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What is/was your line in the sand?

rimmit

By rimmit,
in Royal Caribbean International

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pcur

pcur

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Posted
22 hours ago, rimmit said:

I am just curious what your line in the sand is/was?   What could RCI do to cause you to either never sail them again, switch lines all together, or at least try out other lines on a regular basis?  

 

For us it was the 7.95 room service charge.

 

Was it the loss of the chocolates on the pillows?  The loss of the shipshape program?  The Dynamic Dining debacle?   Loss of in cabin movies?   

 

Or if they haven’t crossed the line yet what would it take?  Charging for the fitness center?  Charging for the MDR?  Loss of flavored water in the buffets?  Complete removal of adults only rule in Solarium (it is only loosely enforced as it stands now).

Our choices are driven by itinerary and price, and we always look at RCCL first. 

 

I mentioned this on a previous thread recently, about how I am rapidly becoming disenchanted with their pricing model and the hoops/screens we have to jump through to even find out what the price is for a cruise.  They have overburdened their pricing with so many rules and regulations, that I'm sure a LOT of travel agents and CSRs are costing a LOT of companies wasted costs just answering questions about refundable vs non-refundable, making changes, ad nauseum.

 

Secondly, we are tired of waiting for RCCL to come back to the West Coast.  We just booked an amazing HAL cruise for next September that goes all the way up into the Sea of Cortez, roundtrip San Diego.  It was disappointing to us that RCCL doesn't offer anything at all to Mexico, and nothing to Tahiti from the West Coast like Princess.  

 

So, we started several years ago with other cruise lines, but for our ginormous 50th anniversary cruises (7 of them b2b) we did RCCL all the way.  The itineraries were great, and the pricing, too.  I find the trick to keeping RCCL cruises interesting is to look at the re-positioning cruises, plus the ones before and after.

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rimmit Great Review Rare

rimmit

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10 minutes ago, pcur said:

Our choices are driven by itinerary and price, and we always look at RCCL first. 

 

So, we started several years ago with other cruise lines, but for our ginormous 50th anniversary cruises (7 of them b2b) we did RCCL all the way.  The itineraries were great, and the pricing, too.  I find the trick to keeping RCCL cruises interesting is to look at the re-positioning cruises, plus the ones before and

 

What were the 7 out of curiousity.  We really enjoy the repos as well.

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Anita Latte

Anita Latte

Posted
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This is an interesting thread for me to read. I cruised RCCL first, as a teenager with my parents...and then not again for 20 years, to celebrate my 40th birthday. Now, Celebrity and RCCL are tied at 3 each in my experience...which of late has been X heavy...obviously.

 

I'm not looking to turn this thread into an X discussion, but I'm in the opposite camp...focusing on Royal because the revolution of the M-class ships was enough to motivate me to go looking elsewhere for our next cruises. It's not that I'll never sail on X again...but the few things that I had been looking forward to experiencing on X were stripped away with the dry dock "revolution".

 

I think the line in the sand is when you can't look forward to your cruising experience in the way that you have in the past. You can lose some perks and such and still find enthusiasm for an up and coming cruise...but when you don't feel like you are getting your money's worth...then you go looking elsewhere for that experience that you can look forward to. And that may mean going to a different cruise line where you don't always have these thoughts about the way things used to be...or "back in the day" thoughts.

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pcur

pcur

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2 minutes ago, rimmit said:

 

What were the 7 out of curiousity.  We really enjoy the repos as well.

It was an amazing trip.

 

Jewel for 3 cruises from San Diego through the Panama Canal to Miami; Miami to Civitavecchia; Italy and Greek Isles.  Then we flew to FLL for 3 days, and go on the Adventure.  It was 4 cruises of Caribbean, Bahamas, Bermuda, up the East Coast to New Bayonne, then Nova Scotia.

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Tom47

Tom47

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1 hour ago, pcur said:

Our choices are driven by itinerary and price, and we always look at RCCL first. 

 

I mentioned this on a previous thread recently, about how I am rapidly becoming disenchanted with their pricing model and the hoops/screens we have to jump through to even find out what the price is for a cruise.  They have overburdened their pricing with so many rules and regulations, that I'm sure a LOT of travel agents and CSRs are costing a LOT of companies wasted costs just answering questions about refundable vs non-refundable, making changes, ad nauseum.

 

Secondly, we are tired of waiting for RCCL to come back to the West Coast.  We just booked an amazing HAL cruise for next September that goes all the way up into the Sea of Cortez, roundtrip San Diego.  It was disappointing to us that RCCL doesn't offer anything at all to Mexico, and nothing to Tahiti from the West Coast like Princess.  

 

So, we started several years ago with other cruise lines, but for our ginormous 50th anniversary cruises (7 of them b2b) we did RCCL all the way.  The itineraries were great, and the pricing, too.  I find the trick to keeping RCCL cruises interesting is to look at the re-positioning cruises, plus the ones before and after.

We took an Azamara Sea of Cortez cruise r/t San Diego last year.  Azamara is the only cruise line that stops at one of the ports, Loreto.  We are taking a 50th anniversary cruise on Adventure next year.

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zepp914

zepp914

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Posted (edited)
17 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

Sorrentos is the best pizza on the planet

 

My son admits that when it is hot and fresh it is somewhat better than bowling alley pizza.  When it has been sitting out for a while, it is worse than school cafeteria pizza.    

 

If only they could use one of those smoke stacks to make brick oven pizza.  

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Jax129

Jax129

Posted
Posted

my husband smokes. If he couldn't smoke anywhere on the ship we couldn't cruise.....spare me the lectures, I hate his smoking too but it is what it is......It's also the reason we've never cruised Oasis class cause there's not a nice open outside promenade

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lenquixote66

lenquixote66

Posted
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6 hours ago, Tulsacoker said:

I'm done with Royal as soon as they make Sorrentos pizza good 😉 

Surely you are not serious about the quality of Sorrentos pizza. A former City Attorney from Tulsa is an authority on great pizza and I am certain that he would agree with me if he ever had the opportunity to try it.

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lenquixote66

lenquixote66

Posted
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1 hour ago, zepp914 said:

 

My son admits that when it is hot and fresh it is somewhat better than bowling alley pizza.  When it has been sitting out for a while, it is worse than school cafeteria pizza.    

 

If only they could use one of those smoke stacks to make brick oven pizza.  

 

1 hour ago, zepp914 said:

 

My son admits that when it is hot and fresh it is somewhat better than bowling alley pizza.  When it has been sitting out for a while, it is worse than school cafeteria pizza.    

 

If only they could use one of those smoke stacks to make brick oven pizza.  

Sorrentos pizza is equally good to Boog Powell’s barbecue.

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akcruz

akcruz

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Posted

As some others have said we don't have a line in the sand, but more of a what will be the final straw.  Also, it's got a lot to do with who else is cruising with us.  We did Royal for a number of years because that's our kids liked and it worked for us.  Now that we are sailing more just the 2 of us have been trying Celebrity.  We have also added other types of vacations than cruising and have visited some very nice land locked places.  For now we will continue with Royal and Celebrity where we have Diamond and reciprocal Elite status, but are closely watching the prices and cuts to see if that will continue.

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taglovestocruise

taglovestocruise

Posted
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On 9/26/2019 at 12:43 PM, lovesthebeach2 said:

We won’t stop cruising Royal, but when we become D+ in a few months we do plan to try some Celebrity ships. We will never get any higher than that in loyalty status, so we can start trying out the other line in the family with the same perks 😉

Right with you. Next cruise puts us at D+ and we are thinking of a Celebrity transatlantic for the following year.  

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bonsai3s

bonsai3s

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We thought we were done with RCCL when it left the west coast...we cruised Princess...then Celebrity..................missed Royal so we came back.  It's like kids, one makes us happier than the other...but love them both.

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BND

BND

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2 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

I have eaten pizza all over North America and I was a restaurant reviewer .Pizza was my specialty.Whar does living in NY have to do with anything ?

Gee, I don't know, if you live there then you'd know NY pizza is very good.  My DH is from NY and the best pizza we've had was in the Bronx.  Restaurant reviewer tells me all I need to know.

 

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lenquixote66

lenquixote66

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2 minutes ago, BND said:

Gee, I don't know, if you live there then you'd know NY pizza is very good.  My DH is from NY and the best pizza we've had was in the Bronx.  Restaurant reviewer tells me all I need to know.

 

Bronx pizza was good in the 50’s and 60’s but then it went downhill.The only place that you could still find quality pizza is on Arthur Ave but it cannot compare to Sorrentos.

For the record I worked in all 5 NYC boroughs and went to school in 3 .I ate a lot of pizza.

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