Unpleasant Experience on Debarkation

[macruisefan]

I just got off Solstice on Sunday, and had a WONDERFUL time. However, there was a little issue right at debarkation that really kind of irritated me. I thought about it for a few days, and I have decided to share my experience. I preface this by saying I suspect this is in no way unique to Celebrity, however, I believe it is a very poor way of handling a situation, and it is probably industry wide.

 

I was doing self debarkation as early as possible, as I was interested in making an early flight. Now, to be clear, I wasn't trying to get off any earlier than allowed, and I understand there can always be circumstances (customs delay, etc...) that can hold things up. So, the information given out said early self-debarkation would begin at 7:30, pending customs clearance.

 

The Solstice staff was wonderful in managing this. As instructed, I arrived with my bag in tow, outside the Grand Epernay on deck 3 at about 7:15. There was a gentleman there inquiring about departure plans. Basically anyone with a flight before 9:00 was kept right in the hallway, anyone else (no flight or flight after 9:00) was brought around the corner to Grand Epernay.

 

As instructed, I stayed in the hallway outside Grand Epernay, and right at 7:30, they sent us down the flight of stairs, to the tender lobby. I was maybe the tenth person in line, and we were cruising right along. I handed my sea pass card to the gentleman, and then it happened. Instead of "Ding!".... I was greeted with "Buzz!!!". At this point, there was something wrong that would not allow me to debark, and I was moved to the side of the line. After another 30-40 people were sent through, finally one of the staff was on the phone with guest services. You can imagine my blood pressure rising and my anxiety level too, as I watch mobs of people heading out to the terminal and I see my window of opportunity slipping away. At the same time, I was made to feel like some sort of degenerate as they told me "You have to wait! Your account has a balance!" As though I was trying to give them the slip.

 

Finally after five minutes on the phone, they wanted me to go back upstairs (against the flow of traffic) to the guest relations desk. Now I was really bother by this because I KNEW there was no problem with my account. I had reviewed it on the tv in the morning, and all the charges looked good. I had tied the count to my American Express Card (no limit!), and I had signed the agreement that I would be responsible for all charges. And that said charges could be charged to the Amex. I was given the phone to talk with guest relations, and they told me everything had gone through except there was a problem with the last charge the evening before. Now, I was a bit irritated as my last charge was at about 8pm the night before, and I had no knowledge of any problem until I was debarking 11 1/2 hours later.

 

After much confusion, a senior staff member escorted me upstairs to guest relations. There, they took my card (the SAME Amex I had already authorized them to use), and he went into the back office. Three minutes later he reemerged and said "all set"! And I'm thinking "What? You dragged me all the way up here for what exactly? You've charged $1,500 to this card over the course of the week, and something that happened last night brought me to a halt"?

 

The staff member then sent me back downstairs to debark, finally getting off a few minutes before 8. Of course by the time I got to customs, I was behind several hundred people and waited another 20 minutes or so.

 

Now, I understand you can never EXPECT to get off early. I'm okay with that. What really rubbed me the wrong way was that in my best estimation there was NOTHING I could have done to avoid this snag (Does Celebrity really want all 2,500 passengers at the Pursers desk at 6:30 am 'Just to confirm' everything is okay?). But, I just can't believe this policy is the best way for a cruise line to handle the situation.

 

I paid a lot of money in advance for this trip. I spent a lot of money on board for this trip. If there was a problem with the evening charges, they couldn't have amounted to more than $20-30. Now I'm not saying they should let someone walk off who owes them thousands. But I had clearly demonstrated that I was and wanted to continue to pay my charges. And they have the signed agreement from me to honor all the charges.

 

Was making me feel like some miscreant, and then delaying my departure for almost a half hour really the best way to handle this situation?

 

Like I said in the beginning, I am not knocking Celebrity on this, but rather am having trouble understanding how this is an industry standard.

 

I can go to Las Vegas and spend thousands of dollars at a resort. And when I'm ready to go, I just walk out the door. If there is a problem with the charges, they will contact me. I've never once been detained from leaving as a result of a balance being due.

 

Why do we have to have a different standard on a cruise ship?:(

[LOP]

Frustrating to say the least. I would be perplexed as well especially if they had my AMEX on file.

Reads like they probably closed the account and then noticed a charge and could not retrieve the AMEX information and had to run your card again or at the least retrieve the numbers off of it.

[macruisefan]

Frustrating to say the least. I would be perplexed as well especially if they had my AMEX on file.

Reads like they probably closed the account and then noticed a charge and could not retrieve the AMEX information and had to run your card again or at the least retrieve the numbers off of it.

 

And that very well may have been the case. But between the suite and the charges, I had already (happily) spent over $4,000. I'm just having trouble reconciling the customer service model that dictates the thing to do in that situation is literally detain the individual to shake down the last $20. I mean, can you imagine a land based resort, where a staff member runs out the door to as you leave and pulls at your bag, saying "you can't leave!"?

[Orator]

An account must be cleared prior to leaving the ship. The amount of the charge or what one might have paid during the cruise is not a factor. Some choose to pay in cash for purchases that might be billed after the closing of Seapass accounts. If a charge was placed on a Seapass card attempts should be made to contact the passenger. This is usually done by an announcement for "Mrs Smith" to contact Guest Relations. Perhaps your time of departure was too early for them to make an announcement without disturbing others. Sorry, for your frustration, but glad that you enjoyed your cruise.

[Karen@Steve]

And that very well may have been the case. But between the suite and the charges, I had already (happily) spent over $4,000. I'm just having trouble reconciling the customer service model that dictates the thing to do in that situation is literally detain the individual to shake down the last $20. I mean, can you imagine a land based resort, where a staff member runs out the door to as you leave and pulls at your bag, saying "you can't leave!"?

 

I agree from a customer service perspective this is really an issue. However, I can say that the closing of the credit card account and deletion of the credit card information is also for your protection. They don't keep this information for security purposes. If they don't keep it they don't have to worry about guarding it which is also probably why they don't keep information for contacting you afterward either.

 

You also need to realize that many people book everything through a travel agent and if they wipe your personal information for your protection they really have no way of contacting you following the cruise. Without complete knowledge of their systems I can't say for sure but I think they probably just don't keep the information readily available and the cost of recovering the $20 or $30 is probably more than the charge and the cost of securing that information is also very expensive.

 

Not the answer you wanted but I can see why it happened. Hopefully, this is an exception and not common.

[FrankinPA]

I certainly agree with your frustration and am very sorry it happened. Did it cause you to miss the plane?

 

The only thing you could possibly have done was to go to Guest Services prior to getting in line to disembark just to make sure everything was good to go. I know you know that now. And, no, you should not have had to do that.

 

The message to all of us is when working against a very tight time window, anything you can do to eliminate variables like this will work in your favor.

[LOP]

The message to all of us is when working against a very tight time window, anything you can do to eliminate variables like this will work in your favor.

 

 

Absolutely! Murphy's Law. I, for one, will do my due diligence on future cruises to eliminate the possibility of this issue.

 

Appreciate the OP sharing this experience.

[Orator]

There was a recent thread detailing a "stop" placed by Customs and Immigration for a throrough baggage search. The Poster was told that this was a rountine search and her card was selected at random. Obviously, nothing could be done by the poster to prevent the delay. I guess the lesson is to always expect the unexpected and plan accordingly. However, you can reasonably expect to be delayed if you have any unpaid charges on your account and should take care of it ASAP.

[BKFlowerMound]

An account must be cleared prior to leaving the ship. The amount of the charge or what one might have paid during the cruise is not a factor. Some choose to pay in cash for purchases that might be billed after the closing of Seapass accounts. If a charge was placed on a Seapass card attempts should be made to contact the passenger. This is usually done by an announcement for "Mrs Smith" to contact Guest Relations. Perhaps your time of departure was too early for them to make an announcement without disturbing others. Sorry, for your frustration, but glad that you enjoyed your cruise.

 

I don't agree with this response for several reasons.

 

First, it's little more than citing Celebrity's rule and shifting blame to the passenger. The OP has suggested that the rule as applied to her is poor customer service. And I agree with the OP, it was poor customer service.

 

Second, whose fault was this? Was it the OP's or was it someone at Celebrity who did something -- cleared her account too early, lost her information, or didn't contact her promptly. While the inconvenience to the OP was small, the inconvenience to Celebrity if they had handled it differently is equally small. In this situation, it should have been Celebrity that was inconvienced not the OP.

 

Third, while you state that the amount of the charge or the amount that the OP paid during the cruise doesn't matter, what the OP is stating is that both of these things SHOULD matter. A suite passenger with $1500 of onboard charges makes Celebrity a lot more profit than someone in an inside cabin who brings a $20 bill and an extra shirt and changes neither.

 

Finally, I'm perhaps reading too much into the OP's narrative, but the way that Celebrity handled it seemed poor. A "senior staff member" escorted her to Guest Relations. Did the senior staff member escort her back to the front of the line where she was when they denied her embarkation? Doesn't seem so to me. Was there an apology offered for their mistake? Again, doesn't seem so to me.

 

I'm not suggesting that the OP deserves any kind of compensation for this, but Celebrity cannot get better unless they're told what rubs people the wrong way. Cruise lines within the same segment offer pretty much the same product at pretty much the same prices. What ends up mattering to people are the small things. Celebrity can't want to make a bad final impression on a suite passenger who had an overall excellent cruise. Somebody at Celebrity wants to hear this kind of complaint from a valued guest.

[garycarla]

Wow.

 

As I began to read this, I was about to "chastice" the OP and tell them they should use a Credit Card. Of course, it turns out they did.

 

Celebrity was in the wrong here. Plain and simple.

 

Stinks, but I am guessing this is a rare situation.

 

There is nothing within reason the OP could have done. Sure, there are things that could be done, but not reasonable - like going to the desk at 6am to double check. Unacceptable.

[miched]

.

 

 

There may have been a problem with the CC going thru and they needed to swipe it thru. We had to do that on the Siihouette because of a computer problem. I don't think they keep the whole CC number on file for your security. So if the card didn't go thru correctly the first time it needed to be swiped thru again.

[Jack Horner]

I agree from a customer service perspective this is really an issue. However, I can say that the closing of the credit card account and deletion of the credit card information is also for your protection. They don't keep this information for security purposes. If they don't keep it they don't have to worry about guarding it which is also probably why they don't keep information for contacting you afterward either.

 

You also need to realize that many people book everything through a travel agent and if they wipe your personal information for your protection they really have no way of contacting you following the cruise. Without complete knowledge of their systems I can't say for sure but I think they probably just don't keep the information readily available and the cost of recovering the $20 or $30 is probably more than the charge and the cost of securing that information is also very expensive.

 

Not the answer you wanted but I can see why it happened. Hopefully, this is an exception and not common.

 

What utter rubbish. When you leave any hotel any outstanding charges are charged to your registered credit card. Discrepancies that arise from any credit card charges are ironed out at a latter date. The same should hold true with Celebrity. To delay and embarrass a paying passenger is inexcusable.

.

[wwcruisers]

We also use a credit card to secure our on-board accounts, and we religiously check our account throughout the cruise -- especially the final bill. However, on two separate occasions, we've come home to a credit card bill with additional charges, for mini-bar items that we did not buy/use/consume. Both times, we were able to get the charges removed with a phone call. But, it is an irritation that they can (and do) add charges to your account after the final bill goes out. I'm really surprised that the OP didn't just return home to find the additional charge on his credit card, rather than being dragged out of line at disembarkation. :confused:

[jacketwatch]

I just got off Solstice on Sunday, and had a WONDERFUL time. However, there was a little issue right at debarkation that really kind of irritated me. I thought about it for a few days, and I have decided to share my experience. I preface this by saying I suspect this is in no way unique to Celebrity, however, I believe it is a very poor way of handling a situation, and it is probably industry wide.

 

I was doing self debarkation as early as possible, as I was interested in making an early flight. Now, to be clear, I wasn't trying to get off any earlier than allowed, and I understand there can always be circumstances (customs delay, etc...) that can hold things up. So, the information given out said early self-debarkation would begin at 7:30, pending customs clearance.

 

The Solstice staff was wonderful in managing this. As instructed, I arrived with my bag in tow, outside the Grand Epernay on deck 3 at about 7:15. There was a gentleman there inquiring about departure plans. Basically anyone with a flight before 9:00 was kept right in the hallway, anyone else (no flight or flight after 9:00) was brought around the corner to Grand Epernay.

 

As instructed, I stayed in the hallway outside Grand Epernay, and right at 7:30, they sent us down the flight of stairs, to the tender lobby. I was maybe the tenth person in line, and we were cruising right along. I handed my sea pass card to the gentleman, and then it happened. Instead of "Ding!".... I was greeted with "Buzz!!!". At this point, there was something wrong that would not allow me to debark, and I was moved to the side of the line. After another 30-40 people were sent through, finally one of the staff was on the phone with guest services. You can imagine my blood pressure rising and my anxiety level too, as I watch mobs of people heading out to the terminal and I see my window of opportunity slipping away. At the same time, I was made to feel like some sort of degenerate as they told me "You have to wait! Your account has a balance!" As though I was trying to give them the slip.

 

Finally after five minutes on the phone, they wanted me to go back upstairs (against the flow of traffic) to the guest relations desk. Now I was really bother by this because I KNEW there was no problem with my account. I had reviewed it on the tv in the morning, and all the charges looked good. I had tied the count to my American Express Card (no limit!), and I had signed the agreement that I would be responsible for all charges. And that said charges could be charged to the Amex. I was given the phone to talk with guest relations, and they told me everything had gone through except there was a problem with the last charge the evening before. Now, I was a bit irritated as my last charge was at about 8pm the night before, and I had no knowledge of any problem until I was debarking 11 1/2 hours later.

 

After much confusion, a senior staff member escorted me upstairs to guest relations. There, they took my card (the SAME Amex I had already authorized them to use), and he went into the back office. Three minutes later he reemerged and said "all set"! And I'm thinking "What? You dragged me all the way up here for what exactly? You've charged $1,500 to this card over the course of the week, and something that happened last night brought me to a halt"?

 

The staff member then sent me back downstairs to debark, finally getting off a few minutes before 8. Of course by the time I got to customs, I was behind several hundred people and waited another 20 minutes or so.

 

Now, I understand you can never EXPECT to get off early. I'm okay with that. What really rubbed me the wrong way was that in my best estimation there was NOTHING I could have done to avoid this snag (Does Celebrity really want all 2,500 passengers at the Pursers desk at 6:30 am 'Just to confirm' everything is okay?). But, I just can't believe this policy is the best way for a cruise line to handle the situation.

 

I paid a lot of money in advance for this trip. I spent a lot of money on board for this trip. If there was a problem with the evening charges, they couldn't have amounted to more than $20-30. Now I'm not saying they should let someone walk off who owes them thousands. But I had clearly demonstrated that I was and wanted to continue to pay my charges. And they have the signed agreement from me to honor all the charges.

 

Was making me feel like some miscreant, and then delaying my departure for almost a half hour really the best way to handle this situation?

 

Like I said in the beginning, I am not knocking Celebrity on this, but rather am having trouble understanding how this is an industry standard.

 

I can go to Las Vegas and spend thousands of dollars at a resort. And when I'm ready to go, I just walk out the door. If there is a problem with the charges, they will contact me. I've never once been detained from leaving as a result of a balance being due.

 

Why do we have to have a different standard on a cruise ship?:(

 

I'm happy all went well until debarkation and sorry to hear of this mess esp. b/c you had basically not used the card for 11.5 hrs. I would have been upset as well. It sounds like somehow your acct. was closed too soon. Again sorry to hear this happened.

[cherylroslyn]

I just got off Solstice on Sunday, and had a WONDERFUL time. However, there was a little issue right at debarkation that really kind of irritated me. I thought about it for a few days, and I have decided to share my experience. I preface this by saying I suspect this is in no way unique to Celebrity, however, I believe it is a very poor way of handling a situation, and it is probably industry wide.

 

I was doing self debarkation as early as possible, as I was interested in making an early flight. Now, to be clear, I wasn't trying to get off any earlier than allowed, and I understand there can always be circumstances (customs delay, etc...) that can hold things up. So, the information given out said early self-debarkation would begin at 7:30, pending customs clearance.

 

The Solstice staff was wonderful in managing this. As instructed, I arrived with my bag in tow, outside the Grand Epernay on deck 3 at about 7:15. There was a gentleman there inquiring about departure plans. Basically anyone with a flight before 9:00 was kept right in the hallway, anyone else (no flight or flight after 9:00) was brought around the corner to Grand Epernay.

 

As instructed, I stayed in the hallway outside Grand Epernay, and right at 7:30, they sent us down the flight of stairs, to the tender lobby. I was maybe the tenth person in line, and we were cruising right along. I handed my sea pass card to the gentleman, and then it happened. Instead of "Ding!".... I was greeted with "Buzz!!!". At this point, there was something wrong that would not allow me to debark, and I was moved to the side of the line. After another 30-40 people were sent through, finally one of the staff was on the phone with guest services. You can imagine my blood pressure rising and my anxiety level too, as I watch mobs of people heading out to the terminal and I see my window of opportunity slipping away. At the same time, I was made to feel like some sort of degenerate as they told me "You have to wait! Your account has a balance!" As though I was trying to give them the slip.

 

Finally after five minutes on the phone, they wanted me to go back upstairs (against the flow of traffic) to the guest relations desk. Now I was really bother by this because I KNEW there was no problem with my account. I had reviewed it on the tv in the morning, and all the charges looked good. I had tied the count to my American Express Card (no limit!), and I had signed the agreement that I would be responsible for all charges. And that said charges could be charged to the Amex. I was given the phone to talk with guest relations, and they told me everything had gone through except there was a problem with the last charge the evening before. Now, I was a bit irritated as my last charge was at about 8pm the night before, and I had no knowledge of any problem until I was debarking 11 1/2 hours later.

 

After much confusion, a senior staff member escorted me upstairs to guest relations. There, they took my card (the SAME Amex I had already authorized them to use), and he went into the back office. Three minutes later he reemerged and said "all set"! And I'm thinking "What? You dragged me all the way up here for what exactly? You've charged $1,500 to this card over the course of the week, and something that happened last night brought me to a halt"?

 

The staff member then sent me back downstairs to debark, finally getting off a few minutes before 8. Of course by the time I got to customs, I was behind several hundred people and waited another 20 minutes or so.

 

Now, I understand you can never EXPECT to get off early. I'm okay with that. What really rubbed me the wrong way was that in my best estimation there was NOTHING I could have done to avoid this snag (Does Celebrity really want all 2,500 passengers at the Pursers desk at 6:30 am 'Just to confirm' everything is okay?). But, I just can't believe this policy is the best way for a cruise line to handle the situation.

 

I paid a lot of money in advance for this trip. I spent a lot of money on board for this trip. If there was a problem with the evening charges, they couldn't have amounted to more than $20-30. Now I'm not saying they should let someone walk off who owes them thousands. But I had clearly demonstrated that I was and wanted to continue to pay my charges. And they have the signed agreement from me to honor all the charges.

 

Was making me feel like some miscreant, and then delaying my departure for almost a half hour really the best way to handle this situation?

 

Like I said in the beginning, I am not knocking Celebrity on this, but rather am having trouble understanding how this is an industry standard.

 

I can go to Las Vegas and spend thousands of dollars at a resort. And when I'm ready to go, I just walk out the door. If there is a problem with the charges, they will contact me. I've never once been detained from leaving as a result of a balance being due.

 

Why do we have to have a different standard on a cruise ship?:(

Can ask ask you a question..... Is your American Express Card NEW by any chance?

 

I have a relatively new American Express Gold card and recently they froze my account because my charges were higher than a normal month. I had always thought there was no limit especially with a Gold American Express, but apparently they monitor your average monthly usage and they do impose limits when they feel you are over some arbitrary amount for the month.

 

When they froze my acount my bill had been sent out two days before and the bill was not due for weeks....... and they unfroze it without too much haggling but it was still really upsetting......

[Karen@Steve]

What utter rubbish. When you leave any hotel any outstanding charges are charged to your registered credit card. Discrepancies that arise from any credit card charges are ironed out at a latter date. The same should hold true with Celebrity. To delay and embarrass a paying passenger is inexcusable.

.

 

Actually, a great deal depends on the way the computer system is configured. Much of that is driven by cost and adversity to risk. Many companies now decline to keep credit cards on file. In most hotel chains, for example they don't keep your credit card in the reservation system beyond your stay. If you belong to their rewards program, that's a different system with completely different security protocols and they keep your information, with your express permission (guarded by a password you set). Hotels also differ in their processes because not everyone checks in and out on the same day like they do on a cruise ship. Hotels probably batch delete that information nightly. Because everyone enters and leaves the ship at the same time they batch delete at a certain point. This explains why people that are doing B2B cruises have to close out the first cruise and reopen the account (with new card swipe) for the second one because they purge the data in batch mode at the end of the cruise.

 

Obviously, the OP did nothing wrong and someone at Celebrity messed up the procedure by not making sure all charges were taken care of, or the charge came in late or the computer glitched or the credit card company fouled up and the account was not cleared properly. Celebrity most likely could have handled it a little more tactfully and completely for the OP but it wouldn't make sense to completely rework their computer systems for these type of (hopefully) rare occurances. I make no excuses for Celebrity and would be just as put out as the OP if it happened to me, I just know the basic but not specific reason on why it could happen. Woulnd't make me any happier. Only a sincere apology would.

[Orator]

You can also have a problem if you are doing a B2B and don't realize, or are not told, that you need to have your credit card swiped when you begin the second part of the B2B. The first time I did a B2B I didn't know this and received a call from Guest Relations on day four of the second cruise telling me that there was a problem with my card. The problem was that it need to be swiped and activated. Hopefully,the experiences shared on cruise critic will help others to expect and minimize problems.

[lovestx]

So as a newbie to cruising, should I learn from this unfortunate situation that it's best to stop charging to your Seapass for a specified amount of time before debarking? We need to get off a ship in Rome on the early side to make a plane and would hate to see this happen.

[macruisefan]

WOW! Lots of great replies! Let me respond to a few. Thanks!

 

The only thing you could possibly have done was to go to Guest Services prior to getting in line to disembark just to make sure everything was good to go. I know you know that now. And, no, you should not have had to do that.

 

You're absolutely correct that this would have worked, but it seems unfortunate that I should have to seek them out to make sure everything they are supposed to do has been done.

 

I can say that the closing of the credit card account and deletion of the credit card information is also for your protection. They don't keep this information for security purposes. If they don't keep it they don't have to worry about guarding it which is also probably why they don't keep information for contacting you afterward either.

 

You also need to realize that many people book everything through a travel agent and if they wipe your personal information for your protection they really have no way of contacting you following the cruise. Without complete knowledge of their systems I can't say for sure but I think they probably just don't keep the information readily available and the cost of recovering the $20 or $30 is probably more than the charge and the cost of securing that information is also very expensive.

 

Sorry, but I respectfully disagree. Cruise lines shouldn't be any different in the respect than any land based resort. And, in fact, with everything they need to do on turnaround day, it actually seems counterintuitive to me that they would be so hung up on closing all these accounts to the penny. They have a whole off-ship operation that could simply take the proverbial ball and run with it. I've left a hotel with hundreds of dollars in pending charges and they never had a problem.

 

 

I'm not suggesting that the OP deserves any kind of compensation for this, but Celebrity cannot get better unless they're told what rubs people the wrong way. Cruise lines within the same segment offer pretty much the same product at pretty much the same prices. What ends up mattering to people are the small things. Celebrity can't want to make a bad final impression on a suite passenger who had an overall excellent cruise. Somebody at Celebrity wants to hear this kind of complaint from a valued guest.

 

Just to be clear, I am in NO WAY after any compensation. I simply think it stinks from a customer service standpoint. Also, BTW, I'm a "he" not a "she":D

 

 

.

 

 

There may have been a problem with the CC going thru and they needed to swipe it thru. We had to do that on the Siihouette because of a computer problem. I don't think they keep the whole CC number on file for your security. So if the card didn't go thru correctly the first time it needed to be swiped thru again.

 

If that were the case, they had seven days to discover it. In reality, they told me it was a problem with charges "on the last evening". Good thought though.

 

Can ask ask you a question..... Is your American Express Card NEW by any chance?

 

I have a relatively new American Express Gold card and recently they froze my account because my charges were higher than a normal month.

 

I've had the card since 1992. There was no hold or stop put on by Amex, if that was the case, I would have had to speak to Amex. Simply going to the pursers desk and having them re-swipe it wouldn't have made a difference.

 

As for excessive charges, I also use this card to run my business, and run between forty and fifty thousand a month through it (I'm a points junky!), so I don't think that was it.;)

[iombie]

That really sucks.. U should have been move to front to get off since u went back up there. That's not right.

 

Also may I ask who was cruise director and Activity manager? Lisa Richards as Cruise director and Zach as Activity Manager?

[jgnova]

I thought they don't charge your every charge to your credit card as they happen. They run a check on your card when you swipe it on boarding for some largish amount - then post the final bill when you disembark. This sounds like something happened when they tried to run the actual charge through and has nothing to do with any last minute charges that were made on your SeaPass account. It could also have had something to do with the recent hacking of a major credit card servicer - or something that triggered an alert for a card that was swiped earlier.

 

j

[ccletzgo]

Celebrity handled this poorly. The OP doesn't deserve all the lectures about credit cards and computers. Celebrity simply fell short here. I have had last min charges show up on my credit card AFTER my cruise from cova. They certainly had no problem charging the day of debarkation for morning coffee. And they didnt need to interrupt my debarkation to do it.

[gentlemancruiser]

Unpleasant to say the LEAST! We've never had very good luck with the Celebrity and their front office staff. We are Canadians and we use a US dollar Mastercard and EVERY time we've cruise with them, Celebrity converts our bill into Canadian funds. Even when we've told them at the persers desk we will NOT be paying in Canadian fund we get home and find out from Mastercard that Celebrity converted our bill (adding 2%) and submitted it Canadian dollars.

[fleckle]

....... A "senior staff member" escorted her to Guest Relations. Did the senior staff member escort her back to the front of the line where she was when they denied her embarkation?

It seems only reasonable that is the least they should have done under the circumstances, and furthermore should have escorted the OP beyond disembarkation to the head of the line for clearing customs.

 

Cruise ships often inform us that our accounts will be closed at a specified time on the night before disembarkation so if we wish to make any further purchases beyond that time, we will need to pay with cash.

 

There should never be any need to get in line to check your account at Guest Services if the final balance shown on your final statement is correct.

 

One of the reasons why people put their shipboard account on a credit card is to avoid any need to wait in line at Guest Services before disembarking.

 

The OP seems to have encountered a very unusual situation.

If the charge to the seapass account was accepted after the account had been closed, then the error was in the ship's accounting system so the cruise line should have eaten the cost.

[RedInLove]

If all of the OP's purchases were charged successfully except for one charge, then the cc info was on file for the rest of those charges to go through and should have still been on file for the last charge. If they are closing out accounts before the cruise ends, then they should put that information out to everyone because we all will continue to use our seapass cards for onboard purchases. So that's a big one on Celebrity's fault if they're closing out accounts early.