Cost Cutting Confirmed

[commodoredave]

40 minutes ago, pappy1022 said:

“The definition of disappointment in life is expectations minus reality equals disappointment. The only two solutions you have to get over disappointment is to either alter your reality or alter your expectations.” Maybe you are correct Commodore.

Not quite as reality can be better than expectations if they were low to start with. Perhaps a better definition is “Expectations minus experience equals reality.”

[mj_holiday]

 

Pappy1022 said "Not every cost cutting initiative equates to a poorer customer experience"

 

I was glad to see this mentioned, also think that some of the changes are considered a "process improvement"  We have been on one Regent cruise post Covid and agree it wasn't like before. The biggest difference being on shore support was extremely lacking (except for Victoria Falls which was beyond expectations) One of the onboard changes was definitely an improvement (IMHO) The change was that the ice bucket in every cabin (at least our Concierge) would not automatically be filled with ice every day.  If the guest wanted/requested ice, the steward would make sure they got it. We very seldom would use the ice in our cabin.  Since our other cabin service - room service and morning coffee, breakfast - was always good, I expect guests would get ice as requested. That did not make it to be a subject of complaints here.

 

Because of my past career, I would find it very interesting to see the metrics on labor, ice and energy saved by this one change. And the metrics could have also shown that more guests than expected asked for ice in their room and it didn't save anything.

 

Will be on Explorer in a month so will see what other changes have been made and what I perceive as the impact.

[Whinenowine]

On 2/28/2024 at 2:09 PM, pappy1022 said:

$12.6 billion still in long term debt so there is still a long road to go and the cost of building their ships in the future have gone up substantially in cost. Not saying they can’t do it, they just need the full capacity situation to continue over several years. 

Yes, exactly right...their LT debt at 2019 was roughly $6bn...and I'd argue they're larger now than they were 5yrs ago...so 2-3yrs at current pay down rate SHOULD be more than enough.  But who knows....

[HappyTvlr]

12 hours ago, GOARMY said:

SWFLAOK:

 

While anecdotal, hope helpful.  Of course, what follows for your consideration is worth what you are paying for it. 

 

River Cruises.  Consider Uniworld.  Did two of these, pre-COVID, in France.  Top Class, to include pre or post-stays at Paris in wonderful hotels.  Traversed the major rivers throughout France; back-and-forth on trains to and from Paris to link-up with segments; and opportunities to visit the American Army's "D-Day" Utah and Omaha landing beaches; city of Caen; town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, DZ (Drop Zone) for the 82nd Airborne Division; Military Museums; and, most-important--the Military Museum and Cemetery above Omaha Beach. 

 

Rows, and rows, of Crosses and Stars of David.     

 

In late 2019, booked a third Uniworld series to incorporate Normandy, Fall, 2020. This would have included a day-long tour to the British and Canadian (and Polish) "D-Day" landing Beaches at Gold, Juno, and Sword.  But, course, canceled due to Covid. 

 

No issues in retrieving funds from that booking. 

 

Based on the above, recommend checking-out Uniworld.  No doubt, CCers with more recent experiences will chime in.  

 

As to Ritz Carlton (RC):  This "brand" is long, long-established.  Have had the good fortune to experience past bookings at RC's associated Hotels, to include the one at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Again, in conjunction with a Regent cruise. 

 

Our most-recent RC stay was last month.  Arranged by Regent.  We were at RC's San Francisco Hotel for (unfortunately) only one night.  This was prior to our joining Mariner on January 24th for an interesting World Cruise segment--San Francisco-via Hawaii, to French Polynesia.  

 

Absolutely great service at RC.  Very-caring Staff, from check-in; to restaurants; to check-out and getting on that bus for transit to the Pier. 

 

BTW:  This 'Frisco RC site was utilized for several segments within, and without.  That was when filming "Pal Joey".  That's Frank Sinatra and Rita Hayworth.  Do a Google. 

 

There I go, again, in nostalgic musings. 

 

Anyways--

 

Safe Travels.  Hope to see some of you at London in June prior to Regent's transport to Southampton.  Then:  Splendor. 

 

GOARMY!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

   

I am a huge fan of Uniworld.  I just did three weeks in France covering the cruise journey you described, and did a 3+ week journey from Amsterdam to Bucharest in 2019 and India in 2018.  The only pre/post covid difference we noted was some staffing shortages with staff being taken from one area to cover another, but otherwise everything was top notch.  Looking forward to Milan to Venice in August.

Since we're giving recommendations, I will mention that Scenic has excellent land tours.  I went with them for Egypt and Jordan, and recently went from Buenos Aires to Rio to see the Iguazu Falls. 5 star all the way with accommodation and tours. I have not tried them for river because I am a fan of Uniworld.

I am looking forward to my first Regent cruise this month. My ocean cruise experience is limited to Celebrity which I loved, but I'm looking forward to taking it to the next level.

[Pcardad]

17 minutes ago, Whinenowine said:

Yes, exactly right...their LT debt at 2019 was roughly $6bn...and I'd argue they're larger now than they were 5yrs ago...so 2-3yrs at current pay down rate SHOULD be more than enough.  But who knows....

14.06 Billion as of 12/31/2023.  Their debt has maturity dates all the way out to 2038 but most of the debt is refinanced every few years.

https://d1io3yog0oux5.cloudfront.net/_85d0a313e590fff1de64615b765bc464/nclhltd/db/1110/11449/debt_payment_schedule/Debt+Schedule+as+of+12.31.23.pdf

Edited March 1 by Pcardad

[Whinenowine]

5 hours ago, commodoredave said:

Well said. However, young people who take their first cruise now will not notice what is no longer provided. They may also have lower expectations. So the cruise lines cutting back may actually suffer little loss of business while boosting their profits.

Yes, this.  I'm a refugee from Celebrity and I "left" there a few months ago due to the dramatic increase in prices for their Retreat product simultaneous to a reduction in benefits.  Yet X continues to sail fully booked in the Retreat, mostly from new, younger cruisers who are happy to pay more for less (b/c they don't know otherwise). Even without trying to recoup the losses from the pandemic, cruise lines will continue to raise their prices....simply because they can....

[prim8keeper]

5 hours ago, Whinenowine said:

Yes, this.  I'm a refugee from Celebrity and I "left" there a few months ago due to the dramatic increase in prices for their Retreat product simultaneous to a reduction in benefits.  Yet X continues to sail fully booked in the Retreat, mostly from new, younger cruisers who are happy to pay more for less (b/c they don't know otherwise). Even without trying to recoup the losses from the pandemic, cruise lines will continue to raise their prices....simply because they can....

We too are moving over to Regent from Celebrity for similar reasons. I think this point gets lost on a lot of people. We were on Edge last month and less than thrilled with many of the changes. However, even with all the changes having booked that cruise years ago we knew booking another line would end up costing significantly more. I do wonder how many others out there are in a similar boat. It could result in bookings staying higher than they otherwise might especially for lines moving to non refundable deposits.

 

We started sailing X in 2011 when we were in our late 20’s. Funny enough now that we are moving more into who they are targeting at 37 and 41 we are moving on to Regent. 

Edited March 1 by prim8keeper

[Chateaunole-du-pape]

1 hour ago, prim8keeper said:

We too are moving over to Regent from Celebrity for similar reasons. I think this point gets lost on a lot of people. We were on Edge last month and less than thrilled with many of the changes. However, even with all the changes having booked that cruise years ago we knew booking another line would end up costing significantly more. I do wonder how many others out there are in a similar boat. It could result in bookings staying higher than they otherwise might especially for lines moving to non refundable deposits.

 

We started sailing X in 2011 when we were in our late 20’s. Funny enough now that we are moving more into who they are targeting at 37 and 41 we are moving on to Regent. 

Wow, and I thought at 50 we were already much younger than the average Regent cruiser!

 

Hello from up the road on Marietta Square...

[Pcardad]

13 hours ago, Chateaunole-du-pape said:

Wow, and I thought at 50 we were already much younger than the average Regent cruiser!

 

Hello from up the road on Marietta Square...

You are! But there are also Titanium members under 40 and the number of younger people is increasing.

[Whinenowine]

19 hours ago, prim8keeper said:

We too are moving over to Regent from Celebrity for similar reasons. I think this point gets lost on a lot of people. We were on Edge last month and less than thrilled with many of the changes. However, even with all the changes having booked that cruise years ago we knew booking another line would end up costing significantly more. I do wonder how many others out there are in a similar boat. It could result in bookings staying higher than they otherwise might especially for lines moving to non refundable deposits.

We were last on the Edge in the Med last August with our two teenage kids. We got side-by-side Sky Suites and all the 'old' perks that a Retreat cabin used to come with. I looked at that same cruise for August 2024 and it's 70% more expensive--over $800pp/day, which is more expensive that our upcoming Category D suite on the Grandeur..  That's just....insane...there's no other word for it.  

 

BUT X continues to fill their ships, especially the Retreat, so there is method to their madness.