retiredtraveler70

My seat on an aircraft (or my cabin on a Celebrity ship) is determined by what I pay. That's a given, and NOWHERE in this thread did anyone say that Celebrity shouldn't have Suites or upgraded rooms from the "standard." The move to rope off the Theater would be equivalent to Southwest Airlines taking away the bags of snacks and drinks that everyone gets and only giving those to their "extended legroom" seats. It's something taken away from one class and given to another. Totally different thing!

Yes, but the reason it doesn't begin until 2026 is that they have to retrofit a huge fleet of planes, to add the additional 3-5 inches of room for their premium seating. That would be like a ship with all Veranda rooms upgrading to one-third Suites. They are then offering something "extra" that you can select if you want the additional expense. The average flyer doesn't have anything taken away . . . it's just that the aircraft has been updated to include a section of better seating that people pay for. We have no qualms about having suites on a ship, or more legroom if you pay for it on an aircraft.

Thanks for posting, Saturn. I can see a similarity here to charging for luggage on airlines. By not charging for luggage, and allowing other airlines to continue that, Southwest has gained huge popularity as a result. There's a complete avoidance of "nickel and diming" their customers. While I don't expect that we'll ever see a Celebrity cruise without some extra charges as its a mid-Premium brand, the attitude of allowing everyone access in the same way to entertainment would be a refreshing change.

Great post! I think you'll see this the way it's going Rick. Funny . . . perhaps, the Oceanview will be first with a new roped off section, then the Martini Bar and finally, a special toilet.

Another Suites cruiser who doesn't need the roped-off areas . . . seems to me that someone from Celebrity ought to figure out that they are PO'ing more passengers than gaining friends by this policy.

Hi Ken, We used to travel HAL but have backed off a bit there. NCL on occasion, and the smaller ships on Viking. Good to have your comments, thanks. See you on board!

You didn't read much, that's for sure. What "bad seats" were reserved? All the prime areas were roped off -- NIGHTLY.

Not on this ship on that sailing . . . the entire center section, lower level, looked to be roped off. They brought in some regular chairs to go around the sides on the back of the theater, and those are the seats they directed us to.

Good point that it is Celebrity's seat, but that whole theater in the past had "no saving of seats is allowed" as the overriding dictum. They broke that rule themselves by stepping in with ropes and security personnel to enforce the "upper class" policy they'd initiated on that ship. It used to be for Chic nights only --- I can handle that. On this voyage, it was nightly.

Of course we will continue to address it. It sucks, and there CAN be a resolution if those who don't like the feeling express themselves. You don't care, and that's fine -- your opinion only and no intent here to insult you. This was a very critical part of our trip, when a Celebrity person made us feel like low life and I watched him do that to others as well. It's also been addressed in a letter to RCG management. You had some action on your issues with Celebrity . . . won't you please let my family pursue ours? Thanks.

I don't think that Suite passengers especially enjoy the reserved seating. At least the ones who have commented here or in other online fora. You're clearly a person who just rolls over, and my family will not do that. We have each family member posting queries about this in their social media, Mom Dad and Kids and it's very interesting that we seem to have tapped into something that many people have felt but not said anything about. If we all just roll over, corporations like this will make all kinds of decisions without getting passenger input. My guess is that RCG made these changes without any kind of consumer marketing circle -- they just put in the ropes and said "let's see what happens." A successful business, ESPECIALLY a cruise line, is a partnership between the business and the loyal customer. You start upsetting that particular apple cart and the cart will fall over.

Glad to hear that even Suite customers are noting BEYOND's issues. We cruise 4-5 times a year and while it has been primarily Celebrity, it's been spread between others and some not RCG lines. Nothing is as weird as a security guy telling you to go find another seat -- the "riff-raff" statement used in this thread came from someone else, not me, but I agree with him or her. That's how we felt.

As you'd find in another post, I mentioned that we arrive 20-30 minutes in advance. Always have. So, if you are a Celebrity fan-boy and believe that they do nothing wrong, keep cruising only on X. Personally, I loved the cruise line but believe they are making some easily correctable errors and if people don't tell them about it, it would never change.

Rick, I'm not bitter, as we had a nice cruise. I certainly learned something about my choice of cruise lines, however, and I will use this forum and other social media to draw out comments from those who agree (there are certainly many) and perhaps -- just perhaps -- someone in executive management will read them and take action. The "priority seating" in the theater is not a big deal evidently for those who have it (based on this thread - I don't follow the "boards") but it is a BIG deal when you walk in and some security guy warns you that there are more exclusive customers who get first choice of the seats they have roped off. (This despite their auditorium-wide announcements about "the saving of seats is not allowed." What a joke THAT is!)

How about taking this to a side conversation or email instead of hijacking a thread about another, important topic?