Future cruise with Elite status vanished - thanks Captains Club!

[bbappel]

Please don't let your disappointment affect your attitude toward your trip. Nothing you get free with Elite is worth having a disappointing cruise. You have been given some wonderful, though expensive, suggestions for you to get to Elite. Here's an off-beat thought, if those items (laundry, internet, and drinks) are really important to you, then just paying for them might be the least expensive way to go. Internet is $50 each for 90 min; Select cruisers get a laundry coupon that costs $20 for what the elite get free; so the only big benefit is the elite lounge, which to be honest, most of the time we don't enjoy, as someone else said, the wine isn't so good, and even the mixed drinks aren't well done in general. On a recent 14 day cruise, I think we went 3 times. We enjoyed drinks in the Ensemble Lounge or the Passport Bar with non-Elite friends, and we got drinks we preferred.

Remember how fortunate you are to be able to go on these cruises. Most of the world's people don't get that opportunity.

[ken_ll]

Hi all,

 

I just want to tell you a little story on the recent Captain's Club changes from a different point of view from what I have read so far...

 

We are quite new cruisers and currently have 4 "old" points. We planned and booked a Sydney to Hawaii cruise in 2015, 18 nights - that is some really BIG vacation for us. We like the idea of Elite getting drinks, laundray and some internet minutes. We calculated and thought two 14 nights cruises in Aqua Class will give us 6 points, so 10 before the big cruise - Elite, voila.

Booked two cruises in 2014 some time ago and saving every "Euro" we can to make it all possible.

 

Now, they change the Captain's Club point system and we won't be Elite on our big cruise in 2015... so no free internet minutes and no laundry for us - and no free drinks :(

Any one else having such an issue?

 

Thanks for reading!

 

We are in the same boat. Had 2 points from a TA and we had booked about a year ago 4 cruises to give us an additional 8 points - one TA, 2 CC and 1 AQ and would have attained the 10 points for Elite. The TA departed Nov 25/13. and treated under new rules. All cruises were deposited and paid for prior to the Captain Club changes. We had paid premium prices for the cruises and felt with the Captain Club changes should have taken into consideration bookings already made. Let's say, somewhat disappointed with Celebrity in this regard.

 

I did write a letter to Celebrity without expectations and did receive a BS response from an EA to the president. Other persons in this situation, write to Michael Bayley and express yourself in a polite factual manner.

 

We have been on two of the cruises with 2 more in March/April and will settle out to 197 points. With promotions and onboard with Celebrity, we have not booked further cruises.

[PartyAllDaTyme]

With all deference to the coincerns of some who have posted hereon, I have a problem showing an excess of empathy for those who essentially cruise only to receive some nominal perks. Although we are elite, we never cruised for the purpose of attaining that status.

 

Agreed, but I didn't happen to see any posts from anyone who cruises ONLY to receive cruise points. But it's obviously an incentive, and in some cases could make the difference between someone booking a particular cruise or deciding in which class to cruise.

 

In my case, we were on the fence about booking a verandah cabin or paying a little extra to get a concierge cabin. The future sales agent pointed out that we'd get an extra cruise point, so we'd be that much closer to Elite. Now, we're still closer to Elite than we would have been had we not decided to take CC, but not as close as I was led to believe. I knew full well it was not a guarantee, terms and conditions subject to change, but it was one of the deciding factors for us.

 

I'm a little disappointed is all, not angry. Having Elite benefits one cruise earlier would not be a huge difference for us, but it's still a difference. Well, at least they didn't figure club points based on what we would have earned had the new system been in place originally, or we'd only have 112 points instead of 155.

[Lovemychoos]

Even without the RCI cruisers getting Elite automatically for their status with RCI, Celebrity had far too many top tier cruisers, and obviously felt they had to do something.

 

I must admit, I do agree with their new system, as I couldn't believe we became Elite after only 5 cruises, when it took us years and years to become top level with P&O. If we hadn't been Elite after the changeover, we would still happily cruise with Celebrity, and just wait our turn. We wouldn't have booked expensive cabins to get there more quickly, and certainly wouldn't have gone to another cruise line.

 

The little extras are nice, but certainly not a deal breaker for us.