schuddle

I can view the offers under my wife’s name, not mine (she did not change her name when we married). The booking has both our names correct.

We are 1 month out, and for an 8 day cruise, currently booked in a sky suite on beyond.

Upgrades are per person:

sunset sky 200

aqua sky 280

celebrity 1500

royal 3000

edge 4000

penthouse 5000

iconic 6000

i consider sunset a downgrade due to aft location (we are central).

aqua is redundant (worthless to me) when you have luminae. Same room otherwise.

celebrity suites are a little bit nicer than sky, but not 1500x2 nicer.

same with Royal suites.  
edge is the first upgrade that is drool worthy.  2 story room, private hot tub outside….

and the penthouse or iconic are awesome.

problem is, edge upgrade would double the price. And that is too much.

if it was 4000 total I would do it, but not 8000.  I hope the price goes down.

strange to see every room type still available for upgrade but not for purchase.

Changing your email address on the website is a comedy of errors. In general, you will find that it will not work, or it will work halfway and lock you out of your account. When you call for technical support, you will be connected to someone from the reservation desk from a foreign call center who you can barely understand, and they will tell you that it is not possible to connect you with any technical support. They will then attempt to be the technical support, and they will fail. In the end, you will give up, and just pretend you don’t actually have access to the website, because it will never work again. 
 

if you attempt to chat, you would be put into a long queue, which will eventually empty, but no one will ever answer.  
 

I feel your pain.

since we can’t check into our cruise, or update anything online, I’m hoping that when we get to the port, will be able to sort this out. But I seriously doubt it.  
 

it is a cliché to say this is the worst customer service I’ve ever experienced, but in this case, I think it actually is. I’m fairly certain I’ve never encountered a company who handles technical issues like this worse than princess.

Agreed! What a stroke of luck, avoiding those pesky upgrades from the Penthouse.

The captain does have a thick accent, but we have confirmation from an officer that he said “several” and in fact the response is proactive given the small number (2 confirmed) of cases.

It is obvious from the crowd levels that there are not 700 people in quarantine. 
 

Overall, this has been a lovely cruise. I only wish the pool (and the theater) were heated.

They can do exactly 2 things with a loyalty program:  (a) offer you some cost savings, or (b) make you feel special by giving you some exclusive experiences and VIP treatment.

They used to have VIP treatment on the list of benefits.  (exclusive nightly cocktail party with attentive service, meet the officers party, backstage tour, elegant tea party, access to the retreat).   Not anymore.  All of the special experiences have been cut.

They used to offer some cost savings.  That has been greatly diminished.  There is still value in getting a free bag of laundry (maybe $50 or so per cruise if you use it).  And there are a few very minor perks remaining, like a free scoop of ice cream, or a small discount off the overpriced spa treatments and photo packages.  But for the most part, the value here was in the free internet (over $100 value) and the free specialty coffee ($15/day if you had paid for it which I would have) and the multiple opportunities to get a free drink without paying for a drink package (gone - you now pay for drinks).

Honestly, I don't have any reason to pursue loyalty with this line anymore.  And since I don't want to pay for a drinks package, I'll just go to princess where I get a few free glasses of such and such, maybe a mini-bar setup in my cabin, and the same free laundry - but prices are 50% lower.

Cross posting for folks who don’t see what has changed.....

Summary of changes:

Downgrades:

• Removed Priority embarkation
• Removed Access to the Retreat for Zenith
• Removed Senior Officers Party
• Removed the Backstage Tour
• Removed Elegant Tea
• Removed the nightly cocktail party - remaining benefit worthless under Always Included
• Negated value of the daily coffee lounge
• Negated value of the specialty coffee in specialty restaurant
• Negated value of the free specialty coffee package for elite plus
• Negated value of the free internet minutes and discounts
• Removed free fitness class for Elite Plus

Upgrades:

• Improved the spa discount - now multi use
• Increased discounts on photo packages
• Increased the discount on premium wines
• Added "Sneak Peek of Wonder" (only on the Apex)
• Added the "Create and Pour" event (only on Edge class)
• Added discounted $35 dry clean and press package

2 hours ago, jelayne said:

Old saying " Never look a gift horse in the mouth"

‘most members feel that they earned these benefits, as they were always part of the price of cruising, paid for each point and saved for higher levels.  The cumulative value of our past patronage has just been discarded.

it was not a gift - it was a reciprocal arrangement. Celebrity just pulled a bait and switch.  Should have sailed on Princess.....  

Summary of changes:

Downgrades:

• Removed Priority embarkation
• Removed Access to the Retreat for Zenith
• Removed Senior Officers Party
• Removed the Backstage Tour
• Removed Elegant Tea
• Removed the nightly cocktail party - remaining benefit worthless under Always Included
• Negated value of the daily coffee lounge
• Negated value of the specialty coffee in specialty restaurant
• Negated value of the free specialty coffee package for elite plus
• Negated value of the free internet minutes and discounts
• Removed free fitness class for Elite Plus

Upgrades:

• Improved the spa discount - now multi use
• Increased discounts on photo packages
• Increased the discount on premium wines
• Added "Sneak Peek of Wonder" (only on the Apex)
• Added the "Create and Pour" event (only on Edge class)
• Added discounted $35 dry clean and press package

Basically, there is no longer any benefit to being "Elite".

Unless you spend a lot of money at the spa and on photo packages, and you hate parties.

Here is a summary of the changes:

Downgrades:

• Removed Priority embarkation
• Removed Access to the Retreat for Zenith
• Removed Senior Officers Party
• Removed the Backstage Tour
• Removed Elegant Tea
• Removed the nightly cocktail party - remaining benefit worthless under Always Included
• Negated value of the daily coffee lounge
• Negated value of the specialty coffee in specialty restaurant
• Negated value of the free specialty coffee package for elite plus
• Negated value of the free internet minutes and discounts
• Removed free fitness class for Elite Plus

Upgrades:

• Improved the spa discount - now multi use
• Increased discounts on photo packages
• Increased the discount on premium wines
• Added "Sneak Peek of Wonder" (only on the Apex)
• Added the "Create and Pour" event (only on Edge class)
• Added discounted $35 dry clean and press package

For me, as an elite member, the only perk which remains that I value is the free bag of laundry.
I will miss all of the removed perks, and I genuinely do not care about any of the upgrades.
I resent Celebrity for jacking up the prices and doing almost nothing to keep my loyalty.

I appreciate that they are losing money in these tough times.  But discouraging the most loyal customers from staying loyal, by taking away perks that were not very expensive - yet very effective at keeping people loyal to your brand - it seems like a really bad move.

They used to have the best loyalty program in the business, and now, it is almost worthless.

I'm a bit concerned about this too.  I just booked a cruise to Hawaii, and was given OBC by the travel agent (Expedia).  In the terms and conditions, it explicitly states that the OBC cannot be used for gratuities or casino charges.  Which is bizarre.  As another example, consider the well known "shareholder benefit" that gives you OBC if you hold stock in Carnival.  The terms and conditions say "This benefit is not transferable, cannot be exchanged for cash and, cannot be used for casino credits/charges and gratuities charged to your onboard account."   See for yourself here: https://www.carnivalcorp.com/shareholder-information/shareholder-benefit

Last time I sailed on Celebrity, they had a similar restriction, but were were still able to use our credit in the casino.  The trick was that we were given chips that said "Promotional".  Those chips could not be cashed out.  So we had to actually sit down at a table and play Blackjack for a few hours.  When we won a hand, they gave us real chips that we could cash out, and when we lost, they took away a promotional chip.  Think of it as a form of OBC laundering :-)

Maybe Princess does something similar?  These terms that restrict how OBC can be used are cropping up all over the place, I wonder what the enforcement mechanism is on Princess.

3 hours ago, rM3panno said:

 Not 💯 but I believe all suites on X ships except edge now have CO bigelow.

 

We are with you though, we sail on Summit on 8/3 and wish they were still there. Will be on my comment card. For some reason I have always disliked CO bigelow products.

 That’s odd, I’m fairly certain I have watched a few YouTube videos of people on the Edge  touring their suites with Bigelow. But I have not yet seen a suite on the new Millennium.

Can anyone confirm whether Millenium suites (post Revolutionization) still get Bvlgari/Bulgari amenities?  I know it seems silly to some people, but there are those among us who care deeply about this...  

We will look for you Heather!

I can only take one vacation a year, and wow this did make the price $2500 per person more, and that is a lot of money, but it is really going to be a special experience for us, so that is why we took the upgrade.

It is a 2000 square-foot state room with a grand piano. The balcony runs the entire length of the ship, and has a hot tub. There is a dining room in the middle of the cabin where a butler will serve you meals from any of the restaurants. I look forward to using it for breakfast. It also comes with a fully stocked bar.

I take a cruise vacation every year if I can, but I've never gone on a luxury line like Oceania, due to the cost. This cruise was on sale for only $2300 per person, including round-trip nonstop air from LA to Italy. You could pay that much for just the airfare. It was a great deal.

When we were offered the upgrade, we thought about it, because as I said, it is a lot of money. But it's also going to be a very different experience, once-in-a-lifetime probably for me. And a 2000 square-foot suite on a ship like this normally sells for double what we paid. Perhaps even more.

So we decided to take it. You only live once. I hope that we have the pleasure of meeting some of you on this trip, and perhaps sharing a nice dinner with you in this fancy room on one of the nights. It would make the experience even better if we shared it with a new friend.

We had booked a guarantee balcony cabin for a 1 week voyage from Rome to Venice on Riviera. Our agent offered us upsell cabins at all levels, including the Owners Suite for $2500 more per person! We took the deal, and are very excited about the cruise. Never sailed in such an opulent cabin before, it will be a great experience for us.

I just got off the Century. 2 weeks in Hawaii.

We had select dining. The hostess at the door was a charming and fun person who really made it fun to come to dinner every night.

My wife and I decided not to bring any formal wear on this cruise.

Blue jeans are the only pants I packed, other than shorts and swimwear.

My jeans are all clean and neat, no holes or tears.

My shirts are all "smart casual". Most have a collar. I did not bring a tie.

I wore a nice pair of leather shoes every evening.

On "formal nights", I added a corduroy sport coat, and selected a nicer shirt (with buttons). But I still wore jeans.

Essentially, the difference between my formal night attire and my casual night attire was the addition of a sport coat. Men who came to dinner without a jacket or coat were offered a simple black jacket at the door, which they would only need to wear while walking to the table.

I took my coat off every night when seated, as did many other people.

We met a couple of new friends on board, and dined with them every night. They had similar dress habits, so everyone at our table was comfortable.

If I were seated at a table with tuxedos and gowns, I would probably ask for a private table so as not to break the mood.

The dress code is not applied consistently, as you can see from my experience. My sport coat is not a "dinner jacket", and I know that. But it was good enough, and I looked clean cut.

I have grown tired of formal night. This is my new cruise plan: bring a sport coat for formal night, and simplify the packing problem. One style of clothes is really all you need: as long as they are clean and neat, you won't feel out of place, and you will probably not be given any trouble by the MDR staff.

Of course, your mileage may vary :-)