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#1
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Carnival online boarding pass "FunPass" is not impressive. Not yet anyways.
I've sailed Princess in the past and have been quite satisfied with
the way you can pre-register all of your Homeland security stuff on their website -- passport information and so on. You can also sign up for *most* of the shore excursions that way on Princess. In keeping with the times, some cruise lines are starting to allow spa bookings online as well. As an on-line kind of guy, I appreciate these touches. It seems rather uncivilized to fight for reservations right at the begining of a cruise vacation. I'd rather do it far in advance, from the comfort of the internet. So naturally I was thrilled when I discovered that Carnival had just started a similar service at http://www.carnival.com/mycruise . I'm participating in a sort of "family reunion" cruise next April, giving me an opportunity to try the FunPass system. Having some time on my hands due to the Thanksgiving holiday, I decided to give it a shot. Not very satisfying.... The system started off by asking for me for my last name, booking number, ship name, and departure date. Certainly it could figure out some of these items on its own given the booking number. After that, the system asked for the passport information. I had to select "United States" from an exhaustive list of countries. Since the vast majority of Carnival passengers are from the US, it should default to the US and still allow other choices. There's also a wierd bug here -- the page gives an option to select "passport" or "birth certificate". As soon as I checked "passport", I received an error message saying that I hadn't filled out the form properly. Unfortunately, the form didn't even appear until I checked the passport box, so the error itself is in error. It shouldn't have complained until I had a chance to fill in the information. The page is not organized very well -- for instance, the expiration date is requested before the issue date, and it asks for the issuing city even though that isn't listed on U.S. Passports. As it turns out, a quick google search yielded that all U.S. passports are issued in Portsmouth, NH, so that's what I put. Moving on to name and address information, the page can't handle some rather obvious data entry issues -- it didn't like it when I put parenthesis around my area code, and it didn't like my nine digit zip code, even though there was room for each on the form. The final page is the most confusing -- post cruise information. It asks for plenty of flight data, once again with exhaustive lists of cities. To make it easier, it could have had the departure city defaulted to the arrival port. Since I'm taking a cruise that ends up in Tampa, my guess is that more than 50% of those flying fly out of Tampa as well. So a default would have been nice. I then went through the same thing for my wife. Interestingly, it would conveniently provide an option to copy the my address information over to my wife's record, it forced me to retype the airline information for her. My guess is that people with the same address would also have the same airline information. When I got done with all of this, it said that my entries were incomplete but it didn't provide any details. I went to "view summary" and it appeared that I had entered everything. So, I decided to call 1-888-Carnival, advertised as the 24-hour a day link to the Fun Ships. There was a voice message saying that Carnival was closed for the New Year's holiday and would re-open in January. The voice response system then read off some kind of error message to me saying that I had keyed an incorrect option - I had keyed nothing - then repeated itself over and over again. (Keep in mind that I was calling on Thanksgiving, not New Year's). I guess I got what I deserved for trying all of this on a holiday. I hope they get the bugs worked out, and maybe someday you'll be able to book shore tours, spa appointments, and restaurant reservations on Carnival rather than fighting with the mob on embarkation day. Doesn't seem like rocket science.... For what it's worth, it appears to have been coded in Microsoft .NET (.aspx) Guess I'll try again later. |
#2
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Carnival online boarding pass "FunPass" is not impressive. Not yet anyways.
Same story with us, Bob. You fill in all the information, and it comes back
as 'incomplete'. I'm thinking there is a bug in the system. We had particular trouble with the 'fare basis/ticket designator' question, as we have e-tickets, and the example it shows has nothing to do with e-tickets, and the 'help' button isn't any. But... The vast majority say that the cruise we chose is great, and if putting up with some limited BS is the price to pay, oh well. If you figure it out, let us know, will you? Thanks. "Bob Davis" wrote in message om... I've sailed Princess in the past and have been quite satisfied with the way you can pre-register all of your Homeland security stuff on their website -- passport information and so on. You can also sign up for *most* of the shore excursions that way on Princess. In keeping with the times, some cruise lines are starting to allow spa bookings online as well. As an on-line kind of guy, I appreciate these touches. It seems rather uncivilized to fight for reservations right at the begining of a cruise vacation. I'd rather do it far in advance, from the comfort of the internet. So naturally I was thrilled when I discovered that Carnival had just started a similar service at http://www.carnival.com/mycruise . I'm participating in a sort of "family reunion" cruise next April, giving me an opportunity to try the FunPass system. Having some time on my hands due to the Thanksgiving holiday, I decided to give it a shot. Not very satisfying.... The system started off by asking for me for my last name, booking number, ship name, and departure date. Certainly it could figure out some of these items on its own given the booking number. After that, the system asked for the passport information. I had to select "United States" from an exhaustive list of countries. Since the vast majority of Carnival passengers are from the US, it should default to the US and still allow other choices. There's also a wierd bug here -- the page gives an option to select "passport" or "birth certificate". As soon as I checked "passport", I received an error message saying that I hadn't filled out the form properly. Unfortunately, the form didn't even appear until I checked the passport box, so the error itself is in error. It shouldn't have complained until I had a chance to fill in the information. The page is not organized very well -- for instance, the expiration date is requested before the issue date, and it asks for the issuing city even though that isn't listed on U.S. Passports. As it turns out, a quick google search yielded that all U.S. passports are issued in Portsmouth, NH, so that's what I put. Moving on to name and address information, the page can't handle some rather obvious data entry issues -- it didn't like it when I put parenthesis around my area code, and it didn't like my nine digit zip code, even though there was room for each on the form. The final page is the most confusing -- post cruise information. It asks for plenty of flight data, once again with exhaustive lists of cities. To make it easier, it could have had the departure city defaulted to the arrival port. Since I'm taking a cruise that ends up in Tampa, my guess is that more than 50% of those flying fly out of Tampa as well. So a default would have been nice. I then went through the same thing for my wife. Interestingly, it would conveniently provide an option to copy the my address information over to my wife's record, it forced me to retype the airline information for her. My guess is that people with the same address would also have the same airline information. When I got done with all of this, it said that my entries were incomplete but it didn't provide any details. I went to "view summary" and it appeared that I had entered everything. So, I decided to call 1-888-Carnival, advertised as the 24-hour a day link to the Fun Ships. There was a voice message saying that Carnival was closed for the New Year's holiday and would re-open in January. The voice response system then read off some kind of error message to me saying that I had keyed an incorrect option - I had keyed nothing - then repeated itself over and over again. (Keep in mind that I was calling on Thanksgiving, not New Year's). I guess I got what I deserved for trying all of this on a holiday. I hope they get the bugs worked out, and maybe someday you'll be able to book shore tours, spa appointments, and restaurant reservations on Carnival rather than fighting with the mob on embarkation day. Doesn't seem like rocket science.... For what it's worth, it appears to have been coded in Microsoft .NET (.aspx) Guess I'll try again later. |
#4
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Carnival online boarding pass "FunPass" is not impressive. Not yet anyways.
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#5
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Carnival online boarding pass "FunPass" is not impressive. Not yet anyways.
jcoulter wrote in message .204.17...
(Bob Davis) wrote in om: The page is not organized very well -- for instance, the expiration date is requested before the issue date, and it asks for the issuing city even though that isn't listed on U.S. Passports. As it turns out, a quick google search yielded that all U.S. passports are issued in Portsmouth, NH, so that's what I put. I sent mine to renew to Pittsburgh. It now says National Passport Center that is what I would put on the form. My old one was issued in Seattle Moving on to name and address information, the page can't handle some rather obvious data entry issues -- it didn't like it when I put parenthesis around my area code, and it didn't like my nine digit zip code, even though there was room for each on the form. I successfully completed the Carnival Fun Pass for my upcoming cruise in February on the Spirit. I am Canadian and selecting my country from the menu was not a problem. Regarding citizenship information I had to attempt this page twice I eventually checked both passport and birth certificate then was successful. I printed the summary for both my husband and I so we are all set! I found it simpler than the Princess on-line registration. I am all for expediating the embarkation process! Balky telephone formats are not restricted to Carnival. get Microsoft Outlook and have fun! An insurance website I frequent is extremely fussy about its own perculiar and particular manner of putting in numbers. NO parens, no spaces but hyphens are mandatory. |
#6
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Carnival online boarding pass "FunPass" is not impressive. Not yet anyways.
Bob,
I had the same problem but eventually figured out that entering flight information was not enough, they also want to know how you're getting to the airport. When I checked the Taxi box in addition to the Flight box I finally got a COMPLETE status from the system. I hope this helps, Mark R. "Amused" wrote in message thlink.net... Same story with us, Bob. You fill in all the information, and it comes back as 'incomplete'. I'm thinking there is a bug in the system. We had particular trouble with the 'fare basis/ticket designator' question, as we have e-tickets, and the example it shows has nothing to do with e-tickets, and the 'help' button isn't any. But... The vast majority say that the cruise we chose is great, and if putting up with some limited BS is the price to pay, oh well. If you figure it out, let us know, will you? Thanks. "Bob Davis" wrote in message om... I've sailed Princess in the past and have been quite satisfied with the way you can pre-register all of your Homeland security stuff on their website -- passport information and so on. You can also sign up for *most* of the shore excursions that way on Princess. In keeping with the times, some cruise lines are starting to allow spa bookings online as well. As an on-line kind of guy, I appreciate these touches. It seems rather uncivilized to fight for reservations right at the begining of a cruise vacation. I'd rather do it far in advance, from the comfort of the internet. So naturally I was thrilled when I discovered that Carnival had just started a similar service at http://www.carnival.com/mycruise . I'm participating in a sort of "family reunion" cruise next April, giving me an opportunity to try the FunPass system. Having some time on my hands due to the Thanksgiving holiday, I decided to give it a shot. Not very satisfying.... The system started off by asking for me for my last name, booking number, ship name, and departure date. Certainly it could figure out some of these items on its own given the booking number. After that, the system asked for the passport information. I had to select "United States" from an exhaustive list of countries. Since the vast majority of Carnival passengers are from the US, it should default to the US and still allow other choices. There's also a wierd bug here -- the page gives an option to select "passport" or "birth certificate". As soon as I checked "passport", I received an error message saying that I hadn't filled out the form properly. Unfortunately, the form didn't even appear until I checked the passport box, so the error itself is in error. It shouldn't have complained until I had a chance to fill in the information. The page is not organized very well -- for instance, the expiration date is requested before the issue date, and it asks for the issuing city even though that isn't listed on U.S. Passports. As it turns out, a quick google search yielded that all U.S. passports are issued in Portsmouth, NH, so that's what I put. Moving on to name and address information, the page can't handle some rather obvious data entry issues -- it didn't like it when I put parenthesis around my area code, and it didn't like my nine digit zip code, even though there was room for each on the form. The final page is the most confusing -- post cruise information. It asks for plenty of flight data, once again with exhaustive lists of cities. To make it easier, it could have had the departure city defaulted to the arrival port. Since I'm taking a cruise that ends up in Tampa, my guess is that more than 50% of those flying fly out of Tampa as well. So a default would have been nice. I then went through the same thing for my wife. Interestingly, it would conveniently provide an option to copy the my address information over to my wife's record, it forced me to retype the airline information for her. My guess is that people with the same address would also have the same airline information. When I got done with all of this, it said that my entries were incomplete but it didn't provide any details. I went to "view summary" and it appeared that I had entered everything. So, I decided to call 1-888-Carnival, advertised as the 24-hour a day link to the Fun Ships. There was a voice message saying that Carnival was closed for the New Year's holiday and would re-open in January. The voice response system then read off some kind of error message to me saying that I had keyed an incorrect option - I had keyed nothing - then repeated itself over and over again. (Keep in mind that I was calling on Thanksgiving, not New Year's). I guess I got what I deserved for trying all of this on a holiday. I hope they get the bugs worked out, and maybe someday you'll be able to book shore tours, spa appointments, and restaurant reservations on Carnival rather than fighting with the mob on embarkation day. Doesn't seem like rocket science.... For what it's worth, it appears to have been coded in Microsoft .NET (.aspx) Guess I'll try again later. |
#7
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Carnival online boarding pass "FunPass" is not impressive. Not yet anyways.
As mentioned earlier in this thread, there *is* a way through the
unimpressive FunPass system. Under the "post cruise plans" tab, there is a column of checkboxes for car, flight, shuttle, and so on. I had just checked "flight" and supplied my flight information. It seems that you also have to tell Carnival how you will get to the airport. I checked "car" and then "taxi" and eventually received a confirmation that my FunPass was complete. Seems unnecessarily difficult, and I'm not sure how security is improved by the obscure error message they gave me. If it had just said "tell us more about how you plan to get from the ship to the airport..." I would have been able to figure it out. Not sure why they need my SSN, but I guess I could have just filled out a paper form if I was really worried. As to Ray's comment that no other cruise line asks for as much information as Carnival under the guise of "Homeland Security", I can only direct people to the Carnival Privacy Policy "Carnival may use the information it gathers for its own internal purposes." Hmmmm. |
#8
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Carnival online boarding pass "FunPass" is not impressive. Not yet anyways.
On 1 Dec 2003 12:43:52 -0800, (Bob Davis) wrote:
As to Ray's comment that no other cruise line asks for as much information as Carnival under the guise of "Homeland Security", I can only direct people to the Carnival Privacy Policy "Carnival may use the information it gathers for its own internal purposes." Hmmmm. Hi Bob, Double Hmmmm. ;=) Best regards, Ray LIGHTHOUSE TRAVEL 800-719-9917 or 805-566-3905 http://www.lighthousetravel.com |
#9
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Carnival online boarding pass "FunPass" is not impressive. Not yet anyways.
As to Ray's comment that no other cruise line asks for as much
information as Carnival under the guise of "Homeland Security" I have seen a little too much of the marketing departments crawling into the online passenger registration forms. Honestly, it ticks me off. If the lines want passengers to take this seriously, they need to stick to the required questions ONLY. I have had quite a few clients call me wondering why I told them to take a marketing survey! It is also a bit insulting to the passenger, stating that it is a legal requirement for security and safety, then piling on the "where can we take you to next time?" questions. My 2 cents. Regards, Keith |
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