Very, very disappointed with the hard sell on Liberty of the Seas

This is exactly why the wife and I always hit the shower together when we have the kids in the same cabin. ;)

and exactly why we take advantage of the times our daughter is at AO. She loves that place so we get lots of "quality" one on one time. wink wink!

Can you be specific on what you personally consider to be "hard sell?"

I was on the Liberty 10 months ago.

For me, the "hard sell" was the Head Waiter coming to our dinner table each night selling specialty restaurant packages while we were eating.

We were a captive audience at our dinner table. My wife and I have always looked forward to bonding with our MDR table-mates; we haven't had a bad experience yet (except one night in the NCL Jewel MDR when we were seated with an elderly Cuban couple who pretended to not speak English).

It was particularly off-putting for me to listen to the sales pitch and then say "No" to the people who are otherwise being very gracious and pleasant to us each night. The MDR wait staff are a more personal relationship than the Promenade table-staff offering jewelry discounts or drink packages.

I felt that it was an intrusion on the relationship that we established, as our servers knew our names, our tastes, our favorite drinks, and then became salesmen for RCI during our meals.

Steve

I was on the Liberty 10 months ago.

 

For me, the "hard sell" was the Head Waiter coming to our dinner table each night selling specialty restaurant packages while we were eating.

 

We were a captive audience at our dinner table. My wife and I have always looked forward to bonding with our MDR table-mates; we haven't had a bad experience yet (except one night in the NCL Jewel MDR when we were seated with an elderly Cuban couple who pretended to not speak English).

 

It was particularly off-putting for me to listen to the sales pitch and then say "No" to the people who are otherwise being very gracious and pleasant to us each night. The MDR wait staff are a more personal relationship than the Promenade table-staff offering jewelry discounts or drink packages.

 

I felt that it was an intrusion on the relationship that we established, as our servers knew our names, our tastes, our favorite drinks, and then became salesmen for RCI during our meals.

 

Steve

I'd give them one shot and at the end of the spiel, I'd say that if anyone came to our table again with a sales pitch, we will be giving a zero on the evaluation for dining service.

I was on the Liberty 10 months ago.

 

For me, the "hard sell" was the Head Waiter coming to our dinner table each night selling specialty restaurant packages while we were eating.

 

We were a captive audience at our dinner table. My wife and I have always looked forward to bonding with our MDR table-mates; we haven't had a bad experience yet (except one night in the NCL Jewel MDR when we were seated with an elderly Cuban couple who pretended to not speak English).

 

It was particularly off-putting for me to listen to the sales pitch and then say "No" to the people who are otherwise being very gracious and pleasant to us each night. The MDR wait staff are a more personal relationship than the Promenade table-staff offering jewelry discounts or drink packages.

 

I felt that it was an intrusion on the relationship that we established, as our servers knew our names, our tastes, our favorite drinks, and then became salesmen for RCI during our meals.

 

 

Steve

The most selling I ever experience (on a ship) was on Celebrity. They were selling drink packages (which we already had as did many people since it was a "perk") and they were selling specialty dining. I do recall being approached a few times about dining. The drink package thing was mainly the first afternoon. It was annoying, but not enough to ruin the experience. I will still consider it to be one of my favorite cruises and I love the cruise line.

I did not notice much selling on Disney or Carnival. On Disney all I really noticed was with specialty cups or cocktails on pirate night or in the MDR, but nothing really extreme. On Carnival, they give you a lot of paper about art shows, inch of gold and sales and probably make announcements, but you can tune them out.

The dining room thing would put me out a lot. Other than that though, I just say no. Maybe its all the experience of shopping in the tourist areas in Jamaica (especially), Nassau, or Mexico with the constant barrage of "come look at this" that has desensitized me.

As far as the parent alone time, if the kids are little, send them to camp. If they are old enough that they are too cool for camp, then why not just tell them, from 1-2 (or whatever), Mom and Dad are taking a nap. Please do not disturb us. So what if they read into it. Its life and if they are old enough to figure out what you mean, they probably figure you are doing it anyway.

I compare walking the promenade in the afternoon and atnight to being at the fairway of a carnival; it’s annoying.

I was on the Liberty 10 months ago.

 

For me, the "hard sell" was the Head Waiter coming to our dinner table each night selling specialty restaurant packages while we were eating.

 

We were a captive audience at our dinner table. My wife and I have always looked forward to bonding with our MDR table-mates; we haven't had a bad experience yet (except one night in the NCL Jewel MDR when we were seated with an elderly Cuban couple who pretended to not speak English).

 

It was particularly off-putting for me to listen to the sales pitch and then say "No" to the people who are otherwise being very gracious and pleasant to us each night. The MDR wait staff are a more personal relationship than the Promenade table-staff offering jewelry discounts or drink packages.

 

I felt that it was an intrusion on the relationship that we established, as our servers knew our names, our tastes, our favorite drinks, and then became salesmen for RCI during our meals.

 

 

Steve

This sounds absolutely infuriating. Is it really worth irritating a high percentage of cruisers just to get that much smaller percentage who will pony up? Clearly management thinks so.

Would suggest you stay with Disney and away from Royal. As they say, different strokes...

Or no strokes... :-)

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It would be interesting to see a video made of just how many times a person is approached with a sales pitch during a week long cruise. It would certainly hit home.

This has to be a joke. I have never seen someone make such a list of disappointments. I guess i am too busy having a good time to be so focused on every imperfection i can find.

We chose this cruise because I'd cruised Royal Caribbean twice before, loved it, and have eagerly recommended it to others. Now I'm genuinely embarrassed that I've influenced others to choose Royal Caribbean.

Here's what concerns me.

THE HARD SELL

On Royal Caribbean, here's the first impression. Passengers embark to find crew barking at them to browse tables of plastic do-dads and cheap water bottles. I was completely taken aback by this.

On Disney, passengers enter the ship to beautiful music playing. An announcer says excitedly, "Disney would like to welcome the SMITH family!" as uniformed crew members clap and cheer. The difference in the Royal Caribbean experience is jolting.

After our disconcerting onboarding experience, the hard sell got even WORSE. You could not take a step on the ship without crew interrupting your conversation with your spouse to loudly and aggressively hawk drink and dining packages. A terrible first impression for passengers.

Then it got worse. At the ship's "Welcome Event" in the Platinum Theater at 2:30 pm, the hard sell continued. There was no entertainment, no music, no comedy -- just a bare stage with crew in polo shirts hawking more things that passengers could buy. I'd brought a first time cruiser on this trip, and I was embarrassed.

The "hard sell" continued through the week, with crew members hawking their wares 12 hours per day from tables and storefronts on deck 5, where most passengers had to pass to get from one end of the ship to the other.

The saddest thing about the "hard sell," though, was that the fun daytime activities I remembered from previous Royal Caribbean cruises were nearly all gone. Instead, each day's "Cruise Compass" was filled with shopping presentations, art auctions, and sales events urging us to spend more money. Come on, RC. Even an informal get-together for moms of teens in the "On the Air" Lounge would have been an improvement over that, and could have been done at a low cost with zero crew involvement.

When I asked crew members when Royal Caribbean changed from a very classy vacation experience to the continuous, barking hard-sell, they told me sympathetically that it had happened "in about the last six months" (since approximately September of 2016) when the cruise line's top management began putting extraordinary pressure on those below to increase revenue at all costs. How many passengers will RC lose before they realize that this strategy will not work? One of the biggest topics of conversation among the passengers was: "What's a better cruise line for us to chose next time? Which cruise lines are not doing this?" Next time, I'm trying Norwegian.

PARENTS WILL NOT HAVE SEX

If you are parents traveling with a child or teen, be aware that you will NOT HAVE SEX the entire week you are on Liberty of the Seas.

Unlike Disney, which thoughtfully puts the kids' bunks on the other side of a curtain from the parents' bed, Liberty has your child or teen(s) sleeping in a bunk directly above your heads. There is zero privacy for parents in bed. In addition, every time a teen shifts his weight in the upper bunk parents are awakened by loud squeaks and bangs.

Stateroom privacy for parents, even in small interior rooms, is doable and should be an A-1 priority on every cruise ship.

In addition, and very annoyingly, the corners of Liberty's king size beds butt directly up against the stateroom's cabinetry and couch. This makes it impossible to walk around the bed to the left and right side. Adults must crawl into bed from the foot of the bed. How are elderly and disabled people able to do this?

POORLY DESIGNED WINDJAMMER BUFFET

The crowds in the Windjammer Buffet on Deck 11 were downright scary, even for a healthy adult woman. I can't imagine how it felt for the 1000 children on board, or for the elderly or disabled. The problem was especially troublesome at the end of the buffet, where steam tables were set at odd angles to the buffet. The buffet traffic caught and swirled around these steam tables in such a way that passengers were hard-pressed to even SEE the food, let alone get close enough to spoon some onto a plate. Crowds clogged the narrow areas between these tables during all open hours. Imagine waiting with a plate of cold eggs until four people in front of you help themselves to bacon. Then do the same thing at the toast station. Because of the crowds, every meal eaten in the Windjammer includes cold food that was supposed to be served hot.

This is the second 3,700 passenger ship I've cruised on. I much recommend 2,700 passenger ships, where crowding at meals is not such a terrible ongoing issue.

The saving grace of the Windjammer and the formal dining rooms was the dining staff. So friendly, so willing to serve, so prompt, so ready with coffee and whatever else was needed. I felt sorry for them.

BAD SHORE EXPERIENCE IN BELIZE

Imagine being told that tendering into Bellze takes 40 minutes, but you won't be allowed to leave the ship until 11:30 am. Do the math. If by a miracle there are no lines and you are able to arrive on Belize at 12:10 pm, you will still have to be back on the ship at 4:30 pm. You will have just about four hours to spend on Belize. But wait. You're told that the tenders are very busy between 3:30 pm and 4:30 pm. So you'd better be back by 3:30 pm. Now you have just three hours to spend on shore in Belize, in a place with NO BEACHES and little scenery.

I hastily switched my day's plan to an expensive Royal Caribbean shore excursion so I could guarantee that the ship wouldn't leave me behind at 4:30 pm. You can see my disappointed review of my Royal Caribbean shore excursion below.

VERY BAD ROYAL CARIBBEAN SNORKELING SHORE EXCURSION

I'd dreamed of snorkeling in Belize my whole life, and I was excited to take my 17-year-old son along. Sadly, on our guided tour snorkeling excursion of Rendevous Caye, there was sandy bottom and coral, but only cloudy water and almost no fish to be found. The guides leading the excursion tried to act as though this was NORMAL. Snorkeling without fish was NORMAL. When I asked a sympathetic assistant guide what the problem was, he said explained that Royal Caribbean had sent three tours of 140 people each to Rendevous Caye that day, and of course all those crowds had driven nearly every fish away.

My advice is DO NOT take a cruise shore excursion that features snorkeling. Crowds are incompatible with seeing beautiful fish. My best snorkeling was in Roatan, Honduras, where I asked a local taxi driver to help me find beautiful fish. He took me to "Paradise Beach" where I negotiated with a private boat driver to take us to "the blue channel" for some of the most beautiful clear snorkeling of my life, all at a fraction of the price of the Royal Caribbean snorkeling excursion.

PIANO BAR PIANIST KNEW VERY FEW SONGS

Piano bar pianist Phil Anderson knows a few songs very very well. He must have been great in his Royal Caribbean audition. He can play Billy Joel's "I'm Moving Out" very well. We heard it over and over again. But Phil is obviously not a singalong pianist. He asks for requests, but he doesn't know any Beatles, no James Taylor, no songs from Grease, and very few other commonly requested piano bar songs. To nearly every request he replies, "Try again." When he did play requests he frequently did not know even a fraction of the words. Phil is clearly a gig musician who has memorized a small number of songs and is simply not interested in expanding his repertoire. Someone needs to tell him that it's possible to get a "fake book" for his iPad and just pound out any song anyone asks for, and that the words to every song ever written are readily available online.

This was a real disappointment to me, a person who loves to sing along in the piano bar.

TEEN ACTIVITIES STAFF WAS DISAPPOINTING

My 15-year-old daughter laughed at our dinner table about how enthusiastic and fun the teen staff was the night their supervisor sat in. That night, the staff were up and dancing alongside the kids, having a great time. The rest of the time, she said, they pretty much sat and watched the kids. A far cry from what Disney does for teens.

And the much touted flowrider, ice skating rink, and rock wall? My teens didn't even ask me to sign their liability waivers for those activities.

"MY TIME DINING" MEANS "NO TIME DINING."

I wasn't aware that I needed to make a dinner reservation in the main dining room for each night. By the time I figured it out, all the times were taken. The only times left to eat resulted in our party of 5 missing sunset up on deck and the headliner show each night. Our poor waitstaff ran frantically, but still took 2.5 hours to serve us our meal each night because of being so overwhelmed with diners. Don't get me wrong -- the servers were all WONDERFUL especially Dane Aaron in the Rembrandt Dining Room. It's the timing of meals that needs improvement on Liberty.

WHAT I LOVED ABOUT LIBERTY OF THE SEAS

The staff was consistently wonderful. Every server, the dining room captain, and my dear, dear stateroom attendant Willeed from Egypt were all fantastic. I also loved the gym and the sauna and showers, and the beautiful hot tubs and comfy brown chairs in the solarium on Deck 11. The Viking Crowne Lounge was beautiful, the food and decor was fantastic in the Rembrandt dining room, and the Cruise Director was very funny in the Love and Marriage Game Show.

But sadly, it's my last time on Liberty. And it's the last time I'll be recommending Royal Caribbean to my friends and family.

I am shocked to hear this . I feel that you certainly have a right to be disappointed.I really hope that this will not be my experience on the next rcl cruise i will be taking in september. Most people feel they shouldn't get nickle and dimed and exposed to Bahama type bargaining while on vacation after they paid for an all inclusive experience. I do think advertising has its place but not in an in your face manner.

I have not experienced this on my last cruise on the Navigator of the the seas last year.

I hope they read your survey and hold back on the hard sell and provide folks with a great cruise experience.

This has to be a joke. I have never seen someone make such a list of disappointments. I guess i am too busy having a good time to be so focused on every imperfection i can find.

Yes, But the OP had a point that needs to be made. I would hate this hard sell treatment. And i hope rcl management read her post and stop this. It makes for a very unpleasant vacation. ;)

I've noticed a lot of differences in the cruise experience . From customer service that used to be beyond reproach to cheap cuts. Lobster night, midnight buffets, ice sculptures disappearance. The beautiful artful display of food in the buffet lines. All gone. And if someone doesn't speak out against things like nickle and diming an all inclusive experience with a hard sell tactic this will be the way of the future cruise experience. So i do believe the OP has a point and a very important one. thank you for your post. I know that everyone who posts on here loves cruising as much as I do. And i love RCL.

I really hope this doesn't happens on my next cruise, was look for another RCI cruise after that one, but if this happens then I will have to reconsider.

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Also i would like to say that someone told that they are discouraging dinning room eating

on all cruise lines. And encourage paid restaurants by not having the great menu that they use to have in the past. Which some think will promote paid restaurant attendance. But i think it will discourage cruising as an option for vacation. One of the reasons people cruise is the food , the entertainment, and the all inclusive aspect of vacationing. Just a thought.

I really hope this doesn't happens on my next cruise, was look for another RCI cruise after that one, but if this happens then I will have to reconsider.

 

 

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Yes i booked the Allure of the seas in Sept. George and i are so excited about this BIG ship. I love rcl and i have always felt that i was given a fair if not great value vacation. This ship seems to have it all. Hope the the fact its large will not impede the service and the great food that i am familiar with on RCL Ships

I still think there's a distinction when someone interrupts your conversation or meal to try to get you to buy a dining package.

 

I just say "no thank you" and sidestep the spa ladies. They're not there all week, and they're not forming a human wall or anything. If someone interrupted my meal for a sales pitch, they would discover that I can be quite salty.

lol;p

Yes i booked the Allure of the seas in Sept. George and i are so excited about this BIG ship. I love rcl and i have always felt that i was given a fair if not great value vacation. This ship seems to have it all. Hope the the fact its large will not impede the service and the great food that i am familiar with on RCL Ships

Yes, I am very excited to try RCI and their very impressive ships, but the recent introduction of room service charge and this hard selling is casting doubts. Hope we will still have a great experience.

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Or no strokes... :-)

 

 

 

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Yes, But do you think this will be a trend. I hope not i love rcl and i hope this isn't the next disappointment for future cruising. No casino on Disney. I like to play.

Disney pays attention to the little details, like playing beautiful music as your name is announced when you board the ship, But those little details come with a price tag. A BIG price tag. For us, our upcoming Disney cruise will be about three times as much as what we paid for the Allure of the Seas during her inaugural season.

 

When people choose a cruise line, they need to go with realistic expectations. Royal Caribbean is a large mass market cruise line which competes directly with other mass market cruise lines like Norwegian and Carnival. They need to keep their pricing competitive and one of the ways to do so is by increasing the onboard ancillary sales.

 

Disney is a niche cruise line with no real competitor. That's why they can charge the ridiculous prices that they charge and people will still gladly pay them. But being able to charge what they charge means that they don't need to hard sell things onboard in order to generate a profit.

 

 

 

May I recommend two things?

 

- The first one is to send your kids to the kids club for a few hours. You'll have the cabin all to yourself to have as much sex as you want, as freely as you want, as loudly as you want, without worrying about having to be sneaky behind a flimsy curtain (which, let's be objective, provides ZERO privacy and your kids are probably listening to eVeRyThInG that's going on while pretending to sleep. The parents having sex is probably the one memory that they'll never forget about the cruise. [emoji23])

 

- The second one is to get TWO staterooms instead of one. On Royal, the price difference is not that much. Not only will you double the space and the number of bathrooms, but you will also have a door which you can conveniently close and lock if the only time when you MUST have sex is when everybody is in the cabin at night. If you consider that Disney prices are worth a curtain, Royal prices for two staterooms shouldn't be an issue because it will most likely still be considerably cheaper than Disney.

 

 

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Making someone feel special when they enter the ship cost nothing.

And great customer service should be expected on any ship. I am sure the ceo of rcl would agree.

I do not use room service. So i don't think this will affect my cruise experience.

Royal Caribbean had sent three tours of 140 people each to Rendevous Caye that day, and of course all those crowds had driven nearly every fish away.

Wow. Even the fish are getting bashed on this thread.

PARENTS WILL NOT HAVE SEX

Just do it in Vintages. Nobody is ever in there.

Bazinga! :') Yorkvillian: BEST.POST.EVER!!!

OP: two words, Balcony Club!

CB

Bazinga! :') Yorkvillian: BEST.POST.EVER!!!

 

OP: two words, Balcony Club!

 

CB

I used to love the balcony club thread on CC but it was eventually removed - [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

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Dear OP thank you for your insightful perspective and opinion on Liberty. We all hate the hard sell but I don't think there will ever be a way to avoid it.

Now to my favorite subject, sex.

Good on you for getting frisky despite the smelly 17 year olds presence. Other posters are just jealous! I believe where there is a will there is a way.

My advice, do something novel and tell your 17yo exactly why you want some adult time. The pure thought of his parents "getting busy" will keep him away for hours.

Lets face it, if he's like some 17yo I know, there's nothing you could say that would even make him blush if you weren't his parents.

I was on the Liberty this summer. No one in our group had any issues with overly aggressive sales pitches, so it's interesting that you had such a bad experience. We walked right by the tables selling the fancy glasses, lanyards, etc., with a, "No, thanks!" and no other problem. Same with people selling drink packages, etc. Honestly, I remember there being tables with crew members where you could buy packages or whatever, but I don't really even remember being spoken to other than a hello unless we actually stopped and expressed interest.

I agree the Windjammer could be set up better. Not really sure how, but it can get very crowded at popular times of day.

We had an awesome time on the Liberty, had great excursions at 2 out of 3 places, and would go back in a hot minute if we could right now. I'm sorry you had such a bad experience, & I hope you find something more to your liking next time.