What a cynical article... I second Sandy, Svein. Thank you for providing more information. I have a friend that just HATES cruising. She has only been on the Holiday and you know how the return voyage "rocks and rolls" all the way back to Mobile. Now, she does nothing but bad mouth cruising. Cruise lines have exceedingly high standards of cleanliness. I will never forget the time that a rule-avoiding mother but her little diapered kid in the pool. They cleaned that pool like that scene in "Caddyshack."
Lots of places. I suggest insuremytrip.com to look at several policies and compare them. You can buy there too. Travel agents also offer policies. The bottom line is that most often the policies offered by cruise lines are more expensive and offer less coverage than doing it on your own.
Nothing is compare to cruise. I was yestarday in "fancy" restorant in Orlando and food was bad and expenisve. Than naver happened in my cruise history. It is so funny how people why never go to cruise have always something negative to say about cruise.
I've never had what I consider bad food on a cruise yet. The flat iron steak on Carnival last year was a bit disappointing, but it was still good. I've heard it is better now. Some people are just too picky in my humble opinion about things. I've yet to get the quality (not to mention quantity) of food, entertainment, and service on a land based vacation for any where near the same price of a cruise.
Most of us have been cruising for years. Yes, the food has gone down from years ago, however, the cruise prices have not risen. There are cruise lines that do offer "higher" end cuisine, but they have higher end prices, too. Most of the mainstream cruise lines have excellent food. They have limited the selections, which I think is a good thing. There used to be a dozen different entrees, appetizers, salads, soups, deserts, and I'm sure there was a lot of waste because of that. They've eliminated the midnight buffets, which I know there was a ton of waste from those. I actually think that these are positive moves to keep the costs down.
They have jacked up the prices of drinks, but that's to be expected. The cost of everything has increased.
Svein's comments were spot on. You get what you pay for. If you expect service you would receive on a private yacht for $250/pp, you're out of your mind. I was watching Mega Yachts on the travel channel, and it was something like $35,000/day to rent one.
I agree with Dave and Dr. L, the article was extremely jaded. A cruise is the best value.
I think the word "bad" is often misused when describing cruise ship food. Bad to me means the lettuce was brown and wilted, the fish had that spoiled smell, or the rolls were stale. I think when many say "bad" they really mean they didn't like the way something was prepared or they didn't like the items offered. You know - you go to a barbecue expecting steak and all they served was hot dogs. So you tell people "the food at the barbecue was bad" even if the hot dogs were cooked perfectly.
When I say "bad" about cruise line food I am referring to the quality of the food. I have said "bad" before to kitchen employees in reference to ingredients though. "Dump those onions off of the make table, they are bad".
One thing (of many) that impressed me as a former restaurant manager with Carnival last year was they had grilled Mahi-Mahi listed in small print as available on request on the casual lido dinner buffet menu. I requested it; a crew member with a chef type uniform came out from the back and put it on the grill. He repeatedly checked it with a thermometer before plating it as done.
I think that was best Mahi-Mahi I've ever had. Of course the outdoor seating with a gorgeous view of Atantis all lit up at night, and chocolate melting cake for dessert didn't hurt.
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