Carnival Cancels Bringing Truimph to NOLA for Fall of 07

OK I'm rather upset with Carnival right now. I called them last night & found out they are not going to sail the Carnival Truimph out of New Orleans starting in Sept. as promoted and offered since last fall. This is a horriable discussion on their part and really will hurt the economy of New Orleans. I can't beleive they would do this to the people of New Orleans. I find the timing of them doing this a little dirty also. Its a few days before the main Mardi Gras weekdend & the day after 2 tornados just hit. So this ship not coming to New Orleans would be small news and not ruffle any feathers. Also, the lady at Carnival told me also that I would have to go out Tampa or Galveston to get a 7 day cruise in Oct. So, I don't think Mobile will be getting the Truimph either.

Personally, I'm also mad about all this because I was planning to book & pay in full this Saturday for the Oct 21st Sailing on the Truimph. We were large group of people mostly family about 20+ people and we have been planning this since Dec. The Truimph allows 5 people to a room, a huge $$ saver for familys with 3 small kids, like mine & my sister inlaw. Then it was going out of New Orleans which is a short drive for all of us. It was perfect. I've been looking all over for some other 7 day cruise with the stops at Cozumel, Grand Cayman & Jamiaca for Oct. out of New Orleans, I can't find anything. We were even willing to skip Jamaica or go over to Royal Carbbeian but they have no plans to sail out of New Orleans after this April.

So, we are going to end up going out of Tampa or Galveston, adding an extra day for travel, going by ourselves, paying more and having to get 2 rooms now. This is putting our buget up another grand at least for a different ship & Port. My only hope is they move the Truimph to Tampa or TX for this fall.

With all of the news of crime coming out of New Orleans recently people have been reluctant to book a cruise out of there. The cruiselines have therefore had to really discount new Orleans based cruises to fill the ships.

The cruise lines beleive that their ships will be more profitable from other ports.

I really feel your pain. I just found out that our cruise on the Triumph already booked for December has bee cancelled due to not coming to New Orleans. We live in St Louis-and New Orleans was our only option for a 7 day that we can drive to. We have two small children (will be 6 and 2) and can't afford airfare to Fl.

Our TA called Carnival to request we be given the same rate on the Conquest (out of Galveston) that we booked on the Triumph. Our very upset TA was told "no". There was only about a $150 difference in price-total!

Anyone got any advise? Driving to Galveston for us means having to take at least one extra day of vacation and more money out for gas-not to mention about 6 more hours each way of keeping my little guys in the car.

Carnival does not seem to be very accomidating, especially since we have sailed with them three times previously. Really disappointed!

Unfortunately the Grandeur of the Seas won´t return to NOLA either. There are no plans at RCI for a ship in NOLA. We´re on the last sailing of the Grandeur this April.

steamboats

It is a shame, but I suppose all the negative press has cut down on the number of people that want to go to NOLA. I guess it's up to us to promote her as much as possibe. We're going down for 4 to 5 nights in Sept. and I will let everyone know how I think it is.

I think they must be having trouble filling their ships so they're moving them elsewhere. They have stockholders to keep happy so in many ways you can't blame them as they can't purposely keep ships there that don't carry enough pax to keep them profitable.

Hopefully it will all "wear off" so to speak and NOLA will regain her attractiveness as a port. We must all do our part to get her back on the port map.

In my opinion, these decisions by the cruise lines are based more on the accidents or near-accidents that have happened in the river, disrupting or canceling cruises. I think this is a bigger factor in their decision(s) than the crime rate.