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Celebrity Xpedition runs aground in Galapagos

G.M.T.

By G.M.T.,
in Celebrity Cruises

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wrk2cruise

wrk2cruise

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Vectorboy said:

I was told by X that with this FCC, it could only be used if booking directly with Celebrity and not through a TA.

 

Does that sound right?

 

Anyone?

 

Doesn't sound right to me.  We got a similar 50% of cruise fare compensation for a cancelled cruise and were able to use it on an existing booking and applied via our TA.

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savethepandas

savethepandas

Posted
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Okay, it's official, just got the call.  Our December 7th  Xp sailing has been canceled, AND the rest of December!!!  

Supervisor says they are hoping that sailings will start back in Jan 2020.

 

Got the full refund and FCC, which she said I could use for an existing booking (our August 2020 sailing).

Thankful that the call came now, as opposed to waiting til  around Thanksgiving.

 

So disappointed, but it is what it is, plus we get a free trip!  😥😔

 

 

 

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StartrainDD "Live from...." Rare

StartrainDD

Posted
Posted

Sorry to hear about December being canceled.  The damage must be worse than we all thought.

 

It's certainly not the Galapagos, but if any are looking for a "Plan B" due to scheduled vacation times, look at the Azamara Journey Caribbean in early December.  Prices are lowest I've ever seen for Azamara, we are doing a B-2-B.  Hey, it's in the "Teens" here in Pennsylvania so suddenly the Caribbean seems like a great place to be!

 

All the best!

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critterchick

critterchick

Posted
Posted
On 11/11/2019 at 9:31 PM, Vectorboy said:

I was told by X that with this FCC, it could only be used if booking directly with Celebrity and not through a TA.

 

Does that sound right?

 

Anyone?

It does not sound right. I've applied more than one FCC on sailings that are booked with a TA.

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dani negreanu

dani negreanu

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, critterchick said:

It does not sound right. I've applied more than one FCC on sailings that are booked with a TA.

 

Not only that, but I applied it to a cruise which was already paid off (before the final payment date -- took advantage of an advantageous conversion rate...). I immediately received the difference from X, and some of it took several days, since it was part of TA's commission, which was reduced.

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sippican

sippican

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, savethepandas said:

Saw this account of the Xp rescue by the Flora - 

Amazing job...

 

https://www.cntraveler.com/story/what-happens-during-a-cruise-ship-rescue

 

That's quite an amazing story. Thanks for sharing.

Kudos to Celebrity for stepping up to the plate, from the crews of the  two ships up to LLP.

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hubofhockey

hubofhockey

Posted
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On 11/11/2019 at 10:00 AM, sippican said:

 

It is questionable if the government would allow the transfer of the 100 Silversea licenses to Royal, but a good point.

Then X would still be left with the 48 Xpedition licenses and the 16 Xploration (which I presume they could sell).

But, that would leave Silversea without a presence in the Galapagos, where they have been very popular with cruisers looking for a more upscale experience.

 

Personally, works for me since we are booked for 2021 on Xpedition and I'd be happy with a new ship!

 

They could do to Silver Galapagos what they did to Xpedition, which is to turn 100 passenger ship into a 48 passenger ship and use the old passenger space for more public areas.  We are booked on that ship for May 2019 about a month before it goes out of service.  From what I understand, the ship is nicer than the Xpedition and prices similarly.  My price on the Silver Galapagos was actually better than the price for the same week Xpedition and the cabins are much larger as well.  The Origin will priced similarly to the Flora, so the lower cost Galapagos cruises will be fewer and further in between.  It would be nice if RCI would move the Silver Galapagos to Celebrity to operate the lower cost (still very expensive) Galapagos itineraries in June of 2020.

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hillslife

hillslife

Posted
Posted

We were supposed to leave November 28 for the expedition but we all know that situation. So just re-booked for February 2020 on the Flora. And I’m actually getting a refund of about $3000 from the moneys I already pad and the generous FCC Celebrity gave us ..They are having a half off the second person free airfare. So fingers crossed that one will go🤞🤞🤪

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savethepandas

savethepandas

Posted
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To those who were given refund/FCC, did you get the refund and the future cruise credit/voucher pretty quickly??

 

Last spoke to the supervisor a week ago.  Noted trip was officially canceled on the X website over this past weekend.

 

Was told it would take about 3-5 business days for the refund to the credit card.  Nothing yet.

AND have not received the promised email cruise credit/certificate yet.

 

Don't want to hassle them, but should I have received those items by now?

 

 

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SoCalTraveler

SoCalTraveler

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, savethepandas said:

To those who were given refund/FCC, did you get the refund and the future cruise credit/voucher pretty quickly??

 

Last spoke to the supervisor a week ago.  Noted trip was officially canceled on the X website over this past weekend.

 

Was told it would take about 3-5 business days for the refund to the credit card.  Nothing yet.

AND have not received the promised email cruise credit/certificate yet.

 

Don't want to hassle them, but should I have received those items by now?

 

 

We have received much, but not all, of the promised refund and we have not received the FCCs.

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hillslife

hillslife

Posted
Posted
On 11/6/2019 at 12:32 PM, SoCalTraveler said:

We were booked on this trip.  Trying to sort out alternatives.

How were you notified by Celebrity... our trip is coming up... not sure if we will be affected.. but 😵😢

 

21 minutes ago, savethepandas said:

Thanks for your response!  

I'll try a little patience through the Thanksgiving holiday, then it's a phone call!!

 

 

we rebooked already Through our TA but all booked with Celebrity for February 2020 on Flora.. got half off second person and free air via Celebrity promotion... we had not received anything yet in the mail or credit card and original trip was still showing on our upcoming cruises.. but it took him about 3 days  ( Celebrity was very busy with all the cancellations) and we had the new booking and got a $2023 refund to our credit card already... we did 11 days with Quito ... I’m feeling pretty happy 🥰.   
 

 

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savethepandas

savethepandas

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, hillslife said:

How were you notified by Celebrity... our trip is coming up... not sure if we will be affected.. but 😵😢

 

we rebooked already Through our TA but all booked with Celebrity for February 2020 on Flora.. got half off second person and free air via Celebrity promotion... we had not received anything yet in the mail or credit card and original trip was still showing on our upcoming cruises.. but it took him about 3 days  ( Celebrity was very busy with all the cancellations) and we had the new booking and got a $2023 refund to our credit card already... we did 11 days with Quito ... I’m feeling pretty happy 🥰.   
 

 

 

Glad that it will work out for you!

We are planning to take the full 100% credit card refund (whenever that comes back).   Then will apply the FCC to an August 2020 sailing on the Xpedition, which had the 2nd guest 50% off and $1000 airfare promo.  Will end up not being able to use about $1600 of the FCC, as our canceled sailing cost more than the Aug 2020 sailing, since you can only use the FCC once!   There will be about $1100 out of pocket - we were told that the FCC cannot cover the $900 already paid deposit, nor port taxes.  

We looked at ways to spend the $1600 residual credit, but it would result in paying out money to use the credit - just didn't make sense.  All in all, we will spend just $1100 for a trip to the Galapagos - think that's pretty decent!!

 

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SoCalTraveler

SoCalTraveler

Posted
Posted

To expound further, we learned of the grounding on November 5, via Cruise Critic.  That night, Celebrity assured our TA that the Xpedition would sail on November 9.  On November 6, we received a phone call at 10 a.m. advising of the cancellation, but that there was a possibility the Xploration would sail, in which we expressed interest.  At 3:00 p.m., we were advised that there would be no sailing.  To put in context, my car was downstairs at my office fully loaded with suitcases and DW was about 1 hour from leaving for the airport for our 9:30 p.m. departure.  (On of our Cruises Critic colleagues had already parked the car at Heathrow and was on a shuttle.  Of course, no of the discomfit we had comes close to that of the folks actually in the Galapagos.)

 

Celebrity advised (in two different calls on November 6) of a full refund and and an equivalent FCC.  We confirmed twice that we could use the FCC on multiple cruises, but only on Celebrity, and not on other RCCL brands.  That evening, we booked a Celebrity cruise leaving in two days using part of our FCC, and booked last minute airfare (Celebrity declined to offer assistance with Choice Air given the timing.)

 

On the morning of November 7, Celebrity advised we could not split the FCC, and the new cruise fare was to be taken out of our refund.  Attempts to discuss with Celebrity via our TA or by me (58 minutes on the phone) failed.   We boarded the plane, having purchased $2500 in non-refundable last-minute tickets.

 

On November 8, we boarded our replacement cruise.  

 

On November 13, Celebrity wrote and advised that an exception had been made allowing us to partially use the FCC.  We have separately heard from another Celebrity rep of the precise amount of FCC.

 

We have since received about 8 refund entries to our credit card totaling several thousand less than a full refund, so we do not yet know if "full refund" means something else.  We have not received the FCC certificates.  We are sitting back to give the Galapagos desk time to work out the issues.  I'm confident another phone call or two will be necessary, but I'm also confident the Galapagos desk is busy.

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Vectorboy

Vectorboy

Posted
Posted

Would it really be that complicated for X to send an email detailing the amounts that have been refunded and what exactly those amounts represent?

 

People are getting multiple credits for strange amounts that may or may not add up to the total of the cruise. I'm short $324 and it looks like they are done but I can't get my contact Gabriella to respond to any emails or phone calls.

 

Maybe a Tweet to Ms. Lutoff-Perlo?

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SoCalTraveler

SoCalTraveler

Posted
Posted

See my post from Wednesday.  We have not yet received a full refund, lthough we have received about 8 credits to our credit card for a substantial portion of the trip.  (I think we are short about $2,800.)  And we have not yet received the FCCs.

 

I say this not as a complaint but as simply a report on status.

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