Hello, my wife and I just returned from a cruise on Beyond, a Celebrity Ship. We are very frequent cruisers and we spend most of our time on Celebrity. But after this trip on Beyond, I am rethinking that decision. The ship itself is beautiful - the service was fine, dining was Celebrity average, and our stateroom was perfect. But they've been making some changes on board, slowly but surely, and on this trip we had the feeling that it's time to revolt. A new "class system" has been imposed on the ship.
One of the beauties of travel via cruise ship, at least on Celebrity in the past, has been that everyone is treated equal and the courtesies and services apply equally to all. Of course, there are class distinctions between those who buy Concierge or Aqua Class and Suites and so on. Those we are used to, and whether someone gets a tray of little appetizers before dinner or not has never affected us. Those were understandable distinctions between the price of the rooms.
But now, these Edge class ships have relegated the entire top/forward portion of the ship to suite passengers. OK -- I can even get used to that, although I certainly miss the wonderful viewing and cocktail lounge up there on the older ships (the Club doesn't cut it). This trip, we found that attending the theater at night was made difficult because they had security guys and roped off areas of the theater reserved for "high priority people." Now, I'm about as high up as you can get in their incentive program (one notch from top) so I was really surprised to find out that we are NOT high priority passengers. No sir, we had to sit off to the side or in the less-preferable seating no matter how early we showed up. They have these reserved, DESPITE the warning you are given audibly when they announce to the crowd "The saving of seats is prohibited." Well, clearly they don't take their own advice on this any longer.
I am not a grumbler. I accepted the Suites section that replaced my favorite lounge and I've accepted all the different cabin options that provide goodies like private dining or appetizers. But my family will not accept nor feel comfortable when a cruise line blocks entrance to their entertainment and suggests that there is some amorphous class of passenger who deserves my seat. I asked them each evening how these passengers were selected and the security guys could not or would not answer.
Is this the beginning of a slippery slope? Will there be more ropes and seat blocking for these highly valued customers? Perhaps in Oceanview Buffet for the next round of changes? I thought that ALL guests on Celebrity were valued, in the same way and for the same reasons. We are loyal -- we are consistent providers of revenue to the corporation. When a company starts thinking that it is so unique it can separate people into groups like this . . . that's when they lose their core.
