Celebrity Millennium Sailings Affected - 9/11/15, 9/27/15, 10/11/15

[weliketocruise86]

Can't believe some of the comments on here :rolleyes:

 

Just wondering how long it will take for my UK TA to contact me, we will be asking for our deposit back as nothing else is suitable :(

[CathyCruises]

First, It's weeks not months. .

 

I don't understand--these cruises are over a year away--it IS months. Please clarify. . .

[1982CruzStart]

I feel sorry for the people affected by this announcement. We book our cruises firstly based on itinerary and secondly time of year and do so pretty far in advance. Therefore this would have been a blow to our plans. We had considered one of the cruises that was canceled but decided to go with the 10/25/2015 cruise instead. Very glad we did. If we had booked one of the canceled cruises it would have been the first and last booking with Celebrity.

 

I get the economic reasons for Celebrity making this decision having worked in finance and accounting for over 35 years. However they can't be surprised by the reaction of their disappointed customers. To me it is all about how you handle these situations and to my way of thinking Celebrity has done a bad job of handling these ones.

 

I guess i have been lucky. I have been cruising for over 30 years and have never had a cruise canceled due to a charter taking over after i booked. Knock on wood. If it does happen in the future and it is handled in this manner it will likely be the last time I book with that cruise line. There are many options out there and I will eliminate companies that don't seem to care if they have my business or not. Naive you may say as none of them care but it is all about the perception you have of how they treat you.

[sentosa25]

Can't believe some of the comments on here :rolleyes:

 

Just wondering how long it will take for my UK TA to contact me, we will be asking for our deposit back as nothing else is suitable :(

 

Hello weliketocruise,

I emailed my UK Ta last night and he replied to me this morning to say he knew nothing about this, but would contact X.

 

He emailed back to say that X had confirmed the charter and were "currently working out what options there are which will be out by Monday."

I did ask if I could put a hold on a cabin until this is sorted out but was told no.

 

The cruise I am considering is one of the options given by X yesterday, and I am surprised they did not pull it to accommodate those who wish to re book an alternative cruise.

 

 

 

It reflects badly on X when the client has to tell the TA what is going on !! I think he was rather surprised that this was announced on a forum before TA's were informed.

Edited August 9, 2014 by sentosa25

[uktog]

No one really knows whether chartered cruises generate more onboard revenue than others. It's all commercial information and posts here are suppositions. I have heard staff tell me these groups were worse tippers but I also treat that as unsubstantiated tittle tattle.

 

I have been on one cruise where a large Pride group was on board, yes in prime tables but so were we and we were adversely impacted as the group demanded far too much attention from the waitstaff something the maitre d apologised about every night as he tried to manage the situation. Bars were closed way too much was off limits for others, the existence of the group we did not know about until we boarded

 

Curt clearly is not going to criticise late chartering as he benefits and effectively wins both ways. The rest do not

 

What I still cannot understand is why these chartering groups cannot make their decisions two years out. Elsewhere organisations who want to take over venues, hotels etc have to do so, so what's different?

Edited August 9, 2014 by uktog

[weliketocruise86]

Hello weliketocruise,

I emailed my UK Ta last night and he replied to me this morning to say he knew nothing about this, but would contact X.

 

He emailed back to say that X had confirmed the charter and were "currently working out what options there are which will be out by Monday."

I did ask if I could put a hold on a cabin until this is sorted out but was told no.

 

The cruise I am considering is one of the options given by X yesterday, and I am surprised they did not pull it to accommodate those who wish to re book an alternative cruise.

 

 

 

It reflects badly on X when the client has to tell the TA what is going on !! I think he was rather surprised that this was announced on a forum before TA's were informed.

 

Hi

I don't expect to hear from my TA until Monday at the earliest. Not in a rush though as we are going to cancel.

 

If you are thinking of changing to the Hong Kong -Singapore cruise, we did this in 2013 it is a great itinerary, we got a taste for Asia so were planning on Japan next:rolleyes: Maybe we will have to wait until 2016.

[hcat]

Luckily we are not affected this time......sorry for those who are.!

 

Once the cruise line offers a cruise for general sale, they should not tpweasel out of it in favor of a charter no matter how much notice is given .Just wrong!

 

If they set this as a policy they would avoid disappointing customers who may have already put in for vacation leave (some a yr ahead) made baby sitting and pet sitting arrangements long term, booked flights, hotel rms and given up a chance to book something elseon X or another line much earlier at a better price in a decent stateroom,

 

Adhering to this would also put charter customers on notice that they need to stake out their dates early!

 

Many yrs ago, we had a long standing booking cruise on Millie.and had already booked air and pre-cruise hotel..it was cancelled for a charter and they tried to squeeze us into dates on same ship that worked for them, but not us. That was when customers were valued to some degree and we refused. We ended up negotiating an wonderful cruise on Mercury, our fav ship but after all these years we remain wary of being dumped whenever sometjing better comes along for the cruise line

[uktog]

Luckily we are not affected this time......sorry for those who are.!

 

Once the cruise line offers a cruise for general sale, they should not tpweasel out of it in favor of a charter no matter how much notice is given .Just wrong!

 

If they set this as a policy they would avoid disappointing customers who may have already put in for vacation leave (some a yr ahead) made baby sitting and pet sitting arrangements long term, booked flights, hotel rms and given up a chance to book something elseon X or another line much earlier at a better price in a decent stateroom,

 

Adhering to this would also put charter customers on notice that they need to stake out their dates early!

 

Many yrs ago, we had a long standing booking cruise on Millie.and had already booked air and pre-cruise hotel..it was cancelled for a charter and they tried to squeeze us into dates on same ship that worked for them, but not us. That was when customers were valued to some degree and we refused. We ended up negotiating an wonderful cruise on Mercury, our fav ship but after all these years we remain wary of being dumped whenever sometjing better comes along for the cruise line

 

 

Yes yes yes well said, this the crux of the matter, not whether the charterer is X Y, high spend, low spend.

[hcat]

As to charters and large groups, we dislike sailing with any large group....they often garner all the attention and take over...on one trip...they had two dedicated elevators thus depriving the rest of us of their use, another group took over all the dance floors, etc etc., others tied up party rooms, etc.

 

One very large group on Century got the cruise for free from their company and used their own money to remain drunk for most of the trip... they disrupted many events and activities, were diffucult for security to control; and after they broke glass bottles into the pool...no swimming for the rest of us til it was cleaned..

 

Examples from our experiences range from disturbing annoyance to mild incovenience to we never really noticed them..,sometimes we are lucky enough to find out ahead if time and do our best to find out, ...but sometimes no way to know.

 

At least with a charter you are not cruising with a group as an outsider,

 

still they should not cancel a public open booking for a charter once it is listed

[richsea]

Luckily we are not affected this time......sorry for those who are.!

 

Once the cruise line offers a cruise for general sale, they should not tpweasel out of it in favor of a charter no matter how much notice is given .Just wrong!

 

If they set this as a policy they would avoid disappointing customers who may have already put in for vacation leave (some a yr ahead) made baby sitting and pet sitting arrangements long term, booked flights, hotel rms and given up a chance to book something elseon X or another line much earlier at a better price in a decent stateroom,

 

Adhering to this would also put charter customers on notice that they need to stake out their dates early!

 

Many yrs ago, we had a long standing booking cruise on Millie.and had already booked air and pre-cruise hotel..it was cancelled for a charter and they tried to squeeze us into dates on same ship that worked for them, but not us. That was when customers were valued to some degree and we refused. We ended up negotiating an wonderful cruise on Mercury, our fav ship but after all these years we remain wary of being dumped whenever sometjing better comes along for the cruise line

 

What you're saying, in effect, is that they should never charter a ship. It the sailing is not available for booking, how can the ship be chartered?

 

In this case, they certainly should have, at the least, informed their telephone agents, & all travel agents of the charter & the choices that booked passengers have to rebook.

 

If this happened to me, I would be very disappointed, but know up front that it is always a possibility. In this case, it is 13 + months in the future, so there is IMO, plenty of notice.

[hcat]

What you're saying, in effect, is that they should never charter a ship. It the sailing is not available for booking, how can the ship be chartered?

 

In this case, they certainly should have, at the least, informed their telephone agents, & all travel agents of the charter & the choices that booked passengers have to rebook.

 

If this happened to me, I would be very disappointed, but know up front that it is always a possibility. In this case, it is 13 + months in the future, so there is IMO, plenty of notice.

 

No, just like most conventions..charters should book or block out time ahead...that does in fact happen .. when that is done folks on the boards often wonder if weeks not offered are a charter or drydock but they are not available.

 

.not an industry insider but seems crummy to offer sonething to customers and then reneg. In favor of a better deal ...like dumping your prom date when something better comes along!

 

Hope no one lost their dreamed of anniv, honeymoon, retirement or other special cruise..we all know it can happen..happened to us....that's why we fly sw air for flexibility in changing flts and buy pvt travel "cancel for any reason" flight ins for overseas flights.

[zoncom]

I find it interesting the X alternatives are exactly those cruises at the LOWEST cruise dates of the year, usually greatly discounted. If it were me I would cancel period.

[Christine Frances]

How in the heck are Charter companies supposed to know what ship/itinerary to "book or block out" if the itineraries are not released yet:confused: Celebrity releases their itinerary's every Mar/April when they have them finalized. It's the most exciting time of the cruise year for me:D:D Then Captain's Club gets a week to book before they are made public to all.

 

Because we always book way in advance I am surprised this hasn't happened to us before after 10 yrs of cruising. The uproar on this thread is the same as on HAL, Princess, NCL when they charter one of their ships. It happens a lot but it sucks when it happens to you lol The 6 of us are now booked on the Oct 25th and we will do our Japan 2 week land tour prior to sailing rather than after as we originally planned.

[Christine Frances]

I find it interesting the X alternatives are exactly those cruises at the LOWEST cruise dates of the year, usually greatly discounted. If it were me I would cancel period.

 

The Millennium cruises on offer are the start of the Asia Indonesia season. They are not heavily discounted in our experience. I just switched to the sailing after the chartered one and the same cabin is $500+ higher. Thank you Celebrity for protecting my price::)

[Aloha 1]

I don't understand--these cruises are over a year away--it IS months. Please clarify. . .

 

We had been asking X for at least 3 weeks when the cruise disappeared from the booking page what was going on. We were lied to, told not to worry, and then BAM, they cancel the whole thing by an internet posting without bothering to contact any of the passengers. The "months" comment came from another poster who thought we "knew for months" that this could happen.

Edited August 9, 2014 by Aloha 1

[Aloha 1]

The Millennium cruises on offer are the start of the Asia Indonesia season. They are not heavily discounted in our experience. I just switched to the sailing after the chartered one and the same cabin is $500+ higher. Thank you Celebrity for protecting my price::)

 

Having just been to China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong on Millie that option does nothing for us. X should take the hint and boost up it's Around Japan dates.

[Northern Aurora]

We were booked both on the September 11, 2015 Trans-Pacific and the September 27th Japanese cruise. I thought that when the Japanese cruise disappeared from the Celebrity website it was very likely that the cruise was in the process of being chartered. In fact, my husband and I looked at the Celebrity website for other alternatives to these fall 2015 cruises, and found another set of B2B cruises which we will be very pleased to do. I am glad to have confirmation of my suspicions, and don't feel that I was penalized for booking early.

[uktog]

How in the heck are Charter companies supposed to know what ship/itinerary to "book or block out" if the itineraries are not released yet:confused: .

 

Easily, once the planning is at an advanced stage they contact the charter companies, share the provisional itineraries, the Charter companies select their options then the booking process commences for customers as before. I would rather wait two more weeks for the itineraries to come out and know the cruiseline was committed to them than the current situation

[Gran2five]

Easily, once the planning is at an advanced stage they contact the charter companies, share the provisional itineraries, the Charter companies select their options then the booking process commences for customers as before. I would rather wait two more weeks for the itineraries to come out and know the cruiseline was committed to them than the current situation

 

 

Totally agree - Celebrity can fit the charter companies into their release schedule. Many people are planning a trip (long time out I know) but for a special anniversary retirement etc. and a change of dates won't accommodate the celebration nor perhaps their work schedule.

 

Celebrity don't issue the schedule until you are certain that it won't be chartered.

 

Good Luck to those who have to reschedule.

[Project_gal]

Hello weliketocruise,

I emailed my UK Ta last night and he replied to me this morning to say he knew nothing about this, but would contact X.

 

He emailed back to say that X had confirmed the charter and were "currently working out what options there are which will be out by Monday."

I did ask if I could put a hold on a cabin until this is sorted out but was told no.

 

The cruise I am considering is one of the options given by X yesterday, and I am surprised they did not pull it to accommodate those who wish to re book an alternative cruise.

 

 

 

It reflects badly on X when the client has to tell the TA what is going on !! I think he was rather surprised that this was announced on a forum before TA's were informed.

 

Go online and place a hold on the room you want. It will expire at midnight EST [or 5am UK time] between 24-48hrs time. [ie if you place the hold at 8am Sunday, it will expire 5am Tuesday.] Just re-hold the room as early as you can after the hold expires. Your TA and Celebrity can work out how to sort it all out when you have been given the options.

[Project_gal]

How in the heck are Charter companies supposed to know what ship/itinerary to "book or block out" if the itineraries are not released yet:confused: Celebrity releases their itinerary's every Mar/April when they have them finalized. It's the most exciting time of the cruise year for me:D:D Then Captain's Club gets a week to book before they are made public to all.

 

As Celebrity actually change the schedules to what the charter company want [as least on some occasions] it is not necessary for the charter companies to actually know Celebrity's full schedule just a vague idea of where they plan to have ships. Celebrity publishes more detailed information than this well before the itineraries are available to Captain's Club members.

[Christine Frances]

As Celebrity actually change the schedules to what the charter company want [as least on some occasions] it is not necessary for the charter companies to actually know Celebrity's full schedule just a vague idea of where they plan to have ships. Celebrity publishes more detailed information than this well before the itineraries are available to Captain's Club members.

 

 

I don't think the charter companies are necessarily locked in on any one cruise line or itinerary. They might want to have one in June 2016, would wait until all the different cruise lines had their itineraries out, and then pick 2-3. Then they would open negotiations with each specific line, reach an agreement with one, then draw up a contract. All this takes longer than a couple of weeks.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[KW Cruisers]

Totally agree - Celebrity can fit the charter companies into their release schedule. Many people are planning a trip (long time out I know) but for a special anniversary retirement etc. and a change of dates won't accommodate the celebration nor perhaps their work schedule.

 

Celebrity don't issue the schedule until you are certain that it won't be chartered.

 

Good Luck to those who have to reschedule.

 

I have to agree! We are booked on the Summit March 12/16 out of SJU. I don't see it on the site anymore...makes me wonder what is happening? Are you saying that if they charter the cruise, they will offer us something to rebook?

 

That exact week only works for my work schedule. That's why I book so far out. I will not be happy if they just offer us other cruises in the same month (it has to be that week).

 

I agree that they shouldn't sell the cruises if they could be chartered.

 

Shawn

[Aloha 1]

Easily, once the planning is at an advanced stage they contact the charter companies, share the provisional itineraries, the Charter companies select their options then the booking process commences for customers as before. I would rather wait two more weeks for the itineraries to come out and know the cruiseline was committed to them than the current situation

 

Spot on!

[grayjay]

As the others booked on that cruise who have already posted here we are severely disappointed and angry - we originally had wanted to book the (cancelled) Century cruise around Japan. Then booked this cruise on "Millenium" one day after the itinerary came out and were able to book one of the coveted AQ cabins aft - the one we had always wanted for a cruise but had never got before.

Now we were unlucky - again. I wouldn't mind so much if the alternative cruises we were offered to book at the protected price were better ones and we would be able to take ALL the perks we had got by booking onboard with us. But the offered alternatives in Asia offer much less in regard to the itineraries, the one we would be willing to take ( to Bali etc). is the only one exempted. The two cruises offered to New Zealand in November 2015 ( strange selection anyway :eek:) are only 12 days compared to the 14 we booked and usually are heavily discounted at a later date.Right now they are at standard (high) price.

If Celebrity really were willing to listen to us disgruntled (and loyal Elite and Elite Plus) customers they would offer a wider range of cruises open for booking at the protected price ( as many many cruises have risen in price especially for example in Aqua Class when compared to the arlier booking dates) and give us the perks we were promised onboard for booking at the earliest available date.