Room Service!

[LMaxwell]

Well think about it.....

 

The cruise fare is a price one pays for said, advertised, documented, researched product up front. Pick your cabin, get your best deal....there's the price, you see it... PAY. You bought in good faith that the product you bought will be delivered to you.

 

AFTER you do the above a piece of the product that you bought is removed BUT your price stays the same.

 

IF it's about food waste...give everyone that bought a cruise before the change a $25 OBC to spend anywhere on the ship. For today forward....everyone knows so nothing for those.

 

Also...from 10-12...open up a sandwich/snack/finger food line at the buffet.

 

That's right. Same thing with MSC. Things included in the cruise are now $50! to use if I choose to use them. My price didn't go down. I asked MSC for $50 OBC to cover the charge. Nope. On their boards people defend this ridiculous business practice by saying well its cheaper than RCI. What has that got to do with anything? I put my money down and was told what was included. And now that isn't. I could see doing that from new bookings going forward, and I know what the lopsided contract says (like all, they protect companies, not individuals), but it's bad business. Real negative taste in my mouth about an otherwise exciting new ship over a stick it to 'em $50 charge. Yes it's optional; guess I'll just do less things

[manmachine]

 

 

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[mz-s]

I am willing to forgive the room service charge only if they offer additional late night food. Open the Deli 24/7. Have a small buffet at the taste bar (for ships so equipped).

 

Last cruise the buffet was only from 11:30PM-1:30AM and only had things like chips, ham&cheese sandwiches, and chicken sandwiches the size of Krystal burgers, and most nights once they went through one or two trays they didn't refill that food - that was it, that's all they made. The pizza line is ridiculous all night long.

 

I am with the others, I booked my cruise expecting to be able to get a BLT at 2AM if I wanted it at no cost (besides the customary tip).

 

I think Carnival should have thought this through more. If it really is about waste and not about revenue, then they should institute limits. One entree and one dessert per cabin guest per order. If you want more, order more later on or pay a service fee for the extra food - the first entree/dessert should continue to be included.

[Bosrox]

Holy. So now you might have to pay a few bucks to have a late night snack. Big deal. Most other lines charge as well. Some people are just never happy.

 

I’m surprised at how many people actually EAT after 10pm anyways. If you’re a typical late night snacker I guess you now have to be prepared to either 1-spend a few bucks, 2-go eat free pizza or 3- make sure you have some cereal or snacks in your room.

 

Not really worth whining and crying about in my opinion.

[xcruisedirector]

My 1st ever cruise is Feb. 24/18 which I booked in Jan. 2017 and the increases from then till now is making me think it will also be my last one. Not just Carnival but all cruise lines.*

I waited many years to book a cruise because of the way cruise lines have treated people with their policies of " we can change itineraries, ships, times, rooms, perks and upcharges " and there is nothing you , as paying customers, can do even after you pay.*

 

I find it very puzzling why this industry just keeps getting bigger with this type of attitude. Sure there are great things but to spend $4000 for 2 people to cruise and have it changed so easily is troublesome to me.

 

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Wow, 4k for 2? On Carnival?

 

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[beerman2]

I'm curious, what line did you find that was cheaper? Every time I look carnival is still the cheapest option when looking at comparable ships, length, and itineraries.

 

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Comparible is when you add in drinks and specialty dining to me!

 

Sure I get an 8 Day Southern on Carnival against a 7 day Eastern or Western on NCL , but is it worth the 1,000.00 more?

 

 

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[beerman2]

Wow, 4k for 2? On Carnival?

 

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Yep if you get Cheers it is!

 

 

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[Bernardo62]

Cut out the over head (J. Heard) and keep your customers happy!!!

JMO..... Heard makes 6 figures and ALL THE PERKS!!!

All these companies have the ridiculous over head (nerd talkers) to raise prices on the people to pay their salaries...

[lcpagejr]

Geez... It amazes me how upset this is making people. Its not that you can't still get free food!! Get off your butts and head up to Lido and grab some pizza, ice cream, or sandwiches from deli area. You do have a choice. And if you want to be lazy after 10 pm.... its your choice and you'll pay. By the way.... They do charge for Room Service in a Hotel!!

[lcpagejr]

Someone posted the "cutbacks" earlier and here is the explanation for each:

 

*Staggered Check In Time (lines reduced)

*Sample of amenities in bathroom removed (companies quit providing the samples)

*No tablecloths (ITS JUST A TABLECLOTH)

*No trays to hold plates (have hands?)

*Chocolate on pillows removed (did you really eat them?)

*Turndown option (just ask)

*No lobster on cruises with less than 5 days (cheaper to pay for lobster than an extra day)

*Bottle water increase (have you been to a grocery store? prices increase)

*Camp Carnival hours/fees (have you met the children that most of you complain about?)

*Fee for Room Service (there are free options if you want them)

*Now No room service w/o a fee from 10-6 (order at 9:59)

Take all of this with a grain of sarcasm, but it's mostly true.

 

Great response....And you are 100% accurate. Thats why you have options. You want white glove service and all inclusive....You have options but you will pay 2 to 3x more and be surrounded by mostly 60-70 year olds.... Again you have a choice on whom to cruise!!

[skiingj]

And Carnival doesn't nickel and dime?? HAHAHAAAA!!! Jimbo, Rino, and Meatloaf eat your words!!! Got to love more cutbacks!! Bring your own tablecloth, rabbit ears and now lunchables. Can't blame people for orders before 10pm for late night snacks, might do that myself. The cutbacks don't stop but I bet it's Brilliant!!!

[Bosrox]

I hope all these people jumping ship (literally) and storming off Carnival to the other cruise lines, are all the chair hoggers. The more people who leave, the more open seats for me and my family.

 

Bye Felicia!

[stevefrisco]

Time to cut out the shareholder credit

[kc58ab]

Not that huge of a deal to me... honestly I was surprised when I first learned they had free room service.

 

I have used room service a few times over several cruises during the now charge hours and I didn’t sleep through the delivery or waste the food, but all in all as little as I use it, if I do, an extra 10 bucks or less won’t break the bank.

 

Honestly it could be worse...

 

 

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[Bengalbug]

Wow, 4k for 2? On Carnival?

 

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On our upcoming cruise...

 

Roughly 2,000 for the room (that doesn't include grats) 8 day Eastern in a grand scenic OV. Pretty good rate in my opinion

 

900 for cheers

600 flights

150 for overnight hotel

220 for gratuities

Plus spending money... we are at $5,000 for 2... closer to 5,500!!

 

I also bring extra to tip wait staff for drinks.. I didn't do room service, maybe twice in 6 ccl cruises. If we change our mind I'll happily add the $6 charge. With that said , carnival should find the average per room ordered (and what that would equal spent) on room service as an OBC to all who have booked. It would probably come out to like $4 Per stateroom or something minute.

 

I'll still sail carnival even with these small upcharges. The value is still there IMO. When it's not I'll go somewhere else.

 

T minus 8 days! 🛳🍹🍾☀️🍻

[bUU]

Well think about it.....

 

The cruise fare is a price one pays for said, advertised, documented, researched product up front. Pick your cabin, get your best deal....there's the price, you see it... PAY. You bought in good faith that the product you bought will be delivered to you.

 

AFTER you do the above a piece of the product that you bought is removed BUT your price stays the same.

However, if that is the way you see it then you haven't "researched" the product up-front. If you had, you'd know what the product actually is - what is actually promised and therefore part of the product you're purchasing versus what could change without notice.

 

That's the real key here: I think it was earlier in this thread someone insisted that they had read and understood the contract, but clearly they had not because they believed it made part of what they were purchasing things that were absolutely no part of the agreement, no part of the commitment. There's a difference between reading something and understanding what you've read. When you research something, you want to reach a point of understanding.

 

Don't get me wrong: This discontinuity is ridiculously common, in all sectors of the consumer marketplace. The technical term for this cognitive dissonance: Someone fosters a belief about what the product is and what commitments are being made to them by purchasing the product, but then they read or are otherwise exposed to the facts that contradict their belief. They have both concepts in their head at the same time - their belief and the facts - and they see it as a choice between the two rather than setting aside their beliefs in favor of the facts.

 

And a lot of consumer businesses (perhaps all?) rely on this cognitive dissonance to foster their business model, because they've realized that when the facts come into play, and the customer is disappointed by the reality, it rarely results in long-term dissatisfaction. Most customers recognize that it was their own cognitive dissonance that is at fault ("I didn't read/understand the terms and conditions well enough"), or realize that they're no better off elsewhere ("They get you going and coming and they're all the same!" or more succinctly, "MSC does it too!")

 

I think Carnival should have thought this through more. If it really is about waste and not about revenue, then they should institute limits.

I think this is really missing the point: Carnival almost surely did think it through. Completely and fully. There's really no good reason to think otherwise.

 

John Heald, perhaps, didn't think through what he said. That's remarkably common, from what I've read. That's part of his charm. What he probably meant to say was that the costs were not justified vis a vis the perceived value (or perhaps he didn't feel his audience would be willing to think about and internalize a nuanced explanation, such as this one, so he made up some nonsense he thought would fly). There's a marketing phenomenon - I think it is called "pricing credit" - that says that all other factors held constant, people generally perceive higher value if there is a higher price. Here's a study that demonstrated this: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080126101053.htm It probably didn't take long after adding the extra charge items to the room service menu for surveys to show that passengers valued them higher than the free items. That would be more than enough to justify this change.

Edited January 12, 2018 by bUU

[xcruisedirector]

On our upcoming cruise...

 

Roughly 2,000 for the room (that doesn't include grats) 8 day Eastern in a grand scenic OV. Pretty good rate in my opinion

 

900 for cheers

600 flights

150 for overnight hotel

220 for gratuities

Plus spending money... we are at $5,000 for 2... closer to 5,500!!

 

I also bring extra to tip wait staff for drinks.. I didn't do room service, maybe twice in 6 ccl cruises. If we change our mind I'll happily add the $6 charge. With that said , carnival should find the average per room ordered (and what that would equal spent) on room service as an OBC to all who have booked. It would probably come out to like $4 Per stateroom or something minute.

 

I'll still sail carnival even with these small upcharges. The value is still there IMO. When it's not I'll go somewhere else.

 

T minus 8 days! 🛳🍹🍾☀️🍻

Well i am on 7 day Aft extended Balcony including Cheers and total before gratuities was $2400.

 

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[Thorncroft]

They have already cut down on the buffet waste by not having trays. Smaller plates would take that a step further.

 

Guys Burgers are handed to you one, maybe 2 at a time so they have control of that. MDR once again you are served. If at any point they feel you are being ridiculous it’s easy to cut you off. You are promised food to eat at no additional charge in your fare. Specialty things like the Steakhouse, etc cost money. Room Service, one could argue, is also a specialty item. You can still get it free just not for 8 hours late at night through the wee hours of the morning. If they wanted to cut down waste even further, they should charge for it all the time. But they aren’t. Not yet anyway.

It's not about waste. If it truly was, the charge would be in place 24 hours a day. It's about lack of manpower, because they've cut staff to the bone.

[RiotAct]

Cut out the over head (J. Heard) and keep your customers happy!!!

JMO..... Heard makes 6 figures and ALL THE PERKS!!!

All these companies have the ridiculous over head (nerd talkers) to raise prices on the people to pay their salaries...

Who's J Heard?

[Bengalbug]

Well i am on 7 day Aft extended Balcony including Cheers and total before gratuities was $2400.

 

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What ports? What about travel expenses to and from? Not all things are equal for all travelers. For many (most) getting to their vacation destination adds a large amount:

 

If you live close by, this doesn't matter but it just shows the difference in costs

[Thorncroft]

Who's J Heard?

The keeper of the sheeple.

[firemanbobswife]

It's not about waste. If it truly was, the charge would be in place 24 hours a day. It's about lack of manpower, because they've cut staff to the bone.

 

While I do realize they have cut down on crew, I think it is about waste. And yes you are right. If they wanted to curb it even further, they would charge all the time and I see that happening in the future. I can only imagine the amount of complaining that will happen then and I might not be so happy about that change as well. At least it’s only for mostly in the middle of the night when less people are affected.

[bUU]

While I do realize they have cut down on crew, I think it is about waste. And yes you are right. If they wanted to curb it even further, they would charge all the time and I see that happening in the future. I can only imagine the amount of complaining that will happen then and I might not be so happy about that change as well. At least it’s only for mostly in the middle of the night when less people are affected.

While I don't agree that it is about waste (see above), I do agree that if it really is about waste then just because they don't eliminate all waste doesn't mean that they wouldn't aim to eliminate some waste. There's a danger of falling into the False Dilemma fallacy when looking at things like this, presuming that things must necessarily be one thing or the other, when the reality is that very little is binary like that.

 

There is one other aspect to this: It isn't always a matter of cutting staff, but rather swapping out operational staff for merchandising and other directly revenue-producing staff. If they can reduce room service servers aboard ship by two and increase sales counter staff by two, that could be a win for the cruise line.

[thesmiths]

Wow, 4k for 2? On Carnival?

 

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YUP... +++ and no cheers...Vista Havana Aft Wrap.

 

That's what I wanted for our 25th.

I am not ashamed to admit...

What I have planned will probably be 7k or more..

Door to door.

 

But I chose to spend that.

 

And WILL order room service whenever we want !!!!!!

[xcruisedirector]

What ports? What about travel expenses to and from? Not all things are equal for all travelers. For many (most) getting to their vacation destination adds a large amount:

 

If you live close by, this doesn't matter but it just shows the difference in costs

Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Mahogony Bay. I live 6 hours from port. So $199 total for Hotel,8 days of parking and Breakfast embark morning.

 

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