Listen to Rick's Column Here or Watch Rick's Column Here
My family and I spent Christmas taking my daughter's "dream vacation," a Caribbean cruise. I'm not much of a sun, sand, and sea guy, so my enjoyment of cruising is based on relaxation and good food. I prefer to select a larger ship that has all the amenities and a well-rated specialty restaurant.
On this particular trip, however, I decided to make cost the priority. I selected the smallest ship in the Celebrity fleet, the Zenith, knowing it didn't have a specialty restaurant. Still, the price was attractive; almost too low, in fact. There had to be a catch.
I asked the reservation agent what the catch was. He said the ship was being sold in April 2007 to another company. Since this was an obvious red flag, I asked why the ship was being sold. I was told it was because it lacked Celebrity's trademark balconies, and it was being replaced with an even smaller ship that had balconies. I decided this wasn't a problem. Being the value-oriented shopper that I am, I don't purchase outside cabins, preferring the cheaper inside staterooms.
Still, I thought I should do a little more checking on the Zenith. I grabbed my trusty Berlitz Guide to Ocean Cruising and Cruise Ships and looked her up. They gave the ship four out of five stars and a pretty good review. I checked with www.cruisecritic.com, which gave her a favorable review and rated her equal to the Galaxy, a ship our family had previously enjoyed. Having done my due diligence, I booked the cruise.
Within two hours of boarding the Zenith, I knew I had made a big mistake. The ship was a broken down mess. There was peeling paint and rust everywhere. The decks were dirty, the furnishings were worn and tattered, and my toilet didn't work for two days. The computers didn't support the programs I use to access my office desktop. The gym didn't have complete sets of weights, yoga mats, or fully functioning treadmills. The kids' play area was so small and sparse that we had to beg our kids to go there—a first.
It was what you might expect of a ship being sold soon, where the owners were doing everything possible to minimize capital improvements and milk every last bit of use out of her.
Fortunately, not everything was a mess. The food was very good and the showers had plenty of hot water.
All in all, London's "dream vacation" wasn't what I had hoped for. Still, I can't look back and beat myself up too much about my selection process. I was reasonably thorough in my due diligence. There simply are limits to what one can research.
In part this is because the information available about a product, a cruise ship, or an investment is based on past performance rather than current or future conditions. Brokers who sell investments often rely on "past performance" as a selling point. What they tend not to mention is the fact that changing market conditions and many other factors can turn past performance statistics into a bunch of irrelevant numbers. In addition, there is always the occasional investment where everything appears to check out fine, but reasons no one could have anticipated make it turn sour.
Is it a mistake to trust a brand name or rely on past performance? Not necessarily. What is a mistake is to assume that those elements are a guarantee of satisfaction. Whether it's a cruise ship or an investment, it's important to do as much research as you can. It's just as important to accept the truth that sometimes the reality won't live up to your expectations.
Great column Rick! You usually write great columns though, which is why I love to read them. However, I fully understand that your previously well-written columns are no guarantee that your future columns will be quite as great.
Posted by: Dr. Brad Klontz | 09 January 2007 at 02:01 PM