Half Moon Cay wedding - changed itinerary

So me and my fiance booked and fully paid for a beach wedding with on board reception through Carnival on Half Moon Cay. We just received a phone call from our wedding coordinator informing us that the itinerary on our cruise changed and we are no longer going to Half Moon Cay. Just wanted to say be careful and don't get your hopes up too high if you are booking an on island wedding :/

Worst fear ! Hopefully they can provide your wedding at another port

That's awful! I'm so sorry this is happening to you. Are they accommodating you and making arrangements for another port?

The ship is leaving out of Miami and they offered to move our wedding to port that day but they might have to bump another bride with fewer people attending because they already have weddings booked that day and we already have 30 guests booked. (no I am not going to ruin someone else's day by having their wedding bumped and am upset that they even offered to do this). Also, me and my fiance picked this cruise for the itinerary. We wanted to get married at HMC and it was one of the only itineraries where we would be in the Bahamas for at least 24 hours before so the wedding would be legit.

Carnival has been completely unhelpful. The reason the itinerary changed is because of "port congestion" which basically means they scheduled too many ships to tender there that day. They informed us that since it is for safety purposes that if we cancelled, we would all lose our deposits. I think it is classic bait and switch. They advertised to us Nassau, Half Moon Cay, Grand Turk and our new itinerary is Grand Turk and Little Stirrup Cay (which imo is not even comparable. All of my guests had excursions booked to go to Atlantis and me and my fiance were going to feed the sea lions there as well). I just don't understand because when they are making up these itineraries, they should see that there are already too many ships there that day. They shouldn't even offer it! Their site says that if they cancel and it is within their control that we would be fully refunded if we contacted them within 24 hours. So it is very upsetting that they don't consider this within their control. And not only that but they said that they would need a supervisor to make any exceptions and they are all gone until Monday. How convenient.

We were trying to get moved to another ship with a different date but they said that we would be subject to the rates of the new ship. The problem with this is we booked really early and even the rates on our sailing have gone up since we booked so we shouldn't be subject to the increased rates for a comparable cruise (one of the other reasons we picked the cruise we picked is for affordability for guests). Also the cruise that they offered to move us to, our wedding wouldn't be legit because it goes to Grand Turk first (wouldn't be in the Bahamas for at least 24 hours). The first person we talked to also said that every one of our guests would be subject to a $50 per person fee to change their booking to the new ship in addition to being responsible for additional fare. We ended up calling back to speak to someone else because it seemed like total BS. We were on the phone with them for over two hours between getting transferred to the wedding department and customer service people hanging up on us. The customer service person even hung up on the wedding department! The wedding department has been nothing but helpful so I feel kind of bad for them having to deal with this type of stuff.

We talked to one girl who transferred us to her supervisor then her supervisor said she would have to talk to her supervisor but her supervisor won't be there until Monday. The whole thing is just so much more trouble than it is worth. I really don't recommend booking a wedding through Carnival unless it is on board at the departure port or a symbolic at sea wedding where the itinerary doesn't really matter.

So me and my fiance booked and fully paid for a beach wedding with on board reception through Carnival on Half Moon Cay. We just received a phone call from our wedding coordinator informing us that the itinerary on our cruise changed and we are no longer going to Half Moon Cay. Just wanted to say be careful and don't get your hopes up too high if you are booking an on island wedding :/

Half Moon Cay is a tendered port even if you was still going, there is a chance that you would miss that port anyway if the seas were too rough for tenders

That was a risk that we were willing to take for a dream wedding at Half Moon Cay...booking it through a cruise was the only way we could even attempt it. HMC has a lot of meaning to me and my fiance.

Right now though it feels like either a.) they offered us an itinerary that they wouldn't be able to honor because there was already too much going on or b.) they bumped us from that port to make room for someone else offering more money.

I'm curious what your sailing date is? We talked to Carnival about having my daughter's wedding at HMC on 11/12/2013 two weeks ago and when I called today to reserve it, the wedding agent said it "was closed to weddings". I couldn't get a straight answer out of her as to what that meant (booked full, the port was cancelled, or what?). I am waiting till tomorrow to call back and try to reach someone who is more helpful and pleasant.

I'm curious what your sailing date is? We talked to Carnival about having my daughter's wedding at HMC on 11/12/2013 two weeks ago and when I called today to reserve it, the wedding agent said it "was closed to weddings". I couldn't get a straight answer out of her as to what that meant (booked full, the port was cancelled, or what?). I am waiting till tomorrow to call back and try to reach someone who is more helpful and pleasant.

Our sail date currently is February 2014.

There are a few months out of the year where they don't do weddings there because of hurricane season and it is a time of year when they often have to skip that port because it is too windy to tender. It only says it though under Holland America but it is probably the same for Carnival http://www.royalwed.com/holland-america-weddings/land/half-moon-cay-chapel-wedding/ (scroll to the end)

Anyway just to update this topic...we are trying to get all of our guests moved to another ship without incurring any change fees or rate increases (the rates are actually cheaper but it is a smaller ship and a bunch of people booked categories that aren't available on the other ship). Also it is during the week in February that incurs a "wedding surcharge" that we don't think we should have to pay for. Someone from the "supervisor" desk is waiting to hear from their supervisor on whether they can do it or we are sol. (I think it is ridiculous. If a cruise ship changes their itinerary, you should be able to cancel and apply your entire deposit to a new cruise at no fee. I pick cruises for their itinerary!) Luckily my family that did already book their flights booked Southwest so they won't have to pay any change fees.

HMC is owned by Holland America. It's quite possible that HAL 'pulled rank'.

According tothe cruise contract they can change itins at any time.

HMC is owned by Holland America. It's quite possible that HAL 'pulled rank'.

 

According tothe cruise contract they can change itins at any time.

Yes and I think if you are 6 months out and they change itineraries because they offered something they couldn't keep, you should be able to get 100% of your money back. If HAL already said they could be there that day, then there should be repercussions for them changing their mind. They should be under contract when the itinerary is created. Otherwise Carnival could advertise a cruise knowing full well that they wouldn't be able to keep the itinerary and there would be nothing anyone could do about it. Like I just paid $1000 for this transatlantic cruise...yeah about that we changed our mind and we are going to go to Nassau for 7 days instead. Your contract says we can do that.

Also, according to the cruise contract you are bound to everything in their frequently asked questions section so if they decide to add something to the FAQ saying that all you can wear is your underwear, well technically you would be bound to that as well. I am pretty sure that the way the contract is written, it wouldn't be legally binding and if we were to get our lawyer involved, we would get all of our money back. I am just hoping that Carnival can be reasonable about it so we don't have to go that route.

Also, the way the wedding contract is written, they can just keep all of my money for the wedding and I am just out the 3k I paid so far. Well actually I am far enough out that I could cancel the entire thing for a full refund but if they waited until a month before, I would get no wedding even though I paid for it and no money back. All I am saying is that these contracts are kind of bogus but if you want the dream Half Moon Cay wedding, your only option is to go along with it and hope they don't screw you over.

That is a little ridiculous you are so far away they could help you a little more!!!

Dont fret to much i as well switched cruise lines about between 5 -6 months before my wedding (2 months ago) we had to call of the guest that already booked and make sure they didnt book flights yet. I changed from carnival to royal it was a great deal as it only cost guests 20 dollars more for the cabin. The wedding itself is allot more on royal but we think it is worth it for what we want personally. Carnival gave me back all my money as well maybe you should just cancel and then rebook therefore you will not incur any charges!!!!

That is a little ridiculous you are so far away they could help you a little more!!!

 

Dont fret to much i as well switched cruise lines about between 5 -6 months before my wedding (2 months ago) we had to call of the guest that already booked and make sure they didnt book flights yet. I changed from carnival to royal it was a great deal as it only cost guests 20 dollars more for the cabin. The wedding itself is allot more on royal but we think it is worth it for what we want personally. Carnival gave me back all my money as well maybe you should just cancel and then rebook therefore you will not incur any charges!!!!

This is where things are getting difficult. We are trying to stay with Carnival because they said that us as well as all of our guests would be out the deposits that they have already put down and it would be non refundable. So far this is about $6,000.

They are seriously ticking me off. The first girl we talk to says there is nothing they can do but we can pay to have our bookings transferred at $50 per person (depending on how the person booked). We said this is unacceptable. We can't do that I our guests and don't feel like we should have to pay an extra $600 when this is a huge inconvenience. Literally how the process worked is first we talked to the wedding department to find out which cruises we could legally get married on and that had availability. The cruise we booked on is one of the options that was presented to us so we ONLY booked under the assumption of a HMC wedding. Everything was confirmed and paid for so we figured we were good to go and got our save the dates and invitations done. Already sent out the Save The Dates and have had 30 people book so far.

So we discussed what we really wanted to happen and called again and the new rep we spoke to said that everyone could be credited the change fees but she would need supervisor approval and would give us a call Monday. No call Monday so we call her. She says she hasn't heard back yet and will give us a call Tuesday. No call Tuesday so we call again. This time her line is disconnected so we wait back in queue and go through the entire situation with yet another rep. First he tried to say that we didn't cancel within 24 hours so there would be no refunds and they wouldn't be able to credit any change fees (seriously ***? We were on the phone with them for hours before they even sent out the notification email because our wedding coordinator gave us a heads up). Second after we explained the entire situation to him he put in a request to have a supervisor call us today. But guess what it is after 5 and still no phone call.

I also have an email that stemmed from a pissed off comment I made on Facebook (oops) but haven't heard anything back on that. I was nice in the email because the person who told me to email them actually seemed compassionate to the situation where no one else outside of our wedding coordinator has done anything outside of reciting some scripted bs despite the special circumstance.

I really just want to get it out there that if you want a destination wedding through a cruise line, be careful because you have no rights and they can do this to you. They basically are treating the wedding as unimportant like it is any other booked excursion. Just very frustrating...

So still nothing is resolved. They told us they would switch us to another sailing and not charge any of my guests the change fees. We figured this meant that they also spoke with the wedding department to determine if a wedding would be available but they didn't.

The cruise that they are trying to move us to, according to the wedding coordinator would not be legal. I don't know why it wouldn't be legal because the ship goes to Nassau and then HMC the next day. They said they would look into it and call back in an hour and never called back.

I think the worst thing is them promising to call back and not hearing from them. Like we were supposed to hear back on Monday and they finally called back Thursday (after we called them every day in between and they continuously promised tomorrow).

The cruise that they are trying to move us to, according to the wedding coordinator would not be legal. I don't know why it wouldn't be legal because the ship goes to Nassau and then HMC the next day. They said they would look into it and call back in an hour and never called back.

Weird. That should be legal.

Whoever was on the phone from the wedding department just had no idea what they were talking about.

So after about 16 total hours on the phone over the course of about 8 days and having to explain everything from the beginning to a new person at least 6 different times, everything is settled. They moved our wedding to a new sailing, we have a new wedding coordinator and all of my guests were eventually able to move over to the new sailing without incurring additional fees. My mom said that they were really snotty to her about switching ships and trying to talk her out of it (uhh what?). A couple of people booked through travel agents as well and they had some issues as well. My aunt said that when she switched their bookings (7 people in total) it brought up a total of $800 in fees that they had to go back in and manually waive and I guess she got some attitude from the travel agent for that as well.

Also, one of my cousins had 5 people in their balcony cabin (2 adults with 3 kids under 12) and that wasn't an option under the new ship unless they upgraded to a grand suite...so they ended up having to downgrade to a cabin with no balcony which I feel kind of bad about.

Overall, I am really glad that Carnival helped us out but I really wish that the people on the phones were able to deal with more special circumstances like weddings instead of giving us canned responses for everything.

Now I just have to cross my fingers that they don't change the itinerary on the new cruise!

Glad you were able to get everything sorted. Which ship are you booked on now?

Whoever was on the phone from the wedding department just had no idea what they were talking about.

 

So after about 16 total hours on the phone over the course of about 8 days and having to explain everything from the beginning to a new person at least 6 different times, everything is settled. They moved our wedding to a new sailing, we have a new wedding coordinator and all of my guests were eventually able to move over to the new sailing without incurring additional fees. My mom said that they were really snotty to her about switching ships and trying to talk her out of it (uhh what?). A couple of people booked through travel agents as well and they had some issues as well. My aunt said that when she switched their bookings (7 people in total) it brought up a total of $800 in fees that they had to go back in and manually waive and I guess she got some attitude from the travel agent for that as well.

 

Also, one of my cousins had 5 people in their balcony cabin (2 adults with 3 kids under 12) and that wasn't an option under the new ship unless they upgraded to a grand suite...so they ended up having to downgrade to a cabin with no balcony which I feel kind of bad about.

 

Overall, I am really glad that Carnival helped us out but I really wish that the people on the phones were able to deal with more special circumstances like weddings instead of giving us canned responses for everything.

 

Now I just have to cross my fingers that they don't change the itinerary on the new cruise!

Glad this worked out for you. They changed the itinerary for my wedding cruise as well and I didn't get the courtesy of a call or an email. We are doing an embarkation wedding in Miami but I loved my original itinerary.

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Forums mobile app

We were moved from the Carnival Victory out of Miami to the Carnival Fascination out of Jacksonville. It was the only option that left from Florida during the month of February and would be in the Bahamas for at least 24 hours.

I am just excited because now I get to focus on more important things like looking at wedding dresses and figuring out how to put on makeup!

Glad this worked out for you. They changed the itinerary for my wedding cruise as well and I didn't get the courtesy of a call or an email. We are doing an embarkation wedding in Miami but I loved my original itinerary.

 

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Forums mobile app

If I was doing an embarkation wedding and they changed my itinerary I would be pretty upset as well.