My family as well as some friends were scheduled to sail with Carnival on a 4 day cruise to the Bahamas. We were suppose to sail from Pt. Canaveral, FL on Sept. 5th. Hurricane Frances was rapidly approaching the area and we called Carnival on Sept. 3rd to make sure we were still sailing... We received a "Yes, cruises are rarely ever cancelled". We drove from WV to FL, incurring a hotel stay on the way...
We called from Georgia to make sure we were still a go, "Yes, still as scheduled". On the 4th, Carnival altered the cruise.instead of a 4 day cruise we could either cancel the whole thing or go on a 2 day cruise leaving from Pt. Canaveral on the 7th. They encouraged us to take the 2 day cruise by offering a 50% refund of cruise fare (not including port charges, etc.), a $300 on-board credit for my family and 50% OFF on a future cruise. Who could refuse?
So, we stayed for another 2 nights in a hotel and braved Hurricane Frances. On the morning of the 7th, we called again (remember, this is the sail date for the 2 day cruise) and we are told that the ship can't sail from Pt. Canaveral because of damage from the hurricane but they will shuttle us to Miami (for free) and sail from there on a bigger, better ship and still give us the same refund, etc.
Our friends then call them (after driving down from NC) and they are told that the cruise is cancelled completely... We call again and indeed it is confirmed that they have now decided to cancel the entire cruise. Here's the GOOD PART! We will recieve a full refund BUT no discount for a future cruise, no on board credit, etc. Nothing! What about all this time I've spent in FL waiting on Carnival... What about the hotel bill, the food (our food was paid for in the cruise), gas down to FL, etc.
Thier reply: "We can't control the weather"."Refunds will be processed immediately". It is now Sept. 16th. After 3 calls to their customer service dept they have now said they will process our refund. When asked why it hasn't already been done we got "We've been busy". For an industry who deals with Hurricanes every year for 4 months out of each year and who has made numerous alterations in plans and cancellations, wouldn't you think that they would have had a better system in place to deal with the people who get screwed?
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