What are some affordable cruises with enrichment programs?

[Heidi13]

20 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

I think we all realize that. From a customer retention standpoint, I wonder if there is a balance between cost cutting and non revenue attractions that might keep and even draw customers.    IMO, the library rooms have been an under utilized space for a long time.  At the risk of sacrilege, I do not consider their disappearance a negative.  

 

Not all ships with books available to the pax have a dedicated library space. On Viking, they have a couple of thousand books distributed around most of the lounges on bookshelves. Most of the books are historical and/or cover the regions the ships sail.

 

No need to sign-out a book, simply grab one, read it and return to any lounge.

 

Therefore, no under utilised space.

[ldubs]

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

I think this is a case of "Know thy audience."  The libraries were removed on Holland America ships a few years ago and due to continued VOCIFEROUS complaints, they are now being restored on all ships. 

 

When you think about it, it makes sense: HAL focuses on longer cruises and tends to attract an older population. You may not want or need a library on a week-long cruise to the Caribbean, Alaska, or Mexico. But when you're regularly offering cruises of a month, two months, etc., people aren't in a frenetic vacation mode. And while some HAL cruisers have embraced eReaders, many still prefer books -- the weight of which makes it difficult to bring enough to last for long cruises.

 

Personally, I don't use ship libraries as I love my Kindle and have quite specific tastes in reading material. But I think in this case HAL management misread their core passengers.

 

 

I don't think I've ever looked at the library on a Mexican Riviera cruise.  On longer European cruises, I've occasionally seen a few people in the library space.  Even though not heavily used, I'm sure there will be a clamor of protest as they are eliminated.  Don't get me wrong.  I have nothing against the library space.  They just are not a big attraction to most passengers in my experience.   An earlier post seems to say they are more used on the premium/luxury lines.  

 

On an Alaskan cruise, it looked to me that what was once a library space was converted into a cigar lounge.   Would not be my first choice but I'm sure the cigar smokers appreciated it.  And of course, I could be wrong.  Maybe the space was always a cigar lounge. 

 

1 hour ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Not all ships with books available to the pax have a dedicated library space. On Viking, they have a couple of thousand books distributed around most of the lounges on bookshelves. Most of the books are historical and/or cover the regions the ships sail.

 

No need to sign-out a book, simply grab one, read it and return to any lounge.

 

Therefore, no under utilised space.

 

I like the idea of having meaningful information about ports-of-call available on board.  Most of the library content I've seen is used novels.   

Edited December 13, 2023 by ldubs