Pixels Plus & Pixels Max discontinued

[Hooked On Cruising 4ever]

John Heald just posted this

 

Some photo news for you so if you have a moment please do have a quick read of this for me Effective today, May 2, 2018, we are no longer offering the Pixels Plus or Pixels Max photo packages.

Despite our very good intentions, we simply did not anticipate the demand for these packages and our ability to deliver them to our guests onboard.

We will honor the packages for those guests who have purchased them prior to this announcement. We will continue to offer the Pixels package that includes five photos for professional printing on board and one photo as a 16" x 20" canvas portrait for $99.98 pre-cruise and $119.98 on embarkation day.

Going forward, we will be evaluating new packages that both meet the expectations and needs of our guests and our onboard photo team

——————-

I realise that there may be a small dollop of disappointment so please do post your thoughts to me below and I will make sure the beards see them

I hope you will take advantage of the $99.98 package that included a superb canvas of your favourite cruise photo memory.

[bingomamma19]

I just saw that on his page. I knew that was coming, there is no way carnival could keep up with people wanting 50 or more prints, and I cant believe most would even need that many.

 

I think the overzealousness of trying to get the most out of the packages by cruisers did this in big time.

 

They are keeping the 5 print with canvas for 99--that's the one I was interested in, so glad to hear that.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

John Heald just posted this

 

Some photo news for you so if you have a moment please do have a quick read of this for me Effective today, May 2, 2018, we are no longer offering the Pixels Plus or Pixels Max photo packages.

Despite our very good intentions, we simply did not anticipate the demand for these packages and our ability to deliver them to our guests onboard.

We will honor the packages for those guests who have purchased them prior to this announcement. We will continue to offer the Pixels package that includes five photos for professional printing on board and one photo as a 16" x 20" canvas portrait for $99.98 pre-cruise and $119.98 on embarkation day.

Going forward, we will be evaluating new packages that both meet the expectations and needs of our guests and our onboard photo team

——————-

I realise that there may be a small dollop of disappointment so please do post your thoughts to me below and I will make sure the beards see them

I hope you will take advantage of the $99.98 package that included a superb canvas of your favourite cruise photo memory.

 

That's a switch, canceling something because it's too popular.

 

Bill

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

How long has it been, a month? They had the original package, the crazy price increase for a day, and the current package, and now this announcement?

 

 

They couldn't anticipate it would be popular?

 

 

They couldn't anticipate people would take more pictures?

 

 

I'm willing to bet everyone reading this forum would know the correct answers to those.

 

 

This proves that oftentimes, businesses have no clue what they are doing. The level of complete incompetence of these highly paid decision makers is truly astounding.

[tinalouise69]

Not sure why they discontinued on the ships that offer the digital version. Would have been nice for them to just adjust to unlimited digital with a few prints (10?) and then repackage as digital offerings for other ships as they were able to roll out. Have loved the digital only option on other (not to be named) cruise lines and no need to lots of prints to lay around my house.

 

My family and I are scheduled to go on Carnival Horizon out of NYC in June and were looking forward to purchasing this package. Was just waiting to get my Carnival Gift Card (10% off) from Allstate Drivewise Rewards. Hoping they will bring back on digital enabled ships before we set sail - otherwise we will not buy any pictures as they are far too expensive to justify.

[rs45thompson]

I'm just glad I bought mine when I did.

 

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[Keys2Heaven]

I just saw that on his page. I knew that was coming, there is no way carnival could keep up with people wanting 50 or more prints, and I cant believe most would even need that many.

 

I think the overzealousness of trying to get the most out of the packages by cruisers did this in big time.

 

They are keeping the 5 print with canvas for 99--that's the one I was interested in, so glad to hear that.

 

Whoa now. If you want to talk about waste....how about the thousands of pictures that they print, stick in the racks that nobody buys! What is the cost not only to print but to dispose of these!

 

We had the Pixels Plus Digital package last week on the Glory and easily accumulated approx 80 photos after visiting the photographers on elegant nights (including group photos with family). Don't recall any photographer checking to see if we've already had enough pictures taken! We didn't have any port pictures taken, nor any casual night photos. In fact, when we cruise, we primarily only have pics taken during elegant nights.

 

And, guess what, they printed ALL of them and stuck them in the racks like THEY HAVE ALWAYS DONE FOR EVERYONE!!! (not including the newer ships like Vista/Horizon) So, I FAIL to see where there is any abuse by ANYONE who had these packages.

 

And if these people took ALL their photos off the ship with them, what's it to Carnival. They didn't have dispose of them. The only thing Carnival would have to had done was transfer the pictures to a USB drive (if they had that package). If the customer wanted anything else, say a canvas of a print, they would still have to pay for it.

 

Perhaps it was a logistics/storage thing for them as they had to create a folder for people with these packages and put their pictures in. Then, on the last day before debarkation, they would have to transfer these images to USB. Maybe that's the time consuming part.

 

As for us, we took our 80 pics back to the room, sorted through them and picked out 30 that we really like and that we will give to family and friends. I took the ones we didn't want and disposed of them back in the gallery. But, all of these were on the USB drive we received.

 

In the end it's about revenue. What's an 8x10 cost...$15? So, someone took all of the 8x10's off the ship with them that were already printed and in the racks because they had the Plus/Digital package. Let's say there were 80 8x10's they took off....80 x $15 = $1200. They paid (before price increase)....$249 for the digital package....a potential $951 loss (or more) of revenue?

 

In my opinion, someone figured the "demand" of people taking their photos with them instead of buying, was going to create a huge loss of revenue, so buh-bye to the unlimited packages. Carnival must already have their algorithms tweaked for disposal as there isn't any change to them printing pics on ships that are not fully digital yet.

Edited May 2, 2018 by Keys2Heaven

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

Whoa now. If you want to talk about waste....how about the thousands of pictures that they print, stick in the racks that nobody buys! What is the cost not only to print but to dispose of these!

 

We had the Pixels Plus Digital package last week on the Glory and easily accumulated approx 80 photos after visiting the photographers on elegant nights (including group photos with family). Don't recall any photographer checking to see if we've already had enough pictures taken! We didn't have any port pictures taken, nor any casual night photos. In fact, when we cruise, we primarily only have pics taken during elegant nights.

 

And, guess what, they printed ALL of them and stuck them in the racks like THEY HAVE ALWAYS DONE FOR EVERYONE!!! (not including the newer ships like Vista/Horizon) So, I FAIL to see where there is any abuse by ANYONE who had these packages.

 

And if these people took ALL their photos off the ship with them, what's it to Carnival. They didn't have dispose of them. The only thing Carnival would have to had done was transfer the pictures to a USB drive. If the customer wanted anything else, say a canvas of a print, they would still have to pay for it.

 

Perhaps it was a logistics/storage thing for them as they had to create a folder for people with these packages and put their pictures in. Then, on the last day before debarkation, they would have to transfer these images to USB. Maybe that's the time consuming part.

 

As for us, we took our 80 pics back to the room, sorted through them and picked out 30 that we really like and that we will give to family and friends. I took the ones we didn't want and disposed of them back in the gallery. But, all of these were on the USB drive we received.

Yep.

 

If they had any brains at all, they would have converted all the ships to digital photo galleries years ago, and offered unlimited packages.

 

Then:

Increased revenues would have skyrocketed

Costs of pixel program would have tumbled without so much wasted printing

 

Eliminating the unlimited package on the ships that are already digital is just throwing money down the toilet.

 

No wonder they need so many cutbacks. They need to balance out bone headed moves like this fiasco has been.

[loxley]

I just saw that on his page. I knew that was coming, there is no way carnival could keep up with people wanting 50 or more prints, and I cant believe most would even need that many.

 

I think the overzealousness of trying to get the most out of the packages by cruisers did this in big time.

 

They are keeping the 5 print with canvas for 99--that's the one I was interested in, so glad to hear that.

I would buy it real quick if you know what I mean.

 

PS. I knew the other packages were not going to work out.

 

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[jimbo5544]

How long has it been' date=' a month? They had the original package, the crazy price increase for a day, and the current package, and now this announcement?

 

 

They couldn't anticipate it would be popular?

 

 

They couldn't anticipate people would take more pictures?

 

 

I'm willing to bet everyone reading this forum would know the correct answers to those.

 

 

This proves that oftentimes, businesses have no clue what they are doing. The level of complete incompetence of these highly paid decision makers is truly astounding.[/quote']

 

 

 

How does one define complete incompetence? How do you anticipate how popular something will be? Oh wait, I should have read the next line. Everyone knows but the experts.... you have to love cruise critic......

 

Never fails to amaze me the experts we have here, if only Carnival (among others) knew they only need ask here for what the right thing to do really was. Go figure.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[bingomamma19]

Whoa now. If you want to talk about waste....how about the thousands of pictures that they print, stick in the racks that nobody buys! What is the cost not only to print but to dispose of these!

 

We had the Pixels Plus Digital package last week on the Glory and easily accumulated approx 80 photos after visiting the photographers on elegant nights (including group photos with family). Don't recall any photographer checking to see if we've already had enough pictures taken! We didn't have any port pictures taken, nor any casual night photos. In fact, when we cruise, we primarily only have pics taken during elegant nights.

 

And, guess what, they printed ALL of them and stuck them in the racks like THEY HAVE ALWAYS DONE FOR EVERYONE!!! (not including the newer ships like Vista/Horizon) So, I FAIL to see where there is any abuse by ANYONE who had these packages.

 

And if these people took ALL their photos off the ship with them, what's it to Carnival. They didn't have dispose of them. The only thing Carnival would have to had done was transfer the pictures to a USB drive. If the customer wanted anything else, say a canvas of a print, they would still have to pay for it.

 

Perhaps it was a logistics/storage thing for them as they had to create a folder for people with these packages and put their pictures in. Then, on the last day before debarkation, they would have to transfer these images to USB. Maybe that's the time consuming part.

 

As for us, we took our 80 pics back to the room, sorted through them and picked out 30 that we really like and that we will give to family and friends. I took the ones we didn't want and disposed of them back in the gallery. But, all of these were on the USB drive we received.

 

In the end it's about revenue. What's an 8x10 cost...$15? So, someone took all of the 8x10's off the ship with them that were already printed and in the racks because they had the Plus/Digital package. Let's say there were 80 8x10's they took off....80 x $15 = $1200. They paid (before price increase)....$249 for the package....$951 loss of revenue?

 

In my opinion, someone figured the "demand" of people taking their photos with them instead of buying, was going to create a huge loss of revenue, so buh-bye to the unlimited packages. Carnival must already have their algorithms tweaked for disposal as there isn't any change to them printing pics on ships that are not fully digital yet.

 

First off, calm down a bit :)

 

Yes, carnival prints each picture, but these packages were allowing you to print up to 50 of the same one (if I am understanding the rules--which were confusing), so that is a lot of extra work.

 

Also, if you know you are able to pick unlimited pictures, it sets in peoples mind that they should just take way more casual and elegant ones--more to choose from since you get so many with that package.

 

Obviously this was completely overwhelming the photo area (which is already crazy at most times), probably causing a lot of anger, which creates a bad situation for everyone.

 

I also think it is a huge waste to print all those pics that just sit there for people to find--apparently they recycle those, so that creates some payback. I doubt most people were ever buying more than a few--so saying carnival could have made 1200 on 80 of them is mute. Most people, especially experienced ones are immune to the lure of getting all their pics. I rarely even buy 1 anymore.

 

This has created some short term chaos for carnival and some bad feelings, so they obviously didn't do it on purpose to save money in the end.

[Keys2Heaven]

Yep.

 

If they had any brains at all' date=' they would have converted all the ships to digital photo galleries years ago, and offered unlimited packages.

 

Then:

Increased revenues would have skyrocketed

Costs of pixel program would have tumbled without so much wasted printing

 

Eliminating the unlimited package on the ships that are already digital is just throwing money down the toilet.

 

No wonder they need so many cutbacks. They need to balance out bone headed moves like this fiasco has been.[/quote']

 

Maybe they realized the issue the unlimited packages would cause in the future when the entire fleet is converted to digital photo galleries.

[Qchell]

I honestly thought this was a huge endeavor when I first read they were doing this, especially considering how popular I thought these options were going to be. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to ensure that every picture taken of you (your child, your spouse, etc.) during the cruise were all put on a single thumb drive and also to ensure that all the pictures were put on the correct person's thumb drive. Never mind tracking which to be printed, which not to be, etc. I can see where someone could easily make a mistake and then "ruin" someone's entire cruise because the one picture they wanted was not on their thumb drive...

 

The rest of John Heald's post goes on to state that they are working on new packages.

 

Carnival is not going to pass up this money maker. They are going to find a way to make money and ensure they can actually provide you with what you order. Ups to them for at least admitting that they are having a hard time providing the service that they were offering and state that they are going to fulfill the orders already made. They could easily just give you the smaller package and refund the difference in OBC so it still gets spent on the ship.

[Keys2Heaven]

First off, calm down a bit :)

 

Yes, carnival prints each picture, but these packages were allowing you to print up to 50 of the same one (if I am understanding the rules--which were confusing), so that is a lot of extra work.

 

Also, if you know you are able to pick unlimited pictures, it sets in peoples mind that they should just take way more casual and elegant ones--more to choose from since you get so many with that package.

 

Obviously this was completely overwhelming the photo area (which is already crazy at most times), probably causing a lot of anger, which creates a bad situation for everyone.

 

I also think it is a huge waste to print all those pics that just sit there for people to find--apparently they recycle those, so that creates some payback. I doubt most people were ever buying more than a few--so saying carnival could have made 1200 on 80 of them is mute. Most people, especially experienced ones are immune to the lure of getting all their pics. I rarely even buy 1 anymore.

 

I'm always calm! :)

 

If someone wanted 50 of a specific pic, then I can understand the issue somewhat more. I didn't read the rules like that though. But, as you said, it's a moot point now.

 

The photo area is crazy, which is why we just turned our prints in to look through later, knowing we would discard many of these. We tried standing off to the side, but within a couple of minutes were so crowded we couldn't flip through them like we wanted to. And hat's off to Vista, as we LOVED being able to view these via our monitor in the cabin and order the ones we wanted.

 

And package or no package, some people will have photos taken every night and at every port, with no intention of purchasing. On non-digital ships, Carnival still prints these and disposes/recycles thousands every week.

 

I think someone mentioned on here (not sure how true), that the photogs get paid (in part) by the number of pics they take anyway.

[geckoaz]

When i was on the vista i had to hunt digitally for prints...do they still print all?? A few years back the dream had facial recognition for pictures. Of couse it had linked me to another person of wrong sex and race. So digital alone is not perfect

[harpat0408]

Glad I bought the big package the day it first was available

 

 

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[MBP1]

They should do away with prints entirely. It is 2018, they need to move to a cloud-based photo service where people can just pay to download the photos when they get home. They can offer unlimited packages or people can pay per picture, folks can then do whatever they want with the photos; get prints, put them on shirts, make a calendar etc.

 

As a side note Carnival needs to get a better PR person than John Heald, he's obnoxious and a bad face for the company. He may have been popular in days past, but for someone who is younger and new to cruising I find him off-putting.

[Keys2Heaven]

They should do away with prints entirely. It is 2018, they need to move to a cloud-based photo service where people can just pay to download the photos when they get home. They can offer unlimited packages or people can pay per picture, folks can then do whatever they want with the photos; get prints, put them on shirts, make a calendar etc.

 

As a side note Carnival needs to get a better PR person than John Heald, he's obnoxious and a bad face for the company. He may have been popular in days past, but for someone who is younger and new to cruising I find him off-putting.

 

You mean something like Shutterfly. I wouldn't mind being able to create our own photo albums with a mix of personal photos and photos taken by Carnival photogs. Guess we can use Shutterfly for this, but something Carnival could think about.

[Lottacruises]

I heard that the ones that didn't sell were offered on the next cruise at half price... good deal if you look like one of the previous cruisers

[Brown815]

I was on the fence about whether to buy the Pixels Plus for August; glad the decision was made for me, because I was having a little agita, lol.

[LaHas2016]

First off, I'm glad I jumped on board and bought our package when I did. I don't need every single one in print, but I love having digital images available. Like a previous poster mentioned - making a calendar with my cruise memories is a wonderful idea!

 

That being said, I know Carnival was hoping for great things with these packages. Unfortunately it got a little bigger than initially anticipated and ended up collapsing in on itself. I would love to see an all digital package available in the future for all ships. After purchasing the rights to the photos I can print them however I want, from whomever I want. I am a fan of that option.

[Nightrythm]

Cloud services are not a simple answer. The ship would really need to wait to get into port to upload photos. Satellite is just not a good answer for that. It will also take lots of bandwidth to do that. Not to mention, the cost of maintaining servers. Then there's the question of server security.

 

As well as the thing they may be getting stuck on now, which is having a human available to review photo sets to make sure the facial recognition didn't botch something and put the wrong pictures in with the wrong Folio #.

[MBP1]

Cloud services are not a simple answer. The ship would really need to wait to get into port to upload photos. Satellite is just not a good answer for that. It will also take lots of bandwidth to do that. Not to mention, the cost of maintaining servers. Then there's the question of server security.

 

As well as the thing they may be getting stuck on now, which is having a human available to review photo sets to make sure the facial recognition didn't botch something and put the wrong pictures in with the wrong Folio #.

 

A cloud service is a very simple answer. Photos would not need to be uploaded constantly, there nothing wrong with waiting until you get into port or the end of the cruise. Cloud storage is not expensive (I can get 1TB of storage for $10/month), I'm sure Carnival could negotiate great rates with a company. The photos do not have to be stored forever either, Carnival can give people a window like 3 or 6 months to purchase online. Carnival could then eliminate the Pixel area on the ship and turn it into some other revenue generating area. Maintaining printers on the ship can't be cheap, plus the profits from selling a file vs. a printed photo will probably be better. When it comes to security I wouldn't be too worried, they can work with a cloud provider to make sure stuff is encrypted. Not sure how photo identification works on ships, do they scan you S&S card before/after taking your picture or do they really have facial recognition?

[Ehpride]

Glad I already bought it. With 8 nights, we'll easily get our money's worth.

[naz022292]

We were on the Vista the week of 4/15. There were tons of lines of people waiting for pictures every night. As a matter of fact, we didn't bother getting pictures on Elegant Night because we didn't want to wait in line. There were people using their turn as a personal photo shoot. There would be a group of 6 or 8 people and it would take 30 minutes while they took individual, couple, group, etc... pictures. Don't get me wrong, I don't blame anyone... they bought the package and wanted to take advantage of the benefits! It just made for a real bottleneck in the lobby and discouraged those of us that normally just buy one each cruise from bothering.