What would make you leave Celebrity?

[welshfamily]

Too true Sue,

Last year we were paying for 4 AquaClass cabins...well above the limit Celebrity will take...not an easy task.

We have booked through a TA this year after quite a few years of direct booking. He returns calls quickly, always answers his emails and so far so good resolves problems. We are actually recommending him.

[MR_T]

Another thread that invites the negative.

 

Ok.my answer: My death would end my Celebrity cruising.

 

.

 

 

Cruise criticers do love a place for a moan... I guess this thread will go on for months... 😂

 

We love celebrity & it works just fine for us! 😁

[Iamcruzin]

Or trying to bring on new Celebrity customers who are accustomed to the enhanced "suite" experience from other cruise lines.

I have looked at other luxury cruise lines to compare what they have to offer to what Celebrity and NCL are trying to offer. The luxury lines offer the full package. Every room is a suite and they sail to ports that the larger mass market lines can't sail to. Celebrity and NCL are only offering segregation and not a true luxury experience. This is only going to appeal to those who are comfortable with the two lines and a mass market experience. I don't foresee anyone jumping over from the true luxury lines to either Celebrity or NCL and I don't think that's what either company is trying to achieve. I do see this as an attraction for passengers who sail other mass market lines like Princess and HAL which is who I think they are trying to sway.

Edited February 4, 2015 by Iamcruzin

[BosoxI]

This is an interesting question the OP has posed, and I'm not sure Celebrity could do anything to chase me away except raise its prices to such heights that I no longer see the need to book a cruise.

 

Frankly, we've been traveling for so many years, so frequently that the bloom is off the rose. Our most recent was a B2B in December and towards the end of the second cruise, I realized I wanted to be off that ship. No one's fault, perfectly delightful cruise, but simply a case of too much of a good thing.

 

We'll be off on another one this month and again in March and again in November, plus I'm looking at two more before the end of the year. But in the back of my mind I'm thinking do I really need this? We have friends who at this very minute are on the Pacific Princess approaching Samoa on their trip around the world. LAX to LAX. 111 days. There's no way I could do it even though there was a time it was on my bucket list.

 

Sorry to ramble but for me, the cost of cruising will be the straw that breaks my back, plain and simple.

[PORT ROYAL]

If you already left, why follow Celebrity forum

Ken

 

Sorry, but did not realise you were the self appointed Post Police, and this thread was the sole domain of current Celebrity Cruisers.

[Kevnzworld]

I have looked at other luxury cruise lines to compare what they have to offer to what Celebrity and NCL are trying to offer. The luxury lines offer the full package. Every room is a suite and they sail to ports that the larger mass market lines can't sail to. Celebrity and NCL are only offering segregation and not a true luxury experience. This is only going to appeal to those who are comfortable with the two lines and a mass market experience. I don't foresee anyone jumping over from the true luxury lines to either Celebrity or NCL and I don't think that's what either company is trying to achieve. I do see this as an attraction for passengers who sail other mass market lines like Princess and HAL which is who I think they are trying to sway.

 

Good points, I agree. Having just exited a cruise on Oceania, the differences between large and mid size ships, and luxury versus mass market cruiselines is pretty stark.

It was nice being able to eat lunch in a civilized environment in the Terrace Grill buffet VS Oceanview cafe madhouse.

On the other hand , Oceania's food wasn't as great as advertised.

We've booked an Alaskan cruise aboard the Solstice to try the new suite restaurant. That experience will help us to decide if we will keep our upcoming Celebrity bookings.....I'm hoping so.

[grandgeezer]

Cruise criticers do love a place for a moan... I guess this thread will go on for months...

 

We love celebrity & it works just fine for us!

 

What's wrong with moaning? By definition of critic, as in Cruise Critic, it's a person who forms opinions and gives them. It doesn't say no negatives allowed. I, like almost everybody else paid for their cruise, it wasn't given to us/them. That gives us the right to voice our opinion if the product we paid for doesn't live up to our expectations. If it doesn't agree with yours, who cares?

Maybe they should add a blog called Celebrity Cheerleaders so all the pom pom wavers can live happily ever after. Until then, I will praise them when they exceed my expectations and let people know when they don't. The first 11 cruises was great, the last three were just all right, in our opinion.

[Rob the Cruiser]

We would consider going elsewhere if Celebrity brought back the a cappella groups.

 

OK, sarcasm aside, DW and I have only been cruising since 2013 so we would be classified as newbies by many people here at Cruise Critic. We don't know what we are missing from "the good old days" but the angst seems to center around trivial items such as towel animals and chocolates on pillows. The most often mentioned complaint is "Celebrity has gone downhill". What does that mean? Looks like the only reasonable options would be Seabourn, Crystal, Regent, Silversea and Oceania, all of which are at least 2X the price of an A1 cabin. Add a few specialty dinners and premium drink package and Celebrity is still much less expensive than the other "true luxury lines".

 

Till death do us part. :)

[parallax]

Are Celebrity's prices going up in a big way? I still find Celebrity very reasonably priced and a bargain compared to what I was paying 17 years ago. I realize that I'm not getting the same bargains that could be found during the recession but that is understandable. Maybe I'm not sensitive at this stage of my life to $100 to $200 price increase, as it will not impact my vacation budget.

[Kathamo]

We don't know what we are missing from "the good old days" but the angst seems to center around trivial items such as towel animals and chocolates on pillows. The most often mentioned complaint is "Celebrity has gone downhill". What does that mean? ...Celebrity is still much less expensive than the other "true luxury lines".

 

My thoughts exactly. I hear a lot of criticism, but most of the specifics seem trivial to me. I would understand if it were a case of "death by a thousand cuts" (i.e., so many little problems that it ruins the whole experience), but that doesn't seem to be what's happening. I would look elsewhere if the food quality went substantially down, since that affects my experience for several hours of of each day; if it was truly that bad I'd probably switch to a land vacation, or MAYBE try one of the "luxury" lines, although as you point out they are much more expensive for a plain vanilla veranda passenger.

[ORV]

A further decay in the dress code. I like formal nights, if they do away with those or totally stop any enforcement - then the romance factor of cruising is gone. Might as well be driving around in an antique winnebago.

 

 

I believe the enforcement of the dress code is probably already non existent. Fortunately enough people still have enough class and respect to follow the guidelines, but from what I've seen on my last 2 Celebrity cruises there is no longer any enforcement of the offenders.

 

Another thread, I know.

[New Hampshire]

I believe the enforcement of the dress code is probably already non existent. Fortunately enough people still have enough class and respect to follow the guidelines, but from what I've seen on my last 2 Celebrity cruises there is no longer any enforcement of the offenders.

 

Another thread, I know.

 

This is my observation also over the last three years. I haven't seen shorts in the MDR, except for the first night, but that's about the extent of dress code enforcement that I've observed.

[davekathy]

If everything on the ship was ala carte.

[ORV]

This is my observation also over the last three years. I haven't seen shorts in the MDR, except for the first night, but that's about the extent of dress code enforcement that I've observed.

 

On our recent Equinox cruise I saw shorts being worn in the MDR on almost every night except the Formals. Not many, but any is too many. Our Select table was close to the entryway,(same table every night) so we had a ringside seat so to speak of all the dinner fashion.

[Gordoncruickshank]

We have done 7 Celebrity Cruises over the past 2 years all in AQ and are getting bored with both the AQ menus and the speciality restaurants as none of these have changed since we started cruising with Celebrity.

 

We have now tried all the things we like several times and find that the repeated rendition of the same old menu is making us want to do something else. We will try the suite restaurant for a while but I suspect that by the time we work through the cruises we have in the tank just now that we will be well and truly fed up with that as well.

 

Since November 2012 the main shows on the Eclipse have not changed and we no longer try and go to these. Part of that is down to the fact that we have seen them all and part is down to the fact that the Theatre is always too warm and after a couple of glasses of wine with the meal, I dose off.

 

Celebrity seems to be built around a repeating customer base but they need to recognise that and change menus and the main show regularly otherwise this captive repeat business will find somewhere new to spend our children's inheritance.

[HS2BS]

The service cut backs start at the main office - try using the online booking (if it's working) or call directly and wait and wait. When you finally get thru to a representative who then puts you on hold forever.

Ask the rep a question and your sure it is not the answer - call back and get a different rep and a different answer, and so on. While this wouldn't make me avoid Celebrity altogether it becomes more obvious when on board.

Fewer dining room staff, shorter shows, more DJs rather than live music, this isn't about oj but the service that once was is no longer there!

 

Hal

[villauk]

We have done 7 Celebrity Cruises over the past 2 years all in AQ and are getting bored with both the AQ menus and the speciality restaurants as none of these have changed since we started cruising with Celebrity.

 

We have now tried all the things we like several times and find that the repeated rendition of the same old menu is making us want to do something else. We will try the suite restaurant for a while but I suspect that by the time we work through the cruises we have in the tank just now that we will be well and truly fed up with that as well.

 

Since November 2012 the main shows on the Eclipse have not changed and we no longer try and go to these. Part of that is down to the fact that we have seen them all and part is down to the fact that the Theatre is always too warm and after a couple of glasses of wine with the meal, I dose off.

 

Celebrity seems to be built around a repeating customer base but they need to recognise that and change menus and the main show regularly otherwise this captive repeat business will find somewhere new to spend our children's inheritance.

 

Perhaps trying a different ship or class may help? It appears, from your signature, you have sailed on the same ship and itineraries many times over - perhaps a change of scenery (both onboard and ashore) may revive the interest :confused:? We have found that there are slight differences in many aspects when sailing on different ships/itineraries, even within the same brand ;).

[ikelmay]

IMO, I think Celebrity are a good way down the road to losing us. We have taken a two year break from X and were experiencing other lines - we returned to one of the Solstice ships, our favourite vessels I think of any cruise ship.

 

Despite being forewarned by CC, the cutbacks and changes were noticeable and very disheartening. It didn't help that we seemed to be surrounded by a lot of grumpy and generally ticked off passengers, so maybe the collective sense of things going downhill was common.

 

I just don't think they are scoring as well as they should be in the various areas - having the Captain's Club benefits is still a really nice bonus, but other lines do some things way better for a more competitive price, and it has become difficult to justify the cost for the experience.

[darbs7]

LOL!!! I love this answer. Me too!! And when I die, I would like my ashes to carry on sailing in an urn (in a suite please with a nice aft view) :D:D:D

 

I agree love that answer, but....

 

1. If it became too kid friendly....I love kids, but need a break sometimes (I would have thought different 7-8 years ago when daughter was still traveling with us).

 

2. Nothing else...we don't need much

 

but we love the drink package and dining packages

[blueboro]

Are Celebrity's prices going up in a big way? I still find Celebrity very reasonably priced and a bargain compared to what I was paying 17 years ago. I realize that I'm not getting the same bargains that could be found during the recession but that is understandable. Maybe I'm not sensitive at this stage of my life to $100 to $200 price increase, as it will not impact my vacation budget.

 

We just looked and we have paid about the same amount per day the past 5 years on X, HAL and Princess. But, the plus now is that we receive the classic drink package and more OBC.

[BosoxI]

Are Celebrity's prices going up in a big way? I still find Celebrity very reasonably priced and a bargain compared to what I was paying 17 years ago. I realize that I'm not getting the same bargains that could be found during the recession but that is understandable. Maybe I'm not sensitive at this stage of my life to $100 to $200 price increase, as it will not impact my vacation budget.

 

Maybe I'm looking at the wrong cruises, but for the ones I am tracking right now, the starting price is high and the changes always seem to be upward. Compared to several other lines, X appears to be quite a bit more expensive on the face of it. It can be difficult to match cabins across different cruise lines, of course. But the ships are full, so many people don't seem to care. When I consider what a modest hotel at JFK costs me, cruising, even with inflated pricing, is still a fantastic deal, but I no longer have the overwhelming need to get on a ship the way I once did. BTW the recession is far from over, so the prices should still be bargains (ho, ho, ho).

[Gordoncruickshank]

Perhaps trying a different ship or class may help? It appears, from your signature, you have sailed on the same ship and itineraries many times over - perhaps a change of scenery (both onboard and ashore) may revive the interest :confused:? We have found that there are slight differences in many aspects when sailing on different ships/itineraries, even within the same brand ;).

 

The reason for our staying with he EC is the fact that it is one of the few ships gust do 14 night cruises. If you are doing anything in the Caribbean it is 2 days to get anywhere u less you do Western. If you b2b you end up with too many sea days.

[Queen of Oakville]

Well we just found celebrity, so we're not going anywhere just yet.

 

Reading all the complaints about "how good it used to be" makes me wish we'd found Celebrity sooner.

 

oh well.

[fleckle]

....I have said to my DH that whenever I leave this planet, at least they'll be able to say in my eulogy, 'She saw the world' (even if I never make it to Zenith :D).

That's one of the best reasons of all.

 

You can't see the world by sticking exclusively to Celebrity cruises and would miss out on so much if you did that because there are too many wonderful places to see in this world where Celebrity cruises don't go.

 

Even when Celebrity cruises do go where you want, they may not go there at the right time for you.

 

Right now we are talking about taking another trip to Hawaii. As much as we love Celebrity cruises, we do not take Celebrity to or from Hawaii because we want to be there at the height of the whale watching season, when Celebrity ships do not go there.

 

[Kevnzworld]

We have done 7 Celebrity Cruises over the past 2 years all in AQ and are getting bored with both the AQ menus and the speciality restaurants as none of these have changed since we started cruising with Celebrity.

 

We have now tried all the things we like several times and find that the repeated rendition of the same old menu is making us want to do something else. We will try the suite restaurant for a while but I suspect that by the time we work through the cruises we have in the tank just now that we will be well and truly fed up with that as well.

 

Since November 2012 the main shows on the Eclipse have not changed and we no longer try and go to these. Part of that is down to the fact that we have seen them all and part is down to the fact that the Theatre is always too warm and after a couple of glasses of wine with the meal, I dose off.

 

Celebrity seems to be built around a repeating customer base but they need to recognise that and change menus and the main show regularly otherwise this captive repeat business will find somewhere new to spend our children's inheritance.

 

Excellent, Exactly..., but it's been over five years that nothing has changed, not just the two years that you've been on Celebrity.