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Ever increasing sales pressure?


lisiamc
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We’re on Solstice right now, and over the past few days, the pressure to buy meals in the speciality restaurants has been escalating to levels I’ve never seen before.  When we came back on board after a port call yesterday, several people from the restaurant staff had positioned themselves in an arc across the corridor leading to the lifts, and were cornering people and offering deals on various speciality dining opportunities.  When we went to breakfast this morning, before the assistant Maitre d’ took us to our table, she went into a lengthy spiel about yet another extra-cost dining opportunity.  I don’t think we’ve had one single meal in any restaurant in nearly seven days when someone hasn’t tried to sell us some sort of meal or wine event.  When we walk past Tuscan Grill or Silk Harvest, there are usually some people in there, but there are always loads of empty tables, so the sales campaign hasn’t been that effective.  I have no problem smiling nicely and saying “No, thank you” firmly, but I don’t enjoy having to do it multiple times, all day, every day.  If the speciality meals are not selling well, maybe a different approach is called for.  Harassing passengers in the style of beach souvenir hawkers is not having good results.  We’ve filled out a comment card about the relentless pressure.  I can’t help imagining that the response will be a telephone call asking if we’re really sure we don’t want to buy a few speciality meals! 😁

 

(I should also add that apart from this one issue, we’re enjoying this cruise just as much as we usually do.  There is much to enjoy and praise, as we’ve come to expect from Celebrity.)

Edited by lisiamc
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Yea, they could start by charging half of what they do normally if they want to fill specialty restaurants. I'm not paying six thousand dollars for a cruise and then paying another $30 per person to eat. They can kiss my rear end ...... Glad to hear they have to beg. Maybe they'll buy a clue. 

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Thanks for starting this thread, lisiamc.  It is of particular interest to us because we have good friends on your cruise who have had the same extremely negative reaction to the relentless sales activity.   They are especially offended by that activity when it occurs while they are trying to have a pleasant meal.   These friends are experienced X cruisers.   However, they are sufficiently disturbed by this level of sales pressure that they intend to cancel a cruise next year which we had intended to share with them and to which we had all looked forward eagerly. 

My partner & I will be new cruisers on X, having done all of our cruising on smaller ships, but wishing to try X for the greater variety of restaurants, activities, and entertainment.  

Thus, I pose this question to all of you veteran X sailors:

Is this perhaps a one-off situation with a remarkably ambitious hotel manager pushing the staff to do such high-pressure sales and revenue generation; or, rather, is this something that is occurring across the board on X?

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Good questions, freddie.  We’ve cruised with this Hotel Director before, and haven’t had nearly as much pressure to buy meals.  Our last X cruise in November had more pressure than I remember in previous years, but only 1/3 to 1/2 what we’re getting now.  

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It's funny that you mention that because it happened to us a couple of cruises back.  Our last sailing had no availability so they weren't pushing it at all.  Anyway, we were approached and I told the girl not to come back without her maitre'd and a good deal....and she did!   We got a great deal on our specialty dining ... never bothered us again.  But, of course, we were looking forward to some specialty dining so that sounds like a different situation.  

We've found that when we feel pestered to death in Vegas to attend a timeshare presentation, we just tell them we already bought one.  Problem solved!  

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We just returned a week ago from a cruise on the Silhouette in Aqua class.  No crew member approached us the entire week about reserving specialty dining.  We saw small tables set up frequently just outside the Oceanview Cafe or in a hallway near the Cafe al  Bacio with a staff member very willing to take a reservation; but they never made a personal plea as we walked by. I hope our experience is more the norm. 

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We had the same problem on Silhouette.   They got to be so aggressive that I got to the point of just being rude and ignoring them like I do with a bum on the street begging for money.

 

We had one that started following us down the hall wanting to know why we didn't want to dine in one of the specialties.  Even in Luminea the Restaurant was handing out Special Discount Coupons.  I was having dinner with the Captain and Executive Staff as part of my initiation into Zenith and I brought it up to the Captain and Staff during dinner.   He said he would look into it.   The sales pressure dropped off by the next day.

 

Recommend filling out an Attention to Details form and drop at front desk and point out in Survey.   If enough of us do I think we will see improvement.

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No thank you. We don't pay extra to eat on the ship. No thank you. Not interested is the spa. No thank you. We are perfectly satisfied with the CBP. No thank you. We aren't interested in park west art. No thank you.; We don't like our picture taken when we are eating. 

Edited by davekathy
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This was our first cruise with Celebrity. That first day on the Equinox, we were pressured to upgrade to the  premium drink package. It was just like Jim_lain said. Like multiple street hawkers following you that would not take no for an answer. I bet i got asked thirty times within the first four hours on day one. I never seen anything like it on any other cruise line from the staff. I wonder how or why the big wigs are getting them to be so aggressive. I would have upgraded if they would have just had an information stand about it, or something like that. 

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We've got our final Lisa Perlo era X cruise coming up, hopefully this change affect us as much in Blu.  I was planning on trying Sushi on 5 for lunch on embarkation, but not if they're going to act like this.  

 

Don't they know it's like herding cats?  I bet their specialty restaurant sales are down in spite the effort.

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2 hours ago, tallnthensome said:

Yea, they could start by charging half of what they do normally if they want to fill specialty restaurants. I'm not paying six thousand dollars for a cruise and then paying another $30 per person to eat. They can kiss my rear end ...... Glad to hear they have to beg. Maybe they'll buy a clue. 

 

The price for specialty dining is more than $30. Regular price is $45-65 on Edge, and they weren't even offering discounts. 

 

I did not encounter any attempts to get us to upgrade our beverage package while on board Edge, nor were they pushing specialty dining (probably because they were busy since it was new). However, there were more photographers than I remember seeing on other ships. They were even in the MDR on regular (non-Chic) nights.

Edited by MisterBill99
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1 hour ago, Cruise Raider said:

It's funny that you mention that because it happened to us a couple of cruises back.  Our last sailing had no availability so they weren't pushing it at all.  Anyway, we were approached and I told the girl not to come back without her maitre'd and a good deal....and she did!   We got a great deal on our specialty dining ... never bothered us again.  But, of course, we were looking forward to some specialty dining so that sounds like a different situation.  

We've found that when we feel pestered to death in Vegas to attend a timeshare presentation, we just tell them we already bought one.  Problem solved!  

That really is the simple solution - tell them you have already booked all of the specialty restaurants.  I have yet to be really bothered by anyone trying to sell "extras" on any cruise I've ever taken. For the most part I can completely ignore them or say "no thanks" and they know from my tone to leave me alone.

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17 minutes ago, Oville said:

In 36 Celebrity cruises starting with Solstice in late 2008 we have never been approached by anyone trying to up sell various venues, call us lucky I guess.

WOW, not the norm. 🙄

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15 minutes ago, MisterBill99 said:

 

If it didn't work, they wouldn't be doing it.

 

There are people who will feel bad saying no, but resent being pressured into it.  There is both a short and long term benefit and cost, hence this thread.

 

I was just looking up Azamara, their specialty dining is $30, half of what X is charging.  Since I could not order this on land for $30 (tips are included, no tax), the opportunity cost of passing on my MDR meal, seems fair.  Tuscan Grill, not so much...

 

https://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/prime_c_menu_jan_2016_-_final.pdf

Edited by Stateroom_Sailor
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We sailed on Silhouette in December and the sales pressure for specialty dining and upgrading beverage packages was relentless, frenzied and desperate. We have no problems saying no and continuing to go about our business, however several different crew members followed us the length of the ship badgering. I almost felt like they had been threatened with something dire if they didn't produce certain levels of sales results. I have never in all of our cruises on X (or anywhere else) seen that amount of desperation. I finally asked one young man who followed us with a sales pitch that wouldn't stop regardless of how many times we said no "what part of no is difficult for you to understand?" I also filled out a mid cruise comment card about it and included it in my post cruise review and survey.

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2 minutes ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

 

 

I was just looking up Azamara, their specialty dining is $30, half of what X is charging.  Since I could not order this on land for $30 (tips are included, no tax), the opportunity cost of passing on my MDR meal, makes more sense.  Tuscan Grill, not so much...

 

That menu looks great but for what they're charging to sail on Azamara, charging an extra $30 for specialty dining seems really petty and far worse than Celebrity doing it.

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7 minutes ago, MisterBill99 said:

 

That menu looks great but for what they're charging to sail on Azamara, charging an extra $30 for specialty dining seems really petty and far worse than Celebrity doing it.

 

If you chose Azamara without even considering specialty, it is fairly priced.  They have to charge something, or most people wouldn't even bother with the MDR.

 

Azamara is expensive, but there are a few last minute deals and reposition cruises that are more reasonable.  This April they go to SC for 3 days, Bermuda 3 days, which is kind of unique.

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We encountered more pressure on our last Silhouette cruise than we have in the past. We had already booked a specialty dining package for the entire cruise and once we told them that a few times, we were no longer approached for general specialty dining. However, we were very aggressively solicited to change our reservations one night to include a special Indian banquet in Qsine (which would have been an additional charge over the package we had already paid for). We love Indian food so we did consider it, but the relentless pressure from the staff any time we happened to walk past Qsine (or into the buffet or any of the other locations where they had specialty dining staff stationed) was an enormous turnoff, and after we saw the menu we realized it wasn't going to be a meal worth the upcharge. As someone upthread stated, these tactics must work on someone or they wouldn't be using them - but that someone is NOT me. 

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2 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

We had the same problem on Silhouette.   They got to be so aggressive that I got to the point of just being rude and ignoring them like I do with a bum on the street begging for money.

 

We had one that started following us down the hall wanting to know why we didn't want to dine in one of the specialties.  Even in Luminea the Restaurant was handing out Special Discount Coupons.  I was having dinner with the Captain and Executive Staff as part of my initiation into Zenith and I brought it up to the Captain and Staff during dinner.   He said he would look into it.   The sales pressure dropped off by the next day.

 

Recommend filling out an Attention to Details form and drop at front desk and point out in Survey.   If enough of us do I think we will see improvement.

 

We were on the Silhouette Transatlantic from Southampton with you.  I thought the sales pressure was unacceptably high then, but the pressure on Solstice for this cruise makes Silhouette seem very civilised in comparison!

 

 

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27 minutes ago, Luvcrusn said:

We sailed on Silhouette in December and the sales pressure for specialty dining and upgrading beverage packages was relentless, frenzied and desperate. We have no problems saying no and continuing to go about our business, however several different crew members followed us the length of the ship badgering. I almost felt like they had been threatened with something dire if they didn't produce certain levels of sales results. I have never in all of our cruises on X (or anywhere else) seen that amount of desperation. I finally asked one young man who followed us with a sales pitch that wouldn't stop regardless of how many times we said no "what part of no is difficult for you to understand?" I also filled out a mid cruise comment card about it and included it in my post cruise review and survey.

Very well said. You just described our first day on board our recent Equinox cruise. Relentless, frenzied, badgering to upgrade the beverage package. My wife even told me to not make eye contact, just like the street hawkers. Can you imagine not making eye contact with the cruise staff team. They are what make the cruise, not the big shots. The pressure  to upgrade did not last past day two.

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