Seasoned_Traveler

No, we booked the excursions on Celebrity's site once we had the ability to access them. We typically book our overseas trips about a year in advance, to coincide with the availability to book flights on AA or One World (OW) flights, to make sure that we have access to lay flat seating on the outbound (overnight) flights. We live in Dallas, and only fly AA/OW, for obvious reasons.

We did not ask for an explanation as to why our seats were given to a more important customer. That would have further distracted us from enjoying our time together and our bottle of Italian wine ;-). Reservation Systems normally perform as intended, until someone manually intervenes, and bumping us in favor of a more important customer is definitely what Celebrity did. For that, our only recourse is to use social media to let others know that they should consider alternatives to Celebrity. Yes, Celebrity is a for-profit business, as is American Airlines (AA). Even though I quickly requalify for Executive Platinum (EP) status each year, it is very unlikely that AA would treat a "low/no status customer" the way Celebrity treated us. The airline industry business model is to overbook, as most travelers know, but when needed they can quickly find an available seat on another flight even if it means flying on it's competitor. The exception to this is weather, not an issue in Flam that day. The sales clerk at the ticket office in Flam confirmed to us that Celebrity did not release any of their tickets that day, nor were there any mechanical issues that reduced the Flam Railways capacity that day. BTW, we booked this cruise on AA's cruise site, and my review of Celebrity's actions are posted on their site, hoping to steer fellow AA customers away from Celebrity and Royal Caribbean Group (RCG). Afterall, it is RCG's Terms & Conditions that one must agree to when booking an excursion. They can cancel excursions the night before docking in Flam, but customers are left with no way to recover from Celebrity's poor business decision.

We checked the Flam Railway site, the night that we received the Cancelation Notice, and it showed that there were no tickets available for the train, during the hours that were aligned with the ship's port time. When we visited the ticket office in Flam the live monitors, and ticket counter sales clerk, confirmed that there were no tickets available, therefore we were not able to ride the train. When the sales clerk stated that "Celebrity had not released any of their tickets for the train, so they probably overbooked it, or we would have tickets for sale" we became very suspicious. That lead us to asking numerous passengers on the Celebrity Apex whether they had experienced the same type of cancellation. We dropped the investigation once we had heard from enough passengers that were treated the same. All readers of this site are likely aware of the Flam Railway's famed views, and they are the primary reason why we chose this Celebrity Apex itinerary. Celebrity is likely caught up in the business practice of attempting to maximize profits, regardless of the impact it makes on their customers, and for that they should be called out for it. We plan to write our own posting, and write to executive management, but nothing will entice us to return to a provider that lacks integrity.

We were on the same cruise as you and our Flam Railway excursion was cancelled too. The ticket agent at the Flam Railway ticket sales counter told us that Celebrity had not released any of their tickets. Later in the week we shared a table with a retired doctor that was traveling with family. They booked their cruise a month before departure, including the Flam Railway excursion for a group of 7, many months after our tickets were confirmed for our 4 excursions. His family group was in a suite, had been on numerous Celebrity cruises, and was able to bump us. We have never had anything like this happen on other cruise line or land tour. This is our first and last cruise on Celebrity.