KmomChicago

Well we only have one cruise booked right now, and who knows, maybe the whole enterprise is starting to run its course for us anyway. It is not easy for us to travel to any port and we are starting to experience diminishing returns on investment for the hassle / fun ratio of travel in general. The thrill quotient has been dropping for some time. We are thus at the point where every little detail in the con column pushes us a bit further away, not that any one (or 4 as is the case for us) lost customer is a deal breaker for these corporations, but if there are others who feel like we do, as others have noted, eventually they will start to feel the detrimental effects of their poor management practices.

To some extent yes. Things will continue to go wrong related to these, but I now find myself using the term contingency a lot here in this conversation. Risk plans for any business at any time should include contingency plans. Covid and supply chain (and many other kinds of issues) will occasionally cause disruptions that cannot be prevented. When that happens, what is the backup plan?

No I did not say to leave 5-10% of cabins empty, which would in this case be about 100-200 cabins which is ridiculous obviously. There was a shortage of 11 cabins on this cruise, with 2094 cabins total. This means They were short 1/2 of 1% and no, I don't think leaving 1/2 of 1% of cabins unbooked is a terrible idea, actually. If something goes terribly wrong with a room - i.e. plumbing disaster or really bad temperature control problem or horrible noise issue or something, having a few empty rooms per sailing could be helpful. "Sorry ma'am about your balcony cabin being directly under the pool and hearing all those deck chairs at night. We could move you to an interior in the center of the ship which is quieter than a tomb if you prefer." And illness is not all that uncommon. And then perhaps there really is possible overbooking so you have those overflow cabins if needed to avoid this PR disaster.

I agree, and even so it can be a nightmare for the passenger moved even just a few hours off their original schedule. What happened on this cruise is just terrible.

But really that is still a form of overbooking - i.e. taking rooms out of service for unforeseen circumstances is still overbooking for the actual inventory available for occupancy. This practice leaves absolutely no room for contingencies and calls into question why they can fail to fulfill the contract, but passengers can't (i.e. full forfeiture of the fare in case of failure to fulfill the contract). Covid has been around long enough now to build this into the inventory management system. Ironically, it's possible that ten cabins perhaps would have liked to cancel at the last minute for whatever reason - but would not have been allowed to due to the contract. It's not like they asked for volunteers.

It happens with flights, but usually they try first to take volunteers. It is somewhat interesting to me that they don't try to do that with cruises, see who might volunteer for a bump rather than force them.

Yes I agree with you completely. As you note they went too far. It’s hard to grasp paying for a service in full, in advance, then at the last second being told No. At some point they really need to evaluate the damage from this practice and proceduralize truly realistic contingency plans to manage going forward if they can’t eliminate the risk (which they should).

Usually I am that person here and on other social media cruise discussions defending the cruise from minor and gratuitous complaints. But this is not minor. It’s unacceptable. IMHO they should get not only 100% refund plus 100% FCC but should have also been offered a choice of a SECOND 100% FCC with like a 3 year expiry, OR, several nights - starting now, taxi from port to the location - in a local resort or luxury hotel with $200 per day dining allowance to provide an alternative holiday experience. With the free casino cruises the line can easily afford comped cruises. The employee rate for these lines is laughably low and full comp is a minor additional hit.

I’m stuffed just with these pics of filling Italian nom noms.

Noooooo. Why do they always think they can just rudely kick everyone off the ship whenever they feel like it, just by calling it some ten-dollar word like “disembarkation?” Eviction is more like it!

I realize you were all completely fed up by this point, but telling a head waiter how to manage stateroom bookings is not likely to do any good. Preaching to the choir most likely as surely the crew are not enjoying the situation any more than the passengers and would fix it if they could.

I'm only finishing up page 2 and all I can say so far is WOW and THANK YOU. I was unsure about my plans for Alaska for next year but now I am so glad we are sailing R/T out of Seattle rather than Vancouver R/T or one way northbound, all of which we considered. It's already enough of a miserable hassle to have to travel from the Chicago area to literally any cruise port in North America, without adding on a long, tiring, frustrating, uncomfortable embark process. I am also glad we didn't "upgrade" to HAL from our usual entry-level, mass-market lines. I was definitely thinking I might try them or Princess, neither of which I have ever sailed, but have always wanted to give a try. I have seen more than one reviewer with less than complimentary things to say about HAL so I think they may be permanently dropped from the bucket list at this point. Frankly I can't figure out what they are offering that puts them into the next tier of cruises as neither the service nor food sounds any better than what I am used to. We booked RCI because we got both a better ship and better price this go 'round, but generally sail more often on Carnival. Cheap, reliable, pretty consistent, gets the job done for us so far.

Unless of course you determine that close examination / experience of the logistics is part of the fun. Plenty to complain about, you know. Would not enjoy the long waits for services, though, or the app issues. We do usually skip MDR first night on any cruise as the hordes seem to check it out before fanning out to the buffet or specialties on subsequent evenings, and thus it always seems especially crowded and backed up on night 1. Not saying anyone should "have" to make that choice but have found it to work a bit better for us. Was there any welcome aboard show / decent entertainment last night after your (subpar) dinner? Any good trivia or other daytime activities? Weather / views / condition of the vessel / decor / stateroom okay? Hopefully there are positives somewhere so far and that things smooth out soon.

I was wondering as well. . . hope all is well for them.

a fool's errand unless you just enjoy it to pass the time.

WOW. I was on Big Red Boat back when Canaveral was barely a cruise port, like AT ALL. Having sailed out of the newer port area on both Oasis and Mardi Gras I really have no idea where the old Premier terminal was even located; no resemblance to what little I remember.

Jeff I'mma need you to go back and do a full review of that 2005 cruise if you don't mind. Thank you!

It was worth it for a one time experience and we actually broke the rules by having 5 people total; the other couple gave us $100 toward the cost. It was a nice day weatherwise; we were down toward the end of the row so the location was pretty quiet and uncrowded (we had prebooked but were the last to choose a cabana onboard and got the last one left which was totally fine). It was, other than HMC, a mediocre itinerary - just Nassau and Freeport where we didn't do any excursions and barely got off the ship - so this was our one special port, and my big thing was to enjoy the sunshine as we were there around winter solstice. And my husband and teen had never done a beach break type cruise day before. I am truly glad and grateful we did it. Would not pay the $700 now but again I don't begrudge them charging what they can get.

Yes it does @1kaper, thankyouverymuch. I’m adding now that the fact that I booked a cabana a couple years ago at $399 is basically proof that they were underpriced. Thriftiness is practically baked into my personality.

Apparently nobody got my point which was a comment on someone else who said the cruise line won't make money by pricing the cabanas HIGHER THAN THEY WERE WILLING TO PAY and thus suggesting the cruise line should never price ANYTHING higher than that one guest wanted to pay for it. My list is a joke, a farce, a satire. I would take all that stuff for free or super cheap but more importantly, I understand entirely that lots of people are willing to pay more than me for certain things, just like in every other aspect of life itself. It is ludicrous to say a company should not sell any products or services at a price that you - one single customer - are unwilling to pay, because doing so will fail to earn them money. The one customer is not that important. The one customer is not representative of the full spectrum of customer means and preferences. My list is silly because everything in the world is not all about me. My preferences are nearly meaningless because I am not the target customer for any of those items. Who is? The customer who wants them and is willing to pay for them. The customer who is willing to pay for the Villa at HMC. The whole point of the luxury economy and upselling is to extract funding from the relatively smaller market segment of customers who ARE willing to pay. Hence back to these villas and cabanas. To say the cruise line should not charge a luxury price for a luxury item because they won't make money if they price out SOME customers, is just plain silly. They should absolutely charge more for such items than I personally would pay for them. If they did lose money by doing so, they simply wouldn't. Why are they raising prices? TO MAKE MORE MONEY. Arguing it is outrageous or unfair is irrelevant. If it makes them more money they will do it, and very likely that will be the case. For the record, I think it is stupendous that people will be sailing with me next May in suites like this and paying EIGHT TIMES what I am paying for interior cabins on the same ship. I think everyone EXCEPT ME should pay the prevailing prices for every item on my list. Anyway, I get it. Nobody got my point.

Oh I am well aware, Stacey Girl!! This is a response to the guy who said the business won’t make money by selling anything too expensive for him. I think they should charge TWO thousand for the villas. WTH do I care how much someone else pays for something? Buy it all!

There's a whole lotta things on cruise ships that are so expensive I won't buy them. 1. Photo packages 2. Spa services of any kind 3. Art as in auction 4. Balcony rooms 5. Chef's Table 6. Most specialty dining 7. A whole lotta shore excursions 8. SUITES! They should just get rid of them because they're too expensive. Especially they should quit making bigger, more expensive ones. Same with all ship-within-a-ship concepts. 9. Fare on any luxury lines. They should get rid of them because I would never pay fares like that! 10. Laundry 11. Souvenirs in the gift shop 12. Call brand liquor 13. Fitness classes 14. Casino 15. Single occupancy cabin

Having trouble getting a coherent picture of the plan for Spirit and Mobile but picking up bits here and there. Carnival never listens to my brilliant ideas but man I wish they’d sunshine that class so I hope you’re right and I hope it’s a long one. The ships have some fabulous unique benefits - those walkways around the front of deck 3 or whatever are so neat. I loved the lower level punchliner lounge. And the ratio of balcony cabins is a massive win and should up the profitability ante dramatically over Fantasy class while serving ports with size limits. But the ships are in rough shape and need freshening both with cosmetics and functionality. I’m not a very picky cruiser and found myself unpleasantly surprised by a few things on Legend, while still as always having a lovely journey. Having tried Radiance last year I have to admit I, like much of the traveling public, prefer the modern newish looking ship to the dark look of the older ones. The banged up bathroom and balcony doors on older ships actually irk me. They are visibly deteriorating and give an off putting impression of decay. They were all replaced and brand new on Radiance and the overall look and feel throughout the entire ship was bright and light. Digressing there, blah blah blah, can’t think about my one spirit class cruise without going down this path.

hello, what is PVSA?

https://cruiseradio.net/carnival-spirit-mobile-cruises-open-for-booking/ Not sure if this is news? I just saw it today for the first time.