carofil

If you had paid them up front, yes. not if you were having them added to your account daily.

We have just arrived in Melbourne on Golden Princess and yes NOROVIRUS has hit the ship. We have cruised 11 times before and this is the first time with Princess. My husband was confined to our mini suite for 2 days. We could not use our balcony for 8 days out of 14 because of sewerage stench. We could not even open our sliding door as it made us feel ill. Princess offered pitiful compensation which was rejected. Sick ship

The very design of the ship will be conducive to any smells becoming a problem for aft balconies. The stern has a very tall blunt design shape that will definitely cause air turbulence behind the ship. this turbulence tends to bring any gases that may be present from sources such as sewer vents, diesel etc. back into the air stream affecting rear balconies. The moral of the story here is, if you don't want these smells present don't get an aft balcony on this class of ship. Sure looks different, but totally impractical!!

Phil :)

We were on the same cruise as Luckie Puris, in Concierge Class 9263.

I agree with all the praise he gave to the Solstice. This was our second time on the Solstice in four months. We loved it do much the first time.

However the passengers were so different this time. Maybe it was because we cruised to and from Sydney. Our first time we finished in Auckland. There were 1700 Australians on board this cruise and while most behaved in an exemplary manner there was a large proportion of yobbos.

They drank excessively, swore loudly and were quite rude to some of their fellow passengers.

The worst time was when Ben, the Tour Director , organised a wonderful party for the World Cup Cricket. Ben went to so much trouble to make it a fantastic experience but the drunken group behind us kept yelling out obscenities at the screen as they disagreed with umpires or cricketers.

I asked why they kept being plied with alcohol and the waiter said they had to.

Where was the duty of care.

I would never cruise Australia-Australia again.

We were on the same cruise and we had a fabulous time. It was our second time on the Solstice as well, and we would go on an Australia - Australia cruise again any time. We didn't seem to notice very much Yobo behavior on this cruise and generally I wouldn't expect that Celebrity would attract very many of that type of people. We did attend some of the the World Cup in the theatre, and yes it was a little noisy at times as you would expect, but generally we found the large group fairly well behaved. If we encounter a group like you spoke of, we just move away and don't let anyone spoil our experience. We certainly wouldn't let a few Yobo's dictate what cruise we wanted to choose or direction we wanted to travel in.

We have cruised fairly extensively on a number of different lines and we are select on Celebrity. We have also travelled Auckland - Sydney and haven't noticed any difference in guest behaviour to Sydney - Sydney. You should give it another try some time, I think you were just a little unlucky last March. Sporting events seem to always bring out the riff raff and the easy supply of booze doesn't help. You would be better off just avoiding the big sporting events in the future!!!

March 29 2016 it is Sydney - Honolulu on the Celebrity Millennium for us.....

Phil :)

I found their customer service to be surprisingly awful recently, both by telephone and email, when I tried to book a summer cruise. Never had a problem before.

 

Looks like it's only the UK customers who are getting bad service though? :(:(

No, it's not limited to the UK....Celebrity service comes out of the same office and it is equally bad!! The real issue seems to be a lack of staff to now handle the worldwide load of customer service needs. My last phone conversation with a representative by the name of David was very satisfactory and he was most helpful and went out of his way to do everything he could for me. The problem now is that my TA cannot get a fast response from Guatemala. He told me that it can take many months to receive a reply if they get it at all!!

I have an issue regarding OBC on our next cruise from Sydney to Honolulu. I have been given $50 instead of the $300 that is clearly shown on my open booking that was booked on our last Celebrity cruise to Hawaii last year on the Solstice. I'm really doubting now that we will see the correct amount, the way things are being treated by the Guatemalan office. This doesn't look good for RCI/Celebrity long term unless something happens soon!!

Phil

My theory as a retired NSW Walloper of 35 years

I haven't heard that term used for years! I remember my Dad using it when I was growing up in the 50's & 60's. Thanks for the memories, unfortunately there will be many with sad memories this Christmas. We have very recently enjoyed the same cruise on the Rhapsody in November and are booked for another 10 night one like it on her in March next. I think we need to discount most of what the media and rumor mills present and wait for the Coroner's report! Sympathy to all closely involved with this terrible incident.

Phil