Your Top 3 Reasons...For Remaining Loyal To Carnival

[ManyMore]

More fun

Bigger Cabins

Value

 

We have cruised other lines and probably will again (except NCL we just plain don't like NCL) but prefer Carnival for sure.

[Sapphy]

I'm not loyal to Carnival but I do very much enjoyed the value for the money. The food is decent (and hey, I'm not cooking!) and the service is great.

Edited January 26, 2014 by Sapphy

[elliair]

We are not loyal to Carnival, but we would look at them more favorable if:

 

They changed their balcony smoking policy.

Had a ship closer to our home.

Got rid of the barking sales person in their gift shop--most irritating person on board.:rolleyes:

[MoMo07]

1. Prices - first and foremost

2. Always friendly and superb staff

3. This may be silly, but the thought goes through my head that if I cruise another line, that cruise won't go towards my VIFP status :rolleyes:

[Jimmy Geegitz]

You'll be glad to did! We still find CCL offers value but having just come off The NCL Sun, we found them equal to CCL in every way, and their MDR food was better AND served hot. We'll still cruise CCL again though if the itinerary merits consideration. :)

 

That's good to hear. I have heard from several people the MDR food on NCL is terrible. They try to get you into the pay venues.

 

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[hihosilvers]

1 low prices

2 value for dollar

3 cabin size

 

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[cruise_girl2002]

1. Service

2. Food

3. Price

[TruckinMama]

I have nothing to compare it to, but for us it's the cost. We have to plan for more than a year to accomplish a cruise, as we live without credit cards. When we get back from our cruise, I have the peace of mind knowing that it is already all paid for, there are no bills coming in that we owe for taking a vacation. :)

[larkz]

I wouldn't call it loyalty per se, because I'm quite a disloyal backstabber as consumer, but I continue to use Carnival because:

 

1. Price

2. Accommodations (well worth the price)

3. Food (well worth the price)

 

...and if I can squeeze in one more item, the itineraries are good.

[tlw440]

We have been on 14 cruises all with Carnival and have enjoyed them all but in May we are going to be unfaithful and try RCCL.:eek::eek:;)

[Georgiagolfer]

We have been on 14 cruises all with Carnival and have enjoyed them all but in May we are going to be unfaithful and try RCCL.:eek::eek:;)

 

Unfaithful, really?:confused:

[cruiselover5461]

1. value

2. Carnival has been only one sailing from Gulf Coast year round. We are within driving distance of NOLA & Galveston.

3. atmosphere

[Methosage]

1) Price

2) embarkation port choices (not just the big ones like Miami, but smaller ones to choose from like Tampa and Port Canaveral).

3) Serenity

Edited January 26, 2014 by Methosage

[NavarreCruiser]

We cruise with Carnival a lot and RCCL affair amount also. The things I like about Carnival:

1. Good value and price protection with early saver and shareholders benefit OBC.

2. Fun atmosphere and usually lots of trivia.

3. We know a lot of Staff and often are treated very well as Diamond cruisers.

[Naomi John]

1. value

2. Carnival has been only one sailing from Gulf Coast year round. We are within driving distance of NOLA & Galveston.

3. atmosphere

 

ditto, all three.

[morganboys]

1 - warm chocolate melting cake

2 - warm chocolate melting cake

3 - warm chocolate melting cake

[A2Mich]

Thats how I feel, time to play the field and find the best value for us.

 

 

 

Dont really understand this loyalty to Carnival thing. When they cut back on loyalty program after saying they would improve it, showed me it was time to check pricing on all cruise lines and do what is best for us.

 

 

Ditto the loyalty program. I used to be good on their old program but am now only red with the new VIFP program. That didn't sit too well when I found that out. Not like the benefits were anything important, it's the principle. I think that customer's level under the old program should have stayed the same under the new program as well.

 

At any rate, we haven't been on any cruise since 2006, and have been told that Carnival overall has lowered their standards since then. Our TA has been wanting us to try Disney or RCI for many years now. We can't afford Disney, but think we will check out RCI for our upcoming cruise in a year. We had never had a bad cruise with Carnival-they always delivered what they promised. We didn't always care for some of our fellow passengers, but that certainly didn't ruin the vacation. We just think we want to try something different. If we don't like RCI, we can always book on Carnival again.

 

The only other issue that we have either way is that Port Canaveral is a great departure port for us. It's easy for us to fly to Orlando, stay with family there and PC is only an hour away. We were not too thrilled with the option of Carnival Sunshine for when we wanted to cruise. Any of the Carnival cruises we were really interested in depart from Miami which is a bit more difficult for us to do.

 

Otherwise, I enjoyed reading all if the responses from the loyal and the not-quite-as-loyal Carnival customers.

 

 

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[Heirloom]

1. Cheap

2. Cheap

3. Cheap

 

That's it for us. Thanks for your honesty !!!!

 

Used to be other stuff as well......like good shows, live bands, very good food

at dinner. But those days are long gone.

[pink roses]

price

Platinum

size of the rooms

[azlefty]

1. Live entertainment late into the evening plus

2. Camp Carnival babysitting for our 2 kids equals

3. we get plenty of R&R plus a night out every single night of the week.

 

The big advantage we have seen on Carnival was the great live entertaniment went late into the evening, where on Princess and NCL everything was pretty much done by 11 pm which is way too early when on vacation.

Also our kids love Camp Carnival and are perfectly happy to spend as much time as we want them to there.

 

We'll be going on our 4th Carnival cruise in a few months but from what I have read about the fun ship 2.0 <airquote> upgrades </airquote> I don't think I like the sound of it. As far as I can tell it is putting lipstick on a big downsizing of staff. Firing the showband is a big mistake in my opinion, and photos of Guy Fieri and George Lopez next to the hamburger station and comedy club, respectively, don't do much for me, no matter how handsome they are. I'm trying to be optimistic that it will be fun anyway.

 

I'm also a little nervous about all the problems Carnival (and Costa, a subsidiary) have had over the last couple of years. I'm definitely buying insurance this time which raises the cost of the trip a little bit.

 

Our alternative to a Carnival cruise is most likely a trip to Vegas or some other type of vacation entirely.

[dmarie1623]

1. Price

2. Closeness to ports

3. Fun, I've enjoyed all of my cruises with Carnival

[CruiseHappy3]

1. Great Value for the money

2. Awesome ships (lots of sea view)

3. Platinum Passenger and proud

 

We have been cruising Carnival since the early 90's and no other cruise lines has yet to beat them...in our eyes. Oh and we have tried 3 other lines! Carnival # 1;)

[Georgiagolfer]

Ditto the loyalty program. I used to be good on their old program but am now only red with the new VIFP program. That didn't sit too well when I found that out. Not like the benefits were anything important, it's the principle. I think that customer's level under the old program should have stayed the same under the new program as well.

 

At any rate, we haven't been on any cruise since 2006, and have been told that Carnival overall has lowered their standards since then. Our TA has been wanting us to try Disney or RCI for many years now. We can't afford Disney, but think we will check out RCI for our upcoming cruise in a year. We had never had a bad cruise with Carnival-they always delivered what they promised. We didn't always care for some of our fellow passengers, but that certainly didn't ruin the vacation. We just think we want to try something different. If we don't like RCI, we can always book on Carnival again.

 

The only other issue that we have either way is that Port Canaveral is a great departure port for us. It's easy for us to fly to Orlando, stay with family there and PC is only an hour away. We were not too thrilled with the option of Carnival Sunshine for when we wanted to cruise. Any of the Carnival cruises we were really interested in depart from Miami which is a bit more difficult for us to do.

 

Otherwise, I enjoyed reading all if the responses from the loyal and the not-quite-as-loyal Carnival customers.

 

 

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If you look at the CCL web site, you will see that CCL Liberty is also moving to Port Canaveral, so Sunshine will not be the only CCL ship for longer cruises.

[EnTnSA]

Besides being very convenient for west coast driving to port , and having really reasonable prices, we really like the informality of Carnival! We have tried other lines and we can afford higher prices but we don't like having to dress up(read husband won't wear jacket/tie etc. on vacation) in order to dine in the MDR.

For us that is a really big deal!

 

 

This sums it up for us pretty good. I really don't want to play dress up on vacation. I know some people like it, we prefer not to. I appreciate the fact that Carnival doesn't really force it on you like some of the other lines.

 

We found a couple of really good rates for Alaska on HAL and Princess for this coming summer. What made us ultimately decide against it was that it just seemed like it would be too stuffy for our taste.

[EnTnSA]

oh and price / proximity do not hurt either!