Shore Excursion double payment

[dreamalittle]

I wanted to post my experiences to see if anyone has any suggestions to deal with Carnival. I was on the Valentines 2006 cruise on Miracle for my honeymoon. This was our first cruise. On the first sea day, we were told that all shore excursions were cancelled so we would need to rebooks them. There was a problem with getting the data because of the weather. My husband and I booked our shore excursions with our TA. Our TA gave us a sheet of paper on each excursion. We were told by the TA that we are booked with a company called shoretrips. My husband and I went to the pursurs desk with our sheets from our TA. We asked if our shore excursions were cancelled and needed to be rebooked too. She said yes after seeing the sheets from our TA that clearly said Shoretrips. She also said we would see a credit on our credit card from the shore excursions we had already booked. So my husband and I rebooked the three shore excursions with carnival since we did not know how else to rebook. We enjoyed the shore excursions. When we got back from the cruise I called my TA to try to figure out how the credit would show up on my credit statement. She said that there would be no credit because shoretrips does not deal with Carnival. So in essence we payed for the three shore excursions twice. I felt that Carnival had lied to me about our shore excursions being cancelled (they were not) to get us to book with them. I would like my money back or something. We would never have rebooked with carnival if they had not lied to us. I have sent a letter through my TA, and carnival responded that they did not show we originally booked with them so there would not be any credit. I have turned it over to my TA. I am upset that they lied to me (especially since we showed them our shoretrips tickets). I do not know how else to deal with them. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thank you very much.

April

[mrdood]

Essentially some unknown crew member gave you the wrong information. You did not understand the difference between a Carnival purchased excursion and a third party, so maybe you did not communicate clearly to the crew member or maybe the paperwork from your TA also did not communicate clearly that this was not a Carnival sponsored excursion.

 

In which case, the crew member did not lie and just gave you the best information available at the time. I know to you it seems like they lied, but there are two sides to every story. Carnival has nothing to do with third party vendors, you booked a Carnival excursion attended it, and enjoyed it - why should they give the money back?

 

Do you really think this person sat back and thought to himself. "I am going to LIE to this person to get them to book a Carnival excursion." I think the person did not understand YOUR information.

 

Sorry to be harsh, and I wish Carnival would give you the money, but I try to pretend I am an objective judge deciding this case, and from what you have told me - I don't have enough evidence to make them pay you. It really comes down to your word against some "dude" at the shore excursion desk and I am not sure exactly what you communicated to or showed them:confused:

[tankersbabe]

I'm not clear...

 

Did you book with another company BEFORE your cruise for these excursions or did you book with Carnival online? Did Carnival notify you personally that your excursions needed rebooked or was it a mass announcement?

 

If you booked with another company before the cruise, and not Carnival, it is not Carnival's fault that you did not understand that you booked with an outside company and then rebooked with Carnival. You need to contact that outside company and plead your case and hope for a refund.

 

If you booked with Carnival through their online site (through the Carnival webpage) prior to the cruise, then got cancelled and then had to rebook, you need to really bring that up with Carnival and push for your money back.

 

If shoretrips does not let you have your money back, there is nothing Carnival can do because you booked a shore excursion with them on top of the outside company.

 

Good luck.

[big_duck]

You could always contest the charges for the 3rd party excursions with your CC company.

 

Sounds like you are a newbie cruiser. Your TA is not entirely blameless in this. Because ships itineraries change from time to time, you should have been instructed before you left for your cruise to contact the tour provider directly is there was a problem.

 

Excursion desk employees are not paid on commission or anything, so there was no motive for the employee to "lie" to you. Sounds like a communication issue more then anything else.

[theeviltwin]

I agree with the other responses. It was a miscommunication with the Carnvial employee. You said that the paper you handed them said the name of the excursion company, but did you actually tell them this was a 3rd party vendor?

 

Your TA should have explained this better to you. Given you some contact information since ports can be changed due to weather, etc on short notice. IMO, they are the one you should be angry with, not Carnival.

[momofzeke]

Sorry that happened to you. :( Sounds like you need to try and get a refund from Shoretrips. You did not use their excursion, but you did use the Carnival excursion. Too bad you were given incorrect information on the ship at the excursion desk, but that was probably a confusion issue and not a deliberate lie. I would hold your TA accountable and get him/her to go to bat for you with Shoretrips. Good luck! :)

[wentworth]

It's not shoretrips fault either. Their excursion was not cancelled. They

should not be asked to give a refund.

[AppleValleyCruisers]

Communication issue for sure. I guess I don't understand how you could confuse an independent operator for a CCL backed excursion, but that's not the subject of your OP.

 

One thing you may try is to contact Shoretrips and let them know that you were very disappointed that you couldn't go on their excursion due to incorrect information, because you heard so many good things about them on a "certain website". I might go on to say that you would be happy to let everyone on that "certain website" know how good their customer service is on the back end of the process if they could forgive your mistake and not charge you.

 

If it works, I again might suggest you post your experience on each of the specific Port of Call Boards for the ports you planned on using them at to maybe throw some business their way. (What I wouldn't do is flame them if they don't)

[momofzeke]

It's not shoretrips fault either. Their excursion was not cancelled. They

should not be asked to give a refund.

 

That's a good and valid point. But, it wouldn't hurt to try. Maybe if the circumstances were explained, Shoretrips might refund at least part of the money in the interest of good customer relations.

[lvtotrvl1]

When you booked with your TA, were you aware that Shoretrips is an independent firm and not in any way affiliated with Carnival? Maybe this was not communicated to you. Carnival would have no record of any excursions booked with an outside vendor, so what the employee told you really was not a lie. They did not see excursions booked for you in their systems. I agree with the other posters that you would need to go through Shoretrips for a refund and not Carnival. May I ask if there was a reason you chose Shoretrips over Carnival?

[D4]

This is a good example of first time cruisers should strongly consider booking all their tours through the cruise line. You have a clearer understanding with one cruise under your belt.

[tef43]

Carnival does not owe you a refund as you went on the excusions.

 

Shoretours does not owe you a refund as it is not their fault that you failed to show up for their excursions.

[portia1780]

Our TA gave us a sheet of paper on each excursion. We were told by the TA that we are booked with a company called shoretrips. My husband and I went to the pursurs desk with our sheets from our TA. We asked if our shore excursions were cancelled and needed to be rebooked too. She said yes after seeing the sheets from our TA that clearly said Shoretrips.

Did you say Shoretrips to the lady at the purser's desk? If not, she probably just scanned the sheet, regardless of what was "clearly" marked. Logically, why else would you be coming to the Carnival purser's desk unless you had a question about Carnival excursions? Innocent but costly mistake for a new cruiser.

 

It sounds to me like either the TA should have given you more information, or you could have maybe done a little more research before going. However, it also sounds like the TA did his/her minimal duty by saying it was shoretrips in the first place.

 

Don't get me wrong, though, this certainly stinks, and I would have been PO'd, too. (Kinda like the fact that I left my gas cap off the other day, and the service engine light came on due to fumes escaping. Not knowing what was wrong, I immediately went to the mechanic's and had them look at it... of course, they did nothing but screw the cap on and charge me $73. :eek: )

[NRWO]

Sorry, no one lied to you. Shore excursion desk operators don't work on commission, so they have no reason to double book you. They might have been confused, but so were you. That's not CCL's responsibility. Your TA might have explained things better in terms of cancellations and such. The Tour company is also not at fault because the tour evidently ran and you were a no-show. I'd chalk this one up to "live and learn."

[dreamalittle]

Thank you for all the comments on how I should proceed, and also thank you for not b#$*#ing me out. Since I am a new cruiser (to answer someones question) I was not sure on what I should do. I have an appointment with my TA later this week and I have printed the comments out for her to read. Hopefully we get something back, but if not I know next time.

Also a response to the question of why I went through shoretrips...I really do not know.....I had my TA book the shore excursions after I paid off the cruise, since I was planning the wedding as well I porobably lost that decision somewhere in my brain.

[wentworth]

Nothing wrong with booking excursions with shoretrips. We have booked

several and found the prices much cheaper. Also had smaller groups on

the tours which was much appreciated. We book on line and not thru the

TA.