Negative Silhouette Reviews In The Med

[twodjs]

I'm sure a lot of the problem stemmed from Celebrity's "kids sail free"  promotion which I criticized from the beginning because of the lack of kid friendly facilities (climbing walls, water parks, etc.). I faced very rude responses from many. Well, the result speaks for itself. The fault is Celebrity's poor marketing.

[dorisdoris1]

I was on the July 28 sailing, still feel  completely ripped off and just a little angry.All the reasons listed above and oh so many more.Just going to vote with my feet and not rebook with what was always my preferred Cruise Line.

I was 85% just awful.Benidorm at sea was used by many to describe our experience.

Classic wine passed off as premium, lukewarm repetitive  food every day in Ocean View, entertainment absolutely dire, same 20 songs played from early till late by the pool, fastest service ever in MDR to get you out ,reluctance to offer Evian under the premium package,so many Wi Fi packages sold it rarely worked and a front desk that were delightful but not at all pro active.Have had a conversation after being insistent for 5 days with customer services in the Uk,

am STILL waiting for a follow up, wont hold my breath.

Celebrity has dropped the ball, and after 3 cabins,6 drinks packages,3 wifi packages and 6 speciality dining packages they have lost all my respect as a brand.

[Doubt It]

dorisdoris1, thank you for your analysis.  You are not the only one who has made the same decision.

 

Taking a contract and customer service approach which was the point of this post  - I believe that all cruise lines (and all other products and service providers) are accountable to deliver their stated/inferred/pictured product - every single time, on every single cruise - unless the cruise line states at the time of contracting with a guest - that there are specific circumstances on the future voyage which will/likely will result in the elimination/modification/compromise/reduced availability of the product typically provided by said cruise line.

 

Celebrity does not specifically market itself as child friendly. Yet a voyage with 600 children has compromised the delivery of the typical Celebrity on board experience, said experience which obviously persuaded guests to consider and agree to book.

 

I view the Silly experience as a violation of the inferred contract between Celebrity and its guests - this because guests were not informed in advance that the typical Celebrity experience would be changed. 

 

Buyer beware is a very important tool in the consumer arsenal and it is easier than ever to investigate future suppliers.

 

Regarding Celebrity specifically, their supposed attempt to attract a younger customer is a red flag that the typical Celebrity on board experience of the past is at risk.

 

 

[Mr Sea Gull]

21 hours ago, twodjs said:

I'm sure a lot of the problem stemmed from Celebrity's "kids sail free"  promotion which I criticized from the beginning because of the lack of kid friendly facilities (climbing walls, water parks, etc.). I faced very rude responses from many. Well, the result speaks for itself. The fault is Celebrity's poor marketing.

 

I'm not aware of this offer in the UK so not sure if this would have contributed to the problems, the majority of passengers were from the UK.

[downsmead]

I think the ‘kids sail free’ was on offer in the U.K, I vaguely remember seeing it. It may explain why the cruise was so ‘kid heavy’!!!

[Mr Sea Gull]

Having read the Cruise Critic reviews of this cruise it was quite amusing to find one from someone giving the kids/teens perspective.

 

 

[Mr Sea Gull]

1 minute ago, downsmead said:

I think the ‘kids sail free’ was on offer in the U.K, I vaguely remember seeing it. It may explain why the cruise was so ‘kid heavy’!!!

I vaguely recall seeing it in regards to the Edge sailing in Europe but not other ships. I think the higher pricing and short itineraries on the Edge probably put families off.

[TeeRick]

Ok I understand what everybody is saying but how exactly do you restrict a cruise line from selling to families with kids? - unless it specifically excludes them like Viking?  I know that it can be argued that specific marketing to families with kids has caused the issue, exacerbated by holiday periods.  But Celebrity has always sold cabins to families.  No change there.  If you want less kids on board for whatever your reason, if possible go on a longer destination type cruise and go in a period when schools are in session.  When we have done this there have been almost no children on board.  By the way I have cruised with my own kids in past days - mostly on RCCL which had a lot more activities for them.  It is a cliche but up to the parents to teach them to respect other passengers.

[dorisdoris1]

I commented on Celebrity’s FB Page whilst still onboard,and received an immediate response.its interesting that each reply thereafter by private message was acknowledged with a standard “get back to you” message.Right up until the last one which appears that it’s been switched off.obviously loyal cruisers are just an annoyance when valid points are raised.

its been read of that I have no doubt

The. amount myself and my family spent was a great deal,although that shouldn’t matter..ultimately a customer is a customer and I am most certainly not a picky one.I like things right,on this ship they were not.

and Celebrity are simply not bothered

I am just glad others saw what I saw although it’s certainly a shame.

[bEwAbG]

The "kids sail free" promo was available across the fleet.  Celebrity had to put all of their cruises on sale because the initial asking prices for most sailings this year were so outrageous that people didn't book.

 

 

 

 

[dorisdoris1]

5 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

Ok I understand what everybody is saying but how exactly do you restrict a cruise line from selling to families with kids? - unless it specifically excludes them like Viking?  I know that it can be argued that specific marketing to families with kids has caused the issue, exacerbated by holiday periods.  But Celebrity has always sold cabins to families.  No change there.  If you want less kids on board for whatever your reason, if possible go on a longer destination type cruise and go in a period when schools are in session.  When we have done this there have been almost no children on board.  By the way I have cruised with my own kids in past days - mostly on RCCL which had a lot more activities for them.  It is a cliche but up to the parents to teach them to respect other passengers.

 

[Mr Sea Gull]

18 hours ago, dorisdoris1 said:

I was on the July 28 sailing, still feel  completely ripped off and just a little angry.All the reasons listed above and oh so many more.Just going to vote with my feet and not rebook with what was always my preferred Cruise Line.

I was 85% just awful.Benidorm at sea was used by many to describe our experience.

Classic wine passed off as premium, lukewarm repetitive  food every day in Ocean View, entertainment absolutely dire, same 20 songs played from early till late by the pool, fastest service ever in MDR to get you out ,reluctance to offer Evian under the premium package,so many Wi Fi packages sold it rarely worked and a front desk that were delightful but not at all pro active.Have had a conversation after being insistent for 5 days with customer services in the Uk,

am STILL waiting for a follow up, wont hold my breath.

Celebrity has dropped the ball, and after 3 cabins,6 drinks packages,3 wifi packages and 6 speciality dining packages they have lost all my respect as a brand.

 

Butlins is another analogy I've heard.

The classic wine being passed off as premium really bugged me, after paying for the upgrade I don't expect to be told I'm getting a wine that I can tell by taste it is not.  I feel the premium upgrade is most definitely not worth it for wine drinkers.

 

[bEwAbG]

Of course the real blame lies with the passengers who were acting atrociously and there are also strategies to keep yourself away from itineraries that will have a lot of families.  However, there does come a point where the company cannot be excused for not dealing with the problems when it's impacting so many others.  That's the measure of a well-run organization, after all. 

[phoenix_dream]

Hope our cruise on Sept 1 is a little more quiet!  We had a similar experience on Constellation several years ago - made the mistake of going on a 5 night cruise during spring break.  We had 700 college students onboard.  OMG - it was like living Animal House.  Older students passing along shots of liquor to the younger ones - all drinking like animals.  Lewd, suggestive dancing on the pool decks, mostly by the young 'ladies' in bikinis that were barely there.  Broken deck furniture.  Drunk teens running down the hallways in the middle of the night banging on doors.  Table shouting wars between tables in the MDR.  The management actually called a 'take back the ship' meeting to figure out how to deal with it, it was so awful.  It improved after that but not much.  Part of the issue is that the Celebrity staff has it drilled into their heads that the customer is always right, and in most cases that makes for great service.  In this case it made them hesitant to discipline for fear of bad reviews.   They finally tightened up on the drink package usage which helped a bit.  All in all, will never make that mistake again!

 

In the case of the cruise mentioned, it seems like the real issue was lack of parental oversight.  Shame on them!!  But Celebrity could have stepped up a bit more it sounds like

[dorisdoris1]

There were a lot of children,we had one extremely well behaved one with us.I am absolutely not anti kids.

A lot were absolutely unsupervised.”The elevator challenge” was actually a game...why would  any parent  let their kids do that!

A few were “feral” ..to see them roaming the Ocean View having taken whole French Sticks from the Buffet and proceed to march around hitting diners on the head and eating them whilst waiting for a reaction was absolutely awful.

Similarly when we had adverse weather and Security could not get them out of an increasingly dangerous pool..on the contrary parents were laughing as more and more piled in resulting in the officers having to get knee deep in the water to plead with them to get out.

another fun pastime was to run across empty sun loungers.If one of the little treasures were hurt it would have been a different story.

celebrity must have been aware how many cabins were at capacity and just decided to “ get it over with and get us off” of that I am sure.

[dorisdoris1]

8 minutes ago, Mr Sea Gull said:

 

Butlins is another analogy I've heard.

The classic wine being passed off as premium really bugged me, after paying for the upgrade I don't expect to be told I'm getting a wine that I can tell by taste it is not.  I feel the premium upgrade is most definitely not worth it for wine drinkers.

 

 

[dorisdoris1]

Just now, dorisdoris1 said:

 

I did question how they thought I couldn't tell, the classic wine was just awful, thats probably why the glass was always filled, another dead giveaway I had been fobbed off with the wrong one, because my chosen wine was three sips and its gone

[Mr Sea Gull]

5 minutes ago, dorisdoris1 said:

There were a lot of children,we had one extremely well behaved one with us.I am absolutely not anti kids.

A lot were absolutely unsupervised.”The elevator challenge” was actually a game...why would  any parent  let their kids do that!

A few were “feral” ..to see them roaming the Ocean View having taken whole French Sticks from the Buffet and proceed to march around hitting diners on the head and eating them whilst waiting for a reaction was absolutely awful.

Similarly when we had adverse weather and Security could not get them out of an increasingly dangerous pool..on the contrary parents were laughing as more and more piled in resulting in the officers having to get knee deep in the water to plead with them to get out.

another fun pastime was to run across empty sun loungers.If one of the little treasures were hurt it would have been a different story.

celebrity must have been aware how many cabins were at capacity and just decided to “ get it over with and get us off” of that I am sure.

 

There were actually a lot of disabled people on this cruise and I know that 'The Elevator Challenge' was very difficult for them as they could not use the stairs, it is very frustrating for a lift to arrive and a kid press the button to close the doors very quickly.

Parents allowed it because it meant that they didn't need to look after their child. 

Bored kids/teens on a ship with not enough facilities for them are going to run amok. 

[hcat]

2 minutes ago, dorisdoris1 said:

I did question how they thought I couldn't tell, the classic wine was just awful, thats probably why the glass was always filled, another dead giveaway I had been fobbed off with the wrong one, because my chosen wine was three sips and its gone

I would ask to see the wine  poured if brand source  was an issue

As for "Kids Sail Free"...no brainer that he cruise would attract more children than if they paid reg pricing and that cabins would fill to max capacity.

 

We experienced a cruise like this  once on Royal C out of Miami over Easter/ Spring break...marauding children and teens..absent parents.  Could not wait for it to end!

[twodjs]

3 hours ago, Doubt It said:

 

Celebrity does not specifically market itself as child friendly. Yet a voyage with 600 children has compromised the delivery of the typical Celebrity on board experience, said experience which obviously persuaded guests to consider and agree to book.

 

You need to be aware that Celebrity SPECIFICALLY marketed "kids sail free" earlier this year in an attempt to fill their un sold cabins. So anyone not familiar with their ships would make the assumption that they were like NCL or Royal Caribbean - both much more able to handle the kid factor. I protested this and was rudely criticized by some on CC. "My kids are good" and "everyone knows Celebrity isn't for kids - they won't book" and "if you don't lIke kids, book another cruiseline - don't let the door hit you on the way out" was the general consensus. Parents of 600 kids fell for it - after all it was FREE (I know they raised the price, but those booking didn't know). That free offer cost Celebrity far more than it gained - ruined cruises for many who WILL NOT be back. Stupid move.

[dorisdoris1]

We did as I said previously have a very well behaved 9 year old with us,Sadly the kids club also fell short, not reliable opening times and at the hint of a wave all kids were herded into one room and obviously then were not keen to return, job done, they weren't keen to return.Past cruises I have seen and experienced  genuine interaction with Kids Club Staff and kids when walking round the ship.Surprise surprise not on this one...heads down and chatting to each other, no rappor whatsoever.My child now too old has many happy memories of celebrity kids clubs.

We also had a member of our party that used a wheelchair,I can confirm the Elevator Challenge game was ridiculous.

Strange if Celebrity knew( of course they did) that the number of kids was so high, you would have thought they would have prepared for it.I can also confirm that the teenagers most of which mine included were polite and respectful, although some were not, the two groups quickly separated from each other.Other passengers thought it was ok to take pictures of the teens who were actively encouraged to use the hideaway,and it is NOT acceptable to take pictures of kids/teens full stop! I myself saw an adult deliberately walk through the hideaway to get to the lift on the same side as her room, and then walk between the teens and the table rather than the open space to get a reaction,I think she was most disappointed when she didn't.

The second to last evening( too little too late) Julie,head of Guest Relations I believe) attended the Hideaway to attempt to see what had been going on for two weeks, and had the pleasure of the feral kids from the Ocean View,again they were lippy and disrespectful.They had also been rude and generally vile to the teens, who did not retaliate.Yes,I saw it myself.

The 9 year old and teen travelling with my party did pay full price,I too have never seen any offers for kids 

 

I have proven not to be so good at quoting and answering on here, apologies for that I am not too tech savvy

Edited August 21, 2019 by dorisdoris1

[Mr Sea Gull]

Having spoken to my Celebrity agent she confirmed this cruise hadn't offered any kids free places, at least not in the UK.

 I noticed on the UK website that they are pushing family cruises throughout the school holidays now, many of these are in the Caribbean as well as Europe so good luck to anyone that goes on these.

[laticmon]

We were also on the 28/7 sailing from Southampton.

We sailed with Celebrity in the Med last year on a fly- cruise and had a great time

We have also sailed with  P&O when there have been almost 1000 U18's on board

The one point that seems to have escaped most people is that there was always spaces at the bars/shows etc

In my opinion, some of the behaviour of the adults was as bad as the comments regarding that of children/teens;

especially in regard to the reserving of sunbeds for hours on end whilst going ashore in the meantime. This was one of the main reasons that the lawned areas were used for sunbathing etc. With 3000 pax there is nowhere near enough sunbeds to cope.

My son was also questioned/commented to on several occasions as to whether he was old enough to drink alcohol when ordering at the bar! Who do these people think they are?

I don't think that the comments regarding "feral" children are in any way justified

The cruise had a great vibe on board, and we really enjoyed it

 

[phoenix_dream]

1 hour ago, laticmon said:

We were also on the 28/7 sailing from Southampton.

We sailed with Celebrity in the Med last year on a fly- cruise and had a great time

We have also sailed with  P&O when there have been almost 1000 U18's on board

The one point that seems to have escaped most people is that there was always spaces at the bars/shows etc

In my opinion, some of the behaviour of the adults was as bad as the comments regarding that of children/teens;

especially in regard to the reserving of sunbeds for hours on end whilst going ashore in the meantime. This was one of the main reasons that the lawned areas were used for sunbathing etc. With 3000 pax there is nowhere near enough sunbeds to cope.

My son was also questioned/commented to on several occasions as to whether he was old enough to drink alcohol when ordering at the bar! Who do these people think they are?

I don't think that the comments regarding "feral" children are in any way justified

The cruise had a great vibe on board, and we really enjoyed it

 

I'm curious as to why your son was questioned, as the sea pass cards themselves are different for those old enough to drink versus those underage?  Was someone thinking he stole a sea pass card?   I'm confused.  

 

I was not on this cruise, so I have only the words of the posters above to consider.  If what they said was accurate, I think calling the children 'feral'  might have been an understatement.  I don't like chair hogs either - think it is very selfish to do that - but I don't think that compares at all with some of what I've read above (presuming it's true).  I'm glad you and your family had a good time - it sounds like your son was not one of those acting up.

[Georgia_Peaches]

On 8/21/2019 at 12:45 PM, twodjs said:

You need to be aware that Celebrity SPECIFICALLY marketed "kids sail free" earlier this year in an attempt to fill their un sold cabins. So anyone not familiar with their ships would make the assumption that they were like NCL or Royal Caribbean - both much more able to handle the kid factor. I protested this and was rudely criticized by some on CC. "My kids are good" and "everyone knows Celebrity isn't for kids - they won't book" and "if you don't lIke kids, book another cruiseline - don't let the door hit you on the way out" was the general consensus. Parents of 600 kids fell for it - after all it was FREE (I know they raised the price, but those booking didn't know). That free offer cost Celebrity far more than it gained - ruined cruises for many who WILL NOT be back. Stupid move.

No criticism here...as a retired educator, I've had my fill.  I think many people prefer to cruise on ships without lots of kids but won't openly admit it because of the hazing that often ensues...like what you received in the way of comments.  Less children....it's why we consciously chose Celebrity over Royal...but when our kids were younger, that was our line of choice because we knew they would be adequately entertained.  Even the best behaved kids will sow some wild oats when in a new element with some new found freedoms.  We are on Silly in November over Thanksgiving.  It's a 9 nighter leaving on a Friday instead of the typical Saturday or Sunday embarkation.  It is my hope that families looking for a vacation over the Thanksgiving break will opt for a 7 nighter instead.  Like the poster who had the retreat of the RS, we do as well.  But as others have pointed out, a customer is a customer and Celebrity has a responsibility to live up to the product they advertise.  Providing day time entertainment in the theater, both large, and in the movie, is an excellent idea.  If kids aren't given something productive to do, they will find ways to entertain themselves.

Edited August 22, 2019 by Georgia_Peaches