Is cruising losing its sparkle?

[calicakes]

3 minutes ago, Kilroyshere said:

That's a heavy dose of reality. 

My wife also came home positive from our Sept 16th reflection cruise.

[maggie.1008]

We just returned from our X Hawaii cruise and I have Covid. It’s much more than a common cold. I also have no sense of smell or taste. We are avid cruisers and have cruised five times in the past 11months. Having Covid has taken a bit of the sparkle away. 
we will continue to cruise but not for a while and will look for smaller ships. 

[kirtihk]

15 minutes ago, calicakes said:

My wife also came home positive from our Sept 16th reflection cruise.

Sometimes, I read threads backward.  After reading this post I thought I clicked on a wrong title.

 

Sparkle is definitely present...  It's just revealed in unusual places around the ships' venues.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

Delated

Edited October 11, 2022 by Ex-Airbalancer

[wineoclock]

I hope we don’t get covid but if we do we do! Just hope it’s when we are back home rather than on the ship. 

[calicakes]

56 minutes ago, calicakes said:

My wife also came home positive from our Sept 16th reflection cruise.

Covid positive.

[davekathy]

Returned home on the evening of 3 October from our 21 September 12 night NE/Canada cruise on the Summit and no covid for us. Same when we returned from our B2B Caribbean cruise in March on the Explorer Of The Seas. 

[canderson]

4 hours ago, JCruise85 said:

Almost as if things change over time or something.

Yeah. Unfortunately, it's called 'entropy'.  You can see its historical results pretty clearly.

 

[mac66]

We've done 4 cruises since "the end" of covid. I guess that says something. However, none of those cruises were as good as the pre covid days and all were make ups of cancellations, which I guess says something as well. 

 

We have one more cruise this year and one early next year. I'm guessing that those will continue or break our love affair with cruising. Frankly, I wouldn't mind not cruising for awhile i.e,  5 years or so. I'm tired of it.

Edited October 11, 2022 by mac66

[rmalbers]

Pricing has been mentioned a few times that I've seen.  I know there is food/fuel/employee inflation but I was on a Viking cruise last month and I can't believe how many times I heard people say they were using FCC (Viking has a different term for it).  I think there is still a lot of FCC that has to move thru the system on all cruise lines and then maybe we'll get at least a little better pricing. 

[CruisingWalter]

On 10/7/2022 at 5:39 PM, gordylad said:

I just wonder with a lot of negative reviews. In fact we had dinner with friends who were on the Reflection cruise in September and when discussing it they merely mentioned it was okay, food not great, ship needs an upgrade.........nothing really enthusiastic. And by the way one of them tested positive for covid after getting off the ship.

 

Personally we will continue to cruise but I just wonder how others feel.

 

We've taken three cruises so far since the restart. NCL Escape, Carnival Mardi Gras and Virgin Scarlet Lady. If anything we're more excited than ever to keep cruising. I think one thing that happened while we were all 'away for two years' is our recollections of the onboard experiences might have grown the more we were away. We might have all remembered things 'just a little better than they really were.'  On top of that, everyone is dealing with staff shortages and supply chain issues are still a thing in the culinary world. So it's entirely possible the meals they're serving us right now might not be the same ingredients we used to have pre-pandemic. 

 

I will say the NCL Escape specialty restaurants were absolutely on point, the MDR is usually 'meh' so we don't go there. Scarlet Lady was amazeballs with food at every single venue. Carnival Mardi Gras was pretty good at most venue but Rudi's Seagrill was one of the best meals we've ever had at sea. 

 

We have been going on these cruises accepting that things are not fully back up to normal yet and we're just happy to be back on the ships. I've been filming and posting long cruise relaxation videos (up to 2 hours) on my YouTube channel of ocean scenes from the cruise ships 'just in case' anything happens again. I told my wife I missed those views more than anything and I was not going to miss them again. 🙂 

[broker1217]

On 10/9/2022 at 5:06 PM, calicakes said:

We sailed Reflection last month from Rome( Sept 16).  I did post a live blog with many pics of food.  I had to ask what the fish was.  Most times, I was told " Tilapia".  Which, if you're not aware is a FARMED in Vietnam/China fish.  The water standards there are super low, so I chose not to ingest that fish.   The roasted chicken was super dry. The carved turkey was dry.  The pasta casseroles that were served were tasteless.  I never add salt to food, but I had to numerous times at the buffet.  I tend to like the vegetarian Indian dishes, but this time they were way too spicy for me.  Food is very subjective.  We dined in Luminae( our first time in a suite) and while I thought it was good, it didn't blow me away.   A lot of it was very "fancy", food that we don't eat.  Pheasant, chicken liver mouse, beef tartar. The fish dishes I had were decent.  ( check out my pics)

 

We tried Oceania last Feb for the first time, I thought the food and desserts were a lot better.  The miso glazed cod at Red Ginger was one of the best seafood dishes I've ever had.  The baked goods were great.( I bake so I'm extra picky).  

 

The cheese selection wasn't great.  Mozzarella is not meant to be cut into cubes and served with crackers.   There was no goat cheese on the buffet as there has been in the past.  

We are potentially interested in Oceania or Azamara. We liked Viking. Crystal not so much due to the ship itself being old and lots of very small, dark spaces. Doing Silversea in March and it seems a much better value than Celebrity for us. Around $350/pp per day including a 385 sq foot suite with butler and Wifi, drinks gratuities included. Plus a smaller ship with better staff ratio.

On our Celebrity cruise---only once did they serve a fish that was identified at the buffet, and it was the dreaded Tilapia. I choose to not eat mud flavored fish.

Blu was better than we expected. I'm sure Luminae is a step above that. But not willing to pay X Retreat prices to be on a ship with 3000 other people.

 

I get that many people are very brand loyal and work on getting status for perks. We do that with airlines.

But Celebrity was not a good value for us. We would much rather put the $$ to land vacations or a higher end smaller ship. That's a better value for us. We are all different.

Some people like pizza, pasta and Mexican food. We prefer different food.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

2 minutes ago, broker1217 said:

We are potentially interested in Oceania or Azamara. We liked Viking. Crystal not so much due to the ship itself being old and lots of very small, dark spaces. Doing Silversea in March and it seems a much better value than Celebrity for us. Around $350/pp per day including a 385 sq foot suite with butler and Wifi, drinks gratuities included. Plus a smaller ship with better staff ratio.

On our Celebrity cruise---only once did they serve a fish that was identified at the buffet, and it was the dreaded Tilapia. I choose to not eat mud flavored fish.

Blu was better than we expected. I'm sure Luminae is a step above that. But not willing to pay X Retreat prices to be on a ship with 3000 other people.

 

I get that many people are very brand loyal and work on getting status for perks. We do that with airlines.

But Celebrity was not a good value for us. We would much rather put the $$ to land vacations or a higher end smaller ship. That's a better value for us. We are all different.

Some people like pizza, pasta and Mexican food. We prefer different food.

On our next TA cruise on Reflection and Conny in 2013 in a balcony we are paying $99 a day pp and Always included , one cruise has $500 obc and the other cruise has $1000 obc , ( including SHC) 

at that price we will enjoy our time with our friends 

That is very good bang for our dollar 😀

[calicakes]

23 minutes ago, broker1217 said:

I'm sure Luminae is a step above that. But not willing to pay X Retreat prices to be on a ship with 3000 other people.

 

I guess we were lucky, we used FCC and lift and shift and our cruise was about 9500 for 10 days, with 1800 OBC.  1k from Celebrity and 800 from our TA.  The 800 was refundable.  I looked at cruises next spring for Caribbean on Celebrity( in a suite) and the prices were much, much higher.  More than we wanted to spend.  We chose to spend a week at a resort in Aruba instead. 

 

[gordylad]

Re...

On our next TA cruise on Reflection and Conny in 2013 in a balcony we are paying $99 a day pp.........

 

Are you a Time Traveller? lol

[Ex-Airbalancer]

1 hour ago, gordylad said:

Re...

On our next TA cruise on Reflection and Conny in 2013 in a balcony we are paying $99 a day pp.........

 

Are you a Time Traveller? lol

That 😁 or typing on the phone as we  had a power outage for 4 hours last night 😵‍💫

actually in 2013 we paid about the same price, it was the first year they started to have drink package , on the April cruise the IT department mistakenly gave us the drink package 😁

[cruisegirlppp]

On 10/9/2022 at 2:27 PM, Cruise a holic said:

Yes- but the Finest half Club level.  We had some kids with us in the family.  Excellence portion is adults only.  But the same hotel with different buildings.  Enjoy

During the pandemic we did 3 trips to Excellence in the Dominican Republic, at the club level. Had to twist my cruise-loving DH's arm but after the first one he was hooked and kept asking when we could go back!  We are resuming cruising but will also re-visit Excellence for a resort vacation.

[HappyTexan44]

On 10/8/2022 at 6:41 AM, LXA350 said:

It seems in general the trend in the hospitality business is pay more and get less. YOu also feel this trend on the cruiselines. Even at X, crews are great but when it comes to quality of amenities and also the food the trend is on the negative.

 

 

Talk about losing sparkle!   Disney World is the poster child of pay more and get less.  

 

 

[Gracie115]

20 hours ago, HappyTexan44 said:

 

Talk about losing sparkle!   Disney World is the poster child of pay more and get less.  

 

 

 

Boy is THAT ever true

[Orator]

With changes to the loyalty program Celebrity has definitely lost its sparkle to me. There have been reports by Zeniths that there are from 2-8 Zeniths on a cruise and some of them are in Suites (13 on a recent TA). Most are reporting no special events unless there are more than at least 8. Many have felt the change. I appreciate the benefits that still exist, but I see the trend of lessening loyalty benefits continuing.

[someguyfl]

7 hours ago, Orator said:

With changes to the loyalty program Celebrity has definitely lost its sparkle to me. There have been reports by Zeniths that there are from 2-8 Zeniths on a cruise and some of them are in Suites (13 on a recent TA). Most are reporting no special events unless there are more than at least 8. Many have felt the change. I appreciate the benefits that still exist, but I see the trend of lessening loyalty benefits continuing.

Of course everyone has the right to their own opinion and I’m just sharing mine, but I see things almost totally opposite. 
 

I’m only a lowly Select (soon the be “Elite”). The benefits of captains club never seemed particularly interesting to me, but since I do cruise at least once every few years, and i prefer celebrity’s product… “why not”. 
 

I see people complain about celebrity having fewer of these sorts of meet up type events, eg: cruise critic roll call… captains club elite … zenith… etc. 

 

in the past I went to the roll call party once and also I was invited to the captains club “elite” party once when I was sailing in a royal suite years ago. Honestly, it felt very forced. 
 

I don’t see the point on any of it. If you want to meet people, there are people all over the ship. I meet people on every cruise. Go do the things you enjoy, and talk to the people around as you do them. 
 

as far as I am concerned, the captains club program should just be about discounts and upgrades… 

 

as far as the other question of losing it’s sparkle… clearly the industry is changing. Celebrity is targeting younger passengers on edge class. I haven’t been on edge yet (but will in a month for a Panama Canal cruise)…

 

my last cruise was on Solstice a few months ago to Alaska. The food was better than ever. The service was better than ever. The ship was clearly a bit past her prime, but given what happened over the last 2 years with government forced shutdowns, it’s a miracle that there weren’t more bankruptcies. 
 

looking at occupancy numbers on faux bookings on Celebrity vs Princess, it’s clear that Celebrity is doing something right as the occupancy % is very clearly better on X. 

[davekathy]

54 minutes ago, someguyfl said:

Of course everyone has the right to their own opinion and I’m just sharing mine, but I see things almost totally opposite. 
 

I’m only a lowly Select (soon the be “Elite”). The benefits of captains club never seemed particularly interesting to me, but since I do cruise at least once every few years, and i prefer celebrity’s product… “why not”. 
 

I see people complain about celebrity having fewer of these sorts of meet up type events, eg: cruise critic roll call… captains club elite … zenith… etc. 

 

in the past I went to the roll call party once and also I was invited to the captains club “elite” party once when I was sailing in a royal suite years ago. Honestly, it felt very forced. 
 

I don’t see the point on any of it. If you want to meet people, there are people all over the ship. I meet people on every cruise. Go do the things you enjoy, and talk to the people around as you do them. 
 

as far as I am concerned, the captains club program should just be about discounts and upgrades… 

 

as far as the other question of losing it’s sparkle… clearly the industry is changing. Celebrity is targeting younger passengers on edge class. I haven’t been on edge yet (but will in a month for a Panama Canal cruise)…

 

my last cruise was on Solstice a few months ago to Alaska. The food was better than ever. The service was better than ever. The ship was clearly a bit past her prime, but given what happened over the last 2 years with government forced shutdowns, it’s a miracle that there weren’t more bankruptcies. 
 

looking at occupancy numbers on faux bookings on Celebrity vs Princess, it’s clear that Celebrity is doing something right as the occupancy % is very clearly better on X. 

Cruising with Celebrity hasn't lost the sparkle for us. But, when a perk/benefit is taken away I (we) have a right to voice our complaints and feel justified by doing so. Recently I spoke with the CC concierge about it on our recent Summit cruise. The CC HH that use to be held in the evening in the Sky Lounge never felt forced to us and is no longer. The evening of the senior officers party my wife and I were approached  by one of the senior officers and asked our CC tier level and thanked us for our loyalty to Celebrity. I politely advised her at the time of our disappointment and approval with some of the changes to the CC (also noted on our PCS). Again never felt forced at that event. Then or now. BTW, I did receive some cheese to go with my wine at the senior officers event. 😁 Maybe whenever you finally make elite and have some perks/benefits, oh like discounts and upgrades taken away you may feel differently. Maybe not. Until then...  

Edited October 15, 2022 by davekathy

[Fly and Sail]

Not sure what one would consider a "sparkle" but a cruise ship is just a floating hotel and not some mystic paradise on the high seas. It has also gotten a lot cheaper which of course reflects on the product and clientele.

 

I'm not expecting a cruise to mirror the luxury experience of a 5* Hideaway resort, no matter which cabin class you sail in. It's still mass market.

[Orator]

If you've never experienced something, I guess you wouldn't miss if it was taken away. I've experienced Michael's Club and it's been taken away! I've experienced upgraded bathroom amenities and they have been taken away! I am now paying for things  like internet and drink packages that in the past were loyalty benefits. No daily bottled water in Aqua Class as before.  If you are a new cruiser you might be happy. If you have more than 100 Celebrity cruises you might feel that the sparkle is gone. Perspectives might be different based on experiences and expectations.

[granddutchess]

We will continue to cruise and have 3 booked for next year and the year after that.  Love cruising.