FOR YOUR 2023 CRUISING DOLLAR, DOES X MARK THE SPOT?

[Spif Barwunkel]

Celebrity cruising, post shut down, how’d that work for you? Quite the year was 2022, first full year back with higher prices, less perks and rewards, understaffed ships, poor quality food, less than ideal customer service and more. There were objections, rejections and defections from Celebrity cruisers. Was this typical of any normal cruising year just exacerbated by the virus overload, or did many cruisers indeed experience quite the radical change from our normal, pleasant, familiarity with the X brand? I’m not sure that we can blame Celebrity for all shortcomings – if any – that might have occurred during our booking/cruising activities. Perhaps our impatience and expectations had something to do with it. Might we share some of the blame?

 

Happy cruising to all in the new-year and for your cruising dollar in 2023, does X mark the spot?   

[CruisinNole]

X does mark the spot for us. We cruised in August on the Equinox and experienced none of the issues you listed. Haven't booked a Celebrity cruise for this year but we're not planning to jump ship.

[mac_tlc]

For the 2023 X cruises I have booked, they do hit the spot, as do the ones booked for 2024. However most were booked a while ago. If I were to look at any of them at todays prices ( except for our 2024 Edge Alaska trip), it would be a big time pass. The same can be said for any GS or higher on Royal. 
 

Looking at Oceania for late  2024/early 2025, maybe MSC Yacht Club, but so far have not found anything that is a no brainer. 
 

The search continues…

 

mac_tlc

Edited January 1, 2023 by mac_tlc

[Ken the cruiser]

It worked great for us in both 2021 and 2022 as the prices were super low if you booked early. Sure, we encountered a few short comings, but nothing of real significance.

 

But at the same time when it comes to prices, Celebrity has always been a supply and demand cruise line. Knowing this, we also booked all of our upcoming 2023 cruises when they first came out back in 2021. And true to form, they have all significantly increased in price due mostly to pent-up demand, especially in the cases of our April TP on the Eclipse and our December Galapagos cruise on the Flora, each by about $2,500 pp. So I can understand why some folks are upset, especially if they're just booking them now.

 

As far as our July 2024 Norway cruise on the Apex we just booked at a little over $525 pp/day for an AQ cabin, rest assured we'll be doing frequent mock bookings online to see if the "supply" starts to outweigh the "demand" over the next year or so to bring those prices back down. Hope so, but that is a pretty cool itinerary, so we'll see. But at the same time, we're also booked on some pretty cool Princess and NCL cruises. So for us Celebrity is not the only game in town. 😉

Edited January 1, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

I spent about a month on two B2B cruises on Summit in 2022.  Some of the most wonderful cruises I've been on, in terms of staff, food, etc.  Will see how my January 2023 cruise on Millie goes.  Not in a suite on that one.  Will probably book another cruise while on board.  Suite pricing has gone crazy, so don't know if my suite days are done or not.

[deliver42]

We have a 10 day Souther Caribbean cruise on the Equinox in Dec,2023, and a 7 night Reflection for May of '24, and we are happy with the prices.

[danceswithphones]

We did a 5 day in an Edge Villa on the Beyond in November. Best service ever. That made us Elite and I booked the Ascent and the Edge. X works for me!

[LGW59]

2 hours ago, Spif Barwunkel said:

Celebrity cruising, post shut down, how’d that work for you? Quite the year was 2022, first full year back with higher prices, less perks and rewards, understaffed ships, poor quality food, less than ideal customer service and more. There were objections, rejections and defections from Celebrity cruisers. Was this typical of any normal cruising year just exacerbated by the virus overload, or did many cruisers indeed experience quite the radical change from our normal, pleasant, familiarity with the X brand? I’m not sure that we can blame Celebrity for all shortcomings – if any – that might have occurred during our booking/cruising activities. Perhaps our impatience and expectations had something to do with it. Might we share some of the blame?

 

Happy cruising to all in the new-year and for your cruising dollar in 2023, does X mark the spot?   

It did for my Oct/Nov cruise but for every cruise I am looking at (and comparing) for 2023 & 2024, it definitely does not hit the $pot.  Just booked a Med cruise on O for May and I will then be able to say definitively.

[High on the Seas]

The cruise we took in 2022, booked pre pandemic was a bit lacking in service due to a lack of staff but the lack of paying customers made it enjoyable anyway. The cruise we booked for this coming February was about 25 percent more and 2024 is 25 percent more than 2023. This is all for the same level of Aqua class room. Everything seems more rushed and less value for your money than it used to be. We may opt out for 2024 due to price increases. Seems like too much emphasis catering to suite customers at the expense of everyone else. 

[davekathy]

Twice. 

[mnocket]

Obviously this is highly subjective.  I've watched with interest, across multiple mainstream cruise boards, how people have been reacting to cruise line cutbacks and pricing changes (i.e. service packages).  What I have noticed is that there seem to be many people (a majority?) that are very accepting of these changes.  They understand the financial factors that motivate these changes - accept the changes - and their future cruise plans are unaffected by them.

 

On the other hand, there are (a lesser number?) of people who understand the financial factors that motivate these changes, but find the resulting product's value to be questionable when compared to other available options.  

 

I fall into the later category, but I can appreciate that there are many others who continue to see mainstream cruising's value as compelling.

[AnnaNicole]

I will finish out what I have booked.   Then I will most likely book other upscale lines.   I am mostly looking at Windstar.

 

The premium drink package on my next Feb cruise is $90+ gratuity.   A hard pass.   My last two cruises (Sept & Dec 2022) the drink packages were much less.    I probably don't break even at the lesser rates but I always book the packages because it is easier.   Not any more.

[prmssk]

Since the restart, we have cruised Princess, Carnival, and NCL in addition to Celebrity and we keep coming back to Celebrity.  We were in the middle of a B2B on Princess when their their new drink packages went into effect and they raised drink prices without notice (without raising the limit on the drink package).  We cruised on the the first NCL ship that switched to a fixed MDR menu (same menu every night).  We will never be truly loyal to any one line but at least for now, Celebrity remains towards the top of our list when we consider cruises.  And what I enjoy most about cruising really isn't something that I can get from a land vacation.   I don't like the direction all cruise lines are going but I still see cruising as a good value (aside from Celebrity's suite pricing).  We shall see what the next years will bring though.

[LGW59]

30 minutes ago, prmssk said:

Since the restart, we have cruised Princess, Carnival, and NCL in addition to Celebrity and we keep coming back to Celebrity.  We were in the middle of a B2B on Princess when their their new drink packages went into effect and they raised drink prices without notice (without raising the limit on the drink package).  We cruised on the the first NCL ship that switched to a fixed MDR menu (same menu every night).  We will never be truly loyal to any one line but at least for now, Celebrity remains towards the top of our list when we consider cruises.  And what I enjoy most about cruising really isn't something that I can get from a land vacation.   I don't like the direction all cruise lines are going but I still see cruising as a good value (aside from Celebrity's suite pricing).  We shall see what the next years will bring though.

Wait...they raised the prices during your cruise?!!?!!

[DaKahuna]

We have done five cruises since restart. Three on Celebrity and two on Royal.  For 2023 we have three cruises booked - two Celebrity (15 day and 12 day) and one on Royal (8 day). 
 

[C-Dragons]

Yes.

[Shiba_Lover]

I like the staff on X.  I like knowing what's onboard.  I don't know - maybe some think that's boring, but I like it.   While I do agree the pricing is higher, and there are some changes, I can understand the economy drives that.  I worked for a fortune 50 company for 25 years in financial analysis in roles that explained performance for shareholders.  So, I can understand what is driving some of these changes behind the scenes.

 

I would suspect that if I went on the Oceania, Viking, Silversea boards - I could find people saying very similar things - pricing is up, some things have changed, etc.  

 

I've got a short cruise in Feb on Summit (just to escape winter for a few days), then we have the Flora in October and we have booked the Arctic Circle in 2024 on Apex.  So we are here on X for a while, all in Retreat even though the prices are a bit crazier than it used to be.  But, we really enjoy the service and amenities, even with the changes.

[foodsvcmgr]

Been cruising since 1978 but over the last ten years an equal mix of Celebrity, HAL, and Princess.

Celebrity pricing for the most part is the highest of the three and with high non refundable deposits.

However I’m willing to give my cruising dollars to Celebrity if they demonstrate less cutbacks to food and service than the competition.

[barbeyg]

X marked the spot for us in 2022, when we sailed Apex. Stellar in every way.  
 

We are sailing Beyond this November (RCI Harmony first), and can’t wait to be back on X. 🙂

[stellarose]

since restart only did CCL Mardi Gras. Booked Celebrity for Bermuda. have not sailed on Celebrity in over 10 years. not worried. 

[prmssk]

1 hour ago, LGW59 said:

Wait...they raised the prices during your cruise?!!?!!

Yes, because the change happened to occur in between our B2Bs. Ultimately we didn’t end up having to pay the difference for drinks suddenly not fully covered by our drink package that second week but it was frustrating having to deal with it and bartenders clearly weren’t trained on the change so it was quite chaotic. 

[D C]

We've enjoyed 3 sailings on X in the past 14 months, and reached elite during that time.  We've sailed only once on another brand, and that was a family trip on Royal. 

 

Our next 2 sailings are on Princess. 

 

Why?   $$$

Celebrity has seemed intent on massive price hikes when ships are sailing far from full.  Time to try what we hope is a sufficiently similar experience for far less $

[warmwinds]

We were really disappointed in October.

 

I've been looking at other cruise lines and they are either too expensive or not expensive enough.

 

Celebrity has always been the sweet spot.

 

I think we'll give it one more try this year, hoping that all the complaints won't fall on deaf ears.

[dgparent]

We booked a SS on the Reflection for March, I guess it does not have a real Retreat area yet, so the price was OK, we booked the YC for next X-Mas and it was cheaper.

 

I assume that once the Reflection gets a real retreat area, which I don't really care about I don't sit by the pool ever, they will increase the prices and we may just not bother anymore.  5K for a week is ok for 2 people , but I am not paying 10K just to have a pool area which I would never use.

 

[greatestvalue]

Will let you know after our first cruise on Celebrity in May. 

 

Since restart, we have done 2 RCL.  This year we have 4 booked.  2 - NCL; 1 TA on RCL; and Celebrity on Summit. 

 

Looking to also try Virgin Voyages & MSC in 2024. 

 

So not loyal, but thus far NCL Bliss is our favorite.  I want to book Prima while on board our next NCL cruise. We have (4) CNC to use, which Im sure I wont have a problem spending... 🙂