Good Bye Celebrity

[Fang]

My family is also on the November 19th cruise. As such, we are involved with the port changes.

 

I have read this board for the past several days and have read the posts regarding this subject. For the first time, I actually read the cruise contract. I wish I would have read it this evening, it is pretty boring stuff and would put a normal person to sleep!!!

 

My take on this is:

 

1. It makes sense for Celebrity to offer a refund to passengers who have already paid in full for the cruise. If they do not offer this, then some other form of compensation is due. I believe this change in ports and the later time into CDC is based on the ship using less fuel. Thus, saving Celebrity money.

 

2. It states in the cruise contract that Celebrity can charge a fuel surcharge. To my knowledge this is not going to happen. I say this because I have talked with Customer Noservice and so has my TA.

 

3. We take our cruises partially for the ports, but more on the ship. With my family going we also consider the childrens program.

 

4. In my opinion, most ports are basicly the same. There are beaches, shopping etc.

 

I would have like to have gone to Grenada, but if I had the option of going to this port or being charged a fuel surcharge, I personally would say dump the port.

 

My wife and I are booked on the Infinty in January 2006. Right now I am not considering changing that booking. I am however, looking at other cruise ships. I have never sailed on Princess and am really looking at their cruises for this time.

 

I am sure that my family will have a great time on the Connie.

 

My piece of advice is to get off the ship as fast as possible at Celebrity's "private island", I forget the name of this place. I have been their one time and beach lounges fill up fast.

 

Lets all go and have a great time. I am not as nearly upset about this as I would have been if we had to pay a fuel surcharge.

[geoherb]

I'd be a little bit upset if a port I was looking forward to got cancelled. But it does happen on other cruise lines as well. Last fall one of the Princess ships cut its itineraries greatly because of engine problems. I read about it here first. My co-worker who was booked for one of the cruises found out from me. The biggest changes came after final payment. Whether that was a coincidence or not, it seemed suspicious.

[Richard Stein]

I am on the 11/10 Connie repositioning cruise. We were going to Charleston, but not the Bahamas and this was the second port change. Many web sites show the original itenary still. Had I not checked the Celebrity web site I would not have known. Many have canceled and that is why this cruise is a happy hour cruise on many web sites today.

[ingrid295]

I missed that totally....... Arrive Casa de Campo at 5 p.m. and leave at 8 a.m. for Catalina Island. That means we park at the dock in CDC overnight and with no shore excursions available. I was looking forward to seeing Casa de Campo Resort and taking the horseback riding shore excursion. Don't think that will be possible with a late arrival.

 

This does NOT make sense. This is a waste of 2 days IMO.

 

Don't like the changes, but we'll survive since it is out of our control. But in the future, I will keep the potential for itinerary changes in mind when booking. Those of us who work and book one or two cruise vacations a year have a different outlook than those of you who are retired and maybe take more vacations each year. When you are looking forward to a specific itinerary and it's changed after Final Payment, then it is really a disappointment. It won't change my mind about this cruise, but it will make me think before I book the next one..

 

Better make spa reservations early -- they will likely fill up quickly for the first few days of the 11/19 sailing.

 

Anyone have experience with having to cancel cruise after Final Payment due to serious illness of one of the travelers? This may be an issue for us, but we may not know until as late as Nov. 1st pending test results. We did buy Travel Guard Travel Insurance through TA. We will do what we need to do regardless of cost, but just wondered if anyone has had this happen.

[Fang]

My Father was scheduled to go on an Alaskan cruise on HAL, this summer.

 

He had some medical problems. His Doctor wrote a letter for him. He sent it to his TA and she then forwarded on to HAL and American Airlines.

 

His money was refunded for the cruise and AA gave him a voucher for future use.

 

All this happened about two weeks before he was to leave. I have to believe that X will be about the same.

[excitedofharpenden]

I feel for those that have had these changed itineraries too. I agree that sometimes they will change for an explicable reason, like we had to miss Belize last year when the port didn't invite Galaxy to stay there. I was disappointed with Costa Maya as the replacement, but the rest of the stops made up for it. The ones I have been reading about here would make me unhappy.

 

It just makes me wonder whether Celebrity rush getting their itineraries published without thinking them through fully. I have seen lots of posts here about waiting a long time for them to be released. Who knows? I hope that those willing to put up with the changes have a good time and those others find themselves a suitable alternative. Just doesn't seem very good business to me to keep chopping and changing, especially when they are last minute.

 

Phil

[Aussie Cruisers]

We have long been RCCL cruisers - and will likely stay that way - BUT we had such a great time on the Summit in Alaska we figured lets think about a Caribbean cruise on Celebrity. Lo and behold the Connie shows up with a voyage to St.Kitts - new port for us, and Grenada - havent been there since 1998 or 99 on Princess. We psyched. Then the bad news hits. The March 11th cruise itinerary is changed so we think ok maybe we'll cruise earlier - NOT. Should have had a clue as my daughter's inlaws were booked on Zenith in February and their itinerary has been changed at least twice.

 

I think Dan Hanrahan and the Celebrity folks owe us if nothing an explanation as to why the wholesale switch. At least RCCL has not switched itineraries in years. Maybe it's time to think about Princess again????

 

I am really sorry to hear about your cruise itinerary changing. The only reason I am butting in is because you said that "at least RCCL has not switched itineraries in years" - just to let you know they changed my parent's cruise in December last year. They were on the Panama Canal cruise, and changed several ports. To be fair to Princess, it was changed due to threaets in terrorism (they were going to go to Columbia), so at least there was a very good reason - safety of her passengers. However, my parents said they will never cruise with anyone else BUT Princess. My wife and I are going X, so I guess we will be able to compare with their experiences.

 

I hope it all works out for you. :(

[ingrid295]

Fang,

 

Thanks for the info on the refund for illness.

 

Ingrid

[ingrid295]

If Celebrity changed the itinerary to St. Martin, I would be happy. But parking overnight at the dock in Casa de Campo followed by a brief sail to Catalina Island for a day at the beach is not the same as substituting St. Martin for Grenada. There is much more to do in St. Martin.

 

I would even prefer parking 2 nights in St. Thomas/St. John vs. 2 nights in DR.

 

I think the problem is the choice of Catalina Island. There is really nothing there except the beach from what I am reading, and if you aren't a beach person, you're on a parked ship for 3 days of your 7 day itinerary.

 

If Celebrity did offer pax an opportunity to accept a refund, I think a LOT of people would opt out and choose an alternate. So I doubt that will be offered.

 

If Celebrity had good Customer Service, they would be sending out a formal notice regarding the Port change along with an explanation and a small on-board credit to be used on the ship during the down time.

 

Pax are actually missing 2 ports on this itinerary. We arrive at Casa de Campo at 5 p.m. and leave at 8 a.m. so there will not be shore excursions. We will park at the dock overnight. And Grenada has been canceled and replaced with Catalina, a poor substitute IMO.

[Spender Nui]

[quote=Secondly, I still have no idea why X would schedule a stop in Casa De Campo from 5pm to 8am. No beach time there. No time for golf. No shopping after 5pm on a Sunday. What gives there? Sounds like X wants to keep everyone on board to keep their $$$ on the ship.

 

When you pull in at 5pm ... it's dusk. You can always take a walk in the dark ... but not a long one because you sail at 8pm. That being said, they won't make a $ bundle on tours.

[SanFranBayCruiser]

We actually booked Constellation for the 2/11/06 sailing and when our TA advised us of the changes to the ports - we cancelled - now we have to find another trip because we both already took that week off from work. We're thinking of the Adventure of the Seas... Wish the cruise lines wouldn't do that...but, I know they have the right to do so, but, it still is upsetting when you have your heart on one thing and have to settle for second best...

[stanjj111]

Although the cruise line may have a legal right to cancel ports it is a very poor business practice. Folks will not go back on X so quickly. At the very least they should offer an explaination and refund if so desired.

[nu2sea]

What I find ironic in my postition in this discussion is that, like Albertiger, I am frankly thrilled with our change of port stop from Plymouth to Paris.;) (But I got lucky this time. Others have not been so fortunate.)

 

I still find myself questioning the way Celebrity is doing business. I am not referring to changes for weather, passenger/crew safety or even mechanical problems. It is the stonewalling by X of the reasons for so many changes lately that troubles me.

 

The fact that they have the right to change ports without notice is not in dispute. However, one does have to wonder about the management of a company that does such a poor job of planning or of communicating with their customers.

 

Susan

[Beach4me]

It always amazes me when someone tries to discredit someone else's feelings/opinions. Everyone has the right to be disappointed with these types of changes. Just because you don't personally feel disappointed, you don't have the right to make others feel bad because they are disappointed. And, when folks have planned, researched, dreamed about their itinerary no one has a right to dismiss any feelings about changes. Sure, we all either go and make the best of the situation or if possible, cancel and rebook the itinerary we had planned on...and, we always have a good time...but to not be disappointed/surprise/confused is most definitely not the norm in this type of situation. Disappointment does not equate to attitude or maturity level. The same can't be said of some of the responses.

 

For those of you with altered itineraries who are disappointed, I hope that you do have a good trip. And, I hope that you get to visit your missed ports on another voyage.

[hermang]

For openers - someone posted the other day that it ws the Website that was screwed up - well maybe yes maybe no - looking at the "latest and greatest"

Connie itinerary - looks like St.Kitts is BACK if nothing else.

 

I don;t know which Panama Canal Cruise the poster was talking about but I am looking at the Brilliance and that itinerary has not changed in a while.

 

Seems strange that Celebrity was doing wholesale chanegs and the parent RCCL was making changes only to NO and possible a couple of other 3-4-5 day to balance out the redeployments but basically other than dropping Canada and reassiging assets RCCL was making minor changes.

 

I agree - if you are in a penalty situation and Celebrity changed the itinerary to a less desirable one - they should make an accomodation BUT as someone pointed out there is also an airline issue as well.

 

As I said earlier - our desire to do the Connie is two fold - one a desire to do a different itinerary EVEN if it is one new port - in this case 2-3 new ports even thous CDC and Catalina Island are not phenomenal. And we really enjoyed the Summit so we would either do the Serenade as it is about the same size as an alternative. BUT looks like now we'll continue making plans for the Connie in March

[excitedofharpenden]

What I find ironic in my postition in this discussion is that, like Albertiger, I am frankly thrilled with our change of port stop from Plymouth to Paris.;) (But I got lucky this time. Others have not been so fortunate.)

Hey Susan, I know that Plymouth isn't quite Paris, but I do feel I owe it to the folk of the West Country to say that it really is a lovely spot down there. There are some very nice towns to visit not too far away including Salcombe and Dartmouth and the Eden Project (http://www.edenproject.com/) is not to be missed.

 

For your 200+ mile round trip you will get to see the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Sacré Coeur etc and perhaps eat French bread, escargot smothered in garlic butter or sample a nice glass of French wine sitting outside a small café on the Champs d'Elysées, but for those visiting Plymouth, don't be too despondent:) You still don't have to travel too far for a Cornish Pasty. I didn't really sell that too well, did I?:D

 

Phil

[leerobbs]

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...sounds like somebody has a dirty diper.

[superjerryw]

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...sounds like somebody has a dirty diper.

 

Haaaaaaaaaa, Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa - looks like someone needs a dictionary - what's a "diper"???:rolleyes:

[Host Karen]

My suggestion to those passengers affected by the itinerary change who cannot cancel either because it's within the penalty period (myself and DH included) or because of nonrefundable airfare is to make your discontent known both by writing to Celebrity and by speaking with your dollars. You cannot pull your cruise fare, but you can choose to spend less onboard. That means not rushing to make those spa appointments -- don't make any. Limit or eliminate your spending in specialty restaurants, bars, the casino, bingo, the gift shops, etc. Enjoy everything the ship has to offer for FREE. Go to the gym, relax by the pool, listen to the music, enjoy the shows, participate in the games, and eat the food, but don't spend a dime more onboard than is absolutely required.

 

We can have a fabulous time on a beautiful ship in (hopefully) lovely weather and enjoy our vacation and, for those from the US, Thanksgiving with our family and/or friends. At the same time we can let management know that not treating your customers famously can have an effect on the company's bottom line.

[epiala]

Completely agree with olliekl!

 

I understand that ports can and sometimes have to change but spending 48 hours in and around Casa de Crapo is not ideal and X should have worked the schedule around to include an island where there are more things to do than fight for a spot on a crowded beach.

[leerobbs]

Sorry Jerry diaper. You are to just to perfect.

[alanmal]

Another big money maker (up to 50%) for the cruise lines is shore excursions. Hit them where it hurts, book your excursions outside of Celebrity. There are plenty of sites to do this, one is portcompass.

 

 

 

al

 

:mad:

[Host Karen]

Thanks, alanmal, I forgot to include ship excursions in my list because we usually strike out on our own but you make a great point.

[ingrid295]

Has anyone written to Celebrity regarding the itinerary change? If so, did you receive a response? I started to send an email, but figured that would get deleted.

 

How and where did you submit your discontent in writing?

 

Maybe everyone should show up for dinner on formal night wearing jeans & flip-flops & tell Celebrity that "we changed the itinerary" so as to ensure greater comfort.

 

Ingrid.

[Host Karen]

Ingrid, I sent an e-mail and the response was "We're sorry for any inconvenience. Please call us if you have any questions." Lots of help there. :confused:

 

You can send a letter as follows:

 

Mr. Daniel J. Hanrahan

President

Celebrity Cruise Lines

1050 Caribbean Way

Miami, FL 33132

 

If anyone has a fax number, I'd appreciate if they would post it here.

I'll be working on our letter today.