Thread: Is the Carnival Splendor Cancellation Compensation Offer Satisfactory?

Yesterday, it was announced by Carnival that all Splendor cruises were cancelled until January 16, 2010.

One of our very own Officers has been effected by this news and we wanted to take a quick, informal poll of the CruiseLineFans community and get your opinion.

Guests who were scheduled to sail on these voyages will receive a full refund of their cruise fare and air transportation costs, along with a 25 percent discount on a future cruise.

Is the Carnival Splendor Cancellation Compensation Offer Satisfactory?

The lack of comparable itineraries matching the Splendor's are not really present at this time and passengers will have to travel to the East Coast to find a similar 7-night cruise deal. However, Carnival has offered 25% towards you next cruise which has been criticized by some for being to small, especially for those passengers on a quickly approaching, but now cancelled cruise.

What do you think, CruiseLineFans? What could Carnival have done better? Is this offer complete enough? Let us know!

It seems fair, but I was not effected, will they reimburse non refundable airline tickets some passengers probably have?

Originally Posted by kirkz

It seems fair, but I was not effected, will they reimburse non refundable airline tickets some passengers probably have?

They have said that they will cover that cost but not until after the date has past and you submit proof that you did not use the tickets.

Originally Posted by timwilloughby

Yesterday, it was announced by Carnival that all Splendor cruises were cancelled until January 16, 2010.

One of our very own Officers has been effected by this news and we wanted to take a quick, informal poll of the CruiseLineFans community and get your opinion.

Guests who were scheduled to sail on these voyages will receive a full refund of their cruise fare and air transportation costs, along with a 25 percent discount on a future cruise.

Is the Carnival Splendor Cancellation Compensation Offer Satisfactory?

The fact that any guest that was impacted by these cancellations are made whole and then some... I say yes.

Originally Posted by Blizzard

They have said that they will cover that cost but not until after the date has past and you submit proof that you did not use the tickets.

Thanks for this clarification, Blizz. I think its an important facet of the compensation package to understand and one that many passengers (like yourself) may not be overly thrilled with.

As the situation develops and you formulate your thoughts, please do let us know your thoughts.

Thanks.

After calling them again today I got clarfication that they would cover the change in tickets to a cruise with another line. So far it is going well. It looks like they are handling it right.

Carnival did not wait long to inform us of the cancellation of our 12/19/10 cruise so we were able to immediately book a comparable room on the Norwegian Star on 12/18/10. If we had not been able to do this, that would have been OK too. Acts of God are not controllable and at least we weren't on the "fiery" cruise in November!
As for the compensation, 25% off our next Carnival cruise is fair for us because we cruise on Carnival regularly. We look forward to our next booking.

I think it is fair. It is more than we received when a hurricane forced cancellation of a Christmas cruise.

I think it's a fair compensation. If I were impacted, my cruise vacation would have been ruined and I would be thrilled to receive a full refund and 25% off the next cruise.

As usual, I seem to be the one who goes against the crowd!

I voted no and I'll tell you the main reasons why;

While on the surface the 25% discount seems to be fair and equitable, as was pointed out in another thread, Carnival has now raised the prices on alot of their cruises on the Splendor. The net result is that even with the 25% discount, passengers aren't getting a really good deal. If they book a new cruise and the price is 25% higher, then they are basically getting nothing. So it sounds good on the surface, but is not all that good in the application.

Plus, nowadays most people book non-refundable non-changeable airfare, so many people may loose the price entirely or have to pay a considerable fee to change it. Whatever discount they may get on their next cruise will be eaten by the extra airfare fees.

I think it would have been fair and more equitable for everyone had Carnival guaranteed the pricing and offered price-protection for comparable sailings, and then provided a 25% discount, plus offer coverage for any airfare fees up to $100 each - that would have more beneficial.

Plus, those who booked a holiday cruise for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Years, paid considerably more than those who booked during the best rate times between the holidays. But now their holiday plans have dramatically changed - not like they can book this anytime, what with having to work around school days. Makes it very difficult for them and if they were to wait until next Christmas to book, the rates are going to be higher and a 25% discount probably won't offer much relief to them. And it's not like they can just schedule on another ship this year because those are high-traveled times and all the best and cheapest cabins have been booked for many months.

Obviously, it's not a great situation and I do give Carnival alot of credit for trying to compensate travelers - and I think they did an awesome job for those on the ill-fated journey.

I have clients who were scheduled to go on the Splendor and now have to reschedule everything. As they told me, the problems and expenses they now have to endure more than outweigh the discount. And while it's a nice gesture, they figure it's going to cost them more in the long run than the 25% will provide them.

Tough problem all the way around.

Pete