Warning: Do not book excursions just because you *MAY* want to go on them to hold the price because you won't see money

[Eli_6]

Or, if you do, don't do it with a gift card!

 

Before all of the "options" came out for my May 28th Pride sailing for excursions, I had booked my husband and I on the Rioja Alvesa excursion in Bilbao, Spain. We booked it some time ago and when more excursions became available, I decided to cancel it and book another excursion. The charge for that excursion was $149.99 per ticket. I received a refund for my ticket ($149.99) but never received a refund for my husband's ticket ($149.99) even though I paid for them at the same time and canceled at the same time. I did, however, get an email notifying me of the cancellation and saying a refund would be forthcoming.  It has been about 6 weeks now and we have neither gotten the OBC or a gift card in the mail for my husband's excursion. That $149.99 seems to just be gone. (We are on different rooms and I suspect that I paid for mine with OBC and his with a gift card.) I tried to call Carnival about it. I just sat on hold for about 20 minutes. Then, finally someone answered...after I had given them all the needed information, there was suddenly no one on the line. I waited a bit and then the "hold music" came on. After some time, someone new picked up and asked for all of the information again. By that time I had close out my window on my computer with the booking information as I had already given to someone and told the woman I would have to bring it up again so it would take a moment. She then hung up on me...for no reason. So, the first 25 minutes on the phone were wasted. Getting very annoyed at the hassle of trying to get this $150 back and suspecting it is just gone.   

[mz-s]

Good luck trying to get your money back. There are countless stories just like yours. Contact your attorney general or the FTC is my advice. 

[Eli_6]

Thankfully it is only $150 and not more.  My time is valuable enough that I am not spending any more time on this issue, but I won't be booking excursions on a "maybe" anymore and just having the attitude of "Oh, well, I can cancel and get my money back."  

[BlerkOne]

Never had an issue, but I only use gift cards to pay for cruises. I charge excursions to the Carnival card and get a 10% discount.

[mz-s]

8 minutes ago, Eli_6 said:

Thankfully it is only $150 and not more.  My time is valuable enough that I am not spending any more time on this issue, but I won't be booking excursions on a "maybe" anymore and just having the attitude of "Oh, well, I can cancel and get my money back."  

 

Carnival is laughing all the way to the bank every time they get away with this.

[BlerkOne]

Just now, mz-s said:

 

Carnival is laughing all the way to the bank every time they get away with this.

Absolute nonsense.

[staceyglow]

I must say that the headline here is painting with a rather broad brush. 

 

I take it that the OP doesn't have a PVP who could follow up on her behalf. 

[Eli_6]

1 minute ago, staceyglow said:

I must say that the headline here is painting with a rather broad brush. 

 

I take it that the OP doesn't have a PVP who could follow up on her behalf. 

I already spoke to my travel agent and was told she had nothing to do with the carnival shore excursions. 

[mz-s]

4 minutes ago, Eli_6 said:

I already spoke to my travel agent and was told she had nothing to do with the carnival shore excursions. 

 

It's all your fault because you didn't book with a PVP, obviously. At least that's the direction this thread will go now.

[stobe1]

With whom did you speak at Carnival? Did you speak to a regular rep? If you didn't talk to someone from the Shore Excursions department, call back and ask to speak with someone there. We had a similar issue last month for an upcoming Alaska cruise and one of our booked shore excursions was cancelledbut there was an issue with getting it refunded. It took about 15 minutes for the ShoreEx rep to get it squared away for us. 

[Eli_6]

3 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

It's all your fault because you didn't book with a PVP, obviously. At least that's the direction this thread will go now.

It doesn't help that my TA also sells shore excursions she organizes in Europe so I already feel like I am cheating on her by even booking a Carnival excursion.  But I wasn't that interested in the excursion she offered in Bilbao. 

 

I would put money on the fact the problem was paying with a gift card.  Someone else on here had this same problem when paying for a shore excursion with a gift card and then canceling. 

[Eli_6]

1 minute ago, stobe1 said:

With whom did you speak at Carnival? Did you speak to a regular rep? If you didn't talk to someone from the Shore Excursions department, call back and ask to speak with someone there. We had a similar issue last month for an upcoming Alaska cruise and one of our booked shore excursions was cancelledbut there was an issue with getting it refunded. It took about 15 minutes for the ShoreEx rep to get it squared away for us. 

Thanks. I will try asking for shore excursions when they start demanding all of my information.  Would be helpful if they could just have shore excursions as one of the options on the menu. 

[Jamman54]

59 minutes ago, mz-s said:

Good luck trying to get your money back. There are countless stories just like yours. Contact your attorney general or the FTC is my advice. 

I'm sorry that the OP is having this problem,  but I have cancelled,  changed,  moved shore excursions countless times and gotten prompt refunds and adjustments. Who should I call? 😁

[mz-s]

6 minutes ago, Eli_6 said:

It doesn't help that my TA also sells shore excursions she organizes in Europe so I already feel like I am cheating on her by even booking a Carnival excursion.  But I wasn't that interested in the excursion she offered in Bilbao. 

 

I would put money on the fact the problem was paying with a gift card.  Someone else on here had this same problem when paying for a shore excursion with a gift card and then canceling. 

 

Yes, the big problem with gift cards is you have no recourse. It's essentially like paying cash. Versus a credit card where you can file a chargeback.

[stobe1]

And dont let $150 get away from you. Thats 2 tanks of gas now-a-days lol.

[Old Fart Cruisers]

The refund may have been applied back to the original gift card.  I wouldn't expect Carnival to issue a NEW card.  If you still have the original gift card, just check balance.  I have had this happen to me, although it wasn't on a Carnival purchase.  Luckly I still had the card.  If you don't have the original card, maybe the number is on the purchase receipt. 

[BlerkOne]

6 minutes ago, Old Fart Cruisers said:

The refund may have been applied back to the original gift card.  I wouldn't expect Carnival to issue a NEW card.  If you still have the original gift card, just check balance.  I have had this happen to me, although it wasn't on a Carnival purchase.  Luckly I still had the card.  If you don't have the original card, maybe the number is on the purchase receipt. 

Carnival doesn't issue cards, but I think it would have to be a new card. I don't beleieve you can add money to an old one.

[mz-s]

10 minutes ago, Old Fart Cruisers said:

The refund may have been applied back to the original gift card.  I wouldn't expect Carnival to issue a NEW card.  If you still have the original gift card, just check balance.  I have had this happen to me, although it wasn't on a Carnival purchase.  Luckly I still had the card.  If you don't have the original card, maybe the number is on the purchase receipt. 

 

Once a card is zero'ed out, Carnival can't reload it. They have to issue a new gift card.

 

But you may be right if that gift card had some balance left on it, they may have just added to the balance.

Edited April 20, 2023 by mz-s

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

We had a problem getting a gift card refund on excursions when COVID cancelled our cruise. Our TA called Carnival and got it sorted out.  I think the TA went right to a higher level Carnival CSR. Our gift card refund came that day. It was an ecard, though our original payment was with a physical card.

 

The TA can call and speak to Carnival on your behalf about excursion refunds, even when you book them on your own.

[notscb]

4 hours ago, mz-s said:

Carnival is laughing all the way to the bank every time they get away with this.

 

Fun fact: when corporations owe consumers money via refund, they can't just keep the money forever. It often ends up with the state the consumer lives in in their "unclaimed funds" bank (usually with the AG's office) waiting to be claimed.

 

In this case, though, it sounds like it's still too soon to determine if Carnival has already automatically issue the refund. I'll be curious if it shows up in the next 6-8 weeks (or more, cruise lines are notorious for taking their sweet time with refunds).

[BlerkOne]

56 minutes ago, notscb said:

 

Fun fact: when corporations owe consumers money via refund, they can't just keep the money forever. It often ends up with the state the consumer lives in in their "unclaimed funds" bank (usually with the AG's office) waiting to be claimed.

 

In this case, though, it sounds like it's still too soon to determine if Carnival has already automatically issue the refund. I'll be curious if it shows up in the next 6-8 weeks (or more, cruise lines are notorious for taking their sweet time with refunds).

and Carnival doesn't directly issue cards.

[KaiBlue]

When we had a cruise and several shore excursions canceled, Carnival did reimburse us for everything with brand new gift cards.  And they came fast - within 2 weeks of the cancellation.  But we did have a PVP working for us so perhaps that helped expedite the issue.  

[CruiseHealing]

I had a similar problem.  I got so frustrated I wrote everything up with supporting documents and emailed it to my PVP.  I did not expect him to fix the problem, but he did forward my email to the right person to get this taken care of.  One day later problem solved!

[ontheweb]

9 minutes ago, CruiseHealing said:

I had a similar problem.  I got so frustrated I wrote everything up with supporting documents and emailed it to my PVP.  I did not expect him to fix the problem, but he did forward my email to the right person to get this taken care of.  One day later problem solved!

And her TA could do this, but it sounds like he or she won't. I'd consider shopping around for a new TA the next time she and her family want to book a cruise.

[jimbo5544]

13 hours ago, mz-s said:

 

Carnival is laughing all the way to the bank every time they get away with this.

Nonsense