Do you Feel X is Cheapening their Product

[mcrcruiser]

what are your feelings about Celebrity product of today vs pre covid times  ?

[southernbreezes]

For me it is better, I love the Edge Class Ships. The only thing that I could complain about is the lack of good wine, but thats not a deal breaker. We book suites and the service and food both excellent on the Reflection and Edge last year. The Edge is just beautiful love everthing about it. Next up Apex in April.

Plus I love checking in on the app. and the staggered check in times. They made it so easy.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

As someone who travels "steerage" (as in Ocean View or *gasp* the single with IV) I am definitely feeling the death by a thousand cuts. I loved the Edge - even not being in the upper crust - but I am less excited about my upcoming Summit cruise. At this point it's to use the non-refundable deposit I was stupid enough to make because right now an FCC on X would be like the voucher Southwest tried to give me the second time they screwed stuff up and I was stranded for 6+ hours (and THAT flight was on a voucher from when they screwed up and left me stranded 5+ hours) - well before the debacle they had over the holidays. I wouldn't use it.

 

I had hoped that after really loving my Edge cruise Celebrity would become my go-to line - but the changes are just getting to be too much. At least for those of us who don't cruise exclusively in suites for whatever reason (for me I'm far too low maintenance to be dealing with butlers and the like so why would I waste that money).

[Swampbabe]

What a novel thread🙄

[DirtyDawg]

6 minutes ago, Swampbabe said:

What a novel thread🙄

AGREE! 

 

Novels are definitely not as good as they were pre-Covid! 

[LGW59]

7 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

what are your feelings about Celebrity product of today vs pre covid times  ?

I'm going to assume that by "cheapening" you don't mean in the cost of, rather I think you mean the experience.  If the latter, I do not think so, and this is based on a cruise on Edge this past fall.  The ship is beautiful, food, service, crew etc were all fantastic, I honestly loved everything about it.  I was in a Retreat suite and could not have asked for a better experience, but was also all over the ship as we had so many sea days, and again, everything about it was just wonderful, IMO.  Now the current $$ cost to cruise may be a different stroy, that is what it is and i make my deciiosn in cost comparison, but I still don't beleive that cheapens the product in any way.  They are IMO a very good, solid premium line that provides a high quality experience.  

[phoenix_dream]

15 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

I'm going to assume that by "cheapening" you don't mean in the cost of, rather I think you mean the experience.  If the latter, I do not think so, and this is based on a cruise on Edge this past fall.  The ship is beautiful, food, service, crew etc were all fantastic, I honestly loved everything about it.  I was in a Retreat suite and could not have asked for a better experience, but was also all over the ship as we had so many sea days, and again, everything about it was just wonderful, IMO.  Now the current $$ cost to cruise may be a different stroy, that is what it is and i make my deciiosn in cost comparison, but I still don't beleive that cheapens the product in any way.  They are IMO a very good, solid premium line that provides a high quality experience.  

Sail on an S or M class ship, especially one not yet revolutionized and then report back again.  IMHO E class ships have been getting the best of everything since they were introduced.  They hand picked the best staff (not that I don't love ALL the X staff), I can't prove it but it feels to me that the staff to passenger ratio is a bit higher (at least at this time), they send all the best live entertainment there, they developed fabulous new shows while the shows on M and S class have been the same for a decade or more, they of course are all new so are in fabulous shape while revolutionizing of other ships have been put on hold, and the list goes on.

 

Does this mean I don't love Celebrity?  In fact I do and have been loyal for years.  But having sailed all classes, including many since re-start, I can tell you that the experience on E class is not the same as on the other classes.

[LGW59]

1 minute ago, phoenix_dream said:

Sail on an S or M class ship, especially one not yet revolutionized and then report back again.  IMHO E class ships have been getting the best of everything since they were introduced.  They hand picked the best staff (not that I don't love ALL the X staff), I can't prove it but it feels to me that the staff to passenger ratio is a bit higher (at least at this time), they send all the best live entertainment there, they developed fabulous new shows while the shows on M and S class have been the same for a decade or more, they of course are all new so are in fabulous shape while revolutionizing of other ships have been put on hold, and the list goes on.

 

Does this mean I don't love Celebrity?  In fact I do and have been loyal for years.  But having sailed all classes, including many since re-start, I can tell you that the experience on E class is not the same as on the other classes.

Thanks, I appreciate your experience and perspective.  I was referring to E-class as you note and have only sailed Summit once and that was quite a few years ago, I think 7 or 8...

[gizmodog]

Yes 

[davekathy]

7 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

what are your feelings about Celebrity product of today vs pre covid times  ?

what are your feelings about Celebrity product of today vs pre covid times  ?

[NMTraveller]

Yes.  I am literally laughing at the evening buffet menu.

 

 

[LMaxwell]

Yes, they are clearly cheapening the product offering, while not lowering cost or increasing value to the paying customer. The most rabid loyalist could not come to a different objective conclusion. 

[phoenix_dream]

5 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

Yes, they are clearly cheapening the product offering, while not lowering cost or increasing value to the paying customer. The most rabid loyalist could not come to a different objective conclusion. 

The problem is all major lines are doing the same so if you want to cruise, Celebrity is still the best choice if you can't afford (or don't want to sail) the smaller ship luxury lines.

[NMTraveller]

30 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

The problem is all major lines are doing the same so if you want to cruise, Celebrity is still the best choice if you can't afford (or don't want to sail) the smaller ship luxury lines.

What other lines are decimating their buffet like X?

[LMaxwell]

30 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

What other lines are decimating their buffet like X?

They may not all be doing exactly the same thing, but they are all making a lot of unpopular changes rather quickly that reduce the dining experience and look to goose more dollars per day out of guests. And when one cruise line tiptoes over the line and "gets away" with codifying new fees or lesser services, their main competitors do the same. If you go to HAL or Princess, you find a slightly different form of the same style cutbacks. 

 

The mass market lines chased me up to the Premium lines just in time for the Premium lines to try to undercut Carnival.  

[Swampbabe]

Oh, the drama 😜

[Grandmaanne7]

I think that I will reserve voicing my opinion on this subject until I return next month from my first post covid cruise on Celebrity. I will be able to compare it with my other post covid cruises on Regent and Carnival so it should be somewhere in the middle even though it is far more expensive than either due to the itinerary (Antarctica). I am not liking that Celebrity introduces a new reduction in product almost weekly but I will reserve judgment until the experience is complete. I am hoping that all the negativity hasn't jaded me already and that I can sail with an open mind. 

[LB_NJ]

2 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

The problem is all major lines are doing the same so if you want to cruise, Celebrity is still the best choice if you can't afford (or don't want to sail) the smaller ship luxury lines.

I have decided to NOT book anything and do a wait and see.  If things don't get better I'll either book Oceania or just skip cruising.

[kearney]

The cruise lines did not sail for well over a year..but had to keep ships moving incurring costs for limited crew, upkeep, some port charges etc. Then supply chain issues impacted supplies and quality of supplies (eg liquor) .. and higher energy costs (although some long term contracts may have helped)... and add to that recent increases in inflation due, in part, to the war in Ukraine ...make running a business difficult and impacting decisions on pricing and product features. I understand the balance they are trying to keep. Unfortunately these same issues impact my personal economics..but I can't raise revenue so I have to focus on the cost aspect.. and this means fewer cruises... and more likely to go with 'cruise only' fares and off season sailing... eg back to hurricane season... Sept-Oct cruises... which can be exciting...

[kruzerci]

Royal and X are both falling quickly. It’s very disappointing. I haven’t booked any more sailings. Just sailing on my NRD bookings. 

[Oceansaway17]

I went on the Equinox and found the buffet a lot better than some of the RCI newer ships.

they had a nicer salad bar and also at the beverage area, nice big container with spout of two types of milk.

Also, X ships do not chase folks out of buffet area completely during the day.

Front area is for Pizza, salads and ice cream until very late in the day.

I found the desserts just slightly better than RCI but NCL has best desserts IMHO in buffet

[mom says]

I quite understand the reasons why Celebrity and similar lines have instituted their cost cutting measures. But the fact remains that the result has been a cheapened product for a more expensive price.  And once something has been removed, reduced in quantity or quality, or has had an added cost imposed; when would we likely see a reversal of those actions? Answer: likely never.

 

The end result for us is we are holding off on new bookings and are looking at other options. Land vacations are looking better and better. YMMV

[AnnaNicole]

Yes.

[Ken the cruiser]

Let me think about this for a second. We were on an Edge Caribbean B3B in Aug 2021, an Apex Caribbean B2B in Nov 2021, a Constellation Caribbean B2B in Dec 2021, a Reflection Caribbean B2B in Feb 2022, a Caribbean Princess Panama Canal cruise in May 2022, a Regal Princess Med B3B cruise in July 2022, a Celebrity Summit Iceland/Greenland B2B cruise in Aug 2022, and an awesome NCL Jade Africa B2B cruise to top it off in Nov-Dec 2022. 🤔

 

Nope! We’ve had a great time on all of those cruises!! More specifically, I’ve been seeing all of these threads about price increases and reduced quality of product and service provided, and to be honest, we’re just glad to be cruising again! But then we’re cruiseaholics, so we’re easily impressed, especially if the crew is able to keep us laughing! 😂

 

However, if they can’t do that, as was the case on the Reflection where CD Steve was one of the worst CDs we’ve ever encountered, that did impact our cruise somewhat. But not to the point of jumping ship.

 

However, if any cruise line we cruise with implements a Music Walk entertainment policy like HAL did back around 2017, then that may be a deal breaker for us.

[RD64]

As I posted on another thread under Celebrity….

 

During Covid everyone posted just get me back on board - I don’t care about anything else - now apparently everyone cares about everything else.