So Are things Looking up?

[Nashna]

We had lobster tails on the last formal night.  They were tiny.  I only eat Maine lobster, so I didn't try it.  The tail was one of the smallest I have seen served.   

[NutsAboutGolf]

36 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

The lobster showed up on my menu.  I guess that no lobster for Asian cruises was short lived.

Thanks…Hope it’s here to stay

[coaster]

Reposting my post from another Celebrity topic here...

 

Seems like Royal and Celebrity should merge into one. Celebrity being advertised as a premium line, yet adding a room service fee like Royal makes the premium proposition harder to justify and Celebrity cutting back on the dinner buffet and Royal not cutting back on their dinner buffet. The line between the two seems so close now after January 1st. Less marketing costs if they combine would be another savings.  Not surprised if they merge the two lines in the future.

Edited February 6, 2023 by coaster

[Reel Love]

5 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

The lobster showed up on my menu.  I guess that no lobster for Asian cruises was short lived.

Maybe they took the lobster from the Equinox and sent them to your ship 😄

Just checked X app menus for our upcoming cruise and the lobster is not listed anymore in the MDR (it was when I looked a couple of weeks ago, and had the * indicating the upcharge to order a second one)

Edited February 6, 2023 by Reel Love

[mpdog42]

42 minutes ago, coaster said:

Reposting my post from another Celebrity topic here...

 

Seems like Royal and Celebrity should merge into one. Celebrity being advertised as a premium line, yet adding a room service fee like Royal makes the premium proposition harder to justify and Celebrity cutting back on the dinner buffet and Royal not cutting back on their dinner buffet. The line between the two seems so close now after January 1st. Less marketing costs if they combine would be another savings.  Not surprised if they merge the two lines in the future.

Or merge and sell or junk a lot of the older ships

[coaster]

51 minutes ago, mpdog42 said:

Or merge and sell or junk a lot of the older ships

Love the older Vision class ships on Royal, but makes sense if they are forced to rid themselves of them. Use the older Celebrity M-class ships that are younger than Royal's Vision class into a combined line as Celebrity seems more desperate to cut costs over Royal now.  Savings would be immense to just combine the two lines.

Edited February 6, 2023 by coaster

[CU64]

16 hours ago, terrydtx said:

That same meeting the rep said the charge for room service was also to cut down waste and the needless use of understaffed crew to deliver the RS.  Too many abused RS and order things they never eat and would leave the full plates outside their cabins. Just walk down the hallways early in the morning to see what is left outside the cabins from the night before.

I am not surprised about this. Always thought RS was abused because it was “free.”

[Mimiya11]

21 hours ago, terrydtx said:

 I am more concerned about how much Celebrity is jacking up prices for suites in the future cruises. We are getting priced out of the Retreat product and have booked our first Oceania cruise in 2025 and looking at several more. 

 

We are doing a TA in November, booking a SS over a year ago.   I was shocked to see the prices if I were to book the same next year.  The Retreat prices are double! what we paid, making them way out of our budget.    

[jean87510]

21 hours ago, terrydtx said:

True, but there were a lot of people on B2B cruises that started pre-Jan 1 and the second post Jan 1 who got blind-sided by the changes. None of the changes will have much effect on our Celebrity future cruises. We are booked in Sky Suites and have never had a diner in the OVC on any Celebrity cruise. We also are exempt from the RS charges, but I can still understand why so many do not like what is going on. We liked Celebrity because you didn't get nickel and dimmed as bad as NCL, and RCL.  IMO Celebrity has now passed HAL on the nickel & diming. I am more concerned about how much Celebrity is jacking up prices for suites in the future cruises. We are getting priced out of the Retreat product and have booked our first Oceania cruise in 2025 and looking at several more. 

We are actually looking at MSC even though I didn't think I ever would based on past experience with their website in the past.  We did the reciprocal status lookup and are Gold there.  I priced a few sailings with the Yacht club on the Seascape and it was pretty good.  Much better than the Retreat.  I am looking at some sailings in 2024 and I may give MSC a shot.  But only in the Yacht club as this may be the only way I'll attempt it to get what I want on a vacation.  For instance, a 7 day is $3200 with a Yacht club inside which doesn't bother us as you still get all the perks compared to $10000 for the Retreat on a non Edge ship same time frame.  That's about 6-7000 dollar difference.  You have an inside but you are in the nice area.  

[terrydtx]

16 minutes ago, Mimiya11 said:

 

We are doing a TA in November, booking a SS over a year ago.   I was shocked to see the prices if I were to book the same next year.  The Retreat prices are double! what we paid, making them way out of our budget.    

Our Edge New Zealand cruise next year Sky Suite is almost $2000pp more now than what we booked at in February 2022. We looked at the 14 night Equinox South America cruise in 2025 and a SS is the same price as a Concierge cabin on the 18 night Oceania Marina cruise with 4 more days and 3 more ports. This was a no brainer for us, we booked the Oceania cruise. The Marina Concierge cabin is a little smaller than the Sky Suite and does not have a butler. However, we get a smaller ship with included specialty restaurants and much better food and service overall, at least that is our expectation. We have wanted to try Oceania for several years, but we loved the Retreat product and up to now the Retreat was a better deal that kept us off of Oceania.

Edited February 6, 2023 by terrydtx

[Nashna]

We are in the process of booking an Oceania cruise instead of Beyond for next January.  We can get a penthouse on Oceania for a lower price than the retreat on Beyond for a similar itinerary.  We have not sailed Oceania, but friends report that the food choice and quality is excellent.  Our recent dining experience on the Apex and Edge resulted in us looking for alternatives.  We absolutely enjoyed the crew, outstanding service, and the fabulous entertainment we experienced on our recent Celebrity sailings.   What a shame that food quality and selection make us reluctant to return.

[Nashna]

58 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

We are actually looking at MSC even though I didn't think I ever would based on past experience with their website in the past.  We did the reciprocal status lookup and are Gold there.  I priced a few sailings with the Yacht club on the Seascape and it was pretty good.  Much better than the Retreat.  I am looking at some sailings in 2024 and I may give MSC a shot.  But only in the Yacht club as this may be the only way I'll attempt it to get what I want on a vacation.  For instance, a 7 day is $3200 with a Yacht club inside which doesn't bother us as you still get all the perks compared to $10000 for the Retreat on a non Edge ship same time frame.  That's about 6-7000 dollar difference.  You have an inside but you are in the nice area.  

We have sailed on MSC in the Yacht Club and totally enjoyed the experience.  We are sailing from NYC on MSC in the Yacht Club on an 11-day New England/Canada sailing for just $8200.00 for two.  Be sure to get your Gold status confirmed, before you reserve your cruise to receive an additional 5% off the sailing.   

[RichYak]

1 hour ago, jean87510 said:

We are actually looking at MSC even though I didn't think I ever would based on past experience with their website in the past.  We did the reciprocal status lookup and are Gold there.  I priced a few sailings with the Yacht club on the Seascape and it was pretty good.  Much better than the Retreat.  I am looking at some sailings in 2024 and I may give MSC a shot.  But only in the Yacht club as this may be the only way I'll attempt it to get what I want on a vacation.  For instance, a 7 day is $3200 with a Yacht club inside which doesn't bother us as you still get all the perks compared to $10000 for the Retreat on a non Edge ship same time frame.  That's about 6-7000 dollar difference.  You have an inside but you are in the nice area.  

I booked MSC Yacht Club for next Spring out of Brooklyn (close to home). 7 nights on Meraviglia in a Deluxe YC Balcony for $5300. By comparison, for a 7 nighter in a Retreat Sky Suite from Cape Liberty, Celebrity wants $9300. That's 75% more for the un-Revolutionized Eclipse with no Retreat Sundeck. Complete insanity.

 

EDIT to add: I forgot about the discounts. The MSC Voyager's Club's discount is 5% plus another 5% discount for early booking. So the MSC fare all in was $4800, not $5300. That makes the Celebrity fare 94% higher.

Edited February 6, 2023 by RichYak
Additional Comments

[cw2go]

6 minutes ago, Nashna said:

We are in the process of booking an Oceania cruise instead of Beyond for next January.  We can get a penthouse on Oceania for a lower price than the retreat on Beyond for a similar itinerary.  We have not sailed Oceania, but friends report that the food choice and quality is excellent.  Our recent dining experience on the Apex and Edge resulted in us looking for alternatives.  We absolutely enjoyed the crew, outstanding service, and the fabulous entertainment we experienced on our recent Celebrity sailings.   What a shame that food quality and selection make us reluctant to return.

 

From many of the recent reports this is what it seems to come down to ~ Food vs Everything else. 

 

I sincerely hope this is temporary, Celebrity has always been a great cruise option regarding dining imo. 

Patty 

[cw2go]

4 minutes ago, RichYak said:

I booked MSC Yacht Club for next Spring out of Brooklyn (close to home). 7 nights on Meraviglia in a Deluxe YC Balcony for $5300. By comparison, for a 7 nighter in a Retreat Sky Suite from Cape Liberty, Celebrity wants $9300. That's 75% more for the un-Revolutionized Eclipse with no Retreat Sundeck. Complete insanity.

Wow! 💰

[RichYak]

1 minute ago, cw2go said:

Wow! 💰

See my edit. I got the MSC price wrong.

[cw2go]

Just now, RichYak said:

See my edit. I got the MSC price wrong.

I noticed your update. 

[terrydtx]

10 minutes ago, Nashna said:

We have sailed on MSC in the Yacht Club and totally enjoyed the experience.  We are sailing from NYC on MSC in the Yacht Club on an 11-day New England/Canada sailing for just $8200.00 for two.  Be sure to get your Gold status confirmed, before you reserve your cruise to receive an additional 5% off the sailing.   

We have thought about looking into MSC, but the huge mega ships and bad reviews of YC dining has kept us from seriously looking at them. How was your experience with the bigger ship and food in YC?

[TeeRick]

26 minutes ago, RichYak said:

I booked MSC Yacht Club for next Spring out of Brooklyn (close to home). 7 nights on Meraviglia in a Deluxe YC Balcony for $5300. By comparison, for a 7 nighter in a Retreat Sky Suite from Cape Liberty, Celebrity wants $9300. That's 75% more for the un-Revolutionized Eclipse with no Retreat Sundeck. Complete insanity.

 

EDIT to add: I forgot about the discounts. The MSC Voyager's Club's discount is 5% plus another 5% discount for early booking. So the MSC fare all in was $4800, not $5300. That makes the Celebrity fare 94% higher.

yikes!

[TeeRick]

32 minutes ago, Nashna said:

We are in the process of booking an Oceania cruise instead of Beyond for next January.  We can get a penthouse on Oceania for a lower price than the retreat on Beyond for a similar itinerary.  We have not sailed Oceania, but friends report that the food choice and quality is excellent.  Our recent dining experience on the Apex and Edge resulted in us looking for alternatives.  We absolutely enjoyed the crew, outstanding service, and the fabulous entertainment we experienced on our recent Celebrity sailings.   What a shame that food quality and selection make us reluctant to return.

Were you in The Retreat and dine in Luminae on APEX and EDGE?

[D C]

33 minutes ago, cw2go said:

 

From many of the recent reports this is what it seems to come down to ~ Food vs Everything else. 

 

I sincerely hope this is temporary, Celebrity has always been a great cruise option regarding dining imo. 

Patty 

As noted in Rich's post above, the price point is also a huge factor.  There seems to be a disconnect between the price X thinks they can command versus offerings that by reports pale in comparison to what they used to be.  Why sail a suite on X when an actual luxury line is less expensive?  Or why NOT sail another mainstream line for less if X has deflated their relative value?   

 

 

[cw2go]

2 minutes ago, D C said:

As noted in Rich's post above, the price point is also a huge factor.  There seems to be a disconnect between the price X thinks they can command versus offerings that by reports pale in comparison to what they used to be.  Why sail a suite on X when an actual luxury line is less expensive?  Or why NOT sail another mainstream line for less if X has deflated their relative value?   

 

 

Agree, Suites comparably are just outlandish! 

 

I don't sail suite class so my sailings are at a closer matched price point... thus far.

 

Patty 

[D C]

1 minute ago, cw2go said:

Agree, Suites comparably are just outlandish! 

 

I don't sail suite class so my sailings are at a closer matched price point... thus far.

 

Patty 

Likewise, we don't sail suites, so we're shopping itinerary and price these days (and factoring in the X changes).

Celebrity is invariably more expensive than other lines for the dates we've been checking.  When you factor in more expensive beverage packages, more expensive specialty dining, and such, the all-in price creeps up on X. 

[jean87510]

I actually just booked on the Seascape next April 2024 using my gold status 5% plus the 5% from current promotion an inside Yacht club cabin for $2810.  7 days.  All Yacht club, premium drinks, bar set up in room, thermal suite, wifi, tips all included.  I dealt with the Yacht club concierge who answered all my questions on the phone and did the booking. 

[TeeRick]

1 hour ago, D C said:

As noted in Rich's post above, the price point is also a huge factor.  There seems to be a disconnect between the price X thinks they can command versus offerings that by reports pale in comparison to what they used to be.  Why sail a suite on X when an actual luxury line is less expensive?  Or why NOT sail another mainstream line for less if X has deflated their relative value?   

 

 

Because so far Celebrity has been able to get away with this crazy suites pricing.  But for how long?  We just sailed The Retreat and every suite was taken.  Same as what is being reported on most of their ships.  But we used the last of our FCC's.  So now we will be much more selective on cruise lines.  Maybe others in the same situation?  I am definitely looking for alternatives and suggestions.  There might be more value on RCCL as we are D+ members and some of their suites are really nice and at a good price point, and others are not.  Or Silversea?  MSC? Everything is fair game now.  Loyalty to the brand is not important anymore.  And we will never make Zenith.  I cannot even imagine what it would cost to go from E+ to Z at this point.