Celebrity's Handling of their Millennium Sailing is SHAMEFUL!

[Fouremco]

2 hours ago, intr3pid said:

Does Celebrity come to CruiseCritic to read rants? 

If Celebrity does in fact still visit Cruise Critic, I suggest that they'd read negative posts written in a thoughtful, constructive and tempered manner. Rants? Not at all.

[intr3pid]

1 hour ago, Fouremco said:

If Celebrity does in fact still visit Cruise Critic, I suggest that they'd read negative posts written in a thoughtful, constructive and tempered manner. Rants? Not at all.

Well, if we have all made it to 19 pages of this 'rant', let's cut Celebrity some slack.

[The_Big_M]

8 hours ago, Fouremco said:

Does Celebrity come to Cruise Critic to make ridiculous rants?

 

Yeah, thought not.

 

Does Celebrity participate in forum discussions on cruisecritic at all, which I understand many would prefer?

 

Yeah, thought not.

[Pushka]

24 minutes ago, The_Big_M said:

 

Does Celebrity participate in forum discussions on cruisecritic at all, which I understand many would prefer?

 

Yeah, thought not.

Ive definitely seen Celebrity Cruise post to this forum. There was an issue with the increase in price of drinks so that the premium beverage package didn’t cover as many drinks as previously. Much reasonable angst and eventually Celebrity responded here and said they’d listened and fixed the issue. Some time ago though. 

[Denny01]

11 hours ago, The_Big_M said:

 

You mean like how Celebrity fesses up and admits they were wrong when they don't communicate changes to individuals with bookings before making cancellations, or when they change conditions onboard without notice...? 

 

Yeah, thought not.

I had promised myself (and posted!) that I would never, ever, never never never post again on a Corona Virus thread especially with the word ‘Shameful’ in it....but here I am. But after these latest posts, this has gone around the bend. “Celebrity was wrong to not inform individuals before cancelling”????” What?!?!
 

Email to customers: Don’t tell anyone else, but we are going to cancel your cruise. We havent told the Capt of the ship, the crew, the ports we have contracts with, the tours we have contracts with and anyone else, but just want to let you know........

 

Got it. And the customer then calls their airline to cancel their flight:

    - Customer: “Celebirty has cancelled the cruise so I want to cancel my flight.”

    - DeltaAmericanCheapoflights: “Please hold......ahhh, no, your cruise still appears to not be cancelled, Celebrity hasn’t informed anyone that they are cancelling......By the way, did that email informing you of the cancelation come from Nigeria???” 

 

Or this scenario:

I’m on a Caribbean cruise and a hurricane is heading into the islands and towards a port of call we are to go to:

   - Capt: “This is the Capt speaking. A Hurricane is expected to hit our port of call in three days so we may cancel the port. Please dont’ make any changes to you plans, or anything but I just thought I’d let you know so you can sit around and worry about something you have no control over it.”

  - 3 Hrs Later after Hurricane website update: “this is the Capt speaking. The hurricane has turned away and slowed down so all is OK. Quit worrying”.

   - 3 hr After that: “this is the Capt speaking. A new update show the hurricane is now a Cat 5 and heading straight for us and although I can run away from it, there is a minute chance we could be hit and sink, so I want all of you to get your life jackets on and go sit in a safe raft. Out”.

 

All such good ideas.

 

Den

 

 

Edited February 20, 2020 by Denny01

[Bo1953]

2 hours ago, Denny01 said:

I had promised myself (and posted!) that I would never, ever, never never never post again on a Corona Virus thread especially with the word ‘Shameful’ in it....but here I am. But after these latest posts, this has gone around the bend. “Celebrity was wrong to not inform individuals before cancelling”????” What?!?!
 

Email to customers: Don’t tell anyone else, but we are going to cancel your cruise. We havent told the Capt of the ship, the crew, the ports we have contracts with, the tours we have contracts with and anyone else, but just want to let you know........

 

Got it. And the customer then calls their airline to cancel their flight:

    - Customer: “Celebirty has cancelled the cruise so I want to cancel my flight.”

    - DeltaAmericanCheapoflights: “Please hold......ahhh, no, your cruise still appears to not be cancelled, Celebrity hasn’t informed anyone that they are cancelling......By the way, did that email informing you of the cancelation come from Nigeria???” 

 

Or this scenario:

I’m on a Caribbean cruise and a hurricane is heading into the islands and towards a port of call we are to go to:

   - Capt: “This is the Capt speaking. A Hurricane is expected to hit our port of call in three days so we may cancel the port. Please dont’ make any changes to you plans, or anything but I just thought I’d let you know so you can sit around and worry about something you have no control over it.”

  - 3 Hrs Later after Hurricane website update: “this is the Capt speaking. The hurricane has turned away and slowed down so all is OK. Quit worrying”.

   - 3 hr After that: “this is the Capt speaking. A new update show the hurricane is now a Cat 5 and heading straight for us and although I can run away from it, there is a minute chance we could be hit and sink, so I want all of you to get your life jackets on and go sit in a safe raft. Out”.

 

All such good ideas.

 

Den

d - I knew I could depend on you for great humour and on point commentary, as usual!

 

Thanks and bon voyage

[The_Big_M]

3 hours ago, Pushka said:

Ive definitely seen Celebrity Cruise post to this forum. There was an issue with the increase in price of drinks so that the premium beverage package didn’t cover as many drinks as previously. Much reasonable angst and eventually Celebrity responded here and said they’d listened and fixed the issue. Some time ago though. 

 

Present tense, not past tense. They certainly have in the past, but as you say "some time ago."

[The_Big_M]

3 hours ago, Denny01 said:

I had promised myself (and posted!) that I would never, ever, never never never post again on a Corona Virus thread especially with the word ‘Shameful’ in it....but here I am. But after these latest posts, this has gone around the bend. “Celebrity was wrong to not inform individuals before cancelling”????” What?!?!
 

Email to customers: Don’t tell anyone else, but we are going to cancel your cruise. We havent told the Capt of the ship, the crew, the ports we have contracts with, the tours we have contracts with and anyone else, but just want to let you know........

 

Got it. And the customer then calls their airline to cancel their flight:

    - Customer: “Celebirty has cancelled the cruise so I want to cancel my flight.”

    - DeltaAmericanCheapoflights: “Please hold......ahhh, no, your cruise still appears to not be cancelled, Celebrity hasn’t informed anyone that they are cancelling......By the way, did that email informing you of the cancelation come from Nigeria???” 

 

Or this scenario:

I’m on a Caribbean cruise and a hurricane is heading into the islands and towards a port of call we are to go to:

   - Capt: “This is the Capt speaking. A Hurricane is expected to hit our port of call in three days so we may cancel the port. Please dont’ make any changes to you plans, or anything but I just thought I’d let you know so you can sit around and worry about something you have no control over it.”

  - 3 Hrs Later after Hurricane website update: “this is the Capt speaking. The hurricane has turned away and slowed down so all is OK. Quit worrying”.

   - 3 hr After that: “this is the Capt speaking. A new update show the hurricane is now a Cat 5 and heading straight for us and although I can run away from it, there is a minute chance we could be hit and sink, so I want all of you to get your life jackets on and go sit in a safe raft. Out”.

 

All such good ideas.

 

Den

 

 

 

Nice straw man, and exaggerated examples there - which you could say go "round the bend". They don't actually do anything to disprove the point however.

 

There have been cases where it's an open secret that a cruise has been cancelled, for a number of reasons, for over a week. Yet customers generally have not been informed. It's not necessary to keep paying customers in the dark for that long. And indeed, when trade partners have been informed, but customers still haven't been, customers who worked things out have still been able to take the necessary action without issue, while those who didn't were just left hanging unnecessarily.

 

"It will take a day for system changes to reflect this cancellation, but refunds will be processed over the course of the following 3 days."

 

It's really not that hard if you try.

[mayleeman]

 

"They just want to steal our hard earned money or force us to voluntarily go into a life threatening situation."

 

Remember, this is what we started with on Jan 31, about a March 15 cruise during an internationally chaotic situation with new health advisories hourly and travel restrictions changing every day. Some people counseled patience, which would have turned out fine. Defending the cruise line against evil thieving intent is not being an apologist.

 

I am pretty sure the ranting about stealing money and accusations about desiring to put people in a life-threatening situation did not carry the day in getting Celebrity to revisit how to handle refunds for the cancelled cruises.

[waterbug123]

15 hours ago, Fouremco said:

If Celebrity does in fact still visit Cruise Critic, I suggest that they'd read negative posts written in a thoughtful, constructive and tempered manner. Rants? Not at all.

 

Which means they'd likely not pay any attention to the OP's first post.  She was on a tear from the get go.

 

5 minutes ago, mayleeman said:

 

"They just want to steal our hard earned money or force us to voluntarily go into a life threatening situation."

 

Remember, this is what we started with on Jan 31, about a March 15 cruise during an internationally chaotic situation with new health advisories hourly and travel restrictions changing every day. Some people counseled patience, which would have turned out fine. Defending the cruise line against evil thieving intent is not being an apologist.

 

I am pretty sure the ranting about stealing money and accusations about desiring to put people in a life-threatening situation did not carry the day in getting Celebrity to revisit how to handle refunds for the cancelled cruises.

 

^^^This. 

[TeeRick]

12 hours ago, Denny01 said:

I had promised myself (and posted!) that I would never, ever, never never never post again on a Corona Virus thread especially with the word ‘Shameful’ in it....but here I am. But after these latest posts, this has gone around the bend. “Celebrity was wrong to not inform individuals before cancelling”????” What?!?!
 

Email to customers: Don’t tell anyone else, but we are going to cancel your cruise. We havent told the Capt of the ship, the crew, the ports we have contracts with, the tours we have contracts with and anyone else, but just want to let you know........

 

Got it. And the customer then calls their airline to cancel their flight:

    - Customer: “Celebirty has cancelled the cruise so I want to cancel my flight.”

    - DeltaAmericanCheapoflights: “Please hold......ahhh, no, your cruise still appears to not be cancelled, Celebrity hasn’t informed anyone that they are cancelling......By the way, did that email informing you of the cancelation come from Nigeria???” 

 

Or this scenario:

I’m on a Caribbean cruise and a hurricane is heading into the islands and towards a port of call we are to go to:

   - Capt: “This is the Capt speaking. A Hurricane is expected to hit our port of call in three days so we may cancel the port. Please dont’ make any changes to you plans, or anything but I just thought I’d let you know so you can sit around and worry about something you have no control over it.”

  - 3 Hrs Later after Hurricane website update: “this is the Capt speaking. The hurricane has turned away and slowed down so all is OK. Quit worrying”.

   - 3 hr After that: “this is the Capt speaking. A new update show the hurricane is now a Cat 5 and heading straight for us and although I can run away from it, there is a minute chance we could be hit and sink, so I want all of you to get your life jackets on and go sit in a safe raft. Out”.

 

All such good ideas.

 

Den

 

 

Den- oh no!  Now you have done it!  Truly "shameful" that you have broken your own rule and tried to interject logic and a bit of humor into this thread!

[cruiserchuck]

10 hours ago, The_Big_M said:

 

Present tense, not past tense. They certainly have in the past, but as you say "some time ago."

 

Celebrity posted as recently as February 8.  It was in the Millennium roll call for the Feb 15 cruise.  Celebrity posted that the cruise had not been cancelled, contrary to what B2B passengers onboard had been told.  The cruise was officially cancelled a few days later.

[wrk2cruise]

48 minutes ago, cruiserchuck said:

 

Celebrity posted as recently as February 8.  It was in the Millennium roll call for the Feb 15 cruise.  Celebrity posted that the cruise had not been cancelled, contrary to what B2B passengers onboard had been told.  The cruise was officially cancelled a few days later.

 

I saw that post and out of curiosity looked at their posting history.  First post prior to that was in 2018.  So no they are not actively posting.

[The_Big_M]

Agreed, a rare exception doesn't alter the practical reality.

[ashstreet]

More from ashstreet:

Just read the entire thread, and think:

1. In a way, this awful virus situation was more difficult for those who were about to leave home to fly to Hong Kong or Singapore.....or not even worse, for those who had just arrived and found out that they were either denied boarding or even worse, learned that the cruise was cancelled. In Canada, I don't know if any insurance policies cover this.

2. But having boarded the Millennium on January 18th with the plan to do 3 back to back cruises,I truly believe that the cruise staff did not know how it would all unfold much before the passengers did.....although I am sure that they were not surprised that it all came to an end on Feb. 10.

3. But for those on board, customer service was absolutely perfect. The Millennium personnel could not have been more patient or more helpful.

4. Again, I cannot speak for people who had Asia cruise bookings for February 15 or later, as I left the ship when the cruise was cancelled....on Feb. 10

, 

5. In sum, I think everyone on the Millennium, from Captain Harris, Cruise Director Steve, and the entire team for everything they did despite all the uncertainties and the sudden end to what had been a superb voyage.I do not know these people, but if everyone in life whom I deal with worked as well as they did, life in general would be much easier.

 

Frankie aka ashstreet

 

 

[Peters Wife]

ashstreet

 

We too were on the Millennium cruise that was cut short.

Your post was spot on and I could not have explained the situation as well as you have.

The main thing that everyone has to appreciate is that everything  that was done was ultimately to keep everyone safe .Celebrity crew from the captain down did a brilliant job give a very difficult situation.

[Fly and Sail]

I can't believe people still fault Celebrity after we've seen what happened to the Diamond Princess. The ship became a giant incubator for COVID19.

 

If if was me I'd gladly tell them to keep the money for now as long as I don't have to go even an inch near the ship. I'd probably even pay for not having to go on the Asia cruise of the Millennium.

 

I'm looking forward to my Alaska cruise on the Eclipse in May but any cruise that originates in Asia would be too hot to handle at the moment.

[hcat]

Compared to the  Diamond Princess debacle and the other ship that floated around a bit...this is not the same .  Yes,  there was great inconvenience,  curtailed/ cancelled itins, loss of  money,  and disappointment....but no forced  quarantine inside  a germ incubator or lives lost!

[Bo1953]

I really wonder when the OP will return (or through a surrogate) let us know if the offerings for their cancelled sailing was satisfactory or not?

 

bon voyage

[MarkusToe]

by the way - any money from X back on CC?

So far nothing here....

[Peters Wife]

Folio funds returned to my credit card and FCC received.

Advised by Celebrity that refund of cruise fare will take 3 to 4 weeks and any reimbursement of airline charges have been set up and will take up to 10 days.Appreciate this is taking time to sort out.

[Fly and Sail]

By the way, are cruise lines insured against this? That's a huge financial hit to take.

[az_tchr]

On 2/19/2020 at 11:22 PM, The_Big_M said:

 

Nice straw man, and exaggerated examples there - which you could say go "round the bend". They don't actually do anything to disprove the point however.

 

There have been cases where it's an open secret that a cruise has been cancelled, for a number of reasons, for over a week. Yet customers generally have not been informed. It's not necessary to keep paying customers in the dark for that long. And indeed, when trade partners have been informed, but customers still haven't been, customers who worked things out have still been able to take the necessary action without issue, while those who didn't were just left hanging unnecessarily.

 

"It will take a day for system changes to reflect this cancellation, but refunds will be processed over the course of the following 3 days."

 

It's really not that hard if you try.

I understand the frustration of the OP. We are in a rapidly morphing situation regarding Corona. The best analogy I have about Corona spreading is whack a mole. The disease moved to pockets that are significant outside China.  Where will be be for my April cruise to Europe? Likely more restrictions. Likely almost total cancellations of cruises out of Asia for all of 2020.  Am glad I am not in charge of the Olympics. Foresee attendance dropping big time.

Airlines have relaxed their policies regarding cancellations for a group I had scheduled for Singapore in May. All rescheduled to either late fall this year or spring of 2021.

Cruise lines are refunding or allowing rebooking with extra credit and $$ for airline rebooking. Including Celebrity.

Difficult times. Sometimes taking a deep breath first and counting to one hundred is the best idea.

[Cruising89143]

The cruise line’s are in a no win situation. As I posted on another thread, we’re booked on the MSC Grandiosa in April out of Barcelona. This cruise has three stops in Italy. We have decided that it’s simply not worth the risk of being quarantined or floating around being turned away from port after port. I expect we will start to see ships being turned away from certain ports in Europe.
 

We’re going to take a hit financially with MSC but I’m not waiting until April to try and salvage a vacation. I’m also not expecting MSC to give us a full refund. I knew their refund policy when I booked the cruise. We booked a cruise closer to home on X knowing that it might also be affected but we’re not traveling across the pond to board a ship. I feel for the OP but read the fine print and know what you’re booking.

[Fly and Sail]

13 minutes ago, cruisingator2 said:

We’re going to take a hit financially with MSC but I’m not waiting until April to try and salvage a vacation. I’m also not expecting MSC to give us a full refund. I knew their refund policy when I booked the cruise. We booked a cruise closer to home on X knowing that it might also be affected but we’re not traveling across the pond to board a ship. I feel for the OP but read the fine print and know what you’re booking.

 

Can you still cancel and get any refund? I'd probably gamble and wait until they cancel or modify your cruise so you can get out of it for free + some compensation.