Is Celebrity trying to imitate HAL

[NMTraveller]

@Ipeeinthepools thanks for the reminder.  I will consider HAL as well as Princess and Celebrity for my next cruise.

 

Even though most say I should just book a river cruise ... 🤣

[PTC DAWG]

10 hours ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

Absolutely the truth.  I think a B2B back to Fort Lauderdale really wastes 3 days.  One day to travel back to Fort Lauderdale, one day with the turnaround day and at least one day to travel back to an area you want to visit.  I’ll take the longer itinerary every day of the week.

IF you like sea days and hanging out on the ship, it is fine.  

 

I do wish they did more of the longer Southern Caribbean cruises..we have the Ascent booked the first of 2026 for the 10 day.  

[terrydtx]

On 3/18/2024 at 8:54 AM, Ipeeinthepools said:

Has Celebrity abandoned the “All Included” advertising campaign?  How long has Celebrity been using the “Have It All” description?   Lately I’ve been more interested in cruising with Holland America and I really don’t pay much attention to the Celebrity advertising campaigns, but this one caught my eye.  Have it All is the description Holland America uses for their drinks, wifi, free specialty ding and shore excursion credit package.  When I first saw this email, I thought it was a HAL email.  Seems like Celebrity might be trying to get some HAL passengers by creating this confusion.

Our last, which will be our last, Celebrity cruise was in January. We are now looking elsewhere after seeing too many changes by Celebrity taking away previous amenities while raising prices 40% or more. We have future cruises now booked with HAL and Oceania. We are also looking at Silversea, Windstar and other real premium and luxury cruise lines.

Edited March 20 by terrydtx

[NMTraveller]

So how has HAL changed since the Pandemic?

 

Many on this board say that all of the cruise lines have taken a step back.  Yet when I go to their respective pages,  most say it is the same ...

[terrydtx]

9 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

So how has HAL changed since the Pandemic?

 

Many on this board say that all of the cruise lines have taken a step back.  Yet when I go to their respective pages, most say it is the same ...

We have been on 7 Celebrity cruises and 2 HAL cruises post Covid. While Celebrity has made many changes to the negative, specially concerning the Retreat Sky Suites, I can't say HAL is any worse than before covid. We found the food and service in HAL MDR's and Club Orange in many cases to be superior to Celebrity and Luminae, prior to Covid I would say this was the opposite.

[Ken the cruiser]

6 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

So how has HAL changed since the Pandemic?

 

Many on this board say that all of the cruise lines have taken a step back.  Yet when I go to their respective pages,  most say it is the same ...

What caught our eye, as we stopped cruising with them in 2019 after they implemented their Music Walk Entertainment strategy, are these as well as their longer 3-5 week "single itinerary" offerings:

 

1. Aft-facing cabin fares went down.

2. Have It All Early Booking perks were added.

3. Military Appreciation OBC was added.

4. AARP membership OBC was added.

5. Mariner Society Early Booking perk was added.

 

With all of these new cost reduction options along with being 4* Mariners, we decided to give HAL another look and have booked an April 2025 21-day Panama Canal cruise on the Eurodam. If we wind up having a fun time, we will add HAL back into our cruise line portfolio.

[bEwAbG]

Familiarity breeds contempt, so it's a wise strategy to rotate around, IMO.  When I first sailed HAL, I found the food on par with X and the service often exceeded anything I experienced on X (content/happy/relaxed employees on HAL versus some aloof/angry/stressed ones on X).  I think X ships are better overall, but the price on X usually doesn't justify the product they offer, especially on routine itineraries.  HAL generally has better and more varied itineraries.  I think when HAL first introduced the Music Walk, it was miles better than anything X has ever done, entertainment-wise.  I know Ken has the opposite opinion, but I think that is a minority one. 

 

They've made some recent changes that are less popular, but HAL does seem to listen to their cruisers and will make tweaks to keep their customers happy whereas X seems to always be chasing people who are not cruising while ignoring the ones who do.  X used to be known for their food but the other lines in their class caught up, and now X has degraded their product to the point where the differentiation no longer matters.  I still price out Celebrity and will sail them when I find a deal, but it's no longer my go-to once you learn what their competitors offer.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

On 3/20/2024 at 6:50 AM, NMTraveller said:

So how has HAL changed since the Pandemic?

 

Many on this board say that all of the cruise lines have taken a step back.  Yet when I go to their respective pages,  most say it is the same ...

 

I have no plans to sail X again, maybe if I see a great price and itinerary on a Pacific Coastal.  Still, I will try to be objective as possible here.  

 

Much of Holland is the same, we spent 14 nights in Alaska last May and from our perspectives, it was the same as 2019.  However, there was no fresh sushi in the buffet on our last cruise.  Lobster is no longer included on a formal night, but comes with a surcharge any night you wish to pay (tail sizes vary).  Beverage shortages outside North America sailings, especially towards the end of the season, they may run out of your favorite wine, beer, tea, soft drink, or seltzer.

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, bEwAbG said:

I think when HAL first introduced the Music Walk, it was miles better than anything X has ever done, entertainment-wise.  I know Ken has the opposite opinion, but I think that is a minority one. 

That's good to hear. Just to set our 2019 decision into context. Back in 2018 we cruised around the Antarctica Peninsula on the Zaandam for 22 days when they introduced the new In-Depth EXC concept that was initially going to be implemented on the Massdam in 2019 and then fleetwide. In Oct 2019 we went on a 40-day Maasdam B2B to New Caledonia and then circumnavigated Australia and were totally wowed by this new "expedition-style" program. The evening entertainment, to include their theater shows, were awesome and they offered 4-6 professionally given lectures on sea days! 

 

However, while we were on the Maasdam cruise we met the head contractor who was responsible for developing the In-Depth EXC concept. He told us HAL had now moved in the complete opposite direction towards their new Music Walk strategy and nixed the In-Depth EXC program from being implemented fleetwide.

 

Our impression of the Music Walk entertainment strategy at the time was that the theater shows would be drastically reduced with the main entertainment being a younger clientele (we're in our early 70s now) sitting around in lounges listening to different genres of music (classical, jazz, and rock) while sipping on their drinks of choice. Since that is something we would rarely do as my DW doesn't drink, we chose to move on to Celebrity and Princess, who OTOH had 4-6 assistant CDs offering a wide assortment of entertainment every night, and we started accruing our CC points over there to get to Elite, which we eventually achieved on both lines. What can I say, we love free laundry! 😂

 

However, now that HAL's prices and early booking perks have become quite alluring, we have decided to give them another go. Their entertainment strategy with only one combined Cruise/Excursion director and an assistant is still pretty weak, BUT their prices like NCL's are worth considering if the itinerary is awesome.

Edited March 21 by Ken the cruiser

[Stateroom_Sailor]

On 3/20/2024 at 6:50 AM, NMTraveller said:

So how has HAL changed since the Pandemic?

 

Many on this board say that all of the cruise lines have taken a step back.  Yet when I go to their respective pages,  most say it is the same ...

 

I should add that HAL discontinued Lincoln Center State sometime last Spring, which was a blow to people who enjoyed listening to live classical music performances during the day.  I believe they would also perform in the theater at night once or twice per cruise.  Live music is still HAL's strength, but if you prefer classical or go to bed early, this could be a major cut.

 

Another daytime entertainment and partnership cut was with America's Test Kitchen, with live cooking demonstrations and recipes.    

 

Edited March 22 by Stateroom_Sailor

[luv4cruises]

On 3/20/2024 at 6:43 AM, terrydtx said:

Our last, which will be our last, Celebrity cruise was in January. We are now looking elsewhere after seeing too many changes by Celebrity taking away previous amenities while raising prices 40% or more. We have future cruises now booked with HAL and Oceania. We are also looking at Silversea, Windstar and other real premium and luxury cruise lines.

Yes- Celebrity’s relentless cutback, up charge, increase prices campaign begun in January, 2023 has certainly soured my loyalty. Although not jumping ship completely - we have Princess and HAL booked! Cruised on the Enchanted and Discovery- loved them! Koningsdam coming up!   Can’t wait to sail on the brand new- amazing Sun. Princess.  By the way those cruise lines stil mainly offer REFUNDABLE deposits without the huge up charge. I just booked the Sun for 99.00 refundable and added the Plus package that still includes drinks, Wi-Fi and GRATUITIES! 
 

[the penguins]

4 hours ago, luv4cruises said:

Yes- Celebrity’s relentless cutback, up charge, increase prices campaign begun in January, 2023 has certainly soured my loyalty. Although not jumping ship completely - we have Princess and HAL booked! Cruised on the Enchanted and Discovery- loved them! Koningsdam coming up!   Can’t wait to sail on the brand new- amazing Sun. Princess.  By the way those cruise lines stil mainly offer REFUNDABLE deposits without the huge up charge. I just booked the Sun for 99.00 refundable and added the Plus package that still includes drinks, Wi-Fi and GRATUITIES! 
 

I would suggest that the drinks/wifi/tips packages are perhaps not as different as you imply.

For comparison in Europe this summer prices were:

Princess: $60 per person per day

Celebrity (with the tips added) $66 per person per day.

In addition as with X you add the tips separately anyone with OBC can use that to pay all or part of the tips whereas with Princess you are using "real" money.

Personally neither package offers any value to us as our Elite+ benefits means we are far better off on Celebrity.

 

[Ipeeinthepools]

20 minutes ago, the penguins said:

I would suggest that the drinks/wifi/tips packages are perhaps not as different as you imply.

For comparison in Europe this summer prices were:

Princess: $60 per person per day

Celebrity (with the tips added) $66 per person per day.

In addition as with X you add the tips separately anyone with OBC can use that to pay all or part of the tips whereas with Princess you are using "real" money.

Personally neither package offers any value to us as our Elite+ benefits means we are far better off on Celebrity.

 

I think the real advantage is with Have it All fare on HAL versus the All included on Celebrity.  For your European example on a Norway cruise, HIA adds $380 for a 7 day cruise with drinks, WiFi, 1 specialty dinner and $100 shore excursion credit.  Celebrity adds $560 for only drinks and wifi.   That’s a significant difference to me.  BTW the cost for a balcony cabin on HAL was $1969 vs $2441 on Celebrity without any package included.    So you could book on HAL, include the HIA package and still be cheaper than cruise only price on Celebrity.

 

I am not seeing how you are better off on Celebrity.

Edited March 22 by Ipeeinthepools

[the penguins]

57 minutes ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

I think the real advantage is with Have it All fare on HAL versus the All included on Celebrity.  For your European example on a Norway cruise, HIA adds $380 for a 7 day cruise with drinks, WiFi, 1 specialty dinner and $100 shore excursion credit.  Celebrity adds $560 for only drinks and wifi.   That’s a significant difference to me.  BTW the cost for a balcony cabin on HAL was $1969 vs $2441 on Celebrity without any package included.    So you could book on HAL, include the HIA package and still be cheaper than cruise only price on Celebrity.

 

I am not seeing how you are better off on Celebrity.

I was responding to a Post comparing Celebrity with Princess and on that comparison the difference is not great. I am much better of on X as I don 't need to buy any package (Elite+ gives me all the WIFI I need plus unlimited speciality teas/coffee/chocolate - we don't drink alcohol - and enough water/sodas during Happy Hour to see us through 24 hours).

We haven't looked at a HAL cruise  since our terrible experiences on Westerdam in 2017 which included:

1) day 8 of a 12 night cruise before we had hot water and a working toilet at the same time.

2)Taps over the bath that my wife couldn't turn due to her Arthritis  - the plumber's response was " we have much better taps with levers if you like I can fit them for you". We later learnt the new taps had been brought on board when the ship went in for a refit but for some reason they weren't fitted. No cabins available with just shower cubicles.

3) a coffee shop with only one person working the espresso machines. HAL's response to the long lines wasn't to get extra staff so they could use both machines but to get chairs.

4) no fresh supplies of food/cakes/pastries in the coffee shop after 8.0pm - the place was like a morgue.

5) shows so bad that even the Cruise Director didn't bother to come and introduce them. On one night after 35 minutes the production show just stopped leaving us wondering if it had ended. After waiting a few minutes the house lights came on so clearly it was time to go.

I could go on but you get the idea.

No apology from HAL. On the last night, after repeated requests, they gave us a small discount on our Account. After much post cruise correspondence got an offer of an additional FCC  which ran out during Covid and which HAL refused to extend.

Shame as our our cruises on the smaller ships had been great. 

[poffles]

I extremely dislike Celebrity's use of 'Have It All' in recent promotions and also totally viewed it as pulled from HAL's use of this same verbiage (that they've used for ages).  Upon reading, it totally felt like bait and hook knowing that HAL uses it in the context of included packages and gratuities and such.  To use 'Have It All' in reference to 'why pick one beach, city, restaurant or even one pool' .. really????  I feel this one to be very confusing and misleading.

 

.

Edited March 22 by poffles

[gfkcruiser]

We are trying HAL for the first time on a 14 day British sailing around d Scotland.   Was enticed by the $1 deposit and it is going where I want to go.  Did the early booking with all included.  Will miss the complimentary laundry I have on Celebrity.   
As for Celebrity, after experiencing IV in both hot weather and cold windy weather, will not do it again.  Loved the Retreat on the Beyond that we got as a Move Up bid, but it is double what I am paying for my SV on the Ascent.  Disappointed that, as of now, only building ships with IV.  

[NMTraveller]

5 hours ago, the penguins said:

I would suggest that the drinks/wifi/tips packages are perhaps not as different as you imply.

For comparison in Europe this summer prices were:

Princess: $60 per person per day

Celebrity (with the tips added) $66 per person per day.

In addition as with X you add the tips separately anyone with OBC can use that to pay all or part of the tips whereas with Princess you are using "real" money.

Personally neither package offers any value to us as our Elite+ benefits means we are far better off on Celebrity.

 

The difference with Celebrity,  we were continuously signing upcharge slips for drinks with the premium package.  It was tiresome and expensive ...

Edited March 22 by NMTraveller

[PTC DAWG]

3 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

The difference with Celebrity,  we were continuously signing upcharge slips for drinks with the premium package.  It was tiresome and expensive ...

The premium covers my preferred Bourbon and Vodka..I’m good to go.  
 

I agree on the skips, I loathe having to sign them.  In fact, I won’t do it.  If it’s out of the premium, I don’t order it.  

Edited March 22 by PTC DAWG

[paulh84]

HAL filed for the service mark (SM) for "Have It All" on February 1st 2024 so they are trying to lock it down. When your email comes from Celebrity and has Celebrity logos all over it I don't see how someone could find it confusing, but...

 

There are many instances of this though. Virgin Voyages for used "All Included" for a while before switching to "Always Included Luxury". Several suite categories have the same name among cruise lines (Celebrity Sky Suites and Princess Sky Suites). 

[luv4cruises]

7 hours ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

I think the real advantage is with Have it All fare on HAL versus the All included on Celebrity.  For your European example on a Norway cruise, HIA adds $380 for a 7 day cruise with drinks, WiFi, 1 specialty dinner and $100 shore excursion credit.  Celebrity adds $560 for only drinks and wifi.   That’s a significant difference to me.  BTW the cost for a balcony cabin on HAL was $1969 vs $2441 on Celebrity without any package included.    So you could book on HAL, include the HIA package and still be cheaper than cruise only price on Celebrity.

 

I am not seeing how you are better off on Celebrity.

And Deposits are always non- refundable for the lower price. 

[luv4cruises]

2 minutes ago, luv4cruises said:

And Deposits are always non- refundable for the lower price. 

And not everyone has large amounts of OBC! Just saying - it’s fun to mix up experiences. I have enjoyed most of my 58 cruises on 7 different cruise lines. Each one has pros and cons but overall quite enjoyable. 

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

The difference with Celebrity,  we were continuously signing upcharge slips for drinks with the premium package.  It was tiresome and expensive ...

Celebrity also ratchets down their Basic Internet service included in their All Included package offered now to the non-Suite folks for $91 pp/day (without gratuities). Such a deal!

 

 

For us we always have to upgrade to their Premium internet package for an additional $10 pp/day when we get the AI package so I can access Cruise Critic and post to my Live From threads and my DW has to as well so she can log onto the multi-layered website she frequents on occasion. I wonder why Celebrity does that? 🤔

 

I also have to upgrade my Classic drink package to premium for $12 pp/day as well if I want to get my triple Baileys to watch the evening show in the theater and a couple glasses of Riesling Kabinett at dinner without having to pay extra. Funny thing, we don't have to do that on Princess when we buy their Plus package for $60 pp/day when we're cruising with Princess, and I imagine with HAL as well. But if we do go on a transatlantic cruise with Celebrity in the future, we'll pass on the AI package and work the beverage and internet angles with our Elite+ status. 

Edited March 22 by Ken the cruiser

[Muushka]

5 hours ago, gfkcruiser said:

We are trying HAL for the first time on a 14 day British sailing around d Scotland.   Was enticed by the $1 deposit and it is going where I want to go.  Did the early booking with all included.  Will miss the complimentary laundry I have on Celebrity.   
As for Celebrity, after experiencing IV in both hot weather and cold windy weather, will not do it again.  Loved the Retreat on the Beyond that we got as a Move Up bid, but it is double what I am paying for my SV on the Ascent.  Disappointed that, as of now, only building ships with IV.  

After experiencing the laundry package on HAL, I would gladly pay for it on X (and I too get lots of free laundry with Elite + and I am as frugal as they come!), if it was like it is on HAL.  Clean and pressed on hangers or wrapped up nicely in a basket.  When we got it it was $7.50 a day for unlimited laundry for the cabin (not per person).  Our clothes never looked so good!

 

I also loved the Music Walk entertainment.  it was wonderful.  We plan on doing another HAL one of these days.  If only for the laundry.😉

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

3 hours ago, paulh84 said:

HAL filed for the service mark (SM) for "Have It All" on February 1st 2024 so they are trying to lock it down. When your email comes from Celebrity and has Celebrity logos all over it I don't see how someone could find it confusing, but...

 

There are many instances of this though. Virgin Voyages for used "All Included" for a while before switching to "Always Included Luxury". Several suite categories have the same name among cruise lines (Celebrity Sky Suites and Princess Sky Suites). 

That'll be interesting considering there are songs with that title and it's just a common phrase...

[Lastdance]

Well, for me Celebrity’s customer service on land is what I just detest, as I am still trying to recover an extra 200.  So, it’s the new-hires that have given me the red flag, making me absolutely unsure of my future bookings.  Of course, two are on the books now with NRF deposits, along with insurance just for the deposits for now.  I love the E- ship experience, not to mention how hard the crew work onboard to make the experience so enjoyable!  Furthermore, the continuous sales upon sales has much to be desired, but totally lost in translation as the same ole thing, yet higher, except for once in a while.  I chose another line for its itinerary, but have no idea if the total experience will impress me at all, yet that's the choice I made.  Furthermore, I understand that "C" is recruiting newbies(new customers) who don't have the experiences of more seasoned cruisers.  Yes, "seasoned," but not old!  Stock price today in after hours trading: 136.02.

~Happy Easter~

Edited March 22 by Lastdance
In observance of Easter