Baron Barracuda

On our first Viking cruise we made our Chefs Table and Manfredi's reservations long before sailing. Once aboard ship and able to view the menus for The Restaurant for all 14 days however we completely rearranged things. Having those menus ahead of time would have been nice.

DW is a big fan of souffle's. For many years was able to get both Grand Marnier and chocolate versions in MDR. Now if she doesn't see one on menu by mid-cruise she asks hw or chef. They are usually happy to please and it turns up as an off-menu item next day.

If X was targeting high rollers I would 100% agree with you but that doesn't seem to be the case. Read through the cc threads on BCC offers and you'll see many (most?) being offered free cabins are not heavy gamblers. The offer comes with no obligation to even enter the casino while on board. My wife and I who rarely gamble receive free verandah offers all the time. Regarding consolidators, cruise lines have always relied on them to sell those last few cabins. How do you think pre-covid pretty much every ship managed to sail full? X doesn't allow TA's to advertise fares lower than what is displayed on their web site but large TA's are always advertising last minute deals where you have to call to get the price. $86/night is better than $0 and maybe those value seeking customers will still gamble a little and spend some money while on board.

So giving cabins away for free is better than quietly offloading them to a consolidator? Grats may help the crew, but personnel is only 10% of total expenses. Free cabins don't help cover the other 90%. And IMO the brand image is much more driven by the cruising experience X offers, especially food and service, than the price they charge for their product. Who is going to avoid X because the price is too cheap?

Recently read (can't remember whether it was cc or elsewhere) that proliferation of these bluetooth speakers has risen to the #2 complaint among cruisers, just behind chair hogs. Rude passengers are using them poolside, in the lounges, the buffet and even the theater. Staff is of course very reluctant to get involved.

Trying to understand the business logic. For 1 1/2 years since re-start despite the cruise lines hemorrhaging cash, ships sailing 1/2 full and supply chain difficulties X strove to offer the same level of service they provided pre-covid. Now, with ships sailing full and parent RCG cash flow positive and actually turning a small profit X has elected to take an axe to food which is very important to customers but only represents 7% of expenses. Meanwhile they give away hundreds if not thousands of free verandahs through Blue Chip Club offers. The latest email I received was good on 70 sailings, 20 of them for 10 nights or longer. If the issue (alibi?) is reducing food waste wasn't OVC much more wasteful back when ships were at reduced capacity? For the past year X arguably didn't have to work very hard for bookings thanks to a large pool of outstanding FCC's. Now, with the FCC's exhausted X will have to compete hard for the public's cruising $. Why then devalue the X product?

We usually take late traditional dining so often stop at OVC for a snack before the show. DW loves the made to order pasta while I grab something fresh off the grill. In days gone by before previous LLP cuts we used to enjoy some sushi as well.

Must disagree. In both 2018 and 2019 RCL enjoyed just under $2B in earnings and $3.5B in operating cash flow. The difference between earnings and cash flow is mostly add back of $1.2B in depreciation, a non-cash expense. These results included interest expense of just under $300 million. So interest expense was covered many times by both earnings and cash flow. With more berths available thanks to fleet additions if RCL is able to get back to their 2019 profit margin they should be able to cover their current $1.4B annual interest expense bill with a sizeable amount left over for debt repayment. There is no need to pay it all off in 10 years, an asset-heavy company like RCL isn't expected to be debt-free and they can always aid the process by issuing stock.

In their most recent quarter RCG reported Food expense amounted to 6.5% of revenue (X is not broken out discretely in their financials). For the first 9 months of 2022 it was 7.2%, so as ships fill up the number appears to be trending down. In 2019 however Food was only 5.5% of revenue. So if over the past three years food costs have increased by 1% of revenue wouldn't a 1% increase in fares have made them whole? Given that fares have risen much more than that believe X is using "food inflation" as a smoke screen to pad the bottom line.

We've booked gty a number of times and if we weren't thrilled with our cabin assignment looked for a better situated available one in the same category and asked to be moved. Request was never denied. With their experience Pinnacles should know to do this as well.

Consider that the major cruise lines have 45 new builds scheduled for delivery over the next few years. That's more than the current combined fleets of Royal and X. Unless a large number of older ships are pulled from service and sent to the scrap yard the cruise industry will struggle to absorb the additional capacity. They can't find enough crew to staff their current ships. Service will suffer and pricing can't / won't hold up.

We usually do late traditional dining on X so occasionally stop at OVC for a pre-show snack. Never dinner. On our last VO sailing actually dined at the buffet 5 nights. Food was that good. Sushi, crab legs, peel & eat shrimp every night plus themed cook to order offerings and much of the mdr menu. Expecting similar from X, even before the recent changes, will leave you doomed to disappointment.

Might be up for last week but still below where it was a month ago. Cruise lines were among the worst performing stocks last year so I'm sure there was a lot of tax loss selling in December. IMO cutbacks aren't stock price focused, cruise lines are still in survival mode and doing whatever they can to stay cash flow positive. Unfortunately some actions seem to amount to "burning the furniture for firewood", maybe providing a small short term benefit but risking reputational damage to the X brand long term.

Believe they are not looking to maximize profits, just to turn a profit. Would have understood if they cut back buffet early on after sailing resumed when they were only sailing half full, but not now. As far as "obedient consumers", a few years ago in another LLP debacle X attempted to make the Mast Grill a pay venue featuring upscale burgers. They ran it as a trial on Equinox but after significant passenger pushback ended up cancelling the idea after only a few sailings and going back to free. This shows passengers don't blindly accept X's changes and X does apparently respond to passenger feedback. Maybe if enough complain about OVC this "improvement" can be rolled back as well.

Today I received my latest Blue Chip club offer, good for a free verandah on 70 upcoming sailings on pretty much every X ship. 20 are 10 nights or longer. Can't understand why an outfit with X's financial difficulties, that is raising prices and cutting costs like crazy is willing to give away so much of their product for free. I don't gamble much so they're not getting it back from me there. Just another item on the long list of things LLP has done that makes me scratch my head.

X does not operate in a vacuum. They compete for staff with many other cruise lines as well as land based employers. If crew don't feel well treated they finish out their contract and move on. Historically however (pre-covid) industry wide crew retention rates ran about 80%. Instead of asking crew about their compensation try asking how many contracts they've signed with X. Believe you'll find they have a very seasoned (and theoretically content) crew.

As I understand it Helms-Burton was passed in '96 but every president prior to Trump waived enforcement. Obama administration relaxed some aspects of embargo when they allowed tourism, including cruising to commence in 2016 but Trump eliminated protections in 2019 in an effort to put pressure on Venezuela. Cruise lines lost their protection and Havana Docks sued.

When asked about X my standard response is since our first sailing (Zenith '93) we've never experienced a bad X cruise however under the LLP regime each one now feels a bit less special than the one before. Just seems every time we board we discover some little nicety we enjoyed has disappeared. Taken individually none of these losses are deal breakers but collectively they cause me to no longer consider X a premium cruise line. We recently did a couple of sailings on Viking and found the food and service superior to X at a price that isn't much higher.

Need to arrive well before sailaway. Don't know what USCG deadline is for her sailing but this is from X web site: If you’re planning to arrive later, make sure you know when embarkation check-in ends, as this is usually before your ship sets sail. For coast guard purposes, the check-in time ends earlier, and if you get there after that cut-off time you won’t be able to board, even if the ship hasn’t pulled away from port yet.

Life was much simpler in the days before prepaid grats when our end of cruise envelopes reflected how happy we were with the service.

Don't understand why anyone would transfer an onboard booking (or any direct booking) to a TA without getting something in return. You have already done most of their work for them. For past 25 years have received percs on every sailing booked with TA. On Royal cruises get at least free grats and maybe a group discount, on X and others an OBC.

Haven't taken them up on offer yet but as I understand it cabin is free, no casino requirement and you only have to pay port charges. Some have upgraded to Aqua for $10/night.

Couple of thoughts: DW & I have been sailing with X for almost 30 years and have never paid over $200pp/pd for verandah or CC. That pricing is still available if you search, some even with AI. It's the suites where supply is limited and for some people no price is too high. Would never consider paying $400pd for X. For that price Viking and Oceania provide much better value. X has historically offered "low" prices when schedule is released and then raised rates once they achieve a certain level of bookings. Prices usually slip later as sailing date nears. If demand for X is so high why does Blue Chip keep offering me a free verandah even though I'm not a gambler? Latest email was good on 70 sailings next spring some 10 - 11 nights.

Seem to remember that in order to secure financial support from PANYNJ for Cape Liberty development Royal obligated themselves to carrying a minimum number of passengers from NJ for a number of years. Achieving that passenger count required basing either an Oasis or Quantum class ship in NJ. Also recall this agreement being waived during covid lockdown.

With regard to the 60% increase in RCL stock over the past few months one might just as easily compare the current $60 price to the 2021 YE price of $80 which would reveal a YTD loss of 25%.