MamaFej

Thanks for that perspective. We've done M & S Class on Celebrity, not E. Our largest ship has been Royal Class on Princess. We have discovered, since the restart, that we really like the smaller ships. Docking closer to the things we want to see (sometimes hours closer) and having more overnights is a real plus for us. The smaller ships just seem to suit us well for other reasons, as well. I don't imagine we will ever do a mega ship, unless we have grandkids (doubtful at this point) and travel with them. We did mostly RV travel when our kids were younger, taking them to 49 states and a few territories and provinces that way. The National Parks Pass is a huge bang for the buck! I'm writing this from our motor home in a valley nestled into the San Jacinto mountains at the moment. We did nearly burn out our brakes coming down to your hometown one day. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggerration, but not a huge one.

I'm going to need to go look for Charla's review. We've never done the Caribbean, and it's not a high priority, but I do appreciate my fellow Gen-Xer's point of view. Her budget is WAY bigger than mine, however, her perspective is intriguing and her writing style is fun. Thanks to everyone who shares their experiences and alternatives to X. We are cruising newbies compared to most folks here, but we have sailed quite a bit in recent years, and on Celebrity more than with anyone else We have more days booked with them than anyone else. Nonetheless, I am becoming disillusioned, like many others.

Linda, it is so nice to see you. I was wondering about you, as I have not seen any posts by you in a while. Maybe I have just not been in the right threads. Anyway, I'm glad you're still around here. ------- We now return you to your regularly scheduled Jim and Iain aficionado thread.

Even with very few people onboard in September 2021 on both Millennium and Majestic Princess a week or so later, WiFi in Alaska was very iffy. I agree with @phoenix_dream. I don't think it's fair to blame X on this one. I'm glad to see @Cruiser_Steven acknowledge this. I'm not piling on, I'm just confirming. We've had similar issues that far north in our RV. Perhaps as the Starlink network expands, this will improve. So far, there just is not enough demand at those lattitudes to provide great connectivity...yet.

Our first back was Millennium out of Seattle to Alaska. 600 passengers. 900 crew. Utterly amazing! It was a couple of days shy of B2B with a Princess cruise on a similar itinerary (using up those credits). That one was one week too late. We had a perfect day in Glacier Bay, but only made it to one port, as the weather made darn sure we couldn't dock. 70 knot winds and 10 meter + swells. Princess threw OBC at us every time we lost a port, plus gave us a 35% FCC. The ship was not crowded, but the shops were, as everyone had OBC to spend and they were selling all the Alaska merch (originally purchased for the 2020 season) at 75% off. The whole family got Alaska jackets for Christmas. Hey... those might come in handy in the Arctic before we board an expedition ship and get those nifty parkas.

That dream is actually for the Arctic. Polar bears, not penguins. Two of my kids are teachers with overlapping school years, so they we only have a small window in northern summer during which both are available. The third is still in college, and still undecided on a career. Hopefully, he will be able to get away from whatever it ends up being for that grand adventure.

Somehow, I think you'll be okay. If not, I'll do my very best to try to muster up some sympathy. 😉 Alas, I think I've had my last cruise with you and Iain (Summit for 2 last August/September). I hope you will love this new chapter!

Me, too. As travel was starting up in 2021, my dear friend and travel agent got us a killer deal to join him and his wife, as well as his cousin and her husband on a Winsdstar cruise in French Polynesia: 113 passengers on a ship designed for 300. It was pretty darn heavenly. Since then, we've done two Azamara, a Viking, and (another crazy "It's good to have a TA for a friend" deal) SilverSea expedition to Antarctica, with 174 passengers on a ship designed for 296, I think. My BIG dream at the moment is to take the three adult kids on an Arctic expedition in July of 2025 to celebrate Hubby's 60th, oldest's 30th, 2 Masters degrees and a Bachelor's degree. We figure we can't take the money we've worked so hard to save and invest with us when we die, so we may as well take our kids with us to spend it on awesome experiences making awesome memories while we are alive. I don't know if I can pull this off and still be able to travel much more with just the Hubby, but I'm working on it. There I go, off on a tangent, again.

I get it. After all, if I had a dollar for every "I'm going to be in a suite, what does a butler do?" posts, I might be able to afford to book a suite. I just think that improving comunication would benefit both passengers and X by generating goodwill and decreasing confusion and frustration.

That bone helps those of us who are canceling and rebooking. It helps X because more people will buy ShoreEx and Specialty dining than would have previously. and the WiFi upgrades are pure profit. I'm not saying everything is sunshine and roses, I'm still looking elsewhere for the future. I'm just saying that X were smart to get some of their customers saying nice things and being happy. They may have even prevented some cancelations.

I said something similar on another thread. Turning the conversation to a more positive tone is a wise investment.

This conversation reinforces my belief that Celebrity's comunication is dreadful. Why should it be so unclear who is responsible for what? Why should anyone in a suite go 9 days without seeing anyone from the Butler Team? Why should "I think the 2 butlers are..." even be a thing? I am not blaming the posters here for what they are saying. At all. Y'all are paying a pretty penny to be in Retreat. You should have a really good idea of what you can expcet onboard, and you certainly should have met members of the team before Day 9. I have a sneaking suspicion that a great deal of the negativity on message boards and social media about Celebrity could be avoided with decent communication.

Perceived value is such an important concept! Each of us has to decide what is valuable to us. That can, and should, change over time. I appreciate the folks with bigger budgets talking about their experiences and values. I appreciate folks like @poeticlicensed . I appreciate the folks with smaller budgets talking about what matters to them, and how they are making decisions. I think we can all learn from each other. That is why I am following a few of these "Alternatives to" threads.

Your English is fantastic. I'm sorry Princess is not responding to you.

@Ken the cruiser, the canapes (we asked for fruit plates) on Eclipse disappered between our B2Bs in Aqua before you boarded. We disembarked for the 3 day when you got there, then reboarded, in a Verandah for SYD to HNL. On our trip, we experienced an SS on a Move Up bid, B2B with a CS that the Retreat Concierge reserved for us due to a no-show (for a small onboard uncharge), a break for a self-drive land tour of NZ, then B2B Aquas, then the long leg in the Verandah. The first two would have been in Aqua without the upgrades. We had thought it had worked out backwards, that it would have been better to work our way up, rather than down. It actually worked out well. We were a bit tired of long meals and being waited on every night, so we split that last cruise between Specialty and the buffet. One night in the MDR was one too many. Anyway, we are normally Verandah cruisers on X, and Aqua when we can. We don't need a large cabin, but they're nice when we luck into them. As the suite folks are moving up to Regent and such, we are looking there, but mostly looking at lines in the Azamara range, as they are priced well for our needs.

We were able to upgade for $2.99 pp/pd on a few 2024 cruises tonight. I canceled a previous sale price upgrade on one, and used the difference form this and some excursion repricing to buy a specialty dining package on one cruise. I think X is wise to offer such a helpful sale this Labor Day weekend. It is changing the mood and tone of the Celebrity-related conversation

On one cruise, we had a lot of OBC (remember the "Indulge" price quirk?) and had booked a bunch of excursions with it during the last sale. I was able to cancel and rebook those, as well as cancel and rebook the WiFi upgrade. The new prices left us with enough to purchase a 5 night dining package. Not too shabby. I'll look at other cruises tomorrow, including the ones we might cancel. Thanks to all who've answered questions and to our Land of Enchantment poster for starting the thread.

I'll say it again: Celebrity may or may not think we are dumb, but they certainly hope we are.

Are folks getting the OBC reinstated immediately upon canceling? I'd like to cancel and rebook a few excursions, but some have only 2-3 spots left. I'm concerned I might lose the spot if I have to wait for the OBC. Thanks.

In my experience, there is not a speed difference. The advantage of Premium is the ability to stream, to make phone calls, etc. It seems to us that they throttle down speed on video sites and such for the standard internet access. We use Premium primarily for being able to talk to family, largely for health reasons. Sometimes we will stream show episodes or a movie.

You are very kind. Some of my posts demonstrate my twisted sense of humour. Those are a bit less measured and sensical, but I do try to be logical in my more serious posts. That U in humour was just for you, by the way.

I imagine that, if Celebrity had instead decided to include a hot, fresh from the oven cookie with gelato purchase, they would end up selling a lot more gelato, and would not have created the drama. It could have been perceived as an addition, not another cut. - - - - - - - Regarding New To Cruise/New to Brand cruisers, I hope that the booking information is very clear that gratuities will be added to the folio. We here all know to budget for gratuities (and most, it seems, would like them baked into the initial fare). New cruisers might not know. If they don't find out about auto gratuities until onboard, I forsee plenty of issues, including many of these new cruisers demanding to have gratuities removed. As with many businesses, folks at the top make decisions and folks down the line have to deal with the consequences.

I have posted about that progression, too. It seems that Celebrity served as a bridge from Royal to the higher end lines. For RCI, that used to mean Azamara, and now means SilverSea. I do not understand why they are seemingly blowing up that bridge, sending their customers elsewhere, rather than keeping it strong and continuing to charge tolls while directing customers to their top line.

There is nothing special about me to anyone but my family and friends. I did, however, feel as though we were becoming the sort of cruiser a line like Celebrity would consider a priority. PapaFej and are middle-class recent retirees in our 50s, with pretty good savings and reliable pensions. We have sailed with X more than any other line, and have more booked with them. We have brought our young adult kids on cruises, in second cabins, starting nine years ago when they were 19, 15, and 12. We still travel with them once in a while, and are seeking a big adventure in 2025 to celebrate some major milestones. In my perhaps delusional view, we are (were?) pretty good candidates for priority market targeting. I think we will likely do less cruising than we had anticipated, but on traditionally more expensive lines.

Disclaimer: I am not a business person. My only experience with worrying about profit was in the context of organizing and working at fundraising events for the non-profit school and community organizaions I've volunteered for over the decades. Small potatoes. That said, it seems short-sighted, to me, to squeeze out/diminsh the Premium lines. I see them as potential bridges from the mass market lines to the Premium Plus or Luxury lines. Certainly, some cruisers start out crusing the Luxury lines. Most don't. Most never will. I would imagine that most cruisiers start at the Carnival or RCCL, etc. level. If they enjoy that level, they might continue cruising, eventually moving to the HAL or Celebrity level. If they continue to enjoy cruising as their incomes and financial security rise, they may come to move to Premium Plus and then perhaps to the true Luxury lines, some of which are owned by parent companies of Mass Market and Premium lines. If, for example RCCL cruisers feel they'd enjoy a more premium experience like Celebrity has traditionally been, but aren't yet ready to go to SilverSea, what might they do? Taking away that bridge won't necessarily keep them on the side of the stream they started on, it may cause them to eschew cruising altogether in favor of Premium travel experiences elsewhere. Why not keep the bridge, and keep collecting the tolls, even (and especially) if they never cross the bridge entirely? It also seems to me, that with so many Celebrity cruisers here and on other platforms, talking about jumping ship to lines such as Oceania, Viking, Azamara, and even Regent, Seabourn, Crystal, etc., that RCI would do well to offer a one-time loyalty bump relative to current Captains Club level on Celebrity for SilverSea in order to try to keep cruisers "in the family" so to speak. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️