Passengers being bumped in Baltimore

Beware Carnival Cruise Passengers.

Attached is link to article in today's Baltimore Sun about large amount of Carnival passengers being bumped from their cruises due to overbooking. You might want to check this out if you are sailing from Baltimore. Fortunately this didn't happen to me. I just got back to Baltimore off of RCCI

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-te.bz.cruise04aug04,1,7973671.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

It seems you have to register before you can read the article.

Could you please cut and paste and repost.

Thanks

My aunts were bumped from the Sept. 5 sailing of the Miracle, but are being bused to the NY pier on the 4th to sail on the Legend. Carnival gave them a upgrade and this sailing is 8 days instead of the original 7 on the Miracle.

My Miracle cruise was the one that left on Mother's Day (5/9/04) and we kept hearing stories about people being bumped from that week and other weeks sailings that left from Baltimore. We were really worried that we would be bumped, but fortunately we were one of the lucky ones.

I feel terrible for the people that are being bumped. I can only imagine their disappointment and frustration, especially since they booked so far ahead of time (those sailings sold out a long time ago). What is really incredible to me is that despite the overwhelming popularity of these Baltimore sailings, Carnival has no Baltimore cruises scheduled for next year. I am hoping that they re-evaluate that decision and make Baltimore a home port for the spring/summer/fall of 2006.

I was bumped off an NCL ship out of NYC once, 2 weeks prior to sailing. It was awful. The ensuing chaos was terrible as NCL's customer service just wasn't set up to handle the situation. I eventually got rebooked on a different ship from a different port, but I fought NCL every step of the way and problems continued and just got worse (a promised upgrade was suddenly revoked, no tickets at the port, I was initally denied boarding by an ill informed check-in agent, hotel manager never contacted me although was told they would, etc...) I was just left with the feeling NCL didn't want to make up for their mistake, that all they wanted was to hand me my money back and have me go away. In the end I wish I had.

Long and short of it, I'm about to book my 11th cruise, NCL is not being considered, and I warn all my friends and family away from NCL. If they want free-style I say "don't risk NCL, go Princess"

After press like this it's just as well Carnival isn't coming back to Baltimore next year. It disappoints me that Carnival would let this happen. The worst part about overbooking is that unlike the airlines the compensation offered by the cruise line is usually really poor, a small upgrade and maybe a couple of hundred shipboard credit is all you can expec, if that.

How does Carnival determine who gets bumped? We are booked on the 10/10 Victory out of Norfolk and I know it's been sold out a long time. Guess it could happen to us too...

I'm not sure exactly how they determined the "bumping order", but from what I heard they bumped the local people first, so that there wouldn't be the additional headache of dealing with people that had to fly into Baltimore.

What is really incredible to me is that despite the overwhelming popularity of these Baltimore sailings, Carnival has no Baltimore cruises scheduled for next year. I am hoping that they re-evaluate that decision and make Baltimore a home port for the spring/summer/fall of 2006.

Sounds like a year off is a good idea. Maybe folks will forget after a year.

What order would they bump? Would having a assigned cabin number help?

Please remember it is against our guidelines to post copyrighted material (such as articles from Cruise News Daily)

DERF, I posed the same question (regarding guarantees) on a thread which was pulled (copyright stuff I would guess)....

That's another reason I like to book an actual cabin... I am hoping they do not double book those!

Tom

I am supposed to be on that Sept. 5 sailing! I sure hope no one tries to bump us! What a nightmare. We were booked last July, but I heard from others that were also booked a year in advance that were bumped from their cruise.

INCHARGE: do you have an assigned cabin?

...what about those you know who were bumped?

Tom

Tom...Yes, I have an assigned cabin. Just got off the phone with my agency, and she has my tickets there, so I should be ok. My friends went through another agency where the TA told them way before the beginning of the year that she had overbooked!! They do not have an assigned cabin. TBAs are being bumped like crazy. So we do not know yet if our friends will be on the ship or not. The folks bumped were on this website back when the Miracle first came to Balt. I think it was some of the May CC cruisers that got bumped. They also were offered New York or another sailing on the Miracle. It will be interesting how they do this, because there are no more Miracle cruises out of Balt. available. All are sold out.

Please remember it is against our guidelines to post copyrighted material (such as articles from Cruise News Daily)

but you can post a link. Its the whole article or a significant portion that you can't post. I short quote from an artilce falls under the fair use exception.

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from

http://www.copylaw.com/new_articles/fairuse.html

What is fair use?

from

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Whoops, I think I posted copywritied materal !!

Derf, linking to someone is ok. It's just when people post articles that it's in violation.

How does Carnival determine who gets bumped? We are booked on the 10/10 Victory out of Norfolk and I know it's been sold out a long time. Guess it could happen to us too...

Good question. It seems the fair way to determine who gets bumped is by booking date. Those that booked earliest have priority (regardless if a cabin has been assigned or is TBA - after all, TBA is a confirmed booking just like a cabin assignment). Of course it's probably not that simple, as it really depends on what type of cabins Carnival needs and which type were oversold. No use bumping someone that booked yesterday in a Category 12 suite if that is not going to help the oversell situation.

Ernie

Hi Fellow Cruisers,

Some of our co-workers were bumped from an October sailing. Carnival ask if they would go on the Legend out of NY. Some are going but all of them could not because it was a different date and they could not rearrange their work schedule. They were not really happy and could not understand why they were bumped. We do live in Baltimore and that is why they wanted to cruise from here. We do hope however that other Cruise Lines as well as Carnival will look at this and see that Baltimore has alot to offer and more will consider coming here. We are driving from Baltimore to NY this Saturday to cruise on the Carnival Miracle.

Happy Cruising

dothow

I think whoever said they were bumping the local people was correct. In the article, and from what I remember being posted here back in May everyone that was bumped was from the Baltimore area. Some had been booked for over a year, so when they booked didn't seem to be the issue so much. I think Carnival didn't want to deal with re-scheduling flights so they bumped the locals. I love Carnival, but this could really be a public relations nightmare for them.

Terri

I think whoever said they were bumping the local people was correct. In the article, and from what I remember being posted here back in May everyone that was bumped was from the Baltimore area. Some had been booked for over a year, so when they booked didn't seem to be the issue so much. I think Carnival didn't want to deal with re-scheduling flights so they bumped the locals. I love Carnival, but this could really be a public relations nightmare for them.

 

Terri

I believe Carnival is also bumping some large groups (probably from the local area as well). This is certainly a lot easier for Carnival then calling a bunch of travel agents for individual passengers. By bumping large groups, Carnival gets back a large amount of inventory with a single phone call. Either way passengers are going to be pissed off. I feel bad for them. This might be one circumstance where booking as an individual passenger was to your advantage.

Ernie

I think the "Bumping Monster" is alot like the "Upgrade Fairy:" There's lots of guesses and assertions on how they work but no one really knows.

All the cruise lines bump to some extent, it's just usually they can get enough people to switch that it's not an issue. Also, in places like Miami, Carnival often has ships leaving the same day or a day apart that they can entice people to switch too. In this case they messed up. With so many passengers bumped they cannot accomondate everyone and there's really no other options except to completely ruin people's vacations. Let's face it, if you get bumped off a flight there's usually a free flight and you may miss a day of your vacation. Get bumped off your cruise and your entire vacation goes down the drain.

Wow, makes me really concerned about booking my next cruise. I'm usually in a single cabin, 1A guarantee, at the lowest price I can find. I imagine I'm a prime bumping candidate! (but I can only guess)

I made the mistake of booking through AAA. I was naive as I had never cruised. Hence, I am part of a "group cruise". The TA has been of no help regarding anything.

All I have learned from cruising is from this and other websites.

Three strikes against us - We're from Baltimore, we're on a group cruise, we have a Cat. 8A gty. I booked over 1.5 yrs ago!

If we're bumped, you will hear me scream if you're in Los Angeles! :eek:

I made the mistake of booking through AAA. I was naive as I had never cruised. Hence, I am part of a "group cruise". The TA has been of no help regarding anything.

 

All I have learned from cruising is from this and other websites.

 

Three strikes against us - We're from Baltimore, we're on a group cruise, we have a Cat. 8A gty. I booked over 1.5 yrs ago!

 

If we're bumped, you will hear me scream if you're in Los Angeles! :eek: