Catknitty

I care how people are treated by the company I am giving money to as I make many decisions about how I spend my money on fair treatment to a companies employees. Personally, I will never understand not wanting to make sure I am spending my money with fair companies. I did not inquire and the info came out inadvertently. I asked in the dining room because I was sure I had to have heard incorrectly but no, I heard it right. People who are desperate may sign a contract that is unfair and I don't have to spend my money with a company that is not treating their staff fairly. People who have worked for a company for a long time may believe that fair pay will come back, true or not. People who may not understand exactly what they are signing are also taken advantage of. If you don't want to know how people who are working hard making your vacation happy are being treated them don't ask. I do want to know.

According to the crew that I talked to this is rather new that they are paid less for less passengers and that Celebrity is promising that "one day" it will go back to the way it was where they were paid the same no matter how many people are onboard.

No, this doesn't have anything to do with tips. This is their pay but of course if a room steward doesn't have as many people staying in their rooms then tips are down too. Our room steward was saying , and it came out inadvertently, he wasn't oversharing, that if you have less customers Celebrity pays you less. We were in a suite and all the suites were full and they were down two butlers so there were only two for all the suites instead of 4 but the butlers didn't get more pay, they just ran their butts off. But some of the inside and veranda cabins had less people and those crew were paid less. It's not their fault and they still work them like crazy finding other stuff for them to do but still less pay. When we mentioned this to one of our dinner crew they said yes and it also applies in the dining room.

We eat dinner there alot! I do see crew eat there but they do have to eat so it is being used. Many other people eat in OV for dinner especially on dress up nights as lots of us just want to be casual and enjoy the view in OV where the blinds are open and we can see the ocean. 🙂 No I wouldn't leave a cruise line because of 9.95 for room service or for less buffet food but I am thinking of leaving Celebrity for the continuous degrading of service and the feeling of paying alot to cruise and being treated like a cash cow once onboard. What really upset me on our trip in Dec was finding out that our room steward and the dining room staff are paid less when they have less customers. They aren't paid more when its full but Celebrity pays them less if their areas aren't full. That's appalling.

We were just on Millennium and ate at Oceanview often. I always prefer sitting outside and eating. We were in a suite and Luminae was small and jammed. We don't need that exposure so, again, outside was great. We had late lunches and quite a few dinners there. There is a diversity of food which we appreciate. The Luminae menu is rather strange and in Oceanview, the grilled fish from the grilled station and the roasted veggies were my dinner choice. I have read that that is one of the stations that are now closed for dinner along with the pasta bar, which was about the best pasta available on the ship. Many times on a Caribbean itinerary I don't want to do anything but wear shorts and t shirt and hang out on the back of the ship and eat dinner. If there is a much reduced evening Oceanview combined with the new 9.95 room service charge, then everyone will be crammed in the dining rooms. Everyone has always been, oh go to Oceanview if you don't want to dress up. welp, now what? Add to that the feeling that we are paying alot of money, having services reduced and already being hit up daily with people trying to get us to pay extra to have better food in specialty dining rooms.