How Much is Too Much?

[swjumbo]

I’ve just come off another Celebrity cruise and have thoroughly enjoyed it. The cruise isn’t cheap and it was full.

 

British Airways made a loss with Concorde for years until they were told that they could charge whatever they wanted. They did and they made a profit, literally overnight!

 

Now I’m thinking that if Celebrity are doing the same just how much extra I would pay. 

I never do main dining and always have a drinks package. 

To be completely honest, I’ve seen the standard of my fellow passengers go down (rude, loud, expecting everything) and I’d happily pay more not to have them on board and essentially out-price them!

 

 

 

[lv2cruisgrl]

Unfortunately being able to afford a expensive cruise doesn't mean they will have better manners.  We have experienced that first hand! 😩

[deliver42]

Ywo things money can't buy. Manners and brains

[1Virgo]

I think With Celebrity offering more 3 and 4 day cruises, something like Carnival has done, you are going to see more changes in the type of passengers that book.  Party mode.  Might be a bit more expensive than a weekend hotel, but there will be those that take full advantage to get their monies worth.   More costly does not = better manners

[chemmo]

3 hours ago, swjumbo said:

I’ve just come off another Celebrity cruise and have thoroughly enjoyed it. The cruise isn’t cheap and it was full.

 

British Airways made a loss with Concorde for years until they were told that they could charge whatever they wanted. They did and they made a profit, literally overnight!

 

Now I’m thinking that if Celebrity are doing the same just how much extra I would pay. 

I never do main dining and always have a drinks package. 

To be completely honest, I’ve seen the standard of my fellow passengers go down (rude, loud, expecting everything) and I’d happily pay more not to have them on board and essentially out-price them!

 

 

 

Unfortunately Celebrity are beginning to price out us.
 

Villa suite for three guests from Southampton £36,500…After posting that someone must be willing to pay as there are no RS or PH available…Iconic suite available though at only £68,500…

 

I just can’t see the justification of spending that amount…there are just so many other options available at a fraction of the price…

 

The rudest guests we ever met were in one PH when we were in the other…Their manner and attitude to staff was awful…After one conversation in Michael’s Club we made every effort to avoid them…They met all your undesirable criteria ‘rude, loud and expecting everything’…

 

 

[lv2cruisgrl]

37 minutes ago, 1Virgo said:

I think With Celebrity offering more 3 and 4 day cruises, something like Carnival has done, you are going to see more changes in the type of passengers that book.  Party mode.  Might be a bit more expensive than a weekend hotel, but there will be those that take full advantage to get their monies worth.   More costly does not = better manners

A good reason for us to Not book short cruises!  Which we don't do.

[cgolf1]

First off, like everyone else is saying, price won't fix the people issue, and could potentially make it worse, or have people that would now sail that have a much higher expectation of the service they will receive and they will be upset that they are not getting it. Heck, we are seeing that now, especially at the retreat level.

 

For us, who are quiet people, we are very price conscious because of where we started from, and always will be. Yes we can afford to go to the Galapagos, but then on our yearly cruises we still book inside rooms. It is mostly to save money for the future, but also because when we did splurge on a couple of retreat level rooms, we found we didn't like that level of service, so we backed down to the insides and were content again. 

 

We love what Celebrity offers, especially on the gluten free end, but there will be a point for us when it becomes to much to pay for too little. I will say seeing HAL this year, yes on their smallest ship, Celebrity had them beat in so many ways that it isn't that close, though I would gladly sail HAL again. Disney however we will likely never go back to due to the same issue that is starting to happen with X and other lines, I just hope they don't go as far as Disney did.

[swjumbo]

It’s a tricky one isn’t it? We are friendly with someone quite senior on board and they also see the standard in etiquette dropping, especially post Covid.

 

We’ve think we’ve struck the perfect cost balance of getting a balcony cabin, premium drinks, tips and speciality dining as the suites (they’re awesome) just aren’t worth the extra. The Retreat will always be full because of the bidding.

 

If not the pricing then would stricter dress codes help? 
 

I honestly don’t know hence this post because I enjoy sharing a quality product with likeminded people!!

 

[neverlaysup]

8 hours ago, swjumbo said:

I’ve just come off another Celebrity cruise and have thoroughly enjoyed it. The cruise isn’t cheap and it was full.

 

British Airways made a loss with Concorde for years until they were told that they could charge whatever they wanted. They did and they made a profit, literally overnight!

 

Now I’m thinking that if Celebrity are doing the same just how much extra I would pay. 

I never do main dining and always have a drinks package. 

To be completely honest, I’ve seen the standard of my fellow passengers go down (rude, loud, expecting everything) and I’d happily pay more not to have them on board and essentially out-price them!

 

 

 

You should try an actual luxury ship versus a big box cruise ship. In all of my experience on Regent/Seaborn/Windstar.....nobody is even remotely obnoxious or as needy as some of the passengers you describe. I realize that Windstar is not luxury in the sense of the other two but felt like it with their stellar service.

 

Edited August 31, 2023 by neverlaysup

[phoenix_dream]

4 hours ago, cgolf1 said:

First off, like everyone else is saying, price won't fix the people issue, and could potentially make it worse, or have people that would now sail that have a much higher expectation of the service they will receive and they will be upset that they are not getting it. Heck, we are seeing that now, especially at the retreat level.

 

For us, who are quiet people, we are very price conscious because of where we started from, and always will be. Yes we can afford to go to the Galapagos, but then on our yearly cruises we still book inside rooms. It is mostly to save money for the future, but also because when we did splurge on a couple of retreat level rooms, we found we didn't like that level of service, so we backed down to the insides and were content again. 

 

We love what Celebrity offers, especially on the gluten free end, but there will be a point for us when it becomes to much to pay for too little. I will say seeing HAL this year, yes on their smallest ship, Celebrity had them beat in so many ways that it isn't that close, though I would gladly sail HAL again. Disney however we will likely never go back to due to the same issue that is starting to happen with X and other lines, I just hope they don't go as far as Disney did.

I take exception to your comment about the retreat level and people being upset at not getting what they expect.  How about we word it the proper way - they are not getting what they paid for when they booked.  People have a right - at any level of cabin - to get the service they paid for when booking.  It's not a question of having a higher expectation.  It's a question of expecting what you paid for.  When the main dining room cuts were being made there were tons of posts complaining about that, and rightly so.  So why is it different just because someone is in the Retreat??  People in the Retreat (and that's sometimes me, and often not) are paying huge sums of money for their experiences - in many cases double the pre-Covid price, or close to it.  Why shouldn't they be upset if changes are being made after they booked to cut the service they were expecting?  

[swjumbo]

.

Edited August 31, 2023 by swjumbo

[swjumbo]

10 minutes ago, neverlaysup said:

You should try an actual luxury ship versus a big box cruise ship. In all of my experience on Regent/Seaborn/Windstar.....nobody is even remotely obnoxious or as needy as some of the passengers you describe. I realize that Windstar is not luxury in the sense of the other two but felt like it with their stellar service.

 

I know what you mean. I’ve done Seadream a few times but much prefer the bigger ship ‘feel’. 
 

[neverlaysup]

Just now, swjumbo said:

I know what you mean. I’ve done Seadream a few times but much prefer the bigger ship ‘feel’. 
 

I think we are headed towards exclusively small ships with the occasional Atlantic or Pacific crossing on bigger ships.

[hcat]

26 minutes ago, neverlaysup said:

You should try an actual luxury ship versus a big box cruise ship. In all of my experience on Regent/Seaborn/Windstar.....nobody is even remotely obnoxious or as needy as some of the passengers you describe. I realize that Windstar is not luxury in the sense of the other two but felt like it with their stellar service.

 

same for Cunard pax ..follow dress guides, enjoy the shows and music..

[ECCruise]

9 hours ago, swjumbo said:

To be completely honest, I’ve seen the standard of my fellow passengers go down (rude, loud, expecting everything) and I’d happily pay more not to have them on board and essentially out-price them!

You can't outprice them.  As the prices escalate, so do the worst bunch of pax we've ever seen in over 100 sailings.  And worse by the day. 

But you can mitigate it a lot by sailing a better (sometimes more $$$, sometimes not) cruise line.

[swjumbo]

26 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

I take exception to your comment about the retreat level and people being upset at not getting what they expect.  How about we word it the proper way - they are not getting what they paid for when they booked.  People have a right - at any level of cabin - to get the service they paid for when booking.  It's not a question of having a higher expectation.  It's a question of expecting what you paid for.  When the main dining room cuts were being made there were tons of posts complaining about that, and rightly so.  So why is it different just because someone is in the Retreat??  People in the Retreat (and that's sometimes me, and often not) are paying huge sums of money for their experiences - in many cases double the pre-Covid price, or close to it.  Why shouldn't they be upset if changes are being made after they booked to cut the service they were expecting?  

For us, the Retreat on the Edge, was jam packed.  We couldn’t get a seat in the Retreat. No hot tub space, no chairs or seating anywhere.  Kids everywhere - very noisy.  We ended up seeking solace out in the main pool/hot tub area for a spot of peace…

 

This is about our expectation, regardless of price just the same as Concorde was!

 

 

[zitsky]

3 minutes ago, swjumbo said:

For us, the Retreat on the Edge, was jam packed.  We couldn’t get a seat in the Retreat. No hot tub space, no chairs or seating anywhere.  Kids everywhere - very noisy.  We ended up seeking solace out in the main pool/hot tub area for a spot of peace…

 

This is about our expectation, regardless of price just the same as Concorde was!

 

 

That was not my experience a few months ago on the Beyond Med cruise.

[JDPCruisers]

3 minutes ago, zitsky said:

That was not my experience a few months ago on the Beyond Med cruise.

Thankfully, not my experience on any X ships we've been on, pre and post COVID. Now, can't say that on RC (was on the Allure last January and was our worst cruise experience, so never a RC big ship again).

[kywildcatfanone]

The decline of society is not impacted by how much money you have.  You could say those who have the most are the most destructive to society 

[cgolf1]

1 hour ago, phoenix_dream said:

I take exception to your comment about the retreat level and people being upset at not getting what they expect.  How about we word it the proper way - they are not getting what they paid for when they booked.  People have a right - at any level of cabin - to get the service they paid for when booking.  It's not a question of having a higher expectation.  It's a question of expecting what you paid for.  When the main dining room cuts were being made there were tons of posts complaining about that, and rightly so.  So why is it different just because someone is in the Retreat??  People in the Retreat (and that's sometimes me, and often not) are paying huge sums of money for their experiences - in many cases double the pre-Covid price, or close to it.  Why shouldn't they be upset if changes are being made after they booked to cut the service they were expecting?  

 

You aren't wrong on that point. I apologize for mixing up a few points.

 

So if X raises the price, the Ops original point, the people looking to book at a price at or equal or higher to the true luxury lines will expect that level of service. The retreat threads seem to be a mix of some looking to book, but mostly already booked. We learned with Disney that they easily take perks away once you are booked, and we eventually left. Unfortunately they are free to take away as they choose, rarely do they ever add anything. The really crappy part is that if it is after final payment we have zero recourse.

Edited August 31, 2023 by cgolf1

[phoenix_dream]

1 hour ago, swjumbo said:

For us, the Retreat on the Edge, was jam packed.  We couldn’t get a seat in the Retreat. No hot tub space, no chairs or seating anywhere.  Kids everywhere - very noisy.  We ended up seeking solace out in the main pool/hot tub area for a spot of peace…

 

This is about our expectation, regardless of price just the same as Concorde was!

 

 

I think with the push for a younger crowd we will see the Retreat getting a lot more families when school is out due to the extra space in the cabin. 

[zitsky]

1 hour ago, kywildcatfanone said:

The decline of society is not impacted by how much money you have.  You could say those who have the most are the most destructive to society 

So then I suppose the people with the least make the most contribution?  Is that how things work?

[horseymike]

11 hours ago, swjumbo said:

I’ve just come off another Celebrity cruise and have thoroughly enjoyed it. The cruise isn’t cheap and it was full.

 

British Airways made a loss with Concorde for years until they were told that they could charge whatever they wanted. They did and they made a profit, literally overnight!

 

Now I’m thinking that if Celebrity are doing the same just how much extra I would pay. 

I never do main dining and always have a drinks package. 

To be completely honest, I’ve seen the standard of my fellow passengers go down (rude, loud, expecting everything) and I’d happily pay more not to have them on board and essentially out-price them!

 

 

 

Would you please pass the Grey Poupon ?🤣

[horseymike]

7 hours ago, swjumbo said:

It’s a tricky one isn’t it? We are friendly with someone quite senior on board and they also see the standard in etiquette dropping, especially post Covid.

 

We’ve think we’ve struck the perfect cost balance of getting a balcony cabin, premium drinks, tips and speciality dining as the suites (they’re awesome) just aren’t worth the extra. The Retreat will always be full because of the bidding.

 

If not the pricing then would stricter dress codes help? 
 

I honestly don’t know hence this post because I enjoy sharing a quality product with likeminded people!!

 

They don’t enforce the current dress code.

[Dolebludger]

Now Seadream yachts are really small. We never have cruised on them. But we really like the 750 pax ships on lux lines (I.e. Regent Explorer and Splendour). There’s never a crowd, always great food and service. Included drinks, mini fridge contents, shore excursions, specialty restaurants, laundry, and other things. Our next booked cruise is on the Regent Splendour, and it was less expensive than a Retreat Sky Suite for a very similar itinerary. Suites and timing were virtually the same.