Still Loyal to Royal?

[Bellfree Bat]

:D

On the Serenade we heard the daily, "Bingo, bingo, bin-GO..." Cute, but still annoying.

:D

 

 

We sailed on sisterline, Celebrity, last year and found it refreshing not to have as many "Bingo, bingo, bin-GO" announcments! Still sail RCCL but will do X also for a little more laid back experience.:)

[temple1]

Addressing the Bingo and other announcements, I think in many cases it is CD specific. On our April Enchantment cruise there were some Bingo and other announcements but less than on our cruise the year before. On our recent Majesty sailing there were very few announcements.

 

If it is an issue and you think it lessened your vacation - complain where it will do the most good - on your guest satisfaction survey and in an email to TPTB.

[MrPete]

Addressing the Bingo and other announcements, I think in many cases it is CD specific.

 

AGREED!

 

And comment cards ARE the best way of conveying them.

[bradleyd]

We are Diamond members and we just got off Navigator this morning. It was a very sad cruise. Absolutely awful. Not enough tickets for shows, for skating, disorganized in many ways, the ship was in poor repair, (put put golf course torn up in places), rugs worn out. We sailed in Regent, (which is light years away from Royal), but also sailed on Carnival with trepidation. The Carnival is a better comparison as it is the same market. They were WONDERFUL. We had lobsters for dinner, real steak and prime rib, (not cryo-vac cafeteria style re-heats). It is clear that the accounts at Royal got out their sharp pencils and cut far too many amenities since we began with them 12 cruises ago.

We are finished with them until they hire a CEO who isn't SO CHEAP.

[weegl]

We just returned yesterday from 7 nights on Freedom and had a wonderful time. Frankly, the food and service was the best we have experienced on 5 cruises with RCI. As far as announcements and sales go, again it seemed as is everything was a bit more subtle than previous cruises - the cruise the director Allan only made a couple of announcements a day to review the afternoon activities and again review the evening activities. As far as sales and pitches go, nothing out of the ordinary to us.

 

I really have to tell you all, after reading many, many posts on CC about how RCI is going "downhill", our experience was just the opposite: it was better than the last one we took a year ago!

[ocntscha]

Royal Caribbean has stopped putting what they used to call chocolates on the pillows of every cabin, save the suites. There, one will find an actual chocolate made by a company that still manufactures here in the U.S. It's a Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate square. Very nice!!:D

Doh! That's disappointing. Well thanks for letting me know. We cruise with our kids, both very young, and being kids they love the chocolates on the pillows we get on Princess and Carnival. If we do decide to cruise Royal Caribbean at least now we won't be in for a let down the first night we turn into our cabin.

[critterchick]

I am a Diamond-Plus member and have been on over 20 RCCL cruises. It was my preferred cruise line for many years, but no longer. Their cost cutting measures and decreased services makes RCCL no longer attractive to me.

I dislike their nickle-n-diming and I really dislike all the non-stop overhead announcements. I feel sad to leave RCCL, but I feel that they no longer fill my cruising needs. I now prefer Celebrity, and have a cruise booked on HAL and Cunard.

 

Going to Celebrity (or Azamara) is exactly what they have in mind, I think. RCI is the "family" line of the RCCL group. The flaw of course is that, if you are pushed out of the RCI nest, there's no guarantee that you'll stay within the corporate family. You're a perfect illustration, with cruises booked on HAL and Cunard.

 

As long as RCI has Vision and Radiance class ships, we will sail with them. We'll even go on Mariner since she's the only game in town over the summer (other than the Carnival Splendor, and I'm just not into pink everywhere on my ships). We may even go back on Oasis once the hype dies down and if the prices are in line with the rest of the fleet. But we're also sailing on Princess and will likely try one of the X Solstice class ships. Then there's HAL....

[TexCruise371]

We just returned yesterday from 7 nights on Freedom and had a wonderful time. Frankly, the food and service was the best we have experienced on 5 cruises with RCI. As far as announcements and sales go, again it seemed as is everything was a bit more subtle than previous cruises - the cruise the director Allan only made a couple of announcements a day to review the afternoon activities and again review the evening activities. As far as sales and pitches go, nothing out of the ordinary to us.

 

I'll have to agree. We were on Freedom in October and we noticed the lack of announcements. We had a great cruise.

 

However, after 14 straight Royal cruises and two more upcoming, we may step out of the box and try something new.

[lappy22]

A fuss?? I call it critiquing. This is Cruise CRITIC. I am a Royal shareholder and do want Royal to be profitable, just not irritable.

 

I got that coupon on my last cruise as well. Free RCL stock if you attend the art auction. How many paintings did you buy?

[royalcariblover]

I have to say that after leaving Royal Caribbean to go on Norwegian, I really regretted it. It's the little things on Royal Caribbean that I missed the most. To name a few:

 

1. The days of the week written on the carpet in the elevator...

2. The waitstaff singing at dinner time....

3. I missed having one waiter for the duration of the trip..They don't really have a desire to please when it's a different family every day.. not to mention waiting 20 minutes to be seated for dinner

4. The friendly stateroom attendants (we saw ours once the entire trip), and towel animals.....weren't there.

5. No captain's welcome aboard party = no free champagne

 

This cruise made me realize how much I love Royal Caribbean. I doubt I will try another cruise line unless there is a unique itinerary for a great price...

[uksaint]

Doh! That's disappointing. Well thanks for letting me know. We cruise with our kids, both very young, and being kids they love the chocolates on the pillows we get on Princess and Carnival. If we do decide to cruise Royal Caribbean at least now we won't be in for a let down the first night we turn into our cabin.

 

We had that let down last week. My DS and DD were quite disappointed at the lack of pillow chocolates this time. Was forgotten about in a day or two though.

 

The bingo is now a complete rip-off and as for those electronic machines, where's the fun in that. No wonder hardly anyone shows up until the final session.

 

Trivia prizes also continue to go downhill. Never seen so many keyrings given out as prizes.

 

Edit: We had a great cruise though - despite some small annoyances that were minor in the overall experience.

[MrsPete]

Loyal to a company? No, I'm not.

 

I DO like Royal's product, and when I start to book a cruise I will probably always look at them FIRST -- just because we've sailed with them, and we KNOW that we like what they offer. But no matter how many times we sail with them, I will always compare the other moderately-priced lines BEFORE making my decision.

 

If they and another line have the same price, I'm going to go with what I KNOW I like: Royal. If the other line gives me a way better deal, I'm going to go with them.

[harry0]

I got that coupon on my last cruise as well. Free RCL stock if you attend the art auction. How many paintings did you buy?

 

I am not sure what you mean-I bought my stock through a broker- Ive never been to a Art auction.

[royalcariblover]

We went to the platinum crown and anchor event on my last cruise and someone asked about the chocolates. the captain responded that the chocolates have been discontinued because of some new food safety requirement. If the chocolates aren't eaten in 24 hours or something the stateroom attendants are supposed to throw them away. They did the math and something like 75% of people left their chocolates untouched causing a great deal of waste.

[debshomespun]

We have been away from Royal this year. We did a 30 day in Jan. on HAL that we absolutely loved, but we did go to Hawaii and the South Pacific. Then, we strayed again in Nov. to NCL for their Dawn Repo. It too, was a great cruise. The price was great, $50. night pp. We had 8 ports, and it was a 14 night cruise. Their anytime dining wasn't the greatest, but we adapted. The food wasn't quite as good as HAL or RC, but we didn't go hungry. Their Blue Lagoon restaurant had great wings, and spinich artichoke dip.

 

We are back to RC come this Jan/Feb. We are doing 10 nights on the Navigator, then 7 nights on the Liberty. I am looking forward to being back to RC and the perks we still get as Diamond members. They might not be as good as they were in the past, but there are still benefits there. The RC ships are elegant compared to many of the other ships out there.

 

We look for good prices and we are the type that sail with the half full as opposed to half empty type of attitude. We go with the flow and make the best out of a bad situation. As always, a bad day at sea is better than a good day at work!

[nbsjcruiser]

I'm sure you guys are right. I just didn't feel like this last cruise was a great value. Maybe I have deeper issues - i.e., the small cabins yet expensive cabins, the $12.95 pay per view movies, the $15 charge to press 3 items of clothing (and no, I'm not talking about evening wear). The temptation to go elsewhere and save a few bucks is strong at the moment. I know Royal has a great product but I wonder, are they hurting for money so much that all this is necessary? BTW, I get tired of saying "No thanks" over and over again.

 

Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now. Am I just crazy or am I the only one who feels this way?

 

We love the RCI brand and their offering but I have to admit that the reason we decided to try Princess this past year was not only nickel and dime stuff but dollars too. On our NOS cruise in '06 I felt that everytime I looked around they were shoving bingo cards in my face. My Gawd that's all the CD staff did was push bingo - twice a day. Really turned me off. Having said that, we still enjoyed our cruise and booked an 8 day on the ROS which was thoroughly enjoying. Again the nickels and dimes were being squeezed at every turn. But the real reason we decided to try other lines was the overall price. As I stated in my opening sentence, we love how RCI does their thing but I find they taken us and our wallet for granted. They've become too expensive. We are booked on the Valor 3 people with a balcony for $1800 - the cheapest comparable RCI cruise we could get in the same time frame was over $1000 more expensive. So its more than nickels and dimes, its dollars too and hundreds of them now.

 

Personally, I can't wait to cruise RCI again some day. I'll just have to wait for them to get a little more realistic with their pricing.

[Tucker in Texas]

We went to the platinum crown and anchor event on my last cruise and someone asked about the chocolates. the captain responded that the chocolates have been discontinued because of some new food safety requirement. If the chocolates aren't eaten in 24 hours or something the stateroom attendants are supposed to throw them away. They did the math and something like 75% of people left their chocolates untouched causing a great deal of waste.

 

And if you believe that, I have some water front property in Arizona to sell you or maybe a bridge in New York.

 

I've never ever heard of anyone getting "chocolate poison" from eating chocolate wrapped in foil that is more that 24 hours old. Andes Mints would be broke (lol).

 

A new spin, though give them an E for effort in justifying the cost cuts.

 

Tucker in Texas

[amybeth4]

I'm with you, Tucker. Apparently 24-hour old wrapped chocolate is poisonous (tell that to all the bags of candy sitting on supermarket shelves right now) but the 24-hour old piece of brie that sat in my cabin was perfectly fine to eat. :)

[royalcariblover]

And if you believe that, I have some water front property in Arizona to sell you or maybe a bridge in New York.

 

I've never ever heard of anyone getting "chocolate poison" from eating chocolate wrapped in foil that is more that 24 hours old. Andes Mints would be broke (lol).

 

A new spin, though give them an E for effort in justifying the cost cuts.

 

Tucker in Texas

 

Hey, I'm just stating what I heard, I didn't say that I agree. That's the kind of answer you might get if you asked.

[Hypo]

We went to the platinum crown and anchor event on my last cruise and someone asked about the chocolates. the captain responded that the chocolates have been discontinued because of some new food safety requirement. If the chocolates aren't eaten in 24 hours or something the stateroom attendants are supposed to throw them away. They did the math and something like 75% of people left their chocolates untouched causing a great deal of waste.

 

I always find it amusing when RCL blames some other person/group/law/or regulation for the decision to discontinue something. A "new regulation" concerning throwing away chocolates after 24 hours? Give me a break.

 

We just sailed a 14 day PC cruise on Celebrity Infinity and our Stateroom steward gave us handfuls of chocolates every evening. We brought home a gallon ziplock bag full to use for Christmas stocking stuffers.

 

Hypo

[mommabean]

I always find it amusing when RCL blames some other person/group/law/or regulation for the decision to discontinue something. A "new regulation" concerning throwing away chocolates after 24 hours? Give me a break.

 

We just sailed a 14 day PC cruise on Celebrity Infinity and our Stateroom steward gave us handfuls of chocolates every evening. We brought home a gallon ziplock bag full to use for Christmas stocking stuffers.

 

Hypo

 

Why don't you post a review about your Infinity cruise? I'm doing the same on in March and would love to know more from a recent cruiser.

 

Gina

[Tucker in Texas]

Hey, I'm just stating what I heard, I didn't say that I agree. That's the kind of answer you might get if you asked.

 

Please, no offense. I meant to convey that if Royal believes that dog will hunt, they are dumber than a bag of rocks. I never even thought you bought that pathetic excuse or, for that matter, anyone else. In fact, I think AG addressed that in one of his blogs and said that tons were being thrown out because people didn't eat them and left them and, of course, they can't recycle them once they are placed in the cabin for fear someone may have "doctored" them. He then went on to state the amount of money that was being spent on them plus threw in the "Save the Waves" line of having to discard them.

 

Tucker in Texas

[oatmeal]

I'm Diamond with RCCL and Elite with Celebrity. Last month we tried Carnival again. Hands down, Celebrity offers more for the CC members. RCCL pushed harder to sell extras than any other line I've used in the last 2 years (10 cruises). If you cruise infrequently, the size of the Carnival rooms, price and variety are hard to pass up.

 

My biggest complaint is the lack of change in the RCCL MD menus. RCCL says it wants to cater to the repeat cruiser, but the meals are boring compared to other lines, including Carnival.