Costa by Carnival development

[cruisingguy007]

8 hours ago, WheresWalter said:

 

Costa By Carnival means leaving the ships basically as is, in the Costa livery and all internal Italian designs intact. NO addition of Carnival 'fun ship' elements. The only change is slated to be the change of the crew and operation from Costa to Carnival. Basically a more 'refined' ship for Carnival guests. 

 

I'm good with that, they look pretty awesome as they are. I'm definitely booking the one coming to LBC. 

[CarnivalShips480]

3 hours ago, WheresWalter said:

 

They've been saying "Choose Fun, Italian Style" since they announced "Costa By Carnival." That's the tagline for the two ships. It was literally in the Press Release announcing Costa By Carnival. They are going to remain Costa ships.

 

Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line. “We’re going to invite our guests to Choose Fun with Carnival, Italian Style!”

 

https://ca.travelpulse.com/news/cruise/carnival-to-launch-costa-by-carnival-marrying-italian-ships-with-carnival-fun.html

Okay then forget that line and look at the other things I posted.

 

Carnival Venezia, Carnival Firenze. It says it on Carnival websites. They were originally going to keep Costa names but it doesn't seem anymore. Things change, Luminosa is coming to Carnival, not Magica

[foodsvcmgr]

Whatever the final decision on names, just how “Italian” the ships will be and in what forms etc., seems they aren’t allowing much time for marketing the New York sailings if they intend to start next Spring.

Would appear that they are uncertain just what approach to take with this concept.

I liked the original idea of Carnival marketing a largely Costa product.

[cruisingguy007]

14 minutes ago, foodsvcmgr said:

Whatever the final decision on names, just how “Italian” the ships will be and in what forms etc., seems they aren’t allowing much time for marketing the New York sailings if they intend to start next Spring.

Would appear that they are uncertain just what approach to take with this concept.

I liked the original idea of Carnival marketing a largely Costa product.

 

There are some great YouTube videos out there on them, I was going to post a link but decided not to because some have travel agent info at the end and I know they don't like that around here but the ships look fantastic! Yes, it's vista class but the design is vibrant and completely different than current offerings of the same class.

[tidecat]

6 hours ago, CarnivalShips480 said:

Okay then forget that line and look at the other things I posted.

 

Carnival Venezia, Carnival Firenze. It says it on Carnival websites. They were originally going to keep Costa names but it doesn't seem anymore. Things change, Luminosa is coming to Carnival, not Magica

The Grand Port website still lists Mobile and Brisbane as year-round homeports.  I wouldn't read too much into it. Now if it shows up that way on Carnival.com

[mz-s]

I wouldn't be surprised to see these ships casually Carnivalized like the Luminosa and kept in the fleet long-term. As we've discussed elsewhere, Carnival needs smaller ships now that they've disposed of much of the Fantasy class and Costa apparently doesn't need all the tonnage it has right now.

[Wennfred]

Don’t forget about supply chain issues. Those other ships someone mentioned stating that it didn’t take those ships that long, well those were different times.

[Itried4498]

Both ships are relatively new, and Costa furnishings are generally more up scale than Carnival.  Financially, it makes little sense to rebrand these ships to Carnival’s (lower) standard status quo.

 

Both ships were ordered in the mid-2000s with intentions to serve the Asian market.  It’s not a big secret that the Asian market hasn’t developed as quickly as the industry would like, even pre-Covid.

 

Both ships will eventually be deployed to where ever the demand is.  That could even be Europe or Asia in the spring/summer, and USA in the fall/winter.

 

[ctlyf]

21 hours ago, WheresWalter said:

 

I know NCL has them, including the new PRIMA. I'm not sure who else has them anymore. 

 

We were on a PCL cruise in Dec 2021 (Grand Princess), and I was fairly certain there was an indoor cigar room near the terrace pool, but now can't see anything on the deck plans... perhaps I was mistaken.  

[Guest BasicSailor]

Explain to me how a Carnival keeps saying there short of staff but yet still keep adding / building to their Carnival brand. It has been known that they have several cutbacks because of said shortness.

I believe they were the first to get all their ships restarted with Minium staff onboard.

[cruisingguy007]

2 hours ago, BasicSailor said:

Explain to me how a Carnival keeps saying there short of staff but yet still keep adding / building to their Carnival brand. It has been known that they have several cutbacks because of said shortness.

I believe they were the first to get all their ships restarted with Minium staff onboard.

 

You should watch this Youtube video by a crew member, it may help to fully understand what is going on and the challenges that the staff are dealing with. It's worth watching all the way through and paying close attention around the 10:15 marker, speaks volumes on why we are seeing/experiencing some of what we are currently on cruises. 

 

 

Edited September 11, 2022 by cruisingguy007

[DrSea]

23 minutes ago, cruisingguy007 said:

 

You should watch this Youtube video by a crew member, it may help to fully understand what is going on and the challenges that the staff are dealing with. It's worth watching all the way through and paying close attention around the 10:15 marker, speaks volumes on why we are seeing/experiencing some of what we are currently on cruises. 

 

 

Wow, covid is spreading on cruise ships! Who could have guessed it?

[cruisingguy007]

3 minutes ago, DrSea said:

Wow, covid is spreading on cruise ships! Who could have guessed it?

 

Two folks doing the job of seven and getting burnout explains a lot. Kinda crazy when getting covid is the only way to get a break from grueling hours/conditions, sometimes we forget that while we're shoveling food and drinks down and having a ball on board.  

[DrSea]

1 minute ago, cruisingguy007 said:

 

Two folks doing the job of seven and getting burnout explains a lot. Kinda crazy when getting covid is the only way to get a break from grueling hours/conditions, sometimes we forget that while we're shoveling food and drinks down and having a ball on board.  

To me, it should not be a surprise. But I have worked in person during the entire pandemic. So I expected this. 

[Joe817]

46 minutes ago, cruisingguy007 said:

 

You should watch this Youtube video by a crew member, it may help to fully understand what is going on and the challenges that the staff are dealing with. It's worth watching all the way through and paying close attention around the 10:15 marker, speaks volumes on why we are seeing/experiencing some of what we are currently on cruises. 

 

 

Ugghhhh. I watched the entire video. My heart goes out to those workers. I found that depressing. I can't imagine working/sleeping/living in those conditions. Thanks so much for posting. 

[Guest BasicSailor]

Thats straight comments coming from the staff themselves. Informative video for sure. 

I know covid is on every cruise continuously spreading.

[Itried4498]

6 hours ago, BasicSailor said:

Explain to me how a Carnival keeps saying there short of staff but yet still keep adding / building to their Carnival brand. It has been known that they have several cutbacks because of said shortness.

I believe they were the first to get all their ships restarted with Minium staff onboard.

 
Because Carnival isn’t expanding its fleet.  All three ships are active within Carnival Corporation - they’re merely changing banners.  Most crew are hired through local agencies that are contracted by Carnival Corp, and can be assigned to any of its banners at first.  From reading various crew forums in the past, the USA is the preferred base for most employees.

 

It seems the biggest issue has been not with available help but rather the government processing paperwork. but one ship is headed to Australia, another won’t be in the US for almost a year and the other for two years.

[Guest BasicSailor]

1 hour ago, Itried4498 said:

 
Because Carnival isn’t expanding its fleet.  All three ships are active within Carnival Corporation - they’re merely changing banners.  Most crew are hired through local agencies that are contracted by Carnival Corp, and can be assigned to any of its banners at first.  From reading various crew forums in the past, the USA is the preferred base for most employees.

 

It seems the biggest issue has been not with available help but rather the government processing paperwork. but one ship is headed to Australia, another won’t be in the US for almost a year and the other for two years.

Thanks, I already understood that. Still, it doesn't explain why the new builds are coming while their still short on staff.  Quite a few complaints on the reviews boards that I have read that states, slow service to cutbacks, cold food to absolute rudeness from over worked staff members. Do you ever get the thought of perhaps stopping a few ships and sending the staff to other ships that are in dire need.

 

Covid still being a problem among staff giving it back and forth to each other, not able to work placing others on longer shifts. Doesn't seem too reasonable to me.

Edited September 11, 2022 by BasicSailor

[jimbo5544]

5 hours ago, DrSea said:

Wow, covid is spreading on cruise ships! Who could have guessed it?

Any data on that 

[jimbo5544]

18 minutes ago, BasicSailor said:

Thanks, I already understood that. Still, it doesn't explain why the new builds are coming while their still short on staff.  Quite a few complaints on the reviews boards that I have read that states, slow service to cutbacks, cold food to absolute rudeness from over worked staff members. Do you ever get the thought of perhaps stopping a few ships and sending the staff to other ships that are in dire need.

 

Covid still being a problem among staff giving it back and forth to each other, not able to work placing others on longer shifts. Doesn't seem too reasonable to me.

Actually an easy one, staff short supply, like the rest of the country has now, will be solved over time.  New builds require payment and they will by far have the greatest demand by cruisers.  New ships carry way more customers.  Using the new math….squire root of Pi divided by quantum formula….carry the 4 equals…..more money.  There you go.  Add to that we have absolutely no idea what info they have on people in the pipeline, the timing of backfills, even their plan.  We cruise, they do the mgt part 

[Guest BasicSailor]

12 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Actually an easy one, staff short supply, like the rest of the country has now, will be solved over time.  New builds require payment and they will by far have the greatest demand by cruisers.  New ships carry way more customers.  Using the new math….squire root of Pi divided by quantum formula….carry the 4 equals…..more money.  There you go.  Add to that we have absolutely no idea what info they have on people in the pipeline, the timing of backfills, even their plan.  We cruise, they do the mgt part 

So, can we take it that all your latest cruising experiences have been to perfection 😉

[jimbo5544]

10 minutes ago, BasicSailor said:

So, can we take it that all your latest cruising experiences have been to perfection 😉

Actually they were pretty good.  Even if they were just so so, based upon what they have had to go through, I would cut them major slack, but that was not the case.  We have sailed on 6 cruises since the restart and have 4 in the next 100 days.  I have absolutely zero apprehension on getting on any of them.  I was just answering the question as to WHY they would bring new ships to the market place, when they are short staffed.  For the record, where ARE all those people that used to do those jobs (cruising and elsewhere)?

[jimbo5544]

Every single conversation I have had with crew since returning had two components.  The first was how thankful they were that we were cruising again.  The second was that when probed, we heard stories that were amazing on what thye had to got through to be repatriated to their  home countries, 

[Guest BasicSailor]

1 hour ago, jimbo5544 said:

Every single conversation I have had with crew since returning had two components.  The first was how thankful they were that we were cruising again.  The second was that when probed, we heard stories that were amazing on what thye had to got through to be repatriated to their  home countries, 

 I have heard the same, still I noticed there was a lack of training amongst the crew.

[Itried4498]

3 hours ago, BasicSailor said:

Thanks, I already understood that. Still, it doesn't explain why the new builds are coming while their still short on staff.  Quite a few complaints on the reviews boards that I have read that states, slow service to cutbacks, cold food to absolute rudeness from over worked staff members. Do you ever get the thought of perhaps stopping a few ships and sending the staff to other ships that are in dire need.

 

Covid still being a problem among staff giving it back and forth to each other, not able to work placing others on longer shifts. Doesn't seem too reasonable to me.

Besides the fact that delaying delivery of new build ships would be expensive, the staff storages IMO are partially intentional. The WSJ wrote an interesting piece awhile ago, that some companies are using the tight labor market as an excuse not to fill empty positions.  
 

At my company, my department (and that’s just my department) has been five people below the absolute minimum staffing.  As a result, we’ve been working 60-80 hours, 6-7 days per week for the past year.  We’re exempt, so we don’t get paid for OT.  Those five positions have saved the owner of the company $800kish over the past year.  It’s hard to walk away from a company you’ve spent much of your life with and really love but that’s what I’m about to do.

 

The point is… labor shortages are often intentional.