rockytopva said:
I have a scheduled cruise aboard the Carnival Dream 03/23... That's the one that is currently stuck in St. Maarten...
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/14/travel/cruise-ship-trouble/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
If you bought cruise insurance, or whatever they call it these days, you can elect to refuse to travel and get a refund on your money. The insurance is normally offered to allow a refund in the event of accident or illness ashore that would prevent travel with the ocean carrier. I don't know if cruise line negligence would be accepted as an excuse, however.
My wife and I have accumulated frequent floater credits toward another vacation aboard a Carnival ship. Because there have been three ships affected in less than a month and because we have seen an alarming trend toward shoddiness in the care of the equipment and passengers I doubt we'll be using them. It's too bad the credits can't be transferred because if they could - we would.
Royal Caribbean is a much better cruise line and we've always enjoyed our time with them. They seem to have a pride in their demeanor that Carnival does not. Carnival doesn't even do a proper life boat drill THAT IS REQUIRED BY MARITIME LAW. If something unfortunate happened, it would be nice to know which life boat one is assigned to and how to get to it - assuming of course that the cruise line would allow the passengers to use them (and there is some evidence to indicate that under certain circumstances they would NOT).
but that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...
