Carnival Customer Service

[ggroggey]

Yesterday I booked a cruise with Carnival. I have never cruised with Carnival in the past, only Norwegian. I called with some questions regarding the drink package and the representative did not know much. It almost sounded like I was calling someone's home. I eventually found the information on the website. It was very strange. Once I figured out that if I wanted the package, we had to BOTH get it...I don't drink...I decided to cancel as it added almost $800 to the bill. When I called Carnival back, the representative again seemed very slow and unclear (and sounded like she was at home) but assured me that I would receive a full credit since it happened so quickly. This morning I received an email from Carnival saying that it was non-refundable and only good towards a future cruise. I am very confused by this lack of customer service. Is this normal for Carnival?

[riffatsea]

No, it is not typical.

I am not clear how you needed to cancel something you say you didn't have any information about in the first place?

 

[ishap]

14 minutes ago, ggroggey said:

Yesterday I booked a cruise with Carnival. I have never cruised with Carnival in the past, only Norwegian. I called with some questions regarding the drink package and the representative did not know much. It almost sounded like I was calling someone's home. I eventually found the information on the website. It was very strange. Once I figured out that if I wanted the package, we had to BOTH get it...I don't drink...I decided to cancel as it added almost $800 to the bill. When I called Carnival back, the representative again seemed very slow and unclear (and sounded like she was at home) but assured me that I would receive a full credit since it happened so quickly. This morning I received an email from Carnival saying that it was non-refundable and only good towards a future cruise. I am very confused by this lack of customer service. Is this normal for Carnival?

 

No, this is not normal customer service for Carnival and it sounds like it was a very new person as they would have information on the drink package.  

 

I'm confused as to what you canceled...the cruise or the drink package?  I would assume that you wouldn't have bought the drink package as you would have seen it was $800 before finalizing the purchase.  It also pretty clearly states on the website that you have to buy Cheers! for all adults on the cabin.

[jc4me]

Did you cancel the cruise or the drink package?  If you cancelled the cruise, the future cruise credit would make sense...depending upon the promotion you booked under.  Typically the customer service agents are quite knowledgeable when I have called.

[ishap]

11 minutes ago, ggroggey said:

I canceled the cruise. Yes, bad on my part for not reading the website ahead of time but still very confused by the customer service reps lack of knowledge and experience. Nic6318, your response is completely unnecessary. Just because I have been on cruise critic for 6 years doesn’t mean I am a perfect cruiser. Ease up.

 

Why did you cancel the cruise?  I'm just curious as you don't have to purchase the drink package and can pay per drink.

[riffatsea]

Strange to cancel an entire cruise because you cannot buy a drinks pkg for only one person in the cabin?? We never buy the drinks pkg .

[h_blond2]

You cancelled an entire cruise because of the drink package? Surely you knew how much you were being charged before you paid for Cheers.

[Saint Greg]

I’ve only used them for price drops and they’ve been great.

[ggroggey]

Yes, rep told me it was fully refundable.

[Jerseygirl1416]

31 minutes ago, ggroggey said:

Yes, rep told me it was fully refundable.

The drink package IS totally refundable. It would depend on which rate you booked as to how much of your cruise fare would be refundable. Just judging by your posts in this thread, I think probably you weren’t clear in your communications with the rep either which probably lead to the miscommunication. 

[ggroggey]

Nope. I was very clear. I asked her if I cancelled the cruise would the cruise be refundable?  She said yes and quoted the total dollar amount of the deposit back to me as totally refundable within 10 days .

[nascarcruiser]

You may have thought you were clear to the rep on the phone but likely weren't.   Your initial post wasn't clear so possibly you weren't clear to the rep.  Sorry you felt you had to cancel the trip over the drink package not being what you wanted.   Why not cancel the drink package and still sail?

[2wheelin]

1 minute ago, ggroggey said:

Nope. I was very clear. I asked her if I cancelled the cruise would the cruise be refundable?  She said yes and quoted the total dollar amount of the deposit back to me as totally refundable within 10 days .

You need to call back and request a PVP to straighten this out. I know that if things are new to us, we sometimes don’t ask the right questions or hang up the phone too soon, thinking we have the only answer. And the rep very likely did give you incorrect info. But you should be able to explain that and get this cruise rebooked with the FCC. Good Luck

Then start reading the Carnival threads as many things are different between the cruise lines.

[ggroggey]

Thank you. Good solid advice instead of criticism. 

[Organized Chaos]

2 hours ago, ggroggey said:

I canceled the cruise. Yes, bad on my part for not reading the website ahead of time but still very confused by the customer service reps lack of knowledge and experience. Nic6318, your response is completely unnecessary. Just because I have been on cruise critic for 6 years doesn’t mean I am a perfect cruiser. Ease up.

 

Unfortunately, you're going to get some responses like that on here. Even though you've been a member of CC for years, you made it clear that you've only sailed on NCL, so I'm assuming you haven't frequented the Carnival forum, right? So you wouldn't have seen "daily complaints" about Cheers, as another user claimed.

 

Now for some honesty. Some of Carnival's regular customer service reps. are known for not being able to answer questions sometimes and, even more so, they are notorious for giving different answers from different reps. In fact, people bring it up on this forum all the time. Yes, there are a lot of good, knowledgeable reps., but it sounds like you were unlucky enough to get one of the not so good ones. That's why a lot of people would much rather deal with their PVP's than the regular reps. PVP's (Personal Vacation Planner) are Carnival's reps. who tend to be more specialized and knowledgeable. You can get assigned to one and they became your personal contact to make bookings, help find ships & cabins that are to your liking, answer questions, etc.

 

If you booked an Early Saver rate, the deposit is non-refundable. To cancel that means you're charged a $50/person cancellation fee, taken out of the non-refundable deposit, and the rest of the deposit is held as a future cruise credit (that has to be used within 2 years). It's a stipulation of the Early Saver rate since that's often the lowest rate available. Lower rate = penalties of some kind as a trade-off. It sounds like you booked Early Saver.

 

All of Carnival's information is included in the "FAQ's." If you go to their website, the FAQ's are located under the Plan tab at the top of the page. More than just FAQ's, it contains all of Carnival's policies & rules. But if you ask me, it's not very clear that that's where you find everything you need to know about Carnival. Don't worry, you're not the only one who hasn't read through them before asking a question here. There's nothing wrong with that. That's what a cruise forum is for.

 

If you had just canceled your Cheers package and kept the cruise, you would've gotten a full refund for Cheers.

[Organized Chaos]

29 minutes ago, nascarcruiser said:

You may have thought you were clear to the rep on the phone but likely weren't.   Your initial post wasn't clear so possibly you weren't clear to the rep.  Sorry you felt you had to cancel the trip over the drink package not being what you wanted.   Why not cancel the drink package and still sail?

 

It wasn't necessary for someone to accuse the OP of not being clear to the rep. Then for you to insist that the OP wasn't clear after they said they were is completely uncalled for. As I mentioned in my reply to the OP, there are a lot of Carnival's regular CSR's who are notorious for giving different answers to the same questions and for being unfamiliar with certain policies...policies that they should most certainly be familiar with. It's a subject that comes up all the time. It's not so far-fetched to believe the OP was given bad information.

 

I do agree that the OP probably shouldn't just cancelled Cheers instead of the whole cruise. Hopefully they'll reconsider and give Carnival a try.

[daisymay1960]

On NCL everyone  in the same cabin also has to purchase the drink package  ?  Every cruise line I have been on ( unless all inclusive ) has the same rule 

[MCC retired]

OP states:

CCL Reps sounded like they were at home? They probably were at home .

The cruise lines as well as the large online TA's use Homebased Agents.

So what ? 

Levels of courtesy and experience vary no matter if they work in a Call Center or from Home. 

Find a good PCC or even better a Good Cruise Specialist  TA next time , no matter where they work from.

 

[K&RCurt]

15 minutes ago, daisymay1960 said:

On NCL everyone  in the same cabin also has to purchase the drink package  ?  Every cruise line I have been on ( unless all inclusive ) has the same rule 

Actually on RC and Celebrity it can be purchased individually.

 

My wife doesn't (can't) drink alcohol so I never get the beverage package on Carnival or HAL, but do get it on Celebrity while DW gets the Premium Non Alcohol package.

 

Each line makes their own policies on this matter.

[xDisconnections]

3 hours ago, jc4me said:

Typically the customer service agents are quite knowledgeable when I have called.

Strange- you can call 3 times and get 4 different answers.

[AHS123]

OP, I wouldn't be concerned that a rep is working from their home. I don't care if they work out of their yard shed as long as they know their stuff and are professional and experienced with the product they sell. 

[coevan]

35 minutes ago, MCC retired said:

OP states:

CCL Reps sounded like they were at home? They probably were at home .

The cruise lines as well as the large online TA's use Homebased Agents.

So what ? 

Levels of courtesy and experience vary no matter if they work in a Call Center or from Home. 

Find a good PCC or even better a Good Cruise Specialist  TA next time , no matter where they work from.

 

 

 

So does Apple Care and their customer service is excellent

[Shaded Lady]

@ggroggey I'm sorry this has been such a negative experience for you. Regardless of the criticisms of others, I have a couple of suggestions for you:

 

If you really want to cancel your Carnival cruise and get a full refund, I'd suggest calling Customer Service back, requesting a supervisor and in a friendly, non-confrontational way ask the supervisor what is a possible outcome that they could provide that would satisfy you. It may not work, but then again, it might!

 

If you were just frustrated about the Cheers situation and would still like to cruise, then I'd go ahead and ask the supervisor if I could reinstate the cruise, bypass the cancelation fee and have a wonderful time onboard!

[Banditswife]

I am a bit confused too.  Just canceling the drink pkg should have been easy.  I have never ordered nor canceled drink pkg, but I have canceled excursions.  I did it right on the CCL website, very easy.  They credited my credit card within a few hours, even though website said it could take up to 5 business days.  This is something a travel agent or Carnival PVP could have helped you with.  I am sorry you felt it necessary to cancel your cruise.

[Butterbean1000]

2 hours ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

Unfortunately, you're going to get some responses like that on here. Even though you've been a member of CC for years, you made it clear that you've only sailed on NCL, so I'm assuming you haven't frequented the Carnival forum, right? So you wouldn't have seen "daily complaints" about Cheers, as another user claimed.

 

Now for some honesty. Some of Carnival's regular customer service reps. are known for not being able to answer questions sometimes and, even more so, they are notorious for giving different answers from different reps. In fact, people bring it up on this forum all the time. Yes, there are a lot of good, knowledgeable reps., but it sounds like you were unlucky enough to get one of the not so good ones. That's why a lot of people would much rather deal with their PVP's than the regular reps. PVP's (Personal Vacation Planner) are Carnival's reps. who tend to be more specialized and knowledgeable. You can get assigned to one and they became your personal contact to make bookings, help find ships & cabins that are to your liking, answer questions, etc.

 

If you booked an Early Saver rate, the deposit is non-refundable. To cancel that means you're charged a $50/person cancellation fee, taken out of the non-refundable deposit, and the rest of the deposit is held as a future cruise credit (that has to be used within 2 years). It's a stipulation of the Early Saver rate since that's often the lowest rate available. Lower rate = penalties of some kind as a trade-off. It sounds like you booked Early Saver.

 

All of Carnival's information is included in the "FAQ's." If you go to their website, the FAQ's are located under the Plan tab at the top of the page. More than just FAQ's, it contains all of Carnival's policies & rules. But if you ask me, it's not very clear that that's where you find everything you need to know about Carnival. Don't worry, you're not the only one who hasn't read through them before asking a question here. There's nothing wrong with that. That's what a cruise forum is for.

 

If you had just canceled your Cheers package and kept the cruise, you would've gotten a full refund for Cheers.

You should be a Carnival rep. 😀   Your information is always spot on.