IT'S OFFICIAL- No more Dominica as of November 2010

Check out Carnival's own webite.  They did in fact drop Dominica for a "day at sea" despite assuring everyone that called over and over these past few days that there was no change.  You can cancel within 24 hours of official notification from TA or Carnival per their official policy, with NO penalty (even if ES). For those of you who already booked air, it is a shame if you, like us, specifically wanted to visit Dominica and do a cruise with no days at sea.  They notified Dominica the same day they took my booking for 3 cabins on this cruise for next May, and repeatedly assured me that there was no change in itinerary when I called after reading differently on the caribbean news links posted on cruiscritic.com.  SHAME.  Thank goodness I did not book our air to San Juan yet!

For those of you that want a day at sea, great.  To each their own, and you may be happy about the change, but I do not know why you could not just stay onboard at a port when you desired.  We, on the other hand, specifically booked this cruise for the port-a-day schedule, which WAS only offered by Carnival.  Well, that is no more!  Plus, we really, really wanted to scuba dive Dominica.  I am not happy, and we will likely cancel all cabins tomorrow and look for another line (now Carnival has no differentiation, so why pay to fly to San Juan??).  I am so disgusted that they lied to me (and others).

I loved the port intensive itinerary.  I was planning to book an 8 day on the Victory that is scheduled to return to PR on 12/26/11.  It had a day at sea on 12/25 but had a port a day scheduled until then.  I loved Dominica and wanted to visit again.  So, I am really saddened by this.  I hope that *we* can find another suitable port intensive cruise.  It's a good thing that you hadn't purchased your airline tix yet.

Happy sailing!

-HST

Don't blame Carnival. This info I got.

Just spoke with Carnival.  The cancelled stop was due to the fact that Dominica decided to significantly increse the port charge for Carnival to stop there after they had quoted a price to them.  They could have charged each passenger more and increased the fare by adding large fuel charges to compensate the difference.  To avoid charging us more money Carnival opted to refuse their new offer and keep our cost the same and simply skip the stop.  This means a day at sea, but it keeps our costs down.  It will still be an awesome trip!

Without the Dominica stop, the cruise is no longer worth my time and treasure. I love the out-doorsy unspoiled caribbean wilderness that "The Nature Island" provides. It's bad enough they dropped Antigua last year! Now Dominica? They were my second and first favorite islands in my Sept 2009 trip. I gave-in and booked for Sept 2010 (with St. Maarten, instead of Antigua), but I'll be damned if I will trade Dominica for open water. (click below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cb6uBV0HBI&feature=fvw 

Sorry to say, Carnival has lost me forever. I'm booking the 2 week classic caribbean cruise -w- Princess Cruise Lines next year. Yeah, its more money, I'll loose St. Kittts, and I'll have to suffer through two days of dreaded open water, but I regain Antigua and Dominica in my vacation plans (and gain several others).  Cost per day is a huge savings.

Too bad, It used to be the best 7 day Itinerary of all the cruises, of all the cruise lines.

Can't say I'll miss he Victory a bit (worst ship in the fleet, worst fleet in the industry)

Sea Ya!