Cruise Ship Blues: The Underside of the Cruise Ship Industry Read Online Free PDF

a stainless steel butler's pantry, which is used for in-suite food and beverage service. It is particularly useful when the occupants wish to host dinner parties or cocktail parties in their room.
    free, many class distinctions nevertheless remain.
    You Get What You Pay For
    I first became aware of onboard class differences when, on a Royal Caribbean Cruise Line ship, I noticed that passengers in rooms on the deck above mine were given different colored (and plusher) towels than those given to me. The point was driven home several years later on Royal Cruise Line when I was unexpectedly upgraded to the Owner’s Suite. I learned that it isn’t just towels that vary based on one’s room. Bathroom amenities — shampoo, body lotion, soaps, slippers, and so on
    — vary in both number and quality between different classes of cabin. As well, preference in accessing activities (including alternative restaurants) and in assignment of dining room tables is often given to those in more expensive rooms. These passengers are given first choice of tables in the alternative restaurant and the most favorable tables in the main dining room.
    Holland America Line, for example, not only has a private dining room and private lounge for its passengers residing in suites, it also gives suite passengers priority seating in its alternative restaurant, and its two-level dining room is stratified based on class of
    cabins: those in more expensive cabins sit on the upper level, those in cheaper cabins are seated on the lower level. Passengers with more expensive rooms are also more likely to be invited to VIP parties and receptions or to the captain’s (or other officer’s) table for dinner, and they will be provided with more personalized service. None of this is surprising, but it is inconsistent with the egalitarian image that cruise lines project.
    You Don’t Get What You Pay For
    Like hotels and restaurants and other aspects of the hospitality industry in general, cruise lines themselves are stratified into classes. Curiously, these class differences are not always consistent with differences in pricing. In fact, very often you’ll pay the same price for equivalent accommodations on a mass-market cruise line as you would on a premium cruise line. But the product advertised is quite different, and the product received may also vary. One key difference between ships in these categories is the cruise line’s budgets for food and for activities, and the ratio of staff to passengers. Premium cruise lines tend to have more workers per passenger than cruise lines in the lower categories. The largest ships afloat are in the mass-market category.
    "Present management favors financial rather than market driven decisions. This spurs short term decisions that will, over time, weaken cruising's appeal to consumers. Consumers are no longer told how great it is to sail, but how great the sale is." 5
    — Michael Grossman, Cruise Industry News Quarterly
     
    The greatest difference is between cruise lines in the ultraluxury category and the others. Ultraluxury ships are smaller and have more staff per passenger — sometimes the ratio approaches one to one. As well, you’ll enjoy meals that are prepared to order rather than mass-produced.
    Although the ultraluxury product may be of higher quality, there are still major gaps between image and reality. Seabourn Cruise Line, for example, recently introduced the concept of “Seabourn Refined” — the latter word touted as being both a noun and a verb. Advertisements promise fine Egyptian cotton towels and being treated to random indulgences, perhaps a spritz of water or an ice-chilled facecloth bestowed while you are lying in the sun, or a mini-massage provided while you lounge on deck. In my experience, however, Royal Velvet in New York City made the towels and the “random indulgences” were so random as to be practically nonexistent.
    Seabourn is not alone in making unfulfilled promises. Like other