Two days after leaving Long Beach, California, the good ship Carnival Splendor was steaming toward Mexico with 3,300 heat-seeking vacationers. It was April 28, and the cruise vessel was planning to visit three Mexican ports over the next three days. A pair of newlyweds from St. Paul, Kacie Wottreng and her husband Chad, were sitting by the pool, cocktails in hand, when the captain’s voice came over the public address system.

The Carnival Splendor would make a “technical” stop in Cabo San Lucas, the captain said, but no one would be allowed to get off the ship. Something was definitely wrong. Cabo was supposed to be their third port, they knew. Soon the sun-splashed rocky bluffs of Mexico beckoned off the railing. Wottreng saw passengers streaming off other cruise ships. She saw beaches packed with sunbathers, personal watercraft zooming through blue waters. She felt like putting on a lifejacket and jumping over the side.

Hours later, after the ship had sailed out to sea, the captain spoke again: the Centers for Disease Control had advised no non-essential travel to Mexico, because of the outbreak of swine flu. Mexico was now quarantined, as far as the Carnival Splendor was concerned. No Cabo, no Mazatlan, no Puerto Vallarta. The ship was steering to the north again. The new itinerary: one day in San Francisco, instead of three days in Mexico.

Wottreng was not the only one contemplating mutiny. After three days on the ship, she felt as if the walls were caving in. Everybody knew about the swine flu outbreak when they boarded the boat April 26. But the crew had previously assured passengers that it wouldn’t change the itinerary.

Carnival Cruise Lines wasn’t offering refunds, other than a $20 port fee. Wottreng said they also offered to cut the staff’s gratuities, which are typically added onto the fixed cost. On the ship, angry passengers were crowding the guest services counter. Just let us off, many demanded. So the captain changed the itinerary once again. The ship docked in Long Beach. Wottreng said she and her husband were among a large number to give up on their vacation early. Those who remained got a half day to wander around San Francisco (recent ocean water temperature, 54 degrees, or nearly 20 degrees chillier than Cabo’s waves).

The Wottrengs’ review of their cruise, in three words: “It was awful.”

Wottreng learned later that those booked on upcoming Carnival cruises could get a credit for the full cost of their trip that can be applied to a different cruise anytime before the end of next year. But passengers on the 11 Carnival ships already at sea when the CDC advisory was issued were out of luck.

“They took zero financial responsibility for the situation,” said Wottreng, 25, who works as a registered nurse. “Why do I as the consumer have to take the whole burden and you take zero?”

Carnival Cruise Lines obviously faced a dilemma. Tens of thousands of vacationers were on their Mexico-bound ships in late April and early May. Nobody wants a floating disease factory. In the company’s view, what happened was akin to a hurricane, an unforeseen event that changes an itinerary, and passengers are advised ahead of time that they won’t get a refund in those situations.

“This was a very unfortunate situation and we apologize that we were not able to provide the itinerary that people anticipated,” Jennifer de la Cruz, public relations director for Carnival Cruise Lines, told Whistleblower in an email. She continued:

At the point the advisory was issued, we really had no choice but to cancel the stops in Mexico for all of those vessels. Unfortunately, from the West Coast, the only itinerary option other than Mexico is to sail north. We have a standard protocol for missed ports when an itinerary is impacted by events beyond our control. This is same protocol followed with regard to severe weather or other circumstances beyond our control that preclude us from making scheduled ports of call (this info is outlined in our brochure and on our web site). For any port of call we are not able to replace with an alternate port, we provide a $20 per person missed port credit. This is the protocol that was applied across all 11 ships in our fleet.

The protocol is as follows:

In the event the itinerary change becomes necessary while the ship is at sea or when notice prior to sailing is not feasible, Carnival shall attempt to substitute an alternative port. Carnival shall promptly provide written notice of the itinerary change to the guests as well as announcing the change in the Carnival Capers and via the public address system. No compensation shall be provided to guests when an alternative port is offered.

Carnival ships won’t stop in Mexico until June 15 at the earliest, de la Cruz wrote.

The different treatment of current and future passengers still strikes Wottreng as unfair. She and her husband paid $600 each for their ill-fated cruise, and that didn’t include the special drinks served in the fin-shaped cups. Or any other booze, for that matter.

“The good news is we are home and swine flu free!” Wottreng told Whistleblower. “Hopefully this doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 at 12:10 pm and is filed under Buyer beware, Complaint sagas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.