Never seen so many unhappy people on RCCL Cruise - Anthem out of UK

[Pandamonia]

2 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Financial disclosures have stated the mass majority of Covid credits have been used. 
Over 50% of fares are first time cruisers, so no FCC at all there. 
The fact of the matter, as stated earlier, is Royal Is servicing their debt faster than any other line. They are doing something right. 
 

cheers 

To be honest I don’t really care what they make. All I know is they are making it in a way that is unlikely to retain loyal customers. 
 

if new cruisers are now their core business why bother with the relentless survey scores and loyalty schemes? 
 

it’s clear the average cruiser spends less per cruise than even the cost of a drinks package. So why price the drinks package so much more than the average spend? Seems counter productive. 
 

It’s their loss as I said they saved me £1400 and I still got drunk enough to feel like I didn’t miss out. 

[Biker19]

Just now, Pandamonia said:

So why price the drinks package so much more than the average spend? Seems counter productive. 

Because they have folks with empirical data who set the prices at the optimum revenue level.

[Pandamonia]

4 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Because they have folks with empirical data who set the prices at the optimum revenue level.

I doubt that. 
 

if they did they would not have only sold 18 UDP on my cruise and had all the restaurants empty for 12 nights?

[FamilyCruiserUK]

27 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Yes, it's called the weather.

A covered pool does help, however i have been in the us and Carribbean when the weather has been rubbish, at coco cay and miami

[Pandamonia]

8 minutes ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

A covered pool does help, however i have been in the us and Carribbean when the weather has been rubbish, at coco cay and miami

Just to keep the Americans happy who I have upset I do think the solarium is good on anthem. 
 

still don’t understand why in the great weather the roof stayed shut the whole cruise though. I was under the impression the mid section was a roof which opened up? 
 

Just to balance out my positive with another negative though I’m wondering why they had the deck party in the freezing cold Atlantic east cost and the solarium party in the red hot canaries. Maybe I expect to much common sense from people….

[FamilyCruiserUK]

4 minutes ago, Pandamonia said:

Just to keep the Americans happy who I have upset I do think the solarium is good on anthem. 
 

still don’t understand why in the great weather the roof stayed shut the whole cruise though. I was under the impression the mid section was a roof which opened up? 
 

Just to balance out my positive with another negative though I’m wondering why they had the deck party in the freezing cold Atlantic east cost and the solarium party in the red hot canaries. Maybe I expect to much common sense from people….

The covered pool , it was ok the few times we used it. Not that often tbh. Enjoyed it all lit up at night when we went night swimming. Once they took away the water chairs ( waste of space) it was fine. And yeah on warm days fresh air would have been nice with roof open. 

 

The solarium we didn't use at all due to being with our daughter. So cant comment on that.

[jencruzin]

1 hour ago, mugtech said:

Glad to hear you are done drinking in excess on cruises.  Your negative comments about Anthem mean nothing to me, a non drinker who avoids the sun decks.

Hey, glad you decided to chime in and give us your charming, inspiring thoughts😁

[mugtech]

21 minutes ago, jencruzin said:

Hey, glad you decided to chime in and give us your charming, inspiring thoughts😁

Was my pleasure, you are quite welcome, glad you were charmed and inspired.

[nelblu]

21 hours ago, Pandamonia said:

Well wine isn’t liquor no matter how much you miss use the word but yes I got free wine. 
 

Will the free wine hurt your EPS from

your royal shares?
 

 

I can live with the stock price at $95+ per share/😄

 

I also do well with the shareholder's OBCs.

Edited June 19, 2023 by nelblu

[goldfish65]

Someone can confirm but I recall that solarium roof only opens when the ship is not underway. 
 

[nelblu]

16 hours ago, Tatka said:

I don't know. WE love Anthem here.

Yes, it has same main shows, but RCI is not guilty we sail every year!

Shows on largest ships are created for particular ship. They will stay with ships.

Other entertainment changes.

 

If you take all 3 pool areas there are ENOUGH loungers, but it is a "winter" ship so part of them should be inside.

 

Give our Anthem back. 🙂

We love her for colder season.

 

We are getting Odyssey in exchange.  Should be a nice change of scenery.  Only problem, no indoor pool.  Also, Symphony replaces Oasis.

[nelblu]

4 hours ago, twangster said:

I understand the issue with rising costs for specialty and beverage packages, just as they are for CocoCay purchases.  Disliking the price of items doesn't make the cruise terrible.   

 

The problem here is that other people are willing to pay the price.    These prices are what the market will bear.   

 

Specialy dining stopped being a value for me when Chops went above $29.95 USD back in 2018.  So I stopped buying it every cruise.  Once I reached D+ the BOGO brought it within reach again.   Then as prices went up over time Chops once again left my value zone.   Despite that I still have great cruises.   

 

CocoCay has what I consider outrageous prices, but a lot of people are willing to pay those prices.   I still love CocoCay.  

Unless I'm wrong, you don't need to spend a penny extra at Coco Cay, other than the grats on your free drinks.🤣

[KroozNut]

On 6/18/2023 at 5:20 AM, Nell Gwynn said:

my husband got severe diarrhoea on this cruise and I understand he wasn't the only one.  He was stuck in the cabin for three days and missed 2 ports of call - based on that maybe housekeeping earnt their money! 

 

You had me until this part... TMI! 🤣

 

[KroozNut]

22 hours ago, seasidemama said:

 

I think the issue is with royal loyalists. Cruisers who have enjoyed RCL's previous quality and standards are seeing and feeling the downgraded experience. This is where all the complaints are. People who just started to sail this year don't know any better. There's an article out there where the CEO talks about how new to Royal Caribbean are the majority of customers now - at a much higher rate than pre-covid.

 

This is not unique to RCI. All cruise lines have their steadfast loyalists, who continually lament the 'downgraded experience' with their cruise line of choice.

[Another_Critic]

Maybe they should homeport Enchantment in Southampton for a season, then people will be begging to get Anthem and Indy back.  😄 

[mugtech]

2 hours ago, Pandamonia said:

Are you sure? There must have been something in my post which was relevant experience to your sober cruise in the shade. 

Positive

[KroozNut]

22 hours ago, ukrccl_a said:

Yes, tonight I’ve just found out that I clearly work for every company that I’m not overly negative about on the internet 😂

 

Well, you have to admit that your username could cause some folks to be suspicious of your loyalty to Royal.. 😉

[Billy Baltic]

3 hours ago, little britain said:

Actually they could do one week the traditional Palma/Marselles/Rome/Naples loop and alternate this with doing the Spain ports of Valencia/Malaga etc the following week .... et voila you have a ready made B2B thus attracting customers for longer on board!   Less fuel going down to Valencia and Alicante too. So that is another winner for them.  Bet parking is cheaper in Spain than it is in Civitavecchia too! 

 

Having done the 'loop' on Oasis, Harmony, Symphony and Wonder (2x) I would love the Spanish trip! 

 

LB > who is full of good ideas! 

+1

I’m sure they could do lots of variations if they actually cared about the customer experience. 

[Roybthered]

20 hours ago, Pandamonia said:

well it’s averages so single cruises are not representative. 
 

I’ve been on many oasis class ships out of Barcelona and they have been nowhere near full. 
 

July and august will likely be full or above full double occupancy. 
 

I can’t see any royal ship being full in April or may or September or October and neither transatlantics. 
 

I dunno these are Royals numbers to the stock market. 
 

 

Will let you know as we sail on Symphony at the end of August out of Rome and then sail on Anthem beginning of Oct out of Southampton. We sailed on Anthem in May as soon as she came over on the transatlantic on a 2 night cruise over to France and back (needed the points for our October cruise to be Diamond). This was our 3rd time on Anthem and the October one will be our 4th time, we did originally have the Aug one booked on Anthem but decided twice was enough and wanted to go on another Oasis class (done Oasis last October). 

Anthem is a nice ship for what it is and we enjoy it but you need to understand each class of ship differs from another, unfortunately for us in the UK Southampton is the only port being operated from by RCCL. Now if they started using other ports and had other ships coming over am sure the take up would be a lot more. 

We like Royal (wife is Prime so Aug is our free cruise!) and will be diamond in October so will not be getting the drinks package. It is expensive but you should look at it and if you feel you will get your monies worth then great but if you don't then pay as you go. Same applies to the UDP.

On another note this is Cruise Critic and everyone is allowed an opinion as everyone has their own likes and dislikes.

[Pandamonia]

45 minutes ago, KroozNut said:

 

Well, you have to admit that your username could cause some folks to be suspicious of your loyalty to Royal.. 😉

The username looks like the social media managers account for royal UK. 

[KroozNut]

5 hours ago, jencruzin said:

We may have met on Anthem? We were Jen and John! 

And you're not Jen and John now? 🤔🙂

[kirtihk]

4 hours ago, vjmatty said:

 

Yes! Finally! What is it we keep saying on here? As long as people keep paying these prices, RC has no reason to change and be more reasonable.  Well I for one am glad people are starting to vote with their wallets. Let's hope this becomes a trend and the prices drop.

Then quality will gradually drop more... In the end, what category of cruisers would like to buy those cruises?

[Tin can]

3 hours ago, Pandamonia said:

It’s their loss as I said they saved me £1400 and I still got drunk enough to feel like I didn’t miss out. 

 

Being from the UK that is such a British statement to make 😄, made me laugh.

 

[twangster]

1 hour ago, nelblu said:

Unless I'm wrong, you don't need to spend a penny extra at Coco Cay, other than the grats on your free drinks.🤣

 

Likewise on a ship you don't need to spend a penny extra. 

[vjmatty]

1 hour ago, kirtihk said:

Then quality will gradually drop more... In the end, what category of cruisers would like to buy those cruises?

 

I was talking about drink package prices, not cruise prices.

 

ETA: That being said, if quality of cruising drops there are lots of Greek islands and other land vacations yet to be explored.  One of the biggest draws of cruising is the value, and when that goes there is little to keep me onboard.

Edited June 19, 2023 by vjmatty