Carnival expands service to Alaska

[jimbo5544]

John Heald announces today that Carnival Freedom will begin weekly cruises to Alaska from Seattle in April 2021 and Carnival Miracle will do 10 and 11 day cruises from San Francisco in May 2021 

Edited October 24, 2019 by jimbo5544
Typo

[xDisconnections]

Saw that. Even though the Freedom was one of my more enjoyable Carnival experience, I’d sooner choose to Come Back New and sail with Princess to Alaska.

 

For Alaska, Princess and Holland America Line simply have more experience in the area and provide a better overall value with more options.

[jimbo5544]

While I have not checked in a while, I doubt either of those would price out at the same price point.  That said, I think for land packages, HAL offers the most, but Princess thinks they OWN Alaska.

[xDisconnections]

2 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

While I have not checked in a while, I doubt either of those would price out at the same price point.  That said, I think for land packages, HAL offers the most, but Princess thinks they OWN Alaska.

Sure but I’m nowhere near ready for Holland America yet. I’m still one of the youngest passengers onboard my Princess cruises if they are longer than 7 days.

 

For what its worth though, pricing wise, Carnival is usually at the same price or more expensive than Princess when sailing to Alaska if it gets closer to the sail date. At least that mirrors my experience when planning Alaska cruises. After the final payment date, they can be deeply discounted. 

[jimbo5544]

Just now, xDisconnections said:

Sure but I’m nowhere near ready for Holland America yet. I’m still one of the youngest passengers onboard my Princess cruises if they are longer than 7 days.

 

For what its worth though, pricing wise, Carnival is usually at the same price or more expensive than Princess when sailing to Alaska if it gets closer to the sail date. At least that mirrors my experience when planning Alaska cruises. After the final payment date, they can be deeply discounted. 

We do not book a lot, but this past year booked some good clients.  Looked at HAL, Princess and Celebrity and briefly CCL and they were not the same, but will not belabor the point beyond that.  I am impressed with Carnival offering some variety, the cruises from San Fran caught my attention.  Have not looked farther than that yet though.

[xDisconnections]

1 minute ago, jimbo5544 said:

We do not book a lot, but this past year booked some good clients.  Looked at HAL, Princess and Celebrity and briefly CCL and they were not the same, but will not belabor the point beyond that.  I am impressed with Carnival offering some variety, the cruises from San Fran caught my attention.  Have not looked farther than that yet though.

Agreed- it was an interesting one. I really enjoyed sailing into San Francisco when we did a repositioning cruise on the Star Princess from Vancouver.

[bamelin]

The 10 night itinerary on the Miracle out of San Francisco directly competes with Princess 10 night out of San Francisco.  For Californians this is good news, a second option for cruising to Alaska from a homeport.

[cathyz]

49 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

John Heald announces today that Carnival Freedom will begin weekly cruises to Alaska from Seattle in April 2021 and Carnival Miracle will do 10 and 11 day cruises from San Francisco in May 2021 

The Miracle is actually doing a few 10 and 11 day cruises from SF next year also, we're booked on the August 2020 cruise.

[marci4tony]

Price point - We had a minisuite on Celebrity that was less than a balcony on Carnival

 

Just sayin...

[bafinegan]

15 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

We do not book a lot, but this past year booked some good clients.  Looked at HAL, Princess and Celebrity and briefly CCL and they were not the same, but will not belabor the point beyond that.  I am impressed with Carnival offering some variety, the cruises from San Fran caught my attention.  Have not looked farther than that yet though.

Hubbs and I booked a 10 day Alaska Premier cruise out of San Francisco for Aug 202 on the Miracle. Couldn' believe the price we got!

baf

[jimbo5544]

18 minutes ago, marci4tony said:

Price point - We had a minisuite on Celebrity that was less than a balcony on Carnival

 

Just sayin...

LOL, then I guess you got a good deal.  

[bamelin]

21 minutes ago, marci4tony said:

Price point - We had a minisuite on Celebrity that was less than a balcony on Carnival

 

Just sayin...

 

One of the big issues for families with Alaska is that Alaska is underserved by the Mainstream Family cruise lines (Norwegian, RCCL and Carnival).   Supply versus demand -- the big family ships like Norwegian Joy, Bliss, RCCL's Ovation of the Seas --- they are in big demand as more and more Americans with kids are choosing to sail Alaska.

 

This in turn drives up rates on the mainstream family ships, compared to Premium lines like CEL, HAL and Princess.

 

With that said, between this year and 2021 there is a mad rush of mainstream cruise lines all trying to get a piece of the Alaska cruise business.  So I suspect that prices will rebalance soon back to where they should be (with mainstream lines costing less than premium).

 

We will see though!

Edited October 24, 2019 by bamelin

[jimbo5544]

2 minutes ago, bamelin said:

 

One of the big issues for families with Alaska is that Alaska is underserved by the Mainstream Family cruise lines (Norwegian, RCCL and Carnival).   Supply versus demand -- the big family ships like Norwegian Joy, Bliss, RCCL's Ovation of the Seas --- they are in big demand as more and more Americans with kids are choosing to sail Alaska.

 

This in turn drives up rates on the mainstream family ships, compared to Premium lines like CEL, HAL and Princess.

 

With that said, between this year and 2021 there is a mad rush of mainstream cruise lines all trying to get a piece of the Alaska cruise business.  So I suspect that prices will rebalance soon back to where they should be (with mainstream lines costing less than premium).

 

We will see though!

Cannot argue that.  Having more ships helps the price point.  That said, port congestion could be a entirely different discussion.  As I think back to our Alaskan cruises, some of these ports were pretty busy with 2 ships, 4 would be a cluster....

[marci4tony]

7 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

LOL, then I guess you got a good deal.  

The cabin was great - the concierge service was pretty cool too!  

 

BUT....

 

I am a Carnival customer.  I was unimpressed by CEL management, food, entertainment.

I will not stray again.  But it gives me something to compare with, right?

[bamelin]

1 minute ago, jimbo5544 said:

Cannot argue that.  Having more ships helps the price point.  That said, port congestion could be a entirely different discussion.  As I think back to our Alaskan cruises, some of these ports were pretty busy with 2 ships, 4 would be a cluster....

 

I know.  It's a big worry too in terms of what it will do to the "big 3" stops (Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan).  I think Carnival bought the port at Skagway or something like that?   Noticing more and more ships with CEL in particular are not getting Skagway on the itineraries.

[scpirate]

8 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

While I have not checked in a while, I doubt either of those would price out at the same price point.  That said, I think for land packages, HAL offers the most, but Princess thinks they OWN Alaska.

Not everyone is as great a carnival fan as you.ive watched a few of your videos.your favoritism shows.i would rather pay the extra.i think it's worth it.there are better lines for outside the carribean.

[jimbo5544]

12 minutes ago, scpirate said:

Not everyone is as great a carnival fan as you.ive watched a few of your videos.your favoritism shows.i would rather pay the extra.i think it's worth it.there are better lines for outside the carribean.

My videos?

[stobe1]

That 17 day reposition on Freedom to Seattle is very tempting.  Lots of sea days, which we love, and a full canal transit.

 

 We are booked on the 14 day partial Panama Canal on January 2021 on Freedom but may rebook it to the repositioning cruise.

Edited October 25, 2019 by stobe1

[jlcloy]

We took the Alaskan Cruise this year with three families. I started looking for options in June of 2018 for May 2019. When pricing, I checked Princess, RCL, NCL, CCL. When I was looking for a two person cabin, Princess usually came out a little cheaper. Where the big difference in prices came, was in a family of four. Carnival’s guest 3 and 4 rate was usually $299 pp.  Princess’s rate could be as much as $599 pp I guest 3 and 4. 
 

It’s good that Carnival is finally deploying a larger ship to Alaska. I liked the Spirit class, but the other lines have larger ships covering the area. 

[Illbcruzn4life]

4 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

My videos?

 

I'm just guessing but I think he is referring to Jim Zim's video's on you tube.

[jimbo5544]

6 hours ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

 

I'm just guessing but I think he is referring to Jim Zim's video's on you tube.

Thought it was a full moon.  He being such a fan of me 😎, you would think he would get it right. 

[Theosprey247]

Ha!

[13cheermom]

This was also our experience, when comparing Princess to Alaska vs. Carnival.  Princess came out better with more perks added in that we normally pay for with Carnival.  We cruise Carnival most of the time, however we had a lot of people suggest Princess while on other cruises for going to Alaska.  Looking forward to our cruise May 2020 for the inside passage next year and a new ship experience!

[sergeant655]

Carnival should also resume the 1 way Alaska sailings they did untill 2009 .  They are currently the only brand owned by ccl that does Alaska sailings that do not have one way offerings. Also Victoria has just approved a motion to limit cruise ship call by not signing any additional contracts until a environmentally friendly solution like shore power can be implemented.

[BlerkOne]

19 hours ago, stobe1 said:

That 17 day reposition on Freedom to Seattle is very tempting.  Lots of sea days, which we love, and a full canal transit.

 

             ^^^^^^^ -This!!!  11 sea days I believe.

 

As for Alaska cruises, the water, whales, and most ports are all the same. There will be a naturalist on the ship. It's about the scenery, not the partying. I find the ship mostly irrelevant.

 

If you want Glacier Bay, though, Carnival Cruise is locked out for a decade. HAL, Princess, Seabourn, even Cunard will have available.

https://www.nps.gov/glba/learn/news/glacier-bay-issues-new-contracts-for-cruise-ship-services.htm