decline???

[seadancer]

Ok Gang

 

we just got off the Carnival Dream and noticed a great decline in overall service and interaction with the passengers.

Now being fair it looks like they have cut the amt of crew on the ship . There by creating a overworked crew thats having diffuculy keeping up .

 

I expressed this in my online survey to Carnival . Telling them i will pay a fair price if they can staff there ships correctly . If they keep cutting corners they are going to ruin my favorite vacation.

 

Our last HAL cruise was sometime ago . Is the same thing happening over here also??? We are looking for another line at this point . Nothing against the crew of the Dream but they just have more than they can handle. As maybe all crews now at this point.

[vicocala]

This thread should tell you all you want to know and is current:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1739783

[KirkNC]

While HAL may not be what it once was (what is these days!), it is far better then Carnival based on our experiences.

[PathfinderEss]

While HAL may not be what it once was (what is these days!), it is far better then Carnival based on our experiences.

Couldn't have said it better.

[NoobCruise]

I can't compare past from present on either line since I've only taken 2 cruises, but our cruise on HAL 3 months ago was a million times better than our cruise on Carnival in 2003. They may be cutting back on what they used to be, but they still offer a fantastic experience.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Ok Gang

 

we just got off the Carnival Dream and noticed a great decline in overall service and interaction with the passengers.

Now being fair it looks like they have cut the amt of crew on the ship . There by creating a overworked crew thats having diffuculy keeping up .

 

I expressed this in my online survey to Carnival . Telling them i will pay a fair price if they can staff there ships correctly . If they keep cutting corners they are going to ruin my favorite vacation.

 

Our last HAL cruise was sometime ago . Is the same thing happening over here also??? We are looking for another line at this point . Nothing against the crew of the Dream but they just have more than they can handle. As maybe all crews now at this point.

 

 

Yes -- we have noticed a decline in staff over the last few years on HAL.

Check out this thread:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=36162435#post36162435

[Pettifogger]

A lot of us say and some, including me, really mean that they'd willingly pay somewhat more for the restoration of the cruise experience of five years ago. Whether our willingness extends far enough is another question.

 

However, I believe that awhile back one of the airlines discovered that filling it's planes at whatever fare it could worked better than maintaining it's prices and flying with empty seats. It seems to me that HAL has, very sensibly, adopted the same approach. But that means that they can't raise prices across the board to pay for the desired features because the prices are not dictated by them, but to them by the market. Hopefully they have a list of things to restore when the market eventually recovers.

[vicocala]

Sad to say, but that is not the nature of business. Once they take away gratis it rarely comes back that way. The one thing that could (but I doubt it) would be increasing the crew size back to a point where the dining facilities improve.

 

Companies do things the cheapest was they know they can get away with. As a society, that is a good thing as efficiency kills waste. For those of us waiting for a hot, satisfying meal with leisurely conversation with our waiters, we could care less about efficiency and crave our (past) luxuries.

[Pettifogger]

You may be right, but I, for one, am going to hold them to it when the time for restoration comes; that is, when the fares rise closer to what they used to be.

[DFD1]

With more larger and larger ships being launched, coupled with ever increasing on-board selling, I doubt fares will increase significantly anytime soon...not unless the bottom falls out of everything, which I suppose could happen.

 

The mass market portion of the industry simply has changed. Filling every bed on every cruise has become paramount.

 

Empty beds equal reduced onboard spending. They can't let that happen.

[seadancer]

Well for us it's heading towards empty beds. We want the service and interaction. Otherwise it's just a floating tin can. I even mentioned it in my review to Carnival. Without the service who cares and yes I would pay more to get more staff on board and return to the quality we've become accustomed to.

[Taxguy77]

A lot of us say and some, including me, really mean that they'd willingly pay somewhat more for the restoration of the cruise experience of five years ago. Whether our willingness extends far enough is another question.

 

However, I believe that awhile back one of the airlines discovered that filling it's planes at whatever fare it could worked better than maintaining it's prices and flying with empty seats. It seems to me that HAL has, very sensibly, adopted the same approach. But that means that they can't raise prices across the board to pay for the desired features because the prices are not dictated by them, but to them by the market. Hopefully they have a list of things to restore when the market eventually recovers.

 

It may be sensible in the short term, but if they lose a sizable portion of their fanatic fans, they're dead.

The mass market cruise is no longer the 'Vacation of a lifetime', but just a week or two between the hassle of getting to and from the ship.

[jaguarstyper]

A lot of us say and some, including me, really mean that they'd willingly pay somewhat more for the restoration of the cruise experience of five years ago. Whether our willingness extends far enough is another question.

 

However, I believe that awhile back one of the airlines discovered that filling it's planes at whatever fare it could worked better than maintaining it's prices and flying with empty seats. It seems to me that HAL has, very sensibly, adopted the same approach. But that means that they can't raise prices across the board to pay for the desired features because the prices are not dictated by them, but to them by the market. Hopefully they have a list of things to restore when the market eventually recovers.

You really cannot make a valid comparison between the operations of airlines and cruiseships. They are completely different animals. The only thing they really have in common is they have to compete for your business (sort of) and they have to convey you safely to your destination in reasonable comfort. That is where the similarities end. Cruise ships have to be so much more than an airplane. You are on an airplane for a matter of hours. You are on a cruise ship for days, weeks or even months at a time. The cruise lines need to provide a far greater realm of services than an airline does. An airplane gets you to your destination. A cruise ship, for many people, is the destination. A big difference and the reason an airline can get away with cutting back to basic services and a cruise line cannot.

 

If a cruise line thinks they can operate like an airline, they are not going to be around much longer.

[Globaliser]

You really cannot make a valid comparison between the operations of airlines and cruiseships. They are completely different animals. The only thing they really have in common is they have to compete for your business (sort of) and they have to convey you safely to your destination in reasonable comfort. That is where the similarities end.

Well, yes and no.

 

You're right that cruise lines have to provide much more by way of facilities and comforts because you're actually living on the ship for days or weeks. So the product is different.

 

But both are still selling a perishable product where capacity is fixed (the cabin has no revenue value if it sails empty, and the ship has a fixed number of cabins for every sailing - that's just like an aircraft). In terms of yield mix and yield management, cruise lines are therefore doing many of the things that airlines do. That includes overbooking (either of certain classes/grades or of the entire ship), which is managed by upsells, freebie upgrades and the occasional involuntary bump, in order to maximise both capacity use and revenue, and their financial reporting is also in terms which show yield management techniques and tools being applied.

 

And in both cases, yield declines (for whatever reasons) inevitably mean a greater likelihood of cutbacks in product quality.

[jaguarstyper]

Yeah, but! At the end of the day people will still have to fly, no matter how bad or diluted the service gets. And people will still fly. People don't have to cruise. And when things get cut back too much, they will start to fly to other vacation venues.