Celebrity cancels our pre-cruise land tour less than 40 days before trip!

[Gradelady]

Got a message from travel agent on Friday that our 5 day land tour was being cancelled due to one of our stops (Talkeetna) being cancelled. We were given 3 choices, take a different 5 day land tour, which would cause us to add a flight from Anchorage to Fairbanks,or just do cruise only (which means changing flight), or cancel cruise. Our agent finally got a hold of someone on Monday and we were no longer given first option as tour was full...so we opted to cancel whole trip. I don't understand how Celebrity could not know about this problem with Talkeetna until now? Someone dropped the ball, so we cancelled the trip. we are very disappointed.

 

[jelayne]

From other reports it seems that some land tours have been cancelled because the hotels are having difficulty hiring enough people to staff the hotels. 
It is certainly disappointing but may be a better option than having a land trip where there isn’t enough staff to care for the rooms or cook and serve meals.

[Northern Aurora]

Do I understand you correctly?  You cancelled the cruise tour and cruise also?  While I am sorry this happened to you I would have suggested that you not cancel the cruise.  It was only a five day land tour and, while you would have needed to act quickly,  you could have done a DIY trip on the Kenai Peninsula.    And it would have been easy to add a flight from Anchorage to Fairbanks as Alaska Airlines offers shuttles multiple times each day for the 50 minute flight.

 

As someone who lives is in Alaska we are experiencing a severe labor shortage.  Part of the issue continues to be the J-1 Visa employee shortage.  From the information in our OP's post my educated guess is that the Talkeetna hotel which Celebrity uses cancelled on Celebrity.  Talkeetna is a very small community and there are few alternatives for Celebrity to use.

 

Last summer Princess closed two of their five lodges in Alaska (the Cooper Landing and Copper River facilities) as they could not staff them.  The decision to close was made in early June.  This issue is not unique to Celebrity.

[Gradelady]

We planned this trip well in advance. In fact it was our third attempt to (due to Covid) to do this cruise. I have done the cruise and cruisetour before and it was wonderful. for the $$ we were paying we this would have been a major nightmare to reschedule air. We would have taken the other 5 day cruise tour they offered, but when or agent got back to them on Monday, that tour was full. We were going with our relatives who had never been and the whole thing was becoming very stressful. Sorry to hear that things are not good with labor shortage. I wish Celebrity had told us sooner.

[Georgia_Peaches]

Sorry to hear about this.  You are not alone it seems, as there was another thread recently with similar circumstances.  Hopefully you can find an alternative, disappointing though it may be.  I'm not sure what the bright side is just yet, but I'm sure one exists.  ☺️

[Carried_Away]

I'm sorry about your experience. Celebrity also canceled the land portion of my Alaska cruise tour, with less than two months' notice. I had been looking forward to this trip for a year, and I think Celebrity has handled the issue badly --- not just in canceling the tour with little notice but in the options it has provided guests who were canceled.

 

From the U.S. East Coast, travel to Alaska is expensive and time-consuming compared to, say, Florida and the Caribbean, so we wanted to do and see as much as we could in one trip.

[Vagabond Knight]

Geez, I am so sorry to hear this.  You must be so disappointed.

 

I hope they have this figured out before next year. We're booked for the end of June 2024 and have been trying to take this trip for a couple of years. It was originally supposed to be a birthday/retirement celebration, but Covid ruined that.

 

May I assume the other cruise lines are having the same problem and having to cancel theirs as well?

[emmas gran]

This is the other thread from 16th April

[Sigyn]

I don't understand why you didn't do the land portion on your own and do the cruise portion with Celebrity, rather than cancel your entire vacation. 

[Gradelady]

because we are old, and we didn't want to. Celebrity offers cruisetours. We bought one in good faith.

[MarEll1]

9 minutes ago, Gradelady said:

because we are old, and we didn't want to. Celebrity offers cruisetours. We bought one in good faith.

I am so sorry this happened to you and you should not have to defend your decision. I’m sure trying to plan a land tour on your own in a little over a month was overwhelming.

[Bo1953]

2 hours ago, njsmom said:

I don't understand why you didn't do the land portion on your own and do the cruise portion with Celebrity, rather than cancel your entire vacation. 

Some prefer the comfort and knowledge that these types of tours are planned out for them in advance.

 

When we did Alaska a few years back, it was decided that DIY tour was in order to do what we wanted to do when we wanted to do it.

 

We found it magnificent that way in Alaska as the only schedule we had was to meet the train to Seward in Anchorage...

 

bon voyage

[Sigyn]

1 hour ago, Gradelady said:

because we are old, and we didn't want to. Celebrity offers cruisetours. We bought one in good faith.

ah, okay. You said you were really disappointed, so I saw that as a possible option. I did a self-directed land tour, but I wanted to do it, so that would make all the difference. 

I'm sorry this happened to you. 

[Crazy planning mom]

I would rebook with HAL or Princess as they are the Alaska experts and own their own lodges.

[cruisestitch]

I suspect that a more accurate description of the situation would be that the hotel canceled on Celebrity, and then Celebrity had no choice but to cancel the cruise tour.  
 

It’s a real shame, but many hotels and resorts seem to be having staffing problems.

[phoenix_dream]

2 hours ago, cruisestitch said:

I suspect that a more accurate description of the situation would be that the hotel canceled on Celebrity, and then Celebrity had no choice but to cancel the cruise tour.  
 

It’s a real shame, but many hotels and resorts seem to be having staffing problems.

I think that is most likely the case.  They would certainly not be knowingly sitting on this information.  It would serve them no purpose and just cause bad feelings, which it has.  

 

I would have suggested immediately contacting an Alaska based travel agent who could have put together a nice land tour with a lot less stress. We did that on our first cruise to Alaska and it worked out great.  But if the OP already cancelled the cruise I guess it is too late for that.

[rmalbers]

I did some rooms request on the Talkeetna Lodge's website (future dates) and it sure looks like there are rooms available but the price, wow, the rooms aren't that nice for that kind of money.  I guess X must not have had the rooms under contract and when they tried they got some pricing they didn't expect. 

[Gradelady]

We were told that they were remodeling and were not ready to accomodate guests so tour was cancelled.

 

[Gradelady]

7 hours ago, MarEll1 said:

I am so sorry this happened to you and you should not have to defend your decision. I’m sure trying to plan a land tour on your own in a little over a month was overwhelming.

Thank you for your understanding. We had tried to book this2 years ago and put it off twice because of Covid concerns and restrictions. We booked way early to get what we wanted. If we had more time, perhaps we would have tried to book it ourselves, but this was just way to close for us and stressful.There were 4 of us involved. (two Aqua class rooms on the ship) Wonderful direct flights. Too bad the first alternative that was offered to us filled up. We would have taken that. As it is, we got a full refund and we are getting a future cruise credit. So, all's well that ends well.

[Northern Aurora]

I also am sorry that this happened to you, but you were given the reason for the cancellation of Talkeetna.   And it would not have been difficult to add the short flight between Anchorage and Fairbanks as Alaska Airlines offers shuttle service several times daily on an Embracer (about 65 seats).  

 

For a five night land tour it would have been easy to have spent one or two nights in Anchorage.  And then take either the Alaska Railroad or one of the motor coach transfers between Anchorage and Seward.  Seward is one of the coastal communities where Alaskans go for recreation.  It is not touristy but has a number of options for visitors.  

 

Our OP made the decision to cancel the entire trip, which was their decision to make.  But if they had posted before cancelling all plans the trip may have been salvaged.

 

 

7 hours ago, Crazy planning mom said:

I would rebook with HAL or Princess as they are the Alaska experts and own their own lodges.

 

As someone who lives in Alaska I am not sure that I would describe either HAL or Princess as "the Alaska experts."  And last summer Princess cancelled a number of land tours after they closed both their Cooper Landing and Copper River lodges.  Initially they were opened, but in early June the decision was announced that they would be closed for the remaining season.

[Carried_Away]

It may seem easy to some who know Alaska well, or have created their own land tours before, to replace the land tour with DIY plans. But the OP said she had only 40 days' notice that her land tour was canceled. I had a little more than that, but less than two months' notice. After a year of looking forward to a trip and thinking all the logistics would be taken care of, that doesn't feel like a lot of time to research and make arrangements in an unfamiliar destination. And Celebrity expected canceled guests to decide what to do about their cruises in less than a week.

[Sigyn]

The interesting thing is since a travel agent was involved, they didn't offer to book the land portion themselves and make it work. 

[NMTraveller]

17 hours ago, njsmom said:

I don't understand why you didn't do the land portion on your own and do the cruise portion with Celebrity, rather than cancel your entire vacation. 

And if it is like anything else all of the good cruise tours are already sold out.  The hotels are booked and only have a few rooms at very high prices. 

 

The cruise was the meh part of Alaska and the land tour was the best.

 

I would recommend HAL next time...

Edited April 28, 2023 by NMTraveller

[zitsky]

On 4/27/2023 at 10:12 AM, Bo1953 said:

Some prefer the comfort and knowledge that these types of tours are planned out for them in advance.

 

When we did Alaska a few years back, it was decided that DIY tour was in order to do what we wanted to do when we wanted to do it.

 

We found it magnificent that way in Alaska as the only schedule we had was to meet the train to Seward in Anchorage...

 

bon voyage

 

I took a train in winter from Fairbanks to Anchorage after an aurora watching trip with neighbors from California.  I highly recommend it.  Tried driving from Anchorage to Seward after that.  There was some kind of road closure or accident that would have delayed me several hours so I had to cancel.  Next time I'll use the train.

[mayleeman]

On 4/27/2023 at 1:15 PM, phoenix_dream said:

They would certainly not be knowingly sitting on this information.  It would serve them no purpose and just cause bad feelings, which it has.  

 

 

 

Apparently there are numerous victims of the Great Japan Oversold Cruises Saga who would dispute that contention. Supposedly Celeb knew about the problem for 6 months before doing anything. And many contradictory excuses with no official explanation. 

 

At least the OP seems to have gotten fair compensation and a believable explanation. 

 

What a shame these imbroglios disrupt people's dreams so often now.

Edited April 28, 2023 by mayleeman