Are you Loyal?

[wwcruisers]

Well so far, we've stuck with RCCL -- first RC and then X. I will admit that the reciprocity between the loyalty programs was a factor. However, we are at a point (D+ on Royal & Elite on X) where we would have to pick one line --- and sail it exclusively for the rest of our lives -- just to hit that 'top rung' (Pinnacle on RC/Zenith on X). Not interested in doing that, so we're pretty much done with chase loyalty rewards. I'm also not enchanted with the new-builds on EITHER line. Right now, we are waiting to see what Virgin Voyages will be offering -- Scarlet Lady is supposed to start booking, next month. Also, since RCCL seems to have a diminishing presence on the 'left coast', we're thinking about checking out local offerings by HAL and Princess.

[davekathy]

We don't consider ourselves loyal to anyone cruise line but lately RC and Celebrity offer the best cruise value for us. Itineraries, price and then cruise line.  

[LuckyStar]

16 hours ago, briehon said:

I have sailed 3 lines...Carnival, Royal and Disney. Currently looking at a cruise on Norweigian. Every time I cruise I run into people who ONLY cruise that line. As far as I’m concerned, the perks for continued cruising on a specific line aren’t that enticing. Am I missing something? Are you loyal to a certain line and if so why? I honestly have had a great time on all of my cruises and find pros and cons to all of them.

No, I cruise for time, itinerary and price.  Not necessarily in that order.  

[jocap]

Itinerary- I can't think of a single line we'd go on because we preferred it, if the itinerary didn't suit us.

The other reason, now we've aged, is access to the port/airport, and TAs who offer door to ship transport.

This means that we're cruising more on small lines which use old ships, and so far they have been splendid.

[donaldsc]

I am loyal to a) Itinerary; b) price; c) size of ship - smaller is always better.  Since the cruise lines have zero loyalty to me, why do I owe them any loyalty in return.  They all treat long time cruising passengers in the same way - badly.

 

DON

[bonsai3s]

19 hours ago, briehon said:

I have sailed 3 lines...Carnival, Royal and Disney. Currently looking at a cruise on Norweigian. Every time I cruise I run into people who ONLY cruise that line. As far as I’m concerned, the perks for continued cruising on a specific line aren’t that enticing. Am I missing something? Are you loyal to a certain line and if so why? I honestly have had a great time on all of my cruises and find pros and cons to all of them.

When we were younger...we had little time and money...so our only criteria was: what we could afford.

When we got a little older...we had a bit more time and just a bit more money...we tried different cruise lines.

We've sailed on Carnival, Celebrity, Commodore, Holland, Princess, Renaissance (went out of business), P&O, and Royal Caribbean.  At one time, we were loyal to Princess because we could easily drive to the nearest port.  At one time, we were loyal to Celebrity because we loved the food.  We became "loyal to Royal" because of the activities on board.  Now in our Golden years, we get ideas from members of Cruise Critic and sail wherever we want, whenever we want...now the only criteria: DW must approve it first .

[iancal]

No.  Who on earth would be loyal to a huge multinational corporation.?  Even if it is a cruise line.

 

as they say...if you want loyalty get a dog.

 

We select by itinerary, ship, price. The mass market cruise lines all seem to be moving to the lowest common denominator.  The  logo on the ships funnel has little meaning for us.

Edited January 30, 2019 by iancal

[Mr.N]

Loyalty is a two way street. After sailing with NCL on four cruises, we ran into problems with our cruise consultant on our fifth. Not returning calls, misinformation, and a hassle cancelling our cruise. So, at the moment I’m not feeling any loyalty to NCL, because they didn’t show they valued us as a “loyal customer”. 

[lenquixote66]

We have cruised on Cunard,Carnival,Celebrity,HAL,Norwegian and Royal but lately it has been Royal.

[dogs4fun]

Loyalty? No. Itinerary, time in port and price are the only factors I entertain when contemplating a cruise. Sailed both ocean and river cruises with a variety of lines - all were enjoyable. By far, we prefer land vacations in europe - allows much more time to focus on a city/area that interests us.

[mss22859]

We have sailed 6 times, all with Carnival, and have our 7th booked for October on the Pride. As we have seen most ports in the Carib., itinerary doesn't matter as much as price and if the ship has a Guy's Burger Joint! I may be crazy, but that is what I look for.

[George C]

We are not loyal but tend to do a line for a while then want to try something else , done over 60 cruises . Have done all the major lines rccl is our favorite because of entertainment but next couple we will do celebrity then a msc yacht club. I agree would not want to do just one line even though we can get lots of perks with a couple of them. 

[evandbob]

On 1/29/2019 at 7:03 AM, evandbob said:

I'm Diamond on Carnival, but sail MSC, Celebrity, and NCL as well.  I've also done cruises on RCCL , Princess and Disney.  An interesting itinerary, length of cruise, price and variety are what I look for now in any new booking.

 And now we just booked RCCL's Symphony of the Seas. That makes 4 different cruise lines we have booked for the next year.  That's despite being Diamond on Carnival.

[Kmkub]

So far, we've done Princess (5), NCL (2), RCCL (1). We are not loyal, in any way. The perks are rather silly, IMO.  Not sure why a pin or a cake is considered a perk, but okay.

 

Our next is on MSC, because the Yacht Club reviews are off the charts good. We are open to trying other lines, like Celebrity, but will likely never go Carnival.

 

We've found pluses and minuses on every cruise, and they mostly don't deter us from going again. We love exploring new ships. 

 

Note: Except RCCL - that food wasn't just bad, it was downright disgusting.  We lost weight on that cruise, and more often than not, had to spit out first bites because they were so nasty. I can't imagine how anyone finds that food compelling. I'd rather eat at McDonald's all week, and we are "McDonald's maybe once a month for convenience," types.

[navybankerteacher]

We’re just back from 12 days on Grandeur of the Seas.  It had the most amazing number of “loyal” fans:  many people we spoke with had sailed her six or more times. She is an old ship, showing some age, but her staff were as attentive as any we’ve encountered, and the food quality was no better or worse than that on all other mass market lines we’ve experienced - due to painfully obvious cost cutting.

 

A main attraction was the convenience of Baltimore to people from VA, MD, DE, NJ, and PA who want to be able to drive to the port in just a few hours.  Sadly, a large number were quite likely unwilling to fly because of the chance of being charged for two seats - there was a very large number of very large people on board.

 

We will seriously consider sailing her again, her manageable size (just over 2,000  pax), good service, and ease of access - make her preferable to Royal’s monster of the Seas from Bayonne, and NCL’s poor experiences from Manhattan.

[lenquixote66]

11 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

We’re just back from 12 days on Grandeur of the Seas.  It had the most amazing number of “loyal” fans:  many people we spoke with had sailed her six or more times. She is an old ship, showing some age, but her staff were as attentive as any we’ve encountered, and the food quality was no better or worse than that on all other mass market lines we’ve experienced - due to painfully obvious cost cutting.

 

A main attraction was the convenience of Baltimore to people from VA, MD, DE, NJ, and PA who want to be able to drive to the port in just a few hours.  Sadly, a large number were quite likely unwilling to fly because of the chance of being charged for two seats - there was a very large number of very large people on board.

 

We will seriously consider sailing her again, her manageable size (just over 2,000  pax), good service, and ease of access - make her preferable to Royal’s monster of the Seas from Bayonne, and NCL’s poor experiences from Manhattan.

My wife and I were on the Grandeur every December from 2015 to 2018. We made many friends as there were about 30 people who also were on the ship .This December,however,5 couples including my wife and I will be on the Anthem out of NJ.

We love the Grandeur and its wonderful crew ,however,I am not physically able to be in a car for close to 5 hours. We were on the Quantum and did not like it but we are going to try the Anthem because it is about a 90 minute drive for us.

[lenquixote66]

16 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

We’re just back from 12 days on Grandeur of the Seas.  It had the most amazing number of “loyal” fans:  many people we spoke with had sailed her six or more times. She is an old ship, showing some age, but her staff were as attentive as any we’ve encountered, and the food quality was no better or worse than that on all other mass market lines we’ve experienced - due to painfully obvious cost cutting.

 

A main attraction was the convenience of Baltimore to people from VA, MD, DE, NJ, and PA who want to be able to drive to the port in just a few hours.  Sadly, a large number were quite likely unwilling to fly because of the chance of being charged for two seats - there was a very large number of very large people on board.

 

We will seriously consider sailing her again, her manageable size (just over 2,000  pax), good service, and ease of access - make her preferable to Royal’s monster of the Seas from Bayonne, and NCL’s poor experiences from Manhattan.

My wife and I were on the Grandeur every December from 2015 to 2018. We made many friends as there were about 30 people who also were on the ship .This December,however,5 couples including my wife and I will be on the Anthem out of NJ.

We love the Grandeur and its wonderful crew ,however,I am not physically able to be in a car for close to 5 hours. We were on the Quantum and did not like it but we are going to try the Anthem because it is about a 90 minute drive for us.

[navybankerteacher]

11 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

My wife and I were on the Grandeur every December from 2015 to 2018. We made many friends as there were about 30 people who also were on the ship .This December,however,5 couples including my wife and I will be on the Anthem out of NJ.

We love the Grandeur and its wonderful crew ,however,I am not physically able to be in a car for close to 5 hours. We were on the Quantum and did not like it but we are going to try the Anthem because it is about a 90 minute drive for us.

Anthem would be about an hour for us — but I would have to overcome my antipathy for that size (and that ugly) a ship.  If rumors about Grandeur giving up 12 day itineraries for shorter ones prove true, we will have to reconsider sailing her again.  Now looking forward to Dec. 22 QM2 sailing to Caribbean.  I cannot understand the lack of competition for the massive New York market.  

 

Perhaps if the “Green New Deal” removes flying to southern ports of embarkation as an option, more cruise options from New York will be offered.

[lenquixote66]

2 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

Anthem would be about an hour for us — but I would have to overcome my antipathy for that size (and that ugly) a ship.  If rumors about Grandeur giving up 12 day itineraries for shorter ones prove true, we will have to reconsider sailing her again.  Now looking forward to Dec. 22 QM2 sailing to Caribbean.  I cannot understand the lack of competition for the massive New York market.  

 

Perhaps if the “Green New Deal” removes flying to southern ports of embarkation as an option, more cruise options from New York will be offered.

Our first cruise was in 1973. We were booked on a cruise from Manhattan (we lived in Brooklyn at the time) to Bermuda. Our TA called 4 days before we were due to leave and said that the ship had major problems on its way back to NY.She offered 2 choices,a full refund or a cruise on a Cunard ship.We did not have to thonk and said thevCunarf ship.It was the Ambassador which was only in service 4 years but we were treated like royalty and to date it is among my favorite cruises.

[Nebr.cruiser]

No, not loyal, although we've sailed Princess the most, plus at least 6 other lines.  We look for itinerary, timing and price.  The cruise line and ship come in towards the bottom of our reason to book.

 

[lenquixote66]

We have been on 6 different cruise lines and feel exactly as you do .

[navybankerteacher]

2 hours ago, Nebr.cruiser said:

No, not loyal, although we've sailed Princess the most, plus at least 6 other lines.  We look for itinerary, timing and price.  The cruise line and ship come in towards the bottom of our reason to book.

 

I think itinerary should always come first - no point going somewhere you do not want to go just because it’s cheap.  Of course timing is significant - it should be when you most want to go —- and connot be when you cannot go.  Price is important: you must be able to afford it —— but it has to be something you want, not just something that’s cheap:  there should be value —- which is not at all the same thing as being inexpensive.

 

Finally, I do not agree that cruise line and ship is unimportant.  If a ship is simply too big for my liking, everything else must be really great to even consider it.  And, my experiences with a certain line leave me with the view that it is unlikely that they could ever offer any itinerary, at any price, which would offset my dislike for the service and ambience provided.

[lenquixote66]

There is one cruiseline that I would never go back to. I was on once,in 1994 and said never again.

[GUT2407]

I mainly cruise Princess, because I like the product and they offer itineraries that suit us.

 

but have sailed six other lines.

[Warm Breezes]

A cruise is like any other product.  I have my favorites based on my preferences but I’m definitely not loyal to a cruise line.  I prefer Diet Pepsi but I will purchase Diet Coke  based on availability and price.  I prefer driving a Buick but I’m currently driving a Ford...again due to availability and price at the time I was looking for a new vehicle.  My preference for a cruise line is NCL but the majority of our past cruises and my 2 future booked cruises are on Carnival.  While my preferences will usually have some sway in my decisions, there are many other factors that I look at when choosing a cruise.  The ship itself, the itinerary, the embarkation port, the timing, my cruising mates preferences, and the cost all play a role in the decision process.  While I may have my preferences, I still enjoy the other products I choose and you never know when you may find a new product you prefer.