What is/was your line in the sand?

[rimmit]

I am just curious what your line in the sand is/was?   What could RCI do to cause you to either never sail them again, switch lines all together, or at least try out other lines on a regular basis?  

 

For us it was the 7.95 room service charge.

 

Was it the loss of the chocolates on the pillows?  The loss of the shipshape program?  The Dynamic Dining debacle?   Loss of in cabin movies?   

 

Or if they haven’t crossed the line yet what would it take?  Charging for the fitness center?  Charging for the MDR?  Loss of flavored water in the buffets?  Complete removal of adults only rule in Solarium (it is only loosely enforced as it stands now).

Edited September 26, 2019 by rimmit

[klfrodo]

Life's too short to have lines in the sand.

I'm cruising till I die. I like Royal, I like Carnival. Depends on itinerary, and whom we are cruising with. Is it Europe? Is it Caribbean? Is it Australia? Do we have kids with us? Grandkids? Do our friends have a specific sailing on a specific ship they want us to join them on?

 

Lines to cross? Not for us.

[Drock20J]

Yeah...No lines for me. Royal has taken care of my when they had no obligation to do anything. They small trifles like the ones the OP mentioned are not enough reason for me or my family to stop with a great cruise line.

[reallyitsmema]

We will stop sailing Royal Caribbean when we no longer enjoy ourselves.  Yes, there have been many changes over the years, but that can be said about just about any business.  Do what makes you happy and if that happens to be free room service on another line, I hope you enjoy your cruise and your meal.

[lovesthebeach2]

We won’t stop cruising Royal, but when we become D+ in a few months we do plan to try some Celebrity ships. We will never get any higher than that in loyalty status, so we can start trying out the other line in the family with the same perks 😉

[mugtech]

Don't care about the room service, never used it, never will.  Already Platinum Plus on NCL, but six of our next 7 cruises are scheduled on RCI because of the itineraries and the ships, none of them Oasis class yet.  All the other things OP listed would not make me stop using RCI, all cruise lines change constantly.  We would cruise NCL more often if they had the right ships with the right itineraries at the right price.

[boscobeans]

It was the DD debacle but it just caused us to cancel and rebook with X and then another RC ship.  Once it was ended we booked on the ANTHEM.

 

Still cruising both but more now on RC since LLP has begun her transition of Celebrity....

[irishgal432]

We have always did royal with a few Disney’s. We started looking at other lines when the suite program and amenities started to diminish. We sailed in Celebrity and were blown away. We now have our 2nd booked next month. I still sail Royal but not as frequently. 

[rimmit]

3 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

We will stop sailing Royal Caribbean when we no longer enjoy ourselves.  Yes, there have been many changes over the years, but that can be said about just about any business.  Do what makes you happy and if that happens to be free room service on another line, I hope you enjoy your cruise and your meal.

 

We still cruise RCI,  and enjoy it.  We just not cruise them as exclusively as we used to.

 

I guess that’s my point.  What would cause you to not enjoy it at all?  

 

For us we loved not having to be nickel and dimed on food.  For us it did impact our experience some when that was instigated.

 

I am actually grateful we tried out other lines.  Allowed us to appreciate what RCI does well and what they can improve on.  Life is short.  Play hard.

[cruisegirl1976]

If they stopped serving booze .. 😂

[rimmit]

4 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

We won’t stop cruising Royal, but when we become D+ in a few months we do plan to try some Celebrity ships. We will never get any higher than that in loyalty status, so we can start trying out the other line in the family with the same perks 😉

 

I am glad we tried X.  We really have enjoyed coming back to that line.  It has cutbacks as well,  but still an enjoyable product line RCI.

[rimmit]

4 minutes ago, boscobeans said:

It was the DD debacle but it just caused us to cancel and rebook with X and then another RC ship.  Once it was ended we booked on the ANTHEM.

 

Still cruising both but more now on RC since LLP has begun her transition of Celebrity....

 

LLP is definitely scares me.   I heard the footstools May be making a comeback...   we will see how true that is.

[Big_G]

2 minutes ago, cruisegirl1976 said:

If they stopped serving booze .. 😂

 

OK then...my first thought was I have no lines but then I read this. 😲🤣

[rimmit]

11 minutes ago, mugtech said:

Don't care about the room service, never used it, never will.  Already Platinum Plus on NCL, but six of our next 7 cruises are scheduled on RCI because of the itineraries and the ships, none of them Oasis class yet.  All the other things OP listed would not make me stop using RCI, all cruise lines change constantly.  We would cruise NCL more often if they had the right ships with the right itineraries at the right price.

 

I find NCL has more inspired itineraries.  Where could RCI be going that NCL doesn’t cover?  NCL hits south America and is starting to go to South Africa, and in general does a better job of covering the globe.  Just curious.  I don’t watch NCL deployments as closely as RCI but definitely keep up to date with their more exotic ones as we are running out of fresh itineraries on RCI.

Edited September 26, 2019 by rimmit

[reallyitsmema]

3 minutes ago, rimmit said:

 

I find NCL has more inspired itineraries.  Where could RCI be going that NCL doesn’t cover?  NCL hits south America and is starting to go to South Africa, and in general does a better job of covering the globe.  Just curious.  I don’t watch NCL deployments as closely as RCI but definitely keep up to date with their more exotic ones as we are running out of fresh itineraries on RCI.

 

I enjoyed the food on our NCL cruise but it could just be that it was different than the typical Royal Caribbean menus.  We really enjoyed Dynamic Dining on Anthem and was sad to see it go.  There are a few dishes that they have put on the current menus that came from Dynamic Dining, but I wish there was more variety.

[NateUpNorth]

RIght now they provide pretty good value for what they charge. (the exception being the ridiculous drink package costs, but that's everyone)

 

What would cause me to change looking at Royal first when planning? When another line steps up with significantly more inclusives and/or less "nickel and diming" for "extras" for similar pricing. 

Edited September 26, 2019 by NateUpNorth

[rimmit]

3 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

I enjoyed the food on our NCL cruise but it could just be that it was different than the typical Royal Caribbean menus.  We really enjoyed Dynamic Dining on Anthem and was sad to see it go.  There are a few dishes that they have put on the current menus that came from Dynamic Dining, but I wish there was more variety.

 

We loved the food on NCL.  The complimentary food was great.  Especially O’ Sheehans.  That put RCI 24 hour options to shame.  Shanghai has some amazing potstickers.   And they were free!!  RCI has a very poor selection of free food options sadly.  

 

We really enjoyed Dynamic dining when they had it on the Ovation when it first launched.  We were sad to see it go.  The teriyaki steak was sooo good in the Asian themed restarting.  My wife and I talk about that steak to this day.

 

I know DD was not that popular however,  we did enjoy it.

Edited September 26, 2019 by rimmit

[LeeW]

The new Oasis-class idea of not having MyTime Dining until 6:30 might be it for us.  Have three cruises scheduled to check if it messes up MyTime as badly as has been reported.  Will just skip Oasis-class if we don't like it, though.  We are not fond of making reservations for everything anyway (although makes sense with size of ship).  Now if the shows actually happened when our reservations were it would be nice.

[rimmit]

3 minutes ago, NateUpNorth said:

RIght now they provide pretty good value for what they charge. (the exception being the ridiculous drink package costs, but that's everyone)

 

What would cause me to change looking at Royal first when planning? When another line steps up with significantly more inclusives and/or less "nickel and diming" for similar pricing. 

 

Look at X.  It tends to be pricier,  but the sales actually change the price tag unlike RCI.  We can sometimes catch better deal on X with a drink package and grats included.  Sometimes the price is even flat lower than RCI with perks.  Alaska cruises tend to be cheaper on X and have more perks.  At least when we have priced them.

 

RCI has better onboard activities though.  We found the singers and dancers better on X, but the production value was higher on RCI.

[rimmit]

3 minutes ago, LeeW said:

The new Oasis-class idea of not having MyTime Dining until 6:30 might be it for us.  Have three cruises scheduled to check if it messes up MyTime as badly as has been reported.  Will just skip Oasis-class if we don't like it, though.  We are not fond of making reservations for everything anyway (although makes sense with size of ship).  Now if the shows actually happened when our reservations were it would be nice.

 

I must have missed this.  What is happening with MTD?

[NateUpNorth]

Just now, rimmit said:

 

Look at X.  It tends to be pricier,  but the sales actually change the price tag unlike RCI.  We can sometimes catch better deal on X with a drink package and grats included.  Sometimes the price is even flat lower than RCI with perks.  Alaska cruises tend to be cheaper on X and have more perks.  At least when we have priced them.

 

RCI has better onboard activities though.  We found the singers and dancers better on X, but the production value was higher on RCI.

 

Funnily enough I was just doing that today. We have 2020 booked with Royal, but was getting an idea of itineraries/costs/ideas for 2021.

Yes, it's too far out to be using the 2020 numbers/itineraries for 2021 and thinking they will be "accurate", but nevertheless as everyone here knows, research is everything lest you be fooled by "sales" banners....... LOL

[Another_Critic]

21 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

We won’t stop cruising Royal, but when we become D+ in a few months we do plan to try some Celebrity ships. We will never get any higher than that in loyalty status, so we can start trying out the other line in the family with the same perks 😉

 

You're D+ perks are not reciprocal to Elite+.  The top reciprocal status is Diamond / Elite.

 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/captains-club/exclusive-offers/loyalty-reciprocity-program

[The Fun Researcher]

If RCCL started producing ships that I just didn't care for.  Fortunately they've already built ones that I love, and I hope they keep them for many years to come.

 

I am a little concerned though, because I'm not a huge fan of the Oasis class and I'm not sure I'd like the Quantum class based on my research.

 

I'm happy to stick with Freedom and Voyager class as long as they do itineraries that we like. 

 

Dan

[lovesthebeach2]

12 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

 

You're D+ perks are not reciprocal to Elite+.  The top reciprocal status is Diamond / Elite.

 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/captains-club/exclusive-offers/loyalty-reciprocity-program

That’s good enough for us. 

[grapau27]

58 minutes ago, rimmit said:

I am just curious what your line in the sand is/was?   What could RCI do to cause you to either never sail them again, switch lines all together, or at least try out other lines on a regular basis?  

 

For us it was the 7.95 room service charge.

 

Was it the loss of the chocolates on the pillows?  The loss of the shipshape program?  The Dynamic Dining debacle?   Loss of in cabin movies?   

 

Or if they haven’t crossed the line yet what would it take?  Charging for the fitness center?  Charging for the MDR?  Loss of flavored water in the buffets?  Complete removal of adults only rule in Solarium (it is only loosely enforced as it stands now).

If they removed the Diamond Lounge RC would cease to be our first choice of cruiselines.