Central de la charla de la travesía

Muchas líneas de la travesía ahora están ofreciendo servicio y amenidades adicionales con sus habitaciones y la clase aumentada de cuartos. Sin embargo, algunos pasajeros pueden creer que porque han pagado una habitación están dados derecho mucho más que las líneas adicionales del espacio y de la travesía prometidas amenidades. Generalmente la reservación de una habitación da derecho a pasajeros a un cuarto más grande y generalmente a una cierta clase de servicio del mayordomo o del concierge. Recientemente, algunas líneas de la travesía han comenzado a ofrecer aún más suplementos con una habitación. Algunas líneas de la travesía como celebridad incluso ofrecen cuartos estándares del tamaño con una mejora en el servicio Concierge llamado clase Class y la clase del Aqua. Pero incluso los pasajeros de la habitación y los pasajeros aumentados de la clase inmóvil tendrán que pagar los artículos que no son incluidos como parte de este paquete especial. Oí hablar recientemente de un pasajero que se quejaba de que ella había reservado una habitación, pero todavía tuve que pagar agua en botella y no fui dado la prioridad especial para ella que ofrecía en un puerto particular.

Durante mucho tiempo, muchas líneas de la travesía tienen se esforzaron tratar a todos los pasajeros como si fueran la persona más importante en la nave. Las líneas de la travesía desearon eliminar el sistema de la clase que era un sello de los días del revestimiento marino. Cuando las naves eran una fuente principal del transporte para la gente que iba de Europa a las Américas y viceversa, la mayoría de pasajeros estaba en steerage, con algunos pasajeros en turista y el selecto privilegió pocos en la primera clase. Con el amanecer de la industria de la travesía del placer, el viejo sistema de la clase salió mientras que las compañías de la travesía se esforzaron proveer de todos los pasajeros las vacaciones de un curso de la vida. El lema era tratar a todos los pasajeros igualmente, sin importar qué clase de cabina les reservaron pulg.

La una excepción a esto ha sido la línea de Cunard, que tiene tres diversos niveles de servicio y de cenar determinados por tipo el sitio reservado. Their booking information clearly spells out all the perks and benefits of each type of room. For example, under their description for Queen’s Grill Suites they list the following amenities:

• Priority embarkation with separate Grill check-in
• Full bottle of French champagne with sugar-iced strawberries at embarkation
• Complimentary in-room bar set up
• Fruit basket & bottled water replenished daily or as needed
• Full flower arrangement
• Personalised Cunard stationery
• In-room Xbox
• Single-seating dining in the Queens Grill, or En Suite from the Queens Grill menu
• 24-hour room service & Grills Concierge services
• Butler service (including packing/unpacking service)
• Access to Grills Concierge Lounge, Queens Grill Lounge and private Queens Grill sun Deck
• Daily abridged newspaper
• Shoe shine service
• Evening canapés
• Linens & duvet
• Pillow Concierge offering nine pillow options
• Nightly turndown service with pillow chocolates plus special Sweet Dreams turndown surprise on formal nights
• Terry cloth bathrobe & slippers
• Fine Canyon Ranch soaps & shampoos
• Bath salts & manicure kit
• Priority disembarkation and tender service (Q1 - Q4 only)
• In-room DVD Player (Q1 - Q4 only)

Recently, there has been a slight shift from the completely “Classless” system by some lines which are offering some extra perks to their patrons who book suites. NCL calls their suite patrons VIP’s and offers the following exclusive amenities to passengers who book suites:

• Priority embarkation
• Concierge service
• Bottled water
• Up to 504 square feet of elegance
• Separate sitting/dining area
• Luxury bath
• Private balcony*
• Flat screen TV* with DVD player*
• Mini-bar*
• Coffee maker*
• Invitation to VIP cocktail party*
• 24-hour room service with special suite menu
• Full in-room breakfast menu
• Hors d’oeuvres delivered twice during cruise
• Fine linens, duvet and
• feather pillows
• Plush bath robes and towels, luxurious bath amenities
• Fresh flower arrangement and fresh fruit basket

Celebrity already offers the Concierge Class staterooms that offer extra perks like appetizers in the early evening, special shower heads and fresh flowers. They will be rolling out the new Aqua Class staterooms with their Solstice Class ships. With both Aqua Class and Concierge Class, the state rooms are generally the same size as the standard rooms. The rooms just have extras that come with them designed to offer a more upscale experience to the passengers. The Aqua Class staterooms will include:

• Welcome champagne
• Daily fruit selection
• Fresh-cut flowers
• Daily hors d’oeuvres
• Menu of pillows-Conformance,
• Body, Goose, and Isotonic®
• Duvets and pillow-top mattresses
• Leather key holder, personalized stationery and a tote bag
• Frette bathrobes
• Hansgrohe® showerhead
• VIP invitations to events
• Early embarkation and debarkation
• Dining and seating preference
• Preference on shore excursions
• Express luggage delivery
• Shoeshine service

For the most part, the suite or upgraded cabin amenities focus on making passengers in stateroom experience more pleasant. They also offer priority boarding and disembarking, however these are also often offered to repeat passengers as well. When the process is very efficient, like our boarding process in Vancouver, which took all of 15 minutes, this is really not much of a perk. When passengers book a suite or upgraded cabin class on one cruise line, they need to make sure that they are not expecting the amenities offered on another. Some offer an exclusive lounge, deck or pool. Some might offer free laundry or dry cleaning, others don’t. Some offer free bottle water, others don’t. Some might have a VIP tour as part of their suite amenity. For others it might be a special cocktail reception. You can see that the perks in these different upgraded cabins on the example lines have some crossover features. They don’t all feature the same amenities.

For their part, the cruise lines need to make sure they are complete in spelling out exactly what is included and what is not with a suite or upgraded cabin. Passengers need to read the information provided to them so that the know what to expect. Perhaps had the Celebrity passenger known that Celebrity does not include free bottled water in their suites, her cruise might have been more pleasant. Also, passengers should distinguish between a cabin with upgraded perks and a larger suite size cabin. I sailed with a passenger on the Infinity who was disappointed in the size of her Concierge Class cabin. She thought she had booked a larger cabin by upgrading to Concierge Class. She got perks instead of more room which was what she really wanted. The cruise lines also need to feature the benefits of a suite prominently in their literature and web sites. For example, dining at the “Blu” restaurant is included at no extra charge for Aqua Class passengers. However, this is listed on the Celebrity web site, but only on the page listing all the accommodations, and not listed under the specific amenities for the Aqua Class cabins. Travel agents will have to be ever vigilant in learning the ins and outs of the different classes of cabin on all the different cruise lines.

Categories: Blog, Cruise Lines, Features, Planning
Tags: concierge service, cruise companies, cruise industry, cruise ship amenities, ocean liner, pleasure cruise, staterooms