Carnival Cruise Lines is the worst Crusie Line we have ever dealt with.  They have taken advantage of their customers for too long.  Their travel agent Anwar made a mistake booking part of our cruise and even though it was their mistake they will not refund our $500.  Now we have found that we need to change our cruise to February and they told us that they once again will keep another $500 of our money. They are happy to make the change but, we will have to pay them to provide Customer Service. 

Let's talk about their Customer Service.  The lady I spoke with today, Sallie, was excellent.  I could not have asked to speak with anyone nicer.  I feel extremely sorry for the Customer Service Reps at Carnival because their hands are tied.  It is the Upper Management who are only thinking about their bottom line and not the satisfaction of their Customers.  If Caarnival was the type of company that they used to be when we began cruising with them in 1988 we would not be having the issue we are having now.

Please let me tell anyone who reads this forum that they "DO NOT" want to travel with Carnival.  The are many other Cruise Lines to chose from and actually believe it or not they will work with the Customer to help make sure they are satisfied or at least come to an agreement.  Agian I will say this about Carnival, if you want good Customer Service "DO NOT" use Carnival.

George and Marie Howell

So George ... what happened?

You were long on spleen, short on detail.

rwilymz,

Nothing happened, they are one of those other cruisers trying to make us go their way.

 Screw me once, shame on you

Screw me twice, shame on me.

Screw me three times and I smell a troll

 Hi!  Gee I can tell you my saga with PRINCESS CRUISE LINES - 3 times, yes, 3 times.  So, sometimes you are not lucky with a cruise line, so find another one that you will enjoy more and stick with them, that's why there are so many cruise lines out there to choose from. I've been cruising with CCL for 20 years now, not once has anything negative happened during my cruise, prior or after my cruise, not once!  

Denise

Again and again and again...so was it good for you?

Anonymous - Sounds like you booked Early Saver? ken

I have cruised 9 times on CCL and have 2 more cruises booked, but I will say that in the last year or two I have seen a considerable decline in the customer service end of the company.  Not the ships mind you, just the business end.  It seems that when the introduced Early Saver (and I honestly don't remember when that was, but it seems that it's been fairly recent), they made some attractive rates but were a little deceptive about the ability to make changes later on.  I got burned on that when we needed to move a cruise back a week and were 2 days into the 50% penalty phase - aaaarrrrgh.  Yes, it was my fault for not reading the fine print more closely but it did leave a bad taste in my mouth.

 In this world where everyone is mucho busy and people don't often times digest what's been said (self included), CCL may have made a marketing error in dangling cheaper rates at people.  Then when they find them terribly expensive to change there are bad feelings.  Remember, people HATE the airlines for this sort of thing - so why would a generally user friendly company like Carnival want to set themselves up for this.

 Since we've cruised with all the biggies in the cruise market, I must admit Carnival's changes regarding cruise date changes to be the most restrictive.  Other lines don't penalize you nearly as much, if at all, if the only change is to push back the date - after all, they've already got your money, and now have more time until they have to pay out expenses against it.

 Just my thoughts.

When I book any travel, I do not ever expect to get a change or cancellation for free.  I feel once I buy my airline tickets, pay for my cruise- it's a done deal.  If I have to change my dates or can't go I lose my money, I know this.

Now, it's nice for an airline to credit my money back and allow me to use it for a future date, paying a hundred dollar penalty.

The only thing I know for sure is my car rental reservations can be cancelled (as long as I don't get the cheaper rate by paying in advance) and my hotel can be cancelled, again as long as I don't prepay w/ the cheaper rate.

but I feel your pain.  I've booked a 40th birthday cruise for me and my daughter, all paid- airline and everything.  If something happened and we couldn't go- we are out a thousand dollars!

CarnivalConnectionser:

I've booked a 40th birthday cruise for me and my daughter, all paid- airline and everything.  If something happened and we couldn't go- we are out a thousand dollars!

You really sound like you should have travel insurance.  Our policy had a "Cancel for any Reason" clause which really eases ones mind.  We also needed something with decent coverages for airfare, hotels, etc. and we got a better deal with travelinsured.com than AAA quotes and better coverages too.  It's not expensive for the peace of mind it gives you.  They are open 24/7 too and their number is 800-243-3174 with great customer service reps. too.