Carnival Cruise Line pushes back on controversial onboard issue

Cruise lines operate each cruise as its own business more or less. The cruise operators track their costs and balance that against the value of the tickets sold, the various onboard extras people pay for, and any other revenue that comes in.

Some costs are fixed. You can’t really change the size of the crew on a cruise-by-cruise basis. The same goes for fuel and onboard entertainment. Royal Caribbean has to pay the pub guitarist even if the pub is empty, and Carnival Cruise Line (CCL) has to pay its singalong piano bar players whether or not that venue draws a crowd.

There are, however, some costs the cruise lines have choices about. Before the pandemic, Royal Caribbean (RCL) showed movies all day on the big screen on ships that have a screen on the pool deck. It showed the movies that played in that spot at night more as background content.

Since the Covid restart, the cruise line now only shows movies at select times. That’s a budget-saving measure that likely has not annoyed many passengers because it still offers recently-in-theaters films, at night, just not all the time.

The same logic applies to sports programming. Royal Caribbean and Carnival, on their namesake brands, generally have the big games and the playoffs, but they might not have every game customers wish to see.

That’s because they’re making choices as to which networks they license and that may leave them with coverage holes. Both cruise lines also have a fairly limited selection of television channels offered in passenger cabins and that’s something some cruisers have complained about.

Many cruise ships have large screens on the pool deck. Image source: Shutterstock

Carnival pushed for more TV choices  

Some cruise ship passengers never use the television in their cabin while others like to use it to watch the in-house programming. Both Carnival and Royal Caribbean have channels devoted to on-ship programming which often includes a daily show featuring the cruise director, as well as channels dedicated the excursions and booking future cruises.

There are, however, passengers who like to keep track of the real world while at sea, and one of those cruisers reached out to Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald.

“John Heald. Talk to the beards as you call them and tell them this. We need the main networks plus Fox News in this election year in the states. Plus we want USA Network, HBO, FX. As you guys are too cheap to pay for it make it known there should be an option of say $20-$100 Increase in the cost of the cruise. And add on like the internet or Cheers. That kind of thing. 90% would pay for an add-on like this,” M wrote.

It’s worth noting that the cruise lines generally do not have the ability to license television networks on a per-person basis. They either pay to have the channel on the ship, or they don’t.

Selection, however, can vary by ship. Royal Caribbean ships, for example, that don’t have the Playmakers Sports Bar have a thinner selection of sports channels offered in-cabin.

Carnival’s Heald gives an answer, asks a question

“Well as I have mentioned many times before, the cost of these kinds of channels is massive,” Heald wrote.

He then posed a question to his followers and got over 3,400 responses.

“Do you agree? Would you ever want to pay an extra fee for these kind of stations?” he added.

The results were mixed, but nobody seemed to like the idea of paying more for a bigger selection of channels.

“No! Vacation is disconnected time,” Colleen Halleran Coon answered.

That was a very popular answer, but it was not universal.

“Yes, I would like more channels on the TV. I like to watch a little TV before bed,” Beth McDonald wrote.

Barbara Thibault shared a practical approach.

“I would record everything I wanna watch. I’ll watch it when I get home,” she shared.

A few people did like “M’s” idea.

“Yes, I would pay extra to have extra channels as I like to watch the news while having coffee and my travel partner is a late sleeper,” wrote Shirley Abts.

“Yes, I sure would. Vacation is whatever you make of it and enjoy. I don’t drink but I don’t care that you have all the bars. I do enjoy lounging letting my mind rest and watching TV in the morning and evening,” Travis Lester added.