New propulsion problem on Millennium

[Cindy]

"Martinez said guests booked on the other canceled sailings will receive a full refund, as well as a certificate for a future cruise."

 

This Celebrity spokesperson makes it seem like everyone is getting a free additional cruise...this is false information...

 

I will admit, I always (when I wasn't a member of the "Late Cruise Cancellation Club":rolleyes: thought a 25% FCC to cruise at a different time would be a pretty nice thing to have. Who knows, maybe if we were just driving an hour to cruise out of Galveston I would feel that way. Now that I've been granted admission to the exclusive club, I know the truth...there's really no financial compensation that can make up for the disappointment, the time you've spent planning, or the time that you have to spend to "un-book" everything and schedule something new.

 

I'm a little disappointed in some aspects of how this is being handled, but for now I'm just going to sit back and let the dust settle a bit. One thing I would like to see is for Celebrity to recognize perks a person was to have on this cruise (like the free beverage package:D) and award the same benefit when rebooking the cancelled cruise. Is that unreasonable? It's something I'm eventually going to bring up, both in a letter and in a phone conversation with Captain's Club. I'm having a hard time feeling like my 25% FCC is worth anything when I lost both the free beverage package and some OBC.:(

 

 

Celebrity sucks. Tried to book the solstice out of Ensenada to make up for my cancelled Mili cruise. When I called just now the price had gone from 749 at 7 am to 1250 at 3 pm.

 

Talked to everyone I could about this issue and there was nothing they could do.

 

Guess celebrity just doesn't care they are going to loose 8000 good customer over their stupid refunds policy.

 

 

Never Never Never Again

 

I saw those price spikes.:mad: Yeah, it would have been nice if both Celebrity and RCI had blocked out remaining space at least long enough to let Millie passengers book at a reasonable rate. I considered moving over to the Solstice Pacific Coastal, but prices were through the roof.:(

[Cindy]

Cindy: I'm just now catching up on all this. So hope your "NEW" Alaska cruise is the best ever. You just never know, it may prove itself a "meant to be" moment!

Anyway, condolences to everyone who had to deal with this. I commend those whose attitudes rose to the occasion. Hope I can do as well when it happens to us.....and I know if we keep cruising it will someday....:o

Bon Voyage Cindy! Alaska for us in 15 days on Radiance...praying now!!;)

 

Thanks, Becci! I guess our breakfast in Vancouver is off, huh?:rolleyes:

[sbkluvs2travel]

I've been monitoring anything about the Millie since GHStudio first posted his thread about his SE Asia cruise earlier this year. We are scheduled on the SYD to SIN 17 day cruise in 90 days. We will already be in SYD since we are doing the Solstice run to Auckland. I have not purchased trip insurance (yeah, I know) and would appreciate any insights/pointers on how to protect against this type of event happening during our cruise.

 

We arrive in Sydney on Nov 2 for the first leg and will fly back from Auckland on either 18 or 19th for second cruise. Just paid for insurance and while it was not cheap it will give me some peace of mind. I just now am getting organized through cruise critic and other reading on making more plans. We do have hotels already booked just need flight from Auk to Syd. Would love to stay in touch about this almost b2b which is new to us. Looking forward and hoping they get the fix right finally.

[deise17311]

I will admit, I always (when I wasn't a member of the "Late Cruise Cancellation Club":rolleyes: thought a 25% FCC to cruise at a different time would be a pretty nice thing to have. Who knows, maybe if we were just driving an hour to cruise out of Galveston I would feel that way. Now that I've been granted admission to the exclusive club, I know the truth...there's really no financial compensation that can make up for the disappointment, the time you've spent planning, or the time that you have to spend to "un-book" everything and schedule something new.

 

I'm a little disappointed in some aspects of how this is being handled, but for now I'm just going to sit back and let the dust settle a bit. One thing I would like to see is for Celebrity to recognize perks a person was to have on this cruise (like the free beverage package:D) and award the same benefit when rebooking the cancelled cruise. Is that unreasonable? It's something I'm eventually going to bring up, both in a letter and in a phone conversation with Captain's Club. I'm having a hard time feeling like my 25% FCC is worth anything when I lost both the free beverage package and some OBC.:(

 

 

I couldn't agree more!!!!!

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[cruisestitch]

Celebrity continues to fail at communications

 

The twenty chartered planes dwindled to two

 

The 30 special personnel became in reality 14.

 

They have been unable to provide their own people passenger manifests so we could find out if our requests for different destinations were met.

 

We were told just after noon to expect new instructions and new luggage tags. They never came.

 

Rather than actually asking us where we needed to be, they decided that since not enough hotels in Anchorsge would give them discount price rooms that there were no rooms available. (Not true) So they began arbitrarily assigning people to flights to Vancouver or Seattle. they never stoppped to ask if perhaps people already had hotels independently, just booked them on a useless charter, promised that they would be reassigned to Anchorage charters and then announced that there are no seats on Anchorage charters. It's a failure to communicate.

 

Bizarrely, some perple who wanted Seattle were assigned the coveted Anchorage seats and are having to independently book flights down to Seattle!

 

I'm astonished at how bad this is.

 

Oh, and those of us scheduled to leave the ship at 6 for the bus to the ferry to the airport for the 9:30 pm flight aren't even being given a box lunch or a bottle of water to take along (not just us, that went on all day)

 

No word from the Captain for over two days.

 

Oh, and they never handed out comment forms

[Christine Frances]

thank you for all the info provided on this thread, so we kind of knew what is expected when we call.

 

However was still surprised by how cold and rude the "supervisor" was or was trained on. We are suppose to take the 8/23 cruise and are have already made our way to Seward. Therefore, We were looking for a compensate on something can take us south from Alaska to Vancouver or Seattle. (As you may all realize all cruises departing from Alaska around 8/23 have been all booked! Thanks for Celebrity! LOL so flight is pretty much the only option. ) We can't really change our flight back home, given it's Canadian long weekend and it's too late to find any flight suitable for the busy holiday by "changing policy" to Toronto.

 

So we asked whether they can reimburse up to $200 for new ticket booking, just to make us back to Vancouver to connect, instead of the change fee, and we are okay to give up the FCC for it. The women answered the call was so cold. She didn't offer any help or info more than what we've already known from CC, and simply kept saying she was not authorized to do anything else and we should work with air flight company on sending us back. It sounds like it was the air company had the mechanical problem, but not Celebrity. She sounded impatient, I can feel her feeling of "it's not me who broke the ship, what on earth you need from me.

 

In short, I am so very disappointed. Even with 100%FCC in hand, I don't think we will ever take celebrity once again. :mad:

 

To avoid stress, just make and pay the changes yourself and keep all receipts. I am sure the people you are talking to are not having a good day either:(. When you get home, send a nice letter or email outlining your additional expenses that you accumulated due to the cancellation of your cruise and request Celebrity reimburse you. I think this would get a better result. Best wishes and don't give up on X - let the dust settle.

[deise17311]

@cruisestich, we are all sending you so many good thoughts...where is the president of Celebrity...seriously, things are really bad and he needs to become visible...

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[BILL-WI]

I will admit, I always (when I wasn't a member of the "Late Cruise Cancellation Club":rolleyes: thought a 25% FCC to cruise at a different time would be a pretty nice thing to have. Who knows, maybe if we were just driving an hour to cruise out of Galveston I would feel that way. Now that I've been granted admission to the exclusive club, I know the truth...there's really no financial compensation that can make up for the disappointment, the time you've spent planning, or the time that you have to spend to "un-book" everything and schedule something new.

 

I'm a little disappointed in some aspects of how this is being handled, but for now I'm just going to sit back and let the dust settle a bit. One thing I would like to see is for Celebrity to recognize perks a person was to have on this cruise (like the free beverage package:D) and award the same benefit when rebooking the cancelled cruise. Is that unreasonable? It's something I'm eventually going to bring up, both in a letter and in a phone conversation with Captain's Club. I'm having a hard time feeling like my 25% FCC is worth anything when I lost both the free beverage package and some OBC.:(

 

Agree 100% with the promo items!!!

 

I need a drink, or two, or three....:D:D

 

Chin up, we will all muddle through this.

 

BILL

[BILL-WI]

Celebrity continues to fail at communications

 

The twenty chartered planes dwindled to two

 

The 30 special personnel became in reality 14.

 

They have been unable to provide their own people passenger manifests so we could find out if our requests for different destinations were met.

 

We were told just after noon to expect new instructions and new luggage tags. They never came.

 

Rather than actually asking us where we needed to be, they decided that since not enough hotels in Anchorsge would give them discount price rooms that there were no rooms available. (Not true) So they began arbitrarily assigning people to flights to Vancouver or Seattle. they never stoppped to ask if perhaps people already had hotels independently, just booked them on a useless charter, promised that they would be reassigned to Anchorage charters and then announced that there are no seats on Anchorage charters. It's a failure to communicate.

 

Bizarrely, some perple who wanted Seattle were assigned the coveted Anchorage seats and are having to independently book flights down to Seattle!

 

I'm astonished at how bad this is.

 

Oh, and those of us scheduled to leave the ship at 6 for the bus to the ferry to the airport for the 9:30 pm flight aren't even being given a box lunch or a bottle of water to take along (not just us, that went on all day)

 

No word from the Captain for over two days.

 

Oh, and they never handed out comment forms

 

Celebrity, I know you are reading and hear this, but are you listening??

 

It is a shame the way your LOYAL passengers are being treated....by the company they are LOYAL too!

 

BILL

[k1432]

I sadly cancelled my tour in Skagway with CHILKOOT CHARTERS & TOURS.

 

They had the perfect package for me plus a cancellation policy that allowed for cancellations up to 24 hours before the tour. They clearly stated in their policy that there is a 10% fee for any cancellation, which I thought was reasonable for such a liberal 24 hour cancellation policy.

 

 

I just received a copy of my cancellation which shows they are giving me a FULL refund for our party of 4. That was a great gesture on their part during this stressful day. I will surely book with them again!

[Cindy]

Celebrity continues to fail at communications

 

The twenty chartered planes dwindled to two

 

The 30 special personnel became in reality 14.

 

They have been unable to provide their own people passenger manifests so we could find out if our requests for different destinations were met.

 

We were told just after noon to expect new instructions and new luggage tags. They never came.

 

Rather than actually asking us where we needed to be, they decided that since not enough hotels in Anchorsge would give them discount price rooms that there were no rooms available. (Not true) So they began arbitrarily assigning people to flights to Vancouver or Seattle. they never stoppped to ask if perhaps people already had hotels independently, just booked them on a useless charter, promised that they would be reassigned to Anchorage charters and then announced that there are no seats on Anchorage charters. It's a failure to communicate.

 

Bizarrely, some perple who wanted Seattle were assigned the coveted Anchorage seats and are having to independently book flights down to Seattle!

 

I'm astonished at how bad this is.

 

Oh, and those of us scheduled to leave the ship at 6 for the bus to the ferry to the airport for the 9:30 pm flight aren't even being given a box lunch or a bottle of water to take along (not just us, that went on all day)

 

No word from the Captain for over two days.

 

Oh, and they never handed out comment forms

 

I'm speechless...especially about the lack of communication from the Captain.:(

 

What people who don't cruise remember the most about crisis situations/cancellations is what's reported in the media from displaced and disgruntled passengers. Carnival was universally slammed for the way they handled the Triumph fire, whereas RCI was praised for their response to the fire on the Grandeur. Their reputations were decided in the court of public opinion. Where will the verdict on Celebrity end up? The jury is still out, but right now it appears there is some damaging evidence.

[tigercat]

Wow how awful. They really need to do more for the passengers. I would be really upset if I didn't get my other costs refunded like airline and hotels. But all the companies seem to not take care of their passengers. Is the CEO of RCCL there taking care of things..is he talking to the passengers? He should be there making sure that the company is taking care of everything right? Since this ship was having problems before why didn't they fix it before sending it out on another cruise?

tigercat

[Aloha 1]

We arrive in Sydney on Nov 2 for the first leg and will fly back from Auckland on either 18 or 19th for second cruise. Just paid for insurance and while it was not cheap it will give me some peace of mind. I just now am getting organized through cruise critic and other reading on making more plans. We do have hotels already booked just need flight from Auk to Syd. Would love to stay in touch about this almost b2b which is new to us. Looking forward and hoping they get the fix right finally.

 

Appears we are on the same 2 cruises. Please join the Roll calls for both ( under the Roll Call Forum, Celebrity Connections). You will find a ton of info on tours, etc. This is new to us to. We are flying back to SYD on the 16th and spending a few days there before boarding Millie on the 20th.

[Germancruiser]

After all the Billions they make on these cruises- they should be a bit more forthcomming. I remember when we stood in line on board Summit to get our flight changed- the Hotel Rooms etc. We arrived one day early and had to stay overnight. We had to pay for the hotel ourself and could choose from some options. For the missed port of call we got an 300$ OBC!

I really enjoyed this unexpected stay over in Vancouver- I never would have been able to see this great city.

After all those troubles the Millienum Class brought X- I wouldn´t blame them if they would be ready to send them to Alang for scrape - if they ever do so, I hope they don´t forget to deinstall the Olympic Panels and the other memorabilia from their Spec. Restaurants. LOL- no just kdding- of course.

[ghstudio]

Celebrity continues to fail at communications

 

The twenty chartered planes dwindled to two

 

The 30 special personnel became in reality 14.

 

They have been unable to provide their own people passenger manifests so we could find out if our requests for different destinations were met.

 

We were told just after noon to expect new instructions and new luggage tags. They never came.

 

Rather than actually asking us where we needed to be, they decided that since not enough hotels in Anchorsge would give them discount price rooms that there were no rooms available. (Not true) So they began arbitrarily assigning people to flights to Vancouver or Seattle. they never stoppped to ask if perhaps people already had hotels independently, just booked them on a useless charter, promised that they would be reassigned to Anchorage charters and then announced that there are no seats on Anchorage charters. It's a failure to communicate.

 

Bizarrely, some perple who wanted Seattle were assigned the coveted Anchorage seats and are having to independently book flights down to Seattle!

 

I'm astonished at how bad this is.

 

Oh, and those of us scheduled to leave the ship at 6 for the bus to the ferry to the airport for the 9:30 pm flight aren't even being given a box lunch or a bottle of water to take along (not just us, that went on all day)

 

No word from the Captain for over two days.

 

Oh, and they never handed out comment forms

 

Wow...deja vu....it's the century experience some three years later....almost no change in how celebrity is handling this situation. In our case the officers disappeared, the folks you dealt with knew very little and had no guidance or leadership. Hq hid as well. You would think they learned from experience but they apparently still dont have a plan and communications between staff, hq, officers and passengers is missing...likely because of a fear that someone might make a statement or take an action that might be quotable or appear in a legal procedure. As in the century situation, I feel sorry for the staff folks who are facing passengers with no information and no authority to do anything.

 

For light reading one might want to go back and read the very long thread on the century situation that's still in this forum.

[BEAV]

 

One thing I would like to see is for Celebrity to recognize perks a person was to have on this cruise (like the free beverage package:D) and award the same benefit when rebooking the cancelled cruise. Is that unreasonable? It's something I'm eventually going to bring up, both in a letter and in a phone conversation with Captain's Club. I'm having a hard time feeling like my 25% FCC is worth anything when I lost both the free beverage package and some OBC.

 

Right there with you, Cindy! We had the beverage package promo included on our now-cancelled Millie cruise. This morning I asked our TA about switching to Solstice Sept 23 Ensenada-Honolulu sailing if Celebrity would "carry over" our beverage package promo. She called =X= and went "up the food chain" with our request, however it was denied.

 

It's a bit difficult to figure out the logic of their offering a complimentary beverage package promotion, only to have them take it away from you in the event you have to hastily reschedule your vacation due to their ongoing mechanical cancellations! :rolleyes:

[MicCanberra]

Right there with you, Cindy! We had the beverage package promo included on our now-cancelled Millie cruise. This morning I asked our TA about switching to Solstice Sept 23 Ensenada-Honolulu sailing if Celebrity would "carry over" our beverage package promo. She called =X= and went "up the food chain" with our request, however it was denied.

 

It's a bit difficult to figure out the logic of their offering a complimentary beverage package promotion, only to have them take it away from you in the event you have to hastily reschedule your vacation due to their ongoing mechanical cancellations! :rolleyes:

That is doubly unfair as you would need a good strong drink to recover from the shock of having your drink package reneged on. It seems the cruise refund may be just the tip of the iceberg compared to all the extra costs people have or will have to take with out compensation.:D

[ragbag1]

Wow how awful. They really need to do more for the passengers. I would be really upset if I didn't get my other costs refunded like airline and hotels. But all the companies seem to not take care of their passengers. Is the CEO of RCCL there taking care of things..is he talking to the passengers? He should be there making sure that the company is taking care of everything right? Since this ship was having problems before why didn't they fix it before sending it out on another cruise?

tigercat

 

Hi all, I agree with Tigercat as just off a frustrating call with ChoiceAir. Their role is now clear to me. They sell air tickets but there is no meaningful connection between them and Royal Caribbean when a cruise is cancelled.

Yes, they cancelled for us our non-refundable flights (to and from Ft Lauderdale. Outward on Alaska Air to Fairbanks, return on United Air from Vancouver) and gave us references numbers to use with ChoiceAir to book a similar flight, using both airlines, within a year.

Evidently Celebrity accepts no responsibility for reimbursing flights like ours even though there is no other way of getting on their cruise and we used their inhouse travel department for the reservation.

 

We book refundable tickets when there is any question about actually going someplace on a specific date but in this case why would we if we had booked the cruise and land arrangements so were sure we'd be going? If it was a plane that went out of service, the airline would find another but Celebrity has no alternative ship available.

 

I plan to protest to Royal Caribbean HQ, but any ideas about how to get a $2300 refund for otherwise useless tickets, even an any airline credit, will be welcomed.

Thanks,

Anthony

[ghstudio]

Ragbag....you have two different credits that do not have to be used together. Alaska air is a bit tough from ft lauderdale, but they actually have quite a few code share flights in the 48 states so you don't actually have to fly to Alaska to use the credit.

 

Choiceair is just a travel agency...and at this point check with your travel insurance to see if they will cover the non refundable part of the fare paid. I don't think there is much you can do about changing the airlines....you'll have to fly united and Alaska to use the airline credits. That's the same whether you used choice air or the xyz agency....it's the airline rules.

[Christine Frances]

I am just thinking here, we are only in the 2nd day of this. Celebrity has 2000 people on board in a remote port, all with varying needs and plans to deal with. Plus they are being called by 6000 (3 x 2000) other people trying to sort out their issues. I don't think it is realistic to expect this to happen in 2-3 days. Nobody on the phones has any flexibility at this time to deal with people on a one to one basis. If I was on one of the other 3 cruises I think I would give it a couple of days to see how it shakes out and make alternate plans in the meantime.

[FengShui@Sea]

I am just thinking here, we are only in the 2nd day of this. Celebrity has 2000 people on board in a remote port, all with varying needs and plans to deal with. Plus they are being called by 6000 (3 x 2000) other people trying to sort out their issues. I don't think it is realistic to expect this to happen in 2-3 days. Nobody on the phones has any flexibility at this time to deal with people on a one to one basis. If I was on one of the other 3 cruises I think I would give it a couple of days to see how it shakes out and make alternate plans in the meantime.

 

I agree with what you are saying but think the numbers are actually almost double that: 2,500 displaced from August 16th cruise, and 2,500 passenger for each of Aug. 23th and 30th Sept. 6th and Sept. 13th - so I think they're dealing with 12,000 passenger cancellations.

[cruisestitch]

Again tonight I am stuck by contrasts. The formal night was cancelled but the lobster is being served to those remaining on board. The show is in progress. The cleaning and polishing and fingerprint wiping continues. The stewards say "good evening" as you pass in the halls. If you weren't exhausted and completely frazzled from being in queues all day, being told that further information would be provided shortly, soon, maybe, well no we don't have any further information, and making then cancelling multiple back up hotel reservations, you might mistake this for a normal night on a cruise.

[timbom]

If you notice almost every fare has gone up 25% in the last day in these markets due to these problems. 12000 customers is a lot of people in this small market.

 

Why celebrity did not work out special prices on their and RCl ships is beyond me. I am one of the many cancellations who will never cruise this line again because of the poor way they have handled this.

[A Sixth?]

I am so sorry for those effected, but glad I didn't do a last minute deal for last weeks sailing

[MicCanberra]

Again tonight I am stuck by contrasts. The formal night was cancelled but the lobster is being served to those remaining on board. The show is in progress. The cleaning and polishing and fingerprint wiping continues. The stewards say "good evening" as you pass in the halls. If you weren't exhausted and completely frazzled from being in queues all day, being told that further information would be provided shortly, soon, maybe, well no we don't have any further information, and making then cancelling multiple back up hotel reservations, you might mistake this for a normal night on a cruise.

Keep your chin up and make the best of a bad situation. Thanks for keeping us up to date as well.:D