Celebrity Cruises Discrimination?

[Mermen]

I have travelled on RC and Celebrity several times now and never had any problems when travelling with a partner or more recently solo. They have always been open to moving the FOD gatherings to times and venues we have chosen, from Michael'sBar to Martini Bar, and many times gay officers have joined us for drinks and shore excursions.

 

I will certainly go on Celebrity again and will continue to do so until I experience anything remotely similar.

 

On a Holyland cruise last year I had the mosfortune of sharing a table with 2 Born Again Christians who wern't appreciative of my Jewish faith, my single status and my mention that I am gay. So much so I had to leave the table and order room service. When I mentioned this to Guest Relations they upgraded me so I could eat in Blu with friends who were travelling Aqua Class.

 

I understand you had a problem and I am glad Celebrity appear to have sorted it out for you. If you feel that it spoiled your holiday, I am sure a letter to head office will result in some sort of future cruise voucher to encourage you to sail with them again.

 

Happy sailing to all....

 

What a horrible experience, some people can be so nasty, hateful and judgmental. We've experience this from some born-again "Christians" as well. Wow...sorry for your experience.

[keithm]

What a horrible experience, some people can be so nasty, hateful and judgmental. We've experience this from some born-again "Christians" as well. Wow...sorry for your experience.

We've so far never had an issue on Cunard. On our last trip(to Panama)There was this woman(big skunk stripe in her hair, totally hilarious)who gave the "hairy eyeball" to some of the guys in the GLBT meetings. She never gave me & Richard a second glance. She was 2 doors down from us. Really couldn't figure that out.

[VicCGA]

We are sorry for your unfortunate experience, but as seasoned Celebrity (and others) cruisers. we have never had a bad experience. If our beds were apart, we would just request they be put together and when we returned from exploring the ship, they usually were. This may be a case of a new employee and I assure he was reprimanded, but you can not judge a whole company by one misguided individual. As far as your complaint about the posting of FOD only being on the board, not in the daily newsletter, the policy of Celebrity, and some of the other lines, is not to included private groups posting in their Daily Newsletters. If they did this you can imagine the amount of space needed, since they would have to include everyone and that could be a lot of work and time. Think of all the "groups" you could have(Captain Kangaroo's Kids, Miss Piggy's Porkers, Kermit's Hermits....you get the idea?).:)

[SouthFloridaCruise]

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. .

 

If you were discriminated against that was wrong. It happens, they can't control what all employees do or what their views are. They did the right thing. It seems odd that you started seeing patterns especially when they did the right thing to help you and even admitted that it happens, but they try to make it right. Sometimes it's not them, it's you, maybe they felt you were being pushy or rude or dramatic, as a few in out community are.

 

You can only go by your experience and if so you can choose to spend your money elsewhere. I think it's also rude for so many to say they didn't have a problem with that company so they doubt that this happened to you.

[ONT-CA]

Let's all stone the messenger.

[johhnnyt]

Just sounds like it was a lazy/unproductive cabin attendant to me. The rest of story didn't make sense, why would you tip a guy the first day of the cruise before you even sailed after you felt he wasn't doing his job and was discriminating against you?

[jjvthree]

My Partner and I have been on many Cruises on many different Lines. We are taking our second Celebrity Cruise this year in September. I would be shocked to be discriminated against because of our partnership. We have had a few "not ideal" dining table mates, but that is luck of the draw. It ususally works out. We only swiched tables once. I know that so many of us work very hard to take Vacations and want them to be perfect. On Ship comment cards they often request not to judge an entire Department because of one person. Celebrity always treats us like valued guests.

 

-John.

[dcseahorse]

My partner and I just got back from a Bermuda cruise on the Celebrity Summit, and we didn't experience any issues travelling as a gay couple. Our only criticisms are about the promotion of "Friends of Dorothy" gatherings.

 

1. We complained to the cruise director that "Friends of Dorothy" is a dated expression used when we needed a secret code to identify eachother. It is insulting to use it, and it in effect hides our presence to other passengers, and younger gay people don't even know what it means. The cruise director, Lisa, was very sympathetic, and said that she had tried to get cruise line management to change the listing to GLBT Happy Hour, so maybe there is hope for the future.

 

2. The gatherings are only listed on a bulletin board outside the guest services desk, which most people never go by. They are not listed in the daily newsletter that itemizes all the other activities, including "Friends of Bill W", the AA meetings.

 

Otherwise, we had a perfectly delightful time. There were about 7 other people, all gay men, who we at the first gathering and hung out with for much of the trip. We heard second hand that there were at least 6 other gay men and a few lesbians on board that didn't attend the gatherings, with may not have even know about them.

 

We were very pleased with our room. Was spacious, considering it was on a ship, but well laid out with plenty of room for all our stuff.

 

Food was OK, nothing spectacular. We mostly ate at Restaurant Blu since we were in Aqua Class. Went to the the two specialty restaurants. Qsine was great...I definitely recommend it. We ate there the first night so it was discounted 50%. Normandy, the "fancy" restaurant, was beautifully decorated and the service was wonderful, but we were not overly impressed with the food. May have just been what we ordered.

 

Martini Bar, where FOD meet, was a great place to hang out, even when there wasn't an official gathering.

 

Spa is pretty good, though three eliptical machines were out of service for the entire week.

 

Didn't do that much on land in Bermuda. Getting to Horseshoe Beach from the port was a very easy ride by local bus, so I wouldn't do the official shore excursion and pay a premium. The beach is beautiful, though the umbrellas available for rent were pretty small. From the beach we took the bus to Hamilton and wandered around for an hour or so before hopping on the ferry back to the ship.

 

Because two of the days we were in port were a national holiday, the busses and ferries were on a Sunday schedule. We were going to go to St. George, but since it was an hour ferry trip and limited service, and we were told it is nice but missable, we scratched those plans, and instead walked around Kings Harbor, where the boat was docked, did a little bit of shopping, and then spent most of the day on the ship. Good plan, because with so many people off the ship, finding lounge chairs was a breeze.

[Rotterdam]

solo & as a couple - neither one of us has ever had a problem with the crew as far as having the beds pushed together...most times we were asked if we wanted them that way.

 

If anything on a number of occassions it was the drunk married man persona that became a bit too friendly.....

 

That being said - if I was the original poster - I would of told him if he did not want to push the beds together & not make a scene out of it - then hand back the tip. Then I would of marched up to the Hotel Manager & explain the situation ....believe me it would be straightened out FAST. It is an unfortunate incident - but nobody should feel they do not have the right to correct a wrong as such.

 

Certainly the Steward should be remindedof his duties(taking care of the passengers safety & wishes) and that he can be replaced - no matter his beliefs.

 

As far as the LGBT meetings - why leave it up to the cruise line - there are foums such as these that are cruise industry specific -but also regional ones like Craigslist...and once onboard - spread the word.....

[voyagerx]

My partner and I very much like X and have sailed this line 11 times of the 52 cruises on 9 lines we have taken. On one transatlantic crossing several years ago, we requested an FOD notice to be in the ships paper, the CD agreed, but after several days of not seeing one we asked again. He was very negative but finally scheduled one for and evening in a remote bar usually open only during the day. The bartender was so rude that most people left very quickly after deciding to gather at different venue. When I returned my empty beer bottle to the bar, I told the bartender we were leaving due to his bad behavior. He threw the bottle at me.

 

I reported the incident to the VIP hostess (I don't think they have them anymore) who's job it was to make our voyage pleasant. She was horrified. She apologized profusely, bought us drinks and, the next day, we received and invitation to dine with the captain. An amusing and ironic ending of this story was that the other guests at the table were almost all from Greece, as was the captain. The wine was excellent but the conversation less than sparkling... at least to us.

 

We never had another negative experience on X.

 

Though X, nowadays, does not put GLBT or FOD in the program, a notice can be posted on a bulletin board, But the Martini Bar on every X ship is gay central at cocktail hour, so arrangements for future meetings can be made.

[voyagerx]

In May and June my partner and I did a transatlantic to England and then a Portugal, Spain, France cruise, both on RCL (which owns X). We knew they also have a policy of not putting any affinity group notices in the ship's paper, except for AA. A couple of days into the Atlantic crossing we noticed listings for several affinity groups such as knitters, etc. We immediately wrote an objection citing their statee policy and the clear indication that they had breached it and were now clearly open to accusations of discrimination, if they refused to put a notice in the paper re FOD or GLBT. Without a lot of furor, within a day or two, a notice for FOD gatherings appeared regularly in the daily schedule. Way to go RCL. GAY=BOOZE=MONEY.

[IslandExplorer]

I always order two separate beds. I'm glad to be given the option and take full advantage of it. I tell my long-term partner it's mandatory on cruise ship and so far he's been buying it. It's 7-14 days of sleeping freedom!

[johhnnyt]

In May and June my partner and I did a transatlantic to England and then a Portugal, Spain, France cruise, both on RCL (which owns X). We knew they also have a policy of not putting any affinity group notices in the ship's paper, except for AA. A couple of days into the Atlantic crossing we noticed listings for several affinity groups such as knitters, etc. We immediately wrote an objection citing their statee policy and the clear indication that they had breached it and were now clearly open to accusations of discrimination, if they refused to put a notice in the paper re FOD or GLBT. Without a lot of furor, within a day or two, a notice for FOD gatherings appeared regularly in the daily schedule. Way to go RCL. GAY=BOOZE=MONEY.

 

From what I read its not like you had asked them to list the FOD meetings in the daily paper and they refused, correct?

 

It sounds like they were putting any group in that requested it, and when you asked, then they put it in

 

I'm sure so much has to do with who's the hotel director on board whether all or no groups gets published or not, but never found them choosing what groups, in my experience I think they could care less what groups meet onboard.

[LACruiserGuy]

My partner and I were on a Pied Piper group cruise to Alaska in August on the Celebrity Millennium, our first cruise, and the beds, as requested prior to boarding, were made up as a king bed when we arrived in the cabin. The cabin attendant and all other staff we encountered on the ship were very friendly and polite. Frankly, they treated us like royalty. We never felt a hint of homophopia from anyone on the ship. A few couples in the group were very openly affectionate and no one seemed to mind or pay any attention. The Pied Piper Group consisted of about 50 people, so it's not likely the shear size of the group would have been intimidating enough to tamp down homophobic behavior.

 

The ship's daily newsletter included a listing of a GLBT (not FOD) gathering in the Martini Bar almost every day of the cruise. I don't know if that was included in the newsletter because the Pied Piper Group was on this particular sailing, or if it's just a posting the Millennium does on a regular basis, but it certainly gave me the impression that Celebrity is very supportive and welcoming to its gay cruise passengers.

[keithm]

I always order two separate beds. I'm glad to be given the option and take full advantage of it. I tell my long-term partner it's mandatory on cruise ship and so far he's been buying it. It's 7-14 days of sleeping freedom!

OK, which one of hogs the bed!

[HALFans]

I always order two separate beds. I'm glad to be given the option and take full advantage of it. I tell my long-term partner it's mandatory on cruise ship and so far he's been buying it. It's 7-14 days of sleeping freedom!

 

Oh, you wicked little monkey!

 

I'll bet my partner wishes he had thought of that one! ;)

[ONT-CA]

Reporting that we all have had wonderful experiences aboard X is really not the point. Personally I would have much preferred to hear that management took the employee aside and explained to him his full responsibilities and then insisted he fulfill those by completing the customer's bed/sleeping arrangements. As it stands it appears his cultural/religious beliefs prevailed.

[petay63]

My partner and I are doing our first ever cruise in Nov 2013 for my 50th on the Celebrity Equinox from Barcelona. I have to be honest I am really hoping that we do not get looked upon as the "gay couple" . We travel overseas at least 2-3 times a year and have always been worried cruises may not accept gay people and being left on a 12nt cruise with bad attitude of staff worries me a bit.

 

Peter :confused:

[bdpnatl]

My partner and I are doing our first ever cruise in Nov 2013 for my 50th on the Celebrity Equinox from Barcelona. I have to be honest I am really hoping that we do not get looked upon as the "gay couple" . We travel overseas at least 2-3 times a year and have always been worried cruises may not accept gay people and being left on a 12nt cruise with bad attitude of staff worries me a bit.

 

Peter :confused:

 

While there is always a chance of running into an employee or a passenger that has a problem, we have never had that experience on Celebrity. We have been on the Equinox and really liked the crew and the ship. I do not think you need to be too concerned.

 

Enjoy your cruise!!

[keithm]

My partner and I are doing our first ever cruise in Nov 2013 for my 50th on the Celebrity Equinox from Barcelona. I have to be honest I am really hoping that we do not get looked upon as the "gay couple" . We travel overseas at least 2-3 times a year and have always been worried cruises may not accept gay people and being left on a 12nt cruise with bad attitude of staff worries me a bit.

 

Peter :confused:

Never had a problem on Cunard. You shouldn't,either. If some of the staff is from eastern Europe(Romania, Russia, etc.) they may seem a bit aloof(which they're really not). They're not homophobic, just more reserved than some pax are used to.

[johhnnyt]

I mostly cruise on Celebrity and always have found them super positive with LGBT community, gay groups, and gay couples. In January even attended a gay commitment ceremony on the Century officiated by the Captain. Could tell you quite a few stories where Celebrity proved to me they stand up for every passenger no matter what the orientation might be.

 

One time though 5 or 6 cruises ago, one of the couple we sat with were complaining at dinner on how they were being discriminated against by passengers and crew onboard because they were a gay couple. Our table sat 12 people and every night we would here another injustice they suffered because they were a same sex couple, but no one else had same experience.

 

Funny part was after I think 7 or 8 day of hearing their complaints at dinner one of the gay couples (partnered 40 years) had had it. He said "Listen, it's not discrimination, it's your both a pain in the a**, I've never heard two people with a more disrespectful attitude of others, complain about nothing and try and blame the response on it being a gay couple. If you acted with a little common courtesy towards other people, you might find that the feeling would be returned, now somebody order me another scotch"

 

They never returned to our table

[Ephraim]

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.

 

Not one of the smartest stewards. On Princess, that man would have lost his job. Personally, I would have been speaking to his supervisor the minute he refused to put the beds together. But the tip part doesn't make sense, why would you tip someone who provided bad service?

[keithm]

I mostly cruise on Celebrity and always have found them super positive with LGBT community, gay groups, and gay couples. In January even attended a gay commitment ceremony on the Century officiated by the Captain. Could tell you quite a few stories where Celebrity proved to me they stand up for every passenger no matter what the orientation might be.

 

One time though 5 or 6 cruises ago, one of the couple we sat with were complaining at dinner on how they were being discriminated against by passengers and crew onboard because they were a gay couple. Our table sat 12 people and every night we would here another injustice they suffered because they were a same sex couple, but no one else had same experience.

 

Funny part was after I think 7 or 8 day of hearing their complaints at dinner one of the gay couples (partnered 40 years) had had it. He said "Listen, it's not discrimination, it's your both a pain in the a**, I've never heard two people with a more disrespectful attitude of others, complain about nothing and try and blame the response on it being a gay couple. If you acted with a little common courtesy towards other people, you might find that the feeling would be returned, now somebody order me another scotch"

 

They never returned to our table

True. There are some real jerks out there, & the gay community has it's share as well.

[keithm]

Not one of the smartest stewards. On Princess, that man would have lost his job. Personally, I would have been speaking to his supervisor the minute he refused to put the beds together. But the tip part doesn't make sense, why would you tip someone who provided bad service?

We never had a problem on Cunard regarding beds. They were always together when we boarded. I really wonder how much of a stink this couple made. There are polite ways & over the top ways of dealing with these issues. The steward may in fact have had cultural issues. This is a bit of a surprise, as ALL staff is advised/taught about the different types of pax who may be on board. I'll admit the tipping part is a bit odd. We don't tip until the last formal night. Why would anyone tip before you get the service?

[Ephraim]

We never had a problem on Cunard regarding beds. They were always together when we boarded. I really wonder how much of a stink this couple made. There are polite ways & over the top ways of dealing with these issues. The steward may in fact have had cultural issues. This is a bit of a surprise, as ALL staff is advised/taught about the different types of pax who may be on board. I'll admit the tipping part is a bit odd. We don't tip until the last formal night. Why would anyone tip before you get the service?

 

Usually the beds are together when we arrive, but we have never had a problem requesting that they be put together. But I do know that on Princess it is a violation of their policies and the employee would be dismissed (quietly) at the next port. Considering how much they have invested in these jobs, including having to prepay their return trip, I would be shocked that any employee would be so stupid, because they would have a debt to pay and never be able to get another contract.

But the tipping part... very odd. Even if you had prepaid tips, you could request to adjust them and that would raise all kinds of flags.