Flowers, Chocolates, Qtips missing Oh My..

[Celebrity Cruises]

Thank you Celebrity, glad to hear you still have q-tips and that you don't reward anyone for being a loyal Celebrity cruiser.

 

Well, we do reward passengers for being loyal - have you heard of Captain's Club. :D

[need2bespoiled]

***snip***

Celebrity is cutting for AQ and down in service, food quality, entertainment and small touches. Like we all know now, it matters little to some. I paid a final payment for 14 more nights this December last night. I have to say it was the hardest payment I ever made. I had just received a nice offer from Oceania and it was tempting.

 

***snip***

 

You will be at Sea. You will be well taken care of. You will have a great time. It will be better than being at home, cooking, cleaning and working.

 

If it doesn't mean your expectation, or provide the value for the (large) sums of money (we all) spent, I have no doubt, we'll be searching for a vacation that does :)

 

Happy sailing,

Jenna

 

p.s. Please let me know what you decided!

[hulamoon]

I like my privileges at cruise critic!

 

But for those who want the history, there are several articles on travel sites, nbc news around march 2009.

 

Yes Jenna...we will celebrate or shop!

[sperkins921]

You need to delve into the flow of this thread.

 

No one is telling anyone else that their opinion is not important. Rather, some of us who have cruised on this line many, many times for many years, and have some issues with changes and cuts that have occurred, largely in the last year, are repeatedly told that the cuts either are so minor as to not merit discussion or that "it doesn't matter to me so if it is a problem with you it means you are nothing but a complainer." This has been told to cruisers and posters on this board who have over 1000 days cruising this line.

 

Plus, there is the broken record aspect....

 

I actually have read every post (and commented on some of them) within this thread. I think the point where I was like "hmmm....maybe this board isn't so newbie friendly" at the same time that I felt like I walked into an old quarrel was when I read that cruisngchick said she had added people to her ignore list. I respect that it's there for a reason, and his/her right to use it, but I wasn't sure *why* s/he'd used it.

 

To me, the thread was complex. There was a lot of back and forth, and a lot of people basically saying the same thing (whether they realized they were or not) as one another, but I didn't really think anyone was attacked. I did kind of feel like there was a bit of sentiment towards those who had cruised longer having more valid opinions. And of course, that's when I kind of stepped back and said what I said about not feeling welcome.

 

I kind of feel like someone who walked in after the punch line of a really private joke and not being sure what has transpired.

Edited September 11, 2014 by sperkins921

[Can'tstopcruising]

Cruising has changed tremendously.

 

My parents cruised in the '60s and it was luxurious.

 

Today, it is a mass market vacation. Nothing more. Any extra niceties seem to be dwindling away.

 

That doesn't mean you can't have a wonderful vacation. It only means that the wow factor has just about disappeared.

[Ma Bell]

Now you see, this is a post that makes sense. And you make an interesting comment/point here that when you first started, you went in knowing that changes had been made- but it was hard to be upset because after all you'd never experienced what the others had. But now, you see decline again, and you are worried. This makes perfect sense.

 

I can only say, after having read some of you long time X cruisers speak about the 'good ole days' I do kind of feel like maybe I jumped on the boat (no pun lol) a little late.

 

That old saying that you can't miss what you never had is true. Most of us who have been with Celebrity on a regular basis for a long time have obviously loved the product and still do but are becoming a little concerned about some more recent developments. We've seen lots of changes through the years, many of them good, but through it all Celebrity still managed to remain just a bit better than most of the other mass market cruise lines.

 

It seems there has been a real change of philosophy recently and a lot more smoke and mirrors with pricing. I think what is bothering many of us is that they are not only increasing prices dramatically, but making it more difficult to provide the service levels they have in the past and cutting a lot of the niceties that made a Celebrity cruise feel special. It seems like the attitude is that the new cruisers don't know any better and the older ones won't be around that long.

 

My concern is really not for myself because those of us who, have been around a long time are fortunate to have an outstanding loyalty program. I just hate to see Celebrity become just another mass market line.

Edited September 11, 2014 by Ma Bell

[dkjretired]

That old saying that you can't miss what you never had is true. Most of us who have been with Celebrity on a regular basis for a long time have obviously loved the product and still do but are becoming a little concerned about some more recent developments. We've seen lots of changes through the years, many of them good, but through it all Celebrity still managed to remain just a bit better than most of the other mass market cruise lines.

 

It seems there has been a real change of philosophy recently and a lot more smoke and mirrors with pricing. I think what is bothering many of us is that they are not only increasing prices dramatically, but making it more difficult to provide the service levels they have in the past and cutting a lot of the niceties that made a Celebrity cruise feel special. It seems like the attitude is that the new cruisers don't know any better and the older ones won't be around that long.

 

My concern is really not for myself because those of us who, have been around a long time are fortunate to have an outstanding loyalty program. I just hate to see Celebrity become just another mass market line.

 

Ma Bell is absolutely correct and her comment about not knowing what you are missing is accurate. Does anyone realize we have had 200 posts on q tips and chocolates missing in the cabins, I think its rather hilarious. Twenty years ago dinners in the MDR EVERY night were like eating in a Specialty restaurant now. That is a real change but yet for many of us we haven't stopped cruising Celebrity. We are concerned as to the direction of the cruise line but for right now I am still satisfied to cruise with them. When the changes are not to my liking I will walk away.

[chamima]

Ma Bell is absolutely correct and her comment about not knowing what you are missing is accurate. Does anyone realize we have had 200 posts on q tips and chocolates missing in the cabins, I think its rather hilarious. Twenty years ago dinners in the MDR EVERY night were like eating in a Specialty restaurant now. That is a real change but yet for many of us we haven't stopped cruising Celebrity. We are concerned as to the direction of the cruise line but for right now I am still satisfied to cruise with them. When the changes are not to my liking I will walk away.

 

I think the point of commenting on one's dissatisfaction with the changes is (hopefully) for Celebrity to notice (we all know they read these boards, proven by the very recent comments)

and rescind some of them that upset frequent cruisers before we walk away.

I don't want to "walk away". I want to convince Celebrity that the cutbacks are NOT in their long term interests.

[k9x8]

Ma Bell is absolutely correct and her comment about not knowing what you are missing is accurate. Does anyone realize we have had 200 posts on q tips and chocolates missing in the cabins, I think its rather hilarious. Twenty years ago dinners in the MDR EVERY night were like eating in a Specialty restaurant now. That is a real change but yet for many of us we haven't stopped cruising Celebrity. We are concerned as to the direction of the cruise line but for right now I am still satisfied to cruise with them. When the changes are not to my liking I will walk away.

 

You and Ma Bell are indeed absolutely correct.

I have a slightly different perspective, one I have no doubt is shared by others, in general if not in detail.

 

Back when you long-timers were cruising, I couldn't even imagine myself on a cruise ship. That was another world, populated by people like a local man whose family's trans-Atlantic made the society pages. Cruising meant assigned dining times and tables, bingo and shuffleboard, beaded gowns and tuxes. It all seemed so posh and scheduled.

 

Most horrible to contemplate was that tiny room with a tiny window, or worse, a windowless closet. I won't even stay in a hotel room with no balcony or a window that doesn't open. For this old hippie, cruising spelled Vacation Hell.

 

Even had we felt the urge to cruise, we were farmers, dancing just above poverty level.

 

Things changed. We opened a boarding kennel ten years ago, and were finally able to go to Europe, three land trips to Italy and Sicily. We fell in love. A lot of our clients are diehard cruisers and we learned about ports, diverse dining, and balconies. When one couple sent us a postcard from Santorini, DH said, "Let's do it."

 

I was reluctant, but it was his year to choose, and I'd always dreamed of going to Greece (I was a Theater History major, and that included a lot of religious history.)

 

We booked a seven night on the Equinox in AQ. I could endure a week, right? There was Rome to look forward to after the cruise.

 

Oh, mam, was I evervhooked. What I thought would be overwhelming engine noise became the swish, swish of the ship slicing through the swells. What I thought would be snootiness became fun people and personable service, mostly in Blu and at the Sunset Bar. And not once did I feel compelled to play bingo or shuffleboard. When we weren't visiting awesome antiquities, we were somewhere on deck or on our balcony.

 

It's very true, I had nothing to compare it to, but our first cruise was perfect ... for us, so wonderful that we came home and booked the ten night Eastern Med for the next year, and it, too, was perfect. Of course, both cruises had a couple of hiccups, but nothing compared to the misadventures on our land trips.

 

You may be right, Ma Bell, that Celebrity is losing those touches that set it apart from other lines. Our third cruise was seven nights on Splendour of the Seas. Our cabin was very nice. I don't even remember if we had Q-tips, but we did have a coffee maker and the best steward yet. I missed the Sunset Bar, but I found a spot on the top deck, and there was always a bar server passing by when I needed a refill. We did all the ports on our own and had a great meal with local wine on shore. We ate every night in the Windjammer, which has more variety, including MDR selections, than the Oceanview, and great service.

 

On neither line were we interested in shows or nightlife or activities.

 

All this to say, no, I can't compare my cruises to the olden days. Does that make my experience any less valid? There are many more berths to fill than there were twenty years ago, so, in my opinion, Celebrity must appeal to a more diverse demographic. For us, it's all about the ports and being at sea.

 

However, I truly understand and sympathize with those who are disappointed with the gradual erosion of service, amenities, food quality, etc. We had a favorite restaurant, reserved for special occasions. We started noticing small changes, but hung in there for the stuffed olive appetizer available nowhere else. (The idea of first trip to Italy was born while eating those olives.) We could live with smaller portions, higher prices, and a more limited wine list, but when they took that appetizer off the menu, we waved bye-bye.

 

This year we're doing a land trip to Cornwall. I wish I still had those great old hippie clothes.

[4cats4me]

I like Q-tips and cotton balls. Cotton balls are important to me, be cause they are soft.

Q-tips enable me to scratch my itchy ear canal

I like my in-room flower because it cheers me up, even when it is dead by day 8 of 10

The chocolates I likeD too until they changed to that awful brand that we had on our April cruise.