New CEO of Celebrity Interesting but happy they stay within for promotions.

[Ipeeinthepools]

3 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

😱

I am trying to guilt Celebrity into changing things up 😉

since Celebrity does thing Cruise Critic members ask for , right 🤔😁

 

We can only hope that Celebrity follows the wise advice offered on CC. 😉

[NMTraveller]

9 hours ago, OysterD said:

A 14 night cruise which would often require a day or so travelling etc either side will often end up being 16 or 17 days away from home. Unless you're retired, not many people under 70 can take 2.5 to 3 weeks off from work/school in one go. I could probably stretch to a 12 night cruise but anything longer would be a struggle. If Celebrity want <70yr olds on their ships, they need to offer shorter itineraries. Which they do.

 

I'm fairly sure handing out an extra $100 of OBC to a handful of shareholders was very last on their list of priorities!

It is 16 days away from home.  Fairly doable for most.  You take 2 weeks of vacation and make up a couple of days by working extra hours on both sides of the cruise.  Anyways there were very few retired on my 14 day Southern Carribean vacation on S class.  You can also take a 14 day cruise during Christmas and most bosses will not care.  Now for a Southern Carribean cruise there is no way to have a good itinerary without 14 days unless you fly into Puerto Rico.  Also for the 14 day cruises you do not have to run them every cruise.  Just offer them up enough so that all of your cruisers do not move to other lines such as HAL.

 

If you start looking at HAL you find that they have ships that resemble S+ vs the E-.

 

I do have two 14 day cruises scheduled this year.  I am not retired.  One of them is even on Celebrity...

 

If you are on long flights why opt for such short cruises as Celebrity has?  I would never fly to Europe, Australia, or Asia for a week.  It is just too short of a time for such a long flight.

Edited April 10, 2023 by NMTraveller

[NMTraveller]

5 hours ago, Baron Barracuda said:

You do realize Jason Liberty the RCL CEO and Hodges-Bethge's boss was previously the RCL CFO.  Wouldn't recommend turning a deaf ear to his wishes.

I know.  We are probably subject to all of the cuts of a CFO...

[Ipeeinthepools]

4 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

It is 16 days away from home.  Fairly doable for most.  You take 2 weeks of vacation and make up a couple of days by working extra hours on both sides of the cruise.  Anyways there were very few retired on my 14 day Southern Carribean vacation on S class.  You can also take a 14 day cruise during Christmas and most bosses will not care.  Now for a Southern Carribean cruise there is no way to have a good itinerary without 14days unless you fly into Puerto Rico.  Also for the 14 day cruises you do not have to run them every cruise.  Just offer them up enough so that all of your cruisers do not move to other lines such as HAL.

 

If you start looking at HAL you find that they have ships that resemble S+ vs the E-.

 

I do have two 14 day cruises scheduled this year.  I am not retired.  One of them is even on Celebrity...

 

If you are on long flights why opt for such short cruises as Celebrity has?

No good reason to settle for less.

[mahdnc]

11 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

It is 16 days away from home.  Fairly doable for most.  You take 2 weeks of vacation and make up a couple of days by working extra hours on both sides of the cruise.  Anyways there were very few retired on my 14 day Southern Carribean vacation on S class.  You can also take a 14 day cruise during Christmas and most bosses will not care.  Now for a Southern Carribean cruise there is no way to have a good itinerary without 14days unless you fly into Puerto Rico.  Also for the 14 day cruises you do not have to run them every cruise.  Just offer them up enough so that all of your cruisers do not move to other lines such as HAL.

 

If you start looking at HAL you find that they have ships that resemble S+ vs the E-.

 

I do have two 14 day cruises scheduled this year.  I am not retired.  One of them is even on Celebrity...

 

If you are on long flights why opt for such short cruises as Celebrity has?

 

During the last four seasons when Celebrity offered the 14 night Exotic Southern Caribbean sailings (all on Eclipse), they started and ended on Sunday which meant I could take just two weeks vacation and still be able to fly in on the day before the cruise.   

[Ipeeinthepools]

27 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

During the last four seasons when Celebrity offered the 14 night Exotic Southern Caribbean sailings (all on Eclipse), they started and ended on Sunday which meant I could take just two weeks vacation and still be able to fly in on the day before the cruise.   

 

I wonder when the was the last time Celebrity offered this 14 day cruise.

[Bo1953]

1 hour ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

I keep hoping they sell all of the E-class ships to Pullmantur.

One never knows, yet I Am sure not in my lifetime, will that happen... LOL

 

bon voyage

[mahdnc]

37 minutes ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

I wonder when the was the last time Celebrity offered this 14 day cruise.

 

The last time Celebrity offered a 14 night Caribbean cruise that started and ended on Sunday was Apr 1, 2018 (no fooling).  That was on Eclipse out of Miami.  2017/2018 season was the last real season that Celebrity offered this itinerary (9 sailings all starting on Sunday)..

 

The last time Celebrity had a 14 night Caribbean sailing was Jan 4 2019 Reflection out of Ft Lauderdale.  There were only two 14 night sailings offered for the 2018/2019 season as Celebrity had phased them out.  My family and I were on that last Reflection cruise.

 

And, as you well know, Celebrity put together a 14 night Caribbean sailing on Silhouette for Jan 31, 2020.  This was the last time Celebrity offered this itinerary.  It was created after the 2019/2020 Caribbean sailings were released because of a change in Silhouette's dry dock schedule at Grand Bahama shipyard.  You and I (and other 14 night fans) were all set to go on it when the cruise was suddenly and sadly cancelled because of the Grand Bahama shipyard accident.  I am still in therapy for it while you choose to express your disappointment in the pools. 

 

Here is the nearly complete 14 night Caribbean cruise history.

Edited April 10, 2023 by mahdnc

[NMTraveller]

1 hour ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

I keep hoping they sell all of the E-class ships to Pullmantur.

Or the White Star Line ...  Yet another company that used to build state of the art ships ... 🙂🙂 

[Mickey S]

2 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

It is 16 days away from home.  Fairly doable for most.  You take 2 weeks of vacation and make

 

If you are on long flights why opt for such short cruises as Celebrity has?  I would never fly to Europe, Australia, or Asia for a week.  It is just too short of a time for such a long flight.

 

geeze, a 7 day cruise  is really 6 days -just like the 7 day resorts -and with expensive airfares if you can "amortize" those costs over a longer time frame, so much the better.

I also think on balance the per day costs is higher on a 7 day vs 10 or 14 day.

 

we had a 16 day cruise on Eclipse in Nov Dec 2019 --LA to Santiago Chile, that was perfect. Great balance between sea days and port days. Had 2 14 day cruises, also on Eclipse,  out of Singapore in 2020 -first north to Vietnam and Thailand (2 nites in Bangkok) then south to Austrailia. Really like those as we can do pre and post cruise stays.

 

 

[Mickey S]

9 hours ago, Bo1953 said:

I, respectfully, disagree on this point as most of the E-Class ships are sailing relatively full and have been for a while.

Thats true, however, the travel business is still in a zone where its trying to catch up with 2 years of cancellations 18 months of no sail, and 6 months of "lite" occupancy, and the stock market,  which  has a way of creating a wealth effect  for portfolios has helped also. I would  say that also has affected bookings in the more expensive classes too.

 

Shop Therapy anybody?

 

another aspect is the inflating prices--book now and lock in your prices (but obviously not your services and product received).

 

Another one is the illusion created when each booking has OBC, which on the surface can give the illusion of a less expensive cruise compared to the ones without OBC. I wonder just how much of OBC is left unused, or Blown away on expensive specialty dining or expensive shore excursions. And that contribute for heavier demand for drinks  with  AI, as well as a ships excursions and specialty dining. . Heck, I end up spending more due to that. Hard to explain,  it just happens.

 

how many have bought previous generation Ipads on board to use OBC. At list price.

 

 

 

 

[Mickey S]

5 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

Credit card debt is the highest it has been in years (ever?  not sure about that). 

Credit card debt the last 3 months has noticably declined.  Retail sales , taking out the inflation factor are down. Job layoffs, are hitting tech now.

 

Peoples budgets are being stretched and I think its a safe bet we here tend to be the in the higher income or higher net worth group than most on the country. Only meaning we might be a little out of touch with reality.

 

If we were to slow down our spending, thats when the big recession hits. A driver on this is the  wealth effect I spoke about in the prior post,  which is  tied to the market valuations.

 

I know two guys who had several million in cash at SVB who thought  they lost everything until the govt showed  up to bail them out. And they were not alone. A wake up call. The fear was a  financial Tsunami would hit. Royal the entire company has north of 4 billion in depositis. Think about that.

 

Global business and govt are highly leveraged. Just like the cruise companies. We wilk have a bigger business "burp" somewhere soon.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 10, 2023 by Mickey S

[TeeRick]

LLP to LHB.  Remember that change here in your posts complaining about Celebrity,  and also you need a new email address for complaints to the CEO. Other than that, nothing much will change.  

[Jeremiah1212]

Two more recent leadership shakeups in the industry in the past few days.

 

Michael Thamm left his role at CEO of the Costa Group (which did happen abruptly) leaving the presidents of Costa and AIDA reporting directly to the Carnival Corp CEO. 

 

The US big three all have new leadership at the top since 2022. A lot of these changes have occurred since the beginning of 2023:

 

Richard Fain - left the Royal Caribbean Group 

Frank del Rio - left Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings

Arnold Donald - left Carnival Corp 

Michael Thamm - left Costa Group 

Lisa Lutoff Perlo - left Celebrity Cruises 

Roberto Martinolo - left Silversea Cruises 

Howard Sherman - left Oceania 

Jason Montague - left Regent 

Josh Leibowitz - left Seabourn 

 

Although not a departure, Norwegian Cruise line will have a new president and John Padgett is fairly new to his role at Princess (2021). 

 

 

[weregoingcruising]

15 hours ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

Celebrity will be able to find us on the new HAL ships.

I doubt they will be looking for you.

[weregoingcruising]

13 hours ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

I keep hoping they sell all of the E-class ships to Pullmantur.

Why you will be on Holland America cruises?

[Baron Barracuda]

16 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

The last time Celebrity offered a 14 night Caribbean cruise that started and ended on Sunday was Apr 1, 2018 (no fooling).  That was on Eclipse out of Miami.  2017/2018 season was the last real season that Celebrity offered this itinerary (9 sailings all starting on Sunday)..

 

 

Sailed this itinerary twice on Eclipse and found it to be one of our favorites.  It was only offered during the fall and spring shoulder seasons.  X replaced it with 10 and 11 night itineraries which we never found as relaxing.  Coincidentally (?) this change occurred around the same time X changed their marketing focus toward a younger clientele.  To me the longer Caribbean itineraries in winter made sense by  alleviating overcrowding in Grand Cayman, Cozumel and St Maarten.  

[Baron Barracuda]

On 4/9/2023 at 2:48 PM, Bo1953 said:

I, respectfully, disagree on this point as most of the E-Class ships are sailing relatively full and have been for a while.

 

I respectfully disagree with this and all the other posts about ships sailing full.  Every ship pretty much sails as full as the cruise line wants it to.  At the right price cabins will sell out.  Just comes down to how much discounting X is willing to accept to get the job done.  Staffing issues may also cause them to permit a higher vacancy rate.

[mahdnc]

12 minutes ago, Baron Barracuda said:

Sailed this itinerary twice on Eclipse and found it to be one of our favorites.  It was only offered during the fall and spring shoulder seasons.  X replaced it with 10 and 11 night itineraries which we never found as relaxing.  Coincidentally (?) this change occurred around the same time X changed their marketing focus toward a younger clientele.  To me the longer Caribbean itineraries in winter made sense by  alleviating overcrowding in Grand Cayman, Cozumel and St Maarten.  

 

It is a nice itinerary or rather, it was a nice itinerary.  I am not sure why you say it was only offered during the fall and spring shoulder seasons.  Celebrity consistently had these sailings during the months of Jan and Feb for many years. 

[adjustman]

I have been following this thread. It is my understanding Richard Fain is still with RCL as their chairman. I thought he was still in charge of the new ship builds while Jason Liberty is handling the day-to-day business of the company. Personally, my wife and I liked both the Apex and the Beyond. We also liked the fact the IV made the cabin feel more spacious. If passengers do not like the IV, Richard Fain the new build department are to blame, not LLP. She has input but she is not the final authority. I would think she has responsibility for the interior design choices. I was surprised was LLP's retirement, but she is 65. Maybe, she figures it's time to enjoy life. If she was let go, i would not think they would let her stay around for another year. Just my thoughts. I have to say we like the Celebrity product and hope it continues as is.  

[Ipeeinthepools]

5 hours ago, weregoingcruising said:

Why you will be on Holland America cruises?

 

Because many people on this Celebrity board won't be there.  😉  No, just kidding.  Longer more varied itineraries.  I really like their ne Pinnacle class ships, I can purchase a pass for a room upgrade that provides access to the suite dining area.  The buffet is nicer and they serve the food.  Better pizza and hamburger venues.  One negative is that they allow smoking in the Casino and next to the aft outdoor pool.  Prices are competitive.  The Music walk area is much more lively in the evening than anything I have found on Celebrity.  You can walk the promenade deck around the entire ship.

[Jeremiah1212]

1 hour ago, adjustman said:

I have been following this thread. It is my understanding Richard Fain is still with RCL as their chairman. I thought he was still in charge of the new ship builds while Jason Liberty is handling the day-to-day business of the company. Personally, my wife and I liked both the Apex and the Beyond. We also liked the fact the IV made the cabin feel more spacious. If passengers do not like the IV, Richard Fain the new build department are to blame, not LLP. She has input but she is not the final authority. I would think she has responsibility for the interior design choices. I was surprised was LLP's retirement, but she is 65. Maybe, she figures it's time to enjoy life. If she was let go, i would not think they would let her stay around for another year. Just my thoughts. I have to say we like the Celebrity product and hope it continues as is.  

 

Richard Fain is still the Chair of the Board for Royal Caribbean Group. I've never seen anything that factually outlines roles and responsibilities between the group leadership and individual cruise line leadership, but it would be very safe to say that the man (not LLP!) who oversaw Royal Caribbean from Song of America to the upcoming Icon of the Seas had a prominent say in the build of Edge class ships. It's well documented that ship design and innovation was his baby. 

[markeb]

5 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

 

Richard Fain is still the Chair of the Board for Royal Caribbean Group. I've never seen anything that factually outlines roles and responsibilities between the group leadership and individual cruise line leadership, but it would be very safe to say that the man (not LLP!) who oversaw Royal Caribbean from Song of America to the upcoming Icon of the Seas had a prominent say in the build of Edge class ships. It's well documented that ship design and innovation was his baby. 

 

Interestingly, if you look at the corporate bios on RCG's web page, Harri Kulovaara, the executive vice president of Maritime & Newbuilding, is "responsible for leading the design and construction of several of the world’s most innovative cruise ships for the various brands within Royal Caribbean Group." "Kulovaara is also the creative force behind Celebrity Cruises’ three Edge Class ships and five Solstice Class ships, heralded for their stunning and stylish modern luxury design."

 

LLP's bio includes "Along with accelerated financial performance, Celebrity also introduced the critically acclaimed Edge Series of ships in 2018, has achieved historic levels of guest satisfaction, and has won hundreds of top industry awards for innovation and service, all under her leadership."

 

The EVP is credited with the design and build; the X President and CEO with the introduction of the ships. It's a subtle wording, and could be meaningless, but it is how the corporation words their roles...

 

And RCG and the Board would have approved any investment as big as the Edge class. And that would have been Fain, not LLP.

[Oceansaway17]

Well with Lisa moving on perhaps men will once again feel welcomed as an officer.

I always thought she was way too pro-women just a bit 

[jagoffee]

19 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

The last time Celebrity offered a 14 night Caribbean cruise that started and ended on Sunday was Apr 1, 2018 (no fooling).  That was on Eclipse out of Miami.  2017/2018 season was the last real season that Celebrity offered this itinerary (9 sailings all starting on Sunday)..

 

The last time Celebrity had a 14 night Caribbean sailing was Jan 4 2019 Reflection out of Ft Lauderdale.  There were only two 14 night sailings offered for the 2018/2019 season as Celebrity had phased them out.  My family and I were on that last Reflection cruise.

 

And, as you well know, Celebrity put together a 14 night Caribbean sailing on Silhouette for Jan 31, 2020.  This was the last time Celebrity offered this itinerary.  It was created after the 2019/2020 Caribbean sailings were released because of a change in Silhouette's dry dock schedule at Grand Bahama shipyard.  You and I (and other 14 night fans) were all set to go on it when the cruise was suddenly and sadly cancelled because of the Grand Bahama shipyard accident.  I am still in therapy for it while you choose to express your disappointment in the pools. 

 

Here is the nearly complete 14 night Caribbean cruise history.

Yep.  We were scheduled on that one.  Celebrity was very generous and really took care of us. We took that 14 day cruise every year.  The elimination of the regular 14 day cruise in the winter was the change that was the most disappointing for us.