tfred

In general Ascent is less expensive than the other E Class ships. Sometime a little, sometimes more Doesnt appear to be itin related

look at any resort style Four Seasons and the nightly rate for a standard room is about $1500 and they are obviously getting. Now add on food and booze and $2000/night is pretty easy. That is a $14,000 week at the hotel. Service is good at FS but it isnt what goes on at Silversea even now with "cutbacks". SSea isnt stupid as they are constantly evaluating what actually moves the needle with customer satisfaction and eliminates services that cost (especially with labor) with little return. Silversea (and others) see that and say "Why not us?" They will jack the rates to match land resorts. Long time pax are unfortunately seeing that increase in real time, not a graduated curve.

many of these people are probably used to land hotels that allow just about anything. they figure that a cruise ship is just a floating hotel so why not bring what they are used to bring on land ?

the ability to get status access to lounges without actually sailing/staying /flying is what killed airport lounges Crowded - assuming that you can actually get in anymore.

The statistic that I saw once was that 40-50% of Caribbean pax never get off the ship - they view the ship as an all inclusive floating hotel that travels for a week. Most of the local flavor in that market has been bulldozed by a tsunami of 18k pax getting off multiple ships at one time. I would think the the average Silversea pax almost always get off as they are on port intensive worldwide cruises There is always a chorus of Retreat suite pax on the X board that are talking of defecting to the next level up when they see X suite prices - Oceania, Silversea, Regent et al. The prices per day are comparable. All sounds good except those next level up ships are not easy to get to (or return from) , leave on Monday and return the week following Thursday. The rising tide does lift all the boats at the Royal group.

I think the cruise rate, no matter what cabin level, is just a discount and is not a function of the actual retail prices. X isn’t going to start heavily discounting the Retreat no matter what your level. Why would they? It is their premium product that seems pretty popular at present prices. X appreciates Z business but that love only goes so far

well X is obviously "protecting the integrity" (using airline terms) of the Retreat. They aren't discounting that much for anyone. The Z discount seems to be about 5% for a Sky Suite. Its something but it isnt 10% using the 90pp number. Cruise lines are there only hospitality area that doesn't weed out participants by making them re-up with dollars or nights every year or two. They should start doing that I dont know what the cutoffs should be but instant lifetime status doesnt help anyone. Sets expectations of pax that may become economically difficult in the future.

What were the actual numbers?

that occupancy number above 100% is basically pure profit it also means is that the ships are not sailing with empty cabins - they are full - which is why there is minimal discounting. There are some cruises that are reduced for sure, but widespread discounts are not being done. Discounts that historically included OBC and tips are now gone

Move ups are space available, literally last minute. Potential pax at that price level are less affected by cost than the average veranda customer Move up people are looking for a bargain Straight up suite purchasers are not - they want value The Z program is probably less of a price reduction for X. They know the numbers and have determined that this keeps Zs quiet(er). They know the cruise frequency of Zs and what impact this will be

I wouldn't get too giddy until the Retreat cruise only rate is announced. Looking at the cruise only rates for other cabins levels, it is only $500-700 savings per person. That is a nice number but Sky Suites are generally in the $10k range so a suite will still be potentially expensive X isn't going to offer a suite at Veranda prices X (like every other company) isn't going to discount their best product. I flew a lot (and I mean a lot) on Delta and it was exceedingly rare that anyone received an upgrade to business on an overseas flight (domestic was different)

no. There really isnt a reason for that They may want to know how much liquor the average quest on different packages actually drink to get an idea of costs. Now there is quite a bit of free, unregistered pours going on X ma just want to know what the average pax actually drink s

Companies want to keep long time "presently profitable" customers. Customers they had years ago that were profitable then are a nice memory but no one is going to go out of their way to keep low margin customers no matter how fond they are of them. They may be finding that Zeniths are bored by the meat of the X market cruises - 7 day Caribbean, big city Med cruises. I would wonder if many long time Z cruisers would be bored by those itineraries and would gravitate to other lines by choice in any case I am a lifetime Titanium with Marriott (sorta like Zenith) and I can say that while Marriott appreciates by previous business they will only do so much when I check in now. They aren't throwing flower petals on the lobby floor. X knows this and is modeling their business model on land hotels. They know all the metrics X wants people on 4 day cruises, because they think that it could be a stepping stone to get those same people on 7 day cruises if they like the experience.

Transformation doesn't have to be all bad, As a historic Celebrity cruiser (Silversea this summer), it isn't easy to see that X and Silversea are part of the same company other than a tag line at the bottom of the web page. We enjoy The Retreat on X but want to try smaller ship and smaller port and I think that is common. "Let's do a Med cruise!", but where do you start looking ? I could see where many X pax would never know that S is part of the "family" and that they should look there first. Regent and Seabourn would be more than happy to take their money. There are plenty of X Retreat customers are generally unfamiliar with cruising (and that is a customer that everyone wants) and don't understand who owns who and what that experience is. That said there is some danger of S eliminating some of the smaller touches that make it special. As evidenced on X, the included suite Premium Bev package has an annoying amount of $2 uncharges on everyday wine in the suites that is incomprehensible to most. After spending $10k for a suite and have inane charges like that show up is not a good sign of the thought process.

I think the glory days of exceedingly good value cruises is over. Silversea and others want to keep the old guard but they aren't going to give it away anymore as compared to land based vacations. Silversea CEO said that they are going to narrow the price gap land to cruise holidays and they obviously mean it. The Ritz Carlton Key Biscayne is $1100/night plus taxes. Add on food and booze and it is easy to hit $1500/night. Those Ritz customers at those prices are certainly in the demo for Silversea Last year we booked a 11 night Silversea Rome to Venice for about $12k sailing this summer. It is now $18k. The Silversea $12k was actually lower than the Celebrity Med cruise - amazing. That is over for sure.

absolutely true. The per day rate can be attractive outside X Retreat lines The issue that many pax would have is that Oceania, Regent et al have scheduling and port embarkation X has an easy to remember schedule - Saturday or Sunday departures from easy to get to south Florida Others may leave from Miami but arrive 12 days later in different port that requires some gymnastics to fly home from. Many working people may only want to take a one week vacation - fly in the night before and then leave and arrive home at the end in one day Others may have the same daily rate as X but when a 7 day turns into a 12 day the total number may be more than many want to spend, especially if they have more than one vacation per year

ever have norovirus? We contacted it from an event here in our condo complex (yes, it exists outside of a cruise ship) and those symptoms mirror ours. 2 day incubation for most here and then 3-4 days of those symptoms .

I used to work for a company that did business with on board photo For the most part the photo dept is using a concessionaire on board - although some lines are still cruise line employees. The fee going to the cruise line was outrageous - 70% was not uncommon - so it really was a volume game for the concessionaire. There was also a base $ amount that was guaranteed to the line. Very tough to make money. The average number of pictures taken per pax was 5 per cruise. Ships are now twice the size (or more) of what they were so 3k pax times 5 pictures each was 15k hanging on a wall making it impossible to find an individual shot of "you". at one time photos was a top money maker for the cruise line. Evidently the revenue and space needed was not making the numbers work.

good review and mirrors our thoughts as well.

I had the pig’s foot as well. I liked it.

the room is bigger than a infinite veranda, The sun deck on E Class is great. The Retreat lounge is very calm and relaxing when you don't need any noise. You can tell the Luminae staff about your food concerns and they can make general changes to the menu You can also eat in Blu or the MDR

The menu is the menu in Luminae. I don’t consider it to be a foodie snob selection but many people don’t know what is in the menu until they arrive on board. Luminae will make reasonable accommodations for food concerns (GF, vegetarian etc) and plain eaters but it can’t be all things to all people. Suite pax can eat at Blu and the MDRs if the menu is not what they are used to.

Luminae is not a place for selective "I only eat what I am used to " eaters. There is a classic menu and also a kids menu available. The food is "different" but is well prepared and very good. However, if you don't like that kind of food then you can always eat at Blu or MDR The waiter was being honest. Someone has to run to the other end of the ship to retrieve one meal which takes away from him serving everyone else.

JW Marriott Marco Island Florida is $1,000 night at the end of February for a standard room Food, booze Parking is another $300. $1300 x 7 nights = $9,100. You could have a Sky Suite on Apex for that kind of money. That $9100 is double the cost of a X Infinite Veranda which is a more direct comparison

They allow it space available, for a fee The food is actually very good and well prepared. Some people are very selective in what they eat and as said, the menu is not expansive - it is one page - so don't expect Cheesecake Factory size selection. It isn't the MDR with better silverware and service The choice would be everyone eats in the MDR or go to a specialty restaurant. If you go to a specialty then both you and your guests are paying for that