Cruise Ship Blues: The Underside of the Cruise Ship Industry (5 page)

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 cruise lines in the ultraluxury category, Seabourn provides passengers complimentary wines at meals — although, also like other cruise lines, some of these wines are unpalatable to even the most basic of tastes. Silversea Cruises, reputed to be the ultimate in cruising, at one point limited the complimentary wines to those with a wholesale cost of no more than $2 a bottle. Based on its December 2001 offerings, Seabourn has a similar budget. Curiously, the company doesn’t offer wines comparable to what their upscale clientele might drink at home.
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On a cruise aboard the
Seabourn Goddess I
, a passenger remarked that the brand of Rioja wine served one night was the same one his mother bought in milk cartons to use as a cooking wine.

uncompromising service is another promise made in advertising by ultraluxury cruise lines. The reality can fall very short. In Chapter 6 I describe an experience on the
Radisson Diamond
that is best summarized as Radisson’s “no, I can’t” attitude rather than its promised “yes, I can” attitude. Music was played at a bar, apparently for the entertainment of staff rather than passengers — these particular passengers were unlikely to regularly listen to rap. Attempts to change the situation led to increasingly passive-aggressive behavior by a bar waiter toward the passengers who complained. Similarly, on the
Seabourn Goddess
I, I advised the hotel manager of several lapses in service. He spoke to the staff, but also told them who had made the comments. Several waiters provided my partner and me with poor service thereafter, and one refused to provide any service at all.

The promise of quality service by ultraluxury companies can be compromised by the ship’s small size. Many of these ships accommodate as few as 200 to 400 passengers. The small size of the ship results in the impression that passengers are essentially coming into the staff’s home. And just as it is considered poor manners to complain when invited to a friend’s house for dinner, the service providers in these small settings are offended if passengers are not appreciative of everything they do. They resent passengers who complain and will collectively sanction anyone who is not unconditionally appreciative. Trust me, the ship is small enough for this to happen. Corporate management appears to support this behavior, despite its stark contrast to the advertised promises.

HERE’S A QUARTER SO YOU CAN CALL SOMEONE WHO CARES

If you believe the advertising by cruise lines, you’re bound to be disappointed. Some cruise industry insiders confess that they expect from 5 to 10 percent of passengers to leave a cruise dissatisfied — but few of those people express their disappointment. Many passengers simply assume their expectations were too high

— forgetting that it was the cruise line’s own advertising that shaped those expectations.

My partner and I meet many “cruise apologists” — people who at sea are willing to accept reduced service and reduced quality, yet on land are inflexible and demanding. The cruise ship is a unique entity that effectively stifles dissatisfaction, and that skillfully turns problems around so passengers are made to feel that the problem is them rather than the situation or service.

Another way that the cruise industry deals with customer complaints is through its cruise contract or “Terms of Passage,” a standard form which is provided to passengers after they’ve paid for their cruise. The contract states that acceptance of the ticket — which at that point, is nonrefundable — constitutes acceptance of the terms of the contract.

The contract absolves the cruise line of responsibility for the actions of concessionaires — another little-known fact is that most ships have many concessionaires who provide specific onboard services, such as photography or medical care — and, except within very tight guidelines, for its own actions.

This fact was driven home quite painfully several years ago on a cruise in the southern Caribbean. One night at dinner I chewed down on a shard of ceramic pottery that was mixed in the choco-late-cappuccino mousse. I immediately brought the matter to the attention of management, and the next morning, because of a toothache, I visited the ship’s physician to file a report.

CRUISE CONTRACT

Excerpts of Contract Terms and Conditions of Transportation

•    The ship's schedule and itinerary may change or be changed without any liability to the Carrier.

[A port call may be shortened or canceled. Don't expect compensation.]

•    The Carrier is not liable for any personal injury or death unless caused by the Carrier's negligence without any contributory negligence by the Passenger.

[If you slip and fall, that may be considered contributory negligence.]

•    The Carrier is not liable for any personal injury or death caused by any physician, dentist, nurse, or medical technician, or by any concessionaire unless the Carrier negligently retained such person. All such persons, entities, are independent contractors.

[It is helpful to know which onboard services
—
including food service
—

are provided by a concessionaire.]

•    The Carrier is not liable for loss or damage to Passenger's personal effects, baggage, and property unless caused solely by the Carrier's negligence and in no event will the Carrier's liability exceed the sum of $500 for loss or damage to all such items. The Carrier is not liable for

After I returned home, I learned that the tooth was cracked and required a triple root canal. I contacted the cruise company and asked how to proceed with a claim for my dental bills. My first and second contacts were ignored. The response to my third contact, made directly to the company’s president, was that the matter was between their concessionaire and me; they had no responsibility or liability. They didn’t tell me the name of the concessionaire nor who to contact. Four months later, following abusive treatment by the concessionaire (who I had tracked down on my own), I had to threaten legal action — a threat apparently viewed as credible, given that I have a relative who practices law in the city where the company is located — before finally being reimbursed any such loss or damage unless written notice thereof is given to the ship's purser before the Passenger disembarks, and written notice thereof is also given ...
[to the cruise line's head
office] within three days after the Passenger disembarks.

[A passenger whose laundry was accidentally incinerated by a cruise line had his claim limited to $150 even though the value of the destroyed clothing was more than $1,650.]

•    The Carrier is not liable for any other claim unless written notice is given to ... [the cruise line's head office] within fifteen days after the claim arose, and the Carrier is not liable for any other suit unless instituted against the Carrier with three months after the claim arose.

[The contract specifies the court in which a lawsuit must be filed.]

•    Shore excursions are not operated by the Carrier. The Carrier is not responsible for the performance of shore excursions or for any losses, injuries, or damages occurring ashore whether during an organized excursion or otherwise.

[The cruise line is not responsible for the port of call sightseeing tours it sells en route.]

Source: Celebrity Cruises (1995). Note: The clauses of the above contract are typical of those provided by other cruise lines.

for my dental bills. In return for the meager compensation, I had to trade away my ability to name the companies involved.

The attitude of cruise lines toward customer relations is discussed further in Chapter 6. As you will see, the level of responsiveness to my cracked tooth was actually better than the norm.

NEXT TIME YOU SEE A CRUISE AD ...

Think about what you have just read the next time you see an advertisement for a cruise. Be aware of the expectations being created by the ad and wonder whether those expectations can be realized. Is the product being accurately represented? Do you really think you will have the experience being promised?

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All sums of money are in US dollars.

THE MYTH OF THE ALL-INCLUSIVE VACATION

Scene: Onboard Norwegian Cruise Line’s
Dreamward,
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the last morning of the cruise.

As everyone is leaving the ship, a young man with a bad sunburn squirms uncomfortably at the reception desk, feverishly trying to find some way to pay the $500 tab he had run up during the one-week cruise. He didn’t have any credit cards, he’d already tried to get money wired from home, and he was faced with not being allowed off the ship until the bill was paid in full. The unhappy young man had no idea how he had spent that much money.
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O
ne of the most misleading ideas presented in cruise-line advertising is that a cruise is all-inclusive. Some ads and many brochures explicitly state that all-inclusiveness is a key advantage of a cruise over other vacations. However, there are subtle contradictions to this claim. Consider the Royal Caribbean International ad using the line, “It’s More Than a Cruise.” Images show the things you could do on a cruise, but what’s left unsaid is that for every one of those activities there is an additional charge.

Most passengers assume there will be no major expenses beyond their cruise fare. Although it is possible to not spend a penny more, it’s not easy. The list of activities and items with extra charges is quite long and getting longer all the time. Like the young man in the opening scene, many people end a cruise with a bill that is much higher than they dreamed possible. I know a couple who won a free seven-day cruise in 1999. At the end of the week, their bill for onboard expenses was $1,800. They hadn’t dreamed they had spent that much.

Consumers are drawn to advertising that promotes a cruise as a relatively inexpensive vacation. And granted, adjusting for inflation, the cost of a cruise is considerably less today than it was 5, 10, or even 20 years ago. Yet over those years, the income generated by cruise lines has consistently increased. In January 2002 Micky Arison, chief executive officer of Carnival Corporation, suggested that at the current stage of the industry’s growth cycle, which is in the midst of a four-year expansion, increased income is unlikely to be achieved from price increases.
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Instead, it will be derived from “operational efficiency” — that is, cutting costs — and increased onboard revenue. Onboard revenue includes all money passengers spend onboard the ship, including in the bars, shops, casinos, and much more.

Onboard revenue has the largest impact on the cruise line’s

economic bottom line. The company can practically give away a cruise and still make a profit. Exact figures for onboard revenue are difficult to come by, but Festival Cruises concedes that one-third of its revenues come from “additional spending” — which means that whatever you pay for your cruise, you’re expected to spend one-third again onboard the ship. Once in port, further income is generated from shore excursions.
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