Europe not selling so well....

[Can'tstopcruising]

We just completed a 19 day Buenos Aires to Barcelona on Oceania they had bridge on sea days. I took 10 1hr. beginner lessons on sea days as there is nothing else to do on Insignia but go to the gym which I also did for 2 hours a day to fill the time. A challenging game, I won "BIG O points" for being the best beginner. Two items of note one. Oceania is looking at getting rid of Bridge lessons on their cruises, two the average age of a bridge player in America is 67 so it is a dying game. I am 57 so I was the youngest taking lessons at any level on the ship by about 5 years! As an aside my wife did needle point while I did bridge lessons so that gives a good insight into the activity level on Oceania cruises. Sedate is an understatement, we closed out the dance club by 11:00pm every night, never more then 5 couples on it! Oh and they are cutting the needle point classes, I guess they cannot bare the cost of the kits at the prices they charge! I will do a separate review on Oceania.

 

 

Bridge a dying game? I don't know about where you live, but around here there are many bridge clubs and they all have lots of players.

 

Seriously, if you are interested, check around in your city and you will find. And enjoy! It's wonderful for retired people. (even at 57!!!)

[StartrainDD]

Great discussion. Still working so the long B2B2B2B we can't do, but thought you should all be aware that HAL is doing several summer T/A's this year from NY, many of which are designed to be B2B with northern Europe trips. HAL also has several long voyages round trip Fort Lauderdale to the Med.

 

Doing our first Med trip later this year - price hasn't dropped on this one yet, but if it does I would hope to upgrade our accomodations. The airfare was not quite as much as the 12 night cruise but awfully close.:mad:

 

Keep cruising!

[sealover155]

Well, sign us up for B2B t/a's! This was suggested a few years ago by CC member Floris but apparently X wasn't listening. I think it's brilliant and would have great appeal beyond the posters on this thread.

 

Think of the enrichment lectures/courses/tournaments that could be offered. Plus all that cash not spent on shore excursions or port expenses that could be picked up by X. I'm ready to sign up! And, I agree, Constellation would be a perfect choice.

[Ma Bell]

I'm definitely up for Bridge too!

 

Cheryl, Charleston sounds great to me!

[bajathree]

I just looked at both X's next Tuesday Exciting Deals and Royal Tues C&A event:eek::eek::eek:wait till you see some of the pricing for Europe sailings....prices have fell through the floor on some sailings.....have no idea how they think people are going to prebook Europe 2012 when some of the same or very similar 2012 sailings are pricing at 3-4X what they are now giving away summer 2011 for.

[clvali]

TA without bridge is a terrible thing........

 

clvali

[Bridge Maven]

TA without bridge is a terrible thing........

 

clvali

 

civali, I like the way you think :)

[bhealy]

I just looked at both X's next Tuesday Exciting Deals and Royal Tues C&A event:eek::eek::eek:wait till you see some of the pricing for Europe sailings....prices have fell through the floor on some sailings.....have no idea how they think people are going to prebook Europe 2012 when some of the same or very similar 2012 sailings are pricing at 3-4X what they are now giving away summer 2011 for.

 

I agree. I think the prices on a lot of the 2011 European cruises are still too high if you book before final payment. I have been looking at Baltic cruises on the Constellation and you can't get an inside for under $1500 until after final payment. I have also been looking at 10 -12 day Mediterranean cruises in off season and you can not get a balcony cabin for under $1500. Add air to either and you are spending close to 3k pp not including excursions, hotels etc...

[C 2 C]

Brilliant idea!! And I would absolutely love a B2B TA.

 

I hope X is reading this and paying attention to your suggestions. :)

 

HAL does it now:

 

Boston to Copenhagen and back in the summer, Ft Lauderdale to Rome and back in the fall.

 

Now if they only had fewer smokers...

[baldercash]

Bridge a dying game? I don't know about where you live' date=' but around here there are many bridge clubs and they all have lots of players.

 

Seriously, if you are interested, check around in your city and you will find. And enjoy! It's wonderful for retired people. (even at 57!!!)[/quote']

 

i will continue to learn and play, I enjoyed the challenge but I was surprised by how intimidated beginners and even the intermediate players were to make a mistake.

Sadly the game is no longer main stream and lacks new younger enthusiasts with the time and the desire to master it. I can play in a no cash Texas Holdem tournament at my local pub with participants ages ranging from 18 to 70+age.

It is a complex and time consuming for the attention deficit challenged world of today.

Just checked you can play bridge on line!

[Can'tstopcruising]

i will continue to learn and play, I enjoyed the challenge but I was surprised by how intimidated beginners and even the intermediate players were to make a mistake.

Sadly the game is no longer main stream and lacks new younger enthusiasts with the time and the desire to master it. I can play in a no cash Texas Holdem tournament at my local pub with participants ages ranging from 18 to 70+age.

It is a complex and time consuming for the attention deficit challenged world of today.

Just checked you can play bridge on line!

 

It is intimidating for beginners. It helps if you have a friend or group of friends who play. Hope you find a good teacher. What about senior clubs in your area? Some are now catering to people in their 50's.

 

It's a very good brain exercise. Good for our old age!!!

 

Even the so-called experts make mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes.

[bellybutton530]

HAL does it now:

 

Boston to Copenhagen and back in the summer, Ft Lauderdale to Rome and back in the fall.

 

Now if they only had fewer smokers...

 

It would be called Celebrity if that happened....

[TMLAalum]

I just looked at both X's next Tuesday Exciting Deals and Royal Tues C&A event:eek::eek::eek:wait till you see some of the pricing for Europe sailings....prices have fell through the floor on some sailings.....have no idea how they think people are going to prebook Europe 2012 when some of the same or very similar 2012 sailings are pricing at 3-4X what they are now giving away summer 2011 for.

 

We did pre-book, but settled for an OV as the price differential for the lowest veranda was around $650pp!! Using our basic Cap'n Club perk, we upgraded to a bow OV which combined with the EBB=>2g pp. I didn't peek at pricing today, but the pp prices have jumped $50 for lowest veranda and $100 for our OV category. Go figure!!

 

I anticipate prices dropping and plan on continuing to monitor them in hopes of switching to a minimum 2B veranda for the same or fewer $$.

 

Back to suggestions for Celeb, I'd like to reiterate a summer NE route and propose a Pacific coastal from SEA to San Diego back & forth.

[TommyD3]

I was actually speaking of a ship doing ONLY transatlantics.

 

That would be a B2B I would consider. No flying. I like that.

 

I would sign up for that in a heartbeat !!!

 

Right now we do the eastbound in the spring and the westbound in the fall.

If we could do them back to back and skip the airfare that would be even better !!!

[bellybutton530]

I would sign up for that in a heartbeat !!!

 

Right now we do the eastbound in the spring and the westbound in the fall.

If we could do them back to back and skip the airfare that would be even better !!!

 

Hey TommyD3, when did you do Antarctica; and on what ship? I was on Marco Polo to Antarctica in 1999 and again in 2000.

 

Did you do any landings?

[RDC1]

I was actually speaking of a ship doing ONLY transatlantics.

 

That would be a B2B I would consider. No flying. I like that.

 

 

I agree. They should set up a ship or two doing transatlantics such that one could either do back to back to go and return without dealing with airfare. Or even a back to back to back with a cruise in europe in between the two transatlantics. I would sign up in a minute.

[Bridge Maven]

I just wanted to respond to some of the comments about bridge. Even though the average age of bridge players who play at clubs may be in the sixties, there are a lot of younger bridge players who aren't reflected in these statistics because they are more likely to play bridge on the internet than at a club. One of the attractions of playing on the net is that it is easier to fit into a busy lifestyle while finding people who play bridge at a comparable level.

 

However, I think that because of this factor many people think of bridge as an older person's game. In my opinion, Celebrity is trying to attract a younger demographic with its newer ships and that is one of the reasons why they eliminated their bridge program. Ironically, whenever I played bridge on a Celebrity ship the age mix in the card room wasn't that different from the overall passenger base for that particular cruise.

[SusieV]

I just wanted to comment further on bridge- I agree that it's a dying game because younger people are simply not taking up the game the way they used to. There are too many things competing for their time now and most of those things are much easier to learn than bridge (poker, for example). The average age of an ACBL member is 63 years old and rising. They've actually had to change the age for Seniors events because too many people were eligible!

 

My husband and I are usually by far the youngest at any tournament (late twenties) with the exception of the occasional Junior player (under 26). Most countries have very strong Junior programs but they lose them in between Junior and Senior age, it seems.

 

The ACBL has a real issue in twenty or thirty years when the current membership passes on, because there are many fewer players in my age bracket and I would bet that fewer will take up the game.

[John73]

That would be awesome! Then we could visit our great cruiser friends in Texas pre or post cruise as well! Celebrity please put a ship in Galveston, we'll be most interested.

 

ALSO I'd love a different 7 day itinerary other than going Jamaica, Grand Cayman, & Coz...how about heading to Columbia? Panema? Costa Rica? Just a thought...

 

Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Roatan work great for me. I'm more interested in the scuba diving shore excursions in the Carib so those are great options. It's the other carib itineraries that aren't so interesting to me.

[John73]

I just looked at both X's next Tuesday Exciting Deals and Royal Tues C&A event:eek::eek::eek:wait till you see some of the pricing for Europe sailings....prices have fell through the floor on some sailings.....have no idea how they think people are going to prebook Europe 2012 when some of the same or very similar 2012 sailings are pricing at 3-4X what they are now giving away summer 2011 for.

 

Gotta agree with you there. I'm seeing some great deals on the Solstice 12 day cruises in the Med and am having a tough time resisting. It's really not that much more expensive than a Caribbean cruise booked in advance with airfare and 200% single supplements. I have a January W. Caribbean cruise & air booked for ~2800 while I can book a June Med cruise including airfare for ~3350 on a Tuesday special, including a good chance of Biz class upgrade (due to frequent flier status) from Seattle to Barcelona on my preferred airline. $530 for 5 more nights (plus $200 OBC due to Passages credit) and a cruise in the Med as opposed to the Caribbean is pretty tempting, especially as my other summer vacations options are fairly limited.

[TommyD3]

Hey TommyD3, when did you do Antarctica; and on what ship? I was on Marco Polo to Antarctica in 1999 and again in 2000.

 

Did you do any landings?

 

Hi,

 

We were on the Infinity for six weeks in Feb/March 2010. Did the two week segment Buenos Aries to Buenos Aries that went down to Antarctica followed by the two week segment Buenos Aries to Valparaiso and finally the two week segment from Valparaiso through the Panama Canal to Miami. Did not get off the ship in Antarctica. Amazing experience !!!

[bellybutton530]

Here's what you missed:

 

 

 

 

Of course I bought the equivalent of 2 Lincoln Navigators for the experience; but it is permanently etched in my mind.

[Bridge Maven]

One more comment about bridge. I know a number of women in their fifties and sixties who have been playing bridge for over thirty years and don't play nearly as well as some young bridge players who have only been playing for a few years. I think that is partially because they use bridge as an opportunity to get together with friends and don't take the game seriously.

 

So my advice to new players is don't be intimidated by how long someone has been playing.

[Hollywood Traveler]

Great pictures, Cheryl. Thanks.

[Tucker in Texas]

I, too, am disappointed that they have discontinued bridge particularly since we mainly do trans-Atlantics where we have a lot of sea days. The games were always well attended. I guess since it cost the cruise line money (director usually gets a free ride) and kept us away from other opportunities to spend money, they saw it as a viable economic cost cutter. Our club has games just for the younger crowd with a director willing to help them out. This works out well because they are in the evenings when the younger players are more available and the "older" ones don't want to drive at night to the game. Still, we are lucky to get five tables vs. 12 or more during the day time.

 

One reason, I think, the young people aren't that interested in bridge is they want (and have) "faster" computer games. When we were their age, bridge was a major form of "cheap" entertainment in our salad days. We didn't have all the entertainment opportunities available today--or the money to do them.

 

As for the trans-Atlantic cruises, it would be wonderful if they ran all year long instead of spring/fall repositioning. I think one reason is that they might not make much money on the trans-Atlantic having to price them lower to compensate passengers for having to buy expensive one-way air fare. I think if they can "break even" moving the ship over the pond, they are happy and price accordingly.

 

We have been buying open-jaw round trip tickets--one way in the spring, using the other half in the fall. They usually run around $800. Not everyone, though, has the time and means to do that. Last year (and this year) we've been able to avail ourselves of frequent flyer tickets. American Airlines will let you use them for one-way. It cost us $5 to fly home from Barcelona last year plus 20K miles. What a deal!

 

Last year on our TA (not Celebrity) we got caught up in the volcano business in Iceland. Fortunately, we were staying on the ship another 12 days or so for a B2B. One of our traveling companions was not and worried about getting home with all the cancellations of flights.

 

Knowing many people were not being able to make the ship due to canceled flights, he went to the front desk and asked about staying on the ship for another 12 days to let things settle down. They told him an inside would be twice what he had paid for a balcony! Needless to say, he didn't book.

 

I heard a lot of the crew moaning and groaning about lost tips from people that didn't make the ship and, looking around the dining room, there were many empty tables. While I'm sure a lot of them were "no shows," meaning the line got their full fare, I'm willing to bet they had a lot flat out cancel (and collect insurance) when they found that they wouldn't be able to make embarkation and had no guarantees of when they could get over there to catch up with the ship in a timely manner to salvage their cruise.

 

That's just plain bad business. Even if they were getting money for the cabin, they were losing on board revenue and their crew was losing "salaries."

 

Tucker in Texas