Legend's Unexpected Visit to Bermuda on 8/11/04

[jdinrvc2]

Hi again!!

 

Thanks for all your well wishes and support - I really do appreciate it!! Anyway, thought I would give you a quick update. Someone in my group of travelers contacted Carnival today. I was informed that the Carnival representative was extremely nice. However, the Carnival execs have decided that the only accomodation that will be made for dissatisfied passengers on the 8/11/04 cruise is that they will receive 15% off their next Carnival cruise.

 

My initial reaction: not enough (especially b/c I have not seen the fine print and my [uneducated guess - hopefully I am wrong] is that even this 15% will not amount to much because it will likely only be available on Carnival's full fare prices.)

 

Oh well. After reading your responses I realized that my real issues with the the way this particular cruise was handled was Carnival's lack of communication and the fact that we were not given either more port time in Bermuda or another port stop.

 

Thanks again for your thoughts - I'll be sure to keep you all informed!!

 

"Ship happens," but I'm thinking that it may be time for "Depends." :rolleyes:

 

jdinrvc2

[kristikae]

For the record...I've gotten the 15% off deal from Carnival. I found a lower price online that Carnival was offering and the TA took the 15% off that price.

[Astra2825138]

I feel that you are almost too calm! You have EVERY right to feel cheated! I have read other posts about this situation and I have read replies that were completely apathetic. People, lets put the real world into perspective, there is no excuse for this and it doesn't matter how in love with Carnival you are. People spend their hard earned money for a cruise. This was not weather related. As the original post stated this WAS, like it or not, CARNIVAL related and the customer should not have to pay for that. Carnival certainly has enough money to refund customers...and would have come out smelling like roses. The customers would have been posting like mad about how great Carnival is...instead they are getting the backfire they deserve. Well, even less than they deserve, in my opinion...and I wasn't even on that ship.

[SueW]

Just a quick response/question... Did Carnival know they had a problem before sailing? I would assume that they did because of the 6pm departure. With that situation in mind, did Carnival offer anyone the option of getting off the ship with a refund or discounted future cruise?

According to all the threads that I read, it appears that Carnival did NOT acknowledge the engine problem to their customers and chose to sail anyway knowing full well that they would not be going to the original ports. The fact that they were not forthcoming with the information that they knew and did not communicate this and give their customers the option of sailing would indeed upset me. Would I have gotten off the ship? Sailing from New York, yes I would have. If the ship were sailing from Florida, no, because of flying in from Maryland.

It looks like Carnival dropped the ball on this one, Carnival really need to be honest with their customers and let the CUSTOMER decide what's right for them. Not what's right for Carnival's bankrole.:mad:

[MrPete]

this 15% will not amount to much because it will likely only be available on Carnival's full fare prices.

I second Kristi.

 

Any time we have gotten a % off the next cruise due to some dissatisfaction, it came off the best fare I could find. I never even brought it up until I was ready to commit to a fare. We've gotten anywhere from 10 to 20% based on our complaint.

[jdinrvc2]

Okay, now I'm beginning to feel less apathetic again and more angry. Mr. Pete LI: when and under what circumstances did you get a 20% discount?

 

Thanks,

jdinrvc2

[Orrsome]

:mad: but :)

 

Unfortunately I was on board for the trip to Bermuda. You are all right Bermuda is the most beautiful island in the world, in my opinion. What you are not hearing is that we paid top dollar to go to Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and Tortola. That is the problem.

I was told I would get 15% off my next Carnival cruise. I dont think so.....

I paid $1700 for this trip and I could have been to Bermuda for 4 days for less than $1000. That is why I am unhappy.

I did make the most of the trip.......as most people did. but I have been on other lines when little mishaps happen they offer you something. This was deplorable and the people you spoke to didn't give you an inch.

Sad to say you won't see me on a Carnival ship. :confused: :rolleyes: :mad:

[ckpan]

I have to chime in here and say that even though I would have loved to go to Bermuda, I am paying over $5,000 for my family of five to go to San Juan, St. Thomas and Tortola next week. I understand the itinerary can change due to unforeseen problems, but I wouldn't expect my itinerary would go from three different ports to just one.

[hstrybuf]

I really do sympathize with the people on this sailing. I too wonder if the propulsion problem was something they knew about before or after leaving port. :confused: My guess is that those who have received the $150 pp credit and the 15% off their next cruise have all they're going to get from Carnival.

[MrPete]

when and under what circumstances did you get a 20% discount?

Seems lame (and shallow) now :rolleyes: , but it was after our cruise in 1996. In 1995, we had complained about not being able to enjoy the speakeasy (the lounge next to the disco) on the Fascination, as it was made the teen meeting room for a good portion of the evening.

 

They sent us a 15% discount for a future cruise.

 

I complained again when we returned from the Imagination in 1996 that we still couldn't use it (still a teen dance club), and I indicated I wasn't interested in a discount if they were not "fixing" the "problem". We were not disco people (well, I'm not), and the piano bar sometimes doesn't have the right personality.

 

They sent us a 20% discount toward a future cruise, which I used for not only us, but 3 other parties that sailed with us.

 

When we sailed the Imagination again in 1997, it was ours once again to enjoy. And this is where we re-discovered the Music Society.

[Momma Donna]

Once again I would like to put in my 2 cents...My group planned and investigated this cruise by reading all kinds of reviews. We were so excited and yes, let down. I'm not any type of ship expert but this SHIP was only 2 YEARS OLD is this a problem that is normal for a 2 YEAR OLD SHIP? Did they know there was a problem?

[MrPete]

2 YEAR OLD SHIP?

Thank God you weren't sailing circa 1912 on a brand new ship!

[Momma Donna]

Hey now, this is 2004 with top of line technology! This wasn't a storm or an iceberg!

[MrPete]

Agreed. Point is, new and old things sometimes need a fixin'.

[kajsb]

Article on the Legend:

 

http://www.cruisenewsdaily.com/he40824d.html

[jdinrvc2]

Thanks for the article. I think the fact that Carnival is billing our time in Bermuda as a "three day stay" is more than misleading. We arrived in Bermuda after 9:30 am on Sat 8/14 and had to be on the ship to leave Bermuda on Monday morning (8/16) at 11:30 am. I don't know about all of you, but that is not 3 days, it is more like 2 days + a bonus of 2 hours.

The fact is that we got shafted and Carnival will not take any responsibility for it.

Mr Pete: it is not lame. You had a problem with the ship, complained and received an incentive to try Carnival again despite an issue you had with them. What they did for you was good customer service and it worked in your case, as it likely would work in others.

The problem I have (and, by the way, I still have refrained from complaining about the numerous issues I had aboard the ship that had nothing to do with the itinerary change - of which I assume that under normal circumstances my complaints would warrant a 20% discount off my next cruise so that I would have an incentive to try Carnival again) is that our issues with the 8/11 cruise go beyond a mere complaint. So what we have learned from this is that if you complain about what most would consider to be fairly innocuous issues on a ship you get great customer service, but when something really goes wrong you get a whole lot of nothing. Not a lesson that will make me a Carnival fan.

Orrsome: I think you meant to say that you paid $1700 EACH for two of you to cruise the itinerary you chose. Let's do the math. You received $300 back in a shipboard credit. That is less than a 9% discount for a cruise that you are completely dissatisfied with. And, like my husband and I, I am sure you spent at least another $500 - $1,000 (we spent over $1500) on the ship. (So the $300 was really no skin off their back because we owed $160 in tip anyway).

I have to agree with you that it is deplorable and Carnival really should step up to the plate and do more for the passengers of the 8/11/04 cruise!!:mad:

"Ship happens," but all you get from Carnival is "ship on a stick." Hard to be happy with that after spending over $4,000.

jdinrvc2

[JJS2K3]

[quote name='jdinrvc2']"Ship happens," but all you get from Carnival is "ship on a stick."
jdinrvc2[/QUOTE]

Clever :)

[Orrsome]

Yes I paid $1700 a person can you imagine to go to Bermuda for 2 days, yes and 2 hours. That is horrendous. If you go to Carnival and see how much it costs to go to Bermuda for 4 days, you may have some empathy for us.
Thanks JD

[MrPete]

[quote name='Orrsome']Yes I paid $1700 a person [/QUOTE]
Sounds like you got ripped off even if you were going on the original itinerary. What category did you have? Or did you book last minute? I paid a lot less than that for a cat 11 suite.

[Orrsome]

I thought since the cruise was from NY to the Caribbean it seemed feasible. I guess not. No one else seemed to pay as much......Now do you understand why I might be disappointed??????

[mrsgoofy98]

In 2000, the Carnival Paradise was supposed to sail out of Miami in July. We got onboard and within 3 hours they turned back around and we arrived in Miami. The azipods had failed and we were supposedly taking on water. Nothing too bad. The cruise director got on the PA system while we were dining and told us that there was a problem and that we were returning to Miami. He said they would keep us up-to-date on the status. This happened around 6:30 pm. When we showed up in the show lounge for the opening show, he didn't come onto the stage, but told us the cruise had been cancelled. In retrospect, my husband and I realized that the crew didn't seem to be welcoming us onboard in the manner in which we were accustomed. I think they knew that there might be a problem, and thought there was the possibility that we wouldn't get far. We called it our Gilligan Island cruise. Everyone on the ship was very angry.

They did offer to fly us to a different vacation spot if we could find one. Those who didn't choose another vacation option were given a 100% refund and a free replacement cruise. We also got reimbursed for the airfare that we had purchased on our own. I thought they handled the situation very well. Most of the passengers who chose to return home had to wait until they could get a flight back home, and so we stayed onboard the ship for a couple of days. They entertained us, fed us very well and everything else. That was back in the day of Carnival providing much better service. Since that cruise, we were on two more Carnival cruises. The last one we went on, the service was very much an issue. We were very dissatisfied. We couldn't believe that this was the same ship that we had sailed on in 1998 - The Destiny. We had a group of 10 people and we all had some service issues. One of the couples was in a different section of the ship. Their bathroom had an awful smell. They lived with it for almost the entire 7 days. We had the worse cabin steward. We were in a Cat 12 suite and we never got soap for the sink and bathroom. They started cleaning out our cabin before we even had our luggage out on the last day. They told me the night before that I should call for wheelchair assistance first thing in the morning. When I called, they supposedly didn't have any wheelchairs left. Boy was I mad. Then, to top it off, my husband brought insulin and kept it in the refrigerator in our cabin. He left it there planning to get it when we took the last of our luggage out of the cabin. When we returned from breakfast, they had cleaned out and threw out the container from the refrigerator. Lucky for us, we got it out of the trash can. All of this, and we were in the most expensive cabin on the ship. I don't think I ever want to go on another Carnival Cruise for this reason.

Even if they offered a discount on the next cruise, I would hesitate because I know I wouldn't be sure I would get good service.

I am sorry they changed your itinerary and I don't think what they did for you was even close to the right thing. I think the right thing would have been to give you the difference between what you paid and what you would have paid if you took one of their cruises to Bermuda. I would certainly talk to their Customer Complaint department and tell them so. I don't know if it would help, but I guess it is worth a try.

Good luck and I hope you get a better response.

Donna

[MrPete]

[quote name='Orrsome'] No one else seemed to pay as much......[/QUOTE]
This might help.

When I was pricing both the Legend and the Pride last year, with the Pride going to Bermuda, the prices I got were higher for the Pride than the Legend. So the Bermuda trip was the premium trip;even at 7 days vs 8.

There was only one scheduled Bermuda cruise this year, but I never priced it as it was in April.

When I priced the Miracle vs the Legend this year, the Legend was the premium trip. The Miracle must not have sold out, as the prices kept dropping.

[steveaaaa]

I was on the Pride to Bermuda last year from NY and the price I paid was about $1500 for an inside (for 2 people total) . I did get bumped up. For me to sail from Florida, it would have been cheaper including air than my drive to NY trip.
Steve

[ruttie]

I am sorry about your cruise and I would be absolutely LIVId if it had happened to me... Weather is something you cannot predict but when you pay someone lots of money to provide a service to you if something goes wrong with there product you shpuld be reimbursed.. period!!! Carnival get s alot of money they should have handled the matter better.. and if passengers continue to except ther eofferings when it was clearly there fault it will conitnue to happen. I prob would not have taken there offer of getting off the ship either hey that is alot of hassel for something that was not my fault! there gaurentee is just a big cover their but tactict!! I love carnival and cruise often with them so it is not that I am just saying come on if you paid all that money you would be upset also!!

[CrusinCouple]

I sailed Legend to Bermuda in April 04. We paid approximately $1350 for 2 of us for an IS guarantee.