Celebrity's Handling of their Millennium Sailing is SHAMEFUL!

[barbette165]

Interesting 'photo' of Constellation on the itinerary update sheet.

It shows a blue-hulled, i.e. post revolution, Constellation with the Tampa Bay Skybridge in the background.

[WH59]

Received cancellation email very late on Feb 10. Opened it 2 hours before Tfr to Heathrow.  Flight already re -arranged by TA because of change to Singapore for embarkation.If they had cancelled when itinerary was significantly changed I could have recovered flight costs.  If I cancelled, I could not.  Had to have new flight out because airline would not cancel because to them Hong Kong was still safe to fly to.  

Should be no recovery problem now but would like to know if the number of passengers  who cancelled from Jan 31 and took FCC made this cruise uneconomic to continue.

Having said that, I have 2 friends on Diamond Princess and would not want to be in their position.

[Pushka]

7 hours ago, oneputt18 said:

I don't know where you are searching, but a Millennium cruises are still showing on Celebritycruises.com and are also available on Cruising Power. Only cruise not showing is the cancelled 2/15 

Celebrity Australian website. I selected March - July for Asia and cannot see any results for early than 15 th March. So for me there is a missing early March cruise. 
 

Edited February 11, 2020 by Pushka

[blueboro]

2 hours ago, barbette165 said:

Interesting 'photo' of Constellation on the itinerary update sheet.

It shows a blue-hulled, i.e. post revolution, Constellation with the Tampa Bay Skybridge in the background.

Where did you see that "photo"?  We are sailing on Connie in 2021 out of Tampa.

[Fouremco]

11 minutes ago, blueboro said:

Where did you see that "photo"?  We are sailing on Connie in 2021 out of Tampa.

https://www.celebritycruises.com/travel-alert

 

[Ack53]

46 minutes ago, Pushka said:

Celebrity Australian website. I selected March - July for Asia and cannot see any results for early than 15 th March. So for me there is a missing early March cruise. 
 

The one before the 14th is the 29th February? The next sailing on the Millennium, at the moment anyway?

[jelayne]

55 minutes ago, Pushka said:

Celebrity Australian website. I selected March - July for Asia and cannot see any results for early than 15 th March. So for me there is a missing early March cruise. 
 

 

The US site show the Millenium with sailings from  in Asia beginning with 2/29  until the May 10 Transpacific cruise from Tokyo to Vancouver for her Alaska sailings this summer.

[Pushka]

2 hours ago, Ack53 said:

The one before the 14th is the 29th February? The next sailing on the Millennium, at the moment anyway?

February isnt a month I have the choice to select - the month just doesnt show up to select so its disappeared from our booking site as an option. The éarliest one I can select is March.

Edited February 12, 2020 by Pushka

[The_Big_M]

1 hour ago, Pushka said:

February isnt a month I have the choice to select - the month just doesnt show up to select so its disappeared from our booking site as an option. The éarliest one I can select is March.

 

Must be your selections, as those cruises are coming up for me on the Australian site.

[ashstreet]

from ashstreet:

Totally disagree with any criticisms re the Millennium.

Just spent 23 nights on this ship,until the cruise was cancelled.

I think that customer service was more than excellent . This is a terrible situation worldwide, and the ship staff could not have been better.

Celebrity Cruise lines has my undying loyalty.

[Maykitten]

53 minutes ago, ashstreet said:

from ashstreet:

Totally disagree with any criticisms re the Millennium.

Just spent 23 nights on this ship,until the cruise was cancelled.

I think that customer service was more than excellent . This is a terrible situation worldwide, and the ship staff could not have been better.

Celebrity Cruise lines has my undying loyalty.

Well said.. couldn’t agree more!! 

[Pushka]

1 hour ago, ashstreet said:

from ashstreet:

Totally disagree with any criticisms re the Millennium.

Just spent 23 nights on this ship,until the cruise was cancelled.

I think that customer service was more than excellent . This is a terrible situation worldwide, and the ship staff could not have been better.

Celebrity Cruise lines has my undying loyalty.

Was the cruise cancelled early during your trip? Good to hear of your experiences. 

[[g]cruiserke]

I don’t think anybody could dispute the dedication and excellence of the onboard crews, they always rise to the occasion when it’s most needed, even when they’re not sure themselves of what’s happening. As so often with Celebrity, it is the inconsistent, irregular and sometimes plain incorrect communications from the shoreside office which are causing frustrations.

 

These are of course very difficult and near unprecedented circumstances for everybody and we appreciate Celebrity is constantly evaluating the situation and taking difficult decisions, but they could be much more pro-active in their communications to people booked on the upcoming Asia sailings (as we are). Keeping open the lines of  communication with their customers would go a long way to easing the frustration many of us are feeling.

 

Even if it’s just to tell us that they’re not sure yet themselves what the next steps are, but promise to keep us informed if and when we need to be.  They are not doing that right now. What they are doing, is posting messages on their website, where we have to go look for them ourselves, checking daily (or several times a day) if they’ve updated the message. And often those messages are not corrected when circumstances change: Last week Taiwan closed their ports to all cruise ships but several sailings still list Taiwan as a stop, which obviously will not happen.  

 

I have worked in corporate communication myself and know that crisis communication is very hard to get right, so I can cut them some slack, but Celebrity is NOT showing us their best side right now.  

 

We are booked on the 28 March Millennium sailing so we have the luxury of a bit more time, for us and for Celebrity, to see how things pan out and what impact the changing situation will have on our sailing – but still, it’s very frustrating not getting any news beyond what’s being posted by fellow passengers on roll calls and on Facebook.  

 

Right now, we’re still planning to sail on our Millennium cruise, if it goes ahead, and we won’t be deterred to book with Celebrity again, but I do think that some of the people commenting on this thread who are not personally impacted by the Asia crisis tend to underestimate how frustrating all of this is for us who are / were looking forward cruising in Asia in the near future.

 

[Ack53]

6 minutes ago, [g]cruiserke said:

I don’t think anybody could dispute the dedication and excellence of the onboard crews, they always rise to the occasion when it’s most needed, even when they’re not sure themselves of what’s happening. As so often with Celebrity, it is the inconsistent, irregular and sometimes plain incorrect communications from the shoreside office which are causing frustrations.

 

These are of course very difficult and near unprecedented circumstances for everybody and we appreciate Celebrity is constantly evaluating the situation and taking difficult decisions, but they could be much more pro-active in their communications to people booked on the upcoming Asia sailings (as we are). Keeping open the lines of  communication with their customers would go a long way to easing the frustration many of us are feeling.

 

Even if it’s just to tell us that they’re not sure yet themselves what the next steps are, but promise to keep us informed if and when we need to be.  They are not doing that right now. What they are doing, is posting messages on their website, where we have to go look for them ourselves, checking daily (or several times a day) if they’ve updated the message. And often those messages are not corrected when circumstances change: Last week Taiwan closed their ports to all cruise ships but several sailings still list Taiwan as a stop, which obviously will not happen.  

 

I have worked in corporate communication myself and know that crisis communication is very hard to get right, so I can cut them some slack, but Celebrity is NOT showing us their best side right now.  

 

We are booked on the 28 March Millennium sailing so we have the luxury of a bit more time, for us and for Celebrity, to see how things pan out and what impact the changing situation will have on our sailing – but still, it’s very frustrating not getting any news beyond what’s being posted by fellow passengers on roll calls and on Facebook.  

 

Right now, we’re still planning to sail on our Millennium cruise, if it goes ahead, and we won’t be deterred to book with Celebrity again, but I do think that some of the people commenting on this thread who are not personally impacted by the Asia crisis tend to underestimate how frustrating all of this is for us who are / were looking forward cruising in Asia in the near future.

 

Well said! my feelings summed up exactly! 👍

[netbill1]

Spoke to our cruise coordinator yesterday the millennium is not going into Singapore. The 15th is cancelled. We are on 29th. Told we will be cancelled. Just waiting to hear officially.

[terrydtx]

14 hours ago, WH59 said:

Received cancellation email very late on Feb 10. Opened it 2 hours before Tfr to Heathrow.  Flight already re -arranged by TA because of change to Singapore for embarkation.If they had cancelled when itinerary was significantly changed I could have recovered flight costs.  If I cancelled, I could not.  Had to have new flight out because airline would not cancel because to them Hong Kong was still safe to fly to.  

Should be no recovery problem now but would like to know if the number of passengers  who cancelled from Jan 31 and took FCC made this cruise uneconomic to continue.

Having said that, I have 2 friends on Diamond Princess and would not want to be in their position.

If you have travel insurance and the flights were covered under the insurance, you should receive a full refund from the insurance since the cruise was cancelled. We always include our flights and cost in our travel insurance for this reason.

[LUAUBOUND]

I understand the frustration of those waiting to hear whether or not their cruise will be forthcoming or cancelled.  We were in that position for 2-3 weeks but Viking did the right thing.  They cancelled their cruises and land tours early February for sailings early April giving everyone a choice of refund or FCC.  This is what Celebrity and others should have done or should be doing.  It’s both fiscally responsible to their customers and in their best interests for the long term.  

[fragilek]

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

If you have travel insurance and the flights were covered under the insurance, you should receive a full refund from the insurance since the cruise was cancelled. We always include our flights and cost in our travel insurance for this reason.

 I know every one means well when they talk insurance - and I for one wouldn't travel without it.  But some of us with health conditions have very large excesses to pay if we cancel mine is £500 each person on my insurance policy (anyone traveling with me as we make sure we are group booked in case I have to cancel).  I struggle to find any insurance at all and pay a small fortune for sometimes more than my cruise fare (for cheaper cruises). 

 

I am not arguing over the cost  and the excess I pay of the policy (I appreciate I am hard to insure).  But it becomes very difficult to just get money back as we would loose £1000 if just 2 of us going in the summer there was 8 of us traveling together for a big family celebration that would have been £8000) - I don't know what the solution should/would be as this is a no-win situation for every one.  But just stressing that having insurance isn't a get out of jail free card for some of us.

[Bo1953]

3 minutes ago, fragilek said:

 I know every one means well when they talk insurance - and I for one wouldn't travel without it.  But some of us with health conditions have very large excesses to pay if we cancel mine is £500 each person on my insurance policy (anyone traveling with me as we make sure we are group booked in case I have to cancel).  I struggle to find any insurance at all and pay a small fortune for sometimes more than my cruise fare (for cheaper cruises). 

 

I am not arguing over the cost  and the excess I pay of the policy (I appreciate I am hard to insure).  But it becomes very difficult to just get money back as we would loose £1000 if just 2 of us going in the summer there was 8 of us traveling together for a big family celebration that would have been £8000) - I don't know what the solution should/would be as this is a no-win situation for every one.  But just stressing that having insurance isn't a get out of jail free card for some of us.

f are you indicating that your deductible is £500 per person??

 

WOW - that is a bit steep and in some cases not worth it, I Am sure.

 

In health and bon voyage

[terrydtx]

8 minutes ago, fragilek said:

 I know every one means well when they talk insurance - and I for one wouldn't travel without it.  But some of us with health conditions have very large excesses to pay if we cancel mine is £500 each person on my insurance policy (anyone traveling with me as we make sure we are group booked in case I have to cancel).  I struggle to find any insurance at all and pay a small fortune for sometimes more than my cruise fare (for cheaper cruises). 

 

I am not arguing over the cost  and the excess I pay of the policy (I appreciate I am hard to insure).  But it becomes very difficult to just get money back as we would loose £1000 if just 2 of us going in the summer there was 8 of us traveling together for a big family celebration that would have been £8000) - I don't know what the solution should/would be as this is a no-win situation for every one.  But just stressing that having insurance isn't a get out of jail free card for some of us.

Sounds like you have a huge deductible which  makes the insurance even more expensive, is this because you have pre-existing health conditions? I am not an expert, but the cancelation of a cruise by the cruise company should have nothing to do with any pre-existing health conditions. My wife and I are both 70 and we buy travel insurance for all cruises and international travel, but at least for now, we do not have any pre-existing health conditions. I just paid our Viking ocean cruise for this September and our cruise cost plus air is about $15,000, but the insurance with no deductibles was only $679 per person. I did not think that was too expensive for the amount of coverage. This is not a policy that allows us to cancel for any reason, but if one of us or our immediate family members has a medical emergency that keeps us from going on the trip,  we are covered. We also have full medical coverage for any thing that could happen on the cruise with this insurance since Medicare does not cover us outside of the country.

[fragilek]

20 minutes ago, Bo1953 said:

f are you indicating that your deductible is £500 per person??

 

WOW - that is a bit steep and in some cases not worth it, I Am sure.

 

In health and bon voyage

£500 for world except Mexico (it must be more).  £300 for EU (that includes some extra places like turkey)

 

Worth it only if I take ill on holiday and then I won't really be focused on my excess.

 

Only 3 companies would insure me - so can't shop around- the one I chose had a more exess +£100 over other 2 but was £350 cheaper in total.  

 

We have been lucky so far, we did have to cancel one trip  but the companies involved were very generous - shout out to Virgin Atlantic (money refunded  canceled day before due to leave) and Easy Jet who gave us a credit note for total price.  Hotels were refundable.  Touch wood- haven't had to use it since I came out of hospital 

[fragilek]

33 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Sounds like you have a huge deductible which  makes the insurance even more expensive, is this because you have pre-existing health conditions? I am not an expert, but the cancelation of a cruise by the cruise company should have nothing to do with any pre-existing health conditions. My wife and I are both 70 and we buy travel insurance for all cruises and international travel, but at least for now, we do not have any pre-existing health conditions. I just paid our Viking ocean cruise for this September and our cruise cost plus air is about $15,000, but the insurance with no deductibles was only $679 per person. I did not think that was too expensive for the amount of coverage. This is not a policy that allows us to cancel for any reason, but if one of us or our immediate family members has a medical emergency that keeps us from going on the trip,  we are covered. We also have full medical coverage for any thing that could happen on the cruise with this insurance since Medicare does not cover us outside of the country.

 I have very complex medical needs- 3 serious conditions, 2 of which would require asap evacuation to large hospital/ for one that evacuation may need to be done under quarantine for my own protection.

[Silkroad]

5 hours ago, [g]cruiserke said:

Right now, we’re still planning to sail on our Millennium cruise, if it goes ahead, and we won’t be deterred to book with Celebrity again, but I do think that some of the people commenting on this thread who are not personally impacted by the Asia crisis tend to underestimate how frustrating all of this is for us who are / were looking forward cruising in Asia in the near future.

I do appreciate how frustrating all of this is for everyone who is personally impacted by this crisis. I feel special empathy for those who, having increasing mobility limitations or health issues, believe this is their last chance to visit a region that has featured in their travel dreams. However, I do think we are debating Celebrity’s decisions without knowing all the information that influenced those decisions, and the situation is changing constantly. 

[BigAl94]

If you have booked a package in the UK this is worth a read https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/coronavirus-news-latest-princess-cruises-iglu-package-travel-regulations-a9331066.html

[nomad098]

3 hours ago, BigAl94 said:

If you have booked a package in the UK this is worth a read https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/coronavirus-news-latest-princess-cruises-iglu-package-travel-regulations-a9331066.html

 

I have queried Mr Calder on this as the UK Ministry of Justice, the EU and even ABTA consider a cruise an and of it's self a package holiday regardless of whether flights were purchased