Over the past few days, Carnival Cruise Line has quietly updated its online account management to include more personal information for accessing bookings. This adds greater security to the website in order to protect guests’ accounts and minimize the risk of fraudulent activity.
When booked guests visit Carnival’s website to manage their reservation, they must now enter a variety of details about the sailing in order to access it. Not only do they need to have the booking number and their last name, but also their date of birth, ship name, and sailing date.
Only with all that information will website users now have the ability to manage their bookings, such as to make payments or purchases of shore excursions, drink packages, or specialty dining.
Furthermore, guests must have that complete booking access if they want to make bigger changes to the reservation, such as cancelling the cruise altogether or shifting to a new sailing date or different ship.
These changes come just a few weeks after one Carnival guest, Tiffany Banks, had a 6-night Eastern Caribbean sailing aboard Carnival Celebration cancelled unexpectedly just one day before embarkation.
At first, Banks believed the cancellation to be an error on Carnival’s part, while the cruise line investigated the incident as a possible technical glitch. Instead, it was discovered that Banks was the victim of identity theft, with an unknown someone having logged in with Banks’ booking information and cancelling the cruise.
In her excitement leading up to the cruise, Banks posted her booking ID and cabin number on social media, sharing her preparations for the once-in-a-lifetime sailing—booked in Carnival Celebration‘s presidential suite at a cost of $12,000.
At that time, only a guest’s last name and booking ID number were necessary to line a cruise reservation to one’s online account, which permitted someone unknown to appropriate Banks’ reservation. Carnival Cruise Line was able to verify that her booking was cancelled on the same day she had shared the booking number online.
By now requiring extra details for website users to manage an individual booking, Carnival Cruise Line has made it more difficult for unauthorized persons to access reservations and make any changes.
Still, guests are always responsible for the security of their own information, including booking details, online passwords, and account details.
Cruise Line Protective Measures
All different cruise lines offer online booking management for guests to access their reservations, make add-on purchases, arrange payments, check in for their sailings, and more.
Depending on the cruise line, different authentication measures may be necessary for guests to make changes or manage their bookings. In addition to basic login details and passwords, some cruise lines require two-factor authentication codes, responses to text messages, answers to security questions, or other verification measures.
With many people documenting their travels, and indeed many aspects of their lives, on social media, it can be easy to slip up and inadvertently overshare sensitive information in the excitement leading up to embarkation.
To safeguard cruise travel details, guests should keep as much information private as possible. This includes when they are setting sail, booking numbers, cruise stateroom numbers, online login information, and more.
Instead, it is always best to wait until after one’s vacation to share details and fun photos, when there is no longer any risk of someone insidious impacting a booking.
Travelers should never post screenshots of their bookings, app screens, or cruise travel countdowns that might include sensitive details without modifying the images to remove that identifying information.
Read Also: 20 Must-Know Things About the Carnival Hub App
In addition to safeguarding login details for a cruise line website, travelers should likewise protect details for the email addresses, cell phone access, and any other way someone might be able to find their cruise booking details.
