Celebrity cancelled our cruise - what to do

[caro24]

Celebrity have just cancelled our Asia cruise in Feb 2015 on the Millennium as the ship has now been chartered.

 

We are very disappointed in Celebrity in the way they have handled the cancellation of this cruise, their letter and email advising us of the cancellation was surprisingly abrupt. They have given us less than 2 weeks to decide what we want to do as an alternative with the offer of $200 OBC. This I find to be a particular insult as if we had cancelled at anytime we would have lost a minimum of £300 (over $450 US) deposit.

 

I have contacted Celebrity explaining how this already impacts on us with increased cost of travel, trips already booked, arrangements already made and changes to time off work and cover for business. I feel that on a corporate level they are really not interested. It's a money game.

 

As the cruise has been cancelled for a charter it must have been financially beneficial for them, but they do not seem willing to pass on to their customers.

 

We are now torn. We love this itinerary and have spotted a similar Celebrity cruise we could book, but do we want to give our money to them? :confused:

 

It's has also taken some of the shine off the cruise we have booked to celebrate our anniversary in May this year. :(

 

Would be interested to hear experiences of anyone who has been in a similar position or opinion of anyone else booked on this cruise.

[jkgourmet]

Not to be catty, but they gave you one year's notice. That seems pretty reasonable to me. They are business. Their goal is to produce the most profit for their shareholders. It's the shareholders that benefit from the additional income of chartering, not the passengers. Sorry, but that's the system.

 

NCL just cancelled an entire month's worth of cruises to charter the ship for the Russian Olympics as a floating hotel. Those folks got about 4 months notice and some are still fighting with NCL about refunds if they had to change plane tickets!

[Tommy3putts]

Wow this is unfortunate. I don't have any experience to share, other than seeing other threads on CC.

 

I'm interested to see what responses you get.

[cle-guy]

Increased cost of travel? Can't buy airline tickets for that cruise yet so no loss there.

 

I really can't think of any real financial loss yet, over 1 year out.

 

The offer to cancel or rebook and get $200 OBC is quite fair given the timeline on this one. If you were months out, I'd expect expenses reimbursed perhaps, but I'd consider this a gift of $200 and book the alternative.

 

No need to stew over it. Accept the problem, and find the alternative and enjoy $200 on them when you get there in 15 months.

[caro24]

Not to be catty, but they gave you one year's notice. That seems pretty reasonable to me. They are business. Their goal is to produce the most profit for their shareholders. It's the shareholders that benefit from the additional income of chartering, not the passengers. Sorry, but that's the system.

 

NCL just cancelled an entire month's worth of cruises to charter the ship for the Russian Olympics as a floating hotel. Those folks got about 4 months notice and some are still fighting with NCL about refunds if they had to change plane tickets!

 

Hi jkgourmet. You are right we are very fortunate to have a one year notice, but still have only 10 days from receipt of cancellation to decide on any alternative cruise with Celeb. Not easy coordinating with a busy party of 4 couples.

 

I also appreciate that shareholders expect to see a dividend, but customers also expect to feel as though they receive fair compensation for their inconvenience, disruption and increase/loss of costs. To me it would be fair to say that if we cancelled on Celebrity at this point they would keep our $450 deposit, so a fair amount of compensation at this point should be similar. I would expect this to be a simple calculation to put into any charter costs when looking at the financial impact of chartering a ship and therefore no loss to shareholders.

 

I feel very sorry for the NCL customers who appear to have been very unfairly treated - so thank you for highlighting this as I would certainly not use a company who would treat their passengers in this way without fair compensation. Unfortunately 2 wrongs don't make a right.

 

I suppose what you're saying is if you don't like it, don't give them your money. You probably have a fair point.:)

[I-Cruiser]

Celebrity canceled our Asia cruise on the Centruy.. Re booked the Millennium in Asia.

Celebrity made the Millie cruise into a 17 days cruise instead of 14 days. If we choose to stay with the booking Celebrity gave us those extra 3 days free.

They gave us $200 obc for each cruise for the "inconvenience"

 

I think that is really good going.

Yes, to bad Celebrity cancels/re schedule but sometimes that happen.

No big deal...

Edited February 7, 2014 by I-Cruiser

[Sascol]

Increased cost of travel? Can't buy airline tickets for that cruise yet so no loss there.

 

I really can't think of any real financial loss yet, over 1 year out.

 

The offer to cancel or rebook and get $200 OBC is quite fair given the timeline on this one. If you were months out, I'd expect expenses reimbursed perhaps, but I'd consider this a gift of $200 and book the alternative.

 

No need to stew over it. Accept the problem, and find the alternative and enjoy $200 on them when you get there in 15 months.

 

Agreed - OP is inconvenienced but this is plenty of time to reorganize PLUS have the benefit of the $200. No fincial impact I can think of other than the POSITIVE one of $200.

[Host Jazzbeau]

I'm sure this won't be any comfort either, but you should remember that Celebrity's customers are primarily from the US and we have no restrictions on cancelling before final payment. So most of the customers affected by this cancellation are getting $200 because Celebrity cancelled, versus needing to pay nothing if they had chosen to cancel.

 

I've been in situations all my life when I was the tail; you never get a chance to wag the dog...

[Sascol]

To me it would be fair to say that if we cancelled on Celebrity at this point they would keep our $450 deposit, so a fair amount of compensation at this point should be similar.

 

Celebrity would keep the $450? I would think based on this change that THEY caused this would be refundable?

Edited February 7, 2014 by Sascol

[Duanerice1]

I understand how you feel because yea, that sinks. I can imagine how long it took you to get 4 couples to agree in the first place :)

 

Why the 10 day rush? So if you don't book in 10 days what happens? Lose the OBC or deposit? Probably just the OBC so you'd be back to where you started basically. No harm, no foul.

 

Again, that stinks but don't get too upset, from what you said, you are really not out anything and there is plenty of time to book something else.

 

Also, since it is a year out, can you change the date of your cruise by a couple of weeks?

good luck,

Duane

[emilygrace]

Celebrity would keep the $450? I would think based on this change that THEY caused this would be refundable?

 

I agree. I know that UK passengers lose their deposit if they cancel, but in this case YOU are not canceling.....they cancelled on you and it seems to me you SHOULD get your deposit back. I would check into this before making a decision.

[TobyKnits]

Almost a year ago we received cancellation notice of our April 26, 2014 sailing on Millennium. It was particularly bad timing as we had just had an unexpected death in the family and the last thing I had time to deal with was changing our vacation plans.

 

At any rate - our travel agent was given 2 weeks notice which equated to a couple days less than 2 weeks when she told us. They offered us the same $200 OBC to rebook. However, a few days after the 2 week notice to rebook, 1-2-3 GO was starting.

 

We were able to get a couple day extension, rebook with 1-2-3 GO, AND get the $200 OBC. So you may find that there is a little bit of leeway, but not much. Also, it took several phone calls by our travel agent to find someone at Celebrity that would let us have 1-2-3 GO and the OBC. Several weeks later they announced a modified itinerary than what we had booked on, this was the transpacific crossing.

 

Good luck! It is unfortunate, we were very disappointed when our cruise was cancelled, but once we got past our disappointment we realized that Celebrity still is our favorite cruise line of choice.

[caro24]

Increased cost of travel? Can't buy airline tickets for that cruise yet so no loss there.

 

I really can't think of any real financial loss yet, over 1 year out.

 

The offer to cancel or rebook and get $200 OBC is quite fair given the timeline on this one. If you were months out, I'd expect expenses reimbursed perhaps, but I'd consider this a gift of $200 and book the alternative.

 

No need to stew over it. Accept the problem, and find the alternative and enjoy $200 on them when you get there in 15 months.

 

Hi cle-guy Oh dear, I do sound like a right old moaner :D You have a fair point - it is 12 months notice and for most of our party the arrangements already made can be unmade and re-booked - although obviously something we would prefer not to be doing. Some of the arrangements are not quite so straight forward, hence booking so far in advance. Sadly we will not be so fortunate in getting all 8 of our party together again to book an alternative in the short window of time allowed so that all the party can receive $200 and keep any existing OBC credit given in the original deal. I have requested an extension to this date a couple of days ago and await a reply.

 

None of our party have experienced this before with any holiday and it took all of us by surprise, but from the reaction to my post it seems it is not an uncommon problem. We obviously should just count ourselves fortunate that we have been so lucky with previous holidays :)

[caro24]

Almost a year ago we received cancellation notice of our April 26, 2014 sailing on Millennium. It was particularly bad timing as we had just had an unexpected death in the family and the last thing I had time to deal with was changing our vacation plans......

 

Good luck! It is unfortunate, we were very disappointed when our cruise was cancelled, but once we got past our disappointment we realized that Celebrity still is our favorite cruise line of choice.

 

Thanks TobyKnits. Pleased it all worked out for you and I'm hoping for a happy conclusion myself. I think maybe we need to just get through the initial disappointment stage and get something sorted.

[20pluscruises]

Are you saying this can happen more than a year out and not after the one year mark? (cancel due to a charter) If this is the case (after one year they cannot book a charter and cancel your cruise...I would definately wait till after the one year mark...however...

 

Doesn't this cause a problem with booking a cruise onboard?

[caro24]

I agree. I know that UK passengers lose their deposit if they cancel, but in this case YOU are not canceling.....they cancelled on you and it seems to me you SHOULD get your deposit back. I would check into this before making a decision.

Sorry I have mislead you there and now I feel like a real meany. We will get our deposit back if we decide not to rebook. I was just trying to make a comparison that if we cancelled they would get to keep $450 deposit for their trouble, so as they have cancelled is it not fair for them to give the same amount of money for our trouble. Bringing out the negotiator/haggler mean streak in me. An argument I know I am destined not to win.:)

[rebeccalouiseagain]

It's disappointing but you can't say that if you cancelled your cruise a year in advance you wouldn't be refunded your money. The cruise lines refund 100% if you cancel 90 days before embarkation and many itineraries allow you to cancel up to 60 days before sailing with no penalty.

 

They have given you a 200 OBC to use for another cruise for the inconvenience.

 

Hope you can find another cruise to your liking on Celebrity or another cruise line that probably has a similar sailing at the time you planned to go.

[caro24]

I'm sure this won't be any comfort either, but you should remember that Celebrity's customers are primarily from the US and we have no restrictions on cancelling before final payment. So most of the customers affected by this cancellation are getting $200 because Celebrity cancelled, versus needing to pay nothing if they had chosen to cancel.

 

I've been in situations all my life when I was the tail; you never get a chance to wag the dog...

Thanks. I did not realise that in the US you would not lose your deposit if you cancelled at this stage. It casts a different light on the way Celebrity are handling this and why to a US customer $200 certainly would seem fair.

Ever wish you had not posted a thread?

[patty1955]

I'm not sure of the rules outside the US, but when this happened to us we booked a cruise just to get the OBC. After we decided what cruise we really wanted to go on, we called back and changed the reservation.

[Host Jazzbeau]

It's disappointing but you can't say that if you cancelled your cruise a year in advance you wouldn't be refunded your money. The cruise lines refund 100% if you cancel 90 days before embarkation and many itineraries allow you to cancel up to 60 days before sailing with no penalty.

 

That's not true for UK customers. Their deposits are non-refundable from the get-go.

 

That's the whole point of OP's complaint: if OP had cancelled, they would be out $450; since Celebrity cancelled on them, fairness suggests the compensation should be the same $450.

 

I agree with OP in the fairness issue, but that's not how it works. ["Because we can..."]

Edited February 7, 2014 by jazzbeau

[caro24]

Oh dear, think I'm going to have to put my hands in the air as being unreasonable on this one - but that's why I asked for people's opinion. Time to get over it and just sit and enjoy looking at brochures again...preferably with a glass on wine in hand.

 

Thanks everyone for your comments I am going to go back to being Mrs Nice again and just enjoy the fact that we are all lucky to be able to enjoy these wonderful holidays in the first place.

 

I hope you all enjoy your next cruise/holiday wherever it may take you - cheers!

[tserface]

I don't blame you for being upset. It takes time and emotion to make the decision to go, where to go, when to go, etc. Having it canceled makes you feel super inconvenienced, if nothing else.

 

I know they are offering $200 OBC which is, at least, something, but one thing I thought worth mentioning is make sure you can use that even with other specials. Like you may have booked with a 123 special or something like that which saves you much more. If they give you $200 OBC offer does that mean you can't combine it with other offers? If that is the case your re-book may cost you more than your previous cruise.

 

If it were me I'd figure out another cruise with the same itinerary, if possible, (maybe a week or so earlier or later) and ask if I could get as good of a price and the $200 OBC for my trouble. $200 OBC is not a lot, but it's not a lot of trouble either and the $200 means you can play bingo guilt free :rolleyes: You just don't want to lose anything else in the transition.

 

Tom

 

Sorry I have mislead you there and now I feel like a real meany. We will get our deposit back if we decide not to rebook. I was just trying to make a comparison that if we cancelled they would get to keep $450 deposit for their trouble, so as they have cancelled is it not fair for them to give the same amount of money for our trouble. Bringing out the negotiator/haggler mean streak in me. An argument I know I am destined not to win.:)

[tserface]

You have an amazing attitude and countenance. I see so many people on Cruise Critic being mean and it's really refreshing to see someone take criticism to heart and, anyway, I think it's cool.

 

I may lift a glass of wine in your honor ...

 

Tom

 

Oh dear, think I'm going to have to put my hands in the air as being unreasonable on this one - but that's why I asked for people's opinion. Time to get over it and just sit and enjoy looking at brochures again...preferably with a glass on wine in hand.

 

Thanks everyone for your comments I am going to go back to being Mrs Nice again and just enjoy the fact that we are all lucky to be able to enjoy these wonderful holidays in the first place.

 

I hope you all enjoy your next cruise/holiday wherever it may take you - cheers!

[caro24]

I'm not sure of the rules outside the US, but when this happened to us we booked a cruise just to get the OBC. After we decided what cruise we really wanted to go on, we called back and changed the reservation.

 

Thanks Patty that's really useful and would certainly solve a couple of problems.

[caro24]

Thanks Tom, I appreciate you saying so (feeling a bit foolish). As they say, life's too short and if I don't want an honest opinion I should not ask for it. In all honesty it has made me look at myself and helped me get over my initial disappointment. Time to move on....cheers!