Celebrity Launches Advocate Program

[purpletequila]

I got through part of the process...and then it seemed like it was difficult to continue on...but then made it to the videos...and I stopped too! All this for $10 an hour??? Not sure if it is worth it...would rather be on line here with my CC buddies I think!!! LuAnn

 

My sentiments exactly. I still might go for it but it seems awfully involved for this role.

[cle-guy]

And if those old grizzled folks ever stopped booking, Celebrity ships would be sailing 75% empty, until the advocates worked their magic!

 

Worst case is 60% empty. 40% of cruisers are experiencing their very first cruise an haven't had time to become grizzled.

 

To me grizzled means unable to accept change, constantly complaining but going back and doing the same thing all over again and then complain yet again. People who can only see the negative about things before they have even had a chance to experience them or wait to see what really happens or even took moment to read up and study up on new plans. People who make assumptions and generalizations and spew rhetoric. People who are so set in their way that they can not accept that someone else may want something completely opposite, and insist that staff do things THEY want, ignoring what the other passenger may want, who have no ability to compromise. People who think they can remove gratuities because they are "optional" because the cruise line says meals are included. People who fail to acknowledge the law of diminishing returns and how it applies to real life, especially with regard to dining. Glass is half empty types. And of course those who have let the green monster take over them.

 

It is not necessarily associated with age, though knowing my uncle and my dad, they can often be a bit more mature in age, but not always.

 

You have to agree there are lots of people who frequent these boards who have nothing good to say, yet continue to book and then continue to complain. Those are who I refer to as grizzled. They will never be happy no matter what unless they are complaining. Companies have a right to cull the ranks of these types of people rather than deal with them as far as I'm concerned. It raises staff morale, and enhances the cruise experience for the rest of their guests. A bad apple spoils the whole bunch as they say.

[richsea]

I'm not going to quibble with you about the exact percentages. However, just about all of the Celebrity cruises I have been on, excepting those in summertime, have had a preponderance of what appear to be " old grizzled" cruisers, so I'm going with about 75%.

 

I do agree that there are those who post here who seem to do nothing but find fault with just about everything that Celebrity does. There are also a like number who lean the other way, & still others who seem to profess to have all the the answers, pro or con. The thing is,when you are a regular reader of Cruise Critic, you learn who they are & can decide for yourself who to rely on. I did not investigate the link when I heard that it does not support Safari, which if true, eliminates a good portion of candidates. But I would think that only those who have a "pro" attitude towards Celebrity will be accepted, which makes the program less effective than Cruise Critic, where one can get a more rounded representation of what to expect from their Celebrity sailing.

 

BTW, green monster???

Edited August 5, 2015 by richsea

[hcat]

Curt, your definition of grizzled, a word that was new to me, does not match any dictionary I find......check google.

 

Anyhow....we have been cruising X for many yrs because we enjoy it....but no one pays us for our opinion...if you like the new program, go for it!

 

Recent steps by X are positive but others deserve negative comment...but the "advocates" won,t be going there!

Edited August 5, 2015 by hcat

[cle-guy]

Curt, your definition of grizzked, a word that was new to me, does not match any dictionary I find......check google.

 

Anyhow....we have been cruising X for many yrs because we enjoy it....but no one pays us for our opinion...if you like the new program, go for it!

 

LOL, just did that. Well, I have streaks of grey, especially in my beard. I think of a mean grizzly bear. now I know. call me grizzled.

[ORV]

Celebrity better be sure to get advocates who don't have a bias to any particular age or economic demographic or they may do themselves more harm than good.

 

Curt, I respect your opinion on a lot of things but if it were my company i couldn't in good conscience recommend they use someone with your attitude about older people as a representative. There's one thing to remember and that is that all these "grizzled" old people were once young but the young people have never been old and all the young "whippersnappers" of today will be saying hello to their golden years before they know it. There is also the fact that because there is a certain amount of time and money necessary to be able to cruise on a regular basis, the older generation will probably always make up a large part of the cruising population.

 

It seems to me they need people with a balanced perspective to make this a successful program. The beauty of Cruise Critic is there are a lot opinions from a wide variety of individuals giving all sides of the equation and many of the people who are well informed and generous with their opinions are too busy to become paid advocates. There is obviously a certain type of personality that would be interested in this kind of a position and I'm not so sure that they will be serving themselves well by directing people to a limited group fellow cruisers. I can see this opening a whole can of worms for them.

 

I don't always agree with Ma Bell, but when I do, I really do.

[true45]

Celebrity better be sure to get advocates who don't have a bias to any particular age or economic demographic or they may do themselves more harm than good.

 

Curt, I respect your opinion on a lot of things but if it were my company i couldn't in good conscience recommend they use someone with your attitude about older people as a representative. There's one thing to remember and that is that all these "grizzled" old people were once young but the young people have never been old and all the young "whippersnappers" of today will be saying hello to their golden years before they know it. There is also the fact that because there is a certain amount of time and money necessary to be able to cruise on a regular basis, the older generation will probably always make up a large part of the cruising population.

 

It seems to me they need people with a balanced perspective to make this a successful program. The beauty of Cruise Critic is there are a lot opinions from a wide variety of individuals giving all sides of the equation and many of the people who are well informed and generous with their opinions are too busy to become paid advocates. There is obviously a certain type of personality that would be interested in this kind of a position and I'm not so sure that they will be serving themselves well by directing people to a limited group fellow cruisers. I can see this opening a whole can of worms for them.

 

 

Thank you Ma Bell

Good points

[hcat]

Curt...your post about millenials replacing old grizzled complainers was not well received...

.(# 62, last line)

 

perhaps this thread is getting too personal for some...positions have been noted and IMHO not much else is left

Edited August 6, 2015 by hcat

[Orator]

Curt...your post about millenials replacing old grizzled complainers was not well received...

.(around # 62)

 

perhaps this thread is getting too personal for some...positions have been noted and IMHO not much else is left

 

Agree! If one wants to become an Advocate they should apply. If they don't they shouldn't. It might be a good idea, or it might be a failure. Only time and future posts on Cruise Critic will tell.

[cle-guy]

Curt...your post about millenials replacing old grizzled complainers was not well received...

.(around # 62)

 

perhaps this thread is getting too personal for some...positions have been noted and IMHO not much else is left

 

And in post #80, thanks to a correction from MaBell, I acknowledged I had used the word Grizzled in the wrong way. Disgruntled should have been the vocabulary word to use. I unfortunately had the wrong definition of Grizzled in my head, and have now learned what the word means, and it was not the correct word to use in that context.

 

But yes, it has gone off track, and probably should be closed at this point.

[CruisingChick]

Who knows, maybe the millennials will start to replace some of the old grizzled people who have nothing but negative things to say about Celebrity and RCL. Perhaps that's the focus.

 

No, I think the problem is you used the word OLD.

[wwcruisers]

No, I think the problem is you used the word OLD.

 

AnnaMarie -- this whole discussion reminds me of Michael Bayley's publicly stated plan to switch the marketing focus exclusively to the young, hip, high-income cruisers. Well, sadly for former President/CEO Bayley, those folks did not flock to Celebrity in droves. What he DID end up with was a bunch of loyal (maybe old & grizzled) cruisers, who were unhappy with the cuts in food quality, service and entertainment. The ships' staff were caught squarely in the middle -- trying to explain why Miami wouldn't let them turn down the music in the Martini Bar, for example. :rolleyes:

 

Don't get me wrong -- I have no problem with X marketing to a younger demographic. Let's face it -- we old, grizzled cruisers won't be around forever. But, until the well-heeled Millennials are onboard, X should be paying attention to the folks who are actually filling their ships. In the works of my great-grandmother: You dance with who brung you! ;)

[CruisingChick]

the young, hip, high-income cruisers.

 

 

I just wish I was young, hip and had a high income!!!

[Fish Lover]

If I wanted to cruise on a ship full of 20 & 30 something, I would choose Carnival. If I wanted to cruise on a ship that sacrificed quality over quantity and lower rates, I would choose any other cruise line. If I wanted to cruise with many children, I would choose Disney.

 

I don't. I choose Celebrity because they don't particularly cater to those groups, or the lowest incomes.

 

So... you simply can not have it both ways. Either they go the way of every other cruise line, or shape up and maintain a higher class luxury environment.

 

Yeah for us older folk who, by the way, have far more disposable income than the average millennial.

 

Curt, I think you are trying so very hard to be appealing for the advocate job that you aren't thinking things through.

[ghstudio]

Certainly, it's to celebrity's advantage to have happy past cruisers chat with future cruisers....that's smart marketing. I think the concept quickly clouds when the happy past cruisers are reimbursed for their positive statements...in fact it's likely there's some law somewhere that says you have to identify that you are not impartial, but you are compensated in some way for your time/comments. Even without a law, one would hope that Celebrity would take the ethical approach and indicate, in some way, that the "advocates" aren't just random folks...they are selected and compensated for their opinions. Again...no problem with a cadre of compensated positive folks...on celebrity's site. If that bleeds to facebook, twitter, or cruise critic then I think there's a problem....and as I've said a couple of times, hopefully Cruise Critic will require anyone compensated in any way for their comments to indicate that in their signatures or some other way. If not, the basic honesty of this site is compromised and it quickly becomes superfluous.

 

So...Curt, I hope you do get that job...but then make sure you tell folks here that you are now compensated for your positive opinions so folks know that you are indeed a celebrity "cheerleader", so to speak. Or remain like the rest of us being positive on many items, yet critical on others...expressing your own, unbiased opinion. In my book, you can't have it both ways.

[wwcruisers]

....and as I've said a couple of times, hopefully Cruise Critic will require anyone compensated in any way for their comments to indicate that in their signatures or some other way. If not, the basic honesty of this site is compromised and it quickly becomes superfluous.

 

Totally agree! I can see the potential for this to run afoul of CruiseCritic's rules against solicitation or advertising by posters. :eek: But, I'm pretty sure that the mods/admins will be able to get out ahead of this one -- especially since Host Andy was the first to bring it to our attention. :cool:

[snowmaiden]

Having just gone through the whole application process with Needle, I feel like there are some misconceptions floating around about what being an advocate entails. From what I understand at this point, advocates will chat with people who are on the Celebrity website and request help in finding the right cruise or with using the interface. (And we all know that everyone using the Celebrity site can use help sometimes! :D) I didn't see anything about writing positive reviews or blog posts about Celebrity in other online venues. (It's true that they did ask to see examples of product reviews I've written in the past, but I assumed it was just to get a sense of my writing style and how nice I am.) As I understand it, advocates will be paid by the hour for time they actually spend on chat, not for anything else.

 

I'd like to thank Host Andy for starting this thread, by the way, even if it has veered somewhat off course. I was an academic librarian until a few years ago, and one of the things I loved most about my job was chatting with library users who were stuck on our website. If I can combine that with my love of cruising, all the better!

[6502programmer]

make sure you tell folks here that you are now compensated for your positive opinions so folks know that you are indeed a celebrity "cheerleader", so to speak. Or remain like the rest of us being positive on many items, yet critical on others...expressing your own, unbiased opinion. In my book, you can't have it both ways.

 

I'm pretty sure there are at least one or two travel agents here, and they all are required to NOT "fly the flag", so to speak. They are compensated by cruise lines, and are absolutely motivated to make sure that everyone, and their grandmother, and even nana's dog (if she's on Cunard) all go on as many cruises as they can. If they are forbidden from disclosing this here, why would these folks, when they are off the clock, be required to disclose their affiliation?

[villauk]

I'm pretty sure there are at least one or two travel agents here, and they all are required to NOT "fly the flag", so to speak. They are compensated by cruise lines, and are absolutely motivated to make sure that everyone, and their grandmother, and even nana's dog (if she's on Cunard) all go on as many cruises as they can. If they are forbidden from disclosing this here, why would these folks, when they are off the clock, be required to disclose their affiliation?

 

TAs are not affiliated with one particular cruise line, they are there (or should) direct you to the most suitable line for your needs/requirements. Anyway, my point returns to my previous statement regarding a balanced view from several different replies, which you wouldn't receive from speaking to only one individual.

 

For instance, we all complain that we get a different answer speaking to different representatives when we ring X, and they are actually trained for their employment. Will this not be the same when you speak with an Advocate? Today, I have read a reply on a thread which was posted by someone allegedly applying for the Advocate position, the reply was incorrect. However, as several other posters chimed in, the OP was able to receive the correct information. Isn't that the beauty of CC: many pax have much experience in their own particular area. Unless you've sailed on every ship, in every area/region/continent, in all 4 seasons, in every stateroom (with different amounts of pax), ate in every specialty restaurant....you get my drift...you're not going to be able to answer every question asked. I wouldn't know how many dining chairs are in the PH on Reflection because I've never sailed on her, or have even been in the PH. Just the same as someone who has never cruised the Med in April, would be unable to answer specific questions on climate/weather/attractions/seas etc., where I possibly would. Which is exactly the same situation as the call centre representatives.

 

This is where issues may arise because most pax will believe that one Advocate's responses - which may result in greater difficulties for all parties concerned if the information is incorrect.

 

Perhaps I have misunderstood what an Advocate will be required to do, but I still think a more balanced view would be gained from asking that same question on CC ;).

[6502programmer]

Perhaps I have misunderstood what an Advocate will be required to do, but I still think a more balanced view would be gained from asking that same question on CC ;).

 

Agreed, but you have to look at it from the doe-eyed potential first-time cruiser's perspective. CC isn't a nice place sometimes, and even after eight years here, I still am consistently amazed by the somewhat frightful way some folks think is okay to interact. If someone came in with a question like, "I really like my cappuccinos. Where can I go to get them on the ship," how many answers and how many flames would that poster get?

• "The coffee bar. Didn't you look at the deck plans?"
  
• "Oh, I get them at the elite breakfast. They're way better there."
  
• "I have our butler bring them to me. Sitting on my balcony with my butler bringing me cappuccinos is the only way I drink them."
  
• "I don't like paying for expensive coffee. I prefer to bring my Blender Bottle from home and get coffee and soy milk in the MDR and mix it up. IT'S PERFECT!"
  
• "I don't like having to pay any service charges, so I pack a French press and my organic, responsibly sourced, non-GMO, artisanal coffee, and then I don't tip the steward who brings me the hot water. He's just doing his job, and I already paid my cruise fare."
  

 

Yeah, I can see why Celebrity would want to have something p2p but with a bit more control on that animal.

 

I think it seems the role is to answer the "softball" questions from folks who have never been on a cruise. By getting the real story from folks who take cruises, it is likely believed that these answers will carry more weight with potential customers than the exact same answer from someone sitting in a call center. That and thanks to the "gig economy", they can source that role more cheaply than in a call center.

 

Going off and crapping up CC threads that don't play up the best aspects of the corporate overseers doesn't seem to be what the advocate does, so I don't think anyone has to worry about that.

Edited August 7, 2015 by 6502programmer

[Karynanne]

I just received an email from Needle.com regarding the Celebrity Advocate Program. I filled out the information needed, and apparently I have been chosen for an interview, either on Monday or Tuesday.

 

But I'm having an issue scheduling the interview. The site will not load properly. I only have Monday available. I'll be traveling for the next two weeks, starting Tuesday in Japan.

 

So it just proves that this ole gal's opinions do matter. I've been cruising with Celebrity since 1999, and also can type 32 wpm! LOL...

[6502programmer]

I just received an email from Needle.com regarding the Celebrity Advocate Program. I filled out the information needed, and apparently I have been chosen for an interview, either on Monday or Tuesday.

 

 

 

But I'm having an issue scheduling the interview. The site will not load properly. I only have Monday available. I'll be traveling for the next two weeks, starting Tuesday in Japan.

 

 

 

So it just proves that this ole gal's opinions do matter. I've been cruising with Celebrity since 1999, and also can type 32 wpm! LOL...

 

 

Respond with an email to the sender (Tabitha). The address mine was sent to couldn't log in. A quick email and it was fixed. I could always put in a time for you too, if that was your wish.

 

The times are listed here, in mountain daylight time.

Edited August 8, 2015 by 6502programmer

[C 2 C]

The sign up sheet shows everyone who is making an appointment and includes the email of every entrant.

 

I now have the emails of 85 entrants and they will have mine as well.:eek:

[Karynanne]

The sign up sheet shows everyone who is making an appointment and includes the email of every entrant.

 

I now have the emails of 85 entrants and they will have mine as well.:eek:

 

 

Already I'm very hesitant. I don't like the fact that others will have my email address.

[sujac]

Already I'm very hesitant. I don't like the fact that others will have my email address.

 

I did not see anyone's email address on the google doc I received.