How will X handle COVID era dinner?

[Fouremco]

Yes, @WrittenOnYourHeart, I agree that there are a number of steps that could be taken to encourage voluntary cancellation. My suggestion assumed that those steps had been taken and that there are still too many passengers booked, thus necessitating forced reductions.

Edited October 12, 2020 by Fouremco

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

44 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

Yes, @WrittenOnYourHeart, I agree that there are a number of steps that could be taken to encourage voluntary cancellation. My suggestion assumed that those steps had been taken and that there are still too many passengers booked, thus necessitating forced reductions.

 

Gotcha. Sorry!

[wrk2cruise]

I think it will be some time before we get to the point of possibly having forced reduction of bookings on existing itineraries.   Given the majority of booked sailings are 7 nights or longer I believe what you will see in the first months of restart will be the cancellation of all existing sailings and introduction of new itineraries which meet both the shorter duration as well as itineraries with ports meeting the new requirements.    Then they can restrict what cabins they sell.  

 

I have no problems with them maximizing revenue with the mix of cabin types.  If they can sell all the suites and AQ at a premium while providing an environment which satisfies the health restrictions as well as providing the expected experience (not having to eat dinner at midnight!) then so be it.   It's a business (for the time being) and I'm a stockholder.

[Fouremco]

1 hour ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

 

Gotcha. Sorry!

No need to be sorry! Your points were very good ones and I should have explained my starting point. My bad!

[cl.klink]

8 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

I think it will be some time before we get to the point of possibly having forced reduction of bookings on existing itineraries.   Given the majority of booked sailings are 7 nights or longer I believe what you will see in the first months of restart will be the cancellation of all existing sailings and introduction of new itineraries which meet both the shorter duration as well as itineraries with ports meeting the new requirements.    Then they can restrict what cabins they sell.  

 

I have no problems with them maximizing revenue with the mix of cabin types.  If they can sell all the suites and AQ at a premium while providing an environment which satisfies the health restrictions as well as providing the expected experience (not having to eat dinner at midnight!) then so be it.   It's a business (for the time being) and I'm a stockholder.

 

Interesting.  Argues a lot of wait and see.  How far ahed of the sailing do you predict this would happen?

 

- Joel

[LGW59]

26 minutes ago, cl.klink said:

 

Interesting.  Argues a lot of wait and see.  How far ahed of the sailing do you predict this would happen?

 

- Joel

really does not matter what any of us think, or "predict" it is irrelevant,  from our armchair science labs.

[Miaminice]

On 10/10/2020 at 3:30 AM, MSTEG said:

I wonder what MSC is doing in their dining rooms right now on their Italy cruises.  That might give us a hint at what X will be doing when they startup.

 

The same as TUI are doing in their dining rooms - and since TUI is a cousin of Celebrity you can be sure they are watching closely... I reported from our TUI cruise here: 

 

Basically they reduced the capacity of the ships to 60 % (I believe with MSC it´s 70%). Up until now I haven´t heard of a cruise reaching the 60% capacity. On our cruise we had 922 passengers instead of the possible 2,500. 

Many tables are removed from the MDRs and only every second or so of the remaining tables is used. Time was flexible dining. If too many people wanted to dine at once, we had to wait despite the dining room being apparently empty.
That only happened once on the cruise.

To the best of my knowledge MSC do the same. I can tell you exactly after Christmas - that´s when we´ll be cruising with them. Just booked on Sunday.

 

 

RE the question who get´s to sail:
So far every cruise line already sailing cancelled ALL existing bookings and put the new adapted cruises up for sale. Whoever booked first got to sail. A new start after a reset so to speak...

Stateroom type didn´t matter, loyalty level didn´t matter etc.

 

I have no doubt Celebrity will do the same.

Edited October 13, 2020 by Miaminice

[TeeRick]

21 hours ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

 

I still say their first step should be to contact all passengers with the new requirements and have them say if they want to sail with them in place (offering refund or FCC regardless of if their sailing is PIF rather than this "You have to be PIF to get the credit if you cancel" absurdity). They may well find that there are enough who jump ship they do not have to do any additional culling.

 

After that, if additional culling is needed, they could send an offer for not cruising to all passengers across the board - like airlines do at the airport when they have oversold a flight.

 

And then if additional culling is needed, I agree that "last booked, first removed" should apply regardless of category until they are at the correct numbers.

Yes all of these ideas might be a good approach.  Whatever the approach it needs to be well communicated and fair to the great majority of passengers.  

 

It is possible that initial cruises will not be any of the scheduled ones that people are currently holding.  My guess is a few "new" cruises of short itinerary and duration and maybe private islands, with very reduced capacity.  Cruise lines need to test out their new procedures and train the crew in real life operations.  So in the beginning passengers would sign up for these new cruises first come first served like any other new itinerary.  After a few of these under the belt, then the rules for currently held cruises will be announced.  Just guessing really.

[mdcelebrity]

37 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

Yes all of these ideas might be a good approach.  Whatever the approach it needs to be well communicated and fair to the great majority of passengers.  

 

It is possible that initial cruises will not be any of the scheduled ones that people are currently holding.  My guess is a few "new" cruises of short itinerary and duration and maybe private islands, with very reduced capacity.  Cruise lines need to test out their new procedures and train the crew in real life operations.  So in the beginning passengers would sign up for these new cruises first come first served like any other new itinerary.  After a few of these under the belt, then the rules for currently held cruises will be announced.  Just guessing really.

I would suggest that is a very good "guess".

It would make sense for any cruise line to announce NEW sailings (with full disclosure of the "rules", of course). That way there will be no issue of "changing the rules" vis-a-vis what was originally offered or (eek!) having to bump guests.  I would "guess" that cruises already booked to sail between Nov2020 and, say, thru 2021 Q1 will "merely" be cancelled.

Edited October 13, 2020 by mdcelebrity
Grammer

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

1 hour ago, TeeRick said:

Yes all of these ideas might be a good approach.  Whatever the approach it needs to be well communicated and fair to the great majority of passengers.  

 

It is possible that initial cruises will not be any of the scheduled ones that people are currently holding.  My guess is a few "new" cruises of short itinerary and duration and maybe private islands, with very reduced capacity.  Cruise lines need to test out their new procedures and train the crew in real life operations.  So in the beginning passengers would sign up for these new cruises first come first served like any other new itinerary.  After a few of these under the belt, then the rules for currently held cruises will be announced.  Just guessing really.

 

They'll have to cancel existing cruises first before they could do any of that though. I would think it would only be fair to give those on cruises cancelled to make the presumed new ones the first shot at booking knowing the restrictions. THEN open them up to first-come-first-served.

[wrk2cruise]

I suspect it will be pretty concurrently that they cancel existing sailings and introduce new ones.  You just better be paying attention.

[C-Dragons]

On 10/11/2020 at 10:05 PM, LGW59 said:

I should have been more clear.  I am referring to S3 sky suites on Edge, on the magic carpet track.  The rooms are 300 SF and the balcony is 102 SF, ironically this is the entry level sky suite.  Anyway, on Edge very large balcony, dining table for two and loungers.  My understanding is on Apex it will be the same.  At least I hope, because I am on her in May 2021.

You are correct that the verandahs of Sky 3 suites on the Edge are very large. However they are not furnished with a dining table and loungers. Yes, you can request loungers, but the table and 2 chairs are the same as all the other Sky suites, as shown in the picture. I have sailed on the Edge twice and have seen the all the cabins.

I am hoping that X will do better on Apex and provide upgraded chairs and a table properly suited for eating.

[RICCruisers]

Unfortunately, the table and chairs shown above in C-Dragon’s photo appear to match the table and chairs on the Infinite Veranda Cabins on Edge. The table is quite small and too low to utilize as a dining table. I speak from experience. You are hunched over trying to eat. You might notice the handles at the bottom of the table. It actually flips over and can be used as a tray. It works fine for that, but as a table to eat a meal it is a complete failure.

 

The photo is from an S-3 on Edge which has a large balcony. It’s a total shame that it doesn’t serve as a place to enjoy a meal. 

Edited October 13, 2020 by RICCruisers

[RichYak]

On 10/12/2020 at 12:39 PM, wrk2cruise said:

I think it will be some time before we get to the point of possibly having forced reduction of bookings on existing itineraries.   Given the majority of booked sailings are 7 nights or longer I believe what you will see in the first months of restart will be the cancellation of all existing sailings and introduction of new itineraries which meet both the shorter duration as well as itineraries with ports meeting the new requirements.    Then they can restrict what cabins they sell.  

This matches my opinion of how things play out initially.

[LGW59]

4 hours ago, RICCruisers said:

Unfortunately, the table and chairs shown above in C-Dragon’s photo appear to match the table and chairs on the Infinite Veranda Cabins on Edge. The table is quite small and too low to utilize as a dining table. I speak from experience. You are hunched over trying to eat. You might notice the handles at the bottom of the table. It actually flips over and can be used as a tray. It works fine for that, but as a table to eat a meal it is a complete failure.

 

The photo is from an S-3 on Edge which has a large balcony. It’s a total shame that it doesn’t serve as a place to enjoy a meal. 

I'm comfortable they would be able to bring me a dining height table, but if the can't, oh well, I will certainly survive.  Awesome picture though, thanks for sharing.

[Arizona Wildcat]

7 hours ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

 

They'll have to cancel existing cruises first before they could do any of that though. I would think it would only be fair to give those on cruises cancelled to make the presumed new ones the first shot at booking knowing the restrictions. THEN open them up to first-come-first-served.

Fair or not, it sure seems that it is some weeks till cruising from the US resumes.  The cruises to nowhere from Singapore will let Celebrity sort out procedures.  Important that Singapore has a low COVID rate and only those with Singapore passports allowed - thus NO TRAVEL except a short hop to the port.  Give them a few weeks doing that and then cruises from the US.

When the cruises are cancelled the new cruises will be opened to everyone.  Hard to imagine how they could coordinate a preference for those on cancelled cruises.  How about the hundreds of thousands already cancelled?

[phoenix_dream]

Unfortunately, Celebrity is one of the slowest as regards cancelling cruises they know will not sail.  What this means is, if they decide to follow the process discussed above (cancel all affected cruises and then immediately open shorter cruises for booking) I don't see for the life of me how they can handle the volume administratively.  I realize some people will book online.  But many of us book either by calling Celebrity or by calling one of our large online travel agents.  Add the new bookings to all the people trying to contact them for refunds or lift and shift.  Remember what it was like the first several months this was happening? It took days for me to get ahold of my TA, and I know there were horror stories throughout. How in the world can they do this efficiently?  For that matter, I guess it doesn't matter which method they choose - it seems to me that extreme chaos and frustration is around the corner.  They really need to start cancelling affected cruises NOW for everyone's sake instead of pretending the ships will sail.

[LGW59]

8 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

Unfortunately, Celebrity is one of the slowest as regards cancelling cruises they know will not sail.  What this means is, if they decide to follow the process discussed above (cancel all affected cruises and then immediately open shorter cruises for booking) I don't see for the life of me how they can handle the volume administratively.  I realize some people will book online.  But many of us book either by calling Celebrity or by calling one of our large online travel agents.  Add the new bookings to all the people trying to contact them for refunds or lift and shift.  Remember what it was like the first several months this was happening? It took days for me to get ahold of my TA, and I know there were horror stories throughout. How in the world can they do this efficiently?  For that matter, I guess it doesn't matter which method they choose - it seems to me that extreme chaos and frustration is around the corner.  They really need to start cancelling affected cruises NOW for everyone's sake instead of pretending the ships will sail.

Sadly, I do believe they do need to cancel all cruises thru end of 2020.  My personal experience with cancelled cruises earlier this year, was very positive.  I do realize that was not the case for all.  

[cl.klink]

On 10/12/2020 at 11:39 AM, wrk2cruise said:

I think it will be some time before we get to the point of possibly having forced reduction of bookings on existing itineraries.   Given the majority of booked sailings are 7 nights or longer I believe what you will see in the first months of restart will be the cancellation of all existing sailings and introduction of new itineraries which meet both the shorter duration as well as itineraries with ports meeting the new requirements.    Then they can restrict what cabins they sell.  

 

I have no problems with them maximizing revenue with the mix of cabin types.  If they can sell all the suites and AQ at a premium while providing an environment which satisfies the health restrictions as well as providing the expected experience (not having to eat dinner at midnight!) then so be it.   It's a business (for the time being) and I'm a stockholder.

 

10 hours ago, TeeRick said:

Yes all of these ideas might be a good approach.  Whatever the approach it needs to be well communicated and fair to the great majority of passengers.  

 

It is possible that initial cruises will not be any of the scheduled ones that people are currently holding.  My guess is a few "new" cruises of short itinerary and duration and maybe private islands, with very reduced capacity.  Cruise lines need to test out their new procedures and train the crew in real life operations.  So in the beginning passengers would sign up for these new cruises first come first served like any other new itinerary.  After a few of these under the belt, then the rules for currently held cruises will be announced.  Just guessing really.

 

29 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

Unfortunately, Celebrity is one of the slowest as regards cancelling cruises they know will not sail.  What this means is, if they decide to follow the process discussed above (cancel all affected cruises and then immediately open shorter cruises for booking) I don't see for the life of me how they can handle the volume administratively.  I realize some people will book online.  But many of us book either by calling Celebrity or by calling one of our large online travel agents.  Add the new bookings to all the people trying to contact them for refunds or lift and shift.  Remember what it was like the first several months this was happening? It took days for me to get ahold of my TA, and I know there were horror stories throughout. How in the world can they do this efficiently?  For that matter, I guess it doesn't matter which method they choose - it seems to me that extreme chaos and frustration is around the corner.  They really need to start cancelling affected cruises NOW for everyone's sake instead of pretending the ships will sail.

 

Let's get on with it, already.

 

Chomping at the bit,

- Joel

[jelayne]

I may be one of the lucky ones where 5 out of 6 cancelled cruises have been axed way before final payment and refunds have been very quick.

If X doesn’t cancel our Feb Infinity cruises before final payment we will 
  Sounding like maybe we should all cancel our 1st qtr bookings and get our deposits back as I’m guessing when they open  bookings for the new  cruises  Prices will crazy high.