Japan 2024 canceled…

[cruisestitch]

1 hour ago, micruiser2002 said:

It is interesting in the email the statement "we have exhausted every possible option to avoid having to take this action"??  I am on the 10/24/23 sailing and never heard anything.  Why didn't they first contact all guest and see if anyone would like to take them up on the Lift & Shift option?  

 

An option they did not do, and perhaps never even considered, would be something like the airlines do when a flight is oversold. They ask for volunteers to travel at a later time for some compensation.

 

Celebrity could have written to everyone on the cruise asking if anyone was interested in being voluntarily bumped from their cruise to another time and date.

 

instead they resorted to involuntary bumps which has done nothing but cause stress to all who are booked on Japan cruises for 2023 and 2024.

Edited April 18, 2023 by cruisestitch

[micruiser2002]

15 minutes ago, cruisestitch said:

An option they did not do, and perhaps never even considered, would be something like the airlines do when a flight is oversold. They ask for volunteers to travel at a later time for some compensation.

 

Celebrity could have written to everyone on the cruise asking if anyone was interested in being voluntarily bumped from their cruise to another time and date.

 

instead they resorted to involuntary bumps which has done nothing but cause stress to all who are booked on Japan cruises for 2023 and 2024.

That's exactly what I said above.  They say in the email that they exhausted all other options, yet I am on the 10/24/23 sailing and was not contacted at all.

 

[Miaminice]

I just got off the phone with Celebrity and had the usuall freaky experience.

I asked about our 10/24 Southern Japan cruise and if our booking is one of the cancelled bookings.

 

Rep: Cruise is cancelled
Me: Booking or cruise?
Rep: That is the same.

Me: No, it´s not the same. Cruise is oversold and only certain bookings are cancelled...
Rep: Please hold .... 5 minutes later...

Rep: I reread the information, only certain bookings

Me: Mine?
Rep: No
Me: When will I know for sure?
Rep: Well, your booking is red. So you are cancelled. We can offer bla bla bla
Me: I am not willing to do anything before I receive an official information that my booking is cancelled. And I did not!
Rep: Please hold... 10 minutes ...
Rep: I spoke to a supervisor. Your booking is not cancelled.
Me: (confused) And which info is correct? I am about to book excursions etc.
Rep: Go ahead and book but keep checking your emails...

 

Edited April 18, 2023 by Miaminice

[cruisestitch]

Well that is clear as mud!

[dlh015]

Wow. A train wreak in slow motion...

 

The lack of transparency is astounding. To say that this is being managed poorly is an understatement...

[Belgian fry]

We're booked in an inside on 28 March 2024. It was not a "lift and shift".

 

Really hoping we don't get cancelled. This is my husband's bucket list trip and we booked very far out in order to be sure to get the cherry blossom. Those alternative dates don't interest us. Going in 2025 would mean cancelling my bucket list trip to the Galapagos. It's a lot to think about.

 

I see Celebrity are only giving people until 1st May before they refund them. That's not a lot of time to make new plans, request leave, etc.

[prmssk]

24 minutes ago, Miaminice said:

I just got off the phone with Celebrity and had the usuall freaky experience.

I asked about our 10/24 Southern Japan cruise and if our booking is one of the cancelled bookings.

 

Rep: Cruise is cancelled
Me: Booking or cruise?
Rep: That is the same.

Me: No, it´s not the same. Cruise is oversold and only certain bookings are cancelled...
Rep: Please hold .... 5 minutes later...

Rep: I reread the information, only certain bookings

Me: Mine?
Rep: No
Me: When will I know for sure?
Rep: Well, your booking is red. So you are cancelled. We can offer bla bla bla
Me: I am not willing to do anything before I receive an official information that my booking is cancelled. And I did not!
Rep: Please hold... 10 minutes ...
Rep: I spoke to a supervisor. Your booking is not cancelled.
Me: (confused) And which info is correct? I am about to book excursions etc.
Rep: Go ahead and book but keep checking your emails...

 

That is such a horrible exchange, I can't help but laugh!  Maybe before they started contacting people about canceling their cruise, they could have actually trained their reps on what to say....maybe that is asking for too much though.

[cruisestitch]

1 minute ago, prmssk said:

That is such a horrible exchange, I can't help but laugh!  Maybe before they started contacting people about canceling their cruise, they could have actually trained their reps on what to say....maybe that is asking for too much though.

Apparently 😵‍💫😳🤪

[clojacks]

From reading about this on multiple social media threads, CC, FB, etc  it sounds like it has affected people who have paid in full, only paid a deposit, booked direct, booked with a TA, in other words, not much of an algorithm other than it "appears" that all I have heard of are Balcony's being affected. I don't know what category of balcony. I don't know if it is specifically "Balcony's" and not Aqua or Concierge. I hope more factual information comes out today, because there is a tremendous amount of "I think" going on, on these boards, including now from me.

[glalonzo0408]

15 hours ago, dlh015 said:

Oversold a year in advance? How does that work? They expect that no one will cancel in the interim?

 

Not doubting you, just wondering how this works...seems a bit weird...

Groups 

 

[Tarwood3]

1 hour ago, Judy Arthur said:

I wonder whether Celebrity status comes into play?

I don’t know how they chose who would be canceled.  We are elite plus 

[mahdnc]

For starters. it could be dependent on your loyalty status, or how much you paid for the cabin (cruise fare), or the age of the booking, or a mix of them. Or it could even be totally random (lottery).

Edited April 18, 2023 by mahdnc

[Tarwood3]

2 hours ago, WestLakeGirl said:

Were you given any indication where the ship will be? Will it stay in Southeast Asia? Or will it be chartered and go somewhere else?

No….she didn’t seem to want to elaborate.  We asked the question 3 different ways about the cancellation…that’s when she finally said …everyone is being canceled , ship won’t be in Japan??  So I don’t know.  We have friends on this cruise and they got an email too and are supposed to talk to the rep this morning, so we have asked him to ask her again about what she told us yesterday.  We need clarification on how they choose to cancel folks ( we booked 14 mos ago) and is everyone really being canceled, or did she. Mislead us .   We spoke with Karen…the one who the email came from. 

[Miaminice]

7 minutes ago, Tarwood3 said:

We need clarification on how they choose to cancel folks

 

TBH they will never tell any of us!

[Larasmum]

We are a family with six cabins booked on the 10/24 cruise.     Three are listed as "cancelled" - three are noted as upgraded.    Of the ones cancelled, two are oceanview, one is a verandah.     The three not cancelled were verandah - now concierge.    All reservations are linked and a "lift and shift" from the October 2022 Japan cruise.      Totally baffled but trying to get answers from Celebrity.

[Tarwood3]

9 minutes ago, Larasmum said:

We are a family with six cabins booked on the 10/24 cruise.     Three are listed as "cancelled" - three are noted as upgraded.    Of the ones cancelled, two are oceanview, one is a verandah.     The three not cancelled were verandah - now concierge.    All reservations are linked and a "lift and shift" from the October 2022 Japan cruise.      Totally baffled but trying to get answers from Celebrity.

I wonder if they are doing the cancelations in batches, so as not to overwhelm the team tasked with dealing with this issue? If they sent out mass emails…it would be chaos and mayhem? 

[hawkesbaynz]

Just got an email from Celebrity. Thought 'here we go'. However it was an itinerary change for a Solstice SE Asia cruise in the Fall.

 

Reps should really be 'singing from the same hymn sheet'.. If they sailed like they run back office they would sink their ships.

[clojacks]

13 minutes ago, Tarwood3 said:

I wonder if they are doing the cancelations in batches, so as not to overwhelm the team tasked with dealing with this issue? If they sent out mass emails…it would be chaos and mayhem? 

Except that, it appears from early reports that they are only giving people until May 1st to Lift and Shift, which if they do as you suggested isn't fair to the last people notified.

[Ferry_Watcher]

1 hour ago, micruiser2002 said:

That's exactly what I said above.  They say in the email that they exhausted all other options, yet I am on the 10/24/23 sailing and was not contacted at all.

 

 

So far it looks like you are lucky.  Maybe your stateroom category wasn't as over-sold as others, or the date of your booking worked in your favor..  I hope your luck continues and that you are able to sail as planned.

[micruiser2002]

37 minutes ago, Larasmum said:

We are a family with six cabins booked on the 10/24 cruise.     Three are listed as "cancelled" - three are noted as upgraded.    Of the ones cancelled, two are oceanview, one is a verandah.     The three not cancelled were verandah - now concierge.    All reservations are linked and a "lift and shift" from the October 2022 Japan cruise.      Totally baffled but trying to get answers from Celebrity.

How did you find this out?

 

[Miaminice]

I just called X again to see what a second rep would tell me.

 

This one was very friendly and seemed informed.

She told me our booking for 10/24 still shows confirmed.
When I asked she confirmed that all the bookings cancelled show 'cancelled' in their system and received an email.

So if you received no email by now, you seem to be safe... hopefully.

 

[Larasmum]

21 minutes ago, micruiser2002 said:

How did you find this out?

 

Information was sent to our TA - no emails received directly yet.

[Arubamoose]

We are B2B on both the March 4th from Singapore to Tokyo and the March 16th Tokyo/Tokyo.

 

So far I got an oversold email from my TA on just the March 16th cruise.

 

We are in an inside cabin and we booked on board while we were on the Apex in February 2022.  We got a really, really sweet deal on their AI.  I think that is how they are determining who to cut.  We got a deal too good to be true and we jumped on it.  We were on a similar trip in 2021 on the Ovation which went the way of Covid.

 

If they cancel both of my cruises - I will just lift and shift to 2025.  But the fact that they just cancelled one of my cruises is problematic.

[neverlaysup]

13 hours ago, tscoffey said:

 So passengers that were covid-cancelled in 2020 thru 2022 get right of first refusal on a similar sailing in 2024? 
 

Getting concerned for my inside cabin, May 27th sailing. I paid my deposit on November 19th, 2022, so I wonder where we would fall in line for being cancelled.

 

I assume Celebrity is calling the earlier sailings first - so our turn for being cancelled could be coming soon?

Going to start looking at contingency sailings in the same time period, just in case we get the ax.

Pay it in full now!

[clojacks]

3 minutes ago, neverlaysup said:

Pay it in full now!

Why would you do this? People who have paid in full have also been cancelled. It's not just those who only have a deposit down? I'm kind of confused by this strategy. As has been mentioned, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to those bookings that are getting cancelled.