TIMES ARE A CHANGIN' WHAT KEEPS YOU COMING BACK?.

[Spif Barwunkel]

Skyrocketing prices, increases in gratuities, decreases in amenities, just a few topics introduced on this forum by concerned travelers whose frustration increases with each change in the cruising routine and expense. All valid concerns and yet the affects on the cruising community vary from one cruiser to another. Economics is a crucial factor in life and certainly makes us all want more bang for our back.

 

Celebrity's service philosophy is to provide it's passengers a comfortable, fun-filled sea vacation with personal attention and care. Celebrity's business philosophy - just as with any other corporate entity -  is to remain solvent while keeping costs in-line with what the market will bear. Therein lies the economic equation  that differentiates us seafaring folks from one another. What it's worth to me, may not be worth it to you. Is it strictly dollars & cents or is the product satisfactory at any cost?

 

Times are a changin'.  What keeps you coming back? Stay strictly in Celebrity's house, and make no comparisons with other cruise lines or land vacations.  

 

What keeps me coming back is the wonderful itineraries, the consistently good service and food, cleanliness of the ships and the expediency of embarkation and disembarkation. I do believe that X's entertainment could be better overall, but that is certainly not a deal breaker. In all cases, nothing is perfect all the time and a glitch will occur now and then. However, the overall experience remains, for me, a quality product that is very much enjoyed and a fair price to pay for play. 

 

 

 

      

[davekathy]

We like the ships, service, most of the guest entertainment, variety of food selections, itineraries, elite perks/benefits and the option of bundled perks. Overall good value for our money.  🥁

Edited December 30, 2019 by davekathy

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

The prices of their suite product are beginning to scare me away, but it is a good experience.  I love the people who work on Celebrity ships.  Caribbean itineraries are getting same old, same old.

[Spif Barwunkel]

8 minutes ago, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

The prices of their suite product are beginning to scare me away, but it is a good experience.  I love the people who work on Celebrity ships.  Caribbean itineraries are getting same old, same old.

As a fellow Floridian, I agree that the Caribbean Islands are no longer a strong pull for us. However, they are in the neighborhood and although we have been to many of them - both land and cruise vacations - certain ones remain enjoyable for a quick float-on-a-boat, whenever the mood strikes.   

[The_Big_M]

Nothing so much. My sailings with them have massively reduced compared to what I used to, while other cruise lines and non cruise holidays have increased as their value has fallen.

[Luvcrusn]

Previous to this year when we decided to take a cruise vacation we looked at the available itineraries X offered and made a choice, not out of any loyalty, but because we enjoy the vacation offered by X and felt the value was there. The rising prices, changes, cutbacks and new builds have caused us to look at other cruise lines as well as at X when picking a cruise vacation. We are booked with X for now, however once a business causes contented customers a bit of non-contentment and gives those customers a reason to shop, they will lose some of those customers.  We do enjoy our sailings on X, but our rose colored glasses are a wee bit filmy. Time will tell.

[helen haywood]

Celebrity is still my favorite line.  We still enjoy going to our floating oceanfront condo... 😁  And our recent cruise on Edge was a brilliant shot of oxygen.

[Ken the cruiser]

For us, believe it or not, we usually get a great deal on either a sky suite or aqua class cabin when we book a TA or TP when they first come out. However, since we like to book longer itineraries and X usually only offers 1-2 week cruises we have found Princess has a good selection of longer itineraries to some pretty cool places.

 

But on both lines we usually have a great time. We used to book longer HAL and Oceania itineraries, but they have just become too "relaxed" for us on sea days anymore.

[NMTraveller]

I have also been finding that Princess has some of the more interesting and longer itineraries lately.

 

I am booking some of the smaller ships on other lines and giving them a try.

 

The new builds are giving me a good reason to look at other lines.  Previously I would book my next X cruise while on board X.  I still am booking X cruises, just not as many as before, all on S class ships.

 

Edited December 30, 2019 by NMTraveller

[Oville]

Currently the E Class.

[TommyD3]

The Zenith benefits !!!

[Hlitner]

I do love the OP's attitude.  We only want to hear good and positive things.  Nothing negative, no comparisons and most of all no truth!   Sounds a little like putting one's head in the sand dune.

 

Hank

[grandgeezer]

Absolutely nothing.

[chemmo]

When we first cruised Celebrity the Suite benefits were very limited (bigger room and a butler). The introduction of the very sweet suite life caught us! The suite life is now getting sweeter with the addition  of the suite deck....

[Oville]

We have been on Oceania, HAL and Viking Ocean in the last couple of years, Celebrity keeps coming us back.

[Siora7777]

Nothing. I have one left. One more and I'm done. They've priced me out. 

Edited December 30, 2019 by Siora7777

[bikerunner]

Tried other lines just don’t enjoy them wrong term I enjoyed them but not the same relaxation that celebrity gives me. Celebrity has the relaxed refined style I look for. I love the s class ships the best and looking for a decent itinerary for one of the E class to try I tend to like 10-12 day cruises the best so e only had 7 mostly.  At this point it does give me the best value overall for my dollars. I look at other lines and Viking oceana are  on my list to try.  I usually can get into a group deal with celebrity when booking otherwise yes there pricing is getting higher and will give me pause.  

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

6 hours ago, grandgeezer said:

Absolutely nothing.

So - I’m asking this seriously - why are you still on these boards? If I am no longer interested in a product I stop researching/interacting with others about it.

[PelicanLvr]

We keep coming back for a "value" escape from our New York winter.  But that value is getting harder and harder to find.  

 

We are just short of elite + and have not been aboard in 11 months and no X trips planned.  Our longest absence in 15 years.  

[Spif Barwunkel]

10 hours ago, Hlitner said:

I do love the OP's attitude.  We only want to hear good and positive things.  Nothing negative, no comparisons and most of all no truth!   Sounds a little like putting one's head in the sand dune.

 

Hank

Lot's of other threads on which to vent the negative, Hank. With so many of them out there -  as they should be in order for everyone to have full disclosure - I am interested in knowing how X keeps it's loyalists and attracts new cruisers despite it's occasional shortcomings. We kind of already know why some X boat folks are considering going elsewhere. Here is an example, hypothetical of course. I find out through my extensive research and numerous sources that Hlitner is going to be a passenger on the same cruise ship as me. Definitely a negative that would not have come to light had my head been in a sand dune. Despite this misfortune, I am not at all deterred from maximizing the good times that are forthcoming. And, where Hlitner may be the crochety old sailing man swabbing the decks with a jaundiced perspective, I will be the good time guy offering him a cool refreshment to ease his troubled brow. Who knows, that might just be what keeps him coming back. 

Edited December 30, 2019 by Spif Barwunkel

[TeeRick]

We cruise mostly Celebrity and sometimes RC.   Earlier with our kids it was RC only 7-day Caribbean. Now as early retirees, we come back to Celebrity for all of the reasons mentioned by Spif and for the more interesting, longer, more global itineraries with an excellent suite experience and quieter atmosphere than RC.  The Celebrity ships are well maintained overall and the service is generally excellent.

[HS2BS]

We cruise on Celebrity because it feels comfortable and staff is always accommodating to our needs. Needing a wheelchair, Celebrity has one available from the time we arrive at the curb, getting on/off or disembarking to a taxi. This year we did six Celebrity cruises which in most parts were as we wanted and needed; our trip to Alaska(Princes Coral) with our grandson was a departure from what we have grown to expect from Celebrity. On Princess there are no available wheelchairs so we had to bring our own, not as accessible as most Celebrity ships. In the coming year we have a number of Celebrity cruises booked as we just feel comfortable there!

 

Hal

[Hlitner]

15 minutes ago, Spif Barwunkel said:

Lot's of other threads on which to vent the negative, Hank. With so many of them out there -  as they should be in order for everyone to have full disclosure - I am interested in knowing how X keeps it's loyalists and attracts new cruisers despite it's occasional shortcomings. We kind of already know why some X boat folks are considering going elsewhere. Here is an example,

hypothetical of course. I find out through my extensive research and numerous sources that Hlitner is going to be a passenger on the same cruise ship as me. Definitely a negative that would not have come to light had my head been in a sand dune. Despite this misfortune, I am not at all deterred from maximizing the good times that are forthcoming. And, where you may be the crochety old sailing man swabbing the decks with a jaundiced perspective, I will be the good time guy offering you a cool refreshment to ease your troubled brow. Who knows, that might just be what keeps you coming back. 

Many cruise lines keep "loyalists" (to use your word) because some folks are simply wedded to dealing with a single line....no matter what.  We often see this on HAL where there are many older folks who have been cruising on HAL for decades and will consider nobody else.   We see some of the same with hotel chains (my brother-in-law will only stay at Marriott properties), resort cities (folks who spend every vacation at the same place), etc.  Many years ago we became friendly with a couple (he is actually a Mod here on CC) who cruised, exclusively, with RCI.  When I asked him about trying other lines he explained that he only cruised RCI "because they treated him special."  What he meant was that he had access to the Concierge Lounge and other perks given to frequent cruisers.  

 

A note about all those perks for frequent cruisers.  We get them on quite a few different cruise lines because we have been at this cruise game for about 45 years (first cruise was in 1975).   The perks are nice (nicer on some lines then others) but it would never occur to us to choose a cruise (or line) based on those perks.  As DW said to another lady, "if we are spending over $10,000 on a cruise we are not going to be swayed by free laundry."  That being said, we do like the perks and Celebrity has some of the best perks.  Many of us would have cited the daily 2 hour cocktail hours (for Elites and up) as a good reason to stick with X.  But now, that has been really "watered down" (pun intended) by the fact that many of us book Celebrity with drink packages...which makes the daily free cocktail hours near worthless.  One irony is that HAL probably has about the worst perks (even for those of us who are 5 Star Mariners) but has the most loyal cruisers (my own judgement).   I still recall one large shared table on a HAL cruise when folks started trading info on how many days each of us had with HAL.  DW and I were the absolute newbies despite the fact we had about 500 days on that line.  Everyone else at the table had over 1000 days (on that one line) and one couple was knocking on the 2000 day door.  Unbelievable.   And by the way, the next topic at that table was "where were you when Franklin Roosevelt died?"  (we were not even born).

 

Hank

[killsport]

We only cruise Celebrity when we get a deal that fits our needs (which means bev package included) and timing. When we haven't found that, we've very much enjoyed HAL (surprisingly!!!) in the Caribbean. Wife sailed on Edge and won't go on that again, so we basically have the S-class (which we love the design) and a few M-class ships to choose from. The constant push to have you buy stuff on board is a detraction from our relaxation time. Oh, the solarium (relatively quiet, no sunburn) is a good spot. And we like the live music in the Rendezvous lounge (or whatever it's called on each ship). But HAL does music sooooo much better.

Summary --- why do I go back? Because the sale price works for me. I get an ok product at an ok price. At under $100/pp/pn all-in for a balcony, it has value. For $150/pp/pn it doesn't.

[dani negreanu]

13 hours ago, Luvcrusn said:

We do enjoy our sailings on X, but our rose colored glasses are a wee bit filmy. Time will tell.

 

So nicely put 😁