rjrpar

The whole concept of Dynamic Dining seems to fall apart on a longer cruise. We are on a 13 nighter on the Anthem next year. In the past we would have had say 6 different choices each night in the MDR - these choices would change giving a total of 78 choices on the cruise. We now have 8 choices for the 4 dining rooms for the whole cruise- a total of 32 choices, This does not seem very dynamic to me!

Only 32 choices, plus a buffet, a pizza shop, and several upscale specialty restaurants; hope you don't starve.

Although the new menu looks good, I am disappointed that there will no longer be set 'formal' nights and you will no longer have the same servers in the MDR.

The choice of early, late or mytime was fine so why change it?

From experience I have noticed that the dress code was slipping from cruise to cruise and it just seems that RC have given in to people who think shorts and a vest are acceptable attire for a formal night.

We are sailing on the 1st december voyage so it now looks like we will have to choose our meals 7 months in advance... we are diamond members so there are normally top tier events throughout the cruise which means many of these booking will need to be rescheduled. This also opens the question about shows - will there still be two per evening or will meals again have to be rescheduled?

the more you think about it prebooking will be a total waste of time as you wont know the itinerary until you are aboard.

We are seriously thinking of cancelling and transferring to another ship as this seems to be heading away from the reason we chose to cruise - we like the structure of set formal, casual, and smart casual dress and planning shows and entertainment around early or late dining.

What really annoys me is at the time of booking (early Diamond event) there was no mention of this major change to the whole cruise structure - we had to go through the whole early/late dining aggro and the table options. I really think standards are slipping and I think this will compound that - a server will not need to learn your name or build the bond you normally do with your servers.

Am i really the only person who thinks this is 'dumbing down' the RC brand.

What is the big deal about a waiter knowing your name? I will never understand the fascination with getting to bond with the staff, does anyone do this in land

based restaurants?

I don't think RCCL is better or worse than any of those other cruise lines. In my opinion all in the same category. All have had cut backs and forgive me if I am wrong you haven't cruised in two years? You would notice cutbacks in all I am sure. Anyway...have you given Disney a try? Its not just for kids you know. Even though I still consider it a main stream cruise line to me it is just more...but again...you will also pay more for it.

 

I would not give up on RCCL. Perhaps get a suite next time? Or try MSC yacht club. i hear that is fantastic. Luxury lines are going to be a huge cost increase but it you can afford it...go for it!

Agree with your post. We are Diamond on RCCL and just returned from a 14nighter on Celebrity. Despite their claim to be a notch up from RCCL, we thought the experience was very similar. Actually, our cruise on Carnival last year was just as good as the Celebrity cruise. There are pros and cons on every line but overall, they are all alike - a good value, lots of fun, but not an upscale vacation.

IMHO with 18 restaurants on board and all needing a reservation they will have to have more than one.

All 18 restaurants do not need reservations.

The humps are more convenient and have much better views of ports on arrival and departure. We have had one aft cabin and never again, guess we are a minority.

My guess is that they will have something similar as NCL.....freestyle concept, do away with traditional dining. I don't care about schedule times however I do care if dress continues to go downhill.:rolleyes:

Who cares what other people wear, does it really affect you?

No that is an industry wide statistic that is present so that passengers can use that information, provided by the cruiseline, to make an informed decision. It is not a hiring number, why would a hiring number be present on a travel agent site or the cruiseline's info page for each of their ships. The staff level may not be precisely that number, but it would not be much less, anything more than about 5% and you could argue that they are advertising a product that they are not delivering......

 

Also, when staff are off, meaning that they have left the ship, they are replaced. When they are off for the night, they are still on the ship and count toward the number. Many of the staff are in positions where you will never see them.

 

Princess staff rests as well.

 

NLH Arizona has basically provided evidence that there are actually more staff on this Celebrity ship than on the Princess ship, although clearly there is no way to know how many of the staff are assigned in passenger areas of the ship where they are more visible. Clearly the OP felt there was a better crew to passenger ratio on Princess.....

I don't think you are right, the numbers you are addressing have many variables, no guarantee that is the number onboard.

Heard from a current cruiser that they are using vouchers instead of a lounge for Elite cocktail hour. No mention of Noro, so that is good news. We also leave this Sat.

Do you think the lowest prices are when they are first posted?

 

I've never been able to figure out the best time to book a cruise.:confused:

Not sure, it think it varies. We usually cruise RCCL or Celebrity and their popular cruises (2 week Caribbean, NJ departures) usually increase from 20-30% from first posting. Fortunately, price drops are honored until final payment.

My experience from 2 European cruises is the price falls as you get closer to departure.

Also looking for Alaska 2015. We are looking at 15 days to the Yukon. There are some pretty good deals for 2014, hope the 2015 prices are as good.

Historically, Celebrity has had a limited menu of pretty basic drinks at all complimentary functions. I have no problem with this as I think it great for them to offer anything at all.

 

This menu was extended to the Captain's Club Social Hour when it was introduced a few years back and is still the core complimentary menu for it although they've experimented with a couple other options on some cruises to streamline things. I think it is a great perk and don't think it is stingy nor bad of them in any way to limit these complimentary drinks to that menu. Members have a choice of sticking with this menu for complimentary drinks or buying their own drinks if they want something different. Personally, I usually buy my own drink. I usually have only one before dinner drink and I'd prefer it to be a premium type of wine or spirits. Again, I have no issue with this.

 

As for the threads on the beverage packages, the rules are pretty straight forward for most items. There is a great amount of interest in these packages. Like any other area which is of very high interest to cruisers, there is a lot of discussion about the packages as people not only find out about what they include but also post to savor the anticipation of their cruise. Again I have no issue with the fact that there are two different packages and that the higher priced package covers things the lower priced package does not. There is no reason for someone who doesn't want the premium items to pay the same as people who do and you can't have two different level packages without some "stipulations" to define where one package ends and the other begins.

 

The only thing I'll agree totally about is the confusion over coffees. I've always felt that the terms "premium" vs. "specialty" coffees were something made up by some marking staff writer and was never really defined for anyone. As a result there has always been some inconsistency between staff on different ships as to how to interpret these. Some mangers include the entire coffee menu for any package and some exclude some of the more elaborate coffee drinks from the classic package. The use of these two undefined terms also leaves some confusion with new Celebrity cruisers over whether the classic packages include basic espresso coffee drinks such as lattes (they do). Celebrity could do a much better job of clearing this up by changing a couple words or a sentence in the package descriptions.

I also don't have any issues with the limited drink menu at the Elite social hour nor do I think their current voucher system is stingy. It is not a money issue, it is a matter of making it easier to sit at any bar I choose and have any drink I want - it is just more flexible. And I do know that option is there simply by paying for the drink, which I usually do.

I hate to complain about something that is free, however, why does X put so many stipulations on every one of their programs. One example is the drink package; there must be 50 threads on what's included in each package, does it cover lattes here or there, what about a bottle of water, does it cover an $8.50 wine, etc. Same with the Elite vouchers; these impact the very best customers on a so-called elegant cruise line. You can use them at some bars, for 2 specific hours, for a very limited assortment of drinks and the rules seem to change about every 6 weeks.

If you want a $10 martini or a frozen drink, the voucher is useless.

The whole experience is made to seem MickeyMouse-like. What wrong with giving Elites 2 or 3 drinks of their choice each evening and making the program simple yet rewarding. After all, we are dealing with adults.

Sorry for rambling but I am getting tired of all the nit-picking rules.

All the mass market cruise lines provide very similar experiences. As someone said, ranking cruise lines is very subjective. Your question is impossible to answer. Pick one and have a great cruise

We've never sailed Celebrity or Carnival, but the RCCL food doesn't even come close to HAL IMO.

Boy, some are blindly loyal to their cruise line of choice. We find all the mass market cruise lines to have similar food quality, even Carnival.

Ties are not required on "formal night". A jacket, nice shirt, and slacks will get you in every time.

When you have cabins priced at under $100pp per nite, you attract all kinds of people. We have had table mates that lived in a trailer park, so cruising is no longer an elegant experience. If that is what you want, go on a luxury line, don't complain that some passengers on a mass market cruise line don't act and dress like royalty. Have you ever seen the dress styles at Disney, and that is more upscale than cruising.

We have just reached 4 star Mariner status, but all celebrations have been cancelled! We are cancelling our booked Zaandam Antarctic cruise and are not making any plans to sail with HAL again in the near future. Why?

For the 5th HAL cruise in a row, we have had our cruise experience spoiled by their recent habit of cutting the cabin airflow during the night. The A/C is working well when we go to bed. We then awake at about 2 or 3 AM, in a hot, stuffy cabin, feeling like we cannot breath, throats sore and noses stuffed up. Between 4 and 5 AM, we can feel the flow of cool air resume. No amount of complaint or discussion makes any difference. Many people are not sensitive to this problem, so it does not matter to them. It does to us, but presumably there are few enough of us that HAL think that our loss as customers is worth the savings from this policy.

We are convinced that this is a cost saving measure, even though HAL deny it. We discussed it recently with a friend who is an international shipping expert, who agreed that this is probably what is going on. Well we have had enough. We have just returned from an Oosterdam cruise to New Zealand, which was to be HAL's last chance. They failed. We had uncomfortable nights, poor sleep and developed sinus and chest infections. We have sailed with HAL for 11 years, but have only experienced this with them during the last 3 years. We have not experienced this on other cruise lines during that time.

If you are not sensitive to this problem, then you can happily continue to sail with HAL. They are otherwise a great cruise line and we will miss them. If you are sensitive to this, then consider carefully. I wanted to share our experiences and feelings with you before we go. I have also written another letter to Mr Cruse's office. I have now given vent to my feelings on the subject and will close the door quietly on my way out. I hope that other cruise lines will allow us to breath well at night and sleep peacefully.

Nice post, good luck on your future cruises.

Each can you buy on board will be billed at a "very reasonable" $2.75. :eek:

 

Buy a 12-pack (or two!) on your way to the pier and put a luggage tag on it. It will be delivered to your stateroom with your luggage... and save you enough for a meal at Tuscan Grill! ;)

My wife always gets the soda package. Just wondering if the new machines were on X, they are very convenient on the RCCL ships.

Does the Eclipse have the coke machines like RCCL?

Thanks in advance.

With the young kids, I'd skip the Jewel. The Explorer is due for a makeover and it needs it. If you're cruising after its dry dock, it is a great ship. Never can go wrong with the Oasis unless 5500 people are too many for you.

Cruise lines are doing to specialty restaurants what they have done to the MDR. Every change they make results in lower food costs for them and more mediocre meals for their customers. When I went to Chops for the first time about 8-10 years ago, I thought they were close to a top notch steakhouse. Now, as many have noted, they are more like a Texas Roadhouse. What a shame!

I am also interested in Alaska, 2015. Don't bother calling customer service, they have no clue.

It is not political correctness, it is simply a case of can an individual do the job? Does gender really make someone more or less able to do something?

 

The specific tasks for a job may make one gender, in general, more likely to have the aptitude to do those tasks -- but that does not mean that there are not members of the "dominant" sex for that task that are not up to it, and it does not mean that there are not members of the non-"dominant" sex that are not capable.

 

If a job requires that the employee must be able to lift heavy boxes onto a shelf that is at a height of 7' -- well while there will be more men capable of performing that task, there will be 5'4" men who would not be able to make the height requirement (even though they could lift the weight), there will be 6'2" men who cannot lift that much (although can acheive the height), and there will be 5'11" females who work out who will be capable of both components.

 

To your examples - the fact that your wife has issues with leaving certain peices of clothing out if you have a male cabin attendant, is your wife's problem. It has nothing to do with whether the male cabin attendant is capable of performing the tasks associated with cabin attending.The attendant is perfectly able to do his/her job. What if a pax was "uncomfortable" with a Hispanic person doing a particular task? Would that pax concerns be "understandable"? What if a pax was "uncomfortable" with a person from Ireland performing a particular task? How about a cabin attendant who is overweight? Or an attendant with a limp? There is nothing "logical" about bias.

 

Similarly with the massuse (sp?) - if the male massuse can do the job, what is the issue? The massuse is doing his/her job and really doesn't care if you are male or female, if you are black or white, if you are tall or short (particularly if they are paid by the time increment rather than by the customer. A taller customer might take longer! :D)

 

My DH was once "warned" that the doctor was a woman (exact word "just a warning" - really?). He asked if he had a license to practice medicine - and he was assured that she did. He was satisfied. A female GP, a male GP -- they are just doing their jobs.

 

To the OP I can understand that from a saftey perspective, we are all concerned. I am most concerned that the company I trust myself to has good screening practices to identify potential threats, and good personnel practices to assure that the employee who boards the ship is the same person they vetted, and good leadership that if an employee demonstrates any behavior that may not be appropriate that it is dealt with promptly.

 

Are men disproportionately more likely to be perpetrators of assults than women -- yes. But just because one male employee commits a crime against a pax does not mean that all male employees are "suspect"

 

All of us, need to take some responsiblity for our safety. Practical things - dead bolt and secuity "chain" doors when you are in your cabin. Pay attention to what is going on around you. Stay sober enough and awake enough to know what's going on. Bad things might still happen, but you are controlling the risks you can control.

Thanks for the lecture but life is not as simple as you might think. If the lady has security concerns, she should at least inquire with the cruise line if her special request can be met.

The much smaller private vans do much more than Celebrity busses. No comparison in what you see in a day and cheaper. People on ship tours don't know what they missed.

Very few people are going to cancel due to lack of info. RCCL always delivers great ships and we all know it. Many on this board may be frustrated because they have a need to know everything, but canceling, I doubt there is much concern at RCCL. Prices are going up and most can't wait to sail from NJ on a new ship.