Classic Beverage Package Changes and Devaluation

[Bo1953]

2 hours ago, zitsky said:

Maybe they could offer a tofu smoothie?  Would that be drinkable? I’m not saying they offer it now but that maybe they could?  🤔

z yes, that is true, yet I do not think that "We" (vegans) need the added protein as the vegetables and other such in the smoothie would offer enough servings.

 

Unless we were going directly to the gym for a long and hard workout, that is... LOL

 

Cheers and bon voyage

[AnnaNicole]

On 2/15/2023 at 11:27 PM, slonich said:

Well, when I was booking our March cruise in January, I called Celebrity to confirm that sparkling water and juices would indeed be included if we chose "all included" and they said YES. Either the rep was reading the info off of their website, or their internal documents also had Zero Proof included in Classic at that time (1/20). I've done my due diligence so I fully expect our cards to be coded according to how the package was sold to me.

 

The cost of going with AI vs cabin only was actually a couple of dollars less than adding separate gratuities, wifi, and zero proof package, so it was a really good deal to get a Classic package for less than the cost of Zero Proof. If they make me pay for bottled water after all, I won't be happy, but we'll still be ahead. 

 

Re grandfathering, should be fairly easy to implement as their database includes the price and category for each drink, among other things. The passenger card is what decides if that drink will ring up as a $0 or some other value. Each card could be easily coded to include or exclude whatever is needed in any combination, not just current packages (Premium, Classic, Zero Proof, or None), but unlimited versions of each. I really hope that's how things already are and it won't be a fight for any of us to receive what we purchased.

You can order club soda and juice with the Classic package.   You will need to upgrade to the premium package to get san pellegrino and fresh squeezed juices.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

I still find Celebrity to be good value if you are not in a suite 

our next two cruises are TAs with Always include at $135 CAD pp day in a balcony with OBC 

when I compared to other lines it a reasonable 

oceanic and Viking always price out over a couple hundred dollars more pp per day 

We have done one cruise last April on Celebrity on the Apex and biggest problem was the lack of staff , they did work extremely hard, and were very courteous

AQU is of no add value for me , been there , tried it , I am not a spa kind of guy

We will see if staffing gets better for our next TAs and if the change up the itineraries, will determine if we continue to book with Celebrity 

 

[kirtihk]

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Our last X cruise was in May of 2019.   We are currently back to cruising over 70 days a year (will likely go over 100 days a year) but no X cruises on our radar.  Given the right set of circumstances we will certainly be back.  Just 2 weeks ago we deciced to book a late 2023 Caribbean cruise and we again looked at X as well as MSC, Princess, and Seabourn.  We decided to book a mini-suite on Princess since it was a far better value than X and we do enjoy the Princess ships.  To be very honest, our preference would have been to book MSC (Yacht club) but their itineraries were awful except for the usual visits to Ocean Cay.

 

So lets put it all in perspective, value wise.  If we had booked a Sky Suite on the Apex for 2 weeks it would have cost us somewhere around $15,000 (with all the nice amenities).  A mini-suite on Princess will cost us about 1/2 of that price (with tons of amenities and lots of OBC).  Even if we were to give extra points to X because of the Retreat benefits, there is just no way to justify twice the price!  If we had booked 2 weeks in MSC's Yacht Club it would have cost approximately $9200.  And the YC actually has a much nicer set of amenities than you get with the Retreat stuff.  The Seabourn Quest would cost about the same price as the X Sky Suite...but that price does also include over $2000 in fees/taxes because of the Panama Canal tolls.   

 

We are Elite Plus on X and long time Elite on Princess so do have a good feel for both lines.  There are some things better on X and some things better on Princess.  We used to rate the food on X far superior to Princess. But no more.  So how does one justify spending twice the price to go on the Apex?  For us the decision to go on Princess was a no-brainer.

 

Hank

 

 

You may also do Regent for $7,000 14-day (if you remove included air price option) cruise where the entire ship is your Retreat area so to speak and excursions are included in each port (average $150 per person per tour - $1,200 worth for the 14-day cruise if say you have 5 sea days).  So, in the end it's like $5,800 only ($7,000 - $1,200) making around $400 per day.