First the Army moves your husband to the Mideast for Christmas and then Carnival Cruise lines moves part of your family to a faraway cabin for a long-planned Christmas cruise. When it comes to “minimum occupancy” rules on cruise ships, Carnival sticks to the letter of the law, much to the chagrin of an activated reservist’s family.
The line in the confirmation notice is clear: “Carnival may require that staterooms with the capacity to accommodate 3 or more guests be fully occupied. Carnival reserves the right to move guests to a comparable stateroom if the stateroom is booked with fewer than the maximum number of guests the cabin can accommodate or a partial guest cancellation occurs and the remaining number of guests do not match the maximum number of guests the cabin can accommodate.”
In this case, the family carefully booked four adjoining cabins way back in January, with from two to four people in each cabin, on a Christmas Cruise on the Carnival Splendor. Last month, one family member, who has been in the military reserves, was called up for service in the Mideast. After some discussion, they decided to continue with their vacation plans.
This change is outside of the penalty period with the cruise line. The family called Carnival, however, to make the change. The agent said she was not sure they could do that, because it would leave “only three” in the cabin. (The cabins in their category are the same size, but some have convertible sofas and upper berths.)
Twenty minutes later she came back and said they had managed to “save” the booking, but had moved their cabin. Not exactly what the family was hoping to hear as they had been so careful to get the original cabins together.
In this case, the new cabin was at least on the same deck, albeit down the hall, so while they weren’t thrilled about the change, it could have been worse. And short of finding a fourth for the cabin, they had no choice. Fortunately, this wasn’t a situation where the family had booked adjoining cabins for adults and young children, so it’s more an inconvenience than a safety issue.
Admittedly, cruise ships are in the business to make money, and no doubt Carnival can make more money by reselling the original cabin to a foursome. But the fact that the cancellation was for military reasons didn’t make a difference in the slightest.
And as noted, that “comparable” cabin could have been much worse, in terms of being a long way away on a very big ship – the Splendor is 113,000 tons, 3006 passengers, double occupancy.
(On a different topic, this should also be a cautionary tale for anyone who is crowd-adverse, most ships’ capacity is announced as double occupancy, whereas at holiday times in particular they sail with a lot more people.)
Insurance wouldn’t have helped in this case, as there was no monetary penalty for the father needed to drop out, just the cabin change.
For readers wondering what they can do to avoid such a situation, short of finding a replacement person for a cancellation, there’s not officially much that can be done.
If money is no object, there’s the possibility of leaving the person dropping out on the reservation and paying for them, because on day of departure it will be too late for a cabin move. And on a non-holiday sailing, one cruise reservations agent told me it’s worth asking a supervisor for an exemption. If the ship isn’t full, the cruise line MIGHT be more flexible.
Overall, this “minimum occupancy” issue is just one more thing in a long list of cruise line fine print. And just about none of the fine print is consumer friendly.
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
