Will Carnival be in Europe 2024? What boat?

[Eli_6]

I noticed the Pride is now in Baltimore for summer 2024 so I am wondering if: 1) Will Carnival do Euorpe 2024 at all?  and 2) If they do, what boat will be sailing there?

 

If anyone has the scoop, please share.

[Jamman54]

Yes, will probably be the Legend.

[kwokpot]

3 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

Yes, will probably be the Legend.

Why are they putting the dumpy old ships in Europe? 

[staceyglow]

13 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

Why are they putting the dumpy old ships in Europe? 

I am not sure what you are talking about.  The Pride, one of our favorite ships, was in Europe last summer.

 

In any case, I am going to guess there are 2 primary reasons.

 

1.  They don't need a 6,500 passenger ship in Europe because the demand is not there. 

2.  European trips are all about the ports of call, so you don't need all the fancier onboard stuff that a newer ship has. 

[BlerkOne]

Carnival Corp already has a number of ships in Europe.

 

It is not unusual for Carnival Cruise Line to lose money when sailing Europe. It is primarily an American cruise line and Americans are notoriously fickle for cancelling if the wind changes direction. An illness here, a terrorist strike there, etc., etc.

 

I wouldn't expect Carnival to push Europe 2024 soon and risk cannibalizing  2023 sails.

[coffeeboy77]

The Pride or Legend would not entice me.  I like the layout of the older ships and they do tend to be less crowded.  However, we prefer ships with more dining and entertainment options.  

[staceyglow]

6 minutes ago, coffeeboy77 said:

The Pride or Legend would not entice me.  I like the layout of the older ships and they do tend to be less crowded.  However, we prefer ships with more dining and entertainment options.  

I don't think most people cruise Europe to take advantage of ship dining and entertainment options.  We had some great food in Italy and Greece before the cruise and at the different ports, and after day-long shore excursions visiting  all of the sights, we were too tired to take advantage of much of the onboard entertainment.  We would see one show or watch the band in the Red Frog Pub for a little while, and we were in bed early.

[coffeeboy77]

We just cruised Alaska on the Spirit in September.  We got off in every port and enjoyed what each stop had to offer…but you still have to come back to the ship.  We were thoroughly disappointed with the Spirit.  With the exception of the comedians, the entertainment was downright sad.  The buffet food was NEVER hot and constantly lined up with closed stations. the MDR was mediocre, again, the food was never hot and service execution was so so.  If you compare this to what other cruise lines offer in Alaska, there are a lot of newer ships with all the bells and whistles.  The Spirit did me in for older ships.  I would look at other lines, for example msc, and compare them to the hardware carnival is offering.

[kwokpot]

1 hour ago, staceyglow said:

I am not sure what you are talking about.  The Pride, one of our favorite ships, was in Europe last summer.

 

In any case, I am going to guess there are 2 primary reasons.

 

1.  They don't need a 6,500 passenger ship in Europe because the demand is not there. 

2.  European trips are all about the ports of call, so you don't need all the fancier onboard stuff that a newer ship has. 

Yes, I know because I was on the Pride for 32 days in May and June and the Pride is definitely not my favorite ship. It's in dire need of some refurbishment and the food was subpar. 

A Vista Class ship would be great. 

Edited December 3, 2022 by kwokpot

[BlerkOne]

For me, the choice of ship in Europe is irrelevant. We go for the ports and cruises that are port intensive. Thay means long, full day tours most days, and little energy left to care what the ship has other than dinner and a comfortable bed 

[trvlgirlmq]

Legend is on the port schedule for Athens in September/October 2024.

 

I cruised the Vista in 2016 and it was great. I agree that the ship is also important and we like more dining choices and fun things to do. I would choose Royal or NCL for Europe since they send bigger ships.

[kwokpot]

10 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

For me, the choice of ship in Europe is irrelevant. We go for the ports and cruises that are port intensive. Thay means long, full day tours most days, and little energy left to care what the ship has other than dinner and a comfortable bed 

Overall esthetics is something that is important to me (which is why I have ruled out ever sailing on the Splendor again; the big pink dots plastered everywhere made me dislike being on the ship) and it does figure into my decision on which cruiseline and ship to sail on. The Spirit Class on Carnival needs some tender loving care. Having said all this we are scheduled to sail on the Luminosa in September for the 30 TP and the decision was easy on this particular cruise since it was a casino comped cruise on which we will save $10,000 overall and it seems the Luminosa is in better shape than any of the other Spirit Class ships. Oh and the itinerary is pretty spectacular! 

[EllieinNJ]

We are booked on the Pride for the May 28, 2023 12 day Spain & Portugal cruise plus b2b with June 9th Norway.  Although we have the Panorama, Radiance and Venezia booked for 2024, the only Carnival cruise we have actually taken was the Legend last April, which we enjoyed.  The Pride cruises are so port intensive (only two sea days for a 12 day cruise and two sea days for the 9 day cruise) we thought it wouldn't matter if it was the same class of ship as the Legend.  After we booked we found out that the Pride was going into dry dock after the transatlantic and we would be the first sailing afterwards.  We had mixed feelings about this because sometimes all the refurbishments are not completed in time and they would still be working on them by our sailing.   Then several months ago the May Pride was not bookable any more.  Carnival told us it was sold out.  Then someone on the other social media website pointed out that the May Pride cruise was not on any of the cruise port schedules.  Many of us are worried about this cruise.  I called Carnival again and was assured that this cruise is still going.  

[kwokpot]

14 hours ago, coffeeboy77 said:

We just cruised Alaska on the Spirit in September.  We got off in every port and enjoyed what each stop had to offer…but you still have to come back to the ship.  We were thoroughly disappointed with the Spirit.  With the exception of the comedians, the entertainment was downright sad.  The buffet food was NEVER hot and constantly lined up with closed stations. the MDR was mediocre, again, the food was never hot and service execution was so so.  If you compare this to what other cruise lines offer in Alaska, there are a lot of newer ships with all the bells and whistles.  The Spirit did me in for older ships.  I would look at other lines, for example msc, and compare them to the hardware carnival is offering.

Exactly. We did the MSC Meraviglia 5 years ago from Genoa, Italy for Christmas and it was a great cruise. It's such a beautiful ship. 

[CarnivalShips480]

 

Legend is going to be in Europe for 2024. I figured this out after Pride was named to Baltimore.

 

Legend needs a dry dock in 2024, so why not have it do the whole European season while its over there?

Edited December 3, 2022 by CarnivalShips480

[CarnivalShips480]

21 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

I noticed the Pride is now in Baltimore for summer 2024 so I am wondering if: 1) Will Carnival do Euorpe 2024 at all?  and 2) If they do, what boat will be sailing there?

 

If anyone has the scoop, please share.

 

[jsglow]

It's interesting what folks enjoy.  I was on Royal Princess in Alaska this summer.  It was nice but I sure missed the intimacy of an admittedly much older Spirit Class boat.

 

I think in the not too distant future we're going to try HAL.  Even her largest ships are now tiny compared to the behemoths.  And I've read and seen that a 50 or 60 something will fit right in.  We mostly cruise for 'fun' where Carnival is a great product for us or for 'travel/adventure' where other lines might be better suited.

[Eli_6]

18 hours ago, kwokpot said:

Why are they putting the dumpy old ships in Europe? 

Probably because those of us who like to cruise there are doing it for the ports.  But I am with you...I really wish they would send a better ship than Pride over there.  I have not been on Legend so it may be better. When I was on Splendor this past summer, I thought she was in much better shape than the Pride...albeit, she is about 8 years younger, I think. 

[Eli_6]

4 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

We are booked on the Pride for the May 28, 2023 12 day Spain & Portugal cruise plus b2b with June 9th Norway.  Although we have the Panorama, Radiance and Venezia booked for 2024, the only Carnival cruise we have actually taken was the Legend last April, which we enjoyed.  The Pride cruises are so port intensive (only two sea days for a 12 day cruise and two sea days for the 9 day cruise) we thought it wouldn't matter if it was the same class of ship as the Legend.  After we booked we found out that the Pride was going into dry dock after the transatlantic and we would be the first sailing afterwards.  We had mixed feelings about this because sometimes all the refurbishments are not completed in time and they would still be working on them by our sailing.   Then several months ago the May Pride was not bookable any more.  Carnival told us it was sold out.  Then someone on the other social media website pointed out that the May Pride cruise was not on any of the cruise port schedules.  Many of us are worried about this cruise.  I called Carnival again and was assured that this cruise is still going.  

On no!!!!! I already have 4 business class roundtrip airfare tickets (and 4 from London to Barcelona) booked for that cruise. I am going to not be happy if they cancel at this late date because I have a lot of money in airfare already tied up.  

[jsglow]

22 minutes ago, Eli_6 said:

On no!!!!! I already have 4 business class roundtrip airfare tickets (and 4 from London to Barcelona) booked for that cruise. I am going to not be happy if they cancel at this late date because I have a lot of money in airfare already tied up.  

Well, it's not cancelled now.  Might be a good time to investigate trip insurance as this is certainly no 'pre-existing condition'.

[Eli_6]

2 hours ago, jsglow said:

Well, it's not cancelled now.  Might be a good time to investigate trip insurance as this is certainly no 'pre-existing condition'.

It isn't just the airfare. My husband is a physician who owns his own practice. He has already arranged alternative coverage for those two weeks. This is not an easy thing to do.  And I am working on my dissertation and have to stop by the Cambridge library because a document relevant to my research is there (medieval) so I combined this trip with that since I will already be in England...although, I technically could also stop by Cambridge before the cruise since we fly through London no matter what. The Venezia takes off the next day so we will be changing our ship if they cancel the Pride. Or, alternatively, I found an MSC ship that has an opening in their yacht club out of Barcelona on May 30th.  Still, I wish they would let us know NOW if they already know they are going to cancel so I could either switch to the Venezia before she books up or book that cruise on MSC.  Part of me thinks maybe I should just go ahead and book one or the other and risk losing the deposit because having had so many cruises canceled with Carnival before, this is the same exact scenario they typically follow before the cancel.   I had a 7 day on the Vista canceled by Carnival pre-Covid and a T/A on the Mardi Gras pre-Covid canceled before...and two years of Europe sailings canceled for Covid.  They actually did this to me before where John Heald was saying "Europe 2021 is definitely going forward" and I booked airfare...and they they canceled like 2 weeks later.  Fortunately, British Airways gave me a refund. 

[Eli_6]

Hmmm.....now that I am looking at the Venezia TA, I almost think I like it better.

 

[kwokpot]

17 minutes ago, Eli_6 said:

Hmmm.....now that I am looking at the Venezia TA, I almost think I like it better.

 

Head and shoulders a better ship! You should change it. 

[luv2trvlnow]

2 hours ago, jsglow said:

Well, it's not cancelled now.  Might be a good time to investigate trip insurance as this is certainly no 'pre-existing condition'.

Trip insurance wouldn't help that much.  You could transfer the trip insurance to another cruise.  You won't have coverage for the flights if the cruise is cancelled.  The only thing they will cover is the change fee up to the limits of the policy.  

 

You ask how I know this.  We had trip insurance and Carnival cancelled our cruise back before Covid.  The insurance said that the flight was still taking place so it wasn't covered even though we had no cruise.  You would probably get a credit for a future flight minus the change fee. You will get your money back if it is a refundable fare.

[Eli_6]

11 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

Head and shoulders a better ship! You should change it. 

I am seriously contemplating this because this ship looks awesome and the Pride is "meh."  I am going to call British Airways on Monday and see if they would let me keep my flight out there and refund my trip back or let me have a future flight credit for my trip back.