Why is there no intermediate mid-market cruise line?

[Flatbush Flyer]

4 hours ago, SteveH2508 said:

Reminds me of being near the end of a 42 day Amazon cruise. I just had to have a BLT for breakfast one day. Bread, bacon, tomato - no problem - I ended up having to nick the lettuce garnishes from other trays in the buffet. worth it though! (not a premium line, I hasten to add).

This comment harkens back to the original OP post: looking for something reasonably better than having to "nick" (which I assume to mean "acquire [without touching]) lettuce. Some premium/luxury lines provide "a la minute" cooking requests - particularly in the "casual" dining venues. "Ask and you shall receive" (albeit if they have the ingredients and some lead time). 

[SteveH2508]

9 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

This comment harkens back to the original OP post: looking for something reasonably better than having to "nick" (which I assume to mean "acquire [without touching]) lettuce. Some premium/luxury lines provide "a la minute" cooking requests - particularly in the "casual" dining venues. "Ask and you shall receive" (albeit if they have the ingredients and some lead time). 

To be fair to CMV they did have an egg station in the breakfast buffet (only 1 chef though so it did get a bit slow at times). Azamara on the other hand was well geared up for different requests at breakfast. I do not really recall what Regent was like for breakfast buffet, suffice to say I did not go hungry or have any service hiccups.

 

To the OP, there are Premium lines out there - the initial fare may seem high but you need to factor in the 'includeds' and work out an overall price per day. Included booze and gratuities is worth a lot to us and usually more than covers the difference in base fare between mainstream and premium.

[getting older slowly]

One thing I would like added .....

 

I have look at it as an overall cost ( everything ) divided by days

 

Everything.include for us :-

 

Base fare ( suite )    All Drinks ( anything i like )   Any other cost like specialty restaurants  and Laundry

 

If we do an land based tour it is not thought the ship... generally walk around and explore ourselves..

 

We have a great time on the main stream line  with the extra perks of a suite ( particularly breakfast )

 

But I am yet to see anything which is cost comparable in mid or high tier lines  to what we get now for the price

 

By the way the figure i use  is an avg of our last 6 cruises which is between $400-450 per person per night.

 

But which has been said   "each to his/hers own ... and your expectations "

 

Cheers Don 

[clo]

9 hours ago, SteveH2508 said:

Reminds me of being near the end of a 42 day Amazon cruise. I just had to have a BLT for breakfast one day. Bread, bacon, tomato - no problem - I ended up having to nick the lettuce garnishes from other trays in the buffet. worth it though! (not a premium line, I hasten to add).

I did something similar on a Hurtigruten Norwegian coastal cruise last year. I snagged a couple of pieces of bread at breakfast and then at lunch got some deli meat and cheese. What a good sandwich 🙂

 

[Heidi13]

10 hours ago, SteveH2508 said:

Reminds me of being near the end of a 42 day Amazon cruise. I just had to have a BLT for breakfast one day. Bread, bacon, tomato - no problem - I ended up having to nick the lettuce garnishes from other trays in the buffet. worth it though! (not a premium line, I hasten to add).

 

DW didn't fancy anything on the lunch menu one day, so asked if the galley could make a fried egg sangy. Brilliant.😀

[Heidi13]

6 hours ago, SteveH2508 said:

Service can be 'inconsistent' shall we say.

 

We had the misfortune of trying them for a Baltic Cruise, as it was the only ship that worked for our dates.

 

Didn't expect much and if truth be known, they didn't even meet our mediocre expectations.🙁

[SteveH2508]

3 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

DW didn't fancy anything on the lunch menu one day, so asked if the galley could make a fried egg sangy. Brilliant.😀

Ah - the good old egg banjo! Mention that name to any British Army vet and watch them drool - it has kept the British Army going through mud, rain, etc. for many years.

[SteveH2508]

3 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

We had the misfortune of trying them for a Baltic Cruise, as it was the only ship that worked for our dates.

 

Didn't expect much and if truth be known, they didn't even meet our mediocre expectations.🙁

Ours was 42 days round trip London to the Amazon and back for £2500 pp. Even with the drinks package (c£14 pppd at that time) it was an absolute bargain - but you get what you pay for.

[Heidi13]

11 hours ago, SteveH2508 said:

Ours was 42 days round trip London to the Amazon and back for £2500 pp. Even with the drinks package (c£14 pppd at that time) it was an absolute bargain - but you get what you pay for.

 

You have our sympathy, we only suffered just over 2 weeks. Great ports, but real basic ship. Saw the Columbus recently in Bali on her World Cruise, feeling somewhat sorry for her pax. Followed her most of the way back to the Meddy, with her right astern of us in Suez.

[SteveH2508]

1 hour ago, Heidi13 said:

 

You have our sympathy, we only suffered just over 2 weeks. Great ports, but real basic ship. Saw the Columbus recently in Bali on her World Cruise, feeling somewhat sorry for her pax. Followed her most of the way back to the Meddy, with her right astern of us in Suez.

Ours was on Magellan. Rather smelly with exhaust fumes at times. We would not sail on it again. We are seriously considering their 'new' ship Amy Johnson for a Canada trip next autumn however. 

[Heidi13]

8 hours ago, SteveH2508 said:

Ours was on Magellan. Rather smelly with exhaust fumes at times. We would not sail on it again. We are seriously considering their 'new' ship Amy Johnson for a Canada trip next autumn however. 

If memory is correct Magellan was one of the early Carnival ships probably from early 80's.

 

One CMV was enough for us, as we are staying with Viking, If we do another cruise from UK we may try Fred Olsen, if Viking doesn't have anything. After sailing with P&O/Princess for many years, he now prefers Fred Olsen, so we may try them some day. 

[SteveH2508]

3 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

If memory is correct Magellan was one of the early Carnival ships probably from early 80's.

 

One CMV was enough for us, as we are staying with Viking, If we do another cruise from UK we may try Fred Olsen, if Viking doesn't have anything. After sailing with P&O/Princess for many years, he now prefers Fred Olsen, so we may try them some day. 

We are very much itinerary driven then look at the value for money. If a CMV trip goes where we want to at a decent price (and is not Magellan) we may book it - uncertain times at the moment though. Next autumn 35 days from London to Canada, Greenland etc. and back does look tempting though.

 

We actually have a Silversea booked (which is unlikely to sail) and are looking at another Silversea - chalk and cheese to CMV!

[calliopecruiser]

On 5/18/2020 at 11:35 PM, LHT28 said:

You  get more bang for your buck on main stream lines

No.....you may be more room for your buck on mainstream lines, but that's hardly the same thing.

 

 

For a solo cruiser such as myself, I still believe Crystal offers the best all-round value, though there is great value to be had in other places if you can manage to fit yourself into one of their sales.  I would have no problem trying other premium or luxury lines, should that situation arise.  For pairs (couples or otherwise), the value issue will change because of the lack of single supplements.

 

 

[cruizergal70]

On 5/20/2020 at 5:30 PM, SteveH2508 said:

 

 

To the OP, there are Premium lines out there - the initial fare may seem high but you need to factor in the 'includeds' and work out an overall price per day. Included booze and gratuities is worth a lot to us and usually more than covers the difference in base fare between mainstream and premium.

How much booze are you drinking? Gratuities are like $15 a day. For a week, that's only $105. Add in $250 for drinks. 

 

The difference for so called "premium" lines is way more than say $400.

[Flatbush Flyer]

5 minutes ago, cruizergal70 said:

How much booze are you drinking? Gratuities are like $15 a day. For a week, that's only $105. Add in $250 for drinks. 

 

The difference for so called "premium" lines is way more than say $400.

Depending on which premium line you're talking about, there can be far more than just gratuities and drinks included.

 

For example, Oceania's regular O Life pricing includes unlimited Internet and specialty dining, all non-alcoholic beverages, airfare (or an air credit) and a choice of booze, excursions of SBC. Via your TA (or with most O loyalty levels), add comp gratuities and additional SBC. 

 

International coach airfare alone for a mass market cruise could add at least $1000-1500 pp to their bottom line. Then add the drinks, booze, tours, tips, internet, SBC. And will that mass market line give you a complimentary 14 day cruise to anywhere for every 20 cruise credits you earn?

 

Then there's the  items you don't get on a premium line like art shows, photogs, smoky casinos, thousands of passengers, amusement parks, chair hogs, self service buffets....

 

And we haven't ever talked about quality: USDA Prime meats, great bedding and cabin amenities, exceptional crew and space ratios.

 

Premium cruise lines define true value. You should try one.

 

 

 

[clo]

32 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Premium cruise lines define true value. You should try one.

 

Superb write-up, FF. While we won't cruise again with a vaccine, you really nailed it about O. We never even calculated the PPD. We could afford it and from all we read here and elsewhere it was far more appealing. And it lived up to our expectations. And those sheets ARE wonderful 🙂

[clo]

1 hour ago, clo said:

While we won't cruise again with a vaccine

Without

[navybankerteacher]

13 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

..    .

 

Premium cruise lines define true value. You should try one.

 

 

 

Back on topic:  there are several tiers of “intermediate mid-market cruise lines” between the likes of Seabourn and Crystal at one end and Carnival and NCL at the other.

[cruizergal70]

18 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Depending on which premium line you're talking about, there can be far more than just gratuities and drinks included.

 

For example, Oceania's regular O Life pricing includes unlimited Internet and specialty dining, all non-alcoholic beverages, airfare (or an air credit) and a choice of booze, excursions of SBC. Via your TA (or with most O loyalty levels), add comp gratuities and additional SBC. 

 

International coach airfare alone for a mass market cruise could add at least $1000-1500 pp to their bottom line. Then add the drinks, booze, tours, tips, internet, SBC. And will that mass market line give you a complimentary 14 day cruise to anywhere for every 20 cruise credits you earn?

 

Then there's the  items you don't get on a premium line like art shows, photogs, smoky casinos, thousands of passengers, amusement parks, chair hogs, self service buffets....

 

And we haven't ever talked about quality: USDA Prime meats, great bedding and cabin amenities, exceptional crew and space ratios.

 

Premium cruise lines define true value. You should try one.

 

 

 

What's your deal with art shows, photogs, casinos and such? Even if they are on a ship, they can easily be avoided. Not a fan of art shows? Don't go. It's that simple.

 

As far as trying a "premium" line, I'm too much of a low maintenance cruiser to pay for "extras" I don't want or need. I cruise for the ports and not the on ship experience. 

 

 

[calliopecruiser]

14 minutes ago, cruizergal70 said:

What's your deal with art shows, photogs, casinos and such? Even if they are on a ship, they can easily be avoided. Not a fan of art shows? Don't go. It's that simple.

not only do they take up space that could be used for something else (that I'd enjoy more), 3rd party sales options change the atmosphere of the ship.......so, in my opinion, the fewer of them, the better. 

 

15 minutes ago, cruizergal70 said:

I'm too much of a low maintenance cruiser to pay for "extras" I don't want or need.

That's not about you being a "low maintenance cruiser" - there's nothing "high maintenance" about wanting and enjoying included "extras".   I'm pretty low maintenance and don't use most "extras", but I adore the all-inclusive parts of a luxury cruise.

[Aquahound]

48 minutes ago, cruizergal70 said:

 

As far as trying a "premium" line, I'm too much of a low maintenance cruiser to pay for "extras" I don't want or need. I cruise for the ports and not the on ship experience. 

 

 

27 minutes ago, calliopecruiser said:

 

That's not about you being a "low maintenance cruiser" - there's nothing "high maintenance" about wanting and enjoying included "extras".   I'm pretty low maintenance and don't use most "extras", but I adore the all-inclusive parts of a luxury cruise.

 

And that's why there are many choices for intermediate cruise lines.  Someone a few posts back said there are several lines between the likes of Crystal and Carnival, and I agree.  Celebrity, HAL, Oceania, Azamara, Viking Ocean, in my opinion, are all lines that fall between...and of course, those lines are very different from one another.  

[Flatbush Flyer]

19 minutes ago, Aquahound said:

 

 

And that's why there are many choices for intermediate cruise lines.  Someone a few posts back said there are several lines between the likes of Crystal and Carnival, and I agree.  Celebrity, HAL, Oceania, Azamara, Viking Ocean, in my opinion, are all lines that fall between...and of course, those lines are very different from one another.  

"Very different" is almost an understatement.

Comparing Celebrity, HAL and Viking to Oceania and Azamara is a real stretch.

[Aquahound]

10 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

"Very different" is almost an understatement.

Comparing Celebrity, HAL and Viking to Oceania and Azamara is a real stretch.

 

And once again, context is totally lost on you. 

[Flatbush Flyer]

16 minutes ago, Aquahound said:

 

And once again, context is totally lost on you. 

"Just the facts ma'am."

                              Sgt. Joe Friday

[Cruzaholic41]

35 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

 

Comparing Celebrity, HAL and Viking to Oceania and Azamara is a real stretch.

Really?  2 questions. When was the last time you sailed all those lines?  Second question. Why is it a “real stretch” to compare Viking to O and Azamara?