Thread: Quality of Cruises - Up or Down

I've been talking to alot of my regular clients who have cruised alot over the last 5 to 10 years and lately they have been expressing that overall they feel the quality of cruising seems to have gone downhill. It appears that although there are many new ships and they've gotten bigger with more amenities, that the quality of food and service has suffered. Perhaps the market is growing too fast and they are unable to keep up with demand.

What do you think?

Obviously, as with most polls, this is always subjective. So let's get the opinion of those who have been cruising regularly over at least the last 5 years or so with at least 10 cruises and see what they have to say.

This should also be limited to the major mass market cruise lines (Carnival, RCCL, NCL, Princess, Holland America, Celebrity), since I feel the luxury lines have all maintained their levels of quality.

Figured this would be very interesting.

Pete

YIkes I am the first person to post. I always have thought that cruising is the best bang for your buck. I have not really seen any decline in service and quality over the years.

Oh, I agree it's the best bang for your bucks - definitely can't beat a cruise. But then I'm slightly prejudice on the matter.

I'm just referring to the overall basic quality of food and service onboard ships. I've been on 26 cruises (27 in July to Alaska) and I have to admit that on several ships lately I, too, have noticed a slight downward trend on RCCL and a big downward trend on NCL, especially their Hawaiian cruises. Princess seems to have been unchanged and Holland is my favorite, so I feel they have remained high quality. Carnival has come slightly upward lately, especially on their newer ships and they have made a strong effort to improve in food quality. Plus, they've completely renovated their older smaller ships.

Obviously, just my opinion.

Pete

Only ever been on 3 cruise lines, RCL, NCL and Celebrity. So can;t compare any of the other lines. I think its a good poll. Going to check back frequently to see what everyone;s thoughts are on this subject.

OK I meet your requirements, over 5 years and 10 cruises.

I have to say that while the experience is still wonderful, BUT service and quality has definitely gone down a bit. I still recall the freshlys queezed orange juice they use to serve at breakfast, the waiters even peeled your bananas for you if you so desired. They seldom ran out of things and the service was just better. Now I feel that because theu are all fairly certain of their gratuities (since most charge it to their accounts) that they do not go above and beyond their line of duty. Yes the stateroom attendant is nice, but not as nice as they used to be. Yes the waiters are ok, but service is all too often slow and lacking in the dining room and the quality of the food, particularly the meat is not what it was. And heavens, once they have their tip envelope in their hands, well forget and continued great service! Some mornings on that last breakfast, we are lucky they even have toast, never mind cream or previously frozen juice.

That has not kept me from cruising, but I can not help but compare the service now and the service then. I still love cruising, but I know that the days of truly outstanding service are a thing of the past.

Annieeee

I'll put in my 2 cents worth. I think that service and overall quality of the cruise experience has gone down on all the major cruiselines. The ships are too big to adequately service the pax in the way that we had become accustomed.

In my opinion, ships that carry more than about 1,300 pax cannot sustain the level of service that the cruise lines are now advertising or had been able to achieve in the past.

The first cruise that we really noticed a difference was on HAL's Veendam in 1999. Our other HAL cruises were on the smaller ships where the service was top notch and there was a comeraderie that was hard to beat. On the newer, larger ships the staff tends to be less personal. They don't have as much time to spend in one on one contact with the pax. You don't run into the same fellow cruisers as often as on a smaller ship, either.

That being said, we still cruise the larger ships! Can't afford the upscale cruise lines that do have the smaller passenger count. But on RCI we do have the Concierge Lounge where regulars go and can establish onboard friendships unlike other venues on the ships.

Celebrity seems to have really slipped! We first cruised with them when they were Chandris and we fell in love with cruising then. Ships were smaller and food was out of this world. Service couldn't be beat. Cabins on those older ships were nice sized and most even had bath tubs in all but the inside cabins.

Oh for the "good old days"! When there were no stabilizers and the ships really did rock and roll! When there were no balcony cabins! When you couldn't go anywhere on the ship to escape the cigarette smoke!

Originally Posted by Annieeee

OK I meet your requirements, over 5 years and 10 cruises.

I have to say that while the experience is still wonderful, BUT service and quality has definitely gone down a bit. I still recall the freshlys queezed orange juice they use to serve at breakfast, the waiters even peeled your bananas for you if you so desired. They seldom ran out of things and the service was just better. Now I feel that because theu are all fairly certain of their gratuities (since most charge it to their accounts) that they do not go above and beyond their line of duty. Yes the stateroom attendant is nice, but not as nice as they used to be. Yes the waiters are ok, but service is all too often slow and lacking in the dining room and the quality of the food, particularly the meat is not what it was. And heavens, once they have their tip envelope in their hands, well forget and continued great service! Some mornings on that last breakfast, we are lucky they even have toast, never mind cream or previously frozen juice.

That has not kept me from cruising, but I can not help but compare the service now and the service then. I still love cruising, but I know that the days of truly outstanding service are a thing of the past.

Annieeee

I forgot about some of those things you mentioned - it really did make it much nicer.

And you have a good point - now that gratuities are automatic on some ships, I agree this has taken away alot of the incentive to provide good service. I, for one, do not like the automatic gratuities that NCL and Princess have on their cruises.

Pete

Great poll, but tough to answer, maybe we are too easy. I don't feel the service or food has declined, our cruises are perfect really, if we find somerthing not right, either we ignore or move away from it!! As far as food, if I don't have to cook or clean, it is awesome, We do tip on the first day, to both stewards and waiters, also have the tips on auto, but if Dickie takes a nap, sometimes the cabin does not get clean, but we just ask for clean towels, no biggie for us, but the stewards freak out cause they can't get in there, and they have a time limit, but we assure them it is not a problem!! And for the waiters I ask them to keep Dickies coffee cup full and we will ALL have a great week!! Our cruises are very special to us so we don't compare anything, we go to relax and enjoy, and we do!!

Yes, the quality and service on cruise ships has gone down.

I cruise on Hal and I feel they have been slowly slipping down hill.

Dining room stewards have more people to wait on. The cabin stewards have more cabins to clean.

There was a time when you left your cabin for breakfast and when you came back everything was cleaned up. Not always so anymore. Same thing at dinner time. On my last cruise one couple traveling with us found their cabin was being cleaned at 10:00 and later at night. We all had 8:00 dining and met in a lounge for cocktails at 7:00.

They run out of things and don't care. At one time, whatever they may have run out of was purchased at the next port. This is not so anymore.

The way it used to be:
My husband and I were ordering a bottle of champagne every night. One night the wine steward told us that they were low on the brand we were ordering and he didn't think there would be any for the next night. He told us they would try and pick some up in port but if not, he would provide us with another brand (more exspensive) and only charge us the price we were currently paying. The next night they had our brand. The steward said they picked it up in port. Now that was great service.

I have seen a lot of things change, but never complained about the food until my last cruise. Now the food has joined the list . The quality and choices were terrible.

I have a cruised booked on Hal for later this year and we shall see how things go.

I am really sorry to see such great vacations go down the tubes. I think many cruise lines are catering to people that just don't care, thus they get away with it.

Originally Posted by Sea Otter

I am really sorry to see such great vacations go down the tubes. I think many cruise lines are catering to people that just don't care, thus they get away with it.

I also think the cruiselines are catering to people who don't know how it used to be. If they never had it, then they don't miss it!

The new cruisers who are only experiencing the mega ships that are floating resorts with ice skating and rock walls for climbing are being introduced to a diffrent kind of cruising. These are different times, for sure!