Guest Upset at Tour Cancellation – Did Carnival Drop the Ball?
Most cruise travelers understand that some unfortunate circumstances are well outside a cruise line’s control. How a cruise line reacts to those circumstances, however, can make a big difference about how happy – or unhappy – guests may be about necessary changes.
One recent guest is upset at how Carnival Cruise Line appears to have handled a simple shore tour cancellation, and she really does have a point.
The guest reached out to the cruise line’s official brand ambassador, John Heald, with her concerns and frustrations.
“I just returned home from a cruise on the Horizon to the ABC Islands. While I enjoyed the cruise, I’m very disappointed with what happened during our visit to Curacao,” she began.
“We booked an excursion for 1:30 [p.m.] so we figured it safe to stay close so we wouldn’t be late. We exited the ship at 11:40 to explore the port. At 1:15 we made our way to the meeting point.”
So far, so good. This shows a responsible guest booking a Carnival-approved shore tour, but still using time in port for independent exploration at a very desirable destination.
When heading back to the pier for that tour, however, is when things started to look odd.
“No one came to meet us. I asked a Carnival rep what was going on and was told they must be running late,” the guest continued. “We waited and waited. I then asked another Carnival rep and she told me to ask someone with excursions.”
Okay, starting not to look so good. Shore tours are generally quite prompt at their different meeting spots, or at least several early bird guests would be arriving well before the designated time.
Unfortunately, the guest was to learn bad news about their highly anticipated tour.
“I finally tracked down someone from excursions and she simply said the activity was canceled due to choppy waters. I understand the cancellation but NO ONE told me!” the guest exclaimed.
It is good that the guest is understanding that choppy waters – a weather-related factor well outside the cruise line’s control – caused the cancellation, but why wasn’t anyone on hand at the meeting point to alert booked guests that their tour couldn’t move forward?
“I was later told they tried to call my room at 11:10 a.m. (right after we left),” the guest said. “I was told that Carnival doesn’t have a way to message guest through the app or cell phones etc. Carnival should have SOMEONE on deck or at least a sign to make sure guests know if excursions are canceled.”
Heald did respond to the guest, noting that he would have to check with the excursions desk to learn what the guest reported onboard Carnival Horizon at the time.
The cruise in question was the ship’s May 24, 2025 sailing from Miami, which first visited Aruba and Bonaire before arriving in Curacao on Thursday, May 29.
The guest does note that they enjoyed their cruise, but remained disappointed at the missed opportunities in Curacao.
Should Carnival Have Done More?
While calling guests’ staterooms to alert them to a tour cancellation is a great first step, it isn’t always going to be effective. Depending on the time, the guest may have been enjoying breakfast, joining in an onboard activity, or out exploring the port independently, as this guest was.
It would have been simple for an easel board or other sign to have been placed at the meeting point for the tour, or at least near the ship’s gangway so travelers would be alerted to excursion cancellations as soon as they arrived at the meeting spot.
Of course, it is possible a sign was available earlier in the day, but the guest may have missed the notification.
The suggestion that messaging through the app or cell phones could be used is a good one, but might not be practical depending on connectivity and individual phone settings.
For example, many cruise travelers (myself included) keep their phones in airplane mode or even turned off in ports of call to avoid any possibility of expensive out-of-area fees.
Just recently, however, Carnival Cruise Line began making shore tour bookings a fully digital process linked to the Carnival Hub app. The system is not yet fully rolled out, but is suggested to be beneficial to guests.
“Our new ticketless platform prioritizes convenience for our guests and equips our tour operator partners with better tools, making the shore excursion experience more seamless, efficient and enjoyable,” said Sam Ackrill, vice president of shore excursions for Carnival Cruise Line.
“Eliminating the need for physical tickets and streamlining the process of checking in for shore excursions will be a great benefit, but the real-time functionality that’s built into our platform will give tour operators more opportunities and guests more choices.”
Perhaps some of that functionality could be tweaked to permit instant push notifications of cancellations or other changes to tours, so guests can remain fully informed and updated about their shore plans.
Guest Upset at Tour Cancellation – Did Carnival Drop the Ball?