Carnival Firenze itineraries- underwhelming.

[gkbiiii]

27 minutes ago, Squirreladd said:

That is a complete waste of that ship. The ship was designed with families in mind. (water park, club O2, Extra berths, Ropes course, etc.)  Families with school age children unless extremely wealthy cannot take world cruises. Taking 1-3 months off from work and school is not possible for most working age families who would be the ones taking advantage of those water parks and camp ocean perks. This leaves only one segment for a mainstream cruise. Retired people are the only people with the time to do this, So use a smaller HAL or Princess ship. 

No it wasn't; the ship was ONLY designed for high-end Chinese gamblers!

[gkbiiii]

If Royal Caribbean can do it, so can Carnival, on these Upmarket Asian gambling vessels.  That is what they were built for (never to come to US family market, in first place), so exclusively longer "Journey Cruising," would make sense.  There should be a higher per diem price point, so people wanting Carnival 80's/90's quality, could have this, and el cheapo will be the oldest ships in the fleet.  You know, where the fights happen. 

[gkbiiii]

2 hours ago, warren buffet said:

I think there is a fairly common cultural pheonoma of people starting their under 40 cruising with carnival and then when they get older (and have some more money and vacation time) change to Princess or Holland America even if they like the carnival corp's policies and the running of ships over other brands. Of course many other people also do carnival or royal when younger and then when older move to one of the other slightly more upscale carnival brands or celebrity or now virgin as a choice.  carnival's last 2 or 3 new ships have been pretty fancy and the fare on those ships reflects that. so the brand image is now blurring

These ships were never to go to US market, we are lucky to get them.  Notice Royal Caribbean is doing the 9 month World Cruise, NOT Celebrity.  I had wondered the same thing, but the ship is near sold out.  Both ex-Costa ships deserve better, as they are Maritime Artistic Perfection.  From what I have seen, they equal Cunard's cruise ships (Excluding QM2 Liner). Princess, Holland, P&O have nothing on this pair of ships either. 

[CruizinSusan70]

5 hours ago, gkbiiii said:

Princess, Holland, P&O have nothing on this pair of ships either. 

You can't be implying that the Venezia and the Firenze have more going for them than the upcoming Sun Princess.  That thought process is delusional.

[gkbiiii]

3 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

You can't be implying that the Venezia and the Firenze have more going for them than the upcoming Sun Princess.  That thought process is delusional.

They are the best vessels Carnival Corp has produced, along with QM2. 

[CruizinSusan70]

3 minutes ago, gkbiiii said:

They are the best vessels Carnival Corp has produced, along with QM2. 

I'll have first hand knowledge comparing the Venezia and the Sun Princess next year since I'll be on both.  Have a 7 day reserved on the Venezia for May and will be on the Sun for a B2B in the fall

 

I expect the Venezia to be typical Carnival with an Italian flair.  The Sun Princess on the other hand will be a game changer for them similar to how the Excel Class was a game changer for Carnival.

[gkbiiii]

I booked the Venezia's sister ship and I am so excited!

[CarnivalShips480]

I think a world cruise is possible in the future. They really just need 2124 people interested for a Spirit class. For me, I have thought about if I want to do one but I would never really consider it until Carnival has one.

 

Costa Deliziosa does world cruises each year. But what if the Carnival Corp executives thought that it might sell better under Carnival? 

[tidecat]

10 hours ago, CarnivalShips480 said:

I think a world cruise is possible in the future. They really just need 2124 people interested for a Spirit class. For me, I have thought about if I want to do one but I would never really consider it until Carnival has one.

 

Costa Deliziosa does world cruises each year. But what if the Carnival Corp executives thought that it might sell better under Carnival? 

I thought Carnival Miracle might be a candidate for that given Miracle has effectively been kicked out of Long Beach by Firenze. Instead, Miracle becomes the fourth ship out of Galveston, at least outside the Alaska season.

[staceyglow]

7 hours ago, tidecat said:

I thought Carnival Miracle might be a candidate for that given Miracle has effectively been kicked out of Long Beach by Firenze. Instead, Miracle becomes the fourth ship out of Galveston, at least outside the Alaska season.

That doesn't mean it can't do a world cruise at some point in a season. I don't think any line has a ship dedicated to world cruises.  

 

That being said, I still don't think Carnival will ever host one. It's a huge amount of work for a very long one-off that they won't even be sure they will be able to sell.

[ohioNCLcruiser]

Carnival is really going after casino players now as a big part of their focus. They would probably be taking quite the revenue hit by having the same group of people onboard for three months vs 15 different groups coming and losing as much money as possible onboard. 

[carrieluvsgreg]

On 3/23/2023 at 5:58 PM, pc_load_letter said:

 

That how it was for Panorama last week. Our traveling friends were off the ship by 7:30. Which is dumb for Carnival because with the exception of excursions, the town is still closed.

We board the Panorama on Saturday and that is the basic time for our stop in Cabo,  My understanding that it is like that every week that starts with PV.  My experience in the Caribbean ports with early port times is that the locals that are interested in making a buck open when a ship pulls in.  On our Cabo day we are the only ship in port.  So, they better get up and get ready for business if they wanna make any money.  Also not sure it is dumb for Carnival either-they make "0" dollars on passengers who get off the ship.  If you stay onboard, you might spend money on booze. 

[carrieluvsgreg]

As others have stated, I think Carnival's basic demographic is geared to 7 day and under sailings.  They understand that the majority of folks that cruise the line are still limited on vacation time and doing longer than 7 day sailings leave many folks who must travel to the port out of those sailings altogether.  The introduction of the Journeys sailings several years ago was to supplement their typical model.  They have been doing them long enough to determine the success.  If it were tremendously successful, they would add more itineraries.  Apparently it isn't worth assigning more Journeys sailings to the current offerings.  As another poster stated, within the brand they offer at least two lines that consistently offer longer sailing with more exotic ports of call. Having lived on the east coast for our entire cruising career, we have thoroughly exhausted the Caribbean ports.  We took the Dream relo to NOLA several years ago to go to new ports, we took the second sailing on the Horizon in the Mediterranean to tick that box off the bucket list and our 2020 cruise out of Galveston was canceled due to Covid.  We board the Panorama Saturday for our first time in the Mexican Riviera.  Crossing the country requires more money and lots more planning for sure.  I think Carnival isn't counting on people doing that-they understand most of their clientele will go to the closest port to their home 

[csm5986142]

On 3/29/2023 at 10:57 AM, sjlogghe said:

So if anyone is able to answer my original question about where Uber drops off, I’d greatly appreciate it!! 😊

 

Since cruising resumed, we've flown into both IAH and HOU the night prior and took Uber/Lyft to the port the next morning multiple times.  In our experience, going TO the port, they will allow both Uber and Lyft in to drop you off at the ship (like any other port).  But leaving FROM the cruise (going back to the airport) Uber/Lyft can't pick up inside the port area.  But you can walk just a block or 2 and pick up an Uber/Lyft just outside the port area.  

Last time we were there we stayed at Harbor House (the hotel on the pier) it's just a block and a half from the port and both Uber/Lyft recognized it as a valid pick-up option, so from now on, we are just going to walk over there to get out of the traffic craziness in front of the port/parking garage area. 

 

[warren buffet]

2 hours ago, tidecat said:

I thought Carnival Miracle might be a candidate for that given Miracle has effectively been kicked out of Long Beach by Firenze. Instead, Miracle becomes the fourth ship out of Galveston, at least outside the Alaska season.

it's a planned marketing technique. People start out on carnival on the young side. when they have more vacation time and $$ they tend to move to princess or holland. or a combination. thus, people divide their loyalty points and the carnival corp as a whole limits the loyalty perks. it's the only logical reason why carnival has a hard division on the loyalty points for brands when all the hotel corp's have all brands in one pot of points.  at least royal gives half credit for cross royal/celebrity sailings with the receprical levels if not actual pooling of points. 

[BlerkOne]

On 4/8/2023 at 1:57 PM, gkbiiii said:

Why not the Ultimate Grand Journey: Firenze World Cruise!

Carnival knows better.

[BlerkOne]

On 4/9/2023 at 5:00 AM, gkbiiii said:

No it wasn't; the ship was ONLY designed for high-end Chinese gamblers!

No, it really wasn't 

 

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2020/12/first-look-new-costa-firenze/

[gkbiiii]

1 hour ago, BlerkOne said:

No, it really wasn't 

 

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2020/12/first-look-new-costa-firenze/

I'm booked on it, thanks for the great review.

[Jeafl]

On 4/12/2023 at 1:09 AM, gkbiiii said:

I'm booked on it, thanks for the great review.

Us, too.  I can't wait!

[EarloftheSeas]

I booked a nice portal deal on a 6-night, with two long days in Cabo San Lucas, sandwiched by seadays and then Friday in Ensenada.  This is a perfect itinerary from a local SoCal perspective. Very excited to do this with the Italian flair!