What's New at Carnival

What’s New at Carnival?

Todd Satterlee of Carnival Cruise Lines lunched with us yesterday to bring us up to date on the latest developments at CCL. We talked for 2 hours, but we include just the highlights. If you want more info, call us at 802-372-6321.

General items of interest:

Carnival’s executive chef is France’s highly decorated George Blanc. It’s not your father’s Carnival!

While many other ships use electronic music, Carnival’s shows still have a live band. There IS a difference!

Outdoor theaters have been cloned from sister line Princess, and are already on 8 ships with more coming soon.

In 1998, when I asked CCL president Bob Dickenson when Carnival would have a private island, he replied quickly – “Never!” Now that Bob has retired and the concept has been proven, Carnival is sharing Half Moon Cay with Holland America on some cruises. Others stop at Grand Turk Island where you can walk a short distance from the docked ship to the beach ala Disney’s Castaway Cay. I’ll have to focus on Carnival’s Grand Turk miracle in another post.

Wednesday is the day that last minute Pack and Go specials are released to agents. Call then if you are interested in this type of travel. Caveat: Sometimes your cruise savings are eaten up by high last minute air prices.

Ship updates:

Fantasy Class

A major upgrade of the older fantasy class ships is almost completed. They’re like new ships upgraded to 21st century cruiser's needs.

The vastly expanded Water Works water park is positioned at the stern, making the main pool more relaxed.

Speaking of relaxation, a separate deck area of Serenity Lounges provides more deck chairs and amenities; both in and out of the sun.

Carnivals new Splendor

She will cruise South America before reaching a permanent port in Long Beach California. In keeping with restaurant policy, the exclusive spa area will have a $20 dollar a day fee. This is no problem for those who really appreciate the services and atmosphere, but will isolate it from those who are just browsing around. The ship will also have Spa Cabins that have included private access to the spa area.

Cruise critic has voted her as best value on the seas.

Carnival Dream

Here’s your Buyer’s Market special. – You can sail transatlantic from Rome (easy one-way airfare) to New York in September 2009 on this great new ship for only $799 – WOW
The 130,000 ton ship will do 2 (8-day) Panama Canal cruises before settling down to its schedule. These will be great prices too.

New on the Dream are the 230 square foot Deluxe Ocean View cabins with 2 baths for families. We’ve been waiting for 5 person cabins for some time, and they are here.

Also new on this ship are 110 Cove Balcony cabins ala Queen Mary 2, where balcony rails are replaces by a solid waist high wall. With pricing between ocean view and regular balconies, this is the perfect vehicle for an easy upgrade to balcony life.


Carnival Pride in Baltimore


With several choices for inexpensive airfare from Burlington Vermont to Baltimore, this departure point for the Bahamas or the Eastern Caribbean becomes very attractive for Vermont’s school vacation 2010.


Carnival Miracle


If you don’t want to fly at all, you can just drive to you a free parking spot in Albany NY, where we’ll have a motor coach take you direct to the ship.

This ship has one of the best deck layouts on the seas, and visits San Juan, ST Thomas, and Grand Turk without the hassle of air travel.


Carnival Triumph


This ship will be taking over the New York to Canada and New England cruise this summer. With gas pricing starting to rise again, this may be a relaxed replacement for the traditional auto tour.


Carnival Legend and Liberty


Although Carnival’s 4-seating plan has more or less eliminated lines at dinner, many people want a different seating time each night. These two ships are currently testing a new As You Wish dining plan, which has worked very well so far.

Since many of today’s relaxed passengers don’t want to have to apologize for not making formal wear part of their lifestyle, Carnival has relaxed the 2 Formal dress-up nights to a designation of Cruise Elegant. Those who love their Tuxes and evening dresses can still look “Mahvellous” these nights, but others can dress down a little. Note: most of the luxury cruise lines have had a casual dress policy for years.

Stay Tuned for our series on packing for the 21st century, which will start this week.