Fourth Excel Ship Ordered for a 2027 Delivery

[jimbo5544]

52 minutes ago, notscb said:

Why not?

Royal now has Oasis, Freedom and Icon classes going out of Miami. Celebrity (RCL Group) has their Edge Class ships out of Miami. Virgin has their newest ships out of Miami. All of their competitors have stepped up their product offerings out of Miami.

 

It'd make a whole lot of sense to compete in the visual sense to the thousands of people going out of Miami who might look at the older carnival ships passing by and make a judgement about Carnival before considering their newest product. Miami is where cruise ships go to be shown off, Carnival would do well to follow.

How is that virgin thing going, heard they are sailing at 60%.  Miami is.Carnival’s  3rd best port (not even close to PC and the king Galveston).  If I am sailing Carnival why do I care what RCCL does.  Just plain silly,   

Edited March 10 by jimbo5544

[BlerkOne]

1 hour ago, notscb said:

Why not?

Royal now has Oasis, Freedom and Icon classes going out of Miami. Celebrity (RCL Group) has their Edge Class ships out of Miami. Virgin has their newest ships out of Miami. All of their competitors have stepped up their product offerings out of Miami.

 

It'd make a whole lot of sense to compete in the visual sense to the thousands of people going out of Miami who might look at the older carnival ships passing by and make a judgement about Carnival before considering their newest product. Miami is where cruise ships go to be shown off, Carnival would do well to follow.

As Carnival's HQ is Miami, I think they are quite familiar with the port and their business.

[jsglow]

1 hour ago, jimbo5544 said:

How is that virgin thing going, heard they are sailing at 60%.  Miami is.Carnival’s  3rd best port (not even close to PC and the king Galveston).  If I am sailing Carnival why do I care what RCCL does.  Just plain silly,   

Only if by 'best' concerning Galveston you mean your personal favorite. It's significantly smaller compared to the Big 2 in terms of passengers embarked.

 

Carnival sails the following 5 ships out of Miami: Celebration, Horizon, Magic, Sunrise and Conquest, all year round. They sail the following 3-4 ships from Galveston: Jubilee, Breeze and Dream with Miracle seasonally after she gets back from Europe. So they do much greater capacity from the Miami home port. It's not even close. Port Canaveral will also have 5 ships next winter after Venezia gets added to the mix as a seasonal.

 

Not everything is bigger in Texas! 😁

Edited March 10 by jsglow

[notscb]

34 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

As Carnival's HQ is Miami, I think they are quite familiar with the port and their business.

I'm sure they are 🙂 

[notscb]

1 hour ago, jimbo5544 said:

 If I am sailing Carnival why do I care what RCCL does.

 

My point isn't about you sailing Carnival. It's about literally everyone else and the happenings around the port and the business sense it would make.

 

Not to mention, RCL paraded their biggest, newest ship into Miami just this year, Carnival needs to do something to counter that.

 

 

[jimbo5544]

3 minutes ago, jsglow said:

Only if by 'best' concerning Galveston you mean your personal favorite. It's significantly smaller compared to the Big 2 in terms of passengers embarked.

 

Carnival sails the following 5 ships out of Miami: Celebration, Horizon, Magic, Sunrise and Conquest, all year round. They sail the following 3-4 ships from Galveston: Jubilee, Breeze and Dream with Miracle seasonally after she gets back from Europe. So they do much greater capacity from the Miami home port. It's not even close. Port Canaveral will also have 5 ships next winter after Venezia gets added to the mix as a seasonal.

 

Not everything is bigger in Texas! 😁

I misspoke, I meant most profitable per cabin.  Not even close.  That said, if the itineraries were more varied, and they had more slips, she would easily win.  The amount of people within a 3 1/2 hour drive makes it so.  We could het into the whole Houston cruise port, but that is another story for another thread.

[jimbo5544]

1 minute ago, notscb said:

 

My point isn't about you sailing Carnival. It's about literally everyone else and the happenings around the port and the business sense it would make.

 

Not to mention, RCL paraded their biggest, newest ship into Miami just this year, Carnival needs to do something to counter that.

 

 

We are getting off topic, but for the sake of an answer, I will reply.  By me saying “I” it was just to get the point across.  While I do not have the data to back it up, I am pretty sure that most cruisers stay loyal to their product of choice (this is a Carnival thread…right, or did I wander off the reservation?.  The proof is the growth of loyalty numbers (which has grown exponentially), just one example, I could give more examples…..  Certainly true of the majority of cruisers.  Those that flip flop are the minority, just the facts.  

 

Now for the “parading” of the new RCCL Monstrosity of the Seas.  While I cannot argue that Icon has the draw, and they certainly are sticking it to their loyal customers (BIG TIME) in terms of price, but that said, we have already talked to the downsides of ships this big, I will not bore you unless you want with those details.  The math tells us things will have to change, Oversaturated market, 2 BILLION per ship, limited ports of call, etc. etc. etc.  Lastly, she is butt ugly, and I would wager, almost laughable, when you see it.  I doubt I would sail her for free, and DEF not for the insane pricing they are demanding from their loyal clientele (Loyal Royals….ahhh I remember them, another topic for another day).  Icon is butt ugly, but I digress…..you did bring it up tho.

[jsglow]

2 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

I misspoke, I meant most profitable per cabin.  Not even close.  That said, if the itineraries were more varied, and they had more slips, she would easily win.  The amount of people within a 3 1/2 hour drive makes it so.  We could het into the whole Houston cruise port, but that is another story for another thread.

That could certainly be true. But supply is necessarily limited and strong demand forces up prices. I think I learned that Freshman year undergrad somewhere. 🙂 That is a huge audience within driving distance. No doubt Carnival will always keep as many big ships there as possible.

[jimbo5544]

11 minutes ago, jsglow said:

That could certainly be true. But supply is necessarily limited and strong demand forces up prices. I think I learned that Freshman year undergrad somewhere. 🙂 That is a huge audience within driving distance. No doubt Carnival will always keep as many big ships there as possible.

I vaguely recall freshman macro economics 101🤪   It is one interesting homeport, that reeks of history.  The downside is distance from the airport for those that fly in.  

[jsglow]

5 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

I vaguely recall freshman macro economics 101🤪   It is one interesting homeport, that reeks of history.  The downside is distance from the airport for those that fly in.  

We've cruised Galveston 2-3 times. Always Hobby and always a hotel right by the airport to catch Galveston Express in the a.m. Works pretty good. My issue is the limited itins. Plus I like Big Easy more. And since we have to fly anyway. I like Valor but do wish they'd upgrade the 7 day boat.

Edited March 11 by jsglow

[jimbo5544]

5 minutes ago, jsglow said:

We've cruised Galveston 2-3 times. Always Hobby and always a hotel right by the airport to catch Galveston Express in the a.m. Works pretty good. My issue is the limited itins. Plus I like Big Easy more. And since we have to fly anyway. I like Valor but do wish they'd upgrade the 7 day boat.

Agree on the itineraries, that said, they do a lot of what other ships do.  I feel we are looking way more for the unique ones, we have done Cozumel, Nassau, Amber Cove, GT, Jamaica, GC so so much.  Probably makes us somewhat unique....  

 

New Orleans is one unique place, that said, only sailed out of there a couple times, kind of the same issue on ports....  We have def sailed out of Miami most, (most likely because we have been doing it for so long....), PC would probably be second....but I digress.....

[BlerkOne]

90% of cruisers out of New Orleans come from out of state.

[CruizinSusan70]

After scanning this 13 page thread, I figured I would throw my 2 cents into the ring.  My speculation as to where Excel 4 goes would be one of three FLA ports.  1. Fort Lauderdale, which is possibly pure fantasy, but you never know.  2.  Port Canaveral, replacing the Mardi Gras or 3.  Miami, replacing the Celebration.  The replaced ship out of either PC or MIA could then stay there doing 3/4 or 4/5/5 itineraries concentrating on Celebration Key seasonally, and in the summer could head north to NYC.  In NYC, could possibly do 6 days to Bermuda and 8 to Celebration Key with any combination of Caribbean ports including Aruba or Curacao.

 

Celebration Key is where Carnival's bread is going to be buttered while they have a reduction in new ship builds compared to some of their competitor's.  Since Carnival doesn't have a new shiny toy coming out as frequently as their competition, at least they have a new shiny port to visit that in some ways is better than Coco Cay and definitely better than the private island offerings of NCL and MSC.

[jimbo5544]

3 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

After scanning this 13 page thread, I figured I would throw my 2 cents into the ring.  My speculation as to where Excel 4 goes would be one of three FLA ports.  1. Fort Lauderdale, which is possibly pure fantasy, but you never know.  2.  Port Canaveral, replacing the Mardi Gras or 3.  Miami, replacing the Celebration.  The replaced ship out of either PC or MIA could then stay there doing 3/4 or 4/5/5 itineraries concentrating on Celebration Key seasonally, and in the summer could head north to NYC.  In NYC, could possibly do 6 days to Bermuda and 8 to Celebration Key with any combination of Caribbean ports including Aruba or Curacao.

 

Celebration Key is where Carnival's bread is going to be buttered while they have a reduction in new ship builds compared to some of their competitor's.  Since Carnival doesn't have a new shiny toy coming out as frequently as their competition, at least they have a new shiny port to visit that in some ways is better than Coco Cay and definitely better than the private island offerings of NCL and MSC.

It certainly would be interesting for CCL to cruise out of Port Everglades again.  I did think of that, contracts take a while, but they have 3 years....

[jsglow]

Our thoughts are similar @CruizinSusan70. I think Port Everglades is possible. But I'm much more inclined to think Mardi Gras starts a 4/4/5 or 3/4 from Miami. Greater product differentiation and options for the customer base. The short cruise market is huge and Celebration Key IS the destination. We've all talked about Disneyfication on this thread. The strategy you outlined fits right in.

[BlerkOne]

3 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

It certainly would be interesting for CCL to cruise out of Port Everglades again.  I did think of that, contracts take a while, but they have 3 years....

I have mentioned that as a possibility, but it seems Corp was leaving FLL for Princess and Miami for Carnival. Why compete more than necessary against each other? Like you say, they have 3 years.

[jimbo5544]

4 hours ago, john91498 said:

 

Lol, some people are so full of themselves that they don't realize that no one cares what they think...😝🤪😂

Apparently you do, or why bring it up😅

[jimbo5544]

4 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

I have mentioned that as a possibility, but it seems Corp was leaving FLL for Princess and Miami for Carnival. Why compete more than necessary against each other? Like you say, they have 3 years.

Last CCL ship I recall there was Freedom, but that was a while ago.  I cannot think of a good reason, other than another homeport, other than a place for EXCEL 4.  As I recall, when we sailed Oasis, the Freedom was to the right facing the water.  I assume that is where Princess sails from?  Have not been there in some time

[notscb]

5 hours ago, john91498 said:

Lol, some people are so full of themselves that they don't realize that no one cares what they think...😝🤪😂

 

That's a weird way to contribute to an online discussion board where we all post what we think 🤔

Edited March 11 by notscb

[BlerkOne]

3 hours ago, notscb said:

 

That's a weird way to contribute to an online discussion board where we all post what we think 🤔

What an odd post 

[aborgman]

On 3/7/2024 at 9:34 PM, jimbo5544 said:

 The state department has raised the level, warning Americans on going there. 

 

They have raised it to Level 2 - Exercise Increased Caution.

 

That is pretty much the threat level of almost every port of call for cruise ships (except the ones that are higher threat levels) - and the threat level that most US port cities would be if the state department issued advisories for US cities.

[jimbo5544]

2 minutes ago, aborgman said:

 

They have raised it to Level 2 - Exercise Increased Caution.

 

That is pretty much the threat level of almost every port of call for cruise ships (except the ones that are higher threat levels) - and the threat level that most US port cities would be if the state department issued advisories for US cities.

I do not care about the what and how of state dept notifications.  If we did not travel to any place that state dept notified us on, we would not travel.  The point is when something like this happens, we should take notice and precautions.  4000 convicts escaping form prison in a country with known serious issues  is not a one off situation we should say meh to and dismiss.  Murders and thefts on a daily basis (and in the daylight in open areas in the Bahamas) is not something to ignored because the state dept cries wolf on every island and country in the Caribbean and 2/3 of the world.   Travel is and can be still safe, but to ignore and dismiss is def NOT the smartest thing to do.  Just my 2 cents.

[aborgman]

3 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

I do not care about the what and how of state dept notifications.  If we did not travel to any place that state dept notified us on, we would not travel.  The point is when something like this happens, we should take notice and precautions.  4000 convicts escaping form prison in a country with known serious issues  is not a one off situation we should say meh to and dismiss.  Murders and thefts on a daily basis (and in the daylight in open areas in the Bahamas) is not something to ignored because the state dept cries wolf on every island and country in the Caribbean and 2/3 of the world.   Travel is and can be still safe, but to ignore and dismiss is def NOT the smartest thing to do.  Just my 2 cents.

 

 

It seems really odd to specifically bring up state department threat levels as a negative, to the point of posting it on the internet, if you don't care. When I don't care about something, I tend not to even think of it - much less bring it up.

 

4000 convicts escaping form prison in a country with known serious issues - isn't the Bahamas, and has nothing to do with the Bahamas.

 

Murders and thefts on a daily basis... 128 total murders in the entire Bahamas last year.

 

...and the state department uses the exact same criteria for ALL of these threat level warnings. So either they're ALL crying wolf, or none are....

 

 

Could the crime levels in the Bahamas hurt their tourism industry? Yeah - it's possible... but even with the raised threat level, they are generally safer than basically every piece of their competition.

 

 

[jimbo5544]

25 minutes ago, aborgman said:

 

 

It seems really odd to specifically bring up state department threat levels as a negative, to the point of posting it on the internet, if you don't care. When I don't care about something, I tend not to even think of it - much less bring it up.

 

4000 convicts escaping form prison in a country with known serious issues - isn't the Bahamas, and has nothing to do with the Bahamas.

 

Murders and thefts on a daily basis... 128 total murders in the entire Bahamas last year.

 

...and the state department uses the exact same criteria for ALL of these threat level warnings. So either they're ALL crying wolf, or none are....

 

 

Could the crime levels in the Bahamas hurt their tourism industry? Yeah - it's possible... but even with the raised threat level, they are generally safer than basically every piece of their competition.

 

 

My last post in the subject at hand and I will move on.  I am not sure why it seems odd.  The cruise lines themselves have raised concern.  Here is a link to one I just googled (there are many). https://www.thestreet.com/travel/royal-caribbean-and-carnival-cruise-line-passengers-get-a-warning. It speaks for itself.  When these things happen, we should take notice.  The reason they come up is that there has been increased recent events (see article above).  Not every island and country in the Caribbean has these concerns or recent history.

 

I never said I do not care about it.  What I said is while they (the state dept) cry wolf a lot (and they do), sometimes we should take notice and heed.  It appears I am not alone in this logic.  Are there other islands and countries we should do the same for?  Absolutely.  

 

I never said the 4000 escaped convicts were from Bahamas, we all know where they escaped from (Haiti) and what the concern area was (the DR).  It was an example of things to take notice of and understand when traveling.  I do not have a dog in the this fight (the specificity of the Bahamas and security).  If you think they are at the same level and as every other island and country, so be it.

[aborgman]

27 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

 Not every island and country in the Caribbean has these concerns or recent history.

 

I never said I do not care about it. 

 

 

"Not every island and country in the Caribbean has these concerns or recent history."

 

Correct - just like 90% of the ones serviced by cruise lines.

 

...and realistically, pretty much every country in the Caribbean has had a Level 2 travel advisory sometime in the last 20 years. It's violently common.

 

"I never said I do not care about it. "

 

Ummm... exact quote from your post -  "I do not care about the what and how of state dept notifications."