Social media connectivity is growing in importance for cruise lines.
Carnival Cruise Line announced a free mobile app that provides vacationers aboard Carnival Breeze with a variety of information as well as a chat feature that allows cruisers to exchange messages with their friends and family while onboard using their mobile devices for a flat fee of $5 for the entire cruise.
That is cool. But they are testing something even better. Carnival is piloting enhanced Internet access for its Carnival Freedom, Carnival Breeze and Carnival Sunshine ships. The package offers better bandwidth options and includes a social media package that offers unlimited access to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and other popular sites for $5 per day or $25 per voyage during the testing period.
This is huge! The price is very reasonable, and recognizes the way that most vacationers crave to share their experiences on cruisers in real time. With the flat fee, travelers donât have to worry about logging in, quickly sending a pic, hoping it makes it through without burning through a big chunk of minutes before quickly logging out. The process would be more user-friendly and serves as a powerful marketing tool for Carnival, which benefits from free promotional posts of people enjoying themselves on their journeys.
Social sharing is a quickly becoming among the most effective ways to reach a broad number of potential consumers. Why not let your passengers do your work for you?!
"Consumers expect a high level of connectivity even while on vacation and these new enhancements provide our guests not only with helpful tools for getting the most out of their cruise but also a convenient and cost-effective way for keeping in touch with their family and friends while on board," said Gus Antorcha, Carnival's senior vice president of guest commerce. "We recognize the increasingly important role that technology plays in people's daily lives and the launch of this application and new Internet packages provides us with a strong platform for introducing additional innovations and ways to use technology to enhance our guest experience even further."
Of course, you can upgrade to a "value" package that includes unlimited access to the Web for checking email, sports scores, weather updates and a wide range of other applications.
Carnival also offers a "premium" package that provides the fastest available connection speed allowing guests to access video calling sites like Skype.
The mobile app and enhanced Internet packages will roll out to additional ships following the initial pilot programs. Additional features and functionality are also in development and will be phased in over time, Carnival said.