Seacruise

2 minutes ago, Coral said:

Though when the supply change improves, I doubt these extra charges will go away.

Something like going back to morning and evening Room Attendant service....😁

It amazes me that many have not learned a thing about covid and supply problems.

The supply problems still exist today especially in the cruise industry.

Having my other half who works in the industry supply two of the major brands with food/supplies I have heard the stories.

There are many factors that play into this. If the supplier can't get it then they can't send it or if they can get a small amount they send that.
Food orders have to be submitted 88 days before sail date. This is in order so the company hopefully has enough time to get the requested items.

I will give you examples. Bird Flu went through Canada and the US recently. Eggs could not be shipped from the US to Canada or Canada to the US because of this. This would include items onboard a ship.
Now that the new California Law on Pork will soon take effect this will cause Pork problems onboard ships from California.
There has been Beef problems as well due to low cattle count because of high prices.

I recently did a transpacific cruise where we ran out of many food items 5 days before our next port. The reason was 3 or 4 containers of food never made it to Sydney due to shortages.

This past winter Yuma AZ which is the lettuce capital of North America in the winter had to give up planting 2 crop cycles due to shortage of water. How do we replace that?

All Salmon fishery on the west coast was put on hold until a week or so back. The only Salmon available was farmed. 

King Crab fishery is closed for at least another year. King Crab from Argentina/Chile has been brought north but people are not liking it because it is more spiny than the Alaska crab.

The Lobster fishery is the same on the east coast.

So how does a cruise line solve this, either stop it all together or charge for it hoping that discourages passengers from asking for 2.

This is just a small sample of what is done to replenish a ship.

On 6/30/2023 at 4:28 PM, Astro Flyer said:

This link takes you to a Princess webpage with links to the available cruises…not many except the Winter/Spring 2024 Sun Princess Med cruises.

 

https://em.princess.com/pub/sf/ResponseForm?_ri_=X0Gzc2X%3DAQpglLjHJlTQGXzdFotDrOwzeG2SlshmEOS53P2izd3TBDjzfNubeqLqsD6P3PzfuiH64UnVXMtX%3DAQpglLjHJlTQGXzdFotDrOwzeG2SlshmEOS5zcI0kKLiDzfcvSKBwh8zfnc77CG2q7gabKn&_ei_=EYvPsybyoWIx0ZWjnwGTTuM6dKBND4r-HM&_di_=gtj9ial0ktr3feujlbt80sotg5u7kqfhldj9lq7u93rgak047ljg

This link you provided shows personal information that you may now want on the internet.
Most emails are linked to ones account no matter what it is. With the information on this email I can get your address etc with a couple of minutes.

I just returned last month from the Noordam 39 day TP cruise

Because of this policy we bought water days before the cruise to be in the cabin. It was suppose to be in cans but was in glass bottles. The problem came that the bottles had a high salt count which we tried to find out prior to leaving what the contents of the water was they were selling.

Having said this the bottled water with the salt was horrible.

The water on the ship also tasted "off" even from the water fountain in the Lido.

Since the Noordam was last inspected was July 2019 it was interesting when we arrived in Hilo we were due for Coast Guard inspection and the CDC inspection at the same time. The Food and Beverage Manager managed to have the CDC inspection put off until the next day in Honolulu.

The Noordam scored it's lowest score ever at 90. While I would not normally be bothered by this score it was what the fails were. They were related to dish-washing and water.

What was interesting was going up to the Lido that morning brought a few surprises such as paper plates, paper coffee cups. The reason turned out that the lido dishwasher was not up to the task of dish-washing. All dishes had to be rewashed by another dishwasher.

The other thing that was noticed all the water being sold at the gangway when we were in port was in plastic bottles. This wasn't left over water because of the policy change, as we were told that it is very hard to get water in cartons, tins or bottles in some countries.

Having said all this a few years back I listened to a presentation here in Canada about bottled water. There is almost no jurisdiction North America that regulates bottled water. There are no rules on how often filters should be changed and what amounts of salt and other minerals can be added to bottled water.

What I am saying you are dammed if you do and dammed if you don't try and look after your health bringing water on-board. It is also a simple money grab for some cruise;lines like HAL.

42 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

I know that both carnival and NCLH have increased the number of cabins each steward services. Rooms aren’t even ready until 4:30 on NCLH and the room is serviced once daily. Sadly I suspect this is part of cut backs in the industry due to COVID.
 

Did you have one steward or two? 

I had only one steward on my celebrity cruise in January. He told me they increased his work load at the start of the year but I can’t remember how many rooms he had. My Room was serviced once per day and some nights I got turn down service too. I was fine with that.
 

 

We had the Assistant and the Regular Steward.

3 hours ago, wandrr said:

 Your steward will anyway at the nightly turn-down.

Nightly turn down? When, where? Sure didn't happen on my recent 39 day cruise. The answer from the room Steward was this, we went from 21 cabins to 31 cabins to clean.

 I am NOT surprised at all with this. I recently booked Emerald Princess and with all the OBC it came to $1285 to spend onboard. How does this make good sense? They are paying me to cruise how do they stay afloat for very long with all the OBC?
This is a either or, not all cancelled.
May I suggest we all take a deep breathe on this one.

Just had 4164 on the Noordam on the transpacific cruise from Sydney a few weeks back.
The Balcony is 11 x 30.
The downside for us was the small galley beside the room as we could hear the cabin stewards using the dishwasher first thing and late into the evening daily. The other downside was a drain on the balcony that made a gurgling noise all the time when we sat out all day. 
We changed cabins from Auckland to Sydney leg to this cabin for the 2nd leg of Sydney to Vancouver. The set-up was totally different from our prior cabin on the same deck with different colour scheme and furniture.

Hope this helps a bit

Depends on the week. I just came back on Noordam last week and we backed in.

The Captain/Staff Captain  decides before hand depending on things like crew drills, cleaning and painting.

Here is something that many don't know about Killer whales.

The BC resident whales eat Salmon while the transit (also referred to Biggs Pods) pods eat the likes Seals and Gray Whales. The killer whales of the antarctic eat penguins. Here is a recent video off California of Killer whales trying to kill 2 Grey Whales last month.

Here is the problem. Most Alaska cruises leave Vancouver earlier than in the past ( I have noticed some as early as 3PM last year). The reason is there is a speed restriction in effect for the Salish Sea including Juan de Fuca Straight if you are going to Victoria.
This also is why Princess and Carnival are not going to Victoria on their 10/11 Alaska cruises out of California. Victoria was swapped out for Prince Rupert in March when the speed change was announced.
A study was done over the period of Covid and the affect to the whale populations. The birth rate went up by about 50% (no this doesn't mean 50% more whales) so this year instead of starting the speed restriction in June, it came into effect this week on May 01. So no more  20 knots to get to Seymour Narrows. Since you are trying to get to Robson Bite it is highly likely it will be after dark despite the long twilight we have.
Your best bet if you are on 7 day return is about 5 PM or slightly later on the southbound trip.

@OlsSalt reminded me of the early years 1983 when we got 2 "Guest" passes to have friends onboard for the sail away party who got off 30 minutes before actual sailing.

Lets not forget the free pop/soda.
Jackets were required for Dinner, no shorts for Breakfast or Lunch in Dining room.
The Big one was No Tipping Required ( I mean by that the staff returned tips).
When Officers used to wear White Uniforms for summer.
Amazed that many didn't miss the ship despite no way to track those that went ashore.

4 hours ago, Colorado Klutch said:

Pardon me for using a Navy reference again, but when I was stationed aboard an aircraft carrier, I used to see the Logistics Requests. Whenever the ship pulled into a port, we would purchase supplies from the local economy. (One of the reasons foreign countries were willing to put up with thousands of sailors invading was the huge sums of money the Navy brought in with them.) One number that stood out was "11,000 Dozen Eggs". I expect cruise ships order similar numbers. 

Here is the problem. The Navy can do this, but almost all cruise lines can not. There is a thing called Liability.
Food suppliers such as Airamark, Sysco Foods and  GFS Foods to name a few give a guarantee on the food quality. This allows the cruise line to go after the food supplier if something happens. If a passenger gets sick who pays the bills etc.? They will likely sue the cruise line.

The Navy has someone get sick on a ship they report to the Hospital and get taken care of and not have any bills to pay.

One of the few places outside US/Canada home port I see ships take on local stores is in Alaska. This would be for seafood. Only makes sense.

If you are cruising out of Australia lets say the ships will source some items from local suppliers that offer similar guarantees. Things like Kangaroo, Lamb, beef and vegemite to name a few are sourced local because the makeup of the passenger list is from that part of the world.
The problem lies in say cruise lines who offer things like USDA Steak on their menu's for their steak houses. This has to be shipped from the USA, hence the containers.

Does this help you understand?

I am able to shed some light on how ships are stocked.

Having someone who works for one of the companies that supply cruise ships in the family has taught me a lot.

The Ship has to submit their food order 88 days before sailing date.
So this is a complete guess in some cases on what the passenger makeup will be but is based on past cruises on how many items used.

The 88 days is needed to make sure the supply chain can provide the items and shipped to the ship. In many cases right now this even isn't enough time.
What you are likely unaware of is cruises not out of North America has the majority of it's supplies shipped via container to a port. This takes time to pack the container and then put it on a ship to arrive in time at the port for the ship. How do you think US wine, USDA Beef etc. gets to the ship in far off places. Some cruise lines when in Europe change to a mainly European Wine list while other don't.

In North America right now we have "Bird" flu going through farms. This causes complete farms to be culled. This also creates a problem where some country's won't allow poultry products into their ports. This includes eggs. Have you noticed the shortage of Turkeys? How about the cost of eggs?
In North America there is a shortage of vegetables. I am sure we have all noticed that trying to buy things like lettuce is not only a problem but expensive. Think on a large scale of trying to buy lettuce for a ship. Remember it just isn't the ship you are going to go but all ships in the port the day you sail that are trying to get the exact same items. 

Pork is another one right now that is having a problem because of what California is trying to do to pork producers.

Beef production is down this year due to feed costs.

What we are seeing I think is the cruise lines trying to do what they need to do so they have enough food onboard and designing menus around what they can get.
Just think how much we pay as consumers for food now compared to a year or two ago.

Just some things to think about why cruise lines change things we are not happy about.

So I have an interesting perspective of the "Old" vs the "New" Holland America.

This years marks 40 years since my very first HAL cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam III on her 2nd voyage when she had the fire.

This ship was all the rage at the time with many new features and large at 33,000 tons.

I was 25 years old at the time and didn't really fit the demographics of HAL at the time. Still 4 of us went on this cruise and enjoyed very much.

Now here are some of the things that HAL required at the time.
There was the No Tipping Policy and by this I mean No Tipping. We had it handed back to us and was taken as a insult.
Jackets were required by Men at Dinner every night and Ladies in dresses. No Shorts in the dining room at breakfast and lunch. I watched as Captain Hess escorted several Men out if they were in shorts. They would argue  and he would say don't want to follow the rules then I will have you removed from the ship at next port.
Lifeboat drill was just that. They even lowered the lifeboats to show you what it is like and how to get in them. Lifeboat drill was done every 7 days on 14 day cruises.
There was skeet shooting off the stern port-side.

Now here is the one that will shock you. Nieuw Amsterdam had liquor cabinets in the staterooms complete with crystal glasses.

You could go to the Duty Free store on board buy a bottle of Rum (about $5.00) and take it back to your cabin and ask your Room Steward for the coke which was provided for free.
Draft Beer (Heineken) was .65 cents a glass and Rum and coke was $1.25 a drink.

If you want to talk entertainment this was not to be missed. They had well known people from Broadway doing music and other acts.

I have a HAL Tie which I bought on that cruise. When I wear it today on Formal nights there isn't an Officer that goes by that doesn't comment on it or ask where I got it.

Did you know that sewing kits were also provided in your rooms at the time.

I have to say I have read the thoughts of those that have sailed Zuiderdam and I have to say I was on here a few months after she was launched and agree she was a disaster. The one thing that was very noticeable was the uneven decks  going down the halls. There was the glass compass crown floor in the casino that was broken for a second time because of the ship flexing. The Dolphin tale seats at the rear bar that snapped off within the first few months.
The aft pool that was one deck down from the lido restaurant. This was changed for the current Noordam and later the other 3 ships were sent to dry-dock and a new section was set in place. I sailed the Oosterdam a few months after she had her new section in place and what a difference it made.
I sailed on the Westerdam II that was bought from Homeric line. That was such a departure from what HAL was at the time. No crows nest bar.

Oh and there were no "key" cards of today. It was a long plastic key with holes in it. It was a pain to carry around. There was no way who was onboard the ship and who was not when you sailed from a port. You would find out at dinner who didn't make the ship. If you wanted to make a call home you had to contact the Radio Officer who would place your call.

I have sailed Sitmar, Princess, Celebrity, NCL and Royal Caribbean since that first cruise. 
Each cruise line has differences and the way I look at it is don't compare them against each other. Compare them for what they offer in Itinerary. HAL does a far better job in this department in Europe than most of the others. HAL is also number 1 in Alaska. I have sailed the others and it shows for the most part. HAL bought West Tours many moons ago along with Westmark Hotels, Grayline of Alaska, Evergreen Coach in Washington to name a few. The others have been trying to catch up for years.
Funny thing is my best cruise was on NCL Norwegian Wind from Hawaii and my worst was on Norwegian Sky.

Yes things have changed and still changing. No idea where HAL is headed but I see no long range plans for HAL at this point.
The one positive is I have been to Alaska 14 times and in 2024 that 28 Day Alaska cruise is something different.

That is just a few of the things from the "Old" Holland America.

I have the 39 day cruise from Auckland back to Vancouver this spring to celebrate 40 years cruising and will have a better idea of the changes when I come back.

We hiked out to Gypsy Cove in the cold wind to see the Penguins out there. A word of warning though is you better stay on the trail as there are possible Land Mines still in place. It is very well signed saying this. We also visited the Cenotaph to pay our respects. We took a car (they don't have taxis) back to town then visited the Church and whale bone then into the Shops and then the pub. We headed back to the tender about 3 PM and boy it was a rough ride back.
Very friendly locals and you will see lots of Royal Marines still posted there. Oh and if you like Land Rovers they are the number one car there.
Just be warned at this time of year (December) it is breading season and the limit is 200 yards away from penguins or behind the rope if they have one. The photo I have attached was on the trail we were walking on and I was not going around because of the Land Mine situation.

Hope this helps.

The problem with this change is this. You are flying to another country and use the passport reader. The passport reader says your ticket doesn't match your ticket so go see an agent.
You go see an agent and they may say your name doesn't match your ticket. I had this exact problem last May flying to a cruise. I was refused boarding. I had to get a supervisor to come and explain the situation to her. I was finally allowed to board.

There is also a problem with those that have 2 middle names as the second middle name gets cut off. This was another reason why airlines decided to merge names.

The surprising thing is it has got worse since 911.

We did the Falklands a few years back and was very aware that the tendering was a problem.
Made sure we were on the first tender ashore with the first tour going to the other-side of the island.
It was a rough ride.
Another tender arrived and that was it for the day.

They could not recall the Land Rovers so we had the day ashore. It was sad for those stuck onboard.

 

I am able to shed some light on how ships are stocked.

Having someone who works for one of the companies in the family has taught me a lot.

The Ship has to submit their food order 88 days before sailing date.
So this is a complete guess in some cases on what the passenger makeup will be but is based on past cruises on how many items used.

The 88 days is needed to make sure the supply chain can provide the items and shipped to the ship. In many cases right now this even isn't enough time.
What you are likely unaware of is cruises not out of North America has the majority of it's supplies shipped via container to a port. This takes time to pack the container and then put it on a ship to arrive in time at the port for the ship. How do you think US wine, USDA Beef etc. gets to the ship in far off places. Some cruise lines when in Europe change to a mainly European Wine list while other don't.

In North America right now we have "Bird" flu going through farms. This causes complete farms to be culled. This also creates a problem where some country's won't allow poultry products into their ports. This includes eggs. Have you noticed the shortage of Turkeys?
In North America there is a shortage of vegetables. I am sure we have all noticed that trying to buy things like lettuce is not only a problem but expensive. Think on a large scale of trying to buy lettuce for a ship. Remember it just isn't the ship you are going to go but all ships in the port the day you sail that are trying to get the exact same items. 

Pork is another one right now that is having a problem because of what California is trying to do to pork producers.

Beef production is down this year due to feed costs.

What we are seeing I think is the cruise lines trying to do what they need to do so they have enough food onboard and designing menus around what they can get.
Just think how much we pay as consumers for food now compared to a year or two ago.

Just some things to think about why cruise lines change things we are not happy about.
 

23 minutes ago, Plum Happy said:

 I would love to hear from a NCL a waiter, room steward, etc,  that says they got an additional COLA (Cost of Living Allowance) again this year.

 

I don't believe it.

I was on Princess in May and at that time Princess was only having Room Stewards enter your room once a day. They would then deliver the Activity Paper at night and nothing more.
While talking to my Room Steward I asked exactly how much of the tip I give do you get and he said only 60%. He went on to say he had 10 cabins empty this cruise so for those he got nothing.
Further he said that many crew were quitting because of the lack of money.

So I went up to the Front Office and asked the question about where the "extra" was going and they looked at me and said the Room Steward gets it all.

I then talked to a few other Stewards and they all said they only got 60%.

I highly doubt that this increase has nothing to do with the crew getting more, what it has to do with is bringing their wages up to what they were getting before Covid.

I have seen much talk about reducing the Stewards visits to the cabin to once a day. Pick Morning or Evening and that's it.

Things are changing and getting more expensive. Don't forget all cruise lines have to pay off the huge loans they took out to stay afloat.

I did the Caribbean Princess out of dry dock for $1068 CAD plus port as a Solo in a outside cabin.
I got 2 credits but only 18 days credits.

I have noticed that August 28th Island Princess cruise to Baltic's is going for a good rate. For me it is Air Fare that stops me dead. The price last time I checked was the same for single as it is for double.
Don't forget to log into Princess to get the reduced rate.

2 hours ago, ktembwr said:

I think what is being related is that less passengers mean less gratutities are collected, thus less income...  Singles would pay one gratuity versus multiple......  We enjoy less crowds, but the crew feels it out of their pockets.

That is true to a point. Let me put it to you this way if the tip is $4.00 a day pp on the old system and that is what he gets the steward is only getting roughly $2.25 a day now because he only services the cabin once a day. So my question is what is happening to the other $1.75?

So they are felling it with less cabins but working for less money they do get when they have cabins.

Now have I made it clear?

I am on this cruise and came across something interesting yesterday which explains the attitude of some of the crew on this voyage. 
I have been talking to some of the crew to find out how they are coping during these times and it has been interesting to say the least.
There has been a faction of the crew that quit before their contract is up. The reason given to me was Princess has not been clear on what their pay will be while onboard during these times. Room Stewards have said to me I would normally have 19 cabins to attend to. This cruise I have 13 and 4 of them being single. Since we only service the cabin once a day in the morning and deliver the Patter in the evening our tip amount has been reduced to 55% of what we used to get. There is no end time when this might change back to normal or is it the new normal they say?
Word has gotten back home and fellow crew are not taking a contract under these conditions.
It was also suggested that is why Sapphire Princess was pulled from the schedule due to the crew slated for her being sent to other ships.

My thought yesterday was what is Princess doing with the other 45% of that tip that we are paying to Princess. A question to the Front Desk says Tips are divided among crew but they won't say how much goes where. 
It appears Bar tenders are not affected by this other than the reduced passengers onboard. They have been a happier group to deal with.

So my question then becomes should we be paying less for tips due to reduced service?
I do intend to tip cash at the end to my room steward because I am singe but I get why some are not happy.

What are other cruise lines doing at this time?

2 hours ago, latebuyer said:

I hope this question is allowed. As a Canadian I don’t believe I can book on US sites.

As a fellow Canadian you can book with US sites. I have done it many times. The thing is you have to pay in USD.
Now there are Canadian TA's that can book both in CAD and USD . This works to our advantage with the exchange rate at the time of booking. Sometimes a cruise line can offer a reduced pricing conversion for CAD vs. USD or the other way around. It will also work for Americans in reverse who can book in CAD when the rate is good for them.
Don't forget that you have to factor in the exchange rate of 1% or higher if booking in USD.
In one case a few years back RCL had a very low exchange rate and locked in for our 24 day cruise. We ended up buying onboard credit for that cruise and the exchange rate difference paid for our cruise was different than the current bank rate. When the cruise was at the end we went in and cashed out our onboard credit and went home.