Hey Celebrity !!! Loud Music Does NOT Equal Younger Demographic

[NLH Arizona]

IMHO, which won't get anyone a drink at the Sunset Bar at sail away without a drink package:o opps off topic, sorry Andy, there is no % that would work. Because then you will have a % on the other side that thinks their % should be taken into account as the % that should count.

Bottom line, most of us here sail X because 90% of the on ship cruise product is what we truly like and enjoy over the other choices to cruise with.

Don't want to put you on the spot, but if there is no percentage that will work and if you were running Celebrity (then you could get all the drinks you wanted at the Sunset Bar LOL) how would you solve the issue, so that everyone is happy? I know I've made suggestions, but they sure didn't go over well and I thought I was compromising in my ideas. Maybe you have a different take on a solution that would be amenable to all, without weighing in on one side or the other - want to keep you neutral.

 

Andy, I would love to hear your suggestions as to how to solve this issue as well, if you would like to offer up a solution that would be amenable to all. I like you don't feel that a solution is very complicated.

Edited March 8, 2014 by NLH Arizona

[warmwinds]

I don't care what percentage they use, I just want to know in time to cancel my next cruise without penalty.

 

Their silence is deafening.

[Seapoint]

Host Andy. Thanks for jumping in! I hope you have some influence with management.

 

You make a key point..until a year or so ago, loud music was not an issue on Celebrity ships. Clearly there has been a radical and deliberate change in policy in Miami.

 

The point is in the past, before this new policy, people apparently were not complaining that the music was too soft!! It seems to me that the new policy is unacceptable to many loyal Celebrity fans, whereas the previous one was generally acceptable to most. Why take the risk of alienating your customers?

 

I also feel Celebrity is being misleading at best, and dishonest at worst, in changing the ambience aboard it ships in this radical way. I have not seen them saying in their ads that they have changed the essence of their brand. When I booked for my recent cruise on the Reflection, I expected the same refined and classy experience I enjoyed on my previous 19 Celebrity cruises. I did not expect a cruise where I could not go to the main pool because of the Miami DJs, and where the entire common area core of the ship would be unpleasant because of the racket from the band Vibe.

 

Why on earth would Celebrity so stubbornly refuse to listen to its customers?

The solution, just adjust the volume, is soooo simple.:confused:

Edited March 8, 2014 by Seapoint

[Adammara]

Host Andy

 

This is part of a review I wrote whilst onboard Eclipse:

 

We had seen the production shows before, and some of the other acts did not appeal, had varying reports on the shows, many commenting they were to loud. We found that the music in the foyer was VERY loud at times, and we would go and try to find somewhere peaceful, but there is 'canned' music almost everywhere.

We really enjoyed the 'Captains Club Social Hours' in the Sky Lounge, quite background music, and being able to converse with other passengers. It was completely different at the ' Captains Club Celebration', its was very busy, and difficult to find a seat. After the captains speech (we could not hear it, as a woman with a loud voice was discussing on her mobile what booze to take home) then band struck up, and conversation ceased. We had been chatting to a couple, but gave up and walked out, others were also walking out complaing about seating and the loud music. I filled in the 'Attention to detail' form, complaining about the loud music and handed it in to Guest Relations, the receptionist said sorry, and we heard no more. We learnt afterwards that others had complained, but nothing was done about it.

 

This was in May 2012! We cruised for rest and relaxation, and good food. Unfortunately, after another disappointing cruise on Connie that autumn, we gave up on cruising, and reading on this forum of cutbacks and loud music, we are not minded to return to Celebrity.

 

We spent between £5k to £10k a year on cruising, a pinprick to Celebrity, but not if hundreds of customers feel the same way and take thier business elsewhere.

[The_Big_M]

Fact: I counted the number of posters that weighed in on the issue during the 260+ posts and there were 101,

 

 

Which I acknowledged and repeated, saying that I accepted your numbers at face value.

 

However, the rest of your reply does not address the inaccuracy in your assessment and just repeats what you originally posted. You are giving misleading reporting, stating that only those who explicitly complained are one group, and everybody else is another group.

 

Without having counted, that is as misleading and inaccurate as if I said only 5 posters had been on a recent cruise and supported the volume out of the 101, and therefore there are only 5 out of 101 who are in favour of the volume.

 

As said, I have not counted the results as you claim to, so do not know what the figure is.

 

To state that only 29 out of 101 is a valid proportion indicating those who are unhappy is patently false, since the 101 includes people who have not been on a Celebrity cruise recently. You may as well have counted the whole membership of cruisecritic for the same statistical accuracy.

[The_Big_M]

Don't want to put you on the spot, but if there is no percentage that will work and if you were running Celebrity (then you could get all the drinks you wanted at the Sunset Bar LOL) how would you solve the issue, so that everyone is happy? I know I've made suggestions, but they sure didn't go over well and I thought I was compromising in my ideas. Maybe you have a different take on a solution that would be amenable to all, without weighing in on one side or the other - want to keep you neutral.

 

If there weren't significant complaints about the volume, say a year ago, that seems like a good reference point.

[VK3DQ]

Hi Wallie,

 

 

 

As a frequent & loyal Celebrity customer, and from someone who's personally experienced extremely loud music on a number of sailings, (including on Century 2 weeks ago), I truly hope that Celebrity can turn down the volume to more reasonable levels, and create a music palate that appeals to a wider group of guests. I'm sorry, but I refuse to believe it's all that complicated. Surely, there must be a reasonable solution out there.

 

Thank you for the opportunity to share my insights.

 

Hello Andy

 

I do hope so , it takes us a long time to save the money for a cruise , and I am concerned by the reports , there are a number of reviews posted here and in other places which refer to very loud music and indicate that this is a recent thing.

 

Our choice of Celebrity was based on their published information on their website which describes the type of music to expect in various venues on their ships.

 

If they have changed this it would only be fair to tell us before we cruise , and give us the chance to cancel with no penalty.

 

I hope they get the message on this soon .. because we only have a few more sleeps left before we fly to New Zealand to join Solstice

 

If after saving hard for a year our cruise is marred by loud discord I shall be less than impressed

 

However I live in hope :D

 

Best Regards

John

Edited March 8, 2014 by VK3DQ

[deck chair]

Hello

 

For my Winter cruise I thought about Sailing on a 14 day cruise with Celebrity but when I heard about all the HORRIBLE LOUD music almost everywhere on the ship I was discouraged from doing so.

 

So I booked another cruise with Cunard Line on the Queen Victoria for 28 days around South America.

 

As always, Cunard offers a quiet atmosphere during the day and at night provides real music in the form of a string quartet, pianists, a harpist, an orchestra in the show room for the production shows and an orchestra accompanied by a singer in the ballroom for dancing and other live musical offerings. Except in the nightclub the music is not at all loud. (Unlike most cruise lines, Cunard has a real band in the nightclub complemented by a DJ.)

 

The musical offerings is true on all three of Cunard's ships.

 

And in case you think its just a bunch of old cane cane walkers who sail with Cunard you are very wrong. There is a wide age range especially on the Summer trans Atlantic crossings. I know, I have been on 24 crossings!!

 

There is no reason to put in ear plugs to save your hearing, no reason to have to raise your voice to converse. No reason to spend half your cruise searching in vain for a quiet spot.

 

Why Celebrity has chosen to play loud music all the over the place is mystifying to me given it seems to appeal to a 40+ age group. As for me it deterred me from booking another Celebrity cruise. And I did want to do something different.

 

I don't know about you but I don't don't go on a cruise to lose my hearing because some clueless shore side executive thinks its cool and sophisticated to be loud!

 

So you Celebrity fans who hate what is going on with the loud music give Cunard a try if the itinerary is appealing to you.

 

Deck Chair.

[NLH Arizona]

If there weren't significant complaints about the volume, say a year ago, that seems like a good reference point.

I don't think 29 complaints is a sigificant number. Do you think if 5 percent of a company's customers complain about something, the issue should be changed or is it 10 percent or 30 percent or 50 percent? Do you think an policy should be changed because 5% or 10% or 30% feel that it might be a problem, but have never encountered it?

Edited March 8, 2014 by NLH Arizona

[NLH Arizona]

Which I acknowledged and repeated, saying that I accepted your numbers at face value.

 

However, the rest of your reply does not address the inaccuracy in your assessment and just repeats what you originally posted. You are giving misleading reporting, stating that only those who explicitly complained are one group, and everybody else is another group.

 

Without having counted, that is as misleading and inaccurate as if I said only 5 posters had been on a recent cruise and supported the volume out of the 101, and therefore there are only 5 out of 101 who are in favour of the volume.

 

As said, I have not counted the results as you claim to, so do not know what the figure is.

 

To state that only 29 out of 101 is a valid proportion indicating those who are unhappy is patently false, since the 101 includes people who have not been on a Celebrity cruise recently. You may as well have counted the whole membership of cruisecritic for the same statistical accuracy.

Would it have been better if I would have said:

 

Out of the 20,000 or so customers that sail Celebrity on a weekly basis, there were only 29 complaints about the loud music on this thread.

[Presto2]

In October we dipped our toe into RCI for a short cruise on the IOS.

 

While we on board we chatted with bar staff who told us that there was someone on board who had been with Celebrity and that there were moves afoot for both lines to see what the other one did well and adapt, particularly for entertainment.

 

Having read this thread I think that this is just a reflection of this process.

I can't see any sense in it at all - if I wanted to sail on RCI for a livelier time I would, but I don't want a loud, lively time so had chosen to cruise with Celebrity.

 

It would be very sad if we had to decide not to go back because of the apparent 'change' to what 'Modern Luxury' means .....:(

[Ex-Airbalancer]

Hello

 

For my Winter cruise I thought about Sailing on a 14 day cruise with Celebrity but when I heard about all the HORRIBLE LOUD music almost everywhere on the ship I was discouraged from doing so.

 

So I booked another cruise with Cunard Line on the Queen Victoria for 28 days around South America.

 

As always, Cunard offers a quiet atmosphere during the day and at night provides real music in the form of a string quartet, pianists, a harpist, an orchestra in the show room for the production shows and an orchestra accompanied by a singer in the ballroom for dancing and other live musical offerings. Except in the nightclub the music is not at all loud. (Unlike most cruise lines, Cunard has a real band in the nightclub complemented by a DJ.)

 

The musical offerings is true on all three of Cunard's ships.

 

And in case you think its just a bunch of old cane cane walkers who sail with Cunard you are very wrong. There is a wide age range especially on the Summer trans Atlantic crossings. I know, I have been on 24 crossings!!

 

There is no reason to put in ear plugs to save your hearing, no reason to have to raise your voice to converse. No reason to spend half your cruise searching in vain for a quiet spot.

 

Why Celebrity has chosen to play loud music all the over the place is mystifying to me given it seems to appeal to a 40+ age group. As for me it deterred me from booking another Celebrity cruise. And I did want to do something different.

 

I don't know about you but I don't don't go on a cruise to lose my hearing because some clueless shore side executive thinks its cool and sophisticated to be loud!

 

So you Celebrity fans who hate what is going on with the loud music give Cunard a try if the itinerary is appealing to you.

 

Deck Chair.

 

string quartet, pianists, a harpist would drive me crazy!!!!

I grew up with Meatloaf, the Rolling Stones , Motown , Fleetwood Mac, ELO

The Cars, and I am 56

There is so much great music out there, play it all

[north29]

I sail on Both RC and Celebrity, I am 73, and have a big hearing problem. I will have to agree on loud music, because any background music that is too loud shuts me(and about 50% of the cruisers on board) out of any conversation. When the music becomes loud, all, people will then raise there voices to talk over it, trying to keep the conversation going, which again raises the volume of the venue/bar. The type of music does not bother me, however, being hearing impaired, I frequently fall back to the older style of Frank,Dean, and others for the simplicity of the music with good articulation of the words. There are lots of modern era artist that provide the same music style as well. However my love of Rock/Country/R&B etc, DAM I love Pink Floyd, Clapton, Bonamassa, ZZ top, Greatful Dead, etc and I have even learned to like,YES, RAP LOL well some of it anyway. while this music is not for bars, there is just not of this music on either cruise line.

I have no idea, who makes the music choices, or the way music is presented, but I have to agree RCI needs to make some changes in music genrees and how loud it offered in different venues

[shoreham01]

string quartet, pianists, a harpist would drive me crazy!!!!

I grew up with Meatloaf, the Rolling Stones , Motown , Fleetwood Mac, ELO

The Cars, and I am 56

There is so much great music out there, play it all

 

No point you sailing Celebrity then. Most of the music is tuneless noise. The band playing in the foyer may play something you recognize but in other venues you may well be disappointed.

[The_Big_M]

I don't think 29 complaints is a sigificant number.

 

That all depends on what you're comparing to.

 

If it's out of 35 people who've sailed, I'd say it's pretty significant.

 

If it's out of the entire world, not so much...

 

Of it's own it's pretty meaningless. (Unless you're tracking road deaths, or something significant to life.)

 

Do you think if 5 percent of a company's customers complain about something, the issue should be changed or is it 10 percent or 30 percent or 50 percent? Do you think an policy should be changed because 5% or 10% or 30% feel that it might be a problem, but have never encountered it?

 

Again, that's a meaningless question. It all depends on the issue, the costs, benefits, and a whole host of factors.

 

For example, If 0.1% are dissatisfied but they provide 70% of your profit, I'd be extremely concerned about dealing with the situation.

Edited March 8, 2014 by The_Big_M

[The_Big_M]

Would it have been better if I would have said:

 

Out of the 20,000 or so customers that sail Celebrity on a weekly basis, there were only 29 complaints about the loud music on this thread.

 

That would be more accurate. But it doesn't have a lot of meaning.

 

Out of the 20,000 or so customers who sailed, how many read this thread? i.e. you need to know how many you're sampling.

 

Basically, any topic here is only going to get a subset of cruisers.

 

Compared to many other topics here, getting 29 complaints out of a week's 20000cruisers is actually a pretty high figure, so becomes quite significant if you're going to report such a statistic.

[NLH Arizona]

That would be more accurate. But it doesn't have a lot of meaning.

 

Out of the 20,000 or so customers who sailed, how many read this thread? i.e. you need to know how many you're sampling.

 

Basically, any topic here is only going to get a subset of cruisers.

 

Compared to many other topics here, getting 29 complaints out of a week's 20000cruisers is actually a pretty high figure, so becomes quite significant if you're going to report such a statistic.

So if you owned a business, you would change a policy based on less than 1 percent of your customers?

 

Ok, we will have do a little funny math, because of multiple posts, etc., but I'll take a stab at it. There have been 11,400 views and I'll be very, very generous and say that 8,500 or 75 percent are the same folks viewing multiple times (if you are thinking of another number, please let me know). Now that leaves 2,900 folks who have read this thread. If 29 complained (and they make up say 15 percent of your business, which IMHO is high), then that would be 1 percent, correct. Even if the figure is only 290, we are still only talking about 10 pecent. If you had a business would you change a policy for 1% of your customers, would you change it for 10 pecent? And that is all my point is, Celebrity needs to investigate to see how many customers are actually complaining about the loudness; I'm not saying that they should not make any changes if warranted, just that they need to look at how many are complaining, so they do what is best for the majority of their customers.

 

Since Celebrity already has surveys, they should go back and look to see how many complaints they are getting ship by ship. If they are getting a lot for one ship, then there is possibly a problem and it should be addressed immediately and if they are not getting them for other ships, there is no need to address the issue.

 

We all want to think that our opinion is the only opinion that counts, but when you are on a ship, like the Reflection, there are 2,999 other opinions out there as well and I think they deserve to be counted to, before sweephing changes are made.

 

Question for you. How would you solve the issue so that it would be amenable to all?

Edited March 8, 2014 by NLH Arizona

[Ex-Airbalancer]

No point you sailing Celebrity then. Most of the music is tuneless noise. The band playing in the foyer may play something you recognize but in other venues you may well be disappointed.

If you writing about the musician playing on our last cruise I recognize the tunes but a lot of them were out tune, it was really funny :p

[Seapoint]

There were some 70 people at the CC gathering on the Reflection, last week in February. NOT ONE OF THESE DEFENDED THE VOLUME OF THE MUSIC. Many expressed concern about the volume. There was a strong consensus it was a problem. While this is not statistical, it is indicative, and at least as good as 5 or 6 focus groups.

 

To the point made by Host Andy and others, there were not complaints in the past when the music was at more reasonable volume. Why not go back to that baseline? :confused:

[Hap]

string quartet, pianists, a harpist would drive me crazy!!!!

I grew up with Meatloaf, the Rolling Stones , Motown , Fleetwood Mac, ELO

The Cars, and I am 56

There is so much great music out there, play it all

 

Okay, here is my two cents.

I also grew up with those bands but I also love AC/DC, Aerosmith, and the like. I played in a band when I was younger. I also say play it all. I love "kick a-- rock and roll but play it at a reasonable level. I don't think lowering the sound to a reasonable level (check the decibel rating) would stop younger people from cruising. The decibel ratings will tell you if your sound level could damage hearing. There are good stats about that.

As for the stats people out there, I was in quality control and you do try to please all your customers if possible. Most of the people who were unhappy do not post here. If you start seeing numerous complaints you look at making changes that's good for your customers and your company. You can only use statistics if you can get a reasonable sample from the population. And since this is not a reasonable sample of ALL the people that cruise Celebrity they should listen and look into the problem. We sail the Reflection April 5 so I am hoping Celebrity does look into this.

[ghstudio]

Okay all you extremists posting here, moderates chiming in and lurkers.....go vote on the poll I just started :) You don't have to identify yourselves, but I'm tired of reading how 26 people said this, etc. Let's see how more of a cross section votes.

[Lovemychoos]

OK, after reading every single one of the comments on this thread, I decided I would air my opinion, for what its worth :)

Irrespective of the fact that my husband used to work in nightclubs, doing the lighting/wiring/deck set ups, and now has severe tinnitus (and I will add that for many years had nothing whatsoever wrong with his hearing) surely the simple fact is that if music is too loud anywhere it will damage people hearing. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day it will. I think anyones personal preference for or against loud music must come second to peoples health and well being. This is just my opinion, and I'm sure there are those who won't agree. All I will say is you will never get me to agree to something that I know will damage my hearing just because people don't care if they have to shout at each other to hold a conversation. And if you don't want to hear mine, then don't listen :)

Lou

[warmwinds]

What polls did Celebrity take when they decided to raise the volume? They did not consult the prior passengers to see how they would like a change - they just did it. How was that fair to the ones that liked Celebrity the way it was?

They can do whatever they want, it's their playground and their ball.

But don't blindside people, and don't force them to now take a "different" cruise than the one they signed up and paid for. If this is going to be a permanent change, allow completely free cancellations (even for those leaving shortly) so people aren't trapped in a miserable environment with no way out. Having to spend your vacation in your cabin (and even many cabins are affected by this selfish decision) is not fair.

[bigeagle12]

Here is our experience from Equinox last month.

Not enough music by the pool. What there was, was not loud, except for the Zumba.

Problem inside is the design of the ship. They do not have isolated bars/venues to accommodate keeping music isolated to those venues. Music in Grand Foyer carries up the open atrium to all the floors including the library and surrounding bars on decks 3 and 4.

Ensemble Lounge is poorly located because of the walk through traffic to and from the specialy restaurants and Blu.

And on our cruise Michaels which is the perfect spot for music .. was never used ???

The larger Princess ships got the design right with isolated venues to accommodate additional entertainment for music, comedians, etc. They have Wheelhouse Bar, Explorer Lounge, Vista Lounge, the atrium, and a piano bar. Always something going on and noise does not spread outside the immediate area.


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[ORV]

[quote name='shoreham01']No point you sailing Celebrity then. Most of the music is tuneless noise. The band playing in the foyer may play something you recognize but in other venues you may well be disappointed.[/QUOTE]

You mean the never ending song that never changes beat or chords that plays in the Martini & Molecular Bars? Might as well have a White Noise machine.