Celebrity website BEYOND INSANITY

[hiccups]

I just started researching cruises for next year, and since we've done RCI and are booked on Azamara this year, decided to look at X. I really hate their website and how it's displaying various cruises. Since we've never been on X I wanted to find out about the various staterooms, restaurants, extra fees/packages, and it's next to impossible. I went to the search engine and put in "Blu" and got nothing.

[hcat]

I think I may have figured out why Celebrity can't allocate appropriate funding to fixing their website:

 

www.skift.com/2017/06/12/royal-caribbean-had-the-most-highly-compensated-cruise-ceo-of-2016

 

 

 

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Interesting....LLP salary seem not very high....compared to Royal C....guess Celeb does not rate

[Cruise Junky]

Interesting....LLP salary seem not very high....compared to Royal C....guess Celeb does not rate

 

She seems totally inline with the size of the fleet. Binder's is crazy high.

[swmichigan cruiser]

I was pretty unhappy with the Celebrity minefield they call web site over the weekend. Not being able to book one of the excursions during the 20% off 72 hour sale and if you tried to call in the estimated 15 minute hold times and the famous being blocked out for 20 minutes for my protection. So now that I have calmed down I see the positives. I will from now on save money and save my aggravation from trying to book excursions with Celebrity. If their problems aren't corrected maybe a few folks will decide to not cruise at all on Celebrity or as much with Celebrity so the ones that still cruise on Celebrity will benefit from fewer people on board so easier to embark and disembark the ship. And maybe some really good deals to try to fill their ships.

[Luvcrusn]

I was pretty unhappy with the Celebrity minefield they call web site over the weekend. Not being able to book one of the excursions during the 20% off 72 hour sale and if you tried to call in the estimated 15 minute hold times and the famous being blocked out for 20 minutes for my protection. So now that I have calmed down I see the positives. I will from now on save money and save my aggravation from trying to book excursions with Celebrity. If their problems aren't corrected maybe a few folks will decide to not cruise at all on Celebrity or as much with Celebrity so the ones that still cruise on Celebrity will benefit from fewer people on board so easier to embark and disembark the ship. And maybe some really good deals to try to fill their ships.

 

I shared your frustration this past weekend, but persisted. After I waited on line at least 4 different times for at least 15 minutes each I finally got a wonderful Captains Club rep who instituted a brilliant workaround the disaster they call a website and eliminated the need to use it at all. The process took nearly a day, but accomplished booking 2 shore excursions for a grand total savings of $6. What a waste of time! It seems the words UP TO were before the words 20% SAVINGS. It seems that not all excursions were on sale, and the ones in the ports we booked (as well as the rest of the ports on our itinerary) were 5% off. The only reason I wanted to take advantage of it was that we have a lot of OBC to use. Combine that with beverage package, and prepaid gratuities it seemed like a good idea at the time. We'll just shop and let X give us stuff on board. The next cruise we have booked, I won't bother to even try. It's not worth the hassle and my time is worth more!

[jules815]

I just got off the phone with X. I had logged on to make a payment, and noticed the balance they're showing doesn't match the balance on the email I received after my last payment. That payment was made on the 6/11. The difference between my records and the X website is over $1500. :o The rep I spoke with today said "we've been having some issues with our website."

[Luvcrusn]

I just got off the phone with X. I had logged on to make a payment, and noticed the balance they're showing doesn't match the balance on the email I received after my last payment. That payment was made on the 6/11. The difference between my records and the X website is over $1500. :o The rep I spoke with today said "we've been having some issues with our website."

When they tell me the site has"issues" or "glitches " I tell them the old site had issues and glitches. The new site is totally non-functional and should be withdrawn, and not unleashed on their passengers!

 

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[Stem to Stern]

Here's a link to the old site. I just did a mock booking using the link to the old site all the way to book now and did see available cabins and the C3 categories. Clear your cookies and cache before using the link. I used IE, but it should also work in other browsers. I use this link to regularly check pricing on my booked cruises for price drops and it's a much more streamlined process than the problem ridden new site. Here's the link: http://www.celebritycruises.com/?celebrityWR=oldsite

 

 

 

Thank you for posting the link to the old website. I had no idea there was a new one until tonight when I tried to hit the BOOK NOW button and nothing happened. That can't be good for business. Would never book through the Celebrity website anyway. Why is it that an A2 go better can be 500pp+ more on X website than on the website from the big TA with all the splashy graphics. The TA's booking engine is way more intuitive to boot. Emailed my regular local TA, so she can sort out the madness. She gives better OBC anyway.

 

 

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[warmwinds]

You can't believe what the new website did to me!

 

We're leaving in a couple of weeks, so did OLCI a week or so ago. PRINTED OUT my Xpress passes, which I understand you can't print out until they are complete. Thought we were all set.

 

Wrong.

 

I kept getting e-mails that I had to "complete on-line check-in" - I had trouble figuring out the website, it looked like it wanted me to start the process all over again, so I called the Captain's Club line.

 

Turns out our passport numbers had been deleted! After I had printed out the Xpress passes! He had no idea why, and put them back in again.

 

Unbelievable.

[Luvcrusn]

You can't believe what the new website did to me!

 

We're leaving in a couple of weeks, so did OLCI a week or so ago. PRINTED OUT my Xpress passes, which I understand you can't print out until they are complete. Thought we were all set.

 

Wrong.

 

I kept getting e-mails that I had to "complete on-line check-in" - I had trouble figuring out the website, it looked like it wanted me to start the process all over again, so I called the Captain's Club line.

 

Turns out our passport numbers had been deleted! After I had printed out the Xpress passes! He had no idea why, and put them back in again.

 

Unbelievable.

 

Unfortunately, to anyone who's used the new site, its TOTALLY believable!

[emileg]

Since I last checked three days ago, I notice the new website is back. And yes, I have been able to now select a specific ship. What bothers me is why Celebrity would like to show you an itinerary horizontally with only five dates visible at a time. You have to click a right arrow to get more dates. Somehow, someone thought this would be much more convenient for potential passengers than a vertical list where you could see all the dates and ports at once. It never occurred to anyone that you might want to print out the itinerary to show to others. What were they thinking? :rolleyes:

[jcruise216]

I booked shore excursions a couple weeks back and got a confirmation email and everything. Now the X website shows I have no excursions booked- has this happened to anyone else? Not sure if it's just a glitch or I need to rebook

[sr4mjc]

I booked shore excursions a couple weeks back and got a confirmation email and everything. Now the X website shows I have no excursions booked- has this happened to anyone else? Not sure if it's just a glitch or I need to rebook

 

I just noticed the same thing, as well as all my dining reservations are gone and beverage package upgrade. I don't want to rebook because I don't want to pay for the excursion twice. Not that I could anyway, no excursion is bookable for me, nor was they during the 'sale.' And I don't see my beverage package. This is for Dec 2 Equinox. My March 2018 sailing looks ok.

 

Update: Just got off the phone with Celebrity, they said they see everything still booked on their end. I went ahead and booked an excursion over the phone, even though it was a whole $4 cheaper last weekend ;)

Edited June 17, 2017 by sr4mjc
Update

[GottaKnowWhen]

I booked shore excursions a couple weeks back and got a confirmation email and everything. Now the X website shows I have no excursions booked- has this happened to anyone else? Not sure if it's just a glitch or I need to rebook

OK, you made me look.

For our August cruise I have a shore excursion and a bev pkg upgrade purchased so far, partially with OBC, partially with credit card. The Dashboard accurately shows my remaining $50 OBC. Interestingly, on one or two screens where it shows "amount due", the displayed amount is -$50, i.e. minus $50. Which reflects accurately that they "owe me money" because of the $50 refundable OBC I have not yet spent.

When I go to Manage my Reservation, under Cruise planner, under excursions, the sliding indicator across the upper middle of the screen shows each day and says I have no excursions on any of those days. Wrong. But if I scroll down through the display of all available excursions for that cruise, my booked excursion has a checkmark against it along with a note that that excursion has already been booked on such-and-such a date at such-and-such a time.

Similar story with the beverage package. When I go into that portion of the Planner, it shows that (1) upgrade is available (for my wife) and that I have already purchased one (for me).

I will not claim that this is the cleanest most convenient way of showing us what we have reserved, how much we've paid, what else we are getting. But the info does seem to be there. YMMV. Oh, and the excursion does show up in the Calendar.

 

Stan

Edited June 17, 2017 by GottaKnowWhen
added note about calendar view

[sr4mjc]

Mine doesn't even show that. :confused:

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Since I last checked three days ago, I notice the new website is back. And yes, I have been able to now select a specific ship. What bothers me is why Celebrity would like to show you an itinerary horizontally with only five dates visible at a time. You have to click a right arrow to get more dates. Somehow, someone thought this would be much more convenient for potential passengers than a vertical list where you could see all the dates and ports at once. It never occurred to anyone that you might want to print out the itinerary to show to others. What were they thinking? :rolleyes:

 

I'm not sure they're thinking at Celebrity. I noticed the same thing. It's exceedingly annoying. I now have to create my own itinerary. In the good old days, your itinerary appeared as a one-page document which you could print out. I guess the new definition of modern luxury is Celebrity will charge you more to cruise but you get to do more of the work. That's not exactly my definition of luxury.

[dutchclogs]

^ I'm glad I'm not the only one that finds this really maddening! I have had to resort to getting the itinerary from another website which shall not be named ... Not only is the horizontal layout unhandy, it does not even give dates and times grrr....

[kimlovesfl]

The website isn't as user friendly as before, but the only issue I've had so far is paying for my flights yesterday; it took 3 tries before the card went through without getting an error message. I honestly haven't done much else except look at my itinerary, and try to figure out exactly what a deluxe veranda cabin is.

[mnocket]

I just noticed the same thing, as well as all my dining reservations are gone and beverage package upgrade. I don't want to rebook because I don't want to pay for the excursion twice. Not that I could anyway, no excursion is bookable for me, nor was they during the 'sale.' And I don't see my beverage package. This is for Dec 2 Equinox. My March 2018 sailing looks ok.

 

Update: Just got off the phone with Celebrity, they said they see everything still booked on their end. I went ahead and booked an excursion over the phone, even though it was a whole $4 cheaper last weekend ;)

 

From a prior conversation with Captain's Club I learned that the website uses a separate database from Captain's Club. The two databases are supposed to sync with each other on a regular schedule, however this has proven problematic. I was really hoping that with the new website Celebrity would correct these underlying architectural issues. No such luck. It seems they simply developed a new front end website sitting on top of the old data architecture. I don't think Celebrity really understands the fundamental problem people had with the old website..... it wasn't so much the user interface - it was the fact that it basically didn't work. It seems Celebrity choose to create a new user interface and ignore the underlying problems that were causing so many people problems.

[hcat]

Since I last checked three days ago, I notice the new website is back. And yes, I have been able to now select a specific ship. What bothers me is why Celebrity would like to show you an itinerary horizontally with only five dates visible at a time. You have to click a right arrow to get more dates. Somehow, someone thought this would be much more convenient for potential passengers than a vertical list where you could see all the dates and ports at once. It never occurred to anyone that you might want to print out the itinerary to show to others. What were they thinking? :rolleyes:

 

Agree.....

The itinerary listing going across piecemeal is not useful...probably designed by a non cruiser or a Celebrity sideways thinker,..other websites still list the itin normally,..and easy to print out,

[Islander500]

Since I last checked three days ago, I notice the new website is back. And yes, I have been able to now select a specific ship. What bothers me is why Celebrity would like to show you an itinerary horizontally with only five dates visible at a time. You have to click a right arrow to get more dates. Somehow, someone thought this would be much more convenient for potential passengers than a vertical list where you could see all the dates and ports at once. It never occurred to anyone that you might want to print out the itinerary to show to others. What were they thinking? :rolleyes:

 

It's beyond laughable. One of the most basic things a customer wants to see in its entirety. Such a complete and total disconnect. Wow. :')

[gerelmx]

I don´t have problems with the web site. Instead the Iphone mobile app does not works it crash at the start and they know the problem and only says we are working on it

[Jade13]

I tried this morning and no problem at all. I used the iPad App. I could search new cruises as well as go into my booking and add excursions or other packages if I wanted to do so. Worked easily!

 

 

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[LMKohler]

Jade13, you are in a serious minority. Good for you that it worked for you, but that doesn't help the rest of us. A website should work for all of the people all of the time, not

for just a few some of the time[emoji35]

 

 

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[pbrady]

I just tried to look at South America and date in 2018. I clicked on the "All 2018" and "South America" & got ONLY Alaska cruises. I thought - OK, I'll look at Alaska cruises. They displayed 5 - only 5, but then then I saw "click for other dates" on 3 of them. Not one of the 3 would actually show me other dates. Unbelievable!!!!