Ask Carnival Corp’s CEO: Call for Questions for Josh Weinstein

[CCAubs]

One of the biggest cruise industry events, Seatrade Cruise Global, is quickly approaching. At the event, cruise line CEOs sit side by side to discuss all things cruising. This year’s panel of esteemed CEOs includes Carnival Corporation’s President, CEO & Chief Climate Officer, Josh Weinstein. 

 

And he wants to hear from Cruise Critic members. 

 

Do you have a question that you’d love to ask Mr. Weinstein? Are you wondering what’s ahead for onboard dining and entertainment? Have thoughts on how Carnival Corp. can leverage technology to improve the cruise experience? Do you have questions about the cruise line’s sustainability efforts? We want to hear from you.

 

Share your questions below, and your question might be one asked of Mr. Weinstein at this year’s event.

[OlsSalt]

Dear  Mr Weinstein:

 

We cruise to get away from technology.  We also like the longer, more off the beaten path itineraries.

 

The less cruise interface requiring 24/7 portable "technology" the better. It never works perfectly on board,  so it is just annoying to rely on a "technology" interface  as a new passenger cruise requirement.  

 

Recent cruise, half the first day was spent standing in line trying to make the onboard "Navigator" work on our devices, along with all the people in  front of us and behind us who had the same problems. 

 

Less canned background music. More enrichment specific to ports visited. Fewer generic canned presentations. More feeling of being at sea, and not a floating land based hotel. Bring back ship libraries.

 

Very truly yours,

[Lady Arwen]

Please ban ALL smoking in the casino.  Thank you.

[Darfun]

What’s the goal with any new cruise ships? Are they going to keep building larger cruise ships or will they build some around the S class size?

[OlsSalt]

Does the future of cruising include more passenger technology use requirements, less on-board passenger technology support?

 

Will there be more onboard smoking locations with less air-filtration to keep smokers from penetrating large open deck areas with their smoke?

 

Will more parts of the ship be subject to loud piped-in music?

 

Will there be even fewer enrichment offerings specific to areas cruised.

 

Will most cruise offerings have less variety in both length and destination itineraries?

 

Will there be a 100% ban on all cigar smoking or will airlock special rooms be provided?

 

There, I fixed it.

[iceman93]

What does he see as HAL's brand essence and target market?  How does he plan to differentiate HAL from other lines under the CCL umbrella as well as competing lines?

[Laxer]

Is the Pier project and facility upgrades at Half Moon Cay going to proceed  or is the project staying on the back burner indefinitely? 

[jljcruise]

Why doesn't HAL do some cruises out of San Diego down to connect with South American cruises? We would so very much enjoy not having to fly to and cruise out of Florida just to sail south (we are from the west coast).

 

Are any existing ships going to add a Grand Dutch Cafe?

[Mary229]

5 hours ago, iceman93 said:

What does he see as HAL's brand essence and target market?  How does he plan to differentiate HAL from other lines under the CCL umbrella as well as competing lines?

I second this question 

[OlsSalt]

Can CCL serve the cruise market by consolidating its variety of brands into three different cruise category offerings, instead of having each brand stretching itself thin offering a little of everything to everyone? 

 

1. Larger, high onboard entertain brand.

2. Smaller, fewer frills and more destination and travel enrichment experience brand

3. An attempt to combine both

[kazu]

My questions - if HAL is going the way of the Pinnacle Class ships - how about staffing them to give adequate service everywhere on the ship?

 

Is there any consideration of bringing back a Prinsendam or smaller type ship that can do the ports of call that were lost when the Prinsendam left the fleet?

With such a nice main stage - any chance of bringing decent entertainment on board that is not repetitive video presentations?

 

Is HAL going to bring back any of it’s trademarks?  Like the yum yum man who added so much to dinner?  and if not, how are you differentiating HAL from the other cruise lines?

 

 

[Mary229]

15 hours ago, kazu said:

My questions - if HAL is going the way of the Pinnacle Class ships - how about staffing them to give adequate service everywhere on the ship?

 

Is there any consideration of bringing back a Prinsendam or smaller type ship that can do the ports of call that were lost when the Prinsendam left the fleet?

With such a nice main stage - any chance of bringing decent entertainment on board that is not repetitive video presentations?

 

Is HAL going to bring back any of it’s trademarks?  Like the yum yum man who added so much to dinner?  and if not, how are you differentiating HAL from the other cruise lines?

 

 

I second these questions 

[mcrcruiser]

What are Carnival Corp  future plans to diversify  entertainment  types   for the World Stage  on Holland America Ships?

[OlsSalt]

What has been the impact of past CDC covid prevention regulations on both(1)  passenger bookings and (2) crew hiring? Will these go away over time, or are they now permanent.

[PACD_JG]

On 2/16/2023 at 12:47 PM, OlsSalt said:

Can CCL serve the cruise market by consolidating its variety of brands into three different cruise category offerings, instead of having each brand stretching itself thin offering a little of everything to everyone? 

How about making HAL the first mainstream (or if you prefer premium) cruiseline that is adults only?  Clientele is 180 from Virgin, so no competing, and it would draw more families to Princess and Carnival, making them more successful.  I'm sure boomers and gen X would love a kids-free cruise that is more affordable than the luxury brands and not as risque as Virgin.

[WannaSea]

The current trend of building higher capacity cruise ships has created a rising parallel trend of ports limiting or prohibiting cruise ships altogether due to unserviceable tourist numbers, environmental concerns and physical port constraints. Does the cruise industry believe that moving to megaship "cruises to nowhere" to generate profits will be a sustainable strategy for the long term? 

[thanna]

As someone who cruises on Carnival and HAL, I would like to know why it is so impossible to have crossover in the loyalty programs? 

They have been talking about it for years, but still no action.

Even if completely combining the programs is not an option there should be some crossover. Maybe make it perk for reaching diamond on Carnival or 5 star on HAL?

 

[0106]

When will staffing return to pre-Covid levels? The service on HAL is one of the reasons we choose the line.  Current staff is tremendously overworked; they will not stay if they are forced to work at unsustainable levels.

 

What type of enrichment activities are planned? Actual live lectures and cooking demonstrations would be appropriate.  
 

Why aren’t Main Stage performances available to view in the cabin?  

[riverrat]

 

 

1. Is there a future with HAL visiting more coastal towns close to debarkation port? 

 

 - Noordam - has (1) one preAlaska itinerary that stays all day in Victoria :), Astoria and Seattle. This allows enough time to see Buchart Gardens.  Koningsdam did California coastal cruising. The view sailing under the bridge and an overnight in San Francisco was legendary. 

 

2. Could someone aim to make Sundays a seaday whenever possible? 

 

 - In many ports everything is closed

 

[OlsSalt]

Is there any way to view non-consolidated financial statements for CCL, and learn how each division is performing?

[janmcn]

There are constant comments about WHY HAL ships  ( and others) insist on adding “hotel charges” as being considered “tips. Nobody likes this. WHY cannot the salaries be adjusted instead? When people REMOVE the auto tips, we hear the staff must turn in any private tips they receive from passengers. True?

[rotjeknor]

My questions/ requests:

• Why does HAL keep using amsterdam as a port in the Netherlands when on one hand the HAL stresses the historical ties with Rotterdam (obvious !!) and on the other hand the city council of amsterdam does everything to discourage cruise ships coming to town ( extra taxes , a new terminal in an industrial area ).By bus or train amsterdam is only 30-45 minutes away from the Rotterdam Cruise Terminal for those pax wanting to go there. And an unobstructed passage to see . No locks !
• Why is the volume of the music in BB King and the Rolling Stone Rock room so unbelievably high. We like the music but is almost unbearable to spend time there. Way too loud !
• Please stop the nickel and diming in the Greenhouse Spa and Salon and their so called seminars. It always ends with promoting a product to buy.
• Bring back the libraries as they used to be , not like on the Rotterdam VII with just a few books and 4 chairs or so. Like on the Volendam/Zaandam and how it was on the Rotterdam VII with lots of books about culture, destinations, shipping, art etc.
• More lectures on a variety of subjects not just the EXC talks.
  
  Thank you !

[MAVIP]

1 hour ago, rotjeknor said:

Like on the Volendam/Zaandam and how it was on the Rotterdam VII with lots of books about culture, destinations, shipping, art etc.

Thanks and I agree fully with the contents!  Just my apologies for the yellow mark: without any doubt you meant so say: Rotterdam VI. 

[AV8rix]

Disclaimer:  I am a mother.  I DON’T hate kids!

 

Was the “Kids Sail Free” promo during the holidays a corporate-wide thing or just a HAL thing?  If it was a promo offered only on HAL then Antorcha owns it and you may disregard the rest of this comment.

 

I was on the Christmas cruise on Koningsdam B2B with the New Year cruise.  They were a DISASTER!!  Captain told us the kids head- count on both cruises but I forgot the exact figures.  I do remember it was in the neighborhood of about 500+ on both voyages.

 

Well, here’s the problem:  The other CCL brands have always been more family-oriented.  There are bumper cars, water slides, climbing walls, miniature golf, etc.  There are lots of things for kids to do.  But HALs core demographic has always been older folks and there are NO staffing or provisions for kids except Club HAL and the Loft.  Both venues have limited occupancy.  I heard that on the Thanksgiving cruise Club HAL announced that they were limited to about 20 or 30 kids at any one time.

 

So on the holiday cruises the 500 or so kids co-opted BOTH pools and just generally ran around the ship annoying the other passengers.  They invaded all venues (except the casino) – even LCS sometimes, which surprised me. But this was not the fault of the kids.  What with limited occupancy of Club HAL and the Loft, the ship provided nothing else for them to do.

 

I understand the impact that the pandemic had on corporate finances.  So you had to resort to desperate means to fill ships.  But, if the promo was a corporate decision, please exempt HAL in the future.

[HALcruiser2001]

On 2/15/2023 at 3:16 PM, OlsSalt said:

Dear  Mr Weinstein:

 

We cruise to get away from technology.  We also like the longer, more off the beaten path itineraries.

 

The less cruise interface requiring 24/7 portable "technology" the better. It never works perfectly on board,  so it is just annoying to rely on a "technology" interface  as a new passenger cruise requirement.  

 

Recent cruise, half the first day was spent standing in line trying to make the onboard "Navigator" work on our devices, along with all the people in  front of us and behind us who had the same problems. 

 

Less canned background music. More enrichment specific to ports visited. Fewer generic canned presentations. More feeling of being at sea, and not a floating land based hotel. Bring back ship libraries.

 

Very truly yours,

Never had a single problem with Navigator, but all we used it for was menus.  They need to keep it and improve it.