Reviewing Guest Experience: "Celebrity Leadership Visits Equinox"

[Cap_D]

The recent management visit to Equinox to review the success and impact of the cutbacks has been reported on the Celebrity website.

 

 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/au/captains-club/newsletter/exclusive-captains-club-newsletter-october-2023

 

Excerpt:

 

On October 8th President of Celebrity Cruises, Laura Hodges Bethge and her team joined Celebrity Equinox for six nights in the Caribbean. To fully understand the guest experience, they were busy morning, noon, and night going to all the guest activities, trying out all the restaurants, joining Celebrity shore excursions, talking with guests onboard, and more. And to fully understand the crew experience, they changed into their uniforms to serve food in Luminae, answer calls at Guest Relations, make drinks at the Pool Bar, seat guests in the Main Dining Room and help guests book their adventures at the shore excursion desk and spa. They capped off the week with a beautiful lunch in Blu with all Zenith members on board.

 

The week was well worth-it. As Laura shared, “There are things that you just can’t see and feel from the office in Miami. Getting out on the water with our guests and crew was illuminating. I always knew our crew are the heartbeat of our brand, but boy did they exceed my already high expectations. And, I always learn so much from our guests. We took away so much and are very excited to put this experience into action!"

 

Edited October 29, 2023 by Cap_D

[Oakman]

We were on that sailing of the Equinox, and all the hour of work the Executives did was provide chaos. We were in Cafe El Baccio waiting for our coffees when 2 Executives attempted to serve guests. It was a total "photo op only" with a server, the Executive and 2 photographers and a PR person following. The Cafe was jam packed as it was a sea day, and service literally came to a standstill as everyone tried to step over each other. the Executives should definitely just travel undercover to see truly how cutbacks effect the product.

For us, (and we have sailed many, many times with Celebrity), this was our last cruise with them. They no longer represent a Premium product, and we will once again return to HAL and Princess. Celebrity, to us, is now a glorified Royal Caribbean step child.

 

[hcat]

As expected a PR Job!

[Luvcrusn]

I wonder how many guests they met who thanked them fo removing gratuities from the AI.

[mac_tlc]

49 minutes ago, Luvcrusn said:

I wonder how many guests they met who thanked them fo removing gratuities from the AI.

And “adjusting” the price by less than the gratuities.

 

 

mac_tlc

[neverlaysup]

I am sure every meal they ate was cooked fresh for them unlike the rest of the passengers. I wonder where they ate...the MDR or Luminae because there is a massive difference in food quality between the two venues. I doubt any change for the positive will come from this photo op.

[CulverCityCruisers]

PHOTO OP.  What a bunch of BS.  Lets get some secret shoppers on board X and let management find out the reality, because they seem to not hear all the negative rumblings

[doghog]

Dog and pony show. 🙄

[chemmo]

I’ll bet whatever suites they were in their minibars were stocked…I would also bet if any of them were in standard balcony cabins they didn’t get charged for room service…

 

Seriously, I do hope a few people they talked to on the cruise expressed concerns about some of the recent changes.

 

I sincerely hope that they are continuing to follow threads on CC that genuinely express concern about maintaining the standards and ambiance that has made Celebrity stand out from it’s competition….That should have been the focus of their fact finding cruise…

[C4HCG]

.

Edited October 29, 2023 by C4HCG

[CulverCityCruisers]

What they need is secret shoppers to give real feedback, and since no one would know who they are the feedback to the "suits"would be real time,, since it seems that they don't listen to their loyal guests

 

[CaroleSS]

Why do they need secret shoppers......they have US!

[Luvcrusn]

8 minutes ago, CaroleSS said:

Why do they need secret shoppers......they have US!

Because based on the changes they are instituting and continuing, they aren't listening to us.

[ChucktownSteve]

2 hours ago, CulverCityCruisers said:

PHOTO OP.  What a bunch of BS.  Lets get some secret shoppers on board X and let management find out the reality, because they seem to not hear all the negative rumblings

You must have mistaken them for people who care about the customer and not the bottom line!

[Mr. Click]

With all of the negative feed back here and in other places too why would they even need to "go and see"?  Right now their ships are pretty full. We are on the Beyond in January and it is too late to cancel and then the Eclipse in August for a trip to Iceland and Greenland that does not require us to go to Europe to start/finish so I would hate to cancel it but right now I would  not book anything else with Celebrity.  We were on the Summit in July and all was good, other than the one tiny lobster tail dinner....but it sure sounds like things have gone south since then.

 

[ChucktownSteve]

With full ships, there is no reason for Celebrity to change direction.  It will only be when they discover what they believed is not the reality if people change their direction to book other lines. Otherwise, I predict more of the same of finding ways to take but not give.

[mac_tlc]

13 hours ago, Mr. Click said:

With all of the negative feed back here and in other places too why would they even need to "go and see"?  Right now their ships are pretty full. We are on the Beyond in January and it is too late to cancel and then the Eclipse in August for a trip to Iceland and Greenland that does not require us to go to Europe to start/finish so I would hate to cancel it but right now I would  not book anything else with Celebrity.  We were on the Summit in July and all was good, other than the one tiny lobster tail dinner....but it sure sounds like things have gone south since then.

 

 

50 minutes ago, ChucktownSteve said:

With full ships, there is no reason for Celebrity to change direction.  It will only be when they discover what they believed is not the reality if people change their direction to book other lines. Otherwise, I predict more of the same of finding ways to take but not give.

The ships are full now but many many of those bookings were made before the big price increases and numerous changes onboard. Our three X cruises were booked over a year ago. 
 

Time will tell but 2024 and 2025 are the barometers of their actions. 
 

No more X bookings for us since the price and policy changes. First HAL and O cruises on the horizon and have been booked in the last two months. 
 

Should be interesting ……….

 

mac_tlc

 

[Orator]

17 hours ago, neverlaysup said:

I am sure every meal they ate was cooked fresh for them unlike the rest of the passengers. I wonder where they ate...the MDR or Luminae because there is a massive difference in food quality between the two venues. I doubt any change for the positive will come from this photo op.

They ate in all the venues and they ordered from the regular menu. I have been assured by one of the waiters that their meals were taken from the regular line.

[ChucktownSteve]

6 minutes ago, Orator said:

They ate in all the venues and they ordered from the regular menu. I have been assured by one of the waiters that their meals were taken from the regular line.

Did they have to wait as long for their food as the other passengers did?

[CulverCityCruisers]

1 hour ago, Orator said:

They ate in all the venues and they ordered from the regular menu. I have been assured by one of the waiters that their meals were taken from the regular line.

I bet their meals were not served COLD and they did not have to wait an hour for there entree while their waiter and assistant were no where to be found and the head water talked on his phone ignoring all the guests!  That's what we had just a few days ago on Eclipse.  We spoke to the MaitreD and he told us that they have been having major issues on the ship in the dinning room and moved us for the rest of the sailing to a different table

[Saturngrl]

I'm all for leaders in the Gemba (where the work is done), but it should be done on a regular schedule so that it becomes acceptable and expected by the workers.   This mass landing of senior leaders on one ship was not the norm in a Lean operation.  The Voice of the Customer is likely not the main strategic focus here.  Sad....

 

I will continue to evaluate each Celebrity cruise I sail and offer feedback to their corporate office.  I focus on process flow and service level, as well as other experiences and views expressed by my fellow passengers.   If their leadership won't do it, I am happy to fill in! 

[upwarduk]

Well, I could tell them how far standards have dropped in the MDR on Silhouette, as they are no longer serving balanced meals.

My husband was served cake x2 instead of vegetables.

We were told it was sweetcorn cake.

Really?
A balanced meal shouldn’t have extra carbohydrates!
I also had to ask for vegetables to be served ( I was not given the cake as I am Dairy Intolerant) but one night I was given chickpeas with my fish. 😩 

 

 

Thereafter, we were asked which vegetables we would like with our meal.

 

There was far more variety in the Ocean View Cafe, where we ate at lunch time.

[NutsAboutGolf]

4 hours ago, Orator said:

They ate in all the venues and they ordered from the regular menu. I have been assured by one of the waiters that their meals were taken from the regular line.

 

The problem is that waiters have been known to be wrong.  Also, IDK what the waiter's exact statement was, but unless it was the it included "taken at random" was said, you have to imagine the waiter servicing the table pick a best looking/hottest option "from the regular line"

[NutsAboutGolf]

To oversimplify it, we'll see what action/changes, if any, come from this.  I do give them credit for visiting and speaking with both the crew and the guests as I doubt any have the team have sailed in a non-suite.  Actions not only speak louder than words and also PR photo stunts

[neverlaysup]

5 hours ago, Orator said:

They ate in all the venues and they ordered from the regular menu. I have been assured by one of the waiters that their meals were taken from the regular line.

I’m pretty sure there were about 20 people quality control checking those meals they pulled off the “line” before the waiter was allowed to deliver it. If you think they were treated like every other passenger, you are dreaming! The service, food and experience they had was artificially enhanced because of their status!