Fred Stein, VP Revenue Planning & Deployment, Carnival Cruise Line

TORONTO — The leisure cruise industry may have been built on the 7-night sailing, but in a sign of how far cruising has come, these days passengers can opt for just about any duration they can think of – from 3- and 4-night getaways, to weeks-long river cruises, to World Cruises that span three-quarters of a year, to anything inbetween.

While the offerings for quick half-week cruises ramped up pre-pandemic, now the development focus is on longer cruises, as cruise companies work to meet the demand from travellers splurging post-pandemic and making good on their bucket lists.

A world cruise expert told Travelweek recently that the only thing that surprises her about world cruises is how quickly they sell out. While many passengers are booking segments of world cruises, plenty are signing on for the full durations.

Carnival Cruise Line is a company that – to the uninitiated – wouldn’t be the first line that comes to mind for longer sailings. Certainly not world cruises – not yet, anyway. But “never say never,” says Fred Stein, Carnival’s VP Revenue Planning & Deployment.

We caught up with Stein for a look at Carnival’s longer duration sailings, part of the cruise line’s portfolio known as Carnival Journeys.

Launched in 2015, Carnival Journeys now has more than three dozen annual sailings, according to Stein. This month Carnival announced a new transpacific Carnival Journeys cruise for 2025, on Carnival Luminosa, departing Sept. 18, 2025 from Seattle to Australia via Hawaii and several South Pacific islands on a 22-day voyage.

It’s the latest addition to the expanding Carnival Journeys program, full of longer sailings created around ship repositionings and dry dock schedules.

The Carnival Journeys program currently offers five other transpacific sailings open for sale, with four set to sail this year and another in 2025. Additionally, nine transatlantic Carnival Journeys cruises are open for sale – with three scheduled this year and six for 2025. A sampling of these sailings include several that cross the Atlantic between Barcelona and the U.S.

We’re looking at the longer cruise trend in a series of articles in Travelweek Daily.

The trend is a big one for travel advisors, thanks to high yields and high commissions, and so far it shows no sign of slowing down.

Travelweek: Many cruise lines have expanded their offering of longer duration sailings, to great success. For Carnival, this started back in 2015 with the launch of Carnival Journeys. What was the thinking behind the program, and was it popular from the start, or a slow burn?

Stein: “Our Carnival Journeys cruises continue to draw more interest from our guests. It’s been a steady climb from the start, and I think a good indication of our guests’ increased interest in longer vacations and more adventurous experiences. That’s why in our most recent deployment updates, our team worked more of these special sailings into our overall plan.”

Barcelona, Spain

Travelweek: Are there any metrics that show how Carnival Journeys are an increasingly important part of Carnival’s product mix?

Stein: “Over the last few years, we have grown the Carnival Journeys program due to increased interest from our guests. We went from offering a handful of sailings each year when the program first launched to now offering over 40 sailings every year.”
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Travelweek: Carnival’s brand is so associated with week-long sailings to the Caribbean, that many potential customers may not realize just how much the line’s portfolio of destinations and durations has grown over the years. Is that a challenge, and how is Carnival getting its message in front of travellers who might not normally ‘think Carnival’ for a 29-day transpacific repositioning cruise, for example?

Stein: “I like to think of it more as an opportunity than a challenge. It’s true that we are known as the brand that revolutionized cruising and helped to popularize short cruise vacations in the Caribbean, but we’re also the brand known for our friendly crew, unrivaled entertainment, delicious food and fun atmosphere. To be able to infuse the Carnival experience on extended voyages, and also deliver special programming as we do with our Carnival Journeys cruises, is appealing to a growing number of our guests. Our message is that we’ve got something for everyone – whether you’re looking for that weekend getaway or you want to spend three weeks on board – and I do think that message is resonating.”

Brisbane, Australia

Travelweek: What is Carnival’s longest cruise on offer now, and is there a ‘sweet spot’ for Carnival in terms of number of days for longer durations, and itineraries that work really well?

Stein: “Our longest cruise currently open for sale is a 31-day Carnival Journeys cruise that sails this April. It’s a transpacific voyage on Carnival Luminosa from Brisbane, Australia to Seattle, Washington. She’ll also visit destinations like Tokyo and Hiroshima in Japan along the way, and then ports in Alaska as well. It’s a stellar itinerary. Carnival Luminosa’s repositions between her Australia and Alaska seasons give us the opportunity to create truly unique cruises.

“I wouldn’t say there’s a sweet spot of a longer cruise, or at least not from our standpoint. That’s why we offer different lengths, visiting different parts of the world. In fact, many of our Carnival Journey cruises are roundtrip itineraries from our homeports, allowing guests who may not have the flexibility to depart and arrive in different destinations or not wanting to take a long airplane flight home, to experience new destinations. Different guests have different preferences, and that’s why it’s important to us to ensure the Journeys program offers as much variety as possible.”
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Travelweek: What sort of passengers take Carnival’s longer duration sailings, and are there any surprising booking patterns with the longer duration sailings?

Stein: “We have some guests who will sail with us for months at a time on back-to-back cruises, and certainly the unique nature of the Carnival Journeys program gives even the more frequent cruisers a chance to stretch their sea legs a bit further. I think if there’s a throughline among the folks who choose longer sailings, as you can imagine, it’s that they love to cruise and love Carnival Cruise Line.”

Mt. Fuji, Japan

Travelweek: Would Carnival ever consider a world cruise?

Stein: “At this time, it isn’t on our agenda. But years ago I might not have guessed we’d be offering several month-long sailings either, and we do, so I never say never to anything.”

More information is at https://www.carnival.com/journeys