cruiseb4udie

LOVE his review!  Keep it coming. Have done many of these ports before but it has been a couple years so we are doing them again this August / September.  Detail is great.  We are making notes from your review as we also intend to do our own thing.  

2 minutes ago, pmarrsouth said:

it has been mentioned in this thread

 

Firstly this is brutal to both get cancelled and then also have next to no time (or details it appears) to decide what to do
 

But I do wonder if this part messed you up here (booking directly with X and then moving to TA). It is like they pulled data from 2 different sources when trying to contact people and your fell literally in between. Other posters (in other threads) have stated that their TAs just got notified too, I wonder if they also originally booked with X before moving it to a TA

 

X looking worse and worse daily…

No - I don't think booking directly with Celebrity then moving to TA really had anything to do with it.  It is possible but we have been doing it this way since 2005 and we USUALLY get notified by both our TA and Celebrity (via email).   My TA said that Celebrity told them that they tried to contact us.  Celebrity has our phone numbers and emails and have always been able to contact us in the past so I don't think they even tried.  I do think they (Celebrity) work on their direct bookings first then move on to the TA's but this time there were SOOO many sailings and double bookings and a short notification time.  Not excusing Celebrity for this mess and TERRIBLE communication problem.  

Over the years we have had so many changes happen to us.  We booked then the ship was chartered; booked on 1 ship then they moved the ship elsewhere and we had to move to a different ship and slightly different itinerary, cruise just flat out cancelled for unknown reason, start date of cruise changed, ports changed, etc.  Other cruise lines have similar issues and we have had it happen with non-cruise related land tours.  We will take the FCC of $450 pp as a consolation for the trouble; no $500 for us since we didn't have air booked - we will just move on.  

The bottom line is that people have been treated poorly all around for a problem that Celebrity knew about months and months and months ago.  That's the thing we REALLY do not like.

Info I posted on Roll call for 3/28/24:  (per our TA, they were JUST notified by Celebrity on 4/28/23).

Another one bites the dust...that us.  MANY MANY thanks to the people who have posted to cruise critic over the last couple of weeks about the oversold cancellations.  At least we had a CLUE that this might happen....and it did.  We got our PINK SLIP last night.  Celebrity NEVER called or emailed us.  Our TA called. We were told we had to make a L&S decision in less than 3 hours with NO details on sailings we could L&S to (Celebrity did not provide to TA).  Also told that we MIGHT be able to downgrade from veranda to ocean view - again no details and it had to be done right away OR we could just let Celebrity cancel us on 5/1 and receive a refund of the deposit and $450 FCC pp.  Not really happy how this was handled by Celebrity.  They have known about the OVERSELLING of cabins since at least last July or August 2022.  Our friend tried to book for 3/2024 and was told by his TA the ship was oversold even though it still showed on the TA website.  Our schedules are full so we could not just L&S especially with 3 hours notice and no details.  Also not downgrading to an ocean view from a Veranda that no one could confirm was really available.  

Booking details:  We booked direct with Celebrity on one of their ships in January 2022 then transferred booking to our TA.  Sail date 3/28/24; cabin type SV.  No air or hotels booked so nothing to cancel there.  BTW we are Zenith - almost double Zenith so obviously we cruise a lot with Celebrity and we didn't even get the curtesy of a call from them.  I am sure they are scrambling but this could have been handled so much better.  Feel bad for the people we got bumped after booking non-refundable air.  Hope things work out for everyone who is affected.  We are just going to do something else but Celebrity will be hearing from us about how displeased we are. 

Just received this email from Celebrity regarding our upcoming cruise on Celebrity Apex:

22 hours ago, Roxydog15 said:

I hope someone can provide insight on this.  We have one non-refundable for this summer that I would love to convert if possible.  Would take some of the anxiety off.

If you switch from a non-refundable to a refundable, you keep the terms of the original non-refundable deposit.  The only benefit would be a price reduction...if you can ever find a refundable booking that is LESS than a non-refundable.  

This question USED to be in FAQ's but the FAQ's have been "improved" so now the answer is impossible to find.  It may be buried in the terms of your original booking.  I have a copy and paste of the question from before the FAQ's were changed.

"NonRefundable to Refundable - If a guest books a non-refundable fare and later prefers to change to a refundable rate, will the booking remain under non-refundable status?  Yes. Any booking originally created as non-refundable will maintain this status for the life of the reservation, regardless of subsequent category changes."

The TENTATIVE AU NZ new sailings are show below - subject to change. I believe they are to be finalized and released oct 16. 

All cruises that are 7 nights or longer will feature two Evening Chic nights.

https://www.celebritycruises.com/faqs/onboard-dress-code

52 minutes ago, Cg52 said:

Thank you I will enquire again. Were any of your FCC the result of the Cruise With Confidence? Ours is and we have been told book by April, sail within a year of original cruise and once a new cruise is booked we will lose it if we cancel again. 😢

Sorry...one additional rule I forgot.  For your NEW cruise to be covered by CWC, it MUST be booked by 10/31/21.  Any cruise BOOKED after 10/31/21 is NOT covered by CWC.  Still don't think that affects your FCC unless you book a non-refundable AFTER the CWC period.  EXTREMELY CONFUSING...I know.  Plus Celebrity keeps changing dates and rules...

https://www.celebritycruises.com/cruise-with-confidence

8 minutes ago, Cg52 said:

Thank you I will enquire again. Were any of your FCC the result of the Cruise With Confidence? Ours is and we have been told book by April, sail within a year of original cruise and once a new cruise is booked we will lose it if we cancel again. 😢

ALL of my FCC's are as a result of CWC.  The "rule" from the FAQ's (in part) state:  "The new FCC will be valid toward the cruise fare on a Celebrity Cruises and must be redeemed by April 30, 2022 on sailings departing on or before December 31, 2022, or one year from the original sailing date, whichever is later."  So the date information they are telling you is correct.  HOWEVER, I see nothing in the FAQ's (or my personal experience) that indicates you will lose your FCC if you cancel EXCEPT if you cancel after the CWC period is over. Example: I would think that if you book by April 2022 for a sailing for a August 2022 sailing and you decide to cancel May 2022, the FCC is in jeopardy - I believe it will expire.  Since at that point, you can't meet the rule of booking by April 2022.  If you have already booked and you cancel tomorrow then you should have the FCC reinstated and have it available to use again (following the above rules).  

Example:  I had a 2/2021 cruise paid in full; cancelled by Celebrity 12/2020-ish.  I received an FCC that I used on a 9/2021 cruise.  I cancelled the 9/2021 cruise 5/2021 and the FCC was reinstated.  I then used that SAME FCC for a 10/2021 cruise - leaving in a week or so.  IF the 10/2021 cruise was cancelled for some reason, the FCC would again be reinstated.  But if I used that FCC on a 9/2022 cruise booked by 4/2022 then I tried to cancel the 9/2022 cruise in June 2022, I believe the FCC would be lost (not possible to book by 4/2022 since that date has passed).

Not sure I explained this well but a blanket statement that you will lose your FCC if you cancel does not seem correct.  I think it depends on WHEN you cancel and WHEN you rebook.  You just have to follow the rules.  Any FCC you have has to be booked by 4/2022.  If you can't book by 4/2022 for any reason.....you lose.  At least that is the way in understand the process.  

Here's a link to the FAQ's regarding FCC's:  https://www.celebritycruises.com/travel-alert/frequently-asked-questions  

1 hour ago, Cg52 said:

According to the info we were provided by Celebrity on this issue, once the FCC for the CWC has been applied it cannot be used again. It’s why our TA is not cancelling our cruise until the last minute and we will not rebook until the April 2022 deadline in case additional extensions are given.

The person at Celebrity who told you this is INCORRECT.  If you use an FCC on a cruise and EITHER the cruise line OR you cancel that cruise, the FCC is reinstated and is available for use again on a different cruise.  I've had numerous FCC's reinstated because the cruise I used it on was either cancelled or I cancelled.  I have had a single FCC reinstated 3 times.  I've also had Celebrity merge FCC and create new ones.  

Nope.  

Just a clarification - the above is for ANYTIME dining - if you are fixed dining then I'm not sure you can select but try the above instructions.  We always select ANYTIME lately.  

Go into Cruise Planner; select Dining then scroll down to the bottom of the page and select the restaurant you want and add to cart then "pay" which is free for the included restaurants.  You can also make all reservations at one time but I had a problem getting all the restaurants to show up sometimes so a few nights I had to do one at a time.

All mine just came back.  I was still missing 3 a couple hours ago.  

Thanks Bikerunner - maybe it was this one (only one I saw from yesterday) - https://www.reuters.com/technology/websites-airlines-banks-tech-companies-down-widespread-outage-2021-07-22/

We had a weird thing going on with our airline reservation as well so maybe it is all related.  

2 cruises disappeared yesterday morning then another one an hour later.  I called and Celebrity said cruises were in their system.  They seemed to think it was a website / app issue since they disappeared from the app as well.  Another one disappeared this morning then reappeared.  Now, the rest of them disappeared from app and website.  Tried 2 different browsers.  Same thing with Royal Carribean - app and website.  Tried my account and DH account and got the same results.  So, appears to be a universal issue.  "Someday is Here...."  and now it is gone already.

At the very end of last week's call, Celebrity HINTED that they MAY be discussing new sailings this summer to "places where there are lots of animals" - I took the hint to mean Galapagos.  HOWEVER, a lot has happened since that call so maybe it will be Galapagos and what ever they decide to do about sailing from the US for the summer.  They also mentioned that Alaska was something they were hoping for but not optimistic about because of the Canada closure to cruise ships.  Technical stop in Canada did not seem to be something that would satisfy the foreign port issue - my words, not theirs; again just hints.  They did say that Edge would probably be the ship they would start with for US sailings.  Others above have mentioned NY, TX, however, the port for Celebrity US sailings was not mentioned but would most likely start with FL - IMHO - at least for Celebrity.  NCL, Royal or others may start in other states.  Will see that they discuss at 4:15 today since everything at the moment is just speculation. 

Nothing yet on Port Everglades (Ft Lauderdale area).  Hopefully soon.  Webinar with Celebrity mentioned they would PROBABLY start July/August with the Edge.  No mention on how they were going to handle currently booked cruises on that ship or if other ships would follow.  Still all too new.

Yup!!!  Here is the Miami article - Miami started 5/1/21.  Not sure about Ft Lauderdale.

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/24912-crew-now-getting-vaccinated-at-portmiami.html

Port Canaveral started this past Friday 4/30/21.

https://www.floridatoday.com/story/money/business/2021/04/30/port-canaveral-becomes-first-u-s-port-start-vaccinating-cruise-crews/4896178001/

We have been to all of the above places mention and they are fantastic!  Asia and AU/NZ are both VERY long flights.  Well worth the time but at the moment, we are staying away from Asia until 2023 at the earliest.  Also, we would not do anything less than a B to B to B for those locations due to the expensive / long flights.  Based on your previous cruise history above, it appears you like island life and warm.  If you considered Europe, you might like cruises that port at any of the following Malaga, Spain; Gibraltar, Santorini, Greece (actually any place in Greece), Malta (the walled city is beautiful), Tenerife, Canary Islands - just to name a few of the warm locations with (usually) good weather and are easy to get around in without extremely long drives to see the sites.  

43 minutes ago, scrapcreator said:

Any ideas on what is happening with/to the cruise(s) prior to the April 22, 2023 Tahiti, Bora Bora, and Hawaii? Not finding them on the Celebrity website.

According to the ORIGINAL flyer that was posted when the 2023 cruises were released, there was SUPPOSED to be a New Caledonia sailing for 11 nights Sydney to Sydney starting 4/6/23.  (See below).  I checked the chartered ship list but it only goes thru May 2022.  Can't tell you what happened BUT there used to be a cruise for that time period and something for the 5 days after that according to the roll call.  Maybe the roll call poster for the 4/17/23 5N cruise knows what happened.

https://www.cruisetimetables.com/full-cruise-ship-charters.html  

27 minutes ago, C-Dragons said:

Thank you so much for your help. The error was on my iPad. I tried again and was successful.

Great!

2 hours ago, C-Dragons said:

Well this is a first. I can read the email information on St. Martin and Greece, but I can't access the Quiz. I keep getting this:

 

A request validation error has occurred!

A potentially dangerous Request.Cookies value was detected from the client (Persist_Dest_Code="...satlantic <br />Shore Excursio...").

That error has to do with forms and cookies related to your computer.  You could be missing a security patch or need to clear cookies.  Here's the direct link to the quiz.  If you still get the error, try a different browser.

  https://pages.email.celebritycruises.com/page.aspx?QS=96c3b7dd10dae0dd487bb3cced8c6ea2724519e68acb16936fcbac3185c72d253f918fefbc735fc8760be29ebdb5369ec3eb502f6d546d703e818fe5bc4b2c759119c993842834e8f4d02b24d53d225a1187672a491d75db59bfb207763438bb

52 minutes ago, Schmoe38 said:

I must have missed the Power Up Points for signing up for texts (just what I need is more communication from Celebrity).

 

Do you recall when that offer came through?
 

Randy

The Sign up for texts came in email on 4/1/21.  It was different than the other ones HD and I have received.  You had to click the link, then enter your phone number. When you received the text alert, you had to respond with a Y (yes).  There was no place to enter a Captain's Club member number so it must have been embedded in the link.  Celebrity didn't say this but speculation is that this one was targeted for US phone numbers only.  Here is a cut and paste from the email.