manmachine

22 hours ago, 39august said:

Please keep us apprised of the outcome. Since you booked when room service was free, in my opinion, you should have had that perk the entire cruise. 

Agreed.  Not too worried.  If they don’t email back by end of the month I will dispute with AMEX.

Sailed in Aqua NYE.  Left port with free Aqua room service.  Day two, 1/1:  charge for Aqua room service implemented. 

I wrote Celebrity disputing our single room service charge.

The “X” can be found throughout the ships now— anywhere a previous offering has been eliminated— “X’d out,” if you will.

And why not?  Everything else on Celebrity has doubled.

Greek brothers Dimitrios and Tasos Kafetzis have been named co-captains of Celebrity Ascent, the cruise line’s fourth ship in its industry-transforming Edge class.

Celebrity Cruises President and CEO, Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, said that the brothers are “our star-powered siblings, a maritime dream team.

Keep repeating to yourself.  Keep repeating to yourself.  Journey Wonderfull, not Journey Wonderfullofcutbacks.

3 hours ago, southernbreezes said:

You have been on a lot of Carnival Ships so not sure you are the one to  talk about lower standards you need to try one of the Edge Class Ships pure luxury. My next cruise is in April. 15 nights in a Celebrity Suite on the Apex doubt any lower level of food or service will be noticed. All the suites had been sold out for months I got lucky to get the one that I did someone must of canceled just before final payment. 

Carnival used to be much better then it is now.  I am talking back in the early 2000s.  We kept going because…kids.  But we moved to Celebrity because Carnival just kept… cutting… back.

it happened over a period of years for them to become so bad that we won’t go anymore.

All the way down the cheerleader kept saying it didn’t matter.  They would still enjoy their cruise.  ‘No big deal.’

i can tell you this, as someone who has only cruised 5 times on Celebrity, all on Solstice class ships:  The experience isn’t today what it was then.  Even in Blu. And I am afraid it is going to be much worse before our 12 night in Aqua and Scandinavia gets here.

As someone experienced in senior management with a large business driven by Wall Street I can assure you:  this cutting cycle is a viscious one.  Cuts begat cuts begat cuts.

BTW:  ‘pure luxury’ on a mass market cruise line?  Hmmm.

21 hours ago, luv2camp04 said:

We've never done specialty dining, however on our upcoming cruise in March, I saw a special in the planner for Tuscan on the first night.  I think it was about $35/pp plus gratuity.  I figured that would be worth it.  However, I don't think I would ever pay $70/pp or more for specialty dining.  I'm happy with the MDR.

Just wait.  I am sure Celebrity has more plans to challenge you in that.

7 hours ago, gkbiiii said:

I thought that Aqua & Concierge got a "Special" Room Service Menu, which included upgraded offerings and no service charges?

Exactly correct, but the operative word is ‘got.’

1 hour ago, southernbreezes said:

I have never felt superior to anyone in my life. Love pizza and wine! I do not think about what you and your wife do or eat so please stop your worries. I think we all get what we pay for with Celbrity and this is why even with the higher prices we keep booking our travels with them.

Sounds like you have no problem with lowered standards.  That’s good for Celebrity right now.  

8 hours ago, Oville said:

But you have been negative for weeks, get honest. 

That’s probably because what Celebrity is doing is very negatively affecting the Celebrity cruise experience.

3 hours ago, LaCal said:

If a $10 charge a few times a weeks gonna make you change to another line then maybe Celebrity wasn’t for you 

 

Most cruise lines now charge for room service delivery 

Holland American doesn’t charge for basic room service.  Maybe Celebrity is becoming no better than Royal Caribbean since they seem to insist on changing their policies to match, only with higher prices.

maybe Royal Caribbean is for you.

3 hours ago, Bo1953 said:

As far as I know, the only "bad publicity" X is getting is on CC...

 

No publications OR TV/Cable News unless I missed it???

 

bon voyage 

I believe you are missing the really big picture.  Google ‘crawls’ the web regularly and indexes keyword results.  While right now ‘Celebrity Buffet’ doesn’t put any of these threads near the top of search results, given the number of posts and keywords used it soon will.

virtually everyone uses Google so soon virtually everyone will see Celebrity cutbacks if searching for things like ‘Celebrity Cruise lobster,’ “Celebrity Cruises drink packages,’ ‘Celebrity Cruise pricing,’ ‘Celebrity Cruise buffet,’ and more.

7 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

I think that when I am on my next Celebrity sailing that I will ask to order from the Princess menu 🙂

Unfortunately their policy now is that those dining room kitchens are too far apart so they can no longer honor those requests.

To those of you basically saying folks are over reacting, one question:  do you really think it will stop here?  Or are there another ‘thousand cuts’ that will happen if we just accept this without complaining and/or letting them know and/or making other choices for our vacation?

48 minutes ago, Joebucks said:

 

My $5,000 vacation is ruined because I can't have something delivered for $12.

‘Tis only a scratch!  

3 minutes ago, Oceangoer2 said:

You misunderstood....'Cost' (or price paying) to the diner has increased.

I am not disagreeing.  Just suggesting that the increased prices charged now far exceeds the increased cost of supplying.

1 minute ago, Oceangoer2 said:

Cdn. $$s....$175 with 18% gratuity.  Cost has increased so much that I doubt some cruisers will find it a good alternative to MDR or a replacement to the OVC. 

Price has increased so much.  Cost has increased… some.

19 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

The Celebrity App is notoriously not accurate.  

Still… false promises.

I just checked the app for our cruise on 7/24.  It does not show us in Aqua, but the Room Service page also shows complimentary.  I will be anyone $100.00 if it is in fact complimentary by the time we board.  Any takers?

#CelebrityFalsePromises

23 hours ago, LouChamp said:

So funny! You are the only person I know who remembers Carnival Air! 

I flew it once!

10 minutes ago, davekathy said:

My thoughts exactly. 👍

That’s why Celebrity is cutting back on food and  increasing prices for drinks.  It’s to protect all of our health.  And I for one salute them for it!

17 hours ago, Harrylinden said:

Can't be any worse than having bologna and cheap lunchmeat in the OVC for lunch instead of the good lunchmeat they used to have like turkey!! Who put's bologna on a buffet (Everyday)! I thought Celebrity was a Luxury cruise line? They sure do advertise as a luxary cruiseline. For a minute I thought I was on a budget cruiseline. In my opinion the food quality has gone way down since we cruised last December 2022! We pay high prices for our cabins and get low budget food quality for a luxury cruise line! JMO

Perhaps some luggage tags for VIPs of the ‘New Celebrity’ based on this culinary masterpiece are in order?

18 hours ago, Jobeth66 said:

 

I would argue, then, that they are going about preventing waste in the wrong manner.  If the goal is TRULY to cut back on food waste, then making catering pans full of lasagne and chicken parm and other cheap foods is not going to do it, but having multiple cook-to-order stations /will/ in fact, prevent food waste.

 

If the grill station is open, and they are only grilling to order, then there isn't a pan of already prepared meat sitting there with no one eating it - anything that isn't ordered goes back to the main fridge.  Ditto for the Asian stir-fry and Italian Pasta stations.  

 

Having a few cheaply-prepared items available in bulk doesn't prevent food waste.  My guess is that any explanation from the line that argues 'food waste' is disingenuous.  It's cost-cutting, pure and simple.  They should just come out and say it - 'we don't think you deserve the quality and choice you've previously received when you spend thousands of dollars on a holiday with us'.

Exactly 100% correct

11 minutes ago, omeinv said:

Oh, it's cancellable, you'd just lose money.  As far as "Bait & Switch", that has a specific legal definition, and is illegal, and I can promise you this is not it.  Your agreement with Celebrity did include cancellation penalties, and did not include a promise of included room service.

 

Harris

Denver, CO

And when you signed the legal agreement for accepting it… you did sign an agreement, correct?

Truly:  call your credit card company.  Show them you booked with x offering and it is now -x.  They changed the offer.  The credit card company will back you.

Some of the people responding to this post like it’s no big deal remind me of the Black Knight from Monty Python’s Holy Grail:  ‘Tis but a scratch!’