Are you loyal?

[Tatka]

I don't care about raitings.. Sorry.

And your experience to me is not more valuable than one of my friends who sail a lot.

 

Mediocrity is in your view.

You don't even state correct what each line is spending for food per passenger. ;)

[Flatbush Flyer]

I don't care about raitings.. Sorry.

And your experience to me is not more valuable than one of my friends who sail a lot.

 

Mediocrity is in your view.

You don't even state correct what each line is spending for food per passenger. ;)

 

 

Use the search function here on CC and you'll find the posts regarding a comparable food cost study done relatively recently.

 

 

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[Tatka]

Two companies I mentioned have higher cost of food, plus with a proper management and more pax on board it is cheaper to service pax with lower charge. Anyway... it is very hard to call P and C food mediocre.

[dverzic]

itinerary..... itinerary ...... itinerary ......

 

 

(And then find the smallest ship in the bunch that cruises that itinerary.)

 

 

Lately that ship has been (more often than not) HAL. They have the smaller ships, and just seem to take more pride in interesting ports, and "exotic" trips... (Plus there is the Promenade... That is a huge plus, I gotta admit!

But having said THAT, our last cruise was on Star Clippers, and our next is on CMV, so I dont know HOW "loyal" I really am to ANY cruise line!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forumsim just curious about why you like smaller ships. Ive only been on the larger ones, but would consider a small ship if i knew what more about what they are like and why so many people prefer them.

[Flatbush Flyer]

Two companies I mentioned have higher cost of food, plus with a proper management and more pax on board it is cheaper to service pax with lower charge. Anyway... it is very hard to call P and C food mediocre.

 

 

If you're still talking about Princess and Celebrity, they do NOT spend more per passenger on food than ANY of the premium or luxury lines. Though these numbers below (gleaned from IAMU sources) are several years old, they'll give you a more realistic data driven picture.

As for your argument regarding bigger vs smaller ships playing a role in purchase price, etc, do you realize that the contracts for supplies and services are made across lines within a parent company? So, that contract for Coca Cola (or meat or whatever) products is across segments of a "family" within the industry (e.g., NCL/Oceania/Regent) and not for each ship. What is different, however, is which segments get the better quality stuff (e.g., USDA "prime" vs "choice" (or lower quality).

 

Here is a general break-down, per passenger, per day:

 

Seabourn, Silver Sea - $24 - 26 per day

Oceania, Regent - $18 - 20 per day

Celebrity, Princess - $12 - 15 per day

RCCL, HAL - $12 - 13 per day

Carnival - $8 - 10 per day

NCL - $7.50 - 8.50 per day

 

Again, these numbers are several years old. But there is no reason to believe that the current comparative data would have the cited lines changing places.

 

At the bottom line, let's agree to disagree on whether any particular line's food is mediocre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited May 8, 2017 by Flatbush Flyer

[iancal]

We think that food has become mediocre compared to a few years ago. Preparation, ingredients, and service. Not saying it is bad, just very mediocre.

 

Bottom line.....if we were at home thinking about going out for dinner would we consider eating in a mass market cruise ship MDR or would we go somewhere else (assuming one lives in an urban area).

 

I know what our answer would be. And it might not necessarily be a high end gourmet expensive restaurant either. But it would not be the equivalent of an MDR.

[navybankerteacher]

Loyalty is rarely open-ended -- you are generally loyal TO something - so you need to decide what that something is. I am inclined to be loyal to those lines which meet expectations and offer itineraries which match my wants.

 

I cannot conceive of any set of "loyalty rewards" which would make me choose a ship, or itinerary, I did not already favor.

 

So, it really boils down to being loyal to yourself - your preferences should count more than any gimmicks.

[Hlitner]

We think that food has become mediocre compared to a few years ago. Preparation, ingredients, and service. Not saying it is bad, just very mediocre.

 

Bottom line.....if we were at home thinking about going out for dinner would we consider eating in a mass market cruise ship MDR or would we go somewhere else (assuming one lives in an urban area).

 

I know what our answer would be. And it might not necessarily be a high end gourmet expensive restaurant either. But it would not be the equivalent of an MDR.

 

Profound and one of your best posts, ever. All so true.

 

Hank

[Nebr.cruiser]

Not particularly loyal; we choose cruises mainly by itinerary and price. We do tend to cruise with Princess the most, next Celebrity. But we have cruised on 8 different lines, that I can remember, and enjoyed each cruise.

[iancal]

We had one of our best cruises ever on Sun Princess. This past winter we did a Crown Princess SA cruise. Day and night difference in food, service, etc. We find the same with other cruise lines.

 

I think that part of being loyal is consistency and the expectations/standards that have been established on previous cruises. We see less and less consistency. Loyalty is something that is earned and for us consistency is a large part of that. Hence we are not loyal to any one cruise line.

 

Besides, why on earth would we be 'loyal' to a big corporate entity? They will typically find a way to take advantage of it.

[navybankerteacher]

 

...

 

I think that part of being loyal is consistency and the expectations/standards that have been established on previous cruises.

 

...

 

Besides, why on earth would we be 'loyal' to a big corporate entity? They will typically find a way to take advantage of it.

 

Well put : only a fool would give loyalty if none were returned .

[Tatka]

I would definitely eat in our local restaurant of comparable quality to Princess and X. I bet I'd pay more than I am doing on board of their ships. It might not be a gourmet, although some dishes are pretty close, but it is a very good food usually. Considering that I can sample more than one dish of every course even more likely.

Only several lines we are cruising with offer food that not all we want it to be.

[BarbinMich]

Benefits (OBC, veterans, stockholder), price, itinerary.

Not so much loyal to Princess as, it just fits.

 

That sums it up for us, as well! We just returned from a HAL cruise (Zuiderdam TA to Copenhagen), which now puts us at their 3* level but I don't think their loyalty program can compare to that of Princess (we're Elite). I doubt we'll go on HAL again--we did this one for the itinerary. We do a lot of TAs, both directions and both Med and northern European itineraries. Because the Z is smallish (2,000 pax) it could visit Cherbourg, the only new port for us. But it was a dreary, rainy, windy day plus May 1, Europe's national holiday and all shops were closed. Actually the weather was the worst we've ever experienced on a TA south of the UK-Scandinavia-Iceland WB route, not that it was HAL's fault. Didn't see the sun much. Our last post-cruise day in Copenhagen, however, was the exception. Clear and just the right temp for doing a lot of sightseeing on foot.

 

Princess fits us much better vis a vis food, activities and price.

 

Barb

[BarbinMich]

. . . We are trying our first Viking Ocean later this year and I expect that to be an amazing cruise experience.

 

We saw the Viking Sea at 2 ports on our recent HAL cruise. We've been on a Viking river cruise so we get all their mailings about future ocean and river cruises. The ocean ships are elegant both inside and out. Just too small for us. Enjoy!

[hubofhockey]

It's hard to believe that perks are valued by some over other factors, but to each his own. I actually like the slight differences among the lines and we book the best possible vacation for us. It can be many factors, but usually itinerary and ship itself win out.

[Tatka]

It's not necessary perks, but available services. For example for my working vacation (more like semiworking) I will pick Royal, because of quality and cost of wifi (second would be Celebrity).

Princess provides many free minutes for Platinums, but not enough without spending money and quality is not good.

 

Also for us proximity to the port matters as my DH will not fly over US, so we are either driving or most likely sailing from the reachable port. NCL, Royal provide more choices out of Northeast for us.

[caribsun]

Not loyal, book for length and ports.

[bUU]

Well put : only a fool would give loyalty if none were returned .

There are other reasons to give loyalty. One of the greatest recipients of customer loyalty in the US marketplace is Apple. They gain the loyalty by fostering excitement about their brand, by providing dynamic in-store "experiences", and by ensuring that their products feed popular lifestyle affinities. They offer practically no loyalty to their customers. They abandoned AirPort and Quicktime with practically no notice. They've abandoned the low-end computing market, and some say they've even abandoned the creative market. Even Dreamworks uses HP workstations, now, rather than Apple. More over, this is in keeping with best practices in consumer marketing these days. You foster customer loyalty not by returning loyalty but rather by playing into people's lifestyles.

[lenquixote66]

What makes you choose the line you do?:o

 

 

Not loyal,we go for the best price and best ports. We have been on 6 cruise lines thus far.

[Aquahound]

Well put : only a fool would give loyalty if none were returned .

 

Or even worse...advertise for them, for free, on the bumpers and windows of their cars.

[bUU]

Or even worse...advertise for them, for free, on the bumpers and windows of their cars.

Or on t-shirts, golf shirts, caps, etc.

 

This message may have been entered using voice recognition. Please excuse any typos.

[greenfroggie]

We had one of our best cruises ever on Sun Princess. This past winter we did a Crown Princess SA cruise. Day and night difference in food, service, etc. We find the same with other cruise lines.

 

I think that part of being loyal is consistency and the expectations/standards that have been established on previous cruises. We see less and less consistency. Loyalty is something that is earned and for us consistency is a large part of that. Hence we are not loyal to any one cruise line.

 

Besides, why on earth would we be 'loyal' to a big corporate entity? They will typically find a way to take advantage of it.

 

Interesting. I've traveled on both those ships on my last two cruises and I liked the Crown a bit more in the end but it was probably equally good. I think location has a lot to do with the overall feel of the cruise in the end. We had the Sun Princess in the Japanese islands and felt someone odd to us as 99% of the travelers were Japanese and the menus were Japanese (with what felt like 5 English ones to share among the rest of us), no drink packages etc. and a very odd gym situation.

 

Also interestingly I've also had a SA (which I am imagining you mean South American and not Africa or Asia) and had a hard go of it even though it was a very high end cruise (Sea Dream). I think that's a difficult market to do (we had a lot of issues in Brazil), and well the food wasn't as off the charts as it was advertised. In the end SDYC stopped doing that itinerary and some of us did another cruise with them in the Caribbean and had a fantastic time.

[iancal]

My old neighbour was a loyal GM customer. So loyal that it took three Cadillacs that were lemons with huge depreciation costs to get him into a Lexus dealership. He lost his loyalty very quickly and understood how misplaced that loyalty was.

 

As others have said...if you want loyalty get a dog.

[FredT]

Sent from my iPad using Forumsim just curious about why you like smaller ships. Ive only been on the larger ones, but would consider a small ship if i knew what more about what they are like and why so many people prefer them.

 

As "sixty somethings" We have been on every large mass market line with kids/family/friends. In those circumstances I would go "large"... but both my wife and I have found we like smaller, quieter, more intimate ships when cruising alone. Also, smaller ships can make those smaller "less traveled" ports. (Hamilton or St Georges in Bermuda for example) Last, with fewer "amenities" smaller ships tend to have fewer kids. (Fine until our kids have rugrats of their own, then I am sure it'll be back to the larger ships once again!)

[DedeF]

Thanks for the reply, FredT! My last three cruises were on Carnival with friends. It was fun, but I too,want something a little more upscale and with fewer families. Going on the Grand Princess next, which I know is pretty big, but I've heard wonderful things about the Pacific Princess and other small ships. We are in our mid 50's so we are still active but want something more intimate too. This is only going to be my husband's second cruise,but my sixth.