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Passengers Pushing Back

editor@cruisecritic

By editor@cruisecritic,
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editor@cruisecritic

editor@cruisecritic

Posted
Posted

Hi. I'm working on a story about instances when cruise lines changed policies or eliminated ship features and amenities and passenger push-back resulted in a change for the good.

 

I would love your help in aiding my memory! Off the top of my head, two recent ones I've heard about include:

 

*Holland America retroactively adding a library onto Konigsdam

 

*Seabourn putting launderettes onto Encore after its launch

 

*The time when Celebrity tried to charge passengers to use the thallossotherapy pool (way back when)

 

*And also way back when, Carnival Cruise Lines fee for bringing bottled water onboard (it was rescinded but I believe it's been added back).

 

Any others that you remember?

 

And, in keeping with the spirit of the piece, are there current features onboard, or policies that you think need to be changed that haven't been? Weigh in here and we'll see what happens.

 

Thanks, as always, for your help!

 

Carolyn

 

Carolyn Spencer Brown

Editor in Chief

Cruise Critic

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cruisemom42 Great Review Rare

cruisemom42

Posted
Posted

A couple of years ago HAL was going to completely stop allowing passengers to bring wine aboard (after having a pretty liberal policy for a long time). After passenger push-back, they changed their minds and decided to allow 1 bottle per person with a corkage fee on embarkation. Much of the push-back related to HAL's overall poor wine list relative to some other lines....

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Nic6318

Nic6318

Posted
Posted
Hi. I'm working on a story about instances when cruise lines changed policies or eliminated ship features and amenities and passenger push-back resulted in a change for the good.

 

I would love your help in aiding my memory! Off the top of my head, two recent ones I've heard about include:

 

*And also way back when, Carnival Cruise Lines fee for bringing bottled water onboard (it was rescinded but I believe it's been added back).

 

Any others that you remember?

 

And, in keeping with the spirit of the piece, are there current features onboard, or policies that you think need to be changed that haven't been? Weigh in here and we'll see what happens.

 

Thanks, as always, for your help!

 

Carolyn

 

Carolyn Spencer Brown

Editor in Chief

Cruise Critic

 

hi there

 

Carnival doesn't permit any bottled drinks to be brought on board, except the one bottle per person of wine allowed on embarkation day.

 

hope this helps

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helen haywood

helen haywood

Posted
Posted

Celebrity stopped offering the Luggage Valet program...lots of complaints. I understand its back again. On Celebrity as well it seemed some ships were trying a "be out of your cabin at 7 on morning of debarkation." That also was ill received and has been changed back to an 8 o'clock time.

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Krazy Kruizers

Krazy Kruizers

Posted
Posted
A couple of years ago HAL was going to completely stop allowing passengers to bring wine aboard (after having a pretty liberal policy for a long time). After passenger push-back, they changed their minds and decided to allow 1 bottle per person with a corkage fee on embarkation. Much of the push-back related to HAL's overall poor wine list relative to some other lines....

 

 

Actually each adult in a cabin can bring onto the ship a 750 ml bottle of wine WITHOUT paying a corkage fee at embarkation in cabin consumption. If you do decide to take your wine to the dining room and/or bar/lounge, then you are charged the $18 corkage fee.

If you do bring more than 1 bottle per adult person onto the ship, you will be charged the corkage fee for those extra bottles and a special tag will be placed on the bottle so that wherever you take the bottle on the ship will not be charge again.

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cruisemom42 Great Review Rare

cruisemom42

Posted
Posted
Actually each adult in a cabin can bring onto the ship a 750 ml bottle of wine WITHOUT paying a corkage fee at embarkation in cabin consumption. If you do decide to take your wine to the dining room and/or bar/lounge, then you are charged the $18 corkage fee.

If you do bring more than 1 bottle per adult person onto the ship, you will be charged the corkage fee for those extra bottles and a special tag will be placed on the bottle so that wherever you take the bottle on the ship will not be charge again.

 

You're absolutely correct, as usual. My memory of the details was fuzzy. :o

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sail7seas

sail7seas

Posted
Posted (edited)
Hi. I'm working on a story about instances when cruise lines changed policies or eliminated ship features and amenities and passenger push-back resulted in a change for the good.

 

I would love your help in aiding my memory! Off the top of my head, two recent ones I've heard about include:

 

*Holland America retroactively adding a library onto Konigsdam

 

*Seabourn putting launderettes onto Encore after its launch

 

*The time when Celebrity tried to charge passengers to use the thallossotherapy pool (way back when

*And also way back when, Carnival Cruise Lines fee for bringing bottled water onboard (it was rescinded but I believe it's been added back).

 

Any others that you remember?

 

And, in keeping with the spirit of the piece, are there current features onboard, or policies that you think need to be changed that haven't been? Weigh in here and we'll see what happens.

 

Thanks, as always, for your help!

 

Carolyn

 

Carolyn Spencer Brown

Editor in Chief

Cruise Critic

 

Great subject, Carolyn. Thanks for starting this thread.

Edited by sail7seas
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Shmoo here

Shmoo here

Posted
Posted
Hi. I'm working on a story about instances when cruise lines changed policies or eliminated ship features and amenities and passenger push-back resulted in a change for the good.

 

I would love your help in aiding my memory! Off the top of my head, two recent ones I've heard about include:

 

*Holland America retroactively adding a library onto Konigsdam

 

*Seabourn putting launderettes onto Encore after its launch

 

*The time when Celebrity tried to charge passengers to use the thallossotherapy pool (way back when)

 

*And also way back when, Carnival Cruise Lines fee for bringing bottled water onboard (it was rescinded but I believe it's been added back).

 

Any others that you remember?

 

And, in keeping with the spirit of the piece, are there current features onboard, or policies that you think need to be changed that haven't been? Weigh in here and we'll see what happens.

 

Thanks, as always, for your help!

 

Carolyn

 

Carolyn Spencer Brown

Editor in Chief

Cruise Critic

There was a time when DCL would allow any beverages to be brought onboard (alcoholic or otherwise). In any amount.

 

They made a big change to this - I can't recall the exact specifics, but it was massively more restrictive. There was a huge uproar and lots of emails, phone calls to DCL. The change only lasted about 3 days. But, they did change their policy again in 2015 to a more restrictive one, but "better" than the first change.

 

And then there was the "All Hands on Deck" cheese patter from room service. That was removed and a smaller cheese & cracker offering (for a cost) was added to the in room gifts. DCL later said it was as "printing error" that removed the cheese platter from the (free) room service menu and made new menus with it included.

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fishywood

fishywood

Posted
Posted

When Regal Princess debuted in 2014 there was a "test" of charging for room service and a cover charge for Alfredo's Pizzeria (a fast casual eatery free on the other Princess ships that have it). Predictably a huge failure that disappeared after a few cruises. The justifiable outrage was not so much over the fees but the way they were added with no warning and with Princess' web site and brochures still listing those options as included.

 

And as for current features: Princess continues to waffle about whether to remain one of the few lines allowing pre-reservation of shore excursions without pre-payment. They "tested" (that word again) the requirement on one ship in Alaska last summer, began to roll it out to other ships but appears to have pulled it back--though there is now a disclaimer on the excursion section of the Cruise Personalizer that OBC cannot be used for pre-reserved excursions, only ones booked on the ship. But again, actual enforcement unknown.

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Sequim88

Sequim88

Posted
Posted

I think there may be one in the making (I hope) on HAL with the elimination of traditional piano bar and replacing with the dueling pianos concept. I've seen a bunch of comments lamenting the change but not sure how much "push back" there will be.

 

The change from participation to passive entertainment seems to be a larger trend in cruising that might be involving many different areas that could trigger push back - or not. Some things are going to change whether we (experienced cruisers) like it or not as new generations of cruisers enter the market. The one most likely to cause push back first will be money related - any perceived lowering of cruising value.

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editor@cruisecritic

editor@cruisecritic

Posted
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Posted

That's a fabulous win, SadieN -- do you or does anyone else -- have a screenshot of the CC design/new card?

 

Carolyn

 

About 7 years ago Carnival redesigned their ship card. It was so horrid that people here on CC redesigned it. Carnival incorporated most of the suggested CC design into its new card.
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editor@cruisecritic

editor@cruisecritic

Posted
  • Author
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Totally agree that the ones most likely to cause resistance are the extra-fee options, particularly when they were included-in-fares previously. Thanks, Sequim88.

 

Carolyn

 

I think there may be one in the making (I hope) on HAL with the elimination of traditional piano bar and replacing with the dueling pianos concept. I've seen a bunch of comments lamenting the change but not sure how much "push back" there will be.

 

The change from participation to passive entertainment seems to be a larger trend in cruising that might be involving many different areas that could trigger push back - or not. Some things are going to change whether we (experienced cruisers) like it or not as new generations of cruisers enter the market. The one most likely to cause push back first will be money related - any perceived lowering of cruising value.

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SadieN

SadieN

Posted
Posted (edited)
That's a fabulous win, SadieN -- do you or does anyone else -- have a screenshot of the CC design/new card?

 

Carolyn

 

 

Asking on the carnival board...

We'll see what happens. The pictures from the threads probably got wiped out in one of the purges.

Edited by SadieN
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pghsteelerfan

pghsteelerfan

Posted
Posted (edited)

I know I'll be pushing back if Carnival takes away the 24-hour, self-serve ice cream or shuts the machines down in the evenings/night. On the social media page of Carnival's popular spokesman, requests (and demands) from passengers are posted and then the opinions of the followers are requested. There are also a lot of Q and A's posted to get a feel for what us passengers actually prefer. Lately, the self-serve ice cream stations have come up quite often. There have many recent requests that are posted, from parents, for Carnival to shut these 24 hour self-serve ice cream machines down over night. These parents don't want their little snowflakes to have access to them at night while they are wandering around the ship unsupervised. The Q & A's posted have had several recent questions regarding the self-serve ice cream: do we enjoy it; do we have ice cream at night and like that we can get ice cream 24 hours or do we think they should be shut down at night; have we had ice cream for breakfast...etc. To me, this comes across as Carnival is possibly thinking of shutting these down at night, but they also want to get a feel if this would be a popular decision with the majority of the passengers. I've always enjoyed the 24 hour self-serve ice cream and hope it's not removed or shut down at night.

Edited by pghsteelerfan
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