Beware of Carnival Destiny Itinerary Changes last minutes by Carnival

[cplusplus]

We booked our tickets almost 2 months ago, to jamaica ocho rio's & grand cayman islands from Miami.

which is more than 2500 miles trip, they never called us at all, right at the desk when reached to port they told us the ship has problems will be going to Nassau & half moon Cay. gave us a 50$ credit.
the total trip length is reduced to 500 miles - total mess.

We are completely disappointed with there last minute itinerary change.

Highlight is we found out onboard from crew, some mentioning that the ship crew already knew the change is coming almost a week ago.

we the many passengers knew it right at desk.

spent lot of money on this trip but had to see nassau second in a two year period.

Completely disappointed.

Victim of Carnival Destiny.

[ssatterly]

Originally Posted by cplusplus

We booked our tickets almost 2 months ago, to jamaica ocho rio's & grand cayman islands from Miami.

which is more than 2500 miles trip, they never called us at all, right at the desk when reached to port they told us the ship has problems will be going to Nassau & half moon Cay. gave us a 50$ credit.
the total trip length is reduced to 500 miles - total mess.

We are completely disappointed with there last minute itinerary change.

Highlight is we found out onboard from crew, some mentioning that the ship crew already knew the change is coming almost a week ago.

we the many passengers knew it right at desk.

spent lot of money on this trip but had to see nassau second in a two year period.

Completely disappointed.

Victim of Carnival Destiny.

Was this from the last cruise she took or a new Itn. Change?

[MrPete]

Originally Posted by cplusplus

We are completely disappointed with there last minute itinerary change.

Victim of Carnival Destiny.

Yet I hope you continued to enjoy your ship, and all what it offers. You were only a victim if you let yourself be a victim.

[sdirector77]

Originally Posted by cplusplus

We booked our tickets almost 2 months ago, to jamaica ocho rio's & grand cayman islands from Miami.

which is more than 2500 miles trip, they never called us at all, right at the desk when reached to port they told us the ship has problems will be going to Nassau & half moon Cay. gave us a 50$ credit.
the total trip length is reduced to 500 miles - total mess.

We are completely disappointed with there last minute itinerary change.

Highlight is we found out onboard from crew, some mentioning that the ship crew already knew the change is coming almost a week ago.

we the many passengers knew it right at desk.

spent lot of money on this trip but had to see nassau second in a two year period.

Completely disappointed.

Victim of Carnival Destiny.

Not flaming but these boards have had many discussions for sometime now about the issues with the Destiny. Although concerned, we are booked in January on the Eastern Route, fingers crossed.

[cantwait06]

This has been discussed in great length in the past few days here. It seems like all these people who are complaining are people who registered a few days ago and have one or two posts. Most of the people who frequent these boards do realize that this does occasionally happen-if you read the contract THAT YOU SIGNED it does state that Carnival can cancel or subsitute a port of call at any time for any reason. While I do admit that it can be disappointing, you did agree when booking the cruise to accept the fact that this very situation may occur. At least they gave you new ports of call, right?

[firefly333]

I heard it is a big job to call everyone. My PVP said they were asking for volunteers, and if you had an hour you could devote, you spent it calling Destiny pax and explaining the options of cancelling or staying and taking the $50. I know they called everyone they could. She personally said she called 300 pax. ... in addition to her regular duties.

[BrendaB1]

Ship happens. Too bad OP didn't find Cruise Critic until AFTER their cruise.

[posh08]

My PVP has promised me a heads up by email if she hears of any change on the 12/10 sailing. Right now Destiny looks to be on schedule to Coz.

[salty dingo]

Originally Posted by cplusplus

We booked our tickets almost 2 months ago, to jamaica ocho rio's & grand cayman islands from Miami.

which is more than 2500 miles trip, they never called us at all, right at the desk when reached to port they told us the ship has problems will be going to Nassau & half moon Cay. gave us a 50$ credit.
the total trip length is reduced to 500 miles - total mess.

Poor victim! Everyone knows they sell cruises by the mile. You were certainly short changed. Bad, bad Carnival!

[5waldos]

Perhaps these changes are why the Destiny does not appear on any of the maps which show where the ships are.

But on another track- some of you are really harsh in your responses to people. Whether you signed a contract or not, having your itinerary changed radically at the last moment could be a real disappointment. I am happy for those of you who take all things in stride- do you do this with everything in your life? I know that ship happens but last year I chose a trip because of a certain port and I would have been really pissed if we had ended up someplace I didn't want to go. Would I understand? Probably. But that would not have kept me from being really angry about it. Perhaps in addition to your complete stoicism you might see if you could muster some compassion.

[ddoc]

We sailed on the Cruise to Nowhere with you out of Norfolk. Those cruises had gotten addictive as we've done a total of 4 of them-only one of out New York, the rest have been out of Norfolk. We can't go away in December because of Tom's job. Have a great time on your cruise.

[ken06kim]

Originally Posted by 5waldos

Perhaps these changes are why the Destiny does not appear on any of the maps which show where the ships are.

But on another track- some of you are really harsh in your responses to people. Whether you signed a contract or not, having your itinerary changed radically at the last moment could be a real disappointment. I am happy for those of you who take all things in stride- do you do this with everything in your life? I know that ship happens but last year I chose a trip because of a certain port and I would have been really pissed if we had ended up someplace I didn't want to go. Would I understand? Probably. But that would not have kept me from being really angry about it. Perhaps in addition to your complete stoicism you might see if you could muster some compassion.

I agree that others are very harsh on their responses when a person is just trying to say how they feel. i too was on this cruise and yes I was bummed about the change. I really don't care for Nassau and now I am already booked next year to go there again. that will make 3 in a row stopping there. There are people who don't cruise as much as others and they may really want to go to a certain port of call.

What about the couple who was supposed to get married in Jamaica and had people meeting them there for the wedding? Shouild they not be upset? People are just venting their frustration and they should be aloud to do that without people getting on their case.

With all that being said, I want everyone to know we had a fantastic time on this cruise. One of the best I have ever been on. I personally think Carnival should offer a credit towards a future cruise when something like this happens. That way anyone who says they will never sail with them again may give it anohter shot and realize how awesome they really are

[pbrgirl-101]

Originally Posted by posh08

My PVP has promised me a heads up by email if she hears of any change on the 12/10 sailing. Right now Destiny looks to be on schedule to Coz.

I am on this cruise also, and I have been to Cozumel 3 times already, so if we go somewhere else, it'll be ok with me! We were just gonna go to Nachi Cocum and relax for the afternoon anyway......

[ssatterly]

Originally Posted by pbrgirl-101

I am on this cruise also, and I have been to Cozumel 3 times already, so if we go somewhere else, it'll be ok with me! We were just gonna go to Nachi Cocum and relax for the afternoon anyway......

I am on the Cruise right before yours!!! We we get off you will be getting on.... We will keep her nice for you!

[simpleman]

Originally Posted by pbrgirl-101

I am on this cruise also, and I have been to Cozumel 3 times already, so if we go somewhere else, it'll be ok with me! We were just gonna go to Nachi Cocum and relax for the afternoon anyway......

I'm pretty sure we will be going to Coz if this repair is sustainable. We will be going to Paradise Beach, then off to Coconuts and beyond.

[salty dingo]

Originally Posted by ken06kim

I agree that others are very harsh on their responses when a person is just trying to say how they feel.

Maybe the harsh response is just someone trying to say how they feel too?

I would definitely be disappointed if a port of call were cancelled, and it has happened to me before. However, I would not go online and accuse the cruise line of unfair, unethical, or deceptive practices. That's just how it is... ships break, and that's the breaks.

[sdirector77]

Originally Posted by simpleman

I'm pretty sure we will be going to Coz if this repair is sustainable. We will be going to Paradise Beach, then off to Coconuts and beyond.

Love Coconuts, great place

[kyrisong1]

Originally Posted by ken06kim

IWhat about the couple who was supposed to get married in Jamaica and had people meeting them there for the wedding? Shouild they not be upset? People are just venting their frustration and they should be aloud to do that without people getting on their case.

I would be terribly disappointed if I missed my wedding, however sailing at this time of year is risky, hurricane season is June through Nov.
Ships break just like cars do, and if they can get them to a different place than you need to suck it up and enjoy what you can out of it.
If research is done, and I do believe people planning weddings do tons of research, they would know that there is a chance of the ship not making it, disappointing? Yes, but I would never advise to plan a wedding anywhere you are dependent on a ship getting you there, things happen.
People are so bad about bashing the company when it's really beyond their control.
Look at the airlines, they have a horrible on time rating, many flights just flat out canceled........... yet people still fly. And they will still sail........
If they stop going with a company over a disappointment they really are just cheating themselves IMO>

[TerriBWyo]

Originally Posted by cantwait06

This has been discussed in great length in the past few days here. It seems like all these people who are complaining are people who registered a few days ago and have one or two posts. Most of the people who frequent these boards do realize that this does occasionally happen-if you read the contract THAT YOU SIGNED it does state that Carnival can cancel or subsitute a port of call at any time for any reason. While I do admit that it can be disappointing, you did agree when booking the cruise to accept the fact that this very situation may occur. At least they gave you new ports of call, right?

I was on this cruise also with my family, and I was massively disappointed in the ports of call as well. We found out in the airport, 3,000 miles from home, that our itinerary was changed due to ship problems. Thanks to Cruise Critic, I knew that there had been previous problems, but (and this is the part that makes me mad) when we called Carnival 2 weeks before sailing to query this, we were assured that all problems were fixed, the ship would sail as promised, and everything would be grand. I booked excursions for Jamaica and Grand Cayman, and then had to 'unbook' them in the hotel room the day we were to sail. We were given the option to cancel our trip, of course, as was everyone else, but-- and maybe not everyone asked this question-- your refund isn't processed and available right away. We would have been stuck in the Florida airport with return tickets a week later, and not enough money to do another vacation. Canceling really wasn't an option for us.

The part that angers me is that the cruise we went on was substantially less expensive than the one we paid for. If we had wanted a 3-day Nassau cruise we would have booked one for $1200 less for the 4 of us; instead, we booked a 2,000 mile cruise and ended up on a 600-mile cruise for the same price for the 5 days. At one point, we were literally turning circles in the ocean, burning off time. I kid you not-- I was standing on the back deck and saw the wake trails forming giant arcs in the ocean, and we could see the landmarks moving around and around us. Not cool. It felt to us like a classic 'bait and switch' tactic, and no one likes to feel ripped off. I don't believe this is one of those 'occasional' happenings, either-- in talking with fellow passengers, it sounds like the Destiny in particular has had these propulsion problems for 3 or 4 months. It's time for that ship to take a much needed break and get fixed up.

With all that being said, we did try to make the best of our vacation, for our girls' sake. The ports of call were okay-- the Half Moon Cay stop was one of those (like on the Princess cruises when you go to Princess Cay) where you are sort of a captive audience to whatever they want you to do. Since it's a privately owned island, there aren't any excursions offered by other companies, and aren't many other activities to do, but the beach is lovely and the sun was plentiful. Nassau was certainly a step down from what we wanted to do-- we had planned zipline and ATV adventures-- Nassau is a shopping adventure. If we had planned a trip to buy diamonds and expensive jewelry it would have been fine, but we weren't into that, and the trip was kind of a bust. We did try to book an outside excursion, but coincidentally, the outside excursions all ended at noon, and we weren't able to disembark until noon. That left us with only the Carnival excursions, so we booked a clear kayak adventure. We were able to walk through the shops briefly in Nassau before our 'adventure', but it was pretty much a bummer as well. First, our tour was late, waiting on a bus that never did materialize. We walked instead, which was fine, until we were locked out of whatever door we were supposed to use, and had to walk through the alley ways and the garbage dump (again, not kidding) where we were refused entrance by a very large, imposing, armed guard. He sent us back around another very large building where we were finally allowed into the port to catch our tour boat. By this time, we were quite late, and I'm sure the rest of the people on the tour were pretty impatient. Also by this time, the wind kicked up and the clouds moved in, which made the kayaking a bit more adventurous than I anticipated. Our 'adventure' was cut short due to high winds coming in, and we were ferried back into Nassau, just in time for all of the stores and markets to close at 6 pm. We walked around a bit, but frankly, it was kind of scary by then, as well as dark, so we went back to the ship and stayed there.

All that being said, the ship was nice-- not fancy by any means, but nice, and we aren't fancy people. The meals were in general VERY good, especially in the dining rooms as opposed to the buffet lines. The buffet lines were filled with tons of fried food that I didn't care for, but also held some fresh fruit now and then. Our waiters were fantastic, very kind and cheery, as were most of the other crew on the ship. It certainly wasn't their fault that the itinerary changed, and yet they took lots of abuse from angry cruisers, and I felt bad for them. The entertainment was okay-- not outstanding, but okay, and could have been more plentiful. They did have some sewage problems, and I hope they've fixed those-- several areas of the ship were roped off and had foul nasty smells emanating from the depths. The toilets by the 3rd day were all very smelly, and the sewage smell blew past our balcony frequently as well. The weather was fair-- cloudy and overcast often, and rainy on the last day, which I read is common for that trip in November, which is why we didn't book it. I wonder how the weather compared in the Western Caribbean, where we were supposed to go.

You know, given the whole experience, I hesitate to book on Carnival if I'm going someplace where the ports matter to me. If I were booking for a family hang-out time, Carnival would be just fine; if I wanted certain trips, I'd look elsewhere. One way that Carnival could make a more loyal customer out of my family and me would be to acknowledge that we didn't get what we paid for, and to offer a credit on a future cruise. I'd be glad to go again and take a chance on Carnival.

Hope that helps--
Terri in Wyo
(who came home to a whopping 10 degrees weather, so even that rainy day is looking good)

[bplazo]

Just curious if Carnival posted on their web site about a change in ports?