Millennium Japan October 12-November 5th 2023 (late I know). Strange Celebrity Experience.

[cruiseerf]

First off let me say that the Millennium Japan cruises were lovely.  Japan is different fascinating, interesting and checks all the boxes for Exotique.   Add in Korea and you have an AMAZING destination cruise which this truly was.   We had booked Sky suites on the Solstice years prior covid etc and had been bumped onto the smaller Millennium and it was fine.  Suites were much smaller....but overall as a destination cruise, doable.   Food in all restaurants was ok with Tuscan Grill being the weakest.  That said, we were out almost everyday eating at fine sushi restaurants and various styles of Japanese and Korean foods...so by nightfall we were mostly tired and still full from our lunches.  We had tours arranged in Every Port.  

 

About 6 months prior to our cruise, our travel agent emailed us that several passengers had received notices that our cruises had had an "inventory control problem" and had double booked passengers into cabins that were not there.   Therefore some passengers were getting Bumped from our cruises (we were on B2B).  Thankfully we never received this notice but I believe there was a past thread about this.   Our ship had between 1800-1900 passengers and was lacking its full load of 2200.   We were told that the Japanese gvt required them to stay at least 10-20% less than full as a safety precaution (after the previous japan covid debacles).....So I think this bumping of passengers was less of inventory control and more of trying to work with Japanese authorities to not "Jam and cram" their ships making them more a of a Petri dish.   This was an interesting fact.  

 

The 4,  Sep-Oct Nov Japan cruises on Millennium all showed "closed" on our travel agents website....according to her even on Celebrity's website.    There was not a cabin to sell, Move or adjust.   All 4, 12 day cruises were Closed off.   Which was strange when we received our move up offers?  IF the cruise is so full, Why are we being offered upgrades?  But apparently full and closed are two different terms?  Our 5 sky suite cabins bid for all upgrades in the ranges provided for our first cruise (would have been an additional 10-12K of revenue).  Sadly, None of our upgrades were approved and other guests we met in The retreat also had the same experience.   October 12th cruise......We had only 65% of our suites occupied and with both Royals and Celebrity Suites sailing empty yet nobody had processed these upgrades????  The financial loss for Celebrity on this is HUGE, especially as new management is doing everything they can to maximize revenue??  This made no sense?  

 

Second cruise occurs and again we receive our upgrade possibilities and again, NONE of our upgrades are accepted.   For the October 24th cruise we sailed with suites at less than 50% occupancy.   We had 1 PH, 2-3 Royal suites and several Celebrity suites all sailing empty with sky suites yet again?  When I asked the hotel director Andrea Muegge why the onboard revenue did not see these empty suites and offer them to the B2B passengers at a discount the week prior?  At that point it is lost inventory.  She was very nice and said yes "Someone should probably have caught that".... would you move now?  And I said absolutely not (we were on day 18 of 24 at this point)...But somebody dropped the ball here $$$.    She said she should bring it up with the powers that be.....Which you know is as good as the circular file cabinet....  Again, With over 50% of the suites sailing empty...And upgradeable inventory which would not have changed passenger count......Why did someone close out these 4 sailings losing potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars?  

 

Celebrity uses an outside company to process the upgrades, the company owns the algorithm that decides who is upgraded where when etc.   They analyze the cruises and determine the upgrade priorities.  Then this is sent to Celebrity home office for review and then it is forwarded to the ship for final review (because they could have passengers trying to stay on etc)....And then home office authorizes the upgrade company to proceed and they all make $$$ and passengers are happy as well.   A true win win.    

 

So my question and one I sent to Laura Hodges Bethge was a clear, What happened here?  Why was nobody trying to maximize revenue on these cruises?  Who was in charge here?  As both a Very frequent guest and a stockholder ((yay RCL) why were these cruises destined to not succeed it seems?   

 

As you can imagine I received back a phone call from a Lady in the "executive offices".....she tried to tell me they have protocols and appreciated my feedback.  The call was useless.  She did not understand that NONE of the protocols had been followed and that was my point...... She "Understood" but could answer no questions....and I had to call her back several times as she was in work spottily.   Nowhere.  

 

So There is the strange story of the Millennium Japan cruises.   We are Very happy we took the opportunity to re visit Japan and it was a fantastic way to do it.   I just wish we had more clarity of what was going on here regarding cabins?  As an aside, when we were leaving on the November 5th the suites were once again at 50% occupancy.....what to say.   Management needs a look at this.  

 

Wishing everyone Happy Holidays, Safe cruising and effortless travels.   We would wholeheartedly recommend Celebrity cruises for Japan again......or any cruiseline.....so nice not to haul luggage and so easy to see the country.   Cheers!  

 

 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

Why worry about empty cabins if you had a great time 🤔

[billc23]

Usually they fill all the rooms in the Retreat even if the ship is less than 30% occupied. Perhaps they decided that they needed to limit the number of people in the Retreat areas (Luminae, MC, and sundeck) to comply with Japan's request. I know, they still could have allowed move up between suites for Retreat passengers but maybe that is not possible with the current move up protocols. Too bad they didn't offer suite guests the opportunity to move up when boarding. It does seem like they dropped the ball but there may have been other considerations. 

[DaKahuna]

 I wonder if a different issue was at play here.  All of the suites you mentioned being empty are suites that are served by an actual Butler.  Maybe there was insufficient Butler staffing to accommodate those suites should they have been filled. 

Who knows.  In any case the last time I worry about or even consider is what suites are sailing empty.  I booked what we want for a cabin.  We do sometimes participate in the Move Up program but I seldom follow it closely and never wonder what happens after I receive my "unsuccessful" email. 

 

[cruiseerf]

Thanks for comments.   The ship was Fully staffed, Butlers and all as the SE Asia cruises were expected to be full in the retreat.  I had thought that as well.   Yes, it was an amazing way to see Japan.... But someone at Celebrity's home office Really Dropped the Ball here and I thought perhaps someone else had clarity.  Now back to the Wine pricing ;)))))   

 

Edited December 25, 2023 by cruiseerf