Millennium decision from Celebrity's viewpoint

[Cassicruiser]

Not sure if this has already been posted but I thought this was an interesting article today regarding the decisions faced by Celebrity regarding cancellation of cruises and replacing the damaged propulsion pod on Millennium.

 

http://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Celebrity-talks-Millennium-decision/

[MicCanberra]

Thanks for posting, let us hope that they can deliver.:D

[deise17311]

Not sure if this has already been posted but I thought this was an interesting article today regarding the decisions faced by Celebrity regarding cancellation of cruises and replacing the damaged propulsion pod on Millennium.

 

http://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Celebrity-talks-Millennium-decision/

 

Thanks for posting...it does give a good perspective...

[gblotter]

This article demonstrates the value of open and honest communication.

 

It is truly unfortunate that such communication was so sorely lacking on the Millennium itself last week.

 

I'm happy that in this article Mr. Bayley did not repeat the mistake of blaming the passengers for Celebrity's own chaotic processes during the evacuation.

[The_Big_M]

Thanks for the post. Interesting to read other perspectives.

[Phxazzcruisers]

Thank you for the post. It is just too bad this all wasn't explained in these pain and simple terms weeks ago when the incident occurred. When we traveled on Mille many years ago, they also had an issue in Monaco, but we received daily and multi daily updates as well as very fair compensation. People just want to know the facts, and most understand if their are difficult decisions that have to be made. This article was very thorough and helped explain exactly what happened and what needed to be done

[MicCanberra]

Thank you for the post. It is just too bad this all wasn't explained in these pain and simple terms weeks ago when the incident occurred. When we traveled on Mille many years ago, they also had an issue in Monaco, but we received daily and multi daily updates as well as very fair compensation. People just want to know the facts, and most understand if their are difficult decisions that have to be made. This article was very thorough and helped explain exactly what happened and what needed to be done

 

Hindsight has helped in getting producing an article which clearly defined what had happened and what is needed to be done to repair the ship. A pity they glossed over the troubles with the evacuation process.

[Cassicruiser]

Open and honest communication is definitely what was needed at the time, and the communication side of things doesn't seem to have been handled very well. Although it does sound like Celebrity had to deal with a very tough, chaotic situation and many thousands of angry, disappointed guests (as most would have been of course) would be impacted no matter how they handled it. While I totally sympathise with passengers affected (I would be completely devastated if my long anticipated vacation was ruined too) I do think that the cruise line was faced with a monumental issue that was never going to be resolved easily, and would never completely pacify everyone.

 

Trying to charter planes and fly over 2000 people from a tiny port to exactly where they all wanted to go (!), while dealing with cancellation of 4 cruises and a further 8000 passengers and the logistics involved, (reimbursing them, and giving future cruise credits, cancelling all food and beverage orders for thousands, as well as everything needed to run 4 cruises) AND finding a shipyard and organising repairs, and dealing with staff onboard. As well as the heavy criticism and damage to their brand and reputation. I would not want to have been a passenger or a Celebrity employee dealing with this difficult situation.

[ghstudio]

Irrespective of all the ship logistic issues, some executive from celebrity should have been visibly in charge of taking care of passengers. If not bayley, then some other exec could have been on point. That was the missing link....from my perspective.

[Cruise Raider]

Not sure if this has already been posted but I thought this was an interesting article today regarding the decisions faced by Celebrity regarding cancellation of cruises and replacing the damaged propulsion pod on Millennium.

 

http://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Celebrity-talks-Millennium-decision/

 

We sailed on the Infinity a number of years ago -- it came limping up from San Diego to San Francisco void of any passengers. They said they would have to reduce their knots by 30% -- so ahead of time, allowed us to opt out of the cruise or stay on and receive a few hundred back in onboard credit but miss Icy Strait Point....that was before I knew how truly spectacular that port is. I guess enough people did cancel and the balconies went down exponentially ...so were able to upgrade from an inside cabin for very little charge. Funny thing was, if we booked a balcony cabin, we got way more in shipboard credit, which more than covered the upcharge for the inside to the balcony....so good more for us financially and spiritually, too.

Well, did we miss Icy Strait Point -- now we know about it -- I would say yes but for us, what a deal. Sad part is, we knew that the ship was injured and the only reason they offered us what they did was because someone else was paying for it....they sued the company that made the pod propulsion systems. Wow...that was years ago -- and see they are still having similar issues. So sad for the Millie!

[Cassicruiser]

Irrespective of all the ship logistic issues, some executive from celebrity should have been visibly in charge of taking care of passengers. If not bayley, then some other exec could have been on point. That was the missing link....from my perspective.

I think you've hit the nail on the head - while Celebrity was doing all they could to reorganise everything in a tough situation, all they needed was one or two execs being seen taking charge and sharing info.

[MicCanberra]

I think you've hit the nail on the head - while Celebrity was doing all they could to reorganise everything in a tough situation, all they needed was one or two execs being seen taking charge and sharing info.

 

Yes, someone with the authority of the company to take charge and issue the communications would have helped immensely.:D

[Cruise Arizona]

Actually the article states that the previous pod problems were with the bearing and this one something new, electrical problems with the motor. That is why they took the drastic measure of cancelling so many cruises.

 

While I would have been crushed to have my cruise cancelled I think Celebrity did the right thing in taking the ship out of service to have the whole thing replaced.

 

We've seen what happens when other cruise lines have used stop gap measures and then have really bad problems later.

 

We were on the Presidents cruise in March with Mr. Bayley and he seems to have a good hold on what the Celebrity client expects, and I think his choice was a good one, to fix the problem rather than deliver a substandard cruise to other customers.

[ghstudio]

Actually the article states that the previous pod problems were with the bearing and this one something new, electrical problems with the motor. That is why they took the drastic measure of cancelling so many cruises.

 

While I would have been crushed to have my cruise cancelled I think Celebrity did the right thing in taking the ship out of service to have the whole thing replaced.

 

We've seen what happens when other cruise lines have used stop gap measures and then have really bad problems later.

 

We were on the Presidents cruise in March with Mr. Bayley and he seems to have a good hold on what the Celebrity client expects, and I think his choice was a good one, to fix the problem rather than deliver a substandard cruise to other customers.

 

The issue has never been one of questioning the cancellation of the cruise for mechanical problems. I think most accept that these things happen. I don't think anyone is questioning cancelling future cruises so that celebrity can fix the problem correctly.

 

The issue on Cruise Critic has always been the way celebrity handled the disembarkation of those on board in Ketchikan and the compensation for those on board as well as those whose cruises were cancelled.

[CPT Trips]

The issue has never been one of questioning the cancellation of the cruise for mechanical problems. I think most accept that these things happen. I don't think anyone is questioning cancelling future cruises so that celebrity can fix the problem correctly.

 

The issue on Cruise Critic has always been the way celebrity MIShandled the disembarkation of those on board in Ketchikan and the compensation for those on board as well as those whose cruises were cancelled.

 

Fixed it for you.

 

Losing mine, not part of original quoted post.

[rnrcruzin]

Our group, #15, was accompanied by a member of the Celebrity Go team. In speaking with him he acknowledged several points of missed communication. He said there was an after actions review already planned. One of the things on the table was better training for the onboard crew in situations like this as well as for the Go Team itself.

 

Being in the mobility and logistics business while in the military and in my current job in project management I can appreciate the challenges that Celebrity was facing. And yes, as a passenger I can also appreciate the disappointment many faced with their unexpected change in plans.

 

I'm fairly certain that if given a choice Celebrity would not have wanted any of this to happen. I'm also fairly certain there were few hundred Celebrity personnel, both in front and behind the scenes, that were doing their best to help every passenger. While the evacuation was difficult, it wasn't as difficult as it could have been. I've read that some equated the evacuation to being evacuated from a war zone - it's an ignorant statement and not even close to what happened.

 

This article is a good move in providing how Celebrity will go forward from here. I wish them well and yes, we do plan on trying them again.

[Cruise Arizona]

The issue has never been one of questioning the cancellation of the cruise for mechanical problems. I think most accept that these things happen. I don't think anyone is questioning cancelling future cruises so that celebrity can fix the problem correctly.

 

The issue on Cruise Critic has always been the way celebrity handled the disembarkation of those on board in Ketchikan and the compensation for those on board as well as those whose cruises were cancelled.

 

 

I probably should have quoted the post to which I was referring, it is about 3 above mine and says " Wow...that was years ago -- and see they are still having similar issues.", but now when I re-read it it says "similar," not the same, so I probably would have caught that if I had quoted it.

 

Any way, I'm sure it was a logistical nightmare for all involved. When we disembarked the Silhouette in FLL, it was awful and that was just because of too few immigration officers due to to sequestration, so I can just imagine that this was not good. I feel for those of you who had to endure this, and I hope that Celebrity has learned from the situation. Hopefully it will never happen again, but if it does, they will have improved their processes.