CruisingNole

Cruise ship buffet is the golden coral of the seas! Slop! Use this as an opportunity to get your money's worth and DO BETTER.

"It will be something more akin to a restaurant." At least he acknowledges it is essentially a trough in its current form.

It's called being selfish and entitled. Not willing to cause oneself a little inconvenience for the sake of protecting other human life. It's a trend that's quite common nowadays.

Having taken several cruises on NCL, RCI and CCL, Royal’s Oasis class ships blow NCL and Carnival out of the water (pun intended). Carnival is terrible. NCL is middle of the road between the two, it’s the poor man’s last minute cruise. It serves its purpose. Both Royal and Carnival typically charge a much higher fare if you book less than 30 days...because they use a pricing strategy to fill their ships early. Best rate is 1+ years out. There are exceptions to the rule, especially for the older ships. But with NCL, you’re a fool if you book early. The audacity of this guy to claim otherwise makes him come off as a shady used car salesman, at best. Again, every cruise line serves its purpose, and I hope NCL stays afloat (another pun intended).

https://thepointsguy.com/news/norwegian-cruise-ceo-frank-del-rio-future-of-cruising/ I literally laughed out loud when I read this part. "Waiting for crazy discounts from Norwegian’s brands? Don’t count on it. Even if demand is down, Del Rio said the line would stick to its time-tested strategy of holding price, even if that means ships sail less full. “Our strategy has always been not to be the deepest discounter,” he said. “We believe in our product. We believe in the value proposition of cruising, the value proposition that our three brands offer and our customers obviously believe in it because we have [had] the highest yields.”

This. I always thought it was impressive that NCL tricked people into thinking the "PCC" was anything more than a sales rep, hired by the cruise line. A good TA always gives you a better price and/or OBC.

The PPP (AKA sales rep / call center guy) salary is more than likely comprised of mostly commissions. I think I'd be looking for a new job as well.

Believing that NCL, Carnival and RCI will all survive is complete naivety. The product demand post-covid is simply not going to be anywhere near what it once was, and probably never will be. Of the 3, RCI and Carnival are in a much better position financially to ride this out. NCL will fail.

I'll never forget on Oasis a few years ago I was eating breakfast in the MDR. One section of seating for plated, one section of seating for buffet. I was seated in plated section with a perfect view of the buffet and it took but only a few minutes of people watching before I saw a child walk up to the buffet, pick up a donut with his bare hands, smell it, and then sit it back down on the platter and waked away. No one at the buffet noticed. And if they did, they didn't seem to care.

Not a chance. But God bless you for having such faith in humans. From the Miami Beach police department. Mind you, we lifted our stay at-home order just a few days ago: "Across Miami Beach over the weekend, more than 7,300 warnings were issued for failure to wear a face covering, according to police. More than 470 warnings were issued for failing to social distance, and more than 1,300 people were asked to leave parks after closing."

No matter what standards, practices and maintenance are in place, no cruise line (or any business) can force someone to wash their hands before they leave their cabin. Or sneeze into their elbow. Or not board a ship if they aren't feeling well. At the end of the day, we're ultimately at the mercy of those around us. It only takes one inconsiderate jerk to cough without covering his mouth as he walks past you. Same as it ever was.

It took COVID for this to occur to you?

I'm going to start vaping the stuff.

It's always been an issue. I know a lot of people that wouldn't cruise pre-covid because they thought the sanitary conditions were unacceptable. However, to your point, now it's suddenly an issue for current cruisers. It's kind of like that topic no one wants to talk about, so they have just swept it under the rug all these years. Unfortunately for them, the rug has been lifted.

You're certainly not the only ones. If I felt the need to clean my cabin because the staff did an insufficient job at it, I'm probably on the wrong cruise line. Or I just shouldn't be cruising.