phoenix_dream

I am both shocked and dismayed that Celebrity would even consider this, much less implement it and believe it is a good idea. The cruise line I've loved for many, many years is changing in unwelcome ways. But it's not just about me. I understand they need to continue to bring in new customers as us old folks eventually can't cruise anymore. But a key word is eventually. Many of us loyalists have 20+ years or more of cruising ability yet to come and we had hoped to do so on Celebrity. Three and four night cruises are not just for a younger crowd, they are for a much, much younger crowd. What's the logic in that??? If anything, aim for the 40-50 year old crowd whose kids are grown or off to college and bring them into the mix for long-term survival. Having experienced a 5 night "Animal House" cruise during spring break several years ago with 700 college students onboard, trust me, Celebrity, this is not the demographic you want to attract, but I fear this change will do that.

Hope all is well and not much damage happened. That would be scary. Reminds me of one cruise of ours years ago on Celebrity. All of a sudden our ship leaned over to the side significantly - lots of damage to glasses and dishware crashing to the floor. As it turns out there was a boat that shot across right in front of our ship and the Captain had to do a very rapid turn to avoid hitting it. My adolescent son was sleeping in the cabin and almost fell off the bed.

Actually I do have some arthritis in one hand. Not sure when you sailed, but maybe you got one of the original cans. The current ones are easier to open than the ones they originally had. Try bringing a rubber jar opener - it helps me a lot (although I usually don't need it anymore on the newer versions)

If that's true, that's frustrating and deceptive IMHO. The minimum bid should be the minimum amount they will accept - at least in my perfect world. I've bid multiple times, mostly from Aqua Class trying to get a suite. Didn't bid minimum, but didn't go to 70 or 80% either. Am also Zenith (they give a token amount extra to us - I think it is 5%, which is why I am mentioning it). Have never won. I think besides capacity in general, the type of cabin matters as well. Suites almost always sell out, so on most cruises they are hard (albeit not impossible) to win bids for. Easier to win bids from inside or OV to a balcony of some type. On my upcoming cruise there was a fabulous price on insides and OV's. They are fully booked. AQ and CC have lots of openings. I'm sure move-ups will fill a lot of those categories when all is said and done. I also think if someone is doing analysis, they really need to disregard the first year or so after restart. Ships were at much lower capacity so I don't think it's comparing apples to apples to look at what happened then versus now, when many cruises are all but sold out. So many people reporting how lucky they were to get this higher level cabin and that, may find that it's an anomaly that will likely never happen again.

I thought the water tasted better as well. It also seemed easier to open - I didn't cut my hand like I have on the original cans.

Totally agree. It's kind of even port-wise but I would pick Sillhouette for the reasons you mention.

the gold cart rental office is within a block of where you get off the tender boat (Catalina, as is Santa Barbara, is a tender port)

Thanks for the suggestion - it doesn't hurt to try. Although if the vaping test goes fleetwide I may not be doing any more gambling in the casino anyway! (which may cause them so send me an offer next year LOL).

I'm more surprised at the comment about the bed size. IMHO none of the 'king sized' beds on Celebrity are as big as my standard king sized bed at home. Is it just me? Am I imagining it? I will say, though, that I find the beds very, very comfortable so not complaining, just surprised.

We had no issues with internet on our cruise this past winter. Sometimes you can encounter issues depending where you sail, but we didn't have any in the Caribbean.

No, the included package is classic, so you get classic water in cans.

I do that as well. I also take one of those round rubber jar openers as I have cut myself trying to open their sharp tops.

I only partially agree with this. Yes, ports have to give permission to have ships dock and perhaps went overboard due to greed. But it's the cruise lines themselves which are sailing towards their own demise in my opinion. They keep building larger and larger and larger ships to the point of insanity. Floating Disney Worlds. And there seems to be no end in sight! To me that is incredibly short sighted. We are beginning to see more and more ports refusing to allow ships or significantly decreasing the number and/or size. I am not very familiar with non-US ports, but here we have had prohibitions in Key West, Bar Harbor, and now Monterey. What's next?!?! Ports themselves are no longer as pleasant to visit when you are surrounded by wall to wall passengers (and that's just from our perspective - I can only imagine how the locals feel). How long before even more ports ban ships?? Pretty soon in order to survive the cruise lines will have to limit their sailings to cruises to nowhere, except perhaps one stop at a private island. One has to wonder what will happen to their ability to fill berths at that point. Right now we are still seeing the post-Covid travel surge, but that can't last forever. I can only wonder how the lines can survive long-term with the direction they are heading.

I guess they still consider you a newbie. No disrespect meant to you btw, I’d take advantage of it too if I ever got the offer.

Do you know if this is standard ship to ship(ok, I admit I started laughing at myself as I typed this)? It seems to vary from what I’ve seen, or maybe I just misunderstood.

The infuriating point is that the answer is zero. Those of us with modest or moderate gambling onboard get nothing. High rollers get freebies (no issue with that, they earned it). Newbies or those who haven’t sailed in several years get the freebies too as they’re trying to entice them to sail and gamble onboard.

I agree. If anything, these days it seems the younger (than Boomer) crowd seems to be the ones spending like crazy. For example, recently stayed at Wynn in Vegas, where the crowd normally tends to be 50 and up as it is one of the nicer and more expensive casino/hotels. Couldn’t believe how many families running around, many with strollers and toddlers. And I’m talking about eating there, and in the elevator hallways, so not just walking through. What used to be the norm no longer is. It’s no surprise credit card debt is the highest in history.

Nice response. Thank you

Yes, welcome back! To the boards and to Celebrity!

No need to be insulting. I shouldn't even bother responding, but for the record, when I say "plan accordingly" I mean I want to make sure I know who splits the money when I hand it over at the end of the cruise. That way I can plan accordingly and make sure I brought enough cash so as to give extra money directly to whoever is not included in the pool that is split (in Luminae for example). And if the butler is not included in the included tip money (which by answers above I now know they are), I can make sure that I tip him/her more. I want to make sure I don't tip too little. So at the end of the day, the exact opposite of what you are suggesting is my motive.

I agree. I am talking about extra money above and beyond any included tips.

Traveled on cruises with my son from age 4 to adult. I won't lie and say he wouldn't have preferred Royal ships, but he always had a good time. That's a warm weather cruise so the family can enjoy the pool together. We also always brought a couple of board games with us that were easy to travel such as Yahtzee (just take the parts you need, you don't need the whole box). They sometimes have a few games onboard but I would bring my own as sometimes pieces are missing. He didn't care to go to kids clubs either. He brought books, magazines, comics, handheld video games or loaded games and movies on his laptop (that was before IPads existed!). Not that you want them staring at a screen all day, but the Starlink internet is decidedly better than what they had previously so it's usually easy to stream things. The newer ships also have a better selection of tv movies if you want to watch one as a family. That cruise does have a few sea days I imagine, so hopefully these things will fill their time.

I always ask the hostess so I know for sure. I have been told different things on different ships. The sommelier I think has always been separate. But the maitre d is sometimes included but not always, at least as I've been told by the hostesses. Best to ask to make sure.

Exactly, although I would hope the majority were honest. The person who I was discussing this with said that their butler(s) had told them they were not included in the all included tip pool. Could be anything - the butler not fully understanding the question, the butler deliberately misleading, the person not explaining it correctly or fully, or as simple as someone deliberately posting bad information on the internet, which we know can always be believed🙂(although in this case I don't think it was that based on the history or their other posts)

Once you book with a TA Celebrity will not entertain any discussion or changes to your booking itself. (meaning, for things like perhaps booking extras like specialty restaurants or similar you can do that through Celebrity, but not for the cabin booking itself)