The big 3 eliminated turn down service for non-suites, will X follow? If you enjoy it, be sure you mention it on the survey

[PelicanLvr]

19 hours ago, barneyboy said:

Looks like I’m in the minority but I’d miss the evening turn down. Really enjoy returning to our cabin late at night to find the curtains shut, lamps on and the chocolate and daily on the pillow. It’s one of the things which differentiate cruise travel from a resort. Yes, I can turn down my bed myself, but I can also cook, make my bed, clean the bathroom and do dishes, which I have no intention of doing on a cruise.  We cruise to be looked after for a short period of time. 
if this service was eliminated on Celebrity, along with the other cutbacks, it would cause us to look elsewhere. 

Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

Just more cost-cutting and deterioration of product....."to serve you better"

[JLMcruise]

I like the twice of day service and the chocolates. They could cut back on the buffet as far as I concerned but that would cause "Mutiny on the Bounty". Different strokes for different folks.

 

[bigbenboys]

12 hours ago, grandgeezer said:

I had brought the luggage charge up a long time ago, even before they had many ships sailing. The airlines brought in $5 billion dollars in 2019. The cruise lines are much smaller but zI would guess it would be well into the tens of millions. They should have levied the fuel surcharge as stated in the cruise contract, which I believe it is $14 p.p. per day with a seven day max per cruise. Based on 2,000 passengers that would be almost  $125,000 per ship per week. From what I can find, there are 60 ships in the RCL Group, do the math 60 x $125,000 per week. Between the two, they would have turning a profit for awhile and the would have been making a profit and paying off debt for several months now. Instead the cut services, by cheaper materials raise prices, and most of all alienate loyal customers.

Ten years ago we knew about a dozen couples who cruised several times a year spending big bucks every time. Now we know nobody who has cruised or even plan to since before the pandemic.

This year we did a land trip to England 14 nights with carry-on luggage only. On BA we could have checked 3 bags free each at 70 lbs. The main reason we did this was LHR was having baggage issues earlier this year. We also did a 7 night Alaska cruise with carry-on only. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

12 hours ago, grandgeezer said:

I had brought the luggage charge up a long time ago, even before they had many ships sailing. The airlines brought in $5 billion dollars in 2019. The cruise lines are much smaller but zI would guess it would be well into the tens of millions. They should have levied the fuel surcharge as stated in the cruise contract, which I believe it is $14 p.p. per day with a seven day max per cruise. Based on 2,000 passengers that would be almost  $125,000 per ship per week. From what I can find, there are 60 ships in the RCL Group, do the math 60 x $125,000 per week. Between the two, they would have turning a profit for awhile and the would have been making a profit and paying off debt for several months now. Instead the cut services, by cheaper materials raise prices, and most of all alienate loyal customers.

Ten years ago we knew about a dozen couples who cruised several times a year spending big bucks every time. Now we know nobody who has cruised or even plan to since before the pandemic.

Math is WAY off…Some bullet points of why it makes very little sense to charge luggage fees:

 

1) If RCG announces luggage fees and the competitors do not, expect a large % of cancellations in protest along with a % people no longer booking future RCG sailings in protest

2) Expect a huge reduction in bookings for sailing longer than 7 nights

3) Expect many people to greatly ration their baggage with many simply carrying on

3) Like airlines, RCG would most likely give a free luggage allowance for those with loyalty status

4) Since people will reduce what their clothing items so expect a more relaxed dress code or else the crew will need to deal of blitz of people going to guest services to demand an OBC since they were unable to get into the MDR

5) expect those with status to fully utilize their laundry perk which does cost the cruise line $$$

 

You can imagine the RCG/CCL/NCL bean counters explored all sorts of price reduction strategies including new fees like luggage fees over a decade ago.  Management’s strategy seems to be to not add any new fees but rather to increase existing fees while reducing services provided for non-suite staterooms.  Doing so allows them to say “we didn’t eliminate the XYZ service, simply book a suite to receive that service”.  What sucks is this has been noticeable in complimentary food on board

[CruiseRQA]

We were once confirmed HAL customers.   Loved their classic cruising.   Hot appetizers and a drink while listening to a dance combo before dinner.   Show in the theater after dinner.   Return to a tidy room with a chocolate.

 

As HAL slowly eliminated most of those niceties we left them for Celebrity.    Mostly Celebrity retains the elements of those classic cruising days.   I guess if we see them going away, we will too. 

[Lena11033]

I can see either side for this argument.

 

Personally I did the go green in the summer and the service was fine, I didn't need it cleaned twice in a day.

 

The chocolates, it's interesting I was in a solo room and I couldn't even keep up with the amount of chocolates they were handing out 😅

Turn down - until they fix the app they need that paper handout - personally I hate paper handouts but the app isn't 100% reliable. As for the blinds etc, it maybe different on a cruise on almost the same time zone but I would go to the room to call my husband in Canada so pretty much had to undo everything the lady had done with lights and blinds for the call 🤷‍♀️

 

I will see how it is in March on basically same time zone as my hubby. But if they are pushing 'luxury feel' then the service should be kept.

 

[Ipeeinthepools]

3 minutes ago, Lena11033 said:

I can see either side for this argument.

 

Personally I did the go green in the summer and the service was fine, I didn't need it cleaned twice in a day.

 

The chocolates, it's interesting I was in a solo room and I couldn't even keep up with the amount of chocolates they were handing out 😅

Turn down - until they fix the app they need that paper handout - personally I hate paper handouts but the app isn't 100% reliable. As for the blinds etc, it maybe different on a cruise on almost the same time zone but I would go to the room to call my husband in Canada so pretty much had to undo everything the lady had done with lights and blinds for the call 🤷‍♀️

 

I will see how it is in March on basically same time zone as my hubby. But if they are pushing 'luxury feel' then the service should be kept.

 

 

I wonder what the plan is for cabins that have 3 or 4 people.  Do you have to unfold the sleeper sofa or lower the additional beds from the ceiling yourself?  Nothing says Modern Luxury like unfolding your own sofa bed.

 

If Celebrity offers some classes in towel animals, we can even make our own animals after dinner.

[NutsAboutGolf]

57 minutes ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

I wonder what the plan is for cabins that have 3 or 4 people.  Do you have to unfold the sleeper sofa or lower the additional beds from the ceiling yourself?  Nothing says Modern Luxury like unfolding your own sofa bed.

 

If Celebrity offers some classes in towel animals, we can even make our own animals after dinner.

We signed up for a 4 hour “chocolate making” tour, comically, they put all of us to work…While one employee supervised we performed each of the following tasks for about 20-30mins…Planted  seed pods, sorted the good cocoa beans from the bad while one employee watched, then we poured melted chocolate into molds, wrapped the cooled molded chocolate and finally stuck on labels.  What was even more comical, those who signed up for a highlight tour were at the chocolate store for a 5min tour to watch us perform each of the tasks

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

5 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

We signed up for a 4 hour “chocolate making” tour, comically, they put all of us to work…

 

What did you think it was going to be? Maybe I'm weird, but if "making" is in the name of the tour, I'm going to expect to be doing the actual work.

[NutsAboutGolf]

12 minutes ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

 

What did you think it was going to be? Maybe I'm weird, but if "making" is in the name of the tour, I'm going to expect to be doing the actual work.

 

Didn't expect to be "working" 90% of the time

[ROYALBOY]

I find it a cheapening of the experience, even while they continue to raise the daily gratuities fee. We have always added extra for our room steward and our restaurant staff, but when I am being charged over 300 in crew gratuities, the word gratuities looses its meaning and we become someone forced to offset Celebrity’s labor costs. Our extras will also disappear.

[LGW59]

37 minutes ago, ROYALBOY said:

I find it a cheapening of the experience, even while they continue to raise the daily gratuities fee. We have always added extra for our room steward and our restaurant staff, but when I am being charged over 300 in crew gratuities, the word gratuities looses its meaning and we become someone forced to offset Celebrity’s labor costs. Our extras will also disappear.

I agree with you.  Always a generous over and above tipper, but at some point something has to give.  IMO Celebrity is sending a message that they want us to continue to pay up and up and up...it's their turn to do so, sadly it seems the crew will suffer as a result of Celebrity not willing to pay them more and turning ALL of that burden on the passengers.

[DCPIV]

The only value I get out of them turning down the bed is that I don't have to deal with the numerous decorative elements that I could do without in the first place. Lose those, and I'm fine turning down my own bed. Even better, just make the bed in the morning in the "turned down" fashion, and we are all set. I'd select that option without hesitation were it to exist. 

 

That said, I do enjoy (and would miss) the other attention given the room during the evening service. After a full night of typical cruise ship carousing, it is very nice to come back to a room that has been tidied up a bit with curtains drawn and a bed ready to receive me. 

 

Keep the chocolates, please. While we rarely eat them, we always keep them, take them home, and give then to our son or neighbor or someone who's done us a good turn while we were away. It's not much more than a token gift, but folks always enjoy receiving it. 

 

I also wish they would not replace towels that I've hung. 

[Tigerfnan23]

I'd honestly be fine if nobody entered my room for our entire stay.  Couldn't care less about turn down which is probably why they are doing away with it.  

[mnocket]

drip - drip - drip 

Erosion has a way of destroying things.

[LGW59]

31 minutes ago, Tigerfnan23 said:

I'd honestly be fine if nobody entered my room for our entire stay.  Couldn't care less about turn down which is probably why they are doing away with it.  

Clean towels, wash cloths etc?

[RichYak]

9 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

Clean towels, wash cloths etc?

Fresh beach towels for the next day’s port stop?

[A Sixth?]

5 hours ago, bigbenboys said:

This year we did a land trip to England 14 nights with carry-on luggage only. On BA we could have checked 3 bags free each at 70 lbs. The main reason we did this was LHR was having baggage issues earlier this year. We also did a 7 night Alaska cruise with carry-on only. 

Have travelled with carry-on for years (and we fly business class most of the time)

 

 I like the way the turn down / morning service is now and hopefully it’ll stay 

[Cruzinforpeace***]

8 hours ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

I wonder what the plan is for cabins that have 3 or 4 people.  Do you have to unfold the sleeper sofa or lower the additional beds from the ceiling yourself?  Nothing says Modern Luxury like unfolding your own sofa bed.

 

If Celebrity offers some classes in towel animals, we can even make our own animals after dinner.

I was going to bring up the sleeper sofa and bunk issue too.  You literally can’t walk to your balcony without having to climb over the sleeper sofa when it’s folded out.  That’s a safety hazard.

 

I also remember when Celebrity (and other cruise lines) used to have nightly Midnight buffets.  Little by little it becomes less special to cruise.  Very sad.

[RD64]

It appears that cruising is slowly reverting to the “Easycruise” days. If you are not aware, Easycruise operated for a brief period around 2005. Basic fares but you paid extra for food, cabin cleaning, etc.. Based on the posts that are found on the message boards of all cruise lines lately, there are a growing number of passengers that never need their cabin serviced, clean towels, never have room service, and would gladly do away with all of the things that traditionally made cruising special.

 

Perhaps a return to the Easycruise model would be best for those cruisers that prefer this bare bones experience.

[grandgeezer]

10 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Math is WAY off…Some bullet points of why it makes very little sense to charge luggage fees:

 

1) If RCG announces luggage fees and the competitors do not, expect a large % of cancellations in protest along with a % people no longer booking future RCG sailings in protest

2) Expect a huge reduction in bookings for sailing longer than 7 nights

3) Expect many people to greatly ration their baggage with many simply carrying on

3) Like airlines, RCG would most likely give a free luggage allowance for those with loyalty status

4) Since people will reduce what their clothing items so expect a more relaxed dress code or else the crew will need to deal of blitz of people going to guest services to demand an OBC since they were unable to get into the MDR

5) expect those with status to fully utilize their laundry perk which does cost the cruise line $$$

 

You can imagine the RCG/CCL/NCL bean counters explored all sorts of price reduction strategies including new fees like luggage fees over a decade ago.  Management’s strategy seems to be to not add any new fees but rather to increase existing fees while reducing services provided for non-suite staterooms.  Doing so allows them to say “we didn’t eliminate the XYZ service, simply book a suite to receive that service”.  What sucks is this has been noticeable in complimentary food on board

Do you have any facts to prove my numbers are way off or is it just something you just know? My math is on the low side, for one thing they are getting an lot more than an average of 2,000 per ship, especially when you consider the Oasis class on RCL. 

Luggage fees on the airlines is a factual number found on the internet. All cruise lines are copycats, they’ll all hop on the band wagon when they see the profits. Length of cruise has nothing to do with it. Seven days or seventy days, the fee is for getting it on the ship when embarking and getting it off. As with the airlines, carryon will be restricted by size, anything over sized must be checked.

You seemed to ignore the fuel surcharge, probably because the numbers are facts and available oh the cruise contract or the cruise lines website.

The bean counters or accountants should be fired for incompetence if they didn’t implement these ideas if the did indeed consider them. They are both legitimate and a way to help get their massive debt reduced. Probably the direct honest way is too out of character for them. If people are willing to pay the outrageous rates for such things as alcohol, or internet, they’ll pay anything.

 

[NutsAboutGolf]

28 minutes ago, RD64 said:

It appears that cruising is slowly reverting to the “Easycruise” days. If you are not aware, Easycruise operated for a brief period around 2005. Basic fares but you paid extra for food, cabin cleaning, etc.. Based on the posts that are found on the message boards of all cruise lines lately, there are a growing number of passengers that never need their cabin serviced, clean towels, never have room service, and would gladly do away with all of the things that traditionally made cruising special.

 

Perhaps a return to the Easycruise model would be best for those cruisers that prefer this bare bones experience.

I don’t see it like that, you have multiple complimentary food options and will clean your room at least once a day.  Can you imagine if X started charging per meal at the MDR?  If and when that ever happens, it’ll most likely be CCL and RGI who pave the way

[NutsAboutGolf]

3 minutes ago, grandgeezer said:

Do you have any facts to prove my numbers are way off or is it just something you just know? My math is on the low side, for one thing they are getting an lot more than an average of 2,000 per ship, especially when you consider the Oasis class on RCL. 

Luggage fees on the airlines is a factual number found on the internet. All cruise lines are copycats, they’ll all hop on the band wagon when they see the profits. Length of cruise has nothing to do with it. Seven days or seventy days, the fee is for getting it on the ship when embarking and getting it off. As with the airlines, carryon will be restricted by size, anything over sized must be checked.

You seemed to ignore the fuel surcharge, probably because the numbers are facts and available oh the cruise contract or the cruise lines website.

The bean counters or accountants should be fired for incompetence if they didn’t implement these ideas if the did indeed consider them. They are both legitimate and a way to help get their massive debt reduced. Probably the direct honest way is too out of character for them. If people are willing to pay the outrageous rates for such things as alcohol, or internet, they’ll pay anything.

 

You’re wrongly assuming each passenger will pay for a bag.  In order to obtain an accurate answer you would need to know who would only carry one.  I’ve seen this first hand, more people than I realize only take carryons.  Many will reduce their items to fit in a carry on.  Many won’t want to book more than 7 nights because they don’t want to pay the fee.  I could go on and on but it’s all covered in my previous post 

[cachouonacruise]

Personally, existing service offered by Celebrity is one of the main reasons I choose the cruise line and travel.

 

Some people compare, for example, their use of towels to what they do at home. If I wanted everything the same as it is at home....I would stay home.

 

Part of my enjoyment, on board Celebrity, is being pampered. We love the food, the drinks, the entertainment and the little extras that, for a short while, make us feel special. Service offered is the biggest selling point! 

 

The turn down service is one of these little extras. Do I absolutely need it? No. Do I enjoy it? Yes!

 

In my opinion, cruise line have to balance delicately what they choose to cut, or else, they will devalue their product.

 

So, I vote for keeping existing service, including the turn down service as it existed on my June 2022 Silhouette cruise.

[snowballs mom]

4 minutes ago, cachouonacruise said:

Personally, existing service offered by Celebrity is one of the main reasons I choose the cruise line and travel.

 

Some people compare, for example, their use of towels to what they do at home. If I wanted everything the same as it is at home....I would stay home.

 

Part of my enjoyment, on board Celebrity, is being pampered. We love the food, the drinks, the entertainment and the little extras that, for a short while, make us feel special. Service offered is the biggest selling point! 

 

The turn down service is one of these little extras. Do I absolutely need it? No. Do I enjoy it? Yes!

 

In my opinion, cruise line have to balance delicately what they choose to cut, or else, they will devalue their product.

 

So, I vote for keeping existing service, including the turn down service as it existed on my June 2022 Silhouette cruise.

Well said - I agree.