For a while now, Celebrity Cruises and a few other cruise lines have started to offer guests a system that has already been available on and off in the hotel industry: Skipping housekeeping services for loyalty points.
The program which as far as Celebrity is concerned is called “Go Green” offers a reduced cabin sanitation service but still leaves a complete daily cleaning and servicing of the cabin intact.
It’s not hard to see that the motivation for cruise lines as well as hotels to offer something like this isn’t entirely based on environmental concerns but also to reduce labor for the crew tasked with cleaning the cabins.
You can access the Celebrity Cruises website here and sign up for your upcoming cruise.
The Go Green program is an environmentally friendly program that supports the Celebrity overall sustainability focus, allowing guests to opt-in for reduced Housekeeping cleaning services and minimize our overall environmental footprint by:
- Reducing energy consumption
- Reducing chemicals consumption
The Go Green program will allow guests to have a choice of Housekeeping services, providing a great contribution to the environment, without compromising the cleaning and sanitation level of their stateroom.
The Celebrity cleaning and sanitation standards will remain very stringent and at the highest level, mitigating any potential virus transmission based on insights from our Healthy Sail Panel experts and our internal Public Health and Medical experts.
Current Housekeeping service consists of twice full daily cleaning and sanitization services; morning and evening.
The Go Green program provides a full daily cleaning and sanitation service.
The night touch service will provide a turndown of down of the bed, adjustment to room ambience, removal of garbage, and organization of guest items –making the stateroom and the bathroom neat with a personalized touch. With Go Green, the guest will specify a preferred time for their housekeeping services.
Personally, I find two daily cabin services unnecessary and do just as well with just one daily service that includes making the bed and taking care of the bathroom.
In fact, on my last couple of cruises, when Covid and on-board quarantining was still an issue I purposely asked the number of staff that services my cabin to be reduced or only asked for servicing 3 times per week (every other day). This helped the cabin steward to have more time for his other duties and also reduced the risk for either one of us being caught up in Covid trouble.
You have to sign up before your cruise:
Celebrity describes the benefits as follows:
Go GreenSM is a program offered by Celebrity Cruises where guests can opt-in to receive reduced housekeeping services while onboard. Captain’s Club members that opt-in to this program will receive an extra night’s worth of Club Points based on their stateroom category (“Go Green Bonus Points”).
To participate, members can opt-in online pre-cruise here or onboard during embarkation day. Opt-in will not be permitted after embarkation day. One guest per stateroom must opt-in for each sailing. Information provided must be correct or points will not be awarded.
Go Green Bonus Points will be awarded for all Captain’s Club members in a participating stateroom.
Go Green Bonus Points will be equal to one extra night of points based on the member’s stateroom category for the participating voyage. Reduced rate upgrades, including those won as part of the Move Up program, will earn Go Green Bonus Points at the original stateroom category booked (not the upgraded level).
Loyalty points don’t have immediate monetary value, they add up over time-based on the booked cabin type in order to rack up status with the Captain’s Club.
A credit worth of one night, for example, would mean 2 points for an interior cabin, 3 points in a standard veranda cabin, and 5 points for an Aqua/Concierge Class cabin, plus higher amounts for the premium suites.
Is that a lot? Probably not, but it’s better than nothing, especially as it doesn’t cause me any discomfort.
I have written in detail about the Celebrity Cruises Captains Club before:
Celebrity Cruises Captains Club Loyalty Program: Benefits & Drawbacks
Celebrity Cruises Quietly Makes Changes To A Few Captains Club Loyalty Program Features
I have now racked up 325 points and reached the “Elite” level within just 3-years. By the middle of next year, I’ll have “Elite Plus” based on my current bookings, which will give me a substantial benefit as in not being required to book certain beverage packages anymore. I can already feel significant improvements on my current sailing, the first one as “Elite” member.
I don’t expect to reach the next level (Zenith) anytime soon if ever, as it requires 3000 points which is pretty much like going to the moon. That being said, never say never as I haven’t even hit my 40’s yet.
In any case, I have signed up all of my upcoming four cruises for the “Go Green” program so thats another 20 points.
Conclusion
Celebrity Cruises has taken a page from the playbook of hotels such as Marriott’s former Green Choice program and is offering their Captains Club members a credit worth of one night’s loyalty points if they elect to reduce their daily housekeeping service to one instead of two cleanings.
As outlined above, I find that an excellent idea and unless you’re a very messy traveler or simply insist for comfort to have your cabin made up twice a day this is an easy way to get a few extra points. If you don’t need the points then you can still relieve your cabin steward a bit if you don’t need the two services.
Does your cruise line of choice offer a similar program?
