A suggestion to improve communication

[CalmSea]

Our cruise on the Quest was disrupted by Fiona, and we found that the availability of timely information lacking. After thinking about it, I have a suggestion for Seabourn. Since we are already told to turn on our TV to the channel showing the forward bow view  in order to listen to anouncements, why not add a news ticker crawling on the bottom of the screen. For our cruise, it could be used to broadcast changes that may be of interest to the guests, e.g., when a new excursion is available, or when there are changes to the  opening hours of the various food services. A crawling news ticker would be an unintrusive way of communication these changes.

[conchyjoe]

While not unobtrusive, maybe push notifications to devices might even be a better option. I don’t carry my phone around 24 hours a day but it is a handy way of getting information out.

 

I agree with you that the biggest problem we had on that Quest voyage was communication and I think many of the problems were due to the fact that the crew were not being advised in a timely manner either. Then we also have the problem of the crew Covid infections which, quite deliberately, were never acknowledged by senior staff, nor the existence of a crew Covid outbreak communicated to passengers.

 

 

[rkacruiser]

Regardless of the cruise line or the ship, guests trying to get reliable, truthful information has always been, and is, an issue.  "Happy talk" seems to be the "PR rule" that crew are taught.  Don't say anything that might upset a guest.  

 

Even questioning why an OBC has not been applied to one's account results in a response that puts the "blame" on the ship's poor Night Auditor.  When asking two days later, the answer is much the same:  "he hasn't gotten around to doing so".  I had to involve a Front Desk Officer to get the issue properly resolved.  

[CalmSea]

My suggestion was just to create a mechanism where timely but not urgent information can be broadcast to a wide audience. Of course, push notification can be used, and Seabourn is using it to remind guests of upcoming excursion that they have booked. My own preference would be to use push notification for more personalized  messages, where one has implicitly or explcitely opted in to receive them. For example, I won't mind subsribing to messages that would notify me when a whale is sighted.

 

Now back to my suggestion. What motivated me was the memory that, in one occasion, the Destination Manager in our recent Quest cruise was telling everyone walking into his upcoming port talk that some new excursions were just made available, and that everyone should look at them at the Source App. That information could probably be broadcast to all tv's in the cabins as well. Granted that the situation of adding new excursions during a cruise is rare, how about a situation where a scheduled poolside danse party has been moved to the Club at deck 5 due to poor weather.

 

Having a mechanism to broadcast information is just the start. The management still has to be proactive to use it wisely. The messages should be timely and of interest to many. Otherwise, it would just be another source of information overload.

[labonnevie]

While  I understand the intent, I don’t want to be looking at my cell phone all the time when I am cruising. 

[Catlover54]

3 hours ago, CalmSea said:

My suggestion was just to create a mechanism where timely but not urgent information can be broadcast to a wide audience. Of course, push notification can be used, and Seabourn is using it to remind guests of upcoming excursion that they have booked. My own preference would be to use push notification for more personalized  messages, where one has implicitly or explcitely opted in to receive them. For example, I won't mind subsribing to messages that would notify me when a whale is sighted.

 

Now back to my suggestion. What motivated me was the memory that, in one occasion, the Destination Manager in our recent Quest cruise was telling everyone walking into his upcoming port talk that some new excursions were just made available, and that everyone should look at them at the Source App. That information could probably be broadcast to all tv's in the cabins as well. Granted that the situation of adding new excursions during a cruise is rare, how about a situation where a scheduled poolside danse party has been moved to the Club at deck 5 due to poor weather.

 

Having a mechanism to broadcast information is just the start. The management still has to be proactive to use it wisely. The messages should be timely and of interest to many. Otherwise, it would just be another source of information overload.

 

The "opt in" for push notifications would appeal to many who are tech-oriented (an increasing number, for obvious reasons), but not to those who don't carry their phones around.

 

The TV newscrawl idea may appeal to those who have their TV on all the time for various reasons, and who spend most of their time sitting in their suites.  

 

The more communication options there are, the better.

 

Since I don't think SB monitors CC, be sure and send your suggestions directly to SB in your computerized cruise review solicitation (or independently, if you already sent that one off).  They may ignore it and just charge ahead with continued implementation of their currently mediocre SB Source product, but at least you will have tried.

As I recall it was only due to many guest protests that a laundry room was installed on the newer ships.

[CalmSea]

5 hours ago, Catlover54 said:

 

Since I don't think SB monitors CC, be sure and send your suggestions directly to SB in your computerized cruise review solicitation (or independently, if you already sent that one off).  They may ignore it and just charge ahead with continued implementation of their currently mediocre SB Source product, but at least you will have tried.

As I recall it was only due to many guest protests that a laundry room was installed on the newer ships.

An excellent idea. I have just sent the suggestions to SB in their solicited post cruise review.

[rkacruiser]

22 hours ago, labonnevie said:

While  I understand the intent, I don’t want to be looking at my cell phone all the time when I am cruising. 

 

There are those that do not have a cellphone and those of us who are figuring out why my smartphone is "smarter" than I am.