So Mad With Celebrity - Last Minute Change Dec 31

After hearing and reading a few stories about how Celebrity's customer service outside the ship is suffering these days, I'll add this.

We are cruising out of San Juan on Constellation on New Years Eve. Yesterday, just 3 days prior to sailing, we are informed because the locals want to celebrate New Years, the cruise pier will close at 9:00pm and Connie will sail then. The original sailing time was 11:00pm. Our flights are booked to arrive at 7:15pm and now we have a huge problem. I talked to Celebrity's customer service today and they said "oh - you should be OK". They are making sure all their air clients are in San Juan by 7:45, they tell me their last bus transfer from the airport leaves at 8:00. Therefore, in theory, we should be OK. That however is cutting it WAY TOO close for my liking. They couldn't answer a lot of my questions, such as - the people on the bus transfers will obviously have no problem getting on last minute, but about us who have made our own travel arrangements? Will they be so accomodating when we arrive last minute? Will they enforce the 1 hour prior boarding rule? Their response - "well, we would think they would be accomodating in this situation". "They should be" isn't very promising! I have a horrible feeling we might be stranded in San Juan on New Years Eve through no fault of our own. We booked our flight to arrive 3 hours and 45 minutes before departure and now thanks to Celebrity, were worried sick.

I can hear all the - "you should have booked air with Celebrity" or "You should arrive the night before" or "4 hours prior isn't enough time" comments now.

The fact remains, changing a cruise ships departure time 3 days before sailing is pretty poor customer relations. They have sailed from this port for years and they shold have known this when they set the departure time.

Since it will cost $1200 to get an earlier flight.........wish us luck getting on a standby the day of to try and get in earlier.

I can assure you, Celebrity has gone from top of our list to bottom in a hurry. Their on board customer service has always been extraordinary, but their precruise service is suffering badly. Be warned.

2 P's,

It's tough when there are last minute changes such as you've described. Hopefully, your flights will be on time and you won't have any problems boarding by 9 p.m.

Implicit in your message is your belief that Celebrity knew of the changed sail away time some time ago and is only now relaying that change to passengers. Do you know this for a fact or is it possible that, unlike prior years when the ship left at 11 p.m., the cruise authorities in San Juan sprang the early closure of the cruise pier on Celebrity at the last minute? It doesn't make sense to me that Celebrity would risk antagonizing many passengers by withholding crucial information about a change in the sail away time until the last few days. But who knows, stranger things have happened with Customer Service Departments.

Good luck. I'm sure things will work out.

yes indeed...Good luck!!

I hope they didn't know - I'm sure it came as a suprise to them. You have to wonder how this happens though? i find it very odd that searching the board, there is no other post about it. I wonder how many are in or position and don't even realise it. Imagine being away for the x-mas holidays at family and coming home to find this message and you flight is arriving at say 8:30. I guess what irked me more than anything was the "oh well, too bad so sad" attitude of customer service. After hearing the story from my agent, I wanted to call and hear the same story for myself. When I explained the situation, the customer service rep said "I don't understand your concern sir, I show the ship leaving on time with no change". I asked - so it's still leaving at 11:00? No she said, I show it leaving on time at 9:00. I then had to explain that was a changed time and she went off to investigate. She returned to say that yes I was right - the sail time had changed. Now, had I just accepted the original answer "there has been no change to the departure time", I could have really be led a stray. I would have thought customer service reps would be a little more knowledgable and helpful.

Oh well, nothing we can do about it now except hope - these things happen. I could have worse problems in life than trying to make a cruise ship.....I could be planning the funeral of a loved one....I'll keep it in perspective!

On a different note, I asked this in another thread but no response yet, and since we are starting to panic a bit, can anyone answer this?

Does anyone know how long it typically takes to clear the airport at San Juan. We are arriving on a Dash 8 from St. Thomas and due to a moved up departure time, we need to get through fast. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

I assume since we came from the US, we are already cleared customs wise?

I have read about a Taxi desk you need to visit to arrange your cab? Any pointers?

Since it was their lateness in getting word to you why not insist that they let you take their transfers from airport to ship--then it becomes their problem. If a whole group is late they will hold the ship esp if it is their arangements. We sailed Connie from NYC & it was a gridlock alert day--they held the ship several hrs til pax from airport could arrive....Hope they agree to help you out--

Yes, I have one. Having been there on earlier flights twice and knowing the tremendous amount of travelers....right off the bat in baggage claim SIZE UP THE NUMBER OF TRAVELERS! If there are tons, find the skycap IMMEDIATELY. Tell him/her with the right amount of seriousness and levity that your ship is sailing ahead of scehdule due to an unexpected change for the holiday and you need to be on it asap. You will get them to get you out of any potential line queue and to a taxi that will be off to the side and you can get going ahead of the others who are waiting for the next one up. The skycap will write the taxi pass for your fare. You do not need to go to the taxi desk. Leave a nice tip for the skycap. I do like the previous posters idea to push it back on the cruiseline. If that plan fails, use this as Plan B. Good Luck!

2 P's

Thank goodness we looked at the boards - we are on the same sailing and had NO idea the time had changed.

We are scheduled to arrive at 1 pm but we dont like to cut things close either.

Since this was a last minute trip we could not get time off to fly the day before as we normally do so we hope we dont have problems .

Hope to see you on board - if we make it ok maybe a martini is in order?

Good luck to us all.

Moya

FWIW, we had some friends at my workplace whose flight to Miami was late because Hartsfield was shutdown due to a security breach (Nov 2001). Although they were about to take a cab to the pier, they were persuaded by a Celebrity rep at the airport to take the Celebrity bus instead (I believe that they had already purchased a transfer in advance). They lost time waiting on the bus for more passengers to arrive. The bus arrived at the pier just in time for everyone to watch Horizon sail away without them. Maybe this had something to do with the decision, but the bus then drove overnight to the next port which happened to be Key West but our friends still ended up missing one day of their cruise.

I guess my point from all this is that having a bus transfer thru Celebrity isn't a guarantee that you'll make the ship in time although it does make sense that Celebrity would wait as long as they can for the bus. Also I would second FinelyCruising's recommendation of grabbing a taxi (although I would get a Skycap regardless of the number of travelers).

A couple of good pointers there and a good idea. Thanks. I called my agent and she agreed that Celebrity should eat the transfers. Only problem is, customer service is closed for the day, so my answer will have to wait until morning.

Another interesting thing she told me was RCCL moved up the departure on some of their ships from San juan today. Makes me wonder how many people are going to get caught in this and how may might be spending New Years Eve on the pier in Old San juan????

(although I would get a Skycap regardless of the number of travelers).

Excuse my ignorance, but is that what we call a "porter"? the guys who help you with your bags?

As Moya just demonstrated - looks like a lot of people may not know about this.....definitely not good.

For factoring in travel time from the airport to the pier, it takes almost every bit of a half hour if you want to round up time to those segments.

Yup to the porter.

Excuse my ignorance' date=' but is that what we call a "porter"? the guys who help you with your bags?

 

As Moya just demonstrated - looks like a lot of people may not know about this.....definitely not good.[/quote']

 

Yes, porter is a better term than what I used.

 

Good luck with everything.

There is no customs to clear.

The flight from St Thomas is a very small plane. Luggage should pop through very quickly. Sometimes when I've flown this size aircraft, I just picked up my luggage on the tarmac.

Plenty of cabs available. Shouldn't be much traffic.

Now.... I have to notify MYclients, since Celebrity DID NOT notify me!!

Good Luck, I personally wouldn't have risked flying in the same day from Pittsburgh let alone Canada. Too risky betting on the weather being good enough not to delay or cancel a flight.

It's a shame you end up this stressed due to changes made by Puerto Rican Port Authority.

...another perfect example of why you **ALWAYS** fly in at least one day before your cruise.

I flew to San Juan from Baltimore in March 2004 for a repositioning cruise aboard Galaxy with Celebrity. We had to connect through Boston first before heading south to San Juan, and we picked the EARLIEST possible flights departing BWI around 7:00AM. After our connection, we would arrive in San Juan around 4:30PM -- plenty of time to make our 11:00PM departure from San Juan Pier, right?

Bad news...the pilot NEVER showed up for the first flight, so we had to wait for another to arrive. We sat in BWI for over 3 hours until we left...and we arrived for our connection in Boston just in time to see it departing.

Guess what? The next flight for San Juan out of Boston didn't leave for another FOUR hours. By the time we arrived in San Juan, it was around 10:30PM local time. There is absolutely no way we would have made the ship.

Want the good news? This all happened one day BEFORE our cruise left. Instead, we were tired from traveling, enjoyed a relaxing evening at the hotel, and got up the next morning to enjoy San Juan before boarding Galaxy.

Always, always, always fly out a day early. If you can't, don't bother booking. With the airlines these days, there is a VERY high probability of delays, etc.

Our last cruise on the Millie, we got a little confused about the departure time. We showed up 45 minutes before the gangway was pulled up. I've never had a smoother embarkation. When going threw security they X-rayed my bag and asked what was in it. I said check it out. We don't have time was their answer. The lifeboat drill was just starting as we arrived. When we got to our cabin it already had the red dummy key in the door (indicating it had been checked and vacant) so we blew that off. Only downside...we missed our welcome aboard mimosa!

No worries, I think you will be fine. Sorry this happened, I find anticipation to be half the fun of cruising.

David

...another perfect example of why you **ALWAYS** fly in at least one day before your cruise.

 

I agree whole-heartedly!

We are flying in on the first flight of the morning, the day before our cruise leaves. If the weather looks bad at any of our airports (departure, lay-over or destination), we are also thinking of getting to the airport a day before that and see if we can stand-by or change our intinerary. We're not going to be left behind when the ship pulls out of port.

TIP: The night before your flights, check the weather at all of your airports on your intinerary. Knowing your forecasted weather will give you an idea of what your flight delays may look like. And when it's bad.....show up early!

Try to have Celebrity provide ground transfers -- that way they will be awaiting your arrival at the baggage claim -- "meet and greet".

If that won't work, you might consider reserving a car and driver to meet you at the airport -- that will eliminate any potential hassles with the cab stand or line.

Good luck!! This is gonna be TIGHT!!

2 Ps, I've been in and out of SJU several times. It is very efficient, and you won't have customs to clear as it is a USA territory. If you can get RCCL/Celebrity to comp/handle the transfers that is the best option as it becomes their problem to manage. Even if they don't, I think you are looking at possibly 1hr tops from "wheels down" to being at the port. A little close, but you should be ok. The porter idea is also very good, and all employees know where the well-marked taxi booth is so just ask any of the airport employees. It is right at the exit to the baggage pickup.

HOWEVER, try to find out which side of the bay Connie is leaving from. The taxi drivers don't always know. They dock on both sides, and the time from one side to the other can be 15 minutes or more.

I think you will be alright, but I understand your apprehension. Best of luck!

Good luck to you. I hope that you have a great time on Constellation because you are on it the week before us! I know that sounds silly but I have nnothing but good hopes for you. Once you board, go immediately to the martini bar and begin your cruise. Leave the anxiety at the pier with the partying dock workers.

If in doubt...if it's close...grab a cab!!! Don't worry about buses or transfers...it won't matter what you paid for them if you are left standing on the peir watching the ship sail.

This is a Mickey Mouse move by X...they are the customer of the peir...it should never have been allowed to happen.

If in doubt...if it's close...grab a cab!!! Don't worry about buses or transfers...it won't matter what you paid for them if you are left standing on the peir watching the ship sail.

 

This is a Mickey Mouse move by X...they are the customer of the peir...it should never have been allowed to happen.

I agree with Danno on both counts. Besides, if by taking a cab, you get ahead of a couple buses, you'll likely miss a frantic time at check-in.

New Year's Eve is not an unexpected event and Celebrity should have confirmed this with pier workers weeks ago, if not months ago.

I might spend the extra $$ to change my flight to an earlier one if available.

Good luck to you.

Patti

New Year's Eve is not an unexpected event and Celebrity should have confirmed this with pier workers weeks ago, if not months ago.

These people wouldn't want to work for me :mad: ..."we're open, the customers (X) need us to be open, you work OR there's the door"!!

I have to agree that Celebrity should have had this nailed down long ago, since New Years Eve is not a sudden event. Having said that I really must say that anyone who flies to a sail away destination with an expected arrival time with 5 hours of the scheduled sail is asking for trouble. Even if there hadn't been a change in time here (and remember we're only talking TWO HOURS) you could be delayed enroute for more than that amount of time just due to routine types of situations. I travel frequently for business and have experienced many flight delays of more than 2 hours, due to late flight crews, weather, maintenance issues, even excessive air traffic etc. You are risking a whole lot of grief if you don't plan your travel expecting it to be late and planning accordingly. While many people cannot afford the time or expense of arriving the day early, you can surely plan a flight that gets you in at least 6-8 hours ahead of time. Even then a sudden snowstorm anywhere in the country (not just where you are flying from) can cause LONG delays for flights all around the country.

good luck

abby