Comments on April 23 Reflection TA

[cltnccruisers]

This was our 5th Celebrity cruise but our first TA.  It is also the first time I have had anything negative to post about Celebrity.

 

The MDR was excellent as expected.  The entertainment was good.  Embarkation and debarkation were also handled very well.  So, they continue to do some things very well.

But now for the negatives.  Some completely out of Celebrity control, some within.

There were a couple of days of rough seas from the weather.  Can't do much about that.  Can't do much about the time changes either, but they sure played havoc with us.

Now things they can and should control.

I have a habit of checking the Cocktail of the Day and trying it at different bars.  I am not exaggerating when I say that you could order the same drink in 3 different bars and have completely different experiences.  Bartending is not unskilled labor.  Celebrity needs to get them all working from the same bartenders guide.  Also, we were at 40% capacity.  You might think the service would be faster, but it was not.

 

Now for the incident that may end us as Celebrity customers.

 

Two days out of Bermuda we started to hear an intermittent whistling in our cabin.  The wind was picking up so we put it down to a seal problem with the door.  But overnight, it started getting progressively worse.  In the morning, I went to Guest Services to report the issue.  I took audio evidence which I played for the rep.  He had obvious difficulty understanding the issue.  He went to another rep who told him to tell me they'd have someone check it.  No one ever showed up.  So on the way to dinner, I stopped again with more audio evidence.  This time a different rep said it was just the weather.  OK, the weather is a factor but not the root cause.  I got a deer in headlights look.  That night the whistling reached ship alarm levels and much more frequent.  So at 6:00 the next morning I'm back again.  Apologies to the young lady on duty, but at this point she is the face of Celebrity dealing with a sleepless, angry customer.  To her credit, at least she acknowledged that the sound was a bad thing.  But that's as far as she went.  So I demanded to speak with the Director of Housekeeping.  She's says he isn't on duty until 9:00.  I don't care.  Wake his ass up.  I haven't slept for 2 nights, why should he?  I was not a happy camper and plunked my butt in a chair and fumed.  A few minutes later the night engineer shows up along with what I could only guess was security backup.  We head up to the cabin and he immediately goes to the balcony door.  Open the door, noise stops.  Close the door, it immediately returns.  Within 30 seconds he finds a split in the seal.  THAT IS THE ROOT CAUSE!  It is also what I had told the previous reps that I thought it was.

 

So with the RC identified, the night engineer gets on the phone and tells someone we need to be moved.  At one point he says very pointedly, "It's really loud!"  I lobbied for a suite but instead got an angle cabin that we had used before on Solstice ships. 

 

Now for what may end our affiliation with Celebrity.  The only follow-up we had was a brief call to see if the new cabin was acceptable.  No apology for the first 2 reps acting like I was some drunk idiot. We actually drank very little on this cruise so the drink package was kind of a bust.  From what the night engineer said, there was no record of the issue entered that he could find.  I've been in IT since 1979 - often in customer facing positions.  YOU NEVER TREAT A CUSTOMER LIKE THAT - EVER!  You always document the issue and use a process called Root Cause Analysis to determine if it is isolated or more widespread. Has anyone else reported this?  No?  OK, let's start with a visit to the cabin since the passenger has provided audio evidence.  It took over 2 days for that to happen and then only because I made a spectacle of myself.

 

I've documented all this in the post cruise survey.  Guest Services got a 6.  It would have been lower had the night engineer not backed us up.  I DO NOT expect any response from my survey comments.  We've had some pretty good experiences with Princess lately.  Maybe it's time to give them our money again.

[ChiosFan]

17 minutes ago, cltnccruisers said:

This was our 5th Celebrity cruise but our first TA.  It is also the first time I have had anything negative to post about Celebrity.

 

The MDR was excellent as expected.  The entertainment was good.  Embarkation and debarkation were also handled very well.  So, they continue to do some things very well.

But now for the negatives.  Some completely out of Celebrity control, some within.

There were a couple of days of rough seas from the weather.  Can't do much about that.  Can't do much about the time changes either, but they sure played havoc with us.

Now things they can and should control.

I have a habit of checking the Cocktail of the Day and trying it at different bars.  I am not exaggerating when I say that you could order the same drink in 3 different bars and have completely different experiences.  Bartending is not unskilled labor.  Celebrity needs to get them all working from the same bartenders guide.  Also, we were at 40% capacity.  You might think the service would be faster, but it was not.

 

Now for the incident that may end us as Celebrity customers.

 

Two days out of Bermuda we started to hear an intermittent whistling in our cabin.  The wind was picking up so we put it down to a seal problem with the door.  But overnight, it started getting progressively worse.  In the morning, I went to Guest Services to report the issue.  I took audio evidence which I played for the rep.  He had obvious difficulty understanding the issue.  He went to another rep who told him to tell me they'd have someone check it.  No one ever showed up.  So on the way to dinner, I stopped again with more audio evidence.  This time a different rep said it was just the weather.  OK, the weather is a factor but not the root cause.  I got a deer in headlights look.  That night the whistling reached ship alarm levels and much more frequent.  So at 6:00 the next morning I'm back again.  Apologies to the young lady on duty, but at this point she is the face of Celebrity dealing with a sleepless, angry customer.  To her credit, at least she acknowledged that the sound was a bad thing.  But that's as far as she went.  So I demanded to speak with the Director of Housekeeping.  She's says he isn't on duty until 9:00.  I don't care.  Wake his ass up.  I haven't slept for 2 nights, why should he?  I was not a happy camper and plunked my butt in a chair and fumed.  A few minutes later the night engineer shows up along with what I could only guess was security backup.  We head up to the cabin and he immediately goes to the balcony door.  Open the door, noise stops.  Close the door, it immediately returns.  Within 30 seconds he finds a split in the seal.  THAT IS THE ROOT CAUSE!  It is also what I had told the previous reps that I thought it was.

 

So with the RC identified, the night engineer gets on the phone and tells someone we need to be moved.  At one point he says very pointedly, "It's really loud!"  I lobbied for a suite but instead got an angle cabin that we had used before on Solstice ships. 

 

Now for what may end our affiliation with Celebrity.  The only follow-up we had was a brief call to see if the new cabin was acceptable.  No apology for the first 2 reps acting like I was some drunk idiot. We actually drank very little on this cruise so the drink package was kind of a bust.  From what the night engineer said, there was no record of the issue entered that he could find.  I've been in IT since 1979 - often in customer facing positions.  YOU NEVER TREAT A CUSTOMER LIKE THAT - EVER!  You always document the issue and use a process called Root Cause Analysis to determine if it is isolated or more widespread. Has anyone else reported this?  No?  OK, let's start with a visit to the cabin since the passenger has provided audio evidence.  It took over 2 days for that to happen and then only because I made a spectacle of myself.

 

I've documented all this in the post cruise survey.  Guest Services got a 6.  It would have been lower had the night engineer not backed us up.  I DO NOT expect any response from my survey comments.  We've had some pretty good experiences with Princess lately.  Maybe it's time to give them our money again.

 

 

So sorry for your experience.   I am booked on a Med cruise on the Reflection in two weeks.    My two cruises on Celebrity (Edge) were notable for the service desk’s great attitude.    And I am glad to hear that the food and entertainment were excellent.

 

I am elite with Princess.   I experienced the very same problem on my last cruise.   It took two nights to resolve.   As with your situation, the winds were strong.    First the cabin steward, to whom I first reported, tried to fix the issue, failed, and gave up.   Also, big mistake, he didn’t report.  The next night I called the desk at 3 or 4am.    First maintenance guy couldn’t fix it.    Second person, notably older and more experienced, immediately solved the problem.    (I am a boomer but will pass on the observations common to many of us regarding generational deficiencies)
 

There was one follow up call two days after to see if the situation was settled.  I believe I was given some OBC.   Maybe $100.   Okay, nice but as I explained to manager, Princess needs to train their frontline inexperienced staff to handle the issue on first request.    It is the first time a I have not tipped the room steward in all my cruising over the years.   

It was my last straw with Princess.   Two nights of sleep gone.     Plus the general lack of service, declining quality of food and noted indifference to training of staff is more than I can overlook.    I understand that the cruise lines lost many of their experienced staff.   We cruisers have allowed enough time for them to hire and train them.   
 

So, IMHO, I would suggest you give Celebrity another chance.   While unfortunate, the circumstances were a rare confluence of events.   The desk was unresponsive, yes.    However, I can promise Princess will not be an improvement for you.    Is you must change lines, perhaps HAL or NCL.  

 

[cltnccruisers]

32 minutes ago, ChiosFan said:

 

 

So sorry for your experience.   I am booked on a Med cruise on the Reflection in two weeks.    My two cruises on Celebrity (Edge) were notable for the service desk’s great attitude.    And I am glad to hear that the food and entertainment were excellent.

 

I am elite with Princess.   I experienced the very same problem on my last cruise.   It took two nights to resolve.   As with your situation, the winds were strong.    First the cabin steward, to whom I first reported, tried to fix the issue, failed, and gave up.   Also, big mistake, he didn’t report.  The next night I called the desk at 3 or 4am.    First maintenance guy couldn’t fix it.    Second person, notably older and more experienced, immediately solved the problem.    (I am a boomer but will pass on the observations common to many of us regarding generational deficiencies)
 

There was one follow up call two days after to see if the situation was settled.  I believe I was given some OBC.   Maybe $100.   Okay, nice but as I explained to manager, Princess needs to train their frontline inexperienced staff to handle the issue on first request.    It is the first time a I have not tipped the room steward in all my cruising over the years.   

It was my last straw with Princess.   Two nights of sleep gone.     Plus the general lack of service, declining quality of food and noted indifference to training of staff is more than I can overlook.    I understand that the cruise lines lost many of their experienced staff.   We cruisers have allowed enough time for them to hire and train them.   
 

So, IMHO, I would suggest you give Celebrity another chance.   While unfortunate, the circumstances were a rare confluence of events.   The desk was unresponsive, yes.    However, I can promise Princess will not be an improvement for you.    Is you must change lines, perhaps HAL or NCL.  

 

We have one more booked with Celebrity on Silhouette.  I'm inclined to cancel it, but DW isn't. After that, we'll see.  Four past cruises with Princess.  Loved Caribbean Princess.  Hated almost everything about Sky Princess.  We also found a great Princess Vacation Planner who helped us through a lot of post COVID trip changes.  Weren't impressed with NCL and the HAL itineraries in the Caribbean are nothing we haven't already done.  But we'll check them all out again.

[mahdnc]

3 hours ago, cltnccruisers said:

This was our 5th Celebrity cruise but our first TA.  It is also the first time I have had anything negative to post about Celebrity.

 

The MDR was excellent as expected.  The entertainment was good.  Embarkation and debarkation were also handled very well.  So, they continue to do some things very well.

But now for the negatives.  Some completely out of Celebrity control, some within.

There were a couple of days of rough seas from the weather.  Can't do much about that.  Can't do much about the time changes either, but they sure played havoc with us.

Now things they can and should control.

I have a habit of checking the Cocktail of the Day and trying it at different bars.  I am not exaggerating when I say that you could order the same drink in 3 different bars and have completely different experiences.  Bartending is not unskilled labor.  Celebrity needs to get them all working from the same bartenders guide.  Also, we were at 40% capacity.  You might think the service would be faster, but it was not.

 

Now for the incident that may end us as Celebrity customers.

 

Two days out of Bermuda we started to hear an intermittent whistling in our cabin.  The wind was picking up so we put it down to a seal problem with the door.  But overnight, it started getting progressively worse.  In the morning, I went to Guest Services to report the issue.  I took audio evidence which I played for the rep.  He had obvious difficulty understanding the issue.  He went to another rep who told him to tell me they'd have someone check it.  No one ever showed up.  So on the way to dinner, I stopped again with more audio evidence.  This time a different rep said it was just the weather.  OK, the weather is a factor but not the root cause.  I got a deer in headlights look.  That night the whistling reached ship alarm levels and much more frequent.  So at 6:00 the next morning I'm back again.  Apologies to the young lady on duty, but at this point she is the face of Celebrity dealing with a sleepless, angry customer.  To her credit, at least she acknowledged that the sound was a bad thing.  But that's as far as she went.  So I demanded to speak with the Director of Housekeeping.  She's says he isn't on duty until 9:00.  I don't care.  Wake his ass up.  I haven't slept for 2 nights, why should he?  I was not a happy camper and plunked my butt in a chair and fumed.  A few minutes later the night engineer shows up along with what I could only guess was security backup.  We head up to the cabin and he immediately goes to the balcony door.  Open the door, noise stops.  Close the door, it immediately returns.  Within 30 seconds he finds a split in the seal.  THAT IS THE ROOT CAUSE!  It is also what I had told the previous reps that I thought it was.

 

So with the RC identified, the night engineer gets on the phone and tells someone we need to be moved.  At one point he says very pointedly, "It's really loud!"  I lobbied for a suite but instead got an angle cabin that we had used before on Solstice ships. 

 

Now for what may end our affiliation with Celebrity.  The only follow-up we had was a brief call to see if the new cabin was acceptable.  No apology for the first 2 reps acting like I was some drunk idiot. We actually drank very little on this cruise so the drink package was kind of a bust.  From what the night engineer said, there was no record of the issue entered that he could find.  I've been in IT since 1979 - often in customer facing positions.  YOU NEVER TREAT A CUSTOMER LIKE THAT - EVER!  You always document the issue and use a process called Root Cause Analysis to determine if it is isolated or more widespread. Has anyone else reported this?  No?  OK, let's start with a visit to the cabin since the passenger has provided audio evidence.  It took over 2 days for that to happen and then only because I made a spectacle of myself.

 

I've documented all this in the post cruise survey.  Guest Services got a 6.  It would have been lower had the night engineer not backed us up.  I DO NOT expect any response from my survey comments.  We've had some pretty good experiences with Princess lately.  Maybe it's time to give them our money again.

 

I would be upset, too, but like the last poster said, maybe the grass isn't greener and you should give Celebrity another shot.

 

I have some experience to know how loud that sound can get.  During our sailing to Wellington aboard Solstice, we had some pretty fierce cross winds that evening and it caused a very loud and steady shrieking noise coming from the balcony door.  The passengers next door could hear it and they knocked on our door to find out what was happening.  I was guessing that the balcony door wasn't seated properly so I opened it and slid it shut again but that didn't seem to work (I think it made it even worse).  I called Guest Relations and they said that they would send a mechanic up to our cabin.  The mechanic did not arrive until a little over an hour later--I think he said that there were some other cabins that were having the same problem.  By then the winds had died down and with it the awful noise. Fortunately this all happened before bed time.  If your balcony door noise was as bad as ours, I cannot imagine trying to sleep with that for one night let alone two.

[cltnccruisers]

7 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

I would be upset, too, but like the last poster said, maybe the grass isn't greener and you should give Celebrity another shot.

 

I have some experience to know how loud that sound can get.  During our sailing to Wellington aboard Solstice, we had some pretty fierce cross winds that evening and it caused a very loud and steady shrieking noise coming from the balcony door.  The passengers next door could hear it and they knocked on our door to find out what was happening.  I was guessing that the balcony door wasn't seated properly so I opened it and slid it shut again but that didn't seem to work (I think it made it even worse).  I called Guest Relations and they said that they would send a mechanic up to our cabin.  The mechanic did not arrive until a little over an hour later--I think he said that there were some other cabins that were having the same problem.  By then the winds had died down and with it the awful noise. Fortunately this all happened before bed time.  If your balcony door noise was as bad as ours, I cannot imagine trying to sleep with that for one night let alone two.

DW could sleep through anything, but even she couldn't sleep through this. I've always been sensitive to things that go bump in the night.

 

We still have a partial family cruise booked on Silhouette next April so we're not dumping Celebrity totally.  But we mainly do the Caribbean and have started to have repeat itineraries.  Time to go farther afield, maybe.

[lola2013]

4 hours ago, cltnccruisers said:

DW could sleep through anything, but even she couldn't sleep through this. I've always been sensitive to things that go bump in the night.

 

We still have a partial family cruise booked on Silhouette next April so we're not dumping Celebrity totally.  But we mainly do the Caribbean and have started to have repeat itineraries.  Time to go farther afield, maybe.

Slightly off topic…we are B2B on Silhouette next April 4 and April 8.  Are either of those your family cruise?  Just wondering…..

[cltnccruisers]

43 minutes ago, lola2013 said:

Slightly off topic…we are B2B on Silhouette next April 4 and April 8.  Are either of those your family cruise?  Just wondering…..

Yes.  The April 8 Ultimate Southern.

[lola2013]

1 minute ago, cltnccruisers said:

Yes.  The April 8 Ultimate Southern.

See you then.

Susan 😎

[the penguins]

21 hours ago, ChiosFan said:

 

 

So sorry for your experience.   I am booked on a Med cruise on the Reflection in two weeks.    My two cruises on Celebrity (Edge) were notable for the service desk’s great attitude.    And I am glad to hear that the food and entertainment were excellent.

 

I am elite with Princess.   I experienced the very same problem on my last cruise.   It took two nights to resolve.   As with your situation, the winds were strong.    First the cabin steward, to whom I first reported, tried to fix the issue, failed, and gave up.   Also, big mistake, he didn’t report.  The next night I called the desk at 3 or 4am.    First maintenance guy couldn’t fix it.    Second person, notably older and more experienced, immediately solved the problem.    (I am a boomer but will pass on the observations common to many of us regarding generational deficiencies)
 

There was one follow up call two days after to see if the situation was settled.  I believe I was given some OBC.   Maybe $100.   Okay, nice but as I explained to manager, Princess needs to train their frontline inexperienced staff to handle the issue on first request.    It is the first time a I have not tipped the room steward in all my cruising over the years.   

It was my last straw with Princess.   Two nights of sleep gone.     Plus the general lack of service, declining quality of food and noted indifference to training of staff is more than I can overlook.    I understand that the cruise lines lost many of their experienced staff.   We cruisers have allowed enough time for them to hire and train them.   
 

So, IMHO, I would suggest you give Celebrity another chance.   While unfortunate, the circumstances were a rare confluence of events.   The desk was unresponsive, yes.    However, I can promise Princess will not be an improvement for you.    Is you must change lines, perhaps HAL or NCL.  

 

Regrettably these things happen and it's the response that is all important.

Cruised TA on Royal in March and had similar noise issues. Cabin steward did nothing. Next day reported to Guest Relation who sent an Engineer within 30 minutes. Engineer sorted the problem in 2 minutes.

HAL -  on a 12 day cruise it took them until day 10 before we had hot water and a working toilet  at one and the same time. No apology and 💲50 taken off our onboard bill on the last day. Have not sailed HAL since.

On Celebrity when all else fails hope that Julie is the Director of Guest Relations as then you will really see someone who believes in good old fashioned customer service. Julie's motto ( look her up on line) is "if I can't fix it, it ain't broke". 

 

[mahdnc]

1 hour ago, the penguins said:

Regrettably these things happen and it's the response that is all important.

Cruised TA on Royal in March and had similar noise issues. Cabin steward did nothing. Next day reported to Guest Relation who sent an Engineer within 30 minutes. Engineer sorted the problem in 2 minutes.

HAL -  on a 12 day cruise it took them until day 10 before we had hot water and a working toilet  at one and the same time. No apology and 💲50 taken off our onboard bill on the last day. Have not sailed HAL since.

On Celebrity when all else fails hope that Julie is the Director of Guest Relations as then you will really see someone who believes in good old fashioned customer service. Julie's motto ( look her up on line) is "if I can't fix it, it ain't broke". 

 

Wow.  Was your cabin the only one affected (hot water)?

Edited May 9, 2023 by mahdnc

[Ex-Airbalancer]

I was on the the same cruise 

The Hotel director said ship was at 50%

Food was good , service was great , at times a bit slow but it was fine 
In OVC , we would just walk by the coffee bar, wave to the guys and I would have double shot cappuccino with almond milk and 43 delivered to our seats , couldn’t ask more than that 😁

Complaining about the time change is just silly on a TA. 
 

I thought the seas was pretty calm for a TA , the outside areas were never closed. 

on the really calm night , I wanted to call the bridge and ask them to pull in the stabilizers as we couldn’t sleep as it to smooth 😁

We did keep our door open overnight on 12 of the 13 nights , cabin was quite with the door closed 

Regarding portions of food , they were smaller, servers always ask if you wanted more. I am a big guy and never asked for seconds.

Compared to last year TA on the Apex , the cruise from hell , it was like Celebrity

of 2019

 

 

 

[the penguins]

38 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

Wow.  Was your cabin the only one affected (hot water)?

We had cabin 1083 with a shower over the bath rather than a separate cubicle. To our left was a row of offices and then a public washroom.

The 2 cabins immediately to our right were empty. 

The plumber (who we got to know well from his daily visits) said that the issue was between the washrooms which were fine and our cabin - he never clarified what the issue was. After some trial and error we found that the solution was to turn on the hot taps in the bath and sink then to do something else for 20 minutes until the water ran hot. This "worked" until the day the tap over the bath jammed open and neither of us could turn it off. The plumber arrived within 5 minutes took one look and said  something like -  we have lots of problems with this style of tap but don't worry we have much better ones in the stores I will fit one for you - the new taps had levers rather than round knobs and worked great. What they did to fix the problem I don't know but on day 10 the plumber popped in to tell us that the issue had been resolved and we would no longer need to run the water for 20 minutes. 10 minutes later he was back as our toilet had stopped working.

 

[cltnccruisers]

24 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

I was on the the same cruise 

The Hotel director said ship was at 50%

Food was good , service was great , at times a bit slow but it was fine 
In OVC , we would just walk by the coffee bar, wave to the guys and I would have double shot cappuccino with almond milk and 43 delivered to our seats , couldn’t ask more than that 😁

Complaining about the time change is just silly on a TA. 
 

I thought the seas was pretty calm for a TA , the outside areas were never closed. 

on the really calm night , I wanted to call the bridge and ask them to pull in the stabilizers as we couldn’t sleep as it to smooth 😁

We did keep our door open overnight on 12 of the 13 nights , cabin was quite with the door closed 

Regarding portions of food , they were smaller, servers always ask if you wanted more. I am a big guy and never asked for seconds.

Compared to last year TA on the Apex , the cruise from hell , it was like Celebrity

of 2019

 

 

 

This was our first TA.  I knew about the time changes.  Just wasn't expecting such an effect - age, maybe.  Early on in one of his 10:00 announcement, the Cpt said 40%.  Either way, it was really nice.  DW doesn't really like buffets, but we did OVC a few times for lunch and I went there for early coffee since the station in the Hideaway wasn't up until 8:00.  Very good selection and with low capacity no hunting for seating.  Never went hungry in MDR and the staff was excellent as usual.

 

Yasar was our Asst Maitre`d in MDR and I does morning duty in OVC.  One morning I asked if they had any french vanilla creamer.  He said he'd check and let me know that evening.  Turned out he couldn't find any, but when it came time for after dinner coffee he showed up with a pitcher of vanilla syrup.  A perfect solution and the kind of service we have been used to on Celebrity.  

[Nicole&Pete]

Just now, cltnccruisers said:

This was our 5th Celebrity cruise but our first TA.  It is also the first time I have had anything negative to post about Celebrity.

 

The MDR was excellent as expected.  The entertainment was good.  Embarkation and debarkation were also handled very well.  So, they continue to do some things very well.

But now for the negatives.  Some completely out of Celebrity control, some within.

There were a couple of days of rough seas from the weather.  Can't do much about that.  Can't do much about the time changes either, but they sure played havoc with us.

Now things they can and should control.

I have a habit of checking the Cocktail of the Day and trying it at different bars.  I am not exaggerating when I say that you could order the same drink in 3 different bars and have completely different experiences.  Bartending is not unskilled labor.  Celebrity needs to get them all working from the same bartenders guide.  Also, we were at 40% capacity.  You might think the service would be faster, but it was not.

 

Now for the incident that may end us as Celebrity customers.

 

Two days out of Bermuda we started to hear an intermittent whistling in our cabin.  The wind was picking up so we put it down to a seal problem with the door.  But overnight, it started getting progressively worse.  In the morning, I went to Guest Services to report the issue.  I took audio evidence which I played for the rep.  He had obvious difficulty understanding the issue.  He went to another rep who told him to tell me they'd have someone check it.  No one ever showed up.  So on the way to dinner, I stopped again with more audio evidence.  This time a different rep said it was just the weather.  OK, the weather is a factor but not the root cause.  I got a deer in headlights look.  That night the whistling reached ship alarm levels and much more frequent.  So at 6:00 the next morning I'm back again.  Apologies to the young lady on duty, but at this point she is the face of Celebrity dealing with a sleepless, angry customer.  To her credit, at least she acknowledged that the sound was a bad thing.  But that's as far as she went.  So I demanded to speak with the Director of Housekeeping.  She's says he isn't on duty until 9:00.  I don't care.  Wake his ass up.  I haven't slept for 2 nights, why should he?  I was not a happy camper and plunked my butt in a chair and fumed.  A few minutes later the night engineer shows up along with what I could only guess was security backup.  We head up to the cabin and he immediately goes to the balcony door.  Open the door, noise stops.  Close the door, it immediately returns.  Within 30 seconds he finds a split in the seal.  THAT IS THE ROOT CAUSE!  It is also what I had told the previous reps that I thought it was.

 

So with the RC identified, the night engineer gets on the phone and tells someone we need to be moved.  At one point he says very pointedly, "It's really loud!"  I lobbied for a suite but instead got an angle cabin that we had used before on Solstice ships. 

 

Now for what may end our affiliation with Celebrity.  The only follow-up we had was a brief call to see if the new cabin was acceptable.  No apology for the first 2 reps acting like I was some drunk idiot. We actually drank very little on this cruise so the drink package was kind of a bust.  From what the night engineer said, there was no record of the issue entered that he could find.  I've been in IT since 1979 - often in customer facing positions.  YOU NEVER TREAT A CUSTOMER LIKE THAT - EVER!  You always document the issue and use a process called Root Cause Analysis to determine if it is isolated or more widespread. Has anyone else reported this?  No?  OK, let's start with a visit to the cabin since the passenger has provided audio evidence.  It took over 2 days for that to happen and then only because I made a spectacle of myself.

 

I've documented all this in the post cruise survey.  Guest Services got a 6.  It would have been lower had the night engineer not backed us up.  I DO NOT expect any response from my survey comments.  We've had some pretty good experiences with Princess lately.  Maybe it's time to give them our money again.

That is so frustrating for what is a simple fix in my opinion. We had the same problem on a royal Caribbean ship some years back (pre Covid). I could tell a small part of the seal had gone and that was causing the whistling. I phoned maintenance number and someone came right away in the middle of the night, they were ready to fix the door there and then but I said I could cope with wedging a piece of paper in the gap for that night. They fixed it the next day.

 

I would in no way say that Royal Caribbean has better service than Celebrity, so I am surprised that someone didn’t come to your cabin immediately or even attempt a temporary fix with some putty or something. I do find generally service post Covid is not what it used to be, and I also find it inconsistent depending on what ship and who you speak to.

 

I find it very frustrating when one can’t simply ask someone to help them once, but instead one has to get to the point where they are almost being rude to the person before they wake up and help them. It’s so frustrating, I like to be polite to people but they don’t make it easy if they only respond when one has got past the point of politeness.
 

Of course the annoying thing for you is not the noise in the room because these things do happen, it is the poor response to getting it sorted right away.

 

Glad you enjoyed your cruise!