Celebrity cancels entire cruise!!

We booked a 5 day Western Caribbean cruise on the Celebrity Constellation on Feb 23rd 2013 as a way of extending our annual trip down to Florida. We did a similar cruise this year and enjoyed having the extra 5 day period of relaxation prior to the start of our condo lease in Naples.

I have just had a call from our agent who informed me that Celebrity has decided to charter the ship and has cancelled the cruise! NO word directly from Celebrity...just a phone call from my agent.

I was astonished that a cruise line would do this. Celebrity advertised the cruise on their brochure and we booked it in good faith. Now they appear to be reneging on the contracts in favour of something more favourable.

It's bad enough that it happened but quite unpardonable that the cruise line did not bother to contact us directly to explain what had happened.

In the past we have cruised with Oceania, Princess, HAL and Celebrity but we will think twice before booking another cruise with Celebrity.

If you book through an agent, the cruise line will always contact the agent, not you. That's how it works. Cruises get canceled sometimes. C'est la vie.

Yep- it happens. A group of 10 of us booked well in advance for a Med cruise and it was cancelled after 9/11/01. They have something in their contract I'm sure to cover themselves for these events.

I guess in this economy if they can charter an entire ship to a group- then I don't blame them.

The cruiseline can probably make money with set prices for a charter, then have it as a regular cruise and possibly had to discount those unsold cabins. It's not unusual. And yes, if you booked your cruise through a TA, it is their responsibility to relay any information to you.

Sorry your cruise got cancelled. When booking through a TA?

The TA is the one who will give you the information and it looks

like they did their job.

Charters do happen.....read about many of them over the years.

I am sorry that your cruise was cancelled. Know that this does happen but it does seem to be a little closer to the cruise time than most charter cancellations.

For those in the know, if you have purchased cruise insurance prior to the charter cancellation is there any reimbursement for the cost of the insurance?

I am a little surprised "it does happen" and you guys make it sounds like it's normal. to me once in a year vacation time is like heaven come down to earth, I would counting the days to my vacation, how can they just cancel a trip like that? What about customers who purchased airline tickets and booked hotel for that week?

I am a little surprised "it does happen" and you guys make it sounds like it's normal. to me once in a year vacation time is like heaven come down to earth, I would counting the days to my vacation, how can they just cancel a trip like that? What about customers who purchased airline tickets and booked hotel for that week?

Yes it does happen and it is not uncommon. It is also done by all cruise lines, not just Celebrity...Also in the same advertisements for the cruise they state that they have the right to cancel the cruise. It is SOP to contact your TA and not you...

You had me scared for a moment, we're on the ones on the 4th of Feb & the 9th.

We had this happen once to us and we did already have airfare booked for the cruise dates. We turned our Eastern Caribbean cruise into a Florida Triangle trip - Ft. Lauderdale to Orlando to Marco Island back to Ft. Lauderdale. Had a blast by turning our lemons into lemonade and seeing more of Florida than we had in the past. Plus with hotel points and timeshare incetives I think we spent a total of $10 on our lodging so it ended up being a cheap vacation except for the Disney tickets!:rolleyes:

Yes it does happen and it is not uncommon. It is also done by all cruise lines, not just Celebrity...Also in the same advertisements for the cruise they state that they have the right to cancel the cruise. It is SOP to contact your TA and not you...

man... that really sucks.. kind of unfair in a way. think about people who planning this all year long, with airline tickets purchased, pre-cruise and post cruise planned out, then next thing you know there is no more ship... I don't know how any cruise line will justify that..

so, seriously? they wouldn't do anything to your precious vacation time? like at least air ticket reimbursement, or reschedule another ship at another time? just simple "no, screw you, we have better guests who will pay more?"

We had a cruise cancelled by Royal Caribbean because they wanted to get the ship into dry dock earlier than originally scheduled. We were able to rebook on another date - if I remember correctly, they gave a discount/OBC (can't remember) if we booked specific dates they offered. Unfortunately we couldn't take advantage of that offer but still were able to take the desired cruise.

BTW, we use a TA and she was the one who contacted us and made the alternate arrangements.

Marianne

It stinks no doubt about it. However, it unfortunately, happens from time to time. That is part of the risk of booking far out. Seems to happen less closer in. It's still penty of time to find another cruise and you shouldn't lose a dime.

Celebrity will almost never contact a cruiser directly if they booked with a TA. If they were to do that TAs would be rightfully worried about them poaching customers.

Both things are pretty typical in the industry. It's a shame that it happened to you but the exact same thing can happen on any cruseline. I'm a meeting planner and I've booked large groups for a conference or incentive trip, although I've never had to charter an entire ship. But I can tell you that I've seen almost all if not all of the mass market lines advertise to conference planners.

Reminds me of a cruise we booked on HAL several years back. Booked a 12 day Mediterranean cruise and used frequent flyer miles to book flights to get us to Venice, the departure port. We also booked a hotel in Venice at non-refundable rates.

Our agent told us first that the cruise was cancelled about two weeks before sailing date. Then the agent gave us a number at HAL to call where they would address all costs we incurred and would offer us alternatives.

Within a day we were able to restore our miles (they paid the restore fee) and they cancelled the hotel booking paying the full amount of the penalty. They even agreed to pay the limo we booked to get us from home to the airport.

Finally they gave us a full refund on the cruise and offered us any 12 day European cruise as a replacement cruise at the same price we paid for this one less a 25% discount.

The added touch is that they also paid the agency its commission for the cancelled booking.

Needless to say these folks made lemonade out of the bitter lemon caused by the last minute cancellation of our dream cruise that summer and, because they offered up everything with no hassle and in a very personal way, we are now big HAL fans.

We like Celebrity a lot - it's different enough from HAL to give us variety. We've never had a cancellation by Celebrity but I would hope they would handle it in a manner similar to how HAL handled us.

We booked a 5 day Western Caribbean cruise on the Celebrity Constellation on Feb 23rd 2013 as a way of extending our annual trip down to Florida. We did a similar cruise this year and enjoyed having the extra 5 day period of relaxation prior to the start of our condo lease in Naples.

I have just had a call from our agent who informed me that Celebrity has decided to charter the ship and has cancelled the cruise! NO word directly from Celebrity...just a phone call from my agent.

I was astonished that a cruise line would do this. Celebrity advertised the cruise on their brochure and we booked it in good faith. Now they appear to be reneging on the contracts in favour of something more favourable.

It's bad enough that it happened but quite unpardonable that the cruise line did not bother to contact us directly to explain what had happened.

In the past we have cruised with Oceania, Princess, HAL and Celebrity but we will think twice before booking another cruise with Celebrity.

Nothing new at all. Had my RCCL April of 2013 cruise cancelled a few months ago. Decided to charter the ship to a Clothing Optional group. At least i got a nice OBC when i rebooked.

I am so sorry about your cruise. It is really disappointing to get news of this sort. They not only cancel cruises but they sometimes change the dates as they did in our case. They really did sweeten the pot for us and I wonder could you book another 5 day at the other end of your proposed stay in Naples? Phone them and ask for an OBC on this new sailing to make up for the change in your plans. It's worth a try as someone said, to make lemonade out of lemons. BTW, I love Naples. I hope you get this resolved to your satisfaction.

I have to disagree.. I don't think it's at all common or usual for a cruiseline to cancel a cruise.. In fact, I think it's relatively infrequent.

I did happen to us though.... our cruise was canceled about 2 months prior to the cruise date, we received NONE of our money back (paid by check - back then), and were not able to recoup the full payment we had made - the cruiseline went out of business (Renaissance Cruises - our favorite cruise line by far).. You know what though?. It's a part of life - not a big deal in the grand schema of things...

Rick

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I am so sorry about your cruise. It is really disappointing to get news of this sort. They not only cancel cruises but they sometimes change the dates as they did in our case. They really did sweeten the pot for us and I wonder could you book another 5 day at the other end of your proposed stay in Naples? Phone them and ask for an OBC on this new sailing to make up for the change in your plans. It's worth a try as someone said, to make lemonade out of lemons. BTW, I love Naples. I hope you get this resolved to your satisfaction.

Hopefully they can get their TA to fight for them:)

We booked a Celebrity crusie out of Vancouver calling in at San Fran and then to Hawaii. It was super until our American friends found the same ship (Millenium) sailing out of a different port on the same day.

As a ship cannot be in two ports at once I contacted my TA. They contacted Celebrity UK who said the cruise had not been cancelled. Only to be told a week later that it had.

Then we waited four weeks for the deposit to be returned, Their excuse for the delay 'we generally wait until we have quite a few to refund and then do them together'. Some excuse.

Several years ago we were booked on a Caribbean cruise on the Mercury out of Miami. I had booked directly with Celebrity. They contacted me and said the ship had been moved to California for Mexican Riveria cruises and I could go on it or the Century in Florida. We went on the Century, were given a nice OBC, and as the Century was sailing a day later and my air was already booked they paid for that extra night lodging and the transfer from Ft Lauderdale to Miami (could have been the reverse). I did do a bit of pushing getting a nice hotel. Luckily I was able to change my return date for free with the airlines. Great deal.

Please let us know how celebrity handles your non-refundable expenses that you've already incurred for this cruise, including your cost of insurance. I think many of us would like to know how celebrity handles this.

Happens frequently across cruise lines. This is not at all unusual or unique to Celebrity. Check these out:

From NCL:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1680575&highlight=charter

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1662307&highlight=charter

From Royal Caribbean:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1632491&highlight=charter

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1627149&highlight=charter

From Carnival:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1649649&highlight=chartered

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1402595&highlight=chartered

We could go at the end of our time in Florida but the itinerary is different and doesn't include Grand Cayman.

I guess we should explore 7 day options which would mean taking up our lease a couple of days late.

We liked the 5 day option because we would have had only 2 ports - Falmouth (which we missed last time because of bad weather) and Grand Cayman (which we know well and love) and the rest would have been sea days which we really enjoy - lovely chance to read and relax!

I suppose the best option would be a 7 day with only two ports.

Reminds me of a cruise we booked on HAL several years back. Booked a 12 day Mediterranean cruise and used frequent flyer miles to book flights to get us to Venice, the departure port. We also booked a hotel in Venice at non-refundable rates.

 

Our agent told us first that the cruise was cancelled about two weeks before sailing date. Then the agent gave us a number at HAL to call where they would address all costs we incurred and would offer us alternatives.

 

Within a day we were able to restore our miles (they paid the restore fee) and they cancelled the hotel booking paying the full amount of the penalty. They even agreed to pay the limo we booked to get us from home to the airport.

 

Finally they gave us a full refund on the cruise and offered us any 12 day European cruise as a replacement cruise at the same price we paid for this one less a 25% discount.

 

The added touch is that they also paid the agency its commission for the cancelled booking.

 

Needless to say these folks made lemonade out of the bitter lemon caused by the last minute cancellation of our dream cruise that summer and, because they offered up everything with no hassle and in a very personal way, we are now big HAL fans.

 

We like Celebrity a lot - it's different enough from HAL to give us variety. We've never had a cancellation by Celebrity but I would hope they would handle it in a manner similar to how HAL handled us.

a big thumb up, this is what i expected!

I feel for the OP, but it could be worse. At least there is lots of time to make alternate arrangements.

Years ago, with a company that no longer exists, we had a cruise cancelled one day before its departure from Spain. We were already at our airport hotel when we got the call from our travel agent. Of course, this cancellation was due to ship mechanical problems, but I'm just glad that we hadn't gone to Europe a few days early, like we usually do these days (and air was booked through the cruise line so at least we weren't out any money for that). The cruise line's only offer was $400 off our next trip with that company, which we didn't take advantage of.

Cassandra44 - I hope you find another option that works for you. As for looking for an intinerary with lots of sea days, if I were you, I wouldn't restrict myself to that. You can make a sea day out of any port you're not interested in. It's a great day to be on the ship when most other people are off the ship. You get your choice of lounge chairs, lots of peace and quiet, etc. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that you find another great vacation.