Please improve 7 night Caribbean itineraries CCL!

[BlerkOne]

15 minutes ago, Tapi said:

Ever since Carnival switched to the Fascination out of San Juan, I’ve wondered what other cruise lines operating larger ships (like Norwegian Epic, Freedom of the Seas, and Celebrity Summit) are doing to capture more passengers at higher fares to fill up their San Juan based ships while Carnival struggles with that market. 

 

Settling for lower profit margins?

[SNJCruisers]

 

 

 

On 4/27/2020 at 9:41 AM, ronbe65 said:

MIA or FLL is where the Mardi Gras should have been home based BTW.

 

Happy cruising!

 

The LNG fueling area is closer to Port Canaveral.  Don't  know what will have when the sister ship to Mardi Gras comes out down the road (hopefully).

[SNJCruisers]

On 4/27/2020 at 9:48 AM, Jamman54 said:

Why not? I've done two 8 day southern cruises from Port Canaveral. The  Magic and Radiance have 8 day Southern cruises scheduled from PC.😎

 

On 4/27/2020 at 4:35 PM, amyjoy202697 said:

 

 

Radiance has 8 days scheduled out of Pt Canaveral... I am currently booked Thanksgiving week

I stand corrected.  35 cruises and not a single one out of PC.  Will do it for the first time 8/21 on the Mardi Gras.  My previous 8 day cruises have been out of MIA and NYC on Carnival.

[beshears]

I have not read all the responses, but we are planning on doing a Southern Caribbean one next year.  It is FULL of ports, one being my favorite, St. Lucia.  I have never done a 7 day where there were 6 ports.  The good part, we have been to most of them, so we will probably stay on the ship! 🙂

[Joebucks]

19 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

I'll be happy when cruising starts again. Who cares about ports. I think most people prefer 3 ports max on a 7 day cruise with some sea days tossed it.

 

Personally, I'll take a port everyday, if possible. More realistically, I'd like 4 ports. I enjoy a good sea day. A second is nice when properly spread apart. At the third, it's not as much fun as it was.

[Honolulu Blue]

19 hours ago, Tapi said:

Ever since Carnival switched to the Fascination out of San Juan, I’ve wondered what other cruise lines operating larger ships (like Norwegian Epic, Freedom of the Seas, and Celebrity Summit) are doing to capture more passengers at higher fares to fill up their San Juan based ships while Carnival struggles with that market. 

 

1) The other ships are seasonal; Fascination sails year round

2) The other ships have varying itineraries from San Juan

3) I haven't found that much difference in fares, though YMMV

[drvmywifecrzy]

Just Cruiseline hop.  Thats what I do.  Better prices and iternaries win my money

[HxFx]

5 hours ago, Joebucks said:

 

Personally, I'll take a port everyday, if possible. More realistically, I'd like 4 ports. I enjoy a good sea day. A second is nice when properly spread apart. At the third, it's not as much fun as it was.

I'm the same. I kinda like one sea day to just relax and explore the ship but I dismiss a 7 day cruise that has 3 sea days when I'm searching. All the ports that I can easily drive to have a minimum of 3 sea days on a 7 day cruise to the Caribbean 😞 

[a3593]

On 4/26/2020 at 7:59 PM, Spike2000 said:

Wow...I am the OP...this has been a busy thread today! (ha) I was simply looking for vacation options for my family and wanted to share my thoughts on why I won't been looking at CCL at the present time. Hopefully they won't limit port stops even more! I personally enjoy 4+ (good) stops on a 7 night cruise. ...and call me old school but I want to be able to truly enjoy what the islands naturally have to offer.

For example, I imagine that there are quite a few visitors to Roatan that don't realize they have world class reefs that you can reach via snorkeling.  They don't realize it because CCL doesn't want passengers to even leave their port area.(I have been to Roatan twice and it’s obvious) Similar to the private island stops, I am tired of feeling like this a captive money grab situation. I had to chuckle today when I noticed an 8 day RCCL run with TWO of their private islands in the itinerary. I know that CCL isn’t going to change anything on my account (haha). I can tell you that from my experience, I have had better itinerary’s in the past. I will continue to look for what we enjoy and hopefully we will find the right match. My whining is not limited to CCL, all of the lines are playing the same game. 😊

I agree with you.  Thats why I went over to RCCL my last two cruises, because the ports are way more interesting.  I still prefer CCL over them, but yeah, the ports need shaking up a bit. Probably has a lot to do with who will agree to charge the lowest port fees I surmise.

[Willwork4cruises]

15 hours ago, beshears said:

I have not read all the responses, but we are planning on doing a Southern Caribbean one next year.  It is FULL of ports, one being my favorite, St. Lucia.  I have never done a 7 day where there were 6 ports.  The good part, we have been to most of them, so we will probably stay on the ship! 🙂

Please tell me which ship and date are you sailing with 6 ports.  We did one previously and would love to do another.  Here is a link to my review of our 6 port sailing on the

fascination. 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2549488-ayrin-amber-and-maddie-on-a-fascinating-cruise-may-27-2018/?tab=comments#comment-54951471

[HxFx]

13 minutes ago, Willwork4cruises said:

Please tell me which ship and date are you sailing with 6 ports.  We did one previously and would love to do another.  Here is a link to my review of our 6 port sailing on the

fascination. 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2549488-ayrin-amber-and-maddie-on-a-fascinating-cruise-may-27-2018/?tab=comments#comment-54951471

For major lines, out of San Juan, Freedom of the Seas and Empress of the Seas have a 6 ports/no sea days routes. Depends on timing. For FOS I found them through the end of November. For EOS it looks like it begins in November and found them as late as next April. They also have 5 port routes, along with Carnival Fascination and Enchantment of the seas. I could be missing some others. There are also the smaller, more luxury cruise lines with 6 ports. I'm looking at November cruises and will likely do a 5 or 6 port cruise if it works out.

[Willwork4cruises]

13 minutes ago, HxFx said:

For major lines, out of San Juan, Freedom of the Seas and Empress of the Seas have a 6 ports/no sea days routes. Depends on timing. For FOS I found them through the end of November. For EOS it looks like it begins in November and found them as late as next April. They also have 5 port routes, along with Carnival Fascination and Enchantment of the seas. I could be missing some others. There are also the smaller, more luxury cruise lines with 6 ports. I'm looking at November cruises and will likely do a 5 or 6 port cruise if it works out.

Thanks so much for that.  We mainly cruise Carnival but I may need to branch out.  I love no sea days. 

[HxFx]

50 minutes ago, Willwork4cruises said:

Thanks so much for that.  We mainly cruise Carnival but I may need to branch out.  I love no sea days. 

Oops, the Empress cruises don't start until November 2021. I work in multiple budget years at work and I tend to get mixed up on which one I'm actually in!!

[SNJCruisers]

4 hours ago, HxFx said:

I'm the same. I kinda like one sea day to just relax and explore the ship but I dismiss a 7 day cruise that has 3 sea days when I'm searching. All the ports that I can easily drive to have a minimum of 3 sea days on a 7 day cruise to the Caribbean 😞 

After 31 cruises to the Caribbean, I mainly cruise for the ship these days, preferring the newer ones.  I'd prefer 5 sea days and 1 port stop to satisfy the requirement, but I know this won't happen since the vast majority  of cruisers cruise for the ports, not the ship.

Edited April 29, 2020 by SNJCruisers

[beshears]

Willworkforcruises, I believe someone already answered your question about the ships.  I did enjoy your posting, but unfortunately most of the pictures did not show up for ME, I don't know why, but at least I could read what you posted, as I seen some of your itinerary was a little different than what we plan to do.  Yes as I believe someone already mentioned, the ship I am talking about is the Carnival Fascination. I have been blessed to do a lot of cruising over 25 years, but never had this many ports (someone mentioned that the Fascination cruised all year long, which I did not know) at one time.  If it wasn't for St. Lucia that I fell in love with many years ago, I probably would not be having my 3 sons/3 d-i-l's and friend going that direction. I did tell them "if" they did not want to get off the ship at each port, they didn't have to, as I just wanted to make sure they SEEN St. Lucia the way I did!  The ports for the end of February that we may be doing, or the end of March are: San Juan, St. Thomas, St. Maartin, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, and Barbados.

[WhaleTailFlCruiser]

On 4/26/2020 at 6:33 PM, SNJCruisers said:

The Mardi Gras can't do an 8 day southern because it's home port is Port Canaveral.  It would have to be home based in either MIA or FLL in order to do it.  The other southern choices are based out of San Juan and usually are done with a Fantasy Class ship.

 

That simply is not true, The Radiance is set to do 8 day Eastern/Southern Itineraries out of PC. I am in fact booked on the Radiance for an 8 day Southern in January. 

[WhaleTailFlCruiser]

On 4/27/2020 at 9:41 AM, ronbe65 said:

MIA or FLL is where the Mardi Gras should have been home based BTW.

 

Happy cruising!

 

 

No it shouldn't have, IT is high time that Orlando and or Tampa got the new ship first. 

[Joe817]

14 minutes ago, WhaleTailFlCruiser said:

 

No it shouldn't have, IT is high time that Orlando and or Tampa got the new ship first. 

I believe it's more of an issue of refueling logistics, as Mardi Gras is the first to implement LNG, and as far as I know, the only facility capable of refueling a LNG ship is located close to P.C. 

[jeremyosborne81]

On 4/28/2020 at 10:53 AM, BlerkOne said:

 

With Mardi Gras for a name, New Orleans is the only port that makes sense.

 

That's a nice idea but getting up the Mississippi River is limiting in ship size.

[CheersPkg4Us]

Yes we think itineraries should be upgraded. We also think/ hope the Mardi Gras winds up in Miami. It's just so much easier to get to than Canaveral or Everglades !

[BlerkOne]

50 minutes ago, jeremyosborne81 said:

 

That's a nice idea but getting up the Mississippi River is limiting in ship size.

 

Not that I'm aware of. NCL Bliss (168,000 tons) cruises from New Orleans.

[SNJCruisers]

1 hour ago, CheersPkg4Us said:

Yes we think itineraries should be upgraded. We also think/ hope the Mardi Gras winds up in Miami. It's just so much easier to get to than Canaveral or Everglades !

The Mardi Gras will not be repositioned to MIA unless there is a LNG refueling area built nearby.  And how is MIA so much easier to get to than Everglades?  You can fly into either FLL or MIA easily no matter which port of embarkation you're using.

[ray98]

Meh....I can't see how anyone could get excited about that itinerary.   All run of the mill stops most seasoned cruisers have been to a dozen times plus I avoid cruises with 4 port days.

[HxFx]

9 hours ago, WhaleTailFlCruiser said:

 

No it shouldn't have, IT is high time that Orlando and or Tampa got the new ship first. 

I wish Tampa could get one. The Sunshine Skyway bridge gets in the way! At one point they were looking at different options but all very expensive.

[WhaleTailFlCruiser]

5 hours ago, HxFx said:

I wish Tampa could get one. The Sunshine Skyway bridge gets in the way! At one point they were looking at different options but all very expensive.

 

I wish they would since I live all of 45mins to the north of Tampa.