Avidcruiser321

yes, and no.

Good point. You are right, I was annoyed all right.

We have been on many Celebrity cruises over the years, but last one was pre-Covid. We were on the second last cruise out of Ft Lauderdale before everything got shut down. Since then we have been on HAL and Princess. I just want to clarify - Celebrity is not BAD. Far from it. It's still great and we always have a great time. But in our opinion it has slipped back. Others experiences mat vary! And the whole point of this post was to vent about the price drop, not the shipboard services. Hope that helps!.

Having sailed all 3 lines I would add the following observations from my perspective: - agree that Celebrity has the best "big shows". The production numbers with the singers and dancers on main stage. Princess is more hit and miss. And on HAL it's a very different focus. They have what they call their "music walk" deck, which has a number of different venues with different types of music (Blues, Rock, dualing pianos, etc.). They are smaller (but not tiny) and they take turns so you can move from one to the other and they don't compete against each other with noise overflow.There are GREAT musicians in these venues, but it's just quite different from the production "Vegas style" shows approach. - Celebrity MDR is still the best. Maybe I just have had bad luck on HAL, or I just have got used to the Celebrity menu! Princess has best (free) appy's and dessert selection. - HAL Pizza bar and burger bar on the main pool deck are excellent and the best of these lines. - I really like the Solstice class solarium's for a day of reading at sea! The fact that the Konigsdam class HAL ships can close in their whole main pool deck is a big feature for Alaska (or other foul weather) cruises. - Although it took me a few cruises to become a believer, I now really like the medallion with Princess. Once they got the app working properly it is very slick. You can book things, order things, see menu's, your cabin door opens as you walk up, etc. It's great. - the martini bar on Celebrity is always a big favourite gathering place and they do fun shows. - service used to be better on Celebrity, but I think last few cruises Princess has actually been better. HAL seems to have fewer staff than the others, but that may be more of a post Covid thing to be fair. I'm sure there's more, but hope that is interesting to somebody!

So here is the update! I did call to try the upgrade idea. I asked to upgrade to Prime Aqua class (from our regular balcony) and the price difference was not big enough. Prime Aqua in a suite was still less than we paid, so they couldn't do it as the price needs to be higher than what I paid. So no go. The next option up was to a big sky suite which was waaaay more. So worth a try, but no luck. Just goes to show the original point of the post is true - I got ripped off. And to all the Internet bosses who will now chime in to say I'm not allowed to feel that way - please save your breath. I am allowed to feel however I want about it right now. And I am sure I'll still have a nice time when the cruise comes along!

I am going to look into this. I will post an update if it works!

Thanks for the encouraging words! I appreciate it.

Thanks for the response. Good intel!

Wow - very cool. And GREAT advice!! Thanks

Yes, we needed to book airfare early as well for this reason. But we didn't do it through Celebrity so no hope there. Good thought though.

I have only cruised on Celebrity, Princess and Holland America. And once on Carnival so I don't really count that as I think you need to experience many ships (and crews), and many itineraries in order to form a valid opinion. We used to cruise with Princess a lot, but then tried Celebrity many years ago. We found Celebrity just a tick up from the other lines in things like crew attention to detail, food in the MDR, shows, etc. Not a huge difference, but just better. Our last cruise was back on Princess because they had an itinerary we really wanted. It was on Sky Princess and I have to say those distinctions are gone or reversed (except the entertainment). Again, just one cruise but my wife and I both noticed it. So either Princess has gone up or Celebrity has gone down? And both are better than HAL. Just my opinion! Since you asked! Oh, and I have never asked for compensation before per the issue that drove this post. Not from any cruise line. I have seem the issue where we could have gotten a better price closer to the cruise date. As others have noted that is quite common - but I have NEVER seen the apples-apples price drop to less than half price. Sorry that's just a rip-off and a slap to those who book early. Best comment I have on this post is that I just shouldn't look, and save myself the pain!!

Good info! Thanks for replying. This certainly explains why they would not consider an upgrade.

Yes, that's a fair point. And to be very clear, this post was not about them removing the Lahaina stop. We understand and are ok with that.

Thank you kind stranger, for saving me time and more frustration!

LOL - so what you are saying is I shouldn't go to the Internet looking for sympathetic strangers to help me feel better? Just kidding. I get that they technically didn't do anything wrong or evil. It's just that I paid more than double what you can book same cruise for now. Would have been nice for them to at least pretend to care! And the main point is that Celebrity really does seem to be going downhill from my past experiences. This was just icing on the cake.