Dancing of the Ships 2019-2020 speculation

Big unanswered question. They've actually got two 'signature' slots to fill, Canaveral and Lauderdale. And I agree with what some others have said. The best Long Beach is going to do is Magic. There just aren't enough itineraries or cruisers on the left coast to warrant more.

My understanding is Carnival is very happy with Long Beach and are investing by taking over the entire dome. I believe it is their second busiest home port behind Miami. The itineraries are more limited than the Carribean, but there is room to improve. I used to love cruising down to Manzanillo, and there are other destination like Ixtapa that could provide variety. Hawaii and Alaska are both underserved by Carnival. They could do a West Coast northern run to Vancouver, with stops in places like San Francisco, Astoria, Seattle. I'm being hopeful as I live on the West Coast, but I guess we'll see...

I still find it hard to believe that both the Imagination & Inspiration do well with their 3 & 4 days cruises there since it's the same itinerary for both. Would have thought one of them would have switched to a 4 & 5 day route.

I still find it hard to believe that both the Imagination & Inspiration do well with their 3 & 4 days cruises there since it's the same itinerary for both. Would have thought one of them would have switched to a 4 & 5 day route.

I think the issue is they only have one berth in Long Beach. The 4/5 day ship would do Mon/Thu/Sat and the 3/4 day ship would have to do Sun/Thu or Mon/Fri. The 7 day ship they would want to have leave on a Sat/Sun. So they would need an extra berth to be able to do 4/5 day cruises.

I think the issue is they only have one berth in Long Beach. The 4/5 day ship would do Mon/Thu/Sat and the 3/4 day ship would have to do Sun/Thu or Mon/Fri. The 7 day ship they would want to have leave on a Sat/Sun. So they would need an extra berth to be able to do 4/5 day cruises.

Why not Tuesday and Wednesday? Is the port closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays because there are no ships in port or is it closed for some other reason?

I still find it hard to believe that both the Imagination & Inspiration do well with their 3 & 4 days cruises there since it's the same itinerary for both. Would have thought one of them would have switched to a 4 & 5 day route.

It’s hard to mix a ship doing the 4/5/5 rotation, a 3/4 rotation, and a ship doing 7 day cruises. Mathematically it’s a bit claustrophobic, but it could work:

7 day: Saturday

4/3 day: Monday/Friday

5/4/5: Sunday/Thursday/Tuesday

The other solution of course, is to expand the Long Beach terminal to handle two ships being home at the same time.

Obviously there is demand for the 3 day cruises, otherwise Carnival wouldn’t dedicate two ships to that route. The Excellence class ships have enough passenger capacity to replace two Fantasy class ships so in theory Carnival could replace two ships with one without actually cutting capacity in Long Beach. The issue with the four-day cruises is that Catalina Island is a tender port, so capacity is an issue for guests going ashore.

I had heard the Elation was replacing the Sunshine (which sucks) but glad to hear the Breeze is now coming to PC.

 

Horizon is going to Miami (I'm booked on her).

No. Elation will be the weekend beer wagon out of Canaveral joining Liberty on the short itineraries. She's not taking the 8 day run. That's still to be determined.

My understanding is Carnival is very happy with Long Beach and are investing by taking over the entire dome. I believe it is their second busiest home port behind Miami. The itineraries are more limited than the Carribean, but there is room to improve. I used to love cruising down to Manzanillo, and there are other destination like Ixtapa that could provide variety. Hawaii and Alaska are both underserved by Carnival. They could do a West Coast northern run to Vancouver, with stops in places like San Francisco, Astoria, Seattle. I'm being hopeful as I live on the West Coast, but I guess we'll see...

I really think your not going to see it. The Mex Riv is simply not 'destination' cruising more than once. It only attracts a regional audience. Alaska gets covered from Seattle and Hawaii, although attractive, requires 2 weeks vacation. Again, not Carnival's bread and butter. Long Beach serves the California market and maybe short flights in.

Don't read between the lines with JH too much. I remember him once saying that there was sensational news for Mobile, and Fantasy showed up. Everybody got hung up on the word sensational and assumed he was talking about Sensation.

LOL,how many ships did Mobile have before the Fantasy show up?

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I had heard the Elation was replacing the Sunshine (which sucks) but glad to hear the Breeze is now coming to PC.

 

Horizon is going to Miami (I'm booked on her).

They have moved new ships in a relatively small amount of time, I would not be surprised if both PC and FLL get some new hardware soon....

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My understanding is Carnival is very happy with Long Beach and are investing by taking over the entire dome. I believe it is their second busiest home port behind Miami. The itineraries are more limited than the Carribean, but there is room to improve. I used to love cruising down to Manzanillo, and there are other destination like Ixtapa that could provide variety. Hawaii and Alaska are both underserved by Carnival. They could do a West Coast northern run to Vancouver, with stops in places like San Francisco, Astoria, Seattle. I'm being hopeful as I live on the West Coast, but I guess we'll see...

There is no way LB is the second busiest port and it is near the bottom in terms of revenue.

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I really think your not going to see it. The Mex Riv is simply not 'destination' cruising more than once. It only attracts a regional audience. Alaska gets covered from Seattle and Hawaii, although attractive, requires 2 weeks vacation. Again, not Carnival's bread and butter. Long Beach serves the California market and maybe short flights in.

I always wondered why Carnival did not get creative on the west coast by adding my US stops with Vancouver to check off the requirement. Kind of like they do with the Pride stopping in PC and them to the Bahamas.....

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There is no way LB is the second busiest port and it is near the bottom in terms of revenue.

 

 

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I'd expect Canaveral, Port Everglades and Galveston to be 2,3,4 in some order.

I'd expect Canaveral, Port Everglades and Galveston to be 2,3,4 in some order.

Not sure of the order either, but that said, I'd expect you are correct. Depending on how you ask the question, Galveston is a tremendous producer for Carnival with well over 7 million people within a 3 hour drive.

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I always wondered why Carnival did not get creative on the west coast by adding my US stops with Vancouver to check off the requirement. Kind of like they do with the Pride stopping in PC and them to the Bahamas.....

 

 

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So what's your Cali suggestion? The problem is that the Pacific is coooold. We did it once from Chicago. Enough. Now Alaska or Hawaii? Sure. But that's specialty stuff.

Not sure I have a home run solution, but there is way to many home port options and other places to go. Without knowing cost issues in home port space, a small or not so new ship going north from a southern home port, stopping in SF and Seattle and Vancouver. Or using San Diego and go around and in the Baha...

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I'd expect Canaveral, Port Everglades and Galveston to be 2,3,4 in some order.

I think Long Beach is #2 behind Miami. I've heard it a few times in a few places, here is one...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2017/05/15/the-fleet-and-home-ports-of-carnival-cruise-line/101522906/

What I'm really interested in seeing is how Carnival is going to utilize their ships after the XL's come out. It seems like now with Horizon and Panorama coming, Carnival will soon have a glut of tonnage unless they seriously expand at their home ports. They've already expanded operations at Canaveral.

Will they add another ship to Galveston, Baltimore, Charleston, etc? Will the Fantasy class begin leaving the fleet? Or will they be spun off into a new "booze cruise" line?

I'd expect Canaveral, Port Everglades and Galveston to be 2,3,4 in some order.

Wherever Galveston ranks i’d expect it to move up in the future with vista replacing Breeze and Dream replacing Valor....more passengers.

Here's another question. Why has Carnival reduced its presence somewhat in Lauderdale? GREAT airport access and excellent port to sail from.

Agree 100%

No. Elation will be the weekend beer wagon out of Canaveral joining Liberty on the short itineraries. She's not taking the 8 day run. That's still to be determined.

I didn't mean replacing the Sunshine's routes. The Sunshine is leaving and the Elation is coming so the Elation is physically replacing the Sunshine but not her routes which is the sucky part. If the Breeze is coming which the OP stated, then I guess the Breeze will take over the 7 night routes or maybe they will switch the Liberty from shot routes to longer routes.

They have moved new ships in a relatively small amount of time, I would not be surprised if both PC and FLL get some new hardware soon....

 

 

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Yea!!! Would love to see a Vista class ship in PC. Those ships rock!

I'd expect Canaveral, Port Everglades and Galveston to be 2,3,4 in some order.

I would put Tampa third, the PE & Galveston.

I think Long Beach is #2 behind Miami. I've heard it a few times in a few places, here is one...

 

 

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2017/05/15/the-fleet-and-home-ports-of-carnival-cruise-line/101522906/

This is not a big deal, and won't belabor the point here any further. That article (and I doubt the factual basis either way) is referring to number of cruises (example 2 small ships for Long Beach doing 3 day cruise would would be in the area of 5 cruises per week). If you look at revenue or profitability would not make the top 5. Again not a big deal....

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I think Long Beach is #2 behind Miami. I've heard it a few times in a few places, here is one...

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2017/05/15/the-fleet-and-home-ports-of-carnival-cruise-line/101522906/

I think that's very misleading. It's easy to up-count Fantasy class ships leaving port on 3 dayers. That ain't passengers or, even better, passenger sea days departed.

I didn't mean replacing the Sunshine's routes. The Sunshine is leaving and the Elation is coming so the Elation is physically replacing the Sunshine but not her routes which is the sucky part. If the Breeze is coming which the OP stated, then I guess the Breeze will take over the 7 night routes or maybe they will switch the Liberty from shot routes to longer routes.

True, but not really. While Elation is technically replacing Sunshine, I'm confident that what's really happening is that Canaveral is going from 3 ships to 4. Elation is at the end of the bench. A new starter is yet to be announced. All good.