A curious failure to communicate?

[julig22]

Something that I've noticed is that no matter what is announced, a fairly high percentage of passengers won't have heard the announcements - or read any information that might have been provided. And sadly, that seems to include crew members as well LOL. So I have been in situations where an explanation was given, just not widely distributed.

Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to hear announcements - I was just on the Star and the only way to hear anything if you were in your cabin was to open the door - IF you happened to hear that there was an announcement. They did NOT come through on the TV.

I was told that the newer ships would have the ability to turn on announcements in your cabin, so no need to go through the TV. Maybe having a TV channel where you could see/hear the captain's announcements would help - better use of the bandwidth over broadcasting the "not so newlywed" game over and over and over...

[Capitan Obvious]

25 minutes ago, CruiseMH said:

 

The captain is responsible for the safety and security of the ship and its crew.

The more detailed explanation he gives to the guests why what happens the more satisfied the guests are and the lower the risk of any sort of riot is.

If he just says "we are going to port A instead of port B" without any explanation the rumors will spread and the guests might become angry and the crew are the first to get confronted with these passengers.

There might be situations where the real reason would be too complicated or difficult to explain to the guests.But in the case of OP it was a strike ! Something that every guest can recheck via the internet within 2 minutes.

So why risk to have angry passengers when you easily can avoid it ?

 

 

That is quite the theory..."tell me or I might riot". Yet you can't ensure that all of the passengers will believe the reason...no matter what you tell them. Face it, passengers should be told what will happen, but unless there is a verifiable NEED, they don't have to be told "why". "Why" is just a way for the guest to be nosey or try to get a platform from which to "karen".

[kitkat343]

16 minutes ago, julig22 said:

Something that I've noticed is that no matter what is announced, a fairly high percentage of passengers won't have heard the announcements - or read any information that might have been provided. And sadly, that seems to include crew members as well LOL. So I have been in situations where an explanation was given, just not widely distributed.

Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to hear announcements - I was just on the Star and the only way to hear anything if you were in your cabin was to open the door - IF you happened to hear that there was an announcement. They did NOT come through on the TV.

I was told that the newer ships would have the ability to turn on announcements in your cabin, so no need to go through the TV. Maybe having a TV channel where you could see/hear the captain's announcements would help - better use of the bandwidth over broadcasting the "not so newlywed" game over and over and over...

Or there could be a message posted in the app when you log in.  A port strike would be reported in local news, so I don't think a lot of people would be debating that if they were notified

.  

Edited June 25 by kitkat343

[CruiseMH]

29 minutes ago, Capitan Obvious said:

 

That is quite the theory..."tell me or I might riot". Yet you can't ensure that all of the passengers will believe the reason...no matter what you tell them. Face it, passengers should be told what will happen, but unless there is a verifiable NEED, they don't have to be told "why".

 

Of course i can`t ensure they will believe the reason,but in this case it is easy to find out. 120 seconds of additional information will avoid several hours of trouble at the reception.

Yes, passengers usually don`t NEED to know the reason but it is insanely important for the atmosphere (and indirectly for the safety) on board if they do.

 

[dexddd]

Our last missed port was Scotland which we were looking forward to.  Captain came on, said going to miss due to 'weather' but would get to Iceland day early.  He went on to say '...don't go to GS to be angry...'. That was it.

[Capitan Obvious]

2 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

Or there could be a message posted in the app when you log in.  A port strike would be reported in local news, so I don't think a lot of people would be debating that if they were notified

.  

 

Of course, the fact that it is still being debated in this very thread would indicate the likelyhood that reality will not align with this opinion.

 

1 hour ago, CruiseMH said:

 

Of course i can`t ensure they will believe the reason,but in this case it is easy to find out. 120 seconds of additional information will avoid several hours of trouble at the reception.

Yes, passengers usually don`t NEED to know the reason but it is insanely important for the atmosphere (and indirectly for the safety) on board if they do.

 

 

Just think it through...so easy to find out, then why not just do that and skip the "why, why, why" and the trips to guest services? Why would there be any "trouble" at guest services unless it was from people who a) didn't believe the reason, and./or b) wanted to argue over it?

 

Trust that those who need to know, will know, and those who need to know "why" will know "why". If you haven't been informed, than there is a good reason for that...whether you agree with it or not.

 

You might as well ask "why" the numbers in roulette are RED and BLACK and not, for example, ORANGE and BLACK. 

[Wayward Son]

On 6/24/2024 at 11:37 AM, cruiseny4life said:

The cruise industry is a hospitality industry. Profit first. Safety second.

 

No.

 

 

On 6/25/2024 at 11:10 AM, CruiseMH said:

The captain is responsible for the safety and security of the ship and its crew.

 

Yes. I wish you had just left it there.

 

 

[Wayward Son]

On 6/25/2024 at 1:59 PM, Capitan Obvious said:

Trust that those who need to know, will know, and those who need to know "why" will know "why". If you haven't been informed, than there is a good reason for that...whether you agree with it or not.

 

Sanity reigns.

 

 

[CruiseMH]

On 6/25/2024 at 8:59 PM, Capitan Obvious said:

 If you haven't been informed, than there is a good reason for that..

 

And thats exactly the part i highly doubt.

I do not accuse them of any intention, but only of clumsiness

Edited Monday at 07:37 PM by CruiseMH

[PATRLR]

3 hours ago, CruiseMH said:

 

And thats exactly the part i highly doubt.

I do not accuse them of any intention, but only of clumsiness

I agree.  I highly doubt there is a "good reason".  I believe NCL's notorious lack of communication is more cultural than anything else.  It is possibly intentional (think Belichick and the Patriots for those who know US football), possibly unintentional (it's just not a priority or they just don't care).

Would be interesting if other cruise lines missed that port because of the strike and how they communicated.  It wouldn't shock me at all if there was a much different level of communication. 

[Capitan Obvious]

16 hours ago, CruiseMH said:

 

And thats exactly the part i highly doubt.

I do not accuse them of any intention, but only of clumsiness

 

What is your "highly doubt" based on? Is it really that hard to accept that you might not "need to know" everything about everything?

 

Again, when you are in a position where you need to know "why", they will tell you "why". You make decisions in your life each and every day, right? Yet you have consistently failed to let me know "why" you've made those decisions. Is that because I don't need to know "why", or is there some sort of "clumsiness" on your part?

 

 

 

As an aside, I think it is funny how people here get all wound up when a port is changed because they don't know "why"...yet those same people seem to be perfectly fine not knowing "why" they were going there in the first place.

[CruiseMH]

4 hours ago, Capitan Obvious said:

 

What is your "highly doubt" based on? Is it really that hard to accept that you might not "need to know" everything about everything?

 

Again, when you are in a position where you need to know "why", they will tell you "why". You make decisions in your life each and every day, right? Yet you have consistently failed to let me know "why" you've made those decisions. Is that because I don't need to know "why", or is there some sort of "clumsiness" on your part?

 

As an aside, I think it is funny how people here get all wound up when a port is changed because they don't know "why"...yet those same people seem to be perfectly fine not knowing "why" they were going there in the first place.

 

Jesus,this is one of the worst postings i`v read in this forum.

 

Especially you example is ridiculous.

First of all: the people have paid for a cruise and have chosen it based on a specific itinerary.

While the terms and conditions of NCL allow them to change the ports as they want the passengers still have the moral right at least to get the reason for a change. Simply because it affects their vacation in many ways (timewise and maybe also financially)

Especially if the reason is - as in this case - very simple and easy to explain and out of NCL`s control.

And your example is extremely ridiculous because my daily decisions don`t affect your life !

But a change of a port of a cruise affects thousands of people`s ..well, not lives but days.

 

But as i really want to understand it,i will ask you a direct question: What would be a reason for a port change where you think the people would need to know it ?

 

[Wayward Son]

17 minutes ago, CruiseMH said:

passengers still have the moral right at least to get the reason for a change.

 

Moral right? That's a new one.

 

[cruiseny4life]

23 minutes ago, CruiseMH said:

But as i really want to understand it,i will ask you a direct question: What would be a reason for a port change where you think the people would need to know it ?

You're playing a dangerous game. 

[Wayward Son]

11 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

You're playing a dangerous game. 

 

For sure. I think MH is confusing knowing about a port change, and why the port was changed. I can think of no reason off the top of my head that a passenger needs to know why.

 

[Capitan Obvious]

49 minutes ago, CruiseMH said:

Jesus,this is one of the worst postings i`v read in this forum.

I'll give you a chance, but typically when someone doesn't have facts and logic on their side, they resort to insults...

 

49 minutes ago, CruiseMH said:

Especially you example is ridiculous.

Calling it ridiculous doesn't change the point. It is simply an attempt to deflect.

 

49 minutes ago, CruiseMH said:

First of all: the people have paid for a cruise and have chosen it based on a specific itinerary.

An assumption on your part as there is simply no possible way for you to know that on behalf of all of the guests. However, if so, it makes no difference to the point.

 

50 minutes ago, CruiseMH said:

While the terms and conditions of NCL allow them to change the ports as they want the passengers still have the moral right at least to get the reason for a change.

Moral right? Says who? No amount of tantrum and foot-stomping justifies the insistence on knowing "why". You need to know "why" a port was changed as much as you need to know "why" you were scheduled to that port in the first place.

 

50 minutes ago, CruiseMH said:

Simply because it affects their vacation in many ways (timewise and maybe also financially)

Yet knowing "why" doesn't change that impact one bit. So again, if it doesn't change anything, then you only need to know what will happen, not "why".

 

50 minutes ago, CruiseMH said:

Especially if the reason is - as in this case - very simple and easy to explain and out of NCL`s control.

Of course, you are relying on as assumption as to the "why" in this case...you don't know with any certainty which makes all of this a pointless guess.

 

51 minutes ago, CruiseMH said:

And your example is extremely ridiculous because my daily decisions don`t affect your life !

Back to the insults. Be better. Of course it doesn't affect my lift, just like the reason "why" a port was changed doesn't affect yours. The decision to chage will affect you...and they should notifiy you of the change, but it goes off the rails when you wander into "why".

 

52 minutes ago, CruiseMH said:

But as i really want to understand it,i will ask you a direct question: What would be a reason for a port change where you think the people would need to know it ?

 

I always think the people need to know of the port change. I don't see a valid example of where someone would need to know "why".

[PATRLR]

36 minutes ago, Wayward Son said:

I can think of no reason off the top of my head that a passenger needs to know why.

Needs to know? Considering one doesn't need to go on a cruise, I think it is safe to say one doesn't need to know anything at all about the cruise.  I suppose the only thing we need is oxygen and nourishment.  So you are right, no passenger needs to know why something changed.  
 

The more appropriate discussion is whether passengers should be informed about these matters.  In my opinion, they should be informed in most cases.   In my opinion it just makes for a better customer experience if customers aren't left to wonder and speculate as to why something changed.  

 

[PATRLR]

1 hour ago, CruiseMH said:

Jesus,this is one of the worst postings i`v read in this forum.

Agreed.  That post is a fine example of arguing for the sake of arguing.

 

 

 

 

[Wayward Son]

43 minutes ago, PATRLR said:

The more appropriate discussion is whether passengers should be informed about these matters.

 

As far as know, the passenger is always informed about a port change. It's just a matter of when. The sooner the better. I think we can all agree on that.

 

 

43 minutes ago, PATRLR said:

In my opinion it just makes for a better customer experience if customers aren't left to wonder and speculate as to why something changed. 

 

Perhaps. But the "why" is just a want, not a need. It's when people don't get what they want, and go off into a rage, that boggles my mind. What a colossal waste of time, effort and general happiness.

 

[EngrJones]

When I was younger, I learned that quite often the only answer to expect was "because I told you so, that's why."  Learning to deal with that helps when a person has to deal with the real world, where answers are not always forthcoming.  That's the world I live in.  Just move on and enjoy your life.  It's too short to waste energy trying to get an explanation for everything.

 

[CruiseMH]

1 hour ago, Capitan Obvious said:

 

 

 

I always think the people need to know of the port change. I don't see a valid example of where someone would need to know "why".

 

Maybe it is about the word "need".

i should have said "should" know the reason for a port change. this describes it better.

 

 

1 hour ago, Capitan Obvious said:

Yet knowing "why" doesn't change that impact one bit. So again, if it doesn't change anything, then you only need to know what will happen, not "why".

 

 

if the tax office or any other authority wants to have money from you and you ask them "why" would you be satisfied if they told you that the "why" doesn't change the fact so you don`t need to know ?

 

1 hour ago, Capitan Obvious said:

Of course, you are relying on as assumption as to the "why" in this case...you don't know with any certainty which makes all of this a pointless guess.

 

 

The union officially called out a strike, other cruise ships didn`t dock due to the strike as an official reason...so this is simply a fact, not just an assumption.

Edited yesterday at 07:29 PM by CruiseMH

[PATRLR]

56 minutes ago, Wayward Son said:

 

As far as know, the passenger is always informed about a port change. It's just a matter of when. The sooner the better. I think we can all agree on that.

Of course the issue in this thread, the issue the OP was curious about, was the "why".  That is the matter to which I was referring.

 

56 minutes ago, Wayward Son said:

Perhaps. But the "why" is just a want, not a need. 

Yeah, I think we've established that anything short of oxygen and nourishment is a "want", not a need.

 

 

56 minutes ago, Wayward Son said:

It's when people don't get what they want, and go off into a rage, that boggles my mind. What a colossal waste of time, effort and general happiness.

In my opinion, a bigger waste of time is when someone expresses a desire to better understand something and others characterize their curiosity as going "off into a rage".  People should be able to ask questions and express curiosity without being considered to have gone into a rage.

 

I wasn't even on the cruise and I too am curious to know why they wouldn't share with the passengers the fact that they were making a change due to a port strike.  Apparently other cruise lines shared that information, I'm curious to know why NCL didn't/wouldn't/couldn't.  Does my curiosity mean that I too am off in a rage?

 

Edited yesterday at 07:57 PM by PATRLR

[Menocchio]

I've seen a couple of people on a couple of different ships post their letters informing of the itinerary changes to avoid Beryl. They're the same, just with the relevant ports swapped out. They do admit that they're doing this specifically to dodge Hurricane Beryl, instead of the boilerplate list of all possible reasons. But they all have the exact same paragraph about Beryl. Then they list off the new ports, each with a vetted sentence about how great they are.

 

It's obvious NCL doesn't want their captains and crews saying too much to the guests. They want to control the information themselves. And for an event that will affect multiple ships, they'll whip up a specific statement for everyone to use. But corporate can't be bothered to address something that'll only be relevant for a single port in a single sailing of a single ship. So it's boilerplate for those occasions. 

[Wayward Son]

38 minutes ago, PATRLR said:

I'm curious to know why NCL didn't/wouldn't/couldn't.  Does my curiosity mean that I too am off in a rage?

 

I somehow forgot that hyperbole is never used in this forum. Not everyone who gets an unsatisfactory answer goes into a rage, just like not everyone who correctly shrugs it off is always happy. I thought that would be a given.

 

It's certainly understandable to want to know the answer to something. It's when people turn that want into a demand that I get my panties in a bunch.

 

Whether that applies to you, I have no idea, and it doesn't really matter. It applies to someone.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited yesterday at 08:32 PM by Wayward Son