dolphinsfan246

“It was moved because it was part of the big shuffle of moves carnival did at the time” EXACTLY and they shuffled LESS capacity to New Orleans BEFORE Covid was ever a thing. But by all means let’s send an Excel class there with 2,600+ cabins to fill. Surely that makes perfect business sense to Carnival.

🤦‍♂️ I guess you don’t understand simple cruising economics. I agree embarking and debarking are much more efficient post Covid so NOLA catches a break there. But the Dream wasn’t making money before Covid, so why would they commit to it after Covid? It’s very simple if the Dream was making good profit from NOLA they would have never downgraded the port back to Conquest class on the week long itineraries. It’s just not a market that sustains good fares for that many cabins. If the port was profitable as you claim , they would at LEAST have a Dream or Vista class right now as I type. Now maybe they will try again and see how it goes post Covid, but your assumption that NOLA is ready to skip up to Excel class right now is totally insane. Honestly NOLA is lucky that Covid purged the Fantasy class or I really believe they would have a Conquest/Fantasy lineup right now.

I don’t think it’s invalid NOLA speculation. Of course the ship sails full, occupancy is never the problem with these ports. They will fill the ship no matter what. The problem was they had to severely discount the cabins in order to fill the ship. We did a 7 day on the Dream pre Covid , it was still the cheapest cruise we ever took, we paid around $600 total for the whole thing. That was not with any casino offers or anything. And the terminal experience was complete and uncontrolled chaos. Both embarking and debarking was the worst we ever experienced. It was a joke compared to the Florida ports, even their little sister port Mobile was way better organized. If that’s how it was with a Dream class ship.. there is no way they could handle an Excel class ship with 6,600 coming and 6,600 going at the same time. Not without major port improvements.

I read that Excel ships can’t go to New Orleans, something to do with the depth of the river.

Carnival once debuted the brand new Fantasy on 3&4 day cruises from Miami. And it was a smashing success. Not saying history repeats itself but history does repeat itself.

Eh, Excel 4 is going to Port Canaveral or Miami then Mardi Gras or Celebration is getting bumped to wherever. Does Australia have the LNG bunkering capabilities? I wouldn’t rule out Mardi Gras or Celebration going down to 3,4&5 day service while Excel 4 takes their week itineraries in whichever port. Both Port Canaveral and Miami could accommodate 2 Excels.

I see Panorama going to Australia. They can’t just sit on Splendor and Luminosa forever. Australians have been begging for a bigger Carnival ship and a Vista class would be perfect. They also have stiff competition with Royal typically sending a Quantum class there, and by 2026/27 they may have enough to commit an Oasis class ship down under. Also I don’t necessarily see Sunshine going straight to scrap, with its 2013 upgrades it carries a decent amount of equity to a second hand buyer, Margaritaville Sunshine anyone? It will be interesting to see if they commit a full conversion dry dock to Luminosa in the future (whale tail and actual Carnival venues) then maybe they would bring it to the States full time possibly on the East Coast (Baltimore, Jacksonville, Tampa) All of this is fun speculation of course.

I believe Baltimore will always have a ship as long as the Spirit class lasts. Seems to be a strong market and always demands high fares. I’m sure Carnival could push the Spirit class to 2040 or close to it.

My thoughts exactly. People are expecting something like the Radiance class because they said they are building smaller but they only mean smaller than Oasis and Icon, which is still not small. The days of those ships are long gone for the main stream lines, it just plain costs too much to a build a ship these days and they need it to carry 4,000 passengers minimum to break even.

I would LOVE if Carnival Corp spread their VIP points among their brands. I’m really thinking about trying the new Sun Princess, if i could take my Platinum level on Carnival with me , I would have already booked it by now.

Yes Royal Caribbean has said that they are looking into “smaller” ships but let’s be honest their version of a “smaller” ship is still gonna come in around 130-160k tons. The days of the under 100k tons and 2,000 PAX range are long gone for the main stream lines. It’s just too expensive to build these days, and the cost per berth needed to turn a profit with 2,000 guests on board is more in line with the luxury lines. If Carnival really needs to expand their smaller fleet to accommodate the bridge locked ports, I could see more transfers similar to Luminosa. However I think it’s more likely the cruise industry will put those ports in a strangle hold to move their terminals or lose out.

True but that free laundry would come in handy on that last extra day 🤣

I always wondered when cruises get extended like this, will the extra day go on your VIFP points? What if you were one day short of the next level? Would they bump you up during the cruise?

The engines were turned off to complete the repairs. The repairs are clearly taking longer than they anticipated. The ship is not dead, the engines are purposely off.

Title of thread is very misleading. Doing 5 knots because of a technical issue is not dead in the water. I’m assuming you also still have all amenities up and running? Entertainment around the ship still going as scheduled? Carnival Splendor was once dead in the water, Carnival Triumph was once dead in the water. Carnival Legend is not currently dead in the water.

It could happen on any ship. We had a very sooty aft balcony on the Carnival Legend. So much so that we couldn’t really enjoy it without ruining our clothes. They would come and “clean” but that lasted about an hour until the chairs were covered again. Needless to say that will be our only aft balcony experience.

When this ship comes out and the shuffling of ships begin, I wouldn’t rule out a larger ship going down to Australia year round. Possibly the Panorama.

Times have definitely changed but this isn’t an experiment that’s even in the realm of possibility right now. Why would they alienate a major percentage of their customer base when they are in so much debt. Smokers simply will not go on a cruise if they can’t smoke. I think all the cruise lines have done a good job in recent years of catering to non smokers by limiting the places that smokers can smoke to only a couple spots. But eliminating smoking all together? Fleet wide? Nah there’s no chance. Not on Carnival anyways.

I’m just saying, the Paradise was non smoking for the first 5 years of her existence and didn’t turn a positive revenue in any of those years. That’s unheard of for a new build. As soon as they dropped the gimmick, she turned a positive revenue in the 6th year. I don’t think that’s a risk Carnival is willing to take, not while they are drowning in debt. They need every ship pumping as much revenue as possible and like you said, smokers spend more gambling.

I’d be all for the no smoking but they tried that before with 1 ship and it could never turn a profit. Smoking and gambling go hand and hand. It would be asking them to make their whole fleet unprofitable. I’m happy they have at least been trying to add non smoking sections to most of the ships casinos during their dry docks.

Magic doesn’t have any gaps in her itinerary schedule that would indicate a scheduled dry dock. Any dry docking now would require cancelled sailings.

To have the boarding passes available on the hub app. One less thing to print and bring with you. To be honest the hub app could easily have a multitude of more features.

Offers are not based on your sailing history. They are actually sent out automatically through an algorithm that looks for rooms they want to resell at a higher price and attempt to get you out of it with the next highest category. A human doesn’t analyze them before they go out.

Haha well in that case , I reckon I’d just take my chances on the serenity deck LOL

Book a balcony cabin, best quiet spot I can think of to watch the water. (As long as you don’t have rude neighbors with Bluetooth speakers)