Carnival Splendor back in service on the West coast, repairs complete

by Chris Owen on

Carnival Splendor, the ship that was in the news after it caught fire in November, putting an abrupt end to sailings of the ship from the West coast, will be back in service February 20, 2011.

Taken out for repairs in November, Carnival Cruise Lines announced at the time that all sailings between then and January 16th had been cancelled for repairs to be made. Later, the line had to push that date forward when repairs took longer than normal. Now, the ship is ready to resume normal operations, doing seven-day sailings from Long Beach, California.

“Carnival Cruise Lines continues to be the number one West Coast operator with two ships based in Long Beach year-round, as well as a ship operating seasonal itineraries from San Diego and Laos Angeles. We have more year-round capacity dedicated to the West Coast than any other cruise line and we are committed to maintaining our leadership position in this important market,” said Gerry Cahill, Carnival’s president and CEO.Carnival Splendor has been throughly inspected by the U.S. Coast Guard and Lloyds Registry, a ship classification society, which monitored the progress of repairs during the ship’s dry-dock period.

“We’re obviously very pleased that the Carnival Splendor is returning to service and we’re looking forward to welcoming our guests aboard this fantastic ship,” Cahill said. “We would also like to thank our guests for their patience over the past few weeks, as well as our travel agent partners, the ports of San Diego and San Francisco and all of the government agencies, repair contractors and countless others who have provided invaluable assistance and support.”

Carnival will carry nearly 400,000 passengers a year between Carnival Splendor doing seven-day sailings to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas on Mexico’s Pacific coast and Carnival Paradise doing three and four-day Baja, Mexico itineraries.

Photo courtesy Carnival Cruise Lines


Cruise industry sails into social waters

by Chris Owen on

Not all that long ago major cruise lines, like many other industries, did not have much time for social media. They gave Facebook, Twitter, bloggers and other social platforms half a look then settled back into their comfy traditional marketing chairs, content with business as usual.

They didn’t get it.

Lately though, the tide has turned and cruise lines are getting on board for what looks to be a wild ride.

Today we see major campaigns aimed at engaging us in a conversation. This is the stuff that brought terror into the hearts of cruise line executives not all that long ago. They did not understand what to do with social media.

Today we see lines like Carnival Cruise Lines diving in head first on several fronts. That’s important because Carnival Corp, parent of Carnival Cruise Lines (@CarnivalCruise) and many others including Princess Cruises (@PrincessCruises) and Holland America Line (@HalCruises) often sets the pace other lines will follow in all sorts of stuff.

Most recently, Gadling told you about Carnival sailing to Times Square for New Years Eve where the line will drop a ton of confetti on the crowd at midnight. Carnival will cross the line into social engagement in a big way that night. Much of that confetti will come from visitors to New York’s Times Square who stopped by the line’s “wishing wall”. There, they will hand-write their hopes and dreams for 2011 on red, white and blue slips of paper to be included in the drop on to party-goers at Midnight. It doesn’t get a whole lot more engaging than that.

But that event is just the most recent social effort by Carnival. The line’s senior cruise director John Heald has a popular long-running blog, the company’s twitter handle (@CCLSupport) answers questions issues swiftly and the line’s website promotes more interactivity than ever before.

Carnival gets it.

They are not the only ones either. Princess Cruises has thoughtfully entered the social arena with their Twitter #FollowMeAtSea trips where travel bloggers and writers were invited along for an actual cruise to write and blog about. They shared their experiences with loyal followers on Twitter and Facebook, bringing them along for the ride. I was on the last one, a 12-day cruise tour through Alaska in June.

On that Twitter press trip, Princess defined just how globally penetrating active social engagement can be for cruise lines.

Along for the ride were a wide, diverse variety of bloggers and photographers from around the planet including Emmy award-winning JD Andrews (@earthXplorer), funny-man Rick Griffin (@MidLifeRoadTrip), Canadian adventure-couple Debra Corbeil and Dave Bouskill (@theplanetd) and Gadling’s Catherine Bodry. Homespun mid-westerner Beth Blair (@BethBlair) was there alongside Germany’s Emlyn Boecher from international travel icon @Traveldudes and Liz Wright (@Travelogged) along with luxury travel expert Carrie Finley-Bajak (@Cruisebuzz) to round out the group.

Communicating with followers from all corners of the world, Princess began a conversation that continues today and has expanded to include more than simply promoting the line’s products, raising awareness on global topics like environmental concerns down to micro-interests like dog sled racing.

Princess gets it. Industry-wide, it’s an evolving effort as cruise lines work on opening and maintaining an ongoing conversation with us.

Royal Caribbean tried and failed on Twitter by posting last-minute discount pricing without the engagement factor. The whole idea of using social media outlets as just another place to paste advertising has not been well-received by a public looking for transparency and engagement. Still, Royal Caribbean is evolving too with old-school efforts like giving away a free cruise to the audience on Oprah’s My Favorite Things while working a very active Facebook page and a popular Presidents Blog where President and CEO Adam Goldstein posts regularly.

In the lead for executive participation though is Norwegian Cruise lines with Executive Vice-President Andy Stuart (@NCLAndy) the first and only cruise line executive on Twitter. The line successfully integrated the launch of new mega-ship Norwegian Epic in a very social way by inviting along an A-list of cruise and travel bloggers like Vegas red-carpet brother team Bill Cody (@VegasBill) and Chris Rauschnot (@24K) along with TV’s Stewart Chiron (@CruiseGuy) and Radio’s Doug Parker and Matt Bassford (@CruiseRadio). Like Royal Caribbean, Norwegian has not turned its back on traditional media either though as President and CEO Kevin Sheehan takes to the airwaves this week on an episode of CBS’s reality show Undercover Boss.

Look for more social efforts by cruise lines in the near future too as more lines “get it”, realize the benefits of engaging existing and would-be passengers and move forward into social arenas. It should be a wild ride.

Flickr photo by Port of San Diego

How to find a good cruise travel agent

by Chris Owen on

There are basically three ways to book a cruise. Do it yourself online, call the cruise line or use a travel agent. There are pros and cons to any of those methods but in the long-run, using a good travel agent reaps the greatest rewards. The big trick is finding a good one.

“A competent travel adviser can be your greatest asset when you’re planning a trip” says consumer advocate Chris Elliott. “Good travel agents have an edge over almost any other seller of travel. They know what you want. They speak your language.”

But how to go about finding one of these good agents is the trick. Consider these suggestions to help with the hunt:

Attitude check
Start by getting your head in the right place. To get the most out of a travel agent, you and that agent need to be working on a long-term business relationship that will benefit you far into the future. If you think along those critical lines, you already eliminate a whole lot of travel agents who are just in it for the commission.

Make a list and check it twice
Asking friends and family, maybe business associates, who they use is a great way to find a potential candidate. If you work for a large company that has a travel desk or uses one exclusive agency, that might be a good place to start also.

Engage
Start by asking questions of potential agents. “Are you certified?”, “How long have you been selling cruises? and other revealing questions are a must.

Test the waters
One of the big advantages of using a travel agent is saving time but a spending a little time up front locating that good agent is worth it.

At some point, you have to take the leap to using a travel agent. Try it on a simple booking you might have done online by yourself in the past. See first-hand if that agent comes through with a better value and overall better travel experience.

If they do, you have found your agent. If not, keep looking. The benefits of finding an agent right for you that produces good results is worth the investment of your time.

Flickr photo by jonworth

Carnival cruises to higher profit, forecasts future pricing

by Chris Owen on

Carnival Corporation, the world’s largest cruise company, posted an almost 30% gain in net income over last year this week, signaling smooth sailing ahead for the operator of 98 ships spanning 11 different cruise lines. During an earnings call this week, the cruise giant shed some light on a number of topics and inadvertently gave some advice for those getting ready to buy a cruise.

Last month’s would-be PR nightmare, a fire aboard nearly-new Carnival Splendor turned out OK for the line with Chairman and CEO Mickey Arison noting “We didn’t see any impact at all” on bookings after the event. Quickly moving to do right by affected guests probably helped that potential PR disaster pass. Earlier this week, a U.S.Coast Guard safety alert acknowledged it was swift action by the ship’s quick response team firefighters that extinguished the fire.

Recent booking volumes were strong and prices were higher than a year earlier. But looking ahead to next year, prices right now are higher but occupancies are lower. Carnival has high hopes for upcoming “wave season” that begins in January, a time when a whole lot of people book cruises.

Should that not happen at the rate they anticipate, should bookings not pick up pace, look for prices to drop, a sure-fire way cruise lines fill ships.

Advice? If buying a Carnival cruise, ask your travel agent about their popular Early Saver fare, guaranteed to be the lowest by the line…no matter what happens to pricing in the future.