Celebrity Connections Registration Issues

[travelcommons]

It's been a long time since I've sailed with Celebrity, I see that this issue has been unresolved for a good month now. Lame. You'd think that Celebrity would want to fix this for the most enthusiastic supporters out there that are looking forward to their fellow passengers and sailing with the cruiseline. Disappointing to say the least.

[bloom]

Has anyone tried emailing the CEO (more likely his office) at contactmichael@celebrity.com? It's listed on his "Letter from the President" page. Also try to get some attention by posting on their Facebook page.

 

Sent from my L2 G2 using Forums mobile app

 

I have just sent an email to the CEO and had an automatic response stating a representative will contact me, I wonder if he will ever see the email? I will post the reply as soon as I get it.

 

I hope all you guys send an email as well/

[MisterBill99]

I have just sent an email to the CEO and had an automatic response stating a representative will contact me, I wonder if he will ever see the email? I will post the reply as soon as I get it.

 

I hope all you guys send an email as well.

While I'm not affected by the problem (I successfully registered for my upcoming cruise a few weeks ago), I'm also sending an email. Edited December 15, 2013 by MisterBill99

[MisterBill99]

While I'm not affected by the problem (I successfully registered for my upcoming cruise a few weeks ago), I'm also sending an email.

Also wanted to add that if you search on the email address here on Cruise Critic, you will find that people have used it and been contacted by his office and gotten results.

 

It's not often that a company makes it so easy to contact the office of the CEO/President, but since they have, it only pays to take advantage of it. I got the standard "we got your email" confirmation and hopefully I'll hear from them next week.

[mcrcruiser]

I can not forget this day ,Dec 16 ,2013 sending Michael Bayley a e-mail regarding the problems with registering for the connections Parties ,ordering bag tags ,ie oover the internet;) . Reason I can't forget today ,it is my birthday:D:D:D

[MisterBill99]

So, no resolution but at least they are aware of it and claim it's being worked on.

Dear Mr. (MisterBill99):

 

Thank you for contacting the Executive Offices of Celebrity Cruises. On behalf of Mr. Bayley, I appreciate the opportunity to assist with your correspondence.

 

I am truly sorry to learn of the difficulties our valued guests have experienced in signing up for the Cruise Critic Connections party on their upcoming sailings, as a result of the recent updates being made to our website. While I fully understand this does not resolve any current inconvenience, please be assured that our IT Department is working to correct this matter. Nevertheless, we cannot apologize enough for the concerns this has caused to you and many other guests during this process. Thank you for your continued patience.

 

Mr. (MisterBill99), please know that our guests concerns regarding this unfortunate situation, are being heard. We are passionate about delivering excellence, and we will continue to make the most of their insightful observations.

 

Sincerely,

 

Tanji Smith

From the Office of Michael Bayley, President & CEO

Celebrity Cruises

Edited December 17, 2013 by MisterBill99

[croozer]

I still cannot register for the Cruise Critic Connections gathering for my Jan. 10 sailing. But I also got an email from Celebrity this morning with a link to the "Captain's Club Savings Certificates." When I clicked on "View Offers," I was sent in a time machine back to 2011.

SpringSpecialOffers.2011_NEW.pdf

[travelingmom37]

Since you have the ear of someone at X who is listening.

It would be great if they contact the ship PRIOR to the cruise to schedule a

venue for the expected gathering to avoid a mid-cruise meeting.

We sail on Reflection Sat., Dec. 21 and have planned an informal M&M

at the aft bar at noon on the first sea day.

 

So maybe X can meet us there! :)

[dosherpack]

I believe all of the IT people have been diverted to work on Healthcare.gov!!!!:rolleyes:

[bloom]

Below is the reply I received from CEO at Celebrity. I am touched by the sincerity of the content and the time it must have taken to design a mail merge template to answer our concerns. It is heart warming to know how they care.

 

"Dear Mr. Bloom:

 

Thank you for contacting the Executive Offices of Celebrity Cruises. On behalf of Mr. Bayley, I appreciate the opportunity to assist with your correspondence.

 

As valued cruisers with Celebrity Cruises, you and your insights are very important to us. Therefore, I am truly sorry to learn of the difficulties you have experienced in signing up for the Cruise Critic Connections party on your upcoming sailing, as a result of the recent updates being made to our website. While I fully understand this does not resolve the current inconvenience, please be assured that our IT Department is working to correct this matter. Nevertheless, we cannot apologize enough for the concerns this has caused to you and many other guests during this process. Thank you for your continued patience in this matter.

 

Mr. Bloom, we hope that, despite the unpleasant situation described, we are still able to welcome you and Mrs. Bloom back onboard the Celebrity Eclipse and other future sailings. We are confident we will be able to provide you with a truly enjoyable vacation experiences.

 

Sincerely,

 

Tanji Smith

From the Office of Michael Bayley, President & CEO Celebrity Cruises

 

From the Office of Michael Bayley, President & CEO Celebrity Cruise."

[MisterBill99]

Below is the reply I received from CEO at Celebrity. I am touched by the sincerity of the content and the time it must have taken to design a mail merge template to answer our concerns. It is heart warming to know how they care.

Do you expect them to write a separate letter for everyone who complains? I don't care of it's a canned reply so long as it shows that they are aware of the situation. And the more people they hear from the better.

[MisterBill99]

Since you have the ear of someone at X who is listening.

It would be great if they contact the ship PRIOR to the cruise to schedule a

venue for the expected gathering to avoid a mid-cruise meeting.

We sail on Reflection Sat., Dec. 21 and have planned an informal M&M

at the aft bar at noon on the first sea day.

 

So maybe X can meet us there! :)

Why don't you write to them yourself? Most cruises have the party the first sea day. It seems like Reflection is messed up in how they're handling these (or not handling).

[ladyflatlander]

So, no resolution but at least they are aware of it and claim it's being worked on.

Dear Mr. (MisterBill99):

 

Thank you for contacting the Executive Offices of Celebrity Cruises. On behalf of Mr. Bayley, I appreciate the opportunity to assist with your correspondence.

 

I am truly sorry to learn of the difficulties our valued guests have experienced in signing up for the Cruise Critic Connections party on their upcoming sailings, as a result of the recent updates being made to our website. While I fully understand this does not resolve any current inconvenience, please be assured that our IT Department is working to correct this matter. Nevertheless, we cannot apologize enough for the concerns this has caused to you and many other guests during this process. Thank you for your continued patience.

 

Mr. (MisterBill99), please know that our guests concerns regarding this unfortunate situation, are being heard. We are passionate about delivering excellence, and we will continue to make the most of their insightful observations.

 

Sincerely,

 

Tanji Smith

From the Office of Michael Bayley, President & CEO

Celebrity Cruises

 

Got the exact same form letter response today to my letter to Bayley. Just lip service with no sincerity to fix the problem. In the past month and a half I have booked over $3,000 in shore excursions for 3 cruises booked in 2014. All are private because I couldn't use website and was sick and tired of being on hold for the phone rep.

 

Have called three times and been promised luggage tags for Jan 11 cruise and still no tags....can't even get results wit phone call.

[mcrcruiser]

Below is the reply I received from CEO at Celebrity. I am touched by the sincerity of the content and the time it must have taken to design a mail merge template to answer our concerns. It is heart warming to know how they care.

 

"Dear Mr. Bloom:

 

Thank you for contacting the Executive Offices of Celebrity Cruises. On behalf of Mr. Bayley, I appreciate the opportunity to assist with your correspondence.

 

As valued cruisers with Celebrity Cruises, you and your insights are very important to us. Therefore, I am truly sorry to learn of the difficulties you have experienced in signing up for the Cruise Critic Connections party on your upcoming sailing, as a result of the recent updates being made to our website. While I fully understand this does not resolve the current inconvenience, please be assured that our IT Department is working to correct this matter. Nevertheless, we cannot apologize enough for the concerns this has caused to you and many other guests during this process. Thank you for your continued patience in this matter.

 

Mr. Bloom, we hope that, despite the unpleasant situation described, we are still able to welcome you and Mrs. Bloom back onboard the Celebrity Eclipse and other future sailings. We are confident we will be able to provide you with a truly enjoyable vacation experiences.

 

Sincerely,

 

Tanji Smith

From the Office of Michael Bayley, President & CEO Celebrity Cruises

 

From the Office of Michael Bayley, President & CEO Celebrity Cruise."

 

Just a polite way of giving more lip service:( . IMHO X will not have these issues with their internet web site fixed for a long time ;as it is not given a sense of urgency :rolleyes:. I have all but given up but will try just before our 2 b2b cruises March 2nd & 9th on Silhouette .Other wise I am finished with Xs nonsense:mad:

[bloom]

Do you expect them to write a separate letter for everyone who complains? I don't care of it's a canned reply so long as it shows that they are aware of the situation. And the more people they hear from the better.

 

Yes I expect more, it is my money they take, and at the least I expect some date when they expect it up and running, any programmer will tell you that this is not a difficult thing to correct as it was running without problems before. If you expect this sort of reply then that is your choice and would not usually comment, and others have the right to feel that it is lip service

 

I agree with you that the more people complain the more chance it will be corrected.

[MisterBill99]

Yes I expect more, it is my money they take, and at the least I expect some date when they expect it up and running, any programmer will tell you that this is not a difficult thing to correct as it was running without problems before. If you expect this sort of reply then that is your choice and would not usually comment, and others have the right to feel that it is lip service

 

I agree with you that the more people complain the more chance it will be corrected.

Speaking as an I/T guy, I wonder if this was an issue where they came out with a revised version of their website (which they clearly have done, if you've gone in to make a reservation you would notice the differences), and someone forgot about the Connections party piece (or made it low priority), and it's now broken and they have to figure out how to make it work with the new system. It may be that there are other things that are still broken and have higher priority (someone has mentioned luggage tags are broken), so they have not gotten around to trying to fix this yet.

 

It's like people saying that there's no excuse for healthcare.gov working, since Amazon is able to work just fine.

Edited December 18, 2013 by MisterBill99

[bloom]

Speaking as an I/T guy, I wonder if this was an issue where they came out with a revised version of their website (which they clearly have done, if you've gone in to make a reservation you would notice the differences), and someone forgot about the Connections party piece (or made it low priority), and it's now broken and they have to figure out how to make it work with the new system. It may be that there are other things that are still broken and have higher priority (someone has mentioned luggage tags are broken), so they have not gotten around to trying to fix this yet.

 

It's like people saying that there's no excuse for healthcare.gov working, since Amazon is able to work just fine.

 

As this has been going on for some 6 weeks I find it difficult to accept. The page is stand alone a programme code should be able to be addressed by the programmers, they will have the blueprint of the original code.

 

It is obvious that it is not a priority with Celebrity but as you can see on this board and this is the tip of the iceberg that their customers are the one that are being ignored. I would remind them that this has gone on for some six weeks. It would help if they posted on the website that the problem is being resolved within the next X weeks. I have dealt with Sales in my company and customer service was always a priority in keeping them on board (excuse the pun)

 

I wish all that are celebrating Christmas "A merry Christmas" those that are not "Happy Holidays" and those who are in neither camp "Enjoy yourself" and to all "A Happy New Year"

[Vanna Ocean]

To me, what's worse is that Celebrity doesn't provide an alternative to using the online registration while it is not working. At least on the December 7 sailing of the Reflection, I was able to attend even though I was not registered. I just happened to hear the announcement of the time and location change, and went there!:D (The change was due to weather conditions.) Super props to the Reflection! Our fabulous CD and the Captain attended among others! So it turned out great in the end (for us anyway). Based on my experience of some past cruises, I was very impressed. On the sailing with Princess I did last year, the Cruise Critics were totally dissed. Then a couple of years before, on a Royal Caribbean cruise, the only person from the ship to greet the Cruise Critics was some kid from the entertainment crew, and he only stayed for a couple of minutes. So again, I praise the Reflection folks.

[Hockeylovinmom]

I have always enjoyed the "Meet and Greet" (Connections) get togethers so I hope that when I cruise in April that one is organized. I've sailed Princess and NCL. At the Princess get together, NO officer attended. There was quite a difference with NCL where a whole group of officers attended, answered questions and made the CC group feel welcome and important. There was open bar plus coffee and tea. The original meeting was organized by participants in the roll call. Once the list of those interested was compiled by a volunteer "leader" they contacted the cruise line to arrange a time and place. It seemed to work very well.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[andigene]

A couple of days ago, I posted that I've been trying to get the site to work, and decided that I would try again. I received a message that you have cancelled your attendance, and once you are on board, you will not be able to register to attend a party. Very strange as I never received a message that it was successful, or an email. So I continued to try again, and clicked about 20 times, back and forth, until miraculously, it went through and I received an email!

[bloom]

A couple of days ago, I posted that I've been trying to get the site to work, and decided that I would try again. I received a message that you have cancelled your attendance, and once you are on board, you will not be able to register to attend a party. Very strange as I never received a message that it was successful, or an email. So I continued to try again, and clicked about 20 times, back and forth, until miraculously, it went through and I received an email!

 

EUREKA it works, after about 12 continuous attempts it registered me and then I received an confirmation email. I did not have to cancel.

 

Thank you, you are genius.

[Ordinary Chef]

A couple of days ago, I posted that I've been trying to get the site to work, and decided that I would try again. I received a message that you have cancelled your attendance, and once you are on board, you will not be able to register to attend a party. Very strange as I never received a message that it was successful, or an email. So I continued to try again, and clicked about 20 times, back and forth, until miraculously, it went through and I received an email!

 

Hi, I tried going back and forth at least 20 times but no success in registering for the Connections Party for our cruise the end of January. Did you just go back from the error page to the sign in page, or completely out of the Celebrity website? Thanks for any help you can offer!

[croozer]

Hi, I tried going back and forth at least 20 times but no success in registering for the Connections Party for our cruise the end of January. Did you just go back from the error page to the sign in page, or completely out of the Celebrity website? Thanks for any help you can offer!

 

 

I'm wondering the same thing. I got the same message that my registration had been cancelled, and it was the first time I got anything except the dreaded error message. So I tried again and got--you guessed it--the dreaded error message. I just don't understand why this hasn't been fixed. It is eroding my confidence in their competence, and that alters my perception of the whole line.

[Ordinary Chef]

I was able to register tonight for the connection party for our cruise in January! Either I got lucky or the web site is fixed. I even got an email confirmation form Celebrity. Also, I previously had issues looking at the tours offered through Celebrity, but that seems to be working too. Although not being able to register for the connection party is not a major factor in our enjoying the cruise, having the web site work is more inline with our experiences with Celebrity Cruises. :)

[croozer]

Hey, Ordinary Chef, did I think that in my head and the words just flowed through your fingers onto the computer? Because I, too, was able to register today for my January cruise's connection party, and your final sentence was my thoughts exactly, except perhaps more eloquently put ;)