TV in cabin

[m steve]

The tv was limited and there was no schedule available to know what was available or start time for movies. Tried hard to push ordering movies at $9.95 per film or 10.95 for adult films. Too much repetition on all stations, only 1 news (CNN) mix of Discovery, Travel Channel and Natl Geog. 4 station for selling shore excursions, on board shops, shilling for Diamonds Int. and no where could you hear the announcements in your cabin. Had to go to the hall. Other cruise limes had printed programs so you could schedule and they put theatre film on tv the following day. Even the ESPN channel never reported football scores on Sunday.

[lisiamc]

The tv was limited and there was no schedule available to know what was available or start time for movies. Tried hard to push ordering movies at $9.95 per film or 10.95 for adult films. Too much repetition on all stations, only 1 news (CNN) mix of Discovery, Travel Channel and Natl Geog. 4 station for selling shore excursions, on board shops, shilling for Diamonds Int. and no where could you hear the announcements in your cabin. Had to go to the hall. Other cruise limes had printed programs so you could schedule and they put theatre film on tv the following day. Even the ESPN channel never reported football scores on Sunday.

 

If the ship is sinking, they will broadcast that announcement in your cabin! For anything else, I am happy to go into the hallway if I want to hear it.

 

Lisa

[Moeve]

I am sorry if I am going to step on your toes right now but I just can't resist... You're on a cruise - why would you want to watch TV for goodness sake. There is just sooo much more to do!!!

[templed]

First... I agree... the TV programming is limited...

 

Second... for me, that means very little... I'm on vacation... I don't watch TV to begin with.

 

As far as the announcements... there is a volume control in the room that will allow you to turn up the PA system in your room.

[Lsimon]

...no where could you hear the announcements in your cabin. Had to go to the hall...

 

Some people consider Celebrity's lack of announcements, especially in-cabin, a positive feature.

 

I've never found a volume control which seems to work for the in-cabin speaker - but I have found that if you tune your TV to the channel that has the "Bridge Cam" that you can hear the announcements if you want to hear them.

[Andy]

Hi Everyone !

 

While I do not agree with much of the previous complaints, I do feel that Celebrity's TV programming is pretty bad. There is very little live TV programming, and the Classic TV episodes, are not only has the same series, but they are the very same episodes playing over the past couple of years. Would it kill Celebrity to get some new programming, and some new episodes ? Celebrity should also make a sincere effort to rotate the classic programming from time to time, in consideration of their frequent passengers.

 

I know that you will say "who watches TV on a Vacation ?", but I assure you there are people who do. My Dad enjoys watching a little TV each day. While it's not something that I would rush to do, why shouldn't he be happy too ? On Celebrity, it is practically impossible. A little consideration by Celebrity, to improve this area, at least a little bit.... would be appreciated.

[usha]

Yup, the tv on Celebrity is pathetic. Thank goodness I don't give a rat's patoot about watching tv on a cruise, or I'd probably be looking for another cruiseline!:o

[Stock Cop]

Oh Yea, when did they put TV's in cabins? Guess I missed that.

 

Anyway, I do put the TV on in the cabin. I tune it to the bridge cam so I see where we are going and what the sea state and weather might be.

 

Other wise, I agree with a previous poster--who gives a rat's patoot about the TV in the cabin!

 

Rich:cool:

[Drew B]

I don't stay in my cabin to watch TV, but when I happen to be in the cabin (getting ready in the morning, taking a breather after returning from a port, getting dressed for dinner, getting ready for bed), I turn the TV on. I found the selection truly pathetic! I watched the same episode of "Remington Steele" 5 times (in part or in whole) on a 13-day cruise. That's pretty sad!

[hajekfam]

Celebrity has never had a pre-printed TV program since we have been cruising with them back in 1992. But I do agree that the programming is repetitive - especially when doing a transatlantic with over half the cruise sea days. And it seems like they are not broadcasting the entertainment like the newlywed-no so newlywed game as much as they used to so that I am no longer able to catch what I missed between all the few moments that I am in my cabin. We do appreciate the shore excursion channel as it gives us a glimpse of what the tour is like before we book. But we would rather have the port lectures, the guest lecturers, etc. broadcast instead of the "commercial for jewelery channel". But TV is not going to make or break a cruise for me - it is just something to watch when there is nothing else to do.

As a long time Celebrity cruiser (14 years), we think that Celebrity's no announcement policy was definitely a good move. The once daily announcement of time, temp, position of ship, expected arrival time along with the cruise director's short pitch always occurs at the same time each day so that if you want to hear it you can be in a public area at that time.

Sorry Steve that your cruise wasn't what you expected. Hopefully, you will find a cruiseline more to your liking. Even with it's faults, Celebrity suits us just fine.

[BettyInToronto]

We did the Century Dec 11-16 and my husband was upset that the TV quality was so poor. Well, the TV itself was really nice but the programming stunk. First we had 2 channels with no sound. Of course these were the regular TV channels not their shore excursion or shopping channels. :rolleyes: We did complain after the second day and found out that it was the entire ship, not just us.

 

As for programming, one channel (25) was only movies and these were posted everyday in the dailies. Nothing I wanted to see though. The movies I did want to see were in the Cinema but these were at times really best suited for those on the Late Seating, not the Main Seating like us.

 

I agree with others above who said they usually only had the TV on while getting dressed in the morning or for dinner. I go to bed early and my DH would watch TV every night for a few hours. This is when he was unimpressed.

[Muushka]

We thought the TV situation was pretty poor also. While we don't go to the cabin (which was so very tiny) to watch TV, we like to watch it a little before bed. With today's technology it amazes me that they could not come up with better programming. Next cruise, we will bring our laptop so that we can watch our DVDs.

 

But overall, not much else to complain about on the cruise that we just returned from. We had a great time.

[rebeccalouise]

The last thing I want to know about is what is going on in the real world while at sea. I don't care about anything on vacation- other than having fun. News is a downer!

 

As for the tv- I do like watching movies in the cabin. We watch one pay movie a day. All of them are recent and I haven't seem most of them- so this is a treat for me. At $ 10 a pop- that's still cheaper than watching them in the movie theater.

 

I am quite happy with the amount of programing. I am too busy eating, swimming and mingling!

[kitty9]

On our recent Constellation cruise, it was pouring rain in Aruba, so no pool or sitting outside and they didn't have any activities planned on board, so it was TV time in the cabin. I got engrossed by an old episode of Bonanza when lo and behond, about 20 minutes into the episode, it cut to Opie and Andy. What happened to the rest of Bonanza? I'll never know. Plus, they kept repeating this insanity for the entire 11 days. I know X wants people out spending their money, but I like TV on at night, but with their really bad programming, there's nothing to watch.

 

And get this----there's no reason for them to not broadcast regular ESPN all the time. I used to believe that they lost the signal for that, but now, after this cruise, they can no longer tell me they can't get the signal. We "lost" ESPN not long after leaving Grand Cayman, but it suddenly appeared in time for Monday Night Football, but within a few minutes after the game was over, ESPN was lost again. It magically appeared for the same couple of ours every afternoon. I really believe they lose the signal because they want to, so that people don't stay in their cabins to watch sports.

 

X TV is the worst of any cruise line I've been on, and that's pretty pathetic. If I have to see the same old I Love Lucy again..........

[Andy]

The last thing I want to know about is what is going on in the real world while at sea. I don't care about anything on vacation- other than having fun. News is a downer!

 

 

Hi Rebecca !

 

While News may be a "downer" to some vacationers, some of us must be in touch with the real world.... Yes, even when on vacation. Still, it would be nice to have some additional news and other TV options as well.

 

Of course, if any of us do not want to watch the news, nobody is forcing you to watch it :)

 

Happy Holidays !

[Arubalisa]

I know I am getting old since I remember the days of sailing without TV, newspaper, internet or in cabin telephones. I believe they advertised it as the "vacation to get away from it all".

[Drew B]

The point is, it wouldn't cost them much to provide better television. If people DON'T want it, they don't have to turn the TV on. Its mere existence wouldn't hurt them. Those who DO want it can enjoy it...

[ausofte]

FYI, the portable DVD players can be plugged into the nice new Flat Panel tv's on Century to be used as regular DVD players. Rent some movies (many rental places allow you to pay for extra nights) and take those. Although we're not renting, we are taking several of our own movies. And hopefully DH has one wrapped up for me to open on Christmas day. :D

[fllady]

Instead of complaining here, fill out the comment cards and add a few "pages" to it. They do read those things. :D

[kitty9]

I've been posting about the TV choices for four years, and it's obviously fallen on deaf ears.

[Drew B]

The terrible TV choices were one of my biggest negatives on my comment card... And bringing DVD's of movies wouldn't satisfy me. I want something to watch casually while I get ready around the cabin (1/2 hour to an hour at a time). That's no way to watch movies!

 

I remember cruising Carnival in 1990 and watching the Sydney Olympics live on NBC while preparing for dinner. That was perfect. I don't know why they can't pick up a live network affiliate feed with their satellites. I don't even know if there would be a charge to X for that, as they'd be airing the commercials, too...

[m steve]

If I want to relax in my cabin and watch a little tv why is it necessary to degrade me. I go on a cruise to visit ports which I do, relax, enjoy good food (missing from the Connie) and choose what I want to do on days at sea. If the chair hogs wouldn't take over all the loungers I might go to the pool and if so many people wouldn't scream at each other I might not need a veranda to get some sea air without annoying people around me who have no respect for someone else's space. With that said, goodbye X. You used to be my favorite but that's long past!

[Stock Cop]

I feel you have fully stated your case on two different threads about your trip on Connie---can we now move on to some positive comments?

 

Rich :eek:

[slotaddict]

I too think that the TV programming is poor. We do keep the news on while getting dressed, in the morning and before dinner. Also turn on the TV for awhile when we go to bed. We had alot of problems on the Century with the remote, it just would not work. I finally called, they came and did something to it, it worked for about 2 hours then did not work any longer. It wasn;t worth calling them back to fix it again. We left that to the next occupants of our cabin.:D

[megabill]

Unfortunately - Celebrity is at the mercy of content providers for just about everything on the ship (as far as TV is concerned)....

 

They dont run out to the local best buy and pick up the latest releases to show on tv. The content providers send movies quarterly, and tv shows - if im not mistaken - about the same time frame (the shows like CSI, Law and Order, etc... so i think on the ships thats 24 and 25). 26 is the classics - that is also provided by a content provider and its up to them - not Celebrity - when those tapes get swapped out... apparently they've chosen "never" as the time frame... but like i said - thats not something Celebrity has direct control over (could the call and say "hey, whats the deal?" - sure, but its still up to the content provider to make it happen)

 

The movie schedule (for channel 25) should be available on channel 14 (in between sets of trailers for the PPV movies). They're also given a finite set of movies (say 20 or so) that get rotated out. so you'll get maybe 4 movies shown in a day (assuming a runtime of 2 hours each) - so thats 8 hours of play time - 3 times a day. Then the next day they'll remove 2 movies from the previous days rotation and put in 2 others - for example. So it might look like the same movies are playing - but they (should) be in a different time slot from day to day.

 

As far as the episodes stopping in the middle of a show - if its around the same time - chances are they're swapping out the media (changing the tape or DVD). Since there's no Neilsen on the ship - they can't tell who's watching and when - they usually try to pick a time when they think there will be the fewest viewres (dinner times - since those remain pretty constant both on sea days and port days).

 

For any of the live broadcasts (cnn, espn)... there is a separate satellite for each of those channels. so if there are more channels, that means more satellites - which means you get no sun on the pool deck (just kidding - but there isn't a whole lot of roof space for more satellites. The satellites have automatic tracking - which sometimes works great, some times doesn't. so that means if you're watching a channel and it just goes blank - chances are the computer detected a drop in the signal and is trying to find a good (better) signal. Also - for special events (like the world cup over the summer) an special receiver is set up for these purposes. Its not always practical to have to swap receivers after each game - or sometimes it just might take a while to do it (its far from instantaneous).

 

And to add a new channel... its millions of dollars involved. 8 ships (9 if you include XP) times the cost of satellite installation/configuration etc - thats over 1M easy.... plus the whole contract thing of being allowed to air content - no doubt several million dollars (even low several)

 

 

So - get out of the room and enjoy the sun (before the satellites block it!!! HURRY!!)