David J.
Danto
Business travel
thoughts in my own, personal opinion
eMail: ddanto@IMCCA.org Follow Industry News: @NJDavidD
More Bruisin’ Than Cruisin’
My wife and I Just returned
from our first ever cruise. We had a wonderful
and terrible time, and learned quite a bit.
As
I mentioned in my past blog, the opportunity to take the cruise – essentially
the first for us – came from a loyalty offer that was too good to refuse. We were offered a “free” four day cruise anywhere
in the Caribbean. As pure novices (and
for the most part, non-drinkers) we figured that even with the expense of all
the add-ons (beverages, excursions, taxes, tips, etc.) it was a good chance to
have our first cruising experience without too much pain. We looked for a modern, comfortable ship, and
were about to make the reservation, when my wife noticed that they also offered
a four day cruise that stopped in Havana, Cuba for a day, stopped in Nassau for
a day, then went back to Ft Lauderdale.
We felt the opportunity to experience that culture was too good to
pass-up.
Our
experiences in Havana and our excursion in Nassau were both wonderful. Our experiences on the ship…well…not so much.
First
the good stuff.
Havana
is fascinating. A 1950s architecture and
infrastructure frozen in time.
We
took a comprehensive tour, with our guide Milton providing many local details
along with what we assume is the typical Cuban view of history and
politics. It is clear that the Cuban
people are very happy to have a thaw in relations with the US, and they enjoy
the opportunity to add tourism to their struggling economy. We were on a fully sanctioned “official
cultural exchange” excursion, as that is now the only legal way to see the
country. The time was precious and worth
every minute. It was fascinating to see
the ornate architecture – mostly left to crumble and decay – with tenant’s
drying clothes and bedsheets draped over the balconies. It was a real anachronism.
Then,
a day later, when we were in Nassau – where we’ve been before – we decided to
take a “Seaworld Explorer” excursion, which takes
place in a half ship, half submarine – a vessel with many windows below the
water level.
It
was amazing to watch the sea life in their natural habitat without the fuss of
snorkeling or SCUBA. It is an experience
we highly recommend.
Now,
the not so good stuff.
Because of the small nature of Havana’s port facilities, apparently only
smaller, older cruise ships can go there.
The
ship that travels this route for Royal Caribbean is – well – honestly – a
toilet. I use that term not only because
of how bad the ship’s condition was, but because of the constant smell
everywhere. Our teeny, tiny cabin was so
small that you could only get out of the bed on one side. It had worn and water-damaged walls,
inoperable lights, and its one electrical outlet was as far away from the bed
as you could get.
The water damaged
walls in our cabin
It also had a bathroom that continually smelled like a subway station
public toilet. We used deodorizing spray
every day to try to mask it, but it was pervasive. That wasn’t the only place on the ship that
smelled like a toilet. The public
corridors had a strong bathroom stench, ship’s exterior decks had the stench,
in fact - at least half of the ship smelled like a toilet off and on. To say the ship we took stinks is an
understatement.
As a first time cruiser, we actually believed it when friends told us
‘don’t worry about seasickness - the modern ships are so stable you’ll never
feel the waves.’ Well, we learned that
was bunk. The morning we were
approaching Havana we experienced some of the choppiest seas I’ve ever
seen. It was as bad as any flight or
boat that I’d ever experienced – and that includes a People’s Express flight
many years ago that had a broken autopilot which pitched uuuuuppp
then doooooown over and over like a demented
roller-coaster for two hours. I handled
it for as long as I could, but even with all the Bonine in me I was tossing my cookies after about a
half hour. Later that morning the
captain apologized for “all the potholes” on a ship-wide announcement, but
nonetheless, the unease had a significant impact on our short time in
Havana. We pulled ourselves together
enough to experience our Cuba tour, but we were in no shape to go back out at
the end of the day (as we had planned) to experience the nightlife we wanted to
see.
As any reader of my blog knows, I’m not shy to compliment when something
is great or complain when it isn’t. What
we found aboard this ship was a young staff that gave off the vibe that they
were about as invested in the company as “summer camp counselors” would be –
there to do their jobs for the time they have to put in, but not representing
the cruise line in any way. There was
literally no one on board the ship that we could speak to that would even care
about how much was going wrong. We had
continuous problems and no one took responsibility for what turned out be a
four-day-long disaster.
My wife and I had hoped for a diamond / platinum level experience in a
floating five star hotel. We would have
settled for an average experience in a floating three star hotel. What we got was a comedy of errors in a
facility that makes a Motel Six look like it hosts ‘royalty’ more than this
ship does. Benefits not honored,
excursion times messed-up, all the aft public toilets broken, on-board internet
so bad that it makes airline WiFi look good, ship-wide announcements from the
captain so unintelligible that even the ships own performer / comedian made fun
of it on the last day of the cruise in his act.
I could honestly go on and on.
We reached out to the executives of Royal Caribbean when we returned,
and after receiving a gracious emailed apology, their representative eventually
called us explaining our experiences were mostly due to
“miscommunications.” They didn’t promise
to address any of the issues, but they offered us each a $100 onboard credit
for a future cruise. That’s like telling
a restaurant patron who finds a mouse in their food that they can have a 20%
discount on their next meal there. It’s
hard to believe that a reputable firm like this could be so blind to that
warped message. I’d honestly rather have
my four days back, but even if I can’t, offering me a tiny discount on a mouseburger just
isn’t the way to stay in business. If
someone questions my professional integrity I go out of my way to prove them
wrong, not tell them they can have a discount on future business they may no
longer trust or respect.
So, as much as I’d highly recommend experiencing the rich culture of
Havana first hand, if our ship is any example of the experience that one has to
put up with to get there I’d strongly recommend visiting a Cuban restaurant in Miami
instead.
This article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal
opinions.
All image and links provided above as reference under
prevailing fair use statutes.