A Message from Celebrity Marketing

August 15, 2012

Celebrity Cruises Cruise Critic Members & Readers

Thanks for welcoming me and my recent post.

In this post, we would like to address some of the comments regarding our CelebrityCruises.com site, and provide you with an update to let you know what to expect in the future.

First and foremost, we not only carefully review and evaluate CruiseCritic comments, we also receive feedback internally; externally from research; and also through consumer testing and performance studies. We know that the Celebrity website isn’t where we’d like it to be, and we want you to know that we’re addressing the issues you and our other audiences have told us about. While we’ve been lauded for the images and design of our website, the transactional performance of the site does not reflect the experience that we deliver onboard our ships, but we’re working towards achieving that.

Onboard, online, through our call centers – at every turn, our goal is to provide the best experience possible for our guests. When it comes to CelebrityCruises.com, we are still working to get there, and we ask for your patience and continued support.

Here are the key issues that you have helped us identify, and updates on where we are with improving them:

• Online Check In – Online check in is one of our major undertakings for the coming year. We are committed to improving this process and make the system more user friendly. This is not a quick fix as the system is integrated across many areas. We’ll advise of progress being made as we move forward with this initiative.
  
• Specific Stateroom Selection – This is being addressed and the resolution is expected to be implemented next month, pending testing of the fix. If we experience any issues during testing that affect a September release we’ll advise soonest.
  
• Cruise Search Engine Browser Issues – We are optimized for the major browsing platforms. We are working on improving the functionality of dropdown lists and expect to have this resolved by late September. Functionally the dropdown works, but is not visually represented in a user friendly manner. If there are specific issues with Cruise Search Engine on your browser, please provide specifics, as we’ve tested this thoroughly.
  
• Page Loading Time – This is seen primarily with the transactional pages mentioned above and experienced on select additional areas which are dependent on other backend systems to complete the page. We are working with our internal IT department to look for solutions related to these transactional systems. As we evaluate the possibility of “reimagining” these areas of the site, delivering the best user experience will drive our efforts. In the short term, we’ll continue to make minor adjustments to the structure of our pages in an attempt to drive improved load times.
  

While we know this list hits only some the most major issues represented in your helpful posts, we want to let you know that we’re aware of all the issues you’ve mentioned. As we’re able to resolve items and introduce enhancements, we’ll share updates here.

As we mentioned at the beginning, our goal is to deliver a website experience that rivals our Celebrity onboard experience. It will take us some time to get there, but we are committed to doing so. If our website experience can garner half the love that you have for our cruise vacations, we’ll consider that progress. To get the full amount of excitement and appreciation for our website that you have for our cruise vacations, we’ll consider that success.

Thanks for being such passionate and enthusiastic customers and helping us get better in all that we do.

Sincerely,

Brian

Brian P. Powell

Associate Vice President, Marketing

Celebrity Cruises

Thank you for the update!

Nice to know they ARE doing something. In the meantime, I was able to open the pdf of tours for January cruise. Now if only my vacation time was approved, I'd tell you if the reservation site works ;)

Thanks for the update.

Have any of you looked at your site on an iPad or, even worse, tried to use it on an iPad? Not pretty. 84 million iPads have been sold and the Celebrity website is far less iPad friendly than Princess, HAL, Disney, etc. You are going to be losing customers if you don't address this issue.

P.S. -- It's nice to see someone from Celebrity posting here. If you are looking for a good example of how to use social media, you might want to look at Starwood. On travel-related and other more general forums (e.g., Flyertalk, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), Starwood has social media savvy posters identified as Starwood Lurkers who are exceedingly knowledgable about their brand, act as ombudsman for people with problems, show their personality by using humor, and act as excellent representatives for their Brand. Sometimes they engage in tough love with their customers but always in a way that enhances the brand.

I agree, I would like them to make the site more iPad friendly. Hopefully Brian will visit CC more often!

Thanks for the update. I'm really glad you are working to improve the website. It is one of the few things I don't like about Celebrity. If you can make it easier to check in online, book excursions and make reservations for restaurants, you will have our gratitude.

I am incredibly encouraged by Brian's post both because he understands the issues and there is now hope.....but also because Brian is posting on cruise critic and hopefully will chime in when appropriate on other threads. It is so refreshing to see a name on posts that previously came from a title with no name. Brian, welcome again and I hope you will continue to participate here....and that folks here will not expect you to solve individual issues (unless you volunteer to help, of course)

Thank you for the update.

Mary Lou

Thank you, Brian Powell, for paying attention to our complaints about the Celebrity web site. We look forward to the changes.

Thank you Brian Powell for your detailed report for the Cruise Critic membership. It's encourging to see that our concerns have your attention, and that there will be changes in future.

Brian, thanks for responding to the issues and working on solutions.

Another area to look at is Celebrity e-mails. For a long time, I had requested e-mails through the website and even asked the captain's club if they could do anything. Still no e-mails. Out of the blue I started receiving regular e-mails with information and Tuesday specials. Then, without explanation, those stopped. Lately I've received sporadic e-mails....but they appear to be aimed at the UK market (I'm in the US) as the pricing is in British pounds.

Really appreciate. Now I can hope again to visit a better, workable Celebrity website. I had lost my hope before ;)

Thanks!

Hello Brian,

Welcome to our Forum, and Thank You for the update. I'd like to echo the sentiments of our Community, and say that it's great to be able to connect a name to Celebrity's comments. I believe that most everyone accepts that significant website improvement will take time. As long as there's gradual progress, I'm certain the response will be extremely positive.

We look forward to a time when your website experience, will be as outstanding as your Cruise experience.

Adding my thanks, Brian, for identifying yourself and communicating status. I also want to add my voice to those asking that you optimize the site for iPads and other tablets. Increasingly, we are using those devices in all aspects of our lives and want Celebrity to support it.

Thanks again, and look forward to your continued engagement.

While we’ve been lauded for the images and design of our website, the transactional performance of the site does not reflect the experience that we deliver onboard our ships, but we’re working towards achieving that. Brian P. Powell

Appreciate Brian's follow-up, detail and substance as reflected in his full posting. I view the sentence highlighted above by him to be very, very important. They are recognizing that we, as real users of this technology, want much more than just "images and design". Simple is sometimes much better and quicker than fancy and flashy. Look at how well Google.com and other straight-forward lay-outs make things happen in a better manner. Don't let the artists take over the web work. Making it work for consumers is most important to me. Your message seems to get "IT" very well. As Host Andy noted, it won't happen overnight, but we'll be happy if they are moving in the right direction.

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

Did a June 7-19, 2011, Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Enjoyed great weather and a wonderful trip. Dozens of wonderful visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc., on these postings. We are now at 97,780 views for this live/blog re-cap on our first sailing with Celebrity and much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

Thank you Brian,

I have often wondered if anyone was paying attention to the non user friendly aspects of Celebrity"s website. Please continue to send updates. It is very encouraging.

Thanks for your post, Brian! I think we're all looking forward to the day when the website experience will be as outstanding as the cruise experience.

Thank you so much for validating our concerns and reacting accordingly. Looking forward to the improvements and thrilled to be sailing again on Equinox Sept 2013 As you can see from my screen name, Celebrity is my favorite cruise line.

Thank you Brian for the update. I look forward to when the functionality of the website matches the images and design. I would also like to add my request for a better experience when using the Celebrity site on ipad. It is great that you have taken the time to communicate with us directly!

Thank you brian celebrity my favorite cruise line!

Thanks for the update. I hope it all works out.

The feature I miss most on the current website is the ability to type in a particular cabin number while searching for a cruise and being able to see if it is available or not. I've booked a couple that way in the past and I really hate that the website only shows three available cabins in each category.

Hi Brian,

Thanks for your sincere interest in our feedback.

A few years ago, the website had a cruise calendar-not a ship calendar-but a month by month graph like calendar that had months across the top and destinations on the left. For example, you could look for cruises in May in the Caribbean, and then it would show which ships were sailing, when, and the length of the cruise.

That was the primary tool I used to search for cruises, and I wish it would make a comeback.

Thanks

Happy Sails to You

OOOEEE Baby (from the song Sea Cruise) :D:D Bob and Phyl

I agree, I would like them to make the site more iPad friendly. Hopefully Brian will visit CC more often!

Agree absolutely. It is very frustrating to use the C site on an iPad.

I am also glad to see Celebrity interested in making their presence known and trying to help make improvements.

I would say I have desperately been hoping to see updated images on the 'Solsticization' of the staterooms for the Millennium Class Ships. It seems like these are still old images and floor/deck plans. It would sure be great to see the changes online.

Thank you very much though for your efforts to improve the website.

I noticed the cabin number thing myself this time I booked our latest cruise. I did book thru a travel agent online this time, but it was always nice in the past to be able to see if a particular cabin was available. I have never had a problem with anything else on the website though.