See why Charleston is a must-see destination before and after your cruise.

Charleston is the ultimate cruise port as it has it all – beauty, history, and southern hospitality. Now that Carnival offers year-round cruising from the city it will introduce many travelers to the wonders of Charleston.

Charleston is a city meant to meander around and get lost and it’s worth spending a few extra days to explore before or after a cruise. Oak-ringed parks with beautiful gardens and memorial plaques and statues are everywhere and are inviting to relax in on a hot day. The city’s historic homes and churches are a highlight of any walk and are perfectly preserved making it easy to imagine what life was like here 150 years ago. St. John’s Lutheran Church dates back to 1817, and St. Philip’s Church whose steeple was once used as a lighthouse. A walk along the waterfront will carry you past grand mansions to White Point Gardens where townspeople watched the first shots fired on nearby Fort Sumter in 1861.

At the corner of Meeting and Market Streets is the Market Hall, a Greek Revival temple built in 1841 that now houses a wonderful open-air market. The northern end has a number of small, enclosed shops that sell hats, jewelry, perfume, and Christmas ornaments, while the southern end is filled with more jewelers, painters, potters and weavers who make sweetgrass baskets — an African-American art form that is South Carolina’s official handicraft.

Good food is plentiful in Charleston – Hyman’s Seafood offers a huge menu of fresh from the sea fare along with numerous landlubber options. Sticky Fingers barbeque is hog heaven for rib lovers and Toast is a great place to start the morning off with a hearty breakfast.

Tennessee resident Patty Johnson was looking forward to her 5-day cruise on the Carnival Fantasy sailing from Mobile, Alabama last December. However, when she arrived at the pier there was no ship due to severe fog. According to Johnson the weather wasn’t the only thing that was foggy, but so too was the information they received from Carnival.

Gulf nightmare

December 14 was an extraordinarily rare weather situation as thick fog in the Gulf of Mexico closed ports and delayed cruise ships from Tampa FL all the way to Galveston TX. Carnival Cruise Line’s ships weren’t the only ones affected that day a number of Royal Caribbean vessels had also been delayed by the inclement weather.

Guests arriving at the Mobile pier hoping to sail on the Carnival Fantasy that afternoon quickly discovered there were no ship due to the weather and were instead sent to the city’s civic center to await information from the cruise line. While waiting for news from Carnival terminal officials provided lunches to the stranded passengers and offered advice on sightseeing and shopping in the downtown area.

When the Carnival Fantasy couldn’t return from its four day cruise, the five day cruise set to depart that afternoon for Cozumel would have to wait until the next day. Carnival issued a statement to guests waiting at the civic center stating that it worked with area hotels for discounted room rates and would be providing transportation to and from hotels. According to Patty Johnson that wasn’t the only thing that Carnival stated.

Misinformation

Johnson said the communication between the Carnival staff and the passengers was extremely poor. She stated a Carnival employee announced that since the ship couldn’t get in on schedule the cruise line was changing the sailing from 5 days to 4 days. “He then announced that we could go on the shortened sailing and get a partial refund for the day missed or we could not sail and get a full refund,” said Johnson. With that information Johnson says she was opting to get the full cash refund and drive back home to Tennessee. However, a few minutes later the same Carnival employee came on the speaker and announced that there had been an error and that those canceling would receive a credit towards a future cruise, not a full refund as previously announced.

Patty Johnson was furious. “I paid $556.42 in good faith for a 5-day cruise Carnival could not provide. They were quick enough to take my money. I feel they have an obligation to honor’s their senior representative’s announcement and provide me with a full refund.”

I contacted Carnival to get their side of the story. I spoke with Carnival spokesperson, Vance Gulliksen. Gulliksen acknowledged there had been some misinformation regarding the opportunity to receive refunds that was inadvertently relayed to guests. Gulliksen adds that shortly after this misstatement, a letter outlining embarkation instructions for the modified four-day cruise, as well as the correct information on Carnival’s offer for a future cruise credit, was distributed to all guests. All guests were given the option of sailing and receiving a refund equal to one day of their cruise fare, along with a $20 missed port credit, or canceling and receiving a future cruise credit equal to their cruise fare.

“More than 2,150 guests opted to sail on the modified four-day voyage,” said Gulliksen. Patty Johnson opted to not to sail and received a future cruise credit which is valid for sailings through December 2011.

Fog protection?

Changes in itinerary can be upsetting for some guests since they aren’t getting the exact scheduled vacation they purchased. While I sympathize with Patty Johnson I feel that her stance given Carnival’s admission to be unreasonable. A mistake was made by one employee, but was quickly rectified a few minutes later by the cruise line. Furthermore, the cruise line certainly couldn’t help the extreme fog situation.

In every cruise lines’ passenger contract is a clause stating that the cruise line has the right to change a sailing or skip a port during a cruise for weather or other safety information. Carnival’s Cruise Contract has this very clause located under Section 7, which basically states they can change course and have no liability for any compensation or other damages in such circumstances. Fortunately most major cruise lines like Carnival do compensate passengers in those instances and offer partial refunds, shipboard credits or discounts on a future cruise.

In the rare instance a cruise is canceled, passengers are entitled to a full refund. Still, the majority of ships set sail regardless of weather. Cruise travel is unique in that you will usually have a vacation even with weather issues. Travel insurance coverage would have kicked in for the expenses of a hotel, but most basic travel insurance policies do not cover passengers who cancel or delay a trip merely because the itinerary has changed. There are some insurers and cruise lines that offer a ‘cancel for any reason’ add-on to a regular travel insurance. Depending upon the insurer, cancel-for-any-reason policies provide a cash payout of a portion of a canceled trip’s cost or for a cruise line a voucher for use on a future trip. As for Patty Johnson she’s still not happy with the outcome and still debating whether or not to use her cruise credit.

The DeBorde family of Galveston, Texas had high hopes for their first-ever cruise vacation – a four-day sailing on the Carnival Ecstasy from their hometown to Mexico. According to the DeBordes the cruise didn’t live up to what was promised in Carnival’s brochure or website and they wanted the line to own up to its “Vacation Guarantee” so they could get off the ship and get their money back. There was just one big problem – they didn’t tell Carnival they wanted to leave.

Finding the perfect getaway

The DeBordes have been through a lot as their 10-year-old son has endured a chronic health condition that has required over thirty-five surgeries in his short life. Kristi DeBorde told me that she promised her son when he was healthy enough to travel the family would go away on a special vacation. When the doctors finally gave the go ahead for the family to travel she scoured the Internet for two months searching for the perfect getaway within their budget.

The family decided on a cruise aboard the Carnival Ecstasy from Galveston since it offered everything they wanted in a vacation including a children’s area with many activities to suit their son. The DeBordes had never been on a cruise and Kristi wasn’t completely sure if it was the best option for her son. Before booking she called Carnival for reassurance to confirm that all the activities listed in the brochure and online would be onboard during the cruise, she was told yes. She was sold and booked the cruise.

This is not like the brochure!

When the family boarded the Ecstasy they were not happy because the virtual tour on Carnival’s website did not match the actual ship. “The queen bed that was promised by phone from the Carnival representative was actually two twin beds pushed together, our window was cloudy, dirty, and could hardly see out of it,” said Kristi DeBorde.

She complained that the food was “horrendous” and was upset that the laser tag that was on the Camp Carnival children’s program was cancelled and that there was only coloring and finger-painting. Additionally, there was no basketball court on the Ecstasy as depicted on the website and the miniature golf course was impossible to use because it was too windy. The aforementioned activities were important to DeBorde’s son because he is not allowed to swim since he has a stomach catheter. On the second day of the cruise she says her son wanted to go to the 12-14 year old room to play X-Box, however, he wasn’t allowed because he was only 10.

By this time Kristi DeBorde had had enough and went to Guest Services after noticing Carnival’s Vacation Guarantee. The guarantee states if a guest isn’t completely satisfied with their cruise experience Carnival will refund the unused portion of the cruise fare and pay for the flight back to the embarkation port. There was one stipulation – a guest must notify onboard managers before arrival of the first non-U.S. port of call. Since the following day the ship was docking in Cozumel the family met the criteria.

Kristi DeBorde says she was in tears when speaking with personnel at Guest Services and stated that she wanted to go home. The crew member told her that the hotel director would call her in the morning. The following day when the ship docked in Mexico there was no call. Upset, DeBorde returned to Guest Services only to be told that Camp Carnival was going to have a party for her son. She advised them that this was not good enough and demanded to speak with a manager. Later in the evening, while the ship was headed back to Galveston, the hotel director called the family and invited them to come to his office.

Since Kristi DeBorde believed Carnival’s website was full of “false advertising” the hotel director went over the website with her. In regards to her complaint that the pictures did not match the ship he told her that the online pictures were just general photos and that information about the Ecstasy wasn’t up to date in regards to basketball court. He tried to reassure DeBorde that the dining and other activities onboard for her son would be better. Still, she was not satisfied, and the hotel director typed a letter with a reference number and advised DeBorde to call Carnival headquarters in Miami when the family returned home.

When the DeBordes returned home they immediately called Carnival to vent their complaints. A guest relations supervisor stated it wasn’t the line’s fault because her son couldn’t find something to do and that food complaints were subjective. When she asked why she wasn’t allowed to use Carnival’s Vacation Guarantee the supervisor told her since she didn’t specifically state “I want to disembark the ship” she did not qualify. “I am not sure how they could misunderstand what it was I wanted as I was crying and telling them we wanted to go home,” said DeBorde.

After getting nowhere with Carnival, the DeBordes contacted Consumer Traveler for help.

Carnival’s Vacation Guarantee

In an industry that sells fun, sun, fine dining, and adventure, glossy brochures and spiffy websites can raise some very high expectations. Clearly, the DeBordes cruise to Mexico didn’t live up to what they expected from Carnival’s website. Were their expectations reasonable? Could Carnival have done more?

I contacted Carnival to get their side of the story and spoke with Carnival spokesperson, Vance Gulliksen. While researching the family’s complaint Gulliksen told me the DeBordes complaints and meetings with ship personnel were logged through a tracking system that is tied to guest relations. The report confirmed Kristi DeBordes account regarding food and activities, but she never requested to leave the ship in Cozumel. “On Carnival ships, if you invoke the Vacation Guarantee, you are absolutely allowed to do so and disembark the ship and get a partial refund as long as you follow the parameters,” said Gulliksen.

Cruising isn’t for everyone

Kristi DeBorde is very disappointed in Carnival’s stance. “I would have gone to Disney World had I known the only thing for my son to do was watch a couple of 200-pound women dirty dancing on each other or watch other sweaty people get belligerently drunk for 4 days. There are many different ways I could have spent our $1,600,” she said.

While I sympathize with the DeBordes all of this could have been prevented if they had consulted with a knowledgeable travel agent, especially since it was their first cruise. An agent would have briefed them on what cruising is really like from accommodations (all cruise ship staterooms have convertible beds) to amenities, facilities, and clientele to make sure it met their requirements. Most importantly for the DeBordes, a travel agent would have gone to bat for them when they weren’t happy with their cruise and would have told them to invoke Carnival’s Vacation Guarantee.