Situation:
Daughter & boyfriend book cruise with Carnival & pay up front $470 each. Daughter pays for both.
Cruise departs March 14
Daughter & boyfriend breakup
Daughter wants to bring a friend
Carnival tells her the rebooking fee to change the passenger name from ex-boyfriend to her friend is $490
Seems like an arbitrary and extreme penalty under the circumstances.
Is there any way around this?
Any advice on dealing with the cruise line?
Thanks in advance.

Not sure if the best way would be to just cancel that passenger, and get whatever refund she can. Then book the new passenger. Depending on cancellation policy (might be 30 days) she might lose the entire fare amount for the passenger if cancelled.

That's really pretty standard, you can't change a name on a reservation. And the cancellation period is at least 60 days, often 90 days. And some cruise fares are now non cancellable without a penalty from the moment booked. I presume that the reason why the new fare is even more than what she paid to begin with is because the fare to book now is more than it was when she originally booked.

I assume she booked directly with the cruise line without a cruise agent. If she booked through an agent, obviously the agent should be helping her. And I assume that she didn't pay trip cancellation insurance. Frankly, I think her options are to go by herself or pay the money. If she asks to speak to a supervisor, perhaps they would agree to only the amount she originally paid for the other ticket. But I am not real optimistic.

Carol,
I believe that Carnival has a minimum cabin capacity of two, so even if she went by herself, she would be charged the rate for two passengers.

She's already paid for the second person, so that's a moot point. She's not going to get the money back, for sure, but there's nothing that says that the second person has to actually BE in the cabin.

I think the posters who have responded raise a good question about what you should do now. If you cancel the boyfriend - is it possible that Carnival will say that there is no refund (because of being beyond final payment and type of booking) and Carnival also then wants to charge the daughter the single supplement - which is normally just a double fare on Carnival. This is why I use Bonnie - this would be her headache to find me the best solution in a situation like this.

Agreed, I am sure the Ship sails every Cruise with someone who failed to show. The customer just lose their $$$
that they have paid.

Thanks for all the replies y'all.
My daughter called Carnival and explained her situation to the rep and pleaded her case as a poor college student trying to go on her first real Spring Break trip as a senior. After 45 minutes of mostly being on intermittent hold while the rep consulted with her supervisor they were nice enough to only charge her a $50 fee to re-book the ticket in her friend's name and kept the rate the same that they originally paid. So, my daughter is very happy with Carnival. I hope her cruise turns out well as her experience with the company thus far.
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Wow - great result - your daughter did a fantastic job!

Glad it turned out so well! Please let us know how she enjoyed her trip.

Well, she is back home. She had a great time. Said the ship was clean and up-to-date, crew were professional and nice, entertainment, food, activities, etc were all very good. Stops in Grand Cayman and Cozumel were nice. Lots of other college age spring break kids aboard, too. So, that made a big difference with the fun quotient I am sure.

Only complaint was her on-board charge card (secured with her credit card) would get 'declined/on hold' several times and she had to go to guest services to get it fixed. They couldn't tell her why it happened, but each time they fixed it they said she was good to go and it would happen again. Though it only took a minute to fix it each time, every trip to guest services involved a long wait behind a lot of folks with more complicated problems or complaints. One of those times after waiting in line for almost an hour a woman insisted on breaking in line in front of her claiming that was her spot in line though she had been sitting at the bar the whole time.She finally let the woman have her way because of the scene she was making. Anyway, Guest Services seems to have been understaffed. One of the crew wrote up the incident and said he was going to do something about the woman, but who knows. Anyway, my daughter didn't let it bother her long and got back to having a good time.

Thanks for reporting back. Glad she had a good time. Regarding the other woman, sometimes you just have to let it slide over your back, when someone else is an a$$. Glad she was able to do that.