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#21
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Cruise or not
On Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:01:24 -0500, Becca wrote:
Skipfromla wrote: If we are going to spend that much money on a cruise, we expect great service and food. If we can be expected to be treated like cattle, I have no interest in cruising. Skip It is nice to see you posting again, Skip. Sorry we could not make it to the soirée in Vegas, but maybe next year. You two were missed. At one time NCL was my favorite cruise line. Like you, I had no problems with their service, food or entertainment. I am not sure about all the details, but NCL has changed owners and management. They made a few changes, so now they charge for many of the restaurants on the ship. I have not cruised with them in 4 years, but some day I will give them another try. There are many other cruise lines out there, and the food, entertainment and service on those cruise lines is very nice. Cruise prices are pretty good right now, so it is a great time to cruise. Royal Caribbean moved the Mariner of the Seas to California and it is a wonderful ship, I really enjoyed it. I hope you give cruising another try. Becca Becca, What a pleasure to hear from you, as always. Now that we have the time and, for some unknown reason, the money, we'd love to go on another cruise. I'll give George a call when I'm closer to making a decision and ask his advice before I book one with you guys. Thanks and see you two at the next Lost Weekend, I hope. Skip |
#22
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Cruise or not
On Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:47:04 -0500, "George Leppla"
wrote: Hi Skip... welcome to r.t.c. Thanks George. I found this NG in 1998 when I was looking for info on cruising because we were getting one as a retirement present. I got lots of helpful info and advice with a minimum of hostile people such as CK. I'm glad to say the ratio of helpful to hostile seems to have remained the same, low on the hostile side. Skip, NCL has changed a lot since 1999... and not for the better. But the entire cruise industry has changed a lot in the past 10 years and some of the changes are pretty good (and some not so good). Sorry to hear it. We voted our cruise on the Wind as the best vacation ever. While most of the mass markets lines have some sort of "freestyle", "personal choice", "my time" type of dining, it is true that traditional early or late seatings are available on most ships. While I like the freedom of being able to go to dinner any time I want between say 5:30 and 10 PM, you do give up the familiarity of having the same waitstaff for every evening. For me, not a big deal. For others who like having the same waiter every evening, they rather have traditional dining. I'm not intractable about having the same waiter all the time but we did on our cruise; after the first night he knew exactly what we wanted and gave us the best "restaurant" service we'd ever had. Our waiter Montgomery was always pleasant without being intrusively friendly, helpful, gave great personal service and had an upbeat personality. On the one "freestyle" night while we were in port, we dined aboard and were having a minor problem with another waiter. Montgomery shooed him away and took over. I don't know whether he did that because of his positive work ethic, really liked us or just wanted to impress us for a larger tip. In any case I did appreciate his service for what ever reason there was. I do appreciate good service and would like that to be part of my next cruise. \ One thing for sure... back in the 90's, a waiter usually has between 16 and 20 people per seating. Now, they are more likely to have 24. I think the food has improved since the 90's pretty much across the board (except for NCL) Cabin service has remained good on most cruise lines. Many have doubled the number of cabins that a Steward may have, but they now have assistants. The assistants may not have the language skills necessary to inter-act with the passengers. The big positive change is in the ships themselves. Cruise lines have been touting the "ship as destination" and the advances in facilities is astounding... including ice skating rinks, flow-riders, outdoor movie screens, rock climbing walls, glass making facilities, expended gyms... you name it. it is all about the facilities, now. One other thing has changed..... prices are now cheaper than they were 10 years ago. We recently booked a group where inside cabins sold for less than $500 pp for a 7 night cruise. I don't know what you paid for your NCL cruise in 1999, but I'd bet that booking a similar cabin on a similar itinerary now would be the same price... or cheaper. BTW - I sailed on the Norwegian Wind twice and her sister ship the Norwegian Dream once. They started out as the Windward and the Dreamward and they were both cut in half, and had a new mid-section added that gave them more cabins and a little more public space. They were nicer as they were originally built... but I enjoyed them both. If the Wind was the last ship you were on... you will be amazed at the new ships. Thanks, George. When I get to the "lets start making plans" time, I'll get in touch with you It's an honor and pleasure to have you and Becca assisting us. By the way, you need to be in Las Vegas next Los Weekend. You guys were missed. Take care, Skip |
#23
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Cruise or not
On Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:12:11 -0400, Charles
wrote: In article , Skipfromla wrote: If we are going to spend that much money on a cruise, we expect great service and food. If we can be expected to be treated like cattle, I have no interest in cruising. You might want to look into some of the more boutique or luxury cruise lines. The mass market cruise lines don't have wonderful food anymore. I think the service is still pretty good but if you have 3000 people on a ship it is not going to be the same as on a smaller ship of 1000 or less where the staff will remember you and your preferences. Thanks. I'll look into it. |
#24
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Cruise or not
On Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:56:02 -0500, "ND-TX" wrote:
"Skipfromla" wrote in message .. . In 1999, we took an Alaskan cruise on the Norwegian Wind, the only cruise we've been on. The service couldn't was wonderful and I don't see how it could have been better, possibly because of assigned meal seatings with the same table, same waiter, same cabin steward and tips in cash at the end of the cruise. The food was wonderful, so good in fact, we never went to the one extra-pay restaurant. We were thinking of taking another cruise but after speaking to several friends about their resent cruises, we may not. Every one of them said the freestyle dining and tips that are added to your bill that don't reflect service levels, have caused a severe decline in service. They also mentioned that the quality of food and attitude of the crew had been less than acceptable. Some of my friends, just about all of them cruising on different cruise lines, were told essentially the same thing by crew members, that there was no point in going that extra mile in service to the passengers because they don't get more in tips if they give good service and don't get less if they give minimal service or maybe even poorer service. The crew member also said that the tips are now also going to the salaried people behind the scenes, not just those who live on their tips and went on to say that the company was charging a percentage of the tips for a processing fee that comes out of the pockets of the crew. I have no idea if all this is really true but it sounds like it could be. If we are going to spend that much money on a cruise, we expect great service and food. If we can be expected to be treated like cattle, I have no interest in cruising. Skip We just got back from an Alaskan cruise on Serenade OTS (Royal Caribbean). Our 6th cruise, 5th on RCL - and the best so far, though we never had a bad cruise. The service was better than ever, the food was good (though I'd say a notch worse than before). No, we were not treated like cattle. We loved the cruise overall so much, we immediately booked another cruise in November. Call us crazy, if you will. Of course, this is RCL, so "free-style-cruising" is optional, and automatic tipping too. So we chose assigned seating (early) and personal tipping. Service was very personal. Waiters remembered our names, eating/drinking habits, etc. We shared a lot of laughs, hugs at the end, etc. Cabin attendant did his job well. I know RCCL has free-style cruising (which most likely requires automatic tipping), meaning random waiters every night - and therefore random service. On RCL even during open seating (breakfast, lunch) the service was good. It was just better in the evening. Sorry, I'm rambling. Happy sailings everyone. NND-TX I appreciate what you hafe to say. What rambling? Thanks for your comments. |
#25
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Cruise or not
Skip
I think you wrote a lovely note asking for experiences. I think your friends experiences were a bit off, but they have a right to their opinion. I am not BIG on NCL- but we can say what we want they have changed the dining on cruising. is it for the best? really not sure, I like the traditional dining but I understand the need for people wanting to eat when they want. I also can see 2 alternstive Rstaurants too but some are getting out of hand, and Say what you all want to say on NCL But RCCL is going to get the same way with OASIS of the seas and ALLure. They will have more PAY fors then FREES I feel.I have been on 41 cruises, First one was 1984 on Chandris Brittanis and the food was tremendous, There has not been food like that on the other cruises I have been on, BUT the cruise then was more then some now! So something has to give and its usually food, also when the ships grow larger the passenger count is larger so that means cookin for more, something may not be as we remember it in 1984 Cruise food was declining in 1999 BUT a first cruise is always the most remembered. the Food is still palatable You may be getting more choice meat then Prime meat....Still I do not have to cook it or clean up its a good thing. Some lines haver better food then others too as some has said SOMETIMES there is some people who like something more on one line then another but another person will disagree. Its a matter of opinion. I do know that in 1999 there was some decline starting for the old time cruiser.. and it went really down people did not like carnival food But then arount 2004 or so the Food issue seems to be taking hold and things taste better and although it same menu items on the same line a different cook does make the difference Do not let someone elses opinion change what your opinion is, Nor feel tht you can not ask here. You will get different opinions but then from them you can make a choice. Oceana, Azamara, Regent all have great food from the folks I have sent and they report back... Service the service is good there are sometimes sailings where you find a few that are not good. We have found this on Princess but that dont mean all princess employees are bad. the ones that are bad get their names put on the exit forms, the cruise lines DO read them. With so many ships out and not alot of time to train the service folks like the "Old Days" things have changed but its not horrible! Go and see and you will be happy you did its still a fantastic way to travel. Susette Cruiseoutlets and Travel www.cruiseoutlets.com Come sail with the Viking Group 6Dec09 |
#26
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Cruise or not
On Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:14:35 -0700, Skipfromla
wrote: Thanks for your response. It's entirely possible that the people I spoke with had unreasonable expectations. I didn't question them, I just listened to their comments. I'll call some of them and ask specific questions to find out exactly what the problems were. I'm a realist and know that nothing is ever perfect. I appreciate your answer as opposed to those who seem to think I was bashing cruising and evidently pricked their egos while having the audacity to post such things in their personal newsgroup. Last year, we invited another family to join us on a Carnival cruise (the Freedom). All we heard the whole trip on how RCL was better at this, and RCL was better at that. When she told us that RCL did a better job of wiping out the sink in the stateroom bathroom, I replied that you probably paid twice as much to have RCL wipe out the sink a little better. Six months later she was calling us to join them on the Carnival Splendor the following year. All things need to be put into perspective. -- Neal Never go to a plastic surgeon whose favorite artist is Picasso. |
#27
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Cruise or not
On Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:01:34 -0400, Neal Eckhardt
wrote: On Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:14:35 -0700, Skipfromla wrote: Thanks for your response. It's entirely possible that the people I spoke with had unreasonable expectations. I didn't question them, I just listened to their comments. I'll call some of them and ask specific questions to find out exactly what the problems were. I'm a realist and know that nothing is ever perfect. I appreciate your answer as opposed to those who seem to think I was bashing cruising and evidently pricked their egos while having the audacity to post such things in their personal newsgroup. Last year, we invited another family to join us on a Carnival cruise (the Freedom). All we heard the whole trip on how RCL was better at this, and RCL was better at that. When she told us that RCL did a better job of wiping out the sink in the stateroom bathroom, I replied that you probably paid twice as much to have RCL wipe out the sink a little better. Six months later she was calling us to join them on the Carnival Splendor the following year. All things need to be put into perspective. How true. |
#28
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Cruise or not
You cannot go wrong with PRINCESS,HAL,or CELEBRITY,we sailed NCL 3 times
The wind we did hawaii,and it was a nice cruise,but the other 2 ships were awful,the worse was the NCL MAJESTY,they has no place at all to relax on the pool deck,(no lounges) only a small round table and 4 chairs. and very fwe lounges on the upper deck either.People were just putting towels on the deck and laying on them. Not at all comfortable. Very,very small buffet,hardly any choices of anything. Even in the dining room ,it was mostly just hamburgers andhot dogs. cruise lover(~~~~~) .. |
#29
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Cruise or not
On Aug 14, 4:02*pm, (Surfer E2468) wrote:
You cannot go wrong with PRINCESS,HAL I wasn't impressed with HAL at all. Just another mass market line, mediocre food and poor service in the dining room. Princess isn't what it used to be either. The wind we did hawaii,and it was a nice cruise,but the other 2 ships were awful,the worse was the NCL MAJESTY The Wind has been gone a few years already and Majesty leaves the fleet in the fall. The remaining ships in the fleet all entered service within the last 10 years, most of them 90,0000+ tons and very modern. Your experiences with NCL are obsolete. Warren |
#30
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Cruise or not
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