Century Review 1/22/09 sailing

[thxmom]

First off, thank you to everyone, I've been quietly lurking for several months reading everyting in preparation for our first cruise. You've all been a big help. I've been debating on how much to share as I've been waiting for a response from Celebrity due to a problem we had. I'm still waiting even though they say you will get a response in 48 hours. I'll get the bad news out of the way first.

 

My husband & I were traveling with his brother and wife. We were so excited looking forward to our first cruise. On the first evening, a water pipe (?) broke above our two rooms. Water was running from the ceiling in one room and down the wall in the other room (rooms were next to each other). Carpets were soaked and the smell was almost unbearable. Upon reporting our problem to Guest Services, we were told they were aware of it but did not want to wake us at 3am. We wish they would have because it was a bit scary to be woken up by water dripping on our heads. We were told to go to Key West and everything would be cleaned up upon our return. It was even worse when we returned. Ceiling tiles down, insulation on the bed & floor, dryers attempting to sop up the carpet. I'd like to say that we were offered new cabins immediately but we were told they didn't have rooms left in the category we purchased. I don't want to bore anyone with every little detail but it's safe to say we were very disappointed in the customer service. The incident put quite a damper on our trip and I truly hope that we get a response from the multiple e-mails and letter that we sent. :mad: I felt like we had to fight and beg just to have a clean place to sleep. They made us feel like we were trying to get something for free, when all we wanted was a dry room.

 

The good parts: Initially we were very happy with our inside cabins. We were on the 4th floor towards the middle of the ship and I couldn't tell the ship was moving. Very comfortable (until the ceiling opened up). Besides Guest Services, all the other crew members we came in contact with were great. Our waiter, Savio and his assistant were top notch. No complaints about the food. If we were served something we didn't care for, it would quickly be replaced with another choice. The pool attendants were always around picking up towels and dirty dishes/glasses. The activity staff worked hard and we enjoyed the nightly shows. The martini bar was fun and you could order a "flight" of martinis for around $10. Very reasonable. We met so many nice, friendly people.

 

We'd like to try another cruise. We're trying to stay focused on the positive and not let this incident ruin cruising for us. We met too many good people to say the trip was a total bust. Again, thanks to everyone for all the trip reports. They really helped us in the planning process.

__________________

[librarylady19]

Wow, sorry to hear how poorly you were treated. You are to be commended for being positive about your cruise experience in spite of this. Must be the Midwestern resilience!!

I urge you to take your very legitimate complaints to the highest level. THere's just no excuse for not giving you new rooms, regardless of the category you paid for.

Good luck and thanks for the review.

[joseph123]

Sorry to hear of your issue. They should have put you in another cabin regardless of category if one was available. Usually the ships are full so there are no others available. Can you let us know please which cabins you were in that had the problems? I am sailing on the Century in a few weeks and have inside cabins on the same floor. People could try to avoid or rebook in advance if they are forewarned....

[thxmom]

Our rooms were 4088 and 4080 and eventually they did put us in new cabins. This is where the story gets long and I didn't know how much to include in my first post. We were first told that no cabins were available and we took their word for it. After talking to other passengers, they suggested we demand new rooms, that the "category" shouldn't be an issue at this point. So we trekked back up to Guest Services again. By this time our nerves were shot, we were bickering with each other, we had repacked our clothes in our suitcases to keep them from getting wet/musty, there were a few tears, etc.... We again asked if there was anywhere we could move. One room magically appeared for one couple and the other couple was offered a "temporary" room so they could change for the formal night. My husband and I were the ones offered the temporary room to change for formal night. The temporary room was 5 decks above our original room so you're lugging your formal wear up to the new cabin while leaving all your other belongings in the wet room. One little question "where are my black socks that I wear with my suit" pushed me right over the edge. It's kind of funny now...but it was that one question that did me in. I took off, slammed the door, ran down 5 flights of steps, grabbed the socks, ran up the 5 flights of steps with the socks and wanted to tell him what he could do with those socks! ;) But like I said, our nerves were shot. But I smile thinking about it now because I'm sure I looked like a maniac. Later that night, the temporary room became available for us to move in. We basically lost a day due to unpacking the first time/packing to move to new cabin/then unpacking again once getting to the new cabins. Then try to settle down when inside you're fuming because of the onboard activities you're missing due to the situation.

 

I'm optimistic that we will hear from the cruiseline. I took pictures that I included with the letter and e-mails. No "big shot" actually came down to look at the rooms and I don't think they fully understood our situation. I can't believe that anyone from the cruise line would have stayed in the room with the insulation (?) droppings, wet carpet and musty smell.

 

Now that it's a week later and we've all settled down, I would probably give Celebrity another try because of the good parts of the cruise. I don't want to focus only on the negtaive and understand that things happen beyond someone's control. I just wish the customer service would have been better. I work in administration for a hospital and service recovery is so important to us.

[Xcruiser]

I know someone who sailed Century last year that had a water pipe break just down the hall from them. I don’t think it directly impacted their cabin other then the toilets didn’t work and they had to deal with a foul smell most of the time. I just looked at the Century deck plans and their cabin was an OV just aft of 4088. I’m starting to wonder if it was fixed properly or if they have a problem in this area of the ship. I’m sure the conditions must have been miserable for you to deal with.

 

I think from what you said the real breakdown was in customer service and that is unacceptable. :mad: If they had room and it sounds like they did then you should have been offered it without having to ask, regardless of the category.

 

Sounds like you are taking the right action and Celebrity does have a one of the best reputations of the major cruise lines for fair compensation. Hope it all works out for you in the long run. We had what we call a “Murphy’s” cruise on another line and we laugh about it now. The following year we booked with the same line and had a wonderful time, as they say “ships happen”.

 

I’ll be onboard the Century in about a week so I hope all else was enjoyable with your sailing.:)

[cruiseacecat]

Hi,

First, I am really sorry you had such an awful experience.

 

The fact that they were able to find you a "temporary" room makes the fact that they did not move you immediately even worse. This is one case where it looks like you did all you could with guest relations, and it was time to take it to the next level. Your category SHOULD NOT MATTER in a case like this. The hotel director is probably the next person I would have contacted. I believe he bears the ultimate responsibility for problems of this type. I believe guest relations fall under his domain. I I am wrong about this, I am certain someone will correct me.

You deserve at least an apology from Celebrity. This is unacceptable. Good luck and let us know if you hear from them.

 

Anne

[niborHS]

We were on that sailing too, and our tablemates said that they asked when they boarded and were told the ship was sold out. It is possible that it took them a little time to see that someone didn't show up, or they were able to move someone from the ship's entertainment staff or whatever to give you a room. Some of the entertainment staff is not on the ship for the full time, they get off at a port and switch to a different ship. That may have happened with the acapella group because they were only performing the first 2 nights. They could have switched at Cozumel. I didn't remember the singer Jackson(?) being on in the beginning, so maybe 2 rooms got off and 1 got on? Did you end up getting another room after the formal night fiasco? I certainly feel that you should get a credit for the amount you spent on this cruise. I glad that you are willing to give Celebrity another chance due to the good things on the cruise, and hope that you enjoy the next one. I will say though, I have had bad customer service experiences on other lines as well. I think the ultimate was when my husband had a serious injury in a jet ski accident on a RCCL ship, he had to be medivac'd home, I was left on with 2 small children, and got absolutely no help from anyone. They even cancelled my husband's ship card so when I tried to use it to buy pictures I couldn't.

[Jade13]

We were on Century last year, our first cruise on Celebrity, and the worst part was customer service, both pre-cruise, on the cruise, and after. In my opinion it is below even "Mass Market". We still had a good time and are booked on the Azamara for 2010.

 

The ship itself was very clean and price was right. But the customer "Service" stunk.

 

The Customer Service on HAL is night and day compared to Celebrity.

[tffknee3]

How were your rooms before the pipe breaking? We will be in 4083 in March which seems to be directly behind one of yours, 4080. I've noticed on the deck plans they look like they are set up differently than most. And I've just read recently that those rooms may be "noisy". Did you experience that? We booked a GTY, and now I'm wondering if we're totally up the creek without a paddle.

[thxmom]

I was very satisfied with our room initially. I didn't hope for much being it was an inside cabin. It was roomier than I had thought and as crazy as this might sound, I felt safe in our little "cave" (as we jokingly called it) and we felt no movement/motion sickness at all.

 

Thanks for the supportive replies and I will let you all know if we get any type of response from the cruiseline. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[Xcruiser]

We were on Century last year, our first cruise on Celebrity, and the worst part was customer service, both pre-cruise, on the cruise, and after. In my opinion it is below even "Mass Market". We still had a good time and are booked on the Azamara for 2010.

 

The ship itself was very clean and price was right. But the customer "Service" stunk.

 

The Customer Service on HAL is night and day compared to Celebrity.

 

Jade13, sorry you had issues with your dealing with Celebrity C/S staff.

 

I think it all depends on the personal, the sailing, the issue and how the passenger interacts with them. In 7 sailings with Celebrity I’ve never had a problem with shipboard CS staff. I’ve only had minor issues however and all were resolved promptly, usually taken care of right on the spot. The same is not true of pre-cruise issues over the phone as they have been somewhat inconsistent.

 

The only shipboard CS issues I’ve had problems with were on 2 of my 3 HAL sailings but they were not as serious as the issue stated by the OP.

 

The most aggravating pre-cruise experience I’ve had was with Carnival. Our T/A at their own expense was able to work it out to our satisfaction in the end however.

 

So I guess it depends on your experience and how things were handled in your situation.

[joseph123]

How were your rooms before the pipe breaking? We will be in 4083 in March which seems to be directly behind one of yours, 4080. I've noticed on the deck plans they look like they are set up differently than most. And I've just read recently that those rooms may be "noisy". Did you experience that?

 

Please note that these cabins are directly below the kitchen, which might have been a factor in the leak. I have always learned through experience and the advice of others on these boards to avoid cabins directly below the kitchen. You might want to consider for future sailings.

[katscruise]

Sorry you had a bad experience with Celebrity. I have been on this ship 3 times and booked in March for another. One time we had a problem with a toilet not flushing they fixed it right away. I have always found Celebrity top notch with customer service. Maybe the people you talked to were having a bad day. Hope they do something for your experience to get you to try again

[BurgerBits]

THXMOM - thank you for posting about your experience - and for sharing both the good and (really, really) bad. Looking forward to learning the eventual outcome.

 

Have to say, I was reminded of an old George Carlin bit when I read about your 'temporary' room (?!?!?) situation!! "Wow, Jane, you really ARE a good sport, aren't you??" :D

 

Hope Celebrity does the right thing by you. We had our initial =X= cruise cancelled 14 hours before we were to leave for Italy because they broke the boat while at anchor off the coast of France in 2007 - very long story short, they refunded all our $ and gave us a free cruise.

 

Best of luck to you!!

[Cruisenouvelle]

"Now that it's a week later and we've all settled down, I would probably give Celebrity another try because of the good parts of the cruise. I don't want to focus only on the negative and understand that things happen beyond someone's control."

That's the best possible outlook to have - hats off to you for looking and reporting both sides of a story and not allowing the bad experience to slant your whole review. I hope you do indeed try Celebrity again, and I hope it's a better cruise the second time around!

[niborHS]

Must reply again in reference to the customer service issue, seeing as no one posted (although plenty of people read it) on my thread about the fuel supplement credit we were told we would get on our account. Our friends were at the guest relations desk on Saturday checking their account and saw no credit for the fuel surcharge that we were supposed to get an on-board credit for. My friend and I, who were in cabin 9044, went to check on Sunday, still no credit. After much talking, they said they were waiting to get in touch with Miami, and because of the weekend had not heard anything, but were sure it would be straightened out on Monday. Of course we knew that we would be off the ship before the Miami office opened Monday morning. Around 5:30 pm I was filling in my questionnaire, and decided to see if anything was done about it before I handed it in. I called guest relations, who told me they hadn't heard yet. I told them I was coming down with my comment card, however they should note a few things, first that this was my 6th Celebrity cruise, third on the Century, also that I normally am in a suite, but was in the inside this time, and also that I was leaving in another month on an HAL cruise, and I would have to switch my allegiance to HAL because of this annoying issue. Well, lo and behold, in less than a half hour they left me a message that we were getting our credit. They even brought corrected invoices to our cabin. Our friends in 9037 did not get it. Not sure which one of the things I said did the trick, but it is interesting to see how CS handles issues.

[sheilauk]

We had a cabin problem last October on Century, and we found customer service to be most helpful. We had the same diifficulty as you, in that there was initially no alternative cabin available, but we were eventually moved. Anyway, we were advised to write to Celebrity on our return, which we did and we received a future cruise credit, which we were quite happy with. So I am sure that you will find your problem reolved, now that you are back home. Good Luck !:)

[Jade13]

Jade13, sorry you had issues with your dealing with Celebrity C/S staff.

 

I think it all depends on the personal, the sailing, the issue and how the passenger interacts with them. In 7 sailings with Celebrity I’ve never had a problem with shipboard CS staff. I’ve only had minor issues however and all were resolved promptly, usually taken care of right on the spot. The same is not true of pre-cruise issues over the phone as they have been somewhat inconsistent.

 

The only shipboard CS issues I’ve had problems with were on 2 of my 3 HAL sailings but they were not as serious as the issue stated by the OP.

 

The most aggravating pre-cruise experience I’ve had was with Carnival. Our T/A at their own expense was able to work it out to our satisfaction in the end however.

 

So I guess it depends on your experience and how things were handled in your situation.

 

I agree.

[Schasz]

thxmom, we were on the same cruise and also had an inside stateroom on the opposite side No. 4061 from your stateroom. We are sure sorry to hear about your problems. We were rather pleased with our room and all the storage area it had.

 

We know how you feel about Guest Relations as they can make or break a problem depending upon how they handle it. We had a problem on one of our RCCL cruises and thought the Guest Relations on the ship did not have a clue about Customer Service.

 

It was good to see that you did not let this completely ruin your cruise. We had a very nice time on Century and it was our 1st cruise on Celebrity. We sure hope that the Celebrity management does compensate you in some way for the problems you had.

 

Shari & John

[AlexCruise]

I just posted my experiences with Celebrity Century in December 2008.

Similar experience with the room, and with the customer service. On top of the spa problems.

 

It was not particularly helpful to talk with their customer service agents onboard. Likewise, the response that I received from their Corporate Guest Relationship, only added to my disappointment with the level of customer service that Celebrity provides. Here is their response again:

Dear Mr. ******:Thank you for your e-mail concerning your experience with Celebrity Cruises. We appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns. Our primary goal is for each guest to enjoy the best possible cruise vacation, and we regret that you feel our efforts fell short of your expectations in the specific areas mentioned. Your feedback is truly appreciated. The concerns mentioned in your e-mail, such as, your stateroom plumbing, and your experiencein the Persian Garden, will be forwarded to the appropriate management personnel. This process is of great importance to us, for we continually strive to improve our performance in order to assure our guests the most rewarding cruising experience. We certainly intended to provide you with a thoroughly enjoyable vacation onthis sailing and regret any disappointments you may have experienced. Please accept our most sincere apologies. We continually strive to provide cruisevacations that are totally satisfying; however, sometimes situations occur whichdisrupt the voyage despite all our best efforts. Celebrity Cruises will continue to focus on the level of service provided before, during, and after each sailing. Mr. *****, we remain optimistic that in spite of this experience, you may grant Celebrity Cruises another opportunity to welcome you back onboard one of our ships in the near future.

 

Sincerely,

Corey Richburg

Corporate Guest Relations

[thxmom]

Thanks to everyone for your comments. We still have not heard anything from Celebrity. I was at the very least hoping for a generic e-mail saying something along the lines of "thank you for your comments, someone will be looking into your concerns". However, it's only been a little over a week. I'll keep you posted.

[BurgerBits]

Thanks to everyone for your comments. We still have not heard anything from Celebrity. I was at the very least hoping for a generic e-mail saying something along the lines of "thank you for your comments, someone will be looking into your concerns". However, it's only been a little over a week. I'll keep you posted.

 

Thanks.

 

May I suggest that instead of relying on/continuing to email, you write an actual physical letter? Address it to the company President (Hanrahan, I believe), and copy it to everyone else that might be motivated to help (COO, VPs, etc.). Send them Registered or Certified (so someone has to sign for them). You can get the names and addresses from the call center.

 

You might even consider printing and including this thread.

 

I have found that the receipt of something for which you have to sign and take responsibility often motivates more than email.

 

Good luck!

[thxmom]

I wanted to let everyone know that we heard from Celebrity today. It was a letter to let us know they "appreciate this opportunity to address our concerns". They said they regret the stateroom plumbing components were not working properly and their Director of Brand Quality has been made aware of this situation to prevent recurrence. We were all offered a $50 future cruise certificate to be used within one year. I can't say that I'm completely satisfied but at least we did a get a response.

 

My daughter and I are going on a Royal Caribbean cruise in March and due to our experience with Celebrity, we are using a travel agent this time. I asked her opinion on our compensation. She basically said "whoop-dee-doo. Big deal". When they offer you something like that, they presume you'll never use it. Who knows? We may use it, if the ceiling hadn't fallen in on us, we would have had a lovely time. ;)

[librarylady19]

Sorry to hear that's all you received for your troubles. Not sure I would be so generously in my opinion of Celebrity after such shabby treatment.

Thanks for the update.