Radisson Going "MASS MARKET"!

[freddie]

As I am going to post on another similar thread, I am quite intriqued by this hysteria about RSSC falling apart. Our cruise on Voyager in the summer of 2004 was entirely consistent in terms of quality with the one we took in late summer of 2003. Lordie, has everything gone to total hell in the last 9 or 10 months??!! Yes, Radisson has sold a ship; and another ship leased by RSSC (the PG, on which we will be spending two weeks later this month) has been sold. But does that mean that the whole line is going the way of Carnivore? We have seen and read almost nothing that would suggest that the Radisson experience as a whole has diminished. Hotel experiences on Tahiti do not determine the RSSC worldwide experience, by any possible measure. (That being said, we hope that we do not have any of the dreadful Meridien sort of stays that some posters have described - our one night pre-cruise is at the Intercontinental Beachcomber; so we may be lucky and avoid the Meridien sort of stuff - frankly, I don't much like Meridien hotels anywhere in the world - they tend to have small rooms and no character whatever.) In any event, it seems somewhat questionable to raise issues about the quality of a cruise by attacking the pre- or post-cruise hotel. That may well be an issue of the total vacation; but it is not properly a commentary on the cruise experience. Perhaps it would be useful for us to focus on the Radisson cruise itself. (Good grief, what a lecturing creature I am!! Please forgive me for my loyalty to RSSC and my desire to engage in discussion of cruise issues, rather than land-based hotel issues.) Cheers, Fred

[Leejnd4]

Fred, I'm on board the Voyager now, and from my own personal experience, they have lost nothing in terms of the quality of service, food, luxury, etc. etc. Now, this is my first RSSC cruise, but I'm basing this on all that I have read about them and the experience they've provided others. I have had nothing short of a first-class cruise experience. Oh, there were little things -- once my wine glass was empty for almost a full two minutes! :::shudder::: And their roasted garlic soup wasn't all that great, to be honest. Oh, and our room attendant forgot to put a plastic bag in the little garbage thingy in our bathroom once, and it stayed like that for a whole hour!

 

It's our last full day of an 11-day dream cruise, so if this is the worst it gets, I suppose I'd be willing to cruise with them again. ;)

 

LeeAnne

[Island Cruiser]

Actually, folks, I had planned to post the same message here as I did on the other board. And I think I'll start a new thread to do so. I am a Radisson fan as I guess you know. But not a blind one. And, by the way, the other board has done nothing but encourage the dissemination of this information.

 

Onward and upward.

 

Patrick

 

P.S. This posting is long. So it will take me some time to write it up.

[canadagal]

Island Cruiser, (Patrick) I read your account on the other board and I am really sorry that you experienced such second class treatment on board the P.G. Very disconcerning! As far as hysteria goes.........I have not seen any of that posted on CC but rather people sharing their concerns about certain problems and worries about the quality of upcoming cruises.........particularly on the P.G. because of it's unique involvement with GCT. and also because the P.G. is unique in itself compared to the other Radisson ships. As far as measuring the quality of a cruise by the hotel standards one has pre and post cruise, I don't see anyone doing that either but rather giving their opinions on what hotels they like and why or why not. The fact that Radisson is no longer including a complimentary hotel stay in LAX, for some pax, pre-cruise does take the wow out of the magic just a little for a past P.G. pax that has already experienced this nice perk. I doubt it would make any difference to new pax or those that have never experienced it. Kind of like, what you never experienced before you won't miss, type of scenario.

What really concerns me still, though, is how people are reporting that the quality of food is lower then it was 2 years ago. Until we find out how much influenece GCT is involved in all the recently reported problems on the P.G. and how much of it was Radisson's decision then I will continue to be concerned that the quality of the P.G. is going downhill from what it was of a few years ago. Our penalty phase does not start until the beginning of Aug. but right now we are leaning towards cancelling unless we hear something that explains why Patrick's experience was just a one off. Also, Patrick we had a large corporate group on our P.G. cruise of a couple of years ago and although we noticed them in the dining room being rather noisy and dressed inappropriatley the first night (most were in shorts and flip flops) they never impacted on the enjoyment of our cruise and we were never denied entrance anywhere or nor were they given preferential treatment over the other pax. I too would have said something after standing on a hot dock waiting for the tender to arrive and after it finally does you are told you can't get on as they have to go back and finish transporting the corporate group. Excuse me????? I've never heard of that ever happening.... even on a mass market ship. That's inexcusable. You and others never should have experienced that and the problems that you encountered and especially never on a lux line.

Pat

[Island Cruiser]

Pat, the food issue interests me too. There were a lot of repeat PG cruisers on board over the last two weeks. Wendy and David, from Toronto, by the way, were on their 4th PG round trip on the second week. Fred and I asked the food question of each and every repeater we met. ALL commented that though the quality of the food is still "good," it has gone down. I found the lunch buffet service to be weak (and, as you know, poor when substituted for dinner) and some of the evening meals good and others weak. I talk regularly to an industry insider who tells me Radisson and GCT fight daily and bitterly over the PG food budget. The current per diem is $30 per day per person. GCT wants to drop it to $10--that would flip PG out of the luxury classification, in my opinion, immediately. My inside source assures me that Radisson is holding firm and has NOT changed anything.

 

Pat

[Zorita]

I have longed to take this cruise and thought summer of 06 would work. When I saw GCT's prices I thought maybe this year, but then learned through these boards that it was all a bait & switch scheme. Our family does more land than cruise-based travel partly because we often feel more controll over our land experience. We have seen a big decline in food and service on Celebrity, which had previously fit our child's needs, but even disappoints her now, at age 13. The info we've gleaned here over the past year convinced us that the PG experience, especially the better cuisine and not waiting in line for tenders(!) would offer us exactly the kind of fit that would be worth the splurge. With the info from your posting it seems clearer than ever that what happened to the victims of GCT's price switching was just a prelude to Richard's (dolebludger) accurate predictions of GTC's interference with RSSC. His concern seems all the more prescient, given how quickly the PG experience has changed.

For us, the expectations for a trip this expensive would be quite high, and since we don't care about drinking, food and lines would be BIG.

It has been wonderful hearing about the "good" things on CC but we especially appreciate posters who go beyond fan postings, so we can make informed choices. Please keep us updated.

Leigh

[Island Cruiser]

Leigh. I hope you know I have not given up on PG and still recommend the experience highly--this year. That assumes the experience of 5/28 was a huge exception to the rule. If some features, like food, have declined from previous years, it remains good. And the food variable to cruising is very very important to me. We never see lines on Radisson cruises including the PG unless it is a situation when everyone on the ship tries to exit at the same time. And the cruising venue is glorious! So if you are planning on '06, keep your fingers crossed and focus on the applicable refund date. Suspect your safe in '05 if my major assumption is correct.

Pat