Jumping ship to a new cruise line

[Lastdance]

2 hours ago, paulh84 said:

 

The asked you to "wait" and actually follow a so called "line"??? Blasphemy! Come on. I'm in my 30's, workout 5-6 times a week. More than physically capable of carrying multiple suitcases. In Fort Lauderdale they always still insist I don't take the escalator without a free hand. One "capable" and offended important person sends their overstuffed 70lb suitcase barreling down the stairs or escalator and they would drop people like bowling pins on the way down. 

No, we were not asked to go to the no-line line!  We were told to go over to the elevators where there was a huge mob of people.  There was no line!  They were blocking the stairs and no one was using them!  Our bags were not "over-stuffed" and we had every right to carry them down the stairs.  Yep, you want everyone to know that you can embellish every comment to get a reaction!  Well, you got it...do not ever assume that you have all the answers, you were not there!  Again, we have every right to carry our bags down the stairs....I do not care how many days you work-out!  But glad you were able to share that with everyone too.  My comment was not directly made to you either, so why be so nasty?  maybe ask for more information before you “jump” on the comments of others.  No one was taking the escalator without a free-hand, either!  We are not entitled seniors who expect the world to move for us; we are just the opposite.  That’s why we found this situation rediculous.  We have never had this issue before with Celebrity telling us we had to take the elevator when the stairs were available!  I apologize if my explanation was not clear enough, but you chose your response!

Edited December 16, 2023 by Lastdance

[PTC DAWG]

2 hours ago, paulh84 said:

 

The asked you to "wait" and actually follow a so called "line"??? Blasphemy! Come on. I'm in my 30's, workout 5-6 times a week. More than physically capable of carrying multiple suitcases. In Fort Lauderdale they always still insist I don't take the escalator without a free hand. One "capable" and offended important person sends their overstuffed 70lb suitcase barreling down the stairs or escalator and they would drop people like bowling pins on the way down. 

That is exactly the reason for the rule..

[Baron Barracuda]

21 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

I agree with others, comparing Celebrity to smaller luxury line ships with less amenities/activities is a fruitless endeavor.  
 

A small $ of Celebrity cruisers are in suites…Viking, Oceania etc are definitely MUCH more expensive compared to how most Celebrity cruisers cruise..

 

It is almost like these smaller luxury lines don’t have a place to post about how great they are. 

If you search there are bargains to be found on the premium lines.  Need to ignore brochure price and check CC for offer codes.  On our 33 night Viking sailing we met a number of folks who booked close-in for only $4,500k.  That's under $150 per day and some received free air !!!!

[Lastdance]

2 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

That is exactly the reason for the rule..

Read what I wrote to the first person that commented!  There is no hard-fast rule that you cannot take the stairs.  The stairs are not the escalator, but next to it.  Anyone can take the elevator, but why when no one is on the stairs.  Show me the rule about the stairs…I’ll wait for a reply.  For me personally, I try to get more information rather than posting a gut-response.  I hope you will do that next time.  Thank you!  Celebrity agrees that the stairs are fine!

 

I also want to thank tfred for not reading for understanding; a quick reactionary heart and your done…cheer on and enjoy!

Edited December 16, 2023 by Lastdance

[PTC DAWG]

8 minutes ago, Lastdance said:

Read what I wrote to the first person that commented!  There is no hard-fast rule that you cannot take the stairs.  The stairs are not the escalator, but next to it.  Anyone can take the elevator, but why when no one is on the stairs.  Show me the rule about the stairs…I’ll wait for a reply.  For me personally, I try to get more information rather than posting a gut-response.  I hope you will do that next time.  Thank you!  Celebrity agrees that the stairs are fine!

I’m fine with the stairs myself….but I tend to travel light…healthy 60 year old here, I will say that I can see the liability of a case tumbling down the escalator…

 

This is not something I would want to argue about on vacation.. 🙂

[Lastdance]

22 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

I’m fine with the stairs myself….but I tend to travel light…healthy 60 year old here, I will say that I can see the liability of a case tumbling down the escalator…

 

This is not something I would want to argue about on vacation.. 🙂

We just wanted to take the stairs and not the elevator; there is no rule about using the stairs.  We were not taking the escalator, period.  This confusion resulted from employees not knowing the rules and trying to make people take the elevator because they had silver hair, or whatever reason.  This has never happened to us in all the years we have cruised with or without silver hair!  Celebrity allows the stairs and does not discriminate against silver hair when wanting to use the stairs, period…these workers obviously did not understand that concept!!!

 

Do you really think we wanted to argue about this?  We want to get to our driver who had been waiting for us.  We did not yell scream or argue.  I said, “please do not stop us for taking the stairs.”

Edited December 16, 2023 by Lastdance

[prmssk]

1 minute ago, Lastdance said:

We just wanted to take the stairs and not the elevator; there is no rule about using the stairs.  We were not taking the escalator, period.  This confusion resulted from employees not knowing the rules and trying to make people take the elevator because they had silver hair, or whatever reason.  This has never happened to us in all the years we have cruised with or without silver hair!

In my experience, when crew are directing people to the elevators it is based on how much they are carrying NOT the color of their hair. This is something I have experienced a number of times while cruising (while in my 30s and 40s) and I always assumed it was due to a concern about liability, not something that I would take personally no matter how capable I felt. 

[Lastdance]

25 minutes ago, prmssk said:

In my experience, when crew are directing people to the elevators it is based on how much they are carrying NOT the color of their hair. This is something I have experienced a number of times while cruising (while in my 30s and 40s) and I always assumed it was due to a concern about liability, not something that I would take personally no matter how capable I felt. 

That has never been our experience and it is not a rule with Celebrity.  We were not rude, disrespectful or yelling…we just wanted to take the stairs and that was our right.  The people telling us were just blocking the stairs and we did not want to squeeze through them.  I am so sorry I even brought this up on here..but it is important to know that you are allowed to take the stairs; they cannot stop you!!!  Age is only a number, not a factor using the stairs.  The number of suitcases and using the escalator is, but not the stairs…Celebrity agrees!  For some reason those individuals were not understanding the concept of stairs.  they were in a trance singing the elevator song.  
 

Again, my mistake for sharing all of this.  None of you were there, so do not understand the full context of what was happening.  I respect that you do what people ask you to do; so do we, but this had nothing to do with that!  People behind us did the same and there was no issue; I am sure it alleviated some congestion too!  OMgosh…

Edited December 16, 2023 by Lastdance

[prmssk]

8 minutes ago, Lastdance said:

That has never been our experience and it is not a rule with Celebrity.  We were not rude, disrespectful or yelling…we just wanted to take the stairs and that was our right.  The people telling us were just blocking the stairs…I am so sorry I even brought this up on here..but it is important to know that you are allowed to take the stairs; they cannot stop you!!!  Age is only a number, not a factor using the stairs.  The number of suitcases and using the elevator is, but not the stairs…Celebrity agrees!

It doesn’t have to be a written fleet wide policy for crew on a ship to make it a rule.  And there is a rule about following crew instructions. Keep in mind the crew directing people to the elevators were not the ones who made the decision to direct people to elevators. They are just following the instructions they were given. 
 

And I don’t know why you keep bringing it back to age. When I have seen this in practice it had nothing to do with age at all. 

[Lastdance]

4 minutes ago, prmssk said:

It doesn’t have to be a written fleet wide policy for crew on a ship to make it a rule.  And there is a rule about following crew instructions. Keep in mind the crew directing people to the elevators were not the ones who made the decision to direct people to elevators. They are just following the instructions they were given. 
 

And I don’t know why you keep bringing it back to age. When I have seen this in practice it had nothing to do with age at all. 

Okay…enough, you have refused to understand what I am trying to convey.  Hopefully, we can agree to disagree.  These people were not crew members!!!  They were just singing it out to everyone…I was being sarcastic about the silver hair; people do think you are older and open doors much more frequently too!

Edited December 16, 2023 by Lastdance

[tomcruiser1234]

Our last cruise on Infinity was still very nice. The new higher cost and cuts in tips had not caught up yet.

 

Well we shall see how things work.  We have a free 7 night cruise in January since turning Zenith.   It’s in a magic carpet suite (we had to pay an extra $150/night to move up from a veranda ) to the lowest level suite.  60 days later were doing a 7 day on the Eclypse in a CC followed by 14 nights in a Sky 1 suite.   

 

Curious how service carry’s over from 1. Style cabin to the next. (Wasn’t gonna pay $1275 per night on the 7 day for a sky suite.). The CC cabin was almost 1/3 less. The 14 day was just under $1000 per night due to on board credit from ship and agent. Also still got the free tips that have now gone away. 

 

I will report back after the 1st cruise in January. 

 

 

[Lastdance]

8 minutes ago, tomcruiser1234 said:

Our last cruise on Infinity was still very nice. The new higher cost and cuts in tips had not caught up yet.

 

Well we shall see how things work.  We have a free 7 night cruise in January since turning Zenith.   It’s in a magic carpet suite (we had to pay an extra $150/night to move up from a veranda ) to the lowest level suite.  60 days later were doing a 7 day on the Eclypse in a CC followed by 14 nights in a Sky 1 suite.   

 

Curious how service carry’s over from 1. Style cabin to the next. (Wasn’t gonna pay $1275 per night on the 7 day for a sky suite.). The CC cabin was almost 1/3 less. The 14 day was just under $1000 per night due to on board credit from ship and agent. Also still got the free tips that have now gone away. 

 

I will report back after the 1st cruise in January. 

 

 

Congratulations!

[WonderMan3]

On 12/14/2023 at 5:11 PM, Gracie115 said:

We are on the Oceania Vista right now. The service everywhere has been amazing and the food just wonderful. We were so disappointed in our last 2 Celebrity cruises, with the cutbacks in quality and service and ridiculous increases in prices for everything. Our stateroom on Oceania is a PH1, equivalent in space to between an SS or CS on X for half of what it would have cost on X. 
 

Nice to feel our $$ are well spent again. To the OP … keep looking there are better options out there than X right now.

 

 

We just booked Oceania Vista for Sep 2025. It will be our first Oceania cruise and first cruise since Jan 2019. We had to cancel a few Celebrity cruises the past few years due to Covid concerns and had some booked for earlier this year that we had to let go as we just couldn't rationalize the cost when reading about all the cutbacks. As you said we were able to get 10 nights in an Oceania Penthouse and when I checked a 10 night European cruise on one of the Edge class ships around the same dates it was almost double the price. So unfortunately Celebrity seems to be off the table for us into the near future and possibly forever.

[WonderMan3]

On 12/14/2023 at 6:51 PM, hcat said:

Too many threads with the same subject..wish they could be combined!

Speaks to a growing dissatisfaction by longtime Celebrity cruisers though. Hope Celebrity is paying attention to this. But do they even care?

[Gracie115]

1 hour ago, WonderMan3 said:

We just booked Oceania Vista for Sep 2025. It will be our first Oceania cruise and first cruise since Jan 2019. We had to cancel a few Celebrity cruises the past few years due to Covid concerns and had some booked for earlier this year that we had to let go as we just couldn't rationalize the cost when reading about all the cutbacks. As you said we were able to get 10 nights in an Oceania Penthouse and when I checked a 10 night European cruise on one of the Edge class ships around the same dates it was almost double the price. So unfortunately Celebrity seems to be off the table for us into the near future and possibly forever.

I believe you will be very happy with the choice to try Oceania. It has been like going back over 20 years to what Celebrity was as far as service and quality are concerned. The decor is elegant and warm. Yes, the entertainment is less, but there is enough for us and it’s good. 
 

We just booked a PH on a 12 nighter in 2025 on the Allura which is being built right now, at a great cost.

[Dolebludger]

All I can say is that we have cruised Regent a lot prior to the pandemic. We didn’t cruise  again until last  June. We actually found the onboard experience IMPROVED From the past. Now the cost may be too high for Celebrity cruisers who didn’t cruise in the Retreat. But those who did may well find a better experience on Regent, for less cost. We did.

Edited December 17, 2023 by Dolebludger

[SusieAV8R]

40 minutes ago, Dolebludger said:

All I can say is that we have cruised Regent a lot prior to the pandemic. We didn’t cruise  again until last  June. We actually found the onboard experience IMPROVED From the past. Now the cost may be too high for Celebrity cruisers who didn’t cruise in the Retreat. But those who did may well find a better experience on Regent, for less cost. We did.

DH and I have always cruised X, in a Celebrity suite or higher, (we are zenith) but we are finding the huge price increase on future X cruises with inconsistent advertised benefits is pushing us to investigate Regent.  We like what we've discovered, especially the far lower fare costs with included excursions costs, for slightly smaller suites.  (Fares on some of the older X ships were stunningly high for 2025 and early 2026!!)

[NMTraveller]

On 12/14/2023 at 10:29 AM, onespots said:

Although we are nearing the end of our cruising experiences, mostly to Europe, we our now considering using Viking or Azamara for our future. The new ships to do not appeal to us & it seems if you are not in a suite, Celebrity has very little interest in your business.

Has anyone sailed Azamara since RCL sold them?  Comments?

Edited December 18, 2023 by NMTraveller

[Dancing Shoes]

Our neighbors swear by Oceania.  The husband is a foodie, and thinks their food is the best.  Funny thing is, they have never sailed on another ship and don't plan to.  I think of them being a level above Celebrity or HAL.  We are happy with both HAL and Celebrity.  

[Ex-Airbalancer]

8 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

Has anyone sailed Azamara since RCL sold them?  Comments?

Have you been to the Azamara section of CC to see what the regulars are writing? 

[ExArkie]

9 hours ago, Dancing Shoes said:

Our neighbors swear by Oceania.  The husband is a foodie, and thinks their food is the best.  Funny thing is, they have never sailed on another ship and don't plan to.  I think of them being a level above Celebrity or HAL.  We are happy with both HAL and Celebrity.  

We did one transatlantic on Oceania after the shutdown. Granted, it was still relatively early in the restaffing and retraining process, which indubitably had an effect, but aside from the Asian restaurant Red Ginger and the grill-to-order shrimp and lobster in their buffet, we found their food quality to be comparable to or worse than MDRs on Celebrity, NCL, and HAL. It was much worse than Luminae or Cunard Grills (those are the only two suite dining experiences we have had). 
 

I am told it was an anomaly, but that was our experience.

[hcat]

On 12/15/2023 at 6:29 PM, Lastdance said:

Maybe a bit off topic, but I thought Celebrity was targeting younger cruisers...

 

Well, we just returned from our third cruise on Beyond; the other two were in Europe and wonderful.  This one was in the Southern Caribbean, not to mention that, in several instances, we were treated like we could not be trusted with a lounger because someone fell and was hurt, needed to “wait" for others because we were going in a “line" to exit the ship and told we had to take the elevator because we had two bags.  You should have seen that line!!! Those three things did not sit well with either one of us at all.  Since when does Celebrity dictate all these rules?  We have never been treated like very elderly people who cannot do anything for themselves.  Both of us were appalled with these so called rules!  My DH carried our bags down the stairs, along with me carrying another suitcase and tote.  We wanted to disembark ourselves because we had an early flight and a driver waiting for us.  Yes, we are in our ___’s, but this conception that we are old and decrepit doesn’t play well with either one of us. 

 

 Are all Caribbean cruises this way?  Do I need to cancel my Ascent cruise in November, as the rest are TA’s/Europe?  $200 would be a small price to pay for not being treated this way.  Will we be treated like this with Oceania?; maybe not because we booked a TA and not the Caribbean.

I believe the free hand to hold on  to an escalator is a rec safety

 " rule"  for use of the escalator.

 

If one person loses control of  their bag, walker  or stroller, etc,    it endangers others.. so I think it's a good rule..My husb disagrees but he is a rebel!   

 

Being old or decrepit is not the reason..its  carrying too much stuff!

[At Sea At Peace]

On 12/15/2023 at 3:55 PM, PTC DAWG said:

I agree with others, comparing Celebrity to smaller luxury line ships with less amenities/activities is a fruitless endeavor.  
 

A small $ of Celebrity cruisers are in suites…Viking, Oceania etc are definitely MUCH more expensive compared to how most Celebrity cruisers cruise..

 

It is almost like these smaller luxury lines don’t have a place to post about how great they are. 

 

Yep, especially when the comparison of the OP was the 2001 Summit and looking to go Viking or Azamara and others chiming in with Oceania et al.  😉

[hcat]

35 minutes ago, hcat said:

I believe the free hand to hold on  to an escalator is a rec safety

 " rule"  for use of the escalator.

 

If one person loses control of  their bag, walker  or stroller, etc,    it endangers others.. so I think it's a good rule..My husb disagrees but he is a rebel!   

 

Being old or decrepit is not the reason..its  carrying too much stuff!

and so many who then fall sue!

[hcat]

On 12/15/2023 at 4:33 PM, grandgeezer said:

I recall many complainers that still sail but don’t recall any that said they would never sail again, but did.

Our last cruise on Celebrity was August of 2019 and here we are in December 2023 and the streak is still in tact. That was in a suite on the Equinox and though nice, grossly overpriced. We did it to see what all the hype was about, and after a couple of days we had our answer.

Our last regular cruise on Celebrity was in December 2016, on the Silhouette, and that was the final nail in the coffin.

Before that we cruised alt mostly on Celebrity and RCL. We have almost 1300 points on Celebrity and 85 on RCL. Total 47 cruises and 494 days at sea, which includes Princess, Holland America, Norwegian, and MSC.

No X cruises since 2019..so where did you jump to?