What would make X better? My Ideas

[giblert]

We certainly haven't taken as many cruises as many of you out there, but here's a few suggestions, and hopefully X is listening;

 

Raise the fare $20-30/guest/day. $140-210 on a 7 day, $280-350 on a 14 day. Wow, I know that's not going to be popular, but ....

 

Now, use that money to stop nickel and diming me everywhere;

> Start brewing coffee. What they serve right now is a pretty sad attempt at it.

> Give us a small carafe of wine with dinner (per couple). We dont need a full bottle, who knows, maybe we'll want more, and lord knows how cheap wine really is (duty free). I'm not talking full-on open bar on the ship, I'd just like some wine with dinner w/o having to pull out the ol' charge card every night.

> Offer me an espresso / cappuccino after dinner, make my dinner special, not another excuse to pull out the shipboard charge card.

> Increase the money spent on food slightly, not a lot, and add some WOW to the meals. Offer one or two dishes/night with some stronger flavours, as sadly everything is very bland to appeal to the masses. A punchy curry for instance. We took to getting the waiter to sneak sambal out of the crew quarters.

> How about converting all the restaurant space into 5 or 6 separate restaurants (included), and a much much smaller generic dining room. Pick and choose your own cuisine every night.

> buy somewhat nicer bed linens, make your cabin a real retreat.

 

What I'm suggesting really shouldn't cost the 20-30/day I'm suggesting, but it's a sample figure.

 

I'm amazed that there really isn't a cruise line positioned between say Celebrity and Crystal. Are we the only ones willing to pay a premium over X's fares, but not at the stage of paying Crystal fares? I really can't imagine we are.

 

OK; I'm on a rant, and there are some things that I just love on X. Little things, things that don't cost much and are bringing me back to X after cruising on a couple of other lines

> Poolside icecream. The waiter with his tray of little sample ice creams every afternoon (made onboard I understand too!)

> Salad dressing. Every night the waiter had a great selection of unusual salad dressings.

> Good bread (did I mention how simple these things are)

> Top notch service and respect. Staff were exceptionally polite and nice onboard.

 

 

 

 

anyone else have things to add?

[cruiserJay]

I understand your desire for increased amenities, but, in my opinion, it would be a mistake to raise prices for them. We all have favorite little luxuries that we would like to see included. Unfortunately, we all like different things. I am not a coffee connoisseur; to me the coffee is acceptable. Thus, I would be paying a higher price for amenities about which I don't care. I would like an improved on-board library. Others would not want to see an increase in fares in order to fund "my" library.

I think that the pricing model that X uses is generally fair. As much as I hate to be nickel and dimed, it allows all of us to chose the amenities we want and still cruise at a reasonable price.

:)

[Drew B]

I agree with Cruiser Jay in theory, as most of the suggestions made by giblert are not ones that would enhance MY experience enough to warrant paying more. However, if they went and did it, it certainly wouldn't stop me from sailing with X, and I would be very happy for the pax who enjoy the upgrades.

 

I would like somewhat better television choices and some attempt to fix the crowding/roadblocks in the buffet (if such a thing is possible). And I would like them to always have the shows for late seating AFTER dinner. The pre-dinner show takes away all of the benefit of choosing late seating, IMO.

[Andy]

Hi Everyone !

 

I agree with the others. I am not in favor of a fare increase for additional amenities etc. The reality is, the Cruiseline would raise the fare, and give you little in return for it.

 

As for DrewB's comments, we agree on all points. You are right about the Buffet. Other than some tweaking, I doubt much can be done about it for the existing ships. I hope it is something Celebrity will much improve in the Solstice Class. I also agree about the Pre-Dinner show for Late seating. This has been a real annoyance for a while. Years ago, the show was always after Dinner. I would say it is currently about 50-50. I was told the reason for the change was to allow people more time for the Casino. As Drew said, the Pre Dinner show takes away the benefit of Late Dining. As for Television ? Celebrity absolutely needs to improve in this area. On our Constellation sailing, they were running the SAME episodes of the SAME shows from our past few sailings. It is shocking that Celebrity doesnt realize that the repeat cruisers would like to see some variety.

 

Happy New Year !

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Raise the fare $20-30/guest/day. $140-210 on a 7 day, $280-350 on a 14 day. Wow, I know that's not going to be popular, but ....

 

Now, use that money to stop nickel and diming me everywhere;

> Start brewing coffee. What they serve right now is a pretty sad attempt at it.

> Give us a small carafe of wine with dinner (per couple). We dont need a full bottle, who knows, maybe we'll want more, and lord knows how cheap wine really is (duty free). I'm not talking full-on open bar on the ship, I'd just like some wine with dinner w/o having to pull out the ol' charge card every night.

> Offer me an espresso / cappuccino after dinner, make my dinner special, not another excuse to pull out the shipboard charge card.

buy somewhat nicer bed linens, make your cabin a real retreat.

 

What I'm suggesting really shouldn't cost the 20-30/day I'm suggesting, but it's a sample figure.

 

 

We would not be willing to pay $60 a day for the upgrades you are suggesting. For example:

 

As far as coffee, while we enjoy a good cup of coffee in the morning, by evening after dinner we do not want espresso or cappuccino. These are coffee's we never purchase it at home, so don't want to pay extra for them on a cruise.

 

We enjoy good wine and are not willing to pay $60 for a small carafe for 2 at dinner. We will use the extra $60 towards our $120 bottle of wine. Save the small carafe's for lunch for one.

 

The bedding was fine on our November Connie Cruise.

 

Each cruiser brings their own likes and expectations to the cruise experience. To charge extra for things that are of no value to a passenger would not be precieved as an upgrade to that cruiser.

 

Mary Lou

[lysolqn]

IMHO, Celebrity needs only to remember those things that initially set it apart from the mainstream lines and made it a premium line, and once again direct its efforts toward providing a traditional cruise experience emphasizing excellence in food and service.

Of course beyond that, an upgrade in television programming would certainly be appreciated. After 29 X cruises and after just spending 17 days on Century's tranatlantic sailing, those old episodes of Beverly Hillbillies, Red Skelton, Burns and Allen and Bonanza just don't cut it any more!!! LOL!

[travelinglion]

Some of the problems with shows can be solved by changing the dinner seating times. I was thinking that there could actually be 3 dinner seatings, or, moving up the times of the current two seatings. Don't you think that there are some people who would like to eat before 5. That way there would be less people to handle in the dining room for every service. This may not be popular, but they should give it a try. The late seating to me is just way too late. It causes problems with the show if you want to see it. Eating late at night is really not healthy and certainly on my recent cruise (Millinium - 12/2 to 16) I don't think anyone would spend that much time in their casino. It was very small and VERY STINGY.

[kb4683]

> We took to getting the waiter to sneak sambal out of the crew quarters.

 

 

We request sambal on every cruise and the waiter or his assistant always has it in his serving station.

[Ma Bell]

Many times the ship doesn't even leave port until 6. I can't imagine anyone trying to get ready for dinner before 5. It would be impossible to serve and set up for three seatings unless the last one started at about 10. I think the waitstaff has enough to do already.

[caviargal]

> Start brewing coffee. What they serve right now is a pretty sad attempt at it.

> Give us a small carafe of wine with dinner (per couple). We dont need a full bottle, who knows, maybe we'll want more, and lord knows how cheap wine really is (duty free). I'm not talking full-on open bar on the ship, I'd just like some wine with dinner w/o having to pull out the ol' charge card every night.

> Offer me an espresso / cappuccino after dinner, make my dinner special, not another excuse to pull out the shipboard charge card.

> Increase the money spent on food slightly, not a lot, and add some WOW to the meals. Offer one or two dishes/night with some stronger flavours, as sadly everything is very bland to appeal to the masses. A punchy curry for instance. We took to getting the waiter to sneak sambal out of the crew quarters.

 

> buy somewhat nicer bed linens, make your cabin a real retreat.

 

I'm amazed that there really isn't a cruise line positioned between say Celebrity and Crystal. Are we the only ones willing to pay a premium over X's fares, but not at the stage of paying Crystal fares? I really can't imagine we are.

 

 

> Salad dressing. Every night the waiter had a great selection of unusual salad dressings.

> Good bread (did I mention how simple these things are)

> Top notch service and respect. Staff were exceptionally polite and nice onboard.

 

anyone else have things to add?

 

I found all of that - and more - on my MSC cruise in the Med.

 

While I would definitely be happy to pay more to get these things, most would not and this is why cruise lines will continue to slowly add more and more extra charge items as they decrease the quality of what is included (coffee being a great example).

[lysolqn]

Many times the ship doesn't even leave port until 6. I can't imagine anyone trying to get ready for dinner before 5. It would be impossible to serve and set up for three seatings unless the last one started at about 10. I think the waitstaff has enough to do already.

 

I agree three seatings would be a strategical nightmare, however, we were on the Westerdam last year and they actually have four seatings -

Early Seating: 6pm upstairs level of dining room, 6:30 downstairs;

Late Seating: 8pm upstairs, 8:30 down.

I guess X could offer more seatings in a similar fashion to what HAL does but I don't imagine it's at all feasible to have dinner stretch from first seating before 5pm (as suggested by travelinglion) to last seating as it is now at 8:30.

[DC2OC]

I agree with Cruiser Jay in theory, as most of the suggestions made by giblert are not ones that would enhance MY experience enough to warrant paying more. However, if they went and did it, it certainly wouldn't stop me from sailing with X, and I would be very happy for the pax who enjoy the upgrades.

 

I would like somewhat better television choices and some attempt to fix the crowding/roadblocks in the buffet (if such a thing is possible). And I would like them to always have the shows for late seating AFTER dinner. The pre-dinner show takes away all of the benefit of choosing late seating, IMO.

 

We agree.We love the after dinner shows after dining late.It tops off the evening.While the buffet situation is not the best it beats searching for a table like we've had to do on RCL cruises.It would be nice if they had RCL TV lineup which included the afternoon football games.It was nice nice seeing the end of games while getting ready for dinner........Frank:)

[DC2OC]

I agree three seatings would be a strategical nightmare, however, we were on the Westerdam last year and they actually have four seatings -

Early Seating: 6pm upstairs level of dining room, 6:30 downstairs;

Late Seating: 8pm upstairs, 8:30 down.

I guess X could offer more seatings in a similar fashion to what HAL does but I don't imagine it's at all feasible to have dinner stretch from first seating before 5pm (as suggested by travelinglion) to last seating as it is now at 8:30.

 

Now we would love 8pm dinner,but it would give DW a extra half hour in the casino before the late show:eek:...............Frank

[Penney80]

We like the shows after the late seating also. We used to go to all the shows ,now we only go to the late ones sometimes if it's nothing we like we don't even go to that! Joann

[wiselindag]

I, too, would rather be nickel and dimed than pay for someone else's premium coffee and carafe of wine. That said, I have recently sailed on NCL three times (in between X sailings on Century and Millennium.) The contrast is interesting. We sailed NCL to accommodate our 18 year old son, who doesn't want to be tied down to a specific dinnertime and the company of his parents for dinner... he makes his own friends and his own dinner arrangements on cruises and that works out much better for all of us. Interestingly, he once chose to have dinner with us in the dining room (lobster night) and dressed in real clothes to do so, but the rest of the time he was happy to stay in jeans and tee shirt and dine in the more casual venues. NCL does not have seatings... it's freestyle and you dine when and where you wish. While not a freestyle fan in the beginning, I have recently been converted... I think the service has been improving. We usually chose to eat around 7-7:30 and then go to the show after dinner. If we spent the day in port and preferred to eat later, that was easy to do. I miss the regular waitstaff on NCL, but on a longer cruise you do get to know waiters and can request their stations if you want. So it's an interesting trade-off with pluses and minuses to both systems. BTW, NCL provides complimentary cappuccino and espresso in the dining room for both lunch and dinner.

 

I don't like the early show time and agree that it negates the point of late seating, but on our TA with so many sea days, there was plenty of time to get to the 7 pm show, so a lot depends on the type of cruise. It was not 50-50 on our transatlantic. The only nights they did the late show seating after dinner were the three formal nights.

 

Another area where X still does it right is in the service for the buffet -- lots of waiters roaming around the dining area offering assistance. Now that's one area where NCL could learn a lot from Celebrity, and I'm certainly not saying that NCL food can compete with Celebrity. Although it's not as good as it once was, and there are definitely areas in need of improvement, Celebrity still has better food. I agree with lysolqn, who said Celebrity originally set itself apart in two areas -- food quality and service and these are the areas on which they should continue to focus.

 

So, for now I'll still cruise Celebrity and NCL and other lines if the itinerary and price are right.

[DrKoob]

You are right about the Buffet. Other than some tweaking, I doubt much can be done about it for the existing ships. I hope it is something Celebrity will much improve in the Solstice Class.

 

I think they have improved the buffet. At least on Century when they did the refit. We had been on Galaxy a year before (Nov. 06) and found the buffet to be a huge hassle. We were not looking forward to the crowded buffet on Century this last October. And guess what? It wasn't there. No problems at all. Completely redesigned. We did see some long lines at the buffet nearest midships but we could always walk down to the aft end of the buffet and find a new line that had just opened. On an 11 day Med trip on a full ship we only experienced long lines on departure morning breakfast. All other times, no problems. Century was done right when they redid it. We think it's even better than the M-Class buffets.

[DaytonGirl]

The only thing I would like to see changed is the tipping. I wish they would just add it into the price of the cruise and be done with it.

 

It worked great on Xpedition and on Regent.

[ccletzgo]

The same Internet as royal. $100 unlimited in cabin access was awesome on the navigator..

[LadyDivot]

I could not agree more with the improved/different TV selections. We watched the same shows on our Dec TA on the Millie that we did on our March TransCanal on the Infinity. Granted we don't spend a lot of time sitting in our cabin watching TV, but it's on while we're getting dressed for dinner and just before we drop off to sleep. I can't imagine this is difficult to do.

 

I know that X does not do shipwide announcements, except for the Captain's noon talk, but I think tag color announcements for disembarkation wouldn't be too disruptive. This has recently become more of an issue for DH and I because both our Transcanal and Transatlantic unload was delayed by at least an hour, more like two, and it was a bit of a zoo. Neither time caused us to miss our flights, but many of our fellow pax did.

 

Also, bake more almond croissants in the Cova! :D Yum!

 

We've always enjoyed our X cruises, and we hope to do so for many years to come!

 

Pam

[Brucen]

We certainly haven't taken as many cruises as many of you out there, but here's a few suggestions, and hopefully X is listening;

 

Raise the fare $20-30/guest/day. $140-210 on a 7 day, $280-350 on a 14 day. Wow, I know that's not going to be popular, but ....

 

Now, use that money to stop nickel and dimming me everywhere;

> Start brewing coffee. What they serve right now is a pretty sad attempt at it.

> Give us a small carafe of wine with dinner (per couple). We dint need a full bottle, who knows, maybe we'll want more, and lord knows how cheap wine really is (duty free). I'm not talking full-on open bar on the ship, I'd just like some wine with dinner w/o having to pull out the IL' charge card every night.

> Offer me an espresso / cappuccino after dinner, make my dinner special, not another excuse to pull out the shipboard charge card.

> Increase the money spent on food slightly, not a lot, and add some WOW to the meals. Offer one or two dishes/night with some stronger flavors, as sadly everything is very bland to appeal to the masses. A punchy curry for instance. We took to getting the waiter to sneak samba out of the crew quarters.

> How about converting all the restaurant space into 5 or 6 separate restaurants (included), and a much much smaller generic dining room. Pick and choose your own cuisine every night.

> buy somewhat nicer bed linens, make your cabin a real retreat.

 

What I'm suggesting really shouldn't cost the 20-30/day I'm suggesting, but it's a sample figure.

 

I'm amazed that there really isn't a cruise line positioned between say Celebrity and Crystal. Are we the only ones willing to pay a premium over X's fares, but not at the stage of paying Crystal fares? I really can't imagine we are.

 

OK; I'm on a rant, and there are some things that I just love on X. Little things, things that don't cost much and are bringing me back to X after cruising on a couple of other lines

> Poolside ice cream. The waiter with his tray of little sample ice creams every afternoon (made inboard I understand too!)

> Salad dressing. Every night the waiter had a great selection of unusual salad dressings.

> Good bread (did I mention how simple these things are)

> Top notch service and respect. Staff were exceptionally polite and nice inboard.

 

 

 

 

anyone else have things to add?

 

This is my first post but I want to say that philosophically, I agree with the originating poster. Whether the cost is $5.00 per day or $30.00 per day there are certainly small, inexpensive things that X could do for not much money that might enhance the experience for all. Happy passengers make for a better experience for all. I do not know if brewed coffee versus syrup costs $.50 per day or $2.00 per day, but if they get 10% of the guests to REALLY enjoy the coffee it might be worth it. If you read these boards, I think it is obvious that many of the things that make a cruise special are "feelings" not specific, definable things. Maybe a great cup of coffee generates those special, non definable feelings that make the extra cost worthwhile. Maybe it is a "free" carafe of wine at dinner. I will rely on X to make that determination but I do not want them to cut back to the point where I go home not feeling like this was the greatest cruise experience ever. Read the the theads on this board about the "free" welcome champagne. There seems to be people that base their entire cruise experience on the availability of $1.00 dollars worth of "free" champagne provided during embarkation. The difference in any passengers perception of a cruise experience may well be a matter of a few dollars a day (which I think is the point the originator of this thread was saying). I hope X is not penny wise and pound foolish, they have always left me feeling special. I do not want that feeling to go away to save myself $5.00 or even $30.00 a day.

Best,

Bruce

[drrich2]

Hi:

 

I don't drink coffee OR alcohol. Not sure I'd notice much difference with a bedding change. $30/day! Sheesh!

 

There's something to be said for sticking to things the overwhelming majority of cruisers use.

 

Free soda & cheap Internet access would be good!

 

Richard.

[bikinibottom]

I agree about the free soda and cheaper Internet, those seem like items that are "nickeled and dimed to death" when in reality they probably could be managed more cost efficiently by the cruise line and more affordable to the guest. As far as extras go we were pleasantly surprised on our last Carnival cruise that we had free espresso/cap at dinner and some of the nicest bed linens we have had at sea (we were in a suite so I don't know if that made a difference in our bed linen types). I think I would enjoy having soda and lord knows I don't drink $60 worth in a week (but I probably do after I buy a soda card).

[RVRoadie]

I am just off the 17 day transatlantic on the Century.

 

During one of my lunches in the dining room, I sat with an Asian man who had friends at a nearby table. About halfway through the meal, one of his friends brought over a large bowl of Pad Thai to share with our table. Apparently, it came from the Indonsian Mess that the crew uses. It was great, and made me want to try some more dishes. Too bad they don't appear on any menu.

[bububr]

RVroadie...If you ask your waiter the night before, most times they will acccomodate you with different and intersting food that is not on the menu. Mush of the staff has food cooked in their tradtion/nationality. We have asked for different Indian foods before and our requests have been met for the most part.

 

I also agree that soft drinks SHOULD be free, they are basically sugar and food coloring anyway and the cost is minimal.

 

As for tv and movies, I can watch them at home as much as I want. On vacation I like to do vacation things, not bring my boring home life along.

 

As for the liquor issue. I would like to see you be able to buy liquor from the duty free store onboard for consumption, as well as increasing the amount of carry-on wine and champagne.

 

Specialty coffees are just that, extras. They take time and manpower to produce. If they were to offer free service, they would most likely be swamped, and start using "liquid" coffee as substitutes to compensate for needing an abundance of machines. Think Starbucks and waiting in line for a long time as 3oo people want an espresso....

 

Regarding the shows......You are on a ship on vacation. Even in the city we generally go to an 8 pm show or later caberet for entertainment having dinner before or after depending......I don't see how adding additional diningslots would but only confuse.

 

Dave:eek:

[Rick-cruiser]

This is my first post but I want to say that philosophically, I agree with the originating poster. Whether the cost is $5.00 per day or $30.00 per day there are certainly small, inexpensive things that X could do for not much money that might enhance the experience for all. Happy passengers make for a better experience for all. I do not know if brewed coffee versus syrup costs $.50 per day or $2.00 per day, but if they get 10% of the guests to REALLY enjoy the coffee it might be worth it. If you read these boards, I think it is obvious that many of the things that make a cruise special are "feelings" not specific, definable things. Maybe a great cup of coffee generates those special, non definable feelings that make the extra cost worthwhile. Maybe it is a "free" carafe of wine at dinner. I will rely on X to make that determination but I do not want them to cut back to the point where I go home not feeling like this was the greatest cruise experience ever. Read the the theads on this board about the "free" welcome champagne. There seems to be people that base their entire cruise experience on the availability of $1.00 dollars worth of "free" champagne provided during embarkation. The difference in any passengers perception of a cruise experience may well be a matter of a few dollars a day (which I think is the point the originator of this thread was saying). I hope X is not penny wise and pound foolish, they have always left me feeling special. I do not want that feeling to go away to save myself $5.00 or even $30.00 a day.

Best,

Bruce

 

That is a very perceptive and accurate analysis, Bruce. You'd be an extremely valuable asset at any cruiseline's board meeting....