Celebrity Eclipse Sky Lounge closed during 12 day cruise

[Cruiscs]

2 minutes ago, RichYak said:

Even M-class ships are far too big to be premium. Beyond and Ascent are nearing 4000 at maximum capacity. Celebrity is firmly entrenched in the mass market category.

Your opinion

[zitsky]

I don’t consider Celebrity a luxury line.  Maybe premium. We don’t like the limited entertainment on small ships.

[canderson]

1 minute ago, RichYak said:

Even M-class ships are far too big to be premium. Beyond and Ascent are nearing 4000 at maximum capacity. Celebrity is firmly entrenched in the mass market category.

If 'premium' implies itineraries that are only possible in smaller ships, I'd agree, but that's not been where I've been drawing a line in the past.  You can sail a larger ship and still provide a premium experience.  Silversea is already getting closer to that with the Nova and Ray ships.  They're sized somewhere in between the old X Horizon and Century class ships, but with less than 1/2 the number of passengers of either.  Check the pax:crew ratio for Silversea!  It's that last number that says a great deal about the difference between a mainstream market line and premium or above.

 

        Horizon Century   Ray

GT       47413   71545   54700

PAX       1828    1814     728

CREW       620     843     556

PAX:CREW   2.9     2.1     1.3

 

 

 

 

[RichYak]

10 minutes ago, Cruiscs said:

Your opinion

Of course it is. But it is based in reality.

 

Here's where I would put all the cruise lines that come to mind:

 

Luxury - Seabourn, SilverSea, Regent, Ritz Carlton

Premium - Azamara, Cunard, Explora, Oceania, Viking 

Mass Mkt - Carnival, Celebrity, Disney, HAL, NCL, Princess, MSC, Royal, Virgin

[RichYak]

9 minutes ago, canderson said:

If 'premium' implies itineraries that are only possible in smaller ships, I'd agree, but that's not been where I've been drawing a line in the past.  You can sail a larger ship and still provide a premium experience

Sure. Retreat, YC, Haven, etc are all premium experiences, but you're still sailing with a mass market cruise line.

[PTC DAWG]

19 minutes ago, zitsky said:

I don’t consider Celebrity a luxury line.  Maybe premium. We don’t like the limited entertainment on small ships.

This..I would be bored to death..choices are good though.  To me it gets old with some here telling me everything about Celebrity I’m not supposed to like..

Edited August 27 by PTC DAWG

[zitsky]

25 minutes ago, canderson said:

If 'premium' implies itineraries that are only possible in smaller ships, I'd agree, but that's not been where I've been drawing a line in the past.  You can sail a larger ship and still provide a premium experience.  Silversea is already getting closer to that with the Nova and Ray ships.  They're sized somewhere in between the old X Horizon and Century class ships, but with less than 1/2 the number of passengers of either.  Check the pax:crew ratio for Silversea!  It's that last number that says a great deal about the difference between a mainstream market line and premium or above.

 

        Horizon Century   Ray

GT       47413   71545   54700

PAX       1828    1814     728

CREW       620     843     556

PAX:CREW   2.9     2.1     1.3

 

 

 

 

Do Horizon and Century ships have theater shows?  If not what is the entertainment like?

[Honolulu Blue]

1 hour ago, PIC33 said:

We had a voicemail last night from Guest Services saying they had forwarded my comments to corporate. They also said that as a goodwill gesture they sent a bottle of wine to our room, and a schedule of the Sky Lounge hours for this cruise. See photos below of their peace offering.

Thanks for sharing.  I'm glad you got a consolation prize and some information.  My opinion is they should put a sign out front of the Sky Lounge with this information AND a note about the Sky Lounge's open hours on each cruise given to each passenger OR a note in the newsletter for each day.

[zitsky]

Imagine if you were in the Retreat and they dedicated the lounge for art auctions the entire cruise.  No one should have to deal with this regardless of how much they paid.

[PTC DAWG]

15 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Imagine if you were in the Retreat and they dedicated the lounge for art auctions the entire cruise.  No one should have to deal with this regardless of how much they paid.

I think we are all in agreement…I sometimes peruse the art in the halls after a drink or 4.  I have seen some cool Rolling Stones things…

[canderson]

1 hour ago, RichYak said:

Sure. Retreat, YC, Haven, etc are all premium experiences, but you're still sailing with a mass market cruise line.

?  I'm talking about entire 'premium' ships, not some subset of cabin class that offer a 'premium experience'.  I'm arguing that it's not necessary to have tiny ships to have a premium line.  It's almost irrelevant apart from itinerary limitations.

[zitsky]

1 minute ago, PTC DAWG said:

I think we are all in agreement…I sometimes peruse the art in the halls after a drink or 4.  I have seen some cool Rolling Stones things…

I think the current Park West setup is great for the most part.  I can browse the art and I don’t mind if they display it all over the ship.

 

I think it was Beyond where the World Class Bar was close to PW auctions.  Or is that Eclipse?  That could be annoying.

 

One of our oldest works of art is a signed lithograph we bought when we were right out of college and didn’t have much money for art.  So I don’t have a problem if people want to buy it.

[zitsky]

6 minutes ago, canderson said:

?  I'm talking about entire 'premium' ships, not some subset of cabin class that offer a 'premium experience'.  I'm arguing that it's not necessary to have tiny ships to have a premium line.  It's almost irrelevant apart from itinerary limitations.

 

I’m just afraid that I’ll cruise on a luxury line and no one wants to talk to me because I don’t have a Rolls Royce, or any Grey Poupon.

[canderson]

4 minutes ago, zitsky said:

 

I’m just afraid that I’ll cruise on a luxury line and no one wants to talk to me because I don’t have a Rolls Royce, or any Grey Poupon.

Behave yourself like everyone else and neither you nor they will know what you all drive.  Go in with that enormous chip on your shoulder and you'd be correct ... no one will want to talk to you.

[zitsky]

3 minutes ago, canderson said:

Behave yourself like everyone else and neither you nor they will know what you all drive.  Go in with that enormous chip on your shoulder and you'd be correct ... no one will want to talk to you.

Well if they are humorless and don’t WANT to know what I drive, then I’ll probably be happier on Celebrity.

[Oville]

3 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Well if they are humorless and don’t WANT to know what I drive, then I’ll probably be happier on Celebrity.

Truth is people riding in those kind of cars are probably taking more exotic vacations than joining the masses on cruise ships.

[canderson]

8 minutes ago, Oville said:

Truth is people riding in those kind of cars are probably taking more exotic vacations than joining the masses on cruise ships.

Or perhaps some just enjoy cruising?

 

 

[Oville]

8 minutes ago, canderson said:

Or perhaps some just enjoy cruising?

 

 

Yes on their own yachts.

 We are so off topic.

[zitsky]

10 minutes ago, Oville said:

Yes on their own yachts.

 We are so off topic.

Do “luxury” lines close off areas of the ship to host art auctions for their big spenders?  

[Oville]

Just now, zitsky said:

Do “luxury” lines close off areas of the ship to host art auctions for their big spenders?  

How would I know?

[RichYak]

55 minutes ago, canderson said:

?  I'm talking about entire 'premium' ships, not some subset of cabin class that offer a 'premium experience'.  I'm arguing that it's not necessary to have tiny ships to have a premium line.  It's almost irrelevant apart from itinerary limitations.

Are we playing pretend imagination games? Or can you give me an example of such a line? I'm talking primarily about guest capacity--not ship tonnage.

[RichYak]

3 minutes ago, RichYak said:

Are we playing pretend imagination games? Or can you give me an example of such a line? I'm talking primarily about guest capacity--not ship tonnage.

Answering my own question, I'd say Cunard probably comes the closest to matching that description.

[the penguins]

2 hours ago, RichYak said:

Of course it is. But it is based in reality.

 

Here's where I would put all the cruise lines that come to mind:

 

Luxury - Seabourn, SilverSea, Regent, Ritz Carlton

Premium - Azamara, Cunard, Explora, Oceania, Viking 

Mass Mkt - Carnival, Celebrity, Disney, HAL, NCL, Princess, MSC, Royal, Virgin

how on earth does Cunard qualify as Premium? It is not like any of the other lines you have listed. 

[RichYak]

1 minute ago, the penguins said:

how on earth does Cunard qualify as Premium? It is not like any of the other lines you have listed. 

You're right, it's probably not.

[Host Anne]

Just got off Cunard's Queen Anne. There was nothing premium about the ship and cruise.  I'll be sharing a comparison to Celebrity soon. 

 

But back to the topic of this thread .... Groups often occupy public spaces on ships for relatively short periods of time (2 - 3 hours typically) but I've never seen an area like the Sky Lounge closed so often and for so long most days. It's extremely unfair to paying passengers and I'd be upset if it happened on a cruise I was on.

 

I really think it's time that cruise lines disclose the groups on board (say over 50 cabins for example) their ships along with the impact (public spaces closed for extended periods each day) as well as the type of group so guests can choose to make a change if they'd like.  But this will likely never happen.  

 

I've been on ships with large groups (I've even been part of some of them).  Some have had no impact on my cruise while others have created some annoyances.  Would have been nice to know ahead of time.