Celebrity elite + daily drinks like RCCL

[bikerunner]

12 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

 

I hope they never do this.  

 

Agree, with the morning CC drinks available at the breakfast and the HH 5-7 its plenty.  

[hcat]

10 hours ago, 39august said:

If you like RCL's benefits better, cruise RCL. I get weary of this difference in drink policy being brought up over and over. . 

yup!  simple solution..

[PTC DAWG]

22 hours ago, auxxcay said:

With the new matching loyalty program for the 3 cruise lines I wonder if Celebrity will  ow change to 5 drinks throughout the day rather than united drinks for 2 hours like Royal did a few years back. I like the 5 drinks throughout the day so much better! 

Sail Royal

[PTC DAWG]

13 hours ago, travellovers2 said:

 

We hope that Celebrity changes to allowing the drinks the same as Royal. We prefer that much better than having to go somewhere specific for a couple of hours. 

 

 

*

Edited Sunday at 11:25 PM by PTC DAWG

[Red G]

The drink vouchers would be a welcome replacement - the Elite HH Menu is pretty sad and there are certain bars where the benefit does not even apply.  In addition to only being available during a two hour window, it is not applicable at dinner in any of the dining rooms.  The vouchers would eliminate these restrictions and allow guests to choose where and when to enjoy this perk.

[the penguins]

4 hours ago, Red G said:

The drink vouchers would be a welcome replacement - the Elite HH Menu is pretty sad and there are certain bars where the benefit does not even apply.  In addition to only being available during a two hour window, it is not applicable at dinner in any of the dining rooms.  The vouchers would eliminate these restrictions and allow guests to choose where and when to enjoy this perk.

It depends on your drinking habits.

Drinks are available in almost every bar - the main exceptions are the World Class Bar and possibly Cellar Masters. 

You can take your drinks in to dinner - we collect our juices at the Passport Bar  

X's system is way more valuable for us - see post 12.

With Royal's system our vouchers would be used up with just 2 coffees, 2 waters and a juice.

Choice is good. 

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

Question for those who use the happy hour to stockpile sodas... Do you just ask for a can of whichever soda unopened? (I know water comes unopened.)

[Ray4Fun]

Not trying to hijack this post, Have not sailed Celebrity for several years. During the 2 magic get loaded hours quickly we can head to some / most bar's for the drinks? We do not have to head to the lounge for our drinks??

[39august]

Drinks are in most bars. There is no dedicated lounge. 

[DaKahuna]

4 minutes ago, 39august said:

Drinks are in most bars. There is no dedicated lounge. 

 

 Although they have started back to holding it in a dedicated location a couple of nights during the cruise,  you can still get your Elite HH drinks at most bars, even on those nights when there is a private event like in the past. 

 

[MCC retired]

RCI's Drink Coupon perk is perhaps its  Best Perk?

Celebrity 2 hour (perhaps while you are dining ) seems to be as step down from RCI when Celebrity should be the more Premium product. 

Edited Monday at 04:07 PM by MCC retired

[the penguins]

5 hours ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

Question for those who use the happy hour to stockpile sodas... Do you just ask for a can of whichever soda unopened? (I know water comes unopened.)

yes

[the penguins]

6 minutes ago, MCC retired said:

RCI's Drink Coupon perk is perhaps its  Best Perk?

Celebrity 2 hour (perhaps while you are dining ) seems to be as step down from RCI when Celebrity should be the more Premium product. 

Depending on your drinking habits Celebrity's system is at the very least 2 steps higher than Royal's - please see Post 12.

Under Royal our vouchers will have been used after 2 coffees, 2 waters and 1 soda. Under X's system we can easily get through at least double often three times that number of drinks.

 

[kwokpot]

8 hours ago, the penguins said:

It depends on your drinking habits.

Drinks are available in almost every bar - the main exceptions are the World Class Bar and possibly Cellar Masters. 

You can take your drinks in to dinner - we collect our juices at the Passport Bar  

X's system is way more valuable for us - see post 12.

With Royal's system our vouchers would be used up with just 2 coffees, 2 waters and a juice.

Choice is good. 

I think you're assuming if Celebrity treated Cocktail HH as they do on Royal that the Elite+ Premium coffee and teas benefit would disappear. I don't think that in the LEAST, since Royal has the Crown Lounge with the self service espresso based coffee machine. Since Celebrity has no such thing, the Elite+ coffee and tea benefit would HAVE TO REMIAN in order to have the benefits remain the same.

At issue with the Celebrity benefit is the limited nature of the complimentary drinks. Value wise Royal is a better benefit since it applies to ALL drinks up to $14 and those exceeding you pay the difference including tax and gratuity. That's a $70/day drink value for Diamond+passengers. On Celebrity, if you wanted a better and/or drink that's not included you have to pay full price, no discount is given. That's terrible!

 

Edited Monday at 04:24 PM by kwokpot

[the penguins]

1 minute ago, kwokpot said:

I think you're assuming if Celebrity treated Cocktail HH as they do on Royal that the Elite+ Premium coffee and teas benefit would disappear. I don't think that in the LEAST, since Royal has the Crown Lounge with the self service espresso based coffee machine. Since Celebrity has no such thing, the Elite+ coffee and tea benefit would HAVE TO REMIAN in order to have the benefits remain the same.

At issue with the Celebrity benefit is the limited nature of the complimentary drinks. Value wise Royal is a better benefit since it applies to ALL drinks up to $14 and those exceeding you pay the difference including tax and gratuity. That's a $70/day drink value for Diamond+passengers. 

 

I was actually responding to the Posters who want X to change to Royal's system of 5 vouchers per person per day.

Comparing the speciality free Coffees (hot and iced)/teas and hot chocolate served in the comfort of the Al Bacio and during which we can enjoy the company of our non Elite friends, with the limited offering in Royal's Diamond lounge which we can't share with non Elite friends is comparing apples with oranges.

Your figure of a $70 a day drink value is based on the assumption that everyone drinks alcohol.

As I always make clear we, and many of our friends drink, no alcohol and therefore the "up to $14 a drink" is meaningless.

When we cruise Royal we accept that system

When we cruise Celebrity we accept that system.

When we are asked which system we prefer we say Celebrity.

When we are asked which gives us the best value Celebrity wins by a mile

What we don't do is to ask either company to change.

 

[poffles]

Said a few times but unlikely.  Tier matching is not about matching benefits and the ways of doing things across entities, it's just status matching and getting upgraded within 'another' program where you haven't 'worked your way up'.

 

If only we could pick and choose what we like about all programs and come up with a new one 🙂  Oh to dream.

 

It would not surprise me if Celebrity altered to do drink coupons but I do not see why this would change now since RCL and Celebrity already did matching.  It would also not surprise me to see RCL changing their drink coupon benefit.  Who knows ... 

[kwokpot]

14 minutes ago, the penguins said:

I was actually responding to the Posters who want X to change to Royal's system of 5 vouchers per person per day.

Comparing the speciality free Coffees (hot and iced)/teas and hot chocolate served in the comfort of the Al Bacio and during which we can enjoy the company of our non Elite friends, with the limited offering in Royal's Diamond lounge which we can't share with non Elite friends is comparing apples with oranges.

Your figure of a $70 a day drink value is based on the assumption that everyone drinks alcohol.

As I always make clear we, and many of our friends drink, no alcohol and therefore the "up to $14 a drink" is meaningless.

When we cruise Royal we accept that system

When we cruise Celebrity we accept that system.

When we are asked which system we prefer we say Celebrity.

When we are asked which gives us the best value Celebrity wins by a mile

What we don't do is to ask either company to change.

 

I'm curious how many waters and sodas you take on average a day during Celebrity's HH? 

And for the record, I LOVE Celebrity's Elite+ coffee benefit and agree it's far superior to Royal's in lounge offering. My point is if Celebrity went with a voucher system the coffee benefit would remain the same, so you wouldn't need to use the vouchers to get coffees an/or teas and can use the vouchers solely for water and non-alcoholic beverages, of which you could use for premium waters.

[the penguins]

2 hours ago, kwokpot said:

I'm curious how many waters and sodas you take on average a day during Celebrity's HH? 

And for the record, I LOVE Celebrity's Elite+ coffee benefit and agree it's far superior to Royal's in lounge offering. My point is if Celebrity went with a voucher system the coffee benefit would remain the same, so you wouldn't need to use the vouchers to get coffees an/or teas and can use the vouchers solely for water and non-alcoholic beverages, of which you could use for premium waters.

My belief is that once you start "tinkering" there is always a danger of us losing.

Celebrity used to have a voucher system which they dropped.

The Celebrity speciality coffee/tea etc programme is different to Royals.

On Royal all Diamond and above get coffees etc whilst on Celebrity only Elite+ get that benefit.

Already the current system is irrelevant for probably at least 60% of all passengers ( e.g. everyone in a Suite plus everyone with a drinks package].

For those of us who are not in either of the above categories, and especially those who are Elite+, the benefit is very welcome and is a genuine saving. On a sea day I will have minimum 8 lattes, 3 bottles of water, 1 or 2 sodas, 2 mixed berry smoothies with breakfast and 2 juices with dinner.

The point about Elite+ and, especially those who didn't drink alcohol,  losing out was made very clear to Celebrity when it introduced it's thankfully short lived compolsary AI pricing.

[DaKahuna]

4 hours ago, MCC retired said:

RCI's Drink Coupon perk is perhaps its  Best Perk?

Celebrity 2 hour (perhaps while you are dining ) seems to be as step down from RCI when Celebrity should be the more Premium product. 

 

Your opinion is noted.  Mine is the opposite.  Just because the coupon system works for Royal, does not mean that Celebrity should adopt it.  

[Ex-Airbalancer]

If there was going to be a big change to the perks it would been brought in when they announced new call loyalty perks with Silverseas 

so I do not see them change anything for at least a year 

[OhJinkies]

On 6/22/2024 at 9:23 PM, leaveitallbehind said:

Your interpretation of how RCCL's tier level drink benefits works, and how it changed, needs a little clarity.  RCCL used to have unlimited drinks each night including embarkation day in the Diamond Club during their cocktail hours which lasted for 3-1/2 hours. This benefit was available to Diamond tiers and higher. (Celebrity does not offer this on embarkation day or Captains night and it is for 2 hours only on the days it is offered).

 

The change to this was a few years pre-pandemic and was the result of high crowd levels in the DC.  The change was help thin the herd in the DC which then allowed for Diamond to have 4 vouchers, Diamond + to have 5 vouchers, and Pinnacle to have 6 vouchers loaded on their SeaPass card daily for use anywhere on the ship at anytime - including in the DC during cocktail hours.  (Early on the drink count during the cocktail hours in the DC was not necessarily enforced as it is now).  

 

If Celebrity were to follow this, the amount of vouchers likely would be aligned by tier at Elite with 4, Elite+ with 5 (as you indicate). Zenith already has the drink package included, so this would be moot with them.

 

We feel this has worked out well.  The vouchers also are combinable between spouses allowing for (in our case) 10 drinks per couple per day where I can use mine for her and visa versa.  Unused vouchers at the end of the day can be used for unopened canned or bottled beverages (beer, truly, water, soda) which can be taken to your stateroom for another time.  The vouchers can also be used individually for discounts on bottles of wine purchased. 

Hi, I'm new to Celebrity. I have two cruises booked right now, and should be coming in at Elite level due to my loyalty status with Royal. Can you tell me what is "Captain's Night"? Thanks!!

[travellovers2]

16 hours ago, 39august said:

Drinks are in most bars. There is no dedicated lounge. 

 

On our Ascent sailing in February of this year, we were told to go to Eden. 

[gold1953]

4 hours ago, travellovers2 said:

 

On our Ascent sailing in February of this year, we were told to go to Eden. 

this is just an extra option. It was always in one place for years and many liked it so they have added back a venue that is only open to elite and up. You can still get you drinks at other bars.  It is actually 'invited , not told'

[Ex-Airbalancer]

6 hours ago, OhJinkies said:

Hi, I'm new to Celebrity. I have two cruises booked right now, and should be coming in at Elite level due to my loyalty status with Royal. Can you tell me what is "Captain's Night"? Thanks!!

You get to meet the executive team in a lounge 

[gordylad]

we are inches from elite+.....are the elite + speciality coffees and teas unlimited throughout the day/night?

 

This will be a good perk for us.

 

PS we like to relax in a lounge between 5 and 7 and enjoy the free drinks on offer before our evening dinner. Also on our last two Celebrity cruises I have found the casino drinks servers very good to offer drinks when you are playing.