Poor attitude of Celebrity cuise staff toward injured passengers

I have highlighted one item on your post where I disagree w you. The cruise line is not responsible for getting you home and neither is the local hospital. Did you have MedJet insurance? If not, you are totally responsible for arranging and paying for MedJet evacuation.

 

DON

Don, Celebrity made all of the arrangements to get her off the ship. We had no say whatsoever. They called the company for the jet, they made the arrangements for the ambulances in both cities. The only say we had was the hospital in FLL, and after I contacted friends who live in FLL, those friends recommended the hospital that would be best. When the doctor told us everything had been arranged, I asked the doctor to call Corporate so I could speak to them. It was then that I told them we wanted mom to be flown home, and not to FLL. They said no, that everything had already been arranged.

And, Don, Celebrity was told that we had more than enough cash/credit available and that we would pay for absolutely everything up front and then deal with insurance once everything had settled down. What most people don't realize is, that these medical jets can demand payment up front, which they did, and then you're reimbursed by the insurance. We kept telling everyone in Miami that we didn't care about the costs, and that we could handle anything up to $500K.

No, no, no. What I'm saying is that Celebrity Corporate in Miami made the decision on where to evacuate my mom, without consulting us at all. We were told by the doctor that we could only choose FLL or Miami. It had nothing to do with our insurance. Despite my speaking to someone at the head office, and telling them we wanted to fly her home so that her doctor could do the surgery, Celebrity made ALL the arrangements for the evac. We had no choice. She was flown to a hospital in FLL. My sister was with mom in the medical jet (the personnel on the jet were wonderful), and I was basically left to get myself to FLL to meet up with them.

 

And FYI, we had to pay for everything up front and then handle the insurance. Thanks to Am Ex that gave both my sister and I a huge line of credit, we had no problem covering the expenses, pre insurance.

If you look at the terms, that is where they had to fly you to. The closest in the US where you departed from, not to anywhere in the country. It's not a taxi service. This way your mother received treatment as soon as possible in the US. Additionally, they allowed one person to escort your mother. Again, its not a taxi service. Assuming you are a capable adult, it was more than reasonable for you to handle your own arrangements. Had you been traveling with 6 people, would you have expected them to fly you all? Their obligation is to the patient, and if possible one other person to accompany that patient...not to the entire party traveling. You should not have expected anything more. Also, payment up front is the norm.

No, no, no. What I'm saying is that Celebrity Corporate in Miami made the decision on where to evacuate my mom, without consulting us at all. We were told by the doctor that we could only choose FLL or Miami. It had nothing to do with our insurance. Despite my speaking to someone at the head office, and telling them we wanted to fly her home so that her doctor could do the surgery, Celebrity made ALL the arrangements for the evac. We had no choice. She was flown to a hospital in FLL. My sister was with mom in the medical jet (the personnel on the jet were wonderful), and I was basically left to get myself to FLL to meet up with them.

 

And FYI, we had to pay for everything up front and then handle the insurance. Thanks to Am Ex that gave both my sister and I a huge line of credit, we had no problem covering the expenses, pre insurance.

Did you buy the travel insurance through Celebrity? If so some of the elements are self insured by Celebrity and some are handled by the insurance company. As far as the evac goes unless the policy states that they will evac to the hospital of the patients choice, you really don't have a choice. They will evac to the closest medical facility in the US that is capable of treating. I suspect that those were Miami or FLL

Since you mentioned that your sister was on the flight. I am not surprised that you had to provide your own transportation. The insurance is usually written to provide some benefits to an additional family member to the one being injured. They did provide some of those benefits to your sister.

Don, Celebrity made all of the arrangements to get her off the ship. We had no say whatsoever. They called the company for the jet, they made the arrangements for the ambulances in both cities. The only say we had was the hospital in FLL, and after I contacted friends who live in FLL, those friends recommended the hospital that would be best. When the doctor told us everything had been arranged, I asked the doctor to call Corporate so I could speak to them. It was then that I told them we wanted mom to be flown home, and not to FLL. They said no, that everything had already been arranged.

You could have told them no. That you would handle and made your own arrangements, but that would have been totally are your own expense and not covered by any travel insurance purchased through the cruise line.

Fish lover, are you aware of the trauma that everyone in the family goes through when something like this happens? It's not easy, to say the least. You're afraid that your loved one might die, you're scared when you see them in such pain. What I didn't say is that I'm disabled due to post polio, and I asked the Concierge(we were staying in the PH), for just a little assistance with luggage and getting me from the dock to the taxi area, which is quite a distance as our ship was docked the furthest from the terminal. I asked for the use of a wheelchair. They at first said no, that the wheelchairs can't be taken off the ship. Thankfully, the Captain's Club hostess got the wheelchair, she pulled the luggage to the taxi stand, and a friend who we met on the ship pushed me in the wheelchair. I took it from there and flew to FLL, as I AM a responsible adult. And like I keep saying, you absolutely, positively cannot judge until you go through something like this yourself.

You could have told them no. That you would handle and made your own arrangements, but that would have been totally are your own expense and not covered by any travel insurance purchased through the cruise line.

Please read my subsequent posts. We did tell them that we'd pay for everything. We told them we had a combined $500K to pay for the expenses. We did NOT have Celebrity insurance, would never purchase cruise line insurance. And NEVER did I ask them to pay for my transportation anywhere. Just a little help getting from the ship to the airport due to my disability.

Geeze, you'd think we were on trial here.

Please read my subsequent posts. We did tell them that we'd pay for everything. We told them we had a combined $500K to pay for the expenses. We did NOT have Celebrity insurance, would never purchase cruise line insurance. And NEVER did I ask them to pay for my transportation anywhere. Just a little help getting from the ship to the airport due to my disability.

 

Geeze, you'd think we were on trial here.

My mistake, some else had posted that they had purchase Celebrity insurance and had thought it was you.

If you were not covered by insurance then you have told them no, you did not want their help and made your own arrangements. Otherwise it is called kidnapping. They could not have refused that. Of course then you would have been totally on your own. That was pretty much your only choice.

Since you did not have insurance then it is interesting that Celebrity set up and paid for the med flight at all.

Please read my subsequent posts. We did tell them that we'd pay for everything. We told them we had a combined $500K to pay for the expenses. We did NOT have Celebrity insurance, would never purchase cruise line insurance. And NEVER did I ask them to pay for my transportation anywhere. Just a little help getting from the ship to the airport due to my disability.

 

Geeze, you'd think we were on trial here.

OK, no third degree here -- just a question. I have always considered MedJet the gold standard, but it requires that the patient first be admitted to a hospital -- then the patient has the power to demand evacuation to the hospital of their choice. In your case that would have meant Celebrity sending your mom to some local hospital so that she could activate MedJet. Thinking back to the circumstances, would that have gotten her to a 1st class hospital any faster than X's decision to send her immediately to FLL? [Note: MedJet would only have transported the patient and one family member, same as X]

Actually, I am a lawyer and you can't file a lawsuit about just anything. Lawyers now have to attest to the fact that the lawsuit is not frivolous otherwise they face sanctions. There has to be a good faith belief that the suit has merit. Now, some people can file a suit prose, but it is very difficult and they are in general very unlikely to prevail. Further, they still have to pay for court costs in all but very exceptional cases. A cruise line has liability insurance and a team of lawyers in-house as well as the deep pockets to hire outside counsel if necessary. The only way some people get away with frivolous suits is because they settle for far less than the cost of litigating.

However the written threat of a pro se summons and complaint followed by potentially burdensome discovery when there is a legitimate cause of action and the plaintiff is only seeking verifiable and substantiated reasonable costs in order to be made whole is a very good way to get a defendant with deep pockets to write a check. Quickly.

I am not a lawyer, but this has worked for me. Twice.

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Geeze, you'd think we were on trial here.

YOU were the one who decided to inject yourself into this discussion. Put on your big girl pants and learn from the various opinions being discussed here. If you don't like the heat, then stop posting and take yourself out of the discussion.

In my opinion, you didn't understand the terms of your insurance policy. You made assumptions that were not included in your policy. Celebrity went overboard to meet your expectations and you are still not satisfied.

Perhaps cruising is just not appropriate for you. YOU decide.

I am not a lawyer, but this has worked for me. Twice.

But you did stay at a Holiday Inn. Twice!

Fish lover, are you aware of the trauma that everyone in the family goes through when something like this happens? It's not easy, to say the least. You're afraid that your loved one might die, you're scared when you see them in such pain. What I didn't say is that I'm disabled due to post polio, and I asked the Concierge(we were staying in the PH), for just a little assistance with luggage and getting me from the dock to the taxi area, which is quite a distance as our ship was docked the furthest from the terminal. I asked for the use of a wheelchair. They at first said no, that the wheelchairs can't be taken off the ship. Thankfully, the Captain's Club hostess got the wheelchair, she pulled the luggage to the taxi stand, and a friend who we met on the ship pushed me in the wheelchair. I took it from there and flew to FLL, as I AM a responsible adult. And like I keep saying, you absolutely, positively cannot judge until you go through something like this yourself.

I most certainly have been in emergency situations while traveling, more than once and in two cases with much more dire prognosis, and you expected too much. Yes it is a difficult scary situation, but if you travel you need to be able to deal with it. I stand by my earlier post. This was not a taxi service and on disembarkation they took care of your mother and a companion and got them to the closest US hospital and even gave you a limited choice. That is the extent of their duty to your mother. The patient. You were not the patient. You were not the designated companion to accompany her. You expected too much and any disappointment or anger toward Celebrity or the insurance company is misplaced.

I totally disagree with you, as we went through a very similar thing with our mom who was hit by a swinging door on board the ship and she was thrown to the floor and broke her hip. The first thing the ship's Doctor did was ask if we had medical coverage, what kind it was and all the rest. To say that the treatment we received, and that mom received, from the medical center was good, is definitely not true. When we told the doctor that we wanted mom evacuated back to our home town for surgery, the doctor said Miami wouldn't allow it. We had to go to either FLL or Miami, period!!!!! We nearly begged for the med evac jet to fly her home, but it wasn't allowed, and we never did get an explanation as to why. When we got to the hospital in FLL, the emergency room doctor was appalled by the treatment, or lack thereof, mom got in he medical center. And I won't go into the whole story, but suffice it to say that once mom was in the ambulance to go to the airport, I was basically left on the dock and left to fend for myself to get to FLL on a commercial flight.

 

So don't poo-poo the OP's experience unless you've gone through something similar, like our family did.

What you are describing does sound like standard practice for ambulances/air ambulances. You have to keep in mind that the medical evacuation is an ambulance, not a privately hired service that will take you anywhere. They take the person to the closest hospital that has the ability to deal with the issue, so FLL/MIA makes sense. And they probably wouldn't let you choose which hospital in FLL or MIA, because only one hospital in each would have the right standard of care. Our local air care is run by the hospital that has the best trauma unit in the area, and if they pick you, you are going to that hospital (BTW, they are called by police or fire on scene, the family's wishes are irrelevant). It would have been nice of celebrity to allow you to use the internet for free to arrange your own flight home, but that's about the extent of what I would expect them to do.

However the written threat of a pro se summons and complaint followed by potentially burdensome discovery when there is a legitimate cause of action and the plaintiff is only seeking verifiable and substantiated reasonable costs in order to be made whole is a very good way to get a defendant with deep pockets to write a check. Quickly.

 

I am not a lawyer, but this has worked for me. Twice.

 

 

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As I said, we live in a litigious society. It's unfortunate and an abuse of the system to do what you have described. And the odd thing is that people who do it, are generally proud of themselves.

As I said, we live in a litigious society. It's unfortunate and an abuse of the system to do what you have described. And the odd thing is that people who do it, are generally proud of themselves.

Perhaps you need to reread my statement. To send a letter threatening legal action if the defendant doesn't make whole an injured party outside of the legal process certainly isn't abuse. It is the way things SHOULD work before a summons and complaint is filed.

Case in point, I had a party damage my vehicle through their negligence. I tried to get them to cover my out of pocket, all with receipts and all usual and customary costs. The total I was looking for was under $1000. This was a major organization who self-insured to at least six figures. They had admitted guilt (and it was a proven fact they were at fault given a police report, witnesses, and photographic as well as other physical evidence--I had retained the specialized mechanical part which fell off their vehicle and damaged mine, and there was no dispute by them that it had been improperly attached to their vehicle) but were resisting paying.

After several weeks of back and forth, I wrote a letter to their legal department and told them my $900 and change claim would be a lot easier and less costly to pay out than answering a summons and complaint and spending countless hours responding to ensuing discovery. They decided I was right and sent me a release. Once it was executed, they sent a check for the receipts I had tendered for the exact amount of the repair and the least expensive rental I could find.

Are you really saying I should have just walked away and not been made whole?

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To get back on topic, while it is unfortunate that the injury occurred, it seems that perhaps the parents were poorly equipped and prepared to manage an emergency situation in their own. I have to believe that in this case, there are three sides to the story, and the truth lies in between the parents and the cruise line. I feel that it is quite possible that given the emergency, a language barrier, and perhaps some overall age related confusion, there is probably a somewhat different side to this story than has been relayed by the OP. Perhaps a lack of proactive behavior to begin with?

It is a live and learn world, and hopefully others will learn from the unfortunate situation your parents were in. I can assure that if some of my elderly relatives were taking a cruise or trip someplace outside of the US, I would do some due diligence to be assured they purchased the right insurance for the worst case scenario, had a laminated card with names and phone numbers--including the insurance company concierge. In a couple of cases I would do everything possible to get them to not go, as frankly they are not in a mental and/or physical position to do so. Worst case I would probably just plan on going with them if they were hell bent on going regardless.

At any rate, while the cruise line perhaps could have done a bit more, they were under no obligation to do so. It seems that the father or even injured mother wasn't very proactive or assertive on their own to make arrangements for better care or a different hospital either through themselves or the insurance company or someone else advocating for them, which is what it really boils down to.

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Forget about like hotels and airlines, the Celebrity cruises staff put all the baggage of the ship and onto the dock. My 85 year only father has to manages to take four large suitcases all alone out of the dock ares and to the taxi stand which was quite a long distance with no form of transport available. Atleast they should have helped him upto the Taxi stand on humanitarian ground.

This is unbelievable. Celebrity doesn't touch luggage once it is in the staging area. However, there are port luggage handlers all over the place, They would have been delighted to put his luggage on a flat carrier and take it to the cab stand. Their only expectation is a tip for doing so. Again, if a person can not negotiate the logistics of traveling, they shouldn't travel.

Celebrity doesn't touch luggage once it is in the staging area. However, there are port luggage handlers all over the place, They would have been delighted to put his luggage on a flat carrier and take it to the cab stand. Their only expectation is a tip for doing so.

I am in agreement with you, that is what happens on embarkation/debarkation day. The problem here is that this passenger departed at an interim port and there would not be any luggage porters there.

The bottom line is that these two passengers were not self-sufficient enough to be traveling unattended. They should have someone travel with them who can solve unexpected and unanticipated problems should they arise and as we all get more elderly, those problems seem to arise more frequently.

It is the OP's responsibility that he did not realize his family members were not appropriate to travel independently and unattended. Next time, send a responsible adult to solve problems for them. Celebrity fulfilled their obligations in this case.

None of the Celebrity staff guided him about how he was suppose to get his luggage out of the port to the taxi stand. He would have been very happy to pay a porter if only someone had told him. Celebrity may be legally correct but if they felt that an old couple was incapable of managing themselves they could have atleast given him some guidance.

None of the Celebrity staff guided him about how he was suppose to get his luggage out of the port to the taxi stand. He would have been very happy to pay a porter if only someone had told him. Celebrity may be legally correct but if they felt that an old couple was incapable of managing themselves they could have atleast given him some guidance.

Age has nothing to do with it. If people aren't able mentally or physically to manage the unexpected without assistance, they either need to bring a carer with them or stay home.

None of the Celebrity staff guided him about how he was suppose to get his luggage out of the port to the taxi stand. He would have been very happy to pay a porter if only someone had told him. Celebrity may be legally correct but if they felt that an old couple was incapable of managing themselves they could have atleast given him some guidance.

If you read the OP post. There were three people traveling. The mother who injured herself in a fall, one daughter who accompanied the mother on the med flight back to Florida, and a second daughter who is somewhat disabled (the OP) who said that they initially did not offer assistance, but that she did get help from one individual to the taxi stand.

Her complaint was basically 1. Celebrity said the med flight had to go to Miami or FLL when they wanted it to go to their home area 2. They did not do any arrangements for her and she was left to make her own arrangements.

In my experience the Celebrity GR staff are superb - perhaps the attitude of the staff reciprocates the attitude of the passenger(s) with the issue ?

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If you read the OP post. There were three people traveling. The mother who injured herself in a fall, one daughter who accompanied the mother on the med flight back to Florida, and a second daughter who is somewhat disabled (the OP) who said that they initially did not offer assistance, but that she did get help from one individual to the taxi stand.

 

Her complaint was basically 1. Celebrity said the med flight had to go to Miami or FLL when they wanted it to go to their home area 2. They did not do any arrangements for her and she was left to make her own arrangements.

That was not the OP. That was a different poster who responded later. OP's parents were traveling alone.

Forget about like hotels and airlines, the Celebrity cruises staff put all the baggage of the ship and onto the dock. My 85 year only father has to manages to take four large suitcases all alone out of the dock ares and to the taxi stand which was quite a long distance with no form of transport available. Atleast they should have helped him upto the Taxi stand on humanitarian ground.

How he is usually managed to take 4 large suitcases :rolleyes:? What surprise me the most is that you keep blaming cruise line for something.