Why do you sail Carnival and I don't think it's for the vifp benefits

[SadieN]

Our last nonCarnival cruise really showed us what we like about Carnival.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[NOSaints1]

We've never been treated bad on our carnival cruises had good food, was treated well

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[SkyPiglet]

I know Carnival and I know what to expect. So far, they have been good to me, so I haven't seen any need to change it.

[tef43]

Price.

 

Nothing more, nothing less.

 

I don't give a rat's patootie about VIFP bribes.

[mdsgu]

Have sailed Carnival, RCCL, and NCL. When I sail Carnival it is due to price and proximity. Recently returned from an NCL Escape cruise out of Miami. Lovely ship, great cruise, but we did have to fly. Booked on Carnival Dream for T'giving week -- it's close (only 1 hour away by car) and the price was right.

[EBFURR]

We have been loyal to Royal over the years. For many years it was not about the perks, they were not that great at the lower levels. We just enjoyed our first cruise with them and went back. We figured since we liked the product just go with it. Now that we are Diamond the perks are much more meaningful. We have the private lounge at embarkation but that is not a big deal. The biggest are the Diamond lounge on most ships with open bar, snacks, better coffee, concierge (bypass guest relations for most things), 3 free drink vouchers per person per night that can be used anywhere, and a $200 balcony discount in addition to any other promotions. There are other things but they are not huge. We just cruised with Carnival and we enjoyed it. We will probably do more. Mainly, the ships are different but the overall experience is similar. I always compare cruises for the week and itinerary that we are looking at and do not always find that Carnival is cheaper. A couple of examples: We were looking at a repeat on Sunshine when it is in PC but the per night cost of a balcony is actually higher than Oasis balcony out of the same port for the weeks we looked at. That is without our $200 discount. Frankly, if the cost was the same we would choose Sunshine We also want to go on the Ecstasy out of Charleston but every cruise there is more expensive that a similar cruise on Majesty out of PC for the same week. the difference is more than enough to cover travel and hotel to PC. Plus, we would get the mentioned perks on board the Majesty. I short, we would like to cruise with Carnival more but we have to take the dollar value of the Diamond perks into account. The $200 discount is significant and the Diamond lounge and vouchers are enough to make it unnecessary to get a drink package. That is pretty big.

 

I am not knocking the VFIP program at all. I am just saying that a higher level of perks tends to "trap" you into staying with a certain line when you get to a point where they add up to real $$ savings. It is a mixed blessing. We cruise as often as we can, but always on a budget. We have to weigh inside cabin vs. balcony, travel costs, and of course cruise fare. I continue to shop for Carnival deals and we will be back when it fits our budget and schedule. It would be a long time before we could make Platinum on Carnival so we cannot factor in VFIP into the equation at this point except for the discount offers we get in the emails. By the way, those discounts are better and more flexible than what we get from Royal's C&A. Those tend to be targeted to specific "hard to sell" cruises.

[CBuick]

1. I love the value of Carnival. The Prices for the cruises, and just about anything one would want to purchase on the cruise are a great value.

2. The staff is always very friendly and laid back. This includes the booking staff. I have a cruise planner that I really enjoy dealing with. I had tried a competing cruise line and found their staff to be very unfriendly.

3. I enjoy the food on Carnival. I had tried a competitor and despite their premium claims - I found their food to be poor to fair. I don't see to many pictures of food on the site for that line.

4. I like the short entertainment options. Though other lines may offer 2 hour shows, I prefer to catch a short show and a good comedy show.

5. The comedians are really good.

6. The clientel is very laid back, I can frequently meet nice laid back people on Carnival Cruises.

7. I actually think despite Carnival's laid back attitude, they run a tight ship and follow standards closely. On the competitors cruise I found there were many instances where doors were held open showing the stark "crew only" areas, and I could witness alot more employees on break in public areas.

8. I like the Carnival Brand. I like how they are coming up with cool innovations - especially with bars, food and shows - that can be brought onto other ships. I feel the competitor (RCCL in case you haven't figured it out yet) offers a much more varied experience between the Oasis, Freedom, Voyager, Jewel and Vision class than Carnival does it's Dream, Conquest, Fantasy and Spirit class.

 

Bottom line: I can trust Carnival for a good fun relaxing trip.

[ryano]

1. I love the value of Carnival. The Prices for the cruises, and just about anything one would want to purchase on the cruise are a great value.

2. The staff is always very friendly and laid back. This includes the booking staff. I have a cruise planner that I really enjoy dealing with. I had tried a competing cruise line and found their staff to be very unfriendly.

3. I enjoy the food on Carnival. I had tried a competitor and despite their premium claims - I found their food to be poor to fair. I don't see to many pictures of food on the site for that line.

6. The clientel is very laid back, I can frequently meet nice laid back people on Carnival Cruises.

7. I actually think despite Carnival's laid back attitude, they run a tight ship and follow standards closely. On the competitors cruise I found there were many instances where doors were held open showing the stark "crew only" areas, and I could witness alot more employees on break in public areas.

8. I like the Carnival Brand. I like how they are coming up with cool innovations - especially with bars, food and shows - that can be brought onto other ships. I feel the competitor (RCCL in case you haven't figured it out yet) offers a much more varied experience between the Oasis, Freedom, Voyager, Jewel and Vision class than Carnival does it's Dream, Conquest, Fantasy and Spirit class.

 

Bottom line: I can trust Carnival for a good fun relaxing trip.

 

Pretty much all of this ^ is why.

[sparks1093]

No business is loyal to me, they make their decisions based on dollars and cents. So do I. I do sign up for loyalty programs but if I get anything out of them it's incidental.

[AdGuyMG]

In the most part, I've always been treated very well on Carnival. The staff is friendly and they've always made me feel welcome. But to answer your question, when you sail on cruise lines in the premium segment that are considered a tier or two above Carnival, they do step things up.

 

I appreciate you pointing this out. I certainly agree that there are differences. If you looked at my signature, I have been on a wide variety of lines other than Carnival. CCL represents 8 of my previous cruises. The other 36 have been split between other lines from mass market to premium to luxury.

[cruzeluver]

I have yet to find a cruise line with loyalty perks good enough to make me sail the same ships on the same itineraries eating the same food looking at the same decor over and over again. We will select Carnival Sunshine or Dream class only when we are trying to be particularly thrifty. They offer a good, basic product.

[EBFURR]

1. I love the value of Carnival. The Prices for the cruises, and just about anything one would want to purchase on the cruise are a great value.

2. The staff is always very friendly and laid back. This includes the booking staff. I have a cruise planner that I really enjoy dealing with. I had tried a competing cruise line and found their staff to be very unfriendly.

3. I enjoy the food on Carnival. I had tried a competitor and despite their premium claims - I found their food to be poor to fair. I don't see to many pictures of food on the site for that line.

4. I like the short entertainment options. Though other lines may offer 2 hour shows, I prefer to catch a short show and a good comedy show.

5. The comedians are really good.

6. The clientel is very laid back, I can frequently meet nice laid back people on Carnival Cruises.

7. I actually think despite Carnival's laid back attitude, they run a tight ship and follow standards closely. On the competitors cruise I found there were many instances where doors were held open showing the stark "crew only" areas, and I could witness alot more employees on break in public areas.

8. I like the Carnival Brand. I like how they are coming up with cool innovations - especially with bars, food and shows - that can be brought onto other ships. I feel the competitor (RCCL in case you haven't figured it out yet) offers a much more varied experience between the Oasis, Freedom, Voyager, Jewel and Vision class than Carnival does it's Dream, Conquest, Fantasy and Spirit class.

 

Bottom line: I can trust Carnival for a good fun relaxing trip.

 

I can respect all of that. I would say that based on our single Carnival cruise we cannot make a blanket statement that the staff is more friendly, wait staff better, guest relations better, or anything along those lines. We found things to be pretty similar. I do know that all of those things have varied on our RCI cruises from ship to ship and even on the same ship with staff rollover. I expect that would be the case on all lines. We have never had what we consider a bad cruise on any ship although we have had isolated issues on several but no deal breakers.

 

Another thing I would add along the lines of the loyalty program is that RCI does tend to change the benefits for better or worse fairly regularly. They tend to give perks and then later on remove them and possibly replace them with something that may not be of equal value. An example is that in PC they have a really nice departure lounge. On the large ships Diamonds can no longer use them because they say they have to many suite guests. This alone is not a real big deal, but it is something that you had but no longer have. The 3 drink vouchers are something that came into play when they wanted to exclude Diamond from some of the dedicated lounges and gave a "compensation". The upside is that on some ships you get both. I get the feeling that RCI would like to eliminate Diamond from the dedicated lounges altogether and leave them for Diamond+, Pinnacle, and suite guests. They think they now have "too many" diamond cruisers. The strategy seems to be to make more benefits for suites (even if it is a first timer) and jack the prices way up on those. That is fine until you start to take away things from people who have stayed with the line over many years. By the way, it seems to me that RCI Diamond seems to equate to Carnival Platinum since RCI has more tiers in the program. I will say that if RCI takes away enough from Diamond to make it so that the value added is not there we would probably take more Carnival or even NCL and MSC cruises.

 

A few things we did prefer on Sunshine:

• We liked the choice of "no cost" food venues. Guys, Blue Iguana, Ji JI and Cucina at lunch, the Havana mini buffet, and taste bar all get A+ from us. As Carnival spreads the 2.0 across all ships this is going to be a big deal for a lot of folks.
  
• Drinks did seem to be a little cheaper.
  
• We loved Alchemy Bar. Also high marks to Havana bar.
  
• Full basket of bread on the table. (I know, but this is a thing we noticed)
  
• Ice buckets. On our last few cruises we had to ask for ice but on Sunshine we had one and it was never empty. We like ice water in the cabin.
  
• Comedy club. RCI has comedians but Carnival puts more emphasis on this and we think that is a good move.
  
• Group activities. RCI has these but we felt a higher level of energy and more participation on Sunshine. We actually prefer this to the production shows although the Rock tribute on sunshine was a pleasant surprise. We went on the spur of the moment and enjoyed it a lot.
  
• Serenity area. The one on Sunshine blows away all others we have seen. This is big for us since we cruise without our (adult) children now.
  
• Ships. We are old school in that we like to cruise for the sea going experience and ports. We love to just watch the sea go by. Royal's ships have become more inward facing over the years and tend to shut out the ocean. They focus more on what I call "gimmicks" that are intended to entertain but also (I think) to distract from the fact that you are in the middle of the ocean. This is probably due to market research that indicated that a lot of people either thought that a cruise would bore them or that they have an inner fear of being isolated at sea. We do not get bored and we love being at sea.
  

We will continue to do both lines. I would say to Carnival cruise loyalists (from a Royal loyalist) that Carnival has a lot going for it in addition to the VFIP program. Happy Sails!

[FLSteve11]

We have been loyal to Royal over the years. For many years it was not about the perks, they were not that great at the lower levels. We just enjoyed our first cruise with them and went back. We figured since we liked the product just go with it. Now that we are Diamond the perks are much more meaningful. We have the private lounge at embarkation but that is not a big deal. The biggest are the Diamond lounge on most ships with open bar, snacks, better coffee, concierge (bypass guest relations for most things), 3 free drink vouchers per person per night that can be used anywhere, and a $200 balcony discount in addition to any other promotions. There are other things but they are not huge. We just cruised with Carnival and we enjoyed it. We will probably do more. Mainly, the ships are different but the overall experience is similar. I always compare cruises for the week and itinerary that we are looking at and do not always find that Carnival is cheaper. A couple of examples: We were looking at a repeat on Sunshine when it is in PC but the per night cost of a balcony is actually higher than Oasis balcony out of the same port for the weeks we looked at. That is without our $200 discount. Frankly, if the cost was the same we would choose Sunshine We also want to go on the Ecstasy out of Charleston but every cruise there is more expensive that a similar cruise on Majesty out of PC for the same week. the difference is more than enough to cover travel and hotel to PC. Plus, we would get the mentioned perks on board the Majesty. I short, we would like to cruise with Carnival more but we have to take the dollar value of the Diamond perks into account. The $200 discount is significant and the Diamond lounge and vouchers are enough to make it unnecessary to get a drink package. That is pretty big.

 

I am not knocking the VFIP program at all. I am just saying that a higher level of perks tends to "trap" you into staying with a certain line when you get to a point where they add up to real $$ savings. It is a mixed blessing. We cruise as often as we can, but always on a budget. We have to weigh inside cabin vs. balcony, travel costs, and of course cruise fare. I continue to shop for Carnival deals and we will be back when it fits our budget and schedule. It would be a long time before we could make Platinum on Carnival so we cannot factor in VFIP into the equation at this point except for the discount offers we get in the emails. By the way, those discounts are better and more flexible than what we get from Royal's C&A. Those tend to be targeted to specific "hard to sell" cruises.

 

We sail quite a few cruise lines, and mix and match them at times. Royal is the one we've sailed about half the time, as we've enjoyed them the most. We like variety, and generally we will look over all the lines when looking at cruises. One benefit is it gives us the wide variety of cruising options, both in ships and itineraries. As for the loyalty benefits, we do factor them in, but don't live by them. To us, they're part of the value of the cruise. Price, itinerary, ship, benefits, etc. (probably in that order). All of them come together for the value of a cruise to us. The VIFP doesn't really give a lot of benefits compared to other lines (a bit more at Platinum, but we're gold), whereas our Diamond Plus benefits on Royal are excellent (might be best in the industry). So when comparing cruises, we factor that in. But we definitely do not let us get ruled by them, they just add to the value of the cruise in comparison.

 

As for the Ops question. We cruise Carnival generally on price, but also wanting a laid back cruise that has fun activities.

[A&Jfamily]

I disagree about the VIFP benefits. I am Platinum (75+ sea days) on Carnival - which gets me priority boarding, debarkation, 1L water, priority guest services line, free drink, chocolate delight, priority tender and 2-3 bags of laundry. On Princess, Platinum (51-150 sea days), gets me priority boarding, only a priority debarkation lounge and an internet credit (which is the last thing in the world I want when cruising)...and none of the other things mentioned above. It is not until someone hits Elite (151+ sea days) that the perks are much better on Princess.

 

So yes, if you are TOP TIER, then the benefits are better on other lines. But for your more typical person (working full time, raising kids with only a couple of weeks of vacation a year) you will get some useful benefits MUCH sooner on Carnival. That is one of the reasons I have stayed primarily with Carnival. Price is also another...when booking 2 cabins for our family, keeping costs down allow us to vacation more frequently.

 

When we retire and our boys are finished school, then Princess with much longer cruises will be our line of choice. But even then I am guessing we will have to take 3-4 30 days cruises to reach Elite and heaven only knows what kinds of benefits will exist then.

[EBFURR]

So when comparing cruises, we factor that in. But we definitely do not let us get ruled by them, they just add to the value of the cruise in comparison.

 

Well put. That is what I was trying to say in my long winded manner. If the value added (things we actually use that would normally cost extra) make a significant difference in overall cost we factor it in. We have limited funds for any given vacation and try to make the most of it. As far as which line we choose, it is not a brand decision.

[FLSteve11]

I can respect all of that. I would say that based on our single Carnival cruise we cannot make a blanket statement that the staff is more friendly, wait staff better, guest relations better, or anything along those lines. We found things to be pretty similar. I do know that all of those things have varied on our RCI cruises from ship to ship and even on the same ship with staff rollover. I expect that would be the case on all lines. We have never had what we consider a bad cruise on any ship although we have had isolated issues on several but no deal breakers.

 

Another thing I would add along the lines of the loyalty program is that RCI does tend to change the benefits for better or worse fairly regularly. They tend to give perks and then later on remove them and possibly replace them with something that may not be of equal value. An example is that in PC they have a really nice departure lounge. On the large ships Diamonds can no longer use them because they say they have to many suite guests. This alone is not a real big deal, but it is something that you had but no longer have. The 3 drink vouchers are something that came into play when they wanted to exclude Diamond from some of the dedicated lounges and gave a "compensation". The upside is that on some ships you get both. I get the feeling that RCI would like to eliminate Diamond from the dedicated lounges altogether and leave them for Diamond+, Pinnacle, and suite guests. They think they now have "too many" diamond cruisers. The strategy seems to be to make more benefits for suites (even if it is a first timer) and jack the prices way up on those. That is fine until you start to take away things from people who have stayed with the line over many years. By the way, it seems to me that RCI Diamond seems to equate to Carnival Platinum since RCI has more tiers in the program. I will say that if RCI takes away enough from Diamond to make it so that the value added is not there we would probably take more Carnival or even NCL and MSC cruises.

 

 

 

I completely agree with the first part. You really can't compare cruise lines when you've only sailed one or two ships on them. We've had varied cruises on all the lines, so much depends on the ship, the staff, the circumstances, the chefs, etc. I tend not to make blanket statements on lines unless I've seen something that occurs on more then once cruise, or is a regular things on them.

 

As for the second, all the lines change their benefits. Norwegian just did a complete overhaul of their loyalty program just this year. Celebrity redid theirs just a couple years ago. Lines add in or take away benefits at various levels for various reasons (generally, for changes in what clients want or use, and for cost reductions). Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're bad. (I actually like the 3 drink vouchers, as I can get a free drink in the theatre before a show, or at some activity during the hours available). Suites are big ticket items, so even if I rarely sail in them (not worth the value to us generally), I don't hold anything against them getting extras for the high cost they pay. (That's different on Carnival, as they don't really do suite benefits, unlike other lines). And while Carnival Platinum/Royal Diamond might be similar in structure, the benefits on Royal at that level surpasses Carnival's.

[buddylover]

1) Everyone does not stay loyal. Many people who patronize Carnival cruise on other lines, too.

 

2) I've never experienced anything but great hospitality and service on the 6 or 7 Carnival cruises I've taken ...How do other cruise lines treat their customers better? ... Have you been abused, treated poorly or disrespected by Carnival crew?

 

 

3) I agree that Carnival's past guest benefits are the weakest of all of the cruise lines but I've always had a good time with Carnival and don't choose my cruises based on shipboard perks.

But maybe you would cruise for perks if and when you have sailed more. For those people that cruise a lot, 'perks' do come into play.....easy to say you don't choose based on 'perks' when you have not invested the time and $$ into any one cruise line to have earned anything substantial in the way of loyalty perks.

[grest]

We just love to cruise, and have been on several cruise lines. We haven't had a bad cruise yet. Why Carnival? Why not, when the price is right. For me, the ocean is the ocean is the ocean, and that's my favorite part. Some cruise lines have better perks, some ships are more lovely, some staff is more attentive, some food is better, but I cruise for the ocean...

[EBFURR]

[quote name=FLSteve11;53318959

I actually like the 3 drink vouchers' date=' as I can get a free drink in the theatre before a show, or at some activity during the hours available

 

Suites are big ticket items, so even if I rarely sail in them (not worth the value to us generally), I don't hold anything against them getting extras for the high cost they pay.

 

And while Carnival Platinum/Royal Diamond might be similar in structure, the benefits on Royal at that level surpasses Carnival's.[/quote]

 

Steve, I don't disagree with you. Let me clarify what I meant to say on those points.

 

We do like the vouchers and it is a great value added perk. I was saying how it came about and expressing my thought that RCI might be planning to leave Diamond with this perk and take away the lounge access. Just a theory and it may be wrong. I would not be shocked if it happens.

 

I don't hold anything against suite people either (unless they are the dreaded "suite snobs" :D) but I would resent RCI reducing loyalty benefits to give to suite guests. To me, that is like saying "You have been loyal to us for many years and spent a lot of money with us. We would love to continue your rewards that we gave you for that, but this other guy just gave us $2500 more for this cruise."

 

On the last point, that is what I meant. The RCI Diamond is roughly the same number of "points" but the Diamond rewards seem to be of more value.

[AdGuyMG]

But maybe you would cruise for perks if and when you have sailed more. For those people that cruise a lot, 'perks' do come into play.....easy to say you don't choose based on 'perks' when you have not invested the time and $$ into any one cruise line to have earned anything substantial in the way of loyalty perks.

 

I feel I've invested plenty.

 

 

I'm 60 years old. Have been cruising since 1983 and have taken 43 cruises spread out between 8 different cruise lines. Some long. Some short.

 

We have repeated ships on some lines and are not particularly loyal to any one cruise line and prefer the variety. Our next scheduled trip is the HAL Eurodam (for the 2nd time) in November. Last one was the Vista this past January.

 

Hopefully some day, maybe when we retire, I can catch up to you.

[cruise_everywhere]

I know some that only sail certain lines because of their 'status' but after they get on they rarely use the perks of that status and then continue to complain about the food, the atmosphere, etc.... I think everyone has their own view of what they want and expect out of a cruise.

 

For me it's all about being on vacation, being out in the middle of the ocean and enjoying every minute of it. Go out on the balcony and make some new friends at the bar.

 

IF by chance I get some free strawberries, VIP boarding, or some other perk that's great and a plus for me! If I don't... oh well!

[meatloafsfan]

Our last nonCarnival cruise really showed us what we like about Carnival.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

I second that sentiment.

 

Perks are only worth what you use.

 

I liked getting my laundry done much more than 3 drink tickets per night (I'm not really a big drinker any more).

[NOSaints1]

Do you prefer the ship or the ports and has anyone booked a b2b for the ship and not the ports

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[FLSteve11]

Steve, I don't disagree with you. Let me clarify what I meant to say on those points.

 

We do like the vouchers and it is a great value added perk. I was saying how it came about and expressing my thought that RCI might be planning to leave Diamond with this perk and take away the lounge access. Just a theory and it may be wrong. I would not be shocked if it happens.

 

I don't hold anything against suite people either (unless they are the dreaded "suite snobs" :D) but I would resent RCI reducing loyalty benefits to give to suite guests. To me, that is like saying "You have been loyal to us for many years and spent a lot of money with us. We would love to continue your rewards that we gave you for that, but this other guy just gave us $2500 more for this cruise."

 

On the last point, that is what I meant. The RCI Diamond is roughly the same number of "points" but the Diamond rewards seem to be of more value.

 

I agree with the you, and with the suites and the loss of benefits (though, I believe technically it was a suites lounge first, and then they opened it up to loyalty members). My guess is like yours, and a few others, but that it will be the concierge lounges that will be lost to D+. The Diamond lounge will be the "loyalty" lounge for Diamond and up after that. It's already happening on the Oasis/Quantum classes (with the suite lounge instead of a concierge lounge for suite guests, and a Diamond lounge for others). I think it's been a fair trade off with the drink vouchers, at least for us, as we only have 2-3 drinks anyway. In fact it's easier being able to get it around the ship. So long as there IS a lounge, we're fine with it. (I do like the 24-hr Capuccino machine in there I have to admit :) )

 

As for the overall topic (being a carnival forum :) ), I don't find any benefit worth booking a cruise line for exclusively. We have benefits on a few lines now, but that's because we liked the variety of different lines and ships. Yes, they're mostly the same, but there are differences in ship designs, activities, shows and especially dinner menus. We'll count the loyalty benefits in our decision for a cruise, but it's down the list in importance and more towards what we'll get out of a cruise overall. I've never had an awful cruise, just some are better then others, and don't have a line we won't sail. (Though been trying to get my wife to try HAL, that's more because of general demographics and how they treated my in-laws).

[pascalburns]

ten minutes to the port and I am on the ship.