Q&A with President Laura Hodges Bethge

[NMTraveller]

4 hours ago, zitsky said:

No joking but do we all feel better about X because of a good, authentic conversation or did they tell us what we want to hear?

It sounded like Damage Control to me.

 

Perhaps future bookings are softening a bit?

[SusieAV8R]

On 9/26/2023 at 1:29 PM, Jim_Iain said:

 

I can only speak for myself but I nor any Zenith's I spoken to received a request for questions.

 

I'm happy that you are so satisfied with your cruises but many of us aren't  and after 23 years of exclusive traveling Celebrity I made my first non-Celebrity Cruise last week.    I have also booked a second non-celebrity cruise.

 

I only travel in suites so not concerned about potatoes

We travel only in suites and became Zenith members after our recent cruise less than a week ago.  Apparently we aren't the "loyal cruisers" Laura is looking for because neither DH nor I received a request for questions.

[SusieAV8R]

On 9/26/2023 at 1:31 PM, Jim_Iain said:

 

Not me -   we would never book a cruise for Coco Key.    I'm sure some enjoy it and I respect that BUT not our thing

Not our thing either. 

[DaKahuna]

2 hours ago, zitsky said:

What is the charge to have the screaming children run by your beach chair every 15 minutes?

 

 Actually, the Beach Club was relatively free of children.  Can't say as much for the other public beaches. 

 

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

8 hours ago, zitsky said:

What is the charge to have the screaming children run by your beach chair every 15 minutes?

I'm on Anthem of the Seas from NYC in February - over Presidents' Week when schools are out, so a busy week - and we're at CocoCay on a 2-ship day (Anthem and Liberty) - and Hideaway Beach (the adult only area) was $71.48 for a day pass.

[newtocruiseinblue]

On 9/26/2023 at 1:28 PM, sunlover33 said:

Though it a bit disingenuous to say the up charge in the MDR was due to a divide between some family members wanting to eat in the speciality restaurant and some in the MDR so they decided to charge in the MDR for steak and lobster! But liked the honesty about  the infinite balcony split with some hating it. Also interesting that Edge 5 may have more real balconies. But who are all these loyal guests that asked for Coco cay? 

My takeaway from the Coco cay piece is  that Celebrity guests want a PRIVATE ISLAND. I def would prefer the adults only section of coco cay above Nassau. Just my opinion though. 

[adjustman]

I have read most of the posts in this thread. Personally, I do not see where it is possible to combine the loyalty points of Celebrity, RCL, and Silversea. Imagine how crowded the retreat lounge will be if the loyalty points are combined? People who are now Elite members will be bumped up to Elite Plus, and Elite Plus members will be bumped up to Zenith. During the webinar LHB made the comment that the retreat lounge may already become crowded during peak times since Zenith members are now allowed access to the lounge. Imagine how crowded the lounge will be if a large number of members are added to the Zenith Class. 

 

I agree that LHB and Jason Liberty do not know who their Celebrity customers are. I do not think either LHB or Jason Liberty have sailed on a number of celebrity ships. I think that is the problem here in my opinion. I also agree Zenith members should have been sent an invite for questions. A really bad mistake by Celebrity. You want to keep your existing customer base and not alienate them. It does seem odd that the customer experience has gone downhill since Richard Fain stepped back from the day-to-day operation of the company. I still think Jason Liberty does not have the vision for cruising to the detriment of Celebrity's customers and the entire RCG.  Just my opinion.    

[miched]

They listen to the passengers.  
 

It is great to know that they read  my request to charge for the free cookies.  🙄🤗

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[1Virgo]

16 hours ago, zitsky said:

No joking but do we all feel better about X because of a good, authentic conversation or did they tell us what we want to hear?

 

think we were told what they thought we should hear.   #1, no changes to the menus, 2, no changes to Aqua amenities 3, we all wanted to pay for warm cookies, didn’t t want gratuities included ……..      Well, we know #1 is not true, ditto with 2, and we want gratuities included.  Warm $2 cookies so I get that homey feeling cracked us up

[TeeRick]

23 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

There's also another comment she made that might coincide with your thinking and that's regarding the possible tweaking of the 3 different RCG Loyalty programs in the near future. Just imagine how many "RCG" guests would start to book X itineraries, and possibly a few of Silversea, if they were able to accrue loyalty points from cruising on any of their 3 lines, similar to the arrangement Celebrity and Azamara used to have?

Well maybe if they combine all my points I would be able to make Zenith or Pinnacle. 

[kirtihk]

On 9/26/2023 at 10:38 PM, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

I'm very curious, why keep the 5th ship features a secret?  With a vehicle or a new smartphone, you want to keep them a secret as you want people to buy the current version and not hold out for the newer version but this logic doesn't apply here.  No one is going to hold out on their vacation for two years as they wait for the newest ship to sail 🤔

Before the Edge was introduced, on one of our cruises (I think it was in summer 2017) the captain announced that 4 ships are coming up in next 6 years.  Then he whispered - "actually, there will be 5th ship, too, but it's a big secret that I was not supposed to tell you about". 

[KellyCz]

On 9/26/2023 at 1:38 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

Nope. Not the case when booking a cruise with Princess, NCL, HAL, or Oceania (according to @patty1955).

 

But that's OK. We've made our decision and have booked our next 20 cruises through 2025, except for our upcoming Galapagos cruise, with Princess, NCL, and HAL. Maybe we'll book a Celebrity TA in 2026 if they decide to offer them at a fair price. We'll see. 

 

20 cruises booked! I'm so jealous. Dreaming of booking our next one for 2025.

[karmamule]

As someone new to Celebrity (one cruise so far on Apex which we did love) and one coming up (NEXT WEEK...YAY!) we aren't comparing them to how they used to be (other than vicariously through reading long-timers posts here) but we ARE comparing them to other lines. We'll be looking at any service or food quality through that lens of how it compares to similar experiences on MSC Yacht Club, Virgin Voyages, or Princess. Yes there are plenty of others to compare to, but for us at least those are their main competitors.

 

The bottom line for us will be how they stack up to our experiences on these other lines we see as offering something similar, and if they trim too much then they'll lose us to these other choices. Our experience on Apex was wonderful but we were in an Edge Villa, and we usually do entry-level suites, not upper. This next cruise on Summit will be in an Aqua Sky Suite and next February we have another MSC YC cruise coming up, with Icon of the Seas and Princess next fall.

 

If Summit's food and/or service doesn't stack up well in comparison to those (or our recent VV cruise which we loved) then odds are we won't be back. If the ship, service and food compare well then they'll see more from us. And, with me retiring next year and my partner Rich retiring in a few years our cruising peak is yet to come! We'll see how they do.

[lv2cruisgrl]

13 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

It sounded like Damage Control to me.

 

Perhaps future bookings are softening a bit?

I agree and we can only hope if less cruises are selling, prices will drop a bit. Or they will get the hint and fix a few issues!

[MarkWiltonM]

I found Laura Hodges Bethge to be charming. Especially for a marketing type (sorry to all of you in marketing). We have migrated to Oceania and Virgin Voyages lately but still have Celebrity bookings. We don't like infinite verandas so we only book Edge-class ships if we can snag a Sunset Veranda, and you have to book those very soon after the itineraries open. We have been lucky with those but because they are so far out (up to two years) we have always gotten refundable deposits in case we change our minds. Now that RDs have become so much more expensive, not sure what we'll do re future Celebrity bookings. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 hour ago, adjustman said:

I have read most of the posts in this thread. Personally, I do not see where it is possible to combine the loyalty points of Celebrity, RCL, and Silversea. Imagine how crowded the retreat lounge will be if the loyalty points are combined? People who are now Elite members will be bumped up to Elite Plus, and Elite Plus members will be bumped up to Zenith. During the webinar LHB made the comment that the retreat lounge may already become crowded during peak times since Zenith members are now allowed access to the lounge. Imagine how crowded the lounge will be if a large number of members are added to the Zenith Class. 

 

I agree that LHB and Jason Liberty do not know who their Celebrity customers are. I do not think either LHB or Jason Liberty have sailed on a number of celebrity ships. I think that is the problem here in my opinion. I also agree Zenith members should have been sent an invite for questions. A really bad mistake by Celebrity. You want to keep your existing customer base and not alienate them. It does seem odd that the customer experience has gone downhill since Richard Fain stepped back from the day-to-day operation of the company. I still think Jason Liberty does not have the vision for cruising to the detriment of Celebrity's customers and the entire RCG.  Just my opinion.    

 

When LLP left, RCG stripped the title of Celebrity CEO away as LHB is just the President.  RCG's Jason was a former CFO

[Cap_D]

Something has always seemed off about the homey warm chocolate chip cookies baked with your parents talk off.  I agree they don't know who they are marketing to, or the experience they want to promote.  

 

Even accepting that baking cookies at home is a common childhood experience, that's not what anyone goes on vacation walking past a coffee bar on a ship designed to appear elegant should be reminded of (especially after a pandemic of baking with whatever one could find), nor should it play to remembrances of a trip to the mall or airport to a Mrs. Fields stand.  

 

Laura did acknowledge it could have been "merchandised" (her term) better, but continued to use the homey childhood line.  Not even Disney does that to market or elevate cookies (there's a cookie place at Disney Springs outdoor mall that all the influencers peddle) to justify the price, and elevate the experience.  

 

Edited September 28, 2023 by Cap_D

[NBliving]

7 minutes ago, Cap_D said:

Something has always seemed off about the homey warm chocolate chip cookies baked with your parents talk off.  I agree they don't know who they are marketing to, or the experience they want to promote.  

 

Even accepting that baking cookies at home is a common childhood experience, that's not what anyone goes on vacation walking past a coffee bar on a ship designed to appear elegant should be reminded of (especially after a pandemic of baking with whatever one could find), nor should it play to remembrances of a trip to the mall or airport to a Mrs. Fields stand.  

 

Laura did acknowledge it could have been "merchandised" (her term) better, but continued to use the homey childhood line.  Not even Disney does that to market or elevate cookies (there's a cookie place at Disney Springs outdoor mall that all the influencers peddle) to justify the price, and elevate the experience.  

 

We were laughing about the warm cookie comments also.  The only thing I can think of that might have been mentioned in a post cruise review is the warm cookie on the menu in the Rooftop Grill.  Everyone raves about it, so maybe they thought it would be similar to offering items from Specialty Restaurants in the MDR?? Just seems silly to charge $2 for a warm cookie...

[Ken the cruiser]

6 minutes ago, KellyCz said:

20 cruises booked! I'm so jealous. Dreaming of booking our next one for 2025.

It's tough being cruisaholics! But since we're in our early 70s now and fully retired, we do enjoy searching for itineraries that take us to different parts of the world, and booking early with refundable deposits also allows us to usually get more advantageous deals while allowing us to make adjustments if other more desirable itineraries come along. Of course, it also helps to have multiple "favorite" cruise lines to choose from.

 

For example, we initially booked Celebrity's 14-day Antarctica itinerary on two separate occasions that cruises out of Buenos Aires. Then on both occasions, we subsequently switched to different "drive by" itineraries that included 4 days cruising around the Antarctica Peninsula, once in 2018 to HAL (for a 22-day one from Santiago to BA) and then most recently to PCL for a 30-day B2B on a pair of their "combinable" January itineraries, where the Celebrity ones only spend 2 days cruising near the Antarctica Peninsula and continue to repeat the same itinerary over and over.

 

But then Celebrity has always focused on providing 1-2 week itineraries since we started cruising with them back in 2012. And if I recall correctly, they just cancelled all of their winter 2024/2025 Antarctica cruises for some reason. Yup, there are definitely some itinerary adjustments going on.

[karmamule]

One follow-up to my recent post: Both our first Celebrity cruise and our upcoming one have had VERY generous OBC amounts thrown in. (I do my own bookings but keep an eye out for specials and call back if I see some new sales event that might add a bit more OBC). 

 

Having a good chunk of OBC available will make me far more tolerant of a few extra upcharges here and there like an elevated dining choice or yeah even just a warm tasty cookie. The one catch: whatever we used some OBC on better be a definite step-up from any free counterpart. The more I hear about nickel-and-diming from Celebrity the more important it'll be to me that future bookings come with a chunk of OBC to absorb those extras.

[grandgeezer]

They are just like politicians, they tell you what you want to hear but do not act on it, especially when money is involved. Keep track of the promises and check back in six months to see what has changed, for the positive. That list will be very short, unless the bookings or extras drop of dramaticly.

[JDPCruisers]

22 minutes ago, karmamule said:

One follow-up to my recent post: Both our first Celebrity cruise and our upcoming one have had VERY generous OBC amounts thrown in. (I do my own bookings but keep an eye out for specials and call back if I see some new sales event that might add a bit more OBC). 

 

Having a good chunk of OBC available will make me far more tolerant of a few extra upcharges here and there like an elevated dining choice or yeah even just a warm tasty cookie. The one catch: whatever we used some OBC on better be a definite step-up from any free counterpart. The more I hear about nickel-and-diming from Celebrity the more important it'll be to me that future bookings come with a chunk of OBC to absorb those extras.

Agree on the OBC, ours on X have always been what we considered as generous but as we read it, they are decreasing those on future bookings. We have yet to go outside RC or X (most recently) but are reviewing as longer itineraries, amenities and food quality are top of our list so those will be a deciding factor to switch with cost being close to all things equal. 

[mjfship]

1 hour ago, karmamule said:

As someone new to Celebrity (one cruise so far on Apex which we did love) and one coming up (NEXT WEEK...YAY!) we aren't comparing them to how they used to be (other than vicariously through reading long-timers posts here) but we ARE comparing them to other lines. We'll be looking at any service or food quality through that lens of how it compares to similar experiences on MSC Yacht Club, Virgin Voyages, or Princess. Yes there are plenty of others to compare to, but for us at least those are their main competitors.

 

The bottom line for us will be how they stack up to our experiences on these other lines we see as offering something similar, and if they trim too much then they'll lose us to these other choices. Our experience on Apex was wonderful but we were in an Edge Villa, and we usually do entry-level suites, not upper. This next cruise on Summit will be in an Aqua Sky Suite and next February we have another MSC YC cruise coming up, with Icon of the Seas and Princess next fall.

 

If Summit's food and/or service doesn't stack up well in comparison to those (or our recent VV cruise which we loved) then odds are we won't be back. If the ship, service and food compare well then they'll see more from us. And, with me retiring next year and my partner Rich retiring in a few years our cruising peak is yet to come! We'll see how they do.

Looking forward to the comparisons.  We also enjoyed the Edge Villa on APEX, a tough act to follow!  Enjoy the upcoming cruise.

Edited September 28, 2023 by mjfship

[truckswain]

1 hour ago, karmamule said:

One follow-up to my recent post: Both our first Celebrity cruise and our upcoming one have had VERY generous OBC amounts thrown in. (I do my own bookings but keep an eye out for specials and call back if I see some new sales event that might add a bit more OBC). 

 

Having a good chunk of OBC available will make me far more tolerant of a few extra upcharges here and there like an elevated dining choice or yeah even just a warm tasty cookie. The one catch: whatever we used some OBC on better be a definite step-up from any free counterpart. The more I hear about nickel-and-diming from Celebrity the more important it'll be to me that future bookings come with a chunk of OBC to absorb those extras.

Please go on your cruise with an open mind.  The "nickel-and-diming"  has been over exagerated on these boards.  You will notice that 90% of the comments come from people who have not cruised since the restart and many not for several years.

 

 

[suntans]

just listened to the webinar.  Gotta say, the nickel and diming is really getting to me and leaving a sour taste.  $2 for a cookie?  Give me a break.  The whole question around the gratuities is a bit of a hot topic locally right now.  The tipping culture has gotten way out of hand, so no, I don't believe her when she said guests didn't want gratuities included in AI.