Carnival Splendor Cruise

I was glad I awoke early this morning to watch the MS Statendam (Holland America) begin its transit of the Panama Canal.  We have good friends who departed Ft. Lauderdale last Friday for the 14 day voyage to San Diego, and I wanted to save some pictures from the live webcams that can be viewed at the Gatun and Miraflores locks.

Upon discovering that I was late waking up and missed the entering, I started to send out a facebook update to our friends going with us on Barbi's birthday cruise on the Carnival Splendor on Jan 30.  I had a question on how many days til the cruise and pulled up Carnival's website and saw "Carnival Splendor Update".  I clicked on it and to my horror, saw that this morning they cancelled 5 more sailings due to needing parts from the ship manufacturer in Italy and also correcting some problems that surfaced during testing.  This means sailing from Jan 16 - Feb 13 we canceled! OH MY GOSH!

I ran upstairs and rallied the troops (Barbi) and immediately started alternate planning.  We found ourselves ahead of the game, as we had not yet received official notice from Carnival, so rebooking should be a breeze.  Well, looking at options, we quickly discovered that it would be in everyone's best interest to wait until Feb 20 to sail on the Splendor.  There were no other 7 day west coast sailings to take advantage of the price guarantee before then.  And moving to a longer or shorter cruise on the Carnival Spirit would mean using the 25% discount, instead of the price match, which really did not help in keeping rates in line with what we negotiated for our group.  The 9 day spirit sailing would have cost $200-$400 more depending on the category of the reservation.

Armed with lots of information, we quickly sent out an email to alert everyone, followed up with phone calls, where needed.  At this point, only one couple in our group decided not to re-book, the rest are pretty set on Feb 20, though we all agree that 3 weeks farther in waiting is a heart break.  We all can use the break NOW!

Here is a quick synopsis of the details:

• Next sailing available to book on the Carnival Splendor is Feb 20, 2010
• All passenger affected by the cancellation of sailings between Jan 16 and Feb 13 can reschedule between Feb 20 and May 22 to take advantage of the Price Guarantee on the 7 day voyages on Carnival Splendor.
• A 25% future cruise credit is being given to all passengers on cancelled voyage to use within 2 years.
• Passenegers not re-booking will receive a full refund within 10 days.
• Airfare change fees will be reimbursed through a refundable on-board ship credit.

This is the real benefit of using a travel agent, like us, who do not charge any fees to you for our services.