ILCTCRUISER

Astoria! Four words for all on board: BOWPICKER FISH AND CHIPS!

The episode started with Beef Wellington. Not a fan so I turned it off. You could ask!!!

@island lady, watching episode of America’s Test Kitchen today and up pops a commercial for…..American Queen Voyages.

Agree. Only TA can confirm why you got the specialty dining. I made suggestion merely to offer up a possibility. Here’s a current specialty dining offer available to TAs: SPECIALTY DINING EXPERIENCE FOR TWO Book a Balcony or Suite on any 7-night or longer EUROPE AND ALASKA ONLY, sailings departing March 1 – December 31, 2024 and receive a specialty dining experience for two.

If you booked with a TA, he/she may have had that as a special offer.

Agree with @grapau27, Paris calls for 3 days at the very minimum to enjoy what it has to offer. Really, one could fill a full week easily. But, @island lady, do take advantage of the excursion you’ve planned. I’ll hazard a guess it’ll be a great teaser and you’ll head back in the future to explore further.

This should prove to be a bone of contention. As it reads, a P booked in an interior and who has enough points to enter SL when restriction is in place can bring in a non-P cabin mate, while a P booked in a JS can’t enter SL? Mr Bayley’s assistants have probably started a pool to bet on when the first email comes in. Adding this: What prompted this change? I think that many of us understand that a lot of the decision making at RCL is reactionary. Wouldn’t you think they would have run out of bandaids a long time ago?

Unruly, out of control kids! What could be worse? Oh, maybe, the reason why they’re that way. They have parents who are unruly and out of control or parents who have relinquished all duties and responsibilities of being a parent.

And then there are the 4 Ps of marketing. Product. Could we be seeing product differentiation w/i RCG. There is a difference between RCL and X but was it that much of a difference. I’m not suggesting that every RCL cruise is a party cruise but promoting Weekend Cruises suggests that it is one market being targeted. Pricing? There are no AI inclusive resorts in Florida (well, someone once told me there was one, but…). I won’t spend my time trying to do an apples-to-apples for this but could it be that RCL’s pricing, which we believe has been on the upswing, may be attractive in the end?

Didn’t NCL at one time say that it was migrating away from 3-4 night cruises in favor of longer cruises? I believe part of the reason given was to minimize turnovers. However I look at the NCL itineraries in place now and I still see quite a few 3 and 4 N cruises? Anyone else recall this? A 3-4 N may work if you live somewhat near a port; we’re not flying for one 3 or 4 night cruise. We’d be doing B2B, but why do that given the time one spends in port of origination?

Agree wholeheartedly. Just how many times can you go to Cozumel? However, we do. We’re up north and we book Caribbean in the winter to get out of the cold. Half the time we stay on board in port. Cozumel? We take orders for vanilla, go off ship, buy vanilla, and get right back on. Nothing like the few hours when the ship is basically empty.

Haven’t cruised Viking but constantly checking out itineraries and fares. What they don’t offer! Good one! Here’s what they do offer: the opportunity to see countless TV ads on Masterpiece! May upset a few here but guess what? You pay for those ads when you pay a fare. No such thing as a free lunch.

Two Hershey bars and a Coke is just a saying. You know, we’ve never purchased a drink package (but we did buy the wine packages when they were offered). Once we became D we had no need to do so. Going from D to D+ brings one more drink (DW may have 3 drinks a day; I tend to have 4, occasionally 5) and extra day of Wi-Fi and BOGO at specialty restaurant, etc. They’re all nice to have but it’s not like you’ve just hit the mother lode! Princess Plus and NCL’s AI are really good deals. Check out what you get with Princess Plus for $120 a day for two people.

Two scenarios. A lounge with 60 cruisers having a few drinks and paying for them. Or. A lounge with 60 cruisers having a few drinks but half of them are members of a loyalty program and are not being charged for the drinks. If you “owned” the cruise line which would you rather have? I think that’s why RCL really pushes the 3-4 day cruises. And then there’s Coco Cay! Talk about a cash cow in the making! No wonder RCG also has X stopping there.

We’ll enjoy them as we always have. Enjoying them is one thing. Their value is another. They’re not free. @orville99 suggests it was roughly $200K in cruises to reach P. OK. I never kept track of our total $$$ spent with RCL. But we will also pay for them when we make final payment on our upcoming cruises. The folks at RCL Sales and Marketing look at all costs when putting together their pricing models. Even the pennies on the dollar that make up the cost of a free drink. One penny of each dollar is 1 percent of margin, and those people know their jobs (and bonuses) depend upon meeting budgets and margins.