cruisenowpaylater

I totally agree with this post. I was also on the same Jan 21 sailing. Celebrity used to be our favorite cruise line. I'm still hoping that Celebrity will do the right thing and compensate us and/or provide credit to future cruise.

Great letter.

 

quote=Luvtocruise8;55243444]This is the letter we sent. So far, they have said they would not do a thing for us. Interesting that they are giving 50% off on a future cruise to those who were cancelled for 4/2. Fact that they did cancel that cruise proves that there really was as problem. We, and our friends who were also on that trip, would be interested in any suits.

February 6, 2018

 

Dear Ms. Lutoff-Perlo,

 

We are Elite Plus cruisers on Celebrity, Captain’s Club #700500850. We have just returned from the January 21, 2018 Antarctic sailing on the Infinity. As I am sure you are already aware, this cruise was extremely disappointing and, we feel, very mishandled by Celebrity from before we started.

First, I would like to start with the good news. The staff, especially cruise director Alejandro and his team, were outstanding and did all they possibly could to keep us entertained and help to make the best of a bad situation. This holds for everyone from the dining room, housekeeping, the kitchen staff, Paulina the Captain’s Club hostess, Javier the concierge liaison and guest relations. Sadly, they were constantly berated by very upset passengers for a situation that was totally beyond their control.

The problems began with your decision to continue this sailing with a damaged ship, resulting in the initial cancellation of Puerto Madryn, 2 days before we left for Buenos Aires. We were told by Mickey Live, who was a major contributor to any success the cruise had, that Antarctic itineraries were only completed as originally scheduled 40% of the time! Knowing these odds that it was likely to have to miss another destination, makes it especially unconscionable to have had to proactively cancel one of only 4 planned stops. It was obvious the ship was running on one engine, causing it to not be able to maintain necessary speeds to reach the other destinations on time. Perhaps if this had not been the case, we would have reached Pt. Stanley prior to the bad weather setting in. Apparently a competing line was in the area and was able to complete their total itinerary, including Puerto Madryn and Pt. Stanley.

Due to the need to reduce speed, we also got to Ushuaia a few hours later than scheduled. We were told that this would be compensated for by staying in port longer. However, with shore excursions not beginning until 5 pm and most not returning until 10:30, the town was completely closed down when they concluded and so staying until 2 am was useless and again put us even further off schedule. In essence, on a 14 day cruise we had 1.5 ports and missed having the up close wildlife experience that most of us had come for.

But for us, that wasn’t all. Our third day in Buenos Aires pre cruise my husband was mugged in a supposedly good part of town, losing an expensive watch and sustaining much bruising to his arm. Apparently, about 20 other similar incidents occurred with passengers on this ship. On February 1, the captain sent out a letter of warning about this type of activity in Buenos Aires. Clearly, this was a known problem as many of the entertainers and staff “joked” about it. This warning should have been posted prior to any passengers arrival in Buenos Aires, perhaps on your website.

Then, on the final day we participated in the Tigre River excursion with airport drop-off. As we approached the airport, the guide informed us that all our luggage had been transported to Terminal A. Passengers who had flights from Terminal C, which we did, were to get off the bus, get their luggage and return with it to the bus to be driven to Terminal C. We were encouraged to leave carry ons and personal items on the bus as the driver would remain. When we returned to the bus, number 18, with our luggage, it had left without us, but with my husband’s leather jacket clearly visible on his seat and our carry on with all his medication (he is diabetic) and our jewelry!!! Fortunately, bus 19 was still there and was able to call ahead and make sure that bus 18 waited for us to get there. But the tour guide, Gabriela, was very clearly negligent in not being aware that people were missing.

In speaking with fellow passengers it was agreed that Celebrity missed a tremendous opportunity to diffuse some of the disappointment and verbal abuse of their staff by offering something like free drink packages or unlimited internet for the remainder of the cruise. Not even one free drink was offered!

This was a once in a lifetime opportunity that we will never repeat. We expect Celebrity to make major compensation for this disaster up to a refund for the cost of the cruise, and/or a major credit to a future cruise. We had reserved 2 additional cruises on board before the major problems began, but are seriously debating whether to continue our relationship with Celebrity.

Looking forward to a timely response,

If it is not too late, I strongly suggest that you stay away from Infinity. Just completed a 14-day South America & Antartica cruise and the ship is showing it's age. Lots of problems too with toilet vacuum system. However, their maintenance crew do a good job is fixing the problems quickly. Overall, Dining and Stateroom crew were great. I can't say the same for the officers.