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Royal Caribbean is the newest cruise line to reduce service levels on ships.

2023-03-03  Sophia Zackary

Ships
At least on mass-market cruise ships, it appears that the days of over-the-top service are coming to an end. This may be the case for all cruise ships in the future.

Following in the footsteps of Norwegian Cruise Line and Carnival Cruise Line, the world's largest cruise line, Royal Caribbean, has recently begun reducing the level of service that room attendants on its ships provide. This comes after similar moves were made by Norwegian Cruise Line and Carnival Cruise Line.

As with the other two brands, Royal Caribbean has instructed room attendants to only clean the majority of cabins once per day rather than the twice-daily cleaning that has been a defining characteristic of the cruise experience for the past several decades. This change was made to save money.

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The cruise line implied that the move was permanent in a statement that was provided to TPG. Nevertheless, the letter also stated that suites on its ships will continue to receive twice-daily service.

"Royal Caribbean International is in the process of adopting a cleaning service that will take place once per day in all cabins across the fleet, "the statement made on Thursday included the line that said. "Guests will continue to see the familiar faces of the stateroom attendants who are assigned to their cabins throughout the cruise. These attendants will continue to perform a thorough cleaning, provide new towels, and refreshing amenities, and be available to guests for questions and stateroom requests.

The practice of providing room service twice daily, even on the cruise industry's most budget-friendly ships, dates back decades and is one of the factors that has contributed to the industry's reputation for providing higher levels of service than resorts located on land.

On cruise ships, it is customary for room attendants to clean guests' quarters once in the morning and then return to those quarters in the early evening to perform a second round of tidying and to turn down mattresses.

Related: Here are the top five destinations you may enjoy when sailing with Royal Caribbean.

The three largest brands in the mass-market cruise industry are Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and Carnival. Together, these three companies are responsible for more than a third of all cruises that are taken throughout the world.

At the moment, the vast majority of other cruise lines, including several other mass-market brands like MSC Cruises, Princess Cruises, Holland America, Disney Cruise Line, and Celebrity Cruises, continue to offer twice-daily service. Having said that, the modification that Royal Caribbean made this week might have an impact on the policies that are in place on these other lines.

Royal Caribbean is the largest cruise company in the world, so its actions are typically looked at as a harbinger for the whole industry. Other brands frequently mimic Royal Caribbean's choices.

Already, during cruises, travellers on one of Royal Caribbean's sibling companies, Celebrity, are being offered an additional incentive in the form of more Captain's Club loyalty points if they agree to forgo twice-daily service.

SILVERSEA CRUISES-2
On cruise ships, providing service twice a day requires a significant amount of staff time and hence incurs additional expenses. The reduction in service that cruise companies are providing is a direct result of their search for new methods to cut costs and improve their financial statements.

The suspension of the cruise industry as a whole that happened when the COVID-19 outbreak began placed significant pressure on the financial statements of cruise companies. A multitude of cruise lines, notably Royal Caribbean and its parent business, Royal Caribbean Group, are struggling under the weight of unfathomable levels of debt.

The cruise companies Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and Carnival are all cutting back on services at the same time that they are significantly increasing the prices of those services. For August, Royal Caribbean increased the service fees on its ships by more than 10%, bringing the total to $16 per person per day for guests staying in the majority of cabins.

As a result of the price hike, a family of four travelling on a Royal Caribbean cruise for seven nights will now be required to pay approximately $450 in service fees for their standard stateroom.

In January, Norwegian Cruise Line implemented an even more significant increase to its daily service charge, bringing the new amount for guests staying in the majority of cabins up to $20 per person per day. That is a 25 per cent increase from the service price for the line in 2022.

In a seemingly illogical move, Norwegian began cutting back on service for rooms almost at the same time as it began increasing its service charge. This move has received criticism from customers because it seems incongruous.

This year, both Royal Caribbean and Norwegian are following in the footsteps of Carnival, which reduced the amount of room service it provides on its ships to once a day in 2021. Royal Caribbean and Norwegian are both cutting back on room service.

Related: The definitive reference to the ships and itineraries offered by Royal Caribbean

The recent combination of significant increases in service prices and reductions in service levels means that cruisers are now paying more for less, which is something that has the potential to eventually dissuade customers from choosing cruising as an alternative to staying at land-based resorts.

However, after the COVID-19 pandemic began, resorts and hotels on land have similarly reduced the levels of service they provide, with some resorts and hotels no longer offering daily cleaning services for rooms or any cleaning services at all for rooms.

As a consequence of this, even cruise lines that reduce the frequency of room service to once per day may still have an advantage when compared to some land-based vacation options in terms of the level of service provided.

During a conference call with Wall Street analysts on Tuesday, the president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Frank Del Rio, suggested that the company was attempting to strike a balance between the pressures of the company's financial situation to cut costs and the need to keep passengers satisfied.

The parent business of Norwegian Cruise Line, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, and Oceania Cruises is called Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings. Unlike Norwegian Cruise Line, both Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Oceania Cruises continue to offer twice-daily service to their guests.

"It is a matter of harmony. You don't want to put an end to the life of the goose that lays the golden egg, also known as the customer "Del Rio stated this in answer to a query posed by an analyst over the appropriateness of such measures to reduce expenses. "What our consumers pay, what they pay for, and what they receive are all factors that we are working to strike a balance between. It is the job of management to maximise profits while minimising expenditures. As an illustration, we did not reduce the turndown service across any brands or cabin categories. That is the first year of economics, and that is exactly what we are doing."

Mark Kempa, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, said a few moments later that the firm was "just aligning itself to what others in the hospitality sector have done" recently. To put it another way, Norwegian Cruise Line was following the lead of hotels and resorts on land by reducing the levels of service they provided.

"This is not breaking news at all. In today's modern world, I believe that consumers are accustomed to receiving a different degree of service "Kempa said. "We are going to align ourselves with what is considered to be the new standard in the hospitality industry, but our primary concentration is on ensuring that the overall quality of the experience that our guests have remains unaffected. It seems to be the appropriate action to do."

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2023-03-03  Sophia Zackary