Carnival Urges Overlooked Purchase, Cannot Help Guest Pleas
Unexpected circumstances can quickly sink a cruise vacation, and it might seem like reaching out to the cruise line can be helpful. They care about their loyal guests, don’t they? They want everyone to have the best time?
That may be true, but cruise lines are also businesses. They cannot simply offer special exceptions to booked guests who might fall on hard times, a lesson Carnival Cruise Line’s official Brand Ambassador, John Heald, is trying to impress on his fans.
Heald responds to hundreds of comments, requests, and questions nearly every day, sharing extensive information with his more than 600,000 Facebook followers.
Though he is an official representative of Carnival Cruise Line, Heald does not himself make policy changes. He does, however, have the ear of “the beards” and is often able to pass along issues to the proper department or assist with simple requests.
Dining room seating assignments, spreading ashes at sea, or celebrating something special onboard are typical requests he receives.
Unfortunately, Heald also receives more heartbreaking requests that he simply cannot help with, but he is urging travelers to take their own steps to secure proper assistance.
“I know everybody has a budget, I understand that and I respect that, but hear me out,” he began. “One of the saddest, most gut-wrenching parts of my job is when people write to me that they’ve been ill, they’ve lost a loved one, or been involved in some sort of an emergency situation at home and they’ve had to cancel their cruise.”
Heald gets these sorts of notes nearly every day, which could involve an illness or surgery, a lost job, a sudden death, a car accident, a natural disaster, or any other devastating circumstance.
“They ask me, they beg me to help them reclaim their money, because, well, they didn’t take insurance,” he said. “Responding to you when you write that to me is so hard.”
Heald notes that guests are often angry and resort to personal attacks when they write to him about the possibility of refunds, often after being refused by customer service. He understands, however, that the guests are emotional and sad and understandably upset.
“Nevertheless, it really does tug at the heartstrings,” he said. “I hope I’m not out of place to say to everyone, please, if you can purchase travel insurance, please do so. You of course, like most people, it’s human to say it will never happen to me – until it does.”
The Travel Insurance Dilemma
Adding insurance to a cruise purchase can be up to several hundred dollars, depending on the cruise line, length of cruise, overall fare, itinerary, departure date, and other factors.
This can be a hefty additional cost to guests with tighter budgets. For travelers who have very low risk for health conditions, who have stable jobs, and who aren’t expecting any difficulties, insurance can seem like an unnecessary expense.
But as Heald noted, you don’t think any such things will happen to you – until they do.
This happened to me, in fact. Excited about Carnival Venezia coming to Port Canaveral for the very first time, my husband and I eagerly booked her first departure (December 18, 2024) when the reservations opened in May 2023.
Fast forward to July 2024 – 14 months after we booked the cruise – and I was diagnosed with lung cancer at the age of 47.
As a non-smoker who grew up in a non-smoking household and has never worked around toxic fumes or chemicals, the diagnosis was, to say the least, a bitter shock.
Through my treatment plan, I would be at the worst point of chemotherapy just days before our departure on Carnival Venezia. Regrettably, we made the decision that we had to cancel the cruise – without travel insurance.
Fortunately, we were able to cancel just days before our final payment due date. Because of that timing, we only lost our deposit, but we did lose every penny of it, despite rebooking Carnival Venezia for a 2025 sailing.
Read Also: Tips for Planning a Cruise for the First Time
Was that financial hit yet another blow at an already difficult time? Absolutely. Should Carnival Cruise Line have granted us an exception and fully refunded our deposit even though we chose not to have travel insurance? Absolutely not.
Every cruiser has to decide whether or not to purchase travel insurance based on their own personal circumstances, including their individual financial situation if they need to cancel their vacation.
Any cruise line – Carnival or otherwise – should not be expected to make exceptions for unexpected hardships. Cancellation and refund policies and penalties are clearly posted (Section 7 of Carnival’s Cruise Ticket Contract) and all guests agree to them when they book their vacation.
Is it frustrating when vacation plans change? Of course. But, dealing with that frustration is the guest’s responsibility, not the cruise line’s. Purchasing travel insurance can make a challenging situation just a little less frustrating in the future.