Why Loyalty To One Cruise Line?

[SPacificbound]

We have only cruised with Royal Caribbean and Celebrity.

 

Right now I am double booked on Celebrity and Princess for 2017, so maybe we will try Princess, or maybe not.

 

I like the familiarity, the kind of knowing what to expect.

[Jenlegs]

A very interesting discussion topic, and I must say that I feel differently about this than I did last month.

 

My first cruise was on Norwegian in 1992 for my honeymoon. Then, we took our 3-year-old daughter on a Carnival Cruise in 1997, before we had our second child in 1998. Finally, in 1999, we took a family reunion cruise to celebrate my grandmother's 80th birthday -- this time on Royal Caribbean.

 

I returned on February 21 from my fourth cruise -- this time, on the Celebrity Silhouette. We had a fantastic time -- there is really nothing negative about the experience, but I couldn't help but gawk at the RC Oasis in port next to us. When I came home, i was intent on booking a cruise for next year, and began researching the various options (note that my most recent cruise was a gift from my sister in law, so we didn't choose the ship, the itinerary, or anything ourselves). This was my wife's first cruise, and she is completely sold on the experience.

 

I literally booked and cancelled a dozen trips -- the Oasis of the Seas, the Norwegian Getaway, at least one of the Holland America ships, if not two. But when it came right down to it, I realized that Celebrity embodied everything I want in a cruise vacation at this time in my life. I'm not in my 20s anymore, and my kids are grown. I'm sure that if I were to take a cruise with my 17- and 21-year old I would choose something a little more exciting, but part of the allure of Celebrity is that it doesn't have water slides or rock-climbing walls, so there aren't many kids on board.

 

Maybe someday I'll have grandchildren, and can share with them the excitement of traveling on a floating city, but for now, Celebrity has earned my loyalty.

[Flamencacha]

My wife had a bad experience on Princess and swore she would never cruise again. I had a good experience on Disney and told her it was totally different and talked her into cruising again. She thought Disney was wonderful and we did a 2nd one with the kids that time. She was impressed with how spotless everything was and when we pulled into ports across from other cruise ships you could see rust on their hulls, plastic deck chairs, etc... She was set to only stick to Disney. But with the prices differences and this time I wanted something that sailed from the west coast during one specific week, we're trying NCL. I'm apprehensive as well given the service we're use to and classy look of the ships, but we'll see how it goes. I think price might be deciding factor in us branching out to new lines.

 

 

 

A rule of the thumb for me is don't expect much and enjoy the ride. You will be in for a shock. Just try to enjoy yourself.

[iancal]

We narrow it down to two or three ship/cruise lines.

 

We then compare prices but we do put a value on the perks that are of use to us. We place no value on a bottle of water, appetizers delivered to our room, priority boarding,so called special lunches, or any trash and trinkets that they hand out. If we get a meal at an optional venue we place a 50 percent value on it. Often times we actually have preferred boarding but we do not even use it because the lines are short/non existent. We have actually seen people walk over to the preferred boarding line up even when there was zero line up for the unwashed masses.

 

Once pricing is done we decide on a ship. Not on price, but on the whole package.

Edited March 26, 2016 by iancal

[SadieN]

We're loyal to our home ports. We're an hour from LA and 90 minutes from San Diego.

Tried RCI wasn't too impressed and won't sail on them again for family reasons. Lately we've been sailing Carnival and Princess. Similar to same itins so need to mix it up a bit.

Mom chose to sail on Carnival to HI (for the third time) even though it was more expensive than Princess. Been on Princess cruises with a total of 5 kids onboard and it's just too low key for Mom, lol.

Edited March 26, 2016 by SadieN