Complaint Rating:

Company information:
Carnival Cruise Lines
United States
carnival.com

On December 15th, we boarded the Carnival Miracle for a long awaited trip to Panama, Costa Rica, and Belize. We intended to meet up with some expatriate friends living in Panama that we had met one an Orient Cruise the year before. We were notified by e-mail three days before about a change of itinerary. The ship was supposedly experiencing engine difficulties which affected it's cruising speed (22 knots). Therefore, the ports of call were changed to Cozumel, Costa Maya (both in Mexico), Belize, and Roatan.

Most of the passengers did not find out about the change until boarding the ship. Refunds were possible, but we had non-refundable airfare and hotel bookings. Carnival's compensation was a paltry $25.00 per person shipboard credit. In addition, we were still charged a fuel surcharge as we had missed the refund date by two days (December 17th.) However, the new itinerary was only about one-half the distance so Carnival kept tens of thousands in fuel savings.

Finally, on the last leg back to Ft. Lauderdale, the ship maintained a cruising speed of 21 knots for several hours which cast doubt on Carnival's official version of the itinerary change. The Purser's Office did not deliver on my three separate requests for complaint forms. The Captain of the ship did not address the passengers regarding the problem and/or offer any apologies.