shipshape sam

Most companies do internal polling and may also use professional polling to gauge/guide them. I used to work for a company that did some work for/with banks. It was interesting discussing some of the results with a few in management. In one case, they used the term "scorched earth". By their own modeling they knew, per the model, what percent of customers would leave the bank and take their money with them. They also knew what percentage of customers would complain and most likely do nothing. Using those metrics, they could calculate a purchase price that would be an acreative purchase of another bank. Celebrity is not stupid. They also know that most if not every cruise line is doing similar changes to they offerings. To those planning to leave, just be sure you are not going from the skillet to the frying pan. We like Celberity, but hate many of the cutbacks, hate the much higher fares. We have tried other cruise lines in the last few years and for most part not much difference. As only one example, we diverted to HAL's Rotterdam this past year and it was excellent in the musical entertainment category or no different (within reason) in other areas to Celebrity. So, we have booked another Rotterdam sailing. I am taking my own advice and we are now booking with Itineraries and price we feel matches the value offered along with the hope/knowledge that our top preferences are still offered. Will it always work out? No, but we no longer give Celebrity 'brownie points or a starting edge" and NOT all cutbacks effect us in our value proposition. Again, we like Celebrity but have found that Carnival and HAL are okay for us too. We also have a few Royal Caribbean cruises scheduled with the grands and Celebrity cannot compete with kid featured amenities. Finally, we are planning lots of land based trips, so for us at least, cruising is not the only option and Celebrity is not the only choice.

Taking pictures of bottles for next cruise.

With the stated date of November 14th, how many people will check their Captain's Club account in hopes of an earlier deposited date. Once the points are there, then what. A quick smile and then on to the next quest for points.🙂

Bummer about not having a forward viewing area other than Retreat area.

Rudi's is great. Plan to go there a couple of times on next Rotterdam cruise. Tamarind, for me okay, couple with us love it as did DW. Will have to check out Pickleball. Never played it, but I understand they have some lessons

Having sailed a lot of Celebrity cruises and overall loved the early ones and not so much the most recent ones (in comparison) Still liked them. Last Celebrity was in January 2023 on Beyond and then in March 2023 we sailed Rotterdam. For us, it was great. I really liked the music (Live bands/pianos) that were playing each night and all evening, not just one set. Rock and Roll, Blues, and two pianos. Out of our 11 day sailing I would guess 7 of the nights had all 3 groups playing those nights, usually 45 minute sets with 45 minutes off. The blues band had a completely separate location next to the area where the rock and roll bank and the two pianos played. I say all the above to say, we have now booked again on Rotterdam for an early 2025 cruise. We were thinking of Ascent, but have pushed that option out to a later year. They still do some production shows (I think) but we never went to one. We were listening to live music almost every night and it was great. Everyone seemed to be having a great time and for sure there was a lot of the audience singing along! Still missed cafe bacio and all the choices there. Rotterdam has a very nice one too, just more limited in desserts. They also had a New York style deli and I did not find it till day 4 and then it was hard not go back there for lunch for great corn beef everyday. I wish everyone a great NEXT cruise.

Good luck on refund. They have canceled at least on sailing doing the partial transit, but only the Panama Canal portion by rerouting ship/cruise to another port.

Gratituies are a dollar value promoted and the same dollar value of expensed-not a good deal for Celebrity. WiFi is a joke as they have a much lower cost than stated value passenger receives. Same for drink packages, maybe not as much profit.

Booked HAL about 2 months ago for a early 2025 cruise and gratituies were included. They mention it was due to early booking as I recall. They did not define what 'early booking' period was.

Someone mention to me on our Beyond cruise earlier this year that they could override the operation of the windows. I was a little surprised about that, but guess there could be a time when they want them all up. Enjoy your cruise on Ascent. I hope we sail on her in next year or two. Want to get back on an S class ship too. 😀

As I understand the reciprocal of status is that if you are Elite or higher on Celebrity and you sail on Royal, you would get the Elite level of benefits. If for example you are Classic level on Celebrity, then you would be given the equivalent tier on Royal. So, again as I understand it, you will be given the benefits of whatever is the equivalent of Elite for your sailing on Royal . That has always seemed like some middle ground to me. Also, I am not saying you get Elite benefits, but you get the benefits that whatever the equivalent level on Royal offers.

Why not have a bank or banks of traditional balconies. Not on the same schedule for me and DW is when I get up in middle of night, I like to pull back the curtains and see what I can see. With IV, you have to run the mechanical up/down switch for about 20 seconds and it is loud in middle of night. 🤫

She seemed very polish, but I thought too that she addressed your issue with removing 'favorites' from the menu. Do not plan to listen to it again though for specifics. It did sound like they were doing some adjustments inside the tiers in that they may provide some benefit once you have reached for example 1250 points in Elite Plus without creating a new tier which Laura indicated they have no plans to do. They actually already do this. Also I like the idea of some form of combining/credit for sailing a 'sister' companies ship. They already do it up to Elite and Diamond levels, but not beyond that, thus currently you have to earn Elite Plus and Diamond Plus on each line. We are taking our granddaughter on a couple of Royal Caribbean cruises and it would be nice to get some credit for that on Celebrity as we are 22 points from Diamond Plus and have 17 days schedule (a day sailed = a point towards next tier). Still have no thought of making the highest tiers on either Royal or Celebrity. Absent any changes, we will make Diamond Plus in 2025.

That would be a very nice feature to go back and hear something you many have missed and want to clarify.

Yeah, I really liked the seminar not fading in and out and it seemed to be of a better quality production. I liked, concept without any meat on it yet, doing some combining of loyalty systems, maybe adding some traditional balconies ( DW and I are not always on same schedule as Laura mention), We will make Diamond Plus on Royal in 2025 based, so that figures. I will hope for some more live music like HAL Rotterdam has nightly. Good luck on your quest for Elite tier status. We are Elite Plus and it is nice, so have some great cruises as you move up tiers.

I like twice a day and would be disappointed in not having it. I like idea of asking, thus both single and twice daily service is available.

I used to say I would never sail Carnival again after a lot of drunken groups on a 5 day cruise we were on. Then Carnival went to Havana.... Got to go to Havana just a month or two before it was closed to cruising again.

It is. Maybe there is a class action suit in there somewhere.😜

Good luck. Industry is projecting 10% passenger growth over next few years and with that growth, it will be a challenge to find the least price increase. Demand will be brisk.

LOL I think you nailed it.

Don't believe we will see many more PUP's being earned by quizzes. First off, my guess, is that their return is not worth the points they provide, ie very few people booking a cruise. I think I read more people providing and/or looking for the answers without watching the program. Secondly, I have read that the volume of people booking in 2024 and 2025 is massive industry wide, thus why mess with PUP's. Anyone wanting to move to next level should be looking to book a cruise and go have a great time! Then enjoy the CC points being added to their account and hopefully gaining the next higher CC level. For the mass majority, Elite Plus is the highest level they will achieve, so if there, like I am, looking to earn more PUP's is just for the 'hunt', not to actually reach the next level.

We like trying some food dishes we would not have otherwise. My favorite is Escargot every night.

We were there in 2021. Not much to see or do if you just want to sight see or walk around. At least that was our experience. We had not planned to get off ship, but decided to once we were docked. We took a shuttle that was get on/get off and that worked great. Stopped and looked at a beach and then stopped at another beach then a shopping area then back to ship. Wishing you a great trip and day in Bimini. We are not beach/sun people, but the beaches were busy.

Will check that out as my major problem with IV is the up and down direction of the mechanical blind and the noise it makes, especially if wanting to see outside in middle of night and DW is sleeping.

It did have some beer name plates, but the beer I wanted was out, so not sure if it was working.