John Heald works a lot of miracles. The Carnival Brand Ambassador answers thousands of questions each week, solves problems for passengers, and sometimes sends them little gifts on milestone or important occasion cruises.
While doing this, Heald takes an enormous amount of unwarranted abuse. People rudely mock his appearance and say things that are simply not appropriate.
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Heald has often said that he willingly takes the abuse but begs passengers not to blame the crew or be rude to them. He explained that crew members are simply doing their best to keep passengers happy, and, if he can spare them bad customer interactions, he will gladly take the scorn himself.
Recently, however, Heald has been abused for something he does not control.
It seems that the AARP had lowered the discount it offers on the Carnival gift cards it sells from 10% to 8%. That means a card with $100 in value now costs $92 instead of $90.
Heald addressed the change in a recent post to his Facebook page.
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Image source: Carnival Corp.
Carnival addresses gift card prices
Heald took on the gift card controversy on Nov. 2 headlined "American Express and AARP Gift Cards."
"Good morning everyone. I have received a large amount of bollockings this morning about a change to the percentage of something to do with the gift cards. This has nothing to do with the cruise line. This is all decided as all gift cards are by the people who distribute them," he wrote. "If you do have any questions about this, I would respectfully ask that you contact them."
Angry posters, as they often do, seemed okay with insulting the Brand Ambassador.
"Thank you so much, and a special thank you to the lovely gentleman who was so upset with me this morning that he said that I looked like 'the Penguin from the new HBO series.' I haven’t seen that program. But I guess it’s because I’m rather ugly and, well, I don’t know, I do have a very fat penguin as a pet. I always bring him up in conversation as it’s a good icebreaker," he added.
Many passengers did show their appreciation for Heald.
"I don't understand why people would think that this is Carnival's fault. The gift cards are through a 3rd party vendor. But hey, it's still a great deal, nonetheless! Keep up the great work and humor, John, and I hope you have a great rest of your day," wrote Dave N Brandy Whiting.
"We love penguins, and we love Carnival! Mostly, we love your sense of humor, John. It’s most definitely needed in this world," added Nicky Reenea.
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Many people seemed surprised by people blaming Carnival (CCL) for the price increase."
"I am always amazed at the number of people that somehow think Carnival can control or should inform them of what a 3rd party discount card is doing," posted Charles Lovelady.
Carnival explained how its gift cards can be used on its website.
"The Carnival Gift Card is simple to use — it may be applied online (at www.carnival.com) as payment toward a cruise reservation, pre-purchased shore excursion using the 16 digit card number, or the gift card can be redeemed onboard as payment toward an Onboard Sail and Sign account. Gift Cards are not accepted on ships that sail with a functional onboard currency other than USD," Carnival shared.
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