[3] Cruise Passengers Share Their Gripes With CruiseMates.com.

Leisure, Business/Technology Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 16, 2000

Consumer surveys conducted by the cruise industry have repeatedly found that overall customer satisfaction with cruising vacations ranks among the highest of any travel experience. But CruiseMates.com, the independent Internet cruise magazine, has uncovered the things that really bother experienced cruise passengers the most.

CruiseMates Editor in Chief Anne Campbell asked readers to share their gripes about cruising, and she got plenty of replies-but not what you might expect, just lots of little, nagging aspects of the cruise experience that left many vacationers doing a slow burn.

    The most common gripes of cruisers include:

    Port lectures by cruise staff that tell passengers very little
    about the destination they are about to visit, but instead
    concentrate on promoting the line's shore tours (which cost extra)
    and on-shore shopping recommendations. Moreover, "They need to
    state if they are getting any compensation for sending their
    cruisers to certain stores," says one traveler. Others noted that
    in a few ports, some lines don't allow passengers off the ship at
    all unless they buy a shore excursion.

    The policies of some cruise lines that prohibit passengers from
    bringing liquor or spirits on board and drinking it in their
    cabins-forcing them instead to buy all their drinks from the ship.
    "I should be allowed, as an adult, to bring whatever I please to
    my room-within reason, of course," one passenger wrote.

    The growing trend among cruise lines to charge extra for many
    on-board services and amenities - including dining in some
    specialty restaurants - while still promoting cruise prices as
    being "all-inclusive." Especially grating to many passengers is
    the practice of charging extra for soft drinks with dinner.

    The persistence of the photographers in taking pictures and the
    increasing price for ship photos, in some cases as high as $10.

    The annoying ploy that some passengers use to "reserve" prime deck
    chairs for themselves -- coming out in the morning and placing a
    towel, or other personal items on the chair to indicate to others
    that it is already "taken," although they may not return for
    several hours.

    Smoking. Several respondents urged cruise lines to designate more
    ships as totally smoke-free, or at the very least to restrict
    smoking to a few indoor areas-or none at all.

    The practice by shore tour operators of herding passengers into
    "tourist trap" souvenir stands before returning them to the ship.

"The major cruise lines are generally very good about using passengers' comment cards to fix problems with on-board service," Campbell said. "But our readers' replies indicate there are some areas where the lines haven't yet caught up with customer demand."

"Our readers have gripes, but not about the things the things the media has been writing about," says CruiseMates publisher Paul Motter. "This is what is really on their minds, and it's obvious that the overall satisfaction level remains extremely high."

Cruisemates.com (www.cruisemates.com) is an online magazine and community where experienced cruisers can share their thoughts, and where novices and prospective passengers can read reviews of all the major ships. The site also features articles by prominent cruise journalists about all aspects of seagoing vacations.