Pardon me while I vent a little.

The big news of the last week in the cruise industry is the proposed loyalty program revamp floated by Carnival. It has been met with outright hostility by most, including reports of death threats towards some public-facing Carnival representatives and blatant abuse of call-center staff.

It would appear that Carnival has discovered their "New Coke" moment - and now we wait to see how it plays out. (In the case of the Coke debacle, they blinked - handing an uncontested win to Pepsi.)

Emotions are running high, much higher than Carnival anticipated based on the observations of a consumer lacking any degree of inside access to the industry - and rightfully so. The connection people feel (or, likely, felt, at this point) is visceral. They've spent years patronizing a company and building a bond they felt was reciprocal, while failing to recognize that companies function on financial statements and "shareholder value" without regard for emotion.

People are pledging to jump ship, others are exploring other options in the industry. Competitors are using the opportunity to leverage the mis-step to their own advantage in their marketing, hoping to capitalize on the animosity and attract disenchanted former Carnival loyalists.

It's obvious from this site that we're largely "Loyal to Royal" and enjoy the perks we're afforded by the Crown and Anchor program. I'm sure I'd be a bit miffed if they decided to modify their program to a transactional, "what have you done for me lately" structure, but for the disappointment to rise to the level of personal threats is absurd. Unfortunately we're living in a world of entitlement, immediate gratification, and fundamental human disconnection.

I haven't tried to figure out what we'll be missing with the Carnival revamp. A free drink? A discount on an onboard purchase? Whatever it might be, it won't have a significant impact on us. We cruise because we enjoy the experience and the ability to design our own vacation within a vacation. On a cruise you can stay in your cabin 24x7 if you want, or you can just shower, sleep, and spend 18+ hours a day roaming the ship. (Obviously most of us pick something between those two extremes - the flexibility is the salient point.)

Will we take fewer Carnival cruises? Don't know.

Will we give another cruise line a try? Perhaps - this debacle has made me aware of the level-matching program offered by MSC, so perhaps we give them a try. (I find their website to be an absolute disaster from a planning/exploration/research standpoint, but perhaps my user experience will improve.)

One thing is glaringly obvious - people have forgotten how to be thoughtful and kind.

The person who answers the phone in the call center has as much to do with corporate decision making as they do with choosing your dinner menu. Yes, they're a point of customer contact - but people should be able to communicate their disappointment without debasing themselves by devolving to ad-hominem attacks.

Feel free to express disappointment and dismay, state your intent to take your business elsewhere, but do so calmly, respectfully, and direct your ire appropriately. Carefully selected vocabulary is much more effective than high volume profanity - people actually process it instead of tuning it out.

Has Carnival made a monumental mis-step? Absolutely. Just as Coke lost loyal consumers with "New Coke", despite bringing back "Old Coke" - Carnival will suffer a drop in numbers and their reputation will be forever scarred.

All because they have "too many loyal customers."

How this is a problem and not a point of pride is beyond me. I suppose when your focus is "shareholder value" and not corporate vigor things can get a bit yumpy in the C-level offices.