Celebrity cancels entire cruise!!

[captain bob]

Just spend more time in Naples. We do.

[dmwnc1959]

This happened to me last year on Celebrity Millennium. I was booked on a B2B 5-nt Western Caribbean and 4-nt Key West. They chartered the latter to Turner Classic Movies and I was unceremoniously booted off, but kindly given the option to re-book at the protected price, given an OBC and an upgrade. I spent an enormous amount of time re-booking purchased flights and hotels as well as rescheduling my entire vacation.

[negc]

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?

 

It does happen and not just with Celebrity but most other lines as well. They can do it because it makes good business sense to do so when they can gain a greater profit through chartering the ship. Certainly it is a disappointment, but as far as any costs that affected passengers may have incurred (non-refundable hotel and air reservations, for example) your travel agent should be in touch with Celebrity to see that you are reimbursed for those costs and that you receive some compensation for your inconvenience. Has Celebrity offered you any acceptable alternatives? When we have been in similar situations, there has always been, not only a full refund of the cruisefare and associated costs, but often an offer of a discount on a future cruise, or the substitution of another cruise on or near your original sailing date.

[Grumpy100]

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.

 

Did they reimburse you for anything and did you have airfare already?

[Shooz]

We also lost out on Renaissance - it was 2001 right? Right after 9/11. We were supposed to go to Tahiti. I paid by credit card and got it all back but friends paid by check and I know went through tons of hoops and I'm not sure. Airfare to tahiti was included but I had paid from SEA to LAX. I think I got a change voucher but I felt it was a small price to pay considering what was going on in the world. We ended up last minute booking an alternative Princess cruise and had the most incredible aft balcony for dirt cheap because everyone was cancelling travel in the fall of 2001.

 

It does SUCK for the OP but it does happen to others too.

[Michidoeme]

Just wondering - if you booked a cruise and corresponding flights (which could be non refundable) specially for this cruise - and the cruiseline decides to cancel.

Don't they have an obligation to refund the cost of the airline tickets ?

[phoenix_dream]

We had this happen to us once. Fortunately we had not booked airfare, but we were limited in alternatives as it was a Spring Break cruise. They offered us a meager ($200 I believe) OBC on a re-book. Unfortunately we had few options and had to choose an itinerary we would not have preferred. What made me mad is that we had to book a cruise with a very narrow timeframe matching our original choice. Meaning, we would have preferred to book our Spring Break cruise on another line and use our Celebrity OBC on a future date (in this case, probably that fall). No dice. Had to be within a two week window of the original cruise which left us with few options. It would also have helped if they would have let us transfer our booking (and OBC) to RCCL but once again, no dice.

 

I agree they are contractually within their rights to do this. Having said that, I think it stinks. The cruiselines have so much flexibility with changing ports, cancelling cruises, etc., and the passenger is stuck. I know, I know, it is what it is. I am saying I don't like what it is! I know that sometimes there are things beyond their control that force changes in schedules (maintenance issues, sick passengers, weather), but beyond that, once a proposed purchase/contract has been agreed to by both sides I think the law should say that they have an obligation to uphold their end. If you cancel after final payment, heaven knows you are responsible to pay them. They have an obligation to follow through on services they sell. At worst, they should need to more openly and clearly indicate that these cancellations can occur instead of miring them in the small print that many people neither read nor understand if they do. There also should be a time limit under which they cannot cancel a cruise without offering some larger benefit to those impacted (save for circumstances beyond their control). Neither the cruiseline, nor the customer, should have the upper hand in these contracts. That does not seem to be the case right now

[jcrandle]

While unexpected problems could mandate an unplanned dry dock and cancellation or curtailment of a cruise, the best way to protect yourself against charters is to book cruises longer than 7 nights. Very few groups have both the working capital and fan base to charter a longer cruise. While it may have happened, I've never heard of a segment of a world cruise being cancelled due to a charter.

[cruise47]

Did they reimburse you for anything and did you have airfare already?

 

Did the cruise line refund the OP 100% of all charges on their account and what about hotel costs and airline tickets ?

[jackdiamond]

We had a cruise cancelled about four years ago; and, Celebrity refunded our fare, gave us another cruise, at no charge, and gave us a free dinner in the specialty restaurant, and some other goodies. Obviously, we did not take umbrage at the cancellation.

[TeaBag]

I like your attitude Cassandra, in trying to make the best of it. If you book a 7 day you will be so glad on day 5 that you don't have to pack up and move on!:p

Good idea, Brenda J to make a sea day out of a port day. You get discounts in the spa too while everyone is off enjoying the port.

[Big Chief]

Quote...

I agree they are contractually within their rights to do this. Having said that, I think it stinks. The cruiselines have so much flexibility with changing ports, cancelling cruises, etc., and the passenger is stuck. I know, I know, it is what it is. I am saying I don't like what it is! I know that sometimes there are things beyond their control that force changes in schedules (maintenance issues, sick passengers, weather), but beyond that, once a proposed purchase/contract has been agreed to by both sides I think the law should say that they have an obligation to uphold their end. If you cancel after final payment, heaven knows you are responsible to pay them. They have an obligation to follow through on services they sell. At worst, they should need to more openly and clearly indicate that these cancellations can occur instead of miring them in the small print that many people neither read nor understand if they do. There also should be a time limit under which they cannot cancel a cruise without offering some larger benefit to those impacted (save for circumstances beyond their control). Neither the cruiseline, nor the customer, should have the upper hand in these contracts....

 

Contracts are ruled as unenforceable or unconscionable by the courts all the time. Just because the "contract says so" doesn't mean it can be enforced. (ie the Florida issue of fuel surcharge refunds which "were in the contract", although a settlement and not a ruling, you don't settle if you can't lose). Maybe nobody has challenged the policy in court (too much trouble). It would be interesting to see the result of a litigation. Oh, by the way, how often do you see the "contract of Carriage" before your pay?

[Bridge Maven]

That happened to us on a Royal Caribbean cruise because we were booked on the first cruise after a dry dock and the dry dock time was extended. In this case, taking care of everything ASAP was very important because we wanted to be re-booked on the same cruise as our friends and there were only two junior suites left on that cruise. Fortunately, since we booked our cruise directly through Royal Caribbean they were able to accomplish that for us on the morning of the first day that they were re-booking cruises. Royal Caribbean, also, gave us a very large OBC because we had a suite, and reimbursed us for penalty fees to the airlines for changing our non refundable flights.

[kitty9]

Happened to me on a 14 day Seabourn Med cruise. Oprah chartered the entire ship three weeks before the cruise. Not happy at all.

 

Rosie O'Donnell has chartered NCL ships and she had them cancel everyone's bookings. You could rebook but only at a higher price and only through her girlfriend's agency.

[firemanbobswife]

Welcome to the club. We got bumped from our 12/16/12 Silhouette cruise that got chartered. I wasn't too happy that I had to find out on here that our cruise was no more and was never contacted by Celebrity (booked while onboard directly through them, no TA). I called them and the lady said "Oh, I see you booked last December. I'm surprised no one notified you yet." Grrrrrrr.

 

They gave us $100pp OBC, kept our same low rate and class of room, would have paid up to $200pp to change airfare (but we hadn't booked that yet) and switched us to the Reflection 12/15/12. I was very disappointed that my original cruise was cancelled, but I'm happy with the compensation and plan to have a great time.

 

I hope you get things resolved to your satisfaction as much as you can. I don't think it's right that they do that to people, but it happens. Try and make the most of it.

[ikelmay]

Happened to me on a 14 day Seabourn Med cruise. Oprah chartered the entire ship three weeks before the cruise. Not happy at all.

 

Rosie O'Donnell has chartered NCL ships and she had them cancel everyone's bookings. You could rebook but only at a higher price and only through her girlfriend's agency.

 

Wow, the power of Rosie O'Donnell........ don't you think it's more the case that O'Donnell's organisation chartered the sailing (as other companies and organisations frequently do) and therefore NCL didn't have any choice but to relinquish existing bookings? If an organisation charters a vessel, then they are free to do whatever they want when it comes to selling cabins!!

[Mapleleaf5]

We were also booked on this cruise. I noticed the booking was missing on the website last week but Celebrity or my agent could not confirm it until this Monday.

 

My agent said Carnival also just chartered a cruise also. This really sucks!

Now looking for new cruise, this one was planned over year ago. The selection of remaining cruise are picked over!

 

Joanne

[jacketwatch]

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.

 

Did they offer anything to compensate like future OBC, an upgade, etc?

 

I am sorry to hear of this. I too would be disappointed. :(

[phoenix_dream]

It does happen and not just with Celebrity but most other lines as well. They can do it because it makes good business sense to do so when they can gain a greater profit through chartering the ship. Certainly it is a disappointment, but as far as any costs that affected passengers may have incurred (non-refundable hotel and air reservations, for example) your travel agent should be in touch with Celebrity to see that you are reimbursed for those costs and that you receive some compensation for your inconvenience. Has Celebrity offered you any acceptable alternatives? When we have been in similar situations, there has always been, not only a full refund of the cruisefare and associated costs, but often an offer of a discount on a future cruise, or the substitution of another cruise on or near your original sailing date.

Does it make good business sense? I wonder. Most ships these days sail full or near full anyway. And if cancelled quite a bit out they really don't know how full or not the ship would have been. I have to think chartering a whole ship would get the organization a considerable discount (but maybe I am wrong on that point?). They also offer at the very least some kind of OBC to booked passengers getting bumped. So is it possible they might actually lose money on the deal? Doesn't make sense so must be something I am missing. Maybe for the publicity? The desire to display the brand to a new group of potential customers? Do chartered groups avail themselves more of liquor, gambling, etc.? I know in my heart of hearts it must benefit the cruiseline but I am not sure I am clear as to how.

[Blazerboy]

We had a crossing on QM2 cancelled a few years back. It was tbe second half of our honeymoon- we were sailing the other direction on QE2. They offered to rebook at another time, but, for some odd reason, didn't want to pay our expenses to stay in Engand for three weeks while we waited! They ended up giving us a credit towards the QE2 portion, which was great, as that was REALLY expensive (last crossing ever).

 

Dissapointed, certainly, but made the best of it. Also, we booked with a TA, but found out here first. I then called her to confirm. :rolleyes: Sometimes I think this board gives us more info than either agents or cruise line rez center staff!:D

 

Andrew

[cadburysmom]

Here's another point of view....I'd rather have my cruise cancelled than be stuck onboard with a large group. This happened last fall and I was miserable. I felt like a second class citizen.

 

I have always had late dining and had it confirmed since booking the cruise 6 months out and it was not until embarkation day that I was informed I'd been moved to early dining. I thought they'd at least offer me "anytime" dining but no, they claimed it had to have been confirmed before boarding, along with prepaid gratuities, which I was more than willing to pay.

 

Disliking early dining, I spent every night in the specialty restaurant in order to eat at a later time, meaning paying the extra fee. Luckily, this restaurant was offering a 3-night package deal, but I still thought it was unfair to take away my late dining, especially because they could have easily informed me of this before the cruise. And to add salt to the wound, one night the group executives even took over the specialty restaurant.

 

The other problem was most venues were reserved for meeting attendees day and night, and not just one venue, but several at the same time, meaning no trivia, no lounge shows, and for those of us who'd purchased the premium drink package, it took a while to actually find a bar open to us before getting a drink.

 

And because they were reserved as a private function, you couldn't even walk through these venues to get to another part of the ship and because you weren't aware of which venues this affected, you'd end up walking up and down stairs until you found a pathway from one end of the ship to another. Luckily, I'm not wheelchair bound but can see how this would affect those people the most. For this reason, I wish they would've at least given those of us not in the group a meeting plan so we could have planned around them.

 

During the cruise, the concierge did nothing as far as compensation but after the cruise, Celebrity customer service gave me an obc towards another cruise. Luckily, it was only a 4 or 5 nighter but I still would rather have had that cruise cancelled, or at least given the option to go on a different date.

[Shooraq]

We had a Hawaiian cruise booked on NCL's Pride of America for 1/19/13. Back in January of this year, we were notified by our TA that the cruise was being cancelled for drydock. We felt that it was sufficient notice, even though that was the perfect week for us timing wise. Alas, we were given options to choose other weeks with a certain range with price-protection and additional OBC. We selected another week since we didn't book airfare yet, but eventually cancelled for home improvement costs.

 

You kinda have to go with the flow with these things, whether you like them or not. The chance is very small, but likely.

[CABINET]

This is all quite disconcerting. I do not fly and in 2014 we are hoping to celebrate our silver wedding by doing two QM2 transatlantics with a few weeks spent in the US in between the two (we would probably be away from home for nearly two months in total).

 

The thought that one of the transatlantics could be cancelled is frankly terrifying. Last time we did this in 2010 the organisation and planning took absolutely ages involving multiple hotel bookings, four different Amtrak journeys and two properties(one on each side of the US) booked for a week each. It was a wonderful trip (and was intended to be "once in a lifetime") and I am so glad I had no idea that ships could be chartered and passengers just thrown to the wind :eek::eek::eek:.

[Karynanne]

This is all quite disconcerting. I do not fly and in 2014 we are hoping to celebrate our silver wedding by doing two QM2 transatlantics with a few weeks spent in the US in between the two (we would probably be away from home for nearly two months in total).

 

The thought that one of the transatlantics could be cancelled is frankly terrifying. Last time we did this in 2010 the organisation and planning took absolutely ages involving multiple hotel bookings, four different Amtrak journeys and two properties(one on each side of the US) booked for a week each. It was a wonderful trip (and was intended to be "once in a lifetime") and I am so glad I had no idea that ships could be chartered and passengers just thrown to the wind :eek::eek::eek:.

 

My Mom always said, "It's not time to borrow trouble". In other words, try not to get upset about a situation that hasn't occured for you. Yes, it is a "possibility", but not a "probability".

 

Plan your holiday and enjoy yourself.

[CABINET]

My Mom always said, "It's not time to borrow trouble". In other words, try not to get upset about a situation that hasn't occured for you. Yes, it is a "possibility", but not a "probability".

 

Plan your holiday and enjoy yourself.

 

 

That's a brilliant expression and one I would do well to use quite often. Sadly I am a glass half empty type of girl which really is not the way to be. I shall try and remember that phrase next time I am being a worry wart.