Renaissance cruises: Beautiful accomodations with poor service
 

In June 2000 my wife and I took a cruise from Lisbon to Barcelona with Renaissance cruises on R2. We had a beautiful category B cabin. The ship was new and nice. <BR> <BR>Negatives: <BR> <BR>1) It was rather strange that on a cruise you could not find any food being served after dinner, except for a very limited selection of room service menu provided by half-awake staff. <BR> <BR>2) During dinner, there was only one night out of 7 that a waiter really cared. Not only that we've encountered waiters that could not care less, they also were rude, and not just to us but to other guests as well. <BR> <BR>3) Nightly, staged entertainment was on the amateur level, with an exception of the comic, who was funny, indeed. <BR> <BR>4) We like ballroom dancing. To say that there was not enough of it is to exagerate. On the first night the big band played for 45 min, the next night - 30 min, the following night 30 min, then 15 min, then 30 min, so on. The band performed well, even though they hardly ever played anything but lindy tunes. Requests for tango, cha-cha or anything at all were not excepted. <BR> <BR>5) The bar entertainment was very mediocre. The singer and the guitarist played every day for about 3-4 hours in a row accompanied by a karioke. <BR>Their repertoir was not very extensive, so that after an hour of listening the songs were starting to repeat. Again, very limited requests were taken. <BR> <BR>6) One day they even had a disco. They called it night disco with Sandra (or something like that, I do not recall the name of the woman). "Sandra" was supposed to be the person in charge of playing the music. In fact she was... sitting next to the kareoke machine doing nothing. The machine was pre-programmed for her, so she could only turn the power off. <BR> <BR>7) We were finally able to meet our steward ... on day 3 of 7. Yes, our cabin was always clean, but, being spoiled by the service on other cruise lines, I expected the steward to be looking out for whatever we might possibly need. Alas! On day 3 I passed by a tall guy. I stopped, turned around and asked: "Are you my steward?". To which he asked me with a smile "What cabin are you from?" That speaks for itself. <BR> <BR> <BR>Beautiful accomodations with rather poor service <BR> <BR>P.S. <BR> <BR>I attempted to post the above on the Renaissance

Yury, you are on the wrong forum. Try the cruise board.

Yury is in the right forum (European destinations). Very interesting report. Thanks for sharing.

I think he was trying to post an answer to the other question about Renaissance it wouldn't post so just posted a new topic. But even if that wasn't the case his cruise was in Europe so it fits the Europe Forum, no?

For what it is worth, I don't think cruise talk should clutter the Europe board. Since there is a separate cruise board, that must mean Fodor's intends to carve out cruises for a different place in the travel lounge. <BR> <BR>And keep your voices down! If this post belongs here and the word gets out, then we'll soon be innundated with the boring prattle one finds on the cruise board. Have you ever taken a look over there? "How many pools are on this-and-that ship?" "What does formal attire mean on such-and-such cruise line?" "Will there be an iron in my cabin on this other ship?" "How is the food on Carnival?" "How is the luggage handling on Commidore?" Yawn. <BR> <BR>OK, I have a serious bias against cruises because I think people who take them have no sense of adventure, and the adventures on the Europe board are what make it interesting. So I agree that cruise stuff belongs elsewhere.

asdf: Interesting observation about the cruise board. But I have to slip in a word of on behalf of cruisers: While taking a cruise is certainly NOT my idea of a vacation, for people like my parents who have trouble walking around, not to mention lugging heavy bags, a cruise offers a wonderful opportunity for them to go to places that would otherwise be inaccessible. I kind of agree that cruise stuff should stay in the cruise board.. but it was nice of Yury to give us the heads up.

Hi all,Did a cruise(too regimented) would not do one again! But, I do think,we ought to keep this board for those who like to do their own thing! Who needs travel agents, right Fodorites? Cruising is a whole differant type of vacation! Not my idea of traveling,but that is why they make vanilla & chocolate, I guess!?