Embarked Carnival Splendor today - Itinerary change advised at Boarding

[Tripmode33]

We have just embarked Carnival Splendor this morning in Sydney for an 8 day South Pacific cruise. At boarding they advised we will miss our Noumea visit (one of two visits separated by Lifou) as we need to head up to Bundaberg Qld to have our hull cleaned first.

I find it hard to believe that Carnival only decided to book the ship in for a clean on the morning of embarking.  While many cruisers don't list Noumea as a favourite port, it is disappointing for our plans.

The offer at embarkation was (1) we could not board and receive a future cruise credit for amount paid less port and govt fees and charges or (2) board and $100 OBC per Stateroom (not per person) would be put on your account.

This means if four in the cabin, compensation for missed port is $25 per person.

We have flown to Sydney so inconvenient to cancel so happy to board.

I wonder if they would also be obliged to refund the Port fees for Noumea visit cancelled. On Princess we are usually refunded Port fees if we cannot make it to port. Does anyone have Carnival experience?

[Relaxing Robbies]

We were on Splendor for her 31 July cruise to North Qld. We missed Port Douglas due to bad weather and did not receive any refund of port fees.

 

When we missed that port, Carnival also decided to skip Willis Island and head down to Bundaberg and clean the hull. Unfortunately when we arrived in Bundaberg the divers said it was too rough to do the clean.  It looks like they are going to make another attempt during your cruise. At least you are being offered some compensation. We were given nothing.

[Tripmode33]

2 minutes ago, Relaxing Robbies said:

We were on Splendor for her 31 July cruise to North Qld. We missed Port Douglas due to bad weather and did not receive any refund of port fees.

 

When we missed that port, Carnival also decided to skip Willis Island and head down to Bundaberg and clean the hull. Unfortunately when we arrived in Bundaberg the divers said it was too rough to do the clean.  It looks like they are going to make another attempt during your cruise. At least you are being offered some compensation. We were given nothing.

Thanks. That's a shame you missed Port Douglas. Hopefully seas calm enough to do job this time.  

Yes, if missed Port is beyond their control, like weather or seas, no compensation is offered. This, being a change of plans by ship, may make a difference.

[OzKiwiJJ]

35 minutes ago, Relaxing Robbies said:

We were on Splendor for her 31 July cruise to North Qld. We missed Port Douglas due to bad weather and did not receive any refund of port fees.

 

When we missed that port, Carnival also decided to skip Willis Island and head down to Bundaberg and clean the hull. Unfortunately when we arrived in Bundaberg the divers said it was too rough to do the clean.  It looks like they are going to make another attempt during your cruise. At least you are being offered some compensation. We were given nothing.

That's odd, you should have got the Port Douglas port fees refunded. It would have gone on your onboard account and was probably only a small amount.

[Cruisers47]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

That's odd, you should have got the Port Douglas port fees refunded. It would have gone on your onboard account and was probably only a small amount.

We were on RCLL in Japan recently and missed two ports because of the really bad weather and we received our port fees etc back together with excursion fees.  They warned us that the wifi near Hong Kong would not be the best,   It still worked but not the best.  We received two day’s compensation for that.  Was very happy with how we were treated.   

[arxcards]

I watched bits of your departure in the background of 9's afternoon news.

 

I can understand they will make late calls in whether to clean or not, based on favourable weather forecasts. Some of the ships have gone to all that trouble, then aborted the cleaning because the seas weren't calm enough.

 

Yes, port fees are not going to be paid to Noumea for that visit, and you paid them in your fare. They should be refunded as OBC.

[Gwendy]

We missed Noumea in May, P&O stated engine issues meant we couldn’t get there on time.  We were given a small amount of OBC.  I think there us an issue with Noumea, seems to be missed by a lot of operators.

[Hogbay]

22 hours ago, Relaxing Robbies said:

We were on Splendor for her 31 July cruise to North Qld. We missed Port Douglas due to bad weather and did not receive any refund of port fees.

 

When we missed that port, Carnival also decided to skip Willis Island and head down to Bundaberg and clean the hull. Unfortunately when we arrived in Bundaberg the divers said it was too rough to do the clean.  It looks like they are going to make another attempt during your cruise. At least you are being offered some compensation. We were given nothing.

That's because we did not miss Port Douglas ship dropped ankor and then was declared unsafe due to weather to do tender ops . So that's beyond their control so no refund .

[MicCanberra]

A shame for the missed ports, I would think they will refund port fees in addition to the compensation.

[icat2000]

Sounds like a plus to me. Especially when that itinerary already has Noumea on it. 

[arxcards]

Have a fun day off Bundy. I hope the scraping doesn't wake you.

[Hogbay]

It was changed along time ago Noumea Lifou Noumea and priced accordingly . They were hopeful on Mare or Ile De pins been open by now . Last time they had put on a 715 am humpback whale show on . 

[arxcards]

2 hours ago, Hogbay said:

It was changed along time ago Noumea Lifou Noumea and priced accordingly . They were hopeful on Mare or Ile De pins been open by now . Last time they had put on a 715 am humpback whale show on . 

The change of one of the Noumea stops to Bundy only happened on Monday, and isn't that the reason for the topic being posted?

[Tripmode33]

5 hours ago, arxcards said:

The change of one of the Noumea stops to Bundy only happened on Monday, and isn't that the reason for the topic being posted?

We did book quite a while before there were two Noumea visits. But were hoping to make the most of two full days there once advised of the change.

Yes, only Monday on boarding were we advised of hull cleaning.

Good sea conditions and weather for the cleaning team.

Very quiet operation so far.

Not sure of the process but hopefully anything Biofuel they remove is contained and not an environmental risk to our beautiful Southern Great Barrier Reef.