Celebrity Cruise Math or How to Quickly Tell Which Package to Pick

Hi All! I've been stuck in a morass of trying to figure out Celebrity's cruise math on which option (Big, Better, Best or straight discount) would work best for us. I created a spreadsheet for myself and thought others might benefit from it, so I created a dropbox link to my spreadsheet if anyone would like to use it.

Here's a screenshot of a sample of it. All you have to do is fill in the purple and light blue cells and it will do all the calculations for you.

I'm open to feedback if this doesn't work for people, but this is what I used to figure out which options to choose on my next cruise. Hope it helps someone else!

Celebrity Cruise Comparison Tool Excel Link

Interesting.

Thank you very much for this, hopefully many will be able to find it, through search, use it and stem many of the 'value received' questions in its' many various iterations.

bon voyage

Interesting.

Thanks. I think ;)

Thank you very much for this, hopefully many will be able to find it, through search, use it and stem many of the 'value received' questions in its' many various iterations.

 

bon voyage

Thank you very much!

You did a nice job setting this up. I actually 'enjoy' creating spreadsheets to answer questions. I will try it out and see if I can 'break' it. :rolleyes: Thanks.

Nice Job -

I'm a real excel nerd and love to look at spreadsheet logic. You have created a very nice tool.

Jim

Excellent tool! Thank you for sharing.

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You did a nice job setting this up. I actually 'enjoy' creating spreadsheets to answer questions. I will try it out and see if I can 'break' it. :rolleyes: Thanks.

Please try! I did some testing, of course, but could always have missed something.

Nice Job -

 

I'm a real excel nerd and love to look at spreadsheet logic. You have created a very nice tool.

 

Jim

Thank you very much! From one excel nerd to another :D

Excellent tool! Thank you for sharing.

 

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Thanks and you're welcome!

thanks, but the tool is not allowing me to enter any information.

Also, is there a tool where you can estimate if the drink packages are worth it - i.e., one where you can plug in how much you might drink of each item? I remember there years ago there was one for alcoholic drinks, but I'm actually interested in pricing out the classic non-alcoholic package. I know it is $18/day p/p, but i don't know the prices of the specialty coffees, waters, and sodas.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Debbi

thanks, but the tool is not allowing me to enter any information.

 

Also, is there a tool where you can estimate if the drink packages are worth it - i.e., one where you can plug in how much you might drink of each item? I remember there years ago there was one for alcoholic drinks, but I'm actually interested in pricing out the classic non-alcoholic package. I know it is $18/day p/p, but i don't know the prices of the specialty coffees, waters, and sodas.

 

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

Debbi

You have to open it in Excel - there's a download button towards the top of the dropbox screen. You download it to your computer and then open it in Excel.

I've seen some spreadsheets on the drink packages before. The problem with those, IMO, is that it's very hard to estimate the real costs of drinks onboard - just as you're saying. Those prices seem much more volatile/subjective than the package prices above.

You have to open it in Excel - there's a download button towards the top of the dropbox screen. You download it to your computer and then open it in Excel.

 

I've seen some spreadsheets on the drink packages before. The problem with those, IMO, is that it's very hard to estimate the real costs of drinks onboard - just as you're saying. Those prices seem much more volatile/subjective than the package prices above.

I did open it in Excel. Still wouldn't let me choose a package.

That said, I'm trying to determine if the $18/ day per person is of value for us to purchase for the 12 night cruise in May. We will pay for alcoholic drinks as we order them since we will, at most, have 2-3 drinks per day per person. (one class of wine with dinner; maybe one or two cocktails in the evening).

I'm thinking 2 cans of soda; 1 or 2 specialty coffees each day (depending on whether we are at sea or in port); and 2 or 3 bottles of water (again - depending on whether we are at sea or in port).

I can do the math and add the$18 per day + 18% grat to the total of the cruise plus the $13.45 each day for the gratuities and come up with a total. Just trying to figure out if we should purchase the non-alcoholic classic package.

thanks

Excellent Spreadsheet! Thanks so much for sharing. I will definitely be using it to figure out future cruises. :D

I did open it in Excel. Still wouldn't let me choose a package.

 

That said, I'm trying to determine if the $18/ day per person is of value for us to purchase for the 12 night cruise in May. We will pay for alcoholic drinks as we order them since we will, at most, have 2-3 drinks per day per person. (one class of wine with dinner; maybe one or two cocktails in the evening).

 

I'm thinking 2 cans of soda; 1 or 2 specialty coffees each day (depending on whether we are at sea or in port); and 2 or 3 bottles of water (again - depending on whether we are at sea or in port).

 

I can do the math and add the$18 per day + 18% grat to the total of the cruise plus the $13.45 each day for the gratuities and come up with a total. Just trying to figure out if we should purchase the non-alcoholic classic package.

 

thanks

Hmmm.... Do the other drop-downs function for you? The room gratuities? The Bev package upgrade ones?

If they had an average or median price for types of drinks, I think the spreadsheet would be fairly easy to put together. But, since the drink prices vary so much and change so frequently it is hard to determine what number to calculate from. I'm pretty sure that's why - it's just easier to order the package, LOL. I'll see if I can think of something, though, as I it would complement this spreadsheet nicely.

Excellent Spreadsheet! Thanks so much for sharing. I will definitely be using it to figure out future cruises. :D

You're very welcome!

Nice work... Check the Gratuities drop down for "Aqua". Other grats work fine. Still working through it.

Nice work... Check the Gratuities drop down for "Aqua". Other grats work fine. Still working through it.

Thank you!! Fixed that bug.

You sure did. I'm a recovering (retired) IT guy, so like this kind of stuff.

Your cruise fare comparison explanation indicates that best price will be displayed in a dark green cell with white lettering.

In the few simulations I ran, there were two dark green cells with white lettering. One in the "Total" column and another in the "Total minus OBC" column.

If that is what you actually intended, the explanation should be adjusted accordingly.

Regards,

MARK

Your cruise fare comparison explanation indicates that best price will be displayed in a dark green cell with white lettering.

 

In the few simulations I ran, there were two dark green cells with white lettering. One in the "Total" column and another in the "Total minus OBC" column.

 

If that is what you actually intended, the explanation should be adjusted accordingly.

 

Regards,

MARK

Thank you SO much for your feedback. It's clear you've done usability testing before :) I struggled with that one. Some people seem to like to take the OBC credit into consideration for the total price of the cruise and others like to know what's going to come out of their pocket. That's why I gave the two totals. I struggled with succinctly explaining that. Do you have any suggestions?

Keep it simple. In the "Total" column, either use white lettering or a dark green background - but not both. Whatever looks good to you. Then adjust your explanation accordingly.

One other thing. When evaluating what "promo" set I want to chose, rather than simply tossing in the current drink package values, I choose a number that the drink package is worth to me on that cruise. That number is always subjective, if not simply mood driven :o. A port intensive cruise would usually be a lower number. Just a thought, but not sure how to accommodate that here and still have it make sense - and simple at the same time.

Regards,

MARK

Keep it simple. In the "Total" column, either use white lettering or a dark green background - but not both. Whatever looks good to you. Then adjust your explanation accordingly.

 

One other thing. When evaluating what "promo" set I want to chose, rather than simply tossing in the current drink package values, I choose a number that the drink package is worth to me on that cruise. That number is always subjective, if not simply mood driven :o. A port intensive cruise would usually be a lower number. Just a thought, but not sure how to accommodate that here and still have it make sense - and simple at the same time.

 

Regards,

MARK

Mark -

THANK YOU! I changed the OBC total to dark teal and adjusted the explanation.

I do understand that - I guess one could choose one of the lower packages (soda, water, classic non-alc) for their purchased package if you wanted to value the bev pkg as lower than the actual cost.

I'm looking at the bev package calculators that exist and think they're pretty lacking. Either overly complex (list every beverage possible - maintenance nightmare) or they don't let you do enough customization (port vs sea day drinking habits, for example). That may be a better place to allow for a customized price/value for the bev package? Right now, anything that I can think of for bev package comparison tool seems like way too much upkeep.

I did what you suggest during my simulations - simply chose one of the lower packages. I guess a "simple" thing might be to allow a user entered number as a drop down choice.

But, overall nice work! I used the tool to evaluate several of my upcoming cruises and might make a change or two, depending on tomorrow's mood-state :o.

Regards,

MARK

This is incredible! Nice job!

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Mark -

THANK YOU! I changed the OBC total to dark teal and adjusted the explanation.

 

I do understand that - I guess one could choose one of the lower packages (soda, water, classic non-alc) for their purchased package if you wanted to value the bev pkg as lower than the actual cost.

 

I'm looking at the bev package calculators that exist and think they're pretty lacking. Either overly complex (list every beverage possible - maintenance nightmare) or they don't let you do enough customization (port vs sea day drinking habits, for example). That may be a better place to allow for a customized price/value for the bev package? Right now, anything that I can think of for bev package comparison tool seems like way too much upkeep.

OMG...thank you SO VERY MUCH. Our days of sitting at the Future Cruise Desk deciding if we were going to use our Magic Eight Ball or flip a coin are over!!!! Used your spreadsheet just now on a cruise I am looking at for April 2017. Plugged everything in and Shazam...there it is! Surprising to me the best option for us on my simulation was the Go Best...never would have gotten there without your spreadsheet.

Like a couple others...would like to see a cell to input the dollar amount we would budget per day for booze and coffees..if we didn't select the beverage package with the GBBB options. However, like you typed..one way to get at it is select one of the optional beverage packages to get a dollar amount per cruise in the calculation. I tried it with the Premium Non Alcohol which is ~$26.00 per day per passenger. Allows for getting some budget into the spreadsheet for pay as you go beverages. BTW. DW got a good chuckle out of me thinking we would stick to a $26/pp/pd budget..ha!

Again, thanks so much for sharing.

Cheers,

OHP

Excellent job. I will certainly keep that for our next cruise.

Thanks again,

Peter & Della

Montreal, Canada

Thank you! Your worksheet is terrifc & I will certainly be using it going forward.