swkrupa78

Hello,

Many of you know by now that Celebrity has cancelled their April 2 Infinity Sailing to Panama Canal. I want to share how extremely disappointed my wife and I are with not only the trip being cancelled, but more importantly how poorly Celebrity is handling the communications for dealing with questions on the refund process.

Celebrity sent out a vague letter informing their travel agents and customers of the decision to dry dock the infinity They notified the customers that they are cancelling the sail and indicated what they will do to re-accommodate and compensate us. In the letter it is clear that we will be receiving a 100% refund of what we paid for the cruise and that we will also receive a 50% Future Cruise credit that will be issues soon (not sure of the actual terms and deadlines for the credit).

This is GREAT. However, what is NOT clear at all is the issue around refunding passengers for the airfare that we booked. Mention is made that they will refund passengers "up to $250 per person for any change fee reimbursement and that we need to show the amount paid for air changes". But NO mention is made on the refund for Choice Air.

The letter provides an 800 number to call One Touch hospitality who will be there for 2 weeks up to Feb 1st to address questions and rebook cruises. The problem is that the letter is vague on how the refund process is to be handled particularly for airfare. I called that number today and while we thought we finally have a definitive answer to our questions about the refund process, I am still not sure!

Our situation is that we booked one leg of the trip using Choice Air and the return leg using American Air. It has been a total nightmare trying to get definitive answers from Celebrity and Choice Air on what we can expect for refunds. Even our TA from Online Vacations is frustrated as she has gotten mixed signals from Celebrity. There is so much misinformation and inconsistent answers being tossed around on what we can expect for airfare refunds.

CHOICE AIR - First, since we booked the 1st part of our trip with Choice Air, we expect to receive a FULL refund since it was Celebrity who cancelled the cruise. I called Celebrity last week and I was told by a Celebrity agent that we are to receive a FULL refund for the Choice Air booking and that the refund will be applied to my credit card. Our friends who are travelling with us also called and they received the same answer. Our agent called and she received the same answer. So we were expecting a full refund from Choice Air and we did not have to do a thing. NOT!

Our agent contacted us today and said that she was able to confirm we will be getting a full refund for the cruise and a 50% Future Cruise credit. But now Celebrity is saying that we have to email Celebrity One Touch to find out about the air as they have the final say!

Today I called One Touch and spoke to a very pleasant young rep. She told me that air ticket is a Non-Refundable ticket. Celebrity is going to do a "mass cancellation" and they will now only give us a credit for what we paid for the air and the credit has to be applied for airfare when we book another Celebrity cruise!

My friend also called Celebrity after I did. She was put on hold and finally transferred to a One Touch rep who told her that she will in fact receive the Full Refund from Choice Air as Celebrity was the one who cancelled the trip. He made notes on her file attached to her Booking number. She then conferenced me in on the call and I was able to speak to that rep who also updated my file with notes saying I will get a full refund.

So at this point, I am still not 100% convinced as to what is happening, but I am hopeful that Celebrity does the honorable thing and fully reimburses us for the Choice Air booking.

OTHER AIRFARE REFUND - I did clarify that we will in fact be reimbursed for the rebooking fee for our airfare with American Air. American assesses a $200 cancel/rebooking fee for changes. So although I paid $250 for the ticket, at least I will be reimbursed the $200 cancel fee when I cancel the trip. The issue I now have is where/when can I apply the remaining $50 that I paid on the ticket as I need to rebook a flight prior to end of summer. I was told that I only have to provide a copy of the original receipt for the booked flight and a copy of the cancellation fee that American will assess when I cancel/rebook. Again, I hope this is correct information that was given to me.

Celebrity also offered to rebook passengers on similar Itineraries in 2018 only the costs would be at the prevailing rates and current promotions offered. Well now the costs are about $1400 more per person and they do not offer the same perks when we booked over a year ago. So if you booked the cruise early in 2017 (like we did so we could receive the best deal) we are now being penalized for planning ahead!

I am not concerned about using the 50% credit for a future cruise. I was told we have up to a full year from the time the voucher is issued to rebook a cruise (originally we were told we have to actually SAIL by the date that the voucher expires but that was clarified twice by Celebrity...I HOPE). We would love to sail the Panama Canal in the Spring of 2019, but Celebrity is not offering that date. So we will wait to see what is offered for 2020 and decide.

Bottom line is that I have sailed with many cruise lines (Viking, Princess, and Emerald), but we have sailed several times most recently with Celebrity because their food is terrific, their ships are clean and the service is excellent. But I am VERY disappointed with the way that Celebrity is handling the process for dealing with this cancellation issue. There is absolutely NO excuse for Celebrity to not have a consistent and clear message that should be delivered to their clients and Travel agents. I worked in management for a Fortune 100 company and when we experienced a crisis of this nature, we knew how to handle it. We set up a "war room" with a team of professionals from all disciplines with the company to ensure we were on the same page when dealing with the customer and handle situations like this. To the customer, it was seamless and they were made whole.

I question how adept the Celebrity management team is in dealing with crisis situations. They knew in advance thatthey need to dry dock the ship. So why didn’t get their crisis team together ahead of time, lay out their plans for reimbursement,train their staff and provide them with prepared scripts to deal with thesebasic questions?

My friends who are travelling with us, and who never sailed on Celebrity,are also very disappointed and extremely frustrated with this experience. Theyexpressed to me that at this point their expectations for taking a Celebritycruise are so low that they almost don’t want to take advantage of the 50% credit!

I just hope Celebrity gets their act together and can redeem themselves quickly on this issue. Otherwise, there goes my loyalty in sailing with them and I will sail with another cruise line (i.e.Viking) who I know provides superb customer service.

I would like to know what other folks are hearing from Celebrity regarding this issue. Thanks,

Steve

Great. Thank for this information. I will check them out!

Hello,

We are on the April 2 Celebrity Infinity Panama Canal cruise. We stop one day in Punta Arenas, Costa Rica on April 9. We have been to Costa Rica before and have seen most sights. We are interested doing a sail to either Tortuga or San Lucas island. Celebrity is charging about $199 pp for the Tortuga sail, but I see that it is operated by a 3rd party. Does anyone know who that 3rd party tour company is as we would like to contract with them direct and save money. Calypso Cruise tours has a tour, but I think they return too close to the time we need to reboard and we don't want to risk missing the ship.

Appreciate any feedback,

SteveK.

Thank You Bruce. Will post first on the Celebrity Fourm.

Hello,

We are on the April 2 Celebrity Infinity Panama Canal cruise. We stop one day in Punta Arenas, Costa Rica on April 9. We have been to Costa Rica before and have seen most sights. We are interested doing a sail to either Tortuga or San Lucas island. Celebrity is charging about $199 pp for the Tortuga sail, but I see that it is operated by a 3rd party. Does anyone know who that 3rd party tour company is as we would like to contract with them direct and save money. Calypso Cruise tours has a tour, but I think they return too close to the time we need to reboard and we don't want to risk missing the ship.

Appreciate any feedback,

SteveK.

Hello,

We are on the April 2 Celebrity Infinity Panama Canal cruise. We stop one day in Punta Arenas, Costa Rica on April 9. We have been to Costa Rica before and have seen most sights. We are interested doing a sail to either Tortuga or San Lucas island. Celebrity is charging about $199 pp for the Tortuga sail, but I see that it is operated by a 3rd party. Does anyone know who that 3rd party tour company is as we would like to contract with them direct and save money. Calypso Cruise tours has a tour, but I think they return too close to the time we need to reboard and we don't want to risk missing the ship.

Appreciate any feedback,

SteveK.

Valid point - our ship is one that will dock at "Paris/Le Pecq" (i.e., Le Pecq, not in Paris itself).

Hello Mort and Fran,

We are scheduled to sail on the Viking Rinda May 18 with 2 other couples (part of the France's Finest). I understand that the Rinda boat still may be docked in LePecq by the time we sail. We also paid Viking to do a airfare deviation as we are flying into Paris 4 days early to actually see the sights on our own. I asked Viking if they are giving us transfers to the dock and they said no! I also don't understand why we can't get to the hotel that Viking has for folks who do the pre-trip and hook up with them on a shuttle to get to the ship. It seems that we are being penalized even though we are using their airfare.

Does anyone know exactly where LePecq is located and how we are supposed to get there? Is taking a can the only option? We booked this trip back in February 2015 and at the time, the itinerary was advertised as having the ship be docked right in Paris near the Eiffel Tower! Viking told us the issue was temporary and that by the time we sail, the French authorities would more than likely allow them to dock the boat in Paris (not LePecq). So now I hear that we are not only going to have to pay for our transfer to get to the boat, but worse, the port is about 1 hr - 1.5 hr by cab if there is traffic. So that means we don't have much time to see Paris with Viking on day 2.

The other issue we are having is to try and book the optional shore excursions using MyVikingJourney website. What a joke! The website says that NO included or optional shore excursions are loaded at this time. I spoke to our agent and I wrote to Viking customer service and both said that it is a website issue they "working to fix". It's been over a week and still no fixes. I am reading that some folks are saying the tours are "sold out"! How can that be when you cant even book them?

I have sailed with Viking twice before and I thought they were very customer focused. But so far, with this trip, I am experiencing a lot of disappointments. I sure hope Viking gets their act together fast else they will be hearing from several disappointed loyal customers if they don't.

Alberta Quilter, Thanks for the information about the docking time. Can you tell me a little bit about the 1st segment of the trip from Paris - Normandy? I understand that we are now about 1 hr away from Paris in LePec? How did you get to the boat? We are arriving early on our own and wonder if Viking can provide us a shuttle as we are using their airfare but with a deviation. Also, did you book your shore excursions in advance? Looks like Viking is now offering that and some folks are experiencing issues. Thanks,

Steve

Hey folks,

We will be sailing on the Delling at the end of May (part of the May 18 France's Finest trip) and expect to be in Avignon on June 1. Can anyone tell us what time we will dock? Also, we are taking a train from Avignon that morning and would like to book the 8:38 am train to Barcelona out of Avignon TGV. How far is that train station from the dock?

Much thanks,

Steve

Thanks everyone for responding. Did not realize Viking's website had maps where they doc the boats! Now I just need to find out what time we arrive.

Will look at the River Forum post for that.

Regards,

Steve

Hello, can someone tell us some information on when and where we will arrive in Avignon? We are sailing on the Viking Delling arriving in Avignon on June 1 this year. We plan to take a train from Avignon to Barcelona. I need to know which train station is closest to the dock - the one called Avignon Centre or Avignon TGV. Also, do you know what time we will be arriving in port? The first direct train out leaves at 8:38 out of Avignon TGV.

Much Thanks,

Steve