renata102

You are right, of course. It is possible to avoid room service, and to only eat in MDR's -- but to the extent the food quality and service in those MDR's have been downgraded from previous levels as the number (and costs) of the specialty restaurants have increased, you are feeling encouraged to seek alternatives other than the formerly perfectly adequate included options. Then too, considering the amounts involved, "nickel and dime" really is not the appropriate term: how about $10 and $20?

I never eat in specialty restaurants on board these ships

I did notice a downgrade of food and service in the MDR, since the barrage of specialty restaurants on NCL. I didn't see it on the Disney cruise. I can't comment on RCCL or Princess as I haven't cruised on them in years

I must admit I have never noticed the port agent information in the dailies. I will be sure to take a photo of this information before we leave the ship at each port now. Not that I think we would ever need it, we are always back in plenty of time, but doesn't hurt to be prepared.

I was just on a cruise. I took a picture of it at every port

In the past I would take the daily with me.

Better safe then sorry

That's a lot of hot air coming from someone who must remove the DSC [emoji57]

You mean adjusted??? Yes I did. And my air is just right. 98.1 degrees F to be exact

Fascinating. But what does this have to do with The Haven article?

I was responding to someone

I only spent a few days in Kraków, but I loved it. Beautiful city and many great side trips. Definitely go to the salt mines and auschwitz, incredible history.

I go to Poland every few years (plus I lived there as kid - I am american by default, born here but my parents went back to Poland with me , but then decided to come back to America).

We have spent weeks at a time in Poland (including my kids) the last few years (more when I was a kid, I would spend months at a time. ). My favorite place is krakow. We always go to the salt mines. Incredible. I rarely re visit the same place. But I always have to go to krakow! I love wawel castle. The history there is amazing. One of da vinci's painting hangs there "lady with an ermine". My then 9 year old son said he liked lady with the ermine better then the Mona Lisa (we went to paris after krakow last time, so he got to see two of his paintings in different countries ). Everytime I visit Poland it's with the kids and they were to young the last time to visit the death camps.

Is this family income? Or per person income? I am divorced with no kids so of course I have more discretionary income than someone who is feeding, clothing and insuring multiples in a household. I know families whose earnings exceed mine who are amazed at my multiple vacations a year in suites.

Married with 2 dependents

After reading this article for the second time, I have come to realize how absurd the writer and paper are. Let's start with the fact that this article is published in a magazine that lives off of the real estate, style, and food sections. These only highlight runway designer items and 5 star cuisine. There are no Applebee's ads or Target clothing. The real estate section has not one listing under $1 million dollars, yet they believe they have moral authority to judge everyday Americans by what type of room they take when they cruise. Guess what NYT the 1,2,3 or even 4%ers don't cruise on Norwegian Cruise Lines. The wealthy have private yachts to cruise to St Bart's on. Just absurd!!!

No. This was front page of the nytimes NEWSPAPER not the magazine or travel section As in FRINT PAGE NEWS

I know. I have the paper (nytimes) delivered every day in all there are 1.1 million print-and-digital subscribers)

I know you're not the one who I replied to, but this proves my point. People who are upper middle class and wealthy have a skewed view on where they really fall. Hell, even your income isn't indicative of where you cruise. For example, I could afford the Haven the same way I could afford a bigger house, newer car, etc, but something else would have to give. Lots of folks out there living high on the hog who can't rub two nickels together.

I too realistically may afford the haven suite but I take several vacations a year.

The 10 day Gem cruise we had is not my " real vacation" for the year. So we had 4 of us in an ocean view cabin. We did it because we have 3 weeks planned in the summer (Italy and Poland. Staying with family and Airbnb flats and family hostels)

I just cruised with my two kids and mother in law. My husband couldn't make it this time. We all share the last name (my mother in law a different last name). All we had were passports. Just reporting it with my situation there were no issues or concerns.

 

Do your grandaughter have a different last name then her mother?

Ohhh and my other experiences. I (mom) have traveled with my daughter only to Poland and England No issues

My husband traveled to Peru with our daughter and no issues

We didn't have a letter any of those times.

I just cruised with my two kids and mother in law. My husband couldn't make it this time. We all share the last name (my mother in law a different last name). All we had were passports. Just reporting it with my situation there were no issues or concerns.

Do your grandaughter have a different last name then her mother?

Okay, so Del Rio went from 2.1 million to 31.9 million in a single bound. Doesn't that happen every day in Corporate America?

 

So NCL felt for some reason that Del Rio would not accept this position for even, say, double his previous salary, nor triple it, nor even quadruple it, which would bring it to the level of both RCI's and Carnival's CEOs at around 9 million each.

 

No, they felt like they had to make him an offer which increased his salary to an amazing 15 times his previous salary. It's a little mind boggling actually. What in the world is going on at NCL? IMO, just a bone headed decision that doesn't bode well for intelligent corporate oversight at NCL.

 

Does anyone really believe that he is putting in 15 times the effort, or will make the company 15 times the profit that he would have at a more reasonable, but still highly lucrative, salary? I'm sure the CEO's at Carnival and RCI are taking their pay stubs into the board rooms and saying, "What the h***!!"

LMAO. ughh corporate America. Jeez. Good for him and other like him. But jeez. So sickening

Just because I'm curious...what would the income thresholds be for rich and upper middle class in your opinion?

I am not the one that posted.

I won't divulge my income but I though it was middle class , but my accountant told us we are considered "upper middle class". I also live in northern NJ where cost of living is high, so to me I feel middle class. We have two school age kids

Below $20,000 = in poverty

Below $30,000 = working poor

$30,000 - $50,000 = working class

$50,000 - $75,000 = lower middle class

$75,000 - $100,000 = middle class

$100,000 - $250,000 = upper middle class

$250,000 and above = wealthy

In NJ

Below $30,000 = in poverty

Below $40,000 = Working poor

$40,000 - $55,000 = working class

$55,000 - $85,000 = lower middle class

$85,000 - $125,000 = middle class

$125,000 - $300,000 = upper middle class

$300,000 and above = wealthy

When we first started cruising we were in the lower middle class some 15 years ago.

What you say is very true. In my case, I set a travel budget for myself. I personally prefer to take multiple vacations versus one with a fancier cabin and more services. That doesn't make anyone else's choices wrong, it's just mine. I do aspire to try the Haven if I can get an upsell at the right price, but I'm afraid once I try it I won't want to go back, lol.:rolleyes:

I am like you. We have multiple vacations a year. We just did the 10 day last month. This summer me , my husband and 2 school age kids will spend about 3 weeks in Poland and Italy (my 10 year old son chose Italy this year). And of course we will be staying at Airbnb places and family hostels and use public transportation and usually eat where the locals eat and i will also prepare local inspired food when I will shop in local markets.

We will also do a few "long weekend " trips and usually a week in Florida and or Peru.

Maybe I can stay in the haven. We can afford it. But the we can't take our other vacations.

Thanks for sharing this very interesting article. I found the most fascinating aspect to be all the commentary on attitude and expectations. (That's something we discuss a lot on CC, especially as it relates to folks' perceptions of their cruises.) In that regard, I found this, from RCI's CEO, to be the most fascinating quote:

 

"Since the late 1990s, however, “there has been a huge evolution, maybe a revolution in attitudes,” Mr. Goldstein said. In addition to larger rooms or softer sheets, big spenders want to be coddled nowadays. “They are looking for constant validation that they are a higher-value customer,” he said."

 

As a self-described value oriented consumer, I already feel like cruising is as close to Downton Abbey you can get on a vacation. Some folks need more, I guess. As long as those super spenders are subsidizing the cost of my vacation, I have no problem. But when these high spenders demand more services that take away from my experience, I might become a little less happy about the caste system.

It is taking away from the peons on cruises The caste system is an interesting way to state it, but very accurate.

No more nickelodeon

No more fireworks

No more udp for all nights

No more free room service

No more free bottle of wine for first night spec dining

No more half price for kids specialty menu

No more response at cruisecritic from ncl

And last but most importantly no more happy faces from the crew

I also noticed no more happy faces from the crew.

@Renata, you mentioned a major issue with your room, maybe on another post...what happened??

Yes I did mention it on another post. It was a major issue for the first 5 days of our cruise. Which I brought to the attention of cabin stewed, his supervisor and guest services. They tried resolving it but I told them in the meantime To put us in another cabin (the same or smaller or bigger I didn't care). I will go into more details later.

There were times when my cabin could not be inhabited and my son had a headache and we didn't have a quiet room for my 10 year old to nap. This went on for 5 days as they tried to resolve the issue. Well give me another room I paid for a room to use for 10 days at my leisure and half of it I had restrictions from the minute I was about to enter the room. They knew there was an issue as they were trying to resolve it when the announcement was made that we can go to our cabins. 4 of them were sea days.

If I knew I couldn't use my cabin at me leisure I would have not cruised at all.

Euros are as good as $USD

I need to unsee this

It cannot be unseen, unless you use eye and mind bleach.

Hope this helps

Just so my post isn't misunderstood, there is indeed an elephant on the dress. Does anyone else see it?

 

 

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Lower front n center!

I travel with and without my kids (on land and on water). This time I had my kids and my MIL, her husband was ill and she was on the fence about coming on the cruise. So we had a plan set in place God forbid there is an emergency they had the NCL number and ship name. Them calling is was $8 a min and is calling them was $5 a min. If we didn't get a call that means all was well with my FIL at home. We also planned on facetiming and calling each other in Puerto Rico ST thomas and ST Martin (french side). Then we would have radio silence until we got back.

So one day at sea my message light was lit up in cabin phone and my heart sank. It ended up being the guest service department regarding the major issue in my room.

So again no news is good news. Satellite internet can be very spotty (I never get it it's horrible at sea and I used it for a while in rural Poland and its soooooo slow).

Just sit tight. They r probably pool side

If they are at sea they probably won't be contacting anyone. Even if they have an Internet Package, its satellite and very spotty. Also depending when they finally arrive at islands of their cell phone coverage will work ( mine did I have sprint world).

No news is good news. Because of it were bad news it's $5 a minute for them to call you from the ship.

I bought 8 1.5 water sports bottles from Walmart to take on the ship for a 10 day cruise 'w/ 4 people and 4 islands to go to. We came back home with 3 bottles.

I need that third dress, the blue and white...Can you tell me where it is from?

http://Www.lulus.com/products/caribbean-cruise-ivory-and-navy-blue-tie-dye-maxi-dress/287842.html

Lots of cute dresses at this site

I suggest using this for inspiration...

 

 

(thanks to whoever posted this a few months ago)

 

 

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Ummm okay although it's an interesting outfit. A cruise is not the place for that dress. Maybe a club in NYC or something.