Idea for those unhappy with "loud" Celebrity ships

[ladylemondrop]

I totally agree. I also am 62 and feel I am young at heart, I wish Celebrity had more music by the pool, in the Caribbean, I love to hear raggae. We love Celebrity and you can't please everyone, but I for one wishes there was more music on the ship. The only place I find the music too loud is the martini bar and I feel they have the wrong music mix. Being a martini bar they should be playing more Sinatra, Dean Martin, type of music.

 

But like I said, you can't please everyone.

 

I am 44 and I agree with you, they had music by the pool on my cruise, but it was very loud techno music, which is more suited to the evening, I would LOVE reggae all day by the pool, and you cant beat a bit of buble or sinatra in a classy bar! Guess its so hard to please everyones tastes.

[hcat]

I totally agree. I also am 62 and feel I am young at heart, I wish Celebrity had more music by the pool, in the Caribbean, I love to hear raggae. We love Celebrity and you can't please everyone, but I for one wishes there was more music on the ship. The only place I find the music too loud is the martini bar and I feel they have the wrong music mix. Being a martini bar they should be playing more Sinatra, Dean Martin, type of music.

 

But like I said, you can't please everyone.

 

Miss the reggae/island bands...and Buffet style guitar at the pool and aft bar .makes for a fun party atmosphere!

 

Ensemble lounge is great for jazz!

[hcat]

I really appreciate those who took the time to make suggestions to me for a peaceful alternative.

 

bobnjeff - those are incredible prices on the P&O Arcadia. I will definitely check out P&O. Hope that they have a strictly enforced non-smoking policy on balconies.

 

tangerinebunny - problem for me with HAL is that they seem to have turned into the "smokers' choice" line and allow it on balconies, last I saw.

 

hcat - we've done all inclusive resorts and I was considering one in Barbados for the future. (We'll be doing a self-catering condo vacation to Abaco in the Bahamas soon.)

 

Typically when we travel, it's to see as many interesting things as possible, which is why we cruise: always primarily for the itinerary, within our budget. Our land trips include a rental car and full day trips to various areas. Cruising gives my husband a break from driving.

 

Because we are so itinerary driven, certain cruises just make sense. We don't cruise to relax, even though, after a full day of sightseeing, I want my down time.

 

The reason we've stayed with Celebrity, despite the noise (and we've also had 3 major cabin noise issues in the last 4 cruises), is that the overall experience they give is second to none, for the price, at least for what we look for: dining, itinerary, cleanliness, fewer kids and, most importantly to me, a strictly enforced non-smoking policy on balconies.:)

 

It's been mentioned that Celebrity is trying to drive out its older base of customers, but I can't see that, as we were given a significant credit for a future cruise after taking a couple of hours to sit down with ship management to explain why the noise issue was making me feel that I wouldn't want to take another cruise. We didn't ask for anything. We didn't expect anything. I just wanted them to know how much I loved Celebrity and how depressed I was about the noise. Celebrity wants to attract new, younger cruisers, but they wouldn't have spontaneously given us so much credit, unasked (!), if they were trying to get rid of their elite level cruisers. (My husband thinks that we got the credit more for his suggestion that they move the unauthorized mahjong games from the card room just outside our cabin to the casino, where they could make money at it. Perhaps.)

 

I suppose I just have to work even harder at cabin choice, and realize that, like with weddings, there's always something that'll probably go wrong.

 

I've said it before: It may look and feel like a floating resort, but at the bottom of it all, it's a potentially "Master and Commander" experience. :eek: So, what's a little (or a lot of) noise if you have a safe trip? Overall, I really DO love Celebrity.

 

Thanks again.

 

See you in the Solarium. :D

 

This was a very well written, thoughtful and informative post..Thank you...

[perditax]

I've said it before, but if they want to attract a younger crowd, they need to hire a new IT department to overhaul their website and apps, not add crappy techno music.

[wallie5446]

I've said it before, but if they want to attract a younger crowd, they need to hire a new IT department to overhaul their website and apps, not add crappy techno music.

 

This is a CC internet myth, rummered with no basis. Almost every ad you see for Celebrity has the male with gray hair, not a baseball cap on backwards.

[HawaiianShirtDay]

This is the first I'm hearing about noise issues on Celebrity ships. Which areas do some cruisers say are too loud? Staterooms? Pool? Dining room? Solarium?

[lisiamc]

This is the first I'm hearing about noise issues on Celebrity ships. Which areas do some cruisers say are too loud? Staterooms? Pool? Dining room? Solarium?

 

When we were on the Century Transpacific last year, the Martini Bar had loud techno music, loud enough to make it hard to talk to others at the table. Sometimes there was modern Country music instead, which seemed like an unusual choice to alternate with techno. The bartender would turn it down if requested, but not for very long.

[hcat]

This is the first I'm hearing about noise issues on Celebrity ships. Which areas do some cruisers say are too loud? Staterooms? Pool? Dining room? Solarium?

 

See you are fairly new to cruise critic...if you use the search feature, it has been an on and off issue for a few years...esp when they brought on Miami DJ and featured less live music...

 

But best way is to have feedback from recent cruisers....varied opinions ; and even better to observe on a cruise! Looking forward to Equinox in January!

[patty1955]

This is the first I'm hearing about noise issues on Celebrity ships. Which areas do some cruisers say are too loud? Staterooms? Pool? Dining room? Solarium?

When we on the Reflection a couple of years ago, the music in the atrium was so loud we couldn't hear each other in the stores. Usually if the music gets too loud (the pool area) we just go to another area, but there was no getting away from the noise in the atrium. It wasn't the type of music, it was the volume.

[varoo]

This is the first I'm hearing about noise issues on Celebrity ships. Which areas do some cruisers say are too loud? Staterooms? Pool? Dining room? Solarium?

Most annoying of all to us is the loud music down in the atrium, drowning out conversations with the people who work at Guest Relations and Shore Excursions.

 

The employees there needed to shout at the passengers to be heard, and the passengers had to shout back at them.

 

In other areas of the ship, if the music is too loud at least you can walk away and go someplace quieter, but not when you need to be in a specific place to converse with the people who work there.

 

 

I wonder if the cruise lines even test their employees who are exposed to such loud noise day after day for damage to their hearing.

 

Many musicians do use hearing protection themselves these days, aware of the well-publicized information about so many musicians from earlier generations who suffered severe hearing loss.

 

 

Just one of many articles about the subject:

Turn it Up? Musicians Run Far Higher Risk of Hearing Loss - NBC News

 

 

 

[Jimbo59]

On Silhouette I measured a Decibel Level of 99 in the theater, using my iPhone decibel app.

[cruise47]

What is the cruise industry standard noise level for playing music in a restaurant, around the pool area and throughout a cruise ship? What is Celebrity noise level in each area?

[HawaiianShirtDay]

I have sensitivity to light & sound from concussions so I always have earplugs with me. I've only been on RCCI cruises and used them in the theater but not on other areas of the ship. It must be difficult to hold any sort of conversation with the music so loud. Why do they keep doing it? Are they trying to force a different atmosphere on cruisers? Are they trying to prove their not a "boring" cruise line? Maybe someone high on the totem pole told them if they keep the music loud it will promote an atmosphere where people purchase more cocktails? I expect it in the theater and a night club after 10pm but that's about it.

[shipshape sam]

But if you want something done about it, you need to give them data. The problem is that someone sitting in an office somewhere has no idea the difference between someone who only wants soft classical music playing and the person is is fine with background music, but the music truly is overbearingly loud. Likewise the person controlling the volume may not be interpreting the request of the person in the office correctly.

 

If people want to come here and vent, you can do that. But I've read over and over that people are frustrated by the loud music and that Celebrity does nothing about the complaints. I'm hypothesizing that nothing gets done because it's too hard to quantify. So if people are serious about wanting Celebrity to change the volume in their music, there is a simple way to start collecting data that may get them to see that there are times when the volume really IS a problem and it's not just people not liking change.

 

 

Any thoughts on why they raised the level of music?

 

Not sure they did any research on the effects / limits of loud music. They, I would guess, did do research that showed younger passengers with lots of expendable money like louder music among other things and want to court that demographic.

 

Unfortunately, many times there are unintended consequences and this may be one of them. How many passengers have to dislike something for a company to change something? It depends. I think it depends on the economics, but that is being a skeptic. I do think companies have to adapt, thus they cannot please everyone. I get disappointed with many of the changes, but think some changes have been good, so I have to make an overall value judgement as to do I sail with Celebrity or not. So far, it is still yes!