What Is Your Definition of Loyalty?

 Having a conversation with friends about cruising and the state of the Carnival fan base now that it has been a week since the new Rewards Program was announced brought up some interesting questions.

First,  "what is the definition of loyal"?   Does this mean NEVER cruising with another brand, or simply you keep coming back?  Or is it some where in between.

Our group came to our own conclusion that its in between, but closer to most of your cruise time and dollars go to one brand.  We are all Platinum (for now) with Carnival, but have also done MSC, Royal, Princess, and even Disney at least once in the last 30 years.  One to two cruise on each of those to 20+ Carnival.  Notice that its not 60 Carnival over 30 years?   Its because while loyal to Carnival for cruising none of us are loyal to cruising as the sole vacation option.  Much of our time in the last 10 years has been spent on land based vacations.  I cant say what caused that swap in mentality after doing 2 cruises a year for a period of time, but it did.  

Carnival is banking that for some loyalty will be to the perks.  They are betting that enough people will chase those perks to get the MasterCard and/or dump pretty much all their vacation time and money on Carnival.  Their recent response to the backlash, shows they are willing to wait it out and hope that things die down before just scrapping anything.  And only time will tell.  Its only been a week right?  

What do you think?  What is your definition of loyalty?  Do you think the backlash will calm down? Or do you think this has the momentum to put enough hurt on Carnival like the boycotts of Target caused for them?  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Keeping all my travel plans together

When it comes to going on vacation or even a business trip one of the hardest things for me is keeping all my confirmation numbers, contact info, and other paperwork together and at the ready.  Most people just print out all their email confirmations and have to shuffle thru them when the time comes to find the right one.  It can be a pain when trying to find the email from the rental car company and having to flip thru all the airline, hotel and whatever other emails to find it as the last piece of paper in the pile or worse not finding it.  Some people have gotten more organized.  They create one sheet with all the info they need either by hand writing out all the info or typing it up neatly in some program and printing it out which alleviates a lot of stress in the long run.  However, now there are companies that try to do all the work for you, and whats better yet is they are free, or at least have free options.  The one that I started using, works as...
Read more

The Orbitz Lowest Price Deal Explained

Most of us have seen the commercials. Book your hotel with Orbitz and if the someone else books at a lower price, they will refund you the difference. You don't have to do anything yourself. Cool right. The thing that the commercial does not mention is that you have to only book the hotel with them. Package deals that include flight and or car rental don't count. So if the hotel portion goes down there will be no refund coming. This works well for the company because most people are getting package deals. We booked a package deal for an upcoming vacation months ago with friends. The price has gone down. Our friends who kept an eye on the prices contacted Orbitz. The answer they got was "Package deals would be to difficult to keep track of which part actually decreased." I actually understand the explanation, but think that something than tiny print on a TV or osmosis is the way to explain that to customers. We are still happy with what we paid, otherwise ...
Read more

6 New Cruise Ships Arriving in 2025

When choosing a cruise, does the ship or the destination hold more weight in your decision? For my wife and me, it’s undoubtedly the ship that takes precedence. While we love cruising, we’re not big beachgoers, and most cruise destinations only allow for daytime visits, which means we rarely get to experience the local nightlife. As a result, the ship itself becomes the focal point of our vacation. Over the past 25 years, we’ve witnessed remarkable changes in the size and sophistication of cruise ships. Our first cruise was aboard the now-retired from Carnival, the Carnival Holiday. At 728 feet long and accommodating 1,450 passengers, it’s a modest vessel compared to the colossal ships of today. Modern ships often exceed 1,000 feet in length and carry more than 4,000 passengers, offering an array of amenities and activities that were unimaginable back then. Looking ahead to 2025, cruise enthusiasts have much to anticipate with the launch of several groundbreaking ships: MSC - World Am...
Read more