NOW I have a problem with the new Suite policies

[bnurick]

2 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

HAve you compared the size of the suite rooms on MSC to the size of the SS on Celebrity.  One of the main reasons we sail in Sky Suites is for the larger room. 

 

I have not. Generation X has some CC reviews I am going to read. However, the only cruises we need to book thru 2025 will be on DCL now. That leaves the only outstanding item do we cancel 2024/2025 X cruises and rebook elsewhere, losing the deposit and OBC. Our next X cruise is in October and will know a lot more then. We also have a September DCL cruise, thus lots of time to rate the two experiences.

[tfred]

39 minutes ago, ChucktownSteve said:

My last three cruises were on Regent.  I have two Azamara cruises booked.  I'm now looking at a 2026 Regent 14 night Southern Caribbean which includes the ABCs, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St Kitts and St Barts.  Celebrity doesn't do those length any more.

 

A 10 night boring Celebrity itinerary in a low SS is $736pp/pn.  Regent's lower category suite aft facing is $660pp/pn on their newest ship.  Regent includes premium liquor ltrs in the suite, laundry daily, included specialty restaurants, included gratuities, included excursions at every port and more. I priced it without the air or pre-cruise hotel.

 

In the MDR I can order lobster, prime steak, scallops and other seafood included in the everyday menu besides the rotating nightly entrees.

 

IMO, Celebrity is no longer competitive with the luxury line.

the cost per night of X vs Silversea, seaborne, Crystal, Regent is often very close - and sometimes not to X's benefit. We have a 12 night Silversea Med cruise next year and it is basically the same as X suite would be.  SS has better, smaller  ports and excursions that are good enough for us. Plus all the items you added above. 

 

Downside for many people would be length of the cruise (more than the usual 7 days that people normally take), not always convenient embarkation ports (FLL and MIA are easy to fly into) and the "may be too fancy for us" thoughts. 

 

we have sailed in X suites a few times and like it but for that kind of money there are obviously other choices.  We live in south Florida in winter so driving 20 miles to FLL is attractive.  Yeah, we could fly to San Juan or Saint Martin to start a cruise but it is just another layer of movement.  Not difficult (I flew 100k miles/year for 20 years) but not looking to do that for a Caribbean vacation. 

[MamaFej]

4 hours ago, Joker54 said:

We did the TA this past April on an EV on the Apex. The perks were typical of the high end suites and we had no complaints - service was excellent - except for 2 things

 

there is a sliding shelf in the bathroom the slides left or right allowing an opening to see out from the bathroom, nice touch, however there isnt anyway to "lock it in place" so if you get in any weather it will slide  in both directions with a rather loud noise when it hits the end of the track. We just shoved wash clothes into the grove to hold it in place. Also the glass door to the bathroom, is very heavy and held in place by magnets. The magnets are not strong enough to hold it in place - bad design. Since the EV is forward and high any ship motion is amplified. If the she heads into a sea then that door will open and close, in our experience on the TA it did so rather violently until it jambed in the open position.

 

That said we would book that suite again just not on a TA

Those are some pretty significan design flaws. They could learn a thing or two from the RV industry. Or, ya know, navies. 

[Joker54]

18 minutes ago, MamaFej said:

Those are some pretty significan design flaws. They could learn a thing or two from the RV industry. Or, ya know, navies. 

They are and it's evident that they went with designers that haven't a clue about ships.

 

I could add a lot more but this is off topic and I don't want to hijack the thread any more than I have

[C-Dragons]

5 hours ago, Joker54 said:

We did the TA this past April on an EV on the Apex. The perks were typical of the high end suites and we had no complaints - service was excellent - except for 2 things

 

there is a sliding shelf in the bathroom the slides left or right allowing an opening to see out from the bathroom, nice touch, however there isnt anyway to "lock it in place" so if you get in any weather it will slide  in both directions with a rather loud noise when it hits the end of the track. We just shoved wash clothes into the grove to hold it in place. Also the glass door to the bathroom, is very heavy and held in place by magnets. The magnets are not strong enough to hold it in place - bad design. Since the EV is forward and high any ship motion is amplified. If the she heads into a sea then that door will open and close, in our experience on the TA it did so rather violently until it jambed in the open position.

 

That said we would book that suite again just not on a TA

We had the same experiences in our Aft suites on the Edge.

For the bathroom door I placed the bath mat across the threshold which kept it from slamming.

For the sliding shelf I used a hand towel.

It's a shame X didn’t fix the problem when building Apex. I wonder if it will still be happening on Beyond.

[jelayne]

We had some pretty rough seas on our Beyond TA and no issue with the bathroom doors or the sliding mirror.  Maybe they corrected it.

[sixpackeddie]

On 8/18/2023 at 8:52 PM, NCteacherlovescruising said:

Will they still deliver specialty coffee and pastries from Cafe Al Bacio to sky suites?

I’m sorry to report that since there are no longer dedicated butlers for Sky Suites the only room service available will be from calling room service from your stateroom. 

[bnurick]

12 minutes ago, sixpackeddie said:

I’m sorry to report that since there are no longer dedicated butlers for Sky Suites the only room service available will be from calling room service from your stateroom. 

No breakfast door hangers anymore?

[phoenix_dream]

23 hours ago, Mark_T said:

The distinction is between the Chic night lobster in MDR and the up-charge lobster recently introduced and available every night in the MDR.

 

If it was the up-charge version then charging for it in Luminae is reasonable, if it was the Chic night MDR lobster then charging is not reasonable.

 

It wasn't clear in earlier posts, but if it was the night it was served as a normal main menu option in the MDR then I would say it was a mistake to charge for it...

I can't speak to lobster as I never eat it.  As to filet mignon, we were always able to get one in Luminae any night regardless of whether it was on any menu or not. In fact, we could often do so in Blu as well once we got to know the waiters.   I certainly hope it was a mistake to charge for it now as the Luminae menu leaves a lot to be desired as far as menu choices that suit our tastes.

[NCteacherlovescruising]

54 minutes ago, sixpackeddie said:

I’m sorry to report that since there are no longer dedicated butlers for Sky Suites the only room service available will be from calling room service from your stateroom. 

 

This is quite disappointing as it was ONE of the main reasons we booked a SSS instead of a veranda. Do you know if we are able to downgrade our room without losing the perks for booking onboard?  I know the OBC would go down. 
 

4 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

I can't speak to lobster as I never eat it.  As to filet mignon, we were always able to get one in Luminae any night regardless of whether it was on any menu or not. In fact, we could often do so in Blu as well once we got to know the waiters.   I certainly hope it was a mistake to charge for it now as the Luminae menu leaves a lot to be desired as far as menu choices that suit our tastes.

Another reason we loved the yacht club!  I had filet more nights than not, although it was always on the YC menu. 

[LMHSRN]

1 hour ago, sixpackeddie said:

I’m sorry to report that since there are no longer dedicated butlers for Sky Suites the only room service available will be from calling room service from your stateroom. 

And you know this how?   This is how rumors get started!

[emmas gran]

5 minutes ago, LMHSRN said:

And you know this how?   This is how rumors get started!

I you read post 208 and 211=the OP is on board now

[C-Dragons]

2 hours ago, sixpackeddie said:

I’m sorry to report that since there are no longer dedicated butlers for Sky Suites the only room service available will be from calling room service from your stateroom. 

So basically, if we want breakfast in our Suite, we will just call room service to order?

[Mark_T]

1 hour ago, phoenix_dream said:

I can't speak to lobster as I never eat it.  As to filet mignon, we were always able to get one in Luminae any night regardless of whether it was on any menu or not....

We've done the same in the past, but I suspect the confusion is between ordering off-menu and ordering from the MDR menu...

 

... but frankly, with the way things have been lately, I wouldn't put it past them to be cutting back on asking for stuff that is not on the menu in general.

 

[jelayne]

8 minutes ago, C-Dragons said:

So basically, if we want breakfast in our Suite, we will just call room service to order?

 Maybe a call to the Retreat Team.  Hard to know until the changes are reported by multiple guests.  I suspect there will be some confusion and mistakes as both the Retreat Team and guests figure out who does what and that could take a few cruises.

[hcat]

12 minutes ago, C-Dragons said:

So basically, if we want breakfast in our Suite, we will just call room service to order?

but who will deliv it?  in reg staterooms it is often your  cabin attendant or asst..but not always?

[MamaFej]

20 minutes ago, jelayne said:

 Maybe a call to the Retreat Team.  Hard to know until the changes are reported by multiple guests.  I suspect there will be some confusion and mistakes as both the Retreat Team and guests figure out who does what and that could take a few cruises.

Herein lies a major problem. 

 

Shouldn't Celebrity tell us? A small percentage of cruisers gets their crusing information from other passengers online, and an even smaller percentage here. 

 

Sadly, when folks find out aboard, many will take out their frustrations on the crew. The executives in Miami don't seem to understand that implementing changes without explaining them, or at least notifying passengers, is unfair to both passengers and crew. 

[C-Dragons]

10 minutes ago, hcat said:

but who will deliv it?  in reg staterooms it is often your  cabin attendant or asst..but not always?

Quite frankly, I don’t care who delivers it as long as we can receive it. 😊

 

With the amount of $$$ that Suite Guests are being charged now, (yes I know everyone is now paying more) the least X can do is keep enough staff to take care of all of their guests in the manner they have always done, which in our case has been over the last 20+ years.

X's new management seems to have forgotten that Loyalty is a 2 way street.

[hcat]

15 minutes ago, C-Dragons said:

Quite frankly, I don’t care who delivers it as long as we can receive it. 😊

 

With the amount of $$$ that Suite Guests are being charged now, (yes I know everyone is now paying more) the least X can do is keep enough staff to take care of all of their guests in the manner they have always done, which in our case has been over the last 20+ years.

X's new management seems to have forgotten that Loyalty is a 2 way street.

i think the  new lady was brought in to obliterate Loyalty! 

[jelayne]

1 hour ago, hcat said:

but who will deliv it?  in reg staterooms it is often your  cabin attendant or asst..but not always?

Someone on the boards posted a A response from  X re the changes and a part of that was that there would be a Retreat teams that would handle room service deliveries and some others things, just can’t recall what they were.

 

[MamaFej]

All this talk of loyalty has me thinking:

 

Many folks here seem to think X really wants to push aside the cruisers at higher levels of the Captain's Club in favor of younger ones. Those younger cruisers grew up with abundant "Loyalty" programs. Many  have oodles of apps on their phones and are completely used to getting something after each 4th or 9th purchase, earning status levels, etc.

 

Getting these folks onboard, so to speak, and reducing the benefits of the loyatly program won't go over with them any better than it is going with the current crop of cruisers. A higher percentage of them are tech-savvy and fluent in the various social media platforms than the 60+ crowd. 

 

No one was posting dissatisfaction with Blue Chip Stamps on Tik Tok back in the day, but a frustrated 30-someting can get tens of thousands of views pretty darn quickly these days.

 

All this to say, I'm not sure that diluting benefits and reducing services whilst raising prices will pan out well. 

[Mark_K]

3 minutes ago, MamaFej said:

All this talk of loyalty has me thinking:

 

Many folks here seem to think X really wants to push aside the cruisers at higher levels of the Captain's Club in favor of younger ones. Those younger cruisers grew up with abundant "Loyalty" programs. Many  have oodles of apps on their phones and are completely used to getting something after each 4th or 9th purchase, earning status levels, etc.

 

Getting these folks onboard, so to speak, and reducing the benefits of the loyatly program won't go over with them any better than it is going with the current crop of cruisers. A higher percentage of them are tech-savvy and fluent in the various social media platforms than the 60+ crowd. 

 

No one was posting dissatisfaction with Blue Chip Stamps on Tik Tok back in the day, but a frustrated 30-someting can get tens of thousands of views pretty darn quickly these days.

 

All this to say, I'm not sure that diluting benefits and reducing services whilst raising prices will pan out well. 

If their goal is to stabilize the finances, and reduce debt in a relatively short time span, dealing with new cruisers vis-a-vis loyalty programs is probably an issue to deal with “later”.

[ChucktownSteve]

1 hour ago, hcat said:

but who will deliv it?  in reg staterooms it is often your  cabin attendant or asst..but not always?

Are you sure that if you place the breakfast order, they now won't make you walk down to pick it up from the breakfast window they may install?🤣 Watch for the sign that says, order pick up here.

Edited August 19, 2023 by ChucktownSteve

[ChucktownSteve]

1 hour ago, C-Dragons said:

X's new management seems to have forgotten that Loyalty is a 2 way street.

That's presuming Celebrity management cares about loyalty any more.

[MizDemeanor]

I just booked an MSC today, our 1st... FWIW. 

Edited August 20, 2023 by MizDemeanor