Carnival Communication Criticism

[LMaxwell]

10 minutes ago, ULCajunCruiser said:

Find this to be a little snarky and unnecessary.   OP has a (several) valid concerns and criticisms.   Carnival IS responsible for keeping their customers informed and up to date in a timely manner.   No one should be traveling to get to their cruise only to find out that it has been cancelled because Carnival neglected to provide information.   Facebook, Twitter, and yes (gasp) even Cruise Critic should not be final sources of information.   Am I glad that they are there, sure, lots of good stuff to be found.   But woe to the traveler who  depends on these platforms as sole provider of information.   Carnival .com, or an email and/or text from them should be the sole source for decision making!!!

 

 

 if I was running into an erupting volcano and my guide kept waving me closer at some point I'd probably run out of trust for that guide.  

 

It wasn't intended to be snarky.  Trusting these cruise lines to put people first is not a smart bet.  They can SAY it over and over and over, but they don't walk it until absolutely forced to.  I understand OP's frustration.  Maybe I am cynical; years ago I stopped taking customer reps at their word (worthless) and have accepted that companies view me as a number in a data base with a wallet; nothing more. 

 

The $200 OBC offer was borderline criminal, IMO.  

 

 

[4jaynki]

1 minute ago, LMaxwell said:

 

Kinda negligent for them to continue sailing and not have communication already prepared ahead of time if they needed to "flip the switch".  I'm not getting out my violin for Carnival over this. 

 

So riddle me this. Schools have closed very unexpectedly in many areas, leaving many parents stuck.  Should those parents have a pre-planned response so they can flip the switch and ensure they have an alternative method of child care?

[jimbo5544]

4 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

I hear you. 

 

I really thought they'd have made an announcement early yesterday and save many people from trying to get to port cities.  I was surprised when they did not do so. 

They were sailing until they were given a directive to stop

[ULCajunCruiser]

2 minutes ago, 4jaynki said:

    1. I'm glad you think a Fortune 500 company can get out unprocessed information in seconds. 

    2. Do you know when Carnival made the decision?

    3. The President sent the tweet at about 620pm EST, the poster even stated he was notified within almost 6 hours, others got their before and after that.

 

Again if you think Carnival and ANY OTHER COMPANY are not doing everything they can to not only keep their damn business afloat but also appease customers at the same damn time, your insane. Any vacationer still planning ot go with their plans is taking a HUGE risk right now, one that can have lots of complications, including myself.  You need to be ready for anything.

Carnival's official announcement came after the tweet from President Trump, and more than five hours after NCL made theirs.   Carnival was the last of the big lines to announce.   It it confusing as to why they jumped so quickly to announce regarding their Princess brand, yet failed miserably on their own???

[LMaxwell]

1 minute ago, Will4Reals said:

Carnival had the time to put together an announcement and post to Twitter but didn't have the time to communicate via email, texts, automated call ANYTHING to their customers first who were about to embark what was going on and just hoped they have their face buried in social media to come across that? We can agree to disagree on this one but that's just not acceptable. 

 

You are 100% correct.  Like you, I do not have Twitter.  

[jimbo5544]

1 minute ago, LMaxwell said:

 

 if I was running into an erupting volcano and my guide kept waving me closer at some point I'd probably run out of trust for that guide.  

 

It wasn't intended to be snarky.  Trusting these cruise lines to put people first is not a smart bet.  They can SAY it over and over and over, but they don't walk it until absolutely forced to.  I understand OP's frustration.  Maybe I am cynical; years ago I stopped taking customer reps at their word (worthless) and have accepted that companies view me as a number in a data base with a wallet; nothing more. 

 

The $200 OBC offer was borderline criminal, IMO.  

 

 

Lol, dramatics

[jimbo5544]

1 minute ago, LMaxwell said:

 

You are 100% correct.  Like you, I do not have Twitter.  

And I so had you as a twitter expert

[LMaxwell]

1 minute ago, jimbo5544 said:

They were sailing until they were given a directive to stop

 

I know its impossible to please everybody. 

 

I know they are trying to figure out how to sustain operations as they have tens of thousands of employees, hundreds of thousands of second and third tier vendors. 

 

But I find their decision to sail (almost) no matter what to be troubling and causes me to pause and consider my confidence in this company. 

 

I get it.  There are NO good choices right now.  But there are good decisions; to paraphrase the mayor of Seattle. 

[LMaxwell]

Just now, jimbo5544 said:

And I so had you as a twitter expert

 

Even Jimbo calls a shot incorrectly once a decade. 

[jimbo5544]

2 minutes ago, ULCajunCruiser said:

Carnival's official announcement came after the tweet from President Trump, and more than five hours after NCL made theirs.   Carnival was the last of the big lines to announce.   It it confusing as to why they jumped so quickly to announce regarding their Princess brand, yet failed miserably on their own???

Ncl’s decision means nothing.  Being the last to announce carries the same weight    Princess decision was totally unique, frankly nobody was sailing them, the name is tarnished, maybe forever.  As stated before, they were sailing until told not to.  That is the reason, like it or not.   

[jimbo5544]

2 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

 

Even Jimbo calls a shot incorrectly once a decade. 

Its either decade or 10 minutes, I get co fused which

[jimbo5544]

4 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

 

I know its impossible to please everybody. 

 

I know they are trying to figure out how to sustain operations as they have tens of thousands of employees, hundreds of thousands of second and third tier vendors. 

 

But I find their decision to sail (almost) no matter what to be troubling and causes me to pause and consider my confidence in this company. 

 

I get it.  There are NO good choices right now.  But there are good decisions; to paraphrase the mayor of Seattle. 

Spoke to mgt afterwards, never heard them more depressed.  

[Will4Reals]

12 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

 

 if I was running into an erupting volcano and my guide kept waving me closer at some point I'd probably run out of trust for that guide.  

 

It wasn't intended to be snarky.  Trusting these cruise lines to put people first is not a smart bet.  They can SAY it over and over and over, but they don't walk it until absolutely forced to.  I understand OP's frustration.  Maybe I am cynical; years ago I stopped taking customer reps at their word (worthless) and have accepted that companies view me as a number in a data base with a wallet; nothing more. 

 

The $200 OBC offer was borderline criminal, IMO.  

 

 

LMaxwell I get what you were trying to say on your original post! Love the "if I was running into an erupting volcano and my guide kept waving me closer at some point I'd probably run out of trust for that guide." That is to funny! 

[Joe817]

6 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Spoke to mgt afterwards, never heard them more depressed.  

I can imagine the utter chaos that is going on at Carnival Hqts. right now. 

[ChattTenn]

9 minutes ago, Joe817 said:

I can imagine the utter chaos that is going on at Carnival Hqts. right now. 

Regardless what is going on at Carnival Headquarters, if they have ENOUGH TIME to give their information to John Heald or other social medias, should they put in their MAIN site for us first.  With many FAKE news right now the info at their site should carry more  true than running all directions to find out from other sources.

We are 70+ and our cruise won't be until April 17.  Found down on late March 12 (FB from John Heald) about must have a certified letter from the doctor, is it for a certain sailing or everyone of their sailing?.  Their site did not even have that information.

[remydiva]

2 hours ago, Will4Reals said:

As we all know Covid-19 is a rapidly changing situation. I completely understand the number one priority is to protect the health of crew, passengers and the reasoning for ships coming to a halt. My frustration is the fact that had it not been for my sister sending me a snapshot of a "tweet" on Twitter from President Trump or the letter Carnival posted to their Twitter page I would of ended up at the port yesterday! Luckily I had this information sent to me at the half way point to the port and turned around to head back home. 

 

My life doesn't revolve around social media and I don't even have Twitter! I shouldn't be finding out from a "tweet" that my cruise wasn't happening. Carnival should of sent an email IMMEDIATELY when they knew this was happening to all guests who were to soon embark and said something along the lines of due to the ever changing situation of Covid-19 we are halting ships within our fleet, please do not head to port etc we will send an official follow up email/announcement soon with more information. No Carnival didn't do this!

 

It wasn't until a significant amount of time had passed after Twitter posts from President Trump and Carnival that I was contacted by Carnival via email after midnight CST with the announcement.

 

I feel for those who would of saved financially from the required cost of travel and most importantly TIME had Carnival communicated this information to soon embarking guests via email, automated call or anything in a much more timely manner from when they knew this action would be occurring and not relying on the hopes everyone has their eyes constantly starting at a social media platform for any updates is where my frustration lies with Carnival! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I sent the same tweets to my cousin but she was already in the air flying to Puerto Rico. Now stuck there for two nites then fly back home.

a real ‘clusterf**k’

Edited March 14, 2020 by remydiva
Typo

[remydiva]

41 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Ncl’s decision means nothing.  Being the last to announce carries the same weight    Princess decision was totally unique, frankly nobody was sailing them, the name is tarnished, maybe forever.  As stated before, they were sailing until told not to.  That is the reason, like it or not.   

As a loyal princess customer, I would respectfully disagree with your statement that ‘nobody was sailing them’. I suggest to get the real narrative ,hop on over to Princess forums To see how loyal they are.

Our cruise in April was cancelled by Princess announcement so I was actively monitoring their board.
As well I was Monitoring  celebrity and carnival boards on behalf of friends and cousins . 
completely different narratives.

[remydiva]

15 minutes ago, ChattTenn said:

Regardless what is going on at Carnival Headquarters, if they have ENOUGH TIME to give their information to John Heald or other social medias, should they put in their MAIN site for us first.  With many FAKE news right now the info at their site should carry more  true than running all directions to find out from other sources.

We are 70+ and our cruise won't be until April 17.  Found down on late March 12 (FB from John Heald) about must have a certified letter from the doctor, is it for a certain sailing or everyone of their sailing?.  Their site did not even have that information.

Hear hear well said 

[drolltroll]

I agree with the OP. For folks who got through on the phone yesterday to Carnival, I bet there were plenty of upsells and bookings for later times that went on yesterday. That directive to halt, when it came down, should have been an all hands on deck emergency to notify all customers sailing in the next 24hrs immediately, then the next 48 hrs of sailings would go in the hopper, then everyone remaining after that. IT should have had that on the website in under 20 minutes.

 

 I thought Carnival was doing a fabulous job until the debacle at Mobile and Charleston I think it was. The last 48hrs was horrible.

[mpdog42]

1 hour ago, 4jaynki said:

This will NOT be a perfect, or even near perfect process. If you think Carnival and every other business being absolutely ripped to shreds because of this virus, aren't doing everything they can to ensure that everyone effected is notified as quickly as possible, then you are every much mistaken.  We live in a world of instant gratification, and right now that is not reality, uncertainty, frustration, delays, etc. are. Be grateful that in actuality you will come out on top based on this unfortunate situation.

Cheer Cheer Go Team Go!!

[Tenamarie123]

This is such an unprecedented situation that there is no way for any of these companies, state governments, local officials, etc. to get all of it "right".  We are all going to have to have a little more patience and unfortunately have to have expectations of things getting royally screwed up for us in one way or another.  I'm sorry OP that this happened to you and probably many more people who were supposed to be sailing yesterday/today. Can they do things better going forward?  Yes, everything will be a learning experience for sure....

 

Will we be able for forgive Carnival and all of the other companies that are going to make mistakes through all of this? That will be up to each of us to decide...

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, ChattTenn said:

Regardless what is going on at Carnival Headquarters, if they have ENOUGH TIME to give their information to John Heald or other social medias, should they put in their MAIN site for us first.  With many FAKE news right now the info at their site should carry more  true than running all directions to find out from other sources.

We are 70+ and our cruise won't be until April 17.  Found down on late March 12 (FB from John Heald) about must have a certified letter from the doctor, is it for a certain sailing or everyone of their sailing?.  Their site did not even have that information.

If you are talking about the carnival site, it is near the end of the train in terms of notifications.  We all live in a much more dynamic world then we did 2 months ago. The cancellations and the over 70 were mandated other places and required quick notification.  
 

Carnival has processes to notify cruisers and they do so prioritized depending on specifics of the situation.  Also, the way you are notified is dependent on how you booked.  If you use a TA or PVP they own the responsibility to notify you.   Big box stores, and online booking is different.  

[SRQbeachgirl]

Carnival has posted this on their website: https://www.carnival.com/health-and-sailing-update

 

While I think more could have been done regarding communications, so many people fly in early for their cruises -- rather than the morning of -- it was inevitable that some people would be caught in transit whenever the cruise lines made their announcements. 

 

This has been such a fluid situation across all sectors that communicating closures has lagged behind the actual decisions. Even our local school district decided at 4am Thursday morning that school was cancelled and classes would not start back until the end of March, after having announced Wednesday night that there were no plans to close schools! A lot of parents didn't know until they arrived at school with their kids, or the kids were left standing at the curb when busses didn't show up.

 

Singling out Carnival for dropping the communication ball is a little unfair, IMO, since it seems lots of companies, government agencies, and organizations are having the same difficulties trying to stay ahead of the rapidly changing circumstances.

 

I'm inclined to cut everyone some slack, considering we are literally in uncharted waters right now.

[campdaan]

My cruise on the Breeze was supposed to leave today. 
 

I got an email today saying not to forget my boarding pass. 
 

My Carnival page where I log into to manage my cruise says I have 3 hours to departure. 
 

So... I know Carnival has my email. 
 

I signed up for text alerts. I still have the confirmation text. 
 

I HAVE NOT GOT 1 EMAIL OR TEXT FROM CARNIVAL, EXCEPT TO TELL ME TO BRING MY BOARDING PASS. 

 

This is unacceptable. 
 

This would have been my 17th Carnival Cruise, so I’ve dealt with them for years. 
 

There is no excuse. 

[jimbo5544]

2 hours ago, 4jaynki said:

    1. I'm glad you think a Fortune 500 company can get out unprocessed information in seconds. 

    2. Do you know when Carnival made the decision?

    3. The President sent the tweet at about 620pm EST, the poster even stated he was notified within almost 6 hours, others got their before and after that.

 

Again if you think Carnival and ANY OTHER COMPANY are not doing everything they can to not only keep their damn business afloat but also appease customers at the same damn time, your insane. Any vacationer still planning ot go with their plans is taking a HUGE risk right now, one that can have lots of complications, including myself.  You need to be ready for anything.

Well said