gbkirk

I dont know if I agree with you on the "terrorism has hurt the industry" but I do agree with everything else you wrote...

Sorry, haven't looked at this thread in a long time. Prior to 9/11 we had been watching a Princess cruise that had an inside cabin at $1600. After 9/11 that price dropped to $600 and prices have never really came back to those prior levels. But it has made cruising available to a lot more people that could not have afforded to before then.

Behind the cruise lines happy face that we see is a business like any other that must make a profit to survive and employs experts on how best to do that and still keep passengers coming back. Apparently raising fares is less profitable than slowly removing perks.

Many of us love high quality caviar but would never buy it at home so got our fix on cruises. When the wholesale price of a tin (500 grams) of good sturgeon caviar went from $300 to $600, many cruise lines that still served a midnight buffet stopped putting it out. Hard to blame them for that business decision but it was the loss of a perk that many looked forward to. But for just a few more thousands of dollars there is all caviar you want on a Crystal, Regent, Silversea.....

While this may be true, it doesn't excuse the lack of service. If the pay-per-perk system makes up for the lost revenue of higher ticket prices, then the money would be there for the better service. Seems that the extra money doesn't go to service, but to profits. That is the shame of it.

Cruise lines have a captive audience so they can basically charge what they want to and many people will pay, which provides a steady and predictable source of income. Budget minded cruisers that are willing to go without or pack their own alcohol, get cheaper massages on shore, etc. are finding that cruising is one of the best travel deals out there. So the Cruise lines are having to find new and inventive ways to make money which we are all seeing as loss of perks. Although the level of service has slipped, long working hours, low pay, assigning more cabins per steward, etc. has more to do with it. None of us would do what they do for that pay month after month with the positive attitude most of them have.

Terrorism has hurt the cruise industry and forced lower prices to keep the ships full inadvertantly making cruising available to many who could not have afforded it before. To sustain the lower prices quality (perks) has been sacrificed for quantity (bodies). Cruises are now sold at wholesale prices using the strategy that most passengers will drink, gamble, massage, buy shore excursions, etc. to make up the "retail" price of the cruise. The quality we had, and much more, that are not now avaliable on the mass market lines are still available on Seabourn, Radisson, Crystal - if you have the money.