tfred

absolutely. Every airline and hotel makes you prequalify yearly to maintain status. They use stays/segments and money spent. It would really weed out the " I haven't sailed for 10 years but where's my free drinks?" crowd. Loyalty does go both ways and these programs do have a cost associated with them to administer and run. If X isn't getting a return why keep them as is ?

X can't survive on just central Florida people wanting to cruise. There must be a driving radius that includes South Caroline and Georgia that they are factoring in MCO is a big airport but it is a hike to get to Port Canaveral

Expedition ships are a big growth area with a big price tag associated with it. Bigger ships cant give you the same experience as a smaller ship (zodiacs) and have to charge less

we booked a SS for January 2024 @$8000. The same cruise in 2025 is now $9300. X is starting to get into Silversea and Seabourne range costs per day. I like the X product but for those numbers I would start looking at the next level up. For suite level pax Elite status is almost meaningless. The luxury lines are generally in harder to get to ports (Barbados e.g.) and are longer. Not a problem for us as we are retired and live in Florida in the winter and hav the time to spend 12-14 days on board. RCCL group should really have some tie in with RCL, X and Silversea to keep someone from wandering

solo pricing is really dependent on ship occupancy - it isn't a public service. . If the ship is less than full they will offer somewhat attractive solo pricing RCCL group announced 105% occupancy and I am sure that very few of those are solo cabins - why would they if they can sell everything with some cabins having 3 people? I have seen Crystal Cruise having some attractive solo cabin pricing - you should look at that as well

What’s the actual issue

the loyalty program on cruise ships is pretty weak as there are no upgrades or any real "special" customer service on board (unlike airlines or hotels). Free laundry? oh, ok Thanks I like the X product and also feel that is value for the money spent. You could say that about many cruise lines just depends on your standards of what constitutes value PS. It's the first match - long season. Ask Villa fans how their day went

they want profitable loyal customers - not just long term "where's my free drinks and prime rib" X cruisers that come back. They also aren't looking just for disgruntled Princess, MSC etc pax either as that is a limited and low percentage of the vacation crowd. . They want the "never cruised and have the money" crowd that is at every Marriott and Westin resort that is dropping $800/day and not saying a word and look pretty happy I understand the grief. I used to stay at full service Marriotts on business for a long time until that $ got too big. Then I dropped down in the food chain It happens all the time

We have looked them too. An issue for some is that the embarkation ports are not “easy” to get to. It is very easy to fly to Miami or Fort Lauderdale for a one week vacation on a cruise . Not so easy to get to Barbados or Saint Martin without an extra stop or two.

There are hundreds of thousand potential cruise customers that are now land based resort users. Those people are spending upwards of $1k/night for a very similar experience to cruising and those locations are full. Price out any Marriott resort in Florida or the Caribbean with food and booze. They are not used to nor expecting a butler, unlimited prime rib and lobster tail, unlimited entrees or free drinks from 5-7 pm X is going to align land resort experience and pricing with cruise ship. They think they have a comparable product that they don’t have to give away or load up on a bunch of unexpected goodies for new customers. moan all you want about private butlers and prime rib as X will spend any money on attracting new high spending customers who are out there.

younger people - yes, but not necessarily with kids. Every hospitality business has to find new customers especially those that have money. CoCo Cay is a natural replacement for Nassau which has a low attendance rate for cruise ship pax

I think the attraction of all inclusive vacations (which include cruises, all inclusive resorts and destination resorts a la carte) is that there is no thinking. Everything is thought out and all you have to do is show up. This is especially true with adult families of 2,3 or 4 couples. No worry about when to eat breakfast, Are they coming with us? kind of questions. It is a different product but is a variation on the theme of "no thinking " on the part of the purchaser In all cases, all inclusive are going to be more expensive because they can be and people will pay for convenience. How much they pay and what is the value is also total price and are you satisfied at what you get A $4K vacation can be a great value as well as a $12k - just depends on your money and taste X thinks they can compete for the upper middle level crowd with a few splurges in there as well (for those who dont like Silversea nightlife or formality. )

True, but that requires a very flexible schedule. most working people can't take vacation at the last moment in a department

I did take a quick look at Sandals Jamaica and it is within spitting distance of an equivalent X cruise - food, booze (no hard liquor) tips etc. Everyone know DisneyWorld resort so that is easy for a consumer to understand. There are many hotel resorts that are not all inclusive but when you add in standard a la carte food and booze and resort fees it is expensive, That is the customer that X is looking for

the backdrop is that cruising has been an exceptional value especially when based against land resorts. All cruise line management says that day is over and that there should be parity. It will happen as the X experience is pretty good the NCL CEO stated the other day they are revising their occupancy slightly down (from 105% to 103.5%) since they are looking for "higher quality customers" . Everyone will define that quote in their own way but that would be avoiding pax that don't cruise unless they have unnecessary discounts, free drinks and finding ways to finesse cruise fares. I spent the weekend at the Marriott Key Largo last weekend - 2 nights. This property is a resort and is very similar to a cruise ship in every way. Multiple restaurants (no prime rib!), pools, activities. The rate for a standard room was close to $700 a night- and I am the highest lifetime tier with Marriott so if they would take care of anyone its me . Food/booze for the two of us was probably $250. Total was pretty close to $1900 for 2 nights. Extend that a few days and you would be in Retreat area prices - and there were people staying for the whole week. The people there were exactly who X wants to attract. 40-60 years old, looking for good food and service and will pay for it . The menus at the hotel were very close to what you would get now on an E class ship and no one was mumbling. Why would cruise lines continue with older business plans when resort hotels are raking in cash ? If they are going to do it the time is now

I worked in capital equipment sales for 40 years Software, hardware, support services changed all the time. Along the way I put in 2000+ nights in hotels and 2 million air miles so I know something about the receiving end of the hospitality business The "prime rib" comment is one that is constantly used here on CC. It seems to be the determinator of "good food" on board. Every time there is a food change (4 shrimp cocktail instead of 5) a handful of people fly off and start complaining instead of looking at the overall quality of the meal my guess is that the team concept will be absolutely the same experience for 99% of suite pax

So you would have rebooked just because of the butler change? AQ is very nice but it isn’t the whole Retreat experience. Companies don’t send alerts about every single change as it would cause confusion with purchases mostly over unused or trivial changes. “We are cutting the prime rib thinner” is not something that you will see in an e mail.

What's are the changes on board as a suite guest - no full time butler? They won't care. X has figured out that the room butler is mostly a food runner with occasional convos in the hallway. I would think that most of the "can you change an excursion or get a dinner Rez for me" is easier done in The Retreat lounge for immediate feedback.

On this forum? Probably. Unfortunately they isn’t a good representation of any average cruise pax. The number of active posters is really quite low in relation to actually on board.

It is a strange question.

Very few people will take the time to read your comment with this typeface

that is probably correct. It isnt what feedback they are getting shoreside any stoppage onboard is due to non-vapers complaining and a decrease in revenue onboard this cruise

X isn’t doing this for a demographic, they are doing for gambling revenue. They believe that gambling, smoking/vaping (and drinking) go hand in hand When smokers stand up from the table to go smoke they don’t come back quickly enough and X loses that revenue.

In general 1/3 of the ship stays on board at any port so you won’t be alone. Pretty common for pax to use the ship as the destination especially in the Caribbean and not disembark

Join the club. Every frequent "flyer" program - hotel, airline, cruise ship - has been gutted. I have high lifetime status with Marriott and it really isn't worth that much for stays. The only thing you get anymore is quicker conflict resolution. Few upgrades or special anything and very hard to use miles except at excessive rates. we like Blu as well but the price difference between veranda and AQ is enough to go specialty every night. We like The Retreat as it is less hectic with the included amenities