Are you loyal to just one cruise line?

[iancal]

More than once we have been on a cruise line and met someone who claims to be 'loyal' but does nothing but criticize or complain.

 

 Never certain whether to be sorry for someone going through life like that or for someone who is so stuck in their ways that they would not switch vendors when they are clearly not satisfied with the product.

Edited December 3, 2020 by iancal

[ldubs]

1 minute ago, iancal said:

More than once we have been on a cruise line and met someone who claims to be 'loyal' but does nothing but criticize or complain.  Never certain whether to be sorry for someone going through life like that or for someone who is so stuck in their ways that they would not switch vendors when they are clearly not satisfied with the product.

 

Haha,  Mrs Ldubs and I always like to compare the best complaints of the day.  It isn't like you have to go out of your way to hear them.  In reality, I think there is a large segment that is only satisfied when they are complaining.     

[iancal]

All things being equal our preference is for certain Celebrity ships.

 

Having said that...our last four cruises have been 2X on Princess and 2X on RCI.  In fact, I would say that less than half of our cruises have been on Celebrity.

 

We do not confuse preferences with loyalty.

Edited December 3, 2020 by iancal

[getting older slowly]

Another way of looking at this is :-

 

Some people want something new/different     always/often      go on any cruise line

 

Some people enjoy familiarity.....  feeling at home/sameness     go an one cruise line mostly

 

Then  there are other, who cruising it a once or twice thing and mainly go land travelling...

 

( please note either of the contentious words were used )

 

Don

[clo]

15 hours ago, donaldsc said:

Another way of defining loyalty is that it is the equivalent of saying "don't confuse me w the facts - my mind is made up.  

 

Yup.

[clo]

5 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

Haha,  Mrs Ldubs and I always like to compare the best complaints of the day.  It isn't like you have to go out of your way to hear them.  In reality, I think there is a large segment that is only satisfied when they are complaining.     

I call it "quick to criticize and slow to praise."

[iancal]

I see no reason to have to defend loyalty.  If someone wants to cruise on the same cruise line all the time then good for them.  Each to their own.

 

 No cruise line has given us, based on our preferences or their loyalty program, a reason to be loyal. 

[GUT2407]

6 hours ago, iancal said:

I see no reason to have to defend loyalty.  If someone wants to cruise on the same cruise line all the time then good for them.  Each to their own.

 

 No cruise line has given us, based on our preferences or their loyalty program, a reason to be loyal. 

Nope no need to defend loyalty no need to defend wanting to ship around, whatever floats your boat (pun intended).

[navybankerteacher]

“Loyalty” is an ideal human characteristic - kind of sad to see it used as part of a marketing gimmick.  Let’s call it “repeat customer recognition”.

 

[Nebr.cruiser]

As in many words, ( the many meanings and kinds of, say, love, or anger or hate) or  I believe 'loyalty' can have various meanings and nuances, including preferring one line to another almost exclusively.

 

That said, we aren't "loyal' (preferential?) to any one line, although we like some more than others.

[getting older slowly]

Does Loyalty ..... mean standing up, shouting out, waving a flag, charging in to defend them...

 

If that is the case loyality is for the better half...... not a company

 

I have bought four forms of transport made by the same brand....

 

so am I loyal to the company...... I don't think so.............

 

Don  

 

[Joebucks]

All of my cruises have been on Carnival so far. Not because I chose a random brand and decided to stick with it no matter what. It was because they had what we wanted, at the best price. It was very nice to be able to go on 2-3 cruises a year, to places I wanted to go, at a cost that I would barely notice.

 

We will likely go on Royal and/or Norwegian whenever cruising resumes again. While I do like Carnival, variety is never a bad thing.

[AlanRRT]

When I was getting off my first cruise, May 2005, my wife, who has since passed on, told me two things.  "Can we do this every year?" and "I only want to go on Norwegian."  We both agreed that we liked the freestyle cruising, we didn't like having to stick to a time schedule when we were on vacation.  Since then, other cruise lines have gone with the anytime dining.  So far, I've only been on Norwegian, I did have a Princess cruise booked that I cancelled when I lost my wife.  Maybe in the future if there's an itinerary that looks interesting on another cruise line that Norwegian doesn't have I'll try it but for now I'm sticking to what I know.

[iancal]

Cruise line offerings and ships change over time.  We expect to see this is spades post covid.  When it comes to mass markets, we do not care if the logo on the funnel is HAL, X, Princess, etc....all very much of the same to us other than the actual ship.

[marco]

Not really....there are 3 lines that we prefer and a couple that we will just NOT go on.

 

[evandbob]

I started sailing solo back in 2003, and for the economy of a 150% solo supplement fare, I kept booking the same line, over and over again.

 

Then my line did away with my solo fare, almost around the same time we did a 3 generation cruise on Disney, our first with that line.  I realized that I wouldn't be sailing Disney regularly, but I  really liked some of the different approaches they had.  It occurred to me that I didn't know what I was missing by sticking to one line.  By this time too, I had memorized my go to line's CD announcements - yikes!

 

So, I kept picking new ships, different lines, and feel better and more of an accomplished cruiser.  We've sailed over 50 times on Carnival, RCCL, NCL, MSC, Princess and Celebrity as well as Disney.  Leaving the echo chamber of a familiar line was an eye opener.  I'm looking forward to more adventures and branching out to Viking and Virgin when COVID allows.

 

We had a Norwegian fjord, a Nile River land/cruise and a So. American around the Horn cruise all cancelled this year because of COVID, so those are still on the bucket list!

[Aplmac]

On 12/2/2020 at 12:02 AM, Lady Chew said:

If you take long cruises, as many of us do, the ship

does indeed become a home away from home, albeit a temporary one.

 

Even on a 7-day cruise

The Ship is my air-conditioned paradise away from the heat in Barbados!
Can't afford A/C on the island, so that alone is a sales point for me.
When you live on one of these allegedly-paradisical tropical islands

you can get quite sick and tired of all that sea, sand, sun and fun, trust me
so an A/C environment is The Bomb!

I book Carnival over and over, just to get off the island, periodically.
Boarding at the local Port is literally a 10 minute car ride away
and actual boarding is a snap, accomplished without long lines waiting!
Cabin is always ready. Always.

(Only 30-40 cabins board here - not the entire ship!)

The loyalty thing works for me, sorry.
I just wish the loyalty thing would encompass ALL Carnival Corp. cruise lines
- then I could include our Caribbean Princess cruise, and both Ocean Village cruises.

 

[Aquahound]

2 hours ago, Aplmac said:

 

The loyalty thing works for me, sorry.
 

 

There’s nothing to be sorry for.  It’s your choice, so own it. Others around here could learn a lesson from you. 😁

[Northumberland]

A whole lot of things come into play for us when choosing a cruise.  The length of the cruise, the cost, the amenities on the ship, the itinerary, the perks offered by the cruise line or TA, etc.

We've sailed with 3 different cruise lines. Princess, RCCL & MSC.

We like Princess for longer cruises as they have self serve laundry, which means you don't have to bring a ton of clothes. We have a 28 day cruise scheduled for 2022 and only bringing one suit case.The entertainment as generally very good. We also enjoy the service level on board and have never been disappointed by the food.

We enjoy RCCL when on 7-8 day cruises because of the on board activities, the entertainment, the food and overall design of the ships with promenades.

We've only done one MSC cruise and don't plan on another one, but that's based on our personal opinion about the food. To be fair, it wasn't to our tastes, but others seemed to really enjoy it. One exception would be the hand tossed pizza, which was the best I've ever had on a cruise ship. The ship it self was beautiful and the staff were wonderful. 

We've thought of cruise lines like Carnival, NCL, Celebrity and HAL, but haven't seen anything that entice us to change yet.