ABoatNerd

The main point is - Oceania, do not LIE.

Be truthful with your customers.

You are not shortening port stays to protect the environment, you are doing it to reduce costs.

There are consequences to customers when you lie to them.

No one is fooled by your lies.

When you lie, you lose business. Same as for your competitors.

Be open and transparent and state your challenges so customers can understand.

Oceania, you are noted not to be transparent nor communicative, many of your regulars acknowledge this on this board.

Hence why I will not purchase your product. 

If you change your business approach, I may re-consider.

Happened many times on Celebrity. Started to have the steward remove everything from the mini bar but the deliberate charges still kept coming.

So this is one of the many, many  reasons I no longer patronize Celebrity, it warms my heart to realize Celebrity is still scamming customers who are too busy to challenge these charges after leaving the vessel.  

Interesting to keep up to date on Celebrity to realize their issues remain in place.

I was a Celebrity patron from 2001 to 2018, that is along time. During those years Celebrity was the Oceania of the day.

I have moved on to the premium and luxury lines for 5 main reasons:

1) The class apartheid - suites versus no suites. Not interested, despite being well able to afford suite class. I despise the Segregation and lack of ability to meet the guests on this ship. 

2) The inward focus on their new ships - As others have said, no forward lounge, fewer balconies, less and less open space. It is of course designed to keep the passenger inward looking and spending $. 

3) Too big, not interested in big ships which are nothing more than an apartment building, related to point 2) above

4) Too fake, Celebrity has deliberately minimized the relationship with the sea, related to point 2) above. The Eden with smoke etc simply is beyond fake

5) Destroying cruising traditions. Recently read that the afternoon tea, which used to be in the Sky Lounge on the Zenith and Millie class, is now totally gone. Not even tea sandwiches, scones in the cafeteria. On Oceania, Cunard this tradition remains.

The Connie is my favorite vessel and I may book her and the Millie class some time.

Otherwise, I, like many, have moved away from Celebrity.

Standard cruise line scam. Had it each cruise on Celebrity.

I then had the room steward remove all items from the fridge on the next cruises, But still got the charge, so it is a regular cruise line scam.

Due a credit card dispute, that works.

Celebrity is making deliberate decisions to reduce costs to enhance their bottom line, the "green" is total bull.

This is done as they believe they have many "obedient consumers" who will keep rebooking despite the declining value offerings. 

Every corporation relies on the "obedient consumer".

Consumers will vote with their bookings and based on a discussion with my agent, Celebrity is losing to Oceania and Princess and HA.

Celebrity was the Oceania of the day in the 2000's, they chose to move downwards into just another main line and implement their class apartheid configuration which frankly, moved many Celebrity patrons upwards to the premium lines, like myself.

Good luck Celebrity, you will need it. 

3 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

It is free in Ontario 

https://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/drugs/opdp_eo/notices/fq_exec_office_pharm_20221212_paxlovid.pdf

Yes it is. My Ontario family doctor highly recommends it for travel. 

I also noted 2 days ago while in the USA (California) that Pfizer, yes Pfizer, who was against anything other than their shots, is now promoting it on TV. What a change indeed. LOL

23 minutes ago, cruisegirlppp said:

I noticed on our last Celebrity cruise that they had done away with the special tea "event" for Elite and above. We really enjoyed that (after I convinced my husband to give it a try) and was sorry to see it eliminated.

Another cut back, good grief. 

Utterly pathetic.

Celebrity is getting creamed on the Oceania board. So many posters leaving Celebrity.

When I first cruised with C in 2000, there was high tea served in the forward observation lounge. In 2016, they served fancy sandwiches and desserts in El Baco.

Nothing but a downward spiral into mediocrity.

I presume C thinks they can get enough new customers who will not know any difference, I suspect that is C's strategy.

Celebrity = Decline

terrdtx, great post. Something is very amiss at Celebrity indeed. That is a large cruise line with many beds to fill, and consumers have other choices.

For those loyal Celebrity customers - are they content to get repeatedly hosed?

10 hours ago, sofietucker said:

Yep. We'd been loyal to X but this last cruise, they had cut SO MUCH, even in suites, in terms of amenities. And the food, OMG. No more "always" items (steak, chicken, salmon).  Hefty surcharges, for steaks and a plain  SHRIMP COCKTAIL, plus a whole bunch of other menu items, in MDR, specialty restaurants and Luminae. And shipboard activities that you have to pay for now.  Very very disappointing.

Thanks for your post. It does appear that idiots are degrading Celebrity indeed. I started sailing Celebrity in 2000 until 2016 when the cutbacks started. Celebrity was in fact the Oceania of that time, it has gone downhill from then. 

Bottom of the hull line, Oceania is lying.

It has 0 to do with the environment.

Suffice it to say, my friends cancelled their next 0 cruise. I have none with 0, and at this point, none planned.

Here we go, using the bogus green scam as a cover to reduce the product offering to the customer. 

Since Oceania advertises that they are an itinerary focused cruise line, this is disgusting. Our travel agent even sent an email to his customers advising about this, he is beyond mad and this is significant because he used to be in mgmt on Oceania!

Hummmm, not a good trend.

13 minutes ago, RichYak said:

I have two upcoming cruises booked--both with Celebrity. I am not considering cancelling either one and will undoubtedly have a great time on both. However, the last 8 or so months have changed my view focusing solely on Celebrity. First there was a comped Carnival Cruise that I truly enjoyed, followed by insane Retreat pricing that gave me a nudge to look elsewhere. Now with clearly visible cutbacks to food quality that leave me wondering where else they've cut that isn't so obvious, the door has been swung wide open.

 

To that end, Celebrity has very quickly gone from the top of my list when I look to book cruises to around a tie for 5th with a bunch of other mass market lines. It's truly staggering to me that they could make such a precipitous drop in such a short timeframe. I may not be your average Joe from Schenectady but I'm sure there are plenty just like me.

 

I'm excited to try MSC Yacht Club, Oceania, and Azamara among others. They now get my first look. In addition, it's been a long time since I've sailed Princess or Royal and I've never tried HAL--Celebrity falls back into that pack. To be honest, I find all this liberating. Change is good.

Excellent post.

What I find wonderful about your post is your obvious critical thinking and ability to make course changes based on analysis.  An "obedient consumer" you are not. Well done indeed. 

Blind obedience is a dangerous thing for people and many consumers operate this way. Corporations often rely on the "obedient consumer". Depending upon what % of passengers Celebrity thinks are "obedient consumers", drives their business decisions. In Celebrity's case they know many of their longer time customers have abandoned them for the premium lines (myself included) so they are honing in on the new customer who of course, has limited to 0 knowledge of the previous Celebrity product and who are younger and more likely to react to fluff entertainment, gadgets, find "fast food" ok and not question the nickel and diming, because it is all new and exciting.

My career was in marketing and in our corporate boardroom was a gigantic sign with the words "obedient consumer".

I compliment you in your analysis and wish you happy sailing on any of the many cruise lines out there. Always put yourself first.

On board/Post cruise written or video for cruises after Jan 1, 2023 are welcome so we all can undertake before and after analysis.

It is obvious Celebrity made changes as of this date, it is up to all of us to investigate so we can make consumer purchase / cancel decisions based on solid information.

On 1/19/2023 at 6:29 AM, Treasure Hunter said:

No filet in classics. Chicken breast, Salmon, and NY Strip . The steak is grey, thin and tasteless with some kind of au jus. It reminded me of the line in the movie Meatballs ( mystery meat). Basically the appetizers and desserts are very good ( had a delicious Burrata cheese and tomato appetizer last night) the mains poor. My chunk of Duck was hard, over cooked and tasteless with no sauce or glaze. So now we order four appetizers and if the main is bad at least we’re ok. And that’s Luminae! By the way the ship is packed. All suites sold out. Great service. 

Thank you for your post. Guests who post are very helpful to acquire an accurate assessment of the changes to Celebrity. 

I note that numerous people state they have moved to the specialities, not Luminae, because of the cut backs.

On 1/17/2023 at 4:07 PM, jonthomas said:

We were also Elite Plus, with over 50 Cruises on Celeb. Once the "suite life" appeared, everything changed for those not regular cabins. To pay for suites we might as well be on O. On O  there are no kids, excellent food, smaller ships, a clientele that prefers a quieter, more intimate atmosphere....just suits us perfectly....

 

Once the separation between Suites and Regular class began, Celeb really introduced an atmosphere of privilege. You could meet people and wish to dine with them and they would say oh no we are not in your class, we dine elsewhere. 

 

just wish we had not stayed with Celeb so long, all that loyalty amounts to nothing. O includes all the perks we got with Elite Plus and offers so much more in their loyalty program. If we had over 50 cruises with O we would have by now had a few free cruises, with all kinds of other perks. 

 

It is not more expensive  than suites on Celeb, but O gives you so much more. 

Excellent post. 

It was the Celebrity class apartheid that was the main, but the only, reason for us cancelling Celebrity, us and many friends who cruised.

We have move to O, Regent, Crystal at the time etc.

We are not loyal to any service provider and will not hesitate to cancel if they do not meet our requirements. 

OP, thank you for taking the time to post your review. All reviews are very important indeed.

This is NOT a good situation given the cost of O sailings. 

Since food is the Major element in their advertising, this is not acceptable. 

I can give some leeway on staffing given the covid disruption, but not the food.

My local best quality food store has suffered minimal due to supply chairs, so O stop being cheap.

Not happening in my world. No way. 

Reading the many threads on the X site, many people are booking Oceania. To be expected given X is moving downwards into the RCL corral. 

7 hours ago, BoundForSea said:

Sailed on a 14ni Greece in October on HAL Volendam. I got food poisoning in a very bad way due to what I later learned was from a batch of lobster that was refrozen after the last 14ni that didn’t get used and rethawed and reserved to me, among others along with some other items like Key Line Pies. I KNOW darn well the Exec shef and Rest Managers know you can’t do that. Its culinary 101. Someone gave the order to do it anyway. I came close to having to get off and get to a hospital. Then Thanksgiving came on Celebirty on a 4ni from Miami that was a Carnival long weekend booze cruise equivalent. 
 

I’ts the new norm. Its a temporary money grab. Look at the advertisements on the major networks from X. Here in FL they play every commerical break almost. That tells me they are trying to suck in newbies that don’t know any better and if they never knew what was a lot better, they will just be happy with what they have. We are the ones that the new Upper Executives of RCG (keep in mind that Richard Fein is gone and his understudy is a numbers guy) don’t want around. That’s why she laughed. She has the big picture and knows what’s going on but can’t say anything. 
 

 

You are 100% correct. I am in Toronto and they are advertising like I have never seen before. Definitely want to get the new cruisers who will not know anything about cruising and will have no basis therefore to complain. 

May or may not work, but it is obvious that X is desperate. The new cruisers will decide if the product is worth the price.  I most certainly do not.

11 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

Three choices and two are tilapia and turkey...  Sigh...

That says it all indeed.

Tilapia is a garbage fish.

This is the best X can do, yikes.

Downgrading indeed and paying more for it.

On 1/9/2023 at 11:46 AM, BazingAu said:

What are you trying to defend here? I already know they are charging for costs that were "included" or "free" at the time of booking. You think that going on the cruise will change my "opinion" about their nickel and diming? "Oh wow, this cruise is so great, Celebrity, please take more of my money!!" Um, no.

ETA - if you read my post, it was specifically about the costs and reduction in things that I considered as part of my decision to book - as in, I can spend my dollars anywhere - and the opportunity costs here matter. It has nothing to do with whether I will have a good time on the cruise or not.

Excellent analysis and summary. You are a savvy consumer and obviously not a "obedient consumer" as I see often on CC. I have cancelled many service providers for not providing the product and services advertised. 

Indeed look around and decide what is the best value for you. I am very glad you question things and do not participate in the Mass Psychosis response that many consumers have. Loyalty to cruise lines is Dead.

10 hours ago, LittleFish1976 said:

 

What does 'PC' stand for in this context? Presumably you don't mean 'politically correct'?

Exactly what PC was referring to. The NZ politics is obviously damaging cruising as is being reported on the Oceania, Azamara and other cruise boards. Well they are now cancelled in my books. 

38 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

We received our new port call schedule yesterday for our Feb 27 Marina cruise. Some ports got extensive haircuts! Some untouched. Hoping the one hour cut in the Falklands doesn’t ruin our Volunteer Point tour! 

The shortened ports is not acceptable, counter to O advertising they are a port intensive, itinerary based cruise line. More reasons not to book.

47 minutes ago, RichYak said:

I would also agree with this list.

 

And I think you're confusing marketing with reality.  Lines like Oceania and Azamara are premium, not Celebrity, Princess, and Holland, which are mass market. Celebrity doesn't even market themselves as premium, they are in complete fantasy-land using the word "luxury".

RichYak, 100% correct. Your knowledge is evident. Interesting history about Celebrity. When Celebrity first started in early 1990's, I was on the inaugural of the Zenith. At that time Celebrity's product was not mass line, it was the only premium cruise line, a step above the mass lines, rather the Oceania of the day. The product was vastly superior to the RCL, HA of the day. Celebrity served afternoon tea in the forward lounge almost identical to Oceania's current afternoon tea service with wood trollies etc. There was no Oceania, Azamara etc at that time, there was a big jump up to the luxury lines, Cunard rather straddled the divide.

Over the decades Celebrity abandoned this level of all inclusive quality and went downwards into the mass market courtesy of RCL. Celebrity went big ship, mass amenities, started into the class apartheid, nickle and dime, art auctions and onwards. In the interim Renaissance went under and Oceania started up and picked up the small R ships a while later RCL built the premium Azamara with R ships. All the while the premium lines were building, Celebrity was getting bigger and more mass, despite using the bull s line of "modern luxury", not. 

It was only in the 1990's where Celebrity would be considered premium, since that time, just another mass line, albeit, the highest level of the mass lines, and becoming more mass - reheated frozen casseroles every day.