milesfromu

I had seen the same thing when the changes were announced. Had been waiting for 10/4 to upgrade our classic packs to premium...yet no change. No surprise either, which is rather sad.

2 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

They also had the new pilot MDR dinner menus including the notorious double cheeseburger

I guess "double" is what makes X premium and luxury.....

22 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

Yes, agree that is in the cruise contract (one which not many people pay much attention).  Even with that legal wiggle room, that is not really an excuse IMO for the loyal customers.  It is making significant changes to their product offering without communicating to the people directly affected who have paid for that product. 

Legal - yes. 

Transparent - no. 

Angst and anger amongst the customer base when this keeps happening- yes.

On point!

2 minutes ago, CaroleSS said:

My question.....

We have seen a great number of cutbacks to goods/services in the last 6+ months. Celebrity used to bill itself as a "luxury" line, but now it is middle-of-the-road. What, if anything, makes Celebrity now stand out from all the other mass market lines? 

Especially at its price point...........

It is by the balcony. Excellent cabin.

20% gratuity is added. $12 PPD is the norm now.

Much of the Reflection has not been updated for months. Can one of you currently onboard report out for us??

Thanks for the report. We board when you disembark. Who are the musicians on board?

4 minutes ago, Andy said:

Totally agreed. I've heard from many members, and I can understand their frustration... but let's show some love to the Cruise Critic folks ! There has to be a ton of pressure on folks like Laura, the Cruise Critic team, and the Moderators.

Another thought... for some, maybe their frustration IS showing some love. After all, nobody enjoys being deprived of doing something they enjoy so much 😃!  Amirite ? 

Very refreshing perspective.

I have the first cabin off the hump witch has a bigger balcony.

and the room they are offering me is just a C3 Concierge Class

Keep your hump then;-) You will not regret it. Cabin is same size but the balcony is huge. Sun and shade and lots of privacy. Enjoy!

Agree with mandream. If your hump is first or third on an angle of the hump (i.e., 9292), it would be hard to give that up for standard balcony CC. If its the center of the hump, then the few upgrade benefits are worth the swap. Being your first X sailing, there are CC benefits that would be helpful for you.

We also had Greg as TA. I couldn’t get in touch with him either. Called Captains Club. They gave me a number to call which was the large agency he was affiliated with. Every thing seems to be in order all though I did have to send copy of my invoice. Frankly I think this guy just took off. My new agent did let drop that Greg was AWOL and the letter I reviewed from agency explaining situation said he left for personal reasons. I received the explanation letter after I made contact with agency. I was also very nervous about the whole thing !!

 

 

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So were you able to transfer a reservation to another agent? The constant message on GP is that he is on medical leave. I can't see why he would maintain a dedicated phone number and website if he did not plan to return. On the other hand, I also do not understand why he has no autoreply on email or voice message directing you elsewhere in the interim. I would feel more comfortable moving my reservations elsewhere within TPI, but they suggested it was not necessary.

That's very strange. We have been able to make payments directyl to X for cruises booked through a travel agency.

Bookings done by this agent are most often "Group" bookings with perks beyond those offered solely from X. As a result, staff at X cannot access all of the information associated with the booking. We had the same problem trying to make final payment, had to go through agent...whom unfortunately was unavailable. After final payment was made contacted X a few weeks later to try and upgrade bev package for third guest. X agent could not do it because they cannot see what perks are already tied to a "Group" booking. Has to be done by a TA according to them.

X is providing a grace period for bookings with GP. The parent company handled our final payment for a November 2018 sailing a couple weeks ago. You do need to hound them to follow-up. They are not travel agents, more like recruiters. We have an October 2019 sailing booked through GP too. Hoping he returns, but if by chance he does not, I hope it isn't difficult to have the booking moved to another agent. Please let us know if you learn more about GP's status. Thanks.

Book a suite. The burgers on Luminae's lunch menu are quite premium.

Glad to hear you had a nice sailing. Great job reporting live. Four weeks to go before our turn...yippee.

Thanks for the information sharing. Will be boarding just shy of 5 weeks from now. Have you visited the Ensemble Lounge? If so, are Andrea, Pedro and Luka still onboard?

Thanks again and glad you are enjoying the sailing. All is well in Indy;-)

You will be fine and I assure you both will enjoy it. That ship and itinerary will have a diverse age spread and not so many elites and above. If you were on NE, Pacific Coastal, Transcanal or any other trans sailing I would provide caveats. However, we fit in your category and enjoy X a great deal.

When X changed its room steward assignments in the fall of 2016 one of the duties affected is luggage delivery and pickup. This used to be done by the assistant steward. Now everything is done by the steward. In October on the Infinity our steward pleased with us to have our luggage out by 6:00PM the evening before disembarkation so he could cover all his other responsibilities. Stewards are asking passengers to put the luggage out early, but I do not think the ship is officially.

Is it safe to assume that the cabin you had is back in the inventory? If so, I would put a temp hold (or separate reservation) on that until this is sorted out. I would then recommending getting the reservation reinstated with your TA, then work with X to take over admin of it.

Though its not allowed, I would ask that you notify all of us who the TA is so we can avoid them ;-) So sorry for your troubles. We had a similar experience with a firm we were loyal to. They botched moving on onboard booking to another sailing that the perks did not move to without informing us of that key fact. Needless to say, we ditched them once it was sorted out.

I might post on their Facebook page and ask what is happening? Does anyone think I'll get a meaningful answer?

Probably not until the new promo is announced, but it cannot hurt.

Our May 5, 2017 Equinox nearly doubled for 1A.

Our October 8, 2017 Summit up 50%. Never seen spikes like this. We are thinking a second guest discount promo is pending too.

It will be a full year as of 9/11, and I miss helping others as well. Hope all is well!

Must say we feel guilty for whining in the past (hindsight is 20/20). You were masterful in trying to provide assistance regardless of how few facts you had to work with. There have been a few threads this week that you would have doused quickly that just continued to flame up. We really appreciated your genuine effort to help, regardless of the potential outcry (i.e., drink package price and inclusion changes). Patient and professional, and if there was a "call" on the boards for help, you were there. We miss you!

Additionally, we hope that life is treating you well with whatever new endeavors you are engaged in. Thanks again.

Turndown service is a biggie for me. I just love coming back to the cabin to find the room and bathroom freshened up, lights on low and the bed turned down, ice bucket filled. Can't explain it......I just look so forward to it.

*like*

Not surprised this thread exploded. O.P, we feel your pain. We had a similar experience on Summit in April 2014. We had several little problems, but the big one was a leaking shower connection that curtailed water pressure so much that you couldnt even rinse soap of your skin. We reported it on day one and it never got fixed. Started with room steward, then guest relations, then guest relations mgr, then hotel director. Not quite the same level of inconvenience, and we totally understand that things fall through the cracks, but it really bothered us. We too addressed it in the survey, then with a phone call. Never did we hear from anyone that seemed to care. We were ready to cancel our other two bookings for future cruises. However, based on how much we enjoyed our previous sailings we thought we would give X one more try, then cancel the remaining one if we were unhappy.

Our next sailing was flawless, and the three after that have been nearly flawless, including two additional sailings on the Summit. For what it is worth, we received a bonus OBC of $100 six months after we wrote X of our April 2014 experience. We were working with a customer service agent to resolve a conflict with our reservation for November 2014 and she noted our communication on file and voila (message was: you should not have had to go through that and we appreciate you giving us another chance).

Again, we feel your pain and have been equally frustrated with the lack of follow-up and compassion (from X and members of this board). However, we have learned that it does come down to finding the right person at the right time to get true resolution (composure is also a key to getting a positive response). It is sad that you have been unable to secure that resolution, similar to our experience in 2014. We did not give up, and we do not encourage you to either.

We have used AT&T and Verizon packages on X ships before. Cell and Text service is fine, but the cell at sea signal is too weak to push data, so no email, internet, facebook, etc. Internet on the ship is log in log off if by the minute or you can opt for the pricey unlimited. Service speed is adequate for any purpose except video chat or video streaming. Slower than most land-based internet, but adequate for email, facebook, etc.