For the last several months I have been wondering if I was the only travel agent around who not only didn't recommend Carnival but actively attempted to talk clients out of booking with Carnival Cruise Lines. Apparently, I haven't been alone. Here's how I know. I got an offer from the folks at Carnival today that apparently was sent to a great number of travel agents offering a possibility at a free cruise for me and a guest. It's not just an offer for one cruise on a specific date making one stop. They offered more than 20 different cruise options leaving from a number of different ports between Oct 10th and Feb 2nd. These cruises are anywhere from 3 nights to 11 nights long. The offer includes taxes and gratuities. So we literally will pay for nothing except airfare to get to Miami and drinks on board.
The one I chose to try to get onto is sailing out of Miami on Feb 2nd. It is the last one they offered. If I make the cut, it will be my third cruise in a 4 month time span. The first is a Royal Caribbean 3 night Bahamas cruise leaving out of Miami that is a travel agent familiarization trip with a Seminar at Sea in November at a very low price ($150 per person for me and my friend). The second is a 7 night Caribbean cruise from Houston on Princess along with my parents and our family friends, the Bailey's, in January. I'm actually paying for that one, but we got a great deal ($699 per person plus - double occupancy - plus $25 - $50 on board spending credit per person). You can't pass a deal like that up especially since you don't even have to pay for flights! It's a western Caribbean cruise, so it is going to the same ports I always go to. But I LOVE Roatan and Belize, so it's all good.
This Carnival cruise that I registered for this morning will leave out of Miami and sail to the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and Turks. I don't know how many people they sent this offer out to. But they said they will notify all registrants by Oct. 9th whether they got on their chosen cruise or not. If we get on, I pay $100 ($50 each) to secure our reservations and that will be credited back to our room as an on board spending credit when we set sail. So, this thing is literally free except for roundtrip airfare to Miami. This is an indicator to me about how many travel agents have scaled back on recommending Carnival.
The thing is that with all the negative publicity in the last year or so, they have made a lot of changes. So, they might be a much better cruise line than they ever were. But I have personally been afraid to put my reputation on the line by recommending it to clients. In fact, I think that if a client calls me and specifically asks me to book them on a Carnival cruise, I would be putting my reputation on the line by not suggesting other options or at least warning them of all the issues they could face. Other cruise lines have always cultivated their travel agent relationships. They know that clients who book through a travel agent are more loyal than those who just look for a cheap fare on line. Carnival since I have been doing this, has not encouraged travel agent participation. This is new. So it's kind of exciting that they actually want travel agent involvement now.
I sincerely hope that I get on this cruise and am pleasantly surprised with the improvements they have made to the experience. I must say that I have only been on one Carnival cruise previously. It was a spring break cruise out of Galveston 6 years ago. My mom and I took my niece when she turned 13. Now, there could be a lot of reasons that I disliked the trip so much. First of all the ship seemed a little run down when compared to Royal Caribbean and Princess which were the only other two cruise lines I had been on prior to that cruise. Since then I have also been on Celebrity and Norwegian Cruise Lines and know now that it was also a huge step down from Celebrity but most comparable to NCL. It wasn't ratty or anything. It just seemed that things weren't as well taken care of. The crew seemed very hard working and friendly. But the impression I got was that they just couldn't keep up with all there was to do. So, it seemed a little run down.
Add to that the fact that it was spring break, so there was at least one kid on board for every adult. There is no way the adults can win with that kind of a ratio. Carnival markets themselves as the "Fun Ship". They have gigantic pool slides on board and it looks like a kids paradise even from shore or from the deck of a passing ship. It is very kid friendly and I am not. So, they had that working against them in my opinion. Possibly the worst thing about that Carnival cruise that we went on 6 years ago though was the "Bubba Factor". (In case you are not aware a "Bubba Factor" is the number of grown men who answer to "Bubba" in any group per 100 people.) The "Bubba Factor" was extremely high on that ship. I'm thinking at least a 10.2. You cannot put that many Bubba's together on one ship and not expect to hear pig calls in the dining room and see drunken wheel barrow races taking place down the corridors. It's just not possible. And I have a very low "Bubba Tolerance".
I will say that I tried to give Carnival the benefit of the doubt for several years after that cruise assuming that the problem wasn't with them but with the passengers. But then last year following the accident of the Costa Concordia (which was owned by Carnival), the West Coast power outage cruise on Carnival that sailed out of LA and then the now famous Caribbean sewage cruise that sailed from Galveston and had to be towed to Mobile I was totally out. I have only booked 1 client on Carnival since I have been a travel agent and that was at their specific request. But now I'm hopeful that Carnival is turning things around. After all, they wouldn't want travel agents on board to witness the pig calls in the dining room if they weren't making changes, right? The fact that this offer isn't on only one ship on one travel date gives me more cause for hope. Maybe that means that they have made changes throughout the cruise line and they aren't just putting lipstick on one hog.
So hopefully, I'll get on board and then I'll be able to come back and let you know how the experience was. Maybe I can even post some blogs from on board if I make it on. That would be kind of fun, right? I'll let you know as soon as I get the word on whether or not I made it. Have a great week!
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