Anyone else have problems getting Carnival to accept a prior cruisie for VIFP?

My first cruise was in 1985, during my sophomore of college. I took the Carnival Tropicale on the Mexican Riviera cruise the week after school got out and the week before Christmas. I even found the official picture, still in its Carnival cardboard frame, of me and two other girls from UCLA who I was roomed with as part of a tour group some operator put together.

As directed by customer service, I sent a scan copy of that picture and frame to their email address so they could add me to the VIFP program. They said they can't add me unless I provide additional documentation, like receipts.

Do ANY of you who went to college in the 80s still have ANY records of anything like that? Seriously! THEY don't even have records that go back that far, so why would they expect me to? If I had NOTHING, I wouldn't expect them to believe me, but I have more proof that I was there than they have proof that I wasn't!

After looking at other threads here about their VIFP program, it looks like all they would have to give me is a bottle of water the next time we cruise with them. So they want to deny my single piece of valid evidence so they don't have to give me a bottle of water? And based on the other threads here, even if I get Gold, there still isn't all that much benefit! So it makes me doubly mad that they would be so stingy about adding me, when it really costs them nothing, but denying me costs them something - my goodwill.

I just went on my second cruise a few weeks ago, with my husband and teen. We live in Seattle so we took the Norwegian Pearl to Alaska. It was so wonderful, the day after we got back I started thinking about another cruise for 2016. I'd prefer to do the Mexican Riviera in June, but Norwegian only goes there in the cool months when it's hard to work into our school vacation schedule. I even ran into a Carnival rep at my workplace who was there a part of a travel agency promotion. I told her Norwegian makes a big deal about their Latitudes reward, and asked if Carnival had anything similar. She said yes, all I needed was a picture.

I was narrowing down dates and staterooms on the Miracle in June 2016, just waiting to get my reward status validated before I contacted my travel agent, when I got Carnival's mail saying no. I was stunned. I wrote and told them they lost me as a customer, though at that point I still could have been persuaded. But just now I got the customer service wrap up email, so I guess that means they closed my case. You'd better believe I will be filling that out!

I'm sure service on their ships is fine, but if this is an example of the service from their main offices, I'm much better off sticking with Norwegian - I had a minor complaint about the confused notification of maintenance on our balcony, and they sent me a big plate of chocolate covered strawberries and a bottle of wine! And the next time we cruise with them, I get a lot more than a bottle of water!

Has anyone else had problems getting Carnival to accept evidence of a cruise long past?

Had the same issue with a Carnival cruise in the early 90's I took with my college roommates. They could not look me up by cruise date, or SSN, but they also said if I had a receipt I would get credit for it. One other thing they would accept was an official embarkation photo. Of course I didn't buy that, and I looked through the one roll of film I had from the trip and I didn't even have a picture of the ship, let alone receipts. :-) Go figure. Oh well, I was a little annoyed, but not enough to write Carnival off completely. It would be nice if they gave me the days credit, but I understand they did things differently back then and didn't have the technology to keep track of everything. In the long run, the 7 points are not that big of a deal to me but it makes me fell better that other people were given the same story. Sorry it didn't work out for you either.

My first cruise was in 1985, during my sophomore of college. I took the Carnival Tropicale on the Mexican Riviera cruise the week after school got out and the week before Christmas. I even found the official picture, still in its Carnival cardboard frame, of me and two other girls from UCLA who I was roomed with as part of a tour group some operator put together.

 

As directed by customer service, I sent a scan copy of that picture and frame to their email address so they could add me to the VIFP program. They said they can't add me unless I provide additional documentation, like receipts.

 

Do ANY of you who went to college in the 80s still have ANY records of anything like that? Seriously! THEY don't even have records that go back that far, so why would they expect me to? If I had NOTHING, I wouldn't expect them to believe me, but I have more proof that I was there than they have proof that I wasn't!

 

After looking at other threads here about their VIFP program, it looks like all they would have to give me is a bottle of water the next time we cruise with them. So they want to deny my single piece of valid evidence so they don't have to give me a bottle of water? And based on the other threads here, even if I get Gold, there still isn't all that much benefit! So it makes me doubly mad that they would be so stingy about adding me, when it really costs them nothing, but denying me costs them something - my goodwill.

 

I just went on my second cruise a few weeks ago, with my husband and teen. We live in Seattle so we took the Norwegian Pearl to Alaska. It was so wonderful, the day after we got back I started thinking about another cruise for 2016. I'd prefer to do the Mexican Riviera in June, but Norwegian only goes there in the cool months when it's hard to work into our school vacation schedule. I even ran into a Carnival rep at my workplace who was there a part of a travel agency promotion. I told her Norwegian makes a big deal about their Latitudes reward, and asked if Carnival had anything similar. She said yes, all I needed was a picture.

 

I was narrowing down dates and staterooms on the Miracle in June 2016, just waiting to get my reward status validated before I contacted my travel agent, when I got Carnival's mail saying no. I was stunned. I wrote and told them they lost me as a customer, though at that point I still could have been persuaded. But just now I got the customer service wrap up email, so I guess that means they closed my case. You'd better believe I will be filling that out!

 

I'm sure service on their ships is fine, but if this is an example of the service from their main offices, I'm much better off sticking with Norwegian - I had a minor complaint about the confused notification of maintenance on our balcony, and they sent me a big plate of chocolate covered strawberries and a bottle of wine! And the next time we cruise with them, I get a lot more than a bottle of water!

 

Has anyone else had problems getting Carnival to accept evidence of a cruise long past?

My first cruise was on Carnival Festivale in June 1992 for our honeymoon, which was the day after our wedding. The cruise was booked in my maiden name. I contacted Carnival's customer service in 2010 after our cruise on Carnival Glory to get credit for the Festivale cruise. The information I provided to them was:

Name of ship

Sail date

Port sailed from

Itinerary (port or sea day, day of week, and date in port)with the day of week and date

I also mentioned that it was our honeymoon cruise and it was booked in my maiden name (provided my maiden name) and let Carnival know that my husband had credit for that cruise (also provided his name) but I didn't and would like to have credit for it. I was able to get credit for that cruise.

Here's a link to Carnival's Customer Service. The phone number is provided and there is also a "Contact Us" section at the bottom of the page under "Customer Service". It's the 2nd listing below "Carnival FAQs". Hope this helps and hope you get credit for your cruise.

Bump it up the chain if you can. Sometimes these things can be sorted out at the corporate office if you can find a good email address. Good luck. Is the official photo an embarkation photo that includes Carnival or ship branding?

Curious to hear if anyone has had success with this yet. All I was able to find from my first cruise was an unused post card of the Celebration. I haven't tried sending my 'proof' in yet, but that will bump me up to gold on my next cruise.

I had to dig and dig through photos and records to find proof of all of my cruises to become platinum a few years ago. Most stuff was approved with the first submission. But, some things I had to submit twice with a letter of explanation. I called and spoke to someone and sent the proof to them directly and they took care of it for me. Try that. Call and get a name of a friendly, helpful person. Good luck!! :)

Do not deal with the Carnival Service Reps, I have never had a good experience with them, I get different answers every time I call. Send an email to cclsupport@carnival.com and explain the situation. The ladies that respond to that email are better and get things resolved.

Way too trouble. Just stick with ncl.

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You haven't been a customer in 30 years and you are annoyed they aren't bending over backwards to give you credit (which equates to a free bottle of water)? I'm scratching my head over who is sillier.