A Kentucky woman declared that she would never sail with Carnival Cruise again after her family’s vacation was unexpectedly canceled just two days before the holiday.
Tiffany Banks shared the saga on social media and revealed how her cruise holiday with her husband and children turned upside down.
The family was meant to travel aboard the Carnival Celebration ship and had paid in full for their trip. After a year’s worth of planning, about $15,000 exited their pockets for the off-ship excursions and their stay in the ship’s largest room—the Excel Presidential Suite.
Highlights
- Tiffany Banks' $15,000 cruise vacation was canceled two days before departure due to a mysterious booking cancellation
- The disappointed mother-of-four was told she was the “victim of a form of identity theft” and was forced to take an Airbnb
- Carnival Cruise offered the Kentucky woman two cheap rooms and refused to give the family a refund
Tiffany Banks stirred up a storm on TikTok as she revealed how her family's cruise vacation was mysteriously turned upside down
Image credits: Pixabay
Image credits: Ryan Wallace
The plan was to catch a flight to Florida and set sail from Miami. However, it was only the day before their flight when the nurse practitioner discovered that their cruise trip had been mysteriously canceled.
In a series of TikTok videos, the scorned customer revealed that she received an email about their off-ship excursion and their stay at the Excel Presidential Suite being canceled.
The mother-of-four found out just about 48 hours before the trip that somebody somewhere somehow had their ship booking canceled
Image credits: thathippiedoc
“I have to laugh, or I’m just going to sit down and cry and just absolutely lose my mind,” she said in a TikTok video posted on May 12.
“We have nearly $15,000 tied up in for this vacation including excursions. The room itself was I think $12,000 or $13,000, and then we’ve got a few grand tied up in excursions, and actually with almost $2,000 for flights,” she noted.
Following the fiasco, the cruise company made a disappointing offer to provide two of the cheapest rooms available on the ship
Tiffany thought it might be a system glitch and tried telling the cruise line that she never canceled the trip. But she received an unhelpful response from Carnival about the Excel Presidential Suite already being booked by another customer.
Further disappointment came when the cruise company offered the family two interior rooms, which were the cheapest ones available on the ship.
"It's not fair," the frustrated customer said at the port as she laid eyes on the ship they were meant to sail in
The company also refused to offer their money back, stating their policy said no refunds could be made within 15 days of the ship setting sail.
“Eff you carnival --- Go to hell!!!” the mom wrote on TikTok.
She said she went into “a full-blown panic” after finding out her reservation was canceled. Her kids were also in tears as they had been looking forward to the trip for about a year.
The Kentucky woman was outraged that the cruise company refused to give them their money back because of their strict refund policies
Image credits: thathippiedoc
Image credits: thathippiedoc
Tiffany decided to fly with her family to Miami anyway and attempt to salvage their holiday. But the disappointed customer had to helplessly watch the ship she was meant to travel on leave without them.
After checking into an Airbnb, the family tried to enjoy their time in the Sunshine State. The mother continued sharing updates during her stay about her conversations with a Carnival representative.
The family was forced to stay in an Airbnb and tried to make the most of their time in the Sunshine State
In one of the videos she posted, the frustrated woman shared a message with her haters, who were pointing fingers at her and claiming she was making things up or not sharing the full story.
“I’m an open book. I talk too much. I give out too much information — that’s just me naturally,” she said.
Eventually, when the cruise line got to the bottom of how their trip was canceled without their knowledge, a representative allegedly told Tiffany that she was the “victim of a form of identity theft.”
When Carnival Cruise finally found out what happened to Tiffany's booking, they informed the mother that scammers used the booking information to cancel her trip using the information she shared online herself
Prior to the holiday fiasco, the mother and her husband had posted an update about their upcoming cruise vacation on Facebook and unassumingly shared their booking reference number, which should not have been disclosed.
On the same day they posted their Facebook update, someone created a fake online Carnival account with the booking number linked to their profile. Then, about 48 hours before the ship was meant to leave the port, the alleged impersonator canceled the entire cabin booking that Tiffany had made for herself and her family.
The cruise company said they would provide future cruise credit amounting to $10,404 if she was willing to state on social media that the company had positively resolved their issue
Image credits: thathippiedoc
Image credits: thathippiedoc
Details about the person behind the alleged identity theft remain unclear. But the luxury cruise brand said the IP address linked with the cancellation originated from British Columbia.
Although this proved that the TikToker was telling the truth all along about never having canceled the trip, she still did not get a satisfactory response from Carnival. The company promised to provide future cruise credit amounting to $10,404 if she was willing to state on social media that the company had positively resolved their issue.
"They apologized and then spit in my face with another bogus offer…" the mother said about the luxury cruise brand's offer
Image credits: thathippiedoc
Image credits: thathippiedoc
“Well they still aren’t willing to make this right .. they apologized and then spit in my face with another bogus offer…” she wrote in the caption of one of her videos. “I want an apology from them trying to make it look like i was lying or hiding something or even worse - that there were security issues…”
“@carnival you owe me a public apology, and my money!” she added.
The mother felt let down and believed the high sea hospitality expert should change their policy. She also could not believe how easy it was for someone to carry out the fraudulent action and take over her booking.
Tiffany vowed to never travel with Carnival again after the disheartening experience
“We’re not sailing with Carnival ever again,” she stated.
Carnival Cruise Line acknowledged the incident in a statement to LADbible and said customers should not be posting personal information about their travel plans online.
“While we are not going to comment on any specific guest complaint or incident, it is never a good idea to post personal information about your travel plans, including a confirmation number for a booking, which could allow a bad actor or identify thief to use that information in inappropriate or even illegal ways,” they told the outlet.
Several people pinned the holiday drama on the woman for posting the information she should not have shared in the first place
