Difficulty contacting Carnival

[heatherdw]

To sum up the Carnival cruise experience…

 

“It’s a happy upward spiral of fun…”

 

…until you have to get off the ship and go home! ☹️

[heatherdw]

I gave up after almost two hours. If I heard that my Carnival stateroom is not going to include a unicorn 🦄, one more time,  my head just might explode.

 

My cruise isn’t until December so there is really no need to put myself through this right now.

[cruisingguy007]

8 minutes ago, heatherdw said:

I gave up after almost two hours. If I heard that my Carnival stateroom is not going to include a unicorn 🦄, one more time,  my head just might explode.

 

My cruise isn’t until December so there is really no need to put myself through this right now.

 

Makes you wounder if this is the plan, farm out call centers as cheaply as possibly to sit on the phone with people and try and get them to give up. It seems with all the reports of people having such long holds, that they are doing this deliberately at this point and refusing to fix it. They rolled out an online option last time so they definitely know how to do it but are choosing not to. Low class move, they need to fix this.

 

People may start charging back with the email cancellation copy as proof. They sent that out as policy and it's proof , couple that with all the reports of super long waits, with no way to cancel online without getting some kind of cancellation fee. Seems only right that you could cancel online and then fight the fee through the credit card company since they sent out documentation that simply says contact us and doesn't specify that you must call. They didn't even provide a phone number. Doesn't seem right they can take your money easily but make you wait on hold for hours to get it back. Not sure what there defense would be and they would lose every charge back based on their own document/instructions. Seems so silly when you're trying to keep/retain customers.      

Edited January 26, 2022 by cruisingguy007

[Djptcp]

I never use a travel agent of PVP for Carnival, but I wanted to cancel my Jan. 16th cruise the week before it and I won't hold on the line for more than 15 minutes. Under Plan on the Carnival home page you can request a Personal Vacation Planner who will get in touch the next business day by email. I did that and a PVP contacted me the next day and I easily cancelled my cruise and booked another one for May. No waiting on hold on the telephone! I have since booked two other cruises without his assistance.

[cruisingguy007]

2 minutes ago, Djptcp said:

I never use a travel agent of PVP for Carnival, but I wanted to cancel my Jan. 16th cruise the week before it and I won't hold on the line for more than 15 minutes. Under Plan on the Carnival home page you can request a Personal Vacation Planner who will get in touch the next business day by email. I did that and a PVP contacted me the next day and I easily cancelled my cruise and booked another one for May. No waiting on hold on the telephone! I have since booked two other cruises without his assistance.

 

The problem is that Carnival gave basic instructions "contact us" and didn't even leave a phone number so it implies "contact" in any fashion. Canceling online should suffice, then fighting whatever cancellation fee is added. Customers shouldn't have to deal with this and the paper doesn't instruct you to do so in any specific manner so they made a huge gaff and left themselves wide open to charge backs for any cancellation fees. Plus it leaves customers pissed off and angry. Not really good business practices and doesn't inspire confidence. 

 

I explained to the agent how unreasonable it was to expect customers to hold indefinitely. I have been very patient waiting over 2.5 hours and would like my call expedited and was transferred to a supervisor of some sort. Back to hearing the annoying lady blabbing and approaching two hours and forty-five min.    

[cruisingguy007]

Tossing in the towel after 3 hours 12 min. Going to keep the call log, email letter from Mrs. Duffy, and wait for an online option. Will cancel through the booking engine online just before final payment and use the credit card company and evidence to fight for any imposed cancellation fees if an easier option doesn't materialize before then. Good luck folks! 

[farler05]

I called Monday afternoon & was on hold for 3 hours.  I finally got to talk to a very nice woman who is a contractor working from her her.  She tried to cancel but needed a supervisor's override to do so without penalty.  She got in the queue to get help from her supervisor, estimated wait 70 minutes.  We chatted for about 40 minutes & then suddenly I was disconnected.  😒

 

I called back Tuesday at 9AM ET.  I got through after only 17 minutes only to be told the system was down & the woman could only answer questions for me.  She also wanted to play 20 questions with me about why we were cancelling & was extremely patronizing.  I needed to try back later for any real help.  🤨

 

I tried to call back immediately & got a recording that the wait times were too long & try back again later.  I got that message probably 15 times before I made it back in the queue.  I think that wait was about an hour & a half before a very helpful rep was able to cancel my cruise & issue the refund.

 

So I estimate it took 6+ hours to get my cruise cancelled.  Now I just wait for the refund to show up.

[lindya]

also, in case you haven't heard, the Blue Iguana mascot is NOT a yellow parrot! And you won't find a unicorn in your room either

[famof4togo]

So maybe I was just lucky, but I just called and only was on hold for 2 minutes before I got someone on the phone...maybe a good time to try if you need to speak to someone....

[cruisingguy007]

2 hours ago, famof4togo said:

So maybe I was just lucky, but I just called and only was on hold for 2 minutes before I got someone on the phone...maybe a good time to try if you need to speak to someone....

 

"Getting someone on the phone" means nothing. They have babysitters who will sit on hold with you and listen to your life on speaker phone for hours and hours. Using the bathroom, eating, working, cleaning etc. It's ridiculous. Getting someone on the line is the easy part. Then the hours start rolling.  

[Crusin Hogs]

We use a PVP  , took me  less  than a minute to get her on the phone , Cancalled  a 14 day Journey  cruise   5 minutes max on the phone , It is all ways best to use a PVP  

[CruiseBro16]

I called today to cancel 😪 and had someone in about a minute. 

[cruisingguy007]

On 1/27/2022 at 4:09 PM, CruiseBro16 said:

I called today to cancel 😪 and had someone in about a minute. 

 

Family member on one of the cruises I booked had the same experience and called me to tell me how quick and easy it was. I call in and get someone after 20 min and then get the third degree about vaccination status. Agent made it sound like you can't cancel if anyone in your group is vaccinated and transferred me to resolutions and another long hold time. An hour and fourteen min later (total call time) I finally got a very pleasant agent from resolutions who was very helpful, super pleasant and got all my cruises canceled through 2024. I'll be waiting on the sidelines, with bated breath to immediately book when the mask mandates & testing is finished (don't mind the vaccine requirement personally, but don't particularly care for mandating anything). Hopefully, it's not years from now. Can't wait to get back on a Carnival ship the way it was.

 

For anyone calling in, 888-759-1566 worked much faster than 800-764-7419.  

Edited January 29, 2022 by cruisingguy007

[ledges1]

I have used a PVP. Called him Thursday morning to address a problem with my Saturday cruise. I am on the ship and he has still not returned my call as of 11:35 Saturday.

I did call the "call center". They answered after about 10 minutes. They took my info and put me on hold. The phone went to the survey and then hung up.

Called again and took about 25 minutes for an answer. The next rep was great. I spent an hour and a half with her on the phone. She solved my problem. Processed a refund for a person testing positive. She also checked several other booked cruises that I have and found several errors. She found a $586 credit I had (unknown to me) and processed as a payment against a future cruise and found an additional $35 OBC for the current cruise. She was patience and did an excellent job. So, 1 out of 3 did a great job. She also confirmed everything with an email. I wished I had her name but it was not on the email, only the generic carnival email address.

[klfhngr]

Call early in the AM, that's what my TA suggested and it worked. But it did take over an hour! Another thing I noticed, if you get hung up on, call back right away a few times, you might be put in the queue. That happened to me too!

[ledges1]

5 minutes ago, klfhngr said:

Call early in the AM, that's what my TA suggested and it worked. But it did take over an hour! Another thing I noticed, if you get hung up on, call back right away a few times, you might be put in the queue. That happened to me too!

Agee, my calls were in the morning.

[lolalow]

I have a cruise booked for December.  I am vaxxed but we will not be getting boosters.  Carnival is saying that if cdc changed definition of fully vaxxed meaning booster also they will change that also.  So can i wait and see if that actually happens before cancelling for example in July definition changes therefore I want to cancel. Or must I do it before the Feb 15 date?  I really dont want to cancel and then no booster is required for my cruise that would suck but on other hand we will def not be getting a booster so dont want cancellation fees later..        

[cruisingguy007]

25 minutes ago, lolalow said:

I have a cruise booked for December.  I am vaxxed but we will not be getting boosters.  Carnival is saying that if cdc changed definition of fully vaxxed meaning booster also they will change that also.  So can i wait and see if that actually happens before cancelling for example in July definition changes therefore I want to cancel. Or must I do it before the Feb 15 date?  I really dont want to cancel and then no booster is required for my cruise that would suck but on other hand we will def not be getting a booster so dont want cancellation fees later..        

 

You must cancel before Feb 15th, you can rebook closer to cruising time if you want to retain flexibility. They have to draw a line in the sand and they have been fair in announcing it and allowing this window for all booked cruises. You can wait and see, just be prepared to lose money if you decide to cancel. That or be stuck with a FCC/company money.  

[AnitaVacation]

Seems pretty hit or miss.  Wednesday, I got someone after about a 20 min hold, she told me I need to speak to someone in casino services and put me back on hold, I gave up after 1.5 hours of the second hold.  Thursday, I waited almost 2 hours before I gave up.  Friday, I got a recording saying they could call me back, so I opted for that!  Someone called me back in approx 30 min....worked out great.

[MrMarc]

Find somewhere where someone can recommend a PVP.

[noblewoman]

PVP everytime no worries