KLSweetland

I asked the cruise planner at Celebrity and she admitted their website was broken and said that it could not be fixed. She also said that they were working on a new website which would be ready sometime in 2016.

You know honestly, I really appreciate their candor. And that's actually useful information.

I do digital forensics for a living, so hearing that their site is broken and can't be fixed sounds absurd to me at first. However having seen much of the site over several years, I'm inclined to agree with them. It is so broken, it really CAN'T be fixed. If they fix one thing, it will break ten others. It's just a downward spiral. Best to scrap it and start over. Good to hear that is happening.

It still baffles me that a company that does cruising SO well can be SO bad at this.

Even booking direct with Celebrity UK you cannot pay on - line. I actually prefer to pay by phone, I'm then told by a live person that my payment has gone through.

But do you have the option to pay online? Because in the US, there is clearly a button, you enter all of your information (including CC), and then you get redirected to a page that says it isn't working. And the strange thing is, some people definitely CAN pay online in the US! My friend did it, had no issues. I called and they said it is because of the type of my booking, the feature is broken. They promised it would be fixed in November 2014. Yesterday I called and they said the issue will be fixed 'in a few weeks'. Yeah, right. Just like it was going to be fixed 'in a few weeks' in June of 2014.

I cannot speak about paying for our cruise on the website as we paid through our TA, but I had no issues paying for tours and options online through X.

 

bon voyage...

I thought if you booked through a TA, you had to book everything else through the TA? I've never been able to regain control of a booking originally made through a TA for Celeb...

I have seriously never had this much trouble giving a company my money. I've booked four Celeb cruises in the last two years (2 cabins each), and I've never been able to pay online. In June of 2014 I was told they were rolling out fixes, and it would be corrected in November 2014. It is now Dec 2015, and I can't pay for my Galapagos cabins without calling and waiting on hold because the website is STILL broken.

This is totally ridiculous. I agree with other posters, I cruise Celebrity because I know how good the cruise will be, despite the pain of dealing with their website.

Well, first of all strenuous is spelled correctly but there are also a lot of other mistakes. Sultan Falls, and Caribbean should be capitalized and combinations should not. There should also be an apostrophe in Caribbean's.

 

By the way, it should be whoever, not whomever so maybe we all make mistakes. Whoever means "he", whomever means "him".

Apologies the spell checker in this thing changed it. It was spelled 'strenous'. I tried to attach a screen shot to this thing but couldn't figure it out.

I know we always talk about how bad their website is, but this is an actual quote from the shore excursions page right now (Rum & Fun Safari in Dominica):

Rum & Fun Safari (ROB1)

This tour enables passangers(sp) to visit a local waterfall without any strenuous(sp) walking. Enjoy the sultan falls where you may choose to swim or just hike and take photos. This experience is breath taking. Then continue your journey to the oldest rum factory in Dominica and view the making of some of the caribbeans finest rums. Enjoy rum tasting at the factory then you may also experince(sp) a unique view the caribbean sea while sipping on local rum Combinations. This is a must do adventure on Dominica.

Hilarious! Whomever wrote this description has already had faaaar too much rum.

I guess they now have a 'lifestyle magazine' type website over here..

http://catalyst.celebritycruises.com/about/

Note that toward the bottom, it states,

"We’d also love to hear from you. Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Google+ or share your thoughts in the comment section below."

Uh, there is no comment section below (as of today 8/27/14). However, last week when I found the site there was just one comment. A fellow cruiser went on and on about all of the technical issues with the website. It has since disappeared, along with the comment section altogether. I wish I had taken a screenshot!

Are they kidding me? Launching a second website when the first one is so incredibly messed up??:p

I didn't know that they had one.

 

I always thought the problem was that they needed one.

 

Cruise on

Uh, miched, I'd suggest you live in ignorant bliss rather than trying to avail yourself of the services on the website.

So to recap, I had been trying to do a variety of things with my online reservation since I made it in December. The onboard credits fell off and were put back on at least three times, and at one point they accidentally added an additional $300 credit. I pointed this out, and the agent at X said she wasn't inclined to remove it. That was nice, but it magically disappeared after that anyway.

I also asked one agent to upgrade my bev package to premium. He said he did. Never saw an indication of that online, and the last agent didn't see any reference of that on the reservation.

I have never been able to make a payment online for this reservation (7 months and counting!). Interestingly, I was able to pay on the reservation for the cruise I took last December. I was also able to pay for a friend's cabin with no issues. This time, no dice (same Celeb account, same card, etc). I've called on several occasions and various agents have acknowledged the issue. There is nothing I can do about it. Originally, they were hoping the June update of the site would correct this. It didn't, today I still can't pay online. The agent I spoke to just now said they are hoping to have it fixed in the next few months.

I appreciate the suggestions re changing browsers, clearing cache. Those are great suggestions for people having trouble getting the site to load. Unfortunately these are actual database issues at Celebrity, so they won't resolve my problem. I happen to work in computer forensics so I'm painfully aware of technical snafus and their corresponding headaches.

I couldn't agree more with the people saying it's a shame that would-be customers will never get to experience the on-board service at Celebrity because they are turned off by these issues. My experience on Reflection was absolutely world class, I just can't believe how bad this site is. I wish Celebrity would weigh in on this thread or others to explain what they're doing to improve. They have SO MUCH room for improvement! :D

I think you can join Captain's club before you cruise for the first time, you just won't have points. I can't remember what the 'status' is for that, Preview maybe? Anyway I'm pretty sure that's what I did before I cruised last December. I'd do that and then call. Or you could just call, I doubt they will refuse to help you if you somehow got the number.

Also heard back from Cap Club rep after she got same info from shore ex dept...at least they are getting better at responding...hope the website gets fixrd soon now that we are used to managing our res that way

Gosh no kidding. I can't believe a functional website is still on our wish list... insane

I wish they would speak up too. It has been like this for eight months now, I simply can't make a payment online no matter what I do. Why do I have to call and be subjected to 90 minute waits to give them my money? The frustrating thing is that my debit card has a $500 daily limit to minimize fraud/stolen charges, so I either have to call the bank and have them raise the limit for a day, and then call celebrity and pay the entire balance at once, or call Celebrity 5 times for each cabin that I need to pay for, in order to pay $2500 in $500 increments.

If the website actually worked I could just log in five days in a row and be done with this in a total of ten minutes.

Does Celebrity read these boards? They should chime in so we at least know they are doing something. It's comedic how bad their website is.

I wonder if this resolved anything for anyone? I still can't make any payments online, it just gives me an error every time. Really disappointing.

That's great to hear, because Celebrity told us we can't board until 3. I'm hoping that's bs.

Thank you so much, I really appreciate this.

Hi -

We are taking the Southern Caribbean cruise on Summit Dec 6, it leaves at 8:30pm. I'm really disappointed in the pre-cruise hotel I booked through Priceline name your price, and I'm hoping we can board the ship really early. Anybody know what time embarkation starts for such a late departure?

Thanks!

Must be the luck of the Irish! I attempted to call several times last week and each time the wait was 45-60 minutes. Hung up after that and called them the first thing they opened one morning and wait time was 15 minutes. Difficult getting anything done with Celebrity and no company should have customer service, booking etc with waits this lengthy. Poor business.

I couldn't agree more, and what shocks me is that I'm so in love with the brand after my last cruise on Reflection that I'm actually willing to put up with it! I obviously had a pretty great experience, but it has nearly been outweighed by the ridiculous second booking experience. It's like they are doing everything in their power to deter me from a second cruise.

I've used Chrome, Firefox, and two versions of Internet Explorer on at least two computers and probably more like four. They've confirmed it is an issue for 'some customers' and don't know how to overcome it, but I was told today it might be fixed later this summer.

Of all the things to break you'd think the payment system would be QUICKLY fixed. :D

I cruised on Celebrity for the first time last December and it was absolutely impeccable. That said, I can't believe how troublesome booking my second cruise has been.

Twice I have had to call and ask them to put the $250 credit back on my invoice because it keeps magically disappearing.

The wait time on the phone has been 80 minutes or more on at least half a dozen occasions.

When I try to submit a payment on the website (I’ve tried three browsers on two computers over six months) I get an error or ‘website not found’. I called and asked what the issue was, and the support person said that it happens with some of the customers and he doesn’t know why, but I’d have to submit all payments by phone. It was clear they were aware of the issue and it isn’t being fixed.

I'm paying 6k for two suites, is this really the level of service I can expect from an upscale cruise brand?