Yet another policy change at Carnival...

[Mach]

We have a group sailing on the Carnival Magic from Galveston in a mere 11 days. We planned and booked this voyage over a year ago. Last evening, one of the guests contacted me and told me that she was informed that her home state of Colorado was going to recognize her with an award for her work as a volunteer victim advocate and counselor. She is a brilliant and giving woman fully deserving of the recognition. The rub is that the ceremony is scheduled for one day after we set sail. She was fine with the idea of flying to our first port of call, Montego Bay, and joining the ship there. I've had this happen with my clients previously and there was no issue. I told her I was sure there wouldn't be a problem. I contacted Carnival and was stunned to learn that we could not do this. As of May 8, 2013 the new policy at Carnival is that if you miss the ship, too bad... you're screwed. Unless you failed to sail because of a certifiable weather event you will not be permitted to join the cruise. If your car breaks down, too bad... you should have maintained it better and that's EXACTLY what I was told by a supervisor at Miami.

Is this nuts or what??? Their reasoning is that having someone join the cruise at a port MIGHT make customs no longer consider the voyage a closed loop cruise. HUH??? What the heck do they care? The individual has a passport, the cruise is paid in full and she has no problem with spending her own money to fly to Montego Bay.

Holy smoke, I'm pissed. I brought this up to John Heald. He contacted Miami and was stunned to be told the same thing. Now, remember... this is a MIGHT situation... not something that the government has told Carnival but something the conceive might occur.

Cruising is becoming less and less appealing with all of the idiots making changes at the top....

[crazy4disney]

I'm so sorry, Mach... I saw you post this on FB, and was shocked. Still am. It really doesn't seem to make sense!

I wouldn't say cruising in general is becoming less appealing... but if I ever had any desire to cruise Carnival, I would have less now. I'll stick to Royal and Disney.

What is she going to do, has she decided?

-gina-

[Swath]

Carnival

FOR the past few years seems to have its HEAD On Backwards

[DebbieandJerry]

This makes me want to say hmmm ...

What does the contract state when you sign up for the cruise?

I know thta there are a lot of hills not worth dieing on. This one seems like a hill worth tackling!

[DebbieandJerry]

I just thought about something else ...

Carnival has implemented their policy that if you do not like the cruise before you get to the first port, they will fly you home, blah, blah, blah. So if you are permitted to leave from a port, why aren't you permitted to arrive from a port?

Just thinking outside of the box ...