nevis92
March 8th, 2009, 12:48 PM
If you spend time on any of the other cruise line’s message boards, you will see a pattern of behavior. The boards are filled with “regulars” who are enthusiasts of that particular cruise line. They’ve been referred to as cheerleaders. They take great pride in their favorite cruise line and circle the wagons when someone drops in to leave a negative review. Almost automatically, they dismiss the reviewers negative review and attack the reviewer as inexperienced, ill-informed, impossible to please, or simply and idiot. Some of the more understanding cheerleaders are respectful of the reviewer but because of their bias, will always make excuses for the cruise line’s shortcomings or missteps.
My point is that all the mainstream, US cruise lines have very active message boards with many more participants and posts per day than MSC. Holland America has a particularly loyal group of participants on their board, many having cruised together multiple times. HAL’s board is, with some exceptions, filled with useful, constructive information and healthy discussions about past and future cruises. They complain about service, food, entertainment, etc. Much of the same issues discussed on MSC’s boards. Except MSC, which has only had one or two ships in N. America for just a few months a year, hasn’t built up a message board culture on Cruise Critic. With far fewer posters, and even fewer “regulars”, this board behaves differently.
This board has a high percentage of “trolls”, folks who just joined Cruise Critic, have “been on over 5000 cruises, and finally felt they had to speak out about how terrible MSC is”. I’ve noticed some of these people haven’t even sailed with MSC as they pontificate about the shortcomings or the African Homo Sexual Society Group. By the way, to the same person who has registered several different alias’ on this board and continues to post about this subject, I may not be an African or gay, but I know how to spell homosexual! And you have revealed yourself as the same ignorant person every time you post on the subject.
My point is that 99% of us that visit MSC’s message boards are trying to make informed decisions about what cruise to take next, or how best to prepare for the one we’ve already booked. It is unfortunate that there seems to be a vocal minority that wants to see MSC fail in the N. American market and simply go away. I’m not discounting that there have been many legitimate negative reviews which warranted discussion. One only has to visit the Rick Sasso thread to see that the negative reviews in early January were heard by MSC loud and clear. They took the unconventional step to address them in a forum with MSC’s President. If you haven’t read the thread, I highly recommend it.
So here is some red meat for the conspiracy theorists out there. Since it goes without question that the cruise line’s employees closely follow the message boards of their respective brand, would it be fair to assume that there are employees of competing brands that are reading MSC’s boards? If you agree, then hold on to that thought for a moment.
A high percentage of N. Americans who cruise, do so on one of the brands under the Royal Caribbean or Carnival Corp umbrella. Both are HUGE publically-traded corporations with a lot of ships to fill in an increasingly difficult environment. They play by the same “set of rules” in the way they market and sell to the cruising public.
Along comes MSC, a privately-held, family owned company with close to 400 container ships around the world. They have A LOT of cash and A LOT of clout. They have business relationships at many more world ports than any other cruise line due to their cargo operations. So MSC decides to sink some ridiculous amount of money ($8 billion?) into cruise ships and suddenly has the youngest fleet in the world, and is the fastest growing cruise line in the world.
So a corporate board member of Carnival or RC isn’t a little worried? They aren’t worried that MSC’s ships are gorgeous vessels? They aren’t worried that MSC isn’t beholden to stockholders like they are? They aren’t worried that MSC’s fares are FAR LOWER. They aren’t really REALLY worried that “kids sail free” is going to force them to offer something similar?
Why they SHOULD worry is that in a very short period of time, MSC has become a major “player” in the cruise business. They should worry that their former colleague, Richard Sasso, is no dummy and knows what changes need to be made in order to see that MSC thrives in this market. They should worry because as their stock value goes down, capacity and debt continue to climb. That puts increasing pressure on them to fill ships while trying to avoid cutting fares.
I’m sure that no employees from competing cruise lines have EVER posted something negative about MSC. I’m sure they’ve never registered as a new member of Cruise Critic and claimed to have just disembarked from a horrendous week aboard the Orchestra filled with sub-par food and evil Italian “stares”. Yes, early January was not good for the Orchestra, but as the more positive reviews keep showing up by seasoned, legitimate Cruise Critic members, the more the “trolls” want to make sure none of us forget that MSC is “horrible” or “the worst cruise ever”.
I am looking forward to my cruise aboard the Orchestra in two weeks. I will be sure to report back on my experience. I’ll include the good, the bad, and everything in between. What I will not do is take down the whole ship because of a hidden agenda to see them fail. Nor will I prop them up in an effort to prove the naysayers wrong. But I will take the good advice from those that have recently been aboard and use that to make my vacation more enjoyable. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, that is what Cruise Critic is all about.
Happy Sailing.
My point is that all the mainstream, US cruise lines have very active message boards with many more participants and posts per day than MSC. Holland America has a particularly loyal group of participants on their board, many having cruised together multiple times. HAL’s board is, with some exceptions, filled with useful, constructive information and healthy discussions about past and future cruises. They complain about service, food, entertainment, etc. Much of the same issues discussed on MSC’s boards. Except MSC, which has only had one or two ships in N. America for just a few months a year, hasn’t built up a message board culture on Cruise Critic. With far fewer posters, and even fewer “regulars”, this board behaves differently.
This board has a high percentage of “trolls”, folks who just joined Cruise Critic, have “been on over 5000 cruises, and finally felt they had to speak out about how terrible MSC is”. I’ve noticed some of these people haven’t even sailed with MSC as they pontificate about the shortcomings or the African Homo Sexual Society Group. By the way, to the same person who has registered several different alias’ on this board and continues to post about this subject, I may not be an African or gay, but I know how to spell homosexual! And you have revealed yourself as the same ignorant person every time you post on the subject.
My point is that 99% of us that visit MSC’s message boards are trying to make informed decisions about what cruise to take next, or how best to prepare for the one we’ve already booked. It is unfortunate that there seems to be a vocal minority that wants to see MSC fail in the N. American market and simply go away. I’m not discounting that there have been many legitimate negative reviews which warranted discussion. One only has to visit the Rick Sasso thread to see that the negative reviews in early January were heard by MSC loud and clear. They took the unconventional step to address them in a forum with MSC’s President. If you haven’t read the thread, I highly recommend it.
So here is some red meat for the conspiracy theorists out there. Since it goes without question that the cruise line’s employees closely follow the message boards of their respective brand, would it be fair to assume that there are employees of competing brands that are reading MSC’s boards? If you agree, then hold on to that thought for a moment.
A high percentage of N. Americans who cruise, do so on one of the brands under the Royal Caribbean or Carnival Corp umbrella. Both are HUGE publically-traded corporations with a lot of ships to fill in an increasingly difficult environment. They play by the same “set of rules” in the way they market and sell to the cruising public.
Along comes MSC, a privately-held, family owned company with close to 400 container ships around the world. They have A LOT of cash and A LOT of clout. They have business relationships at many more world ports than any other cruise line due to their cargo operations. So MSC decides to sink some ridiculous amount of money ($8 billion?) into cruise ships and suddenly has the youngest fleet in the world, and is the fastest growing cruise line in the world.
So a corporate board member of Carnival or RC isn’t a little worried? They aren’t worried that MSC’s ships are gorgeous vessels? They aren’t worried that MSC isn’t beholden to stockholders like they are? They aren’t worried that MSC’s fares are FAR LOWER. They aren’t really REALLY worried that “kids sail free” is going to force them to offer something similar?
Why they SHOULD worry is that in a very short period of time, MSC has become a major “player” in the cruise business. They should worry that their former colleague, Richard Sasso, is no dummy and knows what changes need to be made in order to see that MSC thrives in this market. They should worry because as their stock value goes down, capacity and debt continue to climb. That puts increasing pressure on them to fill ships while trying to avoid cutting fares.
I’m sure that no employees from competing cruise lines have EVER posted something negative about MSC. I’m sure they’ve never registered as a new member of Cruise Critic and claimed to have just disembarked from a horrendous week aboard the Orchestra filled with sub-par food and evil Italian “stares”. Yes, early January was not good for the Orchestra, but as the more positive reviews keep showing up by seasoned, legitimate Cruise Critic members, the more the “trolls” want to make sure none of us forget that MSC is “horrible” or “the worst cruise ever”.
I am looking forward to my cruise aboard the Orchestra in two weeks. I will be sure to report back on my experience. I’ll include the good, the bad, and everything in between. What I will not do is take down the whole ship because of a hidden agenda to see them fail. Nor will I prop them up in an effort to prove the naysayers wrong. But I will take the good advice from those that have recently been aboard and use that to make my vacation more enjoyable. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, that is what Cruise Critic is all about.
Happy Sailing.