Are Low Staffing Levels Part of Celebrity’s Plan to Cut Costs and Increase Profitably?

[NutsAboutGolf]

14 minutes ago, chromered7 said:

Do you think that crew are taken  for the Edge class ships at the expense of other ship’s? We are due to cruise on Reflection in July and after two cancelled cruises the issues on these post’s are concerning. I think the line at guest relations may be a long one as passenger expectations are not met.

 

7 minutes ago, canderson said:

Having to staff up Beyond at this time will have inevitably made a difficult problem worse, yes.

X has been hiring crew for well over a year, they knew far ahead of time that they would need to pull crew from other ships to staff the Beyond.

 

It’ll eventually be fixed, may take a lot of negative surveys before X takes a more proactive approach

[canderson]

5 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

X has been hiring crew for well over a year, they knew far ahead of time that they would need to pull crew from other ships to staff the Beyond.

Doesn't mean they have been anywhere near as successful in backfilling crew as they expected they might be when they first started planning staffing for Beyond.  Meanwhile, they were already taking bookings well in advance of that.  Options?  Cancel Beyond bookings or deal with slim pickings for crew. 

[chromered7]

After reading all of these post’s about lack of staff and and poor service how will passengers be compensated for a cruise that did not match the price on the ticket ?

[JeanieC,Aston]

 

“It’ll eventually be fixed, may take a lot of negative surveys before X takes a more proactive approach”

 

I have only done x9 Celebrity cruises,all from UK or Europe.

On the surveys post cruise I have always scored 10/10.
On my online survey of my recent cruise on Silhouette 21st April I scored housekeeping and bar staff 10/10 but I’m afraid the rest averaged 5/10.

I gave my reasons for low marks emphasising it was no reflection on staff especially MDR staff.

Food quality (in my opinion) was poor,live entertainment was poor,,,,ie guest artists and wondering minstrels.

MDR was chaos.

I only need to go back pre covid when we had the Beatles Celebration or Tenors of Rock etc.I’m afraid Comedians,Jugglers and Magicians is not good enough.

 

I do hope the surveys are acted upon,,reading FB pages the first few cruises out of the UK just haven’t cut it.

I have booked a FO cruise for next month,a Princess for late summer and P+O for Xmas.

With Celebrity eye watering prices for UK cruises and diminishing quality they don’t get a first look at the moment….shame really they used to be really good.

[Bo1953]

39 minutes ago, chromered7 said:

Do you think that crew are taken  for the Edge class ships at the expense of other ship’s? We are due to cruise on Reflection in July and after two cancelled cruises the issues on these post’s are concerning. I think the line at guest relations may be a long one as passenger expectations are not met.

Regardless of where the crew happens to be or not, now may be the time to cancel or you might be standing in that line like others you note... for no reason at all, except for the apology!

 

bon voyage

[marieps]

3 hours ago, chromered7 said:

Do you think that crew are taken  for the Edge class ships at the expense of other ship’s? We are due to cruise on Reflection in July and after two cancelled cruises the issues on these post’s are concerning. I think the line at guest relations may be a long one as passenger expectations are not met.

As stated by a couple of folks here Reflection service has been exceptional since the restart.

[grandgeezer]

1 hour ago, marieps said:

As stated by a couple of folks here Reflection service has been exceptional since the restart.

At what passenger count??

[Algebralovr]

5 hours ago, JeanieC,Aston said:

I have only done x9 Celebrity cruises,all from UK or Europe.

 

I only need to go back pre covid when we had the Beatles Celebration or Tenors of Rock etc.I’m afraid Comedians,Jugglers and Magicians is not good enough.

 

 

I did Reflection in November and December 2021 and only good things to say about Celebrity Reflection.  One of those groups was on our ship in December.  The performers had been exposed and were in isolation, so no production shows.  We had the Beatles tribute group instead.

 

44 minutes ago, grandgeezer said:

At what passenger count??

November was low, only 850, but December 26, 2021 had over 1700 guests.   Our November cruise was only the 3rd cruise held upon opening Reflection, so had trainers on board making sure the crew were up to the task.  December, the trainers had left and it was a decently full house.  All of Deck 6 was off limits, either for new crew in quarantine, or people in isolation after exposure or testing positive.  Same with Deck 3 rooms.  They were set aside for isolation.  

[HMR74]

20 hours ago, Ommadawn said:

 

Are they asking for volunteers first like the airlines do when they overbook? ? Or are they just picking people based on a criteria? And, if so, what is the criteria?

 

My wife and I are cruising out of Southampton on a two week Ireland and Iceland cruise in three weeks, but if Celebrity said "Here is all of your money back and 50% FCC if you volunteer to cancel", then I would probably just take a train for those two weeks to see the UK. 🙂 Man, thinking about it, that would be a tough call. LOL! 🙂

whats the criteria?  How about the fare paid. My cruises are up 20% in price so even a 25% spiff would garner a yawn.

 

Do not look now but it was easy to see the problems coming esp for cruise ships that use diesel and food. Diesel was 2.25 a gallon back in Nov 2020--its over $5.25 now. My educated guess is cruise line management does not know what problem to fix first so throws a bandaid on it to buy time with putting bandaids on other problems.

 

If you have not paid attention to very recent news, the US East coast is short on diesel fuel, it may need to be rationed, if its rationed  trucks can't move as much food and other items (booze for cruises for example) and I believe diesel or a form of it is used on cruise ships. I know trains use diesel. Who gets priority rationing.

Because there is less fertilizer and wheat coming out ouf Asia, we wil see shortages of basic foods.

Eggs are around $3 a dozen up 300% and we know how cruise lines use eggs in massive volume.

 

Baby formula is difficult to procure. Parents of infants  around the country already know.

 

We have more issues and problems coming as well as inflation caused by lack of supply. I betcha the cruise line folks cannot plan more than a few days out.

 

[Baron Barracuda]

On last earnings call seem to remember Jason Liberty commenting that he expected most ships to be sailing with full loads by summer.   That would include both Royal and X.  Unless they locate several thousand additional crew there are going to be an awful lot of comment cards being returned with scores of 5 or lower.

[dabear]

8 hours ago, chromered7 said:

After reading all of these post’s about lack of staff and and poor service how will passengers be compensated for a cruise that did not match the price on the ticket ?

Haha, very funny! You must be living in a dream world.

Edited May 16, 2022 by dabear

[TeeRick]

On 5/15/2022 at 11:29 AM, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

There's a huge pool of experienced crew members awaiting contracts but cruise lines are passing on them in favor of paying less for brand new crew members.  Many examples of this include in this thread where Jim stated they hire a brand new Retreat manager who's never been on a ship.  Why not offer a contract to an existing X manager or reward their existing top staff with a promotion?  The answer is because it's cheaper to hire new.

True for every business out there.

[TeeRick]

On 5/15/2022 at 11:46 AM, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

You're welcome to think whatever your heart desires.  One should think about why a Retreat manager who's never been on a ship was offered a contract.

Maybe the Retreat Manager had specific experience they were looking for.  This is not an entry level position.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

Somewhat related: A couple of things just "dropped" with regard to Carnival in the last day or so --

 

They're temporarily suspending (on all ships except the Mardi Gras) dining at their Italian restaurant and Chef's Tables.

 

Additionally, they're stopping the Diamond Gathering (200+ cruise days) and instead giving all Diamond guests $50 OBC.. now THAT'S a nice substitution! Also, in lieu of the Platinum/Diamond party, they're giving all those folks two drink vouchers.

 

They are citing staffing issues as the reason.

 

Tom

[drakes2]

14 hours ago, Baron Barracuda said:

Unless they locate several thousand additional crew there are going to be an awful lot of comment cards being returned with scores of 5 or lower.

On  my recent Eclipse cruise I gave an overall rating of 3. My February 2022 Edge cruise was wonderful as was my November 2021 Silhouette.  Always long lines as guest relations on the Eclipse with only a couple of crew serving guests and it didn't matter what time of day you went down.  Cabin steward Ida was the best as was the MDR hostess,  a young girl from the Philippines. 

[marieps]

19 hours ago, grandgeezer said:

At what passenger count??

We sailed Dec 4 with approx. 1070 passengers.  Isn't that something like 1/3 capacity?

[Minniebug]

First of all, who does not make reservations these days, just not smart. 2nd, people are leaving hospitality in droves, as the pay and hours to work are not attractive anymore. Myself having worked for 35 years in hospitality retired five years early, bc I was tired of the long hours without overtime pay, and working every darn weekend and holiday. And bc of nasty customers. Companies will not just bust their budgets and margins and pay huge wages and bennies. It's a different world.

[grandgeezer]

When the capacities finally level out, and all the lines got were a bunch of complaints, I wouldn’t be surprised if they cut back on crewing. If they see a revenue drop, or more crew leaving, then probably not.

[Cruising89143]

Was mentioned above but the crew shortage is just more than Celebrity. Other lines now making adjustments.

 

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/27508-staff-shortage-carnival-to-limit-dining-options-across-fleet.html

[Redtravel]

This is just another way that Celebrity is changing things to make cruises “a more enjoyable experience”?

[markeb]

I'm not happy about what people are reporting, but I don't know why anyone is surprised. Have you flown recently? Great article this weekend about airline pilots. Turns out a lot of them are in the 51-59 year old range. Mandatory retirement is currently 65. Wide body pilots can make $350K a year. When the airlines were idled in 2020, a lot of them offered early retirement, which I suspect the stockholders (including everyone on this thread's 401K/403B) applauded to keep earnings up. Well, you can't make a 777 pilot overnight, and now the major carriers are cannibalizing their regional carriers to get pilots with enough flight hours to fly those big jets. Regional pilots make something like $66K a year, so they're jumping at the opportunity to triple their salary (or more). In some markets, those ERJ's are being replaced by buses.

 

No, we're not talking airline pilots here, but it's illustrative of the problems. Senior people retired and moved on with life. The base that the service industries recruit from found things to do during the pandemic. No hard numbers or data, just anecdotes, but some went to community college (or the equivalent) and learned to code. If you can get paid to literally sit in your underwear at home writing Python scripts, why go to the hassle of getting passports, visa, health checks, etc. to clean toilets on a cruise ship? Or in the US, flip burgers?

 

And, again, the cost cutting increases earnings per share to your 401K...

[Oville]

30 minutes ago, markeb said:

I'm not happy about what people are reporting, but I don't know why anyone is surprised. Have you flown recently? Great article this weekend about airline pilots. Turns out a lot of them are in the 51-59 year old range. Mandatory retirement is currently 65. Wide body pilots can make $350K a year. When the airlines were idled in 2020, a lot of them offered early retirement, which I suspect the stockholders (including everyone on this thread's 401K/403B) applauded to keep earnings up. Well, you can't make a 777 pilot overnight, and now the major carriers are cannibalizing their regional carriers to get pilots with enough flight hours to fly those big jets. Regional pilots make something like $66K a year, so they're jumping at the opportunity to triple their salary (or more). In some markets, those ERJ's are being replaced by buses.

 

No, we're not talking airline pilots here, but it's illustrative of the problems. Senior people retired and moved on with life. The base that the service industries recruit from found things to do during the pandemic. No hard numbers or data, just anecdotes, but some went to community college (or the equivalent) and learned to code. If you can get paid to literally sit in your underwear at home writing Python scripts, why go to the hassle of getting passports, visa, health checks, etc. to clean toilets on a cruise ship? Or in the US, flip burgers?

 

And, again, the cost cutting increases earnings per share to your 401K...

Wasn’t thIs topic poor service in the MDR?

[markeb]

1 minute ago, Oville said:

Wasn’t thIs topic poor service in the MDR?

 

No. It was staffing levels as a cost cutting measure.

 

Are Low Staffing Levels Part of Celebrity’s Plan to Cut Costs and Increase Profitably?

[mrgabriel]

On 5/15/2022 at 1:47 AM, Ipeeinthepools said:

It’s a self inflicted problem because Celebrity has not hired enough staff.

 

I work in the travel industry and NO COMPANY can get enough staff. It's not a "Celebrity issue" - it's all over the world in restaurants, bars, hotels, inns, resorts, car rental agencies - everywhere.

 

Some of the companies my employer works with are the best hotel chains and most profitable visitor experiences in the world and they can't get front desk people, chambermaids or serving staff even after increasing wages. It's likely much more difficult for cruise lines because you take long hours and add  being away from home for months on end and the risk of being stuck on a ship during a lockdown.

[Oville]

6 minutes ago, markeb said:

 

No. It was staffing levels as a cost cutting measure.

 

Are Low Staffing Levels Part of Celebrity’s Plan to Cut Costs and Increase Profitably?

Quoting the OP: “I’m currently on the Summit and it is painfully obvious that Celebrity does not have adequate wait staff in the MDR.”.  What a shock.