Got the Late-Night Munchies? Don't Order Room Service on Royal Caribbean!

Well, here we go again with another cruise line surcharge! Royal Caribbean recently repealed their fuel surcharge on cruises for 2009, so could they now be trying to recoup some of that lost revenue by sticking it to passengers who get the late-night munchies? Royal Caribbean International recently announced that it will be implementing a service charge for room service orders placed between midnight and 5:00 am. The service charge of $3.95 per delivery is supposedly "intended to minimize onboard food waste" and "is based on an exhaustive review of demand for room service by hour of day and the corresponding amount of food wasted,” the company said in a statement. To compensate for this, Royal Caribbean will extend the hours of one of its other onboard eateries (Solarium Cafe or Sorrento's Pizza) on some ships, while the Freedom and Voyager class ships will keep the Cafe Promenade open 24 hours.

I have several problems with this new surcharge. First of all, complimentary room service has always been a big selling point for cruise passengers, especially those who like to order room service for breakfast. To all of a sudden start charging for this service (even if it is only late at night) is to me an insult. Not only that, I think it could cause a great inconvenience to some passengers. What if there were an elderly passenger on board who needed to take medication late at night and had to take it with food? Is it right to charge that passenger $3.95 when he needs that food that originally would be free? Is it right to make him get dressed and walk down (or up) to whatever eatery is open just so he can take his medication and avoid having to spend $3.95?

And if Royal Caribbean is really so concerned about food waste, then why don't they make sure that everyone who eats at the buffet actually eats all of the food they put on their plates? Are they going to start charging those passengers who don't clean their plates at the buffet because they're wasting food? What about the main dining rooms? What if you don't finish your dinner -- will you not be entitled to eat dessert because you wasted food?

I honestly do not believe this is about food waste, no matter how Royal Caribbean wants to spin this. I simply believe that this is another way for them to make money and to try to make up for some of the revenue they lost when they repealed fuel surcharges. And let's be honest here -- if Royal Caribbean gets away with this, the other cruise lines will quickly follow suit, and pretty soon nobody will offer complimentary room service because they won't have to. The practice will just become "accepted" because the market will bear it. Look at those fuel surcharges; people raised the roof with complaints when they first started being imposed, but nobody really actually stopped cruising because of it.

I genuinely love the cruise industry and Royal Caribbean has really been quite innovative in its cruise ship design and offerings so I appreciate what they have done for this industry, but I can't sit quietly back and say nothing about this. I truly feel this is a big step in the wrong direction. Everybody is hurting right now from the downturn in our economy, but that doesn't mean Royal Caribbean needs to kick people when they're down by charging money now for something that used to be free. We need to draw people in to the benefits of cruising, and this might just give those people who are unsure of the value of cruising another reason to turn away.

Bad move, Royal Caribbean. Shame on you!

NCL's Freestyle: Free to Be You and Me!

I just recently returned from a Seminar at Sea aboard the Norwegian Star, a beautiful ship in NCL's "youngest fleet in the industry". This was my first opportunity to experience NCL's signature "Freestyle Cruising" for myself, after hearing much about it through other agents and clients. I have been a fan of the dine-at-your-own-leisure-type experience offered by several cruise lines for many years, even though each line's system seems to work a bit differently. I enjoy being able to eat dinner early one night if I happen to be hungry earlier than my set dining time; or being able to relax for a while after a long day ashore and have a late dinner instead of having to rush to the dining room to be there on time for my seating. I also enjoy being able to choose with whom I'd like to dine, instead of having to sit with the same table-mates for the duration of my cruise. I'm all about choice, you see?

What I really liked about NCL's Freestyle program is that it truly IS freestyle. You get to choose when you want to eat, where you want to eat, and with whom you want to eat. Now, I knew this already as a cruise specialist, but to be able to experience it for myself really made me understand what NCL was aiming for when they developed this program. I really enjoyed the FREEDOM granted to me and I found the process to be very well-run. You simply pick which restaurant you'd like to dine in, whether it be one of the main dining rooms on the ship, or one of the many specialty restaurants on the ship (each of which charges a small cover charge); and you can either make a reservation, which is recommended, or you can simply walk in when you're ready to eat.

Reservations are only allowed 24 hours or less in advance, so that prevents people from picking the "best" or most popular restaurants for every night of the cruise, blocking others from getting a chance to dine there as well; and passengers are encouraged to actually keep their reservations, because failure to cancel with enough notice means a cancellation charge (the amount of the cover charge) being added to their shipboard accounts. Some people may balk at being charged for failing to cancel on time, but I think it's a smart idea. After all, if you reserve a table and don't show up, you could be preventing someone else on board from being able to dine there at that time.

For those of you who don't like to make reservations and prefer to just walk in to a restaurant and get a table, this can be done; just keep in mind that if you pick the most popular dining spot onboard at 6:00 pm, you may have to wait to get a table. I mostly live by the "fly by the seat of my pants" method, and usually wait to decide what to have for dinner until about 10 minutes before I want to actually EAT dinner, and the whole process went very smoothly for me. Our sailing was full and my traveling companion and I never had an issue getting in to eat where we wanted on a given night. We did make reservations a couple of times, but only about two hours or so before we wished to dine that evening; and several times we just walked in to a restaurant and were seated right away. It worked great.

If you didn't feel like actually sitting in a "restaurant" to eat, there was always the poolside grill, the buffet, the ice cream bar, and room service to keep you full. And, of course, the Blue Lagoon (sort of a diner) was a great place to sit and have a bite if you were just looking for something to do.

I really felt free on this ship, and my traveling companion, who enjoyed it so much, even booked her next cruise while onboard the ship! NCL's Freestyle cruising is a giant step away from the typical cruising experience, and it may not be for everyone. After all, some people really enjoy the set dining times, formal nights, and shuffleboard of traditional cruising; and that's wonderful that they do, as there is an air of elegance to it. But if you're a part of Generation X or you just enjoy doing things a little differently and at your own speed, then NCL might be for you. You really can be free to do what you want where you want and when you want -- at least for a week or so aboard a cruise ship!

Oh, and by the way, the food was pretty darn good and the entertainment was fantastic, too!