Speculating about why Carnival sent out the free cabin offers

[cruzmax]

Does anyone know if the offers went only to cruisers who book directly with Carnival?

[Maryland Dave]

Does anyone know if the offers went only to cruisers who book directly with Carnival?

 

I only went on one Carnival cruise in November of 2009 with a group of twelve that was booked through a travel agent. I would get discount and shipboard credit offers often. The Free Cabin offers started around December 2013. I've received two mailings - I didn't use the first one, then another arrived about a week after the deadline passed on the first one. The second one was good for two sailings. My offers were labeled as "Casino" offers.

 

 

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[WestCoastCruiser123]

 

Log onto Carnival.com

1 - Click on the red "Cruise Deals" at the top of the home page.

2 - Click on "Past Guest Offers" in the middle of the page.

3 - Click on the "VIEW YOUR OFFERS" icon on the left of the page.

Your offers should then pop up. Make sure you VIFP number is displayed. If not, fill it in and click "SUBMIT"

 

Thanks for the instructions. I just logged in but have no offers. It was worth a shot.

Edited March 4, 2014 by WestCoastCruiser123

[Davey Wavey]

 

Why do you feel that those of us who are platinum deserve an explanation? I surely don't.

 

...if they want one and if Carnival wants to give one and if there is even one to give. Again, people will take things as people take things. Some see a punishment, some see a blessing, some see a random act. I wouldn't be surprised that there are people who feel Carnival did this specifically to NOT give it to them.

 

My statement was along the lines of hoping people (including Platinums) could find some definite explanation if they wanted it, but people will make of it what they want no matter the reason or explanation.

[Davey Wavey]

Does anyone know if the offers went only to cruisers who book directly with Carnival?

 

I only ever booked through a travel agent, never directly with Carnival until now.

[Davey Wavey]

I jumped ship to Celebrity which is RCCI and I am stunned at the deal we got.

 

I am done with Carnival. Next three cruises already booked with RCL and Celebrity.

 

If they give out free cruises over there for your loyalty, please let us know so we can all jump ship with you! Seriously!

[pungo3]

Does anyone know if the offers went only to cruisers who book directly with Carnival?

 

I always book directly with Carnival and did NOT receive the offer. I'd really be interested if someone can figure out what the criteria was.:)

[Davey Wavey]

Suppose thousand dollar bonuses were randomly given out by your boss. You then found out that part time employees (some working only 5 hours per week) received the thousand dollar checks while you, a full time employee, was ignored. I dare say, you would be angry!

.

 

Well, yes, if I found out all those random employees were all nieces and nephews of the boss. Except I guess in this case they were just random?

 

That's EXACTLY why I don't play the Lotto. I could spend $10,000 on tickets and some lump could win with a single ticket. I hate how random is sometimes....so random.

[Davey Wavey]

I don't know why they sent them out, but I do know why they didn't send us one.

 

It's because DH ate way too many smoked salmon bagels on our last trip.

 

:(

 

Haha, nice! I haven't seen anyone say they at lots of smoked salmon bagels on their last trip and got a free cabin, so YOU may very well have cracked the code! :D

[Thebosn1]

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 guess my question would be how did they pick all these people to offer free cabins to? I've been a loyal Carnival cruise for years and I have never gtten so much as a price drop or an offer of an upgrade?

 

So I don't know what they were trying for with the givaways, but what they accomplished with this cruiser was to piss me off.

 

I'm actually happy for all the folks that get free cabins and big price drops and OBC, but it's getting a little old reading about it on here every day when over ten years of being loyal to the line I have not gotten even an offer of anything.

 

Go ahead and blast me. I don't care.

[guxu]

While some are random, like some platinum got the free offer right after they were off the ship, I still believe most of the offers were to attract people back. I started cruising on Princess. After several Princess cruises, I discovered Carnival. For the next several years, I sailed Carnival 2 or 3 times per year. So far, no Carnival offer for me. But, last year I did get a Princess special price (had to log in to see the price). It was not free, but the discount was very deep. A friend of mine, who sailed Princess far more times than us, and already had a Princess cruise booked, got nothing.

[Davey Wavey]

Go ahead and blast me. I don't care.

 

BLAST!!! There ya go...

 

Yep, I'm kinda bored at lunch. It's too cold to go outside.

 

I think it's unfortunate anyone has to go away upset, but certainly understandable. In not announcing a reason or pattern to the offers, Carnival has left it to people to divine a reason for themselves. Some will conclude bad things about it all. Some won't. I think the most unfortunate thing is the people who have enjoyed Carnival and have decided to go elsewhere because of this promotion...leaving something they otherwise liked. Hopefully, they can still enjoy themselves at a similar price, and maybe even get a free cabin offer sometime from their new travel partner.

[shipty2]

Carnival has certainly increased traffic to the Carnival website with all of us clicking away to find our free offers and telling others to do so.

 

I am sure this is at the top of the list of reasoning behind this type of marketing campaign.

[Thebosn1]

BLAST!!! There ya go...

 

Yep, I'm kinda bored at lunch. It's too cold to go outside.

 

I think it's unfortunate anyone has to go away upset, but certainly understandable. In not announcing a reason or pattern to the offers, Carnival has left it to people to divine a reason for themselves. Some will conclude bad things about it all. Some won't. I think the most unfortunate thing is the people who have enjoyed Carnival and have decided to go elsewhere because of this promotion...leaving something they otherwise liked. Hopefully, they can still enjoy themselves at a similar price, and maybe even get a free cabin offer sometime from their new travel partner.

 

JH actually answered an email to someone on another thread. He said it was targeted at folks who have not cruised in a while in an attempt to bring them back. It makes sense. They don't need to give free cabins to those of us who book like clockwork.

 

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[crewsweeper]

JH actually answered an email to someone on another thread. He said it was targeted at folks who have not cruised in a while in an attempt to bring them back. It makes sense. They don't need to give free cabins to those of us who book like clockwork.

 

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There must still be a lottery aspect to this. DW and SILs have a girls cruise booked and took another girls cruise last spring. My last cruise was at the end of 2012. DW usually books our cruises and works with the PVP. I just go along for the ride :D. But I was the one getting the offer. Nevertheless, DW made the contact and set up the cruise with the PVP. So some flexibility on Carnival's part in accepting these and making changes.

[Midwestgal]

JH actually answered an email to someone on another thread. He said it was targeted at folks who have not cruised in a while in an attempt to bring them back. It makes sense. They don't need to give free cabins to those of us who book like clockwork.

 

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Sorry JH your wrong. I just cruised in December and less than two months later I received the free cabin.

[Midwestgal]

I will say it again....Just because you haven't received the free cabin doesn't mean you won't get one .....I'm sure there will be more sent out as ships don't fill.

[guxu]

I will say it again....Just because you haven't received the free cabin doesn't mean you won't get one .....I'm sure there will be more sent out as ships don't fill.

 

As a CCL stock owner (I bought CCL stock NOT just for OBC), I really do not want to see that.

[celticd1]

Sorry JH your wrong. I just cruised in December and less than two months later I received the free cabin.

 

What?? JH wrong?? No way! LOL

 

(And yes, I am being sarcastic!)