Midsomer Madness

11 hours ago, Baynanno1 said:

 

 Maybe :

1 -  less cabin attendants take longer to turn a large number of room over between cruises. On our last cruise, our suite was not finished until after dinner in the evening. At the end of the cruise we were asked to have bags out by 8pm (earlier than the official 10pm) as the "retreat host" had to take all the bags to the off loading zone by himself. Everyone had to vacate their rooms by 7.30am.

2 - perhaps they want to cut the embarkation day lunches.

Someone on board currently has said their departure time has changed to later and when I now go on the app and click on where it currently shows the time for our wellness check as 11am it takes me to a new page which asks me to pick a new, later, time..there is obviously a reason for it, we will arrive at the new time as requested.

sorry for going “off topic”

We have an 11am check in time in Sydney but today received an email from The Retreat asking for our preferences on certain things, further down in the email it says boarding will commence at 1.15pm so have no idea what’s going on there..I have asked for clarification 

4 hours ago, terrydtx said:

Here is what we are being told are the only wines available in Edge Retreat Lounge.

Terry

its seems the wines are very much geared towards Australian passengers looking at that list…

I don’t drink wine, apart from the fizzy variety, John does but I’m sure he will find something he likes…we tend to drink gin! Please tell me Bombay Sapphire is available?

Totally off subject we received an email from The Retreat asking us for any preferences for when we join you onboard and it says boarding will be from 1.15pm, they don’t state why though

Amanda

40 minutes ago, RichYak said:

In the photo, the prosecco is $10 per glass.

Thank you, that’s not too bad then, think I might need to change my reading glasses 😂

11 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

You can bring two bottles of it on the ship....

 

I still don't understand how people equate how much a wine costs on land vs on the open seas.  Start a cruise line, sell it for $16 on board, make a fortune.  🙂

 

Do I think the $2 charges are somewhat silly, yes...but the cost of it at your local liquor store just doesn't equate in my mind.  

Yes I know I can, I just think it’s a daft price for a glass of bog standard fizzy plonk…still don’t know if is 19 or 16 though? Not that it makes much difference 😂

40 minutes ago, High on the Seas said:

So much for coverage with the premium drink package. 

I can’t tell, is that $19 for a glass of Prosecco? If so it’s just a rip off, can buy a bottle in Tesco for £8 in the UK 

We received notification of a successful Move Up bid 6 weeks before sailing, I was very surprised to receive it that far ahead.

As far as I know you just pay the difference between the two..

14 minutes ago, roxannex said:

I created bids for the February 18 Ascent on several different kinds of sky suites (starting at 795pp) and there was also an offer for celebrity suites. I didn’t bid on them because they were more than I really wanted to spend (min 1145 pp). But I saw there are still quite a few open so I decided to bid. But now that option is gone. Why would they remove the offer when there are still numerous celebrity suites open? (More than sky suites) Anyone know? I thought that was odd. 

We put in a bid for a celebrity suite and a royal suite, once we were successful with the celebrity suite the royal suite offer showed as expired…are your bids still showing for sky suites?

4 hours ago, BytownMatt said:

Hello neighbour! Yes it was very early. For my other successful.bid, I was notified about 11 days prior to the cruise. I believe that the minimum bid was $1475 or $1495. Figured it was worth a somewhat higher bid given the good deal I had received on the original stateroom fare.

You are on the same cruise as us…I was also successful but with a Celebrity Suite, I was surprised it was done so early but I think with the amount of vacant sky suites they chose to do the process now to free up some of the cheaper cabins and hope they sell, the suites are all a ridiculous price now..we got a great deal when we booked in 2021 because the world was coming out of Covid so prices were good.

45 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

In Canada , we have pay a deposit of $960 CAD for 2 in cabin( AQU and lower)  , if we cancel a cruise with non refundable deposit, we would lose $200 and get the rest in FCC 

Do you lose the whole amount in the UK ? 

Yes, as far as I know we would lose it all but we only pay £150pp deposit, but it would still be £300 down the drain 

1 hour ago, villauk said:

 

Not every country has that option.

Exactly…us in the UK definitely don’t have that option..you cancel you lose your deposit, admittedly Celebrity deposits are not that large compared to some cruiselines, we had to pay a 15% deposit for Cunard 

16 minutes ago, edgee said:

Agree that Celebrity just does not give a damn unless it really effects their bottom line. These cutbacks are happening throughout the cruise industry. Other than improving wifi and adding it as an included item like some upper premium/luxury lines are doing (eg. Oceania going to 2 free hook ups per cabin) I cannot think of any recent enhancement in the cruise industry...only cut backs. Examples include charging extra for lobster/steak in main dining rooms, cutting back to only one cabin service per day...many other examples. 

 

Also, IMHO citing Cruise Critic reviews in any complaint letter to a cruise line is a major turn off to any cruise line employee. I believe the cruise lines consider Cruise Critic comments to represent a small minority of cruisers which over represent the complainers and under represent those who are supportive of a cruise line's product. I do not agree with that view, but believe it is widely held in the cruise industry.

I’m sure you are correct and it won’t make an iota of difference but it made me feel better having said it…

I am more annoyed about Celebrity not having the courtesy to let people know of these changes, that is just shocking customer service

I’ve just a call from celebrity advising we still have a future cruise credit with them and if we don’t book by the end of December we will lose the additional OBC.

She was a little taken aback when I told her we wouldn’t be booking anything else with them as a result of recent changes they’ve brought in but not had the courtesy to let people know, instead they have to find out from social media or cruise groups.

She tried telling me that nothing has really changed and I suggested the powers that be take a look at cruise sites like this so they can actually see that people aren’t very happy with how things are going…especially the Retreat Host who is supposed to do what a butler did only it seems he/she is actually just a cabin steward with a new badge!  
 

Bet she was glad she rang now…not! 
 

so, yes, it appears they do think we are all stupid 

10 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

The Sky Suite are still selling 

For the Equinox Nov 2024 TA , there are 3 Sky Suites available and the are HC and only 7 Sunset  Sky Suite available, 5 are under the OVC 

So Celebrity marketing must be working 

On our Edge sailing in January there are currently 24 Sky suites, 5 Sunset Sky suites, 9 Aqua Sky suites and 3 MC Sky suites available…so they aren’t selling well on our cruise! We are in a Sunset Sky suite and are annoyed the product has been changed after we booked…

I got the “everything is enhanced” blah blah response from Celebrity.  Not acceptable..

instead of now booking Celebrity for our silver wedding anniversary in 2025 we have booked. Cunard Queens Grills…doubt we will sail with Celebrity again. 

Have also bid on a royal suite but only one of those available so not much chance of success there!

1 hour ago, KforKitty said:

Similarly there were 5 out of 12 Celebrity Suites still available when I made my bid and no inside or OVs.  My bid was only just in the fair range (by £50).

 

Catherine

 

 

I’ve just lowered our bid a little, still in the good range so fingers crossed!

5 hours ago, KforKitty said:

Came to give an answer to my own question.  

I’ve had my MoveUp bid acceptance confirmed at 31 days before sailing.  Deluxe Concierge Veranda cabin upgrade to Celebrity Suite on Eclipse.
 

Very excited 🥳

 

Catherine 

I’ve just seen your post on the move up thread and you’ve given me some hope!

we bid on a Celebrity suite for our sailing later in January on Edge, there were 3 available when we bid, that then went to 2, back to 3, then 4, then 5 and today there are 6…final payment was over 3 weeks ago so no idea what is happening..

we are in the strong bracket but wondering if we should lower our bid…however we got our sunset sky suite for such a good price even if we leave our bid as it is and are successful it would mean our overall price would still be cheaper than what the sunset sky suites are currently selling at…there are hardly any inside or ocean view cabins available so I would think it would make sense for Celebrity to move those who’ve bid up and open up lower priced cabins …but who knows how they work..

Not sure what to do really!

1 hour ago, phoenix_dream said:

Wow that's alot! What ship? We're on Equinox for a b2b in January and there are only a handful available.  But they're 9 N ABC cruises which are very popular. 

Edge in Australia 

2 hours ago, zitsky said:

I’m curious to know, in general, what is a good price?  Since everyone books at different times how can you possibly know what is a good deal?

 

I did an analysis between Aqua and Sky Suite on Millie.  When you factor in perks and OBC it’s not as much difference as you would think.

 

Dies anyone keep historical price info for X?

 

 

We paid around $4000pp for our sunset sky suite whuch included $800 OBC, Premium drinks and wifi…the same SSS is currently on sale for $7,400pp..so I was incorrect saying the price had doubled but when you take into account the OBC and gratuities its almost double…we booked autumn 2021…that’s a huge increase bearing in mind the lack of butler (still have to pay Suite gratuities though..

we definitely wouldn’t pay the current price 

22 minutes ago, chemmo said:

I agree with you…rare that RS and PH are available. I guess many people (like us) are finding the price to high and are beginning to worry about the reliability of the product…

Prices are just ridiculous now IMO..we booked our sunset sky suite over. 2 years ago when Covid was still about, we got a great price…if we booked today we would be paying over double..no way would we pay todays price even without the cutbacks…

1 hour ago, phoenix_dream said:

I think the only thing that will get their attention is if bookings drop. Why pay attention to people complaining (and rightly so) and refusing to book when there are other people who will. Suites are sailing full. I know most at this time were booked before the changes.  We'll see how new bookings go looking forward. 

25 Sky Suites and 5 Sunset Sky Suites still available for our cruise in January, also 3 Celebrity Suites, 1 Royal Suite and 1 Penthouse Suite…I guess most will get filled with Move Up bids but I didn’t think there’d be that many free at this point in time.

2 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 I do not think I would quiet as upset as I am about this except for two things:

 

1.  Celebrity did not pay me the courtesy of informing me that it has changed.  I had to find out here.

2.  When contacted Celebrity said that the service would be the same or better, which it clearly is not. 

 

 

 I would agree except for one thing - I was not offered the opportunity to cancel or change my booking without penalty.   

 

 On our sailing the only remaining suite is the Penthouse Suite and it currently is selling for a person price equal to twice the total that I paid for our Aqua Sky Class Suite. 

 

 

Exactly this…the not informing passengers is bad enough but the standard, scripted reply about it being a better experience, blah, blah, blah is not only ridiculous it’s a complete lie…

2 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

In the past we have received a QR code to provide feedback on how the cruise was going. I have had good response using that form to provide feedback.  As I said, once I am on board I will see how my normal request are or are  not handled and provide feedback accordingly. 

 

Celebrity has effectively lost us as a Retreat customers and possibly lost us as a customers altogether.  Removing the OBC and pre-paid gratuities while not reducing the price of the Retreat bookings were the "straw that broke the camels back" for us.  

 

we have only cruised twice with Celebrity, both times in a verandah stateroom..2 years ago we booked a Sunset Sky Suite on Edge around Australia for next year for my 60th birthday..

we are very disappointed that Celebrity brought these changes in after we had booked and have still not officially informed us of it.

whilst many don’t seem to be bothered by the changes, for us it’s not what we booked and paid for and as such instead of booking The Retreat for a cruise for our Silver Wedding Anniversary in 2025 we have booked Queens Grills on QM2 and I doubt we will book any further cruises with Celebrity..