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Carnival Cruise Lines Tells Passengers to Tip More

Written by T.I. Cruiser on November 2, 2011 · 2 Comments

Those of you planning to sail on Carnival Cruise Lines in the future may be in for a little surprise. An announcement has been made that Carnival Cruise Lines has increased the suggested amount they would like passengers to tip by about 15 percent. Starting with passengers departing on or after December 1 Carnival will be asking passengers to pay $11.50 per person, per day; a raise of $1.50 per person per day.

While its not much an increase, no one likes a surprise that results in having to spend more money (even a paltry $10.50 per seven day cruise). At least this increase won’t affect those passengers who have prepaid their gratuities for sailings occurring beyond the December 1^st start date. Of course Carnival didn’t notify those passengers already booked on this cruises who hadn’t already pre-paid their gratuities, meaning they will need to pay the new amount. Great job Carnival, even though most people don’t need one you just gave people a reason to complain.

While no one likes to pay more for anything, personally I’m not ready to lambast Carnival for this move since they haven’t raised the auto-tip amount since 2001. It also seems that we have been getting a bargain for years since Carnival had been suggesting $10 per person per day compared to the $11.50+ that was being done on competing cruise lines.

Where does the new money go?

This increase should mean a raise for the cruise ship staff, but will it? I am skeptical of the extent to which these new monies will make it into the hands of the staff that I am used to tipping. With the old policy I knew exactly where my money was going; $5.50 for the headwaiter/waiter, $3.50 to the cabin steward and $1 for the assistant waiter/cooks. The new breakdown of how tips are split up and handed out isn’t quite as good. The new guidelines are as follows; $5.80 for dining room services, $3.70 to cabin services and $2 for alternative services. What the hell does, “alternative services” mean? When I desire for the Maitre D to receive a tip, I hand him one. I don’t need the cruise line slipping him any of my money if I don’t deem it necessary. The Maitre D may be a jerk and jerks don’t deserve tips (we all have rules we live by).

According to Carnival, alternative services can include unspecified members of kitchen, entertainment, guest services and members of hotel staff. Now, although it seems as if we are being kept in the dark on who is getting the extra it seems that “alternative services” is an umbrella large enough to fit anything from the guy who fixes the ice-maker to standoffish Romanian dancer who scowls as she sells bingo tickets. For all I know I could be pitching in for a private jet for John Heald. I’m not saying these people don’t deserve a raise or that John Heald shouldn’t have a private jet, My skepticism stems from not necessarily agreeing on where that money should come.

In the past I usually tipped a bit extra to those who I felt went above and beyond. Now, even with the increase if I want to make sure those people actually get taken care of I will still need to give them an additional tip. Although I am sure nothing is amiss, it just seems like communication could have been handled much better than the effort Carnival has put in. If I am being asked to tip I should be permitted to know exactly who the party is on the receiving end of that tip.

What can I do if I am against Carnival’s new suggested tipping guidelines?

If for some reason you are a member of that group of passengers so vehemently against this increase, you do have an option. Remember any passenger who wants to adjust the auto-tipping amount can have this done at the purser’s desk. So if it really bothers you, you could just turn the auto-tip off and cash tip any amount you see fit. It’s not an avenue I would personally recommend since there have been reports on some cruise lines of workers seeing the list of people who removed tipping and one should never risk upsetting the person that handles their food. Besides, the potential for abuse with people removing the auto-tip and not tipping at all is too great. That would be an even bigger crime than Carnival slipping in the increase under the cover of darkness.

Cruise Lines Cutting Back Mexican Riviera Itineraries

Written by T.I. Cruiser on January 20, 2011 · 1 Comment

Earlier this week three cruise lines announced they will either end or cut back trips to Mexico. The reasons for these cutbacks are a combination of lack of interest and escalating violence in Mexico. Although in my opinion a lot of the lack of interest has to do with the extreme violence taking place south of the border. I mean who wants to vacation in a place where they are shooting up nightclubs and finding decapitated bodies in the street. Not exactly my idea of paradise. Honestly, I am surprised it took this long for the cruise lines to make this move.

Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Norwegian cruise lines have all decided to relocate ships from Southern California to other areas of the world.

Royal Caribbean’s Mariner of the Seas will be leaving on its final voyage out of Los Angeles this Sunday. In the future the ship will be home-ported in Galveston, Texas where it will sail a seven-night Western Caribbean itinerary.

Carnival Cruises, Carnival Spirit will be relocating from the Port of San Diego to Australia starting in 2012. The Spirit will be providing year-round cruises out of Sydney.

Norwegian Cruise Lines, Norwegian Star will be stopping its Mexican Riviera itinerary sometime in May. In the future the Norwegian Star will be sailing out of Tampa, Florida.

While this is good news for passengers who have been scared off by the escalating violence it is bad for the economy of already cash strapped state. In a normal year over a quarter of a million cruise passengers visit the Port of Los Angeles but that number will be dropping to 600,000 this year. While I don’t have exact numbers, this will mean tens of millions of dollars in lost income for the area.

The good news for Southern California is these moves aren’t expected to be permanent. I fully expect that once the violence dies down the So Cal cruise scene will be revived.

Carnival Cruise’s New Facebook Application

Written by T.I. Cruiser on August 24, 2010 · 1 Comment

The other day Carnival Cruise Lines and a digital marketing agency called Razorfish announced the launch of a new Facebook application. This new app is a new type of social commerce application that allows you to select, view, compare and share Carnival cruises with your Facebook friends list.

You can get the application on Carnival Cruise’s official Facebook fan page (www.facebook.com/carnival). Once downloaded this application allows you to check out Carnival’s cruise inventory without leaving Facebook; details of the cruise and even an invitation to book the cruise can then be shared with your friends with the simple press of a button. On a website where many users post every time they get a drink of water, people will jump at the opportunity to update the world about an upcoming cruise.

This new app is a brilliant move for Carnival as it ties the Carnival Cruise booking engine into the most popular website in the United States; a move that is sure to be followed by the other cruise lines. By leveraging the power of Facebook applications Carnival has created the industry’s largest sales force; with the best part being (at least for Carnival), this sales force works for free.

Currently Carnival’s Facebook page has about 250,000 fans that upon installing the app will essentially become unpaid affiliates for the cruise line. The average Facebook user has over 100 friends. Not all of those fans will be booking a cruise in the immediate future but Carnival is banking on the fact that most will at some point. When that booking is made, information and invitations will go out to more than 100 people (the size of the average friend’s list).

My Viewpoint on the Carnival Facebook Application

From a business standpoint this is a brilliant move by Carnival Cruises, for cruisers it isn’t so great. Let’s be honest. With 250,000 fans potentially inviting 100 friends each on a cruise Carnival’s bottom line should grow tremendously. I book a cruise and then recommend it to a half dozen friends who I went to college with; thats great business for Carnival, but other than companionship I get nothing out of the deal. It feels like Carnival is taking advantage of me.

The fans that make those recommendations get nothing out of the deal. What I would like to see is Carnival institute some sort of program where the referrer could earn on-board credit or some other perk for additional bookings make through the invitation system. This would create a win-win situation for both Carnival and its customers. In fact, I would be willing to bet that had the cruise line not gotten greedy and instead decided to share the wealth this would be one of the fastest downloaded Facebook applications ever created.

You can bet Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruises will follow Carnival’s lead and if they decide to provide some sort of incentive it may not take long for them to eliminate Carnival’s first mover advantage.