Celebrity scraps some East Med cruises

[Andy]

Because of the turmoil within the EU, Greece might become a dangerous port. And if the Euro collapses, things could get even worse and cruise lines may have to rethink a lot of their itineraries.

 

I agree Darcie. If the EU doesnt get their act together *very* soon, I would anticipate a huge amount of deployment changes from all Cruise lines. This could be the very start of things to come. Time will tell.

[LunaSeaRetreat]

Has anyone effected heard anything from Celebrity or their TA yet? I can't even find any of the "new" cruises listed.

 

I don't want the wine cruise, but a couple of the others on different ships sound interesting. I glanced at the cruise contract and it says something like they must offer us a similar cruise to the value or higher with no extra cost to us, or a total refund. But if we cancelled we would lose our deposit. Well, we can't cancel a cancelled cruise so I guess I only will lose the interest on the deposit.

 

They are not offering any similar cruises so maybe we will get more choices.

 

I am very disheartened. We will be taking our first cruise as Elite next month and I was looking forward to Celebrity being our main cruise line. Now I'm looking at other cruise lines to replace this one.

 

Cynthia

[bling19572010]

Kudos to X..... a travel advisory has been issued until Jan '12....:p

 

I for one will now book all my sailings with them with this adjustment...just saying .

 

It is too costly and dangerous to deal with some itineraries and they made an ED...(executive decision):D.

 

 

CC

 

 

Where did you see this travel advisory report?

[austinlw]

I can't blame them for wanting to avoid ports in increasingly volatile areas in favor of ports in more stable areas. Seems like a reasonable business decision to me. Every time something serious happens in the news around the Eastern Med they probably get a wave of cancellations. They obviously want full ships and happy passengers who are not worried about their safety in the ports they visit. Some of the new Sillhouette itineraries out of Venice look really interesting to us.

[TourDeCruise]

No, we also have not heard from the TA or Celebrity on our canceled September 2012 cruise. My Celebrity no longer shows our booking. We will be talking to the TA today or tomorrow anyway because final payment is due on another one of our X cruises. I found out about the cancelation via Cruise Critic on the rollcall thread and also via this thread.

 

Does X usually offer an incentive to re-book, such as a combinable shipboard credit that one can combine with the shareholder credit and/or the Passages credit?

 

Kathy

[4774Papa]

I agree Darcie. If the EU doesnt get their act together *very* soon, I would anticipate a huge amount of deployment changes from all Cruise lines. This could be the very start of things to come. Time will tell.

There are some uncertainties that could affect travel to Europe, particularly in the Med.

However, if Greece and/or Spain, Portugal go off the Euro, their currency would be devalued and the dollar would go farther. Prices would be lower.

 

Labor strikes will continue as the PIIGS make more cuts to stop the bleed of debt.

[cruisemom42]

I have to say I'm disappointed. I've been hoping to book a Celebrity cruise to the Med, but I much prefer the Eastern Med to the Western Med (which is much better done on a land tour IMO).

 

I can understand not wanting to venture to Egypt, and to a lesser degree to Israel. But why cut Turkey out? Turkey is one of my favorite countries with friendly people, good sightseeing, great food, beaches, and at least 5 viable ports on the Med (Istanbul, Izmir, Kusadasi, Bodrum, Antalya).

 

For me, Celebrity's itineraries lack imagination. Guess I'll have to go back to perusing offerings from Princess and HAL.

[Orator]

We should remember that it costs time and money to shift cruise ports. While I was looking forward to visiting Egypt this Novemeber, I must commend Celebrity for placing the safety of their passengers first.

[LunaSeaRetreat]

We should remember that it costs time and money to shift cruise ports. While I was looking forward to visiting Egypt this Novemeber, I must commend Celebrity for placing the safety of their passengers first.

 

Perhaps if they had stated the unrest as the reason for the change instead of making it sound like they came up with a wonderful idea, I wouldn't be so upset.

Cynthia

[LunaSeaRetreat]

Just received the offer from my TA.

 

Guests booked can choose from the following options:

Remain on the NEW 12 Night Wine Cruise, in like accommodations, at protected/ lowest rate.

Rebook on any other Celebrity sailing at the prevailing rate.

 

 

Receive a $200.00 onboard credit for the cabin for standard staterooms, $400.00 onboard credit for the cabin for Suites when you book an alternative sailing.

 

I have no interest in the wine cruise. My TA still has no pricing on the Silhouette from Venice cruises. None listed on the website.

 

Cynthia

[SoBe2010]

Just a few days ago we were notified of itinerary change for our upcoming cruise on Eclipse in November 2012.

 

What are the changes so far for your cruise?

[Orator]

Those on the CS Nov.6th Holy Land cruise have named it: The Que, Sera, Sera Cruise. Think that's a good way to look at it. Perry Grant usually sings that song so I guess it will be repeated often on this cruise. For me, I'm happy just to be on a great ship with wonderful friends. PR people usually try to put a positive spin on negative events. Yes, they could have handled the situation better, but the news is out and at least we have some idea what's happening.

[cruiseacecat]

Just received the offer from my TA.

 

Guests booked can choose from the following options:

Remain on the NEW 12 Night Wine Cruise, in like accommodations, at protected/ lowest rate.

Rebook on any other Celebrity sailing at the prevailing rate.

 

 

Receive a $200.00 onboard credit for the cabin for standard staterooms, $400.00 onboard credit for the cabin for Suites when you book an alternative sailing.

 

I have no interest in the wine cruise. My TA still has no pricing on the Silhouette from Venice cruises. None listed on the website.

 

Cynthia

I have an obc already on my cancelled cruise . Wonder if this is combinable. Still have not heard anything.

 

Anne

[Bruin Steve]

Yes...This happens from time to time on ALL cruise lines...

Cruise lines need to deal with a few issues--largely customer hesitancy to travel to unstable parts of the globe and also the insurance questions with putting people and assets at risk...

 

I am extremely happy that we did a cruise that included Tunisia, Egypt an Israel back in summer 2009...an absolutely fascinating itinerary and I, for one, would not hesitate to go again if the opportunity arose...we are actually considering returning to Israel in 2013...and I am very much interested in doing an Eastern Med itinerary that summer...Let's hope they bring them back...

 

As to the NEW itineraries:

 

We did a fairly similar "Wine" cruise on Oceania a couple of months ago...Ours went from Dover to Honfleur to Saint-Malo to Concarneau to La Rochelle to Le Verdon (Bordeaux) to St. Jean de Luz (Biarritz) to Bilbao to La Coruna to Oporto (though we missed it due to heavy fog) to Cadiz to Casablanca to Barcelona to Mionte Carlo to Livorno to Rome...It was actually an outstanding itinerary...Although we did tour the Hennessey Cognac factory outside La Rochelle and a couple of wineries in Bordeaux, there was a lot more to see on this itinerary than just wine...We visited the monastery at Mont St. Michel, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the pilgrimage cathedral in Santiago de Campostela and much more...this is a very nice side of Europe with more small towns than big cities...with some very interesting culture and history...I would not dismiss it...

 

Another very nice and often overlooked area is the Adriatic...and some cruises are being rerouted there...We found Kotor to be extremely fascinating when we visited...Dubrovnik is a long-time favorite...and Venice, of course, is incomparable...

 

Always disappointing, though, to plan a cruise and then have it drastically change...Feels like someone pulled the rug out from under you...But nothing you can do but adapt...choose another itinerary and do the Israel/Egypt thing some future year when it is offered again...or another time this year when it hasn't been changed...or perhaps another cruise line--but hope they don't alter theirs...

 

As for us, next summer, we will be on that Eclipse Iceland/Norwegian Fjords cruise mentioned in the releases...

 

See some of you there!

[Silkroad]

Has anyone effected heard anything from Celebrity or their TA yet? I can't even find any of the "new" cruises listed.

 

I don't want the wine cruise, but a couple of the others on different ships sound interesting. I glanced at the cruise contract and it says something like they must offer us a similar cruise to the value or higher with no extra cost to us, or a total refund. But if we cancelled we would lose our deposit. Well, we can't cancel a cancelled cruise so I guess I only will lose the interest on the deposit.

 

They are not offering any similar cruises so maybe we will get more choices.

 

I am very disheartened. We will be taking our first cruise as Elite next month and I was looking forward to Celebrity being our main cruise line. Now I'm looking at other cruise lines to replace this one.

 

Cynthia

 

I understand that the wine cruises should appear on the Celebrity web site tomorrow. You should not lose your deposit unless you're leaving within 70 or 90 days (can't recall exactly).

[Silkroad]

I can't blame them for wanting to avoid ports in increasingly volatile areas in favor of ports in more stable areas. Seems like a reasonable business decision to me. Every time something serious happens in the news around the Eastern Med they probably get a wave of cancellations. They obviously want full ships and happy passengers who are not worried about their safety in the ports they visit. Some of the new Sillhouette itineraries out of Venice look really interesting to us.

 

Your argument would make sense if no Celebrity cruises were going to the region. However, my September 2012 cruise would have gone to Athens, Istanbul and Ephesus, not Egypt or Libya. Further, Celebrity still has cruises going to various Greek Islands and Ephesus in fall 2012 (Reflection is one such ship). I wish they would be more forthcoming about their reasons for changing our itineraries to something completely different. I also wonder if other ships will be completely rerouted in the near future. I'm left wondering if I should bother re-booking.

[LouisV]

Has anyone effected heard anything from Celebrity or their TA yet? I can't even find any of the "new" cruises listed.

 

I don't want the wine cruise, but a couple of the others on different ships sound interesting. I glanced at the cruise contract and it says something like they must offer us a similar cruise to the value or higher with no extra cost to us, or a total refund. But if we cancelled we would lose our deposit. Well, we can't cancel a cancelled cruise so I guess I only will lose the interest on the deposit.

 

They are not offering any similar cruises so maybe we will get more choices.

 

I am very disheartened. We will be taking our first cruise as Elite next month and I was looking forward to Celebrity being our main cruise line. Now I'm looking at other cruise lines to replace this one.

 

Cynthia

 

 

I went back to the Celebrity website and couldn't even find our September 4, 2012 cruise out of Rome. I've emailed my TA today but haven't heard back yet. Good thing we haven't booked our flights yet using aeroplan points. We've only put down a deposit on the cruise.

 

Mo

[Lsimon]

...I wish they would be more forthcoming about their reasons for changing our itineraries to something completely different. I also wonder if other ships will be completely rerouted in the near future. I'm left wondering if I should bother re-booking.

 

This has happened in the past as well so it isn't unheard of. In the spring of 2009 we booked a cruise from Venice to Barcelona which was cancelled the following fall when the re-routed the ship to a different itinerary. For a short time Celebrity had few ships scheduled to sail the Western Med, or at least not the ports we wanted at the time of year we wanted, then about 4 months later the changed itineraries again and put the Century on a round trip western med route from Barcelona that we ended up on in Sept. 2010.

 

But there is one clear cut underlying reason for all such itinerary changes: SALES!! (or should that be $ALE$) No matter what the excuse or underlying issue, the bottom line is that cruise lines are in it to make a profit and if one itinerary isn't selling they'll make a change to one they think will.

[LunaSeaRetreat]

I understand that the wine cruises should appear on the Celebrity web site tomorrow. You should not lose your deposit unless you're leaving within 70 or 90 days (can't recall exactly).

 

Thanks,

I hope the other cruises that have changed will reappear. Venice and Istanbul are both on my bucket list. If I can't get that September 4 round trip Venice, I think I'll just scrap the cruise and rent an apartment in Venice or Istanbul in September or October.

 

I certainly agree that I'd like to know the real reason Celebrity thought that after all my planning , that I'd rather do a wine cruise!

Cynthia

[TourDeCruise]

For me, Celebrity's itineraries lack imagination. Guess I'll have to go back to perusing offerings from Princess and HAL.

 

Isn't that the truth! They need a few of us for some consultation and itinerary planning. ;) We've had to branch out to RCI and Azamara. HAL and Princess could be next, but we like our Elite/Diamond benefits.

 

Bruin Steve: Thanks for pointing out that the Western Med itineraries offer so much more than wine and visiting vineyards. I could do (and have done) some ports over and over because there is so much more to see than what one day will allow. You'll love Iceland and the Norwegian Fjords. We just came back from Iceland in mid-September.

 

I have an obc already on my cancelled cruise . Wonder if this is combinable. Still have not heard anything.

 

Anne

 

Hi Anne! I'm wondering the same thing along with is the $200/$400 credit incentive refundable or non-refundable if the credit is not spent on the ship. We have a $300 Passages credit or a $250 shareholder credit (for the 14-night cruise) which are not combinable but could we combine the re-booking incentive with one of them? I'll let you know what my TA says. So far she hasn't called back with Celebrity's incentive/compensation, so I'm learning from others who have heard. BTW, Elvis is sitting right here with me. If he had his way, we (dh and I, not Elvis and I, of course) wouldn't be going on any cruises.

 

Kathy

[cruiseacecat]

Isn't that the truth! They need a few of us for some consultation and itinerary planning. ;) We've had to branch out to RCI and Azamara. HAL and Princess could be next, but we like our Elite/Diamond benefits.

 

Bruin Steve: Thanks for pointing out that the Western Med itineraries offer so much more than wine and visiting vineyards. I could do (and have done) some ports over and over because there is so much more to see than what one day will allow. You'll love Iceland and the Norwegian Fjords. We just came back from Iceland in mid-September.

 

 

 

Hi Anne! I'm wondering the same thing along with is the $200/$400 credit incentive refundable or non-refundable if the credit is not spent on the ship. We have a $300 Passages credit or a $250 shareholder credit (for the 14-night cruise) which are not combinable but could we combine the re-booking incentive with one of them? I'll let you know what my TA says. So far she hasn't called back with Celebrity's incentive/compensation, so I'm learning from others who have heard. BTW, Elvis is sitting right here with me. If he had his way, we (dh and I, not Elvis and I, of course) wouldn't be going on any cruises.

 

Kathy

Hi Kathy,

 

So many questions, so few answers. I am trying to be patient, but one of the reasons I book early is to get my ducks in a row. The wine cruise is a huge itin. change and not one I have any interest in. I may actually be interested in the cruise out of Venice if it were on the Connie. Oh well, there is nothing I can do about any of this.

Nice to hear from you and please give Elvis a very big hug from me.

 

Anne

[Silkroad]

Thanks,

I hope the other cruises that have changed will reappear. Venice and Istanbul are both on my bucket list. If I can't get that September 4 round trip Venice, I think I'll just scrap the cruise and rent an apartment in Venice or Istanbul in September or October.

 

I certainly agree that I'd like to know the real reason Celebrity thought that after all my planning , that I'd rather do a wine cruise!

Cynthia

 

I feel the same way! My DH & I are so disappointed, because we really liked the combination of the ports, the days at sea, and the distance traveled. We'd not been to any of the ports except Piraeus. BTW Venice is a wonderful city! We spent several days there prior to our last cruise. Istanbul is on my list too. Someday:-) Good luck! Maybe some of us will end up on the same cruise. Michelle

[greeneg]

Given my experience with Celebrity's Cellar, their pricing, and the knowledge of their wine salesmen ( sommeliers), I would not expect this to be high in experience, value, or something that would interest me.

 

There is also the possibility that by shortening the distanced actually traveled, they can significantly impact their fuel costs.

 

I'm just glad that we did the Amsterdam to Istanbul this year and stayed over in Istanbul. It's a fascinating and friendly city and I am very happy not to have missed it.

[letsgo39]

The Equinox itinerary has not changed and will still be doing Turkey and the Greek Isles according to Celebrity. Perhaps some of you that are disappointed could rebook on the Equinox.It is round trip Rome.

[TourDeCruise]

First to Anne: Elvis enjoyed his hug from you and purred.

 

Well, we are running out of European ports that Celebrity goes where we haven't been. So dh and I decided Antarctica! We haven't been to Argentina and Antarctica, so we transfered our Sept. 5 booking to Antarctica for February 2013 on the Infinity. We should get our $300 Passages credit and the $200 Celebrity-incentive credit, which probably won't be refundable but. . .I expect shore excursions will gobble up a lot of those credits.

 

We are getting into doing TAs where we can get to some of the same Europe ports on the Constellation "Wine" cruise.

 

Our TA just called us back. She isn't positive about combinability, transferability, and refundability of shipboard credits but this is what she stated as our options and what she thinks as far as the "abilities." So please confirm this information with your TAs.

 

Option 1: Cancel the cruise and get back our deposit. (Confirm what to do if you have a Passage certificate).

 

Option 2: Go on the 12-night cruise on September 7th at the same price and get a $200 (more for suites) obc. If the price is less, then you can take the lower price and still get the $200 obc. Also, for the September 7th cruise, we could add the preceding 2-day "re-positioning" cruise free of charge except for taxes, port charges, & gratuities, since we were booked for our cruise beginning September 5th. If you weren't on the September 5th cruise, then you would get the same deal without the preceding 2-day cruise by going on the cruise in the same timeframe as your cancelled cruise.

 

Option 3: Move the booking (in our case with the Passages certificate) to any other Celebrity sailing and get $200 obc for that cruise.

 

Regarding combinability, transferability, and refundability, this is what she thinks based on past cancellations of cruises; please confirm all this with your TA though or with Celebrity because she wasn't positive and doesn't have it in writing.

 

Combinability: The $200 (more for suites) obc for Celebrity's cancellation of the cruise is probably combinable with the Passages obc, shareholder obc, or other X credits. It is also combinable with an obc given by the TA. Usually you cannot combine credits granted by Celebrity/RCI (except with TA's credit) but because they canceled the cruise, it is probably combinable.

 

Transferability: The $200 obc most likely is not transferable. What I mean by that is if you park/transfer this booking on a cruise say in April 2012 but you change your mind later and want to move it to an earlier or later cruise, you would probably lose the $200 obc that Celebrity is giving you as an incentive to re-book.

 

Refundability: The $200 is probably non-refundable. If you do not spend the credit on the ship, you will lose the remaining balance.

 

We just moved our September 5th booking to Buenos Aires roundtrip/Antarctica on the Infinity for February 17-March 3. Not many outside cabins available. Must be a popular one.

 

Kathy