Which cruise line has managed to keep their pre-COVID standard??

[Free and Easy]

I have travelled post-COVID on Windstar, Celebrity, and Oceania. All of them seemed to have dropped significantly in quality of service and food. In particular, it is so very apparent that many of the crew are new, leading to inconsistency of standard of service. I wonder if there is any Cruise line which has managed to keep their standard as in pre-COVID times, be it Ocean cruise or River cruises?? Would be interested in other fellow Cruisers experience in recent cruisings.

[Honolulu Blue]

This isn't going to be a true answer to your question, but it did make me think. Superficially, I think things are back to "normal" - or at least a "new normal".  Certain trends, like bigger ships and an increased reliance on specialty dining, are still ongoing but they were well established before the shutdown.  

 

The shutdown shook up the pool of possible crew greatly.  Not everyone could wait out 18 months or so with little or no salary.  Some of them got employment elsewhere and decided not to go back to the ships.  That created a huge need by every cruise line to hire, train, and deploy crew.  None of this is cost-free, and it also has secondary costs - like less-experienced crew in many roles causing a poorer experience for the passengers.  

 

And, of course, the pandemic and its effects helped cause spot shortages (at first) and inflation across the board.  The cruise lines have to deal with them as well as they can.  Mainly they've stuck it to the passengers that are willing to stick around.

 

I don't know what else to say except 1) enough crew will stick around and figure out what needs to be done that the experiences will eventually get smoother, 2) I think the very best food will continue to be hidden behind higher and higher pay walls, and 3) I think the more upscale the cruise line, the less they were/are/will be affected by such items.

[Joebucks]

If you're looking for a product that is exactly the same as it was 4 years ago, you will be disappointed. If you're interested in hearing about some cruise lines that maintain a "higher standard" (and a much higher price) you will hear a few opinions shortly. 

[klfrodo]

I don't think anything in this world is the same as it was pre-covid. I'm not the same now as I was then. Families are not the same now as they were then.

The entire world took a huge gut punch when Covid hit. We learned a lot about ourselves, our families, our friends, our co-workers, the companies we work for, and more. Some changes have been good, some changes need to be re-evaluated and some of these changes are generational in time.

[navybankerteacher]

It is not so much the result of COVID, rather the typical corporate model of trimming expenses to boost the bottom line.  In the case of the continually-growing cruise industry, such trimming is very easy: many customers of mass market lines are cruising for the first time so they have no grounds for comparison; while in the case of “premium” lines, many of their customers are “upgrading” from mass market lines which no longer satisfy their wishes - and they see an improvement over their previous experiences rather than a dilution of previous standards.