Seriously now-how many of you are REALLY looking at other cruise lines because of the CEO's changes going on?

[Whinenowine]

8 hours ago, rj59 said:

I'll stick with Celebrity when it makes sense, meaning when I find deals.

I think this is the bottom line here, and it seems that most people on this thread are/will be doing just this. Don't think X has alienated most cruisers to the point of never cruising with them again. But many more (myself included) will shop around more frequently, and the double whammy of higher prices and a somewhat degraded offering will continue to drop X down the list. 

 

But opportunities remain--as I found with my last minute Edge cruise last month. I got lucky and got such a good deal that I couldn't refuse to take it.  So I'll continue to cruise with Celebrity when our interests align, as I think most others will as well.

[Georgia_Peaches]

5 minutes ago, Whinenowine said:

So I'll continue to cruise with Celebrity when our interests align, as I think most others will as well.

Great summation of my current philosophy regarding Celebrity.  I can definitively say I will never again cruise on Carnival or RCL...nothing bad to say about them, I've just outgrown what they have to offer.  In no way is my mindset the same when it comes to Celebrity...I just haven't gotten there yet...but when/if I do, I will know because it won't even occur to me to look them up in my search, just as it is now with Carnival and RCL.

[hubofhockey]

15 hours ago, Traveling Fools said:

 

I encourage people considering Azamara to take 30 minutes or so and visit the Azamara Forum.  It contains less postings than X's forum. There are a lot less complaint threads and many more positive ones.

 

We are booked on a TA in November with them aboard the "ONWARD", so have been monitoring the goings on there.  

 

All in all, much more upbeat than X's forum.

 

Azamara has many hardcore loyalists and it is easy to see why if you take an Azamara cruise.  Their itineraries are great and they focus on overnights and immersion.  They do some unique ports not done by other lines.  The onboard service is great and the ships are very nice, especially for older R class ships.  I thought the food was very good, but people who have done both Oceania and Azamara say Oceania's is better.  I find pricing and inclusions on Azamara though, to make it the best value in cruising. 

 

Sycamore has stated their intention to grow the line, which would mean new ships, at some point.  Those R class ships won't be around forever.  We are getting a look on Oceania next and will be interesting to compare the two (although we will be on a new Oceania ship - Vista).  

 

  

[hubofhockey]

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Great summation of my current philosophy regarding Celebrity.  I can definitively say I will never again cruise on Carnival or RCL...nothing bad to say about them, I've just outgrown what they have to offer.  In no way is my mindset the same when it comes to Celebrity...I just haven't gotten there yet...but when/if I do, I will know because it won't even occur to me to look them up in my search, just as it is now with Carnival and RCL.

If you ever go back on Carnival, you will quickly realize all of the reasons you stopped cruising with them in the first place.  They can improve the food, but it's the same "cheese".

[bnurick]

The Wife booked B2B DCL cruises for 2025 yesterday. She says we are not booking any X cruises until we get through our 2023 and 2024 sailings and know what we are getting...

[Traveling Fools]

12 minutes ago, hubofhockey said:

I thought the food was very good, but people who have done both Oceania and Azamara say Oceania's is better.

Having sailed Oceania once, we thought the food was very good but not raving great.  One feature we enjoyed was the touchless buffet. You point, they plate, they serve.

 

Regardless of what some say about Oceania not trying to up sale, they do have two beverage packages and we thought the basic one kind of sucked.

 

16 minutes ago, hubofhockey said:

If you ever go back on Carnival, you will quickly realize all of the reasons you stopped cruising with them in the first place. 

 

I agree with this assessment.  We have friends we met while living overseas who have more money than most people on this site and who could afford suites on the most expensive luxurious cruise line.  However, when they cruise they never want to feel pressured to dress up.  They have favored Carnival for that reason and no other.  With relaxed dress codes across the cruising spectrum, we have encouraged them to consider other lines that offer more than Carnival offers. 

[hubofhockey]

15 minutes ago, Traveling Fools said:

Having sailed Oceania once, we thought the food was very good but not raving great.  One feature we enjoyed was the touchless buffet. You point, they plate, they serve.

 

Regardless of what some say about Oceania not trying to up sale, they do have two beverage packages and we thought the basic one kind of sucked.

 

 

 

Our Oceania cruise will be on the Vista.  Found a great itinerary, new to us, starting in Lisbon and ending in London (Southampton).  Small ship, but newer and bigger than R class with more things to do.  Would love to get a rotation of Celebrity M class, Azamara, and Oceania and will do a New Zealand/Australia on one of them three years out.  

[Lvdisnee]

4 hours ago, bnurick said:

The Wife booked B2B DCL cruises for 2025 yesterday.

On the Treasure? 

[bnurick]

1 minute ago, Lvdisnee said:

On the Treasure? 

 

Correct.  I prefer the Dream, Fantasy, Magic and Wonder.  Not so much the others...

[CHEZMARYLOU]

We are starting to look around after 25 cruises with Celebrity and just cancelled our next Celebrity cruise.  We still have one booked for December 2024.

[hcat]

Today we booked a short cruise on SILHOUETTE.. Great sale..75% off 2nd cruiser, OBC etc.  We are going into Concierge Class..a good value and will do Specialty dining..

 

Still looking at Cunard for the future.

Edited September 14, 2023 by hcat

[Georgia_Peaches]

9 hours ago, Whinenowine said:

So I'll continue to cruise with Celebrity when our interests align, as I think most others will as well.

*Deleted* Duplicate post...weird how that happens sometimes...8 hours apart, no less.

Edited September 14, 2023 by Georgia_Peaches

[clojacks]

We got off a 7 day Norwegian Fjord cruise on August 28, and this past Monday I cancelled a Southern Japan cruise we had booked for March almost exclusively because of a horrible onboard customer service experience with not 1, employee, but with almost the entire onboard staff. We had booked about a dozen consecutive Celebrity cruises and now have 2 NCL cruises booked for next year. This is not the Celebrity we came to look forward to sailing on.

[jean87510]

8 hours ago, Traveling Fools said:

Having sailed Oceania once, we thought the food was very good but not raving great.  One feature we enjoyed was the touchless buffet. You point, they plate, they serve.

 

Regardless of what some say about Oceania not trying to up sale, they do have two beverage packages and we thought the basic one kind of sucked.

 

 

I agree with this assessment.  We have friends we met while living overseas who have more money than most people on this site and who could afford suites on the most expensive luxurious cruise line.  However, when they cruise they never want to feel pressured to dress up.  They have favored Carnival for that reason and no other.  With relaxed dress codes across the cruising spectrum, we have encouraged them to consider other lines that offer more than Carnival offers. 

That's actually interesting you say that about carnival dress code vs celebrity.  I saw more people dressed up in quite stunning formal outfits on my 4 day Elation cruise last month and my 5 day Magic cruise last year then my February Equinox cruise.  Think it may have been more 1st time cruisers.  

[NMTraveller]

I just booked another 2 vacations for 2024.  Not on Celebrity...

[Traveling Fools]

1 hour ago, jean87510 said:

That's actually interesting you say that about carnival dress code vs celebrity.  I saw more people dressed up in quite stunning formal outfits on my 4 day Elation cruise last month and my 5 day Magic cruise last year then my February Equinox cruise.

May have also been itinerary.  You are going to get a different crowd on an Alaskan cruise than you are on a Caribbean cruise.  And, I didn't address how other passengers dressed.  Only him, the others that joined them dressed (Sports jacket, open collar shirt, tie....) for dinner.  Exercise pants, not sweats, for him.

[shipshape sam]

11 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Great summation of my current philosophy regarding Celebrity.  I can definitively say I will never again cruise on Carnival or RCL...nothing bad to say about them, I've just outgrown what they have to offer.  In no way is my mindset the same when it comes to Celebrity...I just haven't gotten there yet...but when/if I do, I will know because it won't even occur to me to look them up in my search, just as it is now with Carnival and RCL.

I used to say I would never sail Carnival again after a lot of drunken groups on a 5 day cruise we were on.  Then Carnival went to Havana....

 

Got to go to Havana just a month or two before it was closed to cruising again.

 

 

[jean87510]

1 hour ago, Traveling Fools said:

May have also been itinerary.  You are going to get a different crowd on an Alaskan cruise than you are on a Caribbean cruise.  And, I didn't address how other passengers dressed.  Only him, the others that joined them dressed (Sports jacket, open collar shirt, tie....) for dinner.  Exercise pants, not sweats, for him.

I thought by the comment "However, when they cruise they never want to feel pressured to dress up. They have favored Carnival for that reason and no other." you meant Carnival folks didn't dress up.  I did reread and understand what you meant now.

[Baggy178]

12 hours ago, the penguins said:

Absolutely, an amazing way to travel and we have made so many friends.

Next up for us is Reflection Transatlantic in October.

Just waiting for a response from rj59

 

 

Why should he offer one to you even though you keep insisting he does ? 

He's entitled to his views and to express them as robustly as he wishes within the confines of the CC rules.

You didn't like what he wrote ? So what. Get over it.

Didn't bother me in the slightest and I spent a decade looking after a close relative who was wheel-chair bound after a stroke.

 

 

 

 

[billc23]

On 9/13/2023 at 11:29 PM, rj59 said:

I'll stick with Celebrity when it makes sense, meaning when I find deals. I cruise solo and cheap, so cutbacks in all-inclusive or paying for room service don't affect me. I got a solo Cabin for Silhouette with low fares in 2025, and I'll be on the last Eclipse Mexico sailing, before X abandons Mexico for good, which will mean far fewer X sailings for me, since I prefer Cabo and Mexico over the Caribbean. I might try Summit in Alaska, or Edge if it ever gets a good discount, but their ships don't visit Glacier Bay, and as a latecomer, they seem to get the farthest berths in Alaska ports. They also have some good prices on Transatlantics and some of them have the least number of sea days, compared to other lines.I was with HAL mostly for years, until their steady cutbacks drove me to Princess, and then a brief period of low X fares led me to 5 cruises on Solstice and Apex last year--before that they were simply out of my price range, but now I know they have deals if I pick the right place and time. I try to focus on the positives--no other upscale line has anything like the Edge-class ships, fewer decrepit people in walkers and scooters than on HAL and Princess, great productions shows (HAL doesn't do production shows at all now), good Indian and other buffet options, including Greek day, really good OBC offers, wonderful views from ships with Sky Lounges or standing outside the gym, reasonable-sized ships, the least-bad app, Aqua and Retreat people subsidizing my cruise, doubling the value my 100 shares of RCL I bought for shareholder OBC, non-smoking casinos, and the most diverse crew I've seen (the only line where I still meet Russians).  My only real fear with Celebrity is that if there's a real ship emergency, I will have no idea what's going on because I can never understand the Greek captains ("Did Captain Pappadoupulos say abandon ship or that they're out of baklava?").

Pitiful. After a 40 plus career in health care I would like to inform you that one is healthy until they are not. Cruising is a great way to travel for many of us with disabilities and I often see the love between couples and friends helping each other.

 Why you feel the need to ridicule the captain and those who subsidize your cruise is beyond me.

[the penguins]

2 hours ago, Baggy178 said:

 

 

Why should he offer one to you even though you keep insisting he does ? 

He's entitled to his views and to express them as robustly as he wishes within the confines of the CC rules.

You didn't like what he wrote ? So what. Get over it.

Didn't bother me in the slightest and I spent a decade looking after a close relative who was wheel-chair bound after a stroke.

 

 

 

 

I haven't asked for an apology.

Others have sprung to his/her defence by suggesting various reasons for the language used.

I would just like to see a response to the comments their original post has received.

[Baggy178]

8 minutes ago, the penguins said:

I haven't asked for an apology.

Others have sprung to his/her defence by suggesting various reasons for the language used.

I would just like to see a response to the comments their original post has received.

 

But why should he ?

You've asked him three times now and he hasn't responded.

Let it go.

He's not interested in what you think.

[the penguins]

1 minute ago, Baggy178 said:

 

But why should he ?

You've asked him three times now and he hasn't responded.

Let it go.

He's not interested in what you think.

Not just me as several others have responded in similar fashion.

However I am inclined to agree that he/she has no intention of responding and is happy for others to defend his/her position.

Time to move on.

[Baggy178]

3 minutes ago, the penguins said:

Not just me as several others have responded in similar fashion.

However I am inclined to agree that he/she has no intention of responding and is happy for others to defend his/her position.

Time to move on.

 

 

It sounds like a court of law.

You've brought the case for the prosecution but the accused as exercised his right to the First Amendment.

Case dismissed.

All rise ...😉

[the penguins]

7 minutes ago, Baggy178 said:

 

 

It sounds like a court of law.

You've brought the case for the prosecution but the accused as exercised his right to the First Amendment.

Case dismissed.

All rise ...😉

No First Amendment right in the UK.🤣