Is your ship sinking?

[Cruising89143]

As I read through many threads, some posters make it seem that the Celebrity cruising experience is reaching all time lows.

 

Some long term cruisers and long time cruise critic followers take many of these posts with a grain of salt but new cruisers must be worried about their choice of cruise line for their upcoming cruise.

 

There are a number of sites that comment about people who are characterized by negative comments:

Chicken Little with "The sky is falling" is a fable that goes back centuries if not millennia.

Modern terms include Debbie Downer, Negative Nancy, and Pessimistic Patty

or Miserable Mike and Complaining Calvin.

http://greeneggsandlam.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/three-people-i-cant-stand-debbie-downer-negative-nancy-and-pessimistic-patty/

 

 

 

I know that this website is called "Cruise Critic" but if you find that your posts are always raining on someone's parade or cruise, could you perhaps let a little sunshine through in a few posts?

 

I know that not every cruise is perfect but unless your ship has sunk it's doubtful that it was a total disaster. Please lighten up with the negatives and lets hear more from people who enjoyed their cruise.

 

Very good post and I agree 100%. I think there are some people who just go through life looking for anything to complain about. This board has become worse and worse over the last few years. I try to ignore most of those comments.

[richstowe]

I've recently sailed on a cruise line which was 75% better than Celebrity---and cost twice as much per day. Which was a better deal?

I have friends who seem happy to pay a premium of 100 , 200 or even 300 % more for top-end sports equipment rather then merely good equipment.

I have a brother who really and truly believes that if something costs twice as much, it is twice as good.

 

I think they are nuts but I guess we all spend money in a way that makes sense to us.

[sheals]

Thanks for a great post "Cruisenut". I tend to lurk in the background most of the time but just felt I had to thank you. I have sailed Celebrity many times and am leaving on my 4th Eclipse sailing next month. My husband and I love that ship and although we have noticed a few changes over the last five years nothing at all changes our overall enjoyment of cruising. I hope any newcomers to cruising do not pay too much attention to the complainers and just enjoy themselves.

Sheila

[screwsmcernst]

 

...and don't even get me started on the whining about status.good lord.

 

 

oh so true!!

[KiwiFunCruiser]

I have mentioned what was very good about the cruise and what I found to be disappointing. Are you suggesting I should only mention what was good?

 

Definitely not! You can always voice your disappointments, and I think what people are trying to say here, it is not what some posters say, but more in the tone that they say it.

 

Two examples from recent posts that worried me as a new user:

 

"I will never go on Celebrity again as all the food was cold and inedible", and the poor lady who dared to ask if Celebrity would be good to take their children on an up coming cruise was told quite bluntly

 

"Celebrity is not suitable for children, you should cruise elsewhere like RCC or Disney as they will cater better for you."

Edited January 23, 2014 by KiwiFunCruiser

[CathyCruises]

It's true you can make just about any cruise a fun experience if you have a good attitude; but the reason you are seeing a lot of new negativity with Celebrity cruises is because there has been a big change in the last few months. The bean counters have taken over and any long time Celebrity cruiser that takes a Celebrity cruise now will have a rude awakening at how bad the food in Celebrity has become, certainly compared to a few years ago. Also, tours are not as good a value as they were. If you love Carnival, I'm sure you will be very pleased; but if you haven't sailed with Celebrity in the past two years be aware that things have changed for the worse. Sad but true. I hope Celebrity wakes up to the fact that people are not stupid. They pretend that the food is the same when it is definitely not! The specialty restaurants are good. I'm talking about the food that is included with the cruise fare. So if you avoid the main dining room and pay for everything a la carte you can still have what you had before; but at a price!

 

Sorry, but I just don't see it. I have been sailing with Celebrity starting in 1995 and frankly the food seems about the same. Plus it's the overall experience I value--I hear SO many complaints about food, as if the whole cruse depends on it. Dinner is a time for visiting and making new friends and no one ever leaves hungry!! And BTW I am paying about the same now for a balcony cabin than I paid on my first NCL cruise in 1982 in a tiny inside

[Tony UK]

Oh thank you for this post! We love Celebrity and OK we have had minor issues we have resolved easily on board. We go cruising to enjoy ourselves and have fun and that we have done on every single cruise!

 

Thinks have changed a lot of course since we started cruising. We wouldn't expect anything else - for us many things are much better!

 

We try to stay away from the Blue Meanies both on the boards and on our cruises. Some people just want to spend their time finding others to share their problems with.

[shipshape sam]

As I read through many threads, some posters make it seem that the Celebrity cruising experience is reaching all time lows.

 

Some long term cruisers and long time cruise critic followers take many of these posts with a grain of salt but new cruisers must be worried about their choice of cruise line for their upcoming cruise.

 

There are a number of sites that comment about people who are characterized by negative comments:

Chicken Little with "The sky is falling" is a fable that goes back centuries if not millennia.

Modern terms include Debbie Downer, Negative Nancy, and Pessimistic Patty

or Miserable Mike and Complaining Calvin.

http://greeneggsandlam.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/three-people-i-cant-stand-debbie-downer-negative-nancy-and-pessimistic-patty/

 

 

 

I know that this website is called "Cruise Critic" but if you find that your posts are always raining on someone's parade or cruise, could you perhaps let a little sunshine through in a few posts?

 

I know that not every cruise is perfect but unless your ship has sunk it's doubtful that it was a total disaster. Please lighten up with the negatives and lets hear more from people who enjoyed their cruise.

 

No, but I am grounded temporarily. :( Lots of land based trips planned right now.

 

Personally, never been on a terrible cruise. Had issues on a number of them and in most cases cruise line and especially onboard staff responded in a positive way.

[C-Dragons]

What is the meaning of ITA?

 

"I totally agree".

[jackdiamond]

"I totally agree".

Thank you; and, as I am sure you may have noticed, I prefer using real words.

[josumello]

It's true you can make just about any cruise a fun experience if you have a good attitude; but the reason you are seeing a lot of new negativity with Celebrity cruises is because there has been a big change in the last few months. The bean counters have taken over and any long time Celebrity cruiser that takes a Celebrity cruise now will have a rude awakening at how bad the food in Celebrity has become, certainly compared to a few years ago. Also, tours are not as good a value as they were. If you love Carnival, I'm sure you will be very pleased; but if you haven't sailed with Celebrity in the past two years be aware that things have changed for the worse. Sad but true. I hope Celebrity wakes up to the fact that people are not stupid. They pretend that the food is the same when it is definitely not! The specialty restaurants are good. I'm talking about the food that is included with the cruise fare. So if you avoid the main dining room and pay for everything a la carte you can still have what you had before; but at a price!

 

A positive spin from here. Just got off Century. The best food on any cruise we have had. That would be 20 cruises!! Go figure.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[kevinyork]

Cruisecritic isnt a representitive voice of the total cruising population. Plus people are more likely to post their negatives than positives.

 

However all cruise lines are cutting back to keep prices low and please their shareholders so those little extras that define a cruise line are vanishing. This then generates more opinions re declining standards etc. Until we are happy to pay more to get more then this will be the future trend of cruising.

[richstowe]

Cruisecritic isnt a representitive voice of the total cruising population. Plus people are more likely to post their negatives than positives.

 

However all cruise lines are cutting back to keep prices low and please their shareholders so those little extras that define a cruise line are vanishing. This then generates more opinions re declining standards etc. Until we are happy to pay more to get more then this will be the future trend of cruising.

Great post! And even if I am "happy" to pay more for something it won't be the same thing you are "happy" to pay more for.

On the Carnival board there are those who always demand the return of the pool-side island band.

Others are apoplectic about the elimination of MDR dining cloths. And yet both groups may very well abandon Carnival to save $10 .

 

BTW - I recognize CC is only used by a small % of all cruisers but how is it not representative "of the total cruising population." ?

[JLSPOOL]

Cruisecritic isnt a representitive voice of the total cruising population. Plus people are more likely to post their negatives than positives.

 

However all cruise lines are cutting back to keep prices low and please their shareholders so those little extras that define a cruise line are vanishing. This then generates more opinions re declining standards etc. Until we are happy to pay more to get more then this will be the future trend of cruising.

 

 

Posting on Cruise Critic is a means to convey issues with headquarters management as observed by regular Celebrity cruisers. Recent examples include management of large groups, formal nights dress codes, entertainment, volume of music. IMO, a collective opinion makes a difference.

 

Ship happens.

My message to new cruisers is to visit guest relations aboard ship asap for any fixable problem.

It is the best way to have a perfect cruise.

 

jls

Edited January 25, 2014 by JLSPOOL

[cavok]

a few thoughts:

 

- forums like these will always discuss more about the exceptions (good and bad) than the norm, that's just normal and an avid reader knows how to handle forums and take everything with a grain of salt. the problem is more when let's say someone that rarely uses internet books a cruise and out of interest drops in to read a bit, they might get scared by some hilarious or exaggerated opinions sometimes.

 

- look at it that way, if everything were only positive all the time, expectations by a lot of people would be even much higher, and therefore even harder to meet... rather have people departing on the cruise with slightly lower expectations only to be pleased in a positive way actually is better for the crew, the brand, memories etc...

 

- i'm a 100% realist, so i hate it anytime when something is hailed to the point of being religious or lipstick being put on a pig. but this applies just as much in the other direction. making everything look bad because of minor issues, whining all the time etc... puts things far away from reality.

forums like these however enable realists like myself to build a picture that is closer to reality and more elaborated than a glossy brochure/PR or a nasty article in the media written by some journalist.

 

- i come from a safety background where it is absolutely critical that every issue is being debated, analyzed and constantly improved. sweeping things under the rug is a very bad idea, especially in the long run. lifes depend on that. but this doesn't only need to apply to life/death topics.

i agree with other posters: use the (intermediate) comment cards both for positive and negative things so management and crew actually get a fair chance to improve! saying nothing and then go whining online is bad in many ways.

 

- criticism does not need to be taken personal all the time. having an opinion or impression that something could be done better/is not to ones taste does not mean that there automatically is an issue with the person who is behind. unfortunately many people seem unable to differentiate this.

 

- "the grass is always greener" and "the old days were better" are quite human and one can try to bias and correct this while reading.

 

- relax and enjoy the good things in life. being realistic all the time does not prevent you from enjoying the nice things in life. being a critic does not mean not being nice to hard working crews and a thank you here and there costs nothing!

 

- forums like these are important as a "checks and balances" to the shareholder focus and money first - shortterm focus of management. agreed, a business is there to make money. however we're not dumb cows to be milked. so if there is a reported trend that there are things perceived to be cut, it is likely so and such a forum enable this to not go unnoticed. so something that management previously perceived saw as "free savings" now suddenly has a price tag that each one of us can attach and make the decision whether the value proposition still fits them. power to the user/consumer.

 

so to close out, the worst thing that could be done here is to streamline and silence opinions, censor posts etc... otherwise the site would have to be renamed cruiseline-xyz-fanboys. and us critics would go look elsewhere to get informed.

 

cavok

[KiwiFunCruiser]

Thank you, excellent post.

[helen haywood]

There was a thread on this issue some while back and I suggested that if more people posted reviews of their cruises period, then the good would clearly outweigh the bad if people tend to post only to vent about the bad. I am as guilty of this as the rest as I think I've only posted two glowing Celebrity reviews and all my other Celebrity cruises were totally wonderful but I didn't think I had anything new to add so I did not post a review.... When I suggested this...I was bashed by people loudly pointing out that this was Cruise CRITIC....and they were using the second definition.

 

I agree that any newbie to Celebrity should relax and not worry about reading bad reviews.

[ORV]

BTW - I recognize CC is only used by a small % of all cruisers but how is it not representative "of the total cruising population." ?

 

Good question.

 

Cruisecritic isnt a representitive voice of the total cruising population. Plus people are more likely to post their negatives than positives.

 

On your second point I agree. On your first point not so sure. It is certainly an interesting topic. I will say that some Cruise Critic members are certainly more informed and aware of things involved with cruises and the respective ships and lines they choose to cruise with, others not so much. There are people on ships that rarely if ever use Cruise Critic and are extremely knowledgeable about cruising, others not so much. As a whole though I would say one of the things that set CC members apart is that they are generally more knowledgeable.

 

It is my experience from my exceedingly unscientific observations on Roll Calls that there is about 10% of the capacity of any given ship that will participate on CC. I have no idea how many are lurkers that are reading for information but never post. I'd guess another 25% to 40%.

 

With more and more younger people cruising that tend to use the internet and more and more older people using the internet I think you will see even more of the cruising public using CC. I would guess if we had access to the numbers you would see a very substantial growth of members here over the past 5 years or so. Much more than the increase in berths.

 

Just my .02

[ORV]

a few thoughts:

 

- forums like these will always discuss more about the exceptions (good and bad) than the norm, that's just normal and an avid reader knows how to handle forums and take everything with a grain of salt. the problem is more when let's say someone that rarely uses internet books a cruise and out of interest drops in to read a bit, they might get scared by some hilarious or exaggerated opinions sometimes.

 

- look at it that way, if everything were only positive all the time, expectations by a lot of people would be even much higher, and therefore even harder to meet... rather have people departing on the cruise with slightly lower expectations only to be pleased in a positive way actually is better for the crew, the brand, memories etc...

 

- i'm a 100% realist, so i hate it anytime when something is hailed to the point of being religious or lipstick being put on a pig. but this applies just as much in the other direction. making everything look bad because of minor issues, whining all the time etc... puts things far away from reality.

forums like these however enable realists like myself to build a picture that is closer to reality and more elaborated than a glossy brochure/PR or a nasty article in the media written by some journalist.

 

- i come from a safety background where it is absolutely critical that every issue is being debated, analyzed and constantly improved. sweeping things under the rug is a very bad idea, especially in the long run. lifes depend on that. but this doesn't only need to apply to life/death topics.

i agree with other posters: use the (intermediate) comment cards both for positive and negative things so management and crew actually get a fair chance to improve! saying nothing and then go whining online is bad in many ways.

 

- criticism does not need to be taken personal all the time. having an opinion or impression that something could be done better/is not to ones taste does not mean that there automatically is an issue with the person who is behind. unfortunately many people seem unable to differentiate this.

 

- "the grass is always greener" and "the old days were better" are quite human and one can try to bias and correct this while reading.

 

- relax and enjoy the good things in life. being realistic all the time does not prevent you from enjoying the nice things in life. being a critic does not mean not being nice to hard working crews and a thank you here and there costs nothing!

 

- forums like these are important as a "checks and balances" to the shareholder focus and money first - shortterm focus of management. agreed, a business is there to make money. however we're not dumb cows to be milked. so if there is a reported trend that there are things perceived to be cut, it is likely so and such a forum enable this to not go unnoticed. so something that management previously perceived saw as "free savings" now suddenly has a price tag that each one of us can attach and make the decision whether the value proposition still fits them. power to the user/consumer.

 

so to close out, the worst thing that could be done here is to streamline and silence opinions, censor posts etc... otherwise the site would have to be renamed cruiseline-xyz-fanboys. and us critics would go look elsewhere to get informed.

 

cavok

 

Haven't seen you around these parts before. Thanks for the well thought out and intelligent post.