PATRLR

yeah, sorry, went right over my head for sure...

???

Aren't those the two guys who got in a big tiff on NCL because the Haven concierge wouldn't let them eat in the Haven restaurant at a time when they felt they should be able to eat in the Haven? As I recall, they were not staying in Haven.

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This is the complimentary NY Strip on the MDR menus every night we are talking about? Flavorful? How could you tell it was flavorful, wasn't it buried under that heavily salted brown sauce? Just curious, how recently were you experiencing these steaks?

I agree we shouldn't expect "Michelin star graded", but there is no reason they can't serve some of the best meals those 2000-3000 passengers have ever had. Cruise ships used to serve many hundreds of covers in a sitting and the food was always some of the best you'd ever been served. If a kitchen can serve hundreds, it's a matter of continuing the scale to serve thousands. It can be done. Yes, I know the cost is not insignificant and the mass market cruise lines demographic won't want to pay the higher fares - I get it. My point is, very high quality, some of the best you'd ever had, can be served to 2000-3000+ fellow passengers.

I didn't say that you said that. I didn't say anything close to that. If you are going to berate people, try to comprehend the conversation and stay on topic and not create new ones.

Well now I need to go read your "live" report... 😉

Speak for yourself. I am "anyone" and I have no problem answering OPs question and do no agree that it's none of their business. I also believe what other people do, as asked by the OP, is extremely relevant and appropriate to ask. If you don't want to answer, if you think what YOU do is none of OPs business, that's your prerogative but you don't speak for me or anyone else. @dominicr We do not leave any tip in the MDR. We would if something happened that had the wait staff going above and beyond in service to us, but, I don't recall that ever happening. That's also the case with just about everyone else on board the ship that we interact with.

We're doing our first Princess in July (Norwegian fjords) as part of our "trying other lines" effort. Glad to hear you enjoyed them.

In December they had beef on 4 of 7 nights on Viva that we either ate in or looked at MDR. But considering how awful the MDRs have become, I guess I'm not surprised if they are in fact eliminating beef. Sigh.

Agreed. Those three points do not make good business sense. Further, I would argue that holding a few for sale onboard makes even less sense for customer satisfaction. The old "mad dash" model was bad enough, but now they are going to continue the mad dash model except with far fewer availability? That sets up even more people for disappointment than the old method.

I'm sure you will find the cuts and decreases on NCL are similar to what you experienced on the other lines. Despite what some on this forum think, it is possible to discuss cuts and decreases and yet still enjoy the experience. I'm sure you will enjoy your cruise.

So if I just hand the young ladies $6 as a donation, does that all stay with the local troop?

So despite the shortcomings that @JamieLogical listed, because you don't care about those shortcomings, you stand by your statement that the quality of the NCL product is unchanged. What would it take for you to acknowledge a reduction in the NCL product quality?

So those of us who are identifying various decreases in quality, etc are "choosing" to do so? Does that mean that you are choosing to ignore them? Becuase that sure is what it seems like you are doing, which of course is fine. And while I know you didn't direct your comment at me, I am one of those who has been vocal about all of the decreases. How I "feel" I haven't communicated, I can't imagine anyone cares. However, I have said that we are trying other lines and we are continuing to sail NCL, so, that may say a bit about how we "feel".

For Vibe? Did you just tell us in another thread you had to deal with Guest Services to get yours?

As someone who doesn't wish to cruise NCL without the Vibe, my suggestion to you is to check daily because people do cancel. Check frequently as you get close to final payment date (if you aren't already past it).

Is this serious? You sepnt $2300 for knives purchased from someone on a cruise ship you never met before and invited you over on false pretenses? I also agree with someone else who asked how these knives got onboard. I had the Swiss army knife from my toiletries kit confiscated on one cruise. I couldn't get to your link, but, I've read similar things in the past - the people making all the money are the cookie company and the high level corporate GS. For that reason, I stopped buying quantity of cookies years ago. I'll still buy a one or two if some kid comes knocking but that's it. You wrote profit - I assume you mean revenue?

Now THAT would be an improvement!

Guess we'll have to agree to disagree on that one. As I said elsewhere, we thought the MDR was so bad on Viva that for the first time ever (35 years) we planned to eat dinner in the buffet just to see if that might be a better experience. I agree that the concept of Indulge is an improvement over buffets, I don't necessarily think the food itself is all that much better in Indulge today than the buffets of the past (pre covid). Indulge did have better food than the buffet during my one experience on Viva in December, but some of what I liked in Indulge was just relocated from buffets on other ships (e.g. Indian). Thanks for the response.

@graphicguy I like reading your posts, generally agree with your opinions but this one really caught me. So your opinion (observation?) is that over the last few years, the quality on NCL has remained steady, no decrease? Your post talks about "changes". Changes can include decreases in quality, right? As one example, the change from filet to sirloin in Teppenyaki - would that not be a decrease in quality? How about the elimination of 1/2 and 1/2 in favor of whatever-it-is-the-use now for coffee creamer? Would that not be a change representative of a decrease in quality? I too intend to continue cruising on NCL. We've got some CNs still to use, I suspect our planned 2025 Med will be on NCL (if not something sooner). But that doesn't mean I haven't noticed a decrease in quality, similar to what the OP describes.

As someone stated earlier in this thread, I don't think there is a business school in the country that would agree with "It is not hard to acquire new customers but it is really hard to keep them especially when the competition is as tough as it is in the cruise industry." Especially the first part (customer acquisition). I'm not challenging your experiences, just challenging the thought that it is common in business.

Unfortunately there seems to be a relatively large contingent doing everything they can to bring the envelopes back.

No. Intersting choice for comparison though. I acknowledge an error in my statement above, I should have said: The alternative is to lower the quality of the product while maintaining the price - I'm not sure in what business model that would make sense over the long term.