Summit march 8 2014

What happened to the March 8th 2014 sailing of the Summit out of San Juan. I checked the other day and it was there. Now that I want to book it has disappeared off Celebrity's web site. Our friends are booked on it and have not heard if it has been cancelled.

Hi Dkksk,

Yup. Appears to be gone. Perhaps it's stop sell for a possible itinerary change or charter. Captains Club is closed today due to bad weather in Wichita, so I suggest calling Celebrity or your TA over the weekend.

What happened to the March 8th 2014 sailing of the Summit out of San Juan. I checked the other day and it was there. Now that I want to book it has disappeared off Celebrity's web site. Our friends are booked on it and have not heard if it has been cancelled.

You may want to try googling this one, and you definately want to have your friends google it.

It appears to be chartered for a gay cruise.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Trout

This is horrible! We spent a great deal of time picking out the perfect cruise and cabin and now it's been chartered. We booked at a very attractive price including the drink package and now we're back to square one.

What will Celebrity do about this? We can only sail that week so will they give us the same deal on a different ship (Silhouette or Reflection?) and throw in an upgrade and/or OBC? Would they extend some kind of offer to the 2 other affiliated ships (Adventure and Jewel) sailing the Southern Caribbean?

Travel agency is closed today so I can't get any answers. Does anyone have any idea what we're looking at? I assume Celebrity would want to keep us happy recognizing they will make huge returns on the Atlantis charter.

This is horrible! We spent a great deal of time picking out the perfect cruise and cabin and now it's been chartered. We booked at a very attractive price including the drink package and now we're back to square one.

 

What will Celebrity do about this? We can only sail that week so will they give us the same deal on a different ship (Silhouette or Reflection?) and throw in an upgrade and/or OBC? Would they extend some kind of offer to the 2 other affiliated ships (Adventure and Jewel) sailing the Southern Caribbean?

 

Travel agency is closed today so I can't get any answers. Does anyone have any idea what we're looking at? I assume Celebrity would want to keep us happy recognizing they will make huge returns on the Atlantis charter.

Your Travel Agent will have to be the one to speak with Celebrity

on your behalf. Once you book with an agency the cruiseline will

only deal with them. So, you need to talk to your agent.

Celebrity is open today, why not give the captains club a call?

Lois is right. If you booked through a TA they have to do all the work of dealing with Celebrity.

Yes, I'm aware my travel agent has to speak with them. I was just wondering if anyone has had this happen in the past and whether Celebrity was accommodating. I have nothing but good things to say about my experience with Celebrity in the past so I assume they will take care of us but I'm not sure how. I have some other couples travelling with us who are first timers and they are not happy to say the least and I've just told them to be patient and something good should come out of this.

TA spoke to Celebrity today and their response was shocking. They wanted to know how I knew about the Atlantis charter as it wasn't public knowledge. They then stated that while they have stopped selling the cruise to the general public, the existing bookings are not being touched and they suggest that we just continue with the sailing as originally planned.

With 90% or more of the ship booked to one group, what kind of cruise do they think we are going to have? I don't care what the group is, when there are that many people together on one ship, it is THEIR ship.

I understand there is plenty of time to change options and cancel at no fee but we really wanted to do this particular cruise and were getting an outstanding deal on it. It is going to cost us hundreds more to change to a different ship with an inferior itinerary. A simple google search will show Carnival and HAL have offered price protection, airline change fees (if applicable) free upgrades and OBC to switch to another ship under similar circumstances yet Celebrity is offering NOTHING.

The TA is telling me there is nothing more we can do which I can't believe. I had found Celebrity to be very accommodating and focused on customer service in the past and I'm not sure why they would want to deliberately set us up for a potentially poor experience onboard and not offer us something else on another ship.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, please post or if you don't want them public, please send me a pm. Thanks.

Does your TA do a lot of business with Celebrity and have a rep that they could go through to get this worked out for you?

I can understand not wanting to sail on a ship that is basically booked by someone else. But, if you love the itinerary and your focus is on just you and your husband...why still not go? But, if you are adamant against it - is Celebrity doing this same itinerary on a different date that maybe they could transfer you for the same price on another sailing?

my wife and I love this itinerary. We have been on it before. This date is spring break for my daughter and her husband so another date would not work. I still can't believe Celebrity won't change us. Compared to prices for that week on 2 other Celebrity ships, this was at least $200/pp cheaper. I guess we'll wait and see what happens.

TA spoke to Celebrity today and their response was shocking. They wanted to know how I knew about the Atlantis charter as it wasn't public knowledge. They then stated that while they have stopped selling the cruise to the general public, the existing bookings are not being touched and they suggest that we just continue with the sailing as originally planned.

 

With 90% or more of the ship booked to one group, what kind of cruise do they think we are going to have? I don't care what the group is, when there are that many people together on one ship, it is THEIR ship.

 

I understand there is plenty of time to change options and cancel at no fee but we really wanted to do this particular cruise and were getting an outstanding deal on it. It is going to cost us hundreds more to change to a different ship with an inferior itinerary. A simple google search will show Carnival and HAL have offered price protection, airline change fees (if applicable) free upgrades and OBC to switch to another ship under similar circumstances yet Celebrity is offering NOTHING.

 

The TA is telling me there is nothing more we can do which I can't believe. I had found Celebrity to be very accommodating and focused on customer service in the past and I'm not sure why they would want to deliberately set us up for a potentially poor experience onboard and not offer us something else on another ship.

 

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, please post or if you don't want them public, please send me a pm. Thanks.

Did they really tell you it was going to be 90% Atlantis? That seems very high. I think you shuold just go and have fun........and not worry about anyone else on the ship.

That is a very port intensive itinerary and you will be off the ship six out of seven days......

I'm sure the Atlantis crowd is a very fun crowd.

I did a cruise last October on the Summit with the Bears.....and they were fantastic....... I am praying they are back on that same cruise this October...... They made the ship much more lively at night instead of the ghost town that is sometimes is on such an intense itinerary:)

I just checked....the Bears are back on my cruise and I'm thrilled!!!!!! Go BEARS!!!!!

I would guess the Atlantis numbers will end up being higher than 90% as they are only selling this cruise to that group from this point forward.

I recently met a couple that ended up in a similar situation on a RCI cruise a few years ago but had no idea until they stepped on the ship and wondered why almost the entire ship was men. The entertainers were all brought onboard by the Atlantis group and absolutely everything was geared towards that group for the entire week. Needless to say that was their last RCI cruise (and they had done dozens of cruises prior to that). RCI offered them a free future cruise for their troubles but they declined it and swore off them forever. They said because of them ruining their vacation they will never travel with RCI again. They won't even step on a Celebrity ship either because it's owned by the same company. They estimated between themselves, their family and close friends RCI has now missed out on more than 250 potential cruise bookings.

They thought RCI should have warned them in advance of what was taking place on the ship and given them some options. It's sadly ironic that it appears Celebrity is choosing to handle this situation in the same way. Short sighted thinking in my opinion.

Did they really tell you it was going to be 90% Atlantis? That seems very high. I think you shuold just go and have fun........and not worry about anyone else on the ship.

 

That is a very port intensive itinerary and you will be off the ship six out of seven days......

 

I'm sure the Atlantis crowd is a very fun crowd.

 

I did a cruise last October on the Summit with the Bears.....and they were fantastic....... I am praying they are back on that same cruise this October...... They made the ship much more lively at night instead of the ghost town that is sometimes is on such an intense itinerary:)

 

 

I just checked....the Bears are back on my cruise and I'm thrilled!!!!!! Go BEARS!!!!!

Yes, the Atlantis crowd is a "fun" crowd, so is the RSVP crowd (another GLBT cruise company), however the RSVP and Atlantis Celebrity cruise product IS VERY DIFFERENT from the regular Celebrity product.

Like most instances when dealing with RCL/X customer service the reps don't have all the information sadly. Atlantis doesn't do "group" cruises, they ONLY do FULL SHIP charters. And the only way someone can be booked is to book with the company that did the charter (in this case Atlantis). Although I haven't ever been bumped by a charter, this isn't the first time I have heard of a ship being chartered and the cruiseline hasn't notified previously booked guests that their cruise is no longer available. If you pop over to the MSC boards you'll see MSC until recently was still booking the MSC Divinia although RSVP chartered the entire ship.

For anyone who is interested I did a photo review of a recent RSVP full ship charter on Holland America Line, RSVP and Atlantis are similar (same customers) but slightly different onboard product.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1794253

I believe like on RSVP, Atlantis welcomes booking from anyone, but in addition to the very different onboard experience the prices are usually substantially higher for the full ship charter!

Can someone please explain to me why Celebrity wouldn't want to be proactive in this case? They are going to profit greatly from the Atlantis charter so why not just take care of the few passengers that are already booked? We are already being inconvenienced by not going on the cruise we really wanted so why not do something to keep us on your ships and happy?

Clearly looking at those pictures it is a totally different cruising experience than what we are accustomed to and everything is geared towards the chartered group. With all the problems your major competitor is having and the poor publicity cruising is receiving, now is the time to step up and create some positive goodwill Celebrity!

Can someone please explain to me why Celebrity wouldn't want to be proactive in this case? They are going to profit greatly from the Atlantis charter so why not just take care of the few passengers that are already booked? We are already being inconvenienced by not going on the cruise we really wanted so why not do something to keep us on your ships and happy?

 

Clearly looking at those pictures it is a totally different cruising experience than what we are accustomed to and everything is geared towards the chartered group. With all the problems your major competitor is having and the poor publicity cruising is receiving, now is the time to step up and create some positive goodwill Celebrity!

The cruise lines are their own worst enemy in these situations. I don't know why the moment the charter agreement with Atlantis was signed the existing inventory taken offline and customers contacted. Sadly this isn't the first time Celebrity has done this, and I guarantee it won't be last!

Can someone please explain to me why Celebrity wouldn't want to be proactive in this case? They are going to profit greatly from the Atlantis charter so why not just take care of the few passengers that are already booked? We are already being inconvenienced by not going on the cruise we really wanted so why not do something to keep us on your ships and happy?

 

Clearly looking at those pictures it is a totally different cruising experience than what we are accustomed to and everything is geared towards the chartered group. With all the problems your major competitor is having and the poor publicity cruising is receiving, now is the time to step up and create some positive goodwill Celebrity!

this happened to us on our very first cruise and first cruise with celebrity. the offer was to move to a different week or we could cancel. we chose to move to a different week with no additional compensation. if cruise is far out then i dont see the need for additional compensation. if only a few weeks to a month out, yes compensation necessary. just my opinion.

The rest of my group is really upset that Celebrity isn't doing anything for us and want to book with Carnival. Too bad. I was really looking forward to going back to Celebrity.

My guess if it isn't public knowledge yet, they may not have formal contract in place for the charter by Atlantis or maybe it's just days away so for now they assume sell as-is.

It seems Atlantis is known for fully chartering ships, not just hosting large groups on standard itineraries.

I have read in other forums that cruises will allow a change and often offer upgrades and half off future travel type sales. In the Atlantis related forums, I even read where guys book cruises they think will become an Atlantis cruise next year hoping for the cancellation email and perks, and then rebook via Atlantis and use those perks on the same itinerary! Genius!

I say find an alternative cruise ASAP and put it on hold now, and then wait a week or so for celebrity to have the appropriate educated person from the proper department contact you about this unusual circumstance that many of their line staff and even experienced staff, may not have 100% factual answers to but still believe they are being helpful none-the-less.

Patience, and have a backup plan! ;)

Patience is probably good advice. I will try to convince our group to wait a couple weeks and see if Celebrity will do anything.

You book a dream cruise to celebrate your 25th Anniversary, pick a tour operator which you think has an excellent reputation, pick an itinerary which suits your needs because you do not want to spend more than a whole day at sea, and then, after 2 months, when it's to late to book with another tour operator to get a particular cruise on a particular date because you are a teacher and cannot take your holidays at anytime you wish you find out through an external web site "gaytravelpros.com" that the cruise you have booked is going to be chartered exclusively to a gay group, specifically the "Atlantis 2014 Southern Caribbean Gay Cruise".

Wow, talk about the credibility of Celebritycruises.com. And the best is that when you call them nobody can answer any questions. Imagine, booking a flight, making hotel arrangements, spending all the cash and then being on a 100% exclusively gay cruise, nothing against this specific group, but even from their perspective do you think they would like this. Have a look at the Atlantis website or utube an check out any videos of the Atlantis Gay Cruises, talk about a party. My wife is sure to enjoy and never forget this 25th Aniversary cruise.

CelebrityXCruises, i finally figured out what the big X is in your advertising and logo, what the hell are you idiots in charge of this mess thinking, the negative publicity that you are going to get out of this is going to far outweigh anything else.

Celebrity, don't just play stupid and say that the cruise is being rebranded or some other fancy stupid word, just tell the people the truth.

I am very interested in what Celebrity will be doing for the few heterosexual couples who have already booked this 100% gay cruise. Can you imagine, everything will have to cater to this group , the entertainment, restaurants , the pools, etc, what do the rest of us do, stay locked up in our room, thankfully I paid a premium for a balcony suite, I may just be driven to jump off this big massive orgy, this is definitely not my idea of spending thousands of dollars for a special occasion vacation.

Hello, did you make this story up, I cannot believe Celebrity would do such a thing.

I'm not sure why Celebrity is not trying to get in front of this potential PR disaster. Just give the booked passengers price protection on their choice of the Reflection or Silhouette for the same week and throw in an upgrade. If they wait much longer everyone will have flights booked and then they will be looking at flight change fees, etc. The last thing they want is for us to stay on this cruise, record our experiences all week and plaster it all over youtube or better yet, another cruise disaster feature for 20/20!

For the love of god, chill out!

As noted in prior post, find an alternative and be prepared to change cruises, yes it's inconvenient, but not the end of the world! Could have just as easy been last day cancellation due to maintenance or something, then you'd have a real reason to be this tweaked.

Sometimes the gays don't exactly love it getting on a boat full of 60 year olds ticked off about that dag-gummed techno trance music but we still go.

sometimes you get a crowd on a boat you love, sometimes you don't.

Sometimes airlines change their routings too and have to rebook, sometimes on alternate dates. Things happen, especially this far out.

This is not the 1st time a cruise ship has been chartered out from under long-term pre-booked passengers and won't be the last. No frontiers are being broken here. You're not about to pull off some class action lawsuit or 20/20 gotcha journalism on this one.

Wait until you get official word from celebrity before you begin bashing them. Or when you get the offer to change the cruise, just stay on it if its that important to you to take this routing, and just figure this is a cruise with a crowd you weren't hoping to be happiest with, just like sometimes the Gays (myself included) get on a boat and deal with the 50's music that overruns the DJ we would expect in the lounge.

So before you go bashing celebrity (or very nearly skirting the issue of bashing the gays, but I'll assume that is not your intent regardless of the undertones in many parts of your post), how about you wait until you hear from them about this? Patience will most likely (but not necessarily) be rewarded with rebates, refunds and a deal on a rebooking. They will have a process in place for this, let the process work its way out, don't try to get ahead of it, you will just end up continuing to talk to people who are probably trying to help, but simply aren't the right people in the organization to do so and continue to frustrate yourself. I Don't expect the Hotel director to know how to cook the lobster bisque, so I wouldn't expect the standard line-level reservationists to know how to relocate passengers off a group chartered boat either.

Joining a forum and making your 1st 2 posts just to bash is not cool. Read some of the other forums about how people have received compensation for similar events. It won't be the end of the world as you know it if you have to find another routing. You'll find many pleasant memories on the revised itinerary I'm sure. There are many others to choose from with only 1 day at sea.

In any case, its pretty clear you need to find yourself something else you will enjoy so just accept it and move on. Or look forward to how much fun this ship of Gays is actually going to be and look forward to the new experience! Straights are allowed too....

Atlantis has not yet officially announced this on their website, suggesting it is still in the contract finalization stage. In fact the Atlantis message boards suggest they were trying to decide between 3 or 4 ships as recently as 3 weeks ago - although they seem to now have concluded this is the ship being picked.

In fact reading other forums here suggest some have already received proactive rebooking phone calls for this cruise within the last week, so they are in process. Maybe your phone number wasn't number one on the list.

You bring up some good points and Celebrity's unwillingness to do anything until the charter is finalized only makes sense. The stop sell on this cruise happened over a month ago now so I would hope they would finalize everything in short order.

You mentioned seeing in other forums that some people have been given offers. That is welcome news and would restore my faith in Celebrity. Do you have links to that as I haven't seen anything nor received a phone call yet?