Suite Natured Cruise Cast | Cruise Chat & News
Linzi and Mark aka Suite Natured host a light hearted podcast where they share their cruise experiences and give their thoughts on recent cruise news and stories.
Each episode is recorded and published in real time & unscripted, no edits, which can lead to some "interesting" conversations. Every other Cruise Cast we are joined by special guest co-hosts who bring they own experiences and style to the show.
Linzi & Mark's YouTube channel, Suite Natured has had over 1.9M views in the past year and covers cruise reviews, ship tours, dining guides, drinks package reviews, cabin tours/reviews and more.
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Suite Natured Cruise Cast | Cruise Chat & News
The Unexpected Saga of the Sun Princess | Cruise Cast Ep 12 Audio Only 🎧
Navigating the tumultuous waters of a maiden voyage gone awry, we share the rollercoaster experiences faced by passengers on the Sun Princess's initial sailings. Multiple delays turned excitement into frustration, as key attractions and specialty dining venues weren't ready in time for the big debut. Yet, amidst these hiccups, there was visible progress, with Broadway-style shows and new restaurant openings gradually enhancing the cruise experience. Discover how specialty dining venues like Butcher’s Cut by Dario and The Catch by Rudy strive to meet high brand expectations while carving out unique identities separate from the standard buffet offerings.
Shifting gears, we tackle the latest changes to the ship's amenities, including the relocation of restaurants and the transformation of the sanctuary area into an exclusive retreat for suite guests. This shift creates a "ship within a ship" experience that raises questions about future uses for other spaces. Whether it's expanding the sanctuary or innovating new relaxation zones, we speculate on what lies ahead. We also touch on the adult-only retreat area and the chaotic world of "pier runners," sharing cautionary tales and heart-pounding moments that keep cruise life unpredictable. Tune in for a comprehensive look at the evolving landscape of the Sun Princess.
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Cheers, and have a lovely day
Linzi & Mark
Welcome to episode 12 of the Suite Natured Cruise cast. Hi, I'm Linz. As always, I'm joined by Marky.
Mark :Hello.
Linzi:Hello, and today we're talking what went wrong with some princess and that she's had to have so many changes. But first a little mood music, Wow.
Mark :Wow, you said mood music, so I went with mood music. Wow, obviously that's not a keeper, it's not a permanent one.
Linzi:It sets a tone.
Mark :It does.
Linzi:It sets a tone it does.
Mark :Now, obviously, you've already said in the intro we're going to be talking about what went wrong with Sun princess.
Linzi:Well, this implies that she went through a portal.
Mark :Into another universe.
Linzi:Into another dimension.
Mark :No, just to be clear, at the time of recording, Sun princess has not gone through another portal into a diamond, another dimension, um a portal or a portal. Well, either of those things, it's still. It's still sailing the seas. And I think we should start off because if anyone has watched any of our Sun Princess videos, Sorry, I can't get on with that music Wow. I know.
Linzi:Sorry.
Mark :No, it's just that if anyone's watched any of our Sun Princess videos, they'll know that we came off that ship very positive. We did love Sun Princess, and that hasn't changed. We still think it's a fantastic ship and we would go on it again tomorrow, but that doesn't mean it hasn't had its problems, both before we went on, after we went on, yeah, and this week, yeah. So it's one of these things that just keeps on going and it's probably the most. Sun princess has probably been in more of our news stories than any other cruise line, let alone the ship. No, only yeah, so she's a bit quite regular, okay. So, anyway, we're going to talk today, um, all about sort of everything that we think went wrong, what our impressions were okay, um, and everything from there, right, but we're going to start with the.
Mark :What prompted this? Which was the news this week, which was park 19 yes, which is their new family area. Yeah, well, it wasn't just kids, right, it were designed to attract families. They had places for the parents to relax on there while the kids went on the high road all the parents. And it had the new roller glider, their little roller coaster. Yeah, all of these were first for princess yes and last.
Mark :Well, maybe, um, and when we went on it, it all finished. It was built because we saw them on the rope courses, we saw them testing it, we saw the um, we saw the roller glider and all the harnesses the outfits yeah yeah, everything was there.
Mark :We saw the climbing wall, yeah, the lookout station at the top, where you get to, at the top of the climbing wall on deck 20 and that's the only way to get to that and the splash zone. So it was all there, along with the running track and everything else. However, this week for those that have not yet heard princess have said the rope course, the climbing yeah, the lookout and the roller roller glider are never going to open.
Linzi:They're never going to open and they're going to be removed.
Mark :They're going to be removed. They haven't said when, but what they have said categorically is they will never open. What they said is they couldn't take delivery. Now, that's not the same as Amazon or another company. You're not being able to grab the parcel off them. This was all installed before we went on. They'd not managed to get the safety tests and the insurance side of things signed off because of it being late out of. Oh yeah, initial, and we'll come back to that in a minute. That's how much this had a knock on. Yeah, but it was all built, so it wasn't like the. It still had to be finished and constructed. It was there. If you've gone to some princess this week, you know straight after listening to this you can have a fantastic time, you can have a great time and the cocktails are lovely, um, but you'll be able to see it. It's still going to be there, but you'll never be able to to it. And they haven't given any reason at the time of recording, apart from not Unable to accept delivery of it.
Linzi:Yeah.
Mark :Now whether that is that there were challenges in terms of how it was built, maybe there's safety issues, maybe it didn't pass the inspections, but you have to bear in mind that Princess is part of the larger Carnival group and they've got them on, and they've got them on. And they've got them on other ships, including more advanced ones. More up-and-downy roller coasters as opposed to what that were More advanced up-y, down-y roll.
Mark :Yeah, that's an official brand and it's really interesting in terms of how that came out and I have to say I wasn't expecting it.
Linzi:No no.
Mark :When that came out this week I was like whoa, because I can't recall and tell me if you can anything remotely similar to compare it to on any other cruise line where you know. This isn't just one thing that we decided to change at a refit. The ship only came out five months ago I'm thinking no, I can't think no and there's just nothing. There is there no um, it's a very, very strange situation. What's your thinking behind it? What? What do you actually? Because we're, ultimately, we are completely speculating.
Linzi:I'm not speculating. I'm not speculating at all. Thanks for the nudge You're welcome. I'm not speculating what I think happened and I'm drinking wine.
Mark :Well, this gives me a chance to rest my mouth and have a drink.
Linzi:Okay, what I think happened is they obviously had a meeting and said we need to. We're losing out on a core demographic.
Mark :The family demographic.
Linzi:Family demographic and we need something to attract families because we're not seen as family friendly in the modern sense, like Carnival.
Mark :And to be fair, families do go on Princess.
Linzi:They do, but they don't have the bells and whistles. No, we need bells and whistles and we're getting this super new ship and she's got a bells and whistles place that we can put.
Mark :Some bells and whistles.
Linzi:Some things, some activities for children and people who like that type of thing. Yeah, on, princess has been going a long time it has and I'm wondering if it has a bit of a like a midlife crisis. Like I want to attract a younger a younger model a younger sort of demographicographic to enjoy me, and for some reason they've not been able to put the parts together because, for example, the what's it called, skyglider, rollerglider, rollerglider I like my name better, sunglider, you see and Starglider was nudging the sanctuary.
Mark :Now you don't want a ride of that type, nudging the relaxation zone no, I will come back to the sanctuary in a second, because that's another major change yes yeah, yeah, when it went through back around the back before it came back to the start of the roller glider, it went over the edge of the sanctuary. Now it wasn't like that particular roller coaster where I was expecting people to be screaming, no, but you would hear it and you would see it.
Linzi:You would see it. And also I wonder if they've run the numbers. I wonder if they've looked at the numbers and gone. We've had all these bookings and the number of families has not increased.
Mark :But when you've, I mean, I completely agree that meetings happened there was a meeting. I suspect there was probably more than one. There may have even been two meetings, but the if this had been before construction and they'd announced it, but then when it came out I didn't have it on yeah, I'd get that more, but this was built. Surely, if you've actually done that and it isn't a a overall safety issue on it, and I can't believe, all three things are the safety issue?
Linzi:No, that would be weird.
Mark :It. Just I don't believe that. Then surely you just leave them on there at that point. You've already paid for it. Leave them on when it goes for its first refitting a couple of years time, strip them out, change it. But I'm sure there's more to it there's going to be more to it.
Linzi:I mean the proof. There will be some interesting if somebody comes out of this and not, you know, management changes or oh, you know, I'm leaving, princess, I'd like to thank everyone for all my time there. I'm going on to bigger, brighter things. I wonder if that's going to happen. That's always very telling when there's a senior management change or announcing a new position.
Mark :Yeah, which hasn't been at the time of recording. No, but that can also give you a bit of a clue, yeah.
Linzi:And again I wonder, when they've run the numbers, if you're on Sun Princess or you've been on Sun Princess. We're just getting into the main summer holidays now for Europe.
Mark :Yeah, and there are a lot of families going on it now for the first time. Are there not Well? You would assume so. Are there not Well? I don't know, but I would assume there are.
Linzi:Just tell, tell us, did you see any families?
Mark :if you, if you've been on Sun princess over the summer since we recorded this, were there many families on there? What did you say? I would assume that there is, because even you know, forgetting about all the attractions that they've put on it. One it's a new ship, two, it's in a sunny area and three, some holidays. They all get booked up. They're all busy, no matter what the ships are.
Linzi:They do, they do?
Mark :Yeah, and it is one that's trying to attract families, so I would expect that people get booked up.
Linzi:But trying and doing is two different things.
Mark :Yeah, absolutely. But again, I honestly don't imagine that's the reason why they've suddenly said it's not going to happen, because if anything, you'd just open it up for that summer and then decide to shut it down after the season.
Mark :but this is the latest thing I know and it's probably just worth rewinding a little bit on I'll let you do that and I'll drink so some princess um had a little bit of I think that's fair to say, a little bit of a turbulent launch, in that its original maiden was cancelled just two weeks before it was due to sell. It was in dock in Italy getting everything ready and they said we just need a little bit longer. So unfortunately the maiden is now not happening. So the second cruise then became the maiden.
Linzi:Which was the one we were booked on.
Mark :Which we were like oh interesting, we're now on a maiden we hadn't planned on. Three days before that was due to go, we got told that's been cancelled. So that was even closer than the other one and it still wasn't ready. So then the third sailing became the maiden.
Linzi:Yes.
Mark :When people got on, the entertainment wasn't ready in. And, to be clear, I've heard people say there's no stamp. There's a lot of entertainment on board. We were covered it in the review. There wasn't any of the big production shows that they'd advertised in the dome or in the theater no, but there were lots of other stuff. It wasn't that we were bored, it just wasn't all that spellbound. The new magic castle experience wasn't that we were bored when we were on there. It just wasn't all there Spellbound. The new Magic Castle experience wasn't open.
Linzi:For the meal.
Mark :For the meal. Well, it wasn't open for everyone. We got to go in it because we were on there, Loved by Britta. No, the fancy, fancy restaurant Speciality Dining wasn't open.
Linzi:No.
Mark :And there were numerous things, things like the splash pad on part 19 wasn't open.
Linzi:We saw him working on it. We heard him working on things.
Mark :All of part 19 wasn't open. No, the dome during the day was, generally speaking, when we were in port, closed because we were working on it, yeah, um, and that we were on the second sailing at that point. So, but we could see the progress that we made just in the five days that we were on. From when we sort of got on to that five days where stuff were happening, we could see them rehearsing the shows. Yep, the Broadway shows have now opened. Yep, the Broadway style shows, mm-hmm, they have opened. Love by Brita opened, but only a couple of weeks ago.
Mark :I know open, but only a couple of weeks ago I know we've not really seen anything.
Linzi:I've not seen any reviews of it online or anything yet. Maybe we should search them.
Mark :I know I'll we need to have a quick look on youtube afterwards to see if there's anything on there. I haven't done that it's definitely not popped up on our feed on from anyone I said, that's true um, but a lot of the people that that we watch had already been on it.
Linzi:So again a bit you'd be waiting for, I'm waiting for richard and helen for a visit with us well, they're going on, it imminently they should be on it if they're not I seem to recall them coming on it in july yeah, so we should get there in a minute.
Mark :They might be on it now. Yeah, um, let us know in the comments, rich and helen, if you're on it now, but it will be. It'll be interesting to see what people are seeing on that now, because the one of the other challenges that they had so you've got all those bits at the start of which there's lots of logistic things in there that can be supply chain. We were told the reason that by bristol wasn't ready to open because we saw it, the restaurant was ready because the artwork was being shipped over. Yeah, and it wasn't. It wasn't there, and so they were waiting for that to arrive, which is, yeah, fair enough. It's a one all around love and art, and if that's not there, you can't really open it. No, um, but you know that was problem. Then the next thing that we heard was the both. Dario, who has the, has lent his name and brand to the Butcher's Cup by Dario.
Linzi:Licensed.
Mark :Specialty dining.
Linzi:Yes.
Mark :And the Catch by Rudy restaurants. Dario in particular had been very outspoken that he wasn't happy with where the restaurant was. Now you talked about it when we were on board.
Linzi:I talked about it as I actually on board. I talked about it as I actually on our first impressions of being on the ship, I walked up to it and I was like this, is it me or just this? Should the speciality not be an offshoot of the buffet?
Mark :it should have its own dedicated restaurant and we were with willing to give it a try and we went into it and, to be fair, one wouldn't it didn't feel like an offshoot of the the galley buffet area eatery. Uh, it didn't feel like an offshoot like because there is a passageway between it. And we've been in other, on other cruise lines I'm thinking qm2 and pno particular, where they turned part of the buffet area in Specialty Dining.
Linzi:But it didn't feel very intimate.
Mark :But it didn't feel like I imagined it were going to do, in particular for the Dario's one, which is around that big family table sitting. Yeah, lots of noise and stuff. People were spread out a little bit. I get why Dario wouldn't be as happy, and apparently Chef Rudy also wasn't happy where his restaurant was, which was the other side of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it just felt very it didn't feel like a 45 dollar a person extra speciality area and when you arrived it felt like a bit like a service station restaurant.
Linzi:It had like a right just it was, it didn't feel. It didn't feel like it was premium.
Mark :It didn't feel as much of a treat or an experience it didn't feel premium. And clearly you weren't the only one to think that.
Linzi:No.
Mark :And they've agreed to change where those restaurants are. Again, they're not waiting until the refit, which well done If you can do it on the fly. But you have Dario's moving to where, I think, where Crown Grill were. Chef Rudy's was moving to where the Reserve Collection restaurant were, I think. I'm trying to remember back from this. Crown Grill, I think, was moving to where the American restaurant were.
Mark :Again, I might have all this completely wrong, apologies if I have, but basically loads of change. Yeah, after it had just come out, and this was what two months ago when they announced that, maybe a month ago, so that's within the first three to four months of it going, and it just seems that on a very regular basis there's some major change happening to it. Now you touched on the sanctuary earlier. We went in the sanctuary, yes, went in there for a day. We, we saw the parties, we we knew what was happening there and, like sanctuary on other princess ships, you can pay to go in there and you can pay to go in there for a day, in some occasions half a day, or you can buy a full cruise pass. That's generally how it works on princess cruises that have a sanctuary and that's how they told us it was going to work on this one.
Mark :Then about six, seven week after we got off it yeah, they announced that was there was now going to be a sanctuary collection yes of um suites yeah, including mini suites, which is like the reserve collection they've got on other ones, and those ones were going to have access to the sanctuary yes, as part of it. So the sweet people as well as those in the sanctuary collection, they would have exclusive access to it. Yeah, and by exclusive, no one else can go in there. It essentially became a ship within a ship and we did have people ask us was it a ship within a ship experience? When we were on there we were like, oh no, it's just Sanctuary. And then it just rapidly became one and it seemed such a major change Again when the ship's only been out a few months.
Mark :Was this something the princess had talked about before and maybe didn't have the confidence to do just prior to launch or the the? The feedback was that you know it should be more like the reserve collection and other people have access to it. Whether that came from the passengers or the crew or other people would be really interested in that. As usual not just with princess, with any cruise island, with any business you often don't get insight, deep insight, into the reasoning behind it. No, and I suspect we probably never will. So it'll remain speculation as to why they did that. But I am kind of with you a little bit that if you're creating that exclusive area, do you really want a roller coaster running over the top of it?
Linzi:no, you don't yeah and was.
Mark :Was that part of the thinking that the people who are staying in the sanctuary collection or the resort or the suites yeah, are going to be, generally speaking, pay more money than everyone else and you want those people to come back time and time again and have a great experience and if they're potentially not going to be happy at that going over, was that part of that decision making? Again, I genuinely don't believe we'll ever find out, so it'll just be conversations like this where we try and try and speculate, but it just seemed such a strange decision. Now, moving away from that and looking forward, what do you think they're going to do with the part 19 area, because it's still a big space? They've said the jogging track will remain and the splash zone, even though the splash zone's tiny, yeah, what do you think they're going to do with that space?
Mark :sanctuary what extend it?
Linzi:no new sanctuary sanctuary light sanctuary sanctuary in what way?
Mark :sanctuary for people well, it's already got a sanctuary.
Linzi:No, it hasn't.
Mark :It's got a reserved sanctuary place for suites and reserve class so you think they'll make a new paid for relaxation area relaxation area with a running track around it I've said they keep it they've said they're keeping the running track at the moment. In the press release last week it said the running track will stay. I can't imagine that you have.
Linzi:Adults only.
Mark :Retreat. Treat like coconuts and loungers and you see, one thing that I can see happening and we said this on our first impressions tour is that it doesn't have a bar up there.
Linzi:No bar bar.
Mark :So it has some sort of top deck cocktail bar.
Linzi:And adults only pool.
Mark :And what about that lookout area on deck 20? We never got to go up there because it was closed off. Do you think they'll just never open that?
Linzi:No, it'll be just a viewing thing with some line shirts.
Mark :Well, the idea why you climbed to get to it.
Linzi:Well, I don't know.
Mark :We'll see. I mean, let us know in the comments what you think. Treehouse for cocktails that'd be fantastic. You have to climb the treehouse to get your cocktails. I like it burn off a few of those cocktail and then you slide down down that slide. Well, them said the slide's going. There you go. Cocktail slide. You heard it here first. Let us know in the comments what you think they're going to do with the Part 19 area. What?
Linzi:do you think it means for Star Princess?
Mark :Well, none of those things will be introduced. Now, if it was just a logistics fitting, safety, safety thing could they get it right on star? Princess? I don't think, because that's still a year away no or do you think they're just gonna completely bin the idea of that sort of family attraction area? Pickleball there'll be more paddleball and pickleball areas that kind of thing yeah it'll be interesting.
Mark :I am genuinely interested to see what it means for star princess. Yes, because I suspect that we'll see the change to that, perhaps even sooner than we see it off of that, because, whilst they've said he's going to get removed and decommissioned from it, removing that roller coaster is not something that you appear to be able to do with a set of step ladders no yeah, they've said it'll get done before it goes in for a refresh, but I still don't imagine that it happens quickly.
Mark :No, so I think we'll see the what it'll actually end up looking like on star before we see it on there, because it's only a year away, isn't it? Yeah, until we get to Star. Well, just over a year. Anyway, let's go on to some news stories. Okay, we're going to follow on with that ominous theme of a bit of a cruise nightmare from somewhere we've just been to. Okay, in Ketchikan.
Linzi:Okay.
Mark :So a, a family, a larger family, I think there were seven or eight of them. Um, I'd gone to see the ketchikan lumberjack show, which I don't even remember there being a ketchikan lumberjack show, but apparently there was, um, and it was a short bus journey away I thought that's the huge.
Linzi:Is that not the Ketchikan, the Lumberjacks?
Mark :No, I thought it were do you know?
Linzi:No, no Lumberjacks, the Ketchikan Lumberjacks are in the Ketchikan.
Mark :So, in which case it seems even weirder this family went to see the Lumberjack show. They went to get on the bus to go back. It was a third party excursion. When they went to get on the bus to go back it was a third party excursion when they went to get on the bus to get back.
Mark :That's over the road. That's what I said. It seems a bit strange, so maybe there's a different thing. Um, they went to get on the bus to get back and apparently the and this is from the family who've said this yeah, the bus had not been checking people's tickets, they'd just done a head count.
Linzi:Yeah.
Mark :And even though this family had a ticket for that bus to go back, they said sorry, the bus is full, You'll have to wait for the next one.
Linzi:Mm-hmm.
Mark :Which, okay, they started to get back, not a problem, apart from, the next bus never came.
Linzi:Oh my.
Mark :So they rang the port authority which were giving that emergency number, and the port authority sent a van to collect them to take them back to the ship. Unfortunately, as they got back to the ship, they saw the NCL pulling out of port.
Linzi:It had gone. Oh, my goodness.
Mark :So that in itself already not good, but we've heard of people missing cruise ships before. We've seen people nearly miss them. The peer runner thing has become a bit of a thing and we're coming on to that in the next story. But there was something far worse for this one. So all their passports were on board, apart from one person who had the passport. The medication was all on board, and then the next morning NCL charged them $9,000 for what?
Mark :$971 US dollars per passenger for fees incurred from violating the US Customs and Border Protection Policy, citing the Passenger Vessel Services Act. So not only did they miss the ship, not only did the medication and passports on there, they then got charged $9,000 for it.
Linzi:That's awful.
Mark :With that in mind, would that make you reconsider a third party cruise excursion?
Linzi:I took it.
Mark :I know that well, yeah, but would you still be happy to take your third party? We still do third. We do third party ones, do cruise ones, because sometimes the ones you want the cruise isn't offering or it's full.
Linzi:That's a nightmare.
Mark :I know I don't like that. But let's move on to story number two Downer episode this is. It's not a downer, we're just talking about it. It gets a bit brighter as we're going along. So this one we're coming on from the pier runners, as they've been known, because they're running on the pier, because they're running on the pier to try and get the ship.
Linzi:They didn't workshop it, they didn't have to go on a retreat to come up with that name.
Mark :Maybe they did, but I found this a really bizarre story. So this involves Carnival Cruise Line, mm-hmm. So this involves Carnival Cruise Line and the Carnival had been requested to take a look at stopping people cheering or jeering the cruise runners, and we've seen these plenty of times on YouTube. There are lots of videos on social media of people doing it. Lots of videos on social media of people doing it. Um, and people said that, you know, whilst for others it's entertaining. Yeah, he, you know, he's unkind, it's cruel.
Mark :People are stressed at that point, especially if you see a misser bearing in mind that previous story, the impact it could have, um, and so it'd been suggested a carnival cruise line that they should stop people doing it one. I'm not entirely sure how that, how they would do that, because it's just kind of human behavior. But carnival cruise line has said they're not going to try and stop that behavior and I think, mainly because of what I just said, they don't know how they would do it and I don't. But do you think that's something that a cruise line should be trying to intervene in, or is it just something as humans we should be better at and more apathetic? Is apathetic the right word?
Linzi:Empathic To people who are Empathetic, I don't know, I'm just. I mean, I get panicky if I think that we're going to be half an hour before. So there's that I would.
Mark :I cheer I'd cheer if they got on, if they'd made it.
Linzi:If they should make it, I wouldn't. I wouldn't laugh if they didn't, because that's the universe.
Mark :Yeah, cam was going to come back and kick you for that one.
Linzi:I just I'm not happy about that. This is a really I'm not.
Mark :Well, the last one is a more positive one.
Linzi:It's a nice story.
Mark :I'm going to give you a nice story Scenic Cruises.
Linzi:Well, okay.
Mark :Who do river cruises and some ocean cruises, yeah.
Mark :I think they're yeah, um, I think the better known for the river cruises yes, um, but that's a nice looking one. I've decided to do a first ever summer black friday sale. Oh, nice. Now we've seen lots of uh, in particular, things like the shopping channels do yeah, black friday in july, in april, in may, in march, and it's become a bit of a thing. But one of the questions that we get asked quite a lot is when's the best time to book a cruise? You know when's the main sales point, which historically we've said around the black friday time in november or start of the wave season, when the perks tend to come on or when the cruise is first gone sale. They're generally the types where you're going to get the best things, yeah, but these ones have kind of booked the trend a little bit and gone. We're going to have a summer sale. Yeah, the genuine savings. So I want an adult one when I work on that and obviously this type of saving is at the top end of it, but of up to $2,000 per person.
Linzi:A saving.
Mark :Saving, okay, because they're not taking anything else away. Okay, it saving. Saving okay, um, because they're not taking anything else away. Okay, it's just. This is what the price was. All right, there's two thousand dollars off, um, but, as you can imagine, that's on the fanciest rates. Yeah, for most people it was substantial less, but it was still the thing. Would you like to see more during the summer sales? Because, generally speaking, the reason that they do it in sort of november and black friday is people are kind of geared up to spending money in that time with um disposable income and at christmas yeah straight after it's the new year, it's generally a bit cold, depending where you live when were these cruises for, with the late availability, or could you book?
Mark :no, no, they were for booking up to, I think, 2026 he says to me the pricing was wrong to start with would you like to see other cruise lines doing stuff in summer, or do you think that's just? Do you think people are already looking at the holidays at that point and they're already got booked? They're not looking to spend additional money when they're just about to go away that's a very good point.
Linzi:I think also, what was the deposits?
Mark :I honestly don't know?
Linzi:yeah, because sometimes they'd be asking to put 15 percent down yeah, and I honestly don't know I should have researched that.
Mark :it's all right, I feel that I've let you and the listeners and the watchers know. I will check and I will put it in the description.
Linzi:Okay, because that says to me then cash grab. So I'm yeah, it's nice that they're doing it. I'd like to know that it's genuine, that you know they've come up with not just a pricing strategy.
Mark :Yeah, and that they've over egged strategy and that they've over egged it and therefore they need to regroup yeah, but doing it at a different time to everyone else, when everyone else is doing it around that Black Friday in January time. Do you research for the $2000?
Linzi:more expensive.
Mark :And everyone else is doing it around that Black Friday in January time.
Linzi:I would say do your research for the $2,000 more expensive.
Mark :Absolutely, definitely. Do your research, make sure it works. We've not been on Scenic, we're not affiliated with Scenic, we're not going on Scenic any time soon. It just caught me as, oh, someone's doing a sale at a different time.
Linzi:Yeah, yeah.
Mark :As opposed to an offer.
Linzi:They can have a point for that.
Mark :You get offers from the cruise lines all the time you do, but an actual popper sail seemed a little bit unusual at that time. Okay, well, that brings us to the end of this slightly different podcast. Next time we'll be back to a more not a more perky topic I hope so we will.
Linzi:Oh, that was nice.
Mark :Oh, I needed, so we will oh that was nice.
Linzi:Oh, I needed that. Cheers darling. Cheers Lynx Thanks for listening and have a lovely day.