fantasy51

Thank you to the three of you for your comments.

It was with great trepidation that I posted about the phone call. I really did not want to unbury this thread but I had made a commitment to let everyone know the results.

I promised to reply when I heard back from Celebrity.

I received a phone call this evening from Tyson in the USA, who deals with issues post-cruise. We had a lovely chat and he was very understanding.

He had read my letter to Customer Relations and had gone through all the incident reports from the cruise. He said that there were about 8 people whose emergency lighting did not work. (I know of course that there were others whose emergency lighting did work, as some of those complained that they could not sleep as it was too bright!) He agreed that a bottle of wine was unsuitable (as he himself does not drink) and said it’s the standard way of saying ‘Thank you for putting up with the problem.’ He also said that a few people had been given the offer of meals in a specialty restaurant but he does not know why some got that but others did not. He has given each of us £100 in future cruise credits (valid for the next year) that we could perhaps use for 2 meals in a specialty restaurant on a future cruise. (Actually, we have no plans to sail on Celebrity again but I appreciate the gesture.)

I came away from the phone call feeling that he cared and that he felt the situation had not been dealt with as well as it should have been at the time. I could also tell that he felt some frustration that he could not ensure that such problems would not occur in future. His job is to deal with incidents and people afterwards. I guess he troubleshoots the people issues but cannot deal with policies.

I worked hard to steer the conversation to the safety issues and what could be done if this happens in future. I asked why we were not offered flashlights for use in the bathroom (a suggestion from someone earlier in this thread) and he admitted that he did not know if there would even be spares on board. He said that he would pass on one of my suggestions, that room stewards should regularly close the bathroom door without the light on to see if the nightlight came on. Ours was not on for the first night and only came on after the incident, when all the lights were fixed. It made me wonder if this was tied in to the emergency line and could be advance indication of that not working. I hope that the relevant person follows through on that, as it seems a very simple check that room stewards could make.

Diane

I email our itinerary ... and credit cards (front and back)

I would worry about this. I have a Word document with copies of credit cards, passport, etc. At first I used to include the back of the card because of the phone number, but then I realised that the back of the card holds the CVC number, so anyone getting it (in my case the printed page and in your case stealing your phone) would be able to use my card. After that I typed the phone number beneath each card and I no longer show the back of the card. Could you do something similar with your system?

Diane

It is a little off-topic but then again, it fits into the "what if" category. I use some Eagle Creek packing "cubes"

Beth

Thanks Beth. Years ago I used to pack in plastic bags. I remember a coach trip to Canada, different hotel every night, where it only took me about 5 minutes to pack in the morning because I only had to replace the layer of plastic bags (underwear and shoes) on top of the clothes. In the last few years I have been introduced to packing cubes and love them. The plastic bags did the same job but don't look as good! Besides, many packing cubes have a mesh panel so you can see what is inside. Mine come from either Kathmandu or ebags. My hanging toiletry kit is also from Kathmandu, though I unpack it on a cruise as it makes life easier.

You have certainly made me think about packing in a hurry. I think I could do it. On my last cruise I did most of the packing in less than 45 minutes, and that included putting clothes carefully in my case with layers of tissue paper between them.

Last year I booked a cruise on the QV that was 14 days long. Because of the way the summer season worked, it could also have been sold as two 7-day cruises. We bought it as a 14-day cruise.

My shareholder OBC was awarded as a 14-day cruise (which is good as it would have been less if it had counted as two 7-day cruises) as was my internet time. However, the last 7 days did not include a non-EU port and new regulations had come in meaning that VAT had to be charged on shipboard purchases. For this purpose it was counted as two 7-day cruises. The first had an EU port but the second did not. Purchases in the first were exempt but purchases in the second cost extra.

From my experience, then, it can depend how you book and if there are any strange regulations around.

I tend to be a bit of a worrier but once my bags are on the ship, I relax.

I used to drive to a car park some distance away. I would carefully watch as my bags were loaded into the minibus and then watch as they were unloaded outside the Cunard ship. In the early days I even used to watch as my case was put on the conveyor belt to go to the ship.

Nowadays I am more relaxed. As long as the taxi is unloaded at the ship I stop worrying. In fact, I have even started to give them my small carry-on case so I can wander the ship with just my handbag.

It will be fine as long as the bag reaches the porters. (I have read a horror story of a case that stayed in the coach and was not unloaded, so I still check that far.)

Diane

I'm going to use the suitcase packing devices for over the bed. It will make unpacking easy and repacking even easier.

 

Beth

Hi Beth. What are these? I'm always happy to hear of easier ways to pack and unpack.

I think one of the problems is that Cunard has to get staff to book you in. It should be simple but some countries will not let the cruise staff do it. They boost jobs for their country by insisting on their locals being hired. I don't know what the USA situation is in regard to this practice.

Good luck. I will be interested to hear what Cunard's response is.

Now I understand; in social ballroom, no one pays much attention to the medals any more, it remains a standard for competition dancing, however.

I think medals are a good money-spinner for dance schools. They start you on the medal route and and you keep going because you have to be ready for that next exam day in 6 months. I spoke to someone last night at a social dance who said she felt they'd lost focus because they were not doing any medals at the moment and were not learning new routines and new steps.

Medals are also great for someone like me who is single and does not have a dance partner. I can still dance.

Here in the UK, and in Australia when I first learnt, medals are an alternative to competition dancing. You do one or the other.

Question, what is "medal dancing".

As part of competition dancing here in the states, there is the classification of Pro/Am where you would have danced with your instructor; did you ever try that?

Sorry about that. It must be a difference in terminology between countries. 'Medal dancing' is exams. I started in Australia when I was a teenager. We had a year of basic dancing and then started exams with our Bronze medal. It could take 6 months or a year to get from one level to the next. (We actually received a little medal that we could wear when we passed.) We could do the exams in ballroom, latin american or old time. You learnt a sequence of steps and in the exams you danced with your teacher. This meant I did not ever learn to just follow a partner and dance.

I came back to dancing a couple of times during my adult years and then dropped it for further studies and a move to the UK. On a Cunard cruise 25 years later I rediscovered dancing but found I really did not know how to do it. I could not follow a lead. Since then I have been to classes for Argentine Tango (3 months) and now have private lessons in most dances, recently learning Salsa, Mambo, Merengue and Ceroc (Modern Jive). We dance without a routine so that I have to follow my teacher's lead. I am improving but I don't think it will ever come naturally. I think that's something you have to learn from an early stage of dancing - for the man to feel happy stringing together all the steps he knows instead of relying on a sequence and for the woman to follow wherever he leads.

I have never tried Pro/Am. We do have a version of it in the UK, I have been told. It is for dancers who have concentrated on their medals rather than competitions and are not up to the same display standard as competitors. They dance with their teachers in competitions. I am not interested in competing.

As a single dancer, I have found it not very worthwhile to attend classes here in the UK. I have a private lesson once a week and dance with my teacher. (Unfortunately that spoils me for dancing with other men as their lead could never be as good as his. That's a bit ironic as I started the lessons in order to learn how to follow well after too many years of medal dancing with a set routine.) Couples dance together in classes here. If you build up good relationships with the couples at a dance school, then at a social night a single lady may be asked to dance once by a couple of the gentlemen if their partners want a rest but they want to continue practising.

An acquaintance recently told me of the dance school she attends for modern jive where people have to rotate partners in order to be sure they have learnt the step properly. As an educator, I approve of that. As a single lady, I heartily approve. :D

Two weeks ago we left the Equinox at Athens. We had purchased a transfer to the airport through Celebrity UK. It all went well, but I thought it was a rather layered procedure and thought that interested people might find a more direct way to get the same service.

- We purchased through Celebrity (who must have taken a commission).

- They passed the booking to Holiday Taxis (who no doubt took their own commission).

- Holiday Taxis have someone working in the offices of Andy's Tours, and they are the ones who actually arrange the taxis (and deserve a commission).

- Andy's Tours arrange for taxis to meet us and have representatives at the port. The taxi driver gets his fare.

For your comparison, the price paid to Celebrity was £24 per person from the airport to the ship but £27 per person from the ship to the airport. In both cases there were just 2 of us in the taxi.

It worked well. Unfortunately the day we were there it was raining slightly and the drivers of Athens do not know what to do in wet weather. Our 10am taxi arrived at 10.30. Luckily I had built extra time into our schedule. The only disappointing thing was that Andy's Tours was not in contact with the drivers so could not reassure us that our driver was on the way back from his previous fare. Evidently the drivers were given names at the start of the day and we had to wait for our own driver to arrive.

Opposite us was a very long line of people waiting for unbooked taxis. It was down to half the length after an hour (though more may have joined - I didn't look for that).

Over the years I have realised I no longer have two items of jewellery, both times just after a cruise. I assumed I had left them in the safe. I checked with the cruise line the first time with no results. Luckily they were lowish value, but I frequently miss one of them as it was perfect for a number of outfits.

That happened more than 20 years ago and I still get mail from that terrible TA.

I have just decided to start sending such mail back in a new envelope with no stamp on it. That way the recipient has to pay for the stamp plus a surcharge. I hope that will make them take my name off a list when 2 phone calls have not achieved anything.

It depends how much luggage you have, the Heathrow Express is easy to negotiate with luggage, the underground more difficult.

 

I would stick to the Heathrow Express followed by taxi plan.

You've been told great options for both train and underground. Let me add a slight amendment to the train plan. If cost is an issue, you can get a normal train from Heathrow to Paddington. It is much cheaper but it stops at a few stations along the way and you may have trouble with luggage, depending how many people are travelling.

I used this option once in the opposite direction. I'd been on a Cunard cruise (too good a deal to miss - no single supplement) and arrived home in the UK one day but had to fly to Australia the next night to visit family. I can't believe how much I packed into those 2 days. I smile every time I think of what I achieved. I caught the train from Southampton to Oxford, had my regular therapeutic massage, unpacked, washed loads of clothes, repacked for Australia, checked mail, etc. On the next day I travelled by train to London (which meant a 5-minute walk to the train station, dragging my 2 suitcases), left my luggage at Paddington (watched over by Paddington Bear in the Left Luggage Office), had my hair cut in Kensington, then collected my luggage and took the normal train to Heathrow ready to fly to Australia. From memory, because I had my underground ticket, that took me partway to Heathrow and I only had to pay about £3 for the rest of the journey. It must have been about 6 or 7pm and there was enough space on the train for my 2 suitcases. I would not recommend doing all this unless you are mad or enjoy a challenge!

My brother-in-law needs food that is both gluten free and lactose free. He has always been happy on HAL cruises - but I don't think he is too concerned about desserts and cakes.

Recently he and my sister went on B2B river cruises. The first was excellent, and the maitre d' took special care of his food. On the second river cruise the maitre d' argued with a chef over whether or not he could eat a dish. Of course it was the maitre d' who presented the dish to him so he knew nothing of the argument. The chef was correct and my brother-in-law ended up ill.

On a positive note, though, they have stayed with me here in the UK during the past week (over from Australia) and he was very impressed with the jam tarts and bakewell tarts I found for him in my supermarket. These are cakes he has not eaten for years and they seemed to him to taste just as he remembered them. (In fact my sister, who has no food allergies, ate and enjoyed 2 of the bakewell tarts and she is fussy about her cakes.)

I have always carried the labels with me and attached them after the flight. On my last cruise I had not packed any tape as I had decided to rely on the porters at the ship having staplers. That worked well.

Like Lakesregion, I am more interested in the ship than the destination.

My first three sailings were with Princess and seemed wonderful to me - though I have heard they have gone downhill since then. After a Cunard cruise I was hooked, though I have strayed a few times. A few years ago I sailed MSC with friends, as that was the only ship available when both sets of friends were in Europe. Never again! This year I have been on two Celebrity cruises and am looking forward to booking a cruise on Cunard again, hopefully later this year. Celebrity is nice but it's not what I want in a cruise.

On my last cruise I reflected on the different attitudes to ballroom dancing between Cunard and Celebrity. On Cunard the dancing is a major evening event. It is a form of entertainment for dancers and other passengers alike. There are many people in the ballroom who never dance but love watching it and love the feeling of being at a ball. There are people who pause on the balcony above to enjoy the spectacle. It feels like an event for everyone. (It is also so important that they employ a couple of dancers to demonstrate and to teach.)

On Celebrity, dancing is just another event for a minority of passengers - and so it becomes an ever smaller minority who can participate. Passengers still line the balconies to watch the dancers, so there must be scope for enjoyment among them. However, dancing is not seen as part of the entertainment. Without it, we did not know what to do. The shows were not as good as those on Cunard and the only thing to do in an evening was sit at a bar. I guess Celebrity makes money that way!

I wouldn't use it, because my dh had an auto-immune disease two years ago that was "probably" caused by unknown chemical exposure.

Good idea.

I think chemical exposure is more of a problem than we know at the moment. People like your husband are like the 'canary in the coalmine' that gives early warning of problems. Some of us are more susceptible to chemicals than others and it shows up in our systems at an earlier point. I can even have a reaction to spray-on deodorants and hair spray (blood pressure drops, energy levels suddenly drop, I have to lie down). Visitors to my house know to use such things carefully, either outside or with the door shut and the window open. I would hate to be exposed to a recent spraying of insecticide.

About a month before my last cruise I saw lots more cabins available in the Concierge grade than I had seen when I first booked (6 months before the cruise). I contacted my Celebrity agent and he changed me to a different room in the same category, one with a larger balcony.

This may not happen on every sailing but certainly on my sailing, more rooms became available after final payment date.

Hi Jen. I'm so sorry that you went through all of this on what was meant to be a holiday. I'm even more sorry that no one on the ship cared enough to fix the problem earlier.

Hindsight is simple. You have received loads of suggestions of what you could have done, but at the time you were too busy dealing with the issue, plus looking after your child, plus trying to have a holiday, to be able to think through all of these options. I think you coped really well.

I think what you wanted most was to know that someone cared about your holiday and your problem, and you did not receive that. 'Compensation' (dirty word) is one form of caring but I'm sure you would have preferred attention to detail at the time.

Or people just honestly disagree with you. You asked for people's opinions and you got them. It appears you were actually not really interested in what others think, unless of course they think just like you.

I'm happy to accept your comment. I just wish it had not been posted along with a quote from a personal apology to Chamina. I feel that your comment has nothing to do with that apology.

I'm feeling a little defensive about living on this side of the pond and want to point out that not everyone was so quick to judge. :o

 

I think what a lot of people forgot (in addition to the safety issue of being in the dark) was that you had gotten a bottle of wine as an apology already for another incident. I know that if I had received that second bottle I would felt that it seemed to be an automatic response without any real thought put in.

 

I might be feeling a little wistful this morning of the 9/11 anniversary but I wish everyone would think before typing a response about the feelings of the person you're responding to.

 

 

(And as an aside - we first started sailing with Princess, who have no nightlights in their bathrooms. I now bring a battery operated tea light with me in addition to a flashlight wherever we go. Too late for the OP but might be a thought for future trips.)

I am so sorry Chamima. I did think of those of you who had been supportive, which is why I deliberately used the words 'many people' when talking about the two extremes, hoping that those of you who didn't judge would realise you are not part of the 'many'. I think sometimes in my attempts to be brief, I think through my wording too carefully and it becomes a shorthand that is not picked up by people. I really am sorry as I hate it when posters miss out on people.

Thanks Cindy. Actually, I don't think I asked for it if my memory is correct. I think it was staff members who thought something would be forthcoming and therefore raised the expectation.

I also think that the litigation culture makes this difficult. Here in the UK we are used to small but reasonable gestures and that's what we expect. In the USA there is a big litigation culture and so many people either expect huge compensation or are utterly against the litigation culture and make an outcry at any mention of something. It is difficult to get a middle road when you are faced with stories of huge law suits against a restaurant for someone slipping on spilled coffee - when she spilled it herself!

I received an email last night from my UK Celebrity agent. I had written to him on my return to thank him for all his help in getting us a room with a great balcony, etc. Because of the great relationship we've built up in the last 6 months (him telling me about his holiday, me telling him funny stories about mine, etc.), I told him of the lack of power. He was amazed at the lack of response and said he would talk to Customer Relations. I don't expect anything to come of it, but again it goes to show how different people react.