A Few More Cut-backs!

[Luvcrusn]

This post was meant to slam Celebrity and nothing else. Your title and original post was about but backs. Then you state you asked and were given card holder, even though your original post said attendance said they pretty much stopped given them and you also state you never asked for wine, even though in past attendant brought to you when you wanted. Now everyone is piling on about cuts, except the people that have recently cruised.

 

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Well said

[Orator]

Stock price at a record high. Future bookings are strong! Ships sailing at capacity! Still unbuilt Edge more than half booked! Guess they're doing something right.

[laslomas]

I agree 100%!

Our first Celebrity Cruise is coming up in a couple weeks and would like to experience the difference these little "extras" can make in Concierge Class that we have not experienced on other lines.

If they are missing, that would be a bad first impression. :eek:

 

The trouble is that if things are not there and you are unaware that they should be, how do you know to ask for them....... I suggest taking the relevant page from a Celebrity brochure with you. It may seem odd to some, but little things like the shower gel should be in Concierge even though it is not in a basic balcony cabin and if you have decided to save on packing by leaving out your shower gel you need to know you can ask.

 

I am sure you will love your cruise, and hopefully everything will be there for you, have fun :)

[springfire]

Its kind of interesting that Celebrity has all these issues on turn around days. Consider HAL (a competitor) and their turn around days. Passengers may stay in their cabins until their time to disembark, There is room service breakfast on that last morning...for those that desire that service. And at lunch time, the MDR is open (along with the Lido). Yet somehow, they manage to clean their ships and make it work. We do not think that HAL is perfect (far from it)....but they are able to handle turn around days without substantially cutting services. Now I do agree with you that juggling luggage on Celebrity embarkation days can be a pain. The norm on Celebrity is not to allow passengers to access their cabins until at least 1pm. So, you have several thousand passengers walking around the ship and dragging their carry-on luggage (with others trying not to trip over the dragging straps). You go to the Lido and many seats are taken up by luggage! But again, some of their competitors do not seem to have that issue. If we board on several other cruise lines we can immediately go to our cabin to drop our luggage and lock our valuables in the safe. I guess my question is that if other lines can handle this turn-around day without all the hassles, why not Celebrity? DW and I are very familiar with the Celebrity system (we have been Elite Plus for some time). We know how to play the game. although that has recently been made more difficult since they got rid of the Cafe on 5 (our go to place for that first lunch). But having spent many years of our life on cruise ships we do roll with the waves and do quite fine. But that does not mean they cannot improve their system. Just because we still enjoy Celebrity....does not mean we will become "cheerleaders" for the things they do that need improvement.

 

Hank

 

Excellent post Hank!

[4774Papa]

I was a bit surprised to see so many flame Hank for his comment. His comment made an argument that should elicit discussion. This is cruise CRITIC and that is what we do.

 

Personally, some of these minor cutbacks mean very little to our overall cruise. However, to some people some of these items are important. For example, complaining about not getting a leather card holder.

[ChucktownSteve]

So far those who don't get the negatives on this thread have been called dogs and cheerleaders. What next? .

 

How about Lemmings? :D

[ChucktownSteve]

My most missed cut back is the skiing behind cruise ships. Remember those fun activities?

 

[NEW 2 CRUISIN]

The trouble is that if things are not there and you are unaware that they should be, how do you know to ask for them....... I suggest taking the relevant page from a Celebrity brochure with you. It may seem odd to some, but little things like the shower gel should be in Concierge even though it is not in a basic balcony cabin and if you have decided to save on packing by leaving out your shower gel you need to know you can ask.

 

I am sure you will love your cruise, and hopefully everything will be there for you, have fun :)

 

Thanks so much!

We are really looking forward to the EQUINOX in 2 weeks!

 

I agree!

I planned this cruise not only for myself, but also for my parents, who will we sailing with us.

When I booked our 2 "Concierge" cabins, I was thinking more about Mom and Dad then myself.

Then they were nearly the same price as balcony cabins and included some OBC and Prepaid Gratuities, so it was an easy decision to choose Celebrity this time.

 

I did my research and am excited about the "little extras" that this cruise will offer that we did not have in the past. While they are not "make or break" items by any means, they were promised and paid for, so folks should be able to feel confident that they will be delivered. I have faith that Celebrity will deliver in many ways!

 

COUNTING DOWN THE DAYS!!! :cool:

[NEW 2 CRUISIN]

My most missed cut back is the skiing behind cruise ships. Remember those fun activities?

 

 

:')

Don't forget fishing off the top deck!!

[ISABELLA]

Nothing in cruising is what used to be, but still very enjoyable experience.

Any bad cruise is still better than a good day at the office....;)

[jelayne]

This post was meant to slam Celebrity and nothing else. Your title and original post was about but backs. Then you state you asked and were given card holder, even though your original post said attendance said they pretty much stopped given them and you also state you never asked for wine, even though in past attendant brought to you when you wanted. Now everyone is piling on about cuts, except the people that have recently cruised.

 

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I'm sorry you read my post as a slam of Celebrity that was not my intention. I was sharing my experience on a couple of things that have been topics of discussion on this forum in the past. Those being the chocolates which were discontinued when Lisa took over and then reinstated after a lot of a push back from these boards. It was only after I questioned the lack of chocolate for the first 3 days did they appear.

 

The wine which previously in the cabin upon arrival then some of us experienced it wasn't there but upon meeting the cabin attendant he would explain it would be delivered when we wanted it. Now it may be to be moving to you having to ask for it.

 

You are correct that I was given a card holder but I was told that the leather-ish type were no longer being given out. Others in responding to my post have indicated that they received a cloth holder -so it seems that the leather are being replaced by less expensive cloth version.

 

We are Celebrity loyalists, the cruise last week being our 17th in 5 years with 4 more booked. If my intent had been to slam X I would not have mentioned the some of great things which Iit did in my post.

[CruiseFlee]

We were on the same cruise and I did notice cut backs from our Silhouette sailing in August. The most noticeable one was no more assistant stateroom attendant. We were in Concierge class and our stateroom attendant did an amazing job keeping up.

The Martini Bar was always packed...probably because so many guests had the premium drink package, thanks to the Go Best promotion.

We got a plastic/magnetic card holder that was useless..it de-magnetized our Sea Pass cards. I found to go cups in the OV after day 3. They were always available at the Aqua Spa Cafe.

We had our "Champagne" in our stateroom by the 2nd day...we didn't ask for it because we rarely drink it.

I liked that the afternoon canapés were automatically delivered in the late afternoon. We had always refused them on previous sailings.

It was a great cruise. Happy Travels.

[Silhouette2017]

I stayed in a concierge cabin in April and I got all the extra's that were advertised. Very happy with the concierge cabin and have booked again for our next cruise.

[Luvcrusn]

How about Lemmings? :D

 

Thank you:eek::rolleyes:

[harz99]

I asked our attendant as well. He said they now get the pay the assistant used to get - fair enough, given they now do the work the assistant did. However, the amount of work they have to do is massive and he often had to work through lunch, dinner and so on to get through it. He was always pleasant and willing to do what needed to be, but equally I could see things were rushed as he was stretched too much.

 

It's odd that Celebrity think that the work which needed to be done for the past almost 20 years of these ships is suddenly almost halved to enable one person to do it all.

Pretty sure you'll find the number of cabins the attendant has to service on their own, is half or very close to half, the number they had as a two person team...

 

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[NLH Arizona]

Pretty sure you'll find the number of cabins the attendant has to service on their own, is half or very close to half, the number they had as a two person team...

 

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A few cruises back, when they got rid of the Assistants, my Cabin Steward said that he had half of the cabins he had when he had an Assistant. Maybe they changed since then, didn't asky my Cabin Steward on my January cruise.

[harz99]

So you're agreeing with me?

 

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[Tyler80]

Just off the Equinox yesterday and noticed a few more cut-backs. I'm. Not sure if these are fleet wide or just on the Equinox.

 

We were in AQ and this time didn't recieve the leather like card holder.

 

I sailed on Silhouette in Aqua Class in 2015 and did not receive a card holder. I don't even know what that is.

[Baron Barracuda]

Pretty sure you'll find the number of cabins the attendant has to service on their own, is half or very close to half, the number they had as a two person team...

 

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Stewards on my two recent sailings both said they had gone from 20 cabins for 2 stewards to 14 cabins for one thereby increasing their workload by 40%. They do save some time through reduced nightly turndown service.

[4774Papa]

Stewards on my two recent sailings both said they had gone from 20 cabins for 2 stewards to 14 cabins for one thereby increasing their workload by 40%. They do save some time through reduced nightly turndown service.

We could easily do without the turndown and the chocolate on the pillow.

[Hlitner]

We could easily do without the turndown and the chocolate on the pillow.

 

Hmmmm. We could also do without breakfast. And we could also do without daily cabin cleaning (every other day would be adequate). And we certainly do not need ice cream. It is a slippery slope.

 

Hank

[Wansbrough]

They take things away.....and them give them back for a price...and we are supposed to be grateful.

 

Hank

You hit the nail on the head with that comment!

[4774Papa]

Hmmmm. We could also do without breakfast. And we could also do without daily cabin cleaning (every other day would be adequate). And we certainly do not need ice cream. It is a slippery slope.

 

Hank

Hank,

I really don't care about the turndown. We don't eat the chocolates. I do miss the end of cruise buffet a little, but not a big one.

 

What I don't like is Celebrity's bundled pricing, with drinks packages that I don't want. We all have our personal tastes and if a cruise line becomes noncompetitive with others on benefits, I will simply look for another cruise line.

 

We sometime cruise NCL (usually our second choice) and they have made more cuts than X in recent years, yet sometimes their prices are too good to skip.

George

[Orator]

Stewards on my two recent sailings both said they had gone from 20 cabins for 2 stewards to 14 cabins for one thereby increasing their workload by 40%. They do save some time through reduced nightly turndown service.

 

 

I've been on a number of cruises since the change and haven't found I cabin attendant who doesn't like the change. They all said that now there is a clear line of responsibility and they no longer are responsible for room service.

[RDC1]

My most missed cut back is the skiing behind cruise ships. Remember those fun activities?

 

 

 

I really do miss shooting clay pigeons off of the stern of the ship.