Silhouette Propulsion Issue & Itinerary Changes

[Mac4YYZ]

Apparently Silhouette will dry dock in early 2015 to address a propulsion problem that is affecting cruising speed. Our itinerary has been changed slightly affecting time spent in ports of call. Does anyone know if Celebrity is compensating guests for this?

[cle-guy]

Apparently Silhouette will dry dock in early 2015 to address a propulsion problem that is affecting cruising speed. Our itinerary has been changed slightly affecting time spent in ports of call. Does anyone know if Celebrity is compensating guests for this?

 

No.

 

Changes to itineraries happen all the time for many reasons.

 

If a port is missed entirely without a replacement, you will get your port fees refunded on board for that port.

 

Those on the canceled January 4 sailing have been contacted directly and offered alternative cruises or refunds and other arrangements. as appropriate.

[cruisestitch]

Don't expect any compensation for changes to ports of call, only for cruises cancelled outright.

[Tiggertastic]

Ours were changed by a few hours but didn't expect anything from celebrity, why should we, we still docked and saw the port

[Mac4YYZ]

My point is this. I bought and paid for the cruise based on a published itinerary. While some changes are inevitable due to weather etc., Celebrity has known for a long time that Silhouette was experiencing a propulsion problem. To me this is a little like booking a resort only to find out upon arriving that the pool is closed that week. While the changes are minimal, they are not delivering the product I purchased.

[hulamoon]

Can you cancel and find a cruise you like better?

[upwarduk]

Can you cancel and find a cruise you like better?

 

Prior to final payment, if you live in USA & Canada.

If you live in UK you loose your deposit.

[DebbieMacG]

My daughter is just off the Silhouette, prior to the cruise she was notified of a one hour change on two ports, no big deal at all. When it came to it they were informed the day before that although they docked one hour later than planned they also were leaving one hour later! :)

 

She's cruised on a solstice class ship before and said she noticed no difference in propulsion and the ship usually did 19 knots.

 

She had a great cruise :D

[hulamoon]

Prior to final payment, if you live in USA & Canada.

If you live in UK you loose your deposit.

 

I thought it was a question from Canada, so hopefully all choices are still available. If Debbie is right, it is going to be fine. But it's mechanical, maybe there is no guarantee the problem will not become worse closer to January.

[cle-guy]

My point is this. I bought and paid for the cruise based on a published itinerary. While some changes are inevitable due to weather etc., Celebrity has known for a long time that Silhouette was experiencing a propulsion problem. To me this is a little like booking a resort only to find out upon arriving that the pool is closed that week. While the changes are minimal, they are not delivering the product I purchased.

 

I notice you are relatively new to Cruise Critic, and perhaps are new to how cruise lines work and the nuances of their terms and conditions, and contracts of carriage and their guarantees of product and services (or lack thereof).

 

Don't forget that in addition to the cruise you booked and paid for you also booked and agreed to a set terms and conditions associated with it, that includes language that they can modify ports and times and delete ports for any reason including mechanical problems, and don't have to refund you for such changes, unless they do not pick you up in or return you to the ports that are part of that agreement, the stops in the middle have no consequence, unless you are a UK or some other foreign customer (who by the way, pay extra in their cruise fares for such protections granted by their governments).

 

Your best bet it to ensure you have cancel for any reason cruise insurance in place if you think the shortage in stops will be that detrimental to the cruise, or cancel ASAP if you are still within your cancellation period.

Edited August 7, 2014 by cle-guy

[mickey89]

Prior to final payment, if you live in USA & Canada.

If you live in UK you loose your deposit.

 

Why continue to book your cruises through the UK, just book via an American T/A and you too will get the same benefits.

[cle-guy]

She's cruised on a solstice class ship before and said she noticed no difference in propulsion and the ship usually did 19 knots.

 

She had a great cruise :D

 

This is the point. Ships are designed to go max speed 23-24 kts, and the issue Sillie is having only allows 19kts. TA's do only 18kts, so the speed is not a huge issue with most itineraries, unless they have extremely long travel distance between certain ports that mathematically mean some extra time is needed.

 

Ships will travel at the absolute lowest speed they can to save money on fuel while still getting to ports at assigned times. The beauty of computerized controls and GPS technology.

[Mac4YYZ]

I notice you are relatively new to Cruise Critic, and perhaps are new to how cruise lines work and the nuances of their terms and conditions, and contracts of carriage and their guarantees of product and services (or lack thereof).

 

I agree with you. And it's not that big of a deal. It's just annoying that the line has known for some time about this. A gesture of a $50 OBC would be nice.

[WestLakeGirl]

Recently equinox was supposed to leave Livorno at 6 pm. Then it changed to midnight. People didn't get the cruise they booked, so I suppose by your reasoning they should have had to pony up extra money?

[stickey_mouse]

Silly question, but will the loss in propulsion make for a rockier ride? I know absolutely nothing about how large vessels work, but I'm picturing in my mind only the engines on one side of the ship working, resulting in uneven sailing or vibrations.

[cle-guy]

Silly question, but will the loss in propulsion make for a rockier ride? I know absolutely nothing about how large vessels work, but I'm picturing in my mind only the engines on one side of the ship working, resulting in uneven sailing or vibrations.

 

It's not a loss of propulsion in this case, it's a reduced cruising speed.

[DebbieMacG]

Silly question, but will the loss in propulsion make for a rockier ride? I know absolutely nothing about how large vessels work, but I'm picturing in my mind only the engines on one side of the ship working, resulting in uneven sailing or vibrations.

 

No it's not that kind of issue, there's no difference at all from normal.

[DebbieMacG]

I notice you are relatively new to Cruise Critic, and perhaps are new to how cruise lines work and the nuances of their terms and conditions, and contracts of carriage and their guarantees of product and services (or lack thereof).

 

I agree with you. And it's not that big of a deal. It's just annoying that the line has known for some time about this. A gesture of a $50 OBC would be nice.

 

They have it booked into dry dock as soon as practicable. I don't think any gesture is needed apart from to the people who had their cruise cancelled. When cruising its best not to expect to dock or sail at a particular time or even visit a certain port. Things happen and a slight alteration in port times really is as you say no big deal. $50 OBC for everyone on every affected sailing is a LOT! :eek:

 

Edit: I notice this post hadn't quoted correctly, just for clarity I was quoting Mac4yyz's post :)

Edited August 7, 2014 by DebbieMacG

[elena7seas]

I notice you are relatively new to Cruise Critic, and perhaps are new to how cruise lines work and the nuances of their terms and conditions, and contracts of carriage and their guarantees of product and services (or lack thereof).

 

I agree with you. And it's not that big of a deal. It's just annoying that the line has known for some time about this. A gesture of a $50 OBC would be nice.

 

I understand that the total amount of lost port time on your cruise is 1 hour. Referring to your previous analogy, this is like having the resort pool closed for an hour. ;)

 

I hope you can take this minor itinerary change in stride and not let it negatively affect the anticipation of your upcoming cruise on this beautiful ship. Have a wonderful trip!!

[shartzog71]

Did I just read correctly that the Silhouette sailing on Jan 4th has been cancelled?

[cle-guy]

Did I just read correctly that the Silhouette sailing on Jan 4th has been cancelled?

 

um yep. And as I read your footer, apparently no one's let you know yet...

 

Call Celebrity. There isn't a cruise leaving the 4th but there are options on the 5th....

 

Here's the link to the announcement, a "sticky" at top of the Celebrity forums.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2071739

Edited August 8, 2014 by cle-guy

[shartzog71]

I'm so upset that my travel agent hasn't informed me of this!

[Kevnzworld]

We've been informed of one port change, and on late arrival ( Holy land cruise Oct 18 )

I hope they sail slowly back to Florida, I wouldn't mind an extra sea day on the transatlantic!

[cle-guy]

I'm so upset that my travel agent hasn't informed me of this!

 

I'd beat my TA up over this, the announcement was made almost a month ago.

 

Get some extra OBC out of them, part of the program is X is paying the TA an extra $50 fee for their time in rebooking, ask your TA to give it to you, you've lost out on getting better reaccommodation bookings as everyone around you scooped up the good cabins on alternate sailings! :D

 

This is a great reason why one should join their CC roll calls, you should do so even now to see how others have been reaccommodated and see what options they have come across for rebooking.

[Michidoeme]

We were on Silhouette last week. We were 1 hour later arriving both in Kotor and Santorini, of which we were informed a couple of weeks before our cruise via our TA. The night before arriving in Santorini, the captain announced that they would delay departure there as well by one hour. So total hours in Santorini was still same.

 

We wouldn t know why Celebrity should have offered a compensation for arriving 1 hour late. These things happen. We had cruises when we arrived earlier as well, should X have charged us a bit more then ? :rolleyes:

 

And by-the-way, for those interested : we had another fantastic cruise. Yes there were some cuts and changes, but overall product is still plenty good enough for us.

Edited August 8, 2014 by Michidoeme