Oceanview Cafe dinner service being eliminated?

[Ex-Airbalancer]

18 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

You think people that eat in the buffet did so in order to remove tips? That's really strange. How does that logic work? 

 

 

🤔

People would remove their tips ? 

[NutsAboutGolf]

5 minutes ago, prmssk said:

What’s the capacity like on those ships right now?  How limited is the buffet in those cases?

No limits, was just on the new years sailing and was told they were 100% booked but 50 did not show most likely due to flight disruption 

[Charles4515]

22 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

You think people that eat in the buffet did so in order to remove tips? That's really strange. How does that logic work? 

 

 

You must not read the tipping threads. Numerous people have come right out and said they remove gratuities bcause they only eat in the buffet. 

[BermudaBound2014]

2 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

No limits, was just on the new years sailing and was told they were 100% booked but 50 did not show most likely due to flight disruption 

 

The changes went into effect January 1st.

 

There were no buffet limits reported to those sailing on the NY sailings. The limited choices were implemented after.

Edited January 4, 2023 by BermudaBound2014

[prmssk]

Just now, NutsAboutGolf said:

No limits, was just on the new years sailing and was told they were 100% booked but 50 did not show most likely due to flight disruption 

I realize there are no limits and some ships are sailing at 100%+ capacity but some sailings (due to less demand) are at lower capacities still. So my question was specific to the current sailings where there are reports of a reduced dinner buffet. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

3 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

🤔

People would remove their tips ? 

Hang out at the seating by guest services the last night.  Someone charged like 3 coffees to my room so I went to guest services at 5pm on the last night.  Overheard three people in front of me and one behind me request to remove the auto gratitudes

[cruisemom42]

3 minutes ago, prmssk said:

I realize there are no limits and some ships are sailing at 100%+ capacity but some sailings (due to less demand) are at lower capacities still. So my question was specific to the current sailings where there are reports of a reduced dinner buffet. 

 

This is one of the most popular times of the year -- peak season if you will -- for Caribbean cruises. I can't imagine most cruises are not sailing NEAR if not AT capacity. 

 

It does appear -- to me at least -- that this is a fleetwide changeover as of the start of 2023, part of a package of changes that are not dealbreakers individually....but at the same time have diminished the "have it your way" cocoon of cruising still more.

 

[prmssk]

Just now, cruisemom42 said:

 

This is one of the most popular times of the year -- peak season if you will -- for Caribbean cruises. I can't imagine most cruises are not sailing NEAR if not AT capacity. 

 

It does appear -- to me at least -- that this is a fleetwide changeover as of the start of 2023, part of a package of changes that are not dealbreakers individually....but at the same time have diminished the "have it your way" cocoon of cruising still more.

 

Really?  Whenever I have ever looked at cruises, once New Year’s is over prices really go down which usually because of less demand. With how much people travel over the holidays, they aren’t usually ready to travel again the first week of January. And someone on the Edge right now in the Caribbean is reporting 75% of double occupancy. 

And cruising in general isn’t back up to full demand yet this year. There are still a lot of people who haven’t gotten back to this sort of travel. I suspect a lot of ships this week are NOT at double occupancy capacity. 

[zitsky]

Celebrity is going to bring back the full buffet as a new $1,000 upcharge and call it Purple.

[cw2go]

16 minutes ago, prmssk said:

Really?  Whenever I have ever looked at cruises, once New Year’s is over prices really go down which usually because of less demand. With how much people travel over the holidays, they aren’t usually ready to travel again the first week of January. And someone on the Edge right now in the Caribbean is reporting 75% of double occupancy. 

And cruising in general isn’t back up to full demand yet this year. There are still a lot of people who haven’t gotten back to this sort of travel. I suspect a lot of ships this week are NOT at double occupancy capacity. 

 

I've cruised the Caribbean many many times in Jan & Feb. The ships have always been FULL! I am back at it again a few weeks and I expect with what's sold out on my sailing it will be near full. In all fairness it is on The Beyond and right now that ship/captain is all the rage. 

 

Patty

[cw2go]

6 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Celebrity is going to bring back the full buffet as a new $1,000 upcharge and call it Purple.

 

When CC gets too heavy, I know who to come to for the One Liners 😂

 

Patty 

[weregoingcruising]

3 hours ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

I'm fine with this approach as long as I can sit on the edge of the pool.

Just don’t ask anyone to lend you  a hand.

[LMaxwell]

48 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

You must not read the tipping threads. Numerous people have come right out and said they remove gratuities bcause they only eat in the buffet. 

That's too bad. It's a full restaurant with beverage service and made to order food. 

 

How does Celebrity plan to accommodate me and my casual style, low carb, multiple high protein dinner?

[Ipeeinthepools]

1 hour ago, dlh015 said:

And, gosh, where would you pee if you had to pay for it??   🤣

 

Do you really want to know?

[jelayne]

1 hour ago, prmssk said:

Do we have any confirmation that this limited evening buffet is happening on any other ships yet?  With the Edge being only at about 75% of its double occupancy capacity at least part of what is happening there could be due to lower capacity and underutilization of the evening buffet. 

 Yes, Check post #214 for the Equinox

[Charles4515]

47 minutes ago, cw2go said:

 

I've cruised the Caribbean many many times in Jan & Feb. The ships have always been FULL! I am back at it again a few weeks and I expect with what's sold out on my sailing it will be near full. In all fairness it is on The Beyond and right now that ship/captain is all the rage. 

 

Patty

They were full because the prices were lowered to fill them. I always got the lowest prices in December, January and February. I would wait for the last minute to book those months.

[cw2go]

1 minute ago, Charles4515 said:

They were full because the prices were lowered to fill them. I always got the lowest prices in December, January and February. I would wait for the last minute to book those months.

Gotcha and I would guess that my sailing coming up had many FCC's applied so that's another reason for a fuller sailing. At least it's true in my case. 

 

Patty 

[Charles4515]

32 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

That's too bad. It's a full restaurant with beverage service and made to order food. 

 

How does Celebrity plan to accommodate me and my casual style, low carb, multiple high protein dinner?

They are pretty good about accommodating diet in the MDR. The issue I think is with casual style. Since some people live in shorts and shorts are not supposed to be worn in the MDR I think that is a valid issue. If they are not going to serve a full restaurant dinner they should relax the dress request of the MDR. The full restaurant dinner in Oceanview was initiated at a time when there was only traditional dining and to be a casual alternative. 

[davekathy]

4 hours ago, gold1953 said:

I love the buffet for dinner as well.. Love sitting outside under the stars. Love the choices , love the quite

 Husband hates the dining room when we are near dish stations as he is hearing impaired

Agree. We always request a table for two (TD and SD) in a location no where near the service stations. There's also other table locations we would never want or except to sit at either. We've always been accommodated.  

[MamaFej]

5 hours ago, weregoingcruising said:

Duh is this true?

Which part? The part about a transcript of the conversation in the boardroom being emailed to me by a fly? Or the part about the fly being a figment of my imagination?

 

Because one of those things is definitely true. 

[Ipeeinthepools]

4 hours ago, gold1953 said:

I love the buffet for dinner as well.. Love sitting outside under the stars. Love the choices , love the quite

 Husband hates the dining room when we are near dish stations as he is hearing impaired

 

I agree with you husband and I tell the Matier'd that I don't to sit near those dish stations or by a major walkway.  If it's too close I'll reject the table. 

[mrgabriel]

1 hour ago, prmssk said:

Really?  Whenever I have ever looked at cruises, once New Year’s is over prices really go down which usually because of less demand. With how much people travel over the holidays, they aren’t usually ready to travel again the first week of January. And someone on the Edge right now in the Caribbean is reporting 75% of double occupancy. 

And cruising in general isn’t back up to full demand yet this year. There are still a lot of people who haven’t gotten back to this sort of travel. I suspect a lot of ships this week are NOT at double occupancy capacity. 

Ships are much fuller than they were when we sailed last spring. Seems like everyone I know is booking trips - either cruises, all-inclusives, Mexico or Hawaii for Spring Break, Europe for the summer. It absolutely depends on each individual's situation but I've talked to more than one person who is planning to travel NOW because of experiences over the past few years. 

 

Before Christmas I read a report that tourism generally is expected to be back to 2019 levels by next year, which has escalated over previous forecasts. Ships may not be full - but they're close. We were on a NYE Cruise and it was 100% full (minus those who missed it due to flight cancellations). We also have 2 more cruises booked for this year and those are both almost full. 

[39august]

EQ is about 2,300 on this cruise. So about 85%. 

[LMaxwell]

Scaling back to pizza, salad, hot dogs, hamburgers is not an adequate solution at 60%, 85%, or 100%. 

 

If you drive all the crowd to the MDR, the MDR service suffers, waits increase; some people are just outright not looking for the MDR experience at all and may be completely unwilling to dress up as background actors. Those that love the MDR may find that the capacity increase, if no service increase, reduces their enjoyment as well with longer wait times, and elect to go to specialty dining ($$$).  It's a losing proposition for the paying guests. 

 

I suspect X wanted to 

• Charge for items in MDR
• Charge for room service
• Minimize or eliminate staffing for included services
• Make a number of unpopular changes concurrently and then back off of 1 or 2 of those changes, while codifying the others into permanence. When they give you back the buffet, I guess it makes the room service charge more palatable. 

[PTC DAWG]

7 hours ago, weregoingcruising said:

Duh is this true?

Sure, someone put it online, has to be true.