shipshape sam

Sailing on Radiance soon and was interested in their coffee card. The heading says " Cafe Select Coffee Card - $31 per package" on Royals web site. Not sure what a package is (typically offers are referred to 'per passenger'). Is it 5 coffees or unlimited speciality coffees. Also, it there a separate venue for special coffees or is this for Starbucks? Any enlightenment is appreciated!

Did he have a favorite part? We have a 7 year old and we know the pool/slides will be a hit along with the arcade.

We received our 5 points each (DW and me) today. Hope everyone uses their 5 points wisely?! 😀 Started looking at a booking too today, but alas on Royal as our granddaughter is interested in doing another cruise with the Grands!

When we sail by ourselves, we like Celebrity over Royal. With our kids/grandkids, we want Royal for sure. I joke that it is cruel to take kids on a Celebrity cruise IMHO.🙂

We haven't jumped, but, really enjoyed our sailing on HAL's Rotterdam in 2023 (11 days) and have now booked a sailing for 2025. We loved the musical entertainment location/groups that played most nights in multiple sets per night on Rotterdam. Do not know of any other line that has that set up nightly. Secondly, for us, we have booked a couple of Royal Caribbean cruises with our kids and grandkids for 2024 and 2025. Do not like IV's and will look at an S class ship for a sailing 2024/2025. Having mention IV category, if other things were great, would sail in IV, but IV is a negative for me and thus a hurdle to get over/around. We also are doing more land based trips with family/friends. Last 2 were to Dollywood in TN and Universal in FL. Later this year heading to Key West FL for a week. Still like Celebrity, but there is a lot of choices/options and the competition is very good also.

We beggars can't be picky. Can't remember last time there was something that rewarded 50 PUP's. I too noticed the repetition of words. I am glad they are doing it. Got an email today recapping some milestones reached this year. Per the email almost 700k Captains Club members moved up one or more levels and in many cases due to PUP's. Thanks Celebrity!

We have had some nice conversations over the years and it is hard to ignore questions when asked by someone about 2 ft from you even if you want to not continue the conversation after saying good evening. For sure understand the desire to have an enjoyable dinner for 2 when at a table for 2.

Unless I am missing something, your TA should know your Mariner status and request any bonuses that you have earned/deserve.

For sure would like to attend and enjoy a seafood buffet at described here. Once on a 7 day or longer would be a special treat.

Sounds like it! Have a great cruise, make lots of friends and memories and the cost will not be as important when you help create great value. We want to do a smooth jazz cruise too, but have not 'pulled the trigger'. Maybe I need to take your path. Just book it Danno!

It is a really nice set up that you have music the evening.

Hope you had fun going through it all. I tell my DW, I love to plan many of our sailings as I get to talk about it with others and enjoy the anticipation.

At the risk of being wrong, to have some humor with the chance to actually suggest something that might be considered. The beauty of it is most games/suggestions cost little to nothing to have fun. I always liked the passenger engagements where the winner(s) got "trinkets like a logo key chain, maybe a t-shirt, etc. I also think that Celebrity and others have gone away from the mass volume of tourist style logo t-shirts and stuff. On past cruises, way back DW and I over time won a number of bottles of wine and on Royal, and with Ship Shape dollars earned hats, t-shirts, water bottles and even little medals all in the spirit of fun with crew and other passengers As specific suggestions: *We used to enjoy mid morning quizzes *Name that tune or another game for everyone to watch and participate in. Usually there were gals vs guys . One I liked was where they would play a few bars of a song and the first to get to 1 of 2 chairs and correctly name the song, got a point for guys or gals. It was always very entertaining and fun to be a part of having fun and for me, I looked forward to it before or after dinner depending on our dining time that evening. (this game may have been on Royal as I think about it).

I read here on CC somewhere, that the partial transit they were on had 3 ports of call changed to Southern Caribbean ports of call. They dropped Columbia, the canal day and Costa Rica ports of call. I do not recall what ports of call they added. I would think you could go to a January or February sailing and see what they have listed as the itinerary now. Happy sailing!

Looks like they are making it a Southern Caribbean itinerary. In 2009 we were 1-2 days into our 15 day full transit of canal from FLL to SF and due to H1N1 virus we lost all Mexican ports of call (3 of them) and got San Diego arriving around 3 pm and leaving 9 pm, Catalina for a day and a noon arrival into SF of the day before disembarkation. For us it was a half day in SF and a hotel night on ship before getting off. For sure locals were not as pleased. This was on Celebrity Infinity. Still was a great cruise. I was looking forward to Acapulco, Porta Varta and one other one. Sorry for the change, but hope you have great fun and great luck on another cruise. We actually are booked on Rotterdam for a partial transit in 2025.

We watched it too. Since it was a follow-up, I would not think cutting PUP's smart going forward, but if they do, I can guarantee the view count will drop. This is such an opportunity for Celebrity to beef up the program and reward loyalty, in this current environment. I personally look to see who wants my business. They did make some changes back to previous offerings and did add 2/3 social meeting times/place for The Captain's Club Elite and above gatherings.

I saw the same 30k number of people that are supposed to have watched the video. Using that # time 3 gets you to 90k Celebrity CC points to be awarded. One would assume the 30k includes those who are still waiting to be credited. Assuming they are all CC members that would be a fairly high number I think. Of course, we do not know how they counted the 30k views, ie each time video opened, once per CC #, some other choice. We got our 3 points credited, I think, on Monday. Again, I asked the question to get a guess at what the cost to Celebrity was, assuming each point is actually able to be used. For me, we are now 858 pts and thus the 3 pts will most likely never actually help us get to Zenith status. I like keeping up with things on Celebrity and this is a way to encourage that, especially for those striving for the lower status levels.

Not that there aren't lots of challenges for cruise lines, but cruise lines must be thinking that this is one area that is great. Need to/want to pay your front line employees more, just raise the crew appreciation rate. Get to pay the higher rate in January when sailing Royal Caribbean. It does make me wonder with each raise, how many cruisers ask to have the prepaid/suggested gratuity changed/reduced? Why not just make it a line item in the fees section and everyone pays the 'suggested'' fee. Those who want to pay more still can and my guess is that if you take the total received by requiring the fee of all guests, there might be a case for less increases for at least one longer 'next' time. I remember a few years ago, a comment of 'I don't eat in the MDR, I eat in the buffet area', not realizing that the MDR wait staff is working the buffet area too.

In total by all participants was what I was pondering

It would be interesting to know how many CC points were awarded/earned on the last PUP promo

They already know the answer

Most companies do internal polling and may also use professional polling to gauge/guide them. I used to work for a company that did some work for/with banks. It was interesting discussing some of the results with a few in management. In one case, they used the term "scorched earth". By their own modeling they knew, per the model, what percent of customers would leave the bank and take their money with them. They also knew what percentage of customers would complain and most likely do nothing. Using those metrics, they could calculate a purchase price that would be an acreative purchase of another bank. Celebrity is not stupid. They also know that most if not every cruise line is doing similar changes to they offerings. To those planning to leave, just be sure you are not going from the skillet to the frying pan. We like Celberity, but hate many of the cutbacks, hate the much higher fares. We have tried other cruise lines in the last few years and for most part not much difference. As only one example, we diverted to HAL's Rotterdam this past year and it was excellent in the musical entertainment category or no different (within reason) in other areas to Celebrity. So, we have booked another Rotterdam sailing. I am taking my own advice and we are now booking with Itineraries and price we feel matches the value offered along with the hope/knowledge that our top preferences are still offered. Will it always work out? No, but we no longer give Celebrity 'brownie points or a starting edge" and NOT all cutbacks effect us in our value proposition. Again, we like Celebrity but have found that Carnival and HAL are okay for us too. We also have a few Royal Caribbean cruises scheduled with the grands and Celebrity cannot compete with kid featured amenities. Finally, we are planning lots of land based trips, so for us at least, cruising is not the only option and Celebrity is not the only choice.

Taking pictures of bottles for next cruise.

With the stated date of November 14th, how many people will check their Captain's Club account in hopes of an earlier deposited date. Once the points are there, then what. A quick smile and then on to the next quest for points.🙂

Bummer about not having a forward viewing area other than Retreat area.