Top cruise line cancels reservations due to ultra-low pricing glitch — leaving customers slighted and furious: ‘Their mistake should not be your problem’

Not quite as worrisome as hantavirus — but still, cruise enthusiasts have another reason to sound the alarm.

Carnival Cruise Line announced it would cancel an undisclosed number of reservations after an apparent IT glitch briefly allowed travelers to book cruises at shockingly low fares.

According to an email reportedly sent to an undisclosed number of reservations, the company explained that during a routine IT maintenance project, some guests saw a display of prices far below any “reasonable promotional fare,” prompting a booking frenzy before the issue was corrected.

“After the site maintenance on Saturday, I was able to book a solo balcony on a 6-day cruise for $300 yesterday. Seems to be fixed now. Did anyone else notice this? Hoping Carnival will honor the price because it was quite literally a steal,” said one hopeful traveler.

But the cruise company had other plans.

Rather than honoring the price, it canceled any reservations made under the cheap fare and issued refunds, offering credit for a future trip.

“Since your travel plans were just made with us, we hope you will find another itinerary that suits your vacation needs. As a gesture of our appreciation, a non‑transferable onboard credit of US $100 per stateroom will be applied to your future booking if made by August 31, 2026,” the email said, according to one recipient.

But despite the kind effort, the response was anything but smooth sailing.

“Sometimes when a company makes a mistake, they should just take the loss,” said another user. “This makes me not want to book anything in the future.”

Others pointed out that the cruise line’s terms and conditions give the company the right to cancel bookings made under incorrect pricing caused by technical errors — but argued repeated glitches are becoming a bad look.

“It’s totally within their right to do this. But what if the fares were accidentally higher? Would they have refunded people the difference? Maybe they should work on getting their IT working so they don’t have massive pricing errors,” wrote one user.

This is apparently not the first time the cruise company has had an IT glitch offering discounted rates. In 2023, on-board beverage packages were offered at a price that seemed too good to be true, and it was. Similarly, the company did not honor the packages purchased at the incorrect rate, but issued a discount code for any thirsty traveler looking to purchase one for another excursion.

The IT mishap follows a series of unfortunate events for Carnival. An 88-year-old passenger on the cruise line reportedly lost control of her mobility scooter and died after falling into the water, and a 24-year-old jumped from her room on the ship near Catalina Island at the end of April, the Post previously reported.

As the cruise industry continues to tread lightly, the brief appearance of low fares gave travelers a glimpse of hope before sinking to the bottom.