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teets

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    Missed a port, no port charges refunded!!

    in Celebrity Cruises

    Posted

    Thanks for all of your comments. I will keep you appraised of further contact with Celebrity. As I said before overall the crew of Infinity were some of the nicest and most friendly we have ever sailed with. Unfortunately one bad incident sometimes negates most of the positive. Just a shame!

     

    Sent from my LG-H631 using Tapatalk

    Missed a port, no port charges refunded!!

    in Celebrity Cruises

    Posted

    With who did you speak ? name please. If you actually received those words and a threat they would "take action", did you ask for clarification? Did you ask to speak to HER boss?

     

    I cannot believe that if this happened the way you say, that we would have walked away without further discussion.

     

    I presume you followed up with a call to Celebrity when you got home?

    I do have names,but suffice it to say she was the Guest Services Manager. I have spoken to Celebrity already and plan to follow it up with a letter later this week.

     

    I guess we should have gone to her boss at the time, but we were shocked and I needed to process what had happened.

     

    At Captain's Club customer service today, they apologized many times for the incident. I hope they follow up with this as I felt overall the crew on the Infinity was the best we had ever had with the exception of the GS Manager. Maybe she was absent during the training sessions!

    Missed a port, no port charges refunded!!

    in Celebrity Cruises

    Posted

    We were just on the Celebrity Infinity cruising to Antarctica. Because of a weather situation we missed one port. The day the announcement was made my husband and I went to Guest Services to question when the port charges for the missed port would be refunded. We were told to come back to the desk in a couple of days.

     

    Two days later I went to Guest Services and the gentleman at the desk informed us that they had received notice from the Miami office that port charges were not being refunded. I was shocked as we have always received a refund on missed ports. The guest service person told us they were so sorry and there was nothing they could do. I informed my husband of this and the following day he paid a visit to Guest Services to inquire why Celebrity was going to keep the port charges. This was a great deal of money considering Celebrity did not have to pay the port charges that they collected from all 2000+ passengers.

     

    My husband asked the Guest Service person for clarification and we were told to talk to the Guest Service Manager. She made an appointment for us for 10am that morning. We showed up a few minutes early for our appointment. Soon after 10 the Guest Service Assistant Manager came out to get us and escorted us to the Guest Service Manger's office.

     

    We told her of our feelings about Celebrity not refunding unused port charges to each passenger. She told us that Celebrity's decision was due to increased port charges and they basically were losing money on each passenger. I questioned the lower fuel costs and told we her that this was the price of doing business. It is possible that Celebrity's port charges had gone up, but their fuel charges had dropped dramatically. We told her we were going to post this on Cruise Critic and have the discussion with people on the cruise.

     

    We were informed that that would not be allowed and we would be reported and action would be taken if we had the discussion with others on board. We were being threatened and we could not believe it. My husband and I both asked what she meant. She told us if we talked to others about the port charge issue actions would be taken. We left her office completely shocked.

     

    Later this week I plan on writing to Celebrity once I get caught up. It is unbelievable to me that Celebrity would keep these port charges from everyone, but more unbelievable is that Celebrity would put a person in charge of Guest Services that does nothing but escalate a situation. My understanding is that Guest Services deals with all guests needs. In addition the Captain Club Hostess (who is a gem) could only continually apologize for the whole situation.

    Great Guide in Quito Ecuador

    in South America

    Posted

    We returned a few weeks ago from a wonderful Galapagos cruise and had the pleasure of touring with Luis Albuja Salgado while in Quito pre-cruise.

     

    We were originally supposed to visit Cotapaxi but because of the activity of the volcano we had to change our plans. Instead Luis took us to the Antisana Volcano. There were 4 of us on the tour and Luis could not have been more informative and charming. His English was terrific as well. He was prompt and made our tour fantastic.

     

    During the tour I asked him if he had children and he replied, "Yes, today". His wife had gone into labor with his first child during the night. We told him he should have canceled our tour and we would have understood and he assured us that this was his business and he did not want to disappoint us.

     

    I think that says it all, so if you are looking for a terrific guide in Quito, Luis is it.

     

    You can reach him at luisalbuja@yahoo.com Believe me you will be very happy with him.

    Does anyone have a good private tour guide in Buenos Aires

    in South America

    Posted

    Fun to see you posting again!! We'll be on the Infinity in January and are starting to look for our tours. Let me know if you find something good for Buenos Aires and maybe we'll "break them in" for you! :)

     

    Bill & Mark & Nancy & Desi

    Hi there,

     

    Hope all is well. Our friend Joel booked someone, and I have booked another for the return. E-mail me and I will give you the info tetelman at hotmail dot com

    Nightmare in Tianjin

    in Asia

    Posted

    For anyone getting off the port in Tianjin, good luck.

    We were on a Celebrity cruise last month and arrived in Tianjin on April 21st. What insued was total craziness.

     

    Chinese immigration decided that they would only let 50 cruisers off the ship for their "face to face" inspection every 7-8 minutes.

     

    We had a group of 60 people for a private 3 day tour in Beijing. Because of the incompetence of the immigration in Tianjin it took over 4 hours for our entire group to disembark.

     

    We were all told that we should disembark on deck 4 midship. This meant that 2000 passengers were all trying to get off at the same time out of the same place. People were yelling pushing and there was almost a fist fight near where we were waiting. What a terrible mess!!

     

    For anyone planning a tour out of Beijing, make sure you plan on quite a bit of time to get off the ship. This is worst disembarkation I have ever seen! I never plan to go to Tianjin again, and although I loved Beijing, I would plan to fly directly there!

    Breezing in the Fall - October 18, 2015 Western Caribbean

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted

    We just booked this cruise. Looking into hotels for the night before, any suggestions?

     

    We booked on Hotwire. We are traveling with our sons. We wanted a hotel with breakfast and free wi-fi. They have a $10 shuttle to the port. We are staying at the Holiday Inn Express. I know it's not a 5 star hotel, but we get in late at night and will leave for the port in the morning, so it didn't make sense to spend a lot on the hotel.

    Chinese visas

    in Asia

    Posted

    Thanks! This was what I thought, but kept getting conflicting info. Going to give Allied a whirl. Sounds like the best deal out of the half dozen or so agencies I've researched.

     

    Steve at Allied just received my info for the visa and has already e-mailed me with a confirmation and an expected date to receive the visa. Couldn't ask for anything more!

    Chinese visas

    in Asia

    Posted

    We are using Allied Visa and Passport. Steve is very nice. They are a small company in Washington, DC. He takes you through the whole process and it's painless. He even offers a discount for Cruise Critic people.

     

    This is the first time I have needed a visa and I was a bit worried about sending my passport to just anyone.

     

    Here is a link to get more info on the Chinese Visa from Allied.

    http://alliedpassport.com/visas/china.php

     

    Hope this helps!

    Ferry/Bus Tickets at Dockyard Yet??

    in Bermuda

    Posted

    I just got back from Bermuda and you will not be able to buy the 15 tickets for $30 at the Dockyard. I tried asking at 3 different places and was told that they didn't sell the tickets. I was able to buy the tickets at the Hamilton Ferry Terminal in CASH.

     

    Thanks for the info. Did you just buy a token at the Dockyard to get to Hamilton?

    3 days in Bermuda

    in Bermuda

    Posted

    We are coming off of the Summit and have 3 days in Bermuda. What would be your don't misses? We are planning on spending one day near the dockyard, one day around Hamilton and the third day maybe some beaches. Any help would be appreciated!!

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