X Cut Backs

[mcrcruiser]

This will not end well for this cruise line .🍋

[mrgabriel]

The restaurants I go to on shore have either raised prices or are making serving sizes smaller.

 

Hotels are upping prices and charging extra to have rooms serviced on multi-night stays.

 

Tickets to live events are at least 20% higher than a year ago. 
 

I think people’s expectations are going to change. Think about how people screamed when they had to pay for meals or drinks in economy on airplanes. Did they stop flying? Nope. They either paid more for Premium or Plus seats, or they accepted what was within their budget. 

[RTShaker]

Gee, a little more specificity would be great. Something new, or repeats of this weeks threads?

[NutsAboutGolf]

8 minutes ago, mrgabriel said:

The restaurants I go to on shore have either raised prices or are making serving sizes smaller.

 

Hotels are upping prices and charging extra to have rooms serviced on multi-night stays.

 

Tickets to live events are at least 20% higher than a year ago. 
 

I think people’s expectations are going to change. Think about how people screamed when they had to pay for meals or drinks in economy on airplanes. Did they stop flying? Nope. They either paid more for Premium or Plus seats, or they accepted what was within their budget. 

 

And X seems to be using this as an opportunity to do the following:

Raise cruise fares

Reduced Service/Dining staff for over a year now

Menu and Buffet dinner reductions

Extra fees

[NutsAboutGolf]

20 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

This will not end well for this cruise line .🍋

 

Unfortunately they'll do fine as the Retreat guests are immune to most of these changes and doesn't have a problem selling...For the non-suites, all cruise lines follow the same pricing strategy, as you get close to the sales date off "last minute" discounted cruise fares for the unsold cabins

[LB_NJ]

I am happy to move my business to another cruise line and let Royal and Celebrity fail.

 

Comparing a cruise line to an airline is apples and oranges.  You spend a few hours on an airplane vs. a week or more on a cruise.

 

Comparisons to resort hotels is probably reasonable and yes they are raising prices and I would be OK with Celebrity doing a 20% price increase. Would rather they did that then reduce quality.

[mrgabriel]

35 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

And X seems to be using this as an opportunity to do the following:

Raise cruise fares

Reduced Service/Dining staff for over a year now

Menu and Buffet dinner reductions

Extra fees

We have been sailing for about 15 years and there were fees then just as there are now. At that time, we paid extra for a decent steak in the main dining room and for late night dining (on Royal).

 

It’s a business. If they go too far or are the only cruise line to make these changes, the market will make its wishes known. 

[Cruising89143]

What I’m seeing from Celebrity is happening across the board one way or another with other mass market and premium mass market lines. Today Carnival announced that they were raising gratuities and Wi-Fi prices. 

[Guest 4-2-N-8]

Read the other cruise line forums. This is universal, even for the luxury lines.

 

Big difference with luxury lines is they'll do their best to maintain their baseline of luxury while increasing prices.

 

Yes, this is what inflation looks like in the face of supply issues, but it is much more than this.

 

But hey, it's cruise time! 😄

[cruisemom42]

1 hour ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Retreat guests are immune to most of these changes and doesn't have a problem selling...

Is that really the case though?  There've been numerous threads from suite passengers saying that for the prices Celebrity is charging they will swim upstream to lines like Oceania, Viking or even the luxury lines.

 

Just because some have means doesn't imply they will spend where they don't see value.

[grandgeezer]

1 hour ago, mrgabriel said:

The restaurants I go to on shore have either raised prices or are making serving sizes smaller.

 

Hotels are upping prices and charging extra to have rooms serviced on multi-night stays.

 

Tickets to live events are at least 20% higher than a year ago. 
 

I think people’s expectations are going to change. Think about how people screamed when they had to pay for meals or drinks in economy on airplanes. Did they stop flying? Nope. They either paid more for Premium or Plus seats, or they accepted what was within their budget. 

Not all people. We don’t have a budget for anything, what we pay is based on our perceived value. There is nothing available, on any ship or any cruise line, that meets our expectations so we’ll just watch from the side lines. If things change, fine, if not that’s fine too. “If you lower your expectations, you’ll never be disappointed.”

[travelwide]

I am confused by the title of this thread. What cut backs are you specifically referring to? 

[RichYak]

1 hour ago, travelwide said:

I am confused by the title of this thread. What cut backs are you specifically referring to? 

I’m not the OP but if I had to guess off the top of my head:

 

X now charging for room service

X now charging for more than 1 lobster tail

X neutering OVC dinner offerings

There may be more I’m forgetting or we don’t know yet. 

[LGW59]

3 minutes ago, RichYak said:

I’m not the OP but if I had to guess off the top of my head:

 

X now charging for room service

X now charging for more than 1 lobster tail

X neutering OVC dinner offerings

There may be more I’m forgetting or we don’t know yet. 

Rich: would you be in favor of X going truly all inclusive, where the only upcharge would be the difference in what one pays for the type of room/suite they select, otherwise everything is the same for every passenger?

[travelwide]

9 minutes ago, RichYak said:

I’m not the OP but if I had to guess off the top of my head:

 

X now charging for room service

X now charging for more than 1 lobster tail

X neutering OVC dinner offerings

There may be more I’m forgetting or we don’t know yet. 

Thank you for your thoughts. I would like to hear from @mcrcruiser the original poster. 🙂

[markeb]

4 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

Rich: would you be in favor of X going truly all inclusive, where the only upcharge would be the difference in what one pays for the type of room/suite they select, otherwise everything is the same for every passenger?

That’s really the question, isn’t it? Forget the gnashing of teeth here, but if you can offer a premium product, charge appropriately, and make a profit, then from the business standpoint, do it. And, bluntly, fire the customers that won’t go with you. 
 

I don’t think they believe they can get there, so they’re stuck in no man’s land. Which is likely to eventually alienate everyone. Enjoy the cruise, sell the stock…

[RichYak]

10 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

Rich: would you be in favor of X going truly all inclusive, where the only upcharge would be the difference in what one pays for the type of room/suite they select, otherwise everything is the same for every passenger?

A mass market cruise line with ships that have many inside and OV cabins can’t survive with that pricing model IMO. 

[irvington]

I would have to say I'm seeing much worse reduction in service and so on in hotels. Most of my recent domestic travel has been on the West Coast, and I know we are having severe staff shortages, but ever since the pandemic I'm seeing lovely hotels that I went to for years (mostly for work, but ones that have lots of tourist custom too) dirty, no one helpful behind the front desk, can't get things repaired in the room, etc. I'm really low maintenance, so I never complain, but it has been shocking and sad to see how downright dirty some of these places are - as opposed to the cruise I went on last summer, which was a lovely experience.

 

I have family and friends working in hospitality. They report the staffing situation is grim, and now with inflation, it is getting worse in terms of what hotels will offer.

[NMTraveller]

I stayed at a Waldorf Astoria for the NYE holiday.  They did not cut any corners.  It was a fantastic product.  It is a product where I do not have to second guess if I will go back again.

Edited January 5, 2023 by NMTraveller

[NMTraveller]

1 hour ago, markeb said:

That’s really the question, isn’t it? Forget the gnashing of teeth here, but if you can offer a premium product, charge appropriately, and make a profit, then from the business standpoint, do it. And, bluntly, fire the customers that won’t go with you. 

With the cuts is it still a premium product?  MDR limited,  buffet limited, balconies limited,  forward looking views limited ...

Edited January 5, 2023 by NMTraveller

[Cap_D]

Bingo.  What are the brand standards and minimum levels of service?  Why should it be such a mystery?  How does a business expect to sell 10k or more vacations without concrete info about basic offerings and sinking reviews?  

 

The X experience and cruise competitors can be as good or better for the same dollar.  Btw, 2k or more per day for a Retreat room could easily get one the same or much better experience at small or luxury shoreside resort (certainly on many of the economically depressed Caribbean islands and Mexico) with higher end food options actually available for guests each day and meal time of their full vacation.  And one wouldn't need a butler or concierge to troubleshoot problems creates by the hotel.  

 

Stealth cost cutting on the ship, and sub-par port experiences in Caribbean itineraries should make anyone question the value of cruising.  

 

When one reads about the cuts (without squat said from the Celebrity staff (what exactly do they do all day except "play" games with TAs that populate the YouTube videos of non-revenue cruises or their TA oriented web platform)), reads that xyz beach club with included fajitas at port is a highlight (for $$ per person it should be nice, yet many do not fit with the ship), that the lemon squares are amazing (and it may actually be from a Gordon Food Service or similar kit), the fries are frozen and bought at foreign ports, there's a bar shaker show, there's coloring book time on Eden (like a preschool), and there's sing along to Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond (sorry not relevant in years), what exactly is X selling that is worth what they are charging?   

 

Also much of the common praise on CC and elsewhere, and even the bullet points in marketing by X are for customer service features to solve challenges of their own making (e.g., dining issue, seats at popular shows in limited capacity venues, help with an excursion that got botched, noisey ship construction issues, and so on), and things that on land would not be given a second thought like edible pizza, sandwiches from Eden Cafe (hardly open to constitute a real option), bbq, etc.  Moreover, most E class ships are stuck in the 1990s- 2000s color pallet and design.  No land based hotel wirh comparable prices and target customers would last without a renovation and freshening.

 

And what what's the allure of Park West and mass produced works with artists that may not even be fully all there like reports of Peter Max?

[kguerriero]

What's wild to me is someone can read Celebrity's website top-to-bottom, full contract and description of pricing, drop $2,000 (or substantially more) for a non-refundable cruise fare, and wake up in a week to see dramatically different policies and pricing. Estimating out the new fees based on what we planned onboard has added an extra 10% to our total cruise price since booking. And we still have 3 more months of beancounting to see what these geniuses will think up next.

The fact that Celebrity has not grandfathered in booked passengers or have even communicated these changes in policies sometimes until passengers are ONBOARD THE SHIP is grossly unacceptable and not becoming of any brand that uses "premium" or "luxury" to describe their product. I'm struggling to see how it isn't bait-and-switch.

 

[Ipeeinthepools]

10 minutes ago, Cap_D said:

... And what what's the allure of Park West and mass produced works with artists that may not even be fully all there like reports of Peter Max?

 

Bingo, you've figure it out.  The same type of passenger that finds value in the Park West collection won't notice the increasing cost and additional cutbacks of a Celebrity cruise. That's the target market for Celebrity.

[mcrcruiser]

Prices  will raise until the saturation point is reached ,meaning when sales slow dues to price resistance . Remember that there are more new ships that entered the market with many  new unfilled cabins  . Thus ,the cruise lines need to have a plan to fill these cabins  . Raising prices too far is definitely   not in competition with all inclusive land based resorts  like  in Cabo San Lucas or Cancun 

[C4HCG]

5 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

With the cuts is it still a premium product?  MDR limited,  buffet limited, balconies limited,  forward looking views limited ...

Whether or not it’s a premium product (or has ever been) is something we decide ourselves as individuals.  People that think it’s still worth the cash will continue to sail Celebrity, many of those that don’t won’t, some of those that don’t will but will incessantly complain to others how it was better in the old days.  We are keeping an open mind for now, on the Equinox in September and we will make an informed judgement then.  The only change that concerns me is the OVC limited offerings on an evening as we use it often.  Having to pay for things like room service doesn’t.

Edited January 5, 2023 by C4HCG