Just heard

[Harrisonkid]

I just heard that Celebrity no longer adds tips into it package deals. We booked a cruise ( February  2025) a year ago with drinks, wifi and Tip included...is that to be honored  or will my wife have to do dishes 😉

[RichYak]

If you booked with tips prior to the change, your wife can leave the dishtowels home. 😂

[MNSails]

Bookings made prior to Oct. 4, 2023 which had the tips included will be honored.  

[dlh015]

I booked mine before they stopped including grats. It shows up in my booking reservation online and in my paperwork.

 

Should still be included...but this is X...lol...

 

No, really, it should still be there...

[asctony]

A BIG cutback!

More to come.

Happy Cruising! 

[CruiseRQA]

37 minutes ago, asctony said:

A BIG cutback!

More to come.

Happy Cruising! 

Funny how people view the elimination of included gratuities a CUTBACK!  My Beyond cruise last year was $1000 more per person but included gratuities and $900 OBC.     So this year my wife and I will be paying $2000 less in cruise fare but will have to cover gratuities and any onboard expenses.   Not exactly a BIG cutback.    

[jelayne]

4 minutes ago, CruiseRQA said:

Funny how people view the elimination of included gratuities a CUTBACK!  My Beyond cruise last year was $1000 more per person but included gratuities and $900 OBC.     So this year my wife and I will be paying $2000 less in cruise fare but will have to cover gratuities and any onboard expenses.   Not exactly a BIG cutback.    

Your lucky.  The prices on my suite bookings didn’t drop enough to even offset the removal of the gratuities, much less the OBC.  

[mrgabriel]

5 minutes ago, CruiseRQA said:

Funny how people view the elimination of included gratuities a CUTBACK!  My Beyond cruise last year was $1000 more per person but included gratuities and $900 OBC.     So this year my wife and I will be paying $2000 less in cruise fare but will have to cover gratuities and any onboard expenses.   Not exactly a BIG cutback.    

 

Agreed. Important to do the math.

 

For our September '24 cruise we have gone with the base fare and will be saving a considerable amount of money. 

[terrydtx]

5 minutes ago, jelayne said:

Your lucky.  The prices on my suite bookings didn’t drop enough to even offset the removal of the gratuities, much less the OBC.  

I agree, for our two Edge cruises next month, the Sky Suites went up in price after the Oct 4th date, we booked in Feb 2022 so we are grandfathered. For suites at lease no more prepaid grats and no OBC is s huge cutback.

[2chiefs]

31 minutes ago, CruiseRQA said:

Funny how people view the elimination of included gratuities a CUTBACK!  My Beyond cruise last year was $1000 more per person but included gratuities and $900 OBC.     So this year my wife and I will be paying $2000 less in cruise fare but will have to cover gratuities and any onboard expenses.   Not exactly a BIG cutback.    

I agree. What's included and not has nothing to do with actual pricing. It's nicer to have "A La Carte" and I would like it better if a check box you could check during booking for each item that was available instead. I would not purchase WiFi for instance. 

Edited December 18, 2023 by 2chiefs

[Tyler414]

All perception.   I booked a 10 day cruise in June 2022 on an E-class for March 2024.  I paid about $2900pp in a Sunset Veranda prem. bev. prem. wifi and $800 obc.  

My parents booked the same cruise about a month ago, IV cabin base fare $2250pp w/o grats.  they bought the prem. bev during a sale for $600pp w/grats.  They will not use wifi so they are not spending the money on it.   We both feel like we got a decent deal, but did we really??  

At the end of day we both feel like we got a "good" deal and that is all that matters.

Can't wait for March!!!

Edited December 18, 2023 by Tyler414

[Ex-Airbalancer]

OP should do a search , there was a lot of threads about this already

[Whinenowine]

14 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

I agree, for our two Edge cruises next month, the Sky Suites went up in price after the Oct 4th date, we booked in Feb 2022 so we are grandfathered. For suites at lease no more prepaid grats and no OBC is s huge cutback.

Yup, agreed Terry...every suite I've been following is the same or more expensive now than it was 2months ago--and no OBC or tips included.  I'm sure there are exceptions (after all I'm only looking at like 7 or 8 cruises), but...I haven't found them yet.

 

All the little changes and cutbacks are annoying by themselves, but cumulatively and in conjunction with increased pricing...that bad combo is what's really chased me away. As I posted elsewhere, current Retreat pricing is often higher than comparable cabins on Regent, SilverSea and Oceania...which just ain't right.  I'll still cruise X, as I've said in the past, but the pricing has to be right.   

 

My next cruise is on Regent and is quite a bit cheaper than a SS on X (oh and they threw in $1k in OBC for the Black Friday special...go figure!).  

[cruisestitch]

51 minutes ago, 2chiefs said:

I agree. What's included and not has nothing to do with actual pricing. It's nicer to have "A La Carte" and I would like it better if a check box you could check during booking for each item that was available instead. I would not purchase WiFi for instance. 

There is no check box but you can certainly book at “simply sail” and then add back the features you want.

[paulh84]

26 minutes ago, Tyler414 said:

All perception.   I booked a 10 day cruise in June 2022 on an E-class for March 2024.  I paid about $2900pp in a Sunset Veranda prem. bev. prem. wifi and $800 obc.  

My parents booked the same cruise about a month ago, IV cabin base fare $2250pp w/o grats.  they bought the prem. bev during a sale for $600pp w/grats.  They will not use wifi so they are not spending the money on it.   We both feel like we got a decent deal, but did we really??  

At the end of day we both feel like we got a "good" deal and that is all that matters.

Can't wait for March!!!

 

People have this odd need to justify and complain about it. It's ultimately a frivolous expense. Maybe they are still disillusion from the low prices after COVID. We had an SV on Edge, prem drinks, prem wifi, tips, plus $380 in OBC for a total of $2896 booked for February 2022. With the current travel demand among other things I have zero expectation of getting a price comparable to that ever again in the future. 

 

I'm still waiting to find that comparable cabin and itinerary on a lux line that is significantly cheaper than Celebrity that I read about so often, but so far I'm consistently seeing those numbers anything from 30% to 100% higher than my Celebrity price. Maybe I'm blind. 

[Harrisonkid]

Thanks for the feedback...wife will be thrilled 

[Tyler414]

10 minutes ago, paulh84 said:

 

People have this odd need to justify and complain about it. It's ultimately a frivolous expense. Maybe they are still disillusion from the low prices after COVID. We had an SV on Edge, prem drinks, prem wifi, tips, plus $380 in OBC for a total of $2896 booked for February 2022. With the current travel demand among other things I have zero expectation of getting a price comparable to that ever again in the future. 

 

I'm still waiting to find that comparable cabin and itinerary on a lux line that is significantly cheaper than Celebrity that I read about so often, but so far I'm consistently seeing those numbers anything from 30% to 100% higher than my Celebrity price. Maybe I'm blind. 

I was on Apex in March 2022 7 days Caribbean.   Paid $2650 TOTAL  Sunset Veranda Prem everything, tips and $400 OBC   I understand I will probably never see that again

Edited December 18, 2023 by Tyler414

[RichYak]

30 minutes ago, paulh84 said:

I'm still waiting to find that comparable cabin and itinerary on a lux line that is significantly cheaper than Celebrity that I read about so often, but so far I'm consistently seeing those numbers anything from 30% to 100% higher than my Celebrity price. Maybe I'm blind. 

The price comparisons you read about so often are between lux lines and The Retreat.

[Dolebludger]

37 minutes ago, RichYak said:

The price comparisons you read about so often are between lux lines and The Retreat.

I know my posts on this subject are lux lines vs the Retreat. In categories below the Retreat, it looks like to me that Celebrity still offers a good deal, compared with its mass market competition. Actually, the Retreat (and the Yacht Club and the Haven) were set up to offer those who would ordinarily take a lux line 98% of the lux experience for a much lower fare. And we believe that the Retreat did a very good job of establishing itself I that market, pre-pandemic. Now, Celebrity has raised Retreat fares so much that they are higher than our preferred lux line (Regent), while cutting back on too many lux perks to list in this post. I am not angry with Celebrity due to this, because I can just book a lux line with a lower fare than currently on the Retreat. Instead, I feel sorry for Celebrity. It had built up a loyal following for its Retreat product. Now it is sure to loose that following.

[RichYak]

43 minutes ago, Dolebludger said:

I know my posts on this subject are lux lines vs the Retreat.

Of course, it's very clear and obvious. I have no idea why anyone wouldn't recognize this.

[2chiefs]

2 hours ago, cruisestitch said:

There is no check box but you can certainly book at “simply sail” and then add back the features you want.

Not quite. I don't see anywhere for adding drink packages or wifi after checking "simply sail". You have to buy them at published prices in the app. Much more than what they are charging now up front. I can purchase the all inclusive package which includes wifi (which I don't use) cheaper than simply sail and then adding the drink package. At least that's what I'm seeing on all the mock bookings I've been doing.

[terrydtx]

3 hours ago, Whinenowine said:

Yup, agreed Terry...every suite I've been following is the same or more expensive now than it was 2months ago--and no OBC or tips included.  I'm sure there are exceptions (after all I'm only looking at like 7 or 8 cruises), but...I haven't found them yet.

 

All the little changes and cutbacks are annoying by themselves, but cumulatively and in conjunction with increased pricing...that bad combo is what's really chased me away. As I posted elsewhere, current Retreat pricing is often higher than comparable cabins on Regent, SilverSea and Oceania...which just ain't right.  I'll still cruise X, as I've said in the past, but the pricing has to be right.   

 

My next cruise is on Regent and is quite a bit cheaper than a SS on X (oh and they threw in $1k in OBC for the Black Friday special...go figure!).  

We will be looking at Regent and Seabourne in the future. We have one Oceania cruise booked for 2025 that was 4 days longer and $200pp less than a SS on Celebrity.

[terrydtx]

3 hours ago, RichYak said:

The price comparisons you read about so often are between lux lines and The Retreat.

People who cruise in the retreat are the best candidates for a lux line anyway. No one who books inside and lowest level verandahs on Celebrity would ever look at or be interested in a Lux line. My Wife and I fall into the former category, we worked hard and saved until we retired and now we want to cruise and fly first class.

[ISABELLA]

4 hours ago, Tyler414 said:

All perception.   I booked a 10 day cruise in June 2022 on an E-class for March 2024.  I paid about $2900pp in a Sunset Veranda prem. bev. prem. wifi and $800 obc.  

My parents booked the same cruise about a month ago, IV cabin base fare $2250pp w/o grats.  they bought the prem. bev during a sale for $600pp w/grats.  They will not use wifi so they are not spending the money on it.   We both feel like we got a decent deal, but did we really??  

At the end of day we both feel like we got a "good" deal and that is all that matters.

Can't wait for March!!!

I just booked 10 days Carib on Ascent in 2025, Sunset veranda for $2250/pp with refundable deposit, no perks and $200 obc. Good deal? Can save about $700, if yo change to Nrd.

[mac_tlc]

3 hours ago, paulh84 said:

 

 

I'm still waiting to find that comparable cabin and itinerary on a lux line that is significantly cheaper than Celebrity that I read about so often, but so far I'm consistently seeing those numbers anything from 30% to 100% higher than my Celebrity price. Maybe I'm blind. 

How about this:

Celebrity Ascent, transatlantic,

Oct 31, 2025. 
13 nights,

Sky Suite = $12,458 for two

Celebrity Suite = $25,511 for two 

 

Oceania Vista,

14 night transatlantic

Nov 19,2025

PH2 = $9,180 for two

 

I’ll let you decide if the PH2 is more comparable to a CS than an SS. Given the size of the cabin and the removal of individual butlers from the SS, I would say it’s more comparable

to a CS. 
 

Both ships are currently the newest for each line, and each line has another similar ship debuting in 2025. 
 

Neither one includes gratuities, Oceania includes all specialty dining. Celebrity includes premium drink package. Add another $750 or so to the Oceania price to make it comparable. 
 

So, $25,511 is a lot more than $9,930. And it’s one day longer.
 

There are many more examples. 
 

 

mac_tlc

Edited December 19, 2023 by mac_tlc