Cutbacks – Does It Equal A Cutback In Service?

Cutbacks – Does It Equal A Cutback In Service?

Was your cruise special?

Come on cruise lines, what’s going on?

Just recently I have been speaking with some of my customers who have just returned from cruises to different destinations and with different cruise lines and there seems to be a general theme to these conversations – cut backs by the cruise lines mean cutbacks in service received.

Now, as I have mentioned before, it does not matter whether you are spending £500 or £5000 or in an inside cabin or a penthouse suite, there are some pretty basic standards we have come to expect and cleanliness is probably the first one!

How would you feel upon entering your cabin to find mold in the bathroom and a dirty, stained bed settee – not too happy, I would imagine.

Okay so after a quick call to housekeeping the cabin steward cleaned the bathroom properly and a cover was found for the settee, but even though they were promised that the carpet would be vacuumed within 24 hours – it was never done througout the whole of the cruise.

Is it a case of the cruise lines reducing the numbers of staff so that they have more cabins to clean but with less time? Who knows – but it isn’t good enough.

Then there are the public areas – glasses on tables, bathrooms that aren’t cleaned as regularly as they used to be, toilets that are out of order for a long time – where are the maintenance team?

What about the entertainment? Do you find that there is a general lack of ” named ” entertainers these days? Not so long ago on certain cruise lines there was usually a ” name ” that you would recongnise, but that’s not always the case now.  One of my customers said that they could probably join in as part of the on board entertainment as they have seen the shows over and over!

So what’s your opinion? Have you experienced cutbacks? Would you pay more for your cruise to get back to the ” good old days of cruising?” – let me know as I am very interested to get your thoughts.