Skift Take
Maybe the Cruise Passengers Bill of Rates should provide for a free cruise when non-passengers are erroneously sent advice about cruises they aren't booked on. OK, maybe that's going too far.
Carnival Cruise Lines sent emails to people with advice about boarding the Carnival Sunshine for the February 23 sailing — the only problem is that many of the people who received the email had never booked the cruise.
Several hours after I received “important information” about the Carnival Sunshine sailing that I had never booked, Carnival issued a retraction from Vicky Rey, vice president guest services, who signed the original erroneous email, as well:
“I’m sorry to say that we experienced an error with one of our emails intended for guests sailing on the Carnival Sunshine, February 23, 2014. We are researching the cause of this error. Rest assured, if you are receiving this ‘retraction’ email, you are not booked on the Carnival Sunshine sailing tomorrow. Please note your personal information has not been compromised in any way.
“Please disregard our previous email. We sincerely apologize for this error and any inconvenience this may have caused.”
The original email, sent to people who were not booked on the Carnival Sunshine sailing February 23, and perhaps to passengers, as well, stated:
“Hi there!
“We know you must be really excited about your upcoming cruise aboard the beautiful Carnival Sunshine tomorrow. So, we’d like to take a moment of your time to provide you with some important information.
“As you may know, the City of New Orleans will be celebrating Mardi Gras soon and some preliminary festivities have been planned in advance of the big day. Tomorrow, local parades will be held in the city and, as a result, heavier than normal traffic is expected in the area and this may affect your commute to the cruise terminal.
“Therefore, we ask that you plan accordingly and allow ample time to arrive at the port. Check-in for your cruise is scheduled from 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm, and we will set sail promptly at 4:00 pm.
“We can’t wait to welcome you aboard for a fun and memorable cruise vacation.
“See you soon!”
A Carnival spokesperson said of the erroneous email, “yes, we’re getting lots of these queries. Not sure what happened. My apologies for the confusion.”
Subsequently, the spokesperson said the mistake happened because the emails were sent to the wrong list. There was no hacking incident involved.
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Tags: carnival
Photo credit: Numerous people were surprised by the Carnival Cruise Lines email they received about their Carnival Sunshine sailing -- when they had made no such reservation. Carnival Cruise Lines