Celebrity going down hill

[rcicruiser]

Has anyone recently returned from a Celebrity cruise and thought it is not the same as other Celebrity cruises they have been on I had some problems with service in the dining room and the shore excursion desk. Anyone else?

[Brad1185]

I am back from the Summit to Hawaii from SD and thought things were better than ever, especially in the food department. I did not do any excursions as they are way over priced and easier to do things on your own.

 

To me the food was excellent, better than our other 7 or so other Celebrity cruises.

 

The only problem was getting my full obc. I had booked the Summit cruise on another cruise and had a printout for $200 obc. When I checked my obc it was only $100. The front desk said they changed their policy and future booking credits were only 1/2 of what was promised. I finally got it resolved and received the obc that was promised.

 

I was trying to decide on a cruise to book for October, was thinking of RCI or Celebrity Panama Canal. With everything so good, the choice was easy and I picked Celebrity.

[Coreopsis]

Has anyone recently returned from a Celebrity cruise and thought it is not the same as other Celebrity cruises they have been on I had some problems with service in the dining room and the shore excursion desk. Anyone else?

You've had a big day!

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=666314

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=666383

 

Enjoy the holiday weekend, be thankful - indulge in some random acts of kindness for others or for Mother Earth.

[Welland]

Has anyone recently returned from a Celebrity cruise and thought it is not the same as other Celebrity cruises they have been on I had some problems with service in the dining room and the shore excursion desk. Anyone else?

 

I'm not sure if you want to read my comments or not.

Starting to wonder about these boards. In the past, they have proved to be very useful in helping one with legitimate questions, issues, suggestions, etc. It now seems that many of the posts are so negative....negative about food, negative about staff, negative about tours....just plain negative. That's the wonderful thing about vacations/cruising/all inclusives etc. Each one of us has the opportunity to spend our money where we want and have the kind of holiday that we want.

 

I fully understand that you may have legitimate issues concerning some areas of concern on your recent cruise.

 

However, I think that as more and more of us cruise more frequently, we begin to look for other areas to comment on. Remember your first cruise...it was like a dream from heaven. Then the next one may have had a few things that you (I'm only using that in the sense of each person reading this...please don't take it personally..... :-) didn't care for. Then the next one had some "problem" areas. I hope you can see what I am saying.

 

Nothing in life is perfect and I embark on each and every cruise with a positive attitude. I'm just thankful that I'm able to cruise as often as I do and try to look beyond any issues. Of course there are always circumstances that can cause one to have problems. Take for example, lost luggage. Been there....done that....never recovered....but I've moved on.

 

Hopefully the boards will continue to be a useful tool for all of us.

 

Please remember....this is MY opinion and not targeted to any one individual/poster. Thanks.

[rcicruiser]

I am back from the Summit to Hawaii from SD and thought things were better than ever, especially in the food department. I did not do any excursions as they are way over priced and easier to do things on your own.

 

To me the food was excellent, better than our other 7 or so other Celebrity cruises.

 

The only problem was getting my full obc. I had booked the Summit cruise on another cruise and had a printout for $200 obc. When I checked my obc it was only $100. The front desk said they changed their policy and future booking credits were only 1/2 of what was promised. I finally got it resolved and received the obc that was promised.

 

I was trying to decide on a cruise to book for October, was thinking of RCI or Celebrity Panama Canal. With everything so good, the choice was easy and I picked Celebrity.

 

No problems with the service in the dining room. I will tell you what happened to us. It seemed from day one that the waiter and assistant waiter did not get along. Day number 3 comes and we had a differant waiter. The head waiter said that the waiter had come down with a cold. None of us believed that. The waiter we where then give was not that good. It seemed like we where on a training cruise because of the problems in the dining room. It was not just our table but others too.

 

Then again my last good cruise was on the Summit, I think the service on the bigger ships is better.

[FinelyCruising]

You've had a big day!

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=666314

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=666383

 

 

.....oooooohh somone is looking for an awful lot of attention aren't they. :cool:

 

Go ahead, take a turn, have the floor!

[dmk]

Has anyone recently returned from a Celebrity cruise and thought it is not the same as other Celebrity cruises they have been on I had some problems with service in the dining room and the shore excursion desk. Anyone else?

 

Exactly when was your cruise, and on what ship?

I would suggest that if your waiter is giving you bad service that you should ask for a new table assignment from day 1. There is no problem asking for this.

[FinelyCruising]

Nothing in life is perfect and I embark on each and every cruise with a positive attitude. I'm just thankful that I'm able to cruise as often as I do and try to look beyond any issues. Of course there are always circumstances that can cause one to have problems. Take for example, lost luggage. Been there....done that....never recovered....but I've moved on.

 

Hopefully the boards will continue to be a useful tool for all of us.

 

 

That sums up what it is all about. Bravo!

[Ontario Cruiser]

Just back from the Summit Hawaiian Cruise on Friday.. The food was excellent. I found it better than last year. Our waiter Victor was just great.

The only complaint that I had was the long line ups coming back on board going through security in some ports 3 times.. Never had to go through securtiy on shore before. Just wondering if this is only happening on Celebrity ships, or just US ports or perhaps this is their answer to stop any booze coming back on board.

I think that Celebrity has good value for their money. Unfortunately there aren't any southern caribbean cruises for 10 days out of Florida next November, so I will have to go with HAL.

Ontario cruiser

[nps001]

I couldn't agree more. It seems lately, people are writing and saying how bad something was (most of the time, they don't even state that the issues were). Constructive feedback is very much appreciated. However, it seems all these people are doing is flaming!

 

Do these same people go into hotels and then write about every single blemish they saw on the carpet or public area furniture? Understand these ships are used very single day. Passengers are not always the best behaved. There are bound to be spots, worn carets, etc.

 

I go on a cruise to relax and enjoy myself. Bad service sometimes happens. I don't excuse, it but I more often than not, overlook it. There are 1,000 staff members on a typical ship. Certainly you are bound to run into one that is having a bad day. Does it ruin my cruise? Heck no!

 

......Just my .02

[Iwanttobecruisingnow]

Hi Everyone

 

New to the boards but have been on Celebrity ships before. I found that the service on my last ship which was the Century was not as good as when I was on Summit. I had not complaints about the food but the dining room service, just did not seem up to par. Maybe they where having a bad week.

[C 2 C]

Has anyone recently returned from a Celebrity cruise and thought it is not the same as other Celebrity cruises they have been on

 

As some brilliant??:rolleyes: advertising guy/gal at Celebrity writes in their banner ad:

 

"Every Day is another day".... Duh! I wonder how much they paid for that brilliant observation?

 

Our last Summit cruise to Hawaii in September, one of the best ever; Constellation B2B Canada and repo cruise, barely OK in comparison..

 

I'm still waiting for the "Star Treatment" but Celebrity at its worst is still better than others at their best... but don't quote me.. Celebrity still ******s me off sometimes... but I'm a forgiving soul with a good memory..:cool:

[Texed]

The only complaint that I had was the long line ups coming back on board going through security in some ports 3 times.. Never had to go through securtiy on shore before. Just wondering if this is only happening on Celebrity ships, or just US ports or perhaps this is their answer to stop any booze coming back on board.

 

Celebrity had nothing to do with it. It is the state of Hawaii's security.

[Prince]

Our last Celebrity cruise--was indeed our last with the line. While nothing major happened---we just felt we were not getting value for our money. Both the indoor and outdoor spa tubs in our suite were not working ---food was not up to previous standards (not to mention stale breadsticks in the bar) and the ship was looking a bit worn for wear. The lack of the enforced dress code in the dining room was the final "straw" so to speak--with shorts worn on formal night and families coming in to dine with buckets of coins from the casino. The elegant ambiance was gone. We have since sailed on another more upscale line and are much more pleased with the product for the price we are paying.

[sarplum]

Oh my God! Stale breadsticks. I am cancelling our upcoming trip right away.

[bubbie617]

Prince:

 

Just curious, what ships have you been on since Celebrity cruise? If Celebrity was not pleasing you, I'm glad you found another line that did.

[hermang]

First of all we are by no means cruise virgins - # 15 is coming up in February.

Most on RCCL with Celebrity running second and one on Princess.

 

Second- The world has changed since 9/11 - prices for everything keep going up and all businesses are cutting corners to survive. As a stockholder who enjoys tht OBC - as much as I hate to see service and quality slip the same is true from all businesses. I am tired of having to press 1 for English instead of getting a person - I am tired of off shore call centers who mispronounce my name and worse put me on hold whilst they "consult their supervisor or read from a script.

 

Third- we are all getting jaded. My first cruise on the Soverign in 1994 was in the day fantastic - today it would have been average.

 

Frankly I could care less if a passenger shows up buck naked on formal night -

I fail to see how a non enforcement of the so called dress code spoils the cruise experience. If formality is so important - go Cunard and sail upper crust class with your butlers and sycophants. dine in private dining rooms and Pay through the nose for your exclusivity.

 

Celebrity is for the most part an up market cruise line - and yes they have good crews and bad crews.

 

Customer circus - ok the poor folk who have to deal with irate passengers and make just above minimum wage are Not gonna give you quality service - but hey who does these days.

 

A bad day on a cruise is better than the best day at the office.

 

Just my humble opinion

[zalusky]

Well I can't comment in the last year but I did a 14 day Panama Canal cruise on Infinity i 2004 and then a 12 day NY south in 2005. Last year we were sidelined with medical issues.

 

On the first cruise lots of good stuff. On the second cruise, lots of cost reductions. The number of live musical groups were reduced and the party band did lots of double duty. The gala buffet was much smaller. The ice carvings pretty much disappeared.

 

The cruise director was pretty much invisible versus the first cruise director where he was personally hosting the deck parties.

 

So as they say each cruise is its own experience but I was disappointed enough in all the little things that I will be trying the others guys for a while.

 

Solstice will probably peak my curiosity but right now I am enjoying the competition.

 

I like princesses newer movies and anytime dining (meeting new people each night).

I like the increased social activity on the princess ships.

 

There are some things I miss about Celebrity but once the food is out of the picture I find it boring.

 

I have a 12 day Hawaii on RCCL in May and will look forward to that too.

 

Its all about variety. The employees change lines all the time why shouldn't we.

[raymac46]

Just finished our third Celebrity Cruise (Nov 4-18 in the Med on Millennium). Food was as good as ever, ship looks great, nice beds, friendly service, wonderful entertainment.

The itinerary was terrific and Lisa Gallant is the best cruise director we've had so far.

I don't see any fall-off in quality in the last couple of years at least.

[chessbriar]

We did the Galaxy back in February and it was one of our best cruises.

[Literary Lynne]

We too have just returned from Millennium (4-18 November). This was our 6th X cruise. I think that the food and the dining room service are not as top notch as they were on our first cruise (Horizon - 1996) but everything else was excellent. The ship is in really good shape - our stateroom had new carpets, bedding, curtains and the bathroom was immaculate. The only sign of wear we saw were the net curtains in the stateroom and a few shabby seat coverings in the cafe on deck 10. After reading some poor reviews about the state of the ship we were so delighted and relieved at the reality.

 

The business about bringing on alcohol. The X daily news says that you cannot bring on 'duty-free' alcohol, and we had no trouble openly bringing on gin which we purchased in supermarkets (obviously duty paid) in Villefranche and Naples.

[lysolqn]

Forty cruises under our belt, 29 of which have been on Celebrity. Leaving for Barcelona this weekend to board Century transatlantic to Miami and have three more X cruises booked for '08.

 

Have things changed from our first X cruise in 1986 to our most recent X cruise six weeks ago? Yes, but that's at least in part because the cruise industry as a whole has changed with cruising becoming more family friendly and cruise ships becoming more like Las Vegas hotels. Changes are also due to a steady stream of new ships making available thousands more berths to fill each week, which in turn has driven down the price and made cruising more affordable to people who could never have afforded it previously. Cruising is, after all, a business which requires change to stay solvent and between economic and political changes over recent years and a change in passenger demographics, it's really quite surprising that things haven't changed on X ships even more than they have. I think X has stayed closer to its original product than most other lines and that's partly why it remains our first choice.

[CruisingChick]

We were on Constellation 10/23 for 13 night Canada/New England cruise and thought it was wonderful. Food was as good as ever and service in the dining room was wonderful. We had the best sommielier we've ever had on a cruise and the martini bar servers were terrific.

 

The only negatives things were the weather which Celebrity has no control over and the first 3 days of the cruise we had a norovirus "scare" from the previous cruise, but Celebirty handled it exceedling well.

[TampaJack]

I will tell you what happened to us. It seemed from day one that the waiter and assistant waiter did not get along. Day number 3 comes and we had a differant waiter. The head waiter said that the waiter had come down with a cold. None of us believed that. The waiter we where then give was not that good.

To summarize, there were a couple of staff in the dining room who seemed to not get along, and one waiter who wasn't that good, so you decided to title your thread "Celebrity going down hill". Perfectly reasonable.

[hcat]

As a loyal Celebrity cruiser I have had some recent issues but certainly nothing major. After reading comparisons from celeb cruisers who have tried other lines, it seems it is still the best choice for us...guess we'll adjust to some of the changes & may even like them once we try them. & they did hear us when most felt that Cirque in the form presented had to go...