APEX Fall 2024 TA plus Others Cancelled

[Islander500]

ABOUT YOUR UPCOMING TRAVELS

Dear Guest, At Celebrity Cruises, we are passionate about providing award-winning vacation experiences. With this goal in mind, and in accordance with global ship safety guidelines, Celebrity Cruises will be revising Celebrity Apex’s season schedule to include drydock for routine inspection in 2025, instead of 2024 as originally scheduled.  As a result of this rescheduling, select Celebrity Apex sailings scheduled to embark November 9 & 21, 2024, and March 8, 2025 through April 26, 2025, will be cancelled. For any payments made toward your sailing, you will automatically receive a 100% refund to your original method of payment. No action is required on your part to receive this refund, which you should see reflected within 30 days after cancellation (cruise taxes and fees will be refunded separately). Please note, any reservation paid with Future Cruise Credit will not be eligible for a cash refund; however, your Future Cruise Credit will be reinstated. If you have pre-booked any shore excursions, beverage, internet, specialty dining, or other onboard packages through Celebrity Cruise Planner, you will be refunded in full to your original method of payment.  Guests with hotel reservations booked through Flights by Celebrity will be refunded automatically (you will not need to call in to initiate the process).  Guests with independent accommodations or excursions should contact their tour operators directly to make all required modifications. As we never wish to complicate your vacation planning, we sincerely appreciate your understanding. In the hopes that you’ll discover an alternative bucket-list vacation with Celebrity Cruises, we are happy to offer you $200 onboard credit per stateroom, $400 onboard credit for Retreat accommodations, to be redeemed on a future cruise. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Celebrity Cruises at 1-844-418-6824 in North America or (316) 554-5961 worldwide. We look forward to welcoming you aboard soon for an amazing Celebrity Cruises vacation. Sincerely, Celebrity Cruises

[zitsky]

Routine inspections for a 3 year old ship?  I guess I can understand why.  But wouldn't Celebrity have this on their schedule when booking sailings?  Seems like someone is a bad project manager.

[Islander500]

2 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Routine inspections for a 3 year old ship?  I guess I can understand why.  But wouldn't Celebrity have this on their schedule when booking sailings?  Seems like someone is a bad project manager.

Celebrity had already changed this TA which was scheduled to originate in Southhampton a few months ago (in May/June) and many booked passengers had already changed their itinerary to accommodate this ship's new schedule.  This is NUTS!

[mac_tlc]

9 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Routine inspections for a 3 year old ship?  I guess I can understand why.  But wouldn't Celebrity have this on their schedule when booking sailings?  Seems like someone is a bad project manager.

Apex came out in Spring 2020. 2025 would be 5 years. 
 

mac_tlc

[zitsky]

59 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

Apex came out in Spring 2020. 2025 would be 5 years. 
 

mac_tlc

2023-2020 = A 3 year old ship

 

I was referring to the age of the ship now not how old it will be at time of maintenance.

[jwlane]

1 hour ago, zitsky said:

Routine inspections for a 3 year old ship?  

The routine inspections are not on a 3 year old ship.  

 

28 minutes ago, zitsky said:

 age of the ship now 

Age now is not germane.

[mac_tlc]

35 minutes ago, zitsky said:

2023-2020 = A 3 year old ship

 

I was referring to the age of the ship now not how old it will be at time of maintenance.

It’s irrelevant how old the ship is now— they aren’t doing the inspections now. Nowhere did it say they were doing routine inspections on a 3 year old ship. 
 

mac_tlc

[Lastdance]

1 hour ago, Islander500 said:

"select Celebrity Apex sailings scheduled to embark November 9 & 21, 2024, and March 8, 2025 through April 26, 2025, will be cancelled."

This is the main point of the information..are there others cancelations forthcoming?  

[2chiefs]

5 minutes ago, jwlane said:

The routine inspections are not on a 3 year old ship.  

 

Age now is not germane.

Good answer! I also noted that the "routine inspection" requires a dry dock which I personally wouldn't call routine. The original inspection was scheduled for 2024 so my math (I'd doing this in my head) tells me routine inspections must be done every 4 years. They are rescheduling the routine inspection to 2025 (my math skills still churning in my head tell me this is 5 years).

So, I conclude:

1. 3-year reference is not germane since nothing is scheduled now

2. 4-year "routine maintenance" must be the normal periodicity for this maintenance

3. 5-year "routine maintenance tells me that if they can skip a year, then the 4-year scheduled maintenance was inappropriate in the first place, and they need to fire the person that scheduled it. (Or fire the person who re-scheduled it in the event it should have been 4-year)

[Virgo61]

It seems our back to back on the Apex for 2/1 and 2/8 are not currently affected. I was surprised to notice that the OBC offered is double what we were offered when our Beyond 9/24 Mediterranean cruise was cancelled.

[tigervixxxen]

Pretty funny if they go back to the original Nov 3 TA itinerary after cancelling all those bookings. 

[bnurick]

3 hours ago, zitsky said:

Routine inspections for a 3 year old ship?  I guess I can understand why.  But wouldn't Celebrity have this on their schedule when booking sailings?  Seems like someone is a bad project manager.

They used the money to make interest and/or pay down debt. Same as to why they increased deposit amounts, to extract a gain on the cash. Most will just book another X cruise, at higher prices now, as they thought they locked in their price, but a “make whole” is not just a refund or small OBC.

Edited August 15, 2023 by bnurick

[Oceangoer2]

1 hour ago, Virgo61 said:

It seems our back to back on the Apex for 2/1 and 2/8 are not currently affected. I was surprised to notice that the OBC offered is double what we were offered when our Beyond 9/24 Mediterranean cruise was cancelled.

Yes...$200 OBC offered for inconvenience...but we already had OBC...if we rebook, I wonder if that's gone the way of the dodo.

[Oceangoer2]

9 minutes ago, bnurick said:

They used the money to make interest and/or pay down debt. Same as to why they increased deposit amounts, to extract a gain on the cash. Most will just book another X cruise, at higher prices now, as they thought they locked in their price, but a “make whole” is not just a refund or small OBC.

you're right....a rebook should be a replacement cruise at the $$s originally spent PLUS the OBC.  However, should and will are two different things and we have no recourse.

Edited August 15, 2023 by Oceangoer2

[bnurick]

2 minutes ago, Oceangoer2 said:

you're right....a rebook should be a replacement cruise at the $$s originally spent PLUS the OBC.  However, should and will are two different things and we have no recourse.

100%. That $7,000 Sky Suite for 7 nights is now $10,500.

[sandebeach]

Just got the email. So frustrated. Three weeks ago I cancelled my Voyager westbound TA out of Barcelona to change to Celebrity TA out of Lisbon. Now the Voyager cruise is higher than when I originally booked it. Just very frustrated. 

[Islander500]

59 minutes ago, Oceangoer2 said:

Yes...$200 OBC offered for inconvenience...but we already had OBC...if we rebook, I wonder if that's gone the way of the dodo.

Report from a passenger on the Apex TA roll call.  So, yeah.  The dodo.  

 

“On the phone with Celebrity to rebook.  I have $425 OBC  from a previous cancellation.  They are telling me that I will lose that and only get $200 OBC. To replace it.  Is that correct?”

 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

53 minutes ago, sandebeach said:

Just got the email. So frustrated. Three weeks ago I cancelled my Voyager westbound TA out of Barcelona to change to Celebrity TA out of Lisbon. Now the Voyager cruise is higher than when I originally booked it. Just very frustrated. 

You are lucky , Voyager is a terrible outdated ship , it is a mess 

[sandebeach]

2 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

You are lucky , Voyager is a terrible outdated ship , it is a mess 

We did a westbound TA last year on Voyager, with stops at Iceland and Greenland. It was actually a great cruise and we enjoyed Voyager. But of course a brand new ship like Apex would be better. 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

30 minutes ago, sandebeach said:

We did a westbound TA last year on Voyager, with stops at Iceland and Greenland. It was actually a great cruise and we enjoyed Voyager. But of course a brand new ship like Apex would be better. 

I was on the same cruise , great ports crappy ship, it was under serviced 

For example 1/2 the silver backing on the mirror in our bathroom was worn off, the ship need a complete reno 

[wrk2cruise]

4 hours ago, Islander500 said:

Report from a passenger on the Apex TA roll call.  So, yeah.  The dodo.  

 

“On the phone with Celebrity to rebook.  I have $425 OBC  from a previous cancellation.  They are telling me that I will lose that and only get $200 OBC. To replace it.  Is that correct?”

 

 

 

Generally they will let you keep goodwill OBC if you rebook immediately.  But this new regime seem to have zero respect for past precedent.

[Cap_D]

In March 2023 Apex already needed new cushions on the Magic Carpet and Sunset Bar.  That doesn't require taking the ship out of service, but even with the pandemic down time it was in in need of TLC. 

 

The number of cancelations and shafting of paying customers begs for some form of regulation.  Do we have any info on how often this happens on other cruise lines without any master schedule?  

[Tee & Chilli]

Yes more changes possibly coming…sad face

 

Edited August 16, 2023 by Tee & Chilli

[hcat]

12 hours ago, bnurick said:

100%. That $7,000 Sky Suite for 7 nights is now $10,500.

I presume that's without an assigned Butler..just the Retreat Team, ???

[terrydtx]

Celebrity this week also canceled the whole 2024-25 South America season sailings on the Equinox so that she can be redeployed to Florida for more boring and tired Caribbean sailings. We almost booked one of those cruises, but their crazy high pricing for a Sky Suite sent us to Oceania for an 18-night cruise that cost less than the 14-night Equinox cruise with similar itinerary.

Edited August 16, 2023 by terrydtx