Harbinger of Things to Come?

[tfred]

2 hours ago, canderson said:

When you replied to my first post, you wouldn't have had a chance to read my later one that says "One would think that a cruise line would see the benefit of putting their creative minds to the task of finding some new concepts that were related to the uniquely shipboard experience.  Have they really run out of ideas?"

 

If, in the future, there's little product differentiation, these novice cruisers, who won't be novices forever, will have more reason to reevaluate the value proposition of sea vs. resort vacations. 

 

The only reason cruise lines can compete at all is because their payroll is kept well below shoreside wages for any 'developed' country.  The rest of their operational and logistics costs for operating a moving, floating resort will inevitably be higher.

I think the  shipboard experiences are what they mention in the "ask the CEO" answers.  Food and wine demos and paid experiences. I can't think of what would be unique to cruising except excursions that are "curated" while in port 

 

in general, people will pay for experiences while on vacation that they just can't get around their house or on the usual vacation.  Look at what Disney does and they rake in the a la carte dollars 

 

There will always be product differentiation in the cruise business just like there it is in hotels   That is where the marketing dollars go to and it won't be for the "best cruise line". No one will mistake a Ritz Carlton for a Holidome by the sea. It will be for the best value (doesn't mean low cost) for your vacation dollars   The X TV ad never shows a ship until the last 3 seconds of the ad.  Most of it is food, dancing, gambling, pickleball etc. 

 

the "where is my prime rib every night ?" or "midnight chocolate buffet " crowd may be left in the rear view mirror 

[PTC DAWG]

Just now, tfred said:

 

the "where is my prime rib every night ?" or "midnight chocolate buffet " crowd may be left in the rear view mirror 

One could hope

[canderson]

37 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

One could hope

If you have something against chocolate, we're done, Dawg! 😆

 

[chefchick]

2 hours ago, canderson said:

Apart, perhaps, from my own reference to the Icon of the Seas as "Six Flags over Mariana Trench", which was intended to be a humorous take on this ...

 

 

I don’t know if you actually coined this phrase but if so, this cynical cruiser says bravo.👏 

[NutsAboutGolf]

7 hours ago, C-Dragons said:

Or part of the cost could be rolled into the cruise fare. 😉

 

Just like the magic carpet which has the best tender experience of a large ship, how much would you pay for that experience (rhetorical)?  They are surely passing the engineering, building, and maintenance costs onto us

[NutsAboutGolf]

It's a pretty safe bet they will do something different with the Eden

[canderson]

14 minutes ago, chefchick said:

I don’t know if you actually coined this phrase but if so, this cynical cruiser says bravo.👏 

I did.  Invented it for a previous thread a few months ago when referencing Icon.  Even for those that don't get the Mariana Trench allusion, the Six Flags alone gets the point across pretty well. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

3 hours ago, conquesodor said:

Good grief you are a cynical bunch.

 

Stop with the flattering, you're making me blush 🙃

[Judyrem]

3 hours ago, canderson said:

Apart, perhaps, from my own reference to the Icon of the Seas as "Six Flags over Mariana Trench", which was intended to be a humorous take on this ...

 

 

... I haven't seen anything here that looked particularly cynical.

It's not my idea of fun, but to each his/her own.

[omahabob]

8 hours ago, canderson said:

....we've all seen the results on Royal's latest offering, the Icon of the Seas (aka Six Flags over Mariana Trench) has brought a bit more of the land to the sea than the vast majority of Celebrity passengers would like in a cruise ship....

 

 

After 20 years here and over 9,000 posts, it seems you would have figured out everyone has different tastes, and cruises for different reasons. The Oasis class is extremely popular, and there's every reason to believe it would appeal to many Celebrity cruisers too. I would happily cruise on it, if the itineraries and prices matched up with my desires. I don't drink (rarely), I don't smoke, I don't go to spas, I don't gamble, I don't shop, and most shows have only moderate appeal to me. Same for the wife. We'd be happy to see more onboard entertainment options, and there are plenty of others like us. Don't assume most other people want the same thing you want. For Excel, they're presumably going with concepts that worked well elsewhere, and that's generally a very good business model.

[canderson]

10 minutes ago, omahabob said:

After 20 years here and over 9,000 posts, it seems you would have figured out everyone has different tastes, and cruises for different reasons. The Oasis class is extremely popular, and there's every reason to believe it would appeal to many Celebrity cruisers too.

 

 

For Excel, they're presumably going with concepts that worked well elsewhere, and that's generally a very good business model.

So you're saying it would make sense to you if Celebrity's next ship looked like the one in the Oasis photo, above?  Makes no sense to me.  Just brand it as a RCL ship. 

 

As you so correctly point out, everyone has different tastes.  If RCG homogenizes their brands, they're not going to able to serve a very diverse collection of tastes with that business model.

[omahabob]

30 minutes ago, canderson said:

So you're saying it would make sense to you if Celebrity's next ship looked like the one in the Oasis photo, above?  Makes no sense to me.  Just brand it as a RCL ship. 

 

As you so correctly point out, everyone has different tastes.  If RCG homogenizes their brands, they're not going to able to serve a very diverse collection of tastes with that business model.

I'm only saying that design/concept has appeal to many people. You make an excellent point about diversity. The Celebrity model has it's own appeal. And as you point out, many customers would rather stick with that. It remains to be seen if Xcel will lean toward the Oasis model, and it also remains to be seen what that would mean for customer popularity.

[hcat]

1 hour ago, Judyrem said:

5 hours ago, canderson said:

Apart, perhaps, from my own reference to the Icon of the Seas as "Six Flags over Mariana Trench", which was intended to be a humorous take on this ...

 

 

... I haven't seen anything here that looked particularly cynical.

It's not my idea of fun, but to each his/her own.

spare us!

[hcat]

1 hour ago, omahabob said:

After 20 years here and over 9,000 posts, it seems you would have figured out everyone has different tastes, and cruises for different reasons. The Oasis class is extremely popular, and there's every reason to believe it would appeal to many Celebrity cruisers too. I would happily cruise on it, if the itineraries and prices matched up with my desires. I don't drink (rarely), I don't smoke, I don't go to spas, I don't gamble, I don't shop, and most shows have only moderate appeal to me. Same for the wife. We'd be happy to see more onboard entertainment options, and there are plenty of others like us. Don't assume most other people want the same thing you want. For Excel, they're presumably going with concepts that worked well elsewhere, and that's generally a very good business model.

Oasis was  terrible for us.. Dining was sub par, ship fairly crowded..geared toward families with kids...rock wall, flo rider, zip line stuff  plus diving and ice shows .alits of line ups.

 

If you dont drink, gamble, smoke, enjoy spa or shop or find shows not that appealing it.would probably not be good for you..

 

what other entertainment options  would u like to see on X?

[desibee]

I'd like X to start offering actual Broadway shows or plays in their theatres instead of Jukebox musicals tied loosely together with dance numbers and aerobatics.  I would absolutely pay more to see Hades Town at sea or My Fair Lady, or even some Shakespeare or just a regular small cast play.  I loved NCL's penchant for actual broadway shows like Six and Jersey Boys and now that they are pulling back on offering those things there's a gap that X could slide into and take advantage of.

 

I find the Jukebox musical rather boring and would much rather watch actors telling an actual story than finding an excuse to mix Katy Perry and Adele together in the same show because it's popular music. 

[canderson]

22 minutes ago, desibee said:

I'd like X to start offering actual Broadway shows or plays in their theatres instead of Jukebox musicals tied loosely together with dance numbers and aerobatics.  I would absolutely pay more to see Hades Town at sea or My Fair Lady, or even some Shakespeare or just a regular small cast play.  I loved NCL's penchant for actual broadway shows like Six and Jersey Boys and now that they are pulling back on offering those things there's a gap that X could slide into and take advantage of.

 

I find the Jukebox musical rather boring and would much rather watch actors telling an actual story than finding an excuse to mix Katy Perry and Adele together in the same show because it's popular music. 

Thoroughly agree that it's much nicer to have a good storyline behind the performance, and we'd certainly enjoy that more, but rare few musicals have been successfully condensed into a one hour format.  It really means changing the way the line schedules entertainment, or coming up with some original content better suited to the time available, and that won't come cheap.

[desibee]

9 minutes ago, canderson said:

Thoroughly agree that it's much nicer to have a good storyline behind the performance, and we'd certainly enjoy that more, but rare few musicals have been successfully condensed into a one hour format.  It really means changing the way the line schedules entertainment, or coming up with some original content better suited to the time available, and that won't come cheap.

Lots of community theatres do shortened versions of full length musicals successfully, so I'm sure X could figure it out if they really wanted to.  American Idiot is only 90 minutes.  Rocky Horror Picture Show would be so fun for an October sailing.  And imagine a theater production of Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog!  It's not even an hour long.  Abridged Shakespeare would be a fun show too.

[canderson]

14 minutes ago, desibee said:

Lots of community theatres do shortened versions of full length musicals successfully, so I'm sure X could figure it out if they really wanted to.  American Idiot is only 90 minutes.  Rocky Horror Picture Show would be so fun for an October sailing.  And imagine a theater production of Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog!  It's not even an hour long.  Abridged Shakespeare would be a fun show too.

The RHS would be a total hoot aboard, but even that runs 90 minutes as do most of the 'shorter' stage productions these days.

[omahabob]

1 hour ago, hcat said:

Oasis was  terrible for us.. Dining was sub par, ship fairly crowded..geared toward families with kids...rock wall, flo rider, zip line stuff  plus diving and ice shows .alits of line ups.

 

If you dont drink, gamble, smoke, enjoy spa or shop or find shows not that appealing it.would probably not be good for you..

 

what other entertainment options  would u like to see on X?

Would love the zip lines and water slides. Wouldn't do the flo rider, but watching others do it (or try) is great entertainment. I haven't booked an Oasis class cruise because it can't go to some of the smaller ports I'd like to visit. There's pros and cons to every line and every ship.

Edited July 19 by omahabob

[NutsAboutGolf]

 

1 hour ago, hcat said:

Oasis was  terrible for us.. Dining was sub par, ship fairly crowded..geared toward families with kids...rock wall, flo rider, zip line stuff  plus diving and ice shows .alits of line ups.

 

If you dont drink, gamble, smoke, enjoy spa or shop or find shows not that appealing it.would probably not be good for you..

 

what other entertainment options  would u like to see on X?

 

You didn't enjoy the diving or ice shows?  We have only been on one single RCI sailing, Wonder of the Seas which is their second newest and the second largest ship cruise in the world.  I thought the food was a tick below X but did have some items that were better than X.  Was crowded and lines for entertainment but at least you got good entertainment; to be clear X's performers are great but it's the show itself that can be dry

 

For X main shows, they typically have one magic show and one comedian show, all the rest are musicals, and in between the 7 and 9 shows is a passenger participation game show.  It was a nice change of scenery having an entirely new kind of show we hadn't experienced before like the diving and ice skating show but the greatest part of RCI's entertainment was having a choice.  You could go to the musical if you're in the mood, if you aren't you could go to the aqua-theater and if neither tickle your fancy, go to the karaoke bar or see one of the 2-3 comedians that perform every day and at 7 pm they can do 18+ content.  Not sure why X has the 7 pm and 9 pm comedians only doing PG-13 content, you have to go to their 1015pm comedy show to see the good stuff yet ironically, they usually have that show the night before a port day as the comedian often disembarks after his shows are done.  One more thing about X's production shows, if you saw one in 2021, there's a strong possibility you can see the exact same show in 2024

 

 

[NMTraveller]

11 hours ago, thebutlerdidit said:

When I read “7 new experiences” it immediately translated to “7 new opportunities to charge our customers”. 

This.

 

 

[NMTraveller]

4 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Just like the magic carpet which has the best tender experience of a large ship, how much would you pay for that experience (rhetorical)?  They are surely passing the engineering, building, and maintenance costs onto us

How much would people pay for ziplines and waterslides and gadgets🤣?  

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 minute ago, NMTraveller said:

How much would people pay for ziplines and waterslides and gadgets🤣?  

 

They charge for a lot of their activities, not the waterslides...ha ha

[markeb]

24 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

How much would people pay for ziplines and waterslides and gadgets🤣?  

 

It may have changed, but they didn't charge for any of those when we were on Oasis. Or the Flowrider. It was all included (and a quick Google search say they still are).

[NMTraveller]

2 minutes ago, markeb said:

 

It may have changed, but they didn't charge for any of those when we were on Oasis. Or the Flowrider. It was all included (and a quick Google search say they still are).

As @NutsAboutGolf said  They are surely passing the engineering, building, and maintenance costs onto us