karl_nj

I know this is an older thread, but just back from Celebrity Reflection and wanted to add a datapoint. Before my cruise I did a search and was a little confused about the 'conflicting answers'. I received the 20% discount on every bottle I ordered, it was not limited to one time use.

When they report to stockholders they say 100% is when they have two passengers in each room, so 100% is going to be 5610 passengers (2805 rooms x2). If they do ever hit 7600 passengers on a spring break/summer cruise they will be able to claim 135% full.

The hours have gotten worse, but the buffet hours have never been great on Royal. I noticed this even on my first Royal cruise years ago, compared to lines that basically have the buffet open almost 24 hours a day. On Royal I guess they expect you to go to Cafe Promenade, but they have cut back on the number/quality of items there recently. I feel this is an issue with the industry moving to 'my time dining'—was easier to schedule things when there were just two seatings, and you either did show and then dinner, or the other way around. Disney still works this way, and I agree the showtimes work better. All the mainstream lines have switched to this, but I believe the more 'premium' lines are keeping twice a day. For now, at least. You still get this on lines like Disney and Celebrity. In any case, I feel all of your points are valid, and I agree all these little things do add up. Personally, I also just like being on a ship, at sea, so for me taking a cruise will still trump an AI, but I can certainly see why not everyone would feel that way.

I think you bring up a lot of good points, though I do want to mention that little kids do sail for "cheaper" with KSF, because once that kid hits age 13 the parent pays all of the extra costs you mention, plus whatever 3rd/4th passenger fare royal is charging for that sailing. Sometimes cheaper to buy a 2nd room, if there are any connecting rooms still available (though often those cost 'extra' also) Transparency in pricing is an issue in many industries in the US (the whole "resort fee" nonsense in hotels comes to mind) but I do wish that companies stopped with this nonsense. It would be wonderful if we should just see the price, with all taxes, fees, and service charges included. I was visiting Paris earlier this year, and it was so refreshing to go to a restaurant and have the price on the menu actually end up being the price you charged. Service and VAT was included in the price. Crazy concept.

Oh, I wonder if that is why there is no more buffet during bunch at Palo on DCL. I thought it was just a cost cutting thing, but perhaps it is more to it.

If it's about freeing space, then they should instead do something about chairhogs reserving loungers and not using them. I can't imagine kicking out the 16 and 17 year olds will actually make a difference.

Were 16 year olds in the solarium really an issue? Seems like a pretty random change to me. Will they change the fitness center age limit from 16 to 18 to also be "consistent" with policies? If they really want to be consistent, then perhaps "Kids Sail Free" should go up to age 17, instead of ending at age 12.

It's kinda nasty to try to dry off using a wet towel. I have a nice long towel rack at home, so my towel dries between showers. I also rarely shower more then once a day at home, so it's even more likely that my towel will be dry by the next day. On a cruise there is just a hook, so the towel is all bunched up and doesn't dry as well. There will also be days where I shower more then one a day, if I end up going to the beach. It's also annoying for the 3rd/4th bunks/sofabed to be left open the entire cruise, depending on the room layout. It works better on some ships compared to others

Yeah, but I don't want to overburden the room stewards since they have more rooms to deal with now. I'm not super happy with the mass market cruise lines getting rid of turndown service, but it is what it is. As long as the room design "works" with keeping the sofa in bed form 24x7, it will be fine. This is actually what Carnival has been doing for at least 15 years anyway, even when they still had turndown service. There will only be 3 of us in the room anyway--if both of my kids were coming on this trip, I'd just get 2 rooms. But one is off to college and the spring break schedule doesn't line up anymore, so it's either no cruise for any of us in the Spring or go without him. Now just need to figure out how to tell him the news, lol The main reason it was on my mind was actually from a cruise on Celebrity Summit earlier this month. They still have turndown service, but the room steward was just too lazy to put the back into sofa form, and that blocked the balcony access completely in their room (my two kids and my mom were in the connecting cabin)

Yes, that also sometimes works—assuming you have WiFi calling enabled. In that case you can also make/receive voice calls (but as you pointed out, that would take longer and use up more of your internet minutes)

SMS while at sea will likely be $0.50 per msg

There was an article in the WSJ today (or perhaps yesterday) that basically said that customers are pushing back against the pandemic era cutbacks at hotels.

The rooms being smaller is a large part of the issue. Hotels usually have a towel bar, so you can dry off you towel if you want to use it again. They don't dry as well if you use a hook, or if the ship does have a towel bar, it's not very long (since the bathroom is tiny) Same thing with the trash can. The trash can is very small in a cruise ship cabin. Trash cans in hotels are still small, but they are larger. Open sofa beds in a cruise ship cabin take up a great deal of the room, in many hotel rooms it's less of an issue. The cruise ship stateroom was designed around twice a day room cleaning. It doesn't function as well when you reduce the service. Maybe the suites would actually work better for once a day room cleaning, since those cabins have more space. Perhaps they should go to once a day, and the rest of us in steerage can keep twice a day...

You can't exactly text, but on some ships you may be able to iMessage (which looks like a text in the iPhone iOS "Message" app, but colored blue and not green) another iPhone when connected to the ships wifi, but not using your internet minutes. That other iPhone could be anywhere, doesn't have to be on the ship. You would not be able to send a message to someone using an android phone. This is how it worked on Royal Carribean for years, but eventually their IT people figured out how to block this "loophole". I guess it still may work on some NCL ships? I don't want to get too technical, but it seems to have something to do with iMessage using the same protocol and TCP/IP ports as iOS notification messages.

Awesome, thanks! I've seen this type of sofabed setup on other lines too, especially on newer ships, which means that keeping the sofa in "bed" form should not be an issue for getting to the balcony.