What cruise lines are you considering, due to increased X prices?

[tallnthensome]

We are a family of four with young girls. Cruise pricing is going through the roof all over the place and on most every line and it has us jumping around year to year depending on the deal. Last year it was MSC for us. A few weeks ago we did the new NCL Bliss 15 day Panama Canal. Next year (2020)  it's our first Celebrity cruise and we booked this 12 day Southern on the Silhouette last year. It has only gone up in price and now a standard balcony is $150 more than the big 3 room family Veranda we have booked with the same perks. NCL prices are soaring as well as Royal's. We have also done Royal, Carnival, Holland and Princess. 

[Stateroom_Sailor]

3 hours ago, keithm said:

On Princess, you'll find more smokers, FAR more hard drinkers than I've seen on any other "premium" line. I also rate ships by the "paper towel" test.  You NOT see cloth towels in the rest rooms on Princess. I believe you still do on Celebrity(I hope)Specialty rest. on Princess are not as good as those on Celebrity(though Celebrity is more pricey)

 

I've been hesitant to try Princess, but may in Alaska at some point.  The atrium, pace, and sentimental tradition haven't resonated with us, but of course that can be different on the ground.  Thanks for sharing.

 

57 minutes ago, CruzinfromFL said:

Our TA told me that Celebrity has actually reduced their prices lately to appeal to more people, so I really do find this discussion interesting and reading everyone's experiences and perspectives.

 

Your TA hasn't looked at 2020 / 2021 pricing it would seem.  Granted, Alaska is still very competitive.  Our shoulder season Alaska cruise in 2014, is the same price as 2020, only now it includes perks.  The Caribbean on the other hand, no so much...

[Luvcrusn]

1 hour ago, CruzinfromFL said:

This thread is very interesting. Here's my recent experience. We were booked on an NCL cruisetour to Alaska in May 2020, but were uncomfortable with the price and some basic internet searching on my part showed we could get lower rates. So after changing travel agents (long story) our new new TA recommended Celebrity to us. This will be our first cruise on Celebrity (our previous cruises have all been Royal Caribbean to the Caribbean). We booked a similar cruisetour leaving 10 days later in May 2020, including 2 perks (drink package and $300 OBC), and we are paying $900 less than what we would have paid for the NCL trip (which included the drink package and $50 shore excursion credit at each port).

 

Our TA told me that Celebrity has actually reduced their prices lately to appeal to more people, so I really do find this discussion interesting and reading everyone's experiences and perspectives.

Another upside to your choice here is that unlike Norwegian's beverage package perk where gratuities are charged for each drink, the gratuities for each drink on X's Classic and Premium beverage packages are included, so no unexpected charges at the end of your cruise. 

[deliver42]

NCL prices are ridiculous if you take the "free drinks".

[DrKoob]

10 minutes ago, deliver42 said:

NCL prices are ridiculous if you take the "free drinks".

 

NCL is the living embodiment of "Free isn't always free."

[DrKoob]

1 hour ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

Your TA hasn't looked at 2020 / 2021 pricing it would seem.  Granted, Alaska is still very competitive.  Our shoulder season Alaska cruise in 2014, is the same price as 2020, only now it includes perks.  The Caribbean on the other hand, no so much...

 

This is definitely true of the "shoulder season" Alaska. But prime Alaska (June/July/August) is already filling up for summer 2020 and prices reflect that. Prime summer 2019 is almost sold out. Tried to get on Eclipse in June and found ONE veranda outside of Aqua and Suites. 

 

[Stateroom_Sailor]

2 hours ago, DrKoob said:

 

This is definitely true of the "shoulder season" Alaska. But prime Alaska (June/July/August) is already filling up for summer 2020 and prices reflect that. Prime summer 2019 is almost sold out. Tried to get on Eclipse in June and found ONE veranda outside of Aqua and Suites. 

 

 

Interesting.  The more the cruise industry grows to meet peak demands, the more deals there are off season.  I know that's selfish way to view it, but we're seeing the best deals moving forward.  Our first cruise was a 7 day on Carnival in October 2011, adjusted for inflation, comes to $910 for a veranda, or $130 per night, no perks.  Azamara's upcoming transatlantic would have ended up costing $2,199 for 14 nights, or $157 per night, being partially inclusive.

[4774Papa]

7 hours ago, CruzinfromFL said:

This thread is very interesting. Here's my recent experience. We were booked on an NCL cruisetour to Alaska in May 2020, but were uncomfortable with the price and some basic internet searching on my part showed we could get lower rates. So after changing travel agents (long story) our new new TA recommended Celebrity to us. This will be our first cruise on Celebrity (our previous cruises have all been Royal Caribbean to the Caribbean). We booked a similar cruisetour leaving 10 days later in May 2020, including 2 perks (drink package and $300 OBC), and we are paying $900 less than what we would have paid for the NCL trip (which included the drink package and $50 shore excursion credit at each port).

 

Our TA told me that Celebrity has actually reduced their prices lately to appeal to more people, so I really do find this discussion interesting and reading everyone's experiences and perspectives.

We did NCL Alaska because NCL does Glacier Bay and X does not.  It was great.

Celebrity was more expensive than NCL, but that was two years ago.

 

I don't see many cruises were Celebrity is low bidder.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

7 hours ago, CruzinfromFL said:

Our TA told me that Celebrity has actually reduced their prices lately to appeal to more people, so I really do find this discussion interesting and reading everyone's experiences and perspectives.

 

I don't think your TA is paying attention.  Yes, Celebrity is reducing prices after final payment to fill the ship on shoulder season cruises.  But overall, they are raising their prices.

[Longboysfan]

Will wait and see.

I'm close to the 650 point level now.

 

We do plan on a river cruise in Europe.

But lots to work on in timing. 

[Hlitner]

11 hours ago, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

 

I don't think your TA is paying attention.  Yes, Celebrity is reducing prices after final payment to fill the ship on shoulder season cruises.  But overall, they are raising their prices.

All true, but some of the last minute pricing is quite good :).   Over the weekend we decided to give Celebrity another try and booked a last minute 10 day cruise on the Summit that has a terrific itinerary.  We went back to our roots by booking a simple balcony fare with no perks (other then OBCs) and our cost per passenger day (when adjusted for OBCs) is less than $100 per passenger day!   When I say "back to our roots,"  we intend to take advantage of our Elite Plus status (Elite would be good enough) and utilize the daily Elite cocktail parties as well as the daily Elite breakfasts.  We can have our morning Bloody Mary/Mimosas for free as an Elite benefit and have our early evening cocktails for free (using the daily Elite benefit).  We also get free coffee/tea drinks (an Elite Plus benefit).  As much as we enjoy the Premium drink package, paying around $150 a day (for DW and myself) is absolutely nutz!  Our average drink bill (when paying by the drink) will be less than $60 per day (total for us both) which will cover splitting a half bottle of wine at dinner (better wines then we get on the packages) and some other drinks through the later part of the evening.   We do not need to buy an Internet package since we get plenty of free minutes as an Elite Plus benefit.  In the final analysis we are getting a bargain.

 

I can't help but recall that when LLP took over the executive suite of Celebrity she made it very clear that there were no longer going to be last minute "deals" as she thought that undermined a healthy pricing strategy.  At the time I posted that not offering last minute great deals would leave X with an awful lot of empty cabins.  Alas, the last minutes deals are out there....if one looks and doesn't get sucked in by all the bidding stuff, ridiculously overpriced drink packages, etc.   Celebrity has become a true "marketing machine" and does an amazing job muddying the waters (and blinding the customer) with all kinds of packages.  But beware...that many of these packages will actually have you paying a lot more (emphasis on lot) for your cruise then necessary.  Do we like having a good drink package?  Sure!  But the reality is that we will drink about the same amount without the packages and save at least $50 a day!

 

Speaking of last minute deals, we keep getting lots of e-mails from X with improving deals on the Edge!  One gets the feeling that Celebrity is now having a lot of trouble selling the Edge at the crazy high prices and is scrambling to sell all those unsold berths.  LLPs idea on holding the pricing of cruises (not lowering prices for last minute deals) does not work when the regular pricing is ridiculously high!  In a sense, Celebrity is pricing themselves out of the market!  As we posted earlier, we have an upcoming Seabourn cruise which is costing us a lot less then a comparable cabin on Celebrity.  And Celebrity is no Seabourn!

 

Hank

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

I agree that some of the last minute pricing is quite good.  And I suspect that's how I'll be booking in the future.  But you've got to know your pricing.  Some of the move up offers are ridiculous.

[swigso]

We are Elite+ and our last cruise was in March 2019.

we decided that the cuts in Food Quality and also many other small instances

are the final straw. We moved a booked Sydney to Hawaii cruise and have booked an Oceana Tahiti to San Francisco. We may well eventually cancel our two booked X Cruises but are still open minded.

There were lots of little things that we noticed but one of the major issues was the lack of premium alcohol in the bars. We upgraded because we like certain premium brands  but they are not available in all the bars. Also the staff seem to be told to serve low quality well drinks and get annoyed when asked to replace them with premium products. The food quality in both Blu and the Ocean view cafe were also lower quality than on previous sailing.

 

Cafe al Bacio serves on its menu a French Kiss which includes  Courvoisier cognac, the waiter when asked for a cognac/ Courvoisier was told that this was a coffee bar and did not stock cognac. Straw that broke the Camels back so to speak the attitude of that staff member was awful I should have followed it up and visited guest relations but it was the last night and I could just not be bothered. We chose to vote with our feet  

It will most likely be a long time before we sail Celebrity again and this was the first time in over 15 years that we did not book a Celebrity Cruise while on board.

Adios Ms.Perlo 

 

[DrKoob]

59 minutes ago, swigso said:

We are Elite+ and our last cruise was in March 2019.

we decided that the cuts in Food Quality and also many other small instances

are the final straw. We moved a booked Sydney to Hawaii cruise and have booked an Oceana Tahiti to San Francisco. We may well eventually cancel our two booked X Cruises but are still open minded.

There were lots of little things that we noticed but one of the major issues was the lack of premium alcohol in the bars. We upgraded because we like certain premium brands  but they are not available in all the bars. Also the staff seem to be told to serve low quality well drinks and get annoyed when asked to replace them with premium products. The food quality in both Blu and the Ocean view cafe were also lower quality than on previous sailing.

 

Cafe al Bacio serves on its menu a French Kiss which includes  Courvoisier cognac, the waiter when asked for a cognac/ Courvoisier was told that this was a coffee bar and did not stock cognac. Straw that broke the Camels back so to speak the attitude of that staff member was awful I should have followed it up and visited guest relations but it was the last night and I could just not be bothered. We chose to vote with our feet  

It will most likely be a long time before we sail Celebrity again and this was the first time in over 15 years that we did not book a Celebrity Cruise while on board.

Adios Ms.Perlo 

 

 

This is both sad and expected. We have noticed some of the same service issues over our last few. We have two to go and have high hopes for them. One a little over a month. We have always done the Premium package but go so much push back on getting better drinks, that we decided to just go Classic this time and live with it or pay the difference. Just did two perks with gratuities and that Classic package. 

 

Have a great time on your new choices and I totally get where you are coming from. 

[Stateroom_Sailor]

1 hour ago, swigso said:

The food quality in both Blu and the Ocean view cafe were also lower quality than on previous sailing. 

 

What ship were you on?  We're currently on Eclipse, and noticed the same.  Food quality decline is more severe in the Oceanview Cafe, where everything is lukewarm, cuts to fresh cook stations.  Blu is not bad, but the cuts are still noticeable, both to food and # of staffing.  Combine that with a spa receptionist playing head games over names, and the additional Aqua Cabins coming to the fleet, we're done with this category if and when we return to X.

[swigso]

16 minutes ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

 

What ship were you on?  We're currently on Eclipse, and noticed the same.  Food quality decline is more severe in the Oceanview Cafe, where everything is lukewarm, cuts to fresh cook stations.  Blu is not bad, but the cuts are still noticeable, both to food and # of staffing.  Combine that with a spa receptionist playing head games over names, and the additional Aqua Cabins coming to the fleet, we're done with this category if and when we return to X.

We were on the Silhouette it was the first time ever that I have sent back entree dishes at dinner, this is our first cruise where we did not feel the experience was 5 star it was very very noticeable to us of the cuts in quality and staffing levels especially at the bars.

The removal of the bar at the seating area behind the ocean view cafe has caused real issues, the portable bar has little choice and sorry Celebrity 

this is not modern luxury

 

Edited April 22, 2019 by swigso

[Quo Vadis?]

Our choice for alternative cruise companies include the first two categories.  Add those together and you have as many looking at Royal, Princess, HAL and MSC as those still dedicated to Celebrity.  I know of one Zenith couple who were totally turned off by their last cruise in 2018 that they are now sailing MSC. 

We will still book with Celebrity but we now look at the alternatives first.

 

Hank seems to have the most balanced attitude to the dilemma caused by the changes at Celebrity.  You may like/dislike all the companies for different reasons but there is a price point at which one can overlook the shortcomings and book anyone of choices offered.

[bigbenboys]

We cruised on the Edge last month. While I enjoyed our sky suite. I'm put off by the size of Luminae and The Retreat. Not sure if I like the direction Celebrity is going. The vibe was just not right. I'm going to canceling 2 Celebrity cruises both in Sky Suites. Our 15 night March 2020 cruise Peru to San Diego and our 17 night Sept 2020 cruise Hawaii to Sydney. I'm booking Paul Gauguin for Jan 2020. I still have not figured our a fall 2020 cruise or vacation yet.

[villauk]

2 minutes ago, bigbenboys said:

We cruised on the Edge last month. While I enjoyed our sky suite. I'm put off by the size of Luminae and The Retreat. Not sure if I like the direction Celebrity is going. The vibe was just not right. I'm going to canceling 2 Celebrity cruises both in Sky Suites. Our 15 night March 2020 cruise Peru to San Diego and our 17 night Sept 2020 cruise Hawaii to Sydney. I'm booking Paul Gauguin for Jan 2020. I still have not figured our a fall 2020 cruise or vacation yet.

 

 

Did your vote vote go in ‘luxury’ or ‘other’ as I’m not familiar with PG?

[Redtravel]

Sailing on Windstar, Oceania, and Azamara.  Prices on Celebrity went up to levels that made it so easy to walk away. 

If Celebrity wants to be a premium cruise line, they have to improve.  After 20+ cruises on Celebrity, we chose not to book on Celebrity again.  I have noticed some big price cuts for short dated sailings.  Too little, too late.  

[grandgeezer]

6 hours ago, Quo Vadis? said:

Our choice for alternative cruise companies include the first two categories.  Add those together and you have as many looking at Royal, Princess, HAL and MSC as those still dedicated to Celebrity.  I know of one Zenith couple who were totally turned off by their last cruise in 2018 that they are now sailing MSC. 

We will still book with Celebrity but we now look at the alternatives first.

 

Hank seems to have the most balanced attitude to the dilemma caused by the changes at Celebrity.  You may like/dislike all the companies for different reasons but there is a price point at which one can overlook the shortcomings and book anyone of choices offered.

 

I disagree. Several years ago we did a thirteen day eastbound transAtlantic on the Silhouette. We booked after final payment and ended up with a 1A balcony and only paid $600 p.p. plus taxes and fees. We couldn’t believe it was Celebrity, there was nothing that really impressed us, food, entertainment, internet, etc. It’s the only cruise we actually thought we overpaid. We thought it was a fluke and tried them twice more before we realized this is what the consider “Modern Luxury”. I’ve found  a few really good deals, price wise, but when we remembered our actual experiences, we decided to stay home. 

We have switched to suites on RCL, and MSC, which are a lot more money but we really enjoyed ourselves for the first time in several years.

[villauk]

17 hours ago, Longboysfan said:

Will wait and see.

I'm close to the 650 point level now.

 

So are you sticking with X just to earn points?

 

It’s a fascinating thread and it’s interesting to read the reasons why some are staying or why others are considering other options. 

 

9 hours ago, bigbenboys said:

I'm put off by the size of Luminae and The Retreat. Not sure if I like the direction Celebrity is going. 

 

Now this is a really interesting point as I recall stating, before Edge was built, that I felt the suite areas e.g. Luminae would lose some of their exclusivity with the amount of extra suites that X intended to install in the new builds. Is that what you are referring to in your comment above?

[Longboysfan]

3 hours ago, villauk said:

 

So are you sticking with X just to earn points?

 

It’s a fascinating thread and it’s interesting to read the reasons why some are staying or why others are considering other options. 

 

 

Now this is a really interesting point as I recall stating, before Edge was built, that I felt the suite areas e.g. Luminae would lose some of their exclusivity with the amount of extra suites that X intended to install in the new builds. Is that what you are referring to in your comment above?

 

I'll stick with what I like.

I've had a lot of great cruises on Celebrity.  I've written about 7 or 8 cruise reviews.  Some are long gone.

You would get the idea when you read one.

It was not all upscale rooms that got me the points.

 

Met many people here and at the connections party.

 

I know a river cruise is in the future.

 

I'm still working on my one year at sea in number of days. 

I think I'm 35 weeks in when this cruise ends.  So only 17 more weeks of cruising.

 

 

 

[hcat]

9 hours ago, grandgeezer said:

 

I disagree. Several years ago we did a thirteen day eastbound transAtlantic on the Silhouette. We booked after final payment and ended up with a 1A balcony and only paid $600 p.p. plus taxes and fees. We couldn’t believe it was Celebrity, there was nothing that really impressed us, food, entertainment, internet, etc. It’s the only cruise we actually thought we overpaid. We thought it was a fluke and tried them twice more before we realized this is what the consider “Modern Luxury”. I’ve found  a few really good deals, price wise, but when we remembered our actual experiences, we decided to stay home. 

We have switched to suites on RCL, and MSC, which are a lot more money but we really enjoyed ourselves for the first time in several years.

Problem is that X now has a CEO from Royal C....that mindset  sets  a lower standard of Modern Luxury for Celebrity.

 

 

[villauk]

48 minutes ago, Longboysfan said:

 

 

I'm still working on my one year at sea in number of days. 

I think I'm 35 weeks in when this cruise ends.  So only 17 more weeks of cruising.

 

 

 

 

 

Well, do you know, I’d never even given this a thought previously and after reading your post, I’ve just realised that we’re running at around the same figure as you. It’s surprising how quickly the days can accumulate. Can’t wait until we’ve retired and can catch all those last minute deals after FP (only just under 2 decades to go ).