Mardi Gras Officially Delayed

[Banditswife]

Yes very disappointing.  No it is not the end of the world, but still very disappointing.  We booked this cruise when it was 1st announced.  The fare was extremely reasonable.  When I look for comparable cruises there are very few, & their fares are so much higher than what we booked at- it will eat up that 25% FCC.  time to make new plans.

[mouche]

30 minutes ago, tamirpr said:

Well, since you asked the question...I don't think over 20,000 people are complaining.  We are severely disappointed.  Even though the cruise is a year away, excursions and rooms were sold out months ago.  I know I have spent countless hours researching ports, excursions, flights, hotels; buying every Rick Steves book there is; watching You Tube videos of ports; becoming invested in roll calls and new friendships.  There was a lot that went into this.  So to just scrap it all and say, "Oh, well" I don't think is realistic.  This is fresh news to us.  Will we get over it?  Absolutely.  But today we are sad.  And it might be nice if our fellow cruisers could show just a tad bit of empathy right now.
 

EXACTLY!!!

[pozbaird]

Three of us were booked on the Mardi Gras trans Atlantic crossing out of Southampton. To say we are disappointed is a bit of an understatement, but disappointment is all it is. At the end of the day, there’s no point in being overly angry or cursing Carnival / Turku Meyer to the heavens - because, after doing it, you’ll just be back to where you are - having to cancel your flights, hotels, whatever.

 

We have just been onto our hotel in New York to cancel, and have cancelled our flight home to the UK with British Airways. The hotel was no problem, no charges to cancel. British Airways was a bit more problematic, we have charges that we now must seek to have re-imbursed by Carnival.

 

As loyal Carnival customers who, amongst other Carnival cruises, have also done trans Atlantic on the Vista and Horizon, we were so looking forward to doing a third trans Atlantic cruise on the impressive looking Mardi Gras. However, we have no intention of booking with Carnival again anytime soon, and will take our future business elsewhere. We are not doing this in anger, or being petulant about it, we are making this decision calmly, and having discussed it between us.

 

Sorry Carnival, but you have just lost two customers. You are a massive, hugely rich company though, so I’m sure our decision won’t bring your empire to its knees.

[gnocchi_mommy]

For the 25% discount and $100 OBC it says “when you book any sailing within the next 60 days”. Does that mean we have to actually sail within those 60 days or is it just making a booking they require?

[mouche]

8 minutes ago, gnocchi_mommy said:

For the 25% discount and $100 OBC it says “when you book any sailing within the next 60 days”. Does that mean we have to actually sail within those 60 days or is it just making a booking they require?

Just make the booking.

[gnocchi_mommy]

Just now, mouche said:

Just make the booking.

Thanks!

[Dizholic]

4 hours ago, JennN said:

I’d complain about the fact that those of us on the sailing don’t even have emails from Carnival yet. It’s a Crappy way to find out. They should have been ahead of the news leak and gotten us letters first. It’s not their first rodeo. If you call they tell you to refer to the email. 

Well I got the email first, with the Subject: Arlene, we are sorry for cancelling your upcoming cruise. Enjoy a $100 Onboard Credit! What????

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[declansdad]

2 hours ago, tamirpr said:

Well, since you asked the question...I don't think over 20,000 people are complaining.  We are severely disappointed.  Even though the cruise is a year away, excursions and rooms were sold out months ago.  I know I have spent countless hours researching ports, excursions, flights, hotels; buying every Rick Steves book there is; watching You Tube videos of ports; becoming invested in roll calls and new friendships.  There was a lot that went into this.  So to just scrap it all and say, "Oh, well" I don't think is realistic.  This is fresh news to us.  Will we get over it?  Absolutely.  But today we are sad.  And it might be nice if our fellow cruisers could show just a tad bit of empathy right now.
 

 

I truly understand and emphasize with your disappointment, however; there is a difference between being disappointed and complaining to Carnival about something that was beyond their control.

[RoperDK]

Have any of the "Mardi Gras like" ships actually been delivered and completed any sailings?  Sorry, but I don't remember the names of the ships, but I believe they were Costa and MSC ships.

[shof515]

11 minutes ago, RoperDK said:

Have any of the "Mardi Gras like" ships actually been delivered and completed any sailings?  Sorry, but I don't remember the names of the ships, but I believe they were Costa and MSC ships.

Costa was delayed a few times and was finally delivered this month 

[MaryZ]

2 hours ago, Dizholic said:

Well I got the email first, with the Subject: Arlene, we are sorry for cancelling your upcoming cruise. Enjoy a $100 Onboard Credit! What????

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So far that's all we got too.  Where's my deposit?  Where is my official cancellation notice?  I want what they said they are giving us, 25% onboard credit of the fare I was paying

[djb78]

I got my official notice from xxxxxxxxxxx

 

Note there is no outright promise of a full reimbursement for airfare, a new cruise needs to be booked within 60 days to get the $100/pp OBC, and the cruise itself has to be within a year to get 25% off. 

 

Dear xxx xxx Traveler,
xxxxxxrxxl received the following itinerary change in regards to your Carnival Mardi Gras sailing.

Please be advised that Carnival has been informed by officials at the Meyer Turku shipyard that delivery of Mardi Gras will be delayed until the end of October, 2020. Mardi Gras will begin service from Port Canaveral on November 14, 2020. Unfortunately all cruises scheduled to depart prior to this date will be canceled, impacting your reservation to sail with us.

Below is some information to help you know what to expect and assist in your planning efforts:

1) Your existing reservation will be automatically canceled and a full refund of your cruise fare, including applicable taxes, fees and port expenses, and any pre-purchased items (i.e., Carnival Vacation Protection and shore excursions), will be issued to your original form of payment. (Note: This also applies to Early Saver reservations. Refunds could take up to three weeks to process through your bank.)

2) You will receive a 25% future cruise credit (FCC) on any Carnival cruise booked in the next 12 months (by December 20, 2020).

3) Rebook your cruise using your 25% FCC by February 18, 2020 and receive an additional US$100, per person, onboard credit for that cruise.

4) Please present this letter to your airline carrier to help obtain a refund or credit for your unused air fare. If you are unable to secure a refund or credit voucher, please contact Carnival with this documentation for consideration. They are in the process of reaching out to their airline partners to alert them about this change of plans and to encourage them to work with you.

5) Should you wish to reschedule your non-refundable air, we will reimburse airline change fees up to US$450, per person (flights to Europe) and US$200, per person (domestic US flights), in addition to any expenses for non-refundable hotel reservations guests may incur. Please submit receipts to airreimbursements@carnival.com.

Since Carnival is automatically canceling your reservation and processing refunds, there is no need to contact us to request your refund. Please contact us should you wish to take advantage of the 25% FCC and the US$100, per person, onboard credit.

If you have any questions, please call xxxxxxxx

Sincerely,

XXxxxxx

Edited December 20, 2019 by Host Carolyn
Remove name of ta so info could be posted

[PhillyFan33579]

21 minutes ago, declansdad said:

 

Is that a serious question?

 

Of course they do but they don't control the build. If the builder is having problems that isn't something within Carnival's control. That isn't any different than any other construction project.

If Carnival isn’t involved with the build of one of their ships, there is something seriously wrong in my opinion. As someone who spent years as a Project Manager overseeing the development and acquisition of multi-million dollar space systems, I, along with the team working for me, was intimately involved with what the contractor was doing, we had regular meetings and inspections, and our contracts always had significant penalties if the contractor did not meet certain benchmarks by required deadlines.  
 

I have no experience in the ship building industry, but this isn’t the first ship Carnival has had built. Carnival should have been on top of what was going on with Mardi Gras, especially considering they had already booked tens of thousands of passengers on this ship who have now had their cruise cancelled. I personally would never book a cruise within the first six months of a new ship’s delivery, but a lot of people do. Most of these people who are upset are justifiably upset with Carnival, who is ultimately responsible for ensuring their ships are delivered on time. 

[declansdad]

1 minute ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

If Carnival isn’t involved with the build of one of their ships, there is something seriously wrong in my opinion. As someone who spent years as a Project Manager overseeing the development and acquisition of multi-million dollar space systems, I, along with the team working for me, was intimately involved with what the contractor was doing, we had regular meetings and inspections, and our contracts always had significant penalties if the contractor did not meet certain benchmarks by required deadlines.  
 

I have no experience in the ship building industry, but this isn’t the first ship Carnival has had built. Carnival should have been on top of what was going on with Mardi Gras, especially considering they had already booked tens of thousands of passengers on this ship who have now had their cruise cancelled. I personally would never book a cruise within the first six months of a new ship’s delivery, but a lot of people do. Most of these people who are upset are justifiably upset with Carnival, who is ultimately responsible for ensuring their ships are delivered on time. 

 

I'm sure you had regular meetings but you are not responsible for the delays of the contractor unless you are the making changes to the scope of the project.  Meyer Turku informed Carnival of the delays not the other way around.

[mandmcruise]

4 hours ago, tamirpr said:

Well, since you asked the question...I don't think over 20,000 people are complaining.  We are severely disappointed.  Even though the cruise is a year away, excursions and rooms were sold out months ago.  I know I have spent countless hours researching ports, excursions, flights, hotels; buying every Rick Steves book there is; watching You Tube videos of ports; becoming invested in roll calls and new friendships.  There was a lot that went into this.  So to just scrap it all and say, "Oh, well" I don't think is realistic.  This is fresh news to us.  Will we get over it?  Absolutely.  But today we are sad.  And it might be nice if our fellow cruisers could show just a tad bit of empathy right now.
Exactly my feelings.  I am 60 years old and basically raised 3 kids on my own after their father walked away.  this was to be a mom daughter trip probably our last as she will be getting married in the near future.  I have worked hard to be able to do this.  I know things happen but so disappointed.  Actually this is the second disappointment, as we had originally talked about transatlantic with the Panorama, but as we all know that didn't happen either.

 

[pozbaird]

7 minutes ago, declansdad said:

Typically an airline would have the plane before booking passengers on the flight.

Well yes, but the point I’m making is that none of us had booked a cruise with Meyer Turku, so naturally, Carnival will be the ones getting grief from let-down customers, just as British Airways or United Airlines would, even though the cause of the problem could be equipment manufactured by Boeing, Airbus, or Rolls Royce engines, whatever.

[declansdad]

1 minute ago, pozbaird said:

Well yes, but the point I’m making is that none of us had booked a cruise with Meyer Turku, so naturally, Carnival will be the ones getting grief from let-down customers, just as British Airways or United Airlines would, even though the cause of the problem could be equipment manufactured by Boeing, Airbus, or Rolls Royce engines, whatever.

 

The point is that complaining to Carnival for something out of their control is pointless, being disappointed is understandable. The fact of the matter is booking a cruise on a ship that hasn't left the yard is a gamble.

[pozbaird]

3 minutes ago, declansdad said:

 

The point is that complaining to Carnival for something out of their control is pointless, being disappointed is understandable. The fact of the matter is booking a cruise on a ship that hasn't left the yard is a gamble.

No it isn’t pointless. You have a problem, are left disappointed, you complain to the company involved. Now, it isn’t going to change anything in regard to the ship suddenly being completed as originally advertised, because customers complained to Carnival, but it certainly isn’t pointless. 

[declansdad]

Just now, pozbaird said:

No it isn’t pointless. You have a problem, are left disappointed, you complain to the company involved. Now, it isn’t going to change anything in regard to the ship suddenly being completed as originally advertised, because customers complained to Carnival, but it certainly isn’t pointless. 

 

and what do you expect the complaint to get you?

[pozbaird]

19 minutes ago, declansdad said:

 

and what do you expect the complaint to get you?

In this instance, nothing that gets the eight cancelled cruises suddenly back on, but that isn’t the point. Remember a couple of years ago, British Airways suffered a huge IT crash that affected flights worldwide? We were caught up in that. Spent an entire day stuck in Heathrow airport, had to book a London hotel, return to Heathrow the next day, got to Houston, Texas - no luggage. Spent four days in Houston - still no luggage. Bought everything we needed, kept all receipts. Flew to Scottsdale, Arizona. Still no luggage. It turned up two days after we arrived in Scottsdale. Ruined a holiday we had saved up for, looked forward to.

 

We got home, and complained about it to British Airways, who, aside from refunding all our expenses, also awarded us a discounted flight voucher, plus shedloads of Avios frequent flyer miles that we used to upgrade to business. None of it fixed our somewhat ruined holiday to Houston & Scottsdale, but that isn’t the point, we felt that the discounted flight and the ability to enjoy a free business class flight was fair recompense. We didn’t stop flying with them as we felt their response was decent.

 

I imagine that most folk, having suffered a problem with a company, will contact that company, should the issue be big enough to warrant complaint.

 

For me, given the Mardi Gras cruise I was booked on was a never-to-be-repeated one-off, I don’t happen to think Carnival’s across-the-board 25% future discount is a very good response to the problem, so having discussed it, we will take our future cruise business elsewhere. If that offends anyone, tough.

Edited December 20, 2019 by pozbaird

[declansdad]

Just now, pozbaird said:

In this instance, nothing that gets the eight cancelled cruises suddenly back on, but that isn’t the point. Remember a couple of years ago, British Airways suffered a huge IT crash that affected flights worldwide? We were caught up in that. Spent an entire day stuck in Heathrow airport, had to book a London hotel, return to Heathrow the next day, got to Houston, Texas - no luggage. Spent four days in Houston - still no luggage. Bought everything we needed, kept all receipts. Flew to Scottsdale, Arizona. Still no luggage. It turned up two days after we arrived in Scottsdale. Ruined a holiday we had saved up for, looked forward to.

 

We got home, and complained about it to British Airways, who, aside from refunding all our expenses, also awarded us a discounted flight voucher, plus shedloads of Avios frequent flyer miles that we used to upgrade to business. None of it fixed our somewhat ruined holiday to Houston & Scottsdale, but that isn’t the point.

 

I imagine that most folk, having suffered a problem with a company, will contact that company, should the issue be big enough to warrant complaint.

 

For me, given the Mardi Gras cruise I was booked on was a never-to-be-repeated one-off, I don’t happen to think Carnival’s across-the-board 25% future discount is a very good offer at all, so having discussed it, we will take our future cruise business elsewhere. If that offends anyone, tough.

 

I'm not offended at all and I truly understand the disappointment.

 

You problems with British Airways are not the same as this. A problem totally within their control and a trip that had began. This was for a trip that is months away and you can still book another cruise.  If this had happened just before the cruise date it would be an entirely different situation.

 

I hope you do find something else and have  fantastic time.

[pozbaird]

Just now, declansdad said:

 

I'm not offended at all and I truly understand the disappointment.

 

You problems with British Airways are not the same as this. A problem totally within their control and a trip that had began. This was for a trip that is months away and you can still book another cruise.  If this had happened just before the cruise date it would be an entirely different situation.

 

I hope you do find something else and have  fantastic time.

We will! Thanks for that. It isn’t the end of the world - first world problems and all that.... we have talked about going to Vegas to see our beloved, but somewhat useless, Denver Broncos play in the new Raiders stadium... so maybe, just maybe...

[declansdad]

13 minutes ago, pozbaird said:

We will! Thanks for that. It isn’t the end of the world - first world problems and all that.... we have talked about going to Vegas to see our beloved, but somewhat useless, Denver Broncos play in the new Raiders stadium... so maybe, just maybe...

 

Just realized that you are from Scotland. We have Scottish ancestry and are hoping to making it to the other side of the pond some day.

[pozbaird]

2 minutes ago, declansdad said:

 

Just realized that you are from Scotland. We have Scottish ancestry and are hoping to making it to the other side of the pond some day.

Just don’t book on a Carnival transatlantic from the USA to the UK! 😀

[crzndeb]

37 minutes ago, pozbaird said:

Just don’t book on a Carnival transatlantic from the USA to the UK! 😀

I think there are a lot of people that would disagree with you,  on the Legend sailing from NYC to Dover on June 3, 2020.

 

Have fun on whatever cruise line you cruise next. I think variety is the spice of life. I know a lot of people are disappointed right now. For many, it’s the first time they have had a cruise cancelled, but it happens on all cruise lines. I had one cancelled from earlier this year on another line.

 

Happy Cruising!

 

Go Seahawks!

Edited December 21, 2019 by crzndeb