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1st time cruiser- shocked at constant sales pressure on ship


bmorrow492
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I'm 65, a recent retiree, and have just taken the first of what I expected would be many cruises. However, if my recent experience is typical of cruising, then it was my last cruise. I have always heard that a cruise offered lots of entertainment venues aboard ship. I found however, that almost every "entertainment" activity offered was actually just a thinly disguised sales pitch. At every activity we attended we were pressured to buy one thing or another. Are all cruise lines like this? (I will with hold the name of our cruise line, but it was one of the major ones.) Someone please tell me that all cruise lines do not constantly hound you to buy things.

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I'm 65, a recent retiree, and have just taken the first of what I expected would be many cruises. However, if my recent experience is typical of cruising, then it was my last cruise. I have always heard that a cruise offered lots of entertainment venues aboard ship. I found however, that almost every "entertainment" activity offered was actually just a thinly disguised sales pitch. At every activity we attended we were pressured to buy one thing or another. Are all cruise lines like this? (I will with hold the name of our cruise line, but it was one of the major ones.) Someone please tell me that all cruise lines do not constantly hound you to buy things.

 

It really is okay to mention the cruise line.

 

I have been on only Carnival and Princess cruises, but I don't recall any sales pitch at any of the activities we've been too, unless there's info about how to do the activity back at home. For example, the Hawaiian cruises on Princess has many Hawaiian activities. You can take the ukulele courses with one of the ukes offered for borrowing. But the instructor will give info on how to buy your own uke (if buying in the islands, recommendations of stores; how to find a decent and not a cheapie-about-to-fall-apart instrument, etc.).

 

There's also arts and crafts activities on board and many passengers taking part what to know what supplies to get and where. Some will have the supplies available to buy. Many of these classes are for free, but if there's a fee, it will be listed in the ship's newsletter. I doubt if you'll show up for a fee-based activity and not be able to find this out ahead of time.

 

There are activities such as wine tastings. I doubt if any winery or group with a wine tasting that doesn't offer to sell bottles of what they're selling. So I certainly wouldn't show up for a freebie sampling (or even one with a charge) and not know that the motivation is to sell the products. But no one will force you to buy anything -- unless that's specified up front.

 

The only real sales pitch I can think of on board a ship would be those "shore talks." Sometimes they are really a thinly veiled sales pitch to shop at the "cruise line recommended stores." But not all shore talks are.

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Dear Bmorrow,

Welcome to CC!! Unfortunately, without more information, I cannot comment in detail until I know the cruise line, the ship and the itinerary.

Our last cruise was on the Golden Princess for 32 days, and we did nor feel pressured. However, if you choose to go to some of the presentations, such as for the spa, acupuncture, art auctions, there is a sales pitch. BUT, you can choose not to go. Since it was your first cruise of many (hopefully), look at it as a learning experience and know what to avoid on your next one.

Happy Cruising!

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I know that on Royal Caribbean most of the Spa "presentations", such as "learn about facials", defenatly are geared towards trying you to get you to buy something - I just ignore those! :-) (Oh and the Port Shopping talks' they will tell you which stores pay money to the cruise line.)

 

Other things, like cooking demos, ice carving, parties, trivia, etc are just things to see and/or do.

 

Which cruise line were you on, and what did the daily program say about the activity.

 

There are a lot of things you can do that won't be a sales pitch; you just have to know which ones. :-)

 

Aloha,

 

John

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Not a problem I've ever had.

 

Sure there are flyers for sales and the like, and port lectures push ship tours, but thats about it.

 

Never been to what I'd call entertainment and had sales pressure.

 

Shows - nope they may give a plug to the artists CD and try to sell you a drink

 

Trivia - never try and sell me anything

 

Dance class - nope

 

 

Lecture - maybe the talkers books

 

Craft class - perhaps offer the chance to buy more material, but every class DW has done had a small fee that included all the gear

 

Wine tasting - yes a fee and they may try and sell you a bottle or two

 

 

Movies - They will offer to sell you a drink but no pressure.

 

I think there is less selling than on shore.

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I have heard people complain that on Carnival, the spa activities that they purchased were less that what they expected because they were loaded with sales pressure pitches. But I have never heard anyone say the same about the shows on board.

 

Not really sure why you are withholding the name of the cruise line. If you really want to know if others are experiencing the same thing, you should really mention the cruise line so that the others who have sailed on that line can comment on whether or not they have experienced the same.

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The worse cruise for spa sales for me was RCCL. I had a massage that was horrible in that it was suppose to be an hour and ended up only being 40 min. I kept telling her to do it harder as I could barely feel the massage but she never did. The rest of the hour was spent with me on the table and her badgering me about products and more massages. I couldn't wait to get out of there and didn't go near the spa after that.

 

Carnival crafts so far have been free, however Princess did charge a small amount for the ones I did with them. I didn't do any on RCCL as I think I was afraid. RCCL was my first cruise.

 

Other than that I haven't paid for anything I myself decided to do.

tigercat

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Hi bmorrow492! Noticed this is your first post. Welcome to Cruise Critic! :D

 

On most ships when you go to the production shows and other main lounge/bar activities there will be no selling pressure. ;)

 

LuLu

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There are certainly optional things such as spa, art auctions, photos, but once you see that, you then know that if you don't want any of the above just don't go to them. We have no interest in any of them and have never been pressured. When photographer comes around we just say "no thank you".

 

I have had my hair trimmed and a pedicure while on a cruise and was shown some products and just said I am happy with the products I'm using and that was it.

 

If you try another cruise read through the info that is left in your cabin each evening for the following day and you can quickly see what is going to be a sales pitch.

 

The actual entertainment is free, never a sale other then the group maybe having a CD for sale, but there is never any pressure for those.

 

I hope you give cruising another chance. We did not go on our first cruise until a few years after retirement and we were hooked pretty quickly. We have never bought anything on board other then something that we specifically went to the shops to look for.

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I have not had any problems with entertainment activities having a sales pitch on either Cunard or Holland America. However, I never go to the art auctions, port shopping talks, foot problems/back problems/acupuncture/teeth whitening (or anything else related to the spa) talks.

 

To the original poster....

Let us know which cruise line and which entertainments you attended. Maybe we can give more suggestions before you give up on cruising.

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Welcome to Cruise Critic. The cruise lines maintain that at best they break even on fares so need the income from the casinos, the bars, shops, spas, art auctions and photos as well as commissions they receive from some of the shops ashore. We have sailed mainly with Princes but also have sailed with Celebrity and HAL. Well first we don't generally to shopper lectures and as for photos we just give a polite "no thanks" and keep walking. Yes there are the unwanted flyers and maybe we have become a bit thick skinned about sales pressures but what there is certainly doesn't impact our enjoyment of the cruise.

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Quite frankly, I think that the OP is correct depending upon which line is sailed. Some examples are....

 

  • pushy and obnoxious photographers
  • constant Bingo announcements
  • stations set up outside of the buffet with spa specials, inches of gold, drink packages, cookbooks, (etc., etc., etc.)
  • port talks which are nothing more than sales pitches for shops that provide kickbacks to the cruise lines
  • sales of junk merchandise set up on the lido decks

 

None of the above lend to refined luxury.

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We've been on several lines including Princess but our winter cruise to Hawaii was high pressure wine and drink sales in the dining room.

 

We know to expect sales' pitches at the shops, 'free' lectures in the spa or hair salon and generally avoid these places.

 

But it seemed our table stewards were on some sort of incentive programme to sell drinks with breakfast, lunch and dinner and special coffees afterwards. Because we had traditional seating we came to respect and like our stewards and hated to forever decline. We'd stupidly buy wine once in awhile and so give the poor guy hope of future sales. For our upcoming Princess (booked before this negative experience) we're considering simply saying we must abstain for health reasons and perhaps avoid some of the pressure.

 

We prefer the dining room so couldn't avoid this at all THREE meals.

 

We've learned to politely decline and duck the photographers.

 

We've booked a second Celebrity winter cruise to see if it's any better in this department. Unfortunately our budget does not stretch to the luxury lines.

 

For the record, we've never brought with us the allowed bottles of wine.

 

Ruth

Edited by Been There, Planning That
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I'm 65, a recent retiree, and have just taken the first of what I expected would be many cruises. However, if my recent experience is typical of cruising, then it was my last cruise. I have always heard that a cruise offered lots of entertainment venues aboard ship. I found however, that almost every "entertainment" activity offered was actually just a thinly disguised sales pitch. At every activity we attended we were pressured to buy one thing or another. Are all cruise lines like this? (I will with hold the name of our cruise line, but it was one of the major ones.) Someone please tell me that all cruise lines do not constantly hound you to buy things.

 

 

The mass market lines are always pushing you to buy something.. You are right most activities contain a sales pitch, usually for BINGO, or the Art Auction, or something else just as foolish. No on forces you to buy any of that stuff. Just consider it like the ads on TV, ignore it and go have fun. It's not worth worrying about, unless of course you fall for the sales pitch.

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OP-

Without knowing who you cruised with, it's hard to say specifically. But, we have cruised both Carnival and Princess and honestly it's been in my experience it depends on the type of event you go to.

Where I notice the pitches the most: spa (especially the free tours), the diamond or jewelry talks, the shopping seminars, port talks, etc.

My husband and I have learned this and pretty much avoid these events. When we first started cruising we really thought we could learn something from these, especially the port talks. Especially since we have never been to any of those ports. But what we have learned is that this website, more than anything, is helpful in learning about the ports. You can research and plan before you go and there's really no need to go to those talks, unless you are looking for something to do to send your time during the day.

Now we frequent the trivia, game shows, pool deck events, cooking seminars, and comedy events and have not noticed near as much sales pitches.

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The mass market lines are always pushing you to buy something.. .

 

Some are much worse than others. From my experience, on Celebrity there is little, while on NCL and Carnival it is almost non-stop. Princess is in the middle.

Edited by sloopsailor
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