What would make you stop cruising on Celebrity?

[TrueCruiseaholic]

With all of the 2023 changes, Celebrity is giving some guests reason to bring their business elsewhere.

 

What could Celebrity do that would be a deal breaker for you?

 

My deal breaker would be the removal of the Captain's Club program. I actually like getting benefits for my loyalty. It costs Celebrity money, though. Think about how many free drinks Celebrity just gives away! Celebrity could save so much money!

[CaroleSS]

The Captain's Club is a non-starter for us. Many of the perks we never take advantage of. For those that are Zenith....maybe, but with the introduction of their AI program, it really has little value for us.

 

We are slated for our 8th X cruise in May. We have been doing more land vacations as we just feel the value is there. I'm tired of seeing the same nightly shows (saw the same shows on Equinox two years apart!), the disappearing "value add", the increased nickel and diming and the significant lack of onshore Customer Support.

 

I do understand that these things are pervasive now. All cruises and many land based vacations are having staffing issues, raising costs and are cutting back wherever they can......I get it....but X just seems to losing that "sparkle" for us. Nothing that is a "deal breaker", but more like "death by 1,000 cuts". ☹️

[LGW59]

33 minutes ago, TrueCruiseaholic said:

With all of the 2023 changes, Celebrity is giving some guests reason to bring their business elsewhere.

 

What could Celebrity do that would be a deal breaker for you?

 

My deal breaker would be the removal of the Captain's Club program. I actually like getting benefits for my loyalty. It costs Celebrity money, though. Think about how many free drinks Celebrity just gives away! Celebrity could save so much money!

Good question but before you jump ship, peruse the boards of a few other lines, there is a growing common thread.  I’m finding that for my $$ I just shop around and find what seems best for me knowing nothing is going to be 100% perfect on the lines that I will consider.

[C4HCG]

39 minutes ago, TrueCruiseaholic said:

With all of the 2023 changes, Celebrity is giving some guests reason to bring their business elsewhere.

 

What could Celebrity do that would be a deal breaker for you?

 

My deal breaker would be the removal of the Captain's Club program. I actually like getting benefits for my loyalty. It costs Celebrity money, though. Think about how many free drinks Celebrity just gives away! Celebrity could save so much money!

If they stopped cruising the Caribbean in the summer. Or the day we disembark and say never again, that was a waste of money. Or the day we look to book and the prices are just silly. Hopefully none of these will ever happen.

[davekathy]

Not loyal to any cruise line. Like anything we purchase, when there is no longer the value in it for us we move on. 

[prmssk]

A land vacation will never replace a cruise for me.  There is something about being out in the open sea, watching the water go by, and waking up in new places that feeds my soul. And we are not financially in a place to move up to the luxury on any consistent basis. So that leaves us with the mainstream lines. 
 

We are not loyal to any one line but even with the changes that may be happening, Celebrity still fits us best so we find ourselves putting it towards the top of the list when considering new cruises. What will it take to change that?  I think it isn’t any one thing nor is it tied just to what Celebrity does but also what the other lines do. As an example, after some not very great experiences on two different Princess ships in 2022, they have put themselves on the bottom of our list while reminding us of what Celebrity is still getting right for us. 

[miched]

If they start to charge a daily resort fee.  
 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[1980dory]

13 minutes ago, prmssk said:

A land vacation will never replace a cruise for me.  There is something about being out in the open sea, watching the water go by, and waking up in new places that feeds my soul. And we are not financially in a place to move up to the luxury on any consistent basis. So that leaves us with the mainstream lines. 
 

We are not loyal to any one line but even with the changes that may be happening, Celebrity still fits us best so we find ourselves putting it towards the top of the list when considering new cruises. What will it take to change that?  I think it isn’t any one thing nor is it tied just to what Celebrity does but also what the other lines do. As an example, after some not very great experiences on two different Princess ships in 2022, they have put themselves on the bottom of our list while reminding us of what Celebrity is still getting right for us. 

Likewise!

[terrydtx]

We only book suites with Celebrity and have 4 cruises booked this year and next year in Sky Suites. What is going to drive us to look elsewhere is the pricing of suites like Sky Suites. Our 2024 New Zealand cruise on the Edge, if booked today is $2000pp more than what we booked for in early 2022. If we were booking today, we would be seriously looking at Oceania or Viking Ocean.  Last week we looked at January 2025 cruises of South America. Celebrity has a 14-day cruise and Sky Suites are about the same price as a top-level Veranda cabin on the Oceania Marina for 18 nights. We booked the Oceania cruise on Monday and are waiting to see what Viking Ocean will have when they release their 2025 schedules. So, I guess we can say Celebrity already has driven us to look elsewhere now.

[LMaxwell]

When the onboard experience becomes a gauntlet of extra fees and no service.  

[Pinboy]

1 hour ago, TrueCruiseaholic said:

What could Celebrity do that would be a deal breaker for you?

LOL:

" You know folks, Pinboy was etc, etc, so let's bow our heads for 38 minutes , etc etc ".

 

[Cruising89143]

Seems that if you read the other boards here, changes are now happening on just about every other cruise line. Some not as drastic but I think all of the cruise lines are so far in debt that is only the beginning. They will continue to look for more areas to save money. While some are stating that the current changes do not affect them that may be the case now but sooner or later one of the changes will. I’m not loyal to any cruise line. If I were, IMHO RCI actually offers better past guest perks than X does. I go with who will give me the best overall cruise experience. 

[cmaleblanc]

While I understand that people (including us) book cruises out months if not years in advance to take advantage of prices and time to pay off balances, I will say right now it's just a firestorm of problems! I don't think it fair to judge any one cruise line with what's going on. Everything is going up in costs regardless of line. I've only ever cruised on Celebrity. We have a cruise coming up in a few weeks, and a future cruise in Feb 2024. I'll give these two a go, and reevaluate after we start to see things settle down a bit. 

 

I'm not saying we won't change, or won't look at other options, I think everyone should do that. I'm just saying I'm trying not to make a rash decision based on internet posts. The grass might look greener on the other side, but it might not be a lush. 

 

Like everyone we are concerned with all the changes, but we are in an echo chamber in this form, we are only seeing the complaints about Celebrity, and let's be honest, these forms aren't exactly a pillar of information. Like many forms it's a pitch fork mob jumping on the bandwagon every time someone calls foul. 

 

I'll take our next two cruises and than see what's going on, see what Celebrity puts out as formal decision on plans moving forward. I'm hoping these are just stop gaps because of the staffing problems along with all the other external impacts they are dealing with. But if it ends up like taxes after the war, or "baggage fees" that where only suppose to be around for a year or two after major events, we'll be looking to make our dollar go further.

[gizmodog]

I love cruising and celebrity has always been my line of choice, but I will have to see, have 4 cruises booked and if the cutbacks are too much, I have had my eye on Oceania for awhile. I cannot understand a cruise line charging extra when it has always been all included other than specialty dining, and alcohol. I just don’t like all these surprises. We shall see.  Raise prices again to cover these added prices so not to worry about it while on the ship. Makes them to me look like a lower class ship. Charges are not enough to break the bank, but I will not use them, and the sad thing is, if people are ok with them they will not go away and there will be more in the future.

[Los_Pepes]

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

We only book suites with Celebrity and have 4 cruises booked this year and next year in Sky Suites. What is going to drive us to look elsewhere is the pricing of suites like Sky Suites. Our 2024 New Zealand cruise on the Edge, if booked today is $2000pp more than what we booked for in early 2022. If we were booking today, we would be seriously looking at Oceania or Viking Ocean.  Last week we looked at January 2025 cruises of South America. Celebrity has a 14-day cruise and Sky Suites are about the same price as a top-level Veranda cabin on the Oceania Marina for 18 nights. We booked the Oceania cruise on Monday and are waiting to see what Viking Ocean will have when they release their 2025 schedules. So, I guess we can say Celebrity already has driven us to look elsewhere now.

I briefly was trying to convince 3 couples to join my family on an upcoming sailing. 2 of the couples only book suites and when they priced it out, they balked. For the price asked by X, they could go on SeaDream, Seabourn etc.. 

[grandgeezer]

That ship has sailed, no pun intended. In December 2016 we decided the cruise we were on would be our last, the cutbacks, changes, and pricing had turned cruising into something we really didn’t enjoy. We had been averaging about 42 days a year, using mostly Celebrity but a few on RCL, we really liked the Oasis class ships. Since then we have done 56 days total, all in suites, 14 on the Allure in a Grand suite, 14 days on the Equinox in a Sky Suite, and 28 days on MSC Seaside in a Yacht Club suite. We enjoyed them all and decided we would cruise again but only in suites at a price we think is fair.

Hands down the MSC cruises were our favorite and the Allure was next. Although we enjoyed the Equinox it was just to pricy, over $100 p.p. per day. We have no interest in a drink package, or internet, so there is no value in them. No refundable obc has one use for us, gratuities, and that is part of the suite package.
Post Pandemic: The cuts keep coming, the prices have risen to a point that no category on any ship, on any line show us any value to book anything.

[terrydtx]

6 minutes ago, Los_Pepes said:

I briefly was trying to convince 3 couples to join my family on an upcoming sailing. 2 of the couples only book suites and when they priced it out, they balked. For the price asked by X, they could go on SeaDream, Seabourn etc.. 

We cruised on the Equinox on a 9-day ABC island cruise in August 2022 in a Sunset Sky Suite our cost was $3849pp. I just looked and the same itinerary, except for only 8 days in 2024 on the Reflection in a Sunset Sky Suite is $4486pp, that is up $637pp with one less day, this is why we are looking at other lines now. The Equinox in 2022 for 9 days was $427pp per day the 2024 cruise for 8 days is $560pp per day which makes it look even worse.

[LB_NJ]

Food quality and selection.  I don't expect a five star restaurant, however, I expect reasonable quality and taste.  If I can't enjoy a meal that ruins a significant part of my enjoyment on a cruise.

 

I will either switch to land vacations or switch cruise lines.

 

I also like the fact that Oceanview is open to 1AM, that actually matters to me.

 

Secondly is how crowded the ship is, if everything is crowded it spoils the fun.

 

Don't really care at all about Captain's Club and the shows are not that big a deal for us.

[LB_NJ]

50 minutes ago, gizmodog said:

I love cruising and celebrity has always been my line of choice, but I will have to see, have 4 cruises booked and if the cutbacks are too much, I have had my eye on Oceania for awhile. I cannot understand a cruise line charging extra when it has always been all included other than specialty dining, and alcohol. I just don’t like all these surprises. We shall see.  Raise prices again to cover these added prices so not to worry about it while on the ship. Makes them to me look like a lower class ship. Charges are not enough to break the bank, but I will not use them, and the sad thing is, if people are ok with them they will not go away and there will be more in the future.

I sailed on Oceania pre-COVID.  Really loved them.  They included all the non-alcoholic drinks, food was way better than Celebrity, ship never felt crowded.  It was great.  They are a little more expensive than Celebrity so it was a hard choice to select Oceania. However, with all these changes coming to Celebrity I will probably give Oceania a try before booking another Celebrity cruise.

[MarkWiltonM]

We love Celebrity ships but have never thought the food was much better than "okay." If the food quality were to decline further, we'd stay away permanently. We are already cruising Oceania more and Celebrity less. We also aren't fans of the infinite verandas on Edge-class ships, so unless we snag a Sunset Veranda before they sell out we don't book. 

[C4HCG]

6 minutes ago, LB_NJ said:

I sailed on Oceania pre-COVID.  Really loved them.  They included all the non-alcoholic drinks, food was way better than Celebrity, ship never felt crowded.  It was great.  They are a little more expensive than Celebrity so it was a hard choice to select Oceania. However, with all these changes coming to Celebrity I will probably give Oceania a try before booking another Celebrity cruise.

Being lazy as I could check myself but how big are the Oceania ships?

[NutsAboutGolf]

For like 95% of us it's value, "including all fees and perks that are important to me, how much is the all in price and what do I get for it?"  

[LB_NJ]

9 minutes ago, C4HCG said:

Being lazy as I could check myself but how big are the Oceania ships?

Last time I looked they were 700 pax and about 1200 pax.

[Honolulu Blue]

3 hours ago, TrueCruiseaholic said:

With all of the 2023 changes, Celebrity is giving some guests reason to bring their business elsewhere.

 

What could Celebrity do that would be a deal breaker for you?

Interesting question.  I hope things don't spin out of control.  I haven't read any of the responses on purpose.

 

There are two groups of cruises I book on Celebrity:

 

1) Charters that chose a Celebrity ship, and

2) Regular bookings where I choose Celebrity

 

On the first, the answer is obvious - when the charter I choose stops choosing Celebrity, I will have no choice but to stop cruising with Celebrity.  The charter sailing and its theme is much more important to me than the company name on the bow.

 

The answer to the second is much more complicated.  To express it as simply as I can, I will abandon Celebrity as a cruise line when I perceive the value they would give me is less than the amount that they want for their cruises.  The factors I think are important in my cruising varies over time, so I won't slam the door on Celebrity (or any cruise line) without a lot of consideration.

[PTC DAWG]

I have priced Oceania…I don’t see the great deals others are seeing..comparing suites with regular verandas..apples to nuts.  Throw in the want for perks, drinks, etc.. and the price skews upward even more.

 

HAL is probably a fairer comparison.  At least the ship won’t be totally asleep by 9 PM with the music row etc they are offering on some ships.