Celebrity Cruises Discrimination?

[NYCruisers10019]

My partner and I just returned from the July 8 sailing of the Celebrity Summit to Bermuda, where we were in Aqua Class. Upon arrival, our stateroom attendant refused to move the beds together.

 

Although he eagerly took our tip, he refused to shake our hands or make eye contact. Coupled with his brusque and disputatious attitude, it quickly became clear that he would not be helping us. We were forced to request management intervention to switch to a different stateroom attendant, before the ship even sailed.

 

This was a embarrassing and demoralizing experience. However, this was only the first in what was a pattern of our marginalization by certain members of the Celebrity Cruises staff, throughout the cruise.

 

As one senior staff member candidly told us, it was possible that the social attitudes of some crew members' native cultures made their intolerance toward the LGBT community not only possible, but likely.

 

We have not yet felt that Celebrity Cruises takes these recent events seriously. We are hopeful that they will quickly contact us with assurances that diversity training will be provided to the Celebrity employees.

 

Until this situation is resolved, we regrettably cannot recommend Celebrity Cruises, based upon the discrimination that we recently encountered aboard the Celebrity Summit.

[Phxazzcruisers]

My partner and I just returned from the July 8 sailing of the Celebrity Summit to Bermuda, where we were in Aqua Class. Upon arrival, our stateroom attendant refused to move the beds together.

 

Although he eagerly took our tip, he refused to shake our hands or make eye contact. Coupled with his brusque and disputatious attitude, it quickly became clear that he would not be helping us. We were forced to request management intervention to switch to a different stateroom attendant, before the ship even sailed.

 

This was a embarrassing and demoralizing experience. However, this was only the first in what was a pattern of our marginalization by certain members of the Celebrity Cruises staff, throughout the cruise.

 

As one senior staff member candidly told us, it was possible that the social attitudes of some crew members' native cultures made their intolerance toward the LGBT community not only possible, but likely.

 

We have not yet felt that Celebrity Cruises takes these recent events seriously. We are hopeful that they will quickly contact us with assurances that diversity training will be provided to the Celebrity employees.

 

Until this situation is resolved, we regrettably cannot recommend Celebrity Cruises, based upon the discrimination that we recently encountered aboard the Celebrity Summit.

 

I am sorry, but we have been traveling on Celebrity as can seen below, for many years. We have NEVER seen discriminated against nor every made to feel unwelcome by EVERYONE from the Captain down on their ships. We have always had our beds together and do not hide who were are from anyone. NEVER has any crew member shown any intolerance to the gay community.

 

They have FOD parties and always do their best to welcome everyone aboard. I am not doubting you, but it seems that most people who gripe have just posted their first or second posting. It can be seen on the "gay and lesbian" section also the Celebrity is one of the most welcoming cruise lines !!!

 

Sorry, but I cannot take your post seriously !!!

[C 2 C]

I am sorry, but we have been traveling on Celebrity as can seen below, for many years. We have NEVER seen discriminated against nor every made to feel unwelcome by EVERYONE from the Captain down on their ships.

 

Sorry, but I cannot take your post seriously !!!

 

We also have too many friends, including many in our Perry Grant reunion cruises, who would disagree in the strongest terms with the OP.

[mishdoob]

this makes no sense - every day there was a get together in the afternoon on our recent Summit cruise...

[NYCruisers10019]

I do not know what your disagreement is with; these were our experiences. We have been on many cruises, and felt like this experience was like a throwback to 25 years ago.

 

It is heartening to hear that nobody else has ever had a problem. However, a problem did indeed occur, and needs to be dealt with. A housekeeping supervisor and manager were immediately aware of the situation, sympathetic, and lovely about jumping in to make the quick fix of providing a new stateroom attendant.

 

Folks, before you jump all over me--sometimes a bad apple does indeed exist.

[cruisestitch]

Here's what I am reading -- "there was a problem, management stepped in and handled it and now we won't come back to this line".

 

I would understand it better if the post read, "there was a problem it was ignored, and now we won't come back".

 

Just my opinion.

[Lois R]

Hi, so they did give you another cabin attendant? Were they better?

Did they look/speak with you during the rest of the cruise? Was the

problem fixed?

 

Oh you said they did give you a new attendant so the problem was addressed

and fixed. Was the attendant better?

[MaxTexada]

We had a similar problem with our stateroom attendant. I thought maybe I was just crazy but it was uncomfortable.

[Big_G]

Sorry but I'm always skeptical of someone who joins CC on the day they allegedly returned from a cruise and their only post is to accuse the line they allegedly sailed of discrimination. Maybe it's just me.:rolleyes:

[cruisestitch]

I do understand that the OP is upset that the problem ever occurred. And I get the admonition that they hope that Celebrity does more sensitivity training for its staff. What has to be kept in mind is that X has a long history of GLBT-friendly policies, has often been chosen to be chartered by such groups, and handled the situation as quickly and efficiently as it could, from the description. That speaks volumes, to me.

[Mousehound]

My partner & I have cruised on Celebrity on a regular basis since 1999. We take

cruises many times a year. We have three booked this year with them.

I do not dispute that you had an unfortunate experience but am glad to hear that it was resolved.

I have to say in Celebrity's defence that we have never, ever had any unfortunate experiences & have only felt very welcome.

Nick & Rob

[MaxTexada]

I agree--we have only had great experiences in the past, and were very surprised by this isolated incident.

 

I don't think is fair to so quickly judge the OP, though. We have all felt discriminated against in the past in some way, and it is scary and frustrating. Sorry for your experiences. I promise, the next one will be better!

[Phxazzcruisers]

I do not know what your disagreement is with; these were our experiences. We have been on many cruises, and felt like this experience was like a throwback to 25 years ago.

 

It is heartening to hear that nobody else has ever had a problem. However, a problem did indeed occur, and needs to be dealt with. A housekeeping supervisor and manager were immediately aware of the situation, sympathetic, and lovely about jumping in to make the quick fix of providing a new stateroom attendant.

 

Folks, before you jump all over me--sometimes a bad apple does indeed exist.

 

I agree that there are always some bad apples. I am sorry you had a bad experience, but now you state that you complained about the issue and it was fixed. If so, what more are you expecting from Celebrity? Again, there are some "bad apples" and if they were felt with and your problem was fixed, I just don't understand the hostility in your original post. That post sounded like they did not care and your issue was not resolved. Since it was, again, I don't understand what more you expect. Celebrity has always been very friendly to the G & L community.

[RMSeadog]

Looks to me like most replys to the OP are too quick to imply that this could not have happened or is exaggerated. We have no way of telling. Although Celebrity corporate stand is for tolerance, each individual crew member has his/her own beliefs, influenced by years of cultural upbringing that can not be turned off like a switch. We in the straight commitity will never experience the OP's problem and should not be too quick to dismiss it. Married to an Asian who has been ignored in shops while others have been approached by sales persons I can appreciate the problem. However, I think to condem the entire cruise line for a couple of intolerant crew/staff members maybe an overreaction. ~ Ric

 

[Phxazzcruisers]

Looks to me like most replys to the OP are too quick to imply that this could not have happened or is exaggerated. We have no way of telling. Although Celebrity corporate stand is for tolerance, each individual crew member has his/her own beliefs, influenced by years of cultural upbringing that can not be turned off like a switch. We in the straight commitity will never experience the OP's problem and should not be too quick to dismiss it. Married to an Asian who has been ignored in shops while others have been approached by sales persons I can appreciate the problem. However, I think to condem the entire cruise line for a couple of intolerant crew/staff members maybe an overreaction. ~ Ric

 

 

We do not say that it did not happen or exaggerated. My partner and I are also gay and know what discrimination is like. However, after the first post, the OP stated that he talked to a housekeeper and manager and the problem was immediately felt with. He stated that they were very cooperative understanding and lovely. I just do not understand what else he could possible want. It happened and the issue was dealt with by senior management.

You are correct, you cannot condemn the entire cruise line for an intolerant crew member especially if the senior staff happily resolved the issue.

[simon stingray]

If the OP did encounter this attitude then I doubt the stateroom attendant will last very long in his/her job.

 

Celebrity greatly values the business from their many Gay & Lesbian guests and many here will agree that they are a VERY Gay friendly cruiseline.

 

The guest feedback surveys which are handed out to us all at the end of every cruise are taken very seriously by Management and any pattern of negative feedback relating to a specific crew member is quickly and firmly dealt with.

 

On our Solstice cruise, our stateroom attendant pleaded with us to let him know if anything relating to his service was less than "excellent" as even a "good" rating on the guest feedback form was not enough to guarantee his contract being renewed.

 

My partner and I have never been made to feel uncomfortable by any crew member. The service and respect which we have received has always been excellent.

 

If I were the OP I would also be following up my complaint in writing to Celebrity HQ and requesting a response.

[Erik101]

To the OP, I too am sorry to hear about your experience but based on your recall of the transpired events, it seems that your unfortunate experience is from the closed-minded attitude of ONE employee and not the entire staff as a whole. With that said, what are the chances that this will happen to you again in future Celebrity cruises should you decide to book another one?

 

We're going to be on the Summit in November and if we experience the same intolerance, then I will return with a reply! I'm hoping I won't!

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Mabe some body was having a bad day..

[Desertbelle]

On one of our cruises we had a horrible steward. She was so bad we finally contacted management (first and only time ever) and afterward she cornered my sister in the hall and yelled at her because we were going to get her fired!!

 

I think there are some bad stewards out there, and I doubt they last long.

 

And, even if a individual steward had discrimination problems, I find it very unlikely that the cruise line would support such behavior.

[celebrity]

On one of our cruises we had a horrible steward. She was so bad we finally contacted management (first and only time ever) and afterward she cornered my sister in the hall and yelled at her because we were going to get her fired!!

 

I think there are some bad stewards out there, and I doubt they last long.

 

And, even if a individual steward had discrimination problems, I find it very unlikely that the cruise line would support such behavior.

 

Wow!! That is awful. After you complained, did they assign you a new cabin attendant or were you stuck with her for the duration of the cruise? Did you report her inappropriate behavior to management?

[Algebralovr]

On one of our cruises we had a horrible steward. She was so bad we finally contacted management (first and only time ever) and afterward she cornered my sister in the hall and yelled at her because we were going to get her fired!!

 

I think there are some bad stewards out there, and I doubt they last long.

 

And, even if a individual steward had discrimination problems, I find it very unlikely that the cruise line would support such behavior.

 

I hope you reported the steward again after being cornered in the hall! That would have made me not only contact management again, but also ask that my gratutities be withheld from that individual and given to a more deserving person. Wow that was unprofessional!

[Lois R]

On one of our cruises we had a horrible steward. She was so bad we finally contacted management (first and only time ever) and afterward she cornered my sister in the hall and yelled at her because we were going to get her fired!!

 

I think there are some bad stewards out there, and I doubt they last long.

 

And, even if a individual steward had discrimination problems, I find it very unlikely that the cruise line would support such behavior.

 

Hi Margie, they cornered your sister?:eek::confused::(......wow.....

I also hope you went to Head of Housekeeping about this and

further up than that:mad:...

[Desertbelle]

Wow!! That is awful. After you complained, did they assign you a new cabin attendant or were you stuck with her for the duration of the cruise? Did you report her inappropriate behavior to management?

 

I hope you reported the steward again after being cornered in the hall! That would have made me not only contact management again, but also ask that my gratutities be withheld from that individual and given to a more deserving person. Wow that was unprofessional!

 

We did report her again, but she wasn't removed from our cabin (this was Carnival Cruise Line, one of the reasons we don't book them anymore.) It became a joke that every time we went to our cabin we wondered what wouldn't be done or what would be wrong....after the second report the housekeeping officer came by every day to check on us. We are easy travelers and always try to make the best of a bad situation. We didn't tip her and we wrote a letter afterward to the corporate offices and they credited us $100 each and gave us a discount for a future cruise, which we never used. We felt it was a fair compensation....we weren't looking for anything, just trying to get that woman away from other cruisers.

[Desertbelle]

Hi Margie, they cornered your sister?:eek::confused::(......wow.....

I also hope you went to Head of Housekeeping about this and

further up than that:mad:...

Hi Lois, see my previous post. Yeah, if it had been a man steward we would have felt more threatened and probably would have gone to security, but it was a woman, so we weren't too concerned about physical harm. We were shocked that someone like that was a steward, generally they are so warm and wonderful and willing to do anything for you.

[celebrity]

We did report her again, but she wasn't removed from our cabin (this was Carnival Cruise Line, one of the reasons we don't book them anymore.) It became a joke that every time we went to our cabin we wondered what wouldn't be done or what would be wrong....after the second report the housekeeping officer came by every day to check on us. We are easy travelers and always try to make the best of a bad situation. We didn't tip her and we wrote a letter afterward to the corporate offices and they credited us $100 each and gave us a discount for a future cruise, which we never used. We felt it was a fair compensation....we weren't looking for anything, just trying to get that woman away from other cruisers.

 

Poor decision making on Carnival's part to have her continue to service your cabin. I would have been so uncomfortable knowing she was in my cabin. Their lack of action cost them your future business.