HMR74

Last spring we canned b2b2b on Beyond in Retreat, and rather spent 5 weeks in Greece and Italy. Cost was as you said, ~1/3 of the Retreat, and the enjoyment level was very high. Airbnb's, fantastic, great locations and very nice places. Only one night we were so tired we just picked up sandwiches to have in apartment. Ever other night out, mostly outdoors. breakfasts, lunchs (surprise, with alcohol) and dinners were memorable, The 3 PM break to sit included alcoholic refreshment, happy hours with food and drink at 5-6, and dinner late., with, of course drinks. We had so much fun and were able to immerse ourselves in so much of the culture, that we decided , despite our ages which is average 75, to do another one, 6 weeks this time in 2024, visiting Krakow/Warsaw first, then Madrid then a driving trip thru Spain and Portugal ending in Barcelona. Different than a cruise, and each has pros and cons, Doing a cruise next month on Equinox. We have enjoyed our cruises so far, but our eyes and biases are open to try other things. Imagine a 6 week trip with no restaurants duplicated and decisions made on the fly. Free form. Its still not inexpensive, it 's not very easy, but I plan it all and know what we are doing and why, thus no fluff and no time wasted going on a group tour that included places we did not want to see. Then we have the obligatory Disneyworld with the kids /grandkids this winter. Talk about expensive trips.And that wil be no alcohol for adults. Ya have to find a way to laugh thru all of this, andmake sure your priorities are right.

Many moons ago, in college, we used to pre drink before going bar hopping. Sved big bucks. Then milked a cheap beer.

Grocery and Liquor store flyers delivered today. Crown Royal is $22 for 750 bottle and Woolford Reserve is at $25 a bottle-not a big difference-less than 50 cents a glass for a drink.. I did see several wines at just under 100 a bottle, on sale for around 80. . I can obviously see those at an upcharge.

They are throwing stuff up on the wall to see what sticks. Not a great managment strategy.

yeah, I think they know by looking at card or running it thru the device. But to be honest, its not just complex for us, its complex for the crew. The PDF immage I posted said little about this aspect, but I think most folks woudl think that if they signed up for prem the drinks and alcohol listed s/b no surcharge. Mixed drinks are open to discussion, I guess. Main thing is to remember to put Phone in airplane mode.

Thanks, I would like that. Shame on X for making this more complex than it need be. BTW, if we do not communicate to a supplier/vendor whats wrong with the product they will never know.

That J&H Selbach Reisling? I buy it for 15 a bottle in its generic name. But now that they have the really cheap Chateau St Michelle moved from classic to premium, I am concerned that the J&H will be the 2.40 more. Win win for X, the cheap bottle is in the premium meaning an upchage of you want resiling while on ship and only have the classic, or the upcharge for the $15 bottle in the premium. When X or any vendor or supplier starts insulting me I stop doing business with them. This is my first cruise with X since late 2019, so I need to find out for myself if the magic is still there. It was for a family Oasis cruise last year, in that food and service and the attitude of the crew was great. And that last X, I also observed the maintenance and cleaning crews doing their jobs spit shine good like the military (or like that used to be),andfood , service and attitude exceeded high expectations. Small stuff and details matter. Ya have to walk around ship at 2 AM to see that in action. I'll stay up late reading a book somewhere, hopefully at the sunset bar if weather permits.

well, to be honest we all accept the X contract where all is written for their benefit and littel for ours/ The change is that where as in the past ya got what you rpaid for and signed up for, now it vis astly different between what you paid and signed up for and get. Its only your money and your time.

my wifes point is no surprises. eg, if she goes to a restaurant and asks to substitue a different veggie, she does not expect to see an upcharge on bill, so that the server should advise that there is. Given the complexity of the drink packages and upcharges situations, I really doubt servers will know most issues until the bartender gives them the chit.

specialty dining you bought before the cruise adds the gratuity of 20%. My wifes question last night was if you order a drink in the premium package for example, and there is an upcharge, when do you learn of the upcharge. When you order or when a chit is presented for you to sign. Not necessarily the money but more the irritation. (I trade stocks and options now and pennies per share are important-better in my pocket than someone elses). keep in mind that if you have the same server and asst each night, they usually do not ask for the card after the first night.

with the newest edge class , Luminae and Retreat club are in vastly different places.So some of upscale drinks which are kept there now, mightnpt be practicaly avaialble in Blu or MDRS. Juat thinking about the whys. We do not need to know the whys of the various issues except if I do look at whys, we begin to understand that fixes are not forthcoming.

pre covid, RCL group was showing a healthy 20% pretax profit on sales. I think its back there now, but look at prices to get there The rennovation of M and S class was expensive and now we see new E class are costing well over a billion. Sister Royal has its Icon fleet--a big capital spend , with huge debt necessary. no room for problems. I forgot how much debt is on books, mid to upper teens, and RCL pays higher interest due to weak balance sheet. Its interest cost is too much. Nearly 2 billion a year next year. Somebody has to pay. I know they do not want to discuss that aspect. RCL group expanded too much too fast. Probably the others too.

be nice to server and you might avoid corkage, which I think is $25 a bottle if you do not have the drink package. Or get twist caps on bottles and pre-drink in cabin.

the PDF on drink packages. As you see the wines are not that all specific. Actually quite vague. On Whisky, as I noted they dropped Crown Royal for a couple of years but substituted Woodford, which in stores is about 30-40% more. Raw cost per glass on CR is $4-5 at best,, depending on generosity, and Woodford is 6-7. Best pour ever was at a supper club on the Mississippi north of La Crosse Wisconsin, full glass with just 2 ice cubes, with glass of ice on the side; $6 maybe 5-6 years ago. X used to celebrate its depth of selection of wine. Spring 2019 we booked on the TA on Infinity and wanted to order one of the wine plans, we were told they stopped selling those because they ran out of wine storage space.

Perhaps X is a rudderless ship?? Punny?? Seriously, chew on this as an example. At GE in the late 1990's Jack Welch was going to retire and had 3 "wonderboys" to pick from to succeed him. He picked Jeff Immelt, who, while it took several years screwed up that franchise. Bob Nardelli went on to screw up Home Depots in less than 2 years but got a 240 mil severance package. The third wonderboy, Jim MacNerney, went forst to 3M and he left there within 2 years and went on to Boeing. In 2008 or so, he is the one who made the decision onthe 737Max (remember that fiasco) to not spend on redesigning the fuselege. Thast important becase with bigger and bigger engines for fuel efficiency, the engines had to be pushed foreward to get clearance when taking off or landing, and that disrupted the air flow over he wings,. . Rather than redesigning the fuselege to be higher off the ground to get the clearance they pushed it even further forward and used software to make adjustments in flight to make it work the rest is History. 3 boy wonders and no common sense. It can occur anywhere including X which had a fantastic rep for food/dining and just the good vibe and experience while on board. Shoreside services was never great.

I have been away from the Corp world for 23 years now. We used to have this thing called mentoring and I was an invited recipient of that in the early 80’s, attendance was essentially mandatory. A friendly informal chat with the CEO and or Board Chair, usually late on Friday afternoons. nothing technical was discussed. It was a chat about maintaining the culture of the Company. the new “ superstars” were coming in and were hell bent in changing the culture to what you said. Minimum viable product, but that was not a buzzword then. their idea of improving profit was not improving efficiency, but straight out cutting costs. Like maintenance being deferred and employee benefit cut. but profit levels were extraordinary already but to improve their value, and bonus, they had to increase profits by take aways. that what I see or do not see at X. Its just like this management team has been cut loose to try things, throw ideas up on the wall to see what sticks, or not. occupancy, one big metric for cruise lines has been good occupancy , but thats more a consequence of FCC and squeezing 18 months of no sail, into the last 18 months. Getting back to equilibrium is going to be a challenge. x has3 new edge class to be filled regularly, now after lockdowns, as well as M and S . Its customer base is not thrilled with a changing inconsistent product based more on take aways than new improved. just my top level view. And little things do matter.

Is the nonalcoholic package available, as if so, they already have 3. I believe so as they just sent me the new PDF of their drink packages. Pretty superficial-it does not say which drinks are an upcharge, but say basically anytihng can be subject to price upcharge. . If their own people cannot describe how the 2 booze drink packages work now, I can hardly wait for a 3rd alcoholic package What's funny is 2 years ago to speed delivery of food, RCL Group cut back on choices to make the kitchen more efficient. KISS method. Heck, my Army Mess Hall's were terribly efficient. They cannot handle the operation as is, let alone go for more complexity. It dawns on me they are doing tihings on a trial and error basis. We are the test group. Funny also, trial and error must be taught in Biz school now cause it was not taught 50 years ago. Just like taking on huge leverage with OPM to take a shot at big success to help the resume hastaken on new meaning over the decades. I wonder why things worked so well before and what changed to make things different. If it ain't broke,,....and RCL group was making good money as recently as 2019. But you could be right on the 3 alcoholic packages.

Until I can confirm on a cruise in 4 weeks. Woodford Whiskey, on premium is on a $2.40 surcharge. Since X is not good on communicating on whats what with these packages, and X has been vague abou it for years, so X is experienced on it. I discovered Aperol Spritz in a vacation to Greece and Italy this past spring and most of those were $10 or less but it's on premium package: hopefully not a surcharge. We just came home from a Mexican dinner where a frozen Margarita is 10 a person-plus tax and tip. . I think thats premium on X (so be sure they used premium products). I think X is moving to one package anyway. And anything upscale will be extra so we wil be signing chits whenever we are on board.

PPS, don't get me started on Premium Coffee for which X does not have machines in MDR,so if pushed they will send a server to El Bacio to get it. Just get me a quaity thermos filled with the hot coffee I like (actually not a bad idea). Premium coffee used to be on non alcoholic package too. Just can't easily get it in MDR. Great idea to sell something you will not serve to themajority of diners (the MDRs still serve the majority of those on board correct? )

I think management and the tier below top management needs a whack on the side of the head to bring in common sense. I have 2 cases (not a pun yet) in point> Reisling wine. X has used Chateau Ste Michelle in the Classic package. I can buy it and do at 4.99 a bottle when I buy by the case. With 5 pours a bottle the raw cost per drink is $1. The Reisling in the Premium package is J&H Selbach and I can buy that at 15 a bottle or so by the case. $3 per glass. Now the ceap wine in in the premium and so is the upscale wine, so I willearn for myself in 4 weeks how they handle that , in wil they charge 2 bucks more for the class of the upscale wine now that ther is a cheapep wine in the premium. Similarly: but not exacltly, X for a long time now, a few yearsm has not carried Crown Royal But it had Woolford , roughly 50% more expensive, in Premium so althought I liked CR better , Woodford is a good sub. Now both are in the premium and I suspect Woolford will be 2 bucks extra (plus the obligatory 20%). I will be more than fine with Crown Royal. And I will be fine with Chateau St Michelle cheap wine. But management which is young and not as experienced as they think they are, does not get it. When a drink is in a package , it should be part of it. No nickle and dime extra charge. The structure of the offering is set up that way. If I have the premium drink package, whether I am in Retreat, Aqua, or steerage, when I buy that package whats included should be included. Period. Once of the fund things , and it was menteiodned herein, is you can leave your wallet behind when you leave cabin and not have to worry about a ting YOur Sea Pass is coded correctly. And if you planned correctly , you should be able to go thru a cruise and not have to deal with an invoice at the end or even need to spend time discussing at a desk where you wait to ask a question. It should be "clean", and that's the experience I seek. They, middle and upper mgt, make these "caca" business decisons which end up being cheap insults to their customers and encourages this negative discussion which gets to the point that it's laughable. Perhaps its a new thing with younger managers who never had mentors really teaching them the ropes. PS, with all the changes I had to call and ask about mudslides, my fav afternoon topside drink. It took 15 minutes but the answer was, "probably" I had a good laugh. Still do. PPS- I know ahead of time that buying the package is not cost effective for us. However, I really do like the idea of ordering and not thinking about it.

at CoCo Cay last year, we were off ship early and found a spot for 8 of us. I had my music on via in ear Bluetooth, and noice cancelling on. Too hot for the over the ear phones. However, two different groups showed up with boom boxes. and ruined the relaxful area. Memo to X and/or RCL-no boomboxes allowed to be brought on board. It is not a private party ship. Memo 2-have basic respect for your neighbors Wear headphones wherever possible, and not let sounds play out of your tinny electric devices in public ares and please no music or other sounds playing loudly in balconys or at all in staterooms after 11PM and before 9 AM. Memo 3, Just have respect for others. Just remember ther are some real obnoxious people out there who do not understand common area concepts nor respect for others. I am pretty low key about things but I have a breaking point. eg when elevators are full I can and do take the stairs, but soetiems I have had a few drives more than shoudl as I am not driving. So I desire to take elevator, and when people intentionally do not move back or to side, I can use my large frame body to help them understand and I do say "excuse me" albeit sarcastically as I push my way in to where there is room for 4-5 people, good golly.

on wine, I would think that if I have the premium drink package, if the do not have premium wines ther they will get a couple of bottles of it for the duration of the cruise. But the problem is they are selling the upcharge to premium is on the low end. Like 8.50 per day. So I would think most would want the premium I just learned recently that they do not have premium coffee in MDR. No room for the machines. Duh, I thought, what kind of ragtag organization wil sell or say something like premium coffee is included but you cannot get it. Then they (exec center) said I might be able to have my server go get it from anogther area....just what I want, a cold cup of premium coffee. Hope they have plenty of microwaves to make up for no coffee makers. My opinion is this company is just not well managed and run. Sure, we have lockdowns but good top level mgt is on top of that type of curve balls that get thrown. The premium wine and premium coffee in MDR have been around for a long time and problems should have been resolved by now. But, I think as I type, if we are not happy during the cruise which does not get fixed they will happily give us OBC for the next cruise on X that we do not want to take.

Last night I was looking at the X App for my equinox cruise in January, figuring out what nights we go to Specialty dining. Not sure if its the right, current menu or not, or how any times it could and will change. Very few exciting appetizers (MDR), but 3 choices of soups which is ok as I like soups, so I could be happy. But the salads and apps are so uninspiring that it's a shame. Not angry like some are but still disappointed. We used to like a 2 hour even paced dinner, spreading a few drinks over the 2 hours, enjoying a good meal, conversing with other couples at neighboring tables (we dine late which is a different atmosphere in dining room than earlier) however, thats apparently, a thing in the past. Oh well, perhaps we get a new menu. Whatever.

Back in Spring 2019 the cost to move up from a regular verandah to AQ was 200 PP for a 14 day TA. Now its far more of a spread and thats taking into account with AQ you get , usually, basic internet, drinks and grats. So apples to apples quite a bit more now. When we received FCC for 2 cruises canceled in late 2020, (900 of depost money for each) we quipped that we could do 2 carribean cruises inside cabin and basically go on the cheap. Well, those "cheap" inside cabins with basic internet , classic drinks and grats is now up to 4500 list price for a 9 day cruise. Might be able to get a last minute 7 day for 450 pp plus the internet drinks and grats. It might be me getting old and cheap, but its no longer a value to cruise. We have one open right now and wil go, but frankly, our expectations are low, so we probably wil be fine. The Celebrity analogy is like a marriage of long-term. We get older, and may gain a few pounds,less agile, less hair, more stay at home et al. It's not the same, but unlike Celebrity where we can divorce it very easily, we are pretty happy being able to age together. But we can do a 35 day land trip in Europe for the same 9000 +/- for inside cabins with grats internet and drinks. Forget comparing BLU or Suites, or usings speciality dining at 60 a crack. . And dine well and have sufficient drinks. We spend the same but do more. Benefit is we see full days 8 Am to 10 PM carousing around cities towns and villiages. Downside--this opportunity is only good for as along as health is good as if not , it's back to cruising which is easier on the body. On fillingcabins, look out to the future, Overall travel is in decline. Just because of a weak economy. Ya need money to do almost any travel now.

Simply, X has been doing take aways and price increases. Not so much fun for us. Its time to add some "goodwill" and show us customers that they know what they are doing in the front office aka shoreside. Tall order IMHO.