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Message
Is it time to bet against carnival(CCL)?
Posted on 6/20/25 at 6:37 am
Posted on 6/20/25 at 6:37 am
This is a good Forbes article on the changes they made to the loyalty program this week. This move is going to frustrate a lot of long time loyal cruisers who will be looking for other cruise lines to match their loyalty status. You used to earn loyalty status by number of cruise days spent at sea but now it is changing to total dollar amount spent.
forbes
quote:
Carnival Cruise Line, part of the Carnival Corporation family of cruise brands, is conducting a huge, real-time experiment in customer loyalty. And, it's not going to be pretty.
The cruise line announced this week that it’s scrapping its 13-year-old loyalty program in favor of a spend-based system that will require customers to shell out tens of thousands of dollars to maintain their elite status. Diamond members, the highest level in the program, will retain their status for six years. Then, the math becomes daunting: spend $33,334 every two years or lose your perks.
quote:
Carnival loyalists knew a change was coming. Speculation ranged from a modest increase in nights required to reach each level to status matching with Carnival brands like Princess and Cunard. Nobody expected such a dramatic set of changes.
forbes
9
Posted on 6/20/25 at 6:46 am to LoneStar23
Isn't the average carnival customer completely price focused? Where are they going to get a cheaper cruise?
Am I missing the mark?
Am I missing the mark?
Posted on 6/20/25 at 7:28 am to LoneStar23
this seems like a horrible idea for a budget cruise line
Posted on 6/20/25 at 8:06 am to DawgCountry
My impression is that it’s a lot like airlines. You screw with people’s status on their favorite cruise line/airline and they take it seriously.
I used to own CCL and RCL. RCL was always the better run company. I don’t have a lot of interest in owning the second or third best these days.
I used to own CCL and RCL. RCL was always the better run company. I don’t have a lot of interest in owning the second or third best these days.
This post was edited on 6/20/25 at 8:07 am
Posted on 6/20/25 at 8:13 am to UltimaParadox
quote:
Isn't the average carnival customer completely price focused? Where are they going to get a cheaper cruise?
MSC cruises is heavily targeting the American market. Expanding into the Galveston port later this year and already in Florida and west coast. For reference a Interior room on carnival is priced the same as a balcony room on MSC with the drink package and wifi for the same week in 2026 when I looked. They also honor loyalty status match so they are pushing to take that market
Posted on 6/20/25 at 8:50 am to LoneStar23
quote:
Then, the math becomes daunting: spend $33,334 every two years or lose your perks.
Who that can afford 17k per year on travel spends that with Carnival?
Posted on 6/20/25 at 9:08 am to LoneStar23
I can't speak for other cruise lines, but Carnival focuses heavily on upselling. It doesn't matter what sort of add-on package you get (photo shoot, massage, pedicure, etc) they are going to make a strong and constant up-sale push (and those things are ridiculously over-priced). It's not quite time-share level, but it's up there. If you're aware of it, it's just annoying. If you aren't, the trip can cost you quite a bit more than you expected.
Carnival has been making money (net profits) hand over fist since COVID lockdowns ended. The scrapping of their loyalty program for this sort of crap is exactly something a company focused on dressing up nickel-and-diming as some sort of faux customer experience would do.
My SIL just achieved Diamond status, this will give me something to rib her about during the family vacation this year.
quote:
The cruise line announced this week that it’s scrapping its 13-year-old loyalty program in favor of a spend-based system that will require customers to shell out tens of thousands of dollars to maintain their elite status.
Carnival has been making money (net profits) hand over fist since COVID lockdowns ended. The scrapping of their loyalty program for this sort of crap is exactly something a company focused on dressing up nickel-and-diming as some sort of faux customer experience would do.
My SIL just achieved Diamond status, this will give me something to rib her about during the family vacation this year.
Posted on 6/20/25 at 1:51 pm to LoneStar23
quote:
MSC cruises is heavily targeting the American market. Expanding into the Galveston port later this year and already in Florida and west coast. For reference a Interior room on carnival is priced the same as a balcony room on MSC with the drink package and wifi for the same week in 2026 when I looked. They also honor loyalty status match so they are pushing to take that market
Went on an MSC cruise for first time about 2 years ago (Meraviglia). Would not recommend, they have a lot of kinks to work out trying to be in the American market now. Service was just abysmal. Trying to get a very basic issue resolved was handled extremely poorly and took a few days of trying. Not sure how much they've improved since then, but the price definitely reflected the service experience, food definitely the worst of the major cruise lines I've been on. They seemed understaffed pretty badly. Their website for booking and such felt so weird and done by a $25/hr college kid or something too.
I've been on a ton of different cruise lines: Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Princess, Celebrity, MSC & Holland America...MSC experience was definitely the worst. And that was a fairly newer ship for MSC too (2017 built). I can understand having a meh experience on a 3 night Carnival cruise on a 20+ year old ship, but on a newer ship (which was very nice in itself) was pretty mystifying. All the other lines have their better crews and have nicer stuff on their newer ships (this is why you should always shop by ship if possible when cruising over just cruise line), didnt make much sense to me because the staff on this MSC ship was very unhelpful and few and far between.
We somehow got a 9:30 or 9:45 dinner seating (who TF even eats dinner that late, maybe in europe makes sense, not over here) after choosing one that was like 6-6:30 originally. This is the issue that took them like 2 days on the ship to solve and put us at a reasonable dinner seating time.
This post was edited on 6/20/25 at 1:59 pm
Posted on 6/20/25 at 4:33 pm to LoneStar23
If they bring this to Princess, and they will, it's going to frustrate me a lot.
Posted on 6/20/25 at 9:19 pm to LoneStar23
The Golden Corral of the Seas it will continue to be
RCL GOAT’d. The shares I bought after Liberation Day are up 45%
RCL GOAT’d. The shares I bought after Liberation Day are up 45%
Posted on 6/21/25 at 7:25 am to Upperdecker
KFSeas
Posted on 6/21/25 at 7:57 am to LoneStar23
I don’t see the allure of cruising. From the videos I see of CCL, it attracts the lowest dregs of humanity then locks you on a ship with 5,000 of them for a week at sea. No thanks.
Posted on 6/21/25 at 8:38 am to Drizzt
Carnival was fine 20 years ago. Last time I took
A carnival cruise was 2002. Heard it is complete trash now as well.
A carnival cruise was 2002. Heard it is complete trash now as well.
Posted on 6/21/25 at 1:11 pm to LoneStar23
Eventually the other cruise lines will do the same.
Southwest Airlines completely junked their culture trying to make more money. Seems like it’s going ok for them so carnival must see that.
Southwest Airlines completely junked their culture trying to make more money. Seems like it’s going ok for them so carnival must see that.
Posted on 6/21/25 at 10:08 pm to SkiUtah420
SS Nissan Altima
Posted on 6/22/25 at 11:56 pm to UltimaParadox
quote:
Isn't the average carnival customer completely price focused? Where are they going to get a cheaper cruise?
Am I missing the mark?
Yes you are right now MSC is close to carnival prices and the newer Carnival ships are in line with MANY of the Royal Caribbean ships
Posted on 6/23/25 at 2:07 pm to LoneStar23
I am not an investor in any cruise line but I will make an anecdotical observation.
In my 45+ years, I had avoided cruises because of the trashiness and the videos and the "SS Nissan Altima" stigma. I had never even considered them as a vacation.
My wife cruised in college and my youngest went on one with a friend last year. They both wanted to cruise this past March for Spring Break. I was a firm no until it came up over dinner with friends. One of my trusted friends said "Just stay off Carnival and its fine."
Sure enough, I noticed all those videos were from Carnival. We took a RCL cruise out of NOLA in March and it was pleasant and not trashy at all. Hate they are leaving NOLA for 18 months.
In my 45+ years, I had avoided cruises because of the trashiness and the videos and the "SS Nissan Altima" stigma. I had never even considered them as a vacation.
My wife cruised in college and my youngest went on one with a friend last year. They both wanted to cruise this past March for Spring Break. I was a firm no until it came up over dinner with friends. One of my trusted friends said "Just stay off Carnival and its fine."
Sure enough, I noticed all those videos were from Carnival. We took a RCL cruise out of NOLA in March and it was pleasant and not trashy at all. Hate they are leaving NOLA for 18 months.
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