Your Website, Celebrity. Your Website.

[purpletequila]

For crying out loud. I know it's awful. You know it's awful. EVERY rep I talk to knows it's awful. But this getting ridiculous.

 

I'm watching for price drops for a potential upgrade on a paid for cruise.

I go to the so called web site and it says $1049 for aqua class, 1549 for suite. I click on aqua, hit book with offer and when it brings me to the go big, better best page, the big option is now $1149. The suite says 1749.

 

It has been going on for 2 days.

 

How do they operate like this and why? You could get an ambitious high school kid trying to up his resume to MIT to fix this nonsense in no time.

 

I've read that this has happened to others here and from what I can remember, when they call, they are told that it is a glitch or that (ha ha) they must have JUST missed out on that lower price.

 

Is this worth the fight and the time on hold in your opinion? Any chance they will honor their front page price?

[surebeatssailing]

The website is truly an embarrassment. I was trying to look at shore excursions for a booked trip & went in under "My Celebrity" with my reservation # etc. A message kept popping up about incorrect information & try again. This went on for 2 days & then & called Celebrity & 2 very helpful people told me that there was a website problem with"My Celebrity" & told me how to go around it to find out about the shore excursions on my particular cruise.

Very frustrating!

[Straughn]

I posted my experience on another thread recently. I have been making incremental payments on my upcoming cruise. Every time, the following has happened when I make the payment online. The price of the cruise changes to whatever the current cost of my cabin is, the 1-2-3 Go benefits disappear, the additional OBC benefit for booking on a previous cruise disappears, and the amount of the payment is added to the price, not subtracted. So I call Celebrity and a very nice customer service person has to correct the total and restore the benefits. I wonder what would happen if I didn't immediately call. This happened not once, not twice, but three months in a row. My only solution is to now call and make the payment over the phone.

[newyorkray]

It is a shame but has been a very poor website for years. With all the competition it is enough to make a person try another cruise line. I have been a very loyal Celebrity cruiser since my honeymoon in 1997 but have recently looked at other lines

[bEwAbG]

I posted my experience on another thread recently. I have been making incremental payments on my upcoming cruise. Every time, the following has happened when I make the payment online. The price of the cruise changes to whatever the current cost of my cabin is, the 1-2-3 Go benefits disappear, the additional OBC benefit for booking on a previous cruise disappears, and the amount of the payment is added to the price, not subtracted. So I call Celebrity and a very nice customer service person has to correct the total and restore the benefits. I wonder what would happen if I didn't immediately call. This happened not once, not twice, but three months in a row. My only solution is to now call and make the payment over the phone.

 

Curious as to why you feel the need to do incremental payments at all? Couldn't you just pay the balance in full when it's due and save yourself the headache of calling?

[bEwAbG]

It is a shame but has been a very poor website for years. With all the competition it is enough to make a person try another cruise line. I have been a very loyal Celebrity cruiser since my honeymoon in 1997 but have recently looked at other lines

 

The problem is that their onboard experience is so good! I agree about the website but it's not enough yet to make me go elsewhere. I'm sure they've banked on that fact for many years. I know they could make more revenue by fixing simple things--I book excursions elsewhere because it's easier.

[perditax]

Curious as to why you feel the need to do incremental payments at all? Couldn't you just pay the balance in full when it's due and save yourself the headache of calling?

 

 

You're really blaming the crap website on someone's preferred payment technique?

 

I pay in increments because it's the best way to maximize your returns the way the Barclay arrival+ travel rewards card works. I can explain if you like.

 

Meanwhile, all I have to say about the site is: "Italian Stakehouse".

[searoses]

Don't think for one minute that the other main lines have better sites.....they are all broken . ..need serious updating....like pong for heaven's sake....

[TickledBlue]

You're really blaming the crap website on someone's preferred payment technique?

 

I pay in increments because it's the best way to maximize your returns the way the Barclay arrival+ travel rewards card works. I can explain if you like.

 

Meanwhile, all I have to say about the site is: "Italian Stakehouse".

 

Actually, the question asked was the first to pop up in my mind as well. I don't think bEwAbG was blaming the way someone was using the website, only wondering why someone would keep using it in a way that causes heartache.

 

I guess if there is some worthwhile benefit in enduring the pain, so be it.

[perditax]

Don't think for one minute that the other main lines have better sites.....they are all broken . ..need serious updating....like pong for heaven's sake....

 

 

Actually, Princess's seems fine. Haven't cruised with them, just noticed that their site functions.

[Muushka]

You're really blaming the crap website on someone's preferred payment technique?

 

I pay in increments because it's the best way to maximize your returns the way the Barclay arrival+ travel rewards card works. I can explain if you like.

 

Meanwhile, all I have to say about the site is: "Italian Stakehouse".

 

Too funny. bEwAbG Asked the question I wondered about too.

 

Thanks, perditax. Now I understand why!:)

[WestLakeGirl]

Or how about this(I hope the photo comes through)

[perditax]

Re: incremental payments ... some people also cannot afford to pay for the full cruise up front and/or elect not to use credit cards. You see this a lot on Disney, for example, where the intersection of very high prices/large families = many people pay as they go up to the PIF date. Not something worthy of critique, IMHO.

[RiotAct]

Or how about this(I hope the photo comes through)

 

"No longer exist" ... lol.

[purpletequila]

"No longer exist" ... lol.

 

 

Not sure bad idea since its ridiculous anyway. My reservation has showed paid in full, balance due, $1100 credit, reservation doesn't exist and now all of the price discrepancies. :eek:

[CathyCruises]

THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!

 

Trying to do online check in for two cruises. Start with the first one, fill out the first page of the first person, hit save and continue, and it takes me back to the main celebrity page. When I go back to online check-in, it says this reservation is currently being modified please try again in 20 minutes.

 

So I go to the second reservation, fill out the first page, hit save and continue, and the same thing happens and I'm back at the main page. When I am finally able to get back in to continue the online check-in, everything I've done previously is gone and I have to start again. I just think I won't do online check-in and deal with it at the pier because this is just too frustrating. I am sick of going around in circles with this. Why can it not be FIXED??????

[mafig]

THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!

 

this reservation is currently being modified please try again in 20 minutes.

 

 

I get this at least every other day. And me, like a fool, check back in 20 minutes thinking that maybe I got a big upgrade.:D

[AZ Ocean Lover]

Someone mentioned that because the service is so great once on board they will put up with a crappy website. We've booked our first cruise with Celebrity after 7 cruises with Princess and my husband is so frustrated with the website he actually asked if we could cancel the cruise all together and book one with Princess.

 

The only reason I'm posting this is because it does show that they can lose customers if the customer doesn't know what's waiting for them once they are on board.

[bEwAbG]

Someone mentioned that because the service is so great once on board they will put up with a crappy website. We've booked our first cruise with Celebrity after 7 cruises with Princess and my husband is so frustrated with the website he actually asked if we could cancel the cruise all together and book one with Princess.

 

The only reason I'm posting this is because it does show that they can lose customers if the customer doesn't know what's waiting for them once they are on board.

 

I had no hiccups on my first Celebrity cruise or I know I would have thought twice about going as I was already considering another option. And I have some friends who did cancel because they were fed up with the website, so it does happen. Luckily, I've actually not had issues when I've tried to do something with my reservation, but I generally have no changes to make and I tend to not book ship excursions.

[CathyCruises]

I had no hiccups on my first Celebrity cruise or I know I would have thought twice about going as I was already considering another option. And I have some friends who did cancel because they were fed up with the website, so it does happen. Luckily, I've actually not had issues when I've tried to do something with my reservation, but I generally have no changes to make and I tend to not book ship excursions.

 

Me either, but this was just online checkin!

[VideoTech]

For crying out loud. I know it's awful. You know it's awful. EVERY rep I talk to knows it's awful. But this getting ridiculous.

 

I'm watching for price drops for a potential upgrade on a paid for cruise.

I go to the so called web site and it says $1049 for aqua class, 1549 for suite. I click on aqua, hit book with offer and when it brings me to the go big, better best page, the big option is now $1149. The suite says 1749.

 

It has been going on for 2 days.

 

How do they operate like this and why? You could get an ambitious high school kid trying to up his resume to MIT to fix this nonsense in no time.

 

I've read that this has happened to others here and from what I can remember, when they call, they are told that it is a glitch or that (ha ha) they must have JUST missed out on that lower price.

 

Is this worth the fight and the time on hold in your opinion? Any chance they will honor their front page price?

 

It's probably not any consolation, but I can tell you for a fact that none of the other cruise lines have any better websites. NCL's, for one, is a joke.

 

It's hard for me to believe that in this day and age, multi-million dollar companies like Royal and Carnival can't be bothered to spend the few thousands it would take to have some decent web designers and managers take care of this.

[BEAV]

It's hard for me to believe that in this day and age, multi-million dollar companies like Royal and Carnival can't be bothered to spend the few thousands it would take to have some decent web designers and managers take care of this.

 

Agreed. For the past 20 years we've all been groomed into handling more and more day to day duties via the Internet, be they paying bills on line, making Dr appointments, buying each other's junk on eBay, to sending Aunt Gladys an electronic greeting card because we didn't get a real card snail mailed in time. So now we're used to handling transactions on line only to run into websites like Celebrity's where you can't book a shore excursion to save your life.

 

I have a wealthy, newly retired 50 year old friend that loved his Solstice cruise to the land Down Under last year. At his age, and just retired, he's got a lot of quality traveling years ahead of him (not to mention the means to do so). But his experience with the X website trying to book shore excursions totally turned him against any future cruises on the line. Sometimes seemingly small irritants result in surprising consequences. Too bad companies like X have blinders on....

[Bimmer09]

Actually, Princess's seems fine. Haven't cruised with them, just noticed that their site functions.

 

I use Princess website regularly-multiple times a week when I have a cruise coming up as I do now.

 

When I looked for a cruise for next January I used Oceania, Azamara, Royal C, Celebrity, HAL and Cunard websites to find an alternative to a Princess cruise. Princess website trumped them all in it's ease of use-the others all had those "say WHAT?" moments, were slower and involved jumping through hoops etc.

 

We ended up booking a Celebrity cruise because of the itinerary/ship and 123 Go.

 

As far as excursions go the Princess site includes 1 minute videos and a step by step breakdown of the event, so you know how long you'll be on a bus or how many yards walking will be involved. You reserve on line and it gets charged to your ship board account the day before the excursion. Brilliant!

 

So I give a thumbs UP for the Princess site and DOWN for X. There's no excuse for a clunky 19th Century website today.

 

I know the onboard experience on the Silhouette will be stellar....but still

 

My 2 cents

 

Norris

[perditax]

I use Princess website regularly-multiple times a week when I have a cruise coming up as I do now.

 

 

 

When I looked for a cruise for next January I used Oceania, Azamara, Royal C, Celebrity, HAL and Cunard websites to find an alternative to a Princess cruise. Princess website trumped them all in it's ease of use-the others all had those "say WHAT?" moments, were slower and involved jumping through hoops etc.

 

 

 

We ended up booking a Celebrity cruise because of the itinerary/ship and 123 Go.

 

 

 

As far as excursions go the Princess site includes 1 minute videos and a step by step breakdown of the event, so you know how long you'll be on a bus or how many yards walking will be involved. You reserve on line and it gets charged to your ship board account the day before the excursion. Brilliant!

 

 

 

So I give a thumbs UP for the Princess site and DOWN for X. There's no excuse for a clunky 19th Century website today.

 

 

 

I know the onboard experience on the Silhouette will be stellar....but still

 

 

 

My 2 cents

 

 

 

Norris

 

 

I mentioned it in another thread recently, but I was looking at Princess's site late one night on my iPad mini (of all things) and not only did the site function perfectly, their virtual stateroom tours functioned perfectly and smoothly. And this is an OLD iPad mini. I wondered if I was imagining things. :)

[ondeckatsea]

About two weeks ago I started trying to have the $400 cruise credits that are due after spending over $20,000 in the past few years on Celebrity cruises transferred to our booked and paid for cruise leaving on October 2 from Barcelona. We want to have it deposited on our on-board account so we can use it on board. We've been getting the same old story that the BOA Visa account has some kind of problem. Visa can't help us and the poor Captain's Club Concierge rep is getting nowhere fast. It is so foolish and so frustrating. The cruiseline is going to get every penny back. I can't understand how something like this can take so long.