Sunshine cruise cancelled

[Bridgeview]

The Cruise Critic editors were intrigued by this story and went digging. Here's the word from Carnival's PR rep:

 

"We checked on this and have been told that there is a small amount of behind the scenes finishing work wrapping up and we needed a few extra cabins for remaining contractors on the June 7 voyage. The decision to displace guests for contractors in these cabins is based on when guests’ booked their cruise, i.e. the ones who booked last were displaced. Displaced guests receive full reimbursement of cruise, air and hotel (if applicable) along with a future free cruise for same duration or less. FYI – the contractors don’t necessarily stay in the cabin of the guest who was displaced as we upgrade those who were already booked as needed. "

 

Bridgeview -- when did you book your cruise? Was it recently/not so far in advance?

We booked sometime in April, I was suprised that there was an aft wrap still available!

[English Tim]

The Cruise Critic editors were intrigued by this story and went digging. Here's the word from Carnival's PR rep:

 

"We checked on this and have been told that there is a small amount of behind the scenes finishing work wrapping up and we needed a few extra cabins for remaining contractors on the June 7 voyage. The decision to displace guests for contractors in these cabins is based on when guests’ booked their cruise, i.e. the ones who booked last were displaced. Displaced guests receive full reimbursement of cruise, air and hotel (if applicable) along with a future free cruise for same duration or less. FYI – the contractors don’t necessarily stay in the cabin of the guest who was displaced as we upgrade those who were already booked as needed. "

 

Bridgeview -- when did you book your cruise? Was it recently/not so far in advance?

 

It's good that CC editors take this trouble to find out such information, when individuals might find it difficult to speak to the right person, if indeed the information was forthcoming. :)

[maggieworkman]

I'm curious, what would happen in terms of reimbursement if the airfare had been obtained by points? And what if you have 2 weeks of pre and post cruise hotels booked?

 

Our upcoming Sunshine cruise in July is part of an almost 4 week European trip. Flights were purchased using points. Our trip summary:

 

Fly to Frankfurt, hotel 1 day to de-jet lag

fly to Rome, 2 nights hotel,

train to Venice

12 night CCL Sunshine Cruise Venice-Barcelona

2 nights hotel in Barcelona

Train to Paris

4 nights hotel paris

train to Edinburgh

3 nights hotel edinburgh

train to London

1 night hotel London

Fly back to Canada

 

I wonder how far they'd be willing to reimburse me in this case if I were the one bumped? And even if they reimbursed all the non-refundable portions of this trip, what of the airfare purchased with points? Aeroplan points are not refundable that close to the flight and I'd lose them but they do have value. Biz class reward seats round trip Canada to Europe for 2 people can easily cost $10,000-$20,000 if you pay cash.

 

Questions I hope I never have to find the answer to first hand.

 

Sargeant Schultz had his Sunshine cruise canceled and he had his airfare booked on points. However, I don't remember what the resolution was for that. But if you read the "Cancelled Sunshine inaugural cruise" thread, I believe he talks about it there.

 

As far as your 2 weeks of hotels, are you saying you wouldn't do all those other side trips if your sunshine cruise was cancelled? I guess what I would see as fair would be to maybe reimburse your 2 nights in Rome that were pre-cruise.

 

I'm just glad I didn't have a cruise booked on the Sunshine. I don't think there is any great solution for any of this (not just your scenario but the whole situation).

 

Maggie

[belkin]

I'm curious, what would happen in terms of reimbursement if the airfare had been obtained by points? And what if you have 2 weeks of pre and post cruise hotels booked?

 

Our upcoming Sunshine cruise in July is part of an almost 4 week European trip. Flights were purchased using points. Our trip summary:

 

Fly to Frankfurt, hotel 1 day to de-jet lag

fly to Rome, 2 nights hotel,

train to Venice

12 night CCL Sunshine Cruise Venice-Barcelona

2 nights hotel in Barcelona

Train to Paris

4 nights hotel paris

train to Edinburgh

3 nights hotel edinburgh

train to London

1 night hotel London

Fly back to Canada

 

I wonder how far they'd be willing to reimburse me in this case if I were the one bumped? And even if they reimbursed all the non-refundable portions of this trip, what of the airfare purchased with points? Aeroplan points are not refundable that close to the flight and I'd lose them but they do have value. Biz class reward seats round trip Canada to Europe for 2 people can easily cost $10,000-$20,000 if you pay cash.

 

Questions I hope I never have to find the answer to first hand.

 

I had a cruise cancelled and my air was booked with points. The airline charged me a $150 fee and Carnival paid that.

[cruiser fanatic]

Sorry this happened to you it is ashamed this cruise is sold out.

[CoachT]

I am sure we will be hearing the same stories about Carnival Triumph's return soon enough!

[Blurgh]

I am sure we will be hearing the same stories about Carnival Triumph's return soon enough!

 

It's in Freeport, so I'm guessing they won't have to take the boat away from an army of crooked contractors.

[Goldwolf]

Re the first part of your post...EXACTLY. This is what people don't seem to be grasping. Yes a free cruise is free, but as an example: we're on the Sunshine 18/8. Flights to Barcelona cost just over £400 for all of us. If that cruise is cancelled, sure we get the money back but if we wanted to take our hypothetical free cruise, flights to the USA are coming out at approximately £2000-£3000. Unless Carnival would be up for paying the difference, then that "free" cruise is looking bloody expensive!

 

My wife is itching to take a cruise out of New Orleans, this would probably be the kick she needed to do it!

 

How many people are covered by your £2000-£3000 pricing? We did London-Las Vegas-Los Angeles-Hawaii-Los Angeles-London last August, during the summer holidays, for about £1000 a head. Of course getting decent flights does typically involve booking well in advance, but with a free cruise you get that flexibility to book it some way in the future I guess. New Orleans isn't the easiest place to get to from Europe though, typically have to connect.

[Flying Scot]

Flights to the US from the UK during school holidays are easily going to £700-£900 these days, even to east coast. That's a lot of dough for a family of 4 just to get there

[Goldwolf]

Flights to the US from the UK during school holidays are easily going to £700-£900 these days, even to east coast. That's a lot of dough for a family of 4 just to get there

 

I agree, I'm glad I went to Hawaii last year now! It wasn't a cruise though.

[gospelle]

Sargeant Schultz had his Sunshine cruise canceled and he had his airfare booked on points. However, I don't remember what the resolution was for that. But if you read the "Cancelled Sunshine inaugural cruise" thread, I believe he talks about it there.

 

As far as your 2 weeks of hotels, are you saying you wouldn't do all those other side trips if your sunshine cruise was cancelled? I guess what I would see as fair would be to maybe reimburse your 2 nights in Rome that were pre-cruise.

 

I'm just glad I didn't have a cruise booked on the Sunshine. I don't think there is any great solution for any of this (not just your scenario but the whole situation).

 

Maggie

 

if the cruise is cancelled, I would still want to go, however, the order of the cities was chosen based on a cruise departure from Venice and arrival at the end in Barcelona. If the cruise was cancelled, and I wanted to keep the rest, I'd have to incur major travel costs to get from venice to wherever I'd go for those now-empty 12 nights and then to Barcelona. Not to mention I'd have to pay a fair bit in hotel and food costs to fill those 12 nights at the last minute.

 

The reason I cruise a fair bit during these trips is because it's a lot cheaper than hotel stays of equal quality + food costs. Refunding the cruise doesn't compensate you enough to do a land vacation in Europe for the same duration. The only hope is to find another cruise around the same times. But it's unlikely they'd have the exact same departure dates and start/end destinations which would then make useless the non-refundable train journeys to get to/from these ports, and the associated hotel stays there as well.

 

I don't think just the 2 nights in Rome refunded would be even close to compensating me for the extra costs I'd incur if this bumping were to happen to me.

 

My summary again for reference:

 

Fly to Frankfurt, hotel 1 day to de-jet lag

fly to Rome, 2 nights hotel,

train to Venice

12 night CCL Sunshine Cruise Venice-Barcelona

2 nights hotel in Barcelona

Train to Paris

4 nights hotel paris

train to Edinburgh

3 nights hotel edinburgh

train to London

1 night hotel London

Fly back to Canada

[heatherbelle]

Flights to the US from the UK during school holidays are easily going to £700-£900 these days, even to east coast. That's a lot of dough for a family of 4 just to get there

 

If you live in London then yes these prices are doable. If you fly from Manchester in August, then last year prices were over £1,000 each, bank holiday weekend was around £1200, which is the weekend we like to fly back to recover from the jet lag. I tracked them for weeks and in the end gave up and booked the Sunshine, because we just couldn't justify the cost. Two weeks after booking the Delta glitch came along and there were indirect flights available for £450 in Agust to Florida. For next summer I will be waiting and not booking anything until at least the Ictober half term has passed. We want to go to the states next year.

 

Maybe OP thought about this and the free cruise includes a fly cruise element too. If it happened to us I wouldn't mind paying cash for the flights as you still have a free cruise and that for us would be a saving in itself.

[Flying Scot]

I agree, I'm glad I went to Hawaii last year now! It wasn't a cruise though.

 

Yep in Feb 2008 before te kids came we did Glasgow-Newark-LosAngeles-Honolulu-Newark-Glasgow with a stop in LA on way out and stop in NYC on way back all for £520pp.

 

Times have changed :(

[Goldwolf]

If you live in London then yes these prices are doable. If you fly from Manchester in August, then last year prices were over £1,000 each, bank holiday weekend was around £1200, which is the weekend we like to fly back to recover from the jet lag.

 

You can always drive down to London ;)

 

We're in Shropshire so Birmingham or Manchester are the better airports, but we typically end up flying from Heathrow or Gatwick now as they are cheaper. Went to Antigua from Gatwick at Easter, early flight so we booked into the nearby Travelodge for £17 (for 4 of us).

[lazygal]

I'm afraid to book any tickets until the last minute now for museums, attractions, tours, as it is my understanding Carnival is not reimbursing these expenses. They add up.

 

I would not be happy about this deal. It's better than the people who were already in Barcelona though and then told there was no room for them on the ship.

[aam3]

Luckily got on the Norwegian Jade out of Venice on the 8th:):)

We've been on the Jade out of Venice twice. You will have an amazing cruise! We love the ship and the ports are fantastic!!

[lovebelle]

Perhaps the room isn't for the contractors but is needed to do work in and around the room , making it inhabitable ??

One would think there would be other rooms available ? Or maybe they are sailing full

Op did they offer you any other room?

 

Thats what I was thinking. I cant imagine them taking lost revenue on that category cabin just to house contractors. Which is why Im thinking they will be working around or in that cabin.

[cx7owner]

Thats what I was thinking. I cant imagine them taking lost revenue on that category cabin just to house contractors. Which is why Im thinking they will be working around or in that cabin.

 

According to the CC article about this thread, they are upgrading other passengers to this cabin and giving workers a lesser one. They were just asking the most recently booked passengers to cancel, which is what happened to OP.

[EZ4]

The OP booked an NCL cruise to replace the one they lost. They'll probably be happier in the long run.

[Boucalatrem]

I hope Carnival will reemburse you completely for your expense. We where on the 12 of april cruise and it was cancelled less than 3 weeks before we cruise. Carnival reemburse the price of the cruise but we are still waiting for the air fare and the excursions. They did not offer us anything in compensation.

 

Boucalatrem

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

The OP booked an NCL cruise to replace the one they lost. They'll probably be happier in the long run.

 

Read a couple of posts, then straight to the last page.

 

Glad to see the OP was able to book a replacement cruise with such short notice.. I'd be really ticked at a cruise line doing this (reimbursing my expenses or not).

 

Sailing on NCL, they'll probably have a better time anyway (I'd rather have buffalo wings than Guy's burgers myself... LOL).

 

Tom

[heatherbelle]

Hi Gail

 

I have seen this, which is from the second sailing. The third sailing is still taking place. So we will have to see what is reported then.

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1606173&page=43

[cruzn buckeye]

Hi Gail

 

I have seen this, which is from the second sailing. The third sailing is still taking place. So we will have to see what is reported then.

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1606173&page=43

 

That is the first time I read this. I have to say it is very well written and unbiased review. Not all negative, not all positive... just the facts.

[gailjen]

Hi Gail

 

I have seen this, which is from the second sailing. The third sailing is still taking place. So we will have to see what is reported then.

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1606173&page=43

 

Thanks Heatherbelle have already read that, it's just Atlgator says CURRENT passengers. would love to read these reports myself or is this just his/her opinion from 1st and 2nd cruises??

 

QUOTE

" I realize that not ALL cabins are in these conditions, but direct reports from CURRENT Sunshine passengers said that about 1/3 of the cabins are affected. On top of that, it was reported that water came pouring in from the ceiling of the casino a couple hours after a heavy rain. Does not look picturesque to me!!"

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

No wonder they're bringing contractors onboard. Obviously still plenty of work to do...:eek:

 

Tom