When cruise lines take something away, they often try to frame it as a positive.
People, however, aren't stupid, and they understand that having their room serviced once a day instead of twice a day isn't a convenience; it's a cutback. The reality, however, is that most cruise lines have pricing power right now.
Related: Carnival Cruise Line passengers share anger over drink package price hike
As long as the rooms are sold — and both Carnival (CCL) and Royal Caribbean (RCL) have basically been selling out — the cruise lines have the leverage. That does not mean that they will push every price as high as the current market will support; that can lead to long-term ill will with customers. Both companies, however, won't hesitate to pass on added costs or raise margins where they can.
Royal Caribbean makes it harder for passengers to track that because the cruise line uses dynamic prices for many of the services it sells onboard and on its private island. The price of Hideaway Beach, the adults-only area at Perfect Day at CocoCay, now often sells for more than $50 per visit.
That's almost double where it was a few months ago, but prices vary by sailing, so it's easier to hide that. The same goes for drink packages, dining packages, and other add-ons. There's no one set price, so all increases are both relative and not as easy to spot.
Carnival Cruise Line recently raised its Cheers Beverage Package and its WiFi package price without warning. That angered many passengers, and Lisa Dawson decided to send a message to Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald listing all the negative changes Carnival has made over the past few years in her opinion.
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Angry Carnival passenger shares why she's mad
Dawson appears to be speaking for a lot of Carnival customers if you read through the comments on Heald's page. She was polite, but appears angry at the cruise line.
"Good morning John. Putting in my two cents in about the silent drink package price increase controversy. Not that Carnival will care. And please know that I am not directing any of this at you, I know you are always just doing what the company wants you to do," she wrote.
Instead, she made it clear that her anger was with The Beards, Heald's term for the company's leadership.
"But, if any of The Beards are actually reading this, I would like to express our sadness at all of the changes over the last few years," she added.
Dawson then listed those changes:
- Removed twice-a-day room service
- Removed hairy chest contest
- Removed table cloths
- Removed free room service. (Was promised "higher quality" items for a small price. Yet it's the same old ham & cheese I used to get for free).
- Removed Casino "free play" money for Platinum guests
- Removed ability to get "made to order" omelettes
- Changed piano bar hours on most ships from 10 p.m.-2 a.m..
- Changed pizza hours. Again. Now, it closes at midnight. But we are told we can still get pizza late at night at the buffet. NOT the same.
- Raised Cheers & Wi-Fi price (again!) with NO notice. (They always used to give notice in the past)..
- Increased the price of water ridiculously over the last few years.
Dawson also expressed her anger over a comment CEO Josh Weinstein made during Carnival's third-quarter earnings call.
"We have almost no capacity growth. So, all of that increased demand is just going to result in who wants to pay the most to get on our ships, and that's what we're driving for," Weinstein said.
Dawson took a major issue with Carnival's CEO, pointing out that the company's goal was to maximize profits.
"Gee, thanks, Carnival. Feeling really valued right now as a longtime loyal customer," she wrote.
Carnival's Heald pushes back on complaints
Heald politely answered every point Dawson made, and, to be fair, he did not see it the same way she did.
"Thank you so much, well we do care. I definitely care. Some of those things have nothing to do with cutbacks. They’re just changes. For example, the hairy chest, that was replaced, having been around for many, many years, with a new event called the legend of the lido," he wrote.
Heald also pointed out that some "cuts" are for reasons other than the cruise line's bottom line.
"Tablecloths, those were replaced many years ago, not recently but at least 10 years ago. They were replaced because of the huge environmental impact washing thousands of tablecloths has on the environment, which I’m sure you support and makes absolutely no difference to the service of the fan in the dining room," he said.
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The Brand Ambassador also addressed many of the other concerns Dawson raised.
"We have not changed the hours in the piano bar on every ship every evening. There may be a few evenings on a few ships where we do have it at the hours that you have mentioned and this is to complement the other things that we are offering at the same time, and by the way, the feedback from the piano bar entertainers has been that the piano bars have been absolutely packed as normal," he wrote.
In previous posts, Heald has addressed the pizza counters closing early, pointing out that the new midnight buffet has a much wider array of food. He also defended the increase in the price of water.
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"Water was increased, yes, but it was also because of inflation, which I’m sure you’re experiencing on land. Water still works out to just over one dollar a bottle, which compared to every other cruise line and definitely compares to the outrageous prices found in hotels and airports, etc., to be still an excellent deal, but what makes this also irrelevant is that we have complementary water available 24 hours a day around the ship.," he added.
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