Did you know Celebrity can "bump" you from your cabin?

[fshagan]

We had a HAL cruise cancelled on us a couple of years ago, and it's an issue raised on many of the CC boards. It's certainly not exclusive to Celebrity.

 

I think having a cruise cancelled months in advance is a lot different than being bumped from a cruise anytime after final payment. It's irritating and inconvenient to have a planned vacation 18 months from now pulled out from under you, but if you are refunded what you paid there's plenty of time to choose something else. Being bumped two weeks from the cruise is an entirely different thing! Anytime after you have gotten your vacation days approved at work, bought air tickets, booked hotels, etc. is a huge hassle.

 

NCL had several cruises cancelled when new management changed how they had their ships deployed. I believe they even had some very short notice changes, but if I recall did have alternatives available at the time they notified the cruisers. Some still had to fight to get an adequate replacement cruise or additional compensation because they felt the itinerary or number of days was not adequate. They could have handled it better.

 

But X definitely handled this badly, and people aren't happy.

[Fouremco]

I think having a cruise cancelled months in advance is a lot different than being bumped from a cruise anytime after final payment. It's irritating and inconvenient to have a planned vacation 18 months from now pulled out from under you, but if you are refunded what you paid there's plenty of time to choose something else. Being bumped two weeks from the cruise is an entirely different thing! Anytime after you have gotten your vacation days approved at work, bought air tickets, booked hotels, etc. is a huge hassle.

 

NCL had several cruises cancelled when new management changed how they had their ships deployed. I believe they even had some very short notice changes, but if I recall did have alternatives available at the time they notified the cruisers. Some still had to fight to get an adequate replacement cruise or additional compensation because they felt the itinerary or number of days was not adequate. They could have handled it better.

 

But X definitely handled this badly, and people aren't happy.

The post to which I was responding erroneously suggested that Celebrity was the only line to cancel whole cruises; it didn't mention the issue of timing. Of course there's a difference between a last minute cancellation and one months or years ahead of time, and no one, least of all me, is disputing the fact that Celebrity could and should have handled this better.

[Presto2]

We had a HAL cruise cancelled on us a couple of years ago, and it's an issue raised on many of the CC boards. It's certainly not exclusive to Celebrity.

 

Hi, I suppose we have only sailed on RCI, Celebrity and more recently mainly P&O. Haven't heard of any P&O cruises being cancelled or the issue being raised at all - though people moan a lot if they miss a port ;-) We are familiar with Celebrity chartering ships though and remember that the cruise before ours when Silhouette was new was suddenly chartered and a lot of people disappointed. I suppose it may be a cultural thing and more frequent on US lines? I may be wrong though and apologies if this is the case.:)

[hurwitz5]

We had booked 3 cabins on a Princess cruise about 10 years ago. We were taking our adult children with us on the cruise. About 2 weeks prior to the cruise, Princess called me and asked if we would change to another cruise in a few weeks due to overbooking the ship. The deal was very good and we would have jumped at the change, but we had 3 cabins and the work schedules of of our children to consider, so we turned Princess down. Princess's offer was very tempting - a big cabin upgrade (from an inside to a minisuite) and they were willing to pay the airline change fees.

[Fouremco]

Hi, I suppose we have only sailed on RCI, Celebrity and more recently mainly P&O. Haven't heard of any P&O cruises being cancelled or the issue being raised at all - though people moan a lot if they miss a port ;-) We are familiar with Celebrity chartering ships though and remember that the cruise before ours when Silhouette was new was suddenly chartered and a lot of people disappointed. I suppose it may be a cultural thing and more frequent on US lines? I may be wrong though and apologies if this is the case.:)

No worries, I learn something new on a regular basis reading CC. As you mention RCI, here's a thread from a few days ago about a cruise cancellation on the Liberty of the Seas: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2479907&highlight=cancelled+cruise. I haven't spend much time on the P&O board and haven't seen similar threads there, and I think there may well be some merit to your comment on this being more of a US practise.

[travelberlin]

An apology from Celebrity does not seem enough. I think what we would like to hear is that this situation would not happen again. That it was a very special reason that gave place to the "unusual" situation.

[hcat]

We may never know but hope they do right by those whose plans were upended and fix whateverbit was tgat went wrong..

 

Our Royal BOA card was "potentially compromised" recently and now replaced AGAIN..They never say who the vendor is so customers can't be proactive.,one prior time it was rumored to be an insider. Glad they acted quickly but, now we have the pleasure of changing all pre paid vendor like toll passes, rental car , hotel and cruise res and have no clue where the breach was,

[journeymore]

This has been an informative read. My money is on the infamous IT department(s) for Celebrity/Royal Caribbean cruise lines.

[Flamencacha]

Read most of the thread, nope didn't know that could happen. Unacceptable.

 

 

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[4cats4me]

Very disconcerting, to say the least.

 

 

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[Niagarawine]

Just checked Royal threads and it seems that cabins are being bumped there too, up selling seems to be the way they are heading. if so I would probably feel much safer booking on Princess . I guess we need a passenger bill,of rights, just my two cents.

[midwestchick]

This has been an informative read. My money is on the infamous IT department(s) for Celebrity/Royal Caribbean cruise lines.

 

 

Hmmmmm! 🤔 🤔 Food for thought! 😱 This concerns me because Azamara is also owned by RCCL. I'm going to send this thread to my TA. I want to give her a heads up and I have a June cruise coming up on X that is paid in full with flights, hotels, transfers and excursions booked and paid for. Social media can be a very powerful tool.

[richstowe]

I suspect it's happening to significantly more than the 3 cases we know about, since the majority of passengers on most cruises don't use Cruise Critic.

Exactly . Even on repositioning cruises a small minority of cruisers are CC members .

 

Kitcito: This whole thing is INEXCUSABLE. So sorry you are going through all of this. SHAME on you Celebrity.

I believe that RCL's and its brands are more arrogant then CCL and its brands .

There seems to be a "you're lucky to sail with us " attitude

[misprint]

I am booked on silhouette august 2018 sailing from Southampton with a friend and her daughters. We were limited to school holidays, I have sailed Celebrity before but the others P&O only. I reassured them that they would enjoy Celebrity but now I am really worried. This trip is to celebrate 2 big birthdays and I will be devastated if it goes wrong having persuaded them to try another line. Unfortunately in U.K. We are unable to cancel without losing our deposit. Do members think that cruises from U.K. Are less likely to have bumping problems. I would like to write to Celebrity asking for reassurance but having read this thread I feel it might not be worth the paper it is written on.

[upwarduk]

misprint,

All I can say is that Repositioning cruises are VERY popular, mainly due to cost. Many people use them as an alternative to flying.

I hope you and your friends enjoy Silhouette. She is sailing her first season out of UK in 2018.

[scubacruiserx2]

Please everybody read this article and click on the blue CC link at the bottom for the full article .

I read an interesting article on CC that pertains to the people being bumped by Celebrity from their TA on the Eclipse.

Here's part of it :

It's written in the passage contract all cruisers agree to when they book a cruise; for example, Norwegian Cruise Lines' contract says, "In the event of strikes, lockouts, stoppages of labor, riots, weather conditions, mechanical difficulties or any reason whatsoever [italics added], NCL has the right to cancel, advance, postpone or substitute any scheduled sailing or itinerary without prior notice."

 

 

You can read the full article , " Could you be bumped from your next cruise ? " , here below

http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=340

[upwarduk]

An outdated article, 2011 quoted.

Our experience on Century was September 2014. We should have sailed April 2015, but were informed 6 months before that she had been redeployed to the Asian market instead of European! We were given $200 OBC.

 

 

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[F355c5]

Remember my post on this thread.

Bumped 5 days before cruise to Europe with sea pass printed and lots of prepaid plans ( hotels, train tickets ,ect) $$$ lost. New plans had to be made to rejoin my original itinerary. Ferry ,hotel added ,new train tickets.

And after all that the next day celebrity website shows cabins open in the category I had booked. No return calls from celebrity's " emergency travel team. Tried to reach them 3 times!!!!!

When I get back from this trip a new thread will be put up, an up date one.

 

 

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[Iamthesea]

:confused: When did this happen? What ship and date?

[sippican]

I have been following this thread for awhile and have a few things to add.

 

To those concerned about your future plans, before pulling a "Henny Penny" consider the volume of cruisers on this board, how many times have you heard of this happening? I've been around for a while and this is maybe the second; I do realize that posters only represent a fraction of total cruisers but they are certainly a vocal faction. But something just doesn't seem right here. Does X have some explaining to do? Who knows as we'll never get the whole story of what transpired.

 

Mistakes are made by travel agencies; agents failing to finalize reservations, final payments not forwarded to the cruise line, wrong cabin booked ... (the list is endless). It happens rarely if you consider the high volume, and cutomers may never even be aware until it reaches the level of a bump. If this concerns you, book directly to keep personal control of your reservation - which I do not think is worth forfeiting the perks and support you may receive from a good agency. Even then, there are no guarantees. The cruiselines make mistakes too, just imagine what happens during their IT glitches! As someone pointed out, the possibility of loosing your cruise or cabin is something that is outlined in your cruise contract. All cruiselines over sell, as do airlines, hotels, and car rental companies.

 

Thinking that Princess never has these issues is putting your blinders on. Our recent Panama cruise was still oversold as of the day before sailing; we were offered a Move Over deal that was very good, but we were unable to accept. We were told we could still be bumped three days before sailing. And consider a few years back when that company, CCL, had more disrupted cruises due to mechanical issues than I ever thought possible.

 

And finally - Insurance, INSURANCE, INSURANCE!

(Purchased from a private party, not the cruise line)

Although it can never make up for the disappointment, disruption and chaos caused by a glitch in travel plans, it sure offers a bit of peace of mind and one less worry about the money lost.

 

Happy cruising and may you never be bumped!

[mringenoldus]

F355c5

I'm sorry that of the three bumped bookings you weren't able to get reassigned to the ship.

 

You haven't mentioned a TA assisting you and if you booked directly with Celebrity, I would have been glad to intervene in your behalf. The Celebrity representatives that answer the agent phone lines are pretty amazing.

I hope you have an outstanding vacation which makes up for the complications!

Maureen

 

 

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[villauk]

Sippican,

 

I think you've missed the main point of the thread: most pax are aware other cruise companies overbook, pax understand mistakes happen, but it's the NATURE in the way the issue has been handled that has concerned many. And to reiterate, 'Cancel for ANY REASON' insurance is not available worldwide. As you say, none of us really know how often this occurs as CC is only the views of a very small percentage of cruisers. Additionally, X apologised (if a little late) - you don't do that unless you've done something wrong.

[sippican]

Sippican,

 

I think you've missed the main point of the thread: most pax are aware other cruise companies overbook, pax understand mistakes happen, but it's the NATURE in the way the issue has been handled that has concerned many. And to reiterate, 'Cancel for ANY REASON' insurance is not available worldwide. As you say, none of us really know how often this occurs as CC is only the views of a very small percentage of cruisers. Additionally, X apologised (if a little late) - you don't do that unless you've done something wrong.

 

I appreciate your clarification, but I think you missed MY point.

Of course X apologized - I can too, "I'm so sorry this happened to you....." . It's damage control and good business sense. It does not imply guilt unless you are of the mind of "guilty untli proven innocent".

I think a horrible thing happened to the OP, and others impacted by the bumps. Do you know what might have happened behind the scenes as far as a possible travel agent, or agency screw up? Do you think X would point the finger if so? I think not.

All I'm saying is that there is a lot of panic here without knowing the whole story, only one side.

 

FWIW, cancel for any reason is very different than when the provider cancels.

[disfan13]

i have been following this thread for awhile and have a few things to add.

 

And finally - insurance, insurance, insurance!

(purchased from a private party, not the cruise line)

although it can never make up for the disappointment, disruption and chaos caused by a glitch in travel plans, it sure offers a bit of peace of mind and one less worry about the money lost.

 

happy cruising and may you never be bumped!

amen!

[villauk]

I appreciate your clarification, but I think you missed MY point.

Of course X apologized - I can too, "I'm so sorry this happened to you....." . It's damage control and good business sense. It does not imply guilt unless you are of the mind of "guilty untli proven innocent".

I think a horrible thing happened to the OP, and others impacted by the bumps. Do you know what might have happened behind the scenes as far as a possible travel agent, or agency screw up? Do you think X would point the finger if so? I think not.

All I'm saying is that there is a lot of panic here without knowing the whole story, only one side.

 

FWIW, cancel for any reason is very different than when the provider cancels.

 

 

It's not the point of the mistake, it was how it was handled after the mistake/s were made. I believe one of the pax stated they had booked direct - no TA involved.