Is the magic going?

[luckymal]

On 11/23/2018 at 3:13 AM, Ubarrow said:

We are in the middle of our 6th Transatlantic voyage. Our last trip was 2 years ago.

i think the main difference is the food in the Britannia restaurant. It has declined in quality, as several other posters have noticed. The service is still good but the actual food is often not warm and somewhat tasteless. Kings Court is as good as ever, it’s just the Britannia, which used to be the highlight of the trip. I wonder if anyone has any inside insight as to what has happened “down below”? I suspect that the ingredients are cheaper and the process has been industrialised in a way that has led to a blandness.

Entertainment is ok, but we’ve noticed that the “Thanksgiving Leg” of the Transatlantic is the start of the Winter Caribbean cruises and the entertainment seems to have just joined. It’s Thursday and we haven’t yet seen a female dancer. These things are important!  Other acts are a little under rehearsed. 

The speakers are all excellent although one of the talks was identical to one given two years ago, on this voyage.

All in all, a little of the sharpness and the special nature of Cunard seems to have gone.

The food is the most serious aspect. We are returning on January 3rd Ny to Southampton, if it hasn’t improved then it may be that the voyage we hit Platinum is our final one on board with Cunard. It would be a shame.

 

I think you are correct on what you say, we did our first Cunard trip in August 1996 on the wonderful Q.E. 2  went to New York on Concorde, 4 nights stay,  then home on the Q.E.2, we dined in the Mauritania Restaurant with silver service, (not the plated meals we get now,)and when the coffee came, one of the waiters had a massive tray full of chocolates,(now a cake cut up in very small pieces). Then late on you could go to the Midnight buffet, a superb choice of food. The only thing still the same are the staff, treat them with respect and they return the same.

Things started to go down when Carnival took over, having said that, the name of Cunard would no longer be afloat. I personally think it was the name of CUNARD they wanted, known throughout the world.

Now to keep price competitive with other lines, some things have to go, but it can not be all that bad, we have done over 50 cruises with Cunard and just a few with other lines.

We enjoy the formalities of Cunard and the friendliness of the staff.😀

[ABoatNerd]

Excellent analysis by everyone.

 

I believe all the cruise lines have reduced the "included in the base price" experience.  Maybe it is inflation but I believe it is more to increase profits and share price which then enhance the compensation to the CEO team. The CEO and team are the only real decision makers and they own the decisions.

 

Since the downturn of 2008, all companies are obsessed with increasing share price.

 

I agree the bean counters are not the drivers. But I believe neither are the marketing folks (my career), they are the investigators and provide competitive information and strategies to the CEO and board based on the corporate objectives.  It is the board who decides to drive down the experience or upgrade the experience - always first and foremost is the requirement for increased share price and glorious increased profits, every single quarter.

 

I have seen the downward trend on all the mass lines since late 2014. Celebrity has fallen the farthest of the mass lines,. However, I am just off an Oceania cruise and their introduction of a new menu in August 2018 has resulted in a observable decline in food quality.  As noted by another poster, it was the poor quality of the high tea sandwiches which were the most obvious - they were cheap fillings, on white bread, not cut in shapes and not garnished and they were frozen!

 

What I believe is this - (using marketing lingo here) - right now there appears to be enough "obedient consumers" repeatedly booking that the cruise lines can get away with increasing the price and reducing the quality of the product. Consumers seem fixated on getting their loyalty benefits but fail to analyze the costs of acquiring that free happy hour on the next cruise (ie a higher price/less quality versus an alternative brand which they do not analyze). This is what marketing people advise the corporate board. Meaning keep increasing the price and reducing the quality we have enough repeaters to make it work.

 

It is unlikely we will book again with Oceania, they cost too much for their new downgraded product and their old ships have technical issues. Do have a QM2 TA booked June 2019 at the end of a land based vacation. For the first time, no cruises booked.  I am rather disillusioned with the cruise industry at this point and am not willing to pay good $ for a constantly reduced product.

 

Hope that Cunard CEO can buck the trend a bit and keep that Cunard magic.

[foodsvcmgr]

Many thought provoking points raised here.

Having just sailed QM2 last month and HAL, Princess, and Celebrity in the past 18 months, I still believe most aspects of the Cunard experience to be better and less downgraded than the other lines in the superior or upscale mass market category.

[Ubarrow]

Well, that seems to have stirred up a hornets nest........!

Since the original post, the food has improved somewhat. It still doesn’t seem quite as good as a few years ago - especially the breakfasts. 

We tried afternoon tea today, for the first time on this trip, and this has certainly improved. I seem to remember that the cream came in plastic containers, today it was in small pots. And the quality of everything was everything one could wish for. 

The speakers have continued to be good but the evening shows have been a little disappointing with only one outing of the Cunard dancers in 7 days. As I said before, I get the feeling that this is being looked upon as a cruise of several weeks and this week is the settling down week. Whereas for us it’s this 7 days that matters.

But please understand that we are not professional moaners - we see enough of those on board! We are just loyal passengers who hope that our return trip in January will set our minds at rest .........

 

For some reason the above did not send (I’m not going to add the internet to my complaints as it’s nice to be away!) and we’re now in New York.

For context, Cunard are the only line we’ve cruised with and we’ve only done the Transatlantic. I guess this route does make one think more about the services onboard as there’s nothing else to see!

Just to add a final problem - the disembarkation was the worse we have ever had - but I think this was entirely due to the US facilities and not Cunard’s fault.

 

As I said in the original post, we are returning on January 3rd so maybe that week will change things. I suppose that if I really analyse the last week, better kippers, hotter and more moist scrambled eggs, a little more sight of the Cunard dancers and a couple of better starters in the evening would have made all the difference. Maybe we’ve been spoilt in the past......

 

But thanks for everyone who replied, and hopefully Cunard read these posts?

[Fairgarth]

On 11/25/2018 at 9:52 AM, ABoatNerd said:

Excellent analysis by everyone.

 

I agree the bean counters are not the drivers. But I believe neither are the marketing folks (my career), they are the investigators and provide competitive information and strategies to the CEO and board based on the corporate objectives.  It is the board who decides to drive down the experience or upgrade the experience - always first and foremost is the requirement for increased share price and glorious increased profits, every single quarter.

 

I was hoping somebody with a Marketing background would chip in.  Thank you for that.

 

I believe it comes down to expectations.  If we fancy Azamara or Seabourn we pay up and cruise with them.  If we choose Royal Caribbean or Cunard, we don't expect Seabourn but why wouldn't we enjoy Cunard anyway?  And we do.

[foodsvcmgr]

Agreed fairgarth.

Many cruise complaints and disappointments are the result of unrealistic expectations as well as inaccurate memories romanticized by the passage of time.

But to a degree Cunard create these expectations among cruisers new to the line by overhyping luxury and tradition more than can be realistically delivered, particularly at Britannia price point.

[Cats2010]

I agree with foodscmgr as to overhyping luxury, especially on the German market, which results in unrealistic prices and disappointment of passengers. A good part of it is due to bad translations of publications into German, which do not correspond to the mentality. 

[Jack E Dawson]

Ubarrow, 

You pose a very interesting question which at first would seem to be objective but really is subjective. The responses to your question I think bare this out. The QM2 is an amazing ocean liner. That hasn't changed. And the North Atlantic is one of the great forces of nature. That isn't going to change. The crew of the QM2 is made up of a thousand human beings who have good days and bad days and none of whom who are perfect. With that said, the service, in my subjective opinion, is extraordinary. The people who sail on the QM2 are some of the most interesting I've ever met. After that everything else falls into the category of yada, yada, yada. So when you start with this base, the amount of magic one experiences depends on how much you bring with you when you board. Some people see the glass 99% full while some see it 1% empty. It all depends what you are looking for. 

 

Jack