clojacks

55 minutes ago, anniegb said:

I don't mind people being 'short' - I can come across like that myself.  I do mind other posters who do not want to search the posts themselves even though they say they are curious.  Anyway I am out,

As you suggested I do, I searched through the whole 26 pages of posts on this thread, and did NOT find anywhere that said Fall 2024 was “Oversold”. I did find reference to at least 1 fall sailing in 2024 having no cabins available in a specific category, AFTER all the L&S started, implying that it was not “Oversold” in the context of Celebrity selling more cabins than they had, but rather sold out in some categories of the cabins that were available.

1 minute ago, anniegb said:

Well I have read on this thread from more than 1 pink slip victim comments they have received from Celebrity agents that the Oct 2024 L&S cruises are no longer available.

I was not party to the conversations.  Maybe the cruisers who were will wish to unmask themselves but I will not.

If you read the thread carefully you will discover who they are.

Not available is possibly not the same as "oversold", like you said. It is very possible that those cruises are now full already. I apologize if I'm sounding short, but this topic has veered from its course, sometimes from misinformation, sometimes from word context. I'd just like posters to be accurate in what they are posting as there have been a ton of people negatively impacted by Celebrities actions, and inaccuracy doesn't help those still waiting with baited breath.

39 minutes ago, raananh said:

This is getting worse and worse every day.

We also have an October 2023 cruise that was "oversold". We can't go in October 2024, so we cancelled the cruise.

Now you are telling us that those who want to S&L / Transfer to October 2024 can't do that because those cruises are completely sold. So everyone who was "oversold" will have to cancel.

P/S: I said to Celebrity that I would be glad to go on a Japan cruise for October 2025, but Celebrity still do not have those cruises planned for 2025.

This was my issue with the person who posted that, and what posts are now becoming in general on this topic. It's gone from early posts providing factual info on what happened to them, and how it was being handled by Celebrity, to now becoming an "I heard" cavalcade of questionable opinions. If the poster comes on and tells us where she heard the Oct 2024 oversold bit, and it isn't another third party unconfirmed source, I stand apologetically. But if it is an unconfirmed story, leave it off here.

24 minutes ago, anniegb said:

The goalposts are shifting all the time ........... One 'pink slip' party tried to L&S from Oct 23 to Oct 24 but that was overbooked.  They are now booked on a Sep 24 cruise which was not on any list.

 

I suspect Celebrity may have to expand the number of L&S cruises as there could be a supply issue................

 

 

This is what I am referring to regarding facts. I, personally, haven’t heard of ANY overbooked fall ‘24 cruises. I may have missed it, but if you could find it and copy and paste it, I’d be curious. 

3 minutes ago, anniegb said:

Sorry my convoluted brain.

 

Has anyone read an update from any of those cruisers who were, IIRC, had B2B2B cruises booked and Celebrity cancelled their 2nd leg??

 

This really isn't rocket science.......................

I guess I'm still confused. 

I read factually about a family who had 6 rooms booked and 3 were cancelled. 

I have not read about a family who had 9 separate cruises booked.

I do know someone a while back...about 20 pages or so... posted a list of Milly cruises affected in fall of '23 and spring of '24 that totaled 9 separate cruises.

I have seen copies of letters that cruisers with a fall '23 cruise affected that offered a "suggested" list of 3 fall of '24 cruises as L&S's.

I have seen copies of letters that cruisers with a spring of "24 cruise affected that offered a "suggested" list of 3 spring of '25 cruises as L&S's.

It seems like this 25 page thread has veered from affected cruisers sharing what happened to them to a plethora of opinions on how it has been handled....which is fine, that's what message boards are for... but  there might be value in checking back to see if what someone is posting is really what has happened or a guess at what they think they remember reading on this thread a week ago.

7 minutes ago, anniegb said:

Hello Bo again

 

L&S is not being applied in the normal manner.

 

An example

 

Family had 3 of their cabins cancelled.  If they became available later, they can purchase them at rate prevailing in 2023 and not 2021 (date of original booking)

 

9 cruises were impacted.  Only 3 cruises were available for L&S.

9 into 3 doesn't go.  

I don’t believe that is correct regarding the 3 cruises offered. If I remember correctly, those with fall 2023 cruises affected were offered fall 2024 cruises, and those with spring 2024 cruises affected were offered spring 2025 cruises I believe. More like 6 cruises offered than 3.

45 minutes ago, anniegb said:

Apologies, I should have made it clearer.

 

I was referring to Travel Insurance.

 

You stated you had travelled previously without purchasing travel insurance.  In Europe, there are cruise lines that will not allow you to board without evidence of a travel policy.

I've never heard of "being required" to have travel insurance in Europe, and we have multiple Med cruises. Can you name who these cruise lines are??

1 hour ago, Belgian fry said:

 

- The official Celebrity agent for Belgium has said (in writing, several times) that there is no overbooking and that if there was then Celebrity would call for volunteers. I have sent copies of several letters and they are now "making enquiries". Note that this is the official agent for my country

 

 

 

Belgian, the question I have is, is the "official Agent of Celebrity" an employee of Celebrity in Belgium or is he/she an independent travel agent who "represents" or "offers" celebrity cruises. The only difference might be how they acquire their information. It's impact on you doesn't really make one way or the other any better...just helps us understand how they could be feeding you such obviously incorrect info.

13 minutes ago, Bo1953 said:

a - their air tickets are not covered by travel insurance???

 

Pray tell the reason or is it the cruise line insurance vs third party???

 

bon voyage

It's very possible that is their way of phrasing that they do not have travel insurance...

22 minutes ago, Judy Arthur said:

 

I feel your angst, but supposedly, all the eviction letters for this particular sailing have already gone out.    Hope it’s true!🤞

Gone out isn’t the same as “received”. Particularly if it is in the hands of a TA who has hundreds of them to forward.

Back in the end of June, I noticed that our March 28, ‘24 sailing had disappeared from Celebrity’s and our TA’s websites. I contacted Celebrity at that time and was told the ship was sold out. Wouldn’t you think at that time they might have noticed something was might be a little unusual and cross check the inventory’s? 21 months ahead of sailing? How simple it would have been to catch some of this.

19 minutes ago, Belgian fry said:

I have just posted this in my roll-call, where at least 4 bookings have been cancelled:

 

Here is a translation of the text I received in French today (25 April). This is from the official Celebrity agent in Belgium (original text below):

 

We have no indication that this departure, or other departures with Celebrity Cruises in Asia have any overbooking problems. For this reason, we cannot answer your question. It would be pure speculation.

 

In the very rare case that the fleet (I think they used the wrong word here in the French) is faced with an overbooking situation, initially volunteers are called upon to postpone their trip, in exchange for compensation. When, how and how much compensation is given is decided and proposed only at the time at which the problem presents itself.

 

I told them I was dumbstruck by their response, given the problems are common knowledge and have been reported in the press.

 

I am at the point where I want to cancel all future bookings with Celebrity (including my dream Galapagos trip) and never travel with them again 

 

Nous n’avons aucune indication que ce départ, ou d’autres départs avec Celebrity Cruises en Asie ont des problèmes d’overbooking.

Pour cette raison, nous ne pouvons pas répondre à votre question.  Ce serait de la pure spéculation.

 

Dans le cas très exceptionel que l’armement est confronté avec une situation d’overbooking, d’abord les volontaires sont demandés pour reporter leur voyage, moyennant un dédommagement.

Quand, comment et combien de dédommagement est décidé et proposé uniquement au moment que le problème se présenterais.

Here is an example of an email pertaining to one of the sailings being affected by overbooking. Maybe show this to your Belgian Celebrity agent, because it appears they are out of the loop.

2 minutes ago, donald1039 said:

When we were cancelled we did not receive a letter. When I spoke with the agent I was only given 2 options, lift and shift to 1 of 3 2025 sailings at the same rate or refund with $450 future credit which was consistent with the letter some have posted.  She said they had exhausted all options to keep us on that ship (March 28) in answer to a possible downgrade which we wouldn’t have accepted anyway.
We were very disappointed and moving out another year of uncertainty would have further deflated us so we’ve found an alternate vacation in Japan for the same time frame which we’re now more excited about than the cruise. Many of you can’t do this I realize, but I would recommend exploring non Celebrity options to get past this. 

Is your “alternate vacation” land based or a cruise with another line?

Unfortunately, there are an awful lot of “I think” and “I heard” and “they used to” comments starting to take the place of actual facts and personal impact reply’s. Unfortunately, that is what is proliferating the FB boards related to the Millennium right now….tons and tons of wasted comments, particularly to those who have already been impacted to those waiting for dreaded email or phone call. I know every bodies opinion is valuable, but in this unfortunate situation, factual information becomes way more valuable than someone’s guess.

Let me add that some of the trash opinions on the FB Millennium thread make it totally unreadable. The value of comments on CC are infinitely more informed it appears.

We originally booked the 14 day Millennium for 3-28-21, on 1-31-19. It got cancelled due to COVID. When it cancelled, we rebooked onto the Solstice 14 day for 3-27-22. Due to uncertainty in the region, we it switched to the 14 day 3-28-23 on the Solstice, that Celebrity turned around and cancelled, offering us the 12 day 3-28-24 sailing on the Millennium, that we took. So, 4 booked sailings later, a largely different itinerary than we originally were excited about, and 2 days less in Japan, there is a very large part of me that would love to have Celebrity take my A2 cabin and I would jump at the paltry, insulting $450 offer!

A number of years ago, my wife and I booked a New England/Canada cruise down the St Lawrence Seaway from Boston to Quebec City during fall colors on NCL. I had worked in Quebec and along the Seaway a number of times and the colors were always spectacular in the fall. About 2 weeks before our cruise, NCL called to inform us that our cabin had been double booked. At that point, they offered us a refund OR, we could sail in an inside cabin for free, with the exception of us paying the taxes and fees of around $200. We jumped at our first and only inside cabin, and didn't regret it. Different lines know how to handle situations like this, and unfortunately, they possibly happen more in smaller amounts than we know of. NCL handled it correctly in our opinion, in that case.

19 minutes ago, sqrl18 said:

We're booked on Celebrity Millenium for 15SEP Transpacific cruise in Aquaclass.  This was a rollover from the SEP'22 cruise that was cancelled by Celebrity.  I heard from Celebrity this cruise is crazy oversold, but no other information or change options were offered.  I've been trying to make my full payment while still able to get full refund in case I have cancel, but the page has been unavailable for over a week.  Another issue is I booked the incorrect date for my return trip from TYO.  The cruise was rebooked in APR'22 so airspace was not available to book.  I used the app (that Celebrity always pushes you to) and the dates posted (still) are 15-29SEP on the first two pages of the cruise display.  The actual end date is 30SEP.  Called my cruise planner who advised, per the invoice, the cruise dates have always been 15-30SEP.  Issue is I booked my air the day the flight rolled into the system (4ONV22), based on the dates I saw in the app (15-29SEP).  Two seats on JAL in business for an insanely low amount of miles; I was booked got great deals and was happy! Now, I would have to suffer on AA at 450k miles pp.  I sent a screen shot to the rep stating, due to errors in the display, CEL needs to get me home and she said she'd see what she can do - that was three weeks ago.  (I believe the issue is in their code - the pages on the app shown first do not consider the date change from the Int'l Date Line.  Code is reading start date of cruise + cruise length (15SEP+14 days=29SEP when it needs to add a day when travelling westbound of the Dateline which whould show the 30th.  The main code considers this.)  Not my job to verify dates in all different locations to ensure their code is correct!  Anyway, will call to see if I can pay in full and see if any options are provided.  Anyone have suggestions on how to handle?  i agree that Celebrity is acting really wonky with these bookings - not their usual standard at all.

I’m curious why you feel the urge to pay in full? Are you close to your final payment date? I have a real problem believing cruiselines can manage my money better than I can. 1 of the main reasons I have yet to cruise with Viking is because I refuse to give them my money over a year in advance.

4 minutes ago, luckybecky said:

 

You are exactly right!! The discussion has been all over the place. People are getting all kinds of contradictory answers from Celebrity. It's very frustrating. 

It appears that the most likely answer, barring some poor info provided by Celebrity, is that NO CRUISES are cancelled, but a significant number of passengers had their cruise cancelled due to overbooking of certain cabins.

Just now, hubofhockey said:

Everything for 2023 and 2024?  Just booked 5/15/24.

You might want to catch up on the reading…..

10 minutes ago, RichardRahl said:

Everyone on this thread is hysterically assuming that the cancellations are random. It is very unlikely that this is the case. Celebrity is probably cancelling the most recent bookings first, the lowest loyalty level customers, taking into consideration the number of times a passenger has been lifted and shifted for the same itinerary, and other such relevant criteria.

 

Considering the thousands of people who booked these cruises, hearing about 20 or 30 getting bumped does not concern me. Those cruises with cabins available are still showing on the website. Those cruises that are sold out do not show up. That’s how the celebrity website works.

 

And just because one angry customer misheard a representative tell her that “all of Japan is canceled” when the representative likely never said that, it doesn’t mean we should believe it. This is the Internet, after all.

What makes you think it is “20 or 30” affected cruisers. I believe from just looking at roll calls now a days, that it is pretty easy to assume that the  number of passengers using CruiseCritic is tiny compared to years ago. When roll calls used to be dozens of pages long, it is not uncommon now to participate in a roll call that may end up in single digits by sailing time. I personally believe the number of affected passengers is many times the 20 to 30 you suggest, just from speculating how few people continue to use the this resource. 
 

I, like many others, have been trying to get to Japan since being cancelled in 2021. And then ‘22, and then ‘23. Hoping out loud that we finally get to visit in ‘24 isn’t exhibiting hysteria, but rather sharing similar concerns with others in the same boat, figuratively.

4 hours ago, JBare said:

Sadly I have to partially agree with this. On our March cruise on Eclipse Oceanview food was up to normal standards for breakfast and lunch. Not so much the quality of food in the MDR but the choices were really quite poor. Starters were mostly soups or green leaves, no crab cakes or spring rolls for example. Not much beef either, for example no beef wellington on final formal night, fortunately we like chicken. It was the only cruise where we felt a drop in standards, just because the choices were so limited.

I would offer a similar sentiment. We were on the Apex in the end of January for 7 days. It was our return to sailing cruise after Panademic and prior to stoppage in Feb ‘20, probably our previous 10 cruises were enjoyed almost exclusively on Celebrity. This one opened our eyes in an u fortunate way. We were shocked at the  lack of variety, uniqueness, and service in the MDR’s on the Apex. In addition, the buffet was basically a 2 station circle of very meh offerings. Hardly anything special. No ethnic special evening. I almost felt like we were at Old Country Buffet! 
 

Ironically, the morning we disembarked in Fort Lauderdale, we Ubered down to Miami to catch a trans Panama Canal sailing on the Norwegian Joy, with low expectations following our previous NCL cruise of about 10 years ago. Surprisingly, to us, NCL blew Celebrity’s dining experiences out of the water. The variety of different venue’s was amazing. The variety of different special evenings in the Buffet was broad. We typically only eat evenings in the buffet if a return to the ship makes it the best option or if a show timing makes it convenient, but on the Joy, we actually started to check to see what they were serving in the Buffet almost daily. In fact, we purchased future cruise deposits for 3 more sailings on NCL, largely on the strength of their food and dining venues. We currently have 2 cruise booked on Celebrity, but if the dining experience is repeated on them, we have no problems switching lines from what was almost an exclusive attachment to Celebrity.

3 minutes ago, neverlaysup said:

Pay it in full now!

Why would you do this? People who have paid in full have also been cancelled. It's not just those who only have a deposit down? I'm kind of confused by this strategy. As has been mentioned, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to those bookings that are getting cancelled.

13 minutes ago, Tarwood3 said:

I wonder if they are doing the cancelations in batches, so as not to overwhelm the team tasked with dealing with this issue? If they sent out mass emails…it would be chaos and mayhem? 

Except that, it appears from early reports that they are only giving people until May 1st to Lift and Shift, which if they do as you suggested isn't fair to the last people notified.

From reading about this on multiple social media threads, CC, FB, etc  it sounds like it has affected people who have paid in full, only paid a deposit, booked direct, booked with a TA, in other words, not much of an algorithm other than it "appears" that all I have heard of are Balcony's being affected. I don't know what category of balcony. I don't know if it is specifically "Balcony's" and not Aqua or Concierge. I hope more factual information comes out today, because there is a tremendous amount of "I think" going on, on these boards, including now from me.

14 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

Sorry that you had all those issues.  What is the source of all your refundable OBC?  Just curious.
 

 

 

Unlike Celebrity, Princess TA are allowed to offer discounts.  Therefore the only OBC that I have on Princess is from the Military benefit.  My TA discounts the fare.  

 

 

 

My TA offered 10% of the Cruise Fare as OBC. I guess different ones offer different perks.