New Celebrity President

[pbrady]

Does anyone else think this new president was hired to increase profits by cutting services, cheapening food selections, instituting charges for things that were free (cookies, 2nd lobster...) and raising the prices (quite a bit) on things like the drink packages, excursions..?  

Personal opinion is that she is doing a lot of harm by instituting all this in such a short period. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

Many of us believe because the previous CEO LLP and the title of CEO were removed, it's RCG's CEO Jason Liberty running the show and wants to bring many RCI items to X 

[markeb]

I think people are missing the obvious. Be more like Royal means make money…

[mahdnc]

3 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Many of us believe because the previous CEO LLP and the title of CEO were removed, it's RCG's CEO Jason Liberty running the show and wants to bring many RCI items to X 

 

That's why our Singapore to Hong Kong sailing for this coming December is on the newly re-named Solstice of the Seas.

Edited August 25, 2023 by mahdnc

[NutsAboutGolf]

2 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

That's why our Singapore to Hong Kong sailing for this coming December is on the newly re-named Solstice of the Seas.

 

Fingers crossed your itinerary isn't updated to include the Panama canal and Coco Cay

[sixpackeddie]

Has anyone else been receiving a ton of Royal Caribbean promotional emails? Only been receiving Celebrity Marketing but lately has been a lot of RCCL promotional emails. 
It seems they are marketing the same demographics.

Smart Marketing Plan? Time will tell.

Edited August 25, 2023 by sixpackeddie

[MamaFej]

17 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

That's why our Singapore to Hong Kong sailing for this coming December is on the newly re-named Solstice of the Seas.

 

12 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Fingers crossed your itinerary isn't updated to include the Panama canal and Coco Cay

Celebrity took away our 2024 overnight in Singapore to "enhance" our cruise experience. 

 

I'm hoping they don't take docking in Singapore away from David and his cruise mates, instead making them tender (or swim) to the ship.

[mahdnc]

5 minutes ago, MamaFej said:

 

Celebrity took away our 2024 overnight in Singapore to "enhance" our cruise experience. 

 

I'm hoping they don't take docking in Singapore away from David and his cruise mates, instead making them tender (or swim) to the ship.

 

Let's hope not!

 

The original sailing was 14 nights and had overnights both at the start and end of the cruise (Singapore and Hong Kong).  We have lengthened our pre-cruise and post cruise hotel stays to make up for it.

[CunucuMom]

31 minutes ago, pbrady said:

Personal opinion is that she is doing a lot of harm by instituting all this in such a short period. 

Reminds me of many corporate environments when a new leader takes the helm and makes immediate changes (read: cost-cutting) without fully understanding the impact on daily operations and customer satisfaction.  Sometimes the knee-jerk alterations work, more often they fail.

[lv2cruisgrl]

I liked Lisa Perlo better!  This new chick is the new hatchet woman...not liking it.

[Jeremiah1212]

2 minutes ago, CunucuMom said:

Reminds me of many corporate environments when a new leader takes the helm and makes immediate changes (read: cost-cutting) without fully understanding the impact on daily operations and customer satisfaction.  Sometimes the knee-jerk alterations work, more often they fail.

 

She's been around for 23 years. This isn't new to her. What you're seeing is a CFO becoming CEO after a disaster of a few years due to COVID. 

 

*Executive vice president of shared services operations, responsible for Royal Caribbean Group’s safety, security and environment, risk management and crew movement teams. Her portfolio also included the leadership of supply chain, travel services, port services, workplace solutions and real estate. 

 

*Senior vice president of product development for Royal Caribbean International where she led the teams conceptualizing the largest global cruise line’s groundbreaking ships, private island destinations, and new experiences introduced throughout the award-winning fleet, including the first island in Royal Caribbean’s Perfect Day Island Collection – Perfect Day at CocoCay. She also spearheaded the modernization of 10 ships in four years as part of the Royal Amplified program – an investment of more than $1 billion; and the design and construction of six new ships, including Spectrum of the Seas and Odyssey of the Seas. 

 

*Begun with Royal Caribbean Group in 2000 leading the fleet accessibility program for Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises, and she has since held several leadership roles within various areas of the business including hotel and marine operations, sales, marketing, product innovation and investor relations. She was also based in Shanghai as vice president of market development. 

[Cap_D]

She's not a hospitality person or marketer and it shows in the video from the President's Cruise and handling of all the changes. She was fortunate that they had arranged to fly in Captain Kate to the President's Cruise.  

 

As for the marketing, it's just one BS promo after the same, sliced a different way, while the overall price is inching up, insults and cutbacks are growing, and foot in mouth surveys will become the norm. 

 

Meanwhile, all of the bookings and reputation is based on the LLP era.  The halo of an empowered crew first leads to happy passengers, elevated ship for everyone, influencer videos, impressions of what the Retreat should be, crew to passenger ratios, culture, design choices, whimsy, pricing that didn't become annoying while onboard, and so on, plus past positive experiences, that is what was selling the full ships of today.  

 

Meanwhile there were other retirements or layoffs / attrition proximate to LLP departure that probably also were partially due to their work about to be undone.

 

Was on an E class ship when the announcement was made.  Small sample, but we didn't get the warm and fuzzies when the topic was mentioned to people that took pride in what they were providing (and built) during chit chat.  

 

Edited August 25, 2023 by Cap_D

[basenji56]

They don't pay Captain Kate enough.  She understands branding.  

[Cap_D]

And, should add may be entirely wrong and out of line, but the new President has not come across as a sophisticated brand ambassador type or hasn't been given that training, and script.  Rather, behind the scenes and not in tune with the customer they've had.  

Edited August 25, 2023 by Cap_D

[CunucuMom]

23 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

 

She's been around for 23 years. This isn't new to her. 

Lengthy corporate tenure is even more reason she should know better than to incrementally degrade the quality of a discretionary consumer product.  No one is minimizing the devastating financial impact of covid and the need to restore profitability.  My issue is the 'thousand cuts' are not announced nor rolled out in a cohesive fashion (which ships? when? permanent or temporary?) which leads to speculation about the latest new policy du jour amongst pax and even worse, leaving the crew holding the bag to explain poor food quality, menu reductions, reduced cabin services, etc.  For newbies like me, it reeks of false advertising.  For the loyal multi-cruisers, I can only guess how it must feel to watch the degradation of an experience they've loved and enjoyed over the years. Hopefully this plays out well for all.

[paulh84]

34 minutes ago, Cap_D said:

As for the marketing, it's just one BS promo after the same, sliced a different way, while the overall price is inching up, insults and cutbacks are growing.

 

Good luck finding a cruise line that doesn't market like that. Their landing pages are even nearly identical for the past few months.

 

[Cap_D]

Just now, paulh84 said:

 

Good luck finding a cruise line that doesn't market like that. Their landing pages are even nearly identical for the past few months.

 

Yup.  Keeps the TAs in business, and allows for all sorts of false freebies, and incentives. 

[CunucuMom]

3 minutes ago, paulh84 said:

 

 

Depostis?  Yep, same folks doing the marketing campaigns.  🤣🤣

[paulh84]

9 minutes ago, CunucuMom said:

Depostis?  Yep, same folks doing the marketing campaigns.  🤣🤣

Well that one belongs to Carnival, so….. 🤦🏼‍♂️

[pbrady]

My husband & I are taking 8 family members (4 prime balcony cabins) on a Christmas Cruise & we have one cruise booked after that.  We are now looking at trips like Overseas Adventure Travel (small group - have really enjoyed), all-inclusive resorts at some of our favorite locations..... and who knows what else.   We lived in France for work for 2 1/2 years & traveled Europe a lot so we are looking for ''other than Europe'' trips.  We are, at least temporarily, stepping away from cruising after about 45 cruises.  Two favorite trips - Seychelle Islands & we took our daughters on a 18 day trip through Africa - they planned it after so it was really special (and easy for me)!

[deliver42]

Your new perk for modern luxury is paying $2.40 for a cookie that was free.

[Cruise Junky]

If I get one more email about sailing the Caribbean, Bahamas or CocoCay I’ll scream. They put all their darn ships there and now you can’t sell them without a daily sale email. 🤦🏻‍♀️   

[SkystheLimit]

58 minutes ago, deliver42 said:

Your new perk for modern luxury is paying $2.40 for a cookie that was free.

Have to wonder how desperate things might be if this is supposed to be a money maker.

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 hour ago, deliver42 said:

Your new perk for modern luxury is paying $2.40 for a cookie that was free.

 

Relaxed luxury

[NMTraveller]

3 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

That's why our Singapore to Hong Kong sailing for this coming December is on the newly re-named Solstice of the Seas.

You must mean Solstice of the Fees 🙂