So Frustrated With Celebrity!!!

[Fang]

I am an Elite Captains Club Member. I have sailed Celebrity 17 times. Have booked the Solstace for January of 2009.

 

My parents are wanting to sail with my entire family on December 27, 2009. The cruise has just been posted on the website. This is on the Soltace.

 

I contacted my TA and asked her to check into a Sky Suite (handicap) that my parents would be able to have. Although the website says that the suites are not available she was able to find one. HOWEVER, the person she talked to at Celebrity indicated that they were holding all suites for 3 and four persons. When asked to speak to a Supervisor, she was on hold for almost 20 minutes and then a Supervisor got on and told her that this was correct that Suites on this cruise are only being offered, at this time, for 3 or more in the cabin. She then asked for a Royal Suite and was told the same thing.

 

She was only able to get this cabin, because she booked my daughter into the cabin with them. My family does not have a cabin yet. There are going to be 24 of us sailing with them, on this cruise.

 

I do not doubt my TA one bit, as I have known her and been a personal friend for almost 35 years.

 

This type of customer service just really makes me want to say to Celebrity that we will find another cruise line.

 

I understand that Celebrity would want to hold some better cabins back, but when you are willing to put a deposit up, almost a year and half in advance it is just amazing to me, of this kind of treatment.

 

It really makes me want to pull my January (09) reservation from them and go to another line.

 

I really want to contact somebody at Celebrity, but don't know if it will do any good or not.

 

Just wanting to vent.

[Karynanne]

I can see how you would be frustrated. I wasn't aware that Sky Suites on Solstice could only be booked for 3 people! I can understand their policy regarding FV cabins...but not for Suites.

[berryhappy24]

It sounds like they want to get as many people as possible on the ship. More people = more money for them.

[Sky Sweet]

I am an Elite Captains Club Member. I have sailed Celebrity 17 times. Have booked the Solstace for January of 2009.

 

My parents are wanting to sail with my entire family on December 27, 2009. The cruise has just been posted on the website. This is on the Soltace.

 

I contacted my TA and asked her to check into a Sky Suite (handicap) that my parents would be able to have. Although the website says that the suites are not available she was able to find one. HOWEVER, the person she talked to at Celebrity indicated that they were holding all suites for 3 and four persons. When asked to speak to a Supervisor, she was on hold for almost 20 minutes and then a Supervisor got on and told her that this was correct that Suites on this cruise are only being offered, at this time, for 3 or more in the cabin. She then asked for a Royal Suite and was told the same thing.

 

She was only able to get this cabin, because she booked my daughter into the cabin with them. My family does not have a cabin yet. There are going to be 24 of us sailing with them, on this cruise.

 

I do not doubt my TA one bit, as I have known her and been a personal friend for almost 35 years.

 

This type of customer service just really makes me want to say to Celebrity that we will find another cruise line.

 

I understand that Celebrity would want to hold some better cabins back, but when you are willing to put a deposit up, almost a year and half in advance it is just amazing to me, of this kind of treatment.

 

It really makes me want to pull my January (09) reservation from them and go to another line.

 

I really want to contact somebody at Celebrity, but don't know if it will do any good or not.

 

Just wanting to vent.

 

Hi Fang :)

 

I can certainly understand why you are frustrated.

 

If Celebrity will not allow a couple to book a sky suite on their new ship, which is essentially just a larger room, I hope that their balcony cabins are significantly larger than they are on their existing ships.

[cruzmaven]

No real excuse for that. Horrible customer service given youe history with X and the number of cabins your group was booking. I hope X management reads these boards on occasion to see how poor execution of shortsignted policy can turn off otherwise loyal customers. May I suggest that if you're incurring the expense of booking Sky Suites and Royal Suites that you look into one of the premium lines, Regent or Crystal, maybe you'll find more rational customer service there.

[hajekfam]

I think that because it is a holiday cruise and a lot of families do book, they are holding the suites for families that need the extra room. If you look at mid January, you are able to book a suite with only two people. If I put 2 adults and 1 child in, I am able to see suites available for your cruise. If I just do 2 adults, there are no suites available for your cruise, but there are for January. Maybe they are running out of cabins that can hold more than two for this cruise.

I know someone who paid for a phantom third person on a cruise so that they could book the coveted corner FV on the Millie. They figured that the extra cost was worth the cabin as the third person rate wasn't that much more.

[Andy]

Hi Fang !

 

I can certainly understand your frustration. I have never heard of Sky Suites being limited to 3 or more people.

 

If I had to take an educated guess, as this is a New Year's sailing, this could be some sort of odd attempt by Celebrity to get more passengers in the Suite. I suppose they want to try it this way for a while, to see if they can fill the Cabins with more passengers in them. I'm not confident they can succeed with this plan though.

 

At any rate, it will not make a passenger happy, to be denied an open Cabin. As Sky said, I can totally understand that in an FV, but in a Suite ? I can see many cruisers getting ticked off at this.

 

Fang... you might want to try calling again, and ask to speak with another Supervisor. Perhaps someone can make your request happen. I hope it works out for you. Be persistent, and Good luck !

[oceanbear]

Just curious, what happens if you book for three then change it to 2 later?

[DHux]

This is just a suggestion, keep calling and ask to speak to a customer service person, if you don't get a helpful person ......keep calling till you get someone who will step it up and get the ball rolling for you, sometimes one person will tell you NO and you may get another answer if you keep asking........................if you really want SS for just two keep asking

Deborah

[NorthernLite]

Is there a letter on file that your parents need a wheelchair accessible cabin? If so and they have a personal care attendant bring the person along to do what she/he does at home for the disabled parent.

[ocngypz]

All cruiselines retain the right to restrict occupancy to maximum berths of each cabin.

 

How would you feel if all triples and quads were taken up by doubles and you were forced to buy a double and single to accommodate three.. or two doubles to accommodate 4 people?

 

BTW there's not a customer service rep at any cruiseline who can override Inventory Management.

[Jade13]

 

BTW there's not a customer service rep at any cruiseline who can override Inventory Management.

 

Yes, but the OP's parents are handicapped (wheelchair?). Aren't those staterooms really limited? They usually have a shower (no tub) which accomodates the wheelchair etc. I think if the OP has a letter from a doctor stating this is the case than Celebrity should release the cabin to them. I guess I would need more info on how many handicapped cabins are available on this ship? I also had such a poor pre-cruise customer service experiance that I wouldn't be surprised if the rep/Celebrity missed the handicaped part.

[ev8876]

We just had a similar incident when trying to book 7 cabins on the Solstice for January 2009. We wanted all the cabins adjacent to each other. Were told that because every other cabin on the Solstice is technically a triple, they would not let us have cabins next to each other for bookings of just 2 people per cabin. Guess their policy is to hold out for a higher passenger count. Makes it difficult on large groups trying to plan in advance.

[badger71]

did your TA go through their celebrity rep?

[Sky Sweet]

I was looking forward to trying Celebrity's new ship but if my husband and I can't book the type of cabin as a couple that we can book on other cruise lines, this will be a major issue for us.

[uktog]

You can book it on line for 2 people no problems so I think there have been crossed wires

A

[Fang]

Please see my thread "Thank You Celebrity".

 

Everything, it appears, will be worked out.

 

Well Done Celebrity!!!

[Karynanne]

I'm happy that you were able to get this resolved.

 

We'd been previously told, that Celebrity does read this board. It's good to see that they value our inquires.

[Ma Bell]

I'm so happy that things worked out. It's usually a good thing to wait a couple of days to see what happens before getting upset.:D

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Boy, if they're going to be packing 3 people into every room which should only really have 2 people, that ship is going to be unbearable in the number of people on board in my opinion. Not my idea of a good time. Think I'll stick with the M class ships. Crowds are not my thing.