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bUU' date=' the problem with this logic is that the quality on board is slipping while the prices continue to rise. [/quote'] That's pretty linear thinking. Why do you assume that prices wouldn't have risen FASTER than they have, were quality to be more in line with your expectations? Are you saying that people pay the same regardless of quality? If so, that is preposterous.

 

Prices are a reflection of perceived value. No one is forced to cruise, so as always prices will reflect the value that the preponderance of customers place on what is being provided. If you don't feel that cruises remain worth the price, then perhaps your preferences are no longer in synch with that of the market that is setting the prices and dictating the service specification.

 

 

 

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Price out an Alaska cruise in the summer... You'll see some high prices!!

 

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Please do the correct thing and pay the suggested gratuities.

This. There are myriad things about the cruise you may wish were done differently but it's a big ship that we have to share. They cannot offer separate cruise ships for each passenger. As explained above, this is the way crew get compensated - all of those who contribute to the service you receive, not just those you see. "Tipping out" is very common and will be imposed on crew even if you try to bypass the regular system. Bypassing the system just prompts the cruise line to put your service staff under scrutiny.

 

 

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Staggered boarding is becoming more common. Generally, it starts as a request, then becomes a dictate, then gets enforced.

 

Fairness is debatable. There is no specific promise that any passenger will get aboard the ship before Sail Away. Sail Away is the only time that the cruise line commits to beginning your voyage (and even that isn't really a hard-and-fast commitment). Beyond that, there are so many advantages and disadvantages bandied about and applied to different passengers in different ways that boarding a few hours later is well within the normal variability between one passenger's experience and another passenger's experience. If a few hours at the beginning of the cruise (even including lunch) are going to make or break the cruise then I fear that many other variabilities and possibilities you are likely to encounter during a cruise would also be problematic for you.

 

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I'm looking at a first time cruise, to South America with Imagine.

Basic question, do in general prices include food on the ship?

Yes. Many cruise ships offer additional fee alternatives, but you don't have to patronize them.

 

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Reflexively, hot places in summer and cold places in winter will be bargains, and that will appeal to those driven more by price than by the enjoyment of the contrast between the seasonal climate where they live and that of their vacation venue.

The last post sums it up. If a post cruise survey is sent at all,the questions are on topics that are of general and predictable interest for the cruise line.

In other words, gathering normalized data, suitable for analysis.

 

There is usually no place for individuals to communicate their issues.

Which would result in non-normalized data, which is practically useless for analysis.

We chose Saxman Village because there was no indications in the descriptions of Totem Bight that there was an active Carving Center operating there, nor that the visit to the clan house there included the kind of cultural song and dance experience that Saxman offers.

 

 

 

 

Suggest you ask ship specific questions on the Princess board.

This is one of those aspects of cruising where you are very unlikely to get different answers for different cruise lines. The spa services aboard practically every mass market ship in the North American market are offered by the same company: Steiner.

 

My advice stems from the recognition that there are two people involved in massages, the masseuse and the client. The quality of the massage is dependent on how skilled each are at their respective roles. Steiner trains its staff, and I believe the result is relatively consistent, with a normal amount of variability. So the biggest unknown variable in the quality of an on-board massage is the skill of the client at receiving a massage. Since massages on cruise ships are extra-costly, due to a convenience premium baked into the price, I wouldn't book a massage aboard a cruise ship if I'm not a skilled massage client. In other words, if you don't get (less costly) massages at home, I think you're undercutting the value of whatever (more costly) massages you may get aboard ship.

 

And yes, generally, Steiner adds on a standard gratuity, by default. They get whatever part of the gratuity that they're supposed to get, just like in restaurants, where servers getting tips have always had to "tip out" the staff assisting them. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tip_out

I searched on here and outside of possibly, using the 1-10 scale to allow Cruise companies know if there's any issues with certain departments of their ships, it doesn't seem if you compliment or complain about crew members, that they really ever go anywhere?

There's no sound basis on which to reach that conclusion. Businesses don't publish their operational decisions publicly and random consumers on the Internet are as likely as not going to read into what happens in whatever manner best fits their own bias rather than the reality. The biggest disconnect afflicting consumers is that our instinct is to think our experience is singular and important all by itself, while the reality is that in the mass market only experiences that are corroborated by other experiences can rise to the level of true significance.

We have a cruise coming up in November and have a choice between Anytime and Traditional (6 or 8:00pm). We've always done Anytime but I'm leaning to Traditional for a change. Anybody gone from this Freestyle type dining to a set time for dining? did you like your choice and did you like the same table mates evening after evening?

On our recent cruise we received a series of warning, first several warning that there will be long waits for anytime dining before 8pm, and then a warning that there will be long waits for anytime dining after 7pm. I saw this coming, actually, and switched from anytime dining to traditional dining before both early and late traditional dining both locked up tight.

 

We did a few things to "soften the blow". We booked a couple of specialty meals, at times of our choosing (i.e., between early and late dining times). We also choose to spend a couple of nights at the buffet. We ended up eating in the dining room only a couple of times. I found that arrangement superior to either anytime dining every night or traditional dining every night - so much so that I hope that the cruise lines make more changes to their dining arrangements over time to support this kind of more random dining experience arrangement.

SMH. "HAL doesn't love us anymore!" Delusional, much?:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Actually, I think they are correct, and I'm actually surprised to see so many of them finally acknowledging it.

 

They didn't say that the cruise line doesn't "love" them anymore. You took some poetic license there. You are correct that that would would reflect delusion, i.e., as if the cruise line ever "loved" a customer (rather than appreciated, valued, etc.)

 

What Old As Dirt Mom said is that they feel as if the cruise line no longer values them (and, really, I read that as, "no longer values them as it once did"). That actually makes a lot of sense. If the 4* and 5* Mariners on CC are representative of 4* and 5* Mariners generally, then we have seen loads of clear and compelling evidence that Old As Dirt Mom is correct.

 

Why would that be true? Well just look at underlying subtext of this conversation: The presumption that 4* and 5* Mariners should be kowtowed to out of proportion to the treatment other cruisers receive. That expectation would only be justified if financial analysis shows definitively that 4* and 5* Mariners represent a substantially greater amount of future income than other cruisers. That is probably no longer the case. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that research shows that familiarity correlates to economy. That happens whenever a pricing model doesn't have adequate safeguards.

 

So while there is no question that the cruise line should be fair in its treatment of all passengers (and without hearing their side of the argument with the OP, we'll never know the truth of that matter), there are sound reasons to believe that we're moving toward a system within which all passengers should expect to receive the same treatment as other passengers in the same circumstance. In reality, the airlines have actually fixed their version of this broken system: Your loyalty status for an airline - that which gets you better treatment - is based on what you've done for the airline lately, not what you may have done for them in the past. Ten years from now I bet that cruise lines will either being making or have already made the same conversion. And along the way the past-frequent cruise passengers will go through the same grief process that frequent airline passengers went through.

The answer is not to repeat a main show on a consecutive night in the WDT, it is to improve the quality of the acts that are on the WDT stage when the Walt Disney Performers are not performing. I agree some of the variety acts don’t merit that particular stage. My answer would be to replace that talent with talent that merits the WDT stage, performers and variety acts where we as guests as enthused and excited to go to these shows, our response is “wow” and we want to mark the entertainment as “exceptional” on a comment card.

Disney is doing too much of that kind of decision-making already, based on what drives our decisions to cruise. The cruise is worth so much because of what they offer, as things are now. And the fares reflect that. Disney has priced itself so high such that, despite the fact that we have been visiting their theme parks every year for the last quarter century, we've only been on their cruise ships once. The fares are too high for us to justify.

 

While some may prefer keeping the quality high because they can justify the commensurately higher fares, some of us would prefer some compromise. This is Disney; they're not stupid. They're not going keep the quality high and keep the fares low. Yes, we're already paying a lot, but everything is relative. We just paid a lot on Holland America, too. You pay a lot for a cruise - period. Pile on top of that the Disney name, the Disney characters and other exclusive IP, the guest/cast member dynamic, and superior entertainment, and any reasonable cruise line is going to force you to pay yet-even-more, and we cannot justify that expense.

 

Please let me be clear, though: I don't think Disney should change. I think they're doing great as they are - without us. They're offering a better product than what we can justify, but there are more than enough others who are looking for what they're offering today. We lower budget cruisers aren't the ones that their business relies on. My point though is that things aren't so simple such that we can say, "They should have quality {this} high," because having quality {that} high means having fares at a certain level, and perhaps that means raising fares faster when the marketplace is telling them to raise fares slower.

Sorry to read about your GTY assignment. We had the same thing happen to us back in 2007; the only difference was that it was what would now be a 3N GTY on Royal Caribbean and we ended up with the very worst 3N possible, all the way forward, apparently next to the anchor room or an incredibly noisy crew stairwell or something incredibly bad to be next to when you are trying to sleep. Best of luck trying to get your assignment improved.

And we're not talking about covering quantifiable losses. This isa flat amount of compensation for the inconvenience or disappointment. Those who have made claims for this have reported that they just provided proof of the change, not proof of having paid for something at the port for which reimbursement was not forthcoming.

 

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You're splitting hairs between laws, rules and guidelines. So if you split those hairs you should also split the hairs between optional, discretionary and mandatory. I don't believe a single cruise line refers to the gratuity as "optional". Nor do any of them refer to it as "mandatory". It's "discretionary" meaning that the passenger is obligated to apply discretion in determining the amount of the gratuity. Opting out is a valid choice only if the gratuity is specified by the cruise line as optional.

 

Don't get me wrong: If you get horrendous service top to bottom, your discretion may indicate that a gratuity of $0 is warranted. However, that's almost never the case when a passenger gives no gratuity; it's almost always an expression of abject selfishness.

 

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For those that specific ports or itineraries are the main reason you chose the cruise, consider getting a Nationwide Luxury Cruise policy. You can cancel the cruise for any reason up to 2 days prior to the cruise and they will pay up to $ 1,250 if you miss a port or have an itinerary change.

 

They don’t sell the policy in all states, but it is definitely worth a look if it is available in your state.

 

https://travel.nationwide.com/plans/cruise/

This. It's a great idea to insure for whatever you would be unhappy if it changed.

 

 

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The tour we took (LandSea) would pick up at the cruise port and then drop off at either airport or hotel, so even though you almost surely can make it off the ship and to your hotel in time, do you need to?

 

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We are sailing on the Veendam on Sept 15th. Can anyone tell me about this ship? We have sailed on the Volendam, the Rotterdam twice and the Zaandam. What is the difference in this ship. Also, what do you recommend on the sailing from Boston to Montreal. What ports did you like best?

It will be similar to the ships you have sailed on already.

Isn't HAL more expensive than Costa, MSC, Carnival, Norwegian and Royal? How do they justify the higher price?

The ships that sweetipie had sailed on already were, “Volendam, the Rotterdam twice and the Zaandam,” not, “Costa, MSC, Carnival, Norwegian and Royal.”

 

Having just cruised on both Carnival and Holland America I can assure you that there is a significant difference explaining the price difference, even down to details such as the decking on the Lido deck.

 

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We were in the port side aft wraparound on deck 7.

 

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What White Pass excursion did you take? The photo shows only a couple and a woman in a dining type car. Interesting photo.

We did the White Pass Bennett Lake Adventure. Our car was empty to start. Soon thereafter the conductor evened out our car and the next car, which was full.

 

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On the way back from the cruise, a Canadian customs inspector decided to check inside my container of chocolate creamer. It got all over him. Oops!

 

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They have nice big tv’s in the rooms and a GREAT selection of movies so I didn’t miss it.

Same on Nieuw Amsterdam. I wish we could have ordered popcorn from room service.

 

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When you did this Tracy Arm excursion from the ship how many people were on the tour?

We took the excursion that meet the cruise ship at Tracy Arm inlet. There were about 40-50 people aboard.

 

 

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A selection of photos from our excursion to Capilano Suspension Bridge park.

 

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