Eclipse: Not Your Parents' Celebrity

[Banjo]

Hope that if one politely indicates an non interest in these sales approaches they will let it rest.. On our Reflection cruise anyone sitting in the atrium at the start of the cruise was harassed constanly by bar reps abt alc packages..quite annoying and very low class.

 

 

Worst yet was on Oasis (ship with mall & food court) At a dress up family dinner Celebration in a speciaty restaurant, .between dinner and the cake, our waiter appeared with a cook book and something for pouring wine , AND went into a salespitch...I saw my dtr catch my husb and my looks as we told him how rude and unmannerly that was on his part... not to mention poor timing..any .extra tip reflected that..

 

Seems a certain lack of class, polish, good manners and elegance is now coming to Celebrity a bit at a time!

 

I agree during your meal is classless and rude but its not just Celebrity. When we are on the Princess (and they been doing this for years) they always approach you during the meal to purchase a cordial and you get to keep the glass with the Princess insigna on it.

 

I don't mind being approached in the hallway, a simple 'no thanks' usually ends the conversation.

[hcat]

I agree during your meal is classless and rude but its not just Celebrity. When we are on the Princess (and they been doing this for years) they always approach you during the meal to purchase a cordial and you get to keep the glass with the Princess insigna on it.

 

I don't mind being approached in the hallway, a simple 'no thanks' usually ends the conversation.

 

Good to know a no thanks will be respected.....actually a cordial with a logo glass seems not as bad as hawking a cookbook, esp when we did not inquire about any recipes...

 

"Hondling " dinner pricess is an odd concept to us .Imagine doing that at Ruth Christ or Mortons..or even Burger King!

[wallie5446]

We did not have any of the hounding on the Equinox over Thanksgiving about the Specialty restaurant's. One factor may have been that they were sold out most of the 10 nights, so no reason to 'hawk' em.

 

Quite a few from the roll call said they could not get a table.

[Aquahound]

Hope that if one politely indicates an non interest in these sales approaches they will let it rest..

 

Ok...you just solicited a negative experience I had on this cruise.

 

On this cruise, I acually had to get stern with a bar staff member who approached me in the Oceanview Cafe and wouldn't take no for answer. I was trying to eat lunch. He walked away mumbling something under his breath. It's a good thing it was day 1 and I was excited to be on board because any other day I might have gone after him and told him to speak up.

 

This was one of my biggest complaints of my last 2 Celebrity cruises. On Constellation early last year and last week on Eclipse, they were very aggressive with their specialty restaurants and beverage package sales. It was to the point of annoying. Same went for the spa folks during our spa tour.

[Dave85]

Thanks for the review -- the new approach to entertainment sounds GREAT to us! We did our Honeymoon on Silhouette a couple of years ago and the one major thing that was missing for us was entertainment. Celebrity will be more competitive for our cruising dollars if they can modernize their entertainment!

[Hlitner]

On the Eclipse, the staff was "camped out" just outside the Lido and did approach most folks every time they went in or out of the Lido buffet area (at breakfast and lunch). But most of the staff (with one exception) made it a fun kind of harassment (although they were persistent). The one guy who was a pain in our behind finally bugged me enough (after a few days) that every time he would try to sell us on an alternative restaurant (usually the Tuscan) we kept lowering our counter-offer. We started at 50% and gradually moved to 90% off :). After a few days he avoided us like the plague :).

 

By the way, the new game in the Tuscan involves a special menu with additional fees. Friends of ours who did go to the Tuscan were disgusted when their waiter tried to talk them into paying even more money (over the Tuscan charge) for certain items! Go figure.

 

Hank

Edited December 22, 2015 by Hlitner

[bottomfeeder]

It's interesting to hear about all your experiences with being hounded to buy drink packages and specialty restaurant reservations. I was on Reflection December 5th-12th and ate many meals in Oceanview and was never at any point, either in the Oceanview or elsewhere, approached to buy anything.

 

Is it because I was a female by myself and they go after men to buy things? So they were waiting for my (non-existent) husband to return so they could approach him instead? Or did I have a really forbidding expression on my face? I have no idea. I just know that nobody approached me at all.

 

I'm not complaining! But if I knew how I kept the pushy salespeople away, I could sell the secret to all of you! :)

[Aquahound]

Bottomfeeder (I mean that in the best possible way ;)), you got very lucky. However, my one bad experience in OV was on embarkation day. Other than at the entrance, we were not hounded past day 1 in the OV.