georgiaguy

15 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

Brought to you by the RCL shareholders.

 

Perhaps we should all send Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos multimillion dollar checks just because their billion dollar corporations are having a rough time.

 

Yet the RCL shareholders have doubled their share price in the last year.  I should feel sorry for them why why why ???  They are making a profit in spite of their loans and building new ships during the downturn.

Did anyone say we should feel sorry for shareholders? Or the company for that matter?

1 minute ago, horseymike said:

What is the TP ?

Trans-pacific

38 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

They were in pretty terrible shape….

 

 

Data is fascinating…

58 minutes ago, ECCruise said:

Since I've sailed 4 of those lines in the last year, some of your points are valid, some are not.

 

In the final analysis, I can still get better pricing with more included on both Princess and HAL (have several of those booked in the future).  Meanwhile the prices of the 4 =X= cruises I have booked have nearly doubled in the last 6 months (these are sailings in Europe and Asia in mid-2024 and early-2025).  If we booked those cruises direct, and refundable, they would be closing in on even more ridiculous pricing.   No way on earth I would pay those prices today, which anyone booking today would encounter.  Our HAL and Princess cruises in the same time frames (2024 and 2025) have increased either $0 or, one of our HAL sailings, $100.  And all of those, BTW, are fully refundable. 

Might depend on the cruise and how well it is selling. Anecdotally, my cruise for next March is only $500 more than when I booked about 5 months ago. 

1 hour ago, hcat said:

Woman in charge was not brought in to  just make up lost revenues.  She is re-making X into  another bunch of mall-like Royal C ships...nothing special...nothing extraordinary!

Also I will be on Ascent in March and from what I have heard is that the ships are beautiful and really liked (minus the infinite verandas. They seem like a miss for many folks). I can let you know after if it feels like an ordinary mall. 

41 minutes ago, hcat said:

Sorry to disagree with your conclusion.

As my grandsons would say "c'mon now!"

 

Woman in charge was not brought in to  just make up lost revenues.  She is re-making X into  another bunch of mall-like Royal C ships...nothing special...nothing extraordinary!

 

Final death knell of a once great cruise line!

You are welcome to disagree. Like I said not trying to defend or put down the cuts as right or wrong. Just understanding the bigger picture. 

And at the risk of being disagreeable, I don’t think they are making it into Royal C. They don’t have a robust enough children’s program or kid friendly interest to become Royal so they wont be attracting families at the same level. Also the largest celebrity ship is about the same size as the voyager class and there are three ship classes larger and in some cases by 100,000 tons. And I will eat my own hat if Celebrity ever puts a slide on the ship because I just don’t see that happening either. But you are right, that is my conclusion.

There has been ad nauseam discussing here about the reductions on cruise lines and especially Celebrity. I like data because it can help us understand why things are happening. I came across this industry level “state of the cruise industry” report and this page is one that stood out to me in particular. I know there are some that are tired of hearing how COVID hurt the industry and continues to have ripple effects but this graphic tells a lot. If you take the three years of 20-22 and bring them up to the 2019 level, the industry as a whole when without 60 million cruise fares. They would have been spending money in 2019 in preparation for 2020 that never came in, not to mention the additional cost that came in even as they had reductions of expenses over the same period. If you take an average fair of $2000 and multiply it by 60 million that is $120,000,000,000. Yes there was a reduction of overhead with ships running on skeleton crews but there we also the added expenses of interest payments on loans to keep cash flow occurring. 

My point isnt to say that the cuts are the right ones or the wrong ones but more that the reason behind the cuts does not seem to be entirely driven by “how can I squeeze another dollar out of customers?” And seems in part to be about “how to we make up for three years of substantial revenue loss?” This is just my opinion but I don’t think Celebrity is just ignoring the customers, on the contrary, I think they want to provide the best product they can in the midst of challenging financial complications. Any way. Feel free to disagree. Just one persons opinion. 

Nothing more than an opinion but we had a sunset veranda on Reflection on a similar itinerary last year and it was really great. Can’t say that the reg veranda would have been lesser. The heat might be a factor though so April might be a good time and be less busy with tourists. 

27 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Our we prohibited from saying we cruise in an Aqua class cabin?  Or a veranda?  Others might get jealous.

Only if you do it to act superior! Then I am throwing in Cc jail! 😜

1 hour ago, zitsky said:

Businesses do targeted marketing all the time.  We sit here and complain about it.

 

Do you target the guy with $100, the one with $1000 or the lady with $100 today who may have $1000 tomorrow?

 

If you can cruise and be respectful of other passengers I don’t see why X shouldn’t market to both of us.

 I don't disagree. Everyone should feel welcomed and appreciated. No one should feel like a superior customer because every dollar spends the same.

So I retract my prior statement. This thread has gotten off track. It was never about whether kids are well behaved or not. Sure that is a concern, but not what I originally posted about. I was responding to the way some seem to imply that Celebrity is wrong to market to folks like me or do things that might encourage my family to come aboard. I don’t like people acting like they are more worthy to marketed to than others. I don’t actually think it should be older vs younger. I oppose the dichotomy that says the cruise line has to be for one over the other. 

5 minutes ago, soozles said:

what’s clear to me from reading this is there is no winning as a parent these days. None of the “older” generation have parented in a digital world. Screens are everywhere, the expectation that we are available to our jobs instantly is everywhere. Don’t like it? Good luck finding a job that pays enough where they don’t expect it. Own your own business? Even more demand to be constantly connected because if you’re not, your clients will go somewhere else. And then when you try to use something like an iPad to keep your kids quiet and not disturb other people, you get judged for being a lazy parent, or for not interacting with your kids. Yet if you don’t give them a tablet, heaven forbid they make a noise in the dining room! Then you’re judged because your kid is being loud. 
 

you get judged if you’re too much of a helicopter parent. And you get judged if you’re too laid back. Heck, I got judged on our cruise the other day cause I sat my almost 4 and almost 5 yo down at a table with their food and went back to the buffet for a couple minutes to get something. They were always in my sight line and they were totally fine. And then I got told from another passenger that I shouldn’t have left them alone. I’m sorry I don’t have 30 hands, and I’m not going to trust my kids to carry a plate in a crowded buffet without spilling when they’re too short to even be in most people’s sight lines. 

Amen. My hero!

2 hours ago, Hobbsey said:

So this topic sure got highjacked.  

I actually think it is still kinda on topic. I was talking about being 40 with young kids and there is a lot of discussion on whether celebrity is the company for me and my family. 

I appreciate the thoughts of folks. To be clear, I don’t take anything personal and I am going to spend my dollars where I choose. Also never had a bad cruise because if I am traveling and exploring or relaxing I am happy. 

About the dichotomy of older vs younger, I framed it that way partly because I really don’t like the us vs them and I was trying to point directly at it. I also don’t like when some make others not feel welcome, even when that isnt their intention. Honestly I mostly ignore it, but like I said in the post I have been seeing it more lately or maybe it just feels that way, and I don’t want anyone to not be excited about their vacation.

There is a trend I have been noticing that I find a bit frustrating. Repeatedly folks posting here make comments about Celebrity driving away its older customers and how everything thing is targeted toward the younger generations. Can I just say I find it really insulting to be spoken about like I don’t matter and only those who have been cruising for 30 years and are elite have opinions that count? Ok I did say it. I am 40 years old with two kids that are under 5 and pretty much exclusively cruise with Celebrity. Why is it ok to consistently speak down about the “younger generation” as if my money shouldn’t also be sought after by the company. I wont retire for another 25 year likely, but isnt it ok for the CEO to think about me as well. I am not saying to just forget about long time customers but I think younger customers matter as well. Ok rant over. Thanks for listening. 

2 hours ago, SoloAlaska said:

They are finally targeting my demographic. Cruisers in their 30s who want a more luxurious travel experience without the stuffiness of the high end lines.

Just turned 40 and really havent seriously looked at other cruise lines. We have never been big party types but enjoy a nice drink and good food in a nice environment. 

Celebrity isnt really new to doing short cruises. 15 years ago when I worked on the ships my first contract started with 3 and 4 night cruises out of Miami on the Century. 

So is it all just two tops unless you have your own group? I know it was that way on our last cruise but that was also at the tail end of covid protocols. Not upset either way but we are weird and like the opportunity to meet others at dinner. 

3 minutes ago, hrhdhd said:

We asked to move from our Deck 6 SV on Apex and were fortunate to be able to. The bass in the evenings was awful for hours.

Do you mean deck7? Deck 6 has no SV. 

Knew about the no secret entrance which is fine. We booked a guarantee and this was the assigned room so didnt know if we should look into swapping. This is out first time on the e-class ships so thank you!

Anyone know how loud or bothersome Eden is deck 6 aft is? We have one of the deluxe porthole verandas on Ascent in March. We are not super early to bed so hoping it won't be too bad.

Came across this today and thought of this conversation https://www.celebritycruises.com/about-us/awards/2022

To be clear, I got that information from the captains club chat.

3 minutes ago, Cruise Gopher said:

Wish we had a clear answer on this. Specifically related to the porthole verandas. 

I did actually. It is referring to obstructed views.

I haven’t stayed yet but we are staying before our cruise and I read a lot of reviews. From the reviews, it seems it is about expectations. Seems some folks only saw the Hilton and missed that it is a sub-brand. Don’t expect the Hilton experience and it seems you will be fine.