tfred

8 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

I'm beginning to think that RCG is having buyer's remorse over Silversea.  With one hand they are cutting corners, with the other they are desperately trying to get Royal and X customers to 'upgrade', and in the meantime they are showing their disdain to the loyal Silversea customers (maybe because they know they can't please them, whether on new-Silversea or X or Royal).

 

*Anyone old enough to remember will notice that I have just given an Adlai Stevenson speech – he was the losing candidate for President against Ike in 1952 and 1956 and was known as having 'three hands' because all of his policy statements were couched with so many caveats.  😀

Desperate?  Doubt it. They just want to offer an upgrade path to RCL group pax who didn’t know that Silversea existed. 
 

what exactly are silversea pax actually losing on ?  The only thing that I get is free laundry now and that doesn’t affect anyone. 
 

Silversea may want to correlate a pax spend and nights. Nights only doesn’t allow for big spenders. 

X an RC are different animals compared to Silversea. Pax would only go “Down “ when with adult children or grandchildren 

The celebrity program has accelerators for staying in a suite “The Retreat”, so it is more than just nights   A few cruises in an X suite and you can be at 250 days 

the Silversea status match is really just to keep celebrity pax from drifting to Seabourne et al when moving up. 

Just off the Moon and was given upgraded champagne in the room. 
 

the laundry benefit is the real extra. Laundry in at 9am and back at 6 pm same day. On hangers and pressed    small items wrapped in paper. 

The danger is what has happened to airline lounges - overcrowding. What used to be a pleasant experience while at the airport has descended into lines to get in, limited time inside and only certain times (generally only departure)

I don't care about the other benefits that don't take up physical space in The Retreat. Special breakfasts, cocktail hours in a private room - all great.

 "How many Pinnacles can there be ?" or "its a limited amount of pax" is usually underestimated. It also starts the "how come those Ps got in and not us?", "I got in last time, so I should get in this cruise!"

The space available part is just going to upset those Ps that can't get in  Something that started out as a plus for them will just be an annoyance. 

1 hour ago, KLM3164 said:

Did you order from the Blu menu while dining in Luminae? We have booked our first suite on Beyond for next month and I’m hoping to be able to order from the Blu menu and DH would most likely prefer Luminae menu. Just wondering if we can do that while in Luminae or if we physically need to dine in Blu to get the healthy options? We are booked in an Aqua Sky Suite so I believe we have the option of dining in either Luminae or Blu. Any information you all can share would be appreciated since this our 2nd cruise on X and 1st in a SS.

be prepared for "No" with the request for tonights menu from Blu. The two kitchens aren't close an requires someone to stop what they are doing and come back 10 minutes later with lukewarm food

might be better to look at the menus along the way and decide which restaurant to eat at that night 

3 hours ago, QuestionEverything said:

Based on my review of Reviews and ongoing topics on this Site, Luminae is not well received by many customers. It appears that Retreat customers often eat elsewhere, order from the MDR or Blue.

I have not been in the Retreat or Luminae, my observations are only from CC.

 

We have been in Luminae a few times and enjoy it. Self entered reviews are always skewed to people who like to write and that isnt an accurate representation of actual people on board 

There are certainly people on board who wish Luminae had more options but that isnt going to happen. The menu is the menu and it seems to be popular when we are on board Edge class ships. There is also an plain everyday menu as well as kids 

Some people are very "selective" eaters and only like what they like   The plain menu is for them   Luminae will attempt to feed you what you want (within reason) and with proper notice. Ordering from a different restaurant 8 decks below and on the other end of the ship isnt one of them. 

56 minutes ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

 

But I'd guess there are also couples on here (and on board) who do not spend any extra - look at the number of people on here who don't take ship-based excursions, who are elite or elite plus and use that for their drinking and internet, people who don't gamble or shop. If you're going to penalize and restrict solos, you should track those guests and once their Captain's Club number is entered make only Retreat available to them. Until they do that, they are making it pretty clear that they'd prefer to limit solo travelers to the few solo cabins on E-Class ships.

Pretty sure that X has more data than you could imagine on who buys what on board. They can slice it every which way and have probably figured out that two people together in a room will spend more than one person in that room 

Not sure that X is penalizing solo travelers nor restricting them maliciously. There are just few discounts (at the moment) for solos to drive X revenue. 

7 minutes ago, lola2013 said:

As a solo traveler, I expect that my upcoming Apex cruise in a SV will be my last.  I love the E class (along with the S class), but would not consider a solo cabin or retreat.  

Since I am a non-drinker who doesn't frequent the casino for more than a few minutes each night, owns as much Celebrity merch as I need and can find my own way to a beach without booking one of their excursions, I expect I will enjoy every moment in my SV on Edge before spending solo time on the S class going forward.

Let me add an unfortunate experience from a few years ago on Reflection.  My friends (married couple) and I (solo) booked balcony cabins next to each other.  I paid the same as they did for my cabin as a solo.  We enjoy opening up the balcony divider and watching the sunset or just hanging out.  Since we have dinner the same time and are basically on the same schedule, it works to have cabins close together.  When we checked in at the port, I went to the agent on the right while they went to an agent on the left (this was in Miami; at the time they didn't use the iPads like in Ft. Lauderdale).  Anyway they were upgraded to Aqua...good for them; but when we realized we wouldn't be having dinner in the same restaurant, they declined the upgrade.  When I went to Guest Services and asked how upgrades are selected, I was told (very bluntly), "well, solos never get an upgrade."😆  Thank you Celebrity for making me feel like a valued customer!!!

You answered the solo question in your first paragraph. You don't drink, gamble or buy merchandise on board. You don't take excursions. This means are reduced/low or no profit customer. Not a target market. 

You may not be the "typical" solo traveler but there is something to be said about a double occupancy driving extra revenue. "let's do this fun activity together!" may not be something that solos would say. 

4 hours ago, The Hudson Co. Landlubber said:

 

All 700 islands or just Nassau?

 

I love Great Exuma and Eleuthera.  Atlantis?... well I feel you there. 😁

a Bahamas stop almost always is Nassau. It is overrun with 20k pax at any given moment   It has all the charm of Canal Street in NYC.

The other islands are beautiful but generally off the radar for a cruise ship pax 

On 8/6/2024 at 2:21 PM, longboard55 said:

My issue with Caribbean is why do we need to always stop in the Bahamas

Bahamas has one of the highest percentages of pax not getting off ship. Once you have been there you know why.  

I didn't realize the advance shipping time that is needed for this ( or the Sea valet service)  In house valet needs almost 3 weeks before the cruise date to organize it. LF is about 12 days. Both need time to send you baggage tags   I did make the cutoff for mt 26 August cruise via LF

You definitely  want to do the set up on line. I had a question and called the LF number. !0 minute wait and then the person wasn't the best with understanding my questions. I figured out what I needed on my own and politely hung up

It is via FedEx so I am somewhat sure that it will get to the port on time. 

None of this is any different from a phone support sales position for just about any type of company.

That said, SSea support will be just someone reading off a screen with no actual knowledge or nuances of product offerings. I don't think that any of the agents will have been on a cruise. The pax may have more knowledge than the phone agent. For this kind of money, I would expect top notch customer service

I think that SSea has figured out they aren't making (enough) profit on a single, especially with a small supplement. 

Double occupancy with spending on board to match expected revenues. Singles may be relegated to hard to sell cruises as backfill

11 hours ago, chemmo said:

I can see Santorini in the years to come limiting the number of cruise ships they allow in. 
 

Quite simply too many cruise passengers swarm the island but spend very little. They arrive with their bottles of water in their bags, reluctantly may purchase a bottle of beer to keep them going but relatively few will buy a meal…In contrast, people who have booked a two week stay are paying for their accommodation, food and drinks but may be put off visiting an island ‘crawling’ with cruisers! On our last visit we sat down in a bar in a picturesque spot enjoying a beer and a shared cold selection and were amazed by the rude tourists who entered the bar, took some pictures of the views and left…Must be very frustrating for the locals…

 

I don’t know if you have visited the archaeological museum there (about a 10 minute walk from the top of the cable car) but it is well worth a visit…

you could say that about almost every island in the Caribbean that has 2-5 ships docked at one time. It is a tsunami of pax that overwhelm any local culture, spend $50 and then head back to the ship for a late lunch. 

6 minutes ago, Shiba_Lover said:

Just off Apex 2 days ago after 19 nights.  We were told we could order off another menu but they prefer you do it in advance.  MDR is on decks 3/4 and Blu is on 5 while Luminae is on deck 12.  They can plan in advance if they know you want a dish from the MDR.  Otherwise, they must send someone when you order, which is disruptive with the kitchens so far away.  (ie - they pick up the dish up to 4 hours in advance and can re-warm it when you are ready versus they need to disrupt service and send someone down to get it).  We asked for the Beyond Burgers one day to be available for lunch the following day instead of the Retreat burger and they were able to do that with no issues.  They also made us Indian food one night when we told them one day that the Indian dinner Taj X was cancelled on our second leg of the B2B we were on.

All of this sounds reasonable on both sides 

32 minutes ago, bigbenboys said:

Because you can order off the MDR on Celebrity's other 9 ships in Luminae. Even on E Class ships you can order off any of the MRD restaurants menus. Dining in the Cosmopolitan restaurant and you can order items from Cyprus restaurant. Items exclusive to Cyprus.

it works on the older ships and E Class MDR since those kitchens are next to each other  E Class  Luminae and MDR kitchens are literally on the opposite ends of the ship - far away.   Someone has to go get it and bring back a lukewarm entree.   You dont need much of that to reduce service levels in Luminae to "where's my bread?" for the rest of us.  

25 minutes ago, LXA350 said:

 

I guess this was a great exapmple of a CEO not enough experienced with the onboard experience. You can't just order something from the MDR or Blu, if at all you can pre order the night before or in morning that you want speciic items served that day from these venues. Even then it is to the discretion of the maitre D / venue manager if they want to go the extra mile in organizing this. Same applies to preparing specail meals such as a Indian Curry etc. even if it would be available at another venue.

CEO isnt writing any of this - probably not even reading the questions. More than likely some PR person who has never sailed on a ship, or if they have it is in a standard room.  

Ordering from a different restaurant at a resort is unheard of - I dont see why people think that is ok on a ship (which is just a floating resort) 

You can ask for the Luminae menu but without the sauces that go with it. Talk to the server. They also have the kids menu that may work for you.  

What they won't do is remake the entire menu for you, especially at the table.  

RCG CEO Jason Liberty said there is a price gap of 20% between what hotels charge and what cruises charge.  In other words he thinks that cruises are priced 20% lower than they should be 

Icon of the Seas is at a 132% load factor and could stuff a few more pax in there. 

These aren't the statements of any company that is going to lower prices anytime soon.  If you see a cruise that you want to take book it and hope that it goes down sometime - maybe. 

It also says that customers are happy with the product overall as future bookings are high. 'Where's my prime rib, chocolate buffet and free drinks?" legacy customers should take note before they exit by the gang plank.......

1 minute ago, TeeRick said:

An interesting discussion of what exactly?  Are you saying "Should Celebrity have an expiration on Captain's Club Points?".  If that's it I vote no.

No one who is a CC member would vote yes to limit their benefits. Every airline, every airport lounge and every hotel has an expiration based on nights, money and length of loyalty. Most of those are yearly and there is a reason for that - to clear out low/no dollar customers who want (top) tier benefits. 

CC benefits are pretty minimal anyway,  Some drinks, discounts on some services, maybe a bag of laundry. Doesnt cost that much and makes people feel good.  

Cruise lines would be hard to demand much to retain status - some combination of nights and dollars.

However  they will when/if the Retreat lounge gets too cozy with legacy (they owe me for sailing on Mercury !) pax. 

x hasn't done this because it doesnt cost them really any money or aggravation at present - a few drinks. Once legacy pax create an issue with space (in the Retreat) crowding out customers who have paid for the Retreat then the party is over 

X wants to retain "presently profitable" customers , not the DYKWIA? crowd

at best the Qs are an indication to X what a very select set of cruise fanatics think   They  aren't going to have a revelation and respond directly to anything that was posted by saying "you are right or have point".   That would start the "well, it's been a week so what up with the changes?"

all this really means is that a non scientific poll of people who may or may not be T&L readers voted (maybe multiple times) in a poll

VV is completely different market and X isnt going to chase them down 

if you both don't like the food in Blu, then I would consider not booking AQ and using the money for specialty dining. Blu is cozier but so are the specialties.