Expert: Linda - 5/13/2007

Question
My best friend and I were to set sail on the Carnival Imagination for a 5 night W.Caribbean cruise today, May 12, 2007 to celebrate her college graduation and my successes as a single mom. The cruise was to leave out of Miami and go to the Cayman Islands and Ocho Rio, Jamaica.

Unfortunately my friend came down with food poisoning from the celebration dinner last night; and was extremely ill and unable to travel. Being that we are devastated in not being able to go on our trip (we've been planning this for the past 5 months) we are attempting to reschedule. However, Carnival is being less than cooperative.

In fact, I have been on the phone all day (with about 15 different people) to try and rectify the situation. So far we were told that Carnival will not simply transfer your ticket to another date. We were told we would have to cancel; reschedule and PAY for 2 MORE tickets; and that we would have to provide documentation (a Dr's note) and fill out some refund forms. They also stated that we might or might not be fully compensated, although we did purchase insurance with our trip. We were also told we would not be refunded for the excursion booked through Carnival.

After reading thousands of reviews all day, I am terrified at this point of losing all the money we have put into the trip thus far. Countless reviews of people in similar circumstances stated that Carnival will not refund any part of the cruise, with some people losing up to $6,000. I guess my question would be; is what we've experienced so far protocol for Carnival? Do they really have such a bad reputation for not working with people in extenuating circumstances? I just don't understand how policy could entail such drawn out confusion. It seems Carnival would save money on staff and paperwork, if they were more accommodating to people who are unable to make the trip. Simply re-scheduling the trip for customers would seem the most logical thing to do.

Please tell me there is still hope. Both my friend and I have not been on a vacation in over four years. We were so excited and now we feel crushed at how we are being treated after spending over $1,000 on the trip. We are by no means wealthy and can not afford to pay for 2 new tickets while waiting on a refund that we "may or may not" get. In addition, there is absolutely no way anyone in their right mind would book another trip with Carnival without knowing whether or not they would get the refund for money already spent. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.  

Answer
Adrienne, how devastating for both of you!  OK, let's not stress to start with.  
First thing I want you to do is read your trip insurance; you SHOULD be able to be reimbursed for your cruise and your friends by supplying the documentation of the food poisoning to the insurance company.  At this point, I would not deal with Carnival.
Did you buy from a travel agent?  If so, call them explain what happened and have them work to help you.

I'd do these first as they are your best source I fell will lead to success in your refund.

Let's keep in touch; my e mail is LSauls7537@aol.com.
Recap:
1.  Get out your insurance policy, call them or e mail and get the process started.  Make LOTS of copies of the Dr's or ER notes.
2.  Call your TA and explain situation.

Let me know what happened with those 2 things; also, since you're by a computer, log in to CRUISECRITIC.COM.  You'll need to sign up (free), then go to the Carnival site and post what you did to me to them.  You'll get lots more opinions and if someone has a name of a "human" you can speak with, you'll find that out as well.

Don't panic at this point and next time...no more celebrating till you're ON the ship :)

Linda