Carnival pulls out of Europe in 2014

[big_duck]

BTW, called this a month ago.

 

Duck's wild guesses 1, CB "insider info" 0.

 

 

No schedule yet.

 

I read the other day that both Princess and Royal are cutting back in Europe next year because the market is very soft. Carnival may not go at all.

[Goldwolf]

Just as a side note, anyoen still wanting to do Europe in 2014. The Epic is quite reasonably priced but only does 7 day cruises from Rome / Barcelona.

 

I have no cruise line affinity as such and we're almost certainly going to try out the Epic from Barcelona next May.

[firefly333]

The Brand Ambassador became the Brand Apologist, now he'll become the Brand Backtracker if true. Hard to trust anything he says anymore, but he's repeatedly put in a horrible position by his management.

 

You mean like saying platinum would not lose any benefits, John said for about 3 years .. and then when the program came out it wasnt true.

 

I agree, he has long since lost any credibility. Doesnt seem to stop him from saying things. .. so its on John to me if he wants to say things before Carnival announces them.

 

He seems to be guessing the same as posters on here.

[shumdit1]

It isn't just Carnival. RCCL cut back their cruises for next year in Europe also. Try Princess

[firefly333]

BTW, called this a month ago.

 

Duck's wild guesses 1, CB "insider info" 0.

 

someone yesterday was posting they were waiting on the carnival europe posting and I was thinking to myself .. there might not be one.

 

Its not just about what Carnival cruisers want who live in the U.S. .. there are other more profitable markets.

 

Carnival typically only has a ship over there if its new .. or in this latest instance, "sunshined" .. so I would have been surprised to send a ship over to europe. It just doesnt seem like their market to me either.

[big_duck]

someone yesterday was posting they were waiting on the carnival europe posting and I was thinking to myself .. there might not be one.

 

Its not just about what Carnival cruisers want who live in the U.S. .. there are other more profitable markets.

 

Carnival typically only has a ship over there if its new .. or in this latest instance, "sunshined" .. so I would have been surprised to send a ship over to europe. It just doesnt seem like their market to me either.

 

I guess this means no sunshined ship next year. Unless they do the work over here.

[kinggartk]

You know Costa is basically "Carnival Europe".

[bitemyfly]

There are many lines that cruise and have expertise in Europe

( a couple of carnival owned)

Ccl tipped thier toe in Europe at a very bad time , many uncertainties / economic / social issues.

Perhaps they thought they could capture the budget minded euro too?

But that's very hard to capture with exsisting competition

An emerging market is Asia , however to compete thier u need expertise

Cause hairy chest contests , triva or mixologists are not going to cut it

If they try to attract the Asian market

No way are they going to attract thier exsisting base to Asia

[EZ4]

I guess this means no sunshined ship next year. Unless they do the work over here.

 

Freeport could probably handle that. Carnival is probably scared of BAE in Mobile now. LOL

[tiggerman101]

Not a huge surprise as the rates for this year are very low as is. Asia/Australia seems to be very hot right now. And yes, my Celebrity SE Asia cruise this past March was full of Austrailians. My guess is that they weighed the pros and cons between Europe and Australia and went where the money is. It does raise an interesting argument that by pulling out completely for next year, they loose any momentum for brand recognition for later years.

[techstar]

You mean like saying platinum would not lose any benefits, John said for about 3 years .. and then when the program came out it wasnt true.

 

I agree, he has long since lost any credibility. Doesnt seem to stop him from saying things. .. so its on John to me if he wants to say things before Carnival announces them.

 

He seems to be guessing the same as posters on here.

 

Good point. It's hard to tell if when he says this stuff if it's wishful thinking or not. It may be on him.

[gstewart]

Not a huge surprise as the rates for this year are very low as is. Asia/Australia seems to be very hot right now. And yes, my Celebrity SE Asia cruise this past March was full of Austrailians. My guess is that they weighed the pros and cons between Europe and Australia and went where the money is. It does raise an interesting argument that by pulling out completely for next year, they loose any momentum for brand recognition for later years.

 

 

They've also got a pretty large-scale marketing campaign going on in the UK at the moment - TV commercials and a Carnival banner advertising cruises seems to be on every webpage I visit (it used to be RCI everywhere).

[big_duck]

You know Costa is basically "Carnival Europe".

 

Kinda sorta. The advantage Carnival had in Europe is the customer could "do Europe" by day then retreat into an American cocoon at night (food, entertainment etc).

 

Costa is an Italian line, and everything about them is Italian.

 

There are also Aida (German), Ibero (Spanish) and P&O (UK) Carnival brands as well.

[kybluecruiser]

Carnival is not the only line rethinking Europe. According to Cruise Radio Royal Caribbean is pulling two ships from there as well. They said it was due to Europes unstable economy.

[CRUZN-IS-FUN]

I too am extremely disappointed. Been saving and planning for our dream cruise to the Baltics. Watching twice a day now forever for the posting. The frustrating thing for us is that we saved our last FCC for the onboard credit on the longer cruise. We have been faithfully using our Carnival credit card the increase our onboard credits. While I realize the airfare may be more to do Europe, by planning well enough in advance it is so doable. We won't be booking HAL or Princess although we are past guests. Their rates are much higher. We were really counting on our support for Carnival through the FCC and credit card to make this affordable. There were six of us in this same boat and we are (maybe were) faithful Carnival cruisers. Our other friends going with us cruise Carnival several times per year. I am not to happy to be calling them with this news. Really frustrating to find this out now. Had we known much sooner, we could have considered going this summer. At this point, it is just to difficult to plan a two week vacation at the office and just jet off to Europe for two weeks in the next month or two. Airfare on this short notice does not make this possible either. Sure wish Carnival would have made such a huge decision much sooner for those of us planning on our bucket list. It could have been doable this year with more than a month's notice. They have been stringing us along for many months with the "there will be a ship in Europe in 2014." Just so, so disappointed now.

[MrPete]

I can only gather that after ceasing saluting Stomboli, Stromboli is now saluting back.

[howielovescruisin]

Mr. Heald has just confirmed this article to be true. Way to go OP you scooped it out before he could announce it. One reason why I love Cruise Critic so much, you get the inside scoop here.

[MrPete]

Mr. Heald has just confirmed this article to be true. Way to go OP you scooped it out before he could announce it. One reason why I love Cruise Critic so much, you get the inside scoop here.

 

Everything hits CC first. If you solely read anywhere else you are left n the dust.

[trvlgirlmq]

I too am extremely disappointed. Been saving and planning for our dream cruise to the Baltics. Watching twice a day now forever for the posting. The frustrating thing for us is that we saved our last FCC for the onboard credit on the longer cruise. We have been faithfully using our Carnival credit card the increase our onboard credits. While I realize the airfare may be more to do Europe, by planning well enough in advance it is so doable. We won't be booking HAL or Princess although we are past guests. Their rates are much higher. We were really counting on our support for Carnival through the FCC and credit card to make this affordable. There were six of us in this same boat and we are (maybe were) faithful Carnival cruisers. Our other friends going with us cruise Carnival several times per year. I am not to happy to be calling them with this news. Really frustrating to find this out now. Had we known much sooner, we could have considered going this summer. At this point, it is just to difficult to plan a two week vacation at the office and just jet off to Europe for two weeks in the next month or two. Airfare on this short notice does not make this possible either. Sure wish Carnival would have made such a huge decision much sooner for those of us planning on our bucket list. It could have been doable this year with more than a month's notice. They have been stringing us along for many months with the "there will be a ship in Europe in 2014." Just so, so disappointed now.

 

We were in the same predicament. My oldest is graduation from HS next year and this was his dream trip to see ancient Italy and Greece. We've been watching prices go up and up on the other lines while waiting and it was just getting too expensive for 7 because we needed at least 3 cabins. We hit our wall a couple weeks ago and decided to not wait. We will be doing a 3 week trip to France instead. Very disappointing and I will also be calling and canceling our last FCC and getting my refund.

[Sargent_Schultz]

Everything hits CC first. If you solely read anywhere else you are left n the dust.

 

Including false rumors.

[stevenr597]

The answer to that is rather simple.

 

Carnival has decided to embark on a cost cutting program. They have scaled back entertainment, dining, service, and many other amenities on their ships in addition to adding cabins to increase passenger numbers whenever they can. The purpose of this is to become, if they are not already, the lowest price cruise line.

 

While their chief competitors RCCL and NCL has gone on a different path, using innovation to attract passengers.

 

Carnival's plan or model does cater to a large amount of cruisers for whom price is the major concern. These individuals would rather go on a caribbean cruise, rather than pay the airfare for a trip to Europe.

 

Many of the other Carnival cruisers, who in the past, would pay more for better service and who would still travel to Eruope can go on one of the other Carnival owned lines.

 

In my case, we still travel to Europe and instead of Carnival we are sailing on the Royal Princess.

 

In effect, it is like Toyota and Lexus. If you are concerned with budget try Toyota, if you want a more upscale product than Lexus is your choice.

[gstewart]

Just hope we can afford the airfare across the pond, because I have DCL cruise booked next year:D. If we can't it looks like it will be a B2B with NCL in the med.

 

I don't like Costa because it's full of Italians and I don't speak the lingo. P&O appears to be too stuffy and upmarket for us so that's out.

 

I am not paying silly money to sail DCL in the Med when I have been to the ports before and I like cruising with American's, so that leaves NCL or Royal, which again are expensive in school hols. As far as Holland is concerned I think they might be too upmarket for us too. We like family friendly cruises, where you can wear a polo shirt to dinner.

 

Edit just remembered there's Princess I wonder if these are child friendly

 

P&O's Ventura is based in the Med next year. Its targetted at families and apparently is more like Carnival than P&O.

[wegiekat]

Count me among the disappointed. Was really wanting to head back to Europe in 2014. I know there are other cruise line in the seas but some of their prices are way out of reach.:(

[spencercoop]

Nothing to do with this really.

 

This isn't the first time Carnival has pulled out of Europe. They did it a couple of years ago when airfare suddenly skyrocketed - after they started taking bookings (Liberty or Freedom, I can't remember).

 

I think it was both the Liberty and Freedom. I want to say it was 2009.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Including false rumors.

 

Hey some of them are true. Like the Legend going down under which some people said would never happen.

 

Have a great cruise on the Sunshine next week. Look forward to seeing the pictures.:)

 

Bill