Time to Take Another Look at Carnival?

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Of all the cruise lines, none carries more pre-conceived notions baggage than Carnival.

"Not Carnival" often will be the preface or tag-on with a request for information on cruises.

Sometimes, I understand this restriction, because just a few moments discussion tells me this client is more of a Princess, Celebrity or Viking guest.

Frankly, I don't always fight this pre-conception, because it can make searching for cruises easier, particularly in the Caribbean, where Carnival deploys most of its fleet year-round.

Moreover, if I insist that Carnival is the right answer when the client has begun the search saying, "Not Carnival," then if it turns out that they really did want a quiet cruise and ended up in what feels like an endless party, they will look poorly on my service.

Eliminating Carnival sometimes results in no other possibilities, as frequently happens from specific close-to-home ports where Carnival is the only game in town.  

When budget is a major concern, especially for a young family, once again eliminating Carnival might nix the whole trip.

However, there is a bigger story to Carnival.

And for many fun-loving cruisers, Carnival may be simply the best cruise regardless of price.

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If you have poor pre-conceptions, Carnival is likely not what you imagine.

For example, do you think most Carnival ships are the old Fantasy Class developed before balconies became necessities for most travelers?  That's definitely no longer true.

Admittedly, Carnival lagged competitors for the family market like NCL and Royal Caribbean when it came to overhauling their fleets.

Each new ship they introduced should have given pause to consider how that stacks up against our pre-conceived notions as well as against competitors.

However, the sad fact is that most people "shop" primarily based on price.  I'm not talking about informed travelers like you, who seek out professional guidance when selecting their next vacation, but those who just see ads pop-up on the internet and book.  This may seem obvious but make a mental note: the cheapest cruises will almost always be on the oldest ships.  That's not always true, and that's also not always a bad thing.

I personally sometimes prefer older ships, which tend to be smaller and likely have everything I really will use on board, but that's not true for everyone, especially if you see an ad that promises many features of the newest ship that aren't on the oldest ship.

And yet, because the bargain shopper thinks whatever has the best price must be the best deal, they might choose poorly and return disappointed.

Make another mental note: the pandemic shutdowns resulted in Carnival going beyond what any other cruise line has done in terms scrapping older ships and moving capacity to newer mega-ships, so while there are a couple in the fleet that I would call outdated, most are modern.  Remember that just like ourselves, they are not all the same age.  Between the newest and oldest are many great levels.

And the cheap, outdated ships can be fun too!

One further consideration is that Carnival, like Holland America and Princess, sometimes re-uses names of retired ships to Christen new ships, so just because you have been on Carnival Celebration and found it outdated, that would no longer be true with the new Celebration.

Bottom line, before you say Carnival isn't right for you, ask me if I think Carnival might work for your next trip.

I will do my guest to guide you correctly.

"Better service leads to better trips!"

Wes