No More 7 Day Cruises to Southern Caribbean

[judyfssw]

This is bad news for people who can only go on 7 day cruises because of school recess in February. Not a good idea, Celebrity. I see where there's only a 7 day to Western Caribbean on a M class ship. What about the rest of us?

It will be interesting to see if the M class 7 day cruises return after 2007.

Is anyone else concerned about this?

[usha]

I hope they do return. We like to take b2b 7 nighters in Feb, and have a full two weeks. We settled for an 11 nighter on Galaxy for next Feb. I'll be eager to see what they have in store for 2008.

[Merrilymeggily]

I can't really speak to this since I don't cruise in Feb., but it just adds to my feeling that X for some reason is abandoning cruisers who prefer the Caribbean. There are ZERO summer cruises to the Caribbean in 2006. I'm waiting to see what will be offered in 2007. As I've said on these boards before, X is pushing me to another cruise line, kicking and screaming because I love X and am dreading taking RCCL to the Caribbean in the summer. But if X doesn't go where we want to go, there's really no choice. I'm wondering if X is doing this on purpose to try to pump up RCCL's Caribbean business and at the same time bolstering its own repuation as more upscale (and therefore only doing the more "sophicticated" Mediterranean and Baltic cruises and such.

[psupa]

I would like to see more Southern Caribbean cruises leave from Ft. Lauderdale instead of San Juan. I like the 10 day cruises. As a matter of fact I would like to see Celebrity do a 10 or 11 day from Bayonne to the Southern Caribbean.

[superjerryw]

I'm wondering if X is doing this on purpose to try to pump up RCCL's Caribbean business and at the same time bolstering its own repuation as more upscale (and therefore only doing the more "sophicticated" Mediterranean and Baltic cruises and such.

 

It has nothing to do with sophistication. It only has to do with the bottom line. European cruises typically cost more on a per diem basis than Caribbean cruises. If a ship sails in Europe it will generate more revenue than if it sails in the Caribbean. In addtion to the cruise fares there is also increased income from peripheral activities such as shore excursions. Sightseeing excursions in European ports are more expensive than beach trips in Caribbean ports so the cruise lines makes more money from its cut of the shore excursion price.

[Tatka]

There are ZERO summer cruises to the Caribbean in 2006. .

 

I understand their logic... HAL also pulled ships from there. With all hurricane activity lately they are loosing serious money.

[chessbriar]

RCCL will be pulling the Navigator to Europe next year as well. The summer Caribbean cruises have been busts the last couple years with all the hurricanes. As to the southern Caribbean expect a return to the 7 day cruises when the new ships come out. The increase in 10+ day cruises is due to the surveys they send out. It shows the majority of cruise want 10+ days with an even mix want 7 days or fewer. Hence 3 ships doing 10+ day Caribbean cruise and 2 ships doing 7 days or fewer. You end up with more sailings on the shorter cruises due to the shorter itineraries.

[Joanandjoe]

We prefer cruises longer than 7 days, and won't take one shorter than that. However, with only three weeks of annual vacation, 7 days is what fits best within out limited vacation time, so we would like to see more offerings of 7 days cruises. Instead, Celebrity is moving to both longer and shorter itineraries. Taking a ship (Century?) and using it for 4 and 5 day cruises seems like a waste.

 

Our next Celebrity cruise will be "7 days in May", on the Zenith, to Bermuda. We might have preferred a 7 day cruise leaving from the East Coast on a newer ship; but we couldn't find any other such cruises in May or early June on any of the four lines we like: Celebrity, HAL, Radisson, or Windstar.

[chessbriar]

One thing I think RCI assumes is that if X doesn't have it, you switch to RCCL. They have two ships doing 7 day cruises from San Juan. If you consider this go with the Radiance class ships Radiance, Brilliance, Serenade, and Jewel. These ships offer the closest thing to the X experience on RCCL. Yes there are things you will miss from X, but you should have a great time.

[chessbriar]

Double post

[babylene]

Next winter, we have booked the 11 day Galaxy from San Juan. I like the idea of a San Juan departure because we start off in warm, calm waters (hopefully!). I would be even happier with a 14 day cruise out of San Juan. Many people like to take a week vacation.

[greeneg]

One of the things about our recent B2B on the Constellation in January that was disappointing was learning that two cruises back to back do not make a 14 night cruise. Not only is it probably more expensive, but you lose the opportunity to make better friends with and get to know your table-mates the way that you can on a longer cruise.

 

Unless Celebrity can come up with some newer and more creative itineraries, we have probably done our last Caribbean cruise for a while.

 

For what it's worth also, I would be less and less interested in sailing from South Florida. I might look at Jacksonville, or Tampa, but would personally prefer Charleston, SC, Savannah, GA, Wilimington, NC, Norfolk, VA, or Baltimore, MD. Of course, where the ship went would also be paramount: I have done Freeport, Nassau, St. Thomas and St. Marteen: been there, done that and have the tee shirts to prove it.

 

I truly hope that someone at Celebrity puts a creative thinking cap on and "creates" a really nice, new, 14 night itinerary....:)

[babylene]

I meant to write: Many people like to take a 2 week vacation!

[newmexicoNita]

Pulling the 7 day So Caribbean itineraries is just sad: same with all those who have left the Caribbean for the summer. Someone mentioned hurricanes, that may have some influence on the decision, but ships are still sailing out of Texas and so Calif to Mexican Riv and Western Caribbean: Hurricanes there as well. As for HAL puling out, they haven't had any or many ships sailing the Caribbean during the summer for years. I think the cruise lines may think the Caraibbean is a market that has been saturated: there is some truth to this, I am certain, yet many of us can only do 7 day cruises. Either we don't have the time or the funds to do 10 day and longer. All things change; I guess we will learn to roll with the punches. NMnita

[island pat]

We are X fans and would be with her again next winter except for the lack of 7 day cruises. We are limited to Jan. and 7 days and prefer San Juan to avoid the rough seas and enjoy the warmth on the first day. As of today:( we have cancelled our millenium cruise which we booked while on board for Jan 2007 because she had lame ports of call and rough seas maybe on the first day since she is out of Fort Lauderdale

We are switching to RCI - Seranade of the Seas with an aft cabin and it has great ports of call ???

There seems to be alot of us out there in the smae position and by the time X releases that they made an error it will be too late we will have all switched.

[Andy]

Hi Everyone !

 

This is an interesting thread. Some good points were made. I also feel that Celebrity has made some mistakes cutting down on the Caribbean and 7 night sailings in particular. I feel the 2006/2007 schedule was overweighted in Europe/Alaska/Hawaii. Sure, I know it's all about the profits, and in some ways I do understand Celebrity wants to go where the demand is "hot" right now. However, as we have seen in several of the posts here, they are losing many loyal passengers in the process, and that is not a good thing. It is a very tight schedule for Celebrity to balance, as we all know it is hard to please everyone. But, they do have to work harder at it.

 

As for Not sailing the Caribbean in the Summer due to Hurricanes ? I have one word for that......Nonsense. All the other Cruise lines are sailing to the Caribbean this Summer from other areas such as NY, and there are several other lines still sailing from Florida. So, why not Celebrity ? I know the last 2 years have been rotten Hurricane seasons, but not all that many sailings were affected. There is NOTHING to say that this year's Hurricane season will be any better or worse than last year.

 

If I had to put my finger on it, I would say that most of these disappointments are due to Celebrity simply not having enough ships in their fleet, to try and please everyone. They should have been building ships a while ago, for delivery now.... instead of 2 1/2 years from now. While I am thrilled that Celebrity will have some new ships coming, they are very late to the party.

 

Here is my wish list for the Caribbean in 2007/2008 .... Item #1: I would like to see Century go back to 7 night sailings, with an alternating Eastern/Western Caribbean itinerary, with some new ports. Century should not be doing shorter sailings. Why trash the ship, when she is about to be refurbished ? The shorter sailings should be left to either Zenith, or one of the other C-Class ships (Mercury ?) that has not been refurbished yet.

 

Item # 2: Please try to overhaul Millennium's 7 night schedule !!! It has been virtually the same for years, and the time is right to try something bold and creative, with some new ports (please, NO more CASA DE CAMPO <Smile>). I would love to see Millennium do a 7/4/10 night rotating itinerary, with the 10 night itinerary being a Round Trip Partial Panama Canal from Ft. Lauderdale, similar to what Brilliance of the Seas does currently. This way, she would offer something for everyone who wants to sail the Caribbean.

 

Hopefully, Celebrity will listen to what their passengers want, and get more creative when the 2007/2008 schedules come out. We should know the answers in a month or two. For those of us that love the Caribbean, let's hope we will all be much happier.

[judyfssw]

I guess that I started this post because I am a former school employee and am now retired but I sail with friends who are still in school. This is the first time I've been able to take a b2b and I noticed several things. On the first part of our cruise, there were 350 children on board (although you didn't know it) because the east coast schools had their midwinter break. It was President's week. The following week was midwinter break for Michigan, Ohio and other states. Teachers/school personnel cannot take an extra day off of school to do a 10 day because they'll be docked and if the children are in school, the teachers need to be there too. And, heaven forbid, there is bad weather that might mess up airline schedules which would make that even more late getting back. It just doesn't work.

I guess these teachers/school personnel will have to go to other cruise lines if they choose to cruise the southern caribbean next year.

[jasm8449]

We love the Constellation, but the air costs from Toronto to San Juan have made it much too expensive to justify for a 7 day cruise. Glad to see it going out of Ft. Lauderdale, with a few 'new' stops.

[montgomeryfamily]

After Celebrity's pullout of the Caribbean this summer, it is even more disappointing to see them pulling the 7 day Southern Caribbean cruises. Although we really enjoy the ten day cruises, with our jobs it is very difficult to take more than one week's vacation at a time, so we are mostly limited to seven day cruises.

 

Although we have cruised a number of times on both Princess and RCCL, we really like Celebrity and like to cruise Celebrity for special occasion celebrations and when we want to have a relaxing cruise being pampered. So our annual August birthday celebration cruise is now on Princess, instead of Celebrity as we had been planning and had done in the past.

 

If RCI thinks that pulling Celebrity out will just cause people to go to RCCL, I think they are mistaken. IMHO Princess is closer to the Celebrity cruise experience than is RCCL. Merrilymeggily, there are other choices for Caribbean cruises besides RCCL. This has been discussed in regard to the summer Caribbean cruises on this thread, along with various options for summer Caribbean cruises:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=296472

 

Some people may end up evaluating the options and going on RCCL. But I think it is likely that more people will evaluate their options and choose Princess or Oceania or one of the other non-RCI cruise lines. And this is where I believe RCI is making a mistake. Their no-discounting policy for Celebrity and RCCL is already making cruises on these other cruise lines more attractive because comparable cruises on other cruise lines are often hundreds of dollars less.

 

Now with Celebrity doing away with the Southern Caribbean 7 day cruise, they are just compounding the problem. We have some friends who are educators and we had finally talked into taking their first cruise and we were all going to cruise the Southern Caribbean during spring break on Celebrity as it will be a group of adults with no kids. But now, with this change, we're having to reevaluate. Do we switch itineraries to stay with Celebrity or still do the Southern Caribbean, which we really wanted to do. We haven't decided yet. But we have decided that if we do the Southern Caribbean, we'll take the new Crown Princess instead of RCCL--its several hundred dollars cheaper for a comparable Southern Caribbean cruise on the Serenade and my friends can also use the Princess referral credit they received, plus IMHO Princess cruises are closer to Celebrity cruises than RCCL cruises are. I suspect others will also make this choice. With the new Crown Princess coming out and doing the 7 day Southern Caribbean from San Juan, I think RCI made a serious mistake on their repositioning to eliminate the Celebrity seven day Southern Caribbean cruises.

 

Andy, I really like the suggestion you made for the Millie. The ten, seven, and four day routing would be great because everyone could get the number of days they wanted and we would still be able to go on an M class ship in the Caribbean. I also agree with dumping Campo, but I hope that there can be more ports where the ship can dock rather than tendering being required. Tendering is such a hassle and wastes so much time and it is difficult for those with disabilities.

[ocngypz]

Life is funny, who would have thought that the little Empress of the Seas would be so popular on the 11 night run out of San Juan? Much more so than Constellation and her 7 night itineraries.

 

Live and learn!

 

I'm in the minority. 10+ days please.

[greeneg]

Not in the minority as far as I'm concerned. I've just spent about 90 minutes researching flights, etc for our 11 night trip on the Mercury next January from SAN.

 

The net result is that SAN is difficult to access non-stop from CLT ( which is USAIR's largest hub) with only one non-stop/day which would not allow us to make the ship without going in the day before.

 

Thinking of changing the booking, perhaps, there are really no other intineraries next Winter which have much appeal at all, so I guess we will either stay with this one, or look at some of the other cruise lines.

 

I think that Host Andy is absolutely correct that what we are seeing is a shortage of Celebrity Ships; I might add to that that Celebrity may be trying to broaden its customer base by doing what I would call more mass market itineraries. My caveat would be that they seem to be risking their core customers ( I would include us in that group) by some of these actions. I begin to wonder if, in fact, there are going to be some eventual changes that would appeal to us............to repeat, we like 14 night, creative itineraries, and we like Celebrity: I hope that we don't have to change those variables too drastically.

[chessbriar]

Greeneg,

You are absolutely right. They are risking their core customers. I will be taking my first Princess cruise in October. No X ships doing 7 night Caribbean cruises in October.

[Joanandjoe]

Greeneg,

You are absolutely right. They are risking their core customers. I will be taking my first Princess cruise in October. No X ships doing 7 night Caribbean cruises in October.

 

We loved our only X cruise so far, 10 days on the Horizon, in 2003, then were unable to find what we wanted in 2004 or 2005. That got us to try Windstar and Radisson (which has changed its name to Regal), both of which we would now choose over X if the price and itinerary were right. In other words, the X schedule has changed us from having X as aour first choice (tied with HAL) to our third chioce (still tied with HAL).

 

We will be back on X for our 5/13 Bermuda cruise, but that's because the other three lines mentioned above will all be in Europe (Joe has more than 30 trips there, Joan about 8), Alaska (not yet ready for our second trip), Mexican Riviera (no interest), or long trips. None of them will be in the Caribbean when we can sail. We are pessimistic that we'll find what we want in 2007. With our limited vacation schedule (May, June, and November are the only possible months), and the fact that we've been to Europe many times but the Caribbean only once, it's becoming very hard to find the right cruise at the right time.

[greeneg]

"it's becoming very hard to find the right cruise at the right time."

 

I think that you have summed it up very succinctly; it's almost as though someone had a brainstorm in marketing to wit: " it's the CRUISE EXPERIENCE, no one cares where or when we go, as long as we can eat multiple meals and party non-stop!" Hence the bigger ships, repetitive itineraries, perhaps even, less imaginative cuisine. I truly cannot say, since we have only done one RCCL cruise, and that was a while back ( and we did enjoy it at the time), but one begins to wonder if perhaps we are beginning to see "blurring" of the Celebrity Brand to reflect more and more of the RCCL Experience as opposed to what Celebrity's historic customers are accustomed to expect. Perhaps we are, in fact, the anachronisms.

 

Or, perhaps, is Celebrity listening to the wrong focus groups?

[Fang]

When my family takes a cruise vacation, it is over Thanksgiving week. We have sailed four times, with Celebrity during Thanksgiving week and love it. Buy we I am saying my wife and two daughters ( 7 & 10). We all love Celebrity and my wife and I have cruised with them 14 times.

 

When it is just my wife and I, due to babysitters and others watching our daughters, we need to take a seven day cruise. We prefer to sail out of San Juan. I think this gives two more days of warm weather ( sometimes the first and last day of a cruise out of FLL, can be cool or even cold).

 

This is the first time in four years we will not be cruising, basicly because Celebrity is not offering a Saturday to Saturday, or Sunday to Sunday Thanksgiving week cruise. Also, during the winter, when my wife and I are able to cruise, the only cruise in 2007 is the Milli, from FLL. How many times have we been to Casa De Campo? TO MANY.

 

This winter we will be looking for a new cruise line, out of San Juan. It is to bad that we have to look at a different line, but we have no choice.

 

I told my TA " We did not leave Celebrity, Celebrity left us!"