Is Celebrity trying to imitate HAL

[Ipeeinthepools]

Has Celebrity abandoned the “All Included” advertising campaign?  How long has Celebrity been using the “Have It All” description?   Lately I’ve been more interested in cruising with Holland America and I really don’t pay much attention to the Celebrity advertising campaigns, but this one caught my eye.  Have it All is the description Holland America uses for their drinks, wifi, free specialty ding and shore excursion credit package.  When I first saw this email, I thought it was a HAL email.  Seems like Celebrity might be trying to get some HAL passengers by creating this confusion.

[Galaxy2004]

Celebrity may be capitalizing on the Holland America cruisers like you who catch the wording but they are using it here to say you can have more than one beach, one city, one restaurant, and one pool. Seems to me they are targeting people who may be looking at land vacations. They still use "all included" for their package that's really not the all included it used to be as it's not wi-fi and basic drink package.

[paulh84]

HAL and Celebrity - and MSC to some extent have been using nearly identical graphics and colors for quite a while. This is the landing page for both lines this morning.

 

Celebrity 

 

 

HAL

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

25 minutes ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

Has Celebrity abandoned the “All Included” advertising campaign?  How long has Celebrity been using the “Have It All” description?   Lately I’ve been more interested in cruising with Holland America and I really don’t pay much attention to the Celebrity advertising campaigns, but this one caught my eye.  Have it All is the description Holland America uses for their drinks, wifi, free specialty ding and shore excursion credit package.  When I first saw this email, I thought it was a HAL email.  Seems like Celebrity might be trying to get some HAL passengers by creating this confusion.

If they are, that is the only thing HAL and Celebrity have in common, other than they are both cruise lines. 😂

[Cruise Junky]

HAL has some very good lengthy itineraries. Celebrity would have to string together more than four days in the Caribbean to compete 🤷🏻‍♀️   

[the penguins]

22 hours ago, Cruise Junky said:

HAL has some very good lengthy itineraries. Celebrity would have to string together more than four days in the Caribbean to compete 🤷🏻‍♀️   

X has lots of longer cruises just not from Florida. See Europe, Far East, Japan and the Pacific etc.

Having to join cruises together also has some advantages especially if you are Elite and above as the benefits start again on each sector. Also the Shareholder OBC can be higher.

[Cruise Junky]

1 hour ago, the penguins said:

X has lots of longer cruises just not from Florida. See Europe, Far East, Japan and the Pacific etc.

Having to join cruises together also has some advantages especially if you are Elite and above as the benefits start again on each sector. Also the Shareholder OBC can be higher.

I was being facetious after being bombarded with daily mail about their 4/5 day cruises.  I am a big Celebrity Fan but their itineraries aren’t that interesting anymore. Hard to string 2 together in Europe that offer anything new. No more lengthy Carribean.  So as much as I prefer X as a cruiseline, HAL has far better itineraries 

[GottaKnowWhen]

1 hour ago, Cruise Junky said:

I was being facetious after being bombarded with daily mail about their 4/5 day cruises.  I am a big Celebrity Fan but their itineraries aren’t that interesting anymore. Hard to string 2 together in Europe that offer anything new. No more lengthy Carribean.  So as much as I prefer X as a cruiseline, HAL has far better itineraries 

I agree about longer itineraries being better in many ways. In February 2025 I do have a 10+9 b2b on Eclipse, getting my extra days that way.

[Ipeeinthepools]

1 hour ago, GottaKnowWhen said:

I agree about longer itineraries being better in many ways. In February 2025 I do have a 10+9 b2b on Eclipse, getting my extra days that way.

 
You could be getting even more days on HAL with 9+12 day itineraries 

[PTC DAWG]

I can clearly differentiate between Celebrity and HAL ads…

[Ipeeinthepools]

3 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

I can clearly differentiate between Celebrity and HAL ads…

You’re probably correct.  Celebrity ads are the ones with higher prices.

[GottaKnowWhen]

1 minute ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 
You could be getting even more days on HAL with 9+12 day itineraries 

But then I wouldn't be on Celebrity. I have been on 3 Windstar and 1 Hurtigruten cruises in the last 2 years, in addition to Celebrity, so I am not totally fixed on Celebrity. Another Windstar coming this year, a 14-day Pearl Mist next year. But I have no desire to start fresh on another large-ship mass market cruise line. I'll make do with the Celebrity I know. In addition to the 19 day b2b mentioned, I'll have 7 days on Expedition later this year, and then a 37 day b2b2b on Equinox at the end of next year...

[CruiseRQA]

2 hours ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

You’re probably correct.  Celebrity ads are the ones with higher prices.

And better food, better entertainment ... 

[Ipeeinthepools]

40 minutes ago, CruiseRQA said:

And better food, better entertainment ... 

I’ll agree with you about the entertainment but not the food.  Never a problem finding something I want to dinner in the MDR

[the penguins]

8 hours ago, Cruise Junky said:

I was being facetious after being bombarded with daily mail about their 4/5 day cruises.  I am a big Celebrity Fan but their itineraries aren’t that interesting anymore. Hard to string 2 together in Europe that offer anything new. No more lengthy Carribean.  So as much as I prefer X as a cruiseline, HAL has far better itineraries 

depends where you have already been. Easy to join Norwegian Fjords and the Baltic States or Baltic States and Canary Islands or all three. Also from Ravenna Italy Split Dubrovnik etc round to Rome then the Greek Islands. Also options that include Iceland. 

We used to like HAL when it had the smaller ships but the new bigger ones left us cold.

[PTC DAWG]

5 hours ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

You’re probably correct.  Celebrity ads are the ones with higher prices.

Possibly…if you want cheap, you can find it..I could be wrong, but I’m thinking there is a HAL board on CC…

Edited March 19 by PTC DAWG

[Cruise Junky]

1 hour ago, the penguins said:

depends where you have already been. Easy to join Norwegian Fjords and the Baltic States or Baltic States and Canary Islands or all three. Also from Ravenna Italy Split Dubrovnik etc round to Rome then the Greek Islands. Also options that include Iceland. 

We used to like HAL when it had the smaller ships but the new bigger ones left us cold.

The problem with stringing together a bunch of B2B’s is the travel time to and from embarkation ports. If you did that in the Caribbean you’d spend far too many days going to and from Ft Lauderdale rather than exploring ports.  Same with the Med. You hit the bigger embarkation ports but less time for the lesser explored.   

[GottaKnowWhen]

1 minute ago, Cruise Junky said:

The problem with stringing together a bunch of B2B’s is the travel time to and from embarkation ports. If you did that in the Caribbean you’d spend far too many days going to and from Ft Lauderdale rather than exploring ports.  Same with the Med. You hit the bigger embarkation ports but less time for the lesser explored.   

I agree that to/from Lauderdale can be a bummer, but it does provide extra sea days which I rate as a plus. In the Med, turnaround in Barcelona can be a good day well spent, and next-port from either Barcelona or Civitavechia will not be that far away.

[NMTraveller]

7 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

I can clearly differentiate between Celebrity and HAL ads…

I can also.  The Celebrity ads take place in some Wonderland setting outside of reality ...

[NMTraveller]

40 minutes ago, Cruise Junky said:

The problem with stringing together a bunch of B2B’s is the travel time to and from embarkation ports. If you did that in the Caribbean you’d spend far too many days going to and from Ft Lauderdale rather than exploring ports.  Same with the Med. You hit the bigger embarkation ports but less time for the lesser explored.   

It seems to me that a B2B wastes a couple of days or redoes them.

[Ken the cruiser]

For us we finally realized after taking a chance and going on a NCL 38-day B2B on the Jade back in the Fall of 2022 from Athens to Cape Town by way of Dubai, along with just finishing a 30-day B2B RT our of San Antonio, Chile on the Sapphire Princess that included 4 days cruising around the Antarctica Peninsula, other reasonably priced cruise lines such as PCL, NCL, and HAL have some pretty cool itineraries as well that Celebrity has never offered.
 

With regards to future cruises, we’re booked on a 22-day NCL B2B out of Reykjavik in June 2025 that goes to Longyearbyen twice! We also have our eye on a 28-day Alaska cruise with HAL that includes going up the Bering Strait to Nome as well as visiting a lot of other seldomly visited Alaska ports.

 

We also have two Celebrity “place holder” cruises booked onboard last year to potentially use on a Spring 2026 Celebrity B2B that includes a TA, probably originating in either Southampton or Amsterdam, depending on which combination of itineraries looks better as we definitely enjoy Celebrity transoceanic cruises. The “place holders” will allow us to book the B2B with a nonrefundable deposit, to avoid paying the 20% surcharge for a refundable one, without stressing too much about losing the minimal deposit we used to book the place holders if we have to cancel that B2B for some reason. With the other cruise lines I mentioned, they all offer itineraries with refundable deposits at no additional charge unlike Celebrity.

 

Edited March 20 by Ken the cruiser

[PTC DAWG]

1 hour ago, NMTraveller said:

I can also.  The Celebrity ads take place in some Wonderland setting outside of reality ...

I am still flummoxed as to why you grace us with your presence on the Celebrity boards..

 

I take it you are much more pleasant on board..next martini is on me. 

Edited March 20 by PTC DAWG

[Ipeeinthepools]

2 hours ago, Cruise Junky said:

The problem with stringing together a bunch of B2B’s is the travel time to and from embarkation ports. If you did that in the Caribbean you’d spend far too many days going to and from Ft Lauderdale rather than exploring ports.  Same with the Med. You hit the bigger embarkation ports but less time for the lesser explored.   

Absolutely the truth.  I think a B2B back to Fort Lauderdale really wastes 3 days.  One day to travel back to Fort Lauderdale, one day with the turnaround day and at least one day to travel back to an area you want to visit.  I’ll take the longer itinerary every day of the week.

[NMTraveller]

41 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

I am still flummoxed as to why you grace us with your presence on the Celebrity boards..

 

I take it you are much more pleasant on board..next martini is on me. 

 

[the penguins]

7 hours ago, Cruise Junky said:

The problem with stringing together a bunch of B2B’s is the travel time to and from embarkation ports. If you did that in the Caribbean you’d spend far too many days going to and from Ft Lauderdale rather than exploring ports.  Same with the Med. You hit the bigger embarkation ports but less time for the lesser explored.   

Confused. I was responding to your " hard to string 2 cruises together in Europe" comment nothing to do with the Caribbean.