 

The person who stated the OP should have invoked the Carnival Guarantee is wrong in my opinion. First off, the first 2 days were sea days. So, after 24 hours they would have had to be dissatisfied with the first sea day....stayed on till day 3 in Aruba and flown home. Not realistic in that the problem or itinerary was known prior to boarding. Being disappointed is allowed. Many of us were. Stuff happens so I guess I'll start looking for my 15th booking cause cruising is our passion.

[firefly333]

The main pt being Aruba is a special port, and if they didnt get the full benefit of seeing Aruba due to its being a holiday they would have booked a cheaper cruise they said.

 

agreed. I would have looked forward to a new exciting port myself, never been. Main reason for booking the 8 day.

[riclop]

There will be more.

[pe4all]

Didn't any of you bother reading the OP's entire post? Evidently not because she mentioned why the changes were made. I know a lot of people don't read entire threads before commenting, but it'd help to at least read the first post to a thread.

Actually, I did read the entire first post. I then did some research, and found that whatever "storm damage" Carnival stated there was did not seem to interfere with other ships visiting PC. So unless this was a very recent storm....

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147428-d1179502-Reviews-Princess_Cays-Eleuthera_Out_Islands_Bahamas.html

[LuckyStar]

We have always found the best in every situation while cruising, but our recent cruise was one disappointment after another. We just returned yesterday from an 8 night Southern Caribbean cruise on the Conquest. This was our 7th Carnival cruise and the most expensive one so far. We have 4 teenagers and 3 of them graduate next year. We knew cruising next year would more then likely not be an option with 3 children graduating, so we saved up and decided to have a big vacation this year.

We were really excited about the itinerary which was Princess Cays (9:00 - 4:00), Grand Turk (12:00 - 7:00), Sea Day, Curacao (10:00am - 11pm), Aruba (8:00 - 4:00), and 2 more sea days. It was going to work out where we were in Princess Cays on our anniversary and Grand Turk on our oldest sons 17th birthday. We also wanted the 2 sea days coming home to rest up.

On Friday night around 8pm we were packing the car up to drive to the airport when I got an email from Carnival saying our itinerary had changed. The new itinerary was not very well thought out. Now we would have 2 sea days, Aruba 10 am - 11pm, Curacao 8-4, sea day, Grand Turk 7-2, and Half Moon Cay 8-2. We were all really disappointed with the changes especially the new times in the ports. While we do love HMC, being there from 8-2 is not worth it.

So then on the 1st full sea day we get a notice that our excursion in Aruba was cancelled and that the day we would be in Aruba was their Labor Day and everything would be closed except a few stores. We picked another excursion and went snorkeling, but my in-laws are not able to snorkel so they did a tour of the island with Carnival. We did enjoy the snorkeling, but even the guide said he didn't understand why Carnival would of changed the dates to the 1 day a year their government makes things close down unless it's for tourism or convenience stores. My in-laws said their guide said the same thing because most of the places the tour took them to were closed and the people on the tour even had to pay money to use the bathroom on another bus. They were on a Carnival excursion and had to pay to use the bathroom because nothing was open! The stores inside the port were open, but some closed at 4:30. We were there until 11pm with the town basically closed down on holiday. That night we walked to Starbucks, got a coffee, and used the Wi-Fi to message home. I would of liked to of been able to do more, but that was not possible.

We really liked Curacao and would of liked to had more time there. We had planned out our day and night since we were supposed to of been there until 11pm and had to change everything around last minute when it changed to 4 instead.

In Grand Turk and HMC we had very short days. Grand Turk was 7am until 2, so back on board by 1:30. Nothing in town opened until 9 and it was cloudy until noon. We love Grand Turk and were looking forward to being there until 7pm. By time it warmed up and we were all ready to swim, it was time to be back onboard and we were tired from getting up so early to be off at 7am. Then since HMC had its last tender back at 1:15 they did not do the BBQ on the beach and the only thing you could purchase were drinks. We had to tender back at 12:30 because we were all hungry by then.

These things may seem minor to some, but they were disappointing for my family. We saved up for a year and our original Aruba excursion was part of our children's Christmas because they all wanted to go there and it was pricey. To have our itinerary changed, such short times in the last 2 ports, no sea days before coming home, and to be in Aruba during a national holiday were all downers for us.

The changes were said to be made because of Princess Cays getting storm damage. I would of much rather them gave us and extra sea day and kept the rest of the itinerary the way it originally was. The changes were just not that great.

I do understand we could have just not gone and that they are allowed to change things. But, after all the planning and getting the kids excused from school, and the airfare, canceling wasn't really and option. Also, I can handle change when it makes sense, but these changes made no sense to me.

 

This is my biggest fear when cruising with my husband. He is not a great cruiser anyway so I have to pick itinerary very carefully. Glad it all worked out for you.

[Twintowngirl]

I have cruised several times and always have the possibility of an itinerary change in the back of my head. Weather, weird situations arise that make planning difficult at times. One Western cruise with a stop in Belize was one that comes to mind. We boarded the ship and were told after a day of cruising that there was a possibility of not going to Belize because the tender boat drivers were talking strike. It all worked out and we did go the day that we were originally scheduled. While cruising last September ( yes, during an active hurricane season!) our entire itinerary changed from Eastern to Western. We originally were to be in San Juan and it was the day that the hurricane hit. So glad that we went West. We even had a change of plans with the new proposed schedule. I am always thankful to go on vacation and be with friends that it doesn't really matter where we go as long as we are get somewhere safely. It just goes with cruising. I tell people that if you really want to go somewhere and have a 100% quarantee of location, book a land vacation.

[Banks822]

The paper they gave us before we got onboard says Princess Cays will not be in service due to unexpected and necessary maintenance.

I do appreciate the nice comments most of you have made. Even in our disappointment we made the best of our time together, but I still feel like Carnival didn't think the new itinerary out very well, and we would of never of spent the amount of money we did for the itinerary and port times we ended up with.

[2legit410]

I have cruised several times and always have the possibility of an itinerary change in the back of my head. Weather, weird situations arise that make planning difficult at times. One Western cruise with a stop in Belize was one that comes to mind. We boarded the ship and were told after a day of cruising that there was a possibility of not going to Belize because the tender boat drivers were talking strike. It all worked out and we did go the day that we were originally scheduled. While cruising last September ( yes, during an active hurricane season!) our entire itinerary changed from Eastern to Western. We originally were to be in San Juan and it was the day that the hurricane hit. So glad that we went West. We even had a change of plans with the new proposed schedule. I am always thankful to go on vacation and be with friends that it doesn't really matter where we go as long as we are get somewhere safely. It just goes with cruising. I tell people that if you really want to go somewhere and have a 100% quarantee of location, book a land vacation.

I live west of Houston and I remember wishing that I was on a cruise during Harvey! The boats from Galveston that were out when it hit ended up restocking supplies in New Orleans and taking the passengers back for more sea days. It would have been so much better to be on a cruise of indeterminate length than to watch the place I grew up go underwater.

I have (thankfully) never experienced an itenerary change, but if I did, I am sure I would just roll with it. I don't normally handle change well, but my philosophy on vacation is that I am going to have a good time no matter what. I can be miserable at home!

 

I think the OP really did make the best of a bad situation. I am really sorry that this trip ended up being such an expensive disappointment! I hope your next one is everything this one wasn't.

 

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[A&Jfamily]

I understand your disappointment as I have missed ports of call and had itineraries changes. But what I have learned is that it is the nature of cruising - and I am guessing after 5+ cruises, you already know that.

 

The reality is Carnival does what it thinks is best for its passengers and crew, keeping the safety of the ship in mind. I highly doubt swapping with Curacao would have been possible as they have only one or two spaces for cruise ships and others may have been scheduled.

 

Aruba is a beautiful place and well worth a longer land visit at any time!