Choosing Your Room on a Cruise

There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing your room on a cruise.  Here are just a few items to think about when picking your room.

First, are you traveling in a group or with others that you want to be near?  While several of the cruise lines offer a lower deposit for groups, they still require the "full" deposit to reserve a specific room.  So, if you need to be next door or across the hall from your friends, be prepared to put down the full deposit.

Another consideration is the location of your room.  Do you prefer to be on higher decks or near the elevators?  Again, you can make these requests, but the full deposit will be needed to get the specific room you desire.

If you have concerns, always consult your travel agent.  They can address those and offer options to ensure you have an awesome experience.

Sims Family Tours & Travel

Loyalty - What Keeps You Coming Back?

Last week, Carnival unveiled their new loyalty program, the VIFP Club.  The new levels and benefits of the "Very Important Fun Person" Club caused quite a bit of debate and uproar.

All this debate caused me to ponder why we loyal to certain brands.

Is it the comfort of knowing what to expect?  The vacation can be much more relaxing when you know how you will be treated and what the ship or resort has to offer.

Is it the overall value?  With today's economy, everyone is looking for the most bang for their buck.  This can also be tied back to the expectations too with being familiar with what the brand has done in the past.

Is it the status?  A lot of programs have unique identifiers for their most loyal.  For example, different colored room keys, etc.  This allows the staff to recognize the traveler as someone special.

Is it the perks and freebies?  Most loyalty programs offer some perks and benefits.  These can be anything from additional discounts to gifts and free services.  Everyone likes to get free things.  Also, going back to the value, it becomes a better value when there are extras or upgrades offered.

It would be great to think that a little bit of all these factors come in to play regarding loyalty.  What we also need to understand is that the companies offering these programs are businesses.  They too, are dealing with the economic issues that we as individuals are.  So, where do they make changes to improve the bottom line, but not affect their product?  Instead of increasing rates or cutting back staff, it would make sense to cut the "freebies" and little gadgets that a lot of people enjoy receiving, but really have no use for.

Hoping that as long as the company is continuing to put out the quality product that has come to be expected, the loyal will continue to be loyal.

Carnival Magic FUN!

We just returned from the Carnival Magic Inaugural event in Galveston on Sunday, November 13, 2011.  What an amazing ship!  There are many words to describe the Carnival Magic, but we decided to go with three:

• Fabulous
• Ultra
• Natty

The ship is truly Fabulous.  All of the favorite features from other Carnival ships have been improved or expanded.  One example of this is the new Lanai area which offers an outdoor area to the Promenade.

The new features added make the Carnival Magic the Ultra Carnival ship.  One of the most popular new features is the Red Frog Pub.  It even has its own beer (Thirsty Frog) brewed exclusively for Carnival.

The layout of the public areas have been improved and create a Natty flow.  No longer do crowds have to make their way through the folks enjoying a beverage in the Promenade or diners in the Pool area.  A great improvement.

The ship definitely offers Fun for All and All for Fun!