Cutbacks you have noticed on RCCL

[KAP622]

Have there been any cutbacks on RCCL, particulary activities? Carnival has cutback alot of the activities what they ususally do. Considering the Freedom OTS for next year.

[mechcc]

Activities no - but I miss the chocolates on the pillow at night. Always brought them home to have one daily to remind me of the cruise.

[pmshirl]

No more Horse races

 

This is not an activity but I sure do miss it....BAND TIME PLAYING ON THE POOL DECK! they have cut their time back so much, the begin to play and their done. They may do 3-5 sessions on a seaday for 45 min each!:(

[caribbeanboy]

The prices;)

[kooljamming]

The prices;)

 

The only cut back I want to hear about:D

I won't miss it, if I never knew it was there...correct?

[MrPete]

The only cutback I noticed was the quality and selection of foods in the Windjammer. Plenty of stations, with subpar offerings.

[molly361]

No more daily satellite newspapers.

[steponboard]

The quality and selection of food is the worst of it. It used to be lots of variety and little pasta now it's cheap pasta and fish mostly. They charge for diet coke which used to be included in your cruise fare during meals.

[negc]

Don't really miss the chocolates but the lack of the satellite newspaper was mentioned by many on our recent transatlantic and the new Ultimate Value coupon booklet is practically worthless and they could have eliminated it completely and had the same effect plus saved the printing costs. Plenty of daily activities onboard during our sea days so no cutbacks there (horse racing has been absent for a couple of years and was not, to the best of my knowledge, the result of any financial reductions. (If anything, it probably made money for the line). Didn't notice any cutbacks in the Windjammer offerings on our cruise and actually thought the food on our Transatlantic, both in the Windjammer and Dining room was as good as we have ever had on RCI.(I attribute that more to the cooks who prepared the meals than anything else).:)

[lkdry]

No bartenders in the MDR. Getting a drink at dinner was near impossible on our August AOS cruise.

[steponboard]

the new Ultimate Value coupon booklet is practically worthless and they could have eliminated it completely and had the same effect plus saved the printing costs. .

 

Have to agree with this :D

[Rafa]

The prices;)

 

cool, best cutback

[Tucker in Texas]

No bartenders in the MDR. Getting a drink at dinner was near impossible on our August AOS cruise.

 

If you want wine with your dinner, get it on the way to the dining room because otherwise you may (or may not) have wine with dessert.

 

Really missed the newspaper on the trans-Atlantic because we could have been in WWIII and not known it. Fox and CNN mostly reran three day old stuff. And, if you missed any episodes of the Ozzie Nelson show, you are in tall cotton. Ran continuously on the TV.

 

I think they dropped horse racing because it didn't make enough money for them and tied up an activities person. Any of you remember when Bingo was $5 a session and a session had six or so games? Now you need to rob a bank to play--$32 and up, four games (three of which take less han 10 minutes) and the pay out in comparison to what they take in is a joke.

 

Tucker in Texas

[Cancunense]

Haven't noticed any cutbacks really..besides the chocolates...and you know you can always take a cookie back to your room from the Promenade cafe..ha ha.

We will spent about 33 days on RCI ships this year and more next year, I would encourage you to crossover!!! We are hooked with 5 cruises booked in our future, we love this

[vtxriders]

Wait staff in the dining room. They had too many tables.

 

We had pre-purchased the wine and dine package. Glad we did - no bar staff available.

[ChipLondon]

Activities no - but I miss the chocolates on the pillow at night. Always brought them home to have one daily to remind me of the cruise.

 

 

Here we go the Great Chocolate debate starts again.

[MrPete]

Here we go the Great Chocolate debate starts again.

 

....as I open a VERY large bag of M&M's.

[KAP622]

Glad to hear activites have not been cutback. As I have read the capers from the Freedom and I couldn't believe how much there is to do.

[mjm1204]

Food.... food....food....

 

Golden Corral and Ryans have better food than the windjammer....

 

Actually, I think someone should start a poll about it....

[Cruising89143]

Your post was interesting and got me reading the Carnival board today. I see that you started a thread about cut backs over there. Since I have not cruised with Carnival since September of 04, it looks like RCI is not the only one making cuts.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1066473

[KAP622]

Yes I wanted to see the differences in cutbacks. Carnival and RCCL are my favorite lines and no complaints.

[H82seaUgo]

Your post was interesting and got me reading the Carnival board today. I see that you started a thread about cut backs over there. Since I have not cruised with Carnival since September of 04, it looks like RCI is not the only one making cuts.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1066473

 

Um, I think he states that in his OP. I'm thinking he wants to find out what's cut back on RCCL. :confused:

[coffeebean]

Activities no - but I miss the chocolates on the pillow at night. Always brought them home to have one daily to remind me of the cruise.

No chocolates on the pillows at night??? When did RCCL stop that??? Little touches like that always made me feel like a princess when I was on a cruise.

[BMT]

We did a long B2B on the Brilliance recently. The WJ in the evening was extremely good. Oyster bar sometimes in addition to regular sushi. Very comprehensive salad bar. Mongolian buffet or freshly grilled lamb chops, stir fry - plenty of variety over the cruise.

 

We sometimes eat in the Dining Room and the food was very acceptable. Gourmet? Of course not. They are catering to thousands of people. Sometimes I enjoy a dish very much, sometimes not so much. They will always bring you something else.

 

Value for money? Superb.

 

Chocolates on the pillow? Get a life:D:D:D

 

I don't miss the newspaper - am there to get away from it all. Anyway, its all online.

 

I do think that doing away with the free photo was shortsighted. By the time a couple gets to Diamond, they are all photo-ed out anyway. Few will buy them and they just get trashed. Can do without Johnny Rocket - I think they should pay US to go there lol.

 

None of the cutbacks has hit us - yet - here's hoping that there are no more to come.

[dplusd]

No chocolates on the pillows at night??? When did RCCL stop that??? Little touches like that always made me feel like a princess when I was on a cruise.

 

Yes, I will miss this too because I love a little chocolate treat before bed! Not a big deal though...I much prefer the relatively low cruise prices today. However, I do plan to bring my own little chocolate treats to continue this tradition...at least in our room!