Has anyone been bumped from a cruise due to overbooking?

I have been reading the “can they does to me thread” over the weekend and have been surprised at the number of people that see no problem with airlines overbooking. One poster stated that other industries do this as well: hotels, cruises, etc.

So my question here is has anyone been on an overbooked cruise or has anyone been bumped off a cruise due to overbooking (not getting there too late to board)?

My feeling is that if you had paid for your passage then your seat, cabin, room…whatever should not be sold to someone else.

A good question...........but I believe that normally everyone is assigned a cabin before they board, so even the guarantees are taken care of.

Rick

I think if you ask this question on the Carnival board you may get some response. I know in the past Carnival had the great habit of over-booking cruise ships and there were alot of people left standing.

try a search on the carnival board.

I would be furious, but now days it seems everything from air, to hotel is at risk of being over booked.

Never happened that I know of on RCL, but has on Carnival. Those with guaranteed cabins a couple yrs back on a specific ship on the east coast. Can't remember, but may have been out of Baltimore or thereabouts. Booked too many guarantees and ended up disappointing a few people. Rarely if ever happens, even on Carnival.

That is really good to hear! After reading how prevalent it has become beyond the airlines I was getting just a little concerned. It just seems so wrong to take money for goods and then not delivery them, as if the case with over booking flights.

We have 6 cabins booked on our upcoming cruise and would be livid if any of us got “bumped” after paying thousands of dollars to the cruise line. :eek:

YES,

Several years ago we booked an E Carib. cruise on Princess. They called us the Monday of the week we were going to leave on Sat. They said that they were overbooked on our cruise and asked if we would be willing to leave on Sun and cruise the W carib. For our inconvience they would upgrade us to a balcony cabin Re-imberse us for any airline changes and pay for any hotels needed,plus refund our cruise fare except for port fees and taxes. We accepted this offer. And we kept our original flight to Fll and they paid for the additional hotel night as well as a night at the end of the cruise and the difference in airfare. However, the saga didn't end there.

When we arrived for our original flight to Fll, it was over booked, AA offered us a flight to Miami leaving 30 minutes after our flight to Fll upgraded us to 1st class and $500.00 in future travel and comp transfer back to fll. Took that offer too.

With a deal like this they can overbook our cruise anytime.

Keith

I’d say that is the proper way to handle overbooking. :)

That beats getting to the airport and hearing that they sold your seat!

I've not been "bumped" but have had offers on the last week to switch to another sailing because of being overbooked. Sometimes the ships get sold out and there are people "waitlisted" trying to get on with family and friends. What they do is try and make offers to those who may have paid a lower fare and resell the cabin. So even though they offer perks of shipboard credit, upgrades, etc.. they came out ok. I've had this happen a few times - as recently as December. They won't however bump you automatically unless they sell the ship out to a group that buys out the ship. This happens all the time.

YES,

 

Several years ago we booked an E Carib. cruise on Princess. They called us the Monday of the week we were going to leave on Sat. They said that they were overbooked on our cruise and asked if we would be willing to leave on Sun and cruise the W carib. For our inconvience they would upgrade us to a balcony cabin Re-imberse us for any airline changes and pay for any hotels needed,plus refund our cruise fare except for port fees and taxes. We accepted this offer. And we kept our original flight to Fll and they paid for the additional hotel night as well as a night at the end of the cruise and the difference in airfare. However, the saga didn't end there.

When we arrived for our original flight to Fll, it was over booked, AA offered us a flight to Miami leaving 30 minutes after our flight to Fll upgraded us to 1st class and $500.00 in future travel and comp transfer back to fll. Took that offer too.

 

With a deal like this they can overbook our cruise anytime.

 

Keith

Why doesn't this ever happen to us? :(

Never happened that I know of on RCL, but has on Carnival. Those with guaranteed cabins a couple yrs back on a specific ship on the east coast. Can't remember, but may have been out of Baltimore or thereabouts. Booked too many guarantees and ended up disappointing a few people. Rarely if ever happens, even on Carnival.

That was the Miracle. I remember reading about this and it was not handled the best by Carnival. Many upset customers. Have not heard of them doing this again since that episode.

Why doesn't this ever happen to us? :(

ROFL...I have to agree!!! :eek: :D But happy that RC doesn't overbook! ;)

***

I don't think any cruise line bumps you when you get to the port. I have heard of people getting bumped a week before their cruise.

I was pretty sure it was RCCL that bumped a whole bunch of people out of Baltimore. Whichever cruise line it was said they didn't expect Baltimore to be such a hit so they over booked thinking alot of people wouldn't make the final payment.

RCI may not over book, but funny nobody mentioned their habit of canceling entire cruises to charter a ship. Hmmm.

If I had been planning a dream vacation for a long time and looking forward to it I would be pretty annoyed if RCI did this to me. I dont see much difference in over booking and canceling the cruise outright to accomodate a charter. :rolleyes:

I havent really heard about Carnival over booking their cruises. Could someone be more specific about this? Or is it just a pick on Carnival thing? :confused:

It's a pick on Carnival thing. If you are on the princess board you will ind most pick on RCCL. Most Carnival bashers have never cruised Carnival, the same goes for the RCCL bashers ect.

RCCL is my least favorite cruise line but when looking for a cruise I look for ports and fares, so I go RCCL. Just booked RCCL out of NJ, don't have to fly anywhere, that works for me.

All cruise lines over book. They say 20% of people who put down deposits don't make final payment.

You are right about RCCL, they cancel more cruises due to charters than any other cruise line.

I was pretty sure it was RCCL that bumped a whole bunch of people out of Baltimore. Whichever cruise line it was said they didn't expect Baltimore to be such a hit so they over booked thinking alot of people wouldn't make the final payment.

That was the Carnival ship in 2004 in which passengers were stranded in Baltimore because they were overbooked. I think the cruiseline industry had a lessons learned with that one.

Ron - when I said they sell out the ship to a group who buys out the ship - that's the same thing as canceling a cruise due to a ship charter. All cruiselines do that about evenly from my observations.

It's a pick on Carnival thing. If you are on the princess board you will ind most pick on RCCL. Most Carnival bashers have never cruised Carnival, the same goes for the RCCL bashers ect.

 

RCCL is my least favorite cruise line but when looking for a cruise I look for ports and fares, so I go RCCL. Just booked RCCL out of NJ, don't have to fly anywhere, that works for me.

 

 

All cruise lines over book. They say 20% of people who put down deposits don't make final payment.

 

You are right about RCCL, they cancel more cruises due to charters than any other cruise line.

I have the facts right here. Also how about you producing some facts to back up your comment about RCI canceling more cruises for charter than any other cruise line?

Carnival cancels cruisers on the Miracle.

http://www.wbaltv.com/news/3639205/detail.html

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=68692&highlight=miracle

There was an article recently on this web site about being bumped. I made note of the one that in my opinion handled it poorly and the one that in my opinion handled it better. The article is at http://www.cruisecritic.com/features/articles.cfm?ID=340

That was the Carnival ship in 2004 in which passengers were stranded in Baltimore because they were overbooked. I think the cruiseline industry had a lessons learned with that one.

 

Ron - when I said they sell out the ship to a group who buys out the ship - that's the same thing as canceling a cruise due to a ship charter. All cruiselines do that about evenly from my observations.

You're correct that it happens on most cruise lines.

Ask the folks that were booked on the Carnival Triumph from New Orleans. Carnival recently announced that they were leaving the Triumph in Miami and those booked on this ship from NOLA had their cruises canceled. Ask the ones that were booked on the three ships that Carnival leased to the government for temporary housing. There were complaints all over the Carnival board about how Carnival treated many of those folks. While Carnival did the right thing by using the ships for housing they did not take care of all the customers that were booked on the ships sent to be used. Bottom line is all cruise lines pretty much operate the same way. You can find something about each one if you look hard enough.

[quote name=ILov2cruise;9380239's

All cruise lines over book. They say 20% of people who put down deposits don't make final payment.

You are right about RCCL' date=' they cancel more cruises due to charters than any other cruise line.[/quote]

I'm not sure that your comment about RCI cancelling more cruises than others in order to charter their ships is accurate. Do you have any statistics to back up this statement?To the best of my knowledge, all cruiselines, at some time or another will charter out one of their ships. It makes good business sense for them to do so, since it guarantees that they will sail with a full ship at a guaranteed rate and it reduces the expenses they would otherwise incur in advertising the cruise, handling the myriad individual bookings etc. Usually such charters are made well in advance,often by a year or more, which also reduces the number of passengers who are adversely affected by the action. that one line has more charters than another, that might only indicate that the line is more to the company or organization interested in chartering their ship for whatever reason, or that the charter price being offered is better. If you consider how many unchartered cruises sail weekly, I wouldn't spend a lot of time worrying about a possible charter without substantial indications that it will occur.:rolleyes::rolleyes:

As far as overbooking, it appears that this may be a more frequent occurrence on Princess than RCI or Carnival, if posts on CC about this happening are any indication. But again the evidence is anecdotal and might not prove out upon more extensive investigation. Cruiselines, when they do overbook, usually offer good incentives to convince passengers to select another cruise.Final payment is usually due at least two months prior to the sailing date, so if they have fewer cancellations than they anticipated, they have plenty of time to rectify the situation. It is not the same as overbooking by an airline or hotel, where cancellations often occur on or very near the date of travel. While some folks may have to cancel their cruise at the last minute, the percentage is much lower than that of people cancelling their hotel reservation or flight.:):)

Ask the folks that were booked on the Carnival Triumph from New Orleans. Carnival recently announced that they were leaving the Triumph in Miami and those booked on this ship from NOLA had their cruises canceled. Ask the ones that were booked on the three ships that Carnival leased to the government for temporary housing. There were complaints all over the Carnival board about how Carnival treated many of those folks. While Carnival did the right thing by using the ships for housing they did not take care of all the customers that were booked on the ships sent to be used. Bottom line is all cruise lines pretty much operate the same way. You can find something about each one if you look hard enough.

Those incidents were different in that the passengers were notified that their cruise was cancelled (or like in the Triumph's case - they could cruise out of Miami or cancel). The Baltimore incident delt with a huge overbooking of a ship and they did NOTHING to notify the passengers that it was overbooked. They turned away hundreds of passengers at the port as there was no room for them. People were left stranded. I haven't seen this happen on any ship on any cruiseline since. Cancellations will continue to happen, but my point is the lessons is they take action to avoid this from happening by offering incentives to rebook some in advance of sailing versus leaving them at the port with no place to go.

I'm not picking on any cruiseline as I am not a cruiseline loyalist. In 25 years I've been on most of the major ones.

Those incidents were different in that the passengers were notified that their cruise was cancelled (or like in the Triumph's case - they could cruise out of Miami or cancel). The Baltimore incident delt with a huge overbooking of a ship and they did NOTHING to notify the passengers that it was overbooked. They turned away hundreds of passengers at the port as there was no room for them. People were left stranded. I haven't seen this happen on any ship on any cruiseline since. Cancellations will continue to happen, but my point is the lessons is they take action to avoid this from happening by offering incentives to rebook some in advance of sailing versus leaving them at the port with no place to go.

 

I'm not picking on any cruiseline as I am not a cruiseline loyalist. In 25 years I've been on most of the major ones.

I posted two links in an above post about the Miracle incident. I was cruising with Carinval at that time and do not remember reading about anyone being turned away at the gate. Every case that I read about stated that they were either informed by their TA or Carnival that they were being bumped and given the alternatives prior to their sale date.

We did have our pre-paid in full cruise cancelled by Royal Caribbean. It was a long time ago though , about 10 years ago. We booked the cruise about 8 months in advance, had assigned cabins, and had made final payment and still got bumped. We were given no explanation as to why and certainly no compensation. The best our TA could do was rebook us on another ship, and on another sailing date, and at a higher rate. We had to change our time off work. It was a mess.

The Baltimore incident delt with a huge overbooking of a ship and they did NOTHING to notify the passengers that it was overbooked. They turned away hundreds of passengers at the port as there was no room for them. People were left stranded.

 

I'm not picking on any cruiseline as I am not a cruiseline loyalist. In 25 years I've been on most of the major ones.

If you are going to cite an incident that occurred in Baltimore, I think you have an obligation to provide more details,especially the name of the line and the ship involved and the date that it allegedly happened. Depending on your vague recollection of the incident to claim that a particular line was guilty of treating its passengers so poorly, is patently unfair and does all of us on these boards a disservice.:rolleyes:

I have been a travel agent for over 10 years and the ONLY time I have had a cruise line call and make offers is on Princess. Never on Carnival or RCI. Charters are another story and Holland has a habit of still booking when they know a charter is going to be booked. It happened in January on the Zuiderdam I was booked on it and found out from the Meet and Mingle site that it was chartered so I cancelled didn't wait to find out what they would offer. Granted it was about 10 months out but when I cancelled they were still taking indivdual bookings on it.

I understand Bill. The information on this topic was on cruise critic but are stored on the old threads from when the board moved a few years back. Sorry I can't reference them.

The incident happened with sailing of the Carnival Miracle August 4th, 2004. Unfortuantely this happened so long ago the article from the Baltimore Sun isn't available nor the article from my local paper which had a story on a local large family that was turned away. Sorry I can't post a reference from other cruise boards here. Everyone is free to surf the net for more info.