Celebrity web site... plain bad

[expat67]

Compared to other company sites is just lame. Want to sail on the new Century find photos somewhere else. Excuse I got from Celebrity "we want to save new photos for our new brochure". Ask a question about spa $'s forget it "depends on the cruise we don't operate the spa a company in England does" etc... got frustrated hand said thanx for your help...

[cruiser2004]

Expat67,

Yes it can be frustrating. You will find that Celebrity is reluctant to give a direct answer to any question. It does not seem to matter if you are asking a question on their web site or calling customer service.

[mii]

Compared to other company sites is just lame. Want to sail on the new Century find photos somewhere else. Excuse I got from Celebrity "we want to save new photos for our new brochure". Ask a question about spa $'s forget it "depends on the cruise we don't operate the spa a company in England does" etc... got frustrated hand said thanx for your help...

 

There are times that ALL cruise lines's customer service are the same not just Celebrity. Princess also has had problems as I would imagine all of the rest of them.

 

marilyn

[4 cruisers]

Okay....for them to send me an E-MAIL with a link to their website and the new pictures of the new Cenury.....and they are NOT YET AVAILABLE!!!!!!!! Sorry, this is just VERY POOR MARKETING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was such a waste of time especially considering I have been checking their site for photos for months now! I think it's actually scary the way they are running their website. Oh, the e-mail I get is in British Pounds! Pretty funny here in So. Cal!:confused: Face it...they are VERY screwed up!!!!

[expat67]

There are times that ALL cruise lines's customer service are the same not just Celebrity. Princess also has had problems as I would imagine all of the rest of them.

 

marilyn

 

You can't justify celebrity's website by saying well they're all the same. If they want to seperate themselves as different, updating a website isn't too much to ask. Check any decent hotel site. I'm sailing on Celebrity in October and I have to go to travelocity to see what my suite looks like???Give me a break thats just bad business!!

[florisdekort]

Actually I like the website - the tecnhical part of it. It is very easy to compare itineraries and tariffs, to check if my favorite cabins are available, to make an actual reservation and to manage it (bedding, dinner seating, etc.). I have booked all my cruises on www.celebrity.com (who needs a travel agent these days?).

 

Also, I always book my shore excursions on the website. Celebrity recently upgraded the shore excursions interface, and the new tool is a huge improvement over the old one.

 

I agree that the website could maybe have some additional pictures on it, but to me that is of lesser importance as the functionalities described above. I like the pictures I took myself much better anyway :D

 

So to make a sweeping generalization like 'plain bad' is over the top. Maybe it doesn't meet your needs, it sure does meet mine.

 

Floris

[cruiser2004]

In my opinion still showing a cruise on the Celebrity website for the Sept 13 Infinity as "sold out" (a cruise which has been cancelled for three weeks) does not exactly match what most of the cruising public SHOULD expect.

[elena7seas]

By and large I find the website very user-friendly and better than most. I'm very impressed with the interface between reservations and My Celebrity on-line...it's great to see my reservation information being updated immediately.

 

My question is a follow-up to a point you made in a recent post...is there a way to check on the X website to see exactly which cabins are still available for any given cruise? If so, can you share how to do it?

 

Thanks....I always appreciate the information you have to share.

[WooKeef]

You can't justify celebrity's website by saying well they're all the same. If they want to seperate themselves as different, updating a website isn't too much to ask. Check any decent hotel site. I'm sailing on Celebrity in October and I have to go to travelocity to see what my suite looks like???Give me a break thats just bad business!!

 

I agree with you that the website is less than informative and lacks bells and whistles others may have. I was dissappointed to not see more pics of the ship...etc

[Jimsgirl]

In my opinion still showing a cruise on the Celebrity website for the Sept 13 Infinity as "sold out" (a cruise which has been cancelled for three weeks) does not exactly match what most of the cruising public SHOULD expect.

 

How right you are!. Even the screens at Customer service still do not show Infinity as being in drydock, and the Panama Canal cruise being reduced by one day to Sept 24.

Customer service will in fact tell you that the ship docks at SF at 7.am. on Sept 23, you board and she sails at 5p.m. that day.(this as of Monday and Wednesday) I love the ships/staff but HO is the pits.

Tell them they are incorrect and you are treated with scorn, they say I know what my screen says etc.

Even on this board this week posters were quoting the Web page as being "the gospel" because in their eyes Celebrity can do no wrong. Even though there are over 140 postings under one heading re the cancelled cruise, the drydock,screwed up hotel/flights/vacations, and incorrect tickets issued by Celebrity this week.

[Curlyjo]

Floris, I agree with you. Booking through Celebrity.com is VERY easy as well as comparing cruises and navigating throughout the website. (BTW, I don't like Princess's website, if anyone cares.) I haven't looked into Century's new ship - pictures, etc, so I cannot comment on that. However, I'm not impressed that they haven't updated the maps for some of the cruises. You wouldn't think that would take very long to do. Maybe they need to hire some web/graphics staff. :rolleyes:

 

Elena, checking to see if a particular cabin you're wanting is very easy. All you have to do is go to the cruise you want to book, select Book Now, continue, and at the top it says "are you looking for a specific stateroom?" type in your room and it'll tell you if it's available. If you're picking a GTY room, it won't tell you because the cruiseline picks it for you. Hope it works as well for you as it does for me.

[Captain Cosmo]

The website is awful. Each time I log in to check/modify my reservation its tells me that the login information I've provided is incorrect, then when I enter the same information it works on the second try - Every time. For almost two weeks in mid-August anytime I used the cabin search feature to see if a particular cabin was available it would show that all categories of cabin were sold out - even when I entered the number of each of the three cabinns that pop up in each category when you do a general search. Just to make sure I choose cruises at random and all of them were "sold out". Not a great way to boost X's revenue (an important point for those of you who are Royal Carribean stockholders first and paying passengers second). I was already booked on a September 2007 cruise and wanted to change cabins and finally had to call to do it. Meanwhile, Shorex told me that I could begin booking my shore excursions for my December 2006 cruise in September. I was able to get access to the excursions in late August, but each excursion booking took several tries, as the website went back and forth between allowing booking and saying that no excursions were available. It is now September and I have one last excursion to book, but the site won't display anything for the debarkation date, which has a half-dozen options when you look up shore excursions without logging in first. I sent an email to their website support folks and got a stock response saying "they're working on it". Imagine if the airlines - which book far more tickets per day - had websites that worked this erratically. Its not the end of the world, but I'm used to websites that work, having booked all my business and pleasure travel online for the last 8 years. Just another sign that X is asleep at the wheel.

[expat67]

The website is awful. Each time I log in to check/modify my reservation its tells me that the login information I've provided is incorrect, then when I enter the same information it works on the second try - Every time. For almost two weeks in mid-August anytime I used the cabin search feature to see if a particular cabin was available it would show that all categories of cabin were sold out - even when I entered the number of each of the three cabinns that pop up in each category when you do a general search. Just to make sure I choose cruises at random and all of them were "sold out". Not a great way to boost X's revenue (an important point for those of you who are Royal Carribean stockholders first and paying passengers second). I was already booked on a September 2007 cruise and wanted to change cabins and finally had to call to do it. Meanwhile, Shorex told me that I could begin booking my shore excursions for my December 2006 cruise in September. I was able to get access to the excursions in late August, but each excursion booking took several tries, as the website went back and forth between allowing booking and saying that no excursions were available. It is now September and I have one last excursion to book, but the site won't display anything for the debarkation date, which has a half-dozen options when you look up shore excursions without logging in first. I sent an email to their website support folks and got a stock response saying "they're working on it". Imagine if the airlines - which book far more tickets per day - had websites that worked this erratically. Its not the end of the world, but I'm used to websites that work, having booked all my business and pleasure travel online for the last 8 years. Just another sign that X is asleep at the wheel.

 

agree completely, however apologists for Celebrity feel they must justify everything they do, keeping an up to date website is not too onerous I would think. Its nice,some people think their own pictures are better as they should be, when booking a cruise I would like to see what the rooms actually look like.

[elena7seas]

That's a great facility for checking individual cabins. What I was hoping to find was a list of all of the cabins available on any deck.

 

We are currently booked in a connecting stateroom, and I understand that they can have noise issues, so I was hoping to find a midship CC stateroom that is not connecting. I was hoping that I would be able to monitor the website to see if any CC non-connecting cabins become available, without having to bother the Celebrity travel planners.

 

I think that someone on these boards said that one of the on-line travel megasites has that facility, but I couldn't locate it.

 

Thanks so much for helping out

[tbelian]

I was just wondering, purely from a curiosity standpoint, if any of the critics in this thread have ever actually done any website design, outside of a few static html pages that the 'wizard' created for them. Has anyone built one that connects to a back end database, has flash, or quicktime VR, or was made with something more robust than 'Front Page'? Maybe one that manages cookies/personal profile information? cgi/perl? Java anyone?

 

I can say from personal experience that managing a true 'multi dimensional' website is really a bit more "onerous" than you might think.

[expat67]

I was just wondering, purely from a curiosity standpoint, if any of the critics in this thread have ever actually done any website design, outside of a few static html pages that the 'wizard' created for them. Has anyone built one that connects to a back end database, has flash, or quicktime VR, or was made with something more robust than 'Front Page'? Maybe one that manages cookies/personal profile information? cgi/perl? Java anyone?

 

I can say from personal experience that managing a true 'multi dimensional' website is really a bit more "onerous" than you might think.

 

Maybe you should apply for the job, clearly other companies(not only cuiselines) can manage it, with the capital a company like RCI has surely they can hire a few more IT guys... Its not my job as a client to do their work I have enough. When you need 3rd party jpegs to view your cabin, something is amiss. Century was refit in May it still has 90's vintage photos on its website.

[CORONA47]

who needs a travel agent these days?

 

If you don't use a travel agent then I presume you are paying whatever Celebrity is charging?

 

My travel agent explained that Celebrity is trying to eliminate discounts and fix their prices - however travel agents are still allowed to rebate portions of their commission in the form of on board credit or gifts. In addition travel agents can get you a group discount if they have purchased multiple cabins to resell. For my transatlantic they were able to rebate 5% on Decembers Galaxy (now canceled) and 9.5% on the Millenium for the November 24th crossing which I just booked today. These rebates are on the cruise portion only which do not include the airfare, taxes or port fees. To me it is a nice savings to allow somebody else to handle all the work.

 

Floris, I think you are missing the boat when it comes to getting the best cruise price if you are just booking directly with Celebrity. Just some friendly advice since I see from your signature that you seem to cruise alot.

[nu2sea]

I find the website easy to navigate for most of what I need. But then, I have been using it for quite a while and have grown accustomed to its quirks.

 

It is frustrating that the graphics and the photos are so dated. A cut away version of the "new" Century would be great to explore. Photographs of cabins instead of diagrams would also be nice.

 

It is time for X to do some major updating of its web presence. It is probably long overdue.

 

Susan

[cruiser2004]

I was just wondering, purely from a curiosity standpoint, if any of the critics in this thread have ever actually done any website design, outside of a few static html pages that the 'wizard' created for them. Has anyone built one that connects to a back end database, has flash, or quicktime VR, or was made with something more robust than 'Front Page'? Maybe one that manages cookies/personal profile information? cgi/perl? Java anyone?

 

I can say from personal experience that managing a true 'multi dimensional' website is really a bit more "onerous" than you might think.

 

I am an IT guy and do not think it would take a wizard to keep a webpage up to date, IF Celebrity really wanted too. I just do not believe that showing a cruise as "sold out " that was cancelled three weeks ago, assuming that this an oversight, is that much of a burden.

[Captain Cosmo]

Given that Royal Carribean just spent almost $900 million to buy a shabby cruiseline in Spain I think they could come up with the money to hire a couple of IT guys who know (or care) what they're doing. I think they are banking too much on their older passengers who are used to using travel agents. If Celebrity wants to capture more of the under 60 crowd the website just needs to work.

[cruiser2004]

Given that Royal Carribean just spent almost $900 million to buy a shabby cruiseline in Spain I think they could come up with the money to hire a couple of IT guys who know (or care) what they're doing. I think they are banking too much on their older passengers who are used to using travel agents. If Celebrity wants to capture more of the under 60 crowd the website just needs to work.

 

Captain Cosmo,

I just wonder if all travel agents and potential passengers know that some times the website can be more than three weeks out of date and can show cruises as "sold out" when they are not, or it can show a cruise as "sold out" when the cruise has actually been canceled.

[campingman]

The Celebrity website is plain pathetic for a company that has a motto of we treat you famously.

The information that is lacking on the new 55 million dollar Century refit re cabin pics and room dimensions makes the Celebrity management look like they are incompetent.

[expat67]

The Celebrity website is plain pathetic for a company that has a motto of we treat you famously.

The information that is lacking on the new 55 million dollar Century refit re cabin pics and room dimensions makes the Celebrity management look like they are incompetent.

 

Its beyond the pale, resting on its laurels. to have to google pictures to see what its product looks like amazes me. Though I know it has a great product, a little corporate responsibiliy isn't much to ask

[dkjretired]

Its beyond the pale, resting on its laurels. to have to google pictures to see what its product looks like amazes me. Though I know it has a great product, a little corporate responsibiliy isn't much to ask

 

I went on line and found 30 pictures on the new Century in about five seconds on Celebrity's web site.

[tprime76]

Is this REALLY worth getting upset over??? What other web sites are that much better than X's? I don't like the Carnival Sites (HAL, Princess, etc.) because you have to log in to see the cruise price. For that reason, I just use Expedia if I am curious.

 

As far as the 'sold out' tag on a cancelled cruise, it probably has NOTHING to do with thier IT folks. Without getting too in depth (was involved in coordinating the support a very large corporation's web site in a past job) There are the people who design the sites (IT, many times expensive contractors) and usually the people who publish the content to them (usually a branch off of marketing). Since a cancelled cruise doesn't happen very often, the person in marketing may have just decided it was more cost effective to mark all of the rooms on the ship as unavailable, resulting in a 'sold out' tag. Does this mean that they don't plan on fixing that? No, it is probably on a list of things that need to be done to the site, but given a very low priority in terms of cost/need. That is the same reason why my web site is not done manually (even though it is MUCH less in depth compared to X's) I just don't have the time. Using a template was a MUCH more effective use of my time.

 

I know that I am going to be labeled by some as a Celebrity apologist, fine. All of you who are reading this page OBVIOUSLY know that the best place to look for information on a cruise (or any other product) is NOT their web site anyway, that's why you are here. We all know that companies will only show you what they want you to see in their marketing. Sites like this for information or Travelocity (VERY great site for pics on any vacation) for pics are great. Anything I see on X's, RCCL's, HAL's, etc. sites I ALWAYS take with a grain of salt until I confirm it on here.