Plan Your Cruise Vacation With Carnival Cruise Lines On Facebook

Only a few days after announcing that a little Fun Ship birdie is answering cruiser questions on Twitter, Carnival Cruise Lines has announced the launch of a new social commerce Facebook application that allows users to easily view, compare, select, and share Carnival cruises with their Facebook friends. The application, the first of its kind in the cruise industry, allows users to engage their social network in their vacation planning through personalized newsfeed updates and even invite friends to book the same trip.

The application, available on Carnival’s official Facebook fan page (www.facebook.com/carnival), enables the user to explore all available Carnival cruise options without leaving Facebook by providing the functionality to sort cruises by date, duration, port of call, and accommodation type. Once users decide on a particular cruise, they can share the detailed cruise information with their Facebook friends by simply clicking a button. Users can also customize their newsfeed messages, which include a link to the cruise, to invite friends to book the trip as well.

“A Carnival cruise is a very social experience and this application is a natural extension of our efforts to engage our nearly 250,000 Facebook fans in a unique and exciting way,” said Jim Berra, Carnival’s chief marketing officer. “By allowing our customers to share their cruising plans with Facebook friends, we are making it easier for them to plan group trips and encourage others to join in the fun.”

Now, I admit that I'm not the brightest bulb in the chandelier when it comes to social media programs, but I thought I'd give it a try before sharing this new application here on the Cruise Diva Blog. It took me a moment to find the “Cruise Finder” navigation tab (right at the top of the Carnival Facebook home page—duh). When I clicked on it a “Request for Permission” form appeared asking for the following:

Request for Permission
Carnival Cruise Finder is requesting permission to do the following:
—Access my basic information
—Includes name, profile picture, gender, networks, user ID, list of friends, and any other information I've shared with everyone.

I trust Carnival with personal information every time I am booked on a cruise with them, but I'm still a bit leery of openly sharing information on Facebook so I exited without going any further. Carnival calls this application groundbreaking, but I'll let someone else break that ground on Facebook.