Always looking for new ways to engage its guests and convey the uniqueness of the “Fun Ship” vacation experience, Carnival Cruise Lines has revamped its web site, carnival.com, to include a new community and social media hub called “Funville.”
Located at www.carnival.com/funville, the site brings all of the line’s diverse on-line communities into one area, offering visitors an opportunity to connect with other Carnival enthusiasts via forums, cruise reviews and games. Additionally, the site allows guests to interact with Carnival by reading and commenting on employee-written blog posts, view exclusive photos and videos, download wallpapers and more.
The enhanced Funville section is part of a comprehensive overhaul of the cruise industry’s most popular web site, www.carnival.com, which attracts more than five million monthly visits. In addition to an entirely new look and feel, the redesigned site includes new navigation tools and an updated “find a cruise” function available anywhere on the site.
Carnival, the cruise line leader in social networking, has also redesigned its Facebook fan page, www.facebook.com/carnival, where visitors can watch videos, participate in on-line polls, send virtual cruise gifts to friends and create fun status updates.
“Our goal is to provide our guests with a wide variety of fun and engaging ways to interact with the Carnival brand and with each other,” said Jim Berra, Carnival’s chief marketing officer. “Funville is designed to be informative, entertaining and interactive in a way that appeals to consumers no matter whether they are just beginning the travel planning process or have already sailed,” he added.
Areas contained within Funville include the “Fun Feed” featuring links to the popular blog of Senior Cruise Director John Heald and Carnival’s profiles on Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. The “Share” section houses blog posts from a number of popular shipboard personnel, including Captain Pier Scala, Cruise Directors Butch Begovich and Todd Wittmer, and Dance Captain Claire Heslop, each of whom share their unique insight and experiences of their life aboard ship.
Unique to Funville is the “Action Cruiser” feature that allows visitors to create their own custom-made printable 3-D action figure. Located within the “Rally” section, the Action Cruisers are accompanied by Carnival-themed downloads and e-cards. Visitors to the site can also find an interactive aquarium where they can create their own colorful fish and play games such as Reef Racer, Flippaball and Finvasion.
Carnival Cruise Lines is the largest and most popular cruise line in the world, with 22 “Fun Ships” operating voyages ranging from three to 15 days in length to The Bahamas, Caribbean, Mexican Riviera, Alaska, Hawaii, Panama Canal, Canada and New England.
The line’s newest ship, the 130,000-ton Carnival Dream, made its U.S. debut last month. Carnival also has two new ships on order, the 130,000-ton Carnival Magic, which is scheduled for delivery in 2011, and a sister ship set to debut in 2012.
