Elvis Cruise a Fun Nightmare
Our friend Hilda Obuseka and her husband ETA Don Obusek took on the task of planning a group Elvis Cruise and in spite of a great time and the company of Kathy Westmoreland - the planning and communication process with Carnival was a nightmare...read on...
Continued success to Don and Hilda...Keep at it! We need more independent people promoting independent events in the Elvis World...
Hi friends - well, I finally got around to getting our cruise pictures on our website. My husband, Don, is an Elvis Tribute Artist and we wanted to do something special to commemorate 2007 being the 30th anniversary of the passing of Elvis. We came up with the idea of a group cruise. Our special guests were Kathy Westmoreland, who was Elvis' lead female singer of the '70's, and her assistant, June Moore.
Kathy and June are very lovely ladies and a lot of fun. Kathy was very kind to the fans, posed for pictures and talked about her memories of Elvis.
The cruise itself was fun, lots to do and the Bahamas were very beautiful. Pre-cruise, I had a lot of problems with Carnival. We were originally told that we could sell merchandise on the cruise. In preparation for the cruise, we bought some things that we wanted to sell and June started to make special 'Bahamas Cruise CD's", etc. to sell. One month prior to the cruise, Carnival supposedly came up with a "No-Solicitation Policy" and they said we couldn't sell anything. This caused us nothing but grief and problems as we already had invested a lot of time and money for special things we wanted to sell. We've had many other groups tell us that they sold lots of their merchandise, and many said they have upcoming cruises planned and they still plan on selling their products.
At any rate, for whatever very strange reason, (and I have my theories on this, can't prove anything yet tho), Carnival came down hard on me and insisted if I didn't sign this agreement, they wouldn't let Don do his shows.
Some of you know that my mom is in poor health and almost everyday, I spend time taking care of her. Instead of doing all I normally do for my mom, I had to spend many, many hours on the phone with various Carnival reps and all I got was the run-around from them. It took up tons of my precious time, time I desperately needed to take care of my mom and our business.
Pre-cruise, I spoke to various Carnival employees, but never got thru to the executive offices. I also had my legal firm write a letter to Carnival, asking that we either be allowed to sell our merchandise this once, ( since we were originally told we could) or for them to compensate us some way. They never responded. Unbelievable. I figured I better not try to contact them again until after the cruise, coz with my luck, I figured we'd get on the ship and we wouldn't have cabins or something.
Post-cruise, I wrote TWICE to the president of Carnival, and never got a response. After several weeks, I got a letter, saying my complaint was forwarded to another department, but I never heard back from them.
In November, we were originally told we could sell our merchandise, so we started to get things ready to take with us. One month out, they tell us we can't sell anything and they won't do anything to compensate us for the money we spent making special cruise souvenirs. Then, they don't answer my lawyer's letter and two of mine to the president! Had I known that we couldn't sell things or that they would be this difficult to deal with, we would have used a totally different cruise line. To those of you planning a group cruise with Carnival, just be careful.
visit:
www.elvistributeradio.com
Elvii Radio
The Elvis Tribute Artist Radio Station
Continued success to Don and Hilda...Keep at it! We need more independent people promoting independent events in the Elvis World...
Hi friends - well, I finally got around to getting our cruise pictures on our website. My husband, Don, is an Elvis Tribute Artist and we wanted to do something special to commemorate 2007 being the 30th anniversary of the passing of Elvis. We came up with the idea of a group cruise. Our special guests were Kathy Westmoreland, who was Elvis' lead female singer of the '70's, and her assistant, June Moore.
Kathy and June are very lovely ladies and a lot of fun. Kathy was very kind to the fans, posed for pictures and talked about her memories of Elvis.
The cruise itself was fun, lots to do and the Bahamas were very beautiful. Pre-cruise, I had a lot of problems with Carnival. We were originally told that we could sell merchandise on the cruise. In preparation for the cruise, we bought some things that we wanted to sell and June started to make special 'Bahamas Cruise CD's", etc. to sell. One month prior to the cruise, Carnival supposedly came up with a "No-Solicitation Policy" and they said we couldn't sell anything. This caused us nothing but grief and problems as we already had invested a lot of time and money for special things we wanted to sell. We've had many other groups tell us that they sold lots of their merchandise, and many said they have upcoming cruises planned and they still plan on selling their products.
At any rate, for whatever very strange reason, (and I have my theories on this, can't prove anything yet tho), Carnival came down hard on me and insisted if I didn't sign this agreement, they wouldn't let Don do his shows.
Some of you know that my mom is in poor health and almost everyday, I spend time taking care of her. Instead of doing all I normally do for my mom, I had to spend many, many hours on the phone with various Carnival reps and all I got was the run-around from them. It took up tons of my precious time, time I desperately needed to take care of my mom and our business.
Pre-cruise, I spoke to various Carnival employees, but never got thru to the executive offices. I also had my legal firm write a letter to Carnival, asking that we either be allowed to sell our merchandise this once, ( since we were originally told we could) or for them to compensate us some way. They never responded. Unbelievable. I figured I better not try to contact them again until after the cruise, coz with my luck, I figured we'd get on the ship and we wouldn't have cabins or something.
Post-cruise, I wrote TWICE to the president of Carnival, and never got a response. After several weeks, I got a letter, saying my complaint was forwarded to another department, but I never heard back from them.
In November, we were originally told we could sell our merchandise, so we started to get things ready to take with us. One month out, they tell us we can't sell anything and they won't do anything to compensate us for the money we spent making special cruise souvenirs. Then, they don't answer my lawyer's letter and two of mine to the president! Had I known that we couldn't sell things or that they would be this difficult to deal with, we would have used a totally different cruise line. To those of you planning a group cruise with Carnival, just be careful.
visit:
www.elvistributeradio.com
Elvii Radio
The Elvis Tribute Artist Radio Station
posted by Administrator at
11:24 AM
2 Comments:
Hmmm....sorry to hear about this situation but hmmm....who's running Carnival for the Ultimate Elvis Cruise coming up? And who is not allowing the ETAs to sell their wares at the August finals? And who ran off poor Carol at Graceland Crossing to make room for a piece of crap display called "ELVIS AFTER DARK"?....Ding DIng DIng...You're right...EPE.
By
Butch Dicus, At
11:25 PM
funny you mentioned that...I had a journalist from Belgium with Wall Street Journal wanted to get my views about that cruise..
I said NO WAY...see my instincts were right!
AmyBeth aka ElvisLilSis
www.peridotrecords.com
By
Anonymous, At
12:41 PM
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