Oasis Class SHOULD do 10 Day or 2 Week Cruises

I've only done 7 day cruises. I would do more but my wife doesn't want to take off for that long. One helpful thing on my recent Jewel of the Seas cruise out of San Juan was the speed of check in. It took 10 minutes and I ran around the photographer dumped carry ons in my cabin and went to find food.

I understand people want longer cruises (heck, so do I) but Royal makes more money on the really big ships by turning the passenger complement over every week. My next scheduled cruise is 4/29/18 on Jewel of the Seas again. Then I may drive to Baltimore to do a 12 day on Grandeur.

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I am sure the Data Analyists and data analytics RCL has supports their approach vs. a one-off idea floated above.

The OP talks of families. Do you take children out of school for 2 weeks? Would most children really enjoy a 2 week cruise? I have been talking to others of taking my grandchildren on a cruise, and many people even tell me 7 days might be too long for some children.

 

If the cruise lines would even consider the OP's suggestions, I bet you they would do it in the fall when they are not targeting families with children.

 

I also agree with the posters who say the OP has too much time on his hands. ;)

Dear DD,

In my proposal, I talk of 10 day, 11 day AND 14 day cruises. For a 10 day cruise, you only miss 6 school days, or 7 if you are flying in the day before. So, in my follow up posts, I mention that during Spring Break, Fall Break, Christmas Break, Thanksgiving Break you get a week off anyways from school. So you would just need to miss TWO school days to go on a 10 day cruise

Obviously, in summer this is a moot point. Also, for those that get 2 week or longer winter breaks, this is a moot point too

In regards to "too much time on my hands", I wish I did :) This issue just inspired me to write. Normally I am just a lurker with barely 20+ posts in my history

Regards,

Panjabi

T

 

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Do you really think the cruise lines are so stupid as to miss a large potential market? They do market research, you know. What has been shown over and over again, over the past decade or more, is that the demographic changes dramatically when you increase above a 7 day cruise.

 

<snip>

If your supposed market was there, why haven't all these "inland" cruisers and families been booking the existing longer cruises.

I am sure the Data Analyists and data analytics RCL has supports their approach vs. a one-off idea floated above.

Dear ChengKP and FireStation,

So, I explain this in my original thesis. What are talking about is Causality over here. The fact that longer cruises on the smaller ships tend towards an older demographic is in fact DEPENDENT on the fact that they are small ships NOT geared towards kids

That is why I focused my thesis on the Oasis class (primarily) and Quantum class ships. These ships attract families. They have things kids like. Let me even give you an example of Liberty at Galveston. It is doing phenomenally well (as per the last update from RCCL) and BETTER than the smaller Voyager class ship it replaced. Now, what exactly changed with Liberty? Slides and Water rides. So it attracted a NEW demographic

Why do you think HOTS added those slides? They KNOW it brings in a NEW demographic. Now little kids are EXCITED about going on a cruise

So, they have NEVER tried an Oasis class ship in the US (key here is.. in the US) with a longer than 7 day cruise (outside of the weird 8 day one you get, when someone charters a ship for 6 days)

So, how would we know what the response will be

Also, in regards to the Data Analytics department, let us not get carried too far. These guys/gals are not soothsayers. America is littered with bankrupt and defunct companies (like PanAm) who had the world's "smartest data analytics people"

Regards,

Panjabi

You vs a cruise line with all their data? Please, lets mive on and shut this thread down. I am moving onto more intelligent threads

Ah, got it. RCI should risk redeploying a multi-million dollar asset on your hypothesis over their market researchers. And if the throngs don't come to pass, will you help pay the fare increases for everyone else when RCI has to redeploy and reschedule the ship again? Have a nice day.

You can do 8 nights on Freedom, 9 nights on Navigator and 10/11 on Serenade. Celebrity also offers 10, 11 and 14 days. Choose one of those.

As said before there are good reasons why ships get smaller with longer itineraries.This is related to available port infrastructure and size of target group of guests.

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Dear Merion,

 

You are correct. I think the reference was to the Quantum Class

 

Regards,

 

Panjabi

I certainly understood your reference but some people just have the need to prove they know better, even if they think 12 night cruises have formal night on night 13. : )

Thanks for posting, Panjabi. I'm a new cruiser so can't comment on much. However after returning from my returning cruise, I agree with you that I also felt like I didn't get into full vacation mode/mood until after the first couple of days (we also had to fly in the day before). With 2 young kids, I did expect the travel to be a bit more difficult. Your proposal to extend the # of cruise days might have helped me feel like I actually vacationed the "7" days.

You vs a cruise line with all their data? Please, lets mive on and shut this thread down. I am moving onto more intelligent threads

Dear FireStation,

Thanks for visiting.

Regards,

Panjabi

Ah, got it. RCI should risk redeploying a multi-million dollar asset on your hypothesis over their market researchers. And if the throngs don't come to pass, will you help pay the fare increases for everyone else when RCI has to redeploy and reschedule the ship again? Have a nice day.

Dear ChengKP,

The first sentence in my post is

"Dear RCCL,

If you read these boards, may I make a suggestion? You can then do your own market research and validate (or disprove) my thesis"

I certainly would not ever ask anyone to do something without first researching it. I am simply proposing an idea. They can research it and if they don't agree then that is that

Never did I suggest they jump in head first

Regards,

Panjabi

Quantam class does longer trips. The Anthem of the seas does a 12, 11, & 9 day crusie from New Jersey

The Grandeur is doing 12 day cruises out of Baltimore.

I agree. As I mentioned, my company has "standard" benefits (trust me! they routinely compare us to other companies just to ensure we don't get anything EXTRA!)

 

In my company, each employee gets 10 vacation days (essentially two weeks) on joining.

 

You are allowed to buy 5 vacation days after your first year in office.

 

After that, every 5 years you earn another 5 days of vacation, till a maximum of 30 days of vacation

 

Therefore a lot of employees that have been there 10 years, and now have kids, have 15 days of earned vacations and many purchase the additional 5 days

 

Combine that with the 3 day weekends, Thanksgiving, Christmas, July 4 and New Year holidays and you can easily pull off a 10 day holiday with just 5 vacation days.

 

Thanksgiving is a special bonus. 9 days off for just 3 vacation days used.

 

Also, our company, like a lot of US companies, now allows people to routinely take 2 weeks off, atleast once a year.

 

In the 1990s, we used to "encourage" employees to only take one week off at a time

your reference to the way things are done at your fortune 100 work place sounds great but just how many people who cruise on RCI work in such a workplace?

Certainly not anybody I know. Most people I know have a hard enough time getting 1 week off, let alone 2 at once.

Bill

Thanks for posting, Panjabi. I'm a new cruiser so can't comment on much. However after returning from my returning cruise, I agree with you that I also felt like I didn't get into full vacation mode/mood until after the first couple of days (we also had to fly in the day before). With 2 young kids, I did expect the travel to be a bit more difficult. Your proposal to extend the # of cruise days might have helped me feel like I actually vacationed the "7" days.

Dear GQBoy,

I agree with you completely. Hence the long thesis. I address the problem of getting into VacayMode in great detail. Especially when you have kids.

Who knows, one day this may happen with the Oasis class ships from the US, and you and I and a few others on this thread will be on that ship

If the naysayers are right then it will just be your family and my family and 5000 Golden Age Citizens :)

If you and I are right, then it will be a typical healthy mix of all demographics

Regards,

Panjabi

your reference to the way things are done at your fortune 100 work place sounds great but just how many people who cruise on RCI work in such a workplace?

 

Certainly not anybody I know. Most people I know have a hard enough time getting 1 week off, let alone 2 at once.

 

Bill

Dear Bill,

You are correct. There is no one size fits all situation. However, we can have large buckets of various types of demographics

I am suggesting that there is a large enough bucket with the demographics I am suggesting i.e. people with kids who would like to take an Oasis class ship in the US for 10, 11 or even 14 day cruises

As I mentioned before, a 10 day cruise is just 6 vacation days

Regards,

Panjabi

I would love longer cruises on Oasis class!! Maybe one day.

Don't forget, Americans tend to get less vacation time than their peers in other countries, and other nationalities do go on cruises as well. Maybe they aren't all flying to Florida to do that, but every cruise I've been on (yes, ALL THREE... I know, I know, I'm such a cruiser) has had a well rounded mix of nationalities.

Good luck with your quest Punjabi! I am rooting for you!!!

PS - I think we all have too much time on our hands, if we are all on here reading and responding to posts. Just sayin'!!! Hello pot, my name is kettle.

I would love longer cruises on Oasis class!! Maybe one day.

 

<snip>

 

Good luck with your quest Punjabi! I am rooting for you!!!

 

PS - I think we all have too much time on our hands, if we are all on here reading and responding to posts. Just sayin'!!! Hello pot, my name is kettle.

Dear KiwiGal,

Thanks for your kind words. Hopefully one day we shall all sail on this longer cruise and I will find out why the delightfully named KiwiGirl lives in Canada

:)

Regards,

Panjabi

Dear ChengKP and FireStation,

Also, in regards to the Data Analytics department, let us not get carried too far. These guys/gals are not soothsayers. America is littered with bankrupt and defunct companies (like PanAm) who had the world's "smartest data analytics people"

 

Regards,

 

Panjabi

True and the Internet is littered with armchair CEOs who think they know better than the billion dollar company's market analysis. Nobody's perfect but I think we all know who has a greater probability of being right.

Remember when Oasis class was announced? the CC masses were convinced RC was run by morons and would be bankrupt within 10 years because nobody would EVER want to sail on these ugly giant floating shopping malls. :cool:

First world problem.

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First world problem.

 

 

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What are you expecting to find on a website that deals with multi-million dollar cruise ships and the people who spend thousands of dollars to sail on them?

The more the better.

Also, in regards to the Data Analytics department, let us not get carried too far. These guys/gals are not soothsayers. America is littered with bankrupt and defunct companies (like PanAm) who had the world's "smartest data analytics people"

Can't agree more.

A slightly different example are the people wanting to get somewhere without flying, for whom the cruise companies could be offering a a perfect solution. The percentage of people hating or even refusing to fly could easily be more than the percentage of people who'd even think of cruising.

The data people have a job of getting a bigger piece of a rather small pie (the rather small percentage of people who'd even consider cruising), by adding more slides, better ports or more chocolate fountains, while there's another pie waiting for ships to simply provide transport. I'm convinced that no company is seriously looking at that pie.

True and the Internet is littered with armchair CEOs who think they know better than the billion dollar company's market analysis. Nobody's perfect but I think we all know who has a greater probability of being right.

 

Remember when Oasis class was announced? the CC masses were convinced RC was run by morons and would be bankrupt within 10 years because nobody would EVER want to sail on these ugly giant floating shopping malls. :cool:

Dear BamaGuy,

I agree with you totallly. That is why the first sentence in my post is

"Dear RCCL,

If you read these boards, may I make a suggestion? You can then do your own market research and validate (or disprove) my thesis"

I certainly would not ever ask anyone to do something without first researching it. I am simply proposing an idea. They can research it and if they don't agree then that is that

Never did I suggest they jump in head first

Regards,

Panjabi

I certainly would not ever ask anyone to do something without first researching it. I am simply proposing an idea. They can research it and if they don't agree then that is that

Why do you assume that your ideas and many others aren't under constant consideration and research by RCI? The cruise industry is highly competitive, and lines can only retain or improve their market share by being proactive. The chance that your ideas haven't already been given consideration is absolutely nil.

Dear BamaGuy,

 

I agree with you totallly. That is why the first sentence in my post is

 

"Dear RCCL,

 

If you read these boards, may I make a suggestion? You can then do your own market research and validate (or disprove) my thesis"

 

I certainly would not ever ask anyone to do something without first researching it. I am simply proposing an idea. They can research it and if they don't agree then that is that

 

Never did I suggest they jump in head first

 

Regards,

 

Panjabi

Fair enough but then you turned around and were very dismissive of their research and analytics, telling us not to be too confident in it, etc so you can understand how that could come off as you thinking you know better than them :)

If it makes you feel better I'm sure they've considered long cruises from Florida, and pretty much every other scenario any of us could think of. The research you're suggesting has likely already been done. If market conditions are ever favorable for it I'm confident we'll see it. If there's a dollar to be made, I trust RC to try and make it :cool: