Surcharge for Room Service coming?

[DFWGUYZ]

CCL is now adding surcharges to room service on the Carnival Line. How will this affect cruisers if implemented on HAL? 

 

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-bz-carnival-cruise-line-adds-room-service-fee-20190103-story.html

[kazu]

This was discussed at fair length here - 

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

But on Carnival you can still get Rolls and coffee for free.

[KirkNC]

It would be fine with me.

[Lazz]

Rolls and coffee are not good for those that are gluten free.  We end up going to the buffet and bringing our plates back to the room.

[terrydtx]

19 minutes ago, Lazz said:

Rolls and coffee are not good for those that are gluten free.  We end up going to the buffet and bringing our plates back to the room.

Or just pay the extra charge for the room service. CCL and HAL already nickel and dime us to death, so what is one more extra charge?

Edited January 5, 2019 by terrydtx

[OlsSalt]

3 hours ago, terrydtx said:

Or just pay the extra charge for the room service. CCL and HAL already nickel and dime us to death, so what is one more extra charge?

 

Not sure what you mean - one can enjoy an entire cruise and not pay for anything extra, unless that is their own choice.

[teacherman]

I believe that RCCL offers continental breakfast room service for free.  Anything beyond that is $7.95.

Before this began, I would often see room service trays left in the hall that had a LOT of uneaten food on them.  Now, not so much.  We are Celebrity/RCCL cruisers but will be going on Koningsdam in February.

[RDC1]

Carnival primary competition is Royal Caribbean and NCL both of which charge for room service.

 

HALs primary competition is Celebrity, Princess, Cunard which do not charge.

 

I would not expect HAL to change.

Edited January 5, 2019 by RDC1

[Nymich]

Eventually they will all charge......just takes time.

[dockman]

How long til they copy the thousands of hotels who charge a "resort fee"  one of the biggest rip offs ever to hit the traveling public....Las Vegas resort fees are now almost all either $37 or $39 plus tax per room per night.....gee what a coincidence that the hotels who have some very different "amenities" all just happen to come up with almost identical charges that you are required to pay whether you use the "amenity" (like a swimming pool) or not.....whatever happened to keep collusion and price fixing illegal?

[avian777]

12 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

 

Not sure what you mean - one can enjoy an entire cruise and not pay for anything extra, unless that is their own choice.

👍👍👍  Spot on, OlsSalt! 

[avian777]

6 hours ago, dockman said:

How long til they copy the thousands of hotels who charge a "resort fee"  one of the biggest rip offs ever to hit the traveling public....Las Vegas resort fees are now almost all either $37 or $39 plus tax per room per night.....gee what a coincidence that the hotels who have some very different "amenities" all just happen to come up with almost identical charges that you are required to pay whether you use the "amenity" (like a swimming pool) or not.....whatever happened to keep collusion and price fixing illegal?

 

FWIW "collusion/price fixing" is illegal per se, whereas conscious parallelism (which is more likely what is occurring with the LV hotel "resort fees") is not illegal by itself.  CP can be found to violate US antitrust law if additional evidence both shows the existence of a conspiracy and excludes the possibility of independent (albeit similar/parallel) action.  This probably explains why the LV hotels have managed to avoid prosecution for antitrust violations.

[8373seth]

We were just off the NCL Bliss.  We are normally those who like to have a late night snack in our room while watching a movie.  We do this quite often on HAL and Princess.  So I was a bit worried about the surcharge on NCL.  There was no need to worry.  Because the room service options were horrible.  I think there were 2-3 items.  We just ended up getting take out from their one late night pub option.  

I do hope that HAL and Princess continue to offer free room service with a decent menu.  

[ski ww]

17 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

 

Not sure what you mean - one can enjoy an entire cruise and not pay for anything extra, unless that is their own choice.

So true.

[Cruzaholic41]

18 hours ago, Nymich said:

Eventually they will all charge......just takes time.

 

Yep. To think otherwise would only be fooling oneself. 

[Djptcp]

This was posted on the Carnival Cruise Critic forum from John Heald, the senior Cruise Director for Carnival and who publishes a very popular Carnival blog:

 

From John Heald:

 

”I had previously told you about changes to our room service offerings that would go into effect in January.  
 
I wanted to let you know that we are in the process of making some adjustments to that plan to balance the interests of our guests with our efforts to reduce food waste costs. 

 For the time being then, there will be no changes until we finalize a plan that will I will communicate to you all.”

 

When asked to specify, John stated that the changes have been cancelled and room service will revert to being free until 10 PM

[terrydtx]

2 hours ago, Djptcp said:

From John Heald:

 

”I had previously told you about changes to our room service offerings that would go into effect in January.  
 
I wanted to let you know that we are in the process of making some adjustments to that plan to balance the interests of our guests with our efforts to reduce food waste costs. 

 For the time being then, there will be no changes until we finalize a plan that will I will communicate to you all.”

 

When asked to specify, John stated that the changes have been cancelled and room service will revert to being free until 10 PM

I can assume that the CCL Cruise Critic folks were really upset over the charges, but it looks like CCL management has been listening, which is refreshing to see.