kywildcatfanone

I had no idea you could substitute for chocolate covered strawberries. Will ask for this on my next cruise.

I'm sure you can. You can bring bottles of water you are drinking or are going to drink, water/soda and they don't care.

I'm passionate about my benefit cuts. 🙂

It's basically a $75 reduction in the benefit for people who traded for coffee.

Laundry, medallion net and minibar is about all that is left, and they hosed loyal guests wanting to swap it for coffee.

Older ships generally cost less than newer ships. Nothing wrong with the Ruby.

The apologists will say you don't have to eat there each day. Some people will excuse anything.

While I agree, the drink limit doesn't matter much. They are making money either way. But you are right, most people are probably drinking 5 or less.

They simply want passengers that buy packages and go to pay venues onboard. Nothing else matters including loyalty. It is what it is. New or old passengers, it's about the pocket emptying and nothing else.

Yep. I was about to reply and post this. It's still discussed in most threads on here. 😀

I think that is the point of many people. A lot of us don't see these changes as "small". Removal/reductions of loyalty benefits, pricing for previous free venues, and higher prices for packages and the changing of what's included for what the customer paid for at time of booking.

Go read the Celebrity board. Princess is picking up a lot of new passengers by being 10% cheaper.

This is now us mostly. We cruise when school is in session now or take longer cruises with my wife being retired.

No, they want people like me out. A "pensioner" who spends gobs of money is very welcome.

Well said. As said many times in this thread and others. The continued cutbacks and removal of loyalty benefits are all about trying to weed out low revenue loyal customers and replace them with customers who will spend unabashedly on vacation. I do feel badly though for th passenger services people who will deal with angry customers who only find out about these changes once onboard.

So, standard fare passengers and minimal onboard spenders are chronic complainers and super demanding? I would think the opposite.

Which I consider a good thing. Can bring on as much as you think you will need and not have to purchase onboard.

No concerns about them breaking from the treatment? I've thought about putting them in luggage to not have to carry, or actually putting one in the luggage and one I carry, and do that with both our suitcases. But I have worried about them breaking because of treatment. Also, have read of some buying plastic bottles of water in 12 and 24 packs and putting a luggage tag on them and getting them delivered to the room. that would be nice if I thought it would work.

Yeah, this is me. I like coke and sprite zero which we have been unable to get onboard in the past.

Everything I have seen is bring on what you want for soda and water at embarkation and ports.

Cruises are sailing at capacity. If loyal cruisers don't like changes being made, there are plenty of people to take their place.

I might be confusing Celebrity from Princess. Princess might not have a defined limit, not that they enforce it anyway.

No, soda and water. I thought the rule was one 12 pack per person. But at least at FLL they don't seem to care has been my experience. Bring all you want at embarkation and ports.

Yes to both

The rule is 1 per person, but it's generally not enforced. We bring 2 each on and it's never been an issue. You can also get more in ports and bring on as needed.