Carnival Cruise Line's booking system is scheduled to go offline for planned maintenance on Sunday, August 16, temporarily preventing guests from making new bookings or changing existing reservations.
The maintenance window is due to run from 4am until noon Eastern Time. For passengers in the UK, that is 9am to 5pm BST on Sunday.
The interruption has been communicated to travel advisers and reported by cruise-trade media. Carnival does not appear to have published the maintenance notice as a public newsroom announcement at the time of writing.
What will passengers be unable to do?
During the eight-hour window, guests will be unable to book a new Carnival sailing or modify an existing reservation through the affected booking system. Travel advisers are also expected to lose access to booking functions while the maintenance is carried out.
Anyone intending to secure a currently advertised fare, make an important reservation change or complete a time-sensitive transaction should do so before the system is taken offline or wait until Carnival confirms that normal service has resumed.
Will Carnival cruises still operate?
There is no indication that the maintenance will affect ship operations, embarkation or scheduled sailings. It is a reservation-system interruption rather than maintenance involving an individual vessel.
Guests travelling on Sunday should continue to follow their cruise documents and normal embarkation instructions. Important documents and booking information should ideally be downloaded or printed beforehand so they remain available while online systems are undergoing work.
The published end time is noon Eastern Time, or 5pm in the UK. As with any substantial technology update, passengers should allow for the possibility that individual services may return gradually rather than assuming every booking function will be available at exactly the same moment.
If urgent assistance is required after the scheduled window, Carnival publishes separate telephone numbers for new bookings, existing reservations and website technical support on its official contact page.
Sources and further information: Carnival's travel-adviser news and updates; and Carnival Cruise Line contact information.