Japan 2024 canceled…

[Sstan]

I’ve booked direct with X also and the T’s&C’s were never part of the process. 

[d9704011]

11 minutes ago, Sstan said:

I’ve booked direct with X also and the T’s&C’s were never part of the process. 

Sure they were.  Here is the booking screen when it comes to payment.  You need to agree to the cruise ticket contract and health acknowledgement.

[omeinv]

1 hour ago, Sstan said:

I’ve been watching this thread for days.  We are booked on the November 3, 2023 sailing. Once people on our roll call started posting about the notices, I’ve been sweating bullets.  Thankfully we have not received a notice about our booking.

 

Reading about those affected here makes me think a class action suit is required. This and only this will get Celebrity’s attention and force them to correct their ways.

For a suit to be successful, the first thing one would have to prove is damages.  Since one option being provided is a refund, the only potential would be for the incidental or consequential damages resulting from lost non-refundable expenses.  As Celebrity offers to sell these services in a manner in which the customer would be protected - Flights by Celebrity - they would be absolved of responsibility. 

 

Disappointment, hurt feelings and a desire for a different outcome are not recoverable. 

 

Harris

Denver, CO

[Bo1953]

37 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

Sure they were.  Here is the booking screen when it comes to payment.  You need to agree to the cruise ticket contract and health acknowledgement.

d9 - I think the poster meant it was not part of their reading process... if it was not a click box which has a link to the T&C's then it does not count as being part of the "process" LOL

 

bon voyage

[NMTraveller]

10 hours ago, Bruin Steve said:

First, I truly feel for those canceled.  It really sucks.  And, it should never happen.  AND the cruise line should bend over backwards to accommodate those affected.  But, of course, they really aren’t set up well to deal with it.  So, I get it.  It still sucks.

 

 

 Yes it does.  Perhaps Celebrity will get the memo that they are flipping tone deaf?

[NMTraveller]

34 minutes ago, Bo1953 said:

d9 - I think the poster meant it was not part of their reading process... if it was not a click box which has a link to the T&C's then it does not count as being part of the "process" LOL

 

bon voyage

Dear @B01953

 

I sincerely hope that you can fix this train wreck that Celebrity has created...  If you can,  you will be my new TA...

[NMTraveller]

1 hour ago, wahwah1 said:

 

Thank you.  I was told by celebrity I won't be receiving anything. Perhaps I won't call the redeployment hotline and try the regular hotline.

Good luck on the Celebrity train wreck line...

[sfaaa]

2 hours ago, Sstan said:

I disagree.  Those terms were not given to me by my TA during booking.  I’m no attorney but have studied contract law and think this has merit. 

Do you know how much it would cost to sue X? Way more than the cruise price. 

[cruiserchuck]

2 hours ago, Sstan said:

I disagree.  Those terms were not given to me by my TA during booking.  I’m no attorney but have studied contract law and think this has merit. 

The Terms and Conditions provide that you waive the right to pursue a class action, and that in most cases, you waive the right to file any lawsuit, and instead must pursue arbitration.  Any class action lawsuit would have no merit.

[NMTraveller]

8 hours ago, clojacks said:

This was my issue with the person who posted that, and what posts are now becoming in general on this topic. It's gone from early posts providing factual info on what happened to them, and how it was being handled by Celebrity, to now becoming an "I heard" cavalcade of questionable opinions. If the poster comes on and tells us where she heard the Oct 2024 oversold bit, and it isn't another third party unconfirmed source, I stand apologetically. But if it is an unconfirmed story, leave it off here.

Perhaps you could give more details of what the you are talking about?  There have been 27 pages of people getting their cruises cancelled.   Perhaps provide details...

Edited April 29, 2023 by NMTraveller

[NMTraveller]

1 hour ago, sfaaa said:

Do you know how much it would cost to sue X? Way more than the cruise price. 

OK.  Sigh...

 

Here is how you do it.

 

You file a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission, and then you file a complaint with your states US Attorney General, and then a complain with the Better Business Bureau in your state.  I have a 100% rate of success in this area.  I would assume that you would also.

 

A bit of paperwork, but the message is sent!  The company then seems to act like a company meeting the needs of the consumer.  Surprise. surprise...

Edited April 29, 2023 by NMTraveller

[Larasmum]

6 hours ago, micruiser2002 said:

I really hope everyone who has been affected by this is emailing the executive office to communicate the awful way this has been handled.  I also suggest people try to start contacting the media, I am sorry but this has been a complete shxx show on Celebrity’s part.  I also tried to get information on volunteering to cancel and never got a straight answer.  This should have been handled by their most experienced employees and there should not be so much confusion on what is an option or available to those impacted.  

My appeal to keep the other three family cabins on the ship for our October 24 sailing was through the Executive Office.    I wasn't getting any response from the phone number provided other than "it has been escalated" and "these things take time".  I had two calls from the Executive Office - one to acknowledge my email and that they were having the Resolutions Department review our case, and the second to tell me that there were no options to keep the three cancelled reservations onboard.   They did offer the option of doing a lift and shift for all six cabins to a future cruise - but October 6, 2024 was not available unless we wanted to "downgrade" our current V2 cabins.   No more lift and shifts for us ... three cabins will sail this year, three are cancelled for refund. 

[intr3pid]

On 4/27/2023 at 10:55 PM, luckybecky said:

What a clusterf***! 

 

I'm so sympathetic to all of you who have been cancelled. What a disaster, especially when you have a lot of other expenses (air, hotels etc) invested. 

 

For many reasons, we decided our Japan cruise just isn't going to work for us right now. We have (had?) a concierge veranda and an inside, both with rooms assigned since September of 2021.

 

So as I posted previously, we were willing to be voluntarily cancelled on our Sept 30, 2023 cruise which would be good for us but also hopefully be good for Celebrity -- that would be two less cabins they would have to involuntarily cancel resulting in very unhappy passengers, as many of you understandably are. 

 

I made a call on Tuesday. Bottom line is this: we know Celebrity has oversold this cruise. We are willing to cancel our two cabins, which would open those up for customers who do not want to be involuntarily cancelled -- but we don't want to lose our deposit. We asked our TA, is there anything we can do to make this work?

 

This seems to us a win-win. Celebrity has the opportunity to make some other customers happy by not involuntarily cancelling them -- especially when many passengers have invested a lot of money in travel expenses. And it would make us happy by not losing our deposit. Those cabins are still filled with paying customers, and Celebrity still keeps our money as FCC. It does not seem to me to be a difficult calculation.

 

Now keep in mind, we have not reached final payment date yet. Under the terms of our booking, we could choose to roll that deposit over to a different cruise as long as we do it before final payment -- we would only have to pay a change fee of $100 per person. 

 

So that was a viable option for us, but if we can just voluntarily cancel now and get the FCC, even better! We can take our time choosing how to spend the FCC -- but Celebrity still gets our business -- and someone on the current cruise is happy because our cabin can be assigned to them. Honestly I don't see any downside for anyone here, especially Celebrity.

 

And on Tuesday that was the option that was offered to us and we accepted.  Cancel our Japan cruise and receive an FCC for the full amount of our deposit.

 

But 48 hours later I had never received any confirmation. So I called back our TA. What a mess! I was on the phone for 2 hours. Big Box C travel agent says they show that our concierge veranda was cancelled, but the inside cabin was not. They had no information about any FCC.

 

They got Celebrity on the line. After much back and forth, bottom line is this:

 

1. Our concierge veranda was cancelled in the TA system, but is still showing as active with Celebrity. So we really aren't sure if we have that booking or not.

2. That concierge veranda on the Celebrity website has been downgraded from a confirmed cabin number (reserved and confirmed almost two years ago) -- to a guarantee cabin.

3. our kids' inside cabin appears unchanged and still active. We are a family traveling together. No way would we agree to cancel one and not the other. This was made VERY clear in our conversations.

4. Neither cabin is eligible for an FCC -- even though they told us the EXACT OPPOSITE and we accepted two days ago.

 

When I repeatedly pointed out that this is not what we were told and accepted, the Celebrity rep said, "I'm not saying you are lying, but...."

 

Ooohh boy. It is NEVER good business to say to a customer, "I'm not saying you are lying, BUT"  😡

 

My blood is boiling. As it is for so many others who have so much time, money and effort invested into these cruises. 

 

When we ended our call today, nothing was resolved. Arthur from the resolutions department at Celebrity says they are going to pull our phone call from Tuesday and listen to it to see what they actually offered. No matter that the Costco contemporaneous notes from the call describe exactly what I said above.

 

Once they listen to the Tuesday call, they will contact us with their decision. OMG

 

Sorry for the long post. I'm just venting. I know there are many of you who have it much worse than we do. At least we had not yet purchased air fare, for example. 

 

But the point is, there are SO MANY  ways that Celebrity could have/ could still handle this better, and they just are not.

 

We have only cruised with them twice and loved them: loved the food, the ships, the decor, the crew, the entertainment, everything. Really wanted to make them our favorite cruise line and become dedicated customers. But now....

 

This should not be difficult to resolve.  Big box TAs record all their calls, and we have had a few pulled in the past to make the cruise lines play ball.  Stay on it.

[wahwah1]

7 hours ago, Larasmum said:

My appeal to keep the other three family cabins on the ship for our October 24 sailing was through the Executive Office.    I wasn't getting any response from the phone number provided other than "it has been escalated" and "these things take time".  I had two calls from the Executive Office - one to acknowledge my email and that they were having the Resolutions Department review our case, and the second to tell me that there were no options to keep the three cancelled reservations onboard.   They did offer the option of doing a lift and shift for all six cabins to a future cruise - but October 6, 2024 was not available unless we wanted to "downgrade" our current V2 cabins.   No more lift and shifts for us ... three cabins will sail this year, three are cancelled for refund. 

They should offered you Sept 2024 as an option too. I was booked on Oct 12 2023 V2 cabin and when took the L&S option, Oct 6 2024 only had V1 and V3 left and said I had to downgrade to V3 for Oct 6 or choose another sailing in Sept 2024. I know Sept weather is l rainier than Oct, but an alternative was given.

[Larasmum]

14 minutes ago, wahwah1 said:

They should offered you Sept 2024 as an option too. I was booked on Oct 12 2023 V2 cabin and when took the L&S option, Oct 6 2024 only had V1 and V3 left and said I had to downgrade to V3 for Oct 6 or choose another sailing in Sept 2024. I know Sept weather is l rainier than Oct, but an alternative was given.

Thank you.    September wouldn't work for us.   At this point, they have all lost faith in Celebrity and are all worried that there is nothing to stop Celebrity from just doing the same thing again next year.  They are done ... taking the cash refund.

[wahwah1]

11 minutes ago, Larasmum said:

Thank you.    September wouldn't work for us.   At this point, they have all lost faith in Celebrity and are all worried that there is nothing to stop Celebrity from just doing the same thing again next year.  They are done ... taking the cash refund.

I get what you mean, I'm sailing next week with Celebrity and I received an email that my cabin is oversold but this time they sent a voluntary survey. That email was sent 2 days after I L&S the japan cruise.

Edited April 29, 2023 by wahwah1

[Bo1953]

12 hours ago, Sstan said:

I disagree.  Those terms were not given to me by my TA during booking.  I’m no attorney but have studied contract law and think this has merit. 

I think you may have missed the caveat that X has posted their T&C's at their website for all to read and ponder before purchasing.

 

Since you purchased your cruise through a third party, it is that party you need to sue about not having access to the T&C's when certainly they are available, regardless of where you purchased your passage.

 

The "merit" in all of this, as has been stated many times before when passengers have been upset with X over similar disappointments, is finding an attorney who will take on 'the cause' on a contingency basis... emphasis on contingency as most of us are not willing to put our money where our mouths are to litigate or are we???

 

bon voyage

[Bo1953]

48 minutes ago, wahwah1 said:

They should offered you Sept 2024 as an option too. I was booked on Oct 12 2023 V2 cabin and when took the L&S option, Oct 6 2024 only had V1 and V3 left and said I had to downgrade to V3 for Oct 6 or choose another sailing in Sept 2024. I know Sept weather is l rainier than Oct, but an alternative was given.

w1 - thank you for this.

 

bon voyage

[Larasmum]

30 minutes ago, wahwah1 said:

I get what you mean, I'm sailing next week with Celebrity and I received an email that my cabin is oversold but this time they sent a voluntary survey. That email was sent 2 days after I L&S the japan cruise.

WOW!!   You are having terrible luck with Celebrity!    I hope you stayed on your cruise next week and will have a wonderful time.  You've already given more than enough to Celebrity.    I'm sailing Holland America next week - first time.

[Bo1953]

10 hours ago, cruiserchuck said:

The Terms and Conditions provide that you waive the right to pursue a class action, and that in most cases, you waive the right to file any lawsuit, and instead must pursue arbitration.  Any class action lawsuit would have no merit.

Is that in the T&C's which were not read even after being notified that there are a few, quite a few???

 

bon voyage

[wahwah1]

18 minutes ago, Larasmum said:

WOW!!   You are having terrible luck with Celebrity!    I hope you stayed on your cruise next week and will have a wonderful time.  You've already given more than enough to Celebrity.    I'm sailing Holland America next week - first time.

Enjoy your HAL cruise next week! I've sailed with HAL, it should be good!

 

I'm still on the cruise next week, declined the downgrade offer and kept my cabin. 

 

After this, I may explore/consider other cruiselines. Just way too many overbooking issues within a few days.

[Oceangoer2]

2 hours ago, wahwah1 said:

I get what you mean, I'm sailing next week with Celebrity and I received an email that my cabin is oversold but this time they sent a voluntary survey. That email was sent 2 days after I L&S the japan cruise.

Your next week sailing was oversold....?  and your Oct. 12, '23 was also oversold?  I thought the problem was isolated to Japan cruises....not?  I'm starting to wonder if Nov. '23 cruise will be affected.

[wahwah1]

6 minutes ago, Oceangoer2 said:

Your next week sailing was oversold....?  and your Oct. 12, '23 was also oversold?  I thought the problem was isolated to Japan cruises....not?  I'm starting to wonder if Nov. '23 cruise will be affected.

Yes. My next week cabin is oversold. Celebrity agent didn't know about it when I called, but the roll call confirmed quite a few people received the email and their TA confirmed. I booked directly with Celebrity. 

[kathynorth]

2 hours ago, wahwah1 said:

I get what you mean, I'm sailing next week with Celebrity and I received an email that my cabin is oversold but this time they sent a voluntary survey. That email was sent 2 days after I L&S the japan cruise.

It’s interesting that your next week cruise is also oversold in certain cabin levels. Several of the South America cruises last Jan/Feb also had oversold cabin assignments. I’m wondering if the cruiseline changed the booking algorithm due to all the last minute Covid cancellations, then didn’t adjust them when these cancellations slowed down. I realize this Japan situation is likely due to ship change and not Covid, but failure to recognize changes in booking patterns seems to be a constant.

[wahwah1]

2 minutes ago, kathynorth said:

It’s interesting that your next week cruise is also oversold in certain cabin levels. Several of the South America cruises last Jan/Feb also had oversold cabin assignments. I’m wondering if the cruiseline changed the booking algorithm due to all the last minute Covid cancellations, then didn’t adjust them when these cancellations slowed down. I realize this Japan situation is likely due to ship change and not Covid, but failure to recognize changes in booking patterns seems to be a constant.

Interesting. It appears it's not only Japan, but Japan itinerary affected the most due to changes to smaller ship.

 

I think balcony+ cabins are affected the most, at least for Millennium class (my next sailing is also Millennium class). Someone from rollcall next week confirmed he's in concierge while I'm in family balcony.  I think there is only a small amount oversold next week because it's voluntary.