Another cut being tested: Once per day cabin service

[TexasRon]

31 minutes ago, DirtyDawg said:

Well actually those bonuses had to be approved by the shareholders directly or through the Board of Directors who have a fiduciary obligation to the corporation and its shareholders. 

 

I was only a RCL shareholder for a few months in 2020 and never had a chance to vote at the AGM - so don't blame me! 😁

Usually approved by a hand-picked BOD with little regard for any concerns of any average shareholders.  Make money, get a bonus.  Miss your goal, get a bonus.  Lose your butt, get a bonus.  Life at the top is great.

 

 

[Ret MP]

17 minutes ago, TexasRon said:

Usually approved by a hand-picked BOD with little regard for any concerns of any average shareholders.  Make money, get a bonus.  Miss your goal, get a bonus.  Lose your butt, get a bonus.  Life at the top is great.

 

 

There is no perfect system.  The nice thing about our part of the world, we don't have to patronize any business we don't agree with or can't/don't want to afford.  I'm still loving cruising!  So, they haven't JUMPED THE SHARK for me, YET!  It won't take too my more for that to happen though!

[DirtyDawg]

23 minutes ago, TexasRon said:

Usually approved by a hand-picked BOD with little regard for any concerns of any average shareholders.  Make money, get a bonus.  Miss your goal, get a bonus.  Lose your butt, get a bonus.  Life at the top is great.

 

 

It does happen but did it happen in this case? I don't know and quit  i don't care. If you are an average shareholder and feel the BOD is not doing its fiduciary duty you have the right to sue them. Another option is to get together with other shareholders and vote the bums out. In my 30+ years in the investment business I only had one occasion where I had to be part of a group of shareholders that voted out a BOD and sequentially the whole management group. That was a very fun and very profitable endeavor. 😁

[Longford]

16 hours ago, BrianLo said:

I say speculative because there was quite a lot of covid onboard and even the cruise director was in isolation for 5 days at the start of the cruise.

Did you witness many guests or crew who were masked?  Thank you.

[Longford]

6 hours ago, mramella said:

RCCL is a publicly traded company. Order of priority is:

 

1. Shareholders.

2. Customers.

3. Employees.

 

For a CEO of a publicly traded company, return on shareholder value is an imperative, above all other things.

 

In order to return maximum shareholder value, RCCL must always find ways to cut costs. Each year, the dial is clicked further and further around implementation of cost cutting measures.

 

The trick: Balance cost cutting measures with customer tolerance. You cut too much, and you risk devaluing your brand, and customer loyalty. It's quite the dance!

 

Luckily, we all have choices! 

 

Thanks!

Value is a derivative of customer/client satisfaction.  Duh!

[Mum2Mercury]

18 hours ago, BrianLo said:

... I was on quantum Nov 26th sailing and my cabin steward was already doing once a day cleaning. The embarkment day I did have a turn down service and then never again ... So yes, while it is definitely occurring on quantum, I don’t know if it’s really intentional right now as a test ...

I was on Independence earlier this week, and we had morning service and turn-down service in the evening, so it's definitely not on every ship.  

[not-enough-cruising]

31 minutes ago, Mum2Mercury said:

I was on Independence earlier this week, and we had morning service and turn-down service in the evening, so it's definitely not on every ship.  

It is definitely only on one ship, as a trial

[bretts173]

5 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

It is definitely only on one ship, as a trial

2 ships, Ovation as well, started in Australia as struggling with staffing and covid isolation.

[clackey]

We have often told our cabin steward to only make the bed in the evening.  We have a tendency to nap on sea days, plus, it is more like home.  I never make my bed.😉

[Spurschick]

On 12/7/2022 at 10:53 PM, Tenderpaw said:

My purpose was to show yet another cut.  You are entitled to your opinion, but I find it amazing that folks are so willing to go along with these cuts just because it doesn't impact them.  Every thread about a cut has dozens of responses saying "I don't care it doesn't impact me because I XYZ".

 

I am against anything the decreases value for my $$ paid for a cruise and I resent the continuous cutting of benefits that has taken place over the past 20 years.  This is regardless of whether the cut actually impacts me.

 

Only one stateroom service per day is a major cut, even if it doesn't impact you personally because you don't need it.  Its still a cut.  Sure, go along and don't complain, but eventually they will cut something you actually care about. I don't want to give these cruise lines an inch in cutting value, thus I complain.

I understand your perceived point but there is nothing that says it is a cut costing exercise.

 

it is taking place on the Quantum sailing out of Australia where Covid rules and regulations for sailing are extremely different to what everyone is experiencing in US and Europe.

[Pellaz]

On 12/8/2022 at 5:56 PM, Mikew0805 said:

Agree. Far better included food options. Also, besides the design of the ship, these two lines are more alike than they are different. 

So true.   And I've found that Carnival's practice of having three elevator banks on their ships, as opposed to Royal's two, makes for less walking overall on Carnival, even beyond the relative sizes of the lines' ships.  

 

[Ocean Boy]

4 hours ago, Spurschick said:

I understand your perceived point but there is nothing that says it is a cut costing exercise.

 

it is taking place on the Quantum sailing out of Australia where Covid rules and regulations for sailing are extremely different to what everyone is experiencing in US and Europe.

Plenty of us have been around long enough to know what a "trial" of something on an RCI ship means. If this was a Covid related issue the company would have been more than happy to wave a banner blaming the virus. Heck, I'm surprised they didn't try to pin this on this on Covid anyway.

[Ocean Boy]

On 12/8/2022 at 5:06 PM, Jasukkie said:

I'm fine with once a day service. I'd probably also be fine with self service. Leave a towel pick up/drop off cart in the hallway, I can make my own bed and drop off glassware. I don't like it when I leave the room in the morning and want to come back but it hasn't been done yet so this should make this easier if we can pick evening service.

Tell your steward that you only want evening service and your problem will be solved.

[Carol28]

On 12/7/2022 at 1:05 PM, George C said:

Not a issue with suites , no change .

Are you sure of this?  Our suite steward told us last week about the service once a day.  He never mentioned that suites would still be serviced twice per day.  

[BrianLo]

On 12/11/2022 at 11:50 AM, Longford said:

Did you witness many guests or crew who were masked?  Thank you.

 

All crew were masked (I think they had to be). Guests were about 20-30%.

 

Much higher than I've seen on other cruises with mostly North American cruisers, but still a strong minority.

[BrianLo]

On 12/12/2022 at 2:52 AM, Ocean Boy said:

Plenty of us have been around long enough to know what a "trial" of something on an RCI ship means. If this was a Covid related issue the company would have been more than happy to wave a banner blaming the virus. Heck, I'm surprised they didn't try to pin this on this on Covid anyway.

 

I think they are actually leery of truly mentioning COVID at this juncture. I'm confident a double digit percentage of guests had COVID by the end of our sailing. The Facebook group was rife with posts about everyone testing positive after the fact.

 

Really, truly I felt like they were hiding their staff shortages from us to not cause a stir and impact the general sentiment and future bookings from the Australian market

 

Yes, maybe it's truly a test, but it sure didn't seem pre-planned for my cruise and seems to be only happening on both Australian vessels that are fairly overwhelmed with the virus right now.

[Peachy59]

On 12/10/2022 at 4:34 PM, HicksRA said:

I do enjoy returning to my cabin after dinner and seeing the curtains drawn, the lighting adjusted, the bedding neatened and the Compass and whatever letters/notices left on the bed. I would miss it if it was discontinued. 
 

By the way, recently off Harmony 8 day in a Grand Suite, and our room steward did NONE of this. He did replace dirty towels, empty the trash and refill the ice. He also had an attitude whenever we were still in the suite when he wanted to service it. First time in 20 years this wasn't done. We also keep our room very tidy.  No extra tip for him. In fact, we definitely noticed a decline in service all over the ship. We were planning to book onboard for next year, but will be looking at another line instead.

Edited December 13, 2022 by Peachy59

[grandgeezer]

On 12/7/2022 at 11:11 AM, Tenderpaw said:

It totally benefits Royal as a cost cutting effort:  fewer room stewards, less towels to wash, less laundry attendents, less water to produce on board, less cleaning chemicals for the rooms, less soap in the laundry.  All under the guise of "sustainability".  

Cutting half the work means in theory, they should be able to cut the number of staff by one half. Then they can sell the extra cabins as singles. With all the money they would save they could cut the cruise prices.

[Longford]

12 hours ago, BrianLo said:

 

All crew were masked (I think they had to be). Guests were about 20-30%.

 

Much higher than I've seen on other cruises with mostly North American cruisers, but still a strong minority.

I departed from Tampa on Serenade on 11/5.  I did not observe any crew (and few guests) wearing masks.

[bretts173]

1 hour ago, Longford said:

I departed from Tampa on Serenade on 11/5.  I did not observe any crew (and few guests) wearing masks.

Australian government rule, once 3% onboard are confirmed positive cases masks for crew compulsory, 10% positive compulsory for all onboard.

 

The majority of USA cruises are 7 days max so by the time most people who catch covid onboard are. Getting off by the time symptoms show. The longer 10 day plus cruises in Australia have been the problematical ones 

[rockon391]

I am fine with the change but they better reduce “gratuities” by at least 50% then. 

[bretts173]

2 hours ago, rockon391 said:

I am fine with the change but they better reduce “gratuities” by at least 50% then. 

Why's that, gratuities don't just go to your cabin steward and for the servicing of your room.

[cruiseboy89130]

6 hours ago, rockon391 said:

I am fine with the change but they better reduce “gratuities” by at least 50% then. 

You can do that by calling guest service!

Edited December 14, 2022 by cruiseboy89130

[sowhat]

7 hours ago, rockon391 said:

I am fine with the change but they better reduce “gratuities” by at least 50% then. 

This is our cabin before  cabin steward  does thier cleaning  duties every morning
We like the cabin clean, so we expect the cabin to be cleaned twice  a day as they are paid for.

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by sowhat

[JsMom2]

I prefer once a day service.  I tell my room attendant how many towels and washcloths I need to have in the room, and tell them not to worry about coming in the morning. 

 

On Celebrity they actually gave me an extra night of captains club points for choosing 1 service a day.  And I couldn’t see the difference between twice a day!