Cruise Critic Editor Recommends NOT to Cruise Carnival

[Cruizinman]

Does the Miracle have webcams? We will be on her in Sept but sure would be nice to watch her now! LOL

 

We did that on the Magic before we sailed her last year. Increased our pleasure, so to speak!

Sorry , no

[Wanna_Cruise]

I don't know if that's "the way it used to be", but I don't consider that to be the function of this discussion board. It is called "Cruise Critic". It isn't "Cruise Happy Talk" or "Cruise only the good points, ignore the bad." I come here primarily to help identify problems to avoid. I'm generally only interested in hearing positive experiences to the extent that they help me avoid negative ones in the future. I don't come here to read rosy stories to feel warm and cosy inside.

 

Criticism can also be constructive as in Constructive Cruise Critics".

[Mikel1733]

I just wanted to clear up a few things (I'll leave issue of the opinion of our Editor in Chief alone as it isn't my place to speak for her):

 

Cruise Critic is a part of the TripAdvisor Media Group; has been since 2007.

TripAdvisor was spun off from Expedia last year. PRESS RELEASE

Cruise Critic is not a travel agency, we do not sell cruises.

TripAdvisor is not a travel agency; they do not sell travel or cruises.

 

If CSB has specific knowledge of safety issues beyond what is publicly known I would think she has an obligation to enlighten the members of this forum.

[halos]

A sale is revenue cutting. It's not the same as cost cutting.

 

I think CCL will have to spend more rather than less to fix this issue. More spending for maintenance, marketing, and perhaps even more spending for the ship-board cruise experience (lobster, live bands etc.). And they may have to do this with less net revenue (we'll see on that one).

 

How do they pay for all this? They could cut the dividend to shareholders, or they could borrow more, or sell some assets. Companies who have this type of problem most often find a solution............. or go out of business.

 

My instincts tell me that they will only handle so much of their revenue being cut before the customer sees another series of 'changes'. Why wouldn't they cut more?....their customers seem to stand behind them no matter what.

[Georgiagolfer]

My instincts tell me that they will only handle so much of their revenue being cut before the customer sees another series of 'changes'. Why wouldn't they cut more....their customers seem to stand behind them no matter what.

 

Agree with this, but don't understand why. Seems some can only see with blinders on, and don't notice changes, or possibly just do not care. We like CCL, but don't like most of the changes they have made. Some people call these cutbacks, others improvements, but we just refer to them as changes.

[Blurgh]

I don't know if that's "the way it used to be", but I don't consider that to be the function of this discussion board. It is called "Cruise Critic". It isn't "Cruise Happy Talk" or "Cruise only the good points, ignore the bad." I come here primarily to help identify problems to avoid. I'm generally only interested in hearing positive experiences to the extent that they help me avoid negative ones in the future. I don't come here to read rosy stories to feel warm and cosy inside.

 

Yep, imagine if Tripadvisor worked like that, it would be totally useless. You need to have the good and the bad and the ability to filter through that.

 

Of course the same thing happens on Tripadvisor, though, when a hotel or restaurant gets particularly reamed, the business runs in on the review thread and then starts responding to every critique to make it look like it's the guests or someone trying to put one over on their business. And this is a massive turnoff. Pretty much the same thing happens here. The response to the critical threads is worse than the critical threads. I don't particularly care if someone puts their nasty water bottle up against the public water tap on lido... I know people are slobs, I don't need more confirmation, even if it uses melodramatic terms. But when a group of people spend a week reaming the person that says that... then I pay attention.

 

It goes the other way too. I don't care about a review says BEST EVER EVERYTHING. Useless.

[kmc500]

Just an FYI - my point in mention the chocolates was that if you are going to write a serious article about a serious issue - ship maintenance and safety or the lack thereof - you don't start out in the first or second paragraph writing about missing chocolates!

 

I got that far and just said - "Oh good grief!" ... among other things! ;)

 

Well said. More importantly IMO, for the person to unequivocally state that CCL preventive maintenance needs to be improved is incredible. This editor states that she knows more than the largest cruise line in the world.

 

Saying something does not make it so. Because something broke certainly does not indicate that CCL pm is lacking. It simply means that something broke. I fairly regularly cruise on Fantasy class ships; many of these are nearly 20 years old and look fabulous. Obviously rigorous pm keeps them that way, as they are daily exposed to the harsh conditions of the open sea.

 

It is obvious that Carnival is excellent at controlling costs, but there is no advantage to skimping on PM, and no indication other than bad luck that they have.

 

Kevin C

[TPLGT]

Look...this is her OPINION...I do not agree with her in any way, shape or form. If your standards are at a certain level, use another cruise line.

 

Better be careful though folks, if Laura or the BOSS gets wind of people talking bad about her, ban stick likely to get broken out.

[LauraS]

Look...this is her OPINION...I do not agree with her in any way, shape or form. If your standards are at a certain level, use another cruise line.

 

Better be careful though folks, if Laura or the BOSS gets wind of people talking bad about her, ban stick likely to get broken out.

 

 

To be honest, I was just talking with Carolyn and I had a great deal of praise for the tone and direction this thread has taken.

[DirtyDawg]

My instincts tell me that they will only handle so much of their revenue being cut before the customer sees another series of 'changes'. Why wouldn't they cut more?....their customers seem to stand behind them no matter what.

 

You might be right on that. It's really up the largest shareholder to determine if he wants to take a short term financial hit in order to improve the brand over the long term.

 

 

Carnival does have very loyal customers (though I suspect they are not as loyal (or fanatical) as the ones on the board;)), but a company can only damage/debase/change its brand so much before there is a backlash from its customers. Remember the New Coke fiasco? Or JC Penny today.

[Surfwench]

I just wanted to clear up a few things (I'll leave issue of the opinion of our Editor in Chief alone as it isn't my place to speak for her):

 

Cruise Critic is a part of the TripAdvisor Media Group; has been since 2007.

TripAdvisor was spun off from Expedia last year. PRESS RELEASE

Cruise Critic is not a travel agency, we do not sell cruises.

TripAdvisor is not a travel agency; they do not sell travel or cruises.

 

Thank you for the clarification. I do not want to be disrespectful since TripAdvisor Media Group is paying for this forum and I consider my posting a privilege not a right....BUT your income does come from driving traffic to the travel agencies and booking sites linked here. And the advertising of those same companies. Your interests and theirs are the same.

[CoachT]

BUT your income does come from driving traffic to the travel agencies and booking sites linked here. And the advertising of those same companies. Your interests and theirs are the same.

Think of this place as a newspaper or magazine. Editorial and advertising are not always linked. I could go into more but it is too in the weeds for most people to get.

[halos]

Carnival does have very loyal customers (though I suspect they are not as loyal (or fanatical) as the ones on the board;)), but a company can only damage/debase/change its brand so much before there is a backlash from its customers. Remember the New Coke fiasco? Or JC Penny today.

 

Very true.

However, I think CCL's new passenger is all about the cost of the cruise. If you read any of the positive comments on these boards, the vast majority are ones that include words like 'good bang for your buck' or 'I adjust my expectations to go along with the fare I paid'. I don't think CCL will lose any of the people who sail them for cost sake, so I don't think they will ever be in the position that JC Penney is in today, UNLESS they continue to have incidents. Eventually the number of bad news headlines would have to cause some kind of a drop in sales.

[Sargent_Schultz]

I don't think Carnival's new passenger is new at all. I think Carnival's old passenger outgrew the target market demographics.

[Warm Breezes]

I don't think Carnival's new passenger is new at all. I think Carnival's old passenger outgrew the target market demographics.

 

I agree. If your target market is new cruisers you are going to make changes that will continue to attract the new cruiser. If that means keeping costs down to attract the new cruiser then that means some other things have to give. If that means losing some repeat cruisers then that is ok too because they have other lines that target those cruisers. If Carnival makes changes that some repeat cruisers don't like, then it is those cruisers who may need to re-evaluate their cruise line of choice because they have obviously moved out of Carnival's target demographics.

[jimbo5544]

Very true.

However, I think CCL's new passenger is all about the cost of the cruise. If you read any of the positive comments on these boards, the vast majority are ones that include words like 'good bang for your buck' or 'I adjust my expectations to go along with the fare I paid'. I don't think CCL will lose any of the people who sail them for cost sake, so I don't think they will ever be in the position that JC Penney is in today, UNLESS they continue to have incidents. Eventually the number of bad news headlines would have to cause some kind of a drop in sales.

One only hopes that eventually they "get it" and react appropriately

[richstowe]

I don't think Carnival's new passenger is new at all.

Not sure what this means.

 

I think Carnival's old passenger outgrew the target market demographics.

Agree with this. Many of the haters don't realize that they have outgrown Carnival.

They need to move on A) to other cruise lines and B) with their complaints.

The 4 man steel band aint coming back. Deal with it.

 

Not my issue. Cruise line loyalty is a strange concept to me.

[halos]

I don't think Carnival's new passenger is new at all. I think Carnival's old passenger outgrew the target market demographics.

 

Not in my case at all although I can't speak for others. I never used to cruise CCL because it was a good bang for my buck (I actually hate that term) and I never felt I had to adjust my expectations before. There is no doubt I have changed over the past decade, but my taste in cruising has not. The things I liked about CCL are just plain and simple no longer part of the Carnival experience and this is why I left. I used to cruise CCL because I thought they were awesome. I never cruised them because they were a good deal.