I recently sailed
aboard Celebrity Cruises’ annual President’s Cruise, a special voyage held each
year to celebrate members of the line’s loyalty program—the Captain’s
Club—which sees the company’s executive leadership team and the president
herself rubbing elbows with guests for the duration of the sailing.
With all levels of
Captain’s Club members in attendance, including those who’ve achieved status
matching through Royal Caribbean Group’s other brands—a relatively new policy
development—there was certainly a strong sense of comradery circulating around
the magnificent host ship, Celebrity Beyond.
It seemed the
ideal opportunity to discover why these devotees stick staunchly with Celebrity
and why, as the line’s current brand positioning proclaims, “Nothing Comes
Close” to a Celebrity vacation.
What Makes Celebrity
Special?
When I asked
Captain’s Club members Shari and Jeff what made Celebrity the standout choice
among cruise lines, and, without hesitation, they exclaimed “The crew!”. Come
to find out, this sentiment would emerge as the common consensus among most of
the Captain’s Club members I spoke with.
President Laura Hodges Bethge takes a photo with a guest during Celebrity Cruises' 2024 President's Cruise. (Photo Credit: Celebrity Cruises)
We’re talking
about crew members who know you on sight and by name, waiters who recognize you
after you’ve dined with them, baristas who remember your coffee orders each day
and stateroom attendants who welcome you home to your cabin as though you’re
family. Crew members who go out of their way to make your stay special and
memorable.
One perfect
example comes from Carol and Tom, who fell in love with a particular peanut
butter ice cream on board one of their voyages, only to discover that it wasn’t
always on the menu. Learning of this, crew members took steps to ensure that it
would always be available onboard especially for them. It may seem like a small
gesture, but on a ship that serves thousands of people on every sailing, it’s
the kind of personal touch that makes theirs feel like a VIP experience.
Extraordinary
Service on Board
Elite Plus members
John and Sue said the same. “When you cruise enough, you get to know the crew
and then, when you come back, it’s amazing that they remember you,” said Sue.
“We were on the Edge over a year-and-a-half ago, but we were on there for
26 nights. And, we were heading back to our cabin the other night, and around
the corner is our waiter from Luminae on the Edge. And, he stops and we’re
hugging, and he remembered us. We couldn’t believe it.”
Flair bartenders serving at the Grand Atrium's Martini Bar aboard Celebrity Beyond. (Photo Credit: Celebrity Cruises)
Since they were
in the middle of sailing on back-to-back voyages, John said, “We’ve been
with these folks for 11 days now. They’re almost like family. You just don’t
get that [anywhere else].” He continued, “The quality of [these] folks…I don’t
know how they do it,” adding, “to see this every day, day in and day out,
that’s what I really like about this. They just bring it.”
Retirees Shari and
Jeff likewise said that their waiter from The Retreat’s exclusive restaurant Luminae,
remembered them from way back when they sailed with their young children. “The
older one’s 35 now and he was five, so I guess 30 years [ago],” Shari mused. Jeff
expounded, “One of the crew members remembered that they had taken him up on
stage,” during an onboard talent show. That type of recollection seems uncommon
by any standard.
Connecting With
Fellow Cruisegoers
Speaking about
other cruise lines they’ve sailed, the couple remarked, “The food is also good
there, you know, and the service is good, but it’s a different mindset on that
type of cruise.” The shared mentality onboard this Celebrity sailing in
particular seemed to be one of making connections and celebrating comradery within
the Captain’s Club member community.
A waiter serves guests at Fine Cut Steakhouse aboard Celebrity Beyond. (Photo Credit: Celebrity Cruises)
“Another great
thing, too, about the loyalty program is, when you get to an event like
this…you’re with other cruisers, and we’ve gotten some of our best tips about
cruising by talking to people,” Sue emphasized. Recalling an instance in which
they met a local historian who helped them explore ports of call in Europe, she
said, “You’re not going to just meet people like that.” Sue continued, “A Captain’s
Club event like this, where you meet other cruisers, that’s really our favorite
benefit of it,” adding, “We have friends that we’ve met on cruise ships that we
now cruise with.”
Abundance of Member Benefits
I also had the
opportunity to speak with Andrea Shey, Associate Vice President Loyalty &
Communications about what keeps Captain’s Club members coming back to
Celebrity. “Members earn points on every sailing, and those points earn them
discounts, offers and perks that all add up to an even more valuable cruise
vacation experience,” Shey said. “Perks range from onboard experiences—including
stateroom upgrades, spa discounts, complimentary laundry service and exciting
onboard loyalty member events—through to exclusive Captain's Club voyage
access, such as the President’s Cruise.”
Shey also
explained how more customers than ever are enjoying Celebrity’s Captain’s Club
benefits through the cruise industry’s very first Loyalty Status Match program,
recently introduced by parent company Royal Caribbean Group. She expounded, “This
shared status adds to members’ existing benefits and unlocks new ways to see
the world, with more than 50 incredible ships sailing to nearly 1,000
destinations across all seven continents. Members of Celebrity Cruises’
Captain’s Club, Royal Caribbean’s Crown & Anchor Society, and Silversea’s
Venetian Society can enjoy equivalent tier status and all the onboard benefits
that go with it, no matter which brand they sail with. This is one more step
forward in our journey of transforming a vacation of a lifetime into a lifetime
of vacations.”
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