Captains Club Elite Cocktail Hour

[harz99]

2 hours ago, sofmall said:

 

Yes, we'd love it if we could have our Elite complimentary drinks at any time of day. As occasional drinkers we're just not into "cocktail hour", it's not our mindset. When on a cruise we do enjoy sometimes a cocktail by the pool so it would be wonderful if our drink perk could be accessed when we feel like it .. or not (often we forget all about it and go days without taking advantage of the cocktail hour drink). Bars just aren't our focus on cruises, in fact we always have trouble finding one if we want our complimentary drink!

 

Having it operate the same way as on RC, there would be less congestion at bars during pre-dinner times. 

 

I'm hoping that eventually Celebrity will do the same as RC and have the 4 drinks loaded on our cards for use anywhere, at any time. I can't think why Celebrity doesn't think it a good idea. We only have one drink if any, but wow, I'd love to have my drink when I'm in the mood for it. 

 

I'd happily settle for a doubling of the cocktail hour to be 5-9 with or without vouchers, the present timings impact heavily on those of us that dine early to the point where we often only just get two drinks before going to dine and that's on 6pm Select, 5.30pm fixed is even worse. The whole cocktail hour system is geared up for late diners. 

[barneyboy]

1 hour ago, harz99 said:

I'd happily settle for a doubling of the cocktail hour to be 5-9 with or without vouchers, the present timings impact heavily on those of us that dine early to the point where we often only just get two drinks before going to dine and that's on 6pm Select, 5.30pm fixed is even worse. The whole cocktail hour system is geared up for late diners. 

I don’t think they can please everyone. We’re late diners and never use the cocktail hour as it’s far too early for us. We’re usually having our pre dinner drinks around 7.30pm. 5-9 would certainly be better for us. Someone suggested making it 4-7 but surely not many are having pre dinner drinks at 4pm.

[BP99]

9 hours ago, Bruin Steve said:

Our last three cruises on Celebrity, we were marketed the AI "deal"---included classic drinks, lower level WiFi and, on the first two, included gratuities (those first two, we booked in 2019 when AI was all they offered--and those got lifted-and-shifted multiple times for the pandemic.  Of course, the AI deal rendered the Elite Plus perks completely moot...though we received no discount on the packages for being Elite Plus.  Pretty much convinced me to never again purchase an AI package.  Hereafter, when cruising on Celebrity, we'll carefully use the free 240 each WiFi minutes and the 5-7 free drinks that we get as Elite Plus...and we'll just pay by the drink for anything we drink after 7 pm.

 

On Royal Caribbean, as Diamond Plus, we get two days free WiFi each per cruise...so, sharing passwords, we're covered for 4 days of a 7 night cruise...and we'll do the off days on port days where we can find free WiFi in port.  The drink voucher thong works out MUCH better.  We get 10 drinks per day between us...and my wife rarely drinks more than 3...So I get 7--more than enough.  And we can spread those drinks out all day and night...which is all we need.  As Diamond Plus, we also get a half dozen free bottles of water and a free bottle of wine in the room.  In addition to all that, on Royal, we get the Diamond (now "Crown" I guess) Club--which has a 24 hour espresso/cappuccino machine, cocktail hour appetizers and a better atmosphere and service.

 

Celebrity Elite Plus gives us two free bags of laundry each, RCCL Diamond Plus gives us one each--only makes a difference on LONGER cruises.  So, overall, the RCCL C&A Diamond Plus perks blow away the Celebrity Captain's Club Elite Plus perks.

Hi,

I agree with you!!

We mostly sail with RCL (as Diamond plus) because the

perks are better than Celebrity. The RCL drinks for

for Diamond plus (any time any place ie pool, dinner) like you

mention also works better for us also! 

 

Why are the perks better on RCL?

 

Bill

 

[retired dude]

this thread reminds us of the woman on a recent rccl cruise sitting at the bar and complaining that carnival had limited her to a dozen drinks a day...We got up and went to another bar.. We eat dinner every night at 7 p.m. on celebrity for a number of reasons..Nice to see them adding the elite HH to embarkation day...I kindly and politely mentioned them not doing that in the past and of course i was lambasted here on CC for being cheap...I guess i was not alone in hoping that they would include sailaway day in the elite HH perk....life is good looking forward to sailing on the "connie" again this fall.

[sofmall]

5 hours ago, harz99 said:

I'd happily settle for a doubling of the cocktail hour to be 5-9 with or without vouchers, the present timings impact heavily on those of us that dine early to the point where we often only just get two drinks before going to dine and that's on 6pm Select, 5.30pm fixed is even worse. The whole cocktail hour system is geared up for late diners. 

I agree. We tend to go to dinner 5.45, 6 or 6.15. So same situation as you. If I'm having my one drink I might grab it on the way to dinner. A longer timeframe would be a great idea, though any time of day would be even greater.

 

[karl_nj]

1 minute ago, sofmall said:

I agree. We tend to go to dinner 5.45, 6 or 6.15. So same situation as you. If I'm having my one drink I might grab it on the way to dinner. A longer timeframe would be a great idea, though any time of day would be even greater.

 

 

Yes, the free drink package for Zenith is way better than the 6 "all day" drink vouchers for Pinnacle, but I have found that the 5 vouchers for Diamond Plus or 4 vouches for Diamond are more useful than the CC happy hour, especially if you have early seating dinner. I also felt weird about taking my 'free' glass of wine to the dining room, though I should probably just get over that.

 

[retired dude]

53 minutes ago, karl_nj said:

 

Yes, the free drink package for Zenith is way better than the 6 "all day" drink vouchers for Pinnacle, but I have found that the 5 vouchers for Diamond Plus or 4 vouches for Diamond are more useful than the CC happy hour, especially if you have early seating dinner. I also felt weird about taking my 'free' glass of wine to the dining room, though I should probably just get over that.

 

i dont feel the least bit bashful about taking a nice glass of seeker chardonnay to dinner every night....It is a nice chard and free is nice.

[doghog]

9 minutes ago, retired dude said:

i dont feel the least bit bashful about taking a nice glass of seeker chardonnay to dinner every night....It is a nice chard and free is nice.

I agree. No matter the beverage. 

[karl_nj]

5 minutes ago, retired dude said:

i dont feel the least bit bashful about taking a nice glass of seeker chardonnay to dinner every night....It is a nice chard and free is nice.

 

Yeah, I'll do that more on my next Celebrity cruise. Especially now that the happy hour happens on the first night too; on my last cruise I ended up buying a bottle of wine at dinner the first night (using the 20% discount) and then kept doing that the rest of the cruise. Maybe I'll feel less weird about it if I start bringing my free glass of wine from day 1.

 

And I agree, the 'free' wine choices aren't bad. I was happy with the sauvignon blanc they were pouring on my last cruise.

 

I also noticed that some of the wait staff were more generous with giving me free drinks outside of the CC happy hour times (and outside of the happy hour menu), which I certainly appreciated.

 

[doghog]

9 hours ago, sofmall said:

So hard to read...

B2B - Back To Back

SL - Sky Lounge

CC- Captains Club

HH- Happy Hour

😉

[kirtihk]

6 hours ago, barneyboy said:

I don’t think they can please everyone. We’re late diners and never use the cocktail hour as it’s far too early for us. We’re usually having our pre dinner drinks around 7.30pm. 5-9 would certainly be better for us. Someone suggested making it 4-7 but surely not many are having pre dinner drinks at 4pm.

What???  I have pre dinner drinks at 7 am every morning starting with Champagne!

[May B]

18 hours ago, Sun Lover said:

 I read that there's a special drink menu with the 5-7 p.m. happy hour.  What type of drinks are included and are they the same ones at each bar?

Yucky drinks. The wine is perhaps the best. Or something like a bourbon and Diet Coke.

 

Same at all the bars that are included. I think the Martini Bar may be excluded on all class ships, and the World Bar is excluded on E class.

 

I think I’m correct on all of this, but perhaps somebody else has already responded.

[May B]

18 hours ago, danv3 said:

Great step.  Now I just wish they'd move to the electronic vouchers Royal uses...much more beneficial system for guests.  Honestly it's about the only thing I still enjoy about Royal anymore.  

I really like the Diamond Lounge on Royal. Freedom class was best (although I’ve only been on the smallest of the Royal ships).

Edited May 31 by May B

[barneyboy]

2 hours ago, kirtihk said:

What???  I have pre dinner drinks at 7 am every morning starting with Champagne!

Haha we call them our pre breakfast drinks!

[May B]

13 hours ago, sofmall said:

 

Yes, we'd love it if we could have our Elite complimentary drinks at any time of day. As occasional drinkers we're just not into "cocktail hour", it's not our mindset. When on a cruise we do enjoy sometimes a cocktail by the pool so it would be wonderful if our drink perk could be accessed when we feel like it .. or not (often we forget all about it and go days without taking advantage of the cocktail hour drink). Bars just aren't our focus on cruises, in fact we always have trouble finding one if we want our complimentary drink!

 

Having it operate the same way as on RC, there would be less congestion at bars during pre-dinner times. 

 

I'm hoping that eventually Celebrity will do the same as RC and have the 4 drinks loaded on our cards for use anywhere, at any time. I can't think why Celebrity doesn't think it a good idea. We only have one drink if any, but wow, I'd love to have my drink when I'm in the mood for it. 

 

We really like going to Rendezvous, or sometimes Cellar Masters, to listen to music before dinner. We check the hours in the daily newspaper or on the app. They take 15 minute breaks after playing 1/2 an hour or 45 mins.