Are These Drinks Packages A Good Idea?

I am sure that many of you have had a telephone call from us when you have returned from your cruise to say welcome home!

We don’t just make these calls to ” tick the boxes ” and hope to sell you another cruise. They are really valuable calls.

Just recently I am hearing more and more from my customers of their dissatisfaction with cruise line staff and the general housekeeping onboard. Staff not being interested in their problems, no one tending the bar, tables overflowing – one customer actually remarked to me that as they got off the Ship in Southampton, a new crew were waiting to board – and the looks on the faces of the new crew said it all – they looked as they were condemned men – not my words, a customers.

The same issues seem to rear their ugly heads time after time, but one thing that is consistent is that they seem to be happening on cruise lines that are offering the complimentary drinks packages and gratuities. Is it a case of – I’ll order that cocktail, take a sip, don’t like it and then leave it on a table or a window? If you knew that at the end of the cruise you had a bar bill to pay – would anyone act this way? Do we act differently knowing that it’s free?

Are the staff on board spending their time running around cleaning up after customers,the majority of whom have had the offer on gratuities  knowing that there won’t be anything for them at the end? Who knows, would you plaster on a smiley face?

Has anyone got any thoughts on this?