What happened to Carnival Cruise Line? Drink package's internet glitch prompts statement from company

Carnival Cruise Line experienced a pricing glitch for their drinks package on their website on August 26. Customers who purchased their drink package for their upcoming journey with the cruise line were charged incorrectly, leading to a massive discount. They purchased the beverage package for the entire duration of their cruise at its per-day price.

According to information provided in an article by Cruise Fever, their most expensive package, the Cheers package, is originally priced at approximately $76 per person a day, including taxes and gratuities.

So, if an individual booked a 10-day journey on the cruise, and purchased a Cheers package, they would originally have to pay a total of $760 for their entire stay. However, if someone purchased the drink package during the pricing glitch, they were only charged $76 for the Cheers package for the supposed 10-day duration.

John Heald, the brand ambassador of Carnival Cruise Line, addressed the issue on Facebook on August 27 and wrote that he would be checking with his colleagues to determine what went wrong with the website.

Carnival Cruise Lines' brand ambassador addressed the pricing glitch. (Image via Facebook/John Herald)

The cruise line is now issuing refunds to customers who purchased the drink packages from their website at the discounted price due to the glitch.

Additionally, the cruise line is also sending a one-time discount code to the customers for future purchases on their website.

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Carnival Cruise Lines' website to remain closed until the glitch is fixed

Carnival Cruise Lines' brand ambassador said the website will remain closed until the glitch is fixed. (Image via Facebook/John Herald)

John Heald made another post to update everyone that the executives at Carnival Cruise were still working to fix the glitch on their website. He said that he does not know about the outcome, but promised to share information as soon as he gets any. Due to the glitch, the website was to remain down. John also apologized as the glitch was affecting the purchase of other buyers.

As stated by Cruise Line News, Carnival Cruise charges an individual $59.95 per person a day for their Cheers package, if it is purchased before the journey. Once the passenger is on the cruise, the price hikes up to $64.95 per day for one person, and an 18% gratuity is also added to it. So, the total price comes to around $76.

The package can be purchased from the website until 10 pm on the night prior to boarding the ship.

When buyers went to check out their drink packages Saturday night, it only charged them for the price of one day and not the entire cruise. The cruise line does not let buyers purchase the package for just a day or two. They have to shop for their entire cruise stay.

As per Carnival Cruise Lines’ policy, it requires all adult passengers (21 and above) in the same room to purchase an alcoholic beverage package, if one of them buys it.

The pricing glitch affected the cruise line’s Bottomless Bubble package as well, which offers unlimited juices and soda for $11 a day. Similar to what happened with Cheers, cruisers who purchased Bottomless Bubble, were only charged the per-day cost and not the entire cruise.

Not only these two drink packages, but other packages offered by the Carnival Cruise Line that were priced per day, also appeared to be affected by the glitch.

Another cruise holding company, Royal Caribbean Group faced a similar glitch a few years ago where pricing for their drink package was reduced to $18 per day on their website. At that time, Royal Caribbean decided to honor the glitched pricing for all the customers who booked the beverages at the discounted rate.