Marketing to families and kids

[Noggins]

5 hours ago, Texas Tillie said:

 

With 2770 passengers, I'd say Virgin wouldn't be an option for the Crystal demographic, for sure not THIS Crystal demographic. 🤪Patty

Just a little sheepishly I have to admit we have just booked a Virgin cruise.... (There, I have said it out loud now - no going back.)

 

Last year there was an amazing offer of a 'free' cruise for 2 people for 80k virgin miles. (worth c.£800 depending on your valuation) We sent our son and wife. They had a wonderful time ( our son has cruised Crystal with us) and were amazed at the quality. Furthermore they said we'd enjoy it. 

Well, this year the offer is repeated and we have a 14 day TA for zero £'s in a central standard balcony room.

We have cruised non luxury lines before and adjust our expectations accordingly. This one will be closely followed by our next Serenity cruise - so we might enjoy that even more now as we make up for all the 'luxuries' we will have missed on Virgin!

Reviews of Virgin I have read certainly lead me to expect a different experience but I am hoping we'll find a way of extracting those parts of the Virgin product that will provide us with a perfectly satisfactory fun experience.

I haven't decided whether to report daily as I did on Explora recently. 

The ship will certainly not be full and one other  certainty thing is that we won't have any misbehaving children to contend with. (Hopefully there won't be too many misbehaving adults....)

Adrian 

[dimundsR]

Thank you, Keith that was what I was trying to say. I do like the comment, though that the food options in the specialty restaurants don’t really appeal to children to begin with.  Some parents have brought along a nanny or grandma or an auntie or a teenage relative to look after the children.  I remember on one occasion where my aunt and uncle brought me along on their vacation when I was in high school to look after their young boys while they had their special dinners and time for themselves.  I was happy to do this.

[nnn]

14 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Curious question.  If the parents are having a "special dinner" in Osteria, just a) where are the kids dining, and b) who is supervising/caring for them?

 

I assume that you weren't volunteering.  And Crystal does not provide babysitting services.  So just what are you suggesting?

 

 

 

Crystal actually did, at least in the past, offer babysitting services in your room.  We used it.  Whether they still offer it, I don't know.

 

One night we left the group of kids (all under age 10) in the suite while the adults went to dinner.  Learned the next day from our butler that the kids ordered plenty of room service sushi, were polite and respectful, and finished it all.  They apparently also spilled a drink on the carpet, freaked out about it, and the butler helped them with the cleanup.  😆

[gmarsh]

Cruising with children is an opportunity to teach them about gracious living.

Our family has been sailing Crystal for 30 years since the daughter was 8.

Now we have brought the grandkids on in 2018 and are doing  another family trip in 2025.

Children are the future of Crystal.

 

[Embowaf]

On 5/10/2024 at 8:57 AM, gmarsh said:

Cruising with children is an opportunity to teach them about gracious living.

Our family has been sailing Crystal for 30 years since the daughter was 8.

Now we have brought the grandkids on in 2018 and are doing  another family trip in 2025.

Children are the future of Crystal.

 

Yeah, my first Crystal Cruise was when I was 13, and if my parents hadn't taken me then, I wouldn't be going now. Crystal needs to attract new customers.

But in terms of children being obnoxious, I'm generally pretty quickly annoyed by young children misbehaving in venues they shouldn't be in... Nice restaurants, late at night, midnight R rated movies, etc. And I've never once had an issue on Crystal.

[KenzSailing]

On 5/10/2024 at 2:24 AM, Noggins said:

Just a little sheepishly I have to admit we have just booked a Virgin cruise.... (There, I have said it out loud now - no going back.)

 

 

Adrian 

 

I look forward to your review.  The way Virgin does dining really intrigues me, we are tempted...

[Noggins]

13 hours ago, KenzSailing said:

 

I look forward to your review.  The way Virgin does dining really intrigues me, we are tempted...

Ah - sounds like I might be doing a review.....!🙃

[HUNKY]

For the past ten years or so, EVERY  child has either their phone or Airpad with them.   Quiet, blissful peace. 
 

Unless, they lose their internet connection!

[SusieQft]

If you are looking to Regent for a kids-free experience, you are mistaken.  However, on our multiple Regent and old Crystal cruises, kids have been rare and well behaved, about the same on both.  We are excitedly looking forward to adding new Crystal to our experience in 2025, but can't report on them yet.

 

Regent also markets to families with children, with frequent "kids sail free" promotions.   It seems like these always pop up after final payment, including all 4 segments on our extended b2b with them this summer. Hopefully the onboard experience will not change because of this.  But it does illustrate that you cannot control what marketing effort will be made by either line, even after you are already into heavy cancellation penalties.

[sabrina5zunoi3]

On 5/12/2024 at 2:06 AM, Embowaf said:

Yeah, my first Crystal Cruise was when I was 13, and if my parents hadn't taken me then, I wouldn't be going now. Crystal needs to attract new customers.

But in terms of children being obnoxious, I'm generally pretty quickly annoyed by young children misbehaving in venues they shouldn't be in... Nice restaurants, late at night, midnight R rated movies, etc. And I've never once had an issue on Crystal. I completely agree with you, say the right things. Some people do anything for profit. Crystal probably does the same. I recently used a marketing essay writing service and found https://ca.edubirdie.com/marketing-essay-writing-service for myself. So everything is explained specifically there. How advertising affects us and what it affects. As for children, I agree here, small children who scream for no reason really infuriate.

I don't like this approach from Crystal. I agree with you.

Edited May 27 by sabrina5zunoi3

[tryber]

On 5/8/2024 at 9:59 PM, Keith1010 said:

I normally would let this go but I don't agree with a blanket statement that says children being bored to tears.  

 

Full disclosure. We brought our adult children and at the time three grandchildren on board Serenity on a seven day California Coastal Cruise in 2017.  The family had a wonderful time. The crew was fabulous as they always are and that included being wonderful with the grandchildren.  The grandchildren had a wonderful time. I look back at the photos and they put a smile on my face.  

 

We celebrated a special wedding anniversary and renewed our wedding vows on the ship. One might we had two crew members who babysit watch the grand children and they were superb. We were very respectful of others and didn't take the grandchildren to specialty restaurants.

 

Is sailing on a luxury line for all grandchildren? No. Is it for all adults? No.  The same goes for just about everything IMHO.

 

Anyway, if someone wants a guarantee not to sail wit any children I believe there are a couple of lines for that.  And finally several years ago I sailed on another luxury line in Alaska and the ship had a lot of children on board. The difference is that they had no special rooms for the children nor did they have any programs and the ship was smaller than a Crystal vessel so that experience was a lot different from any other one I had experienced on a luxury line.

 

Keith

 

I agree.  My kids are now adults, but we took them when they were 8 and 10, and they were never bored on the ship (sometimes bored on shore excursions).  They loved everything about the ship: the restaurants, the Broadway-style shows, the movies, the ice cream and the cabin steward bringing cookies to their room every day.   It might not be for all kids, but there are lots of kids who like those things as much or more than a bunch of kids-centered activities.

 

I never once saw a misbehaved kid on a Crystal Cruise.  I did, however, see several misbehaved adults when Spain won the World Cup. 

 

Given the pricing and the vibe of the ship, it seems very unlikely Crystal is going to become overrun by kids no matter how much marketing they do.  I think you can trust most parents to know what kind of vacations their kids will like.    

[moto_italia]

I find poor parenting most commonly leads to undesirable behavior by children. And frequently, I find those lacking adulting skills also exhibit less than stellar personal behavior. So, perhaps Crystal could just adopt a marketing campaign "Crystal Cruises are not for everyone - adulting and/or parenting skills are required!" 😉

[Texas Tillie]

21 minutes ago, moto_italia said:

I find poor parenting most commonly leads to undesirable behavior by children. And frequently, I find those lacking adulting skills also exhibit less than stellar personal behavior. So, perhaps Crystal could just adopt a marketing campaign "Crystal Cruises are not for everyone - adulting and/or parenting skills are required!" 😉

 

Of course, the worst offenders never see that it applies to them! 😮😁😏

 

[avalon1025]

Maybe they are just trying to fill these ships up?

[Keith1010]

New Crystal is approaching marketing to families very similar to how Old Crystal did this.  Like it or not like it they can differentiate on this from most other luxury lines as they do have children's facilities and the size of the ship is a benefit as well.

There is a saying I like to use which is some children never grown up.  In short, there are some adults who misbehave and that carried over from their youth.

 

We took three of our five grandchildren on a cruise and everyone had a great time including grandparents, parents and the children.  A few of our cruising friends said your grandchildren would be bored.  Well, I know some adults who get bored cruising too. Cruising is not for everyone no matter their age.

 

Our grandchildren had a wonderful time as did the adults. I look forward to when we bring all five grandchildren on board.

 

Keith