Japan 2024 canceled…

[raananh]

16 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.  

Totally agree with you, except "letter to the executive office". Celebrity and Corporations do not care about personal letters.

They only care when issues are exposed publicly on message boards, media, groups, etc.

Just here on CruiseCritic, I can see many people who said, including me, that they will not sail again with Celebrity = a lot of $$$$ of lost sales for Celebrity.

 

[clojacks]

29 minutes ago, raananh said:

Totally agree with you, except "letter to the executive office". Celebrity and Corporations do not care about personal letters.

They only care when issues are exposed publicly on message boards, media, groups, etc.

Just here on CruiseCritic, I can see many people who said, including me, that they will not sail again with Celebrity = a lot of $$$$ of lost sales for Celebrity.

 

I want to agree that we could have an impact on Celebrity by showing our dissatisfaction by not booking anymore, but, in reality, think of the impact of this fiasco. Celebrity has 13 full size cruise ships sailing 52 weeks a year...give or take drydocks etc. That's 676 weeks of bookings. We are discussing approximately 15 weeks of bookings that affected maybe 10-20% of passengers? Many of whom will continue to book with Celebrity because they aren't privy to what has transpired because they either don't follow CC, FB, CruiseHive or any other manner of Social Media. In the grand scheme of things, my suspicion that the impact of a fiasco, to passengers, of this magnitude, is couch change in lost future bookings to Celebrity. Do I know this to be fact? Absolutely not, but the math tells me I might be right. Would I encourage anyone who feels that Celebrity no longer has their best interests at heart to peruse whatever means  gives them personal satisfaction? 10,000%! But I wouldn't fool myself into believing that this episode will impact their $$$ hardly at all.

[Mark_T]

57 minutes ago, wahwah1 said:

I think balcony+ cabins are affected the most, at least for Millennium class (my next sailing is also Millennium class).

It is notable that on the 2025 spring Japan cruises, all the veranda cabins are sold out at this point.

[XLVIII]

4 minutes ago, clojacks said:

I want to agree that we could have an impact on Celebrity by showing our dissatisfaction by not booking anymore, but, in reality, think of the impact of this fiasco. Celebrity has 13 full size cruise ships sailing 52 weeks a year...give or take drydocks etc. That's 676 weeks of bookings. We are discussing approximately 15 weeks of bookings that affected maybe 10-20% of passengers? Many of whom will continue to book with Celebrity because they aren't privy to what has transpired because they either don't follow CC, FB, CruiseHive or any other manner of Social Media. In the grand scheme of things, my suspicion that the impact of a fiasco, to passengers, of this magnitude, is couch change in lost future bookings to Celebrity. Do I know this to be fact? Absolutely not, but the math tells me I might be right. Would I encourage anyone who feels that Celebrity no longer has their best interests at heart to peruse whatever means  gives them personal satisfaction? 10,000%! But I wouldn't fool myself into believing that this episode will impact their $$$ hardly at all.

Exactly. And for every Celebrity client who will no longer book with them, there are cruisers from Princess, Holland America, NCL, Carnival and others who have had similar negative experiences with their line and are now coming over to Celebrity. In the end it’s probably all a wash. 

[Honolulu Blue]

55 minutes ago, raananh said:

Celebrity and Corporations do not care about personal letters.

I disagree.  I've gotten answers and results from some well-written and well-aimed letters straight to the top of whatever corporation screwed me over.

 

Granted, I haven't done this with Celebrity because I'm not involved in this mess and I haven't had any problem with them that required such contact.  And I think this whole disaster has gone beyond what any single bit of correspondence can mollify or justify.

 

Sorry, I had to get that off my chest.  I'll go back to lurk mode now.

Edited April 29, 2023 by Honolulu Blue

[Lotso88]

On 4/25/2023 at 6:55 PM, Lotso88 said:

Hi I just received the email from my TA regarding my cancelled  booking for Sept 30th sailing just an hour ago today! It was linked to 3 cabins and all three were cancelled. One of the booking was a back to back cruise sailing from YVR to Japan ( but this was not cancelled). So my parents need to change their one way flight back home as the second cruise is now cancelled. 

Just to inform everyone cancellations are still going on and I have till May 1st to decide what options I want to do with my booking. This is ridiculous!!! 

Today my parents found out that their first cruise from YVR to Japan is also cancelled. There was no email regarding this sailing being cancelled when we first found out about our Sept 30th booking being cancelled. The TA called my parents today asking what they have decided to do with the first cruise and that's when our TA found out she did not receive any email. Our TA tripled checked with X and confirmed it is cancelled. So very unfortunate! Two cruises becoming zero cruises. 

 

Also regarding cabins:

My parents L&S for their Sept 30 2023 booking to a sailing in 2024. However there were no more inside cabins available so she got a free upgrade to an oceanview. 

 

I also got the same upgrade: inside to oceanview and a connecting room with my sister. 

 

Just keeping you guys informed about the cabins 

 

Thanks 

 

 

[wahwah1]

26 minutes ago, Lotso88 said:

Today my parents found out that their first cruise from YVR to Japan is also cancelled.

 

Yikes, I thought cancellation is over, never thought YVR to Japan is affected.

 

It's unfortunate for those who are affected, but at the very least you were offered an upgrade.

[Longhorn-ED]

28 minutes ago, wahwah1 said:

Yikes, I thought cancellation is over, never thought YVR to Japan is affected.

 

It's unfortunate for those who are affected, but at the very least you were offered an upgrade.

We are on the YVR to Japan Sept 15th sailing in AQ. Have done three L&S, Many of us on this cruise don't know when or if the shoe will drop on us at any moment. Very hard to plan anything. Final payment is about 40 days away. I feel very bad for the people who have been canceled. It would cost us a lot of $ if we got canceled. The $500.00 from Celebrity would not even come close to cover our losses. 

[cruiseb4udie]

Info I posted on Roll call for 3/28/24:  (per our TA, they were JUST notified by Celebrity on 4/28/23).

 

Another one bites the dust...that us.  MANY MANY thanks to the people who have posted to cruise critic over the last couple of weeks about the oversold cancellations.  At least we had a CLUE that this might happen....and it did.  We got our PINK SLIP last night.  Celebrity NEVER called or emailed us.  Our TA called. We were told we had to make a L&S decision in less than 3 hours with NO details on sailings we could L&S to (Celebrity did not provide to TA).  Also told that we MIGHT be able to downgrade from veranda to ocean view - again no details and it had to be done right away OR we could just let Celebrity cancel us on 5/1 and receive a refund of the deposit and $450 FCC pp.  Not really happy how this was handled by Celebrity.  They have known about the OVERSELLING of cabins since at least last July or August 2022.  Our friend tried to book for 3/2024 and was told by his TA the ship was oversold even though it still showed on the TA website.  Our schedules are full so we could not just L&S especially with 3 hours notice and no details.  Also not downgrading to an ocean view from a Veranda that no one could confirm was really available.  

 

Booking details:  We booked direct with Celebrity on one of their ships in January 2022 then transferred booking to our TA.  Sail date 3/28/24; cabin type SV.  No air or hotels booked so nothing to cancel there.  BTW we are Zenith - almost double Zenith so obviously we cruise a lot with Celebrity and we didn't even get the curtesy of a call from them.  I am sure they are scrambling but this could have been handled so much better.  Feel bad for the people we got bumped after booking non-refundable air.  Hope things work out for everyone who is affected.  We are just going to do something else but Celebrity will be hearing from us about how displeased we are. 

[NMTraveller]

13 minutes ago, cruiseb4udie said:

Info I posted on Roll call for 3/28/24:  (per our TA, they were JUST notified by Celebrity on 4/28/23).

 

Another one bites the dust...that us.  MANY MANY thanks to the people who have posted to cruise critic over the last couple of weeks about the oversold cancellations.  At least we had a CLUE that this might happen....and it did.  We got our PINK SLIP last night.  Celebrity NEVER called or emailed us.  Our TA called. We were told we had to make a L&S decision in less than 3 hours with NO details on sailings we could L&S to (Celebrity did not provide to TA).  Also told that we MIGHT be able to downgrade from veranda to ocean view - again no details and it had to be done right away OR we could just let Celebrity cancel us on 5/1 and receive a refund of the deposit and $450 FCC pp.  Not really happy how this was handled by Celebrity.  They have known about the OVERSELLING of cabins since at least last July or August 2022.  Our friend tried to book for 3/2024 and was told by his TA the ship was oversold even though it still showed on the TA website.  Our schedules are full so we could not just L&S especially with 3 hours notice and no details.  Also not downgrading to an ocean view from a Veranda that no one could confirm was really available.  

 

Booking details:  We booked direct with Celebrity on one of their ships in January 2022 then transferred booking to our TA.  Sail date 3/28/24; cabin type SV.  No air or hotels booked so nothing to cancel there.  BTW we are Zenith - almost double Zenith so obviously we cruise a lot with Celebrity and we didn't even get the curtesy of a call from them.  I am sure they are scrambling but this could have been handled so much better.  Feel bad for the people we got bumped after booking non-refundable air.  Hope things work out for everyone who is affected.  We are just going to do something else but Celebrity will be hearing from us about how displeased we are. 

Hmmmm.  So Celebrity manages to tixx of their double Zenith cruisers.  Who is running the business?

[bEwAbG]

Not that they shouldn't be handling it better, but if your booking is with a TA, you have to work with the TA.  They're getting paid to service the reservation, which is why if you call X directly, they will refer you back to your TA. 

 

I asked on the other thread but isn't the $500 meant to be for airline change fees so you can switch your flights?  That was the offer in the past.  If your change fees are more than that, can you not make that case with them directly to cover more? 

[NMTraveller]

4 minutes ago, bEwAbG said:

Not that they shouldn't be handling it better, but if your booking is with a TA, you have to work with the TA.  They're getting paid to service the reservation, which is why if you call X directly, they will refer you back to your TA. 

 

I asked on the other thread but isn't the $500 meant to be for airline change fees so you can switch your flights?  That was the offer in the past.  If your change fees are more than that, can you not make that case with them directly to cover more? 

The post in question was for an almost double zenith cruiser.  Why tixx off your best customers????

 

Just stating the obvious...

Edited April 29, 2023 by NMTraveller

[pmarrsouth]

1 hour ago, wahwah1 said:

Yikes, I thought cancellation is over, never thought YVR to Japan is affected.

it has been mentioned in this thread

 

14 minutes ago, cruiseb4udie said:

Booking details:  We booked direct with Celebrity on one of their ships in January 2022 then transferred booking to our TA.  

Firstly this is brutal to both get cancelled and then also have next to no time (or details it appears) to decide what to do
 

But I do wonder if this part messed you up here (booking directly with X and then moving to TA). It is like they pulled data from 2 different sources when trying to contact people and your fell literally in between. Other posters (in other threads) have stated that their TAs just got notified too, I wonder if they also originally booked with X before moving it to a TA

 

X looking worse and worse daily…

[bEwAbG]

5 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

The post in question was for an almost double zenith cruiser.  Why tixx off your best customers????

 

Just stating the obvious...

 

I don't disagree in spirit (I think X is handling all of this horribly), but a double Zenith cruiser should also know by this point how the system works when it comes to booking directly versus going through a third party.

[cruiseb4udie]

2 minutes ago, pmarrsouth said:

it has been mentioned in this thread

 

Firstly this is brutal to both get cancelled and then also have next to no time (or details it appears) to decide what to do
 

But I do wonder if this part messed you up here (booking directly with X and then moving to TA). It is like they pulled data from 2 different sources when trying to contact people and your fell literally in between. Other posters (in other threads) have stated that their TAs just got notified too, I wonder if they also originally booked with X before moving it to a TA

 

X looking worse and worse daily…

No - I don't think booking directly with Celebrity then moving to TA really had anything to do with it.  It is possible but we have been doing it this way since 2005 and we USUALLY get notified by both our TA and Celebrity (via email).   My TA said that Celebrity told them that they tried to contact us.  Celebrity has our phone numbers and emails and have always been able to contact us in the past so I don't think they even tried.  I do think they (Celebrity) work on their direct bookings first then move on to the TA's but this time there were SOOO many sailings and double bookings and a short notification time.  Not excusing Celebrity for this mess and TERRIBLE communication problem.  

 

Over the years we have had so many changes happen to us.  We booked then the ship was chartered; booked on 1 ship then they moved the ship elsewhere and we had to move to a different ship and slightly different itinerary, cruise just flat out cancelled for unknown reason, start date of cruise changed, ports changed, etc.  Other cruise lines have similar issues and we have had it happen with non-cruise related land tours.  We will take the FCC of $450 pp as a consolation for the trouble; no $500 for us since we didn't have air booked - we will just move on.  

 

The bottom line is that people have been treated poorly all around for a problem that Celebrity knew about months and months and months ago.  That's the thing we REALLY do not like.

[bEwAbG]

With their systems history and terrible booking infrastructure, I suspect they don't really have a good way to know who all is affected and are dealing with it as they figure it out.  A real cluster, for sure.

[Arubamoose]

We were on the March 4th and March 16th cruise.  Our 2nd cruise was cancelled.

We are Elite and were booked in a lowly inside with cabin assignments.  We got a really sweet AI deal on both cruises when we booked on the Apex February 2022.  Which is probably why they cancelled us.  It was too good to be true.

I would have been thrilled if they also cancelled the 1st cruise and we could lift and shift both.

But they refused to make our lives easier and so we were stuck with just one cruise.

Our agent went to bat for us and got nowhere.

I called Celebrity today (hold time - 35 minutes) and they again would not budge.

So, we took the money and ran.  We have a cruise booked with a group of college buddies on the Equinox winter 2024 that I don't want to cancel and will get a reduction on that one.

We kept the first cruise - we have a refundable deposit and do not have to pay until December.  

Who knows - they many wind up cancelling us between now and then.  Looking at my options.  Maybe HAL or Princess or a land tour.  Or pushing it off again.

 

Even though we are D+ on Royal, we were looking to do more Celebrity.  At this point, I do know that I will probably not book Celebrity again for a while. 

 

Shame is that they did us so well on our ill-fated COVID Eclipse cruise around South America in March 2020.  I talked them up and down.  No longer.

 

[micruiser2002]

4 hours ago, raananh said:

Totally agree with you, except "letter to the executive office". Celebrity and Corporations do not care about personal letters.

They only care when issues are exposed publicly on message boards, media, groups, etc.

Just here on CruiseCritic, I can see many people who said, including me, that they will not sail again with Celebrity = a lot of $$$$ of lost sales for Celebrity.

 

Sorry but that is not true.  I had an issue last year when this cruise from 2022 was getting completely cancelled.  I sent an email and was called the next day and the person fixed 4 different bookings for us.  I also just sent an email a few weeks ago regarding this actual issue and the possibility of volunteering to lift and shift.  They responded the next day.  The response wasn’t very clear but they do read and respond to the emails.  My point is that the executive offices need to be made aware of the disaster this has been.

[wahwah1]

1 hour ago, pmarrsouth said:

 

But I do wonder if this part messed you up here (booking directly with X and then moving to TA). 

I booked directly with Celebrity and didn't transfer and still got cancelled. The only thing that is positive is I could called celebrity directly and got all my options and made the changes ASAP without dealing with the TA as the middle man.

 

It's bad that they didn't reveal the issues ASAP if they know it in Aug 2022. If they told us earlier, I wouldn't purchase any flights as it's impossible to purchase flights more than a year in advance.

 

Now I'm stuck with the flights and flying from north america to japan is way more than $500 USD.

[pmarrsouth]

26 minutes ago, wahwah1 said:

I booked directly with Celebrity and didn't transfer and still got cancelled.

 

 

Yup, fully aware that a lot of people who booked directly with X also got cancelled. I was referring to why it took so long for OP to be contacted regarding being cancelled. If the TA is not lying, and they only received notice slightly before contacting OP, then it is like X did the following to contact affected parties:

1) Ran a query to find out who had a reservation with X, booked directly with X
2) Ran a query to find out who originally booked with a TA

They contacted all in 1 themselves, and sent lists over to TAs for those in 2

But OP would have been in 3) User who original booked with X and then moved to a TA

ie more sloppy IT work by X!

 

26 minutes ago, wahwah1 said:

It's bad that they didn't reveal the issues ASAP if they know it in Aug 2022. If they told us earlier, I wouldn't purchase any flights as it's impossible to purchase flights more than a year in advance.

 

Is this Aug 2022 date from X or from a random poster/3rd party? Agree that the earlier they let people know then the slightly better it is for everyone, hence why I do wonder if X knowing since Aug 2022 is just bs

[raananh]

5 hours ago, clojacks said:

I want to agree that we could have an impact on Celebrity by showing our dissatisfaction by not booking anymore, but, in reality...

Would I encourage anyone who feels that Celebrity no longer has their best interests at heart to peruse whatever means  gives them personal satisfaction? 10,000%! But I wouldn't fool myself into believing that this episode will impact their $$$ hardly at all.

For sure, this fiasco is costing Celebrity $ while also giving them bad publicity and hurting their business.

Sadly, it costs Celebrity only $ and not $$$ because same bad management behind the fiasco is also handling the consequences using their same exact style of bad management: lack of care, lack of planning, being cheap, and shortly, handling customers as if they are cattle.

If each booking mismanagement costs $$$ instead of $ then, for sure, incidents will be fewer and no massive fiascos of 10 ships with 1000s of passengers, almost 15% of Celebrity customers just this year.

This is the only reason this large-scale massive fiasco happened: it does not cost Celebrity as bad as it should. Am I right?

Then comes the government with their own lack of care, and makes sure such incidents cost only $ and not $$$ for corporations likes Celebrity.

Anyway, I have the $$$ and I will choose others to give my $$$.





 

Edited April 29, 2023 by raananh
Fixed a typo

[C4HCG]

11 minutes ago, raananh said:

For sure, this fiasco is costing Celebrity $ while also giving them bad publicity and hurting their business.

Sadly, it costs Celebrity only $ and not $$$ because same bad management behind the fiasco is also handling the consequences using their same exact style of bad management: lack of care, lack of planning, being cheap, and shortly, handling customers as if they are cattle.

If each booking mismanagement costs $$$ instead of $ then, for sure, incidents will be fewer and no massive fiascos of 10 ships with 1000s of passengers, almost 15% of Celebrity customers just this year.

This is the only reason this large-scale massive fiasco happened: it does not cost Celebrity as bad as it should. Am I right?

Then comes the government with their own lack of care, and makes sure such incidents cost only $ and not $$$ for corporations likes Celebrity.

Anyway, I have the $$$ and I will choose others to give my $$$.





 

Not 100% sure I understand what you are saying. Is it that you hope Celebrity loses lots and lots of money due to this? And that people should not use them in future because of this, even those of us it didn’t affect?

[clojacks]

19 minutes ago, raananh said:

 

If each booking mismanagement costs $$$ instead of $ then, for sure, incidents will be fewer and no massive fiascos of 10 ships with 1000s of passengers, almost 15% of Celebrity customers just this year.
 

Do you mind if I ask where you are getting this "10 ships and 1000's of passengers, almost 15% just this year" info from?

 

If we were to assume that Celebrity's 13 full size ships were sailing with an average of approx 2500 per week, that is 32000 passengers. 15%, as you state, is approx 4500 passengers! 15% of what, per week? 1 ship? I'm not saying you are incorrect, just that I am curious where this info comes from and what you are talking about..

[RichardRahl]

Did Celebrity’s management or key executives change since 2001? Because up until then, when asked about Celebrity, I couldn’t give less than effusive praise for the employees, staff, crew, and officers. Every booking and cruise was luxurious, relaxing, and made me feel special.

 

Now, though, I feel like it’s a different company. My last cruise earlier this year was so-so, and I’m likely going to cancel my Japan cruise based on everything I’ve ready here (assuming I don’t get canceled first). I just don’t trust this company any more.

 

It’s not like there aren’t a lot of alternatives for me (at least four other cruise lines come to mind right off the top of my head.)

 

So what happened? Did everyone who knew how to provide excellent customer service quit during the pandemic and get replaced by a bunch of lemmings who can’t think for themselves and don’t care about the customers?

 

This is a very bizarre metamorphosis for Celebrity, and I do not understand what the (new?) leadership thinks it’ll gain from being inflexible and incapable? Is the goal Carnival Cruises at Oceania prices?

[C4HCG]

1 minute ago, RichardRahl said:

Did Celebrity’s management or key executives change since 2001? Because up until then, when asked about Celebrity, I couldn’t give less than effusive praise for the employees, staff, crew, and officers. Every booking and cruise was luxurious, relaxing, and made me feel special.

 

Now, though, I feel like it’s a different company. My last cruise earlier this year was so-so, and I’m likely going to cancel my Japan cruise based on everything I’ve ready here (assuming I don’t get canceled first). I just don’t trust this company any more.

 

It’s not like there aren’t a lot of alternatives for me (at least four other cruise lines come to mind right off the top of my head.)

 

So what happened? Did everyone who knew how to provide excellent customer service quit during the pandemic and get replaced by a bunch of lemmings who can’t think for themselves and don’t care about the customers?

 

This is a very bizarre metamorphosis for Celebrity, and I do not understand what the (new?) leadership thinks it’ll gain from being inflexible and incapable? Is the goal Carnival Cruises at Oceania prices?

Are you sure you want to cancel based on what you read here.