Bobsgonecoastal

Nasha, Completely agree, we sail exclusively in Aqua, but only sail M&S classes. if for some reason we ever sail Edge class, it won’t be in an infinite veranda cabin. after 20 cruises on X, we experienced all kinds of changes and schemes to increase profit. The latest one hurts Aqua cruisers who are also Elite and above by not allowing them to book a stripped cruise only fare. They are still required to pay for the all included package which negates the best elite amenities, drinks and WiFi. Makes you wonder what they have planned for us next.

RT, I had assumed they eliminated the CPs, but glad to hear you have one. I received a call one day from a someone who said she was my new CP. I took her info, but when I called and emailed to book a cruise, my call and email were never returned. Maybe I’ll get lucky and find a CP like I had. They can be a great resource. Bob

I take no joy in reporting my experience with X when service is required on existing bookings. My comments do not include their domestic new bookings cruise planners. We are long time X cruisers, so we experienced Celebrity at its peak. Anyone who has called the main number recently, knows the phone tree has separate selections for service of existing bookings and New bookings. During the C-19 debacle, X decided to eliminate the cruise planner role that many of us frequent cruisers enjoyed. I had a personal CP who I exclusively used for my X bookings, service and advice. He was a treasure of information, handled my new bookings, all service on existing bookings, and was a great help. Boy, do I miss those days! No need to sit on the phone for 45 minutes to get someone at a foreign call center with little or no experience, and even less knowledge of the Celebrity system. This is not meant to be critical of these hard working people, but certainly of bad decisions coming from the corner suite of Celebrity management. Latest example: After several attempts to service a booked cruise, I simply resorted to canceling my booking, taking the $200 hit, and rebook with a new cruise reflecting the changes I wanted from the service department. I have had these folks actually tell me they could not switch a booking to a different cruise, and/or apply FCCs to the change without help from a supervisor. When I asked if they would go ahead and ask for help from their supervisor I was hung up on. I called the service center a second time, asked to cancel the same booking, so I could rebook with the FCCs they hung up on me again. Really, and I was being as nice and polite as I could be. My message to LLP, service should not change after the sale, it’s the same customer, and we don’t forget. It’s not a good look for a supposedly premium cruise line.

Arizona Wildcat, you are 100% correct, Celebrity vacation planner. I worked with a great CVP for years, sorry to say he's gone. He would handle all my needs including booking servicing. Now booking service is usually handled by an overseas call center. I'll probably start using an outside TA since there doesn't seem to be an advantage to going internal. Thanks for the contact info, I will continue to pursue this. Pre Covid, you could call or email Captains Club and they would handle just about everything. Those were the halcyon days of cruising.

Oceangoer2, when a Celebrity TA verbally waives the change fee over the phone, they don't provide that in writing. When you cruise with them frequently, the TAs will usually do that but nothing is sent that would indicate that took place. In the future, I will ask that anything the TA promises be sent in writing for future proof. My experience has always been that the the fee is always dealt with at each transaction. I have never experience retro active charges that were not disclosed on the booking confirmation such as cancellation fees, etc. I'm assuming that Celebrity is having some department look back to see if they can recover some revenue they perceive they are due.

Let me preface this alert by saying it gives me no pleasure to complain about Celebrity as they have been our go to for many years. As Elite Plus customers, we have always found them to be easy to work with until now. I recently moved a reservation made on board during a cruise in 2020. It has been moved a number of times. Each change required that the $100 per person change fee be dealt with. All moves were made outside of any penalty period. I either paid the $200 change fee ($100 X 2) or in most cases, the Celebrity TA waived the fee. Following the last move on July 14, the Rep at the Philippine call center sent me a booking confirmation with $1,200 in change fees added to the price of the cruise. I asked what that was all about, and he stated the booking had been moved before and those were the change fees due. I explained that in each transaction the fees were dealt with before the telephone conversation ended. Each of the confirmations reflected the discussed and agreed upon price and terms. He agreed to remove 3 of the change fees, but that 3 would remain totaling $600. After my experience with this retroactive charging for change fees, my advice to anyone who pays for or has change fees waived, is to ask the Celebrity TA to send that to you in writing. Keep these with the records with any booking you change where a change fee applies. It's fool me once thing. Smooth sailing and blue skys

We’ve sailed Celebrity for years, and enjoyed our Elite plus status until the current CEO started tinkering with every everything their long term customers enjoyed. I won’t go into the lengthy list of attempts she has made to pull back, eliminate or otherwise piss off customers, but will simply say she’s not on my Christmas card list. As for post pandemic changes, it appears all booking service calls are shipped overseas (I believe the Philippines) with approximately a one hour wait time, that I recently experienced this twice in one week. But, if you’re calling to book a new cruise (think sales) you get a very nice sales agent in a domestic call center with knowledge of the cruises and ships. Celebrity use to be known as a cruise line that put customers first, but over time Lisa Lutoff-Perlo has been busy running the brand into the ground. we used a wonderful Celebrity cruise consultant for years who took care of our new and booked cruise services. He was fabulous, but Celebrity eliminated the TAs and now have shipped service to call centers with little knowledge of the cruise line. IMHO, there is no value in using their in house people since they won’t be servicing your booked cruises. It’s sad, but money drives the race to the bottom.