donald1039

I Ran across a YouTube 7 min video on this issue from “Zach The Traveling Man” posted 11 days ago with 20,000 views so far. He posts a lot of Celebrity cruise videos with mostly favorable reviews but in this video he was very critical of Celebrity when his September 2023 Japan cruise was cancelled just months before the cruise. A lot of people use YouTube for reviews and info on travel. There’s no new info in the video but at least the word is spreading. Hopefully at some point Celebrity will take some action to restore customer confidence if their reputation takes enough of a hit.

Unfortunately the reality is that pretty much everything on the boards is speculation or unconfirmed word of mouth from TAs or online Celebrity reps who are likely not in the loop. The reason is because Celebrity has provided no information on the issue, it’s cause or how it was fixed. Everybody is doing the best they can to figure this out to fill the void of information from Celebrity. I elected not to do lift and shift because I have no assurance from Celebrity that the problem is fixed and limited to the 9 cruises. Furthermore if the problem was caused by a Lift and shift then should I believe this current mass lift and shift is ok?

“You can't cancel or you'll lose your entire deposit” isn’t it interesting the one way contract we’ve all signed up for where we pay a financial penalty if we cancel but they can cancel the guaranteed reservation anytime without penalty. But in their world of clever wording on the letter we are the ones cancelling because our choice was lift and shift of cancel. So we, the customer, chose cancel and as the Celebrity agent said to me “Celebrity” waived the loss of deposit penalty for the cancellation” that I chose. The reality is that I chose between cancel and cancel and it was just a choice of how the funds were applied.

Land tour - both Trafalgar and Insight have open itineraries (didn’t check any others) which focus more time on the best mainland locations but at a higher price. Also in researching we noticed that at least 1 cruise line has similar cruises with open verandas in our desired timeframe at similar prices to our cancellation. We have no history with any of the optional companies but we have eliminated Celebrity as an option for Japan.

When we were cancelled we did not receive a letter. When I spoke with the agent I was only given 2 options, lift and shift to 1 of 3 2025 sailings at the same rate or refund with $450 future credit which was consistent with the letter some have posted. She said they had exhausted all options to keep us on that ship (March 28) in answer to a possible downgrade which we wouldn’t have accepted anyway. We were very disappointed and moving out another year of uncertainty would have further deflated us so we’ve found an alternate vacation in Japan for the same time frame which we’re now more excited about than the cruise. Many of you can’t do this I realize, but if cancelled I would recommend exploring non Celebrity options to get past this.

For those of you who received a call on this issue or called Celebrity you will receive a survey request. Please fill this out and make sure Celebrity hears from you. The survey starts with rating your experience with the call person and I was careful not to trash her but the last section asks “how was your experience with Celebrity”. You’re allowed 4000 words so use them all. I ripped them on lack of communication, no advanced warning and the poor handling of this issue leaving me with no confidence in Celebrity for future bookings.

Anyone who received a letter with lift and shift options for March and April 2025 should ignore the online booking that shows nothing available and call Celebrity. I was offered to move my cruise to those dates and the rep could move it in the spot to same class (veranda). It appeared (but can’t be sure) that they have blocked online booking for those dates until this is worked out, likely to prevent the same mistake.

Yes thanks - that’s what we’re doing and it looks like much more for the money even though it’s more expensive. We’re also doing Tokyo Disney.

So add us to the list of cancellations. They called and we opted for the deposit refund and cruise credits. We were offered shifts to March or April sailings in 2025 but decided we’re not going to keep kicking this can down the road any longer with Celebrity and we’re booking an alternate Japan vacation for next April. We have zero confidence in a 2025 sailing option at this point and 2026 is too long to wait. We’re actually glad we were cancelled at this point to free us up from the uncertainty and allow us alternate options in 2024 before they’re gone. Details: March 28 2024 sailing Elite Captains club (RC Diamond) veranda deck 7 no free perks were attached to our cruise (drink packages, on board spending etc.) No cruise credit was used to book only had paid $900 deposit so far The cruise price was no great bargain (about the same as offered in 2025) We booked in April 2022 after we abandoned a 2023 Solstice booking made in 2021 that we decided was unlikely to happen. I suspect this error is massive and will likely make main stream news soon which will damage Celebrities reputation.