Europe in 2015? (a possible/hopeful clue)

Hi

I commonly float around TA shops looking at holiday deals and planning possible cruises for 2015 by collecting brochures. As of this beginning of this year there were 2 TAs in my city/the UK that stocked a Carnival brochure and advertised for Carnival in general (not to mentioned no Carnival is not featured in the national newspapers holiday section apart from the odd cruise).

Over the past few weeks Carnival cruises have started to appear quite a lot in national papers holiday sections [even 7/8 cruises at a time which is a lot). Then 2 other national TA shops have started stocking brochures and a big Carnival advert appeared in the window of Virgin Travel.

I have concluded this could mean a few things:

1) Carnival is targeting UK passengers (either for a return to Europe or for standard Carribean). It is dirt cheap to fly to the med for a cruise from here.

2) Carnival is generally expanding its market and not just the UK

3)It could mean nothing (TAs are looking for more business and approached Carnival and other)

4) It could mean nothing for 2015 but looking forward to 2016 when Vista appears.

Just thought it could be quite hopeful for Europe sailings as Carnival knows how high air fares are to fly over the pond but if you targeted the UK cruisers they would happily pay for bargain cruises as the air fare isn't too bad.

Just an interesting titbit anywho :)

I sure wish they would return to Europe!

I wish they would return to Europe in 2015 because my only option for the itinerary I want in 2015 is Norwegian and not sure I want to venture a new cruise line for the first time in the Med.

Although, does Carnival still have their UK offices? Or did they shut them down when they announced pulling out of Med for the immediate future. I would imagine they're maybe targeting you for the Caribbean or Australia?? Wish it was for Europe. Best cruise I've had was med on carnival

Although, does Carnival still have their UK offices? Or did they shut them down when they announced pulling out of Med for the immediate future. I would imagine they're maybe targeting you for the Caribbean or Australia?? Wish it was for Europe. Best cruise I've had was med on carnival

Yes they still have offices as Carnival Corp had job advertisements there a while ago and they still have sister lines like P and O that are very active and popular here in the UK.

Carnival Aus is nowhere to be found in brochures/TA shops in the UK which is odd.

Hiya Velvet

I think they are just trying to flog Carnival cruises in the states. Maybe there is more commission in it for the UK TA's, plus they are cheaper in the main than the other major players, what with the cost of the airfare to the states, it makes for an overall cheaper holiday.

I have been scouring the European ports for months and not a sniff of a Carnival cruise to be had so I think it is highly unlikely, unless of course they are doing a Disney and have asked for the port dates to be withheld until they have made their announcement, which i very much doubt. There would have been a slip up somewhere. Of course I could be wrong and they will be back next year.

I wish they would they were a whole lot cheaper than the other lines.

Jenna I have been looking at NCL too, but it's an old smaller ship, in fact a lot of them next year are older smaller boats. No doubt because of Venice. They have the big shiny ones for the main ports, two of which are sailing out of Southampton, but you waste 4 days in freezing cold temperatures, (even in July).

I wish they would return to Europe in 2015 because my only option for the itinerary I want in 2015 is Norwegian and not sure I want to venture a new cruise line for the first time in the Med.

Have you checked RCCL. We loved our Med cruise on RCCL and found it very similar to Carnival.

Have you checked RCCL. We loved our Med cruise on RCCL and found it very similar to Carnival.

Unfortunately, RCI doesn't offer Venice. That is a must and it makes sense for a land portion I'm going to do beforehand. The Norwegian one has all the ports I want/time I need..sadly not the price I paid for 9 days on sunshine in late August. I know it's no more than 90,000 or 95k that can go to Venice after this year. Even carnival can't take vista there in 2016, so they would be out.

After our amazing cruise on the sunshine last year and prior to this normally cruising out of Southampton with P & O, we were desperate for Carnival to return in 2015 so we sent JH a message asking him just that. His reply was (sorry!) that definitely not returning in 2015 but will be back in 2016 (I think, like you said, this will be Vista). We are now thinking to fly long haul and do a Carnival cruise that way. I've priced up RCI (we have done one cruise with them before), but it is so expensive! Carnival fits us as a young family who love cruising!

We're flying to the States this year with my airmiles it worked out a lot cheaper than cruising the Med with the cruise lines available. I think we were all spoilt last year with Carnivals cheap pricing following the bad press the Sunshine initially received and the other ship that was left drifting at sea.