Tall Valley Cruiser

Thank you all for your helpful input. One additional question. We will be staying at the Holiday Inn, Herbert Walker Ave. The day of the cruise do we need to make special arrangements to get to the terminal, or just grab a cab from the hotel? How far is it to the terminal to pick up Princess?

Thanks everyone, will check it out! Southampton (had a senior moment on spelling, but could not re-edit. As Homer would say: Doh!!

Setting out on a cruise to Norway from South Hampton in late June. We will arrive a day before the cruise to help protect us from unexpected delays and spend the night in South Hampton, before boarding the next day. Cruise line does not provide transfer unless the same day as the cruise or if we opt for staying in London the night before. Have checked some of the limo companies, but when I look at reviews I see great ones, and nightmare ones for the same company. Anyone have consistently great experience with a transportation service from Heathrow to South Hampton? Thanks!

I wonder what the response rate on the the questionnaire is. It is way too detailed. The entire thing is 4X longer than it should be, and the only reason why we respond is to recognize crew members. However, we are tempted to no longer respond because is intrusive and annoying. Perhaps Princess should look at the response rate, and if it is low, realize they are making it too difficult on the passengers. They should assure an alternate way to leave positive feedback on staff. I have been told by staff the recommendation cards that you can pick up in your stateroom or at passenger services are useless.

That is correct but they won't agree with it.

 

My DH was on the flight line in the AF and wore the big honker ear gear and he has moderate hearing loss already at 48.

Thank him for his service. In army a few decades back, hearing protection not enough. I do not think anyone wants to spoil the vibe with music at a fun, safe level. However, walking around with hearing loss or tinnitus (constant ringing in your ears) is not fun. We could not avoid it, but some feel that it could never happen to them. I just would caution people to realize once you have done damage you cannot undo it.

Dear Celebrity Cruises, we all do appreciate your reply...however, with all due respect, the same issue was back in March, on the "Hey Celebrity - Loud music does not mean a younger demographic" thread and at that time, 6 months ago, you said you would be looking into the music issue. Since it has continued to be a problem (not for me, I was just off the geriatric Canada cruise and the levels were great) - but it seems to still be a problem for many...how do we know this time there will really be a compromise met?

 

I'm sorry I'm not techie enough to link the thread/your post.

It is medical science that tells us prolonged exposure to loud music will cause increasing hearing impairment. I know that there are some of you that may not think so, and may be lucky that it does not effect you. But if you cannot talk to someone standing next to you be it a bar, concert, work site, without shouting you are in a problematic location. Depending on the level of music it could take anywhere from a couple of minutes to an hour. If it hits rock concert levels it could be much shorter. Over 1/3 of hearing loss is attributable to loud noise. Look at it another way, if someone told you every time you listened to very loud music you would go a little blind, and the next time a little more blind shouldn't you be concerned. There are devices called sound meters, these are easy to use to determine safe or unsafe noise conditions, just like thermometers used in the ships galley to determine if the freezer and refrigerator is cold enough so food does not spoil.

I still cannot register with Chrome or IE or on my Android tablet - but I keep trying *insanity* :rolleyes:

Looks like Don did it using an iPAD. If you have a trusted family member or friend maybe you can try. Or go back to TA or Celebrity and ask them to do it.

I really understand the "insanity" comment being a computer guy since punch cards in college.

Good luck!

The sign up number that was stuck on 13 for a couple of months. My TA says I am just as important to Celebrity as his company. it is interesting to see that the sign ups almost doubled within a few days of the TA talking to Celebrity about my lack of ability to sign up. Thanks for everyone's perseverance.

As a new CC participant, when do the M&M normally take place?

Received an official email today that our 8/1 Solstice meet & greet was cancelled since not enough people signed up...major bummer CC & Celebrity. We are disappointed. I am sure it is due to sign up issues.:(

I totally agree. I will wave to you as you will be leaving when as we arrive for the 8/8 Solstice. I wish you a wonderful cruise! Don't sweat the small stuff.:)

If this is working for you, try checking July 10, 2015 on Millennium and see what happens.

Thanks

Hi,

I checked for a party on your date and received the following message:

"Invalid sail date July 10, 2015 for ship Celebrity Millennium." The good news is you have almost a year to work it out. The bad news is, will there be enough time. ;)

Tall Valley Cruiser,

 

I tried using the link you provided and still get "invalid sail date."

Not sure why that happened. Perhaps you can try by doing the following.

Go directly to Celebrity "home page". Roll down to the bottom and you will see "Customer Support" under that section is the link "FAQs", click on that. You should be redirected to the FAQ page. You should see three images toward the top of the page titled "Pre-Cruise", "During Your Cruise" and "Post Cruise". Now that you know you are on the correct page roll down a bit and you will see the heading "What is a Cruise Critic Connections party and how do I register?" and look for the link in that section. Try it from there. Not sure what there is a certain browser that might work for some, but not others. Somehow other major on-line sites do not have any of these issues.

I know how frustrating this can be, I wish you success.

As a test I just tried to update our registration using Chrome (Version 36.0.1985.125 m) running Windows 8.1 and it still is functioning for me. I entered the Meet and Mingle link through Cruise Critic. I do not know if it would make any difference to go directly to the Celebrity site.

https://secure.celebritycruises.com/cruisecritic/home

Only variable I can think of is getting my TA involved. With my permission he actually was the one to initially register. I only verified by checking update with my computer using the update process above.

If you have the time or desire try following up through your TA or Celebrity. I would not like to see this get together disappear.

Still not working I just get page not found :(

 

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Forums mobile app

Sorry, did you use a TA to book? Possibly try and enlist their help or call Celebrity and ask them for help and have them fill out.

Hi Folks,

I realize this ranks sort of on the bottom of the list compared to everything else going on in the world, but nice to see a little progress.

After the frustration of not getting any response from Celebrity to resolve, I contacted my TA and asked him to make inquiries. He was told that the issue was "temporary" and should be resolved shortly. I tried a handful of times on 7/27 and 7/28 with no success. Put in another call to TA and he called back this morning and made him go through process. It worked! We are on the Solstice, August 8. Right now the sign up has increased from 13 to 15. It has been 13 for at least a month. So any of you that have given up, try again. Let's get to our 25 for our cruise and the minimum for everyone else. Please let us all know if it works for you. Good luck! :)

Hi Topcat11 . Have you received any acknowledgement of your poll results? 6 days seems a very generous amount of time for a company in the hospitality arena.

Hi Hcat,

 

I'm fairly certain that Celebrity cannot register you on the phone.

 

Folks, here's some helpful information. If your sailing is coming up soon, and you are unable to register ? Don't worry ! Everyone is welcome to attend, and an invite is not required. When you board the ship, ask Guest Relations (or the Event Coordinator) for the time and location of the meet and mingle, and they will be happy to provide the information.

Hi Andy,

We are frequent cruisers, and are looking forward to our first on Celebrity.

We thought it would be fun to meet some of the other Cruise Critic members.

I am not sure you understand. If less than 25 people are signed up prior to 72 hours of departure there will be NO meeting to discuss with Guest Relations after boarding. They will simply say there is no meeting. How can you get a count for the August 8, 2014 Solstice cruise? If there are not 25 registered we need another way to sign up. Currently it is impossible to sign up before sailing. It appears if Celebrity wanted to fix their website they would have. Perhaps they no longer want the meets and are using IT as the excuse.

Thank you, but can you please let us know about these things so we can properly route them to the correct groups who can assist. I can send you an email with my contact information again if necessary. Thanks again![/quote

 

According to the Cruise Critic "sticky" this issue has been around since April. When I spoke to Celebrity yesterday they told me this is a known IT issue. If Celebrity corporate marketing monitors Cruise Critic to make sure of meeting and exceeding expectations this cannot be breaking news.

Hi Folks,

We are on the Solstice Alaska cruise in August.

Wanted to sign up for Meet and Mingle, but after filling out all requested fields ended up on Celebrity site stating "page not found". Notice sticky from April about issues with Celebrity website updated again in early June stating continued problems . Notice only 13 sign ups. Must be people who signed up before April. Wonder what the number would be if the process worked?

Any suggestions on how to register?

Thanks

UPDATE: After waiting 24 hours there was no notification of my registration.

I made 4 additional attempts with same results (we started in May). Yesterday we called Celebrity advised them of the issue. They checked with another department and came back with the "it is a known issue". Asked if there was any other way to register. They said to see if Cruise Critic could do it, but I know because of privacy issues CC cannot. He suggested registering when on board. However, that will not work since the count yesterday was 13. So if the 25 is not met, it will not happen at all. To the reps credit he attempted to register us on the Celebrity site but ran into the same "page not found" issue. He had no knowledge of "another shortcut".

I have done web design, and this should not take months to fix. If they want to support the Meet and Greets why haven't they fixed it, or provided another way to register?

I have sent the final results to Michael Bayley and eagerly await a substantive response from him.

I assume you will share what the response is? We are not talking about putting a man on the moon here. :D Hopefully we will hear something soon.

Thanks everyone. I will give it another day.

Would be a shame not to hit the 25 number

because we could not register.

Appreciate your feedback!

Hi Folks,

We are on the Solstice Alaska cruise in August.

Wanted to sign up for Meet and Mingle, but after filling out all requested fields ended up on Celebrity site stating "page not found". Notice sticky from April about issues with Celebrity website updated again in early June stating continued problems . Notice only 13 sign ups. Must be people who signed up before April. Wonder what the number would be if the process worked?

Any suggestions on how to register?

Thanks

We appreciate your bringing this to our attention. Today I read a post from a July Alaska - Solstice cruise that they were playing music on deck during the Tracy Arm portion. So it appears it is still happening.

We called Celebrity Corporate Guest Relations yesterday and advised them of the poll and had them view it when we were on the phone. How long can it take for corporate to get instructions to the ship? We are sailing August 8 on the Solstice.

Guest Relations suggested sending an email with links to the poll and comments to Michael Bayley. I will leave this for Topcat11 since you spearheaded this. Hope they do the right thing very soon.

Thanks again

I highly recommend princess for alaskan cruises if you prefer to not have loud music playing while visiting the glaciers

 

All music is turned off and engine noise is reduced to silence. The most amazing and serene trip imaginable.

They did the same thing on HAL 7 years ago when we were next to the Mendenhall Glacier. We have cruised Princess many times, and thought that we would try Celebrity as a potential step up. I hope they meet our expectations by showing some sensitivity to our viewing and listening to nature without man made distractions.

We join Artemis in his comments. We are booked for August 8 Alaska Solstice. We last cruised Alaska on HAL in 2007. I remember the Captain making an announcement when we were viewing Glacier Bay for every one to be as quiet as possible, and the naturalist was able to point out wildlife etc. There was NO music. It was wonderful. We expected that since Celebrity has a very good naturalist, the ship and the company would consider quiet a good approach. Love music, but in a night club, bar, theater. You can add your own music, but we prefer the sound of nature. We were looking forward to the Tracy Arm cruise, now we are not.