What changes would you suggest?

[phoenix_dream]

Serious answers please. We have been talking a lot on these boards about unhappiness with recent cutbacks. I think any reasonable person has to realize that at least for some period of time something has to give or cruiselines would go under.  They lost tons of $$ during the shutdown.  Many of the current passengers are using up FCC so not generating much income. So what type of cutbacks would you suggest that would help Celebrity survive but not adversely impact your experience in any significant way?

[NutsAboutGolf]

Eliminate any Corkage fee FOREVER (Preemptive strike) lol

[LMaxwell]

Less than 5% of current bookings are FCC's. 

 

I would suggest they start charging corkage at time of boarding. That's $20 per bottle of revenue and no one is restricted from having what they want. Only those that want to bring wine are charged. It is totally optional, non-punitive, and does not negatively impact my experience to add that charge. Other cruise lines already do exactly this and there is *no* logical counterpoint to it. 

 

Other than that, Celebrity can make unpopular and shortsighted decisions on their own; a better thread would be suggestions for improvements. 

[LMaxwell]

Just now, NutsAboutGolf said:

Eliminate any Corkage fee FOREVER (Preemptive strike) lol

Wow, got it by seconds. I genuinely would buy you a drink on a cruise. 

[kathynorth]

Instead of eliminating turn down, give points via the Go Green program to opt out of turn down.

 

[NutsAboutGolf]

The quality and selection of food continues to decline, I would recommend they partner with restaurants so they would have to adhere to both a specific recipe and certain quality of food; to put it another way, the food would be immune to budget cuts

 

Why not a chain steak house like Ruth Chris, Flemings, Capt Grill, Morton’s, etc?

Edited January 15, 2023 by NutsAboutGolf

[NutsAboutGolf]

2 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

Wow, got it by seconds. I genuinely would buy you a drink on a cruise. 

Dang!  Hoped to beat you to the punch…How about you carryon aboard a bottle of wine for me? (JK)

[kathynorth]

2 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

Less than 5% of current bookings are FCC's. 

 

I would suggest they start charging corkage at time of boarding. That's $20 per bottle of revenue and no one is restricted from having what they want. Only those that want to bring wine are charged. It is totally optional, non-punitive, and does not negatively impact my experience to add that charge. Other cruise lines already do exactly this and there is *no* logical counterpoint to it. 

 

Other than that, Celebrity can make unpopular and shortsighted decisions on their own; a better thread would be suggestions for improvements. 

That would discourage people from bringing wine onboard. Celebrity saves money by weaving alcohol costs into the price of an AI cruise. When people bring wine onboard they don’t consume the Celebrity wine because they are drinking their own wine, hence Celebrity saves.

[NutsAboutGolf]

6 minutes ago, kathynorth said:

Instead of eliminating turn down, give points via the Go Green program to opt out of turn down.

 

Honestly surprised we’re still receiving CC points for gogreen.  My WAG or Wild A$$ Guess is the shoreside employee who started the program is no longer with the company and no one else has caught or “fixed the glitch” yet

Edited January 15, 2023 by NutsAboutGolf

[kathynorth]

CC points cost them practically nothing. On our Oct cruise our room attendant confirmed we were signed up for Go Green, so it’s still running ship side. 

[NMTraveller]

Well if one looks at cruise fares they have substantially increased fares enough to cover the costs.  However what they need to focus on now is getting their ships at 100% occupancy.  Death by a 1000 cuts is not going to do that.

 

They succeeded in the past by having extraordinary service and a great product.

Edited January 15, 2023 by NMTraveller

[LMaxwell]

27 minutes ago, kathynorth said:

That would discourage people from bringing wine onboard. Celebrity saves money by weaving alcohol costs into the price of an AI cruise. When people bring wine onboard they don’t consume the Celebrity wine because they are drinking their own wine, hence Celebrity saves.

 

There is no scenario where Celeb loses money doing this. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

17 minutes ago, kathynorth said:

CC points cost them practically nothing. On our Oct cruise our room attendant confirmed we were signed up for Go Green, so it’s still running ship side. 

Points DO cost them in perks that pax may have otherwise paid for.  Yes it’s still active, personally used it two weeks ago and have signed up for all my future sailings including 2024.  I would imagine if they terminate the program those already signed up would be grandfathered

[bebe08]

Would love to see more pub style food and even a sit down pub style restaurant.  Could make the buffet smaller to accommodate this.  I would like a more casual dining option that is not the buffet.  I think there is a lot of waste at the buffet and they need to downsize it....sounds like this may already be happening.   Pub style food would typically be cheaper than the MDR fare...thinking burgers, fajitias, fish and chips, wraps etc.  NCL does this well with the O'Shehans resturant.  

[LMaxwell]

9 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Points DO cost them in perks that pax may have otherwise paid for.  Yes it’s still active, personally used it two weeks ago and have signed up for all my future sailings including 2024.  I would imagine if they terminate the program those already signed up would be grandfathered

Had not thought of that.  Good point made there (no pun intended).  I added my one future booking to GG now.  

 

All these "free points" given out over past couple of years is more likely to result in degradation of perks or moving of goal posts, but that said I am not going to not take them so long as they advance me in the current program.  

[cw2go]

5 minutes ago, bebe08 said:

Would love to see more pub style food and even a sit down pub style restaurant.  Could make the buffet smaller to accommodate this.  I would like a more casual dining option that is not the buffet.  I think there is a lot of waste at the buffet and they need to downsize it....sounds like this may already be happening.   Pub style food would typically be cheaper than the MDR fare...thinking burgers, fajitias, fish and chips, wraps etc.  NCL does this well with the O'Shehans resturant.  

 

Fantastic idea! 

[NutsAboutGolf]

10 minutes ago, bebe08 said:

Would love to see more pub style food and even a sit down pub style restaurant.  Could make the buffet smaller to accommodate this.  I would like a more casual dining option that is not the buffet.  I think there is a lot of waste at the buffet and they need to downsize it....sounds like this may already be happening.   Pub style food would typically be cheaper than the MDR fare...thinking burgers, fajitias, fish and chips, wraps etc.  NCL does this well with the O'Shehans resturant.  

 

2 minutes ago, cw2go said:

 

Fantastic idea! 

They sort of have that with Craft Social although the food menu is limited and is a la carte

[cbfb]

51 minutes ago, kathynorth said:

Instead of eliminating turn down, give points via the Go Green program to opt out of turn down.

 

They do that. You get one day of points. 

[grandgeezer]

51 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

Serious answers please. We have been talking a lot on these boards about unhappiness with recent cutbacks. I think any reasonable person has to realize that at least for some period of time something has to give or cruiselines would go under.  They lost tons of $$ during the shutdown.  Many of the current passengers are using up FCC so not generating much income. So what type of cutbacks would you suggest that would help Celebrity survive but not adversely impact your experience in any significant way?

They have a whole office full of big bucks management that get paid to figure out what to do, let them earn their money. I don’t think the general public knows enough about the whole operation to come up with anything that would save any significant dollars. Awhile back, I suggested the start the fuel surcharge, and even start charging for luggage handling like the airlines do, but that didn’t fly because it would add cost to the cruisers. They, instead, jacked up the drink packages and internet, and that seems to be accepted. With the pandemic, and now inflation, people are more worried about the financial well being of their family than a industry that only a small portion of the world’s population can afford even if they wanted to. 

[bebe08]

1 minute ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

They sort of have that with Craft Social although the food menu is limited and is a la carte

Craft social seems to have disappeared...we did try it and enjoyed it once and then actively looked for it again and couldn't find it.  

 

[NutsAboutGolf]

8 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

Had not thought of that.  Good point made there (no pun intended).  I added my one future booking to GG now.  

 

All these "free points" given out over past couple of years is more likely to result in degradation of perks or moving of goal posts, but that said I am not going to not take them so long as they advance me in the current program.  

The other thing is you have those who have never paid for a perk before, like laundry but once they get it for free, use if every sailing.

 

I believe once you reach status if there are any changes they’ll be grand fathered.  I fear it’s inevitable that they’ll replace lifetime status with annual status like most other hotel/airlines and MSC use

[cw2go]

1 minute ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

They sort of have that with Craft Social although the food menu is limited and is a la carte

 

Not sure Craft Social is on all ships? And I took @bebe08 post to mean as an included option not at an extra cost. 

 

Patty 

[bebe08]

I wonder if Celebrity or any of the cruise lines for that matter ever have a focus group made up of previous passengers to get feedback?  

[NutsAboutGolf]

3 minutes ago, cbfb said:

They do that. You get one day of points. 

The GoGreen program still provides turn down service

[NutsAboutGolf]

2 minutes ago, bebe08 said:

I wonder if Celebrity or any of the cruise lines for that matter ever have a focus group made up of previous passengers to get feedback?  

IMO…

 

I would imagine if they would elect to use a focus group they would be more interested in NEW cruisers vs previous passengers

 

Yet I seriously do not believe they use them for the on board the experience, yet it’s very common for the marketing arm to use them for advertising like TV commercials