Is the century Fiasco going to affect your plans to cruise celebrity again?

[Jade13]

I really don't know what to think and haven't voted.

 

I really enjoy Celebrity cruises and think their on-board service is top notch under normal circumstances.

 

But their overall customer service, beyond the day-to-day on board experiance, is very disappointing. It is bad enough seeing all the incorrect and inconsistent customer service responses to everyday questions. But now to see the terrible way that those on the Century were treated is just deplorable. Every time it looks like they are about to step up to the bar there is a new rash of confusion and problems cropping up on the Century discussion. I think there are some passengers who are reporting they still haven't received the base refunds promised before they left the ship over a month ago! Even if the financial issues are eventually addressed there are lingering doubts due to the way things were handled. On top of everything I don't think there has ever been a statement from Celebrity's executives apologizing to those who suffered through this mess. It makes the "thank you for sailing Celebrity" canned letters we've received after recent cruises from Hanrahan ring very hollow now that we know how they treat people when problems arise.

 

And today there is a new thread about a Solstice cancellation for a European cruise next season where the ship is now being chartered. The original cruise is less than a year out and the poster already has purchased airfare and can't even get a straight answer from Celebrity as to whether their cruise will be cancelled or not.

 

 

Agree 100% with everything you have said. The Miami (and Kansas Call Center) "pre/post cruise experience" is overall poor continually and does not match the on-board experience.

[JeanfromBNA]

I'm still back on "What Century fiasco?" :confused:

[boom_boom]

We were on the TA that followed the disaster and I will say it seemed as if there had been some lessons learned. Senior officers were very visable and easily interacted with passengers. However, the Customer Service(Front Desk) was non-existant when it came to "service". This was our first Celebrity cruise, would hesitate to use them again, but for the right ports and the right price would at least consider. Much prefer HAL or Oceania.

[carolinagal]

I'm still back on "What Century fiasco?" :confused:

 

The cruise fiasco referred to was the Century 10/13, 12 day Mediterranean cruise that was cancelled on the 2nd night while anchored off the coast of France.

Look up thread "Century 10/13 cruise cancelled in Nice". Go to page 52, post #1035, benatty.

[Lsimon]

I'm still back on "What Century fiasco?" :confused:

Try reading the following thread and article.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1292056

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=4245

[emairs]

I'm curious, are all the negatives "never never never ever Celebrity" poll respondents all off the Century Med tow in?

 

No, I was not on that cruise, and I'm done with Celebrity.

[dkjretired]

Larry - Your post was, as usual, very well stated. It echoed my own opinions, so I will not restate them. Florisdekort - are you trying to state that you feel Celebrity made no mistakes on how they handled the situation and could not have done a better job with their guest relations?

 

Celebrity has been my cruise line of choice for over a decade, even though I have consistently had problems with their customer service whenever it was needed to be used. The onboard experience they provide is outstanding when things go right. However, I have no desire to put my wife and myself into a position of being stranded in a foreign country because their ship broke down and they forced me off without assistance to find my way home, regardless of the odds of it happening. Of course, there was no way they could wave a magic wand and find transportation for 1800 passengers in 24 hours. But if they truly wanted to go beyond their passengers' expectations, as they advertise, they would have allowed the passengers to stay onboard longer in order to make arrangements, they would have taken ownership of the problem, and at the very least, offered an apology to the passengers who were not only deprived of their vacations, but were drastically inconvenienced, both physically and financially. I do not care for Carnival, but credit must be given to the fact that they did all of the above mentioned things and had transportation arrangements for all their passengers made by the time they made port. If Celebrity hadn't been so concerned about their bottom line and getting the ship repaired and back to work, they could have done the same thing and saved this public relations nightmare.

 

I'm only going to point out that the Carnival and Celebrity breakdowns were totally different, Carnival was able to keep their passengers on board while Celebrity was not. Century broke down in a tender port which meant everything had to be off loaded by tender. Finally, at the time there were strikes all over Europes transportation system which caused problems for Celebrity. They fell into what might be called a "perfect storm." Customer relations is something else, Celebrity does a poor job both before and after cruises...

[Chicago Boy]

I couldn't vote, because the one "Yes" answer implies Celebrity made a mistake - which I disagree with.

 

Yes, I will sail with them again. A lot.

 

On any cruise line there's a chance a ship will break down, and for it to happen in a tender port during a local transportation strike was simply bad luck. It is not Celebrity's fault either that unreasonable passengers then expect them to simply wave a magic wand and arrange hotels and flights home for 1750 people within 24 hours - whilst dealing with yelling guests at Guest Relations who demand updates every 15 minutes.

 

I have been on a cruise ship myself that broke down mid cruise, and the one thing I will always remember is the horrendous behavior of my follow passengers - which only resulted in things going from bad to worse for all of us. Within hours the staff was stressing out, in some cases even brought to tears, and running of the job.

 

I agree with Floris.....We don't know all of the details,what has transpired, who has been reimbursed and who has not. Some have indicated they have others not yet. Our experience with Celebrity has always been very positive and until we have been given a reason to cruise with another cruise line we will continue to cruise with them. In fact, we have just returned from the Rome to Fort Lauderdale Trans Atlantic cruise and have already booked our next cruise for 2011. Is Celebrity perfect? Of course not but they do the best job of any Premium cruise line on the market. They are as close to a luxury cruise as you are going to get for the price. We have sailed luxury and they are thousands of dollars more than Celebrity Quite frankly not worth the extra dollars. At least for us.

 

Passengers can and do behave very badly. Just reading these boards it is quite clear there are those who want far more than what they have paid for. They complain like crazy if the price drops and they don't get a reduction or on board credit and they are looking for discounts or special deals at every turn. I wonder how these people would feel if they were told the price of their cabin has gone up and you owe us X amount of extra dollars. I think the answer is.... they would be extremely upset. They forget it cuts both ways. I would wager that many who complain the loudest do not live or eat as well at home.

[A Sixth?]

I'm curious, are all the negatives "never never never ever Celebrity" poll respondents all off the Century Med tow in?

 

No, I was not on that cruise, and I'm done with Celebrity.

 

Okay, that's one. Any others?

[floridatravelersforlife]

I wish people would focus on the root cause of the incident. According to the media the Century hit rocks in the harbor of Villefrance. This happens to be a very tight harbor. When we were there on the Millenium I was surprised how close to the shore the ships came when they were spinning around to leave the harbor. I can't defend the Captain or crew nor do I know the circumstances of the other ships moored at port that day. My only question is what was the harbor captain (French) doing?

 

This was not the first rock hit at this port that I am aware of. Sometime back in 2005-2008 I believe one of the RCCL ships also hit rocks.

 

Unless new facts arise, I'll stay with Celebrity, in fact I am on the Century, Australian/Hawaii B2B's. This event was caused by external events, not breakdown nor poor maintenance. Hopefully Celebrity learned a lesson on handling a crisis.

[carolinagal]

I wish people would focus on the root cause of the incident. According to the media the Century hit rocks in the harbor of Villefrance. This happens to be a very tight harbor. When we were there on the Millenium I was surprised how close to the shore the ships came when they were spinning around to leave the harbor. I can't defend the Captain or crew nor do I know the circumstances of the other ships moored at port that day. My only question is what was the harbor captain (French) doing?

 

This was not the first rock hit at this port that I am aware of. Sometime back in 2005-2008 I believe one of the RCCL ships also hit rocks.

 

Unless new facts arise, I'll stay with Celebrity, in fact I am on the Century, Australian/Hawaii B2B's. This event was caused by external events, not breakdown nor poor maintenance. Hopefully Celebrity learned a lesson on handling a crisis.

 

The media speculated as to the real cause of the rudder failure. We were aboard the ship and there has never been an explanation to the passengers as to what really happened. Maybe that's why the captain and senior officers went into hiding, so that they wouldn't accidentally spill the beans as to the cause of our abrupt off loading in Nice. To the person who implied that passengers were rude, to the contrary. Celebrity was very lucky this was an extremely well behaved and accepting group of people. If there were exceptions, I did not see it on the ship, the dock, the ten hour bus ride or the hotel back in Barcelona.

[i guide the sky]

To those who took exception to the poll wording, sorry for your issues. But I think you get the intent of it, will you or will you not cruise Celebrity again as a result of their handling of the Century in france. Yes or no.

 

As for me, after sifting through the threads, I think that celebrity got caught in a bad situation with the strike and tender port and the fact that nice isn't the largest city in france wich make international travel difficult. They did not haddle it well at all, especially with the close comparason to the carnival situation only a few months later. However, I can't think of a better line for my tasts so I have to say I will continue cruising with insurance of course. If its my time for a cruise disaster then that's gods will.

[We're The Groupnors]

We feel for the people who were on the Century, and agree that Celebrity could have handled this particular situation better. Communication is key, even if little else can be done.

 

That being said, we were twice in situations with Celebrity that were handled very well, both stemming from the propultion issued they used to have on the Infinity. Two cruises were cancelled, both just days before sailing, and we had accommodation and air booked for both. In the end Celebrity did all they could to get us new bookings, etc., but I also believe that one of the reasons they were so helpful was becuase we have a cracker jack Travel Agent who has our best interests at heart and likely went to bat with Celebrity on issues of which we were not even aware. So, yes, we will continue to cruise with Celebrity, and we will always book those cruises through our awesome TA.

[lvcruiser]

Passengers can and do behave very badly. Just reading these boards it is quite clear there are those who want far more than what they have paid for. They complain like crazy if the price drops and they don't get a reduction or on board credit and they are looking for discounts or special deals at every turn. I wonder how these people would feel if they were told the price of their cabin has gone up and you owe us X amount of extra dollars. I think the answer is.... they would be extremely upset. They forget it cuts both ways. I would wager that many who complain the loudest do not live or eat as well at home.

 

You have made this point in prior posts, so I guess you just don't understand the business world very well. It does not cut both ways if a business wants to retain its customer base. Whether it's correct or not, the golden rule of the business world is the customer is always right because in most cases, the business wants the customer more than the customer wants the business. If a cruise line tried to raise the price of someone's cruise who had already booked for a lower price, they would lose all of the customers that had already booked; it isn't a matter of the customers whining about it as you intimate - it's a matter of losing business for doing something completely contrary to good or standard business practices. It is human nature to want to get the best deal possible - there is nothing wrong with that, so why are you trying to make this a sticking point? I agree that some passengers of any problem cruise will try to take advantage of the situation to attempt to come out ahead, and that is wrong. Again, simple human nature. I have not read any posts from the passengers on this cruise that have wanted to get anymore than what they expended on their busted vacation. Go to the Carnival thread regarding the Splendor and you'll find one woman complaining that the cruise given to her isn't really free because she'll have to pay for child care when she goes on it. I don't recall any of the Century passengers making complaints such as that.

 

I'm curious, are all the negatives "never never never ever Celebrity" poll respondents all off the Century Med tow in?

 

 

 

Okay, that's one. Any others?

 

Because of the handling of this situation along with several past customer service issues with Celebrity, my upcoming Eclipse cruise will be my last. I have always considered Celebrity to be the best premium or mainstream cruise line and sailed on them exclusively for the past several years. However, I am not a slave to cruising and will easily find land based vacations that will satisfy me.

 

I wish people would focus on the root cause of the incident.

 

Why? The fiasco being addressed in this thread is not what caused the breakdown that pre-empted the cruise. It is the fiasco that Celebrity created for themselves and their passengers by not handling the situation properly. They did not, and still have not provided their passengers with complete resolution to the matter, and it is now a month and a half after the incident. The cause of the cruise cancellation is not material in this discussion; what happened after the cancellation is the relevant topic. As stated before many times by many people, Celebrity's product is outstanding when things go right, but when things go wrong, they fall quite short in the guest relations and customer service departments. Hopefully, they have learned a lesson from this and regardless of the cause of the next cancelled cruise, they will handle their customer service issues with greater care.

 

Don - has it ever been disclosed why the passengers were forced off the ship so quickly? Your point of the transportation strikes going on at the time in Europe makes an even stronger case of allowing the passengers to remain onboard for a longer time if the ship was not experiencing imminent danger. Just as they tendered off the ship, they could have tendered on additional supplies to keep the passengers even more comfortable than those on the Splendor.

[Orator]

i was just reading about all the strife caused by the late century fiasco. So what say you on the flavor celebrity has left in your mouth with the handling of this problem.

 

no!

[Chicago Boy]

You have made this point in prior posts, so I guess you just don't understand the business world very well. It does not cut both ways if a business wants to retain its customer base. Whether it's correct or not, the golden rule of the business world is the customer is always right because in most cases, the business wants the customer more than the customer wants the business. If a cruise line tried to raise the price of someone's cruise who had already booked for a lower price, they would lose all of the customers that had already booked; it isn't a matter of the customers whining about it as you intimate - it's a matter of losing business for doing something completely contrary to good or standard business practices. It is human nature to want to get the best deal possible - there is nothing wrong with that, so why are you trying to make this a sticking point? I agree that some passengers of any problem cruise will try to take advantage of the situation to attempt to come out ahead, and that is wrong. Again, simple human nature. I have not read any posts from the passengers on this cruise that have wanted to get anymore than what they expended on their busted vacation. Go to the Carnival thread regarding the Splendor and you'll find one woman complaining that the cruise given to her isn't really free because she'll have to pay for child care when she goes on it. I don't recall any of the Century passengers making complaints such as that.

 

 

 

Because of the handling of this situation along with several past customer service issues with Celebrity, my upcoming Eclipse cruise will be my last. I have always considered Celebrity to be the best premium or mainstream cruise line and sailed on them exclusively for the past several years. However, I am not a slave to cruising and will easily find land based vacations that will satisfy me.

 

 

 

Why? The fiasco being addressed in this thread is not what caused the breakdown that pre-empted the cruise. It is the fiasco that Celebrity created for themselves and their passengers by not handling the situation properly. They did not, and still have not provided their passengers with complete resolution to the matter, and it is now a month and a half after the incident. The cause of the cruise cancellation is not material in this discussion; what happened after the cancellation is the relevant topic. As stated before many times by many people, Celebrity's product is outstanding when things go right, but when things go wrong, they fall quite short in the guest relations and customer service departments. Hopefully, they have learned a lesson from this and regardless of the cause of the next cancelled cruise, they will handle their customer service issues with greater care.

 

Don - has it ever been disclosed why the passengers were forced off the ship so quickly? Your point of the transportation strikes going on at the time in Europe makes an even stronger case of allowing the passengers to remain onboard for a longer time if the ship was not experiencing imminent danger. Just as they tendered off the ship, they could have tendered on additional supplies to keep the passengers even more comfortable than those on the Splendor.

 

 

Dear LV,

We are indeed blessed to have one as wise as you to respond and correct our postings. :D

 

I ran a very successful business for many years which allows us to travel when and where we please. That being said, I know the difference between those who are looking for a good deal and those who want to own the farm but that is not the point. I don't think we can judge Celebrity without knowing all the facts and clearly we don't. There are several unknows. For instance, who purchased insurance and who was foolish enough not to. If one has insurance, what does it cover, what kind of trip interruption is in that particular policy? It can vary depending on the level of coverage chosen. I believe there are lots of variables and lots of unknows. It's just my opinion and I stand by it.

 

I didn't realize you read my posting so closely.

[MiamiSky66]

what is the smoking policy on the Century?

[Lsimon]

... I don't think we can judge Celebrity without knowing all the facts and clearly we don't. There are several unknows. For instance, who purchased insurance and who was foolish enough not to. If one has insurance, what does it cover, what kind of trip interruption is in that particular policy?...

 

The main discussion on the Century problem indicated that with very rare exception those who bought insurance had no coverage for the event as it was due to a breakdown of the ship. Most travel insurance policies are written to cover expenses that would normally be the problem of the cruiser themselves (such as sickness, weather, theft, accidental delays, etc) and not events that would normally be the financial responsibility of others like a cruise ship breakdown. Where breakdowns are covered it is normally under provision like travel delay or interruption with the intention that the coverage would be for incidental expenses like getting to the ship if a mechinical problem caused a late flight and therefore the amounts of coverage were small -most reported something like $500.

 

Besides the whole issue of insurance has little or nothing to do with how Celebrity treated the passengers on this trip.

[Chicago Boy]

The main discussion on the Century problem indicated that with very rare exception those who bought insurance had no coverage for the event as it was due to a breakdown of the ship. Most travel insurance policies are written to cover expenses that would normally be the problem of the cruiser themselves (such as sickness, weather, theft, accidental delays, etc) and not events that would normally be the financial responsibility of others like a cruise ship breakdown. Where breakdowns are covered it is normally under provision like travel delay or interruption with the intention that the coverage would be for incidental expenses like getting to the ship if a mechinical problem caused a late flight and therefore the amounts of coverage were small -most reported something like $500.

 

Besides the whole issue of insurance has little or nothing to do with how Celebrity treated the passengers on this trip.

 

 

You bring up some very good points. I still maintain we don't know the facts nor do we know what Celebrity has done, could have done or is going to do for those passengers that were affected by this unfortunate event. At the very least Celebrity seems to have a public relations problem at the moment. At least on these boards. Still Celebrity remains our cruise line of choice. We have booked for 2011.

[lvcruiser]

Dear LV,

We are indeed blessed to have one as wise as you to respond and correct our postings. :D

 

I ran a very successful business for many years which allows us to travel when and where we please. That being said, I know the difference between those who are looking for a good deal and those who want to own the farm but that is not the point. I don't think we can judge Celebrity without knowing all the facts and clearly we don't. There are several unknows. For instance, who purchased insurance and who was foolish enough not to. If one has insurance, what does it cover, what kind of trip interruption is in that particular policy? It can vary depending on the level of coverage chosen. I believe there are lots of variables and lots of unknows. It's just my opinion and I stand by it.

 

I didn't realize you read my posting so closely.

 

You are absolutely correct: it is your opinion, and you are entitled to it. However, your opinion appears to be attempting to deflect the blame of what happened from Celebrity to anything else you can think of, such as the thoughts you had of insurance which were summarily dismissed by Larry before I had the chance to do so myself. Passenger's attitudes, the insurance they did or did not purchase, they way they complain, or the way they always want a better deal have nothing to do with the issue of Celebrity dropping the ball on this event. If that is the only opinion you have, maybe it shouldn't have been stated since it has nothing to do with what Celebrity has or has not done. Do you think Celebrity is taking the stance of late or non-payment with many passengers because they whined too much or got too good of a deal?

 

You are right when you state that we really do not know the status of every passenger on this cruise and what Celebrity has or has not done. However, most people agree the information gleaned from the posters on this and other boards can be considered a reasonable sampling of the overall picture. It appears that Celebrity has finally begun making payments of some amount to most passengers, some in full and others in partial amounts. But why did it take them so long, and why hasn't full restitution been made to every passenger before now, especially in light of how their competition handled a related incident so well, with credits and refunds being given to most passengers prior to their disembarkation?

 

BTW, I appreciate you recognizing my wisdom and abilities; your sarcasm, however, is duly noted. Maybe it's just a Chicago-St. Louis thing. You probably don't like thin crust pizza and I can't stand deep dish.:D

[Jade13]

The main discussion on the Century problem indicated that with very rare exception those who bought insurance had no coverage for the event as it was due to a breakdown of the ship. Most travel insurance policies are written to cover expenses that would normally be the problem of the cruiser themselves (such as sickness, weather, theft, accidental delays, etc) and not events that would normally be the financial responsibility of others like a cruise ship breakdown. Where breakdowns are covered it is normally under provision like travel delay or interruption with the intention that the coverage would be for incidental expenses like getting to the ship if a mechinical problem caused a late flight and therefore the amounts of coverage were small -most reported something like $500.

 

Besides the whole issue of insurance has little or nothing to do with how Celebrity treated the passengers on this trip.

 

Without reading through the entire thread again (plus I spoke to a insurance person - someone who posts on these boards), many policy's cover this under trip interruption. My understanding of the problem was that the policy through Celebrity did not cover mechanical breakdown so they covered a small amount under trip delay. A lot of folks bought through Celebrity.

[meembop]

Just be aware that many of us on the ill-fated cruise are still waiting to get our promised compensation. I'm hopeful at this point that it will eventually come through. BUT for me the big thing is how badly we were treated at the point of the incident. This is what I learned---Always, always have plenty of money in your bank account, plenty of credit on several cards and be prepared for the unexpected. Always take a cell phone with cheap international calling and an Ipad or laptop. These are the things that made the difference for us. We didn't have the vacation we planned, but we had a vacation we will remember forever.