2. Casinos with poor chance of winning anything!

3. Singer and dancer shows

[ 04-21-2008: Message edited by: Thad ]

2. Art Auctions, especially in very public spaces such as Atrium's

3. Excessive on board announcements - I can read!

4. 'Gold by the inch' type sales of cheap crap at high prices, occupying public spaces and the relentless promotion of them.

5. Mr & Mrs shows which everyone seems to love apart from me!

6. Excessive photography in public spaces - why don't they do the formal portraits in a studio?

7. Slime-ball type Cruise Directors.

(I posted this without seeing the above contributions, seems that we agree! )

[ 04-21-2008: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

Too high, well like atria.

2. those awful walkie talkie radios

Ah, the sea, the salt air, the 'endless days', the ships.. I block out the rest. Announcements to Bingo are the worst and anything which ends 'see ya there'... creepy 'all over you crew' .. and those slime-ball egoistic cruise directors.. ARGH!

Soda cards

Hawking drinks

Art auctions only if it is not art just a pile of tat - which most times it is !

Kids not locked up in the kids centre.

Muzak on deck especially when live music is being played as well - hello Princess !

Queues outside the dining room before it opens......

Prizes for handing in comment cards

Telling me to fill in "excellent" on the cards

Deck chair hogging - cruise lines please provide more of.....

Themed lounges where the poor staff have to dress up in weird costumes

The Bar at the End of the Earth (Constellation and Infinity) - which should have reverted back to the observation lounge 2 years ago !!!!

If you don't like freestyle dining - go on a traditional-dining cruise;
If you don't like sharing the ship with children either choose a child-free ship, or cruise out of the holiday season;
If you don't like hearing announcements, wear earplugs!
If you don't like art auctions or inch of gold sales, don't go to them;
Ditto quiz shows;
If you don't like slime-ball CDs - OK, that one could be a problem. Fair point, Pam;
If you don't like various bits of the ship, spend your time in other bits. (I suggest a bar....);
If you don't like themed bars where the staff all have to dress up - either picture them in their underwear and giggle, or find another bar (with any luck that one will have a different theme which you still don't like, so you'll have to continue the search for a satisfactory watering hole. You could make it a quest, in fact);

Constantly invitation's fore art auctions even after asking not to invite anymore.

Cruise directors who think they own the DAM ship.

Greetings Ben.

[ 04-22-2008: Message edited by: Maasdam ]

quote:

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Originally posted by Tom Burke:
...the replies above all seem to come from a bunch of misanthropic philistine misers!

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Tom, does that mean that you love every single aspect of cruising and do not have a single dislike that you could list?

(Apart from sharing a cruise with misanthropic philistine misers. )

[ 04-22-2008: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

*commercial announcements
*waitstaff pushing frilly drinks
*ersatz Rococetian decor made of plastic
*omnipresent muzak
*smokers
*conservative republicans onboard
*man hating lesbians onboard
*women hating Prada Poufs onboard

I use to get a little sore throat after the first couple of days on a cruise, but no more...I've learned to take quality vitamins and supplements just before and during the cruise. Also, I load up on echinacia which helps to boost the immune system, and since we've been doing that....we don't get sick (sore throat) anymore during the cruise. We also scrub down the stateroom door handles and phone and counter top.

I have found that the ship and the staff usually do a fine job, and what often causes most problems and issues are the passengers...if the passengers would ALL behave themselves, I think a higher percentage of cruises would be more perfect.

So hats off to Oceania, the only line to recognize your right to bring alcohol aboard for your private in cabin consumption! Further, they also don't have those annoying photographers!

[ 04-22-2008: Message edited by: annnthony ]

quote:

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Tom, does that mean that you love every single aspect of cruising and do not have a single dislike that you could list?

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I've taken a bit of time thinking about my reply to this one.

The simple answer is that, yes, we do both love cruising very much. That's not to say that we love it uncritically, but given that we've only been cruising since 2005 we are obviously still in the first phase of infatuation; so it might be that our opinion will change as become more seasoned.

But I do always try to 'accentuate the positive', and ignore the negative, not just in cruising but generally. For me the glass is usually half-full, and if it isn't then I try to find another angle to look at it from so that it appears half-full. As regards cruising I do follow a lot of the suggestions I made, e.g. if the art auction is on and is likely to annoy me, I simply don't go anywhere near it. Or, I take a look and chuckle about the purchasers' possible reactions when they get it home: "why did I buy *this*?"

Interestingly most of our ‘dislikes’ above are generally ones found particularly on ‘mass-market’ ship. If you want more spacious surroundings, more sophisticated entertainment and minimal announcements one can of course pick Cunard or Celebrity etc. but there is normally a cost implication.

However some mass-market traits have unfortunately been extended to the premium lines: Cunard and Celebrity sell ‘inches of gold’.
It’s not so much that I am against ‘Inch of gold’ sales; it’s the fact that cruise lines like RCI relentlessly push them. They advertise them in the cruisenews, they make regular PA announcements, they print junk-mail flyers and slip them under your cabin door, they advertise them on your cabin TV – there is no escape from their ‘hard sell’. One can begin to feel manipulated. However such tactics are the by-product of lower fares and I accept this. The lines with higher fares are not generally so desperate to generate onboard expenditure.

Here are some things I would add to the list:

On the first day, have public areas available for passengers to visit. The Fitness Center had a presentation going on and the Spa was doing tours in the afternoon, that they wanted us to wait for. We didn't wait.

Have towels available to check out as you leave the ship on island days. Our cabin steward would leave us two towels for the pool or excursions, but being able to check out a towel is good to have available in case you need another. I have been on RCI ships where this was available. You turned it in when you came back onboard.

Don't call a group lesson a private lesson. My husband paid $60.00 for a private lesson on surfing on the Flowrider. There were seven people in the group. This is not a private lesson.

Take better pictures when formal pictures are being taken. We were a group of six people and they would partly cut off the two people on the ends. They can see this in the camera. We finally got a good group pictures on the second formal night.

I am embarrassed to admit that I bought some silver by inch. Look at the number of people lined up all day to buy it on the ships - they make money and this is why they do it. On the Freedom, they put the 'by the inch' stand as you came out of the Windjammer. Almost everyone would see it. It was on the ship three days, at the beginning and end of the cruise. I did not hear any verbal hype for 'by the inch' but certainly did for the art auctions and bingo.

quote:

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Originally posted by KansasK:
This is an interesting topic because I was on the Freedom of the Seas earlier this month...

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Here's a link to Kathy's review of her cruise. Thanks for sharing.

quote:

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Originally posted by Dave the Wave:
Some already mentioned but...
1. Specialty restaurants where you pay to have better food.
2. Fat people who try to get their money worth from eating as much as they can.
3. Chair and towel hogs!!!
4. Not being able to buy a bottle of booze onboard and take it to your cabin anymore!!

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