Cruise article in SmartMoney

[rxmurphy]

Princess gets not so great a grade in number 9. http://www.smartmoney.com/10things/index.cfm?story=december2005

[chrysalis]

well....i have seen people being turned away from the dining room for not dressing "properly", and I have seen the opposite, as I am sure everyone else has.

 

The issue for the Maitre D' is "do I try to send them away and possibly prompt a 'scene' ...or is it just better to wisk them in and feed them?"

[Coral]

Interesting article - though not surprising.

 

I did find the last part of #10 interesting:

 

According to the Better Business Bureau of Southeast Florida and the Caribbean, Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Lines all have an "unsatisfactory record" of dealing with customer complaints. While Norwegian has been "responsive" to BBB criticism, Carnival and Royal Caribbean both show "a pattern of no replies to customer complaints and a failure to eliminate the basic cause of customer complaints brought to their attention by the Better Business Bureau."

 

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I am assuming Princess wasn't included because they are based out of California?

[98Charlie]

Read through that link 3 times and still don't see where your reference to Princess is relevant.

 

Most of the info in that article could have been trolled from this board by a lazy news writer but it doesn't sound like the writer has ever been a passenger on the lines ``exposed'' in the report.

 

Dianne

[Linda the Book Lover]

Dianne, I have to agree with you that the article did read as a "paper" in there was gathering of information but not an investigative reporting story. There was not much written in a positive light and no response from the cruise lines as if they were not asked for one. Personally, I have not been on an enormous amount of cruise ships but I have found in my experience that my issues were handling aboard ship and I did receive a prompt response on the two occasions I wrote upon my return. I did feel the person in the article saying his lost 5 days of his life because the ship was unable to go into a port was exaggerating. He was blessed with 5 days on a vacation with his family to enjoy being together and he did have an option of not going.

[rxmurphy]

Read through that link 3 times and still don't see where your reference to Princess is relevant.

 

Most of the info in that article could have been trolled from this board by a lazy news writer but it doesn't sound like the writer has ever been a passenger on the lines ``exposed'' in the report.

 

Dianne

I think we can all agree that anything mentioned in the article can occur on any cruise line at any time. Very general information. I mentioned this specifically because I thought since they mentioned Princess by name, it would be relevant on the Princess board. Tongue firmly planted in cheek any time I read or view mass market "news". But you never know, someone may glean something useful from this if they don't have lots of cruises behind them.

[Ula]

Not really an interesting article. One of my little thoughts always is how is a cabin on ship less sanitary than a hotel room. But then since we went from camping to cruising how is a cabin less sanitary than dirt?

My view will be different. If I do not have to stand in dirt and boil water to wash dishes, I am thrilled. Cruising is actually very affordable in regards to vacation. Less than 100 a day with all the food you can eat and pretty much do not have to expend any energy. That is good. As a bookkeeper by trade, a hotel vacation can run you as much. The room, the gas to get there, and then buying three meals a day, breaks even for two people.

Cruise food is better than camping food. And honest nothing tingles me more than touching a couple numbers on the phone in the morning and getting coffee. And cruise coffee is better than camping coffee. Also the room is heated or is cool when the out door elements are involved.

I thank daily my parents who introduced us to cruising. Some people can complain, that is fine, but a ship is far better than a tent trailer in the snow.

[sandbag7]

On #10, Princess wasn't included because it is part of the Carnival Group; that's why you don't see Celebrity, Oriental, or Costa mentioned, for instance. As to #9, from my experience on numerous lines, Princess in general is no worse than others, and better than Carnival, in enforcing dress codes. I wouldn't think of comparing a cruise to camping, unless those are the only two vacations you can afford.

[LARGIN]

If you read #9, person said "first night" dress was bad.. Usually the first night you dress with what you walked on the ship with as often your luggage is still in transit and you have not unpacked... IMO, the whole article is suspect anyway.

[JLC@SD]

Princess gets not so great a grade in number 9. http://www.smartmoney.com/10things/index.cfm?story=december2005

 

So some guy named Chuck wrote an article about Gina's experience. So what? :rolleyes:

 

Is it suppose to be important information or possibly gospel because SmartMoney published it?

 

I has as much credibility as anyone else's post on CC.:p

[arabrab]

I don't understand what isn't to agree with in the article, which, after all, is called, "10 Things Your Cruise Line Won't Tell You". Most of them are discussions you can read any day on cruisecritic. Outside insurance may be better, flight times that the cruise line arranges may not be good or convenient, food isn't likely to be truly topnotch, ports can be skipped, engines break down and the cruise companies aren't necessarily very good on the customer service side.

 

Heck, I think that if a few more passengers understood some of these things up front that there would be a lot fewer really disappointed passengers and a lot more realistic expectations.

 

I don't expect everything on Princess to look like it does in the ads (including the cruisers) but that's because I read the fine print and I've been on cruises. As an information article that is helpful to people who haven't cruised before, I'd say that this one is pretty helpful. It even mentions cruisecritic and cruisejunkie, which gives the alert reader another set of resources aside from what the cruiselines advertise.

 

Cheers,

Barb

[JimnKaren]

After reading the 10 points, I wonder what was being attempted. Was it to advertise for the cruise experience? Was it to show the a "money" oriented pub can do "investigative" work? Or was this like watching Letterman, entertainment for entertainment sake?

 

Jim

[travellady]

It's interesting to note that the article starts by discussing how cruise travel has increased and fares have gone up with fewer specials than previous years.

 

Then the article starts focusing on the negatives. If cruising is so bad, why has this form of travel become more and more popular and more and more of us are becoming repeat cruisers.

 

Well, if people read it, they may not want to cruise, andy maybe cruise fares will decrease again :rolleyes:

[jennew]

am I the only one who noticed that the articles states that "soft drinks" are included in the cruise price? It showed me immediately that the writer has never been on a cruise.

 

I suspect the author has "cruise envy" because a co-worker just went on an amazing cruise.