For many people, planning for a cruise requires months of careful budgeting and saving. The average person can’t just wake up one day and book a cruise on a whim — at least not without regretting it later when they need to pay their credit card bill.
To make cruise vacations more affordable for budget-conscious travelers, most cruise lines offer payment plans that allow passengers to reserve their cabin far in advance and then pay for the cruise over time in interest-free installments that fit their budget.
Often, you can even create an auto-pay schedule for cruise payments that makes paying for your vacation simpler and less stressful.
Related: Royal Caribbean passenger jumps overboard to skip big cruise bill
While many cruise passengers take advantage of cruise payment plans to make their getaways possible, occasionally, people resort to dubious means to funds their vacations instead.
One Carnival cruise passenger is learning the hard way that taking a questionable route to pay for your vacation isn’t a wise choice though. She’s now facing felony charges for mixing cruising and non-vacation-related GoFundMe fundraising after posting photos of her cruise online.
“GoFundMe has zero tolerance for the misuse of our platform and works closely with law enforcement to investigate those accused of wrongdoing. While the overwhelming majority of people use our platform every day to help others, we are aware that bad actors do exist and take swift action against those who exploit the generosity of our community. In this instance, the fundraiser was removed from the platform and the organizer banned,” a GoFundMe spokesperson told Come Cruise With Me.
Doug Parker shared details on the cruiser’s GoFundMe scam, and other cruise news, on the Sept. 11 edition of Cruise News Today.
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Woman accused of stealing GoFundMe funds for Carnival cruise
Cruise News Today Transcript:
This is Cruise News Today with Doug Parker.
Good morning, here’s your cruise news for Thursday, September 11th.
A Pennsylvania woman is facing felony charges after allegedly using GoFundMe donations to fund a Carnival cruise.
Authorities say Vanessa Lewis raised over $40,000 to help her injured cousin but spent more than $37,000 of it on herself, including a $6,200 cruise and additional money for online gaming.
Now, the scheme unraveled after the family members spotted her cruise photos online. She’s been charged with theft by deception and is due in court on September 16th.
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Carnival Cruise Line freshens up Galveston cruise lineup
And Carnival Cruise Line is beefing up its Galveston, Texas sailings in ’27 and ’28. Carnival Horizon and Spirit will both homeport in Texas for the very first time, joining Jubilee and Breeze. Breeze will then shift to a seven-day schedule with western and eastern Caribbean sailings.
Jubilee will continue her six and eight-night itineraries with also adding Celebration Key in the mix. And Horizon will sail to Cozumel and Progreso, while Spirit mixes shorter western Caribbean sailings with longer journey voyages. A lot there.
Related: Carnival Cruise Line brings more cruise variety to popular US port
MSC Cruises ship suffers another power problem
And MSC World Europa left Valletta about six hours late yesterday after a power issue impacted the ship’s engines. Yeah, passengers reported a brief power loss with also services being disrupted during the time.
The ship departed around midnight. And it’s cruising at normal speed now towards Barcelona, where it’s scheduled to arrive tomorrow morning.
The delay comes just weeks after the same vessel lost propulsion off the coast of Italy late last month.
Related: MSC cruise ship engine fails; Norwegian Cruise Line faces lawsuit
And cruise stocks were mixed on Wednesday. Carnival Corporation: down 1%, 31.36. Royal Caribbean: down the same, 341.50. Norwegian: up slightly, 25.43. And Viking: down 1.6%, 62.92.
If you have a lead on a story, let us know: tips@cruiseradio.net.
And on this September 11th, we remember those lives lost and the heroes who answered the call. I’m Doug Parker with Cruise News Today. Thanks for being here.
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This story was originally reported by TravelHost on Sep 12, 2025, where it first appeared in the Come Cruise With Me section. Add TravelHost as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
