On the whole, I am enjoying this cruise. Starting to suspect that 10 days might be 2 or 3 days too long when travelling solo, but this is a very nice ship with good food, pleasant crew, and thankfully, good weather.
There are a few places where I feel they fall down a bit – I’ve mentioned the nickel & diming and the hard upselling – some of the other deficiencies I’ve noticed include areas such as cabin amenities, the limited wine range, and maybe more regional foods; but I will never mention it to them, at least not to their faces.
After Lori’s and my continuous improvement incident of 2013, affectionately known as Elbe-gate, I don’t give face-to-face feedback. Back then, because we liked the cruise director so much, we very kindly pulled him aside on the second last day to tell him how much better experience the passengers would have had, if only the cruise line apprised them about certain routines and information. He graciously took all our suggestions on board and we wandered back to the bar in a haze of self-congratulatory helpfulness. The next morning, as we were packing, we opened the pamphlet each of us had found on our beds on Day One, but had never bothered to look at. Every piece of information we had been missing was clearly spelled out. Splendid.
I know exactly what would happen if I were to say to someone here that there should be a clock in each stateroom: “Oh did madame not look at the TV screen in the corner?” or made a suggestion to supply guests with hair conditioner or hand cream: “Ah, allow me to show madame the toiletries tray under the sink.” So, I say nothing. (BTW there really should be a clock, hand cream, shampoo & conditioner, bathrobe & slippers in each cabin. Ah well.)