Nunagoras

Pretty much the opposite. For now they've basically stopped to sell drinks packages on 3-5 nights cruises out of the US (they'll honor those ones already purchased beforehand the decision or on ongoing TA block promotions), so, I believe they'll never to become "that" party line. Ships, even the World Europa or others of the most recent ones, are far more beautiful than whatever else Carnival has on offer. Surely the Mardi Gras or the Celebration are nice ships pushing the Carnival trademark up, but MSC plays on another league. I believe; sooner rather than later MSC will to purchase the whole NCL or RCI group (Carnival Group is extremely big in Europe for the EU competition Authorities to approve such an acquisition like that without severe correction measures. At least AIDA and Costa would need to be sold out of the new behemoth cruise group) to themselves and then they'll to become another beast, but for now they'll tend to retain their classy affordable cruise experience to endure with the usual mix of US and worldwide guests alike.

According to the videos I've seen during the World Cup, there is a specialty restaurant concept that stood out on me apart all the others; a place named "La Pescaderia". While it might to seem odd, you enter from a fish market, you arguably choose your meal, and then you go to see it being prepared for your enjoyment while you await. Can you talk something about it, please? If I ever go on said ship I'd definitely to eat there. The others not so much. I used to have several good restaurants of their kind at bearable distance from home, or the concepts are not for my liking, so no need to an up-charge, but that fish one seems different from whatever else I know; sea or land alike!... If it isn't too much, may I ask a few questions: Is the regular bar/lounge space from where you can order from the regular MSC bar menus included on the drinks packages good enough for the ship's size? And what about "Coffee Emporium": Is it included or excluded from drinks packages? Is the venue really worth a visit, or is it better to pay a little more for Jean Phillipe? And finally: Is there a place where they host a piano bar sort of things with classical or piano arranged music for regular passengers outside of the YC, like the usual deck 5 bar on the older MSC ships? I haven't notice one on the videos out there.

Too early; me thinks! They're on their first revenue cruise currently! People may be enjoying themselves, perhaps with few English speaking natives onboard, and CC trends to be a mostly English native website, while MSC cruisers trend to be very international! Many videos from the World Cup hotel day pass stays though, and the reviews tends to be mostly good! I believe the facility was great on that purpose. Time will tell for the cruises!... Meanwhile have a wonderful new year!...

Ok, I know; I'm new on this board. Yeah, I'm a guy, retired from the financial industry. Been a market analyst back in the day. Cruise primarily on MSC and occasionally on RCI as I said. Been for professional reason's inside pretty much every other line's ships here in Lisbon back in the day, oh, well, before the pandemic, once I retired at its beginning. TBHH: If there is a thing I know that for sure is market segmentation. I'm content enough with what my cruising segment used to offer. No need for more on me. So now there is this cruising mix?... Good luck to them trying to offer on a bigger ship what should have been offered on a smaller one! No place for same quality at different sizes!...

In favor of Princess. Trending to against the Sun Princess concept; unless done well!... I can to see a niche market for such a ship like this, if they turned it full adult cruising at a point. It would capture some from the mainstream ready to pay a little bit more to have a little bit more on a calm and fashionable way. I can't to see market for such a ship if it is to do roughly what CCL, P&O or Costa are doing. For that they have those trademarks...

Many thanks to your view which I can subscribe. If that is the case, so well: Go for it at the 5k ish passengers. Now: If the prices are to be what I mostly see from where I live, without the incentives "everyone" might to capture to go with, then 5k ish is an ABUSE to even come across. Princess and X used to be slightly above the mainstream lines for a reason. Removing that reason removes why the usual price differentiation. I'd never to pay more to have a "similar" experience on a premium line if I have a cheaper one at the next door. Have a wonderful Christmas!...

It's pretty much easy to understand: At current CCL fares; I would tolerate 6k guests around me, BUT, at current Princess fares I wouldn't tolerate 5k guests around me! And I wouldn't be alone nor on these boards, nor largely on the cruise community! What's the part that, both the Carnival Group's "fat cats" and many here can't understand? If I want mainstream I know where to go. If I want Premium, me thinks, I should to know where to go!... Oh, well: Unless Carnival Group's thinks there is a market niche for a classical baseline mainstream ship with a premium(ish) flavor on top. Good luck!... Have a wonderful Christmas!...

According to some easily accessing web sources the Sun is on the 5,000 ish segment. Size to do so is there! Now: AIDA is currently German mainstream. P&O has became UK mainstream, and Carnival is US mainstream lines. OK with huge crowds out there, but Princess is coming from the above segment, or say upper mainstream or Premium segment. Want a Premium ship at premium prices with baseline crowds, terms and conditions? Good luck. That will please no one, unless P&O became 3 starish in Europe and they would need a 4 starish classical style cruise line here, then yes, it would to succeed out of the demise of Costa and the more demanding European crowd, but seriously that is far out of question. So, that will generally to please nor the mainstream folks unable to pay upfront to go premium, nor the Premium folks whom wish to escape the baseline crowds! Hope the 4,000 ish numbers to be true, at very least!...

Have your answers along the quote and have a wonderful Christmas!...

This exactly! First of its all: Cruising as anything else will be what one makes it to be: In search of a nice time? Surely! In search of the bad, the ugly and the ugliest? Oh, no doubts!... That said; understanding the market segmentation while not key to have a great time, it helps!... So; basically; my over to top pro tip for everyone on their first time cruising adventure is certainly: Research for what you want that cruise and book accordingly! Are you on a budget? On a need for luxury? on a special moment on your life in search of a once in a lifetime experience? "Fun" activities are critical? Food quality is a deal breaker? Little to no kids is a deal breaker? Among others; those are the questions one would to put to themselves before booking. As a quite regular cruiser myself; I'm now in a moment on my life when to cruise less, and pay a little more to have a better service may be important. To each their own though! Have a nice day!...

AIDA Cruises is a partnership between Carnival Group and a German business called "AIDA Club". AIDA works like an exclusive membership sort of business. The ones whom pay their membership fees will have the right to book elsewhere in their portfolio at a set price and at a certain terms and conditions. Most of those enjoying these benefits in Germany are doing so as part of their employment pay package. Problem is: Everywhere else work relations are more and more temporary and otherwise, Germans want more flexibility on their holiday experience, booking online, and enjoying more affordable experiences. Also; after the pandemic there is a trend towards land holidays instead of cruises there. Either way; club holidays are having such a decline in demand year after year, Europe wise, including Germany. AIDA announced a big restructuring during the pandemic. I wouldn't be surprised to see AIDA out of the cruising industry in the next 5 to 10 years to come, or at least their product as being highly modified.

No. While some sailings might to be 100% US citizens, on most ones things will most likely to be very international in mind. To give you an idea: On my unique RCI's Oasis class sailing, actually on the Allure, we had more or less 25% Italians, 25% Spanish, 25% US, and the others 25% from elsewhere, mostly from EU countries. What may very well to succeed is that by the most part Americans will be more likely to accept the 3 starish CCL product, while the Europeans will simply go more with MSC or the other 4* and above products out there. Considering that coming to Europe is not cheap for Americans due to the airline tickets, to take a Carnival cruise may to make economical sense more than anything else.

In order to understand Costa's fate it is worth to understand how the European cruise market has evolved on the last 20 years. Back in 2002; Costa was the definite mainstream top cruise line in Europe. Cruising for most continental EU citizens was basically Costa. And Costa was owned by German based "AIDA Club Holidays", such a mostly land based club holidays with a cruise venture in Germany for the Germans and another on Italy for the global markets. I'd say; they have no real competitors at that time. Pullmantur and TUI were too small to count. RCI and NCL were little to even existent on our markets of the time. P&O, Princess and Cunard were mostly an UK sort of thing... And there was that "smallish" MSC business with 3-5 relatively small ships at the time. Times were promising for Costa... Then MSC started to grow to become current definite top leader on the mainstream. TUI and Pulmantur become part of the RCI's umbrella, AIDA and Costa joined the Carnival force and the mainstream American lines finally discovered Europe. The market had a huge shift... And Europeans became more demanding. They don't accept Costa's 3 starish cruises anymore. MSC, with a solid 4*, touching the 4*+ EU land hotel quality product has basically eaten pretty much all the formerly Costa Business, except perhaps those youth party like cruises elsewhere. Pretty much all the formerly Costa TA parters where I live are now solid MSC cruises partners. MSC has 21 ships to date and counting... The Germans on AIDA are more likely to leave the cruise industry now than to renew Carnival's partnership, me thinks... So, now that Europe is mainly an MSC plus American mainstream and Premium lines sort of thing; me thinks Costa has its fate well marked for the next 5 years to come: It will be finished and her ships redeployed as "Carnival Fun Italian Style". Perhaps some of them will ultimately to be redeployed for the classic mega-ship European itineraries... But I don't expect something else other than that. Europeans want Premium, not baseline, this is the trend here. Carnival group will need to adapt things out. I see ships like the brand new Princess Sun as having a huge success here. Not so much for the Costa product anymore.

May I come in? For the ones that don't know me I'm more prevalent on the MSC boards, once that is my cruise line now, with a presence on the RCI boards occasionally once I have gone once with them. There seems to be a trend here on CC across all boards that will be good to follow largely on the society: People want to upgrade their cruise experience on a cruise less but cruise better sort of experience. Similarly all cruise lines wish to have newer generation cruisers, while on the other hand handling short of badly staffed ships... TBHH: It won't be so difficult for the baseline mainstream companies like CCL, RCI, NCL, MSC to bring along a whole set of new sailors, especially on the exploding short weekend getaway cruise market... But now how will the upmarket lines to react? Princess and X are somewhat going on the same way the baseline mainstream ones are heading, just on more refined way. Upper market ships are also smaller than the baseline mainstream ones too. I'm curious to see where this will lead us eventually. On one thing I'm almost certain: Apart the brand new occasional cruisers out there nobody seems happy with the direction the cruise industry is heading, or at least not here on CC, even though CC only represent a tiny fraction of the cruise industry clients... Personally count me as one more on the "cruise less + upgrade cruise experience" crowd.

...And sadly; my take on it is that, no matter if true or false, this guy just wanted his 15 fame minutes... And he may very well to have them...

Well: Some of those influencers are just being "full of themselves". And they're getting as "fuller" as direct social media revenue diminishes. At least some of those social media are now moving for personal subscription business. Want more money? Capture your viewers, please! That said those small things can happen: MSC or otherwise. Once in Barcelona cruise terminal, embarking from an MSC sponsored shore excursion, one the port's authorities security guys tried to steal my smartphone from me... Blocked by one of the ship's Israelis security whom was at the near be!... TBHH: Those things happen!... No need to come as excited as it can be to the social media over those happenings!... Just beware of your belongings and be nice and patience to the ones serving you makes the trick for a happy day!...

It used to be a star; maybe they have replaced with a larger circle on the international site? The Portuguese variation of their site is very outdated, so I can't help you more!...

Hey! May I come in? For the ones that don't know me here, once it is my first time on the Princess boards, I'm more prevalent on the MSC's boards, once that has been my cruise company of choice for years, with an RCI's presence here and there, once I've also sailed with them. Threads like this one are very interesting, no doubt. It is surprising for me to see such a premium market line now coming to the mega-ship size segment. By and large, me thinks that the 3,500ish passengers per ship should to be the maximum possible for such a premium vessel out there; or say I'd to tolerate such a 4,000ish one in extreme. So now Princess is in the works to bring it to the 5,000ish?... Good luck Princess and Carnival Group!... TBHH: Yes; there is a generation being "expelled" right now from the mainstream (RCI, NCL, CCL, MSC) level for the income of a new generation of happy cruisers made out of younger families whom want their trendy family opportunities at see. Nothing against! Companies would need to be profitable enough to continue providing this marvelous service cruising is to an as large as it can be audience out there world wide. But now; there is a generation whose kids are now adults on their own and whom just need some nice and peaceful holiday time on such a fashionable and as affordable as possible way. I'd to be OK with a 4,000ish ship to cope with that demand on a full adults, or at least teens plus adults setting... So now; pushing a premium line Princess has been for decades to the same family oriented loud, overpopulated atmosphere with such a "Princessish" twist on top? Fortunately they're testing it only on 2 ships nowadays. While I've been mostly "loyal" to MSC and happy enough with the mainstream affordable experience; I'm becoming sort of tired and unhappy with their current offering evolution status, as I'm growing on my late 40's soon early 50's... I'm actively trying to find solutions to replace that experience with something that most resembles what the mainstream experience of the mid 00's was when I started my cruising's "career"... X/Princess happened to be my best bets of today. Surely Virgin is full adult; and that is a plus on their side... But then again: I don't want a disruptive sort of experience on IMHO ugly ships!... X/P would to be the compromising places to go. Then there is the X Edge class (bearable to an extent) and those P behemoths that nobody would have had the idea to build! So; let us to have the older X/P ships as far as we can go on them, plus HAL if it survives! After that I'll perhaps to retire from cruising, or cruise very occasionally on a smaller ship experience line. Sincerely I wish well to Princess. They seem to have sort of a great product, even though I haven't experienced it first hand, though I seriously doubt it possible to retain same levels at a 5,000ish passengers per sailing vessel. Hope they realize it on time, send these behemoths for P&O or AIDA (which have become UK and German mainstream lately) and let Princess to survive where it shines: A premium adult experience to the global markets.

Welcome aboard the cruise critic forums. Industry wise and not RC specific: That depends really on what kind of assistance you'll need during your cruise. For example: I'm a nearly blind individual whose main need is some help with embarkation/debarkation of ship, especially on tender ports. So; yes; I always show them proof of my legal blind status so that they can provide the adequate help. Bear in mind that there is a limited number of ones they can provide such special needs, so the earlier you submit your query, the most likely they'll to accept it. I don't know what provisions they can give you. It falls mostly on a case by case analysis. Let me to give you a pro advise: Let your travel agent to deal with those subjects with the company. Less stressful on you and better for all. And have a nice day, a nice sailing and wonderful Cruise Critic reading!...

That's it exactly! At least one more that understands what market segmentation is about. And I'd say: Even in Europe, the 4* segment has experienced several cut-offs across the board on real service provided, and there are some randomly really bad service outfits here and there. Experiment to book a triplet to cope with a blind individual like myself and my parents and you'll see... Some 10 years ago even the 3* EU land hotel level would be attentive enough. Today it's more like a lottery game. Chances are you're on the right place at the right time; Marriott being one of the best for me to date... But once we had to live with a small single room for 3 people. No compensation, no refund, nothing, nada, on a 4* hotel in Europe; fortunately for just a single night when we really arrived very late!... So; yeah!... RCL service, while clearly at the EU land 4* service level provides a service level that in many cases would to touch the 5th star! They'd only not entirely touch that over details: Pax per square meter, pax per venue, pax per employees, and a few more others, some of them way subtle across the board. Furthermore; ships like hotels are understaffed and will be understaffed for most of next decade to come with. Would I like things to be different? Sure! But compromises would to be needed. This is just the beginning. Automate parts of the current crew jobs will follow. Very recently a brand new private Hospital opened their doors to replace the old one where I'm followed regularly in many ways. I was quite surprised that instead of a huge cafeteria/bar human manned like on the old one; there's now a spread of many small automated ones. You'd to be offered several machines from where you can purchase coffee drinks, snacks and in certain cases even packaged small meals. Some 2 or 4 employees would go station by station from time to time restocking them, instead of those 10-12 they had on the older building! That's the trend. Ideal? Perhaps no. Convenient? Surely! I enjoy to have a nice cappuccino out of those machines when I finish my visits later on the afternoon before returning home. An easy way to have a small relatively pleasant time while awaiting my cab/Uber to come. As simple as that. I can see both sodas, specialty coffee, beer, basic wine, mineral water, juices of some sort, ice cream, and even some sort of more sophisticated drinks and snacks to become a self-service from the machines in a not so long time from now on 4* level cruise ships like RCI, NCL, CCL or MSC. That's what the future is bringing. Sad? To an extent. Convenient? Pretty much for both parts; companies, the shortening crew talent available, and even us the cruisers to an extent!

That's it. They only have one "formal" night out of 7 and they should to eliminate that and make the usual captain's welcome such a casual event (pool deck weather permitting). "Formal" night used to be the 2nd to the main port (the one marked with a star on the official itineraries), but hey: The ones embarking on said port might not even to have access to their luggage when going dinner that night, so it may to become odd. Things are what they are. Less people going too formal year after year. I believe nowadays formal means collared shirts and pants for men without jacket or tie by the most part...