More suites?

[gcorgain]

It seems like prices have gone up significantly for suites and yet they are the first categories to sell out on most sailings. I "converted" a couple of years ago, and must admit I'm likely to jump to a luxury line before heading back, as I love the Celebrity Suite product. Has there been any thought to converting more regular cabins to suites or further increasing the ratio of suites in further Edge class ships? That would have other knock on effects I imagine, but it seems like it would still be profitable if demand holds.

[Redking]

Interesting question. Our upcoming cruise has last minute bargains a plenty in other categories and is still not sold out, including SS. CS and above sold out as per. Maybe a rethink of the suite offerings and is a good suggestion. Supply and demand, the price you pay (literally ) for the product!

[George C]

We love celebrity suite perks, was not that crazy over celebrity suite on infinity, since balconies were add on. I sure the the newer ships celebrity suites are nice. 

[mom says]

Interesting thought,  but there would definitely be consequences.  You would be decreasing more regular cabins than you would gain new suites, reducing the overall  number of paying pax. Also, thereby reducing income from goods and services sold. You would also have to increase the size of both Luminae and the Retreat, further reducing the dining and deck spaces available to non suite guests. At a guess, this might cause a bit of a stampede away from X by non suite guests if they felt the impact was too noticeable. 

[dougocam]

Economics 101 would suggest limited supply maintains prices. 

[jelayne]

On the Edge to accommodate the large number of Suites Luminae  can seat +/- 175.  T a time. We have not sailed in a Suite on the Edge butfriends who have found Luminae to be noisy & crowded.  They said it lost the small intimate feel.

[bigbenboys]

40 minutes ago, jelayne said:

On the Edge to accommodate the large number of Suites Luminae  can seat +/- 175.  T a time. We have not sailed in a Suite on the Edge butfriends who have found Luminae to be noisy & crowded.  They said it lost the small intimate feel.

Yes you are right in my eyes. We have cruised on the Edge in a suite. The staff were great in Luminae, but it twice the size of Luminae on other Celebrity ships. Also I asked about a children's lunch menu. Luminae does not a lunch menu for children. That is what the waiter said. If and it is a big if. If we cruise on the Edge again it will only be if the cruise is over 7 nights and will book AquaClass not suites.

Edited August 1, 2019 by bigbenboys
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[gcorgain]

Fair enough. We loved our Edge cruise in a Sky Suite but everyone has different views. I agree that more suites would mean more space for them and to maintain the same experience would require some modifications. Although this would obviously come from other space, the reduction in overall passengers would mitigate that impact to some degree. 

 

Im on a cruise in November that is wide open except for suites. I’m on another in November 2020 that has no suites available but all other categories. 

[George C]

1 hour ago, mom says said:

Interesting thought,  but there would definitely be consequences.  You would be decreasing more regular cabins than you would gain new suites, reducing the overall  number of paying pax. Also, thereby reducing income from goods and services sold. You would also have to increase the size of both Luminae and the Retreat, further reducing the dining and deck spaces available to non suite guests. At a guess, this might cause a bit of a stampede away from X by non suite guests if they felt the impact was too noticeable. 

Space for retreat on most ships is far from prime space it’s two decks above the pool 

[ScubesDad]

OK, up front I will admit I spent way too much time thinking about this; however, it seemed like a good puzzle to solve.

 

Like the OP my immediate thought was that it is a reasonable conclusion to expect more suites as they have the  highest cost, and therefore the highest  payback after expenses. It is also true that the cost of delivery of service/product is higher to the suite class...but how much higher is it?

 

I then realized Celebrity had already done the analysis when they built the Reflection. So I picked the Equinox as my comparable ship, I excluded the FV's and all suites above SS, as they are in a unique group of their own.  They added 61 additional cabins to the Reflection of which 40 were new SS's, a 90% increase in cabin class. The next largest was Aqua with 20 new cabins or a 15% increase, followed by inside at 14 additional or 10%.

 

This was then reinforced when I looked at the Edge and the mix of cabins and their percentage of the total cabin space. As compared to the Equinox they added 102 more SS's or a tripling of cabin class; from 3% of total cabins to 10% of total cabins. OV cabins were doubled from 70 to 148 or 5% to 10% of total cabins.  Interior, Concierge, and Aqua were reduced  by small numbers anywhere from 6% to 15% compared to Equinox.

 

I then went on to analyse the gross revenue per square foot per night, based on a sample sailing of Equinox in March 2021. It was difficult to draw any firm conclusion not knowing costs, etc. Assuming that Celebrity prices their cabins originally at a point where they are all profitable, or at least not losing money..then the gross margin on Sky Suites is significantly higher relative to all other cabin categories.

 

Does that mean more suites as a percentage of cabins...I can't say because there are too many variables caused by things I don't know,  but I think there is a higher probability than not it will happen.

[gcorgain]

Very interesting analysis!

[Cruise a holic]

On 7/31/2019 at 7:45 PM, George C said:

We love celebrity suite perks, was not that crazy over celebrity suite on infinity, since balconies were add on. I sure the the newer ships celebrity suites are nice. 

However the Celebrity suites on the Mclass ships are larger.  We really like them more then the S class Celebrity suites.  Haven't been on the Summit since it was revolutionized, so hopefully, they didn't eliminate the dining table which they do not have on the S class Celebrity suites.

[Htown-cruiser]

Replying to the original inquiry, a dirty little secret our TA passed on a few years ago may explain the lack of availability of certain suites on certain cruises.  Many suites are "held" with a deposit even prior to release of the itinerary to the public by large travel agencies.  They can keep those suites off the market and reach out to many of their frequent customers to offer "an exclusive package".  They throw in additional OBC, a nice bottle of wine, car service, luggage service... while still making money.  They even trade the suites around to "affiliated" agencies.  When the final payment is due, if they have not booked a client, they release the suite and get their deposit refunded.  We were "lucky" and accepted one of these offers two years ago.  Received all four perks offered by cruise line, $250 additional OBC and welcome bottle of red wine (TA made a large point they were both from her) and $150 OBC from the agency.

 

With that said, maybe she was just a great salesperson telling us that story to make us feel she was taking good care of us with her inside connections in bookings.  Maybe it is 100% BS.

[cangelmd]

On 7/31/2019 at 7:41 PM, bigbenboys said:

Yes you are right in my eyes. We have cruised on the Edge in a suite. The staff were great in Luminae, but it twice the size of Luminae on other Celebrity ships. Also I asked about a children's lunch menu. Luminae does not a lunch menu for children. That is what the waiter said. If and it is a big if. If we cruise on the Edge again it will only be if the cruise is over 7 nights and will book AquaClass not suites.

This kind of piggybacks on to something someone else has posted. They were on the Edge and were asked to leave the Retreat Pool because of their child.

I'm sorry, where in Celebrity materials does it say children cannot travel in suites? AQ I understand is for couples, two persons per cabin, and I think somewhere in the promotional materials it says AQ is for couples. The Solarium pools are clearly marked adult only.

Some suites though sleep up to 5 people - how is that not for families? OK, so no lunch menu, that's not so terrible, but I don't think it is at all clear that suites are adults only and children are not welcome in the Retreat sundeck.

[Cruise a holic]

58 minutes ago, cangelmd said:

This kind of piggybacks on to something someone else has posted. They were on the Edge and were asked to leave the Retreat Pool because of their child.

I'm sorry, where in Celebrity materials does it say children cannot travel in suites? AQ I understand is for couples, two persons per cabin, and I think somewhere in the promotional materials it says AQ is for couples. The Solarium pools are clearly marked adult only.

Some suites though sleep up to 5 people - how is that not for families? OK, so no lunch menu, that's not so terrible, but I don't think it is at all clear that suites are adults only and children are not welcome in the Retreat sundeck.

You can bring children in suites.  They are allowed in all suite venues including the sundeck.  My DH has a very limited diet but alway finds something to eat- if not we go to the grill for a hotdog and fries.  

[bigbenboys]

1 hour ago, cangelmd said:

This kind of piggybacks on to something someone else has posted. They were on the Edge and were asked to leave the Retreat Pool because of their child.

I'm sorry, where in Celebrity materials does it say children cannot travel in suites? AQ I understand is for couples, two persons per cabin, and I think somewhere in the promotional materials it says AQ is for couples. The Solarium pools are clearly marked adult only.

Some suites though sleep up to 5 people - how is that not for families? OK, so no lunch menu, that's not so terrible, but I don't think it is at all clear that suites are adults only and children are not welcome in the Retreat sundeck.

It is my understanding that kids can be booked in AquaClass and can dine in Blu. What it comes down to is that you can only put 2 in a Aqua cabin. That means if their a 3 of you. If you want AuqaClass you will have to book 2 Aqua cabins. Most wont want to pay full price for a 2 Aqua cabin.

We have met a few families with children booked in the PH and the children have dined in Luminae. One son let say 12 or 13 years old dined in Luminae for lunch by himself one day. We talked to his parents and they said he enjoyed this meals in Luminae.

Edited August 2, 2019 by bigbenboys
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[ShawninFL]

So funny that I should come across this thread just now.  This morning I was searching itineraries looking at suite pricing.  We've only done one "suite" experience and it was just a SS.  It was a spectacular experience, but it was a complete splurge for us for a very special occasion.  But the bug did bite me somewhat.  Anyway, I was just searching to see what suites are going for and thought maybe just maybe, I'd find a sailing with a good deal.  Ha Ha.  Not!  I was not only amazed at how many sailings simply are sold out of suites or just a couple cabins left, but the pricing itself was just.....Wow!!  I would love to go Suite Class again, but I'm not ready to come off an entire years worth of discretionary spending for a 7-14 night cruise experience in a suite.  I can go on 3-4 optimally priced cruises in a year for the prices I was seeing and still be very happy. As for the OP inquiring about move suite cabins, I think it could be done and might financial sense on paper, but I think the suite experience is diminished with each extra suite added to a ship.  The more suites there are, the more generic the suite experience becomes and suite guests aren't paying for a generic experience.  Just my two cents.