[5] 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 Anne Campbell (born April 6, 1940) is an English politician. She was the Labour member of Parliament (MP) for Cambridge from 1992 to 2005. Campbell was often seen riding her bike around the Cambridge constituency and was the first MP to run a website. asked readers to share their gripes gripe v. griped, grip·ing, gripes v.intr. 1. Informal To complain naggingly or petulantly; grumble. 2. To have sharp pains in the bowels. v.tr. 1. 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 This is a so far incomplete list of cruisers 1860-present. It includes protected, light, armoured, battle-, heavy and missile cruisers. Dates are launching dates. Argentina
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 excursion /ex·cur·sion/ (eks-kur´zhun) a range of movement regularly repeated in performance of a function, e.g., excursion of the jaws in mastication. . The policies of some cruise lines
Name Headquarters A'rosa Europe NCL America America AIDA Cruises Europe American Cruise Lines America 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 On board usually means to be traveling on some vehicle. For example, Baby On Board. Compare with overboard. Metaphorically, the term on-board is often used to refer to some piece of technology that is integrated in a moving vehicle, for example: 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 ploy n. An action calculated to frustrate an opponent or gain an advantage indirectly or deviously; a maneuver: "A typical ploy is to feign illness, procure medicine, then sell it on the black market" 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 tourist trap n. A place, such as a shop or resort area, that offers overpriced goods and services to tourists. " 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 sea·go·ing adj. Made or used for ocean voyages. seagoing Adjective built for travelling on the sea Adj. 1. vacations. |
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