On Beyond TA……Issues

[Sascol]

On Beyond as we speak. Rough seas so staying in the cabin today to relax. We’ve had some issues on this trip which I will outline below.  This is not to slam Celebrity.  We are elite plus so we have sailed them many times including our last 4-5 annual cruises but there are some WAY out of the norm issues being experienced  on this sailing that need to be addressed.  In no particular order…

 

The ship is SUBSTANTIALLY overbooked for the number of staff employed. Some examples would be sitting in the martini bar area to get a drink. 15 minutes to get a server that I had to flag down myself then once the order was placed, another 20 minutes to get the drinks. This was not a one  time thing and it is happening at multiple bars/lounges. 
 

As mentioned earlier, I am in my cabin today.  Came back in at 1pm to find the cabin not cleaned for the day. It is a bit after 4 now and it has still not been attended to.  
 

PREMIUM internet which we paid for at times is as slow as dial up. No way to stream a movie for the last few days for more than a few minutes at a time. Talked to guest services, they are looking to see if we can be credited. He admitted it is horribly slow. 

 

Outside of specialty restaurants, service suffers.  Slow service, cold food, items forgotten. 
 

Tried to call for room service…waited for 10 minutes, nobody picked up phone. 
 

No pay per view movies on the TV at all.  Would have been nice today especially. Last time not only did we have PPV options but we could stream our devices to the TV to watch movies.  Not on this cruise. Also no way to order room service on the TV as I seem to remember having the ability to doin the past. 

 

We have been patient but this is not improving as the trip progresses. I hate to say any of this but felt the need to do so. On vacation we try to stay positive but this is just a little to much to be a good value for the money we paid this time. Sad to see. 
 

 

[mfs2k]

10 minutes ago, Sascol said:

PREMIUM internet which we paid for at times is as slow as dial up. No way to stream a movie for the last few days for more than a few minutes at a time. Talked to guest services, they are looking to see if we can be credited. He admitted it is horribly slow. 

 

I'm not an IT expert, but perhaps StarLink relys on satellites over specific areas of the planet, and perhaps there aren't many satellites over the mid atlantic, since there isn't a lot of demand there.  Celebrity might not have known this since this is the first time Beyond is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.  Perhaps this will be taken into consideration before a roll-out to all ships. 

[Arizona Wildcat]

16 minutes ago, Sascol said:

On Beyond as we speak. Rough seas so staying in the cabin today to relax. We’ve had some issues on this trip which I will outline below.  This is not to slam Celebrity.  We are elite plus so we have sailed them many times including our last 4-5 annual cruises but there are some WAY out of the norm issues being experienced  on this sailing that need to be addressed.  In no particular order…

 

The ship is SUBSTANTIALLY overbooked for the number of staff employed. Some examples would be sitting in the martini bar area to get a drink. 15 minutes to get a server that I had to flag down myself then once the order was placed, another 20 minutes to get the drinks. This was not a one  time thing and it is happening at multiple bars/lounges. 
 

As mentioned earlier, I am in my cabin today.  Came back in at 1pm to find the cabin not cleaned for the day. It is a bit after 4 now and it has still not been attended to.  
 

PREMIUM internet which we paid for at times is as slow as dial up. No way to stream a movie for the last few days for more than a few minutes at a time. Talked to guest services, they are looking to see if we can be credited. He admitted it is horribly slow. 

 

Outside of specialty restaurants, service suffers.  Slow service, cold food, items forgotten. 
 

Tried to call for room service…waited for 10 minutes, nobody picked up phone. 
 

No pay per view movies on the TV at all.  Would have been nice today especially. Last time not only did we have PPV options but we could stream our devices to the TV to watch movies.  Not on this cruise. Also no way to order room service on the TV as I seem to remember having the ability to doin the past. 

 

We have been patient but this is not improving as the trip progresses. I hate to say any of this but felt the need to do so. On vacation we try to stay positive but this is just a little to much to be a good value for the money we paid this time. Sad to see. 
 

 

Where are you cruising?  I now see you are mid Atlantic.   Internet there is difficult at best.  Sorry.  Again not Celebrity's fault.  They can only use those few satellites in place in an area of normally low usage.

 

Internet and PPV issues are connected.

 

You  are experiencing exactly what others sadly have reported in all forms of travel.  People have resumed travel in all modes in huge numbers.  They have not returned to work.  Whether your local doctor who cannot hire back office staff, motels who cannot get staff to clean rooms and obviously cruiselines who have an even harder job of getting staff with the airline and visa processing mess.

 

What is different with cruises is passengers booked months or years ago.  Thus to get the passenger staff in balance what would you suggest they do?  They cannot click their fingers and have trained staff appear so. . . the only solution would be cancell maybe 200 cabins.  That would put things in balance on board but not so nice for your holiday.  The could simply stop taking new bookings but how much would this help for the rest of 2022?

 

What do you suggest to solve the problem?  Remember that staffing shortages are not going away any time soon and are beyond the control of the cruiseline.

Edited October 19, 2022 by Arizona Wildcat

[Sascol]

Far from the most important thing but PPV has not been an option at all on this trip. Previous trips with similar itineraries have had this but this time not so. 
 

What would I do to resolve the issues?  Not my place to say. Certainly a large cruise line has staffing models that can be used to calculate crew needed for passengers expected. At some point if those projections are out of whack, booking should be stopped to prevent exactly what we are seeing. 

[jelayne]

Did you call your cabin attendant, we have always had a card with there phone number to call them if we had any problems.  We also look for them in the hallway to tell them we are leaving the cabin on a sea day so they know they can come in. 

[Sascol]

2 minutes ago, jelayne said:

Did you call your cabin attendant, we have always had a card with there phone number to call them if we had any problems.  We also look for them in the hallway to tell them we are leaving the cabin on a sea day so they know they can come in. 

We did not. Not important today since we opted to stay in the cabin but the point is we should not have to. 

[39august]

Arizona, I generally agree with your posts. However, I have to point out that the staffing shortages do not appear to be on all ships. I have read several live reviews that have said service was great. Our very recent Equinox cruise could not have had better service any where we were on the ship. We do not go to the Martini bar, so I can't vouch for that area.   Sometimes I had to wait a few minutes to order at the WCB, but with the fine interaction with the bartenders there, it was certainly worth the short wait. So this must be a Beyond specific problem. 

[julia]

6 minutes ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

Remember that staffing shortages are not going away any time soon and are beyond the control of the cruiseline.

Rubbish!!  The Beyond has been sailing the Med all summer with few complaints, so therefore, they  had adequate staff/passenger ratios on those itineraries.  Celebrity obviously overbooked this popular TA.... so it IS very much under their control.  I really feel for those who've paid a lot of money for a sub-par experience, and am hoping things improve for them.

[canderson]

Would be interesting to corner the Staff Captain, who will know rather precisely, and ask the current number of staff+crew currently aboard.  

 

With a full 3260 double occupancy on Beyond, there should be about 1400 providing service (the 'typical' 1:2.3 ratio for these ships).

 

Edited October 19, 2022 by canderson

[Arizona Wildcat]

41 minutes ago, julia said:

Rubbish!!  The Beyond has been sailing the Med all summer with few complaints, so therefore, they  had adequate staff/passenger ratios on those itineraries.  Celebrity obviously overbooked this popular TA.... so it IS very much under their control.  I really feel for those who've paid a lot of money for a sub-par experience, and am hoping things improve for them.

Really.  What is important is that Beyond cruising in the Med has much easier access to staff and was fully staffed when it started cruising.  Now some months later Celebrity lost a large number of staff because of them needing a US visa to be able to get off the ship.  Very similar to Summit who had some 250 staff who left the round trip TA to Iceland because they lacked EU visas and would not be allowed off ship for 4 weeks.  Service was slow to very slow when Summit left Bayonne and improved steadily as time passed.  The big issue on Summit was poor cabin service.  We were fortunate to have a long term veteran others had newbies.

Again a question, if Beyond had a large number of experienced crew leave/not arrive due to visa issues; would it help much to have a bartender (as was commented on several times) who did not know how to make drinks or a cabin attendant just learning their job.

The PPV and internet issues have been explained by others.  We have a very unhappy passenger who outlined several problems.  As I do not drink martinis cannot comment on that.  The staffing issue not rubbish.

I would be interested in the comments of others on board.

[volk904]

Sorry to hear about your issues. Both the internet and movie issue might be related to mid Atlantic Sat coverage.  I have been on 3 cruises in the last 12 months and every ship was under staffed especially bartenders. Maybe they lost some staff before the transatlantic and replacement crew won’t arrive until Florida?  
As for your room if this late day is a first maybe your cabin attendant is sick or something?

[jelayne]

48 minutes ago, 39august said:

Arizona, I generally agree with your posts. However, I have to point out that the staffing shortages do not appear to be on all ships. I have read several live reviews that have said service was great. Our very recent Equinox cruise could not have had better service any where we were on the ship. We do not go to the Martini bar, so I can't vouch for that area.   Sometimes I had to wait a few minutes to order at the WCB, but with the fine interaction with the bartenders there, it was certainly worth the short wait. So this must be a Beyond specific problem. 

Was your ship sailing with at full capacity and a full crew.

 

49 minutes ago, julia said:

Rubbish!!  The Beyond has been sailing the Med all summer with few complaints, so therefore, they  had adequate staff/passenger ratios on those itineraries.  Celebrity obviously overbooked this popular TA.... so it IS very much under their control.  I really feel for those who've paid a lot of money for a sub-par experience, and am hoping things improve for them.

I’m 1 that paid a lot of money but we are not having a sub par experience.  Waits to be seated are common on the first night on most every cruise  we have been on. That was the only night we experienced a wait longer than 5 minutes.  The Martini Bar in our experience has always been busy between 5-8 and getting a drink can take awhile.

Internet was problematic for a couple of days but has since improved.

The ship is short staffed and some things take a little longer but a smile and some kind words to the hard working crew go a long way.

Our experience is great.

 

[KellyCz]

Sorry to hear about your experience so far. Hoping it improves!

[CalTexCruiser]

So how bad is the ship rocking...can people still walk around the ship?

 

And most importantly, is the casino open?

[Jeremiah1212]

2 hours ago, Sascol said:

We did not. Not important today since we opted to stay in the cabin but the point is we should not have to. 

 

Of course you don't have to, but I've always found they appreciate the heads up or even when you chat on day 1 if you tell them roughly what your normal looks like. Early risers, sleep in, etc. If you see them in the hallway and give a quick wave on your way to breakfast, the gym, whereever, I almost always come back to a made up cabin. 

 

2 hours ago, julia said:

Rubbish!!  The Beyond has been sailing the Med all summer with few complaints, so therefore, they  had adequate staff/passenger ratios on those itineraries.  Celebrity obviously overbooked this popular TA.... so it IS very much under their control.  I really feel for those who've paid a lot of money for a sub-par experience, and am hoping things improve for them.

 

There are other variables that are not known. Is half the crew in COVID isolation? Did they disembark a bunch before the TA (which is pretty common)? Could be a number of struggles. 

[Sascol]

9 minutes ago, CalTexCruiser said:

So how bad is the ship rocking...can people still walk around the ship?

 

And most importantly, is the casino open?

Annoying, but not horrible. Opted not to do dinner in the restaurants so we went to the buffet and got a pizza. Non PPV movie night!

[kathynorth]

2 hours ago, 39august said:

Arizona, I generally agree with your posts. However, I have to point out that the staffing shortages do not appear to be on all ships. I have read several live reviews that have said service was great. Our very recent Equinox cruise could not have had better service any where we were on the ship. We do not go to the Martini bar, so I can't vouch for that area.   Sometimes I had to wait a few minutes to order at the WCB, but with the fine interaction with the bartenders there, it was certainly worth the short wait. So this must be a Beyond specific problem. 

 

We've been on 4 cruises since the start of the year (Apex, Summit 2x and Infinity) and didn't experience any difficulty with staffing shortages. Julia may be correct, this cruise may have been over booked. 

[CalTexCruiser]

Looking at the wave height map below for today at 5pm (not sure time zone), red is 28-ft waves, while dark blue is 0, and yellow is about 20-ft waves, it appears the captain could have taken a more southerly route (from Portugal) rather then going right through the heart of the bad sea.  Probably would have added a bit of sailing time so may not be feasible to meet the debarkation port time.

 

[kathynorth]

2 hours ago, Sascol said:

As mentioned earlier, I am in my cabin today.  Came back in at 1pm to find the cabin not cleaned for the day. It is a bit after 4 now and it has still not been attended to.  

 

Some cabin attendants won't bother passengers when in their cabins. If the attendant came to your cabin to clean it and they could hear that you were in the room, then it's likely they went away without bothering you. You may want to call the cabin attendant to let them know you will vacate your room so they can clean it. 

[mfs2k]

2 hours ago, julia said:

Celebrity obviously overbooked this popular TA....

 

A cruise ship can't be overbooked.  It's not like they're going to make some passengers wait for the next boat to leave Bayonne or transfer some guests to the Marriott ship down the street. 

 

Anything less than 100% double occupancy plus some cabins with 3 or 4 to a cabin, is undersold. 

 

Cruiselines are fighting for survival and they need to fill cabins. 

 

In fact, postive tests before sailing and vid policies have prevented most sailings from being fully booked. 

[kathynorth]

21 minutes ago, mfs2k said:

 

A cruise ship can't be overbooked.  It's not like they're going to make some passengers wait for the next boat to leave Bayonne or transfer some guests to the Marriott ship down the street. 

 

Anything less than 100% double occupancy plus some cabins with 3 or 4 to a cabin, is undersold. 

 

Cruiselines are fighting for survival and they need to fill cabins. 

 

In fact, postive tests before sailing and vid policies have prevented most sailings from being fully booked. 

 

I think the poster meant Celebrity overbooked based on their advertised passenger to crew ratio.

[jelayne]

30 minutes ago, kathynorth said:

 

We've been on 4 cruises since the start of the year (Apex, Summit 2x and Infinity) and didn't experience any difficulty with staffing shortages. Julia may be correct, this cruise may have been over booked. 

We have been on the Edge Apex, Reflection and now the Beyond.  The other 3 were Less than 60% passenger capacity and 2 had more crew than passengers. I don’t think we are at max capacity as there were quite a few on the Roll  Call who had successful Move Up.bids.  The crew have said they are short handed and new crew was brought on but training takes time.

[Sascol]

24 minutes ago, mfs2k said:

 

A cruise ship can't be overbooked.  It's not like they're going to make some passengers wait for the next boat to leave Bayonne or transfer some guests to the Marriott ship down the street. 

 

Anything less than 100% double occupancy plus some cabins with 3 or 4 to a cabin, is undersold. 

 

Cruiselines are fighting for survival and they need to fill cabins. 

 

In fact, postive tests before sailing and vid policies have prevented most sailings from being fully booked. 

Yes it can be IF the number of staff onboard has no reasonable chance to properly provide services to the number of passengers on board. You are correct when under the assumption the ship is properly staffed. In this case it absolutely 100% is not. I’m not getting what I paid for. Not even close. 

[mfs2k]

8 minutes ago, Sascol said:

Yes it can be IF the number of staff onboard has no reasonable chance to properly provide services to the number of passengers on board. You are correct when under the assumption the ship is properly staffed. In this case it absolutely 100% is not. I’m not getting what I paid for. Not even close. 

 

I totally get your frustration and disappointment.  My point really is there's no such thing as oversold, but it sounds like they are understaffed. Hope it gets better. Find a bar no one's discovered yet and drink up. 

[SailingHigher]

We disembarked the Beyond on 10/3 in Civitavecchia, which was I think a week before this TA. There were just a few venues that were too busy or a bit understaffed IMHO. (I did however watched the greeters turn away at least 8 couples who tried to dine in Eden during the evening we were there despite at least a dozen empty tables.) As for crew getting off in Europe before the TA, we never met them. Every crew member we chatted with was looking forward to taking personal time off once the  Beyond reaches New Jersey.