Cruise lines with no tannoy announce

[anniebea]

I am planning a second cruise, having taken my first one to the Norwegian Fjord with Celebrity last year. One thing I liked about the Celebrity Cruise was that it was a very relaxing experience and there were no on board announcement (expect of course those for safety on arrival and on departure).

 

 

 

Can anyone provide information about which other cruise lines Do Not have on-board tannoy. I am hoping to go with a friend who went on a Baltic cruise also last year with Royal Caribbean (I think) and she found the o- board tannoys announcements very annoying and its kind of put her off going again

[LHT28]

You might try a Luxury or premium line most of the main stream line will have many announcements for the things to do onboard like bingo & other games etc...

[ducklite]

On Windstar you will get one short one daily updating where you are and the weather plus any special event that might be happening that day (always free events, never anything with cost). On the Paul Gauguin you only get the one for muster the first day. Neither line has insipid announcements all day about bingo, art sales, spa specials, drink of the day, and other nonsense that most people don't care about.

[calliopecruiser]

Crystal has the muster drill announcements on the first day and a captain's update once a day on sea days. That's it. It is glorious!

[sail7seas]

HAL has very few speaker system announcements.

They annouce when the ship is cleared in a port and guests can go ashore.

Captain often gives a noon time report.

CD might make one announcement per day but that is about it unless there is something

out of the ordinary that would require an announcement.

[BlueRiband]

Cunard makes one brief operation update at Noon by the Captain or his/her designate. Nothing else unless there is an urgent safety or operational necessity.

[Aquahound]

Can anyone provide information about which other cruise lines Do Not have on-board tannoy. I am hoping to go with a friend who went on a Baltic cruise also last year with Royal Caribbean (I think) and she found the o- board tannoys announcements very annoying and its kind of put her off going again

 

As far as I know, Celebrity is the only mass market cruise line that only does 1 daily announcement. Like sail7seas said, I do also seem to remember HAL not being overbearing with them either. If you sail lines like RCI, NCL, CCL or PCL, yeah, you'll get many more announcements. And I agree, the sales announcements are annoying.

[iancal]

HAL and Celebrity are very good when it comes to limiting the announcements. They are about the same. You hear a Captain's announcement once a day. Nothing for bingo, sales, or any of the other nonsense. Too many on Carnival. Can't remember on Princess but will find out soon.

[Keith1010]

Luxury lines such as Crystal, Sebourn, Silversea and Regent won't have the announcements.

 

Keith

[Hlitner]

HAL has very few speaker system announcements.

They annouce when the ship is cleared in a port and guests can go ashore.

Captain often gives a noon time report.

CD might make one announcement per day but that is about it unless there is something

out of the ordinary that would require an announcement.

 

I wish you would tell your tale to the HAL cruise directors who might actually listen :). On our recent cruises on the Westerdam (35 days) and Veendam (28 days) we generally got 3 (and sometimes 4) CD annoying announcements per day. The first usually happened while we were trying to enjoy a late breakfast (9:30-10) with friends when we would be annoyed with the usual activity promos, sales, promos, etc. The 2nd one would usually come around the same time as the Captain's daily announcement. The 3rd was usually in mid afternoon when we got more "stuff" about evening activities. This all assumed that nobody onboard was capable of reading their daily schedule.

 

We often say that (to us) the best CD is the one we never hear and seldom see. HAL had such a person (Thom Faulkner) who unfortunately is no longer a HAL CD. Thom would usually make an announcement early in the cruise that everyone would get a daily activities schedule and since he assumed that everyone could read he would not annoy us by repeating the same info over the PA. Thom did make a single daily announcement just after the Captain's daily update.

 

Hank

[sail7seas]

Did You speak to the offending CD's?

 

I wasn't there. ;)

 

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

On our recent HAL cruises, we get announcements around 9 - 9:30 AM informing us about the morning activities -- sea day and sales. On port days we get announcements about the being cleared, etc. On tender days -- sometimes several reports about what to do -- where to go and when you didn't have to report to get a tender ticket -- that could lead up to 4 announcements in one morning.

Sea days -- captain's report at 1 PM -- and then the CD comes on to give the afternoon activities.

4 PM - Bingo time!!

There have been times when we have had 7 announcements in a day.

[iancal]

I could be mistaken, but I am fairly certain that the only announcements we had on our last two Celebrity cruises were the 12 noon Captain's update. It was wonderful.

[navybankerteacher]

Cunard, Celebrity and HAL have very few announcements. Princess and Royal Caribbean had enough to be somewhat annoying, while NCL seems to have so many that it gets infuriating.

[jamessemaj]

I think it depends largely on the CD and Captain. Some have no clue to how irritating the announcements are. I just smirk at the suggestions to go with the luxury lines as happens for every inconvenience, this one, too many kids, smoking, free chairs, et al. Thanks, but I can't afford it and I can deal with some inconvenience for what I can afford. I even endure flying in the economy goat pens rather than business or first class.

[Hlitner]

Did You speak to the offending CD's?

 

I wasn't there. ;)

 

 

 

We had to stand in line (behind others voicing the same complaints). The offending CD then left the ship (normal rotation) and was replaced by another CD who made the same annoying announcements. And we forgot to add the Art Auctioneer who also made an announcement every time they had a "wonderful" art auction. Our suspicion is that on the NEW HAL a CD who fails to meet his/her quota of annoying announcements would be keelhauled or worse. They might even be banished to the Future Cruise office :)

 

In the interest of being fair and balanced we should disclose that have also recently done cruises on both Celebrity and Princess where the CDs followed a similar 3-4 daily announcement scenario...especially plugging activities that generate onboard revenue for the lines (i.e. Bingo, shop sales, tour lectures, art auctions, etc).

 

Almost make me want to shell out the bigger bucks for Crystal, Seabourn, Regent, etc. where they have much more respect for the passengers and do not see the need to blast announcements into the public areas.

Hank

Edited June 4, 2014 by Hlitner

[whogo]

HAL has very few speaker system announcements.

They annouce when the ship is cleared in a port and guests can go ashore.

Captain often gives a noon time report.

CD might make one announcement per day but that is about it unless there is something

out of the ordinary that would require an announcement.

You must be listening to Holland America through rose tinted hearing aids. My last Holland America cruise director made frequent announcements about the muster drill, a daily announcement after the captain's noon day update, and one more per day. Shopping, photos, bingo and spa specials were mentioned. I assume that Holland America are contractually obligated to boost their contractor's businesses.

[Cruisin' Chick]

I have had varying experiences on my Princess cruises so the extra announcements (other than the muster drill, the arrival in port, the noon announcement -- which I love listening to as it gives info about the sea conditions etc and often a word of the day, emergency assignments) must be dependent on the CD. I prefer not to hear about that "last chance bingo tournament" etc so I appreciate one that trusts us to read the daily Patter on our own. On the other hand, all of our Carnival ones seemed to have a lot of PAs.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Luxury or premium lines..

[celebrity]

I could be mistaken, but I am fairly certain that the only announcements we had on our last two Celebrity cruises were the 12 noon Captain's update. It was wonderful.

 

You are correct. It was wonderful!

[TMLAalum]

Our Yangtze River cruise on the President #7 seemed to have a gazzillion announcements repeated over and over in 3 different languages. No bingo, though.

 

You could turn your in room speaker down, but then you'd miss the ship-wide morning wake-up call!

 

Our Celebrity Millennium cruise just 2 months ago had the usual once daily update, given sometimes at 10am. Except for critical announcements such as muster drill, these were not heard in one's cabin, so we had to open our door to hear them. When we were in public areas, the din of the cruisers often overpowered the captain's words!

[boogs]

Our Celebrity Millennium cruise just 2 months ago had the usual once daily update, given sometimes at 10am. Except for critical announcements such as muster drill, these were not heard in one's cabin, so we had to open our door to hear them. When we were in public areas, the din of the cruisers often overpowered the captain's words!

 

On Celebrity, the only announcements you will hear in your stateroom are critical announcements such as safety related information. Other announcements will be heard only in public area. This is one of the things I like about Celebrity - they treat you like adults looking for a relaxing time as opposed to treating you as short-attention-span children who need constant reminders of what there is to do like on Carnival and NCL.

Edited June 5, 2014 by boogs

[SteveH2508]

On Celebrity, the only announcements you will hear in your stateroom are critical announcements such as safety related information. Other announcements will be heard only in public area. This is one of the things I like about Celebrity - they treat you like adults looking for a relaxing time as opposed to treating you as short-attention-span children who need constant reminders of what there is to do like on Carnival and NCL.

 

NCL (in Europe anyway) has no in-cabin announcements apart from the safety ones - so no different to Celebrity.

[Stratheden]

You must be listening to Holland America through rose tinted hearing aids. My last Holland America cruise director made frequent announcements about the muster drill, a daily announcement after the captain's noon day update, and one more per day. Shopping, photos, bingo and spa specials were mentioned. I assume that Holland America are contractually obligated to boost their contractor's businesses.

 

Sadly I have to agree with you. Our CD and his umpteen announcements with the whoo-hoo at the end of every one, was the only thing that we disliked on our Alaskan Cruise last year.

[boogs]

NCL (in Europe anyway) has no in-cabin announcements apart from the safety ones - so no different to Celebrity.

 

They are very different. Celebrity has only one announcement each day heard in public areas, typically given by the captain who shares information about the current course, speed and weather conditions, and perhaps a bit about the next port of call. They never announce bingo, pool activities, sales, or any other announcements. The NCL that I know had many announcements heard in the public areas, ranging from whatever sale is going on at the moment, to stirring up interest in the latest line dance or pool side activity, to discount specials in the fee restaurants, etc, etc, etc. And that is really annoying.

Edited June 6, 2014 by boogs