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Cruise reviews on CC


lenquixote66
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Do you read the reviews of a cruise line and or reviews of the cabin before booking ? I usually do but for some reason I did not do for my upcoming cruise until this morning.My Cruise is on the NCL Dawn,a ship I have never been on previously and the majority of the reviews appear to be negative.

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1 hour ago, lenquixote66 said:

Do you read the reviews of a cruise line and or reviews of the cabin before booking ? I usually do but for some reason I did not do for my upcoming cruise until this morning.My Cruise is on the NCL Dawn,a ship I have never been on previously and the majority of the reviews appear to be negative.

 

Since I am usually on the same ship I rarely read reviews. Many are ways for someone to vent who had a problem and is not indicative of most cruisers. I saw one that was for a cruise the person went on over a year ago and spent a lot of time working on. It had day by day activities and menus. It was a lot of work and was done in multiple postings.

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I've read them in the past, but generally after we have booked. I try to look for the same itinerary. For our next cruise, I tried, but it seems the itinerary must be new for the ship since all I saw in recent reviews were for a different itinerary.

 

I've also read in the past reviews from a sailing we have previously done.

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I do, but more for amusement just to see what someone's take is on a particular ship or cruise.  If it's "Excellent"...why?  If it's "Terrible"...why?   Sometimes I really scratch my head when there are say, two reviews on the same cruise and one is "excellent" and one is "terrible". A few times I've read some reviews of a cruise we've been on as well, and get a kick  reading the "excellent" and "terrible" reviews of the same cruise that we were on.   On one cruise we were on once, someone posted that food in the MDR was "awful......we thought it was pretty good.  Once someone posted "it's the same food every day at the buffet"....well, when the buffet has EVERYTHING you could possibly eat, what else would they expect? Sometimes I wonder what some people's expectations are.

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8 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

Do you read the reviews of a cruise line and or reviews of the cabin before booking ? I usually do but for some reason I did not do for my upcoming cruise until this morning.My Cruise is on the NCL Dawn,a ship I have never been on previously and the majority of the reviews appear to be negative.

Before booking my stateroom location, I always look to see where that stateroom is located.  If it is under a bar area, the pool deck etc., I don't want chairs moving over my head at night.  These are the things I am checking out.  I will look at CC reviews just in case there is something else I might not know about.  IMO, you can easily see who is griping about something minor versus someone who is giving some good feedback.  

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I read the reviews and take each with a pinch of salt be they good or bad. You can usually pick out the whingers and moaners and those that are just lifes miserable asses. Likewise the ones that have a'corporate' feel to them. Like Jonesy i too look at deck plans to pick my cabin and research the ports we are visiting. My most recent weeks cruise a fortnight ago the ship was fine, food, cabin and entertainment good it was just the clientele that let the side down! 

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I also read reviews with a "grain of salt".  Most gripes are nit-picky things in my mind.  Before my last cruise on Oasis, I read reviews about crew harassing passengers everywhere on the ship, trying to get them to sign up for specialty dining and drink packages.  Since I had never been on Oasis, I worried about it - but in 7 days we were never approached.  I also read about crowded elevators, but never experienced it.

 

The only thing that would generate a legitimate concern for me would be multiple complaints about the overall cleanliness of a particular ship, sewage smells, or bud bugs!

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Another grain of salter here. If the reviewer says something negative, "such and such happened" I ask myself "would such and such matter to me" and if the answer is no then I ignore it. If the answer is yes then I figure out how I would react and resolve the issue if "such and such" actually happened because usually "such and such" is something that doesn't happen all of the time (i.e. slow service in the MDR, bad room steward, etc.) I also tend not to look at reviews until after I've booked. 

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I just don't have the patience needed to wade through reviews.  If a ship (ship class) that is new to us, I will do a little research on deck plans, and facilities.  Otherwise I look forward to be happily surprised.  

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/29/2019 at 11:33 PM, lenquixote66 said:

Do you read the reviews of a cruise line and or reviews of the cabin before booking ? I usually do but for some reason I did not do for my upcoming cruise until this morning.My Cruise is on the NCL Dawn,a ship I have never been on previously and the majority of the reviews appear to be negative.

Sometimes, but I try and average them out full knowing that there are likely to be four -ve to each +ve.

 

I read reviews of cruises I have been on and think, Was that the same cruise.

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I agree that reviews should have details. After reading many, I gloss over the "everything was perfect" (with no details) and "everything was awful" with details like "The food was inedible."  "All the staff were rude."  Unfortunately, many of the complaints are written by people who have special needs and were unhappy with the staff's service. Other complainers tend to be loyalists and cheerleaders from other cruiselines and nothing compares to their favorite.  

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Here's my take at CC reviews  - IMO it's primarily a matter of sample size and objectivity. The CC membership (as I am aware from last reported membership) represents only about 5% of the cruising population - which means 95% of cruisers aren't even aware that this site exists.  Of that membership, the number of people who actually post reviews is also a very small minority. 

 

Break that down further by those reviews of any given ship and the percentage is even smaller.  Additionally I question the objectivity of many since - as others have mentioned - a good many reviews are by those with an agenda regarding a particular issue they may have had on board.  And any discussion of food quality, as example, would also be purely subjective. 

 

So my bottom line is that with all of this combined, the true value of what may be a single, or certainly very small number of cruisers, who post their opinion of a given ship in a review represents too small of any relevant measure of percentage of the real population that has sailed on that ship to be of any value to me. 

 

One persons' thoughts (or even a few) on their experience IMO would not likely represent the experience of all of the other passengers on board - good or bad. As a result, I never read any CC ship reviews.

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29 minutes ago, leaveitallbehind said:

Here's my take at CC reviews  - IMO it's primarily a matter of sample size and objectivity. The CC membership (as I am aware from last reported membership) represents only about 5% of the cruising population - which means 95% of cruisers aren't even aware that this site exists.  Of that membership, the number of people who actually post reviews is also a very small minority. 

 

Break that down further by those reviews of any given ship and the percentage is even smaller.  Additionally I question the objectivity of many since - as others have mentioned - a good many reviews are by those with an agenda regarding a particular issue they may have had on board.  And any discussion of food quality, as example, would also be purely subjective. 

 

So my bottom line is that with all of this combined, the true value of what may be a single, or certainly very small number of cruisers, who post their opinion of a given ship in a review represents too small of any relevant measure of percentage of the real population that has sailed on that ship to be of any value to me. 

 

One persons' thoughts (or even a few) on their experience IMO would not likely represent the experience of all of the other passengers on board - good or bad. As a result, I never read any CC ship reviews.

And then there is the question of whether the person writing about the experience was even on the ship! In a different cruise related group once I read the following about a ship that we were on that experienced a hurricane, and at one point the captain took us closer so that poeple could use their phones to change travel reservations and/or let loved ones know they were ok. (My late mother-in-law thought they were going to drop us off in Fort Lauderdale in the middle of a hurricane.) The person wrote he HEARD that lots of people were throwing up in the elevators due to the rocking of the ship. I replied I did not care what he HEARD, I was actually on the ship and no such thing happened. Yes, it was more turbulent. My DW who loves to swim laps said that morning that it was like swimming in the ocean. (They drained the pool that afternoon.) 

 

But, the person who was not even on the ship but HEARD, argued with me!

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8 hours ago, ontheweb said:

And then there is the question of whether the person writing about the experience was even on the ship! In a different cruise related group once I read the following about a ship that we were on that experienced a hurricane, and at one point the captain took us closer so that poeple could use their phones to change travel reservations and/or let loved ones know they were ok. (My late mother-in-law thought they were going to drop us off in Fort Lauderdale in the middle of a hurricane.) The person wrote he HEARD that lots of people were throwing up in the elevators due to the rocking of the ship. I replied I did not care what he HEARD, I was actually on the ship and no such thing happened. Yes, it was more turbulent. My DW who loves to swim laps said that morning that it was like swimming in the ocean. (They drained the pool that afternoon.) 

 

But, the person who was not even on the ship but HEARD, argued with me!

 

Well, they probably read it on google!  Haha

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I always read up on my upcoming cruises.

 

Also, I always leave positive and very thorough reviews, because I know I'm not the only one that does that.

 

Sure, there can be a lot to complain about, but hey - did you know that fishbowl drinks on carnival (that are usually $20) are half off at debarkation?

 

I'm always trying to find the information that will help someone else - and when it comes to cabins... ya, they are all the same basic layout, just varying locations.  As far as "noise" - one cannot control loud door slamming and unruly neighbors (except with the occasional mouse trap by the door!)  Not sure WHO set that up, and it didn't hurt anyone, but it was hysterical to witness.  Made the kid jump two stories.  The packing tape across the doors was awesome, but I think the passenger had that happen before because he didn't walk into it like I would have.

 

 

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I even read reviews for ships I'm not booked on. 

Some people, like Sailor Jack,  write such entertaining reviews they’re better than tv. 

When I read reviews of a ship I will  be on, I’m looking for insider tips, menus, opinions on shows that I may or not take to heart, what night the chocolate buffet is, etc. 

 

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3 hours ago, GUT2407 said:

I do reviews as a thread then others can chime in if they agree or not and questions can be asked and answered.

 

the other advantage is that I can take my time to get it done.

I finally read maybe three reviews and think your way is the best way.  The "ask and answer" is what works for me.  So thanks.

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On 10/10/2019 at 10:41 AM, ontheweb said:

But, the person who was not even on the ship but HEARD, argued with me!

 

A frequent poster on cc writes about ships she hasn't been on as in "I read on cc" …. and then reiterates some negative things. It's very annoying when I have been on those ships and know the comments are slanted.

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