No More Major Ship Upgrades? What do you think?

[cruizinisthebest]

there are other threads which document the fact that the freedom, valor, victory, and magic all have 40+ day drydocks between spring of 2014 and may of 2015. Carnival sent out emails cancelling a bunch of cruises about a month ago to accommodate these drydocks.

 

ok.

[dougandmo]

My takeaway from Donald's comments is that Carnival will forego future expensive refurbishments in favor of less expensive changes that are designed to produce revenue. And that Carnival will focus its future investments in Asia and Australia as opposed to the U.S. market. It is easier to produce profit where regulations are lax and Carnival's reputation isn't yet well known.

 

I would think that Carnival would be looking at Asia because they've hit a saturation point in the US market. Look at how much their fleets have grown in the last decade, combined with the limited number of ports that can handle the bigger ships. Unless they build some smaller ships again, ports like Baltimore, Tampa, and Jacksonville have no growth opportunity for them. And piling more ships in Miami at this point seems counterproductive.

[RuthlessBoss]

I would think that Carnival would be looking at Asia because they've hit a saturation point in the US market. Look at how much their fleets have grown in the last decade, combined with the limited number of ports that can handle the bigger ships. Unless they build some smaller ships again, ports like Baltimore, Tampa, and Jacksonville have no growth opportunity for them. And piling more ships in Miami at this point seems counterproductive.

I too think the saturation point will be soon, perhaps already started. Even RCCL Allure and Oasis are coming up with deals now. I didn't think that would happen.

No matter what cruiseline, there are only x amount of ports to sail to and most ships all go to the same places. The exception would be smaller builds or refurbish the smaller ships so they can go to the smaller, less used ports that the big ships can't get near.

[dougandmo]

I too think the saturation point will be soon, perhaps already started. Even RCCL Allure and Oasis are coming up with deals now. I didn't think that would happen.

No matter what cruiseline, there are only x amount of ports to sail to and most ships all go to the same places. The exception would be smaller builds or refurbish the smaller ships so they can go to the smaller, less used ports that the big ships can't get near.

 

Yeah, it would be interesting to see if any of the lines opt to build something smaller again to hit that market, both in terms of embarkation ports and smaller destination ports. Places like DC serve a relatively wealthy market and I'm surprised no one seems to test the waters on how a longer length cruise would do. We would pay more to cruise out of DC on a longer route. I'd far rather do that than pay airfare to get to Florida.

[Tithonus]

There are other threads which document the fact that the Freedom, Valor, Victory, and Magic all have 40+ day drydocks between Spring of 2014 and May of 2015. Carnival sent out emails cancelling a bunch of cruises about a month ago to accommodate these drydocks.

 

Aren't they spending money to install those 300 to 800 million redundancy safety systems that they installed on the Destiny and the Triumph? They have to do this to all the ships, which will obviously take longer than a normal dry dock.

[qwerty119]

There are other threads which document the fact that the Freedom, Valor, Victory, and Magic all have 40+ day drydocks between Spring of 2014 and May of 2015. Carnival sent out emails cancelling a bunch of cruises about a month ago to accommodate these drydocks.

 

Here is one of the threads

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1892926

[Tithonus]

Here is one of the threads

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1892926

 

That thread should be deleted. We already know that ship will not be Sunshined, nor renamed Splash or Sunrise. Even the dates are suspect.

 

That OP is misinformed.

[qwerty119]

That thread should be deleted. We already know that ship will not be Sunshined, nor renamed Splash or Sunrise. Even the dates are suspect.

 

That OP is misinformed.

 

I don't think the ships will be renamed, but everything else seems logical

[carsastic]

That thread should be deleted. We already know that ship will not be Sunshined, nor renamed Splash or Sunrise. Even the dates are suspect.

 

That OP is misinformed.

oh for Petes sake, I thought they were talking about the breeze and its 3/19 date

[Tithonus]

I don't think the ships will be renamed, but everything else seems logical

 

Doesn't matter what it seems. It's been stated its false when a CCL employee was asked.

[michelle1836]

Same here. lol. Yes already has a basic Serenity, but nothing compared to what the Sunshine currently has... My guess is Carnival will release the info about the dry dock in late October or November (At least I hope by then)

 

hopefully sooner than later! cant wait to see what the Freedom is getting since we are sailing soon after the dry dock

[qwerty119]

People really hate that Carnival calls the Sunshine a new ship.

 

I just don't get it.

 

With everything that was done to it, I would call it a new ship as well.

 

I agree with you.

[nbsjcruiser]

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=5543

 

I honestly am not buying what Arnold is saying. We already know the Freedom will be receiving a major upgrade. Right? What do you think?

 

My first thought was that he mentioned it costs something like 1 Billion to build a new ship. That's just about the same price tag that the Costa Concordia is going to be once she's finally dismembered and vanished from memory. I would love to see Carnival build a new ship, show me that they're investing in something new and bold. Investing 150 million in the Destiny was another shortcut. The company seems to be looking for more ways to cut even when it comes to new builds. "How can we have a new build and not really have to pay that much for it.". The pictures I see from the Destiny looked nice but jamming more people into that ship and then cutting back on waiters, shows and live bands as they have gives me little comfort that they'll actually be able to service that ship the way they should.

 

C'mon Carnival- give the cruising world something new to look. I'd love to try Carnival again on a new ship with a new look and new ways of doing things.

[cruizinisthebest]

The Vista will be out in 2016. That's a new build to look forward to. Especially if it sails out of NY:D

[qwerty119]

My first thought was that he mentioned it costs something like 1 Billion to build a new ship. That's just about the same price tag that the Costa Concordia is going to be once she's finally dismembered and vanished from memory. I would love to see Carnival build a new ship, show me that they're investing in something new and bold. Investing 150 million in the Destiny was another shortcut. The company seems to be looking for more ways to cut even when it comes to new builds. "How can we have a new build and not really have to pay that much for it.". The pictures I see from the Destiny looked nice but jamming more people into that ship and then cutting back on waiters, shows and live bands as they have gives me little comfort that they'll actually be able to service that ship the way they should.

 

C'mon Carnival- give the cruising world something new to look. I'd love to try Carnival again on a new ship with a new look and new ways of doing things.

 

I recommend the Carnival Breeze. She is a great ship. The Vista will be a new build in 2016, also.

[Tithonus]

My first thought was that he mentioned it costs something like 1 Billion to build a new ship. That's just about the same price tag that the Costa Concordia is going to be once she's finally dismembered and vanished from memory. I would love to see Carnival build a new ship, show me that they're investing in something new and bold. Investing 150 million in the Destiny was another shortcut. The company seems to be looking for more ways to cut even when it comes to new builds. "How can we have a new build and not really have to pay that much for it.". The pictures I see from the Destiny looked nice but jamming more people into that ship and then cutting back on waiters, shows and live bands as they have gives me little comfort that they'll actually be able to service that ship the way they should.

 

C'mon Carnival- give the cruising world something new to look. I'd love to try Carnival again on a new ship with a new look and new ways of doing things.

 

That's my fear. Carnival hasn't had any new offshoot designs since the Destiny came launched, with a variation of the class favorite, only building 4 of them, and shipping now two off to other lands. So succesful was that class, I think the design was the basis for the last two Curand Queens.

 

If this Vista turns out be be another Destiny offshoot, I'm done.

[qwerty119]

That's my fear. Carnival hasn't had any new offshoot designs since the Destiny came launched, with a variation of the class favorite, only building 4 of them, and shipping now two off to other lands. So succesful was that class, I think the design was the basis for the last two Curand Queens.

 

If this Vista turns out be be another Destiny offshoot, I'm done.

 

There is talks that the Vista will be the Mille Project? which is a completely new design

[Tithonus]

There is talks that the Vista will be the Mille Project? which is a completely new design

 

As John Heald has posted, unless you are under Gerry Cahills desk, no one knows.

[qwerty119]

As John Heald has posted, unless you are under Gerry Cahills desk, no one knows.

 

Very true. Only Gerry will know