Carnival Horizon 12/5 cruise canceled

[dobiemom]

6 hours ago, vcop said:

We were supposed to be on the December 11th sailing. I booked our airfare with my points on my Barclay Carnival card. I hope they will refund my points. I was sure looking foward to this.

Is there another ship you could sail on leaving the same day? Or close to it?

[BlerkOne]

4 hours ago, Meredithe said:

They offered a really fair compensation.. I will book another later. In the meantime, I booked the Norwegian Joy for the 4th instead. There are a lot of great deals to be had for this weekend! 

 

Double your money certainly seems generous to me. It is better than $600 OBC my cancelled COVID cruises were offered. 

[bigrednole]

I just saw John Heald's message about this. It is unfortunate, but I think Carnival is compensating Dec 5 and Dec 11 customers incredibly. 100% refund AND 100% FCC, plus up to $200 for non-Carnival related issues like hotels and flights if they didn't have Carnival travel protection. People can use their own insurance to cover those expenses. And if you had OBC for these cruises, those OBCs transfer to the cruise you book with the FCC.

 

Technical issues like this are unknowns and cannot really be anticipated. The repair crews onboard can manage most issues, but this sounds like a major issue that requires very heavy equipment and machinery to repair/replace. Not something mechanics can do on a ship at sea.

Edited December 1, 2021 by bigrednole

[bigrednole]

9 hours ago, Meredithe said:

They offered a really fair compensation.. I will book another later. In the meantime, I booked the Norwegian Joy for the 4th instead. There are a lot of great deals to be had for this weekend! 

 

Good for you. Carnival is doing all they can. This is a massive mechanical issue. I don't know what the issue is, but think of it like replacing a transmission in your car. It is a big, heavy piece of metal with a bunch of gears. Now multiply that by about 100x and you see the size of the problem on a ship. If something similar on the ship has to be repaired, you aren't talking about a shop crane or something moving parts around. You need heavy duty equipment for this type of work. The real question is if they will be able to make the necessary repair without being in dry dock. I am not sure where in the US something like that can be done on a ship this size. 

[bigrednole]

For those reading this and panicking, please STOP!!!

 

There are options out there. I just did a quick look at cruises for Dec 5 and 11. There are a bunch of options and they are very inexpensive (to me). I did a quick look at a few that would be for my family (2 adults and a teenager). One option was the NCL Joy on Dec 11. It is a Family Club Balcony, includes the free at sea, for $2,360. I don't know the itinerary you lost, but a change of itinerary and still enjoy a vacation knowing I have a free cruise to boot is very soothing. Brush off the cruise ship, brush off the itinerary, roll with what is available, and enjoy the time at sea and family.

 

RCL: Has several Oasis class ships with very inexpensive rates

NCL: Has several excellent rates as well.

MSC: Has several to boot.

 

See if you can work with your airlines to change locations. You could get Galveston and NOLA to add more options. I didn't even look at Tampa and others. I just looked at Miami, Port Everglades, and Port Canaveral. There are tons of options and ALL would make me happy. But, I may be much more flexible than others. I can guarantee you this, I would take any cruise over being in this near freezing temps any day of the week.

[Earthworm Jim]

I'm guessing the Freedom, which was alternating 6 and 8 day sailings out of Miami with the Horizon, will quickly see any remaining cabins booked on December 12th, and maybe December 4th too if Horizon's December 5th passengers can manage to get to Miami in time to make it.

[TechDiva]

7 hours ago, bigrednole said:

For those reading this and panicking, please STOP!!!

 

There are options out there. I just did a quick look at cruises for Dec 5 and 11. There are a bunch of options and they are very inexpensive (to me). I did a quick look at a few that would be for my family (2 adults and a teenager). One option was the NCL Joy on Dec 11. It is a Family Club Balcony, includes the free at sea, for $2,360. I don't know the itinerary you lost, but a change of itinerary and still enjoy a vacation knowing I have a free cruise to boot is very soothing. Brush off the cruise ship, brush off the itinerary, roll with what is available, and enjoy the time at sea and family.

 

RCL: Has several Oasis class ships with very inexpensive rates

NCL: Has several excellent rates as well.

MSC: Has several to boot.

 

See if you can work with your airlines to change locations. You could get Galveston and NOLA to add more options. I didn't even look at Tampa and others. I just looked at Miami, Port Everglades, and Port Canaveral. There are tons of options and ALL would make me happy. But, I may be much more flexible than others. I can guarantee you this, I would take any cruise over being in this near freezing temps any day of the week.

 

I'm not on any of these cruises and while I think that the compensation provided is fair, I think that part of the problem is that a lot of people were taking advantage of the really low cruise fares that had been offered. Some of the fares were as low as $25 per person (I still see some of these in cruise search, for instance, I can do a Magic 7 day next week for $25 pp for an inside or $200 pp for an oceanview or even Mardi Gras starting at $100 pp).  Someone who paid those low rates would probably not be willing to take the NCL Joy option that you proposed for this reason.  I know that I wouldn't, as I took a Halloween cruise only because of the low rates.  I otherwise would not have been cruising until at least April 2022.  So, the resolution to this issue is not really as cut and dry as it may seem.

[bigrednole]

Well, they get their $25 back AND still get a free cruise.

[Saint Greg]

I watched the JH video this morning. 100% refund and 100% FCC would sound good to me if i were on it.  

[Denverdonkeys]

1 hour ago, bigrednole said:

Well, they get their $25 back AND still get a free cruise.

no they get $25 cash (refund) and $25 towards a new cruise. they FCC does not price protect a new sailing

[bigrednole]

1 hour ago, Denverdonkeys said:

no they get $25 cash (refund) and $25 towards a new cruise. they FCC does not price protect a new sailing

If I could make 100% return every day, I would be happy. All kidding aside, you are right in those small circumstances. And in those cases, in the end they lost a $25 vacation. They can rack it up to bad luck.

[bluesea4me]

On 11/30/2021 at 10:08 PM, BlerkOne said:

Double your money certainly seems generous to me. It is better than $600 OBC my cancelled COVID cruises were offered. 

I'm on the 19th....Havana..$250 OBC and get to know sale on either the Liberty or Sunshine....they will pick a comparable room....  cancel by sunday get full refund...but no fcc, hotel reimbursement, etc. etc.  Be thankful they didn't do to you what they did to me and several others for the Holiday cruises.   Sigh.///very dissapointed.   Sigh

[firefly333]

2 minutes ago, bluesea4me said:

I'm on the 19th....Havana..$250 OBC and get to know sale on either the Liberty or Sunshine....they will pick a comparable room....  cancel by sunday get full refund...but no fcc, hotel reimbursement, etc. etc.  Be thankful they didn't do to you what they did to me and several others for the Holiday cruises.   Sigh.///very dissapointed.   Sigh

That would be my concern. I've booked hotels or parking thru next march which every date has either a nonrefundable hotel or cancelling parking would be a $50 fee. 

 

Rcl changed my march b2b from allure to liberty with NO obc. Price protected or we could cancel. Galveston terminal delayed. Price protected to a ship I didnt pick. The ships they picked arent bad ships but people go thru a lot to pick their cabins. If i booked Havana $250 obc wouldnt cut it either. Sorry this happened. Stressful. 

[bluesea4me]

On 12/1/2021 at 9:23 PM, wkucrprez said:

I'm booked on a Back2Back on Horizon Dec 19 and 26. I'm going to start looking for alternate vacation plans tmow. I've never done a Christmas cruise and always wanted to... guess it's just not in the cards.

Been on the phone since 11 am.  Still the same call.  Been told SOOO many different stories.  But, I now that Carnival said take their 12/19 offer of a comparable cabin (probably a balcony) I will have NO say in it's location on either Liberty or Sunshine (im in a havna...not happening) and your $250 OBC.  OR, cancel by Sunday (and lose part of my flight cost and all of my hotel cost ($450) and 100% refund the cruise, OR Wait for my ship and cabin assignment to see if I like it, but if I decide I don't, I can cancel then....but I'll only get 75% of my cruise cost--which means I'M out $$$$.   I told Tyrone that It's not fair that I paid for a Cabana but will probably only receive a balcony because I could book the Freedom's upper end Balcony for $600 per person less.   He said then book it.   So, that adds another option, cruise on the same class of ship as the Liberty but at least it's a larger ship (why I booked Horizon--still not the same and smaller ship = more possibility of sea sickness), but I won't get my $250 OBC, but do get to pick my cabin.   I told them I'm not out to get $$, but I do want them to know that paying for Havana and getting a Balcony is not comparable and DEFINITELY unfair to any and all of the Havana people.  He said that at least I'd get to cruise.   Yes, but.....had I known that I'd be getting a plain balcony for a Havana, there's no way I would have gotten a Havana in the first place!  If I knew I'd be getting an ocean suite or better I'd probably shush about the Havana $ difference.  Do I want to take the gamble?    What would all of you do? 

I am currently on hold for my 6th person (I have been nice, not yelling, etc.,) but have gotten yelled at by the last person because I wanted to talk to a higher up to voice my concerns (not to get him in trouble), and answer what he couldn't answer.   He told me he didn't have a boss, but then later did....and of course.....transferred me to a dead voicemail line.  Carnival sure does make it hard to try to reach ANYONE with authority.  Everyone gave the same email and the same Carnival number.  Why thanks.  

 

Worst part of all of this.....I think I'm done with Carnival and I just purchased discounted gift cards.  This adds to my dilemma!

 

What did you decide to do?  Did you find other cruises?  

Edited December 3, 2021 by bluesea4me