Entertainment Cutback Concerns and Real Disappointment

[cusematt4]

Hi All,

 

We used to really enjoy cruising with NCL for their entertainment.

We had loved the multiple nightly options of shows (fly on acts and production), in addition to multiple different bands.

 

A few years ago, there were 3 full bands, in addition to 3 duos plus 3 different piano players.

 

Our cruise on the Getaway a few months ago was incredibly disappointing regarding all aspects of entertainment.

 

There was 1 band (reggae + all - they were awesome), 2 duos and the dueling pianos (no seprate painists as usual)  Others weren't sick or on leave according to the onboard team but were just cut.  This is half of what was advertised and what we had previously seen with NCL.

 

There were multiple nights of no professional entertainment.  The show in the Illusionariam was eliminated and the rock band at Syds that was very heavily promoted was eliminted. 

 

On an 8 night cruise, there were

-2 "braodway" shows which were really well done but which we heard are being eliminated for the most part across NCL.

-1 fly on magician who was awful and did some card tricks shown on a broken out of focus screen in the theater

-2 of the worst comedians we've ever seen who did the same show every night they performed

*4 nights of no professional entertainment

 

We voiced our entertainment concerns and disappointments to the cruise director who agreed with us and said it was completley out of their team's control as the budgeting and scheduling cuts were all being done by corporate.

Does anyone have any insight as to why NCL is ruining what helped distinguish them from other lines.  RCL seems to be overtaking them in entertainment from the braodway shows to the multiple fly on acts and plethora of live music.

 

I hope NCL reconsiders these entertainment cutbacks and they are noticable and many are frustrated at the decreased product from NCL.  I know we can stick with other lines, but we enjoy the variety that RCL and NCL each provided.

 

Thanks.

[luv2kroooz]

Cutbacks everywhere, but yes, entertainment has been hit harder. It used to differentiate NCL, but now they are just like the others.

 

Ultimately, you have properly voiced your concerns. Now you have to decide if the entertainment cutbacks are significant enough to warrant a change to a different cruise line or if the current overall product provided by NCL, despite the cutbacks, is better than the competition.

 

We made the decision to try the competition this fall with Princess so we can get a comparison. We currently have nothing booked with NCL and that is something that we could have never said during the past eight or so years, COVID excluded, of course.

 

We think NCL has kind of lost its way post covid. They want to be thought of as luxury, but repeatedly charge for things at every turn. Restrictive beverage packages, lack of shrimp cocktail, lack of lobster in main dining rooms, poor entertainment offerings. Okay, but not luxury in our minds. Good luck to you.

[BirdTravels]

Every department was issued a cost reduction targets. Entertainment was one area - cheaper to have guest performers on 1-5 week contracts than keeping an entire production onboard. Housekeeping down to once a day. Buffet hours reduced. Less obvious things like breakfast steaks in the Haven being changed from Filet to NY Strip (gasp). Casino cutting host staff in half on big ships and reducing hours (e.g., not opening while anchored in GSC any longer). 

 

But,,, every cruise line is doing similar things. It's not just NCL. 

[ontheweb]

6 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Every department was issued a cost reduction targets. Entertainment was one area - cheaper to have guest performers on 1-5 week contracts than keeping an entire production onboard. Housekeeping down to once a day. Buffet hours reduced. Less obvious things like breakfast steaks in the Haven being changed from Filet to NY Strip (gasp). Casino cutting host staff in half on big ships and reducing hours (e.g., not opening while anchored in GSC any longer). 

 

But,,, every cruise line is doing similar things. It's not just NCL. 

We have been on 5 different cruise lines, and the one thing that stood out on NCL was its entertainment was the best of any ship we sailed. It seems foolish to me to cut back drastically on what distinguishes your cruise line from others.

[roger001]

Cruising was about the pampered feeling once on board.  Now it is more of just anxiety about what is now missing.  Individually, no big loss.  But collectively, it is really starting to affect the cruise atmosphere.  After 25, we aren't now booked.  Just don't think the cruise excitement feeling is any longer there.  

[TSUmom]

I understand how people are concerned about the cut backs in cruising.  For my husband and I we still cruise to see different places that we would never visit otherwise which has always been our priority.  We book a cruise for the ports not the ship or any other reason and to us it is still the best way to vacation.

[European_CruiseGirl]

1 hour ago, roger001 said:

Cruising was about the pampered feeling once on board.  Now it is more of just anxiety about what is now missing.  Individually, no big loss.  But collectively, it is really starting to affect the cruise atmosphere.  After 25, we aren't now booked.  Just don't think the cruise excitement feeling is any longer there.  

I 110% agree with roger001. 
 

We have one RCI (Sept 2023) and one NCL (early 2024) coming up and that’s it. No more cruising for us for a while. We will instead concentrate on hotels and resorts across the globe. For almost 20 years we have always had in minimum  one cruise per yer except for the covid years. But the feeling of excitement we used to always get/have while on a cruise or just when planning a cruise is no longer there. It truly is now (for us) only the feeling of anxiety of what is missing/reduced/cut/deleted since we last cruised…while at the same time the costs are getting higher (daily service charge, basic cruise fare etc). Nowadays new reductions come monthly it feels. We feel screwed…and we don’t like it. We own our feelings and make our decisions based on it. 
 

The only reason we are still cruising in 2024 on NCL is because if we’d cancel we’d lose quite much €€€ which we have already paid (NCL EU rules). So to mitigate the situation we changed our cabin from a suite to an inside resulting for our final payment of that said cruise to be only 600€ whereas for the suite the final payment would have been over 7000€. We will go on the cruise with the mindset of ”we are paying the bare minimum for this cruise and still doing our best to enjoy to the max. We still have the beverage packages, the dinners (incl platinum vouchers), the wifi, the shorex $50/per port”. This way - as the overall cost of the cruise is quite low - the things now missing or reduced/cut won’t feel so bad. We hope. 

 

After that cruise we will concentrate on land based trips for the forseeable future flying into different countries and staying at hotels/resorts etc. We have NZ, Thailand & Singapore, Japan and Chile as well as sailing at BVI (sailing, not cruising) coming up in the next few years. Cruising was fun for almost 20 years but now the spark is truly gone for us. It’s not that we’d be bored of cruising. It just feels bad to see constant reductions of the service and product while paying constantly more and more. 
 

Edited July 13, 2023 by European_CruiseGirl

[MsTabbyKats]

We were totally spoiled by MSC Yacht club in April (no...Haven doesn't offer what we liked about YC...so Haven isn't an option).  What we like about NCL is entertainment and buffet.  We have our annual "Canadian Voyage" booked on the Escape in Sept....and I'm really afraid it's going to be a huge disappointment.

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, MsTabbyKats said:

We were totally spoiled by MSC Yacht club in April (no...Haven doesn't offer what we liked about YC...so Haven isn't an option).  What we like about NCL is entertainment and buffet.  We have our annual "Canadian Voyage" booked on the Escape in Sept....and I'm really afraid it's going to be a huge disappointment.

If you go in with the attitude that it will be a real disappointment, the odds are good that that is what will happen.

[sunkey1]

You'll see from my signature that for MANY years I was an NCL 'snob", in my mind no one could come close, and back then it was true. It's really sad to see how far down they have slid lately though. I too was on the Getaway, in April, and both my husband I I agreed it was time to go try more other lines again. We've booked Celebrity in October as we've heard their offerings have not been cut quite as badly as some and we'll likely look at Princess again. I will say that the Carnival Mardi Gras is unlike any of the older Carnival ships is so many ways. Much nicer decor, HUGE variety of (free!) food options and the entertainment was the best of any we've seen on Carnival. If we had liked any if the itineraries, we probably would have booked their new Celebration to try it out and likely will in the future. I will not go on an older Carnival ship though. 

[laudergayle]

We understand the reason for the cuts, but they are DEEP and have started to greatly impact the NCL cruise experience.  We have one more cruise in 2023–which was booked in 2022 before the 2023 budget constraints.  Even though I continue to shop for cruises, we currently have no NCL cruises booked for 2024.  There are a couple we would like to book but likely won’t book anything until after January 2024 when another round of budgetary impacts (good or bad) are announced.  We do have a “trial” MSC cruise in August, I just wished MSC had more US departure ports and itineraries. Might have to do a look-see at Carnival Celebration and Mardi Gras.  

[MacGuffin3]

19 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

If you go in with the attitude that it will be a real disappointment, the odds are good that that is what will happen.

the odds are just as good if you go in expecting very little, everything will then be a bonus.  If you go in expecting it to be amazing, you can only go downhill from there.
Not everybody has the same philosophy of what the best mindset to go into a trip is.

[MsTabbyKats]

6 minutes ago, laudergayle said:

We understand the reason for the cuts, but they are DEEP and have started to greatly impact the NCL cruise experience.  We have one more cruise in 2023–which was booked in 2022 before the 2023 budget constraints.  Even though I continue to shop for cruises, we currently have no NCL cruises booked for 2024.  There are a couple we would like to book but likely won’t book anything until after January 2024 when another round of budgetary impacts (good or bad) are announced.  We do have a “trial” MSC cruise in August, I just wished MSC had more US departure ports and itineraries. Might have to do a look-see at Carnival Celebration and Mardi Gras.  

Since our "MSC inside YC" which was no more expensive than a balcony on NCL....we've become Yacht Club converts. I can't speak for "the masses on MSC"...but in the YC, you are treated like royalty.

It is soooo worth the money...even more so in light of cut backs.

[insidecabin]

Stop telling People about MSC YC.

 

Spread the word it is rubbish.

 

 

As for NCL prices, still can't land base a trip for the price of a cruise.

[bkrickles1]

While I'm also concerned with these entertainment cutbacks, I'm going to reserve judgement until my sailing on Joy in 10 days.

I know Footloose is due to be cut in October, so it'll still be on board, but I'll be skipping it this time as I saw it last summer and it's just an "ok" show.

I will say that I've been following someone on these forums who's currently sailing on Joy and posting dailies, and there appears to be as much entertainment on board as there has ever been on my 3 previous NCL cruises.

So, while I can't speak for any of the other ships, Joy appears to have a full deck of entertainment.

[ontheweb]

14 minutes ago, MacGuffin3 said:

the odds are just as good if you go in expecting very little, everything will then be a bonus.  If you go in expecting it to be amazing, you can only go downhill from there.
Not everybody has the same philosophy of what the best mindset to go into a trip is.

Different stokes for different folks. But, I have found that if one goes in expecting the worst, it tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[MsTabbyKats]

3 minutes ago, insidecabin said:

Stop telling People about MSC YC.

 

Spread the word it is rubbish.

 

 

As for NCL prices, still can't land base a trip for the price of a cruise.

I know....

From now on....mum's the word!

[MsTabbyKats]

10 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

Different stokes for different folks. But, I have found that if one goes in expecting the worst, it tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I agree....but everyone cruises for their own reasons.  If you take "those reasons" away....what's left?

I know most people don't care about entertainment and buffet...we do.  People care about drinks ....we don't.  If there were cuts for bar hours or offerings...there'd be a lot of "lowering of expectations".

[insidecabin]

33 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

Different stokes for different folks. But, I have found that if one goes in expecting the worst, it tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Set expectations realistic and low enough to be exceeded.

[swmichigan cruiser]

Realizing I am a cranky old man and after about 80 cruises and we have 4 more booked and that maybe all for us. With the hassle of getting to a cruise and home again and the changes being made it might best for us to not cruise any more. This summer  with going to new places for us (Norway, Iceland and Greenland etc) no reason to go back to Europe. Guess I could always change my mind but just don't get as exited about going on a cruise as before.

[insidecabin]

2 hours ago, MsTabbyKats said:

I agree....but everyone cruises for their own reasons.  If you take "those reasons" away....what's left?

I know most people don't care about entertainment and buffet...we do.  People care about drinks ....we don't.  If there were cuts for bar hours or offerings...there'd be a lot of "lowering of expectations".

We had this last year on Princess even with slightly reduced passenger capacity they were short of bar staff so would close the best outside bars early evening to staff the inside bars.

 

It was shame as we picked our cabin to maximize our time at the outside bar it was June, light late evening good sailaways.

 

Disappointed but managed to adapt.

 

The NCL northern Europe are not logistic friendly, great itinerary

Iceland is ok getting pricey but Tromso?

 

 

 

 

[RB9643]

4 hours ago, ontheweb said:

But, I have found that if one goes in expecting the worst, it tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

 

This makes sense, to an extent. If you have low expectations, you will certainly find things that meet those lows. But you will also find many things that exceed "the worst" and are enjoyable and perhaps a nice surprise.

 

On the other hand, I think it's worse to go in with high expectations that are rarely or ever met, let alone exceeded. If your expectations are too high to be met, you will have nothing but a disappointing experience.

 

Perhaps it's best to go in with NO expectations, take everything as it comes, and enjoy yourself regardless.

 

 

[9tee2Sea]

im not concerned about entertainment cutbacks.  The more I drink, the better the entertainment.  I wish they would cut back on the entertainment by the pool area.  SOOOOO over the calypso style off key singers.

[bedfordmom]

Also noticed the severe cutbacks on the Getaway in  February. As one that likes to make their own fun, we try to bring books, cards, games etc. (I know I am boring). But there is a limit to how much self entertainment. Its not like we can get off the ship to see a movie like on land so I feel like the cruiseline has responsibility to provide some entertainment. I don't understand why they can't do more movies on deck or in the theater.  I remember Carnival did that years ago and even provided popcorn which was a lot of fun.  I was told that the cruiselines only want to provide entertainment where they can make money like in the bar, bingo etc.  .  

[mugtech]

21 minutes ago, 9tee2Sea said:

  The more I drink, the better the entertainment.  

NCL looking for more like you.