Carnival Cruise Line Ends Third-Party Gifts After Accidental Blunder
Key Aspects:
John Heald accidentally sent a bottle of champagne to two children on a recent Carnival cruise.
The error happened because of an incorrect stateroom number for a third-party gift request.
Third-party requests for “something special” gifts will no longer be accommodated on any Carnival ship.
Carnival Cruise Line tries to accommodate all types of requests for celebrations and a little “something special” to help make guests’ cruise vacations even more memorable.
An inadvertent error with a recent request, however, now means there will be no more third-party gifts.
John Heald, Carnival Cruise Line’s brand ambassador, handles such requests. Hundreds of times each week, guests reach out to him about special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, beating cancer, job promotions, graduations, and much more.
Heald always tries to offer something to celebrate the request. It might be a plate of cookies, a prize medallion, a bottle of champagne, or even (albeit rarely) the coveted ship-on-a-stick.
One recent request, however, went badly wrong. Heald discussed the incident in a video on his Facebook page, sharing his chagrin with his more than 665,000 followers.
“One of the fun parts of my job is to be able to help people celebrate. People write to me and say it’s my birthday, it’s an anniversary or a honeymoon or whatever, divorce, I’m celebrating and I always do my best to send a little something,” he explained.
He noted that he does have a budget on every ship and can’t therefore send gifts to large parties or accommodate every request. He does try to do as much as he can, however, especially in exceptional circumstances.
The recent incident involved a frequent Carnival guest’s best friends, who were celebrating retirement from the police force. To be clear, the individual making the request was not sailing themselves, but wanted to surprise their friend.
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“I sent a bottle of champagne and a medallion,” Heald confirmed.
After making the arrangements for the delivery, Heald then had a trip to the “mothership” in Miami and was busy with corporate meetings, ship visits, and meeting guests in person for several days. Upon returning home and back to guest communications, he found a very angry email.
“The person who had received the gift is accusing me of lots of things, very angry, calling me all sorts of names, because I sent a bottle of champagne to his two grandchildren,” Heald said.
How Did This Happen?
Whoops! It turns out, the individual making the gift request gave Heald the wrong stateroom number and the bottle of champagne and medallion went to the children’s stateroom instead of the now-retired police officer.
“I had sent a bottle of champagne to two children,” Heald said. “They had no idea who I was, they just went to Guest Services.”
Heald quickly apologized to the guest and noted that he completely understood why they were so upset. He even admitted that if this happened to his daughter, he’d be equally angry.
The result is that there will be no more third-party gifts sent to Carnival guests. Heald will continue to send gifts whenever possible to guests who are actually sailing, but will no longer accommodate requests to surprise someone else.
“I’m not going to put myself or my colleague Jacinta into that particular nest of vipers,” he said.
That new policy is holding firm, as both Heald and Jacinta are now refusing third-party gift requests.
“We are very happy and glad to be able to send something to people actually cruising on the ship but third-party requests are not something that we are permitted to do anymore,” he responded to a more recent request. “Thank you for your understanding.”
Have you ever requested a gift aboard a Carnival cruise? Has there ever been a miscommunication about how a gift has been handled or delivered? Share your hilarious mix-ups on the Cruise Hive boards!
Carnival Cruise Line Ends Third-Party Gifts After Accidental Blunder