Having a stressful time…any suggestions welcome!

[Mollypuss]

1 hour ago, Mark.Jules said:

Do you have an update on your situation.  We are sailing with you and hope to see you onboard.

Unfortunately I do not. I used an email provided on here but don’t expect a response for a couple of days. I’ll try calling the flights dept later today. We’ll be sailing, just not sure how we’ll be getting home!

[Host Anne]

I wanted to confirm that my TA has reconfirmed with Celebrity that "as long as the parents are next door or across from their children we will permit for two adults to be next to their minors."  You cannot book this on your own through Celebrity's website.  It needs to be done through your travel agent or talking to Celebrity's reservations on the phone.  If you get someone who can't help, ask for a supervisor.

[cangelmd]

On 2/19/2022 at 4:21 PM, LGW59 said:

My daughter started flying alone from San Diego to Boston when she was 15, she lived in SD with me but spent holidays and summers on east coast with her mom.  They board them early and watch them closely, my daughter loved the independent feeling of it. I could get a pass to accompany her to the gate until she boarded and her mom could do the same on landing.  This was all in the last 10 years. 

Butting in, but I would and did do that with my daughter at 15, and would have been ok with a couple cousins and the kids of certain friends of ours. Wouldn’t have felt comfortable with “friends of daughter”, agree with OP, she’s responsible.

[K&RCurt]

On 2/19/2022 at 3:53 PM, Bruin Steve said:

  Thanks to the pandemic, the airlines are currently constantly canceling and rescheduling flights...and their computers don't move you around while looking at individual situations...they are moving thousands of bookings at once...and it can get a little screwy...which you have just found out.

 

 

I can attest to this.

 

We had a 6:30 AM flight home from Tampa to PHL in early January.  We even stayed at a hotel near teh airport to avoid the 40 min drive from our friedn's place where we were staying.

 

8:00 pm the evening prior, just after we checked into the hotel, we both get texts telling us our flight was cancelled.  Log in to the airline app and my wife had a 7:00 am flight leaving Tampa, Going to Baltimore, then a flight from Baltimore to Orlando! Then from Orlando to Philly.  BUT they put me on a flight a day later at noon direct to Philly!

 

We spent 3 1/3 hours on hold to get someone to straighten it out so we could fly home together on the right day!

 

I feel for the OP but agree it is the airlines making all of these changes and Celebrity can only pass on the crazyness.

 

Also on the cruise I just book, I TRIED to work with someone over the phone but A) Could barely understand her and B) I seemed to know more than she did.  So the friends we are cruising with and I got online at the same time and were able to book what we wanted much easier than dealing with the Customer Service people.  Afterwards my friend said "This website sucks!"  I said, "Try calling Customer Service and compare!"  I tried to assure him the onboard experience will be much better, but I think he is skeptical!

[Guppy99]

3 hours ago, Host Anne said:

I wanted to confirm that my TA has reconfirmed with Celebrity that "as long as the parents are next door or across from their children we will permit for two adults to be next to their minors."  You cannot book this on your own through Celebrity's website.  It needs to be done through your travel agent or talking to Celebrity's reservations on the phone.  If you get someone who can't help, ask for a supervisor.

Did you specifically state veranda rooms?  If so, then I believe whomever they spoke with is incorrect or doing something not permitted. It's not as though customer service always gets it right. Half the threads in this forum are about customer service screw ups.

[Mollypuss]

Quick update….nothing has changed. I gave up after too many hours on the phone trying to fix this. Was told weeks ago that a change request was submitted to move all of us to another airline and I would hear within 4 business days. I’ve heard nothing and the last call I made a few weeks ago showed nothing had been submitted. I’ll try onboard to see if changes can be made. I tried some of the emails and numbers you all provided and none of my emails were answered. I received a survey regarding one of the calls and I answered it accordingly and that didn’t even elicit a response. Customer service says I have to speak with someone in the flights department and every call ended with there’s nothing we can do. 
 

I finally found somewhat of a solution…I changed my mindset and will go with the flow. This is not a disaster….what I’m seeing on the news is a disaster. Thanks again for the helpful suggestions.

[Vagabond Knight]

Sorry you are having such a bad experience.

 

 

 

Your situation and those posted by several others in this thread and elsewhere have pretty much convinced my husband and me to never allow Celebrity to arrange our flights for us. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JamieLogical]

8 hours ago, Mollypuss said:

Quick update….nothing has changed. I gave up after too many hours on the phone trying to fix this. Was told weeks ago that a change request was submitted to move all of us to another airline and I would hear within 4 business days. I’ve heard nothing and the last call I made a few weeks ago showed nothing had been submitted. I’ll try onboard to see if changes can be made. I tried some of the emails and numbers you all provided and none of my emails were answered. I received a survey regarding one of the calls and I answered it accordingly and that didn’t even elicit a response. Customer service says I have to speak with someone in the flights department and every call ended with there’s nothing we can do. 
 

I finally found somewhat of a solution…I changed my mindset and will go with the flow. This is not a disaster….what I’m seeing on the news is a disaster. Thanks again for the helpful suggestions.

 

I hope everything works out for you. I think that, like you said, if the teens are on a separate flight, it will not be the end of the world. I understand that you feel a lot of responsibility for your daughter's friend, but teens fly alone every single day. Hopefully everything will go smoothly and you will be able to enjoy your cruise without too much stressing.

[Mollypuss]

10 hours ago, Vagabond Knight said:

Sorry you are having such a bad experience.

 

 

 

Your situation and those posted by several others in this thread and elsewhere have pretty much convinced my husband and me to never allow Celebrity to arrange our flights for us. 

I think that’s a great call on your part. The only reason we used Celebrity was 1. Covid testing and the chance of being positive. It would allow a refund. 2. We originally were flying in the day of the flight and wanted peace of mind. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Vagabond Knight]

Apologies for all the extra spacing in my previous post.  My phone does weird stuff sometimes.  😒

[ScottC4746]

On 2/19/2022 at 12:11 PM, Mollypuss said:

I’ve been a member here for 21 years but am not very active on the boards anymore. I’m so frustrated and hoping to find some suggestions. We are loyal Royal Caribbean cruisers but booked the Edge for 03/2020 and Infinity Mediterranean for 06/2020. Obviously those were cancelled because of Covid so we are giving it another shot on the Apex, 3/19 sailing. It will be my husband and I in one cabin and our daughter and 2 of her friends in a cabin next door. The girls are all high school seniors. 
 

From the first phone call to book cabins to the last phone call on Monday, I’ve spent 16 hours and 7 minutes talking to Celebrity and/or flights by Celebrity. I booked in September and we were only able to get ocean view cabins because of having minors in another cabin. All verandas were not available with 2 next to each other per cruise line policy. We always get a balcony….so ok, we said no big deal…let’s go and enjoy anyway. Booked flights thru cruise because airfare was super expensive and we were flying in the day of embarkation because girls have school Friday. Then our flights were changed twice and had us landing at 1:30 (including connection) for a 3pm all aboard. Not comfortable with that and after hours on the phone we decided to pay more and fly in the night before arriving at 12:30am and us spending $600 for 2 hotel rooms. Received an email last week showing our return flight being changed just for my husband and myself and the girls are still on the original flight. What?? I called again and the blame game started…it is Deltas fault…Delta says it’s Celebrity’s fault. Now both flights are sold out except first class and we’re not flying home from Ft Lauderdale with 2 girls that are not ours and we are responsible for them. The last agent I spoke with was submitting an airline change routing us thru Chicago where I really don’t want to go with potential for winter weather. I’ve heard nothing. I suggested they book us first class seats because WE did not change our flight and they wouldn’t do it. The agents I’ve talked with have had:

1. Neighbors street racing so loudly I could not hear her (she said that’s what was happening)

2. A baby crying in the background for over an hour

3. Dogs barking the entire call

4. Hung up on twice

I am frustrated because Celebrity is a superior cruise line. I expected better customer service…or at least standard! I’m questioning whether this was the right move trying out Celebrity. Our daughter is older so we’d like to get away from the family oriented cruises and move to more relaxed and nicer. How do I get the flight issue resolved and I’m assuming our cabins will be changed since we currently have them in the quarantine area? Is there a customer service supervisor that I can speak with? Thanks for your help!

It is still a frustrating time right now for customer service.  Many companies, especially cruises, are still working from home.  I booked an Alaska cruise in Sept on my own direct with X and a Caribbean Cruise in February with my favorite TA.  I wanted to do that to compare the differences.  While TA's offer get the same benefits for their clients, they often get "bucket rooms" if you will they allow an availability the cruise line doesn't.  For Alaska I booked Flights by Celebrity from LAX-SEA.  We did get a notice from Delta that our schedule had changed and we were both moved with no problem so not sure what happened.  As far a TA is involved, if you have questions, you go to them.  With X I have been trying for 6 months to get a response from my cruise specialist, a lot of this is because of a reduction in staff.  Many calls are also getting handled outsourced overseas.  My TA even said he has noticed more and more lines are doing that now.

[TeaBag]

My current cruise with Celebrity, sailing next month, is the same.  I have had to call them so many times, I'm ready to cancel the whole thing and lose the cost of the airfare.   Last three people were in Jamaica.  I ended up chatting with them about Montego Bay which we loved.  It makes them feel good to know you like their country.  I feel sorry for some of them because I don't think they are well trained and I'm sure people get angry with them at times. 

Mollypuss, I hope when you step aboard your cruise,  your troubles will be behind you and that you have the great time you are expecting.  Please come back and let us know what you enjoyed.

[whitshel]

What a mess. I hope it all works out.  Sounds like a perfect scenario of why a T/A is a good idea.  Let them sit on hold and listen to the background noise.  People always say I wont control of "my" booking, well "my" booking now comes with long hold times and aggravation. 

 

Good luck with it all, I think you have a great attitude now 🙂 

[MVTcher]

On 2/19/2022 at 1:56 PM, happy cruzer said:

?? Are we being trolled??

 

Just FYI we I have called it has been normal communication no strange background sounds.  Excellent service provided.  How can it be so different??

 

Hopefully it will all work out.

Definitely not! I have been in contact with Celebrity Customer Service reps from home and have had a baby crying in the background too. Celebrity's customer service is poor and so disappointing. I hope they turn it around or it won't be good for the company overall. 

[Jim_Iain]

On 2/20/2022 at 3:10 PM, Host Anne said:

 

I've sent a message to my TA about this since we just had friends who were able to do this.  I also cannot find anything on Celebrity's website that states they cannot have connecting cabins or connecting balconies.  I'll post when I learn more.  

There's a current thread on this -  I believe the topic is "Changing Room when Traveling with Kids"

 

Lots of good information and how he was successful in sorting it out.   Just looked it up -

 

 

[StellaTN]

I am also on the March 19 Apex - and have been keeping an eye out on how full it is. There are a TON of balcony cabins still available (and a ton of concierge and Aqua too, for the record). You might try going to customer service on day one and asking for a cabin change and explaining what happened. They have the space to move you from the bottom decks, for sure. Ive read several people have luck getting upgraded on day of embarkation.  I'd give it one more shot right as you board, and if it doesnt work, you have the right idea, if you cant change the situation, you have to adjust your expectations lol. Works for me every time!