Speculating about why Carnival sent out the free cabin offers

[cjknox]

I think enough people have said they had just been on a cruise as recently as a few weeks ago to dispel it was targeted at long lost customers.

 

Are you basing this statement only on what you've seen on CC?

[Mekamax]

Being Platinum and not having any cruises booked on Carnival and my PVP knowing I have been cruising other lines for 1-1/2 years and me NOT getting the free cruise I don't think it is based on who has one booked or not or who hasn't cruised with Carnival in awhile.....

[missholly24]

Who cares!! Lol... Loving mine. Booked 12 hours after receiving letter. Awesome marketing whatever the reason. I had defected to RCI for a few cruises after my Destiny experience. But Im glad to come back (for half off of course for the 4 of us)

 

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[Hpycmpr]

The speculation is that no, people will not receive VIFP points for their free cruise. There is also discussion that people may receive VIFP points for their free cruise if they paid to upgrade their cabin. I guess we'll find out soon when the first people come back from their free cruise.

 

I booked a cruise with this offer and on the Cruise Documents it shows us as "GOLD" we are both currently at 22(Red) so the days must count towards the VIFP.:D

[kyleandjenna]

Curious if they only sent out offers to those that didn't have a future cruise booked.

 

 

My parents got an offer. They got off of the Legend with us on 1/26/14 and were already booked on the sunshine for 8/31/14 when the offer came up.

 

 

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[DebJ14]

The speculation is that no, people will not receive VIFP points for their free cruise. There is also discussion that people may receive VIFP points for their free cruise if they paid to upgrade their cabin. I guess we'll find out soon when the first people come back from their free cruise.

 

I was told when I made our reservation that the cruise would show up on the list of past sailings, but we would get no credit for the days onboard toward loyalty status.

 

The OP has made some incorrect statements. Carnival's bookings this WAVE season actually were record setting, so it is not for lack of bookings that they gave away these cruises. Also, as for not giving to Platinum/Diamond that is wrong too. I am Diamond and got the offer.

 

I understand from my TA that they have also been giving lots of free cabins to travel agents. That is understandable. They are trying to get TA's on the ships with the hope that they will recommend them to their clients in the future.

Edited February 25, 2014 by DebJ14

[Phlybice]

My husband and I have been speculating about why Carnival sent out all the free cabin offers (we were among the lucky recipients). Here's what we came up with, and I'd be interested to hear your speculations as well:

 

Carnival's mission is to maximize profits for its shareholders. Therefore, this was a carefully thought out move whose goal is to either improve profits immediately or to improve them later in time.

 

We're speculating that Carnival found that it its bookings were well below where they should be at this time of year. Why that would be is somewhat of a mystery. Possibly the recent bad press incidents, or the economy (although it seems that the economy is starting to pick up).

 

Carnival needed to get warm bodies in those rooms so that it would not have to either cut cruise fares or admit to the Wall Street analysts that its bookings were below targets. Wall Street would probably punish Carnival pretty severely it that came out.

 

So Carnival, finding that it had a lot of empty rooms, had some choices to make. It could cut the fares until it found a sweet spot. But if it did that, it would have to make a lot of refunds to people booked on Early Saver rates. Also, cutting the prices would signal to future cruisers that they should expect to see deep discounts, making them even less likely to want to pay the normal fares.

 

Carnival could sail with some empty rooms, or it could instead virtually give them away, and hope that the passengers who get the free rooms spend a lot onboard. Really the only variable cost they have is the cost of the food that will be consumed by those passengers. If that's the case, then it makes sense to give away the cabins.

 

Upon deciding to give away cabins, Carnival had several options on how to do it. It could make a big splashy press announcement about how it was giving back to its loyal customers. But if it did that, and it announced how many cabins it was giving away, the Wall Street analysts would probably see through the ploy. And so, there hasn't been a word about this in the media.

 

Carnival could give the cabins to its most loyal cruisers, the Platinums and the Diamonds. But those people will probably cruise whether or not they get a free one. So it's possible that Carnival would just be cannibalizing its own future revenue if it gave the cruises to them.

 

Instead, based on what I've read on other threads, it looks like Carnival decided to give the cabins to a broad range of past guests, from people with just a few cruises, to Platinums. Possibly they are going to be studying the spending patterns of those who accept the offers, so that they can better predict the demographics of cruisers who will maximize their profits.

 

(Personally, I think that last bit doesn't totally make sense. If I were a Carnival bean counter I would be looking for people who spent a lot onboard during their cruises.)

 

So, anyone else care to speculate? I hope the Cruise Critic writers do a column on the free cabin giveaway. There's surely a great story in it -- if they can get Carnival to tell them!

 

I thought I read that Carnival was changing it tactic of filling ships by slashing fares, continuing that fare death spiral, to discontinuing that practice, just to stop that death spiral.

 

Then someone realized at the time or after, that it would be good PR to offer free rooms, knowing that these days, customers Sail and Sign accounts far outweight the passengers fare, although some forget to add the two together to come up with their true cost, plus taxes/port, and tips. So instead of making $0.00, or a room at a negative margin, they get the schmoes buying things at a 500% mark-up, and more.

[glrounds]

The free offers ranged from people who hadn't cruised in years to people who just recently cruised and some with one cruised already booked. Different ages, cruise history, location. Just about any ship for any length. There's not been one thing that I can point to (at least by reading the half dozen threads on here) that nails why the offers went out. I also know of no "recent bad press." Maybe they are hurting for business in the West Coast, but I don't agree with that applies to their other port areas of the country. All I know for certain is that I didn't get one!;)

 

I think that's definitely true, cruiszin. The economies of California, Nevada, and Arizona (major states using the West Coast ports) are still mired deep in recession, IMHO. Royal Caribbean, which used to do a week long Mexican Riviera cruise like Carnival every week of the year, left the West Coast a long time ago, as well as NCL which never seems to show up these days. Princess and Carnival are the major lines here at this time and they are using it mostly as a staging point mixed with Hawaiian cruises for when they can't be in Alaska during the winter. Now they've got 2 Fantasy class ships here doing the 3 and 4 day cruises at unbelievable pricing.

 

And, lest I forget, the MIRACLE doing the 7-day Mexican Riviera with ME aboard this Saturday. :D Soon she'll be headed for Alaska.

[Grits53]

My husband got the free cruise offer. I did not. It was for basically any cruise of any length, but had to be taken by June 30. An upgrade to a balcony was offered for a small price on some, but not all, sailings. We had a Sept. 2014 Magic cruise booked already when we got the offer. Our last cruise was in April 2013 on the Magic, and we have cruised one to 3 times every year since 2006. Our S&S bill for the last one was very low EXCEPT for a few hundred that I donated to the casino. He did NOT gamble, other than doing one slot tournament. He drank less than one adult beverage per day. He does not drink soft drinks. We might have bought 2 or 3 of the photos & spent less than $100 in the onboard shop. I bought a modest number of internet minutes. We went to the Steakhouse once and booked one Carnival excursion prior to the cruise. We are both Platinum and have never sailed another cruise line. We did have an aft wrap and had our booking linked with another couple, who have cruised with us 3 times. My husband never goes to the Carnival site or CC. I am the one who does all the booking, price checking, etc. And we are Carnival share holders.

[Sue Do-Over]

Since the offer covered a range of ships and trips, the load gets spread out over the fleet, diluting the impact.

 

It's also generally true that when people get a free trip (of any kind) they spend more overall -- excursions, photos, etc. The sunk costs of the cabin/steward and other staff are lost, but if the passengers cover variable costs (port fees and tips) and spend anything more, it helps offset the loss on the cabin.

 

And, generates goodwill and loyalty. Discounts, on the other hand, just foster an environment where they are expected, and encourage guests to shop around.

[kathy884]

Carnival is also working with land based Casinos who are offering a free 3-8 day balcony cruise for two with temporary Platinum status. // Guests, of course, pay taxes, upgrades, tips, excursions, air, etc. I imagine the Casinos are able to buy these at a really good price as Carnival would probably expect to make money on people who have a history of doing some gambling. // We have cruised Carnival twice before, were already considering taking a cruise out of San Juan over DS's spring break (although not because we don't like Carnival were thinking of doing Royal Caribbean or Celebrity as we had never done them before and mid ship balcony prices were within $100 of each other per person on all three lines), but went with Carnival due to this offer. // We added DS to our room, updated from aft or front Balcony to mid ship for a cost of around $600. Also my parents decided to come and got one of those aft wrap around balconies and my brother and his girlfriend are joining us too with an inside. So two people on casino offer equaled five more people booking. // It is an interesting thought to me to offer a free cruise to someone who tends to cruise with a large family or friends group. Most of our cruises involve extended family, as we all like to travel together.

[christyran1228]

So two people on casino offer equaled five more people booking. // It is an interesting thought to me to offer a free cruise to someone who tends to cruise with a large family or friends group. Most of our cruises involve extended family, as we all like to travel together.

 

If we got one, we'd book the 2 plus 4 (my kids & inlaws) for sure ... possibly 4-6 more on top of that . But nope, nada. We still plan to take one all together, but it will just have to be a little further off in the future. :(

 

 

 

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[RMcoolX]

It's the simple economics of it all. The economy is the best it's been for several years now, and people are able to spend money and take vacations again. It's smart of Carnival to try and get at the forefront of the resurgence of vacationing by making many people happy, who have friends who have friends.

 

I didn't get one, but I'm still very happy for those that did. Congrats and enjoy!

[Ellusionz]

The theme parks have been doing this idea for years. Everything costs so much and you're usually semi limited to what you can bring with you so the amount they get for entry really isn't a loss once they get you in the park. Prolly the same way for carnival. If you're not paying 500 to 1k, aren't you likely to spend it later anyways?

[Margienj]

We are sailing on Carnival Pride on April 6th as a result of the free cabin offer. The offer came to my husband. I too am the one who does all the bookings and planning and blogging etc. But he got the offer. We call our PVP immediately to find out if this was on the up and up. It was, we booked, we're packed. This will be our 12th carnival cruise and only the second one just the two of us since our honeymoon on the Mardi Gras in 1981. We usually do a cruise each year with our girls and their boyfriends and family. Going to be strange just us. He is a casino guy and I like the shows. He drinks, I don't. We are past the souvenir stage and don't do any spa treatments. So we really don't fit any profiles except for the fact that we didn't have a cruise booked for this year because of finances. We did upgrade to a balcony cabin and pre-paid gratuities. So we are cruising 7days in a balcony for less than one person before taxes and gratuities. Not a bad deal at all. Thank you Carnival. ;)

[Redcat]

Doesnt matter what the reason we have one scheduled in April on Legend and now scheduleing another cruise in May or June for low cost after upgrade and taxes I am living the dream.:D

[elektrik]

Meh...I don't get free things....Not being pessimistic, I just never. get. anything. free.:mad:

[Georgiagolfer]

I don't have any clue about what the criteria is to receive a free cruise, nor do I really expect to know why. DW and I have not received a free cruise, nor do we expect to. I congratulate all who have received, and hope they can work it into their schedule to take advantage of the offer.

[Georgiagolfer]

Meh...I don't get free things....Not being pessimistic, I just never. get. anything. free.:mad:

Congratulations on your 1st post on cruise critic. I see you have been a member since April 2011, so you are not a newbie to the site.

Edited February 26, 2014 by Georgiagolfer
spelling

[BenjiRodney]

If I had a free cruise, would I take it, yes. Am I upset that I did not get the offer, no. I took three cruise on CCL last year and have 1 booked this year. They know us Platinum and Diamond cruisers are addicted and I don't think we were the target audience for this promotion.

[Little Lucifers Mom]

We got the free cruise offer and we sail this saturday on a 5 day cruise out of jacksonville. We have only done two cruises....last year two cruises to nowhere for two nights. didn't even port. we spent NO money in the casino, bought a handful of drinks, did the $35 per person steak house, and bought some photos. That's it. nothing major.

[Little Lucifers Mom]

The speculation is that no, people will not receive VIFP points for their free cruise. There is also discussion that people may receive VIFP points for their free cruise if they paid to upgrade their cabin. I guess we'll find out soon when the first people come back from their free cruise.

 

we did pay to upgrade to an aft balcony and sail this saturday, so we shall see!

[yogimax]

One person has commented that Carnival sent our 105,000 free cruise offers.

 

What's more interesting than who got them is why Platinums did not!

[celticd1]

Has anyone posted to John Heald's page asking? Not that I think he woukld know, just curious how the backlash would be handled there. :D

[Davey Wavey]

Are you basing this statement only on what you've seen on CC?

 

I base it on CruiseCritic and myself. I received the offer in January after having been on ship in November. But as I've said, who knows for sure? I know for sure from where and why my free cruise in June came. For every other reason offered, there are plenty on CruiseCritic alone to "say" they do not fit that reason. Maybe CruiseCritic is full of trolls, liars out to stir up trouble amongst the otherwise happy paying cruisers.

 

So, again, who knows?