I always find these discussions fascinating. Past cruiser or not here is my take:
The cruise industry is DOMINATED by the mass market lines. Whether we like it or not, they drive the perception of value in the cruise industry. How many of you have asked your friends to join you on RSSC only to be told "I saw an ad for XXX to Alaska for $599"? Although we all have loyalty to RSSC, that loyalty does not pay the bills. Radisson is going for a market that is probably less than 10% of all cruisers. That small market also does not pay the bills. Would they like to intervene on the rest of the 90%? You bet! But to do so in Radisson fashion they either charge higher per diems or they cut corners. For a cruiseline that cannot figure out which side of the fence it sits on, Radisson is in a no win situation. Be cost conscious like the mass markets or provide a higher level of cruise?
For us, we have already seen the "depreciation" of Radisson......with only three ships to cover all the places people want to go they simply cannot provide the flexibilty we are looking for. We are the definition of "move up" cruisers, the very market Radisson should covet. We were fortunate to be appraised of the Jan27 Navigator, which at this point looks like a steal, but otherwise we were looking elsewhere for our cruise fix, including rivals of Radisson.
Should Radisson raise the prices to compete for 10% of all cruisers? In my opinion that would be complete suicide. Positioning themselves between the mass markets and the luxury lines seems smart. If the reality turns out to be that Radisson cannot make a go of the "in between" market they will probably be relagated to the high end of the "premium" lines instead of the low end of the luxury market which would be the kiss of death for the typical value cruiser. Radisson NEEDS to find a way to market themselves in that "in between" market and sell their differences. That is the appealing part of Radisson for us and I am guessing for most of you. If they can, then great...if not then I continue my quest for the best bang for my diminishing vacation dollars. Simple
