Carnival Cruise LineReviews of carnival.com

I have been on hold for an hour now with carnival just to ask ONE question since they cancelled my cruise. My husband is deployed and has been for a year. He’s going to be home soon so we decided this would be a great getaway for us when he returns. I did the “helpful” thing for Carnival and requested my refund on their website so I could use it towards another vacation for us. Only to find out it will take 180 days…it took them 2 seconds to get my money but I have to wait up to half a year to get mine? I see a lot wrong with that. Awesome way to do a military family.

Just try to get a refund because you can’t take the COVID-19 shot. Their reply is we’ll send it to you, waiting three months now and still no refund that they guaranteed

In February, 2019 I put a $250 deposit on one of the first 2020 sailings of the new Mardi Gras ship but then was notified that the first few sailing had been cancelled because of delays in completing the ship. I was offered 25% of the value of the Mardi Gras sailing if I moved to a new booking, which I did. I then transferred my deposit to a sailing on the Miracle in June 2020 and had to add another $250 to the deposit. I then had a balance of nearly $2500 so I decided to buy gift cards from my local grocery store so I could get fuel perks for free gasoline. Due to Covid that sailing with my 25% discount and on board credit was also cancelled. Carnival eventually refunded my deposit to my credit card and $2400 in Carnival gift cards. In March 2021 I used the $2400 in Carnival gift cards to book a sailing on the Glory and paid the $2325.48 cost with the $2400 in gift cards. After about a month of booking my airline tickets and hotel for this sailing I realized that the Glory was an older ship and had not been upgraded in several years so I contacted my Avoya agent and asked if he could move my booking to the new Mardi Gras. He was able to make this change but when my funds were transferred to the Mardi Gras booking it was missing about $275. After weeks of asking the Avoya agent to resolve the issue he set up a 3-way call with Carnival and 45 minutes later it was determined that the missing funds were the agent's commission from the Glory sailing and the error was on Carnival's side and it would take several weeks to resolve. My deadline to pay my cruise was 7/4/21 and when that date passed I soon learned that Carnival had cancelled my cruise due to non payment of the remaining balance. They had still not provided me with a corrected invoice showing my missing funds had been credited to my booking so eventually my Avoya agent was able to reinstate my booking and I paid the remaining $344 balance. When he sent me my final invoice it showed a balance of $273. My Avoya agent has assured me repeatedly that I have nothing to worry about because my booking is paid in full and the error is with Carnival, but that is what he said a month ago and then my booking was cancelled. I first sailed on the Carnival Mardi Gras (the old Mardi Gras) in June 1977 when I was 20 years old and this sailing was supposed to be a celebration of my 40th wedding anniversary and the fact that I nearly died from Covid on Christmas day 2020 but trying to get my booking issue resolved has been so stressful and so disappointing for me. In the process of all of these booking transfers I ended up losing $800 in on board credit and a drink package from the Miracle sailing and now all I have is $50 in on board credit. I am so disappointed in Carnival and their handling of my situation. I have sent an email to Arlene Marichal three times now with no response from her or anyone within the Guest Care department. This is her department and yet no one has offered me the courtesy of a response in any form. I had one small issue with my last sailing on a Celebrity ship and their guest care department contacted me by phone and resolved the issue immediately and offered me on board credit for my inconvenience. So, who do you think I will want to sail with on my next cruise?

7-21-2021: I have been on hold now for 1 hour 7 minutes. As is standard these days when contacting customer service for any company, when I first called I was told to be patient as they were experiencing higher than usual call volume. I am sick of listening to this ridiculous hold recording, and have not been asked even by automation if I would like to get a return call rather than waste my time on hold. I truly hope this isn't a sign to come that the offer will not be honored. 7-22-2021: Update - total hold time to speak to a human being was 1h23m. After asking my question….I was told I was being transferred to promotions. After another 17 minute hold time another person came on the line. I again asked my question…and in about 3 minutes had my answer. Total call time 1hr 54m for a question that took 3 minutes to answer. Would be nice if they would add someway to contact them other than by phone. Pretty sure I could have been helped by email.

I’ve called 3 times was on hold the first time for almost 30 minutes and the lady gave me instructions to how to find and fill out the exemption form for the vaccination it was not were she told me. The second time I was on hold for 48 minutes the gentleman said he would email that to me as we were speaking, 26 hours later nothing. Today as I email you , I’ve been on hold for 18 minutes and still waiting. You may not care but I’m going to call Royal Caribbean, I’ve been a past guess with you guys but your customer service is terrible and if I’m spending this much money I expect better service. I even emailed the CEO Mr. A. Donald, And Christine Duffy the President. I guess they set the standard for good customer service because they themselves have not responded of had anyone else to do so. There are too many other cruise lines that responded with my first call and gave me or sent me the information with my first call such as Royal Caribbean. So don't waste your time with Carnival if the can't appreciate each and evry customer

use for a good cruise experience.

One of the better cruise companies. Not the best, but worth it for sure. Look forward to when the cruise industry comes back to life again. It would be cool if they could team up with other cruise companies to make connections and do world tours, just an idea...

Just saw a news story on how the Cruise industry is suffering, having to cancel cruises; my reaction: Good. I’ve been on 15 Carnival Cruises, 14 were on a strict budget. The last in 2008 was a special cruise. My wife and I redid our wedding, because the first one was so bad it was almost funny. Example: the two piece country band my MIL demanded, didn’t know any of our 1st dance requests, so we said “just play a nice love song “. Guess what they played? “Your Cheatin’ Heart”. When I booked, I specifically asked that our wedding/renewal be done before our first port. I paid for a photo, video, and reception package. I bought a suite with balcony. I bought excursions for every port. I estimate I spent $12-14k, on top of the expense of wedding clothes, and flowers. Carnival ignored this and waited until the last night off the cruise, rushed us through everything, then back to our room to pack up to exit the ship the next morning. So what was supposed to be ceremony/celebrate/ports for a honeymoon feel, turned into, I do, now get off the ship. Carnivals reply, “Too bad, So Sad, we would rather have cheap passengers, we’re a mega busy business, thank you, come again!” So if they are suffering, good. From a former Carnival cruiser that Carnival screwed and didn’t even care.