PATRLR

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.

They should increase prices. No question in my mind. Continue to deliver a quality product and charge what they need to maintain profitability. 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.

I think you have a different understanding of "nickel and diming" than I do. Certainly different than how I use the term and I use it frequently on these boards. Just showing that NCL has a cheaper cost than others doesn't say anything about nickel and diming. Where nickel and diming will come into play is when I consider the costs are relatively the same, I'm trying one of the other lines because NCL no longer has anything to cause me to stick with them.

Perhaps. There are 107 Haven cabins on Viva. That's still less than 10% of the 3219 double occupancy capacity. Don't know Viva's Vibe capacity but I'd guess around 100 or so. Again, low percentage of the total.

I don't think it's exclusively new cruisers they are going after, I think they are going after a different demographic with lower socioeconomic status. It's the same demographic that hugely successful restaurant chains target, for example. Like new cruisers, many in this demographic simply don't know any better. Other than that minor point, I agree with the rest of your post. Exactly. Your statement works for first time cruiser or for the target demographic I mention above. I think it's there now, not just perilously close. I'm not sure NCL has any advantage over RCCL, it's been a while since we were on Carnival but based on what I knew pre-covid, I'm not sure NCL has an advantage there. We're going to try Princess this summer and while I understand Princess tends to be more expensive, for our northern Europe cruise this summer they were priced right about the same as Prima - so looking forward to how that one goes.

That's your interpretation of the phrase. My interpretation is wider and includes: Things that used to be free but now you have to pay for Things that used to be offered but aren't offered at all Things that used to be offered but have been replaced by something cheaper Nickel and diming can occur on both sides of the ledger - NCL getting additional monies from you, or, NCL saving money by offering you less.

@TN Roz As others have said, the ships are nearly identical. Don't worry about the ship, look closely at the itinerary and especially the time in ports. If you do Bliss and Dawes Glacier, I strongly recommend the TRACY ARM FJORD & GLACIER EXPLORER excursion in Juneau. A bit pricey but definitely the best way to see the glacier and the fjord leading up to it.

Couches, tables/chairs, daybeds on some, covered cabana things for an additional charge. Also of course seperate bar with dedicated barservers, hot tubs, bathrooms private to Vibe, water feature for cooling off (that may be Encore only).

See also just about any jewelry for sale on the ship.

Oh, I think it sounds very interesting. Entertaining even. 😉

Wait. FWIW, I'd guess half the time I show up at the pier with no tags, even when I've had a cabin assigned since booking. When that happens, I let the porters fill some out for me. Easy peasy.

OK. @Yesimapirate and @dcipjr I inferred were really referring more to things like the quality of food and entertainment which I maintain could and should be consistent across the brand. I agree with you that the actual venues and such will be different which leads to a different experience.

I'm not sure what "that" refers to in your sentence above. I think "that" refers to this idea from @Yesimapirate's post: "The entire point of a brand is that you get the same thing across the board. " That quote most definitely is a thing. You may not get the same restaurants, entertainment options, ship features, etc on all ships, but, the general quality should be the same if the brand is being properly managed. Consistency across a brand is how a place like McDonalds, serving at best marginal food, can be so successful. People know exactly what they are going to get when they order a Big Mac be it in San Diego CA or Portland ME. If a cruise line was inconsistent, I suspect loyalists wouldn't be so loyal. Why would they keep coming back to the line if they didn't know if ship X was going to be consistent with or different from ship Y?

I'm glad to hear that some lines acknowledge this fact. One of the problems (not unique to NCL or even cruise ships) is the refrigerators are enclosed in cabinets that don't allow proper air circulation across the evaporator coils. We like a chilled beverage and try to leave the cabinet door open - it helps a bit.

Assuming the freeze point of the med is 32 degrees Fahrenheit or below, ice in water will not get below 32 degrees. The med won't freeze. Fill a bucket with ice and water and you would be able to keep it chilled.

To be crystal clear here, the reason you can't share your meals with your kids is NCL wants you to buy the kids their own meals. It's really that simple. If you could give one of your "free" meals to someone else, that decreases the chances of that someone buying their own. As reasonable as we all may (or may not) think what you want to do is, NCL only cares about increasing the onboard spend. Period, end of story. Any other reason stated in this thread is BS.

Wow. That is unbelievable. The art auctioneer? Really? I'd rather they just picked random crew members to enjoy a dinner with loyal passengers. A perk for the crew member and a perk for the passengers. Seriously, I'd rather have dinner with the guy working in the laundry over the art auctioneer.

Interesting fact right there. I wanted to know the trend so went looking and stumbled upon the part you left out: The average age of the Broadway theatregoer was 40.4 years old. That was the youngest in the past twenty seasons. https://www.usitt.org/news/broadway-demographics-report-reveals-increased-audience-diversity-overall-attendance-trending A comment worth repeating:

I know it's been a few years since this question was posted, but, @pthardy, did you book and sail in this cabin? Any comments on it? We're looking at it for our 2024 fjords cruise.

We are probably more like you than others who've commented. NCL entertainment, in particular the shows, was always a big "pro" for NCL when weighing pros and cons in our decision making. NCL no longer has that "pro", just one of many contributing factors to us trying other cruise lines now (and RCCL blew away anything NCL lately). As for what we do when there isn't something good in the theatre? Wonder the ship and usually find something but I'll acknowledge there have been evenings where we went back to our cabin before we were really ready to call it a night. I don't like doing that.