Identity crisis

[Lastdance]

2 hours ago, Lastdance said:

For me, it was the complete opposite of this; never will my DH and I cruise the Caribbean again.  

We want the total E-class experience overseas, full of culture, history, different nationalities and   a variety of experiences.  Both of us are in our 70’s, so not spring chickens by any means.  No float the boat for us at this point of our lives, just keep on moving and enjoying life to the fullest!   “...nobody going to slow me down...”  Of course it will happen one day!  

I have asked for these redundant posts to be deleted, but due to the holiday, not going to happen anytime soon...so very sorry for the disruptions!

 

Also, for my lovely Cruise Critic friend, hcat, we are not heavy museum/cathedral and highlight cruisers, but more in-depth like see where Rasputin was before the end of his life, along with shipwrecked Beach.  That’s why we do not tire of Europe. However, it is also getting extremely crowded too, especially in certain countries.  In addition, we stay and do our own private vacations on land.  We wanted to enjoy the Caribbean and float the boat, but it didn’t happen; totally my fault for booking!   Our common denominator is that we enjoy cruising, but also different venues of travel too.  We are all very blessed to have so many choices, but I still cannot help, but reminisce about Celebrity before Covid and further back in time.                                     ~Safe Travels!  

Edited March 23 by Lastdance

[d9704011]

33 minutes ago, Lastdance said:

due to the holiday

Holiday?  I guess you meant weekend?

[Lastdance]

1 hour ago, d9704011 said:

Holiday?  I guess you meant weekend?

Whatever toots your boat😍 Spin it anyway you want, even embellish and have fun too!  It’s all up to you and your opinion…oh, you’re from Canada; it’s cold up there too!  Palm Sunday in the States was my reasoning for the comment, not to mention the following week...I should have said...never mind, as it is already too complicated.

Edited March 24 by Lastdance

[Ex-Airbalancer]

4 minutes ago, Lastdance said:

Whatever toots your boat😍 Spin it anyway you want, even embellish and have fun too!  It’s all up to you and your opinion…oh, you’re from Canada; it’s cold up there too!  Easter Sunday in the States.

Easter is next weekend around the world 😁

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

1 minute ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Easter is next weekend around the world 😁

 

Unless you're Orthodox. Then it's May 5.

 

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday.

[hcat]

1 hour ago, Lastdance said:

I have asked for these redundant posts to be deleted, but due to the holiday, not going to happen anytime soon...so very sorry for the disruptions!

 

Also, for my lovely Cruise Critic friend, hcat, we are not heavy museum/cathedral and highlight cruisers, but more in-depth like see where Rasputin was before the end of his life, along with shipwrecked Beach.  That’s why we do not tire of Europe. However, it is also getting extremely crowded too, especially in certain countries.  In addition, we stay and do our own private vacations on land.  We wanted to enjoy the Caribbean and float the boat, but it didn’t happen; totally my fault for booking!   Our common denominator is that we enjoy cruising, but also different venues of travel too.  We are all very blessed to have so many choices, but I still cannot help, but reminisce about Celebrity before Covid and further back in time.                                     ~Safe Travels!  

Cruising has changed but we still enjoy but only once or twice a year these days.  We are lucky to have our regular and winter homes near water and beaches..but these places get crowded too. Some times it's better in ones own backyard!

[Ken the cruiser]

Thanks @kruzerci for starting this thread as I have had fun following along and have come to the conclusion we can’t give up on Celebrity just yet, regardless of the identity crisis they’re going through. They may not have the most awesome 3-5 week itinerary combinations, but we have always had a great time on every Celebrity cruise we’ve been on, especially when it comes to their evening theater shows and assorted game shows and trivias regardless of ship type.
 

It’s just going to take a new strategy for this early 70s couple to maneuver through this identity crisis when it comes to their new booking options. 😁

Edited March 24 by Ken the cruiser

[markeb]

7 hours ago, Lena11033 said:

 

I work in advertising, I would say a bit of both.

 

I think they need a better marketing person they are trying to generalize all ships and its not going to work as different classes have different experiences. 

Here's the main issue they've bucketed ages, yes can work but you need to look at interests which works better because even when I was in my 20's I wasn't like other 20 year olds.

 

They need to advertise the experience based on interests. It seems clear that some itineraries / crews etc are different. 

 

I don't work in advertising and only took one marketing class for an MBA, but I vividly remember a case study about the Ford Ka in France. Every marketing student or MBA student goes through the analysis and recommends that Ford use the behavioral based segmentation and targeting strategy proposed by the marketing firm they'd paid big bucks to analyze and recommend a marketing approach. Ford went with age and gender because they always had and the car failed miserably...

 

I sometimes feel like Celebrity is in no man's land. Trying to go over the wire but retreating constantly, and doing non-value added silly things. They really do need to attract the next generation or RCG should cut them off (bluntly). But someone, probably upper management way out of touch with their future target market, has decided to, for instance, raise the volume throughout the ship, because when they were a freshman in college in the late '70s or early '80s loud music made a party. The party had nothing to do with the people who were there and enjoying the other people, it was the loud music. (Full disclosure: I'm pretty fond of a good rock band with appropriate loud volume for the venue with an appropriate mix. I'll also get really annoyed when someone refuses to trust the venue's sound guy and ups the guitar to 11 and leaves the vocals at 6; it really doesn't work. Maybe the Ramones or the Sex Pistols, but not any modern band.) 

 

I don't know if Celebrity is doing in house marketing or using a large marketing firm. Or if they're being really stupid and just paying for advertising and not doing the upfront work. As you say, they may well have different segments depending on the ship. They almost certainly have different segments based on itinerary. And unless they're just taking the money and running because they're big enough they can, that marketing firm is trying to tell them how to move to the future while only alienating a portion of their current segment. Because they will eventually have to sacrifice some of their current segment to move forward. See BMW and Porsche and the near total lack of a third pedal (manual transmission). They've cut off a lot of traditionalists but have generally increased sales while navigating global fuel consumption requirements. And the cars are generally faster and easier to drive. Sucks to be a traditionalist but that's business.

 

TL;DR: Tough call on whether the marketing person is off or the C-Suite won't listen to them. All things to all people usually results in poor things to most people...

[NutsAboutGolf]

50 minutes ago, markeb said:

 

I don't work in advertising and only took one marketing class for an MBA, but I vividly remember a case study about the Ford Ka in France. Every marketing student or MBA student goes through the analysis and recommends that Ford use the behavioral based segmentation and targeting strategy proposed by the marketing firm they'd paid big bucks to analyze and recommend a marketing approach. Ford went with age and gender because they always had and the car failed miserably...

 

I sometimes feel like Celebrity is in no man's land. Trying to go over the wire but retreating constantly, and doing non-value added silly things. They really do need to attract the next generation or RCG should cut them off (bluntly). But someone, probably upper management way out of touch with their future target market, has decided to, for instance, raise the volume throughout the ship, because when they were a freshman in college in the late '70s or early '80s loud music made a party. The party had nothing to do with the people who were there and enjoying the other people, it was the loud music. (Full disclosure: I'm pretty fond of a good rock band with appropriate loud volume for the venue with an appropriate mix. I'll also get really annoyed when someone refuses to trust the venue's sound guy and ups the guitar to 11 and leaves the vocals at 6; it really doesn't work. Maybe the Ramones or the Sex Pistols, but not any modern band.) 

 

I don't know if Celebrity is doing in house marketing or using a large marketing firm. Or if they're being really stupid and just paying for advertising and not doing the upfront work. As you say, they may well have different segments depending on the ship. They almost certainly have different segments based on itinerary. And unless they're just taking the money and running because they're big enough they can, that marketing firm is trying to tell them how to move to the future while only alienating a portion of their current segment. Because they will eventually have to sacrifice some of their current segment to move forward. See BMW and Porsche and the near total lack of a third pedal (manual transmission). They've cut off a lot of traditionalists but have generally increased sales while navigating global fuel consumption requirements. And the cars are generally faster and easier to drive. Sucks to be a traditionalist but that's business.

 

TL;DR: Tough call on whether the marketing person is off or the C-Suite won't listen to them. All things to all people usually results in poor things to most people...

 

[Lena11033]

Not sure if I'm familiar with media hub (I'll check our contracts tomorrow because if we do have them I can see what type of campaigns they run). Dentsu I am familiar with 😑

 

Whether direct or with an agency someone is selling the strategy. With the agency probably the middle person and the X person is just way out of touch. Sometimes people get stuck with 'I want this' that it just doesn't work, with the car example I see it all the time Ford, GM, local mechanics targeting men 25 and up - like women don't have cars needing maintenance or want new cars?

You either get the media person right out of school or someone stuck with targeting from 20 years ago.

 

Right now, its like I understand what they are trying to do but its not working because they don't have a solid plan and keep flip flopping all over the place with company changes. They need to sort that out because if they are trying to target new customers that are repeat customers the on board experience needs to be good. Otherwise they are stuck in a cycle of just new customers never coming back which is going to be hard to work with.

[truckswain]

On 3/22/2024 at 8:06 PM, hcat said:

I do agree about having sports all over the place on ASCENT...golf putting  in EDEN , Pickle Ball on the Roof top garden, curling in the Club...hard to find a  mellow place!

Having just been on the Ascent as well, I think it is important to clarify that the golf putting, Pickle Ball and Curling happen for short periods of times.  We were in Eden when some type of bowling activity started.  Lasted 20 minutes and then nothing but soft music and watching the wake of the ship.

 

We found numerous "mellow" places both indoor and outdoors.

[Liao]

I'm not a marketing expert, I don't do contracts/contract law, I'm no hotel or cruise director or F&B manager.  I'm just a customer who when he finds the cruise I am interested in, and the price suits me, I book it and don't second guess or wait and worry about move-ups, lower fares etc.  I get on the ship and know that I will find food to my liking, music I enjoy, entertainment to make me smile and a big wide ocean to watch from my balcony.  What age demographic their marketing is geared towards, has no impact on the 64 year old happy Celebrity cruiser.  I've reached a stage in my life i.e. age and financially where I know what I like and enjoy, so that is where I go.  In spite of some changes (what hasn't in this world esp. in the past 4 years) the product and experience still meets or exceeds my expectations at all levels.  For those who it does not, I hope you can find the perfect line that will never have an issue of any kind, they must be out there because there are so many searching, just read the other lines pages, it is not just Celebrity where cruisers seem to be longing for the past.

[zitsky]

I just want to know.  Are ABBA and the Beatles considered modern music?  I’m 57 and would say they are not.

 

I have tinnitus so I don’t want loud music.  But I don’t see that stopping any time soon.

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, zitsky said:

I just want to know.  Are ABBA and the Beatles considered modern music?  I’m 57 and would say they are not.

 

I have tinnitus so I don’t want loud music.  But I don’t see that stopping any time soon.

I remember when we first started cruising back in 2012 with HAL and for the next 6 years we kept asking when was it going to be our turn, as we were so getting tired of listening to Frank Sinatra, Count Bassey and the Big Band sound pretty much every time we went to an evening show? Then in 2018 we jumped ship over to Celebrity where we heard music from the 60-80s and found on Celebrity it was finally our turn! 🕺💃

 

But then we grew up with the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the Animals in our teens, graduated HS around 1970, and partied hard in the 70's to songs by Queen, Elton John, Billy Joel, and ABBA along with other music legends from that era and have been happily listening to that music genre ever since.

 

So, when is it going to be your turn with the toned-down "modern music" from the late 80s on? Not sure. But hopefully, not any time soon. 

 

Edited March 24 by Ken the cruiser

[Gracie115]

19 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

 

But then we grew up with the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the Animals in our teens, graduated HS around 1970, and partied hard in the 70's to songs by Queen, Elton John, Billy Joel, and ABBA along with other music legends from that era and have been happily listening to that music genre ever since.

 

So, when is it going to be your turn with the toned-down "modern music" from the late 80s on? Not sure. But hopefully, not any time soon. 

 

YES!  Hopefully not anytime soon.

 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

40 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I remember when we first started cruising back in 2012 with HAL and for the next 6 years we kept asking when was it going to be our turn, as we were so getting tired of listening to Frank Sinatra, Count Bassey and the Big Band sound pretty much every time we went to an evening show? Then in 2018 we jumped ship over to Celebrity where we heard music from the 60-80s and found on Celebrity it was finally our turn! 🕺💃

 

But then we grew up with the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the Animals in our teens, graduated HS around 1970, and partied hard in the 70's to songs by Queen, Elton John, Billy Joel, and ABBA along with other music legends from that era and have been happily listening to that music genre ever since.

 

So, when is it going to be your turn with the toned-down "modern music" from the late 80s on? Not sure. But hopefully, not any time soon. 

 

Sometimes you don’t want tit o be your time yet 😉

Set up airflow in a lot of retirement homes and they would playing songs from the 40’s 

I figure by the time we need one , they will be playing in a Gadda-Da-Vida“ all 17 minutes or Paradise by the Dash board light 🤣

or  

[zitsky]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I remember when we first started cruising back in 2012 with HAL and for the next 6 years we kept asking when was it going to be our turn, as we were so getting tired of listening to Frank Sinatra, Count Bassey and the Big Band sound pretty much every time we went to an evening show? Then in 2018 we jumped ship over to Celebrity where we heard music from the 60-80s and found on Celebrity it was finally our turn! 🕺💃

 

But then we grew up with the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the Animals in our teens, graduated HS around 1970, and partied hard in the 70's to songs by Queen, Elton John, Billy Joel, and ABBA along with other music legends from that era and have been happily listening to that music genre ever since.

 

So, when is it going to be your turn with the toned-down "modern music" from the late 80s on? Not sure. But hopefully, not any time soon. 

 

 

Well I enjoy good music, so I don't see the problem with Frank Sinatra.  Columbia Years or later?  Your grandkids will talk about how they had to listen to ABBA.  I heard from a friend that Celebrity is going to switch over to Taylor Swift 24/7 soon.

[markeb]

50 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I remember when we first started cruising back in 2012 with HAL and for the next 6 years we kept asking when was it going to be our turn, as we were so getting tired of listening to Frank Sinatra, Count Bassey and the Big Band sound pretty much every time we went to an evening show? Then in 2018 we jumped ship over to Celebrity where we heard music from the 60-80s and found on Celebrity it was finally our turn! 🕺💃

 

But then we grew up with the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the Animals in our teens, graduated HS around 1970, and partied hard in the 70's to songs by Queen, Elton John, Billy Joel, and ABBA along with other music legends from that era and have been happily listening to that music genre ever since.

 

So, when is it going to be your turn with the toned-down "modern music" from the late 80s on? Not sure. But hopefully, not any time soon. 

 

 

I'm almost exactly a decade behind you. I can handle all of that, maybe even a little bit of ABBA, in moderation. The overproduced music of the late 80s pretty much led directly to grunge and the rock of the 90s. So we can skip most of the late 80s.

 

We're a quarter of the way into the 21st Century. It's OK to play something more recent. I was truly amazed in November that the house band on Equinox knew at least two Foo Fighters songs! Mind you, they were both off The Colour and the Shape which was released in 1997, 27 years ago. And I think they'd been specifically told not to do anything harder, which is kind of difficult with the Foos. Equinox put on what ended up being a "tribute" to Queen one night in the Grand Foyer which was maybe the worst butchering of Freddy Mercury I've ever seen or heard. Be careful what you ask for!

 

And for the record, my favorite album of all time is Born to Run and it will be 49 years old in August. Not hearing that on a cruise either...

[markeb]

11 minutes ago, zitsky said:

 

Well I enjoy good music, so I don't see the problem with Frank Sinatra.  Columbia Years or later?  Your grandkids will talk about how they had to listen to ABBA.  I heard from a friend that Celebrity is going to switch over to Taylor Swift 24/7 soon.

 

I wonder if that would crash their servers like she crashed Ticketmaster...

[Ken the cruiser]

9 minutes ago, zitsky said:

 

Well I enjoy good music, so I don't see the problem with Frank Sinatra.  Columbia Years or later?  Your grandkids will talk about how they had to listen to ABBA.  I heard from a friend that Celebrity is going to switch over to Taylor Swift 24/7 soon.

That’s ok. I know Roxstar would sure like that on the Celebrity ships he works in the Entertainment department, as he’s her #1 fan! 😂

[Ken the cruiser]

3 minutes ago, markeb said:

Equinox put on what ended up being a "tribute" to Queen one night in the Grand Foyer which was maybe the worst butchering of Freddy Mercury I've ever seen or heard. Be careful what you ask for!

It’s kind of like someone trying to sing Whitney Houston songs. If they get it right, there are a lot of happy cruisers in the audience! Get it wrong or try to sing it with a completely different temp, and it’s a whole different reaction.

[PTC DAWG]

Music is subjective for sure…reading this thread proves that…I think overall, Celebrity does a good job..

[zitsky]

53 minutes ago, markeb said:

 

I'm almost exactly a decade behind you. I can handle all of that, maybe even a little bit of ABBA, in moderation. The overproduced music of the late 80s pretty much led directly to grunge and the rock of the 90s. So we can skip most of the late 80s.

 

We're a quarter of the way into the 21st Century. It's OK to play something more recent. I was truly amazed in November that the house band on Equinox knew at least two Foo Fighters songs! Mind you, they were both off The Colour and the Shape which was released in 1997, 27 years ago. And I think they'd been specifically told not to do anything harder, which is kind of difficult with the Foos. Equinox put on what ended up being a "tribute" to Queen one night in the Grand Foyer which was maybe the worst butchering of Freddy Mercury I've ever seen or heard. Be careful what you ask for!

 

And for the record, my favorite album of all time is Born to Run and it will be 49 years old in August. Not hearing that on a cruise either...

Lol.  You’re just as bad as the rest of them that say, “Mel Torme was so much better than the Beatles crap.”  You just shifted the timeline.  

I’m not a fan of the 70s but I listen to everything from Maria Callas to Dolly Parton to ABBA to Billy Idol to Green Day to Taylor Swift.  Can we debate Baroque versus Classical and Nirvana versus Green Day and Taylor Swift versus Adele?  😂

[Ken the cruiser]

14 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Lol.  You’re just as bad as the rest of them that say, “Mel Torme was so much better than the Beatles crap.”  You just shifted the timeline.  

I’m not a fan of the 70s but I listen to everything from Maria Callas to Dolly Parton to ABBA to Billy Idol to Green Day to Taylor Swift.  Can we debate Baroque versus Classical and Nirvana versus Green Day and Taylor Swift versus Adele?  😂

How about Phantom of the Opera versus Les Miserables. 😂 

[hcat]

4 hours ago, truckswain said:

Having just been on the Ascent as well, I think it is important to clarify that the golf putting, Pickle Ball and Curling happen for short periods of times.  We were in Eden when some type of bowling activity started.  Lasted 20 minutes and then nothing but soft music and watching the wake of the ship.

 

We found numerous "mellow" places both indoor and outdoors.

informal pickle ball was still going after end time when we arrived at Rooftop for dinner..but they were nice enough to stop..  Golf putting also ran over ..we moved our  roll call get together further back..worked ok

 

Maybe they could find a sports space indoors for  these activities. Ascent has a space you can rent out..maybe open it up as gen sports area..or use the Club..

 

on another note..many X PR and marketing campaigns have flopped in the past..Marco Polo, X the Rules  GOOP... We just go with the flow!