Happy Hour drink question from Diamond Plus 1st time Celebrity Cruise s

[Farmer_John]

4 hours ago, gfkcruiser said:

The drinks perk for diamond/diamond plus is better than the happy hour drinks on Celebrity.  IMO this is the only perk better than on Celebrity for Elite/Elite+.   

It appears you are not very familiar with RCCL's perks if you think that is only perk that is better.  Other RCCL perks that are useful that Celebrity doesn't have are free photo, better internet perk (2 days per person = 4 days), Special dining BOGO, and reserved priority seats at some shows.

 

Celebrity does need to up their game on happy hour drinks because the time is shorter and the selection more limited than even the old RCCL diamond lounge days where I struggle to find something I want to find to drink from it.

 

FYI - I am booked on Celebrity in the next month but I am forced to buy the all in package (with the $6.99/day upgrade to premium drinks to get things I enjoy (at least their drink packages are more reasonable).  On RCCL I never have to get a drink package.

 

Celebrity is a fine cruise line with several small upgrades, but if it is your first time coming from RCCL you will notice a significant decline in Elite benefits and entertainment/activities.

 

 

[the penguins]

16 minutes ago, George C said:

Since we book suites sometimes high end all is bundled in , only perk we have used is the laundry. I thought there was no happy hour on first day, you do have some very good points. 

Happy Hour was recently extended to include the first day.

Of course you are right about Suites but the price is way, way outside our budget.

[the penguins]

17 minutes ago, Farmer_John said:

It appears you are not very familiar with RCCL's perks if you think that is only perk that is better.  Other RCCL perks that are useful that Celebrity doesn't have are free photo, better internet perk (2 days per person = 4 days), Special dining BOGO, and reserved priority seats at some shows.

 

Celebrity does need to up their game on happy hour drinks because the time is shorter and the selection more limited than even the old RCCL diamond lounge days where I struggle to find something I want to find to drink from it.

 

FYI - I am booked on Celebrity in the next month but I am forced to buy the all in package (with the $6.99/day upgrade to premium drinks to get things I enjoy (at least their drink packages are more reasonable).  On RCCL I never have to get a drink package.

 

Celebrity is a fine cruise line with several small upgrades, but if it is your first time coming from RCCL you will notice a significant decline in Elite benefits and entertainment/activities.

 

 

Internet: 4 days may be good if you do short cruises. We generally do minimum 12 days so RCCI leaves us without internet for 8 days whereas X's minutes can easily be spread over the whole cruise.

X includes a discount on all Speciality Restaurants.

Priority Seating is hardly necessary as the theatres on X generally easily accommodate the number of passengers who want to see the show - Unless Jayne Curry is performing in which case get in early

If you want Royal benefits, book Royal, if you want X's book X - choice is great.

[the penguins]

45 minutes ago, asctony said:

Who is complaining?

My suggestion is to use RCI drink perk instead of Celebrity 5-7.

People just believe if someone makes or recommends a change, they should not. 

Change happens all the time.

 

in which case I would suggest/recommend RCI changes to the Celebrity system as that works much better for us - See Post 23.

[gfkcruiser]

23 minutes ago, Farmer_John said:

It appears you are not very familiar with RCCL's perks if you think that is only perk that is better.  Other RCCL perks that are useful that Celebrity doesn't have are free photo, better internet perk (2 days per person = 4 days), Special dining BOGO, and reserved priority seats at some shows.

 

Celebrity does need to up their game on happy hour drinks because the time is shorter and the selection more limited than even the old RCCL diamond lounge days where I struggle to find something I want to find to drink from it.

 

FYI - I am booked on Celebrity in the next month but I am forced to buy the all in package (with the $6.99/day upgrade to premium drinks to get things I enjoy (at least their drink packages are more reasonable).  On RCCL I never have to get a drink package.

 

Celebrity is a fine cruise line with several small upgrades, but if it is your first time coming from RCCL you will notice a significant decline in Elite benefits and entertainment/activities.

 

 

You have good points but I am very familiar with Royal.  I do like that they changed to 4 or more drinks rather than just in diamond lounge and don’t get drink package.  As for WiFi, can spread out the minutes of WiFi rather than use for a 24 hour period. Have to be sure to logout of WiFi and not just close app. 

When the drink upgrade on celebrity is 6.99 I have taken advantage of it as we usually do all included. 
The photos are a nice perk. 

Each person has their thoughts on what perks are appealing from each cruise line. 

[Oxo]

31 minutes ago, the penguins said:

in which case I would suggest/recommend RCI changes to the Celebrity system as that works much better for us - See Post 23.

So, if Celebrity works better for you, keep cruising Celebrity. Celebrity will change to RCI very soon. Just wait and see. Read some of the changes recently made. What will you do then?

 

[Oxo]

41 minutes ago, the penguins said:

Internet: 4 days may be good if you do short cruises. We generally do minimum 12 days so RCCI leaves us without internet for 8 days whereas X's minutes can easily be spread over the whole cruise.

X includes a discount on all Speciality Restaurants.

Priority Seating is hardly necessary as the theatres on X generally easily accommodate the number of passengers who want to see the show - Unless Jayne Curry is performing in which case get in early

If you want Royal benefits, book Royal, if you want X's book X - choice is great.

Price out the X Speciality Restaurants compare to the other cruise lines. Totally overpriced even after the discount if you get one. Celebrity use to provide a free dinner in the MDR with an Officer. That is now gone. AI use to include Tips, that is no gone. 

Like you say Book your cruise line as others book theirs. 

Just because someone makes a suggestion, don't say it is not valid or cruise .......the other line. 

LOL

[Aquahound]

1 hour ago, Farmer_John said:

 

FYI - I am booked on Celebrity in the next month but I am forced to buy the all in package (with the $6.99/day upgrade to premium drinks to get things I enjoy (at least their drink packages are more reasonable).  On RCCL I never have to get a drink package.

 

 

I'm with you on this one.  5 free drinks per day at any time and at any bar is a far better deal than a limited menu for 2 hours in the evening.  What's better is, between DW and I, it's 10 free drinks.  She never drinks all 5 so that's 1 or 2 more for me.  😁  No need to ever buy a package.

[hcat]

If the X perks are not as good as ones on  Royal, curious why so many are Crossing over? 

 

Maybe it's something  beyond the perks that really count?

[hcat]

2 hours ago, George C said:

Bottom line is celebrity perks for elite and elite plus are terrible 

but there suite perks are way better than rccl. 

opinions may differ..we think the X  E+ perks are fine.. laundry, included  internet minutes, specialty dining, photo and spa discounts, gelato, specialt coffee  +++++

[cublet]

2 hours ago, the penguins said:

Plus the + on the OP's status gives them unlimited speciality teas/coffee/chocolate which on Royal would come out of their 5 drinks a day allowance.

Hello,

 

Good point, well made.

 

Regards,

 

Cublet

[the penguins]

48 minutes ago, cublet said:

Hello,

 

Good point, well made.

 

Regards,

 

Cublet

thank you

[jelayne]

1 hour ago, Oxo said:

So, if Celebrity works better for you, keep cruising Celebrity. Celebrity will change to RCI very soon. Just wait and see. Read some of the changes recently made. What will you do then?

 

Or Royal could adopt the Celebrity HH concept with a limited menu.  A way to reduce cost and RCG is all about that 

[the penguins]

1 hour ago, Oxo said:

So, if Celebrity works better for you, keep cruising Celebrity. Celebrity will change to RCI very soon. Just wait and see. Read some of the changes recently made. What will you do then?

 

we will continue to cruise based on itinerary just as we always have. To date we have cruised with X, Royal, Cunard, Princess, HAL, and Hurtigruten plus 2 river cruises.

Which perks on Celebrity have been changed to match Royal? I can't think on any.

 

[the penguins]

1 hour ago, Oxo said:

Price out the X Speciality Restaurants compare to the other cruise lines. Totally overpriced even after the discount if you get one. Celebrity use to provide a free dinner in the MDR with an Officer. That is now gone. AI use to include Tips, that is no gone. 

Like you say Book your cruise line as others book theirs. 

Just because someone makes a suggestion, don't say it is not valid or cruise .......the other line. 

LOL

We weren't discussing the price of Speciality Restaurants  however since the restart the restaurants always seem to be pretty much full - whatever the cost Elite etc still get a discount.

Never seen a dinner in the MDR  with an Officer as a Captains Club perk.

AI did include tips however I believe the basic price of the Internet/Wifi package was reduced when the tips were removed - if they weren't I'm sure these boards would have lit up with the price comparisons and I don't recall that happening.

Choice is always good

[Ex-Airbalancer]

1 hour ago, Oxo said:

So, if Celebrity works better for you, keep cruising Celebrity. Celebrity will change to RCI very soon. Just wait and see. Read some of the changes recently made. What will you do then?

 

There been two changes to Captain Club benefits in the last month , if they were going to change to number of drink like RCL they would probably made the change when the announced drinks on the first night for HH 

 

I hope if you don’t like the system you are post on Celebrity FB or X sites to tell them you are unhappy system 

[phoenix_dream]

1 hour ago, hcat said:

If the X perks are not as good as ones on  Royal, curious why so many are Crossing over? 

 

Maybe it's something  beyond the perks that really count?

I can tell you at Zenith level, versus the matching Pinnacle level, the perks are WAY better on Celebrity.  I think a lot of the people you hear about switching over are at Pinnacle level, and there are a heck of a lot more of them than there are Zeniths.

[hcat]

46 minutes ago, the penguins said:

We weren't discussing the price of Speciality Restaurants  however since the restart the restaurants always seem to be pretty much full - whatever the cost Elite etc still get a discount.

Never seen a dinner in the MDR  with an Officer as a Captains Club perk.

AI did include tips however I believe the basic price of the Internet/Wifi package was reduced when the tips were removed - if they weren't I'm sure these boards would have lit up with the price comparisons and I don't recall that happening.

Choice is always good

used to be  Captains table..invites as a perk!

[the penguins]

1 hour ago, hcat said:

used to be  Captains table..invites as a perk!

I assume this was just for a few passengers a bit like an invite to the Bridge or for Sail Aways on the Helicopter Pad both of which we have done although the latter is now impossible due to mobility issues.

[DaKahuna]

6 hours ago, asctony said:

My suggestion is to use RCI drink perk instead of Celebrity 5-7.

 

<rant>

My suggestion is keep Celebrity''s the way it is.  You either work around it and adapt or you sail on Royal to get Royal's to get Royal's perks or Celebrity to get Celebrity's perks.  

 

Please don't come over to Celebrity and after one or two cruises try and ruin it for those of us that like it the way it is. 

</rant>

 

[doghog]

11 hours ago, gerif said:

Exactly. And if you have early dining you are pretty much SOL with respect to HH. 

We always do 6:00 PM in the MDR. If we didn't have one of the BPs we would have a couple CC HH drinks before in a lounge then get a couple more and carry them into the MDR. We use to do that before the current CAS  so called voucher program and before RC allowed CAS HH drinks to be ordered in the MDR.

Edited June 9 by doghog

[fenton04]

We also do the 6PM.  Head to the bar at 5 for a couple wines.  The 530 get two more and it’s off to dinner.  We drink our two bottles of wine that we brought on board in our room.  That pretty well mirrors our wine consumption on Royal as diamonds  Different yet the same. Spoiler alert we were promoted to Elite plus/diamond plus.  We will see how things work out on our January cruise on Celebrity.

[dvpaintboy]

10 hours ago, Farmer_John said:

It appears you are not very familiar with RCCL's perks if you think that is only perk that is better.  Other RCCL perks that are useful that Celebrity doesn't have are free photo, better internet perk (2 days per person = 4 days), Special dining BOGO, and reserved priority seats at some shows.

 

Celebrity does need to up their game on happy hour drinks because the time is shorter and the selection more limited than even the old RCCL diamond lounge days where I struggle to find something I want to find to drink from it.

 

FYI - I am booked on Celebrity in the next month but I am forced to buy the all in package (with the $6.99/day upgrade to premium drinks to get things I enjoy (at least their drink packages are more reasonable).  On RCCL I never have to get a drink package.

 

Celebrity is a fine cruise line with several small upgrades, but if it is your first time coming from RCCL you will notice a significant decline in Elite benefits and entertainment/activities.

 

 

Thanks for feedback. Looking forward to us making our own opinion on Celebrity. Did Carnival not impressed. Princess ok but zero perks. Rccl so far favorite but We like ports on this one.

[gerif]

8 hours ago, doghog said:

We always do 6:00 PM in the MDR. If we didn't have one of the BPs we would have a couple CC HH drinks before in a lounge then get a couple more and carry them into the MDR. We use to do that before the current CAS  so called voucher program and before RC allowed CAS HH drinks to be ordered in the MDR.

That would be okay but the group I’m going with this trip wanted to do early fixed dining that starts at 5:30 (I prefer late) so I agreed. At least the group included the basic drinks package so I don’t have to worry about spilling a glass of wine on the way to the dining room. 

[hcat]

11 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

<rant>

My suggestion is keep Celebrity''s the way it is.  You either work around it and adapt or you sail on Royal to get Royal's to get Royal's perks or Celebrity to get Celebrity's perks.  

 

Please don't come over to Celebrity and after one or two cruises try and ruin it for those of us that like it the way it is. 

</rant>

 

Amen!  X has been Royalized  enough...If we still enjoyed Royal C and its mega ships we would book them!

 

Each line offers enough to its clientele..the Crossover  status situation just makes things worse...