Celebrity's new "All Inclusive" 2023 style

[the penguins]

7 hours ago, hcat said:

ha.. did not know it was Premium wifi for E+..maybe that will be better than what comes with our " all in" pricing.  Hope wd can figure out how to  activate the correct perk.

DH does drink beer and Scotch but not in great quabtity..sowe may not beed alc package in the future..guess we'll have to do the math if we book after Oct 4th

Activation is simple.

Log in and you will have a choice:

Free E minutes or use the benefit as a discount on a basic WiFi package.

As you/we each get the benefit we just use one computer when the first 90/240 minutes is used you can decide whether to use the second lot as more free minutes or as a discount - by that time the basic may be at a reduced rate as it will be for less days. Do all your preparation/reading of incoming messages off line and it's amazing how much you can do with the free minutes. Just be sure to log out each time.

[the penguins]

5 hours ago, Guera53 said:

Somebody said the classic drinks package only covers up to a certain amount and that they had to pay extra over that amount? Ha ha…sorry so funny how ridiculous. You pay a lot and it only includes beer, and no wine and a cocktail has a $7+ up charge? That is not inclusive for someone who drinks. 

 

Basic Wi-Fi doesn’t stream shows, and I can use the Wi-Fi at port to check email, as my cruise is non working. 
 

No reason for me to get any package….nope.
 

 

If only passengers would stop using "All Inclusive" in the headline and text it would be a lot less confusing 

X offer is All Included not All Inclusive.

The classic package includes beers, wines, cocktails, speciality teas/coffee/chocolate and water up to a price point. You can download the list (it changes and is based on availability). If you order something over the price you just pay the difference and the tips on the difference - for most pasdengers this is cheaper than upgrading to the Premium.

[hcat]

3 hours ago, the penguins said:

Activation is simple.

Log in and you will have a choice:

Free E minutes or use the benefit as a discount on a basic WiFi package.

As you/we each get the benefit we just use one computer when the first 90/240 minutes is used you can decide whether to use the second lot as more free minutes or as a discount - by that time the basic may be at a reduced rate as it will be for less days. Do all your preparation/reading of incoming messages off line and it's amazing how much you can do with the free minutes. Just be sure to log out each time.

thanks

we will use the E+ premium perk first and probably never exceed that.

 

The All In comes with basic wifi which may be redundant if we get Premium

Edited September 11, 2023 by hcat

[mayleeman]

4 hours ago, the penguins said:

X offer is All Included not All Inclusive

 

Now that is a distinction without a difference.

[Oceangoer2]

14 hours ago, the penguins said:

The E benefit is actually premium WiFi not the basic. Only difference is 90 minutes each for E and 240 minutes each for E+. A great benefit.

Also, if like us you can't drink any alcohol, the E+ benefit of free speciality teas/coffees/chocolate and water from 5 to 7 in unopened cans/bottles makes a drinks package totally unnecessary.

 I find it hard to believe that the majority of X's passengers can't do the maths (sorry math) and work out which option is best for them - lots of tips on other threads to help.

One size doesn't fit all - The main thing is to have choices. Happy cruising.

do you know for sure that E+ receives Premium WiFi?  I just paid to upgrade from what I thought was basic and will cancel the purchase if it's already included.

[hubofhockey]

Anyone know if passengers who are already booked on Aqua with “all inclusive” will have the choice to adjust fare to non-inclusive?  

[Jeremiah1212]

5 minutes ago, hubofhockey said:

Anyone know if passengers who are already booked on Aqua with “all inclusive” will have the choice to adjust fare to non-inclusive?  

 

Yes, US bookings prior to final can reprice to prevailing rate any time before final payment. 

[markeb]

5 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

 

Yes, US bookings prior to final can reprice to prevailing rate any time before final payment. 

 

I think the real question is will the prevailing rate without AI be higher than the booked rate with it...

[JaneStarr]

3 hours ago, mayleeman said:

 

Now that is a distinction without a difference.

I agree. All INCLUDED is NOT all included.

[Jeremiah1212]

1 hour ago, markeb said:

 

I think the real question is will the prevailing rate without AI be higher than the booked rate with it...

 

That's anyone's guess. 

 

Group pricing will become key and very valuable through the end of 2024 sailings. They have adjusted the guidelines a bit since this was announced. If you're not using a good TA right now that is a big miss.

[the penguins]

3 hours ago, Oceangoer2 said:

do you know for sure that E+ receives Premium WiFi?  I just paid to upgrade from what I thought was basic and will cancel the purchase if it's already included.

The free 240 minutes are Premium rate.

[hubofhockey]

1 hour ago, markeb said:

 

I think the real question is will the prevailing rate without AI be higher than the booked rate with it...

Ouch!!!!  Didn't realize that.  Was hoping they could adjust my price by the difference between the inclusions and without.  I am happy with my overall price (a special group type rate with an online TA), so I suppose I'm stuck with it.  The entire ship has only three unsold cabins.  

[Jeremiah1212]

4 minutes ago, hubofhockey said:

Ouch!!!!  Didn't realize that.  Was hoping they could adjust my price by the difference between the inclusions and without.  I am happy with my overall price (a special group type rate with an online TA), so I suppose I'm stuck with it.  The entire ship has only three unsold cabins.  

 

Unless prevailing rate drops significantly (which it won't) there would be virtually no chance this is beneficial. Any group space through the end of 2024 is essentially unaffected by the All Included change. They will continue to have gratuities included and refundable deposits. 

[the penguins]

4 hours ago, mayleeman said:

 

Now that is a distinction without a difference.

It is different - X's offer/deal is All Included and under that banner/headline it clearly shows what is included i.e.at present tips, classic drinks and basic WiFi and from 4 October classic drinks and basic WiFi.

There is no ambiguity in X's offer the confusion arises when passengers use the term All Inclusive and then use that to imply that X has somehow removed something it never offered.

MSC, Princess,  HAL, Norwegian, etc all have similar deals - it's up to each of us to decide which gives the best value and to book accordingly.

As Elite+ who don't drink alcohol X's Sail Only rate works for us. When X switched to compolsary AI we moved to Princess. If X had proceeded with allowing Vaping in the casino (or anywhere else inside the ship) we would not have booked with them again.

No right or wrong just choicesm

[kirtihk]

On 9/7/2023 at 11:39 AM, the penguins said:

Sorry again that’s speculation.

X has hinted that the price will drop to take account of the tips being removed but has not given actual figures. Once the new prices are available it will be very easy to see exactly what effect the new system will have. 

Only if one makes a quote on the day prior to the day of the tips removal from the "All Included" option.

[hubofhockey]

1 hour ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

 

Unless prevailing rate drops significantly (which it won't) there would be virtually no chance this is beneficial. Any group space through the end of 2024 is essentially unaffected by the All Included change. They will continue to have gratuities included and refundable deposits. 

 

Confirmed.  Celebrity wouldn't allow any changes, period.  The rate is higher, but I don't think my rate with the inclusions, a group rate, could have been changed. I am okay.

 

My bigger issue is that I canceled another cruise to move to this date and they are giving me a hard time about moving my credit from the nonrefundable balance to the new cruise with a different travel agent.  They are being very tough to deal with.

[tserface]

11 hours ago, the penguins said:

If only passengers would stop using "All Inclusive" in the headline and text it would be a lot less confusing 

X offer is All Included not All Inclusive.

The classic package includes beers, wines, cocktails, speciality teas/coffee/chocolate and water up to a price point. You can download the list (it changes and is based on availability). If you order something over the price you just pay the difference and the tips on the difference - for most pasdengers this is cheaper than upgrading to the Premium.

Don't "All Include" and "All Inclusive" kind of mean the same thing?  To be fair, I think X came up with the original All Inclusive definition and tried to change it to Always Included so they could redefine what they were going to always include or decide not to always include those things any more and include other always stuff instead ... it's no wonder people are confused.

 

All we can do it take one cruise at a time and decide on each cruise if it's worth it to us to pay the price for what we get.  We can't count on anything being the same next cruise.

 

At least Celebrity is not like Princess where they take stuff away *after* someone's already booked with the understanding they would get it.  Like X doesn't say, "Oh, now you have to pay for tips because we changed our  minds".  They tend to only change it on future bookings which is fair since, as I said, we can make our decision based on each cruise and the offerings at the time.

 

Saying "All Included" or "Always Included" or "All Inclusive" is kind of dumb since none of those things is true, and, really never has been.

[hcat]

2 hours ago, the penguins said:

The free 240 minutes are Premium rate.

so happy to know that..guess I forgot .. We are planning to book another X cruise. 

 

But now the big question is do we book now, with mandatory " all in"  knowing we do not need the wifi,  or after Oct 4th  a la carte.

 

.It will be a Concierge Class cabin. We will add daily grats and Classic bev. 

No way to figure it out..We feel X  is playing with us!

[tserface]

3 minutes ago, hcat said:

so happy to know that..guess I forgot .. We are planning to book another X cruise. 

 

But now the big question is do we book now, with mandatory " all in"  knowing we do not need the wifi,  or after Oct 4th  a la carte.

 

.It will be a Concierge Class cabin. We will add daily grats and Classic bev. 

No way to figure it out..We feel X  is playing with us!

In our experience, lowly Elites still, the biggest problem with the internet perk is it's the slow version of the internet so it takes almost no time at all use up the included minutes (I think 90 for us).  At least with the AI (whatever that stands for these days) is it's unlimited.  Sometimes if I wanted to upload some pictures I can just leave my iPad in my room doing it until it gets done and it doesn't really matter if it took 2 hours to do it.

 

Of course, for people that just want to download a few emails it works OK... so long as they can figure out a way to only get the actual emails they want.  Fortunately, these days, most pictures and other content in email are optional until something is pressed or clicked so that's helpful.  But, there's also so much spam that doesn't get caught that it's kind of maddening.

 

I started using a web based email for traveling and that also helps since it doesn't really have to download anything like the iPad email does.

[Oceangoer2]

1 hour ago, hcat said:

so happy to know that..guess I forgot .. We are planning to book another X cruise. 

 

But now the big question is do we book now, with mandatory " all in"  knowing we do not need the wifi,  or after Oct 4th  a la carte.

 

.It will be a Concierge Class cabin. We will add daily grats and Classic bev. 

No way to figure it out..We feel X  is playing with us!

I worked out what our cruise would have been if we had paid 'cruise only' fare, included the option of paying grats in advance, and added a classic drink pkg.   We already have the E+ WiFi.  It came out to more $$s and   Cruise Only had no OBC attached. The drink pkg on its own in Can. funds was $2329.40.  We could never drink that many $$s worth of wine and beer.  So paying as you go, even if it's a nuisance, works out better.   I'm going to wait until after Oct. 4th and compare pricing then as well.  BTW...LOL on the savings! 🤑🤔

 

 

Edited September 11, 2023 by Oceangoer2

[hcat]

4 hours ago, the penguins said:

The free 240 minutes are Premium rate.

so happy to know that..guess I forgot .. We are planning to book another X cruise. 

 

But now the big question is do we book now, with mandatory " all in"  knowing we do not need the wifi,  or after Oct 4th  a la carte.

 

.It will be a Concierge Class cabin. We will add daily grats and Classic bev. 

No way to figure it out..We feel X  is playing with us!

[hcat]

Just now, hcat said:

so happy to know that..guess I forgot .. We are planning to book another X cruise. 

 

But now the big question is do we book now, with mandatory " all in"  knowing we do not need the wifi,  or after Oct 4th  a la carte.

 

.It will be a Concierge Class cabin. We will add daily grats and Classic bev. 

No way to figure it out..We feel X  is playing with us!

no idea why a dbl post?? 

 

but thanks to Oceangoer2 for running some math.. We will wait til the 4th, hoping the cabins we want are still there!

[Bootstrap77]

On 9/6/2023 at 5:15 PM, hcat said:

 

my Thought..Sleight of hand mumbo jumbo price manipulation.

 

No true savings b/c grats will be added on to the account daily.. If folks go to guest rel to remove the grats.( traffic jam) staff will likely get much less  in cash or no tips at all.

 

Our remaining 2 Celeb  cruises have the "grandfathered" all included  and we do not plan on  booking any more.. 

 

Service and food cuts, higher prices, and lack of customer care!

We are not planning on booking any further celebrity cruises either. If you don’t mind me asking , what other lines have you looked at?

[hcat]

8 minutes ago, Bootstrap77 said:

We are not planning on booking any further celebrity cruises either. If you don’t mind me asking , what other lines have you looked at?

seriously  looking at Cunard..did a short cruise awhile ago on QM2 and it was very nice...we liked the ship and onboard amenities, great shows, lovely T pool and spa, .. we had a good time.  Some of the other lines have smaller ships with small dated rooms,  ...or really  huge ships, some very ornate.  Hard to figure it out.  

 

After reading a live from thread (in progress )from Silhouette, we may give X  another try..but no more on  pricey E Class or in high priced rms..  Going back to basics may be the key!

[Lastdance]

19 minutes ago, hcat said:

seriously  looking at Cunard..did a short cruise awhile ago on QM2 and it was very nice...we liked the ship and onboard amenities, great shows, lovely T pool and spa, .. we had a good time.  Some of the other lines have smaller ships with small dated rooms,  ...or really  huge ships, some very ornate.  Hard to figure it out.  

 

After reading a live from thread (in progress )from Silhouette, we may give X  another try..but no more on  pricey E Class or in high priced rms..  Going back to basics may be the key!

I believe there are quite a few of us that feel the same way.  Since I booked Oceania, now you get $800 for shore excursions whether you want those or not.  If that stays the same, our future cruises will not be with that cruise line, so one and done!  It is getting to be a challenge to find specifically what you want without what you don’t, but that’s the game nowadays.  I am just happy that four cruises are booked with three in suites and one in an SV.  Plus, not getting any younger either.  Good luck to you and everyone else in this new conundrum of cruising. 

Edited September 11, 2023 by Lastdance