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PAYING for Pizza in Sorrento’s

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Cherries Jubilee

Cherries Jubilee

Posted
Posted

I wish I found land vacations as easygoing and entertaining as cruising. I’m not enjoying the changes on ANY of the cruise lines right now. They’re all trying to recoup their losses while offering us a product that is noticeably inferior to what it once was. 
 

I’m not willing to pay for Sorrentos. It’s not a deal breaker on its own but all of the changes are adding up. It’s slowly sucking the fun out of cruising.
 

 

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ReneeFLL "Live from...." Rare

ReneeFLL

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 8/10/2023 at 4:18 PM, ONECRUISER said:

Could be worse, some Lines are charging to eat in Main Dining

Which cruise lines are doing this?

 

On 8/10/2023 at 10:32 PM, NateUpNorth said:

Insanity.
Regardless of if it's decent pizza or not, it's one of few food options available for free after the MDR closes up shop. Pretty soon it'll be a FAQ:

Q: Are there any non-pay food options available after the MDR/Windjammer closes.
A: No, you must pay for food after 9PM. Each guest is permitted to carry on one box of cookies and 1 small bag of candy per stateroom to enhance their experience.

I'll be taking some to go food from the WJ if I need to for later on. If I eat it thats fine, but if I don't it will get tossed in the am. That will be more food wasted which I think Royal is trying to avoid. Imagine if 1/3 of the ship did this and ended up tossing it, how much would they lose? They might be shooting themselves in the foot. 

Edited by ReneeFLL
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Jt4428

Jt4428

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Cherries Jubilee said:

I wish I found land vacations as easygoing and entertaining as cruising. I’m not enjoying the changes on ANY of the cruise lines right now. They’re all trying to recoup their losses while offering us a product that is noticeably inferior to what it once was. 
 

I’m not willing to pay for Sorrentos. It’s not a deal breaker on its own but all of the changes are adding up. It’s slowly sucking the fun out of cruising.
 

 

It is not a deal breaker for me. I just would not pay for the pizza. Easy solution. I still feel that cruising is still a great value. Love the fact that you can see many places and only unpack once, everything is contained on the ship (entertainment, sports related, gambling, etc). You have the choice to leave the ship or not.  We went on  many land based vacations years ago (turks Caicos, atlantis, cancun, playa del Carmen, Dominican republic and more) and I was always very bored after dinner. The cruise has so many options to do whatever you want to do (comedy, entertainment, gambling, escape room and much more) and you don't have to leave the ship.

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Ret MP

Ret MP

Posted
Posted

For those of us, yes, I'm in this demographic LOL, that have said that the possible and/or eventual pay-to-play in Sorrento's is not a deal breaker, what will it take to be a deal breaker?  Where is the straw that will break the Camel's back?  What number cut is the death of a thousand cuts?  

 

How many cutbacks in choices, quality of products and services, and services have there been since the restart? How many more to come?  What have we not noticed, yet?  Where/when will it stop?  Will it stop unless there is pushback?  

 

I personally and certainly don't have the answers, just more and more questions.  I'm still cruising on RCCL because I booked my one and only cruise in Jan 2024 over 2 years ago and it was still during the time frame that the cost of cruising was reasonable and before the string of cubtacks.  That cruise, if purchased today, would be thousands of $$ more, if purchased today.  I'm not done or at least don't want to be done.  But, I just can't see myself paying what is being asked for a cruise these days.  So, until things get reasonable again, if ever, I'm priced out of the cruise vacation options.  Like others have stated, I can do a lot of great vacationing with less money via many other options other than cruising but I hate flying.  So, I guess I will get back into "Seeing America First".  I believe there are still a lot of great things I haven't visited yet in the good old U.S. of A.  

 

It is my view that I am not leaving cruising, cruising has left me.  But, until I've completed my next cruise I'll still be active in here just to keep up with the latest cruise news.  Who knows, maybe things will turn around and I'll be a happy cruiser again.  

 

Cheers!

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LobsterStalker

LobsterStalker

Posted
Posted
14 hours ago, Falling_down said:

I just got off a 4 day Carnival cruise (my first in 11 years) and I have to agree with you on the food. They beat RC hand over fist on absolutely everything food (and even drink) related. However, the rest of the cruise was an absolute DISASTER. Rampant drug use all over the ship both inside and out, dilapidated decking and rusty faded chairs, the AC sucks and most venues were incredibly hot including our rooms, the entire shower fixture (shower head, pipe and all) fell down on my teenage daughter while she was showering and it took them two days to fix it, never mind the condition of the ship itself (they really suck at cleaning or picking up trash laying around in general and the lack of general maintenance of the ship itself is sad) had me reconsidering ever sailing with them again.

What ship were you on ?

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lenquixote66

lenquixote66

Posted
Posted
14 hours ago, Jt4428 said:

Me too but that doesn't make sorrento's any better. Tastes like cardboard.

Every RCI cruise I have been on since 2009 and that is many I have been to Sorrento’s day and night and have yet to find it empty.

Having said that ,everything in life is a matter of opinion .You do not like Sorrento’s and I do.Enjoy the wonderful weather predicted for NJ today.

 

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ShillyShally

ShillyShally

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Ret MP said:

For those of us, yes, I'm in this demographic LOL, that have said that the possible and/or eventual pay-to-play in Sorrento's is not a deal breaker, what will it take to be a deal breaker?  Where is the straw that will break the Camel's back?  What number cut is the death of a thousand cuts?  

 

How many cutbacks in choices, quality of products and services, and services have there been since the restart? How many more to come?  What have we not noticed, yet?  Where/when will it stop?  Will it stop unless there is pushback?  

 

I personally and certainly don't have the answers, just more and more questions.  I'm still cruising on RCCL because I booked my one and only cruise in Jan 2024 over 2 years ago and it was still during the time frame that the cost of cruising was reasonable and before the string of cubtacks.  That cruise, if purchased today, would be thousands of $$ more, if purchased today.  I'm not done or at least don't want to be done.  But, I just can't see myself paying what is being asked for a cruise these days.  So, until things get reasonable again, if ever, I'm priced out of the cruise vacation options.  Like others have stated, I can do a lot of great vacationing with less money via many other options other than cruising but I hate flying.  So, I guess I will get back into "Seeing America First".  I believe there are still a lot of great things I haven't visited yet in the good old U.S. of A.  

 

It is my view that I am not leaving cruising, cruising has left me.  But, until I've completed my next cruise I'll still be active in here just to keep up with the latest cruise news.  Who knows, maybe things will turn around and I'll be a happy cruiser again.  

 

Cheers!

I agree with so much of this! I cancelled one short one booked because airfare looked crazy and switched my Oct 24 to a drivable port. They cancelled my short winter ‘25 one on me. My plan is to take the 2 we have booked and not book anything else until after ours this fall. But likely it will be exploring the US and scouting for where we may want to retire. I’m hoping we still find the cruise like we have in the past, but if not, we’ll explore until we want to try again!

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Cherries Jubilee

Cherries Jubilee

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, Jt4428 said:

It is not a deal breaker for me. I just would not pay for the pizza. Easy solution. I still feel that cruising is still a great value. Love the fact that you can see many places and only unpack once, everything is contained on the ship (entertainment, sports related, gambling, etc). You have the choice to leave the ship or not.  We went on  many land based vacations years ago (turks Caicos, atlantis, cancun, playa del Carmen, Dominican republic and more) and I was always very bored after dinner. The cruise has so many options to do whatever you want to do (comedy, entertainment, gambling, escape room and much more) and you don't have to leave the ship.


 

Yes cruising has many advantages over land vacations for me too and I’m not loyal to any of the cruise lines but I still feel like too many changes are going to tarnish the experience at some point. It’s not at that point right now but some lines are going to eliminate themselves from my consideration and soon the price won’t feel like a value at all to me.

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barbeyg

barbeyg

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, Ret MP said:

For those of us, yes, I'm in this demographic LOL, that have said that the possible and/or eventual pay-to-play in Sorrento's is not a deal breaker, what will it take to be a deal breaker?  Where is the straw that will break the Camel's back?  What number cut is the death of a thousand cuts?  

 

How many cutbacks in choices, quality of products and services, and services have there been since the restart? How many more to come?  What have we not noticed, yet?  Where/when will it stop?  Will it stop unless there is pushback?  

 

I personally and certainly don't have the answers, just more and more questions.  I'm still cruising on RCCL because I booked my one and only cruise in Jan 2024 over 2 years ago and it was still during the time frame that the cost of cruising was reasonable and before the string of cubtacks.  That cruise, if purchased today, would be thousands of $$ more, if purchased today.  I'm not done or at least don't want to be done.  But, I just can't see myself paying what is being asked for a cruise these days.  So, until things get reasonable again, if ever, I'm priced out of the cruise vacation options.  Like others have stated, I can do a lot of great vacationing with less money via many other options other than cruising but I hate flying.  So, I guess I will get back into "Seeing America First".  I believe there are still a lot of great things I haven't visited yet in the good old U.S. of A.  

 

It is my view that I am not leaving cruising, cruising has left me.  But, until I've completed my next cruise I'll still be active in here just to keep up with the latest cruise news.  Who knows, maybe things will turn around and I'll be a happy cruiser again.  

 

Cheers!

I agree with much of what you say.  I book our cruises now thru a TA that has group rates lower than the prices on RCI.  There will be a tipping point with that, as well, if they keep jacking their prices up. We have a 9 night scheduled on Celebrity (sister line) in a suite that we booked very cheap 2 years ago. The price has gone up almost $10k since we booked. Insane pricing!  We won’t book Celebrity again after our cruise next year unless prices come down to a more reasonable price. That’s ok for us, there are lots of land vacations we want to take in retirement.

 

When RCI starts pulling the benefits from C&A (which I expect to happen sometime soon with the $$ people in charge), that will mean the incentive for us to sail with RCI is ending, and we will be much more amenable to searching and sailing other lines, and investing more time at the shore rather than in the ocean.  Guess we will see how this all shakes out.

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RoperDK

RoperDK

Posted
Posted
22 hours ago, Falling_down said:

We booked the 4 day cruise at the same time we booked a 7 day on Mardi Gras for March 2024. I am really hoping we will have a better experience on the longer cruise on a newer ship. *fingers crossed*

Don't worry. You will have a completely different experience on the Mardi Gras.  Most people really enjoy it.  We didn't dislike it, we just prefer the Royal product.  I am hoping that Royal isn't going to continue the cutbacks and quality reductions while raising prices at the same time.  If they do, we will be on the hunt again for a "favorite" cruise line. 

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JupiterTwo

JupiterTwo

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, Ret MP said:

the possible and/or eventual pay-to-play in Sorrento's is not a deal breaker, what will it take to be a deal breaker?  Where is the straw that will break the Camel's back?  What number cut is the death of a thousand cuts?  

 

I always told my wife that I'm not going to spend $10,000 on something and then start nickel-and-diming the rest of the experience. It's an "in for a penny, in for a pound" when it comes to exceeding a certain dollar threshold. I'm not going to spend Big Bucks to get in the door, and then go cheap from that point on.

 

That said...

 

I do worry about the business that takes my $10,000 and then still nickel-and-dimes me after that. I'd rather they charge me $10,005 than tell me that I'm buying a luxury experience and then make me pay extra for the amenities.

 

It's a mixed message that ultimately will cut against them. They will be the ones who cut off their nose to spite their face if they start taking their customers for granted by charging for an "enhanced experience" and then expecting to continue to "enhance" it slice by slice.

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Cayman1

Cayman1

Posted
Posted

If Royal becomes so damn greedy, that they start charging for pizza, I’m done with them! I’ll cruise on Carnival before I deal with this BS! Absolutely disgusting that they are even asking this of guests! Bean counter running the company! 

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