Carnival announcement expected 13 Nov 2018 (per John Heald)

[wytygr8]

1 hour ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

 

From a business perspective, your post doesn’t make a lot of sense. Carnival is a budget level cruiseline, with significantly lower fares than several other cruiselines under the Carnival umbrella. Granting perks for their higher priced cruiselines based on status earned on Carnival makes no sense from a financial standpoint. Additionally, implementing a status matching program like that would upset cruisers who earned status by being loyal and paying higher fares to other cruiselines under Carnival’s umbrella. Another big reason this would make no sense business wise. 

 

 

So, you believe that it doesn’t make good business sense for them to encourage regular customers to buy a more expensive product? Really?

 

Also, he didn’t say that it had to be one for one on the loyalty program. It could be diamond to platinum, maybe with the diamond level experience for your first time.

[PhillyFan33579]

2 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Casino would be different.  I was very excited when they brought Jim Berra on board to revamp the program.  When the Splendor came out, we were on the ship for a 3 day naming ceremony trip to nowhere.  During that time we got to have dinner with some execs and they were very excited on implementing what we are talking about (under his direction).  Over the next 3 years it slowly died on the vine, for the reasons mentioned and others.  I wish it were not so also.....but.

 

I still don’t understand why they don’t have casino incentives for people who sometimes gamble up to $25 on a cruise 😶.

[wytygr8]

19 hours ago, Thebosn1 said:

Why eliminate formal nights?

 

 

Because haters gonna hate.

[PhillyFan33579]

33 minutes ago, wytygr8 said:

 

So, you believe that it doesn’t make good business sense for them to encourage regular customers to buy a more expensive product? Really?

 

Also, he didn’t say that it had to be one for one on the loyalty program. It could be diamond to platinum, maybe with the diamond level experience for your first time.

 

I dont see the benefit of an incentive that may make one group happy (Carnival cruisers) while pissing off a bunch of other cruisers (Holland America cruisers, Princess cruisers, etc).  That would make no sense business wise. For example, look at the uproar from D&Ps when FTTF came out and included early cabin access.

 

The only way a program like this would make sense is if other brands under the Carnival umbrella were struggling to fill their ships and these brands were looking to increase their market share like MSC and their status matching program. 

 

You slso have to consider Carnival is a budget cruiseline that markets and focuses on a different category of the population than the focus of their more upscale cruiselines. 

Edited November 10, 2018 by PhillyFan33579

[wytygr8]

12 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

 

I dont see the benefit of an incentive that may make one group happy (Carnival cruisers) while pissing off a bunch of other cruisers (Holland America cruisers, Princess cruisers, etc).  That would make no sense business wise. For example, look at the uproar from D&Ps when FTTF came out and included early cabin access.

 

 

Why would anyone get pissed off over Carnival Diamonds getting platinum level benefits on Princess? Tell you what. I’ll get pissed off that Carnival would ever cater to such people, so that should balance it out.

[wytygr8]

16 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

 

You slso have to consider Carnival is a budget cruiseline that markets and focuses on a different category of the population than the focus of their more upscale cruiselines. 

 

The entire point is that after 20 years, a lot of people have moved from being able to afford budget to affording upscale. They’re not actually in the budget category anymore and stay there out of inertia.

[PhillyFan33579]

5 minutes ago, wytygr8 said:

 

Why would anyone get pissed off over Carnival Diamonds getting platinum level benefits on Princess? Tell you what. I’ll get pissed off that Carnival would ever cater to such people, so that should balance it out.

 

Probably for the same reason loyal MSC cruisers don’t like that cruisers can get status on MSC ships based on their status on another cruiseline or hotel. 

 

Or keeping with Carnival, the same reason why a lot of D&Ps don’t like the FTTF Program. 

Edited November 10, 2018 by PhillyFan33579

[PhillyFan33579]

4 minutes ago, wytygr8 said:

 

The entire point is that after 20 years, a lot of people have moved from being able to afford budget to affording upscale. They’re not actually in the budget category anymore and stay there out of inertia.

 

People who want to cruise on another cruiseline are going to do it anyways.  The perks Carnival provides for Diamonds and Platinums are minimal, which is consistent with being a budget cruiseline. I am sure they are out there, but I don’t know anyone who is a Diamond or Platinum who continues to sail on Carnival because of the perks. Everyone in this category I am friends with, and countless others I have met at D&P parties, continue to sail with Carrnival because they have fun and enjoy themselves on every Carnival cruise. 

[bigdog1958]

20 hours ago, Thebosn1 said:

Why eliminate formal nights?

 

Because some people would rather not dress up on vacation.  No one is stopping people who want to dress up, but why 

make everyone do it, just because some want to..  

[wytygr8]

14 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

 

People who want to cruise on another cruiseline are going to do it anyways.  The perks Carnival provides for Diamonds and Platinums are minimal, which is consistent with being a budget cruiseline. I am sure they are out there, but I don’t know anyone who is a Diamond or Platinum who continues to sail on Carnival because of the perks. Everyone in this category I am friends with, and countless others I have met at D&P parties, continue to sail with Carrnival because they have fun and enjoy themselves on every Carnival cruise. 

 

That’s kind of like saying that advertising doesn’t work on anyone you know. They have way more information about the effectiveness of their marketing than we do, and the cruise lines wouldn’t have loyalty programs if they didn’t work.

[wytygr8]

17 minutes ago, bigdog1958 said:

Because some people would rather not dress up on vacation.  No one is stopping people who want to dress up, but why 

make everyone do it, just because some want to..  

 

Of course, the easy compromise is to simply have some dining rooms with a dress code and others without.

[LMaxwell]

Get excited for new things that will come at a nominal cost.  Don't mean to rain on anyones parade...

[wytygr8]

24 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

 

People who want to cruise on another cruiseline are going to do it anyways.  The perks Carnival provides for Diamonds and Platinums are minimal, which is consistent with being a budget cruiseline. I am sure they are out there, but I don’t know anyone who is a Diamond or Platinum who continues to sail on Carnival because of the perks. Everyone in this category I am friends with, and countless others I have met at D&P parties, continue to sail with Carrnival because they have fun and enjoy themselves on every Carnival cruise. 

 

Also, you’re contradicting yourself a bit here. Part of the reason they have fun and enjoy themselves is due to those perks. Otherwise, others getting those perks wouldn’t piss them off.

[amyj23]

17 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

 

People who want to cruise on another cruiseline are going to do it anyways.  The perks Carnival provides for Diamonds and Platinums are minimal, which is consistent with being a budget cruiseline. I am sure they are out there, but I don’t know anyone who is a Diamond or Platinum who continues to sail on Carnival because of the perks. Everyone in this category I am friends with, and countless others I have met at D&P parties, continue to sail with Carrnival because they have fun and enjoy themselves on every Carnival cruise. 

Hmmm. Actually, we don’t fit in to that. We are platinum. We only cruise every two years. Every time I start researching the next cruise I look at all cruise lines. I had about ten possible cruises on my list and Carnival was maybe two of those in the list. We kept looking over the list and since they all looked good, we decided to do the Carnival one. My husband likes having the perks of platinum. Usually that pushes us to just come back to Carnival.... 

You know, I don’t keep up with the business side of Carnival much, so this is more of a question/idea I’ll throw out there, but everyone’s mentioning changing up the levels to be in each VIFP category. Something I haven’t seen mentioned was adding categories. Is there a chance they’d add something between Platinum and Diamond? Or something above Diamond? I I kind of wonder what the benefits would be that would be more than Platinum but less than Diamond though. I just know that we’ve resigned to the fact that we’ll probably never make Diamond since we just don’t cruise enough... I’m sure one of you could explain why they don’t think this is a possibility. Lol

[PhillyFan33579]

3 minutes ago, amyj23 said:

Hmmm. Actually, we don’t fit in to that. We are platinum. We only cruise every two years. Every time I start researching the next cruise I look at all cruise lines. I had about ten possible cruises on my list and Carnival was maybe two of those in the list. We kept looking over the list and since they all looked good, we decided to do the Carnival one. My husband likes having the perks of platinum. Usually that pushes us to just come back to Carnival.... 

You know, I don’t keep up with the business side of Carnival much, so this is more of a question/idea I’ll throw out there, but everyone’s mentioning changing up the levels to be in each VIFP category. Something I haven’t seen mentioned was adding categories. Is there a chance they’d add something between Platinum and Diamond? Or something above Diamond? I I kind of wonder what the benefits would be that would be more than Platinum but less than Diamond though. I just know that we’ve resigned to the fact that we’ll probably never make Diamond since we just don’t cruise enough... I’m sure one of you could explain why they don’t think this is a possibility. Lol

 

The rumor I have heard for at least a year now is they are looking at adding a platinum plus and a diamond plus. However, I would take that with a grain of salt. I learned a long time ago not to believe everything you hear when it comes to VIFP levels. 

[amyj23]

5 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

 

The rumor I have heard for at least a year now is they are looking at adding a platinum plus and a diamond plus. However, I would take that with a grain of salt. I learned a long time ago not to believe everything you hear when it comes to VIFP levels. 

Ah ok! So my idea isn’t completely absurd! Lol

[evandbob]

3 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

 

From a business perspective, your post doesn’t make a lot of sense. Carnival is a budget level cruiseline, with significantly lower fares than several other cruiselines under the Carnival umbrella. Granting perks for their higher priced cruiselines based on status earned on Carnival makes no sense from a financial standpoint. Additionally, implementing a status matching program like that would upset cruisers who earned status by being loyal and paying higher fares to other cruiselines under Carnival’s umbrella. Another big reason this would make no sense business wise. 

 

The other important point to consider is most Diamonds and Platinums continue to cruise on Carnival due to the fact they like cruising on Carnival. The reason why my wife and I continue to cruise on Canival so often is we have had a great time on every one of our 22 cruises on Carnival. I hear similar reasons when talking to other cruisers at every D&P party we attend. If you are familiar with other cruiselines, you know the perks associated with Carnival’s VIFP Program pale in comparison.  The limited perks we receive as Platinums has no impact on why we continue to enjoy cruising on Carnival. 

Yet, as a Carnival  Diamond, I was enticed by MSC's status match to sail their brand new ship the Seaside, which was wonderful.  Might not have sailed it without the status match - it was one of the deciding factors (certainly not the sole factor).  Happy we did, the Seaside was the most modern and luxurious ship we have sailed on to date.

Philly Fan, you are entitled to your opinion about Carnival, just realize that many others disagree or have different opinions.  When I meet you at a D&P or Captain's Diamond Party I will be happy to share the great times we have had on other cruise lines, as this cruiser is looking for a more varied cruising experience.  After almost 40 Carnival cruises, I only sail Carnival now on a new ship or a casino fare sale.  Otherwise, I'm looking for new ports, different or new ships, and different sailing cultures, which can only be found by expanding my sailing horizons, not limiting them to one cruise line.

Enjoy your Carnival cruises!

[PhillyFan33579]

7 minutes ago, wytygr8 said:

 

Also, you’re contradicting yourself a bit here. Part of the reason they have fun and enjoy themselves is due to those perks. Otherwise, others getting those perks wouldn’t piss them off.

 

I can’t speak for everyone, but the perks don’t matter to me and definitely don’t make a difference in the cruise. With staggered check-in, most people are getting on-board with a minimal wait if they show up at their designated check-in window, so priority boarding no longer makes much of a difference. I never complain about anything on the ship with the exception of smokers when their smoke blows into our balcony and I always use a credit card for on-board expenses, so I rarely go to Guest Services. They only wash clothes in hot water so I never use that perk.  The chocolate covered strawberries are not that good, especially if you don’t eat them right away. The free drinks they provide at the D&P parties don’t matter to me since I always get the Cheers program and I rarely hit the 15 drink limit. For me the only difference between my first cruise on Carnival and now is I am a lot more familiar with their ships and every cruise I go on I usually know at least a few of the bartenders on the ship from previous cruises. 

 

As for perks and getting upset, it wouldn’t bother me one bit if they got rid of all the VIFP perks. The only thing that would bother me is if they offered perks to FTTF that were not provided to the higher levels of their VIFP Program.  If they did that, that would send a strong message that they don’t value their most loyal customers. But even that wouldn’t upset me, I just would no longer be loyal to Carnival and cruise exclusively with them like I have the last several years. 

[PhillyFan33579]

19 minutes ago, evandbob said:

Yet, as a Carnival  Diamond, I was enticed by MSC's status match to sail their brand new ship the Seaside, which was wonderful.  Might not have sailed it without the status match - it was one of the deciding factors (certainly not the sole factor).  Happy we did, the Seaside was the most modern and luxurious ship we have sailed on to date.

Philly Fan, you are entitled to your opinion about Carnival, just realize that many others disagree or have different opinions.  When I meet you at a D&P or Captain's Diamond Party I will be happy to share the great times we have had on other cruise lines, as this cruiser is looking for a more varied cruising experience.  After almost 40 Carnival cruises, I only sail Carnival now on a new ship or a casino fare sale.  Otherwise, I'm looking for new ports, different or new ships, and different sailing cultures, which can only be found by expanding my sailing horizons, not limiting them to one cruise line.

Enjoy your Carnival cruises!

 

I fully understand your point about everyone having different opinions.  Most of my neighbors won’t cruise on Carnival and won’t shop at Wal-Mart (my wife won’t shop there either). However, I like Carnvial and I like Wal-Mart so I continue to support both companies. It’s not a matter of right and wrong, it’s just different preferences. I plan to try other cruiselines when I retire, but that is still at least 15 years away.  For now we stick to Carnival because both my wife and I know we will have fun on every cruise we take, and time wise we can’t afford to take a cruise every month, which would increase the likelihood of trying different cruiselines. Now if they make significant changes to the VIFP Program, that could change who I cruise with in the near future. I really don’t care too much about the perks because they really don’t impact me, but I do like the fact that Carnival has a program that recognizes loyal customers. 

Edited November 10, 2018 by PhillyFan33579

[BoDidly]

11 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

 

I can’t speak for everyone, but the perks don’t matter to me and definitely don’t make a difference in the cruise. With staggered check-in, most people are getting on-board with a minimal wait if they show up at their designated check-in window, so priority boarding no longer makes much of a difference. I never complain about anything on the ship with the exception of smokers when their smoke blows into our balcony and I always use a credit card for on-board expenses, so I rarely go to Guest Services. They only wash clothes in hot water so I never use that perk.  The chocolate covered strawberries are not that good, especially if you don’t eat them right away. The free drinks they provide at the D&P parties don’t matter to me since I always get the Cheers program and I rarely hit the 15 drink limit. For me the only difference between my first cruise on Carnival and now is I am a lot more familiar with their ships and every cruise I go on I usually know at least a few of the bartenders on the ship from previous cruises. 

 

As for perks and getting upset, it wouldn’t bother me one bit if they got rid of all the VIFP perks. The only thing that would bother me is if they offered perks to FTTF that were not provided to the higher levels of their VIFP Program.  If they did that, that would send a strong message that they don’t value their most loyal customers. But even that wouldn’t upset me, I just would no longer be loyal to Carnival and cruise exclusively with them like I have the last several years. 

 

 

It's an understatement. It's a well known fact that Carnival values the new cruiser well over the seasoned ones .

They value the almighty dollar ,whereas the seasoned cruiser will spend less.

[evandbob]

Glad you expressed your opinion, enjoy sailing only on Carnival.  

 

I will continue a varied cruising experience.  I'm on an ULTRA Carnival Magic sailing tomorrow, and we have an NCL partial Panama Canal transit 11 day cruise after Thanksgiving.  We booked a Conquest casino cruise for February, have a 15 day TA to the Azores and Spain in April on NCL, and a 10 night Celebrity southern Caribbean booked for the fall.  I may book the MSC Seaside when it begins sailing from a Florida port.

 

I agree that many of the Carnival loyalty perks are insignificant, like the strawberry rejects they set out.  On MSC, their status match gave us a free dinner in one of their specialty restaurants and a few other perks not available through Carnival.  I didn't know what I was missing until I started sailing other lines.

 

Different oars, different strokes, different boats.  Variety is awesome for some, others appreciate the customary.  Whatever floats your boat!

 

 

[PhillyFan33579]

4 minutes ago, BoDidly said:

 

 

It's an understatement. It's a well known fact that Carnival values the new cruiser well over the seasoned ones .

They value the almighty dollar ,whereas the seasoned cruiser will spend less.

 

I agree with you 100%.  I have posted comments on this board in the past that Carnival’s ideal ship is one with only blue and red cards aboard. However, I think Carnival tries to make a minimal effort with their VIFP Program to show some loyalty to their most frequent cruisers. I think they would have trouble filling a lot of their journey cruises, since these cruises tend to be heavily populated with D&Ps, if Carnival didn’t pay any attention to this level of cruisers. Of course they could always eliminate journey cruises in the future if it ever got to the point they didn’t sell well. 

[PhillyFan33579]

7 minutes ago, evandbob said:

Glad you expressed your opinion, enjoy sailing only on Carnival.  

 

I will continue a varied cruising experience.  I'm on an ULTRA Carnival Magic sailing tomorrow, and we have an NCL partial Panama Canal transit 11 day cruise after Thanksgiving.  We booked a Conquest casino cruise for February, have a 15 day TA to the Azores and Spain in April on NCL, and a 10 night Celebrity southern Caribbean booked for the fall.  I may book the MSC Seaside when it begins sailing from a Florida port.

 

I agree that many of the Carnival loyalty perks are insignificant, like the strawberry rejects they set out.  On MSC, their status match gave us a free dinner in one of their specialty restaurants and a few other perks not available through Carnival.  I didn't know what I was missing until I started sailing other lines.

 

Different oars, different strokes, different boats.  Variety is awesome for some, others appreciate the customary.  Whatever floats your boat!

 

 

 

Now I am just jealous. I would love to have a cruise schedule like that, but unfortunately at this point in my life work gets in the way. 

[beerman2]

2 hours ago, evandbob said:

Glad you expressed your opinion, enjoy sailing only on Carnival.  

 

I will continue a varied cruising experience.  I'm on an ULTRA Carnival Magic sailing tomorrow, and we have an NCL partial Panama Canal transit 11 day cruise after Thanksgiving.  We booked a Conquest casino cruise for February, have a 15 day TA to the Azores and Spain in April on NCL, and a 10 night Celebrity southern Caribbean booked for the fall.  I may book the MSC Seaside when it begins sailing from a Florida port.

 

I agree that many of the Carnival loyalty perks are insignificant, like the strawberry rejects they set out.  On MSC, their status match gave us a free dinner in one of their specialty restaurants and a few other perks not available through Carnival.  I didn't know what I was missing until I started sailing other lines.

 

Different oars, different strokes, different boats.  Variety is awesome for some, others appreciate the customary.  Whatever floats your boat!

 

 

After our first 6 sailings on Carnival , we decided to try another line RCI, then NCL for 2. Did Carnival in May, now back to NCL in Jan. Totally agree trying something different is a great option.

 

Heck MSC might be in the future. 

[KmomChicago]

Okay, John Heald, so we seem to have a partial consensus that some people would like some way for the loyalty perks to have some value across Carnival Corporation brands. Nothing special. Maybe even just, "if you take one lousy cruise on Holland America/Costa/Any other of our lines, we will allow you to apply those days back toward your Carnival status, so you CCL, inside guarantee, 5-to-a-room low ballers can keep on mostly enjoying the incredible, consistent value of our Fun Ships, while occasionally venturing out to try something a bit different as you continue your long slow climb in VIFP levels."  We'd take that.  Well, I would. I realize some people do not want that.  So they are welcome to opt out.

 

Do you hear us John? Are you reading this John Heald?  Help a few people out here, John. Just those that want a little tiny incentive to go fancy pants now and then for a bucket list thing, you know????  John????????????