grandgeezer

We’ve been on many cruises, on several cruise lines, on a sea day there was a scheduled event, usually in the theater, where the captain and his staff have a q&a session. On almost everyone, the question about the what the pilot actually does when he boards the ship. In every instance, the captan said at no time do they take control of the ship. They share their expertise on the port and how it should be handled. The captain has the final say.

You are allowed your opinion and I should be allowed mine. Where we stay and what’s important, in where we stay on vacation is our business. Food cost estimate is accurate, we eat what we want and choose where we get it, no five star restaurants and no lobster. We live in the Phoenix area and have 0 problems meeting that number, most of the time. Drinks? We don’t buy drinks because of the cost, a total money grab. We also don’t need any education on cruising as we have done 47 with 494 days at sea, using six different cruise lines. Pricing: You mention a couple of TAs, we happen to have take one on the Silhouette in April of 2016. It was 13 days and we booked a last minute balcony guarantee and ended up with a 1A, for $600 plus taxes, fees, and tips. After a refundable obc from our travel agent, it came to about $65 p.p. per day. Keep on sailing, while you can, they certainly need the money. Enjoy your kumquats…..

If you are going to compare cruising with land packages at least make it comparing apples with apples. First, the average size of a balcony room is 195 sq.ft. The hotel room should be about the same size. We usually stay at the Crowne Plaza in Ft. Lauderdale and that room is 269 sq.ft. The last time we stayed there, in 2019, we paid $155 tax included, for the room. We only drink a couple of drinks a day so that’s not a big number, figure $40 p.d. for two.. We only eat two meals a day, breakfast and dinner, not at the hotel so figure $80p.d. for two. Seven days: $1,085 hotel, $280 for drinks, $560 for food totals $1,925 by 7 equals $275 per day. That leaves $125 per day for incidentals. If you find a hotel with rooms around the size of the balcony, the land vacation cost would probably been a couple hundred dollars cheaper. We have to fly every cruise so that adds another $1,250 for air, hotel, food, and transportation, going in a day early. Staycations here we come.

I think the current economy is a much bigger factor than Covid quarantine. Cruising is considered a luxury by most people’s standards. This is considered discretionary spending and is what most people cut back on when money gets tight. This could lead to cutting back on onboard spending, cut back on number of trips, or even stop cruises in altogether. As far as cutting prices, they’ve held prices at a very high level through this whole mess, and I don’t know if a leopard can change it’s spots now.

Should be fair for both parties before final payment, if the price goes down you can get a refund of the difference. Hence, if the price goes up, the seller should be able to benefit. if you don’t want to pay more, cancel, get a full refund and look elsewhere. The price shouldn’t be locked in until final payment.

Keep an eye out for a toilet paper package soon. The premium package will probably include Charmin no package would probably use Sharmin.

They had this option all the while until AI was put into effect. Now they are back peddling some. I wonder if enough people stopped booking rather than pay for something they don’t want or need?

Unless they are complete idiots, they know exactly how many of each category crew they need to satisfy the needs of the number of passengers on board. When it gets close quit selling bookings. Unless they have a fire sale I would think they don’t sell many cabins after final payment. That gives them three months to allocate crew. At the current pricing levels, if passenger load is at a certain level, or higher, they sure are making money. Google it for the facts. Service is a key point in keeping customers. If this understaffed situation last much longer, people are going to get fed up with it and move on. I read somewhere where it cost ten times as much to get a customer back as it does to keep him. It’s just a matter of time. Ten years ago we knew about fifteen couples that cruised 3-4 weeks a year or more, now we know 0 and everybody has moved on just fine.

If no perks bookings were only 3% of bookings why would they bother bringing that option back?? Unless they are losing bookings as some nondrinkers, or light drinkers see it as a deal breaker, and exploring other vacation options.

When the capacities finally level out, and all the lines got were a bunch of complaints, I wouldn’t be surprised if they cut back on crewing. If they see a revenue drop, or more crew leaving, then probably not.

At what passenger count??

Why in the world would a person buying “the cruise only” package also buy a drink package? Most people buy the cruise only package so they don’t get stuck paying for things ( drink package, and crappy internet) that they don’t see the value in. Ai is a deal breaker for us and probably quite a few other people out there.

CDC has rules against crew getting off in foreign ports, quote your source. Why can passengers get off then? If they can control that why can’t they control wages and hours worked? Yes, they know about the hours but they don’t have to like it. It’s just another reason, of many that would convince someone to find employment elsewhere.

If this is true, I’m surprised they waited this long. Dynamic pricing, supply and demand, inflation, all your favorite buzzwords for why cruise pricing rising, applies to anything. As long as people continue to pay, they’d be fools not milk every penny they possibly can.

Where did you come up with this, or do you just know? What about Aways Included 43.4% doesn’t jive with that.

How can you possibly blame no shore leave on the CDC, especially in the foreign ports? How about working 12 hour days, seven days a week? Poor pay and grossly over worked, that belongs to the know it alls in Miami. That is one of the main reason the ships are flagged in foreign countries like Liberia, so they can skirt a lot of the rules set in place in the USA. Do you think those foreign countries helped them out during the pandemic? Whenever someone complains about cruising the overwhelming response is don’t cruise. So if you or the cruise lines don’t like the way you are treated by the CDC, or the US government in general, pack up your operation and go where you think they’ll be more accommodating.

one liter is 1/3 more than 750ml. The difference in size should stand out to anybody checking for alcohol being brought on the ship. What they do about it is anybody’s guess. Like the saying, “It’s only against the rules if you get caught.”

You don’t owe anybody an explanation on why you do or don’t buy the stock. I play the market for one reason $$$, obc is worthless to us.

The all time high is about $136 per share in early 1991. If you could have gotten $180, you should have unloaded it to any sucker willing to pay it.

What a mature, adult response. My post was based on data supplied by you and simple math. What was yours based on? Does your parents know you are posting responses with little to no experience or anything of any value.

Better get your watch checked. According to Google, Port Everglades is three miles from the airport. To get there you have to average 60mph with no stops.I don’t know if the three miles is from the entrance of the port to the entrance of the airport. If it is, you have to add extra time, and distance to the airline terminal as well as the port terminal. We haven’t done it since 2019 but about fifteen minutes or so, sounds about right.

Our opinion only, not looking for a debate. Product: We started cruising in 2003. We eventually found Celebrity and Oasis class ships of RCL and were averaging about 43 days a year and was hooked. We spent money on the ship and thought we were in 7th heaven. Then prices started rising dramatically, and a bunch of the little things that made cruising disappeared. We also noticed a drop in service and quality of food. We didn’t think it was worth the money so we cut all the on board spending, which made no difference in the way we felt so we stopped cruising in December of 2016. We started to miss cruising in 2018 so because we could afford it, we did 14 days on MSC Seaside in a Yacht Club suite, and 14 days on the Allure of the Seas in a Grand Suite. In 2019 we did 14 days in a Sky Suite on Celebrity Equinox, and repeated the MSC cruise. Then the pandemic came. we saw value in the MSC and RCL cruise but not the Celebrity one. With the current pricing we see no value in any of them. Management: Besides the money grab mentioned above, I think management of all the lines blew the pandemic, start to present. Their whole industry was shutdown, and rather than fight for it, especially through the media, that sat back, quiet as a church mouse. Things didn’t start to happen until the governors of Florida and Texas started flapping their gums, with Alaska jumping in at the end. Now.. Things are turning around, the started sailing in August. It appears that they have dragged their feet, increasing capacity, so rather than lower pricing to get more people sailing they kept it lower so they could keep the premium price. That opens the door to raising the price even higher as they increase capacity.

I’ve been dabbling in the stock market for over 40 years and have done quite well. I have two starting rules, believe in the product or service the business is in, and believe in the executive management staff. In my opinion, RCL is 0 for 2 for these two categories. Even when it was below $20 per share, there was no consideration about buying. This could be said about all lines based on the way they handled the pandemic and the start up as things got better.