What are peoples thoughts on Always INcluded?

[ChucktownSteve]

21 minutes ago, Spif Barwunkel said:

It’s inconsequential as to which way we go. After all, if you don’t buy AI it’s all good, someone else will.

 

  I can live with that. 😆

[LGW59]

7 hours ago, cantstopingcruising said:

Very harsh assessment.

We are elite plus and I will tell you it has nothing to do with entitlement or  status.

But, it does have everything to do with economics.

For a reasonable (relatively) price, we had enough internet and enough wine (all we drink is one glass!) included. 

Now the price has, in some cases, doubled.

I have no interest in paying double for the same thing.

 

Then you can surely find a line that will work for you

[cantstopingcruising]

2 hours ago, LGW59 said:

Then you can surely find a line that will work for you

For next winter, we have b2b 21 days Jan and Feb. booked over a year ago. 

I hope I don't have to cancel that, too!

But, after that, they want $17,000 CAD for 21 days in an infinity balcony on Edge. For that price, you can be sure we will go elsewhere.

Edited February 12, 2021 by cantstopingcruising

[ChucktownSteve]

12 minutes ago, cantstopingcruising said:

For next winter, we have b2b 21 days Jan and Feb. booked over a year ago. 

I hope I don't have to cancel that, too!

But, after that, they want $17,000 CAD for 21 days in an infinity balcony on Edge. For that price, you can be sure we will go elsewhere.

WOW!!! That's $638pd US$ per day for a standard non real balcony infinity?  I wonder if they named it infinity balcony because the prices have gone to infinity and beyond? 😄

[cantstopingcruising]

5 minutes ago, ChucktownSteve said:

WOW!!! That's $638pd US$ per day for a standard non real balcony infinity?  I wonder if they named it infinity balcony because the prices have gone to infinity and beyond? 😄

I think they are insane!

[ChucktownSteve]

6 minutes ago, cantstopingcruising said:

I think they are insane!

 

No.  Only people who don't remember the Chandris X willing to pay these prices for less are. That's smart business on XX's part to maximize profits.  The lemmings will follow.

[cantstopingcruising]

Time will tell!

[ABoatNerd]

2 hours ago, ChucktownSteve said:

 

No.  Only people who don't remember the Chandris X willing to pay these prices for less are. That's smart business on XX's part to maximize profits.  The lemmings will follow.

 

Yes indeed ChucktownSteve and cantstopingcruising, well said, the lemmings will follow and obediently book.

 

Not interested in all inclusive and have no intentions of booking Celebrity. Most fascinating to follow the changes on this board and their delusions of grandeur re: Celebrity is a luxury line, what bull.

 

Spent today scanning in old pictures from my Century cruise in 1999, high tea in the forward lounge with tuxedoed wait staff with white gloves and tiered carts with incredible edibles - pretty darn close to my last Oceania high tea experience and Nothing like my last Celebrity tea experience fetching scones from the cafeteria.

 

Celebrity was a premium line up to 2015 or so and then they were Royalized and fell back into just another mass line which is were Celebrity will remain for some time. 

 

 

[LGW59]

10 minutes ago, ABoatNerd said:

 

Yes indeed ChucktownSteve and cantstopingcruising, well said, the lemmings will follow and obediently book.

 

Not interested in all inclusive and have no intentions of booking Celebrity. Most fascinating to follow the changes on this board and their delusions of grandeur re: Celebrity is a luxury line, what bull.

 

Spent today scanning in old pictures from my Century cruise in 1999, high tea in the forward lounge with tuxedoed wait staff with white gloves and tiered carts with incredible edibles - pretty darn close to my last Oceania high tea experience and Nothing like my last Celebrity tea experience fetching scones from the cafeteria.

 

Celebrity was a premium line up to 2015 or so and then they were Royalized and fell back into just another mass line which is were Celebrity will remain for some time. 

 

 

lemmings will follow and obediently book.  So derogatory!  Spent your day scanning 1999 photos, good on you, note, the times have changed, welcome to 2021.  Clearly you can't accept change, oh well, Celebrity will fill your suite with someone who does.

[cantstopingcruising]

27 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

lemmings will follow and obediently book.  So derogatory!  Spent your day scanning 1999 photos, good on you, note, the times have changed, welcome to 2021.  Clearly you can't accept change, oh well, Celebrity will fill your suite with someone who does.

We have been sailing on Celebrity since 1997. I can tell you that each time we cruise, I laugh at what is missing THIS time.  Soon, there will be nothing left to omit. Yet the prices are climbing to the sky. For Cad $17,000, I can find a much more luxurious 21 day vacation.

[LGW59]

well 21 day cruise for $17,000 CAD, to me is a pretty good deal, obviously not to you, which is what matters.  Sounds like you made or are in process of making best decision for you, good for that, just do it already though, stop complaining, go find the white glove tuxedoed tea time, I am sure it is still out there????  If Celebrity is NOT for you, OK just move on already

[ChucktownSteve]

51 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

lemmings will follow and obediently book.  So derogatory!  Spent your day scanning 1999 photos, good on you, note, the times have changed, welcome to 2021.  Clearly you can't accept change, oh well, Celebrity will fill your suite with someone who does.

 🤣

 

Edited February 12, 2021 by ChucktownSteve

[cantstopingcruising]

2 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

well 21 day cruise for $17,000 CAD, to me is a pretty good deal, obviously not to you, which is what matters.  Sounds like you made or are in process of making best decision for you, good for that, just do it already though, stop complaining, go find the white glove tuxedoed tea time, I am sure it is still out there????  If Celebrity is NOT for you, OK just move on already

I am talking about 2023.  It is way to early to look at other options.

Anyway, as you well know, complaining or criticizing here is a safe, indoor activity during these stressful times.

[LGW59]

20 minutes ago, cantstopingcruising said:

I am talking about 2023.  It is way to early to look at other options.

Anyway, as you well know, complaining or criticizing here is a safe, indoor activity during these stressful times.

Oh sorry, I missed the 2023 reference, guess why, it was not there!

[Miaminice]

8 hours ago, ChucktownSteve said:

 The lemmings will follow.

I don’t like the prices and I am simply not willing and able to pay some of the prices. However, I also don’t like your statement.

 

Does it bother you that there are people who have a higher budget and shrug off the higher fares? Does it bother you that some people decide to accept the prices? If it does it’s you who has a problem - not them.

 

If it doesn’t bother you, why call them names?

[ipeeinthepool]

12 hours ago, cantstopingcruising said:

For next winter, we have b2b 21 days Jan and Feb. booked over a year ago. 

I hope I don't have to cancel that, too!

But, after that, they want $17,000 CAD for 21 days in an infinity balcony on Edge. For that price, you can be sure we will go elsewhere.

 

This is just another example of Celebrity trying to get a premium price for it's newest ships and by extension, also raise prices on the other ships in the fleet.  From my perspective, these are insane prices and will ultimately come down when cruisers compare these prices to similar cruise lines.  They can try to brand themselves as a new luxury category but the customer will ultimately see through this marketing approach.  People will find better value in sailing the new ships offered by HAL and Princess and Celebrity will need to adjust their pricing.

[miched]

The Topic is what are your thoughts on the AI?

 

Members give their thoughts or opinions as asked.   
 

Why do others have to get into heated discussions regarding that opinion, thought or post?  Is there supposed to be only one answer or thought that everyone has to agree to?  It is the thought or opinion of the person that posted it.   If you are of a different opinion then post it instead of criticizing someone else opinion.   I know some will say it is cruise critic, and yes it is cruise critic meaning  criticize the cruise or cruise line not the members.

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

 

 

 

[TeeRick]

58 minutes ago, ipeeinthepool said:

  People will find better value in sailing the new ships offered by HAL and Princess and Celebrity will need to adjust their pricing.

Yes this will surely happen eventually.  Outside of L&S decisions which are kind of a unique situation for people caught in a bad situation.

 

 There is really no reason to lower prices now when people are purchasing future cruises into 2022-23 with no evidence of when cruising will start again and no understanding of what it will look like.  Speculating is the term.  

[hcat]

10 hours ago, cantstopingcruising said:

We have been sailing on Celebrity since 1997. I can tell you that each time we cruise, I laugh at what is missing THIS time.  Soon, there will be nothing left to omit. Yet the prices are climbing to the sky. For Cad $17,000, I can find a much more luxurious 21 day vacation.

Agree...X was once a great value for an above average experience,

Not anymore,...the experience and demographics have certainly changed.

Bloomingdales to Walmart.....

 

The " all inclusive " pricing will be in place until they decide to change it for yet another promotion.  No ships are sailing right now..but they are pushing bookings and whatever sells to get money in the door

[davekathy]

11 hours ago, cantstopingcruising said:

We have been sailing on Celebrity since 1997. I can tell you that each time we cruise, I laugh at what is missing THIS time.  Soon, there will be nothing left to omit. Yet the prices are climbing to the sky. For Cad $17,000, I can find a much more luxurious 21 day vacation.

We started cruising with Celebrity in 1991. At that time or shortly after Celebrity's tagline was, "let us exceed your expectations".  September 2019 we did a 14 night NE/Canada cruise on the Summit. Our stateroom attendant started with Chandris and continued on  without a break in service with Celebrity in 1988. He was planning on retiring in the fall of 2020. Fantastic and hard working gentleman. 

[davekathy]

11 hours ago, LGW59 said:

Oh sorry, I missed the 2023 reference, guess why, it was not there!

Easily done, right. 🤣

[Bo1953]

15 hours ago, ChucktownSteve said:

 

No.  Only people who don't remember the Chandris X willing to pay these prices for less are. That's smart business on XX's part to maximize profits.  The lemmings will follow.

c - you must remember that there are a few of us who only know the name Chandris and have never sailed any of their ships from that time! 😉

 

A few of us came in under the new name and marketing... 😎

 

bon voyage

[TeeRick]

7 minutes ago, Bo1953 said:

c - you must remember that there are a few of us who only know the name Chandris and have never sailed any of their ships from that time! 😉

 

A few of us came in under the new name and marketing... 😎

 

bon voyage

Bo I am young like you.  I started cruising Celebrity and had to go back to understand why it was called X or Chandris.

[Ride-The-Waves]

This is simply price obfuscation by Celebrity to help them make up losses from the pandemic.  Make cruising "AI" even if not everyone uses all the perks and you make money.  Make it "AI" and no one can really tell what the true costs are.  Doing things like this generates trust challenges.  Personally, I don't trust any business that hides pricing information from customers.  Something really amoral there.

[Bo1953]

22 minutes ago, Ride-The-Waves said:

This is simply price obfuscation by Celebrity to help them make up losses from the pandemic.  Make cruising "AI" even if not everyone uses all the perks and you make money.  Make it "AI" and no one can really tell what the true costs are.  Doing things like this generates trust challenges.  Personally, I don't trust any business that hides pricing information from customers.  Something really amoral there.

In my case, I only need to know what the bottom line is for sailing under the given circumstances... and answer the question "do I think this is a fair price or not?" when calculating that answer, then I decide if I will purchase or not.

 

There are other lines which have AI currently and I had long ago determined that they were not for us, not because of the AI as opposed to policies and standards and passengers that I prefer X for. The bottom line pricing was within 5% of X at that, so not a deal breaker.

 

Does this mean that you will not consider lines with AI currently in place?

 

As for knowing what the 'true costs' are, one (with a calculator) can get close if using the most recent info for the costs of beverage packages, gratuities and WiFi...

 

X, like other businesses which have similar pricing schemes, just are doing away with a la carte, which is fine. For those of us who either purchase or are gifted Perks, we can go back to determine where we may have spent those savings i.e. specialty dining, specialty cocktails, excursions, etc. then figure out our true cost of sailing.

 

Only us as individuals as passengers can decide if the price of sailing X with AI is of value or not, currently, regardless of their reasons to introduce it. Apparently some of us will find enough value to book.

 

I get it as to how we, at times, get entrenched and fixated on why our 'line of choice' makes changes which we may not like or desire or believe it is not in our interest to support any longer. Most reasons are valid, generally.

 

Each of us have to figure out if the changes/pricing are what we want or desire to remain on-board with our current chosen line.... OR just move on!

 

bon voyage

Edited February 12, 2021 by Bo1953