How many not so good cruises till you stop using a cruise line ?

Interesting question. We have been on 11 cruises and all with Carnival. Were there issues, yes but to the degree that you have listed, no. So til a cruise from hell occurs there will be no boycott.

With that being said, however, if we got the best price possible then we would cruise with any cruiseline.

The only one we actively avoid is Carnival. The one cruise we had with them had terrible service and the staff couldn't answer even basic questions. Beyond that, the stage entertainment didn't start until 10:00 pm. We like to be relaxing in the cabin soon after. We have sailed NCL quite a bit, but not for 6 years. We are booked for a Feb. sailing, so we will see if they are as good as they used to be. We really like the Freestyle cruising. RCI is our main line now.

Hmm that would depend I suppose on the nature of the problem. Some problems can be overlooked once or twice while others cannot be. Also it would depend on the service and response from the cruise line if a complaint was lodged. There will always be substandard employees or mistakes made on any cruise ship with any cruise line but the real indicator of a good line would be how they respond to such things. Do they deny and fight tooth and nail over things or are they classy in how they handle complaints or bad situations. That point to me would be more of a decider.

Like others have said, I guess it would depend on the types of issues I had on the first one. But if they are minor or things that I might hear got better over the years, I would try a cruise line again even if I wasn't thrilled with them the first time around. If I went on several cruises on different ships and still saw the same issues every time, maybe I'd start to avoid them.

As a side note, I loved my one cruise (so far) on NCL! It was on the Star and it really made me fall in love with that cruise line. It's funny how different people's experiences can be. I'm curious as to how their newer/larger ships are.

Wow...that's a tough one. We have cruised NCL, CARNY, RCL. I have repeatedly said that having a "bad" experience on one cruise out of someones entire fleet and then deciding that the entire line is bad is probably unfair, but its a totally human reaction. We have had ONE "poor" cruise on NCL, but that was limited to a poor steward, and one bad experience in a specialty dining room. The weather wasn't the best either as I remember..So we keep going back to them, and that hasn't repeated itself. Can it happen again? of course. Would we stop cruising with them in favor of another line? I don't think so. The decision to "try" another line would be more out of curiousity, assuming it was convenient and the price was right. That's how we wound up "trying" others anyway. The only "ratings" I pay any attention to are my (our) own observations. The trip home is just long enough to have that whole conversation. Fortunately we've NEVER had one with anybody where we couldn't wait to get off, or swore we'd "never cruise with them again.."

BTW, as an aside, its a pleasant enough problem, isn't it? I mean, being able to pick and choose cruises, cruise lines, and so on?

Just got back from one on BREAKAWAY...going again feb 7, same ship, same cabin. Then 2 more on GETAWAY. I was one of those who wondered if it was possible for ship to be "too big". Was perfectly willing to cancel as necessary, depending.. Unwarranted fear I can tell you. One of the best cruises we have been on. And we were successful in crowd avoidance, for the most part. Hung around with a few other couples we met on the ship who were doing the same thing. We spent most days up in a private retreat on deck 17..no not HAVEN...I can't speak to crowds at the pool, because we had our own "facility". But nevertheless, we never felt crowded, or the ubiquitous "well what do we do next?"...many many places all over to sit, drink, munch, people watch, etc etc...BTW, we did the STAR, and its was just fine thankyou...but the MEGAS blow the other classes away.

For me it would depend on the nature of the problem and how the cruise line dealt with it. For example, being on the "poop cruise" on Carnival Triumph would turn me off the line for good. A bad room steward or a bad meal or two? Not so much.

That said, I've decided to stay away from Carnival. Not that any single thing was wrong. It's that I've sailed with them 3 times. Each time, I enjoyed it less. By the last one, I actually found myself bored. Everyone in my family agrees that RCI is a better line, and we stick with it unless there is a compelling reason to go with someone else.

1 - Zero tolerance

We have had a few cruises that were totally bad and if they had been our first we would never have cruised again. Fortunately by the time we had the first disaster, we knew enough to know that was not normal and move on. In all of our Carnival experiences we have had 3 that we would like to erase, yet we learned a lot about ourselves, the industry and how to deal with the situation. One was mostly being disappointed in services and not getting some promised (and I do mean promised) things. Another was just obnoxious fellow passengers that the crew wouldn't or couldn't do anything about and he ship was in pitiful condition to start with. The first was one of those cruises that everything from boarding, shows, service, lost luggage, delays, curt crew, poor food and mismanaged debarkation (all on one cruise) went off t he tracks. At least we didn't sink (just for your amusement, it was our 13th cruise). We are willing to try most any cruise, but at least we have a baseline and know what should happen. In life, things happen and a cruise ship is really just a small city floating on the water.

That last was well said...I think I mentioned awhile back in here that like life, "stuff" happens. The crew deals with it or not, YOU deal with it (or not)...either way, mostly, you learn and move on. Most people anyway. If the handful of things that have happened over the years would have soured us on the experience, we would've missed the other 98% that we enjoy immensely.