Time to Say Goodbye

[JamesEM]

Thanks for your well written, agree 100%, DW and I are looking into an AI vacation.

[pinkrosesdeb]

It is sad to be disappointed by something you have loved for so long. I wonder if the line actually reads the feedback. I am reading quite a few more unhappy posts than before. We are really loyal Royal cruisers at Diamond Plus level but have no cruises booked with them at this point. Our next cruise will be Celebrity Equinox because we have never tried them and are also becoming a little disillusioned with Royal. We still love to cruise and have always had at least 2 or 3 cruises pre-booked but just aren't finding the same excitement. So still waiting to get the "gotta get onboard" pull that makes us put a cruise on hold. I sincerely hope it comes back soon.

[robandana]

Yes there seems to be a before Dry Dock and after Dry Dock on the Oasis Class. We moved to Princess almost a year ago now and we are enjoying it. Our plan is to let a couple of years go by and maybe try RCI again to see how we like it. We are D+ so we do miss the lounge :( hopefully if we do return it will still be a perk....

[jjmock]

What I find kind of sad is that there are those who celebrate that the smaller, more intimate ships such as we enjoy, are being retired or transferred out of service. A year and a half ago, we sailed Celebrity Century to Alaska, and this Saturday, Splendour of the Seas from Venice. We love the older experience of sailing. Its sad that all that seems to be getting built nowadays are floating cities featuring water slides.

[caddie1]

Thank you for a nicely worded commentary. No blaming or harsh criticism, just very polite and sincere sentiment about a product that no longer meets your needs.

 

I echo your words completely.

[Trainman-2]

Excellent Post Rich!

 

Times change and people move on!

 

Best wishes to you!

[BonTexasNY]

What a pleasure to read a thread like this one instead of the ranting and blasting I've seen all too much on this board. Your post was sincere, and speaks volumes about the care you took to present yourself on a public forum. Kudos to you for such well thought out sensible comments.

Edited September 9, 2015 by BonTexasNY

[welshrich]

Hi, can I ask who Tony Tillman is and what type of act? Never seen him before but had Joey Vann, Earl Turner and another chap (can't remember his name but his tagline is 'the man with a thousand voices' a few times.

[thejewgernaut]

On our anthem cruise this past July, we noticed a lot less evening music as well- there was a nightly gap from 7-8 or so. At first I thought it was a schedule adjustment for later European dinners or the fact Anthem is 'smaller' than Oasis, but now I'm wondering based on this post if it is a fleet wide cost cutting. If so, that's really disappointing and I hope it does not stick. The live music is also one of our favorites, particularly before dinner.

[Biker19]

Besides being a bigger change than the lines contemplated, MSC also matches loyalty status. Something else to think about when considering other lines.

[ABoatNerd]

Excellent and timely post, thank you.

 

We have gone beyond you - we have fired all cruise lines due to declining product offerings but at the same time significant price increases beyond the rate of inflation.

 

We have been Celebrity patrons since 1992. They have been eliminated as a service provider due to their fixation on establishing a visible class system on their ships that surpasses anything we have experienced on our many Cunard sailings. Further, Celebrity's new pricing strategy penalizes established customers like myself. These as well as Celebrity's lowering of quality and elimination of previous experiences like the buffet, sorbet by the pool (the things that made cruising different from land based vacations) is enough.

 

One of the most interesting trends in cruising is the growing gap between long established cruisers on all lines like the OP and myself who know precisely the increases in costs vs reduction in experience VS the new cruisers who willingly pay the higher prices for a diminished product offering.

 

The cruise lines are all rushing to attract the new cruisers.

 

Fortunately, there is plenty of choice in cruise lines and vacations in general.

 

We have eliminated all travel due to the rapidly increasing cost and the increased hassal of travel. For us the cost of travel is no longer offset by the experience.

 

OP - I totally get your assessment.

 

Happy sailing and vacationing to all.

 

ABoatNerd

[north29]

OP everyone needs a CHANGE, some do not recognize it but CHANGE is GOOD. Any change is good, a new house, new community, new job, new church, I could go on, however many will not agree with me, for a variety of reasons, familiarity, grand kids or what ever.

I'm a long time cruisers on RC and have done the Caribbean which is what you have basically done on the Oasis and Freedom, it can get old, but as a get away, we live in FL, it is still fun to us. We will stay with RC until we have done most of their itineraries. However HAL has some good looking itineraries :D

We are different cruisers or cruiser type than you, we are cruise travelers, the venues/ambience of the ship are not as important to us as you and other true cruisers might feel.

As other have said, Celebrity might be a good choice for you to try. We have cruised X for two long cruises, and have one booked for Xmas and New Years and it was booked for a holiday getaway, because of it itinerary. If RC would have offered the same itinerary I would have booked with RC.

 

Good luck

[marci22]

While on Oasis in five months, I've decided to try several things I haven't yet done. I want to take advantage of the free tour of Central Park, and am determined to make it to Jazz on Four at least a couple of nights.

 

We did the CP tour on Allure; it was very interesting!

[cruisegirl1]

0P – I enjoyed reading your post. We switch back-and-forth from Celebrity to Royal Caribbean and like the change from line to line. Of course, I like the change from ship to ship, even on the same line.

 

We do find after several cruises on the same ship, that we tire of some of the routine and entertainment. There was some great live entertainment on our recent freedom cruise. I think this made the cruise so much more enjoyable than a past freedom cruise when we didn't care for the schooner bar or pub singer.

 

As you are a frequent cruiser, the issue may not be royal caribbean, but maybe more of a factor of taking the same ship over and over again. Different ships have a different feel, and of course, some different entertainment.

 

Luckily, there are so many different products out there that you can try others and see if there is a better fit for you.

 

Enjoy

M

[2wheelin]

Excellent and timely post, thank you.

 

We have been Celebrity patrons since 1992. They have been eliminated as a service provider due to their fixation on establishing a visible class system on their ships that surpasses anything we have experienced on our many Cunard sailings. Further, Celebrity's new pricing strategy penalizes established customers like myself. These as well as Celebrity's lowering of quality and elimination of previous experiences like the buffet, sorbet by the pool (the things that made cruising different from land based vacations) is enough.

 

One of the most interesting trends in cruising is the growing gap between long established cruisers on all lines like the OP and myself who know precisely the increases in costs vs reduction in experience VS the new cruisers who willingly pay the higher prices for a diminished product offering.

 

The cruise lines are all rushing to attract the new cruisers.

 

ABoatNerd

 

Nothing personal to this poster by quoting but I have heard these sort of comments quite a bit lately. As an infrequent cruiser with no real loyalty status

on any line, I would like to know what the advantages are to being a "new cruiser". I see no free offers, no perks, no onboard freebies, no separate lounges, no balcony discounts, etc. I don't dispute these comments at all, just wonder if I am missing something in my understanding.

I also lament the diminished experience from years ago but I think one of the contributing factors is cruisers (both established and new) willingness to pay more once onboard. ie specialty restaurants vs MDR, thus encouraging the cruise lines to place more focus there and less on the MDR.

[Big_G]

Nothing personal to this poster by quoting but I have heard these sort of comments quite a bit lately. As an infrequent cruiser with no real loyalty status

on any line, I would like to know what the advantages are to being a "new cruiser". I see no free offers, no perks, no onboard freebies, no separate lounges, no balcony discounts, etc. I don't dispute these comments at all, just wonder if I am missing something in my understanding.

I also lament the diminished experience from years ago but I think one of the contributing factors is cruisers (both established and new) willingness to pay more once onboard. ie specialty restaurants vs MDR, thus encouraging the cruise lines to place more focus there and less on the MDR.

 

New cruisers don't know what they're missing and some believe that's why cruise lines are trying to attract more of them. Others believe they need new cruisers to fill their mega ships and the more fervent would even suggest that cruise lines just want to push their loyalists out. Who knows if any or all of it is true or not?

[Fat Paul]

Thank you for this well written post. I also have MS (walk using forearm crutches). We have only cruised on Royal Caribbean. We have noticed a considerable reduction in the quality of service on our recent cruises. We enjoy dinning out and the dinning experience has changed considerably. The overall quality of the food has slipped somewhat and the service has gone way down. I can't recall the last time I was offered fresh ground pepper or had the wait staff give an overview of the next day's activities. Drink service at the pool bars has changed dramatically, I remember in the past servers walking around the Solarium selling drinks of the day and taking orders for other drinks. We are now ready to take some land based vacations. Perhaps when and if my mobility difficulties get worse I will come back to cruising.

[alaska_planner]

we were on the radiance of the seas this summer and very much enjoyed the experience.

The service was outstanding - the MDR staff went above and beyond (similar to our past cruises).

 

We also enjoyed the on board activities (we're trivia/quest/etc addicts) as well as some of the entertainment.

 

I've only sailed on disney and RCI (cunard was in the very distant past back when there were locked gates between the classes!! clearly a long long time ago).

Up to now, we've enjoyed both cruise lines and feel we did get value for money.

Edited September 9, 2015 by alaska_planner

[EGG]

My husband and I enjoy the shows, and we long ago noticed that the Celebrity ships were repeating the shows year after year and moving them from ship to ship. So we transferred our points to RCCL and have done a variety of cruises which were not available on Celebrity before the S class ships. We also look for different ports, so the fact that we have no cruise loyalty allows us to choose price plus itinerary without doing the same ship over and over. We also liked Oasis, it was such a different experience, but the wow of the first cruise wears off. Our next cruise is on Cunard. A lot of playing dress up, but an entirely different cruise experience with duplicate bridge which we enjoy and an itinerary we have not done before.

 

We have not done a RCCL cruise since they moved Explorer and brought in Quantum with Dynamic Dining. But I still enjoy reading the posts and some day I may take another RCCL cruise.

[TBone2K]

Well written. I hope someone from RC takes notice. I believe we were on the same cruise, although had a different perspective as it was our first time on Oasis class. We have nowhere near as many cruises and fortunately have not seen repeat shows/acts on different ships. I would agree that we enjoyed Tony Tillman, but I could see where his act might get a little old after seeing it a few times. However having done RC a number of times, many of the activities have a "been there, done that" feeling to us as well.

 

I believe the missing band you mention is what I refer to as "the Philippino Cover Band". They have a different name on each ship, but in my experience are always from The Philippines. I only saw this band once during the Oasis cruise, playing the "80s Family Dance Party". I assume they would be other places at other times, otherwise a bit of a waste of resources. Besides the ship's orchestra playing a couple of sets (including the one doing jazz standards with two singers from Cats that you mentioned), there was also a regular jazz combo in the club at other times.

 

I totally agree with your sentiment and hope that someday DW and I have had as many cruise opportunities as you have.

[Thetrail]

for different folks. Have actually sailed 7 times on Allure and four on Oasis, our favorite ships. Enjoy sailing on all classes of RCL ships and as far as music, variety and venues with music, well would never even contemplate switching cruise lines because of the variety or lack thereof on a ship. IMHO I find the selection varied and certainly abundant enough for my desires. RCL still the cruise line of choice for me....:)

[Thetrail]

New cruisers don't know what they're missing and some believe that's why cruise lines are trying to attract more of them. Others believe they need new cruisers to fill their mega ships and the more fervent would even suggest that cruise lines just want to push their loyalists out. Who knows if any or all of it is true or not?

As far as your post which honestly lacks well anything substantial I can tell you this...the last two cruises we have been on, Quantum and Grandeur have had a total of 38% and 39% respectively booked with crown and anchor members. What does that tell you......:rolleyes:...And still scratching my head over your comment of "new cruisers don't know what they are missing"....:confused:

[Big_G]

As far as your post which honestly lacks well anything substantial I can tell you this...the last two cruises we have been on, Quantum and Grandeur have had a total of 38% and 39% respectively booked with crown and anchor members. What does that tell you......:rolleyes:...And still scratching my head over your comment of "new cruisers don't know what they are missing"....:confused:

 

Not surprised. Keep scratching maybe it will come to you...or maybe not. :rolleyes:

Edited September 9, 2015 by Big_G

[Thetrail]

Not surprised. Keep scratching maybe it will come to you...or maybe not. :rolleyes:

Just a wee bit of research might help your cause.....:rolleyes:

[Big_G]

Just a wee bit of research might help your cause.....:rolleyes:

 

Cause? Really? What 'cause' would that be? I can't wait to hear this.