sanjoseca

Not at all. Travel agents provide a valuable role in the travel world. Lots of newbies need the expertise of a good TA. Good ones are invaluable to the cruise passenger. Our online TA has provided us excellent service and gives us access to group rates that can be hundreds if not thousands less than cruise line rack rates.

 

Still does not change the primary premise, at the end of the day it is the passenger's responsibility to check, double check, audit and re audit every travel document that comes their way.

 

Bears repeating: it's YOUR vacation and your money. It's YOU who will be denied boarding if documentation is not in order, not the TA.

You keep saying You, You, when it should be They, They if you have a TA. Look at what HLR has had to go through to try to resolve his issue. The TA should have jumped on this at the very beginning. If I have to do all the checking to insure the TA does the right thing, then I don't need them in the first place.

When I had Travel Agents, I too felt like I had to do all the checking. I had to monitor pricing myself to find price drops or upgrade opportunities, I finally came to the conclusion that I am better off doing it myself. I miss out on perhaps a cheap bottle of wine or a few dollars in on board credit, but I now am in control and can make sure things are done right directly 24/7.

It's not hard to make reservations yourself and when you do, the Cruise Line will actually talk to you instead of you having to go through an incompetent.

I'm glad that you feel you have a good TA and that you get value from him /Her and obviously you should continue. I am only telling you my opinions and feelings and in no way saying that a TA should not be used. however, My way works for me.

I agree except don't lots of people book directly with the cruise line? A mistake could occur there as well in terms of names, passports and the related pitfalls. My point is and always has been: it is your vacation and your money. YOU (the individual not you per se) have to take responsibility for all aspects of your cruise. If you rely and assume you are bound to be disappointed. The airline doesn't care that your TA made a mistake. Nor does the cruise line. It's you who will be denied boarding not your TA.

Yep, you're right, which just reinforces the fact that you can't rely on a Travel Agent to look after your best interests, so why even let the TA have the business in the first place. According to what you are saying, they serve no purpose.

Who pays if you need a new ticket? Don't know but seems to be just a change, not a new ticket per se. If a new ticket does have to be issued you pay. It is your responsibility, not your TA, not the cruise line, not the airline to make sure the names on your passport agree with the ticketing information. Is the middle name really a problem? Absolutely. Your passport and ticket have to absolutely agree and agree absolutely.

Then why use a Travel Agent in the first place if they are not going to do due diligence and make sure that the client understands and gives the correct information. TAs profess to be experts on booking travel and that they look out for clients. Not all clients know the rules. You should be able to count on a TA to prevent issues like this.

I was on this itinerary in May of this year (2014) The Century will be decommissioned next year, so Nope, it wont be doing that sailing again. It was considered a re-positioning cruise, and we booked it 2 years prior. I watched it for price drops the entire time, and never saw it being "heavily discounted" in fact when I called a month or so prior, it was sold out.

I do think this is an under-served area, and was a wonderful itinerary, and I'd do it again. I did hear that other cruise lines will offer it, but I try and sail only on Celebrity. I thought they had a reverse of the itinerary in the fall after leaving Alaska, but if you arent seeing it, then I guess not.

I think if they get lots of questions asking about it, and that it sold well, they'd add it again. My guess is they'll use a different ship for the Alaska sailings next year, and maybe that one will pick it up?

Maybe check with Princess? I thought I saw one there leaving out of San Fran when we were there this May.

Almost all April and May cruises were discounted heavily. It may have only been for west coast or just California residents, but they started in the $400 range.

Jewel of the Seas is doing the same itinerary in 2015, but I wonder for how long as Century on that itinerary had to be heavily discounted in order to fill the ship this year.

Carol, I know exactly what you mean. It's hard to say anything on here without someone finding fault with it. Often, the ones that say things have nothing invested in the original post.

Perhaps Celebrity is taking a time out on surveys while they weather through some of the recent changes that a lot of people seem to notice.

There was no option to get a hard copy of the comment form on Century. The waiter explained the changes on how comments from passengers would now be collected.

They must have thought that I was going to mark everything excellent like I usually do. But I didn't. I never heard anything back either.

Carol, I received two emails with the survey a few days after our April 5 trip. It's quite extensive..... equal too the old paper shipboard one. It has what you're looking for.

I was one of the people who had quite a number of disappointments on the April 5 Century Coastal. But I had to pay full price for the cruise.

The Century Coastal sailings, for the most part, are now heavily discounted, some as low as $400 plus tax, so I probably would have lower expectations than I did paying full fare. Not sure of the reasons for the ultra low fares, but it could be related to recent less than glowing reports on the ship or it could be the itinerary.

It's a bargain....take some warmer clothes just in case and go for it.

I think most people grasp the concept that nothings comes for free.

 

I think that X and RCI have determined that a larger audience would prefer lower overall cruise fare than spending more to keep the services that once used to be important part of cruising as costs have risen over time.

Well, my cruise wasn't free.

Celebrity classes itself as a premium cruise line and often uses the tag line "Modern Luxury", so that is what I expect.

I suspect that Celebrity has cut back to the point where they are only on par with perceived less than premium cruise lines.

Apparently the CDC disagrees with you.

 

Health Practices on Cruise Ships: Selfservice buffet. There are various requirements for selfservice buffets. They include having an effective sneeze guard to prevent potential contamination, having a serving utensil for each food item on the serving buffet, and ensuring that customer plates are not reused and customer eating utensils are not brought to the buffet.

Read my post again..... It's easy for you to find because you quoted it in your post......I never said that I was against sneeze guards, I think they should be used!:rolleyes:

My issue was that Celebrity, instead of supplying sneeze guards for the Brunch, they took the opportunity to cut back on what I thought was a very good event. If they were not intent on cutting back, they would have come up with guards. They figured it out for the cheaper buffet.

Why are so many people so willing to accept cutbacks on Celebrity? I'm with the OP, what they provided was a poor substitute for what I thought was a nice brunch.

On Century last week there was no brunch. When I asked the head waiter why, he told me it was the US governments fault as they had specified there needed to be sneeze guards over the food. A BS answer, Instead of using sneeze guards Celebrity took the opportunity to do yet another cut back.

Well, I now feel better about Celebrity. Host Andy posted not very positive reviews about Century back in late February. Now he is aboard Eclipse and his tone seems to be very positive about just about everything.

You're right - everyone is entitled to their opinions. What he was commenting on wasn't your opinions, but your snotty, snobby, elitist comments towards another poster which I quoted above. You're NOT entitled to that, and it's not out of line to call you on that!

 

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Look, the poster told me the problems that she had and chose to overlook them and minimize my comments. I couldn't overlook them myself, so I assumed that I had higher expectations of Celebrity....or, higher standards as I said. A lot of this is noise, including your comments, towards me for making observations that are not what some want to hear. I apologize if the poster was offended by my comment. But I am not apologizing for stating my observations of the ship and crew on here....they're real to me

I see you are sailing Century on April nineteenth and I hope you have a wonderful cruise. At least from the comments that many are saying, not just mine, you can lower your expectations and not be disappointed.

You don't know, maybe I LOVE my job and that's how much I loved being on the Century ;)

Great answer, I never thought of that:)

Ouch.... I guess you have higher standards than I as well. I was happier being on the Century than I would have been at my desk working

Interesting that your comparison is about being at work versus sailing on Century.

My Elite Plus comment was a response to someone suggesting that I try other Celebrity ships when they didn't know my sailing history. Elite Plus has never been in my signature like so many others do, or use it as an avatar. Had I said how many cruises I have taken, I would have been criticized for that......it really has no bearing on what I thought of Century on our recent voyage.

Look, for all of you that enjoyed your recent Century cruise I really am happy for you and I believe you. However, Century is no longer a ship that I will book again and believe it or not I get to make that decision regardless of how positive some of you are.

Had I read more of the comments regarding Century I would either have gone with lowered expectations or changed to another ship. Sounds fishy to me.

It's really interesting to me that Celebrity is giving cabins away at drastically discounted prices and the ship was not fully booked on last weeks cruise.

Higher standards and piss poor manners!

 

Does that make you feel better? My comment was no worse than yours. And no worse than someone telling me that my opinion is stress related based on our group of twelve and having an eight month baby with us. That's just rediculous and has no bearing on what I observed.

I noticed that you have not been aboard Century since 2011. I was aboard last year and had no complaints.

I gave my honest opinion regarding my sailing experience and I am perfectly free to do so. It happens all the time on here...... Someone posts their experience that doesn't fit the positive tone that some expect and others will always look for reasons why the person is wrong when they have no idea what that person really experiences.

Feel free to ignore my posts if you don't want to hear it. I posted my feelings as my opinion and that's what counts to me in the end.

Maybe it is because you had a group of 12 and a baby onboard, which can create stress on all of you. That being said, I noticed all the things you outlined in my CC balcony, Deck 9 and it did not bother us one bit; we were too busy appreciating the beautiful calm ocean at night + the perfect weather + scenery! I only care about bed (great) storage (great) cleanliness (great)...we do not look around to see the wear and tear on furniture and carpets unless it is something out of the ordinary/and or dangerous. We can always find good salads, made to order dishes at buffet, and often in MDR, esp from left side of menu. The Aqua Spa Café was excellent as was Murano!

 

I would recommend that you might try other Celebrity ships & venues that are

larger, newer, maybe more to your liking. Also, I think groups are always difficult to satisfy everyone. Good luck!

Well, I'm very happy for you and I'm sure that you will continue to sail Century. I obviously have higher standards than you..... Set by my experiences on many other of Celebrity's ships (We are Elite Plus)

Go ahead and try to chalk it up to our group's size if you like, the group and the little baby had nothing to do with what I observed and what I felt while on board. You're only fooling yourself. In the end, how I am treated and how I feel about a product determines whether or not I will continue to purchase.

Cruisenut, I would give you the officers names, however I think the tone had been set by headquarters when they decided to severely shorten the ship yard work. It was almost like the crew has given up on Century and I think that a year from now she will be in really sad shape. I kind of resent CEL selling me a cruise on what, in my opinion, has become sub standard.

OK Left Coast, here's another:

We (12 of us) just returned from the April 5 Pacific Coastal on Century and were really disappointed.

It was clear from the relatively poor condition of the ship that they are investing little money in her upkeep. The door to our balcony kept unlocking itself and partially opened at night when underway. The shower had mildew and missing grout and the woodwork was scratched and warn. The balcony deck was squishy and when you walked on it dirty water came up through the cracks. The balcony furniture was dirty and not very inviting. The bed was comfortable though.

I thought that the food in the main dining room was just average and found myself struggling to pick something each night. The food presentation was good, but the selection of items, with the exception of a couple, seemed to be low cost options. I found the wait staff to be just "phoning it in", no friendly conversation or attempts to use passenger names. The only interaction from the staff was with our eight month old grand daughter. The head waiter was cold and quite sullen and was just going through the motions. I always try hard to build a positive relationship with the wait staff early on in the cruise, but it didn't work this time.

We had preordered food for the eight month old ahead of time as specified in pre boarding information, but it didn't show up even after multiple enquiries until the third day. (Yes, I had to pay the full third person rate for her).

You often hear that Century Crew is extremely outgoing and friendly..... Almost as an excuse for other short comings on the ship. However, I never saw anything better than I had seen on other ships of the line. I would see groups of officers in Islands Cafe, but they never seemed to make any attempts to interact with passengers. The stuck to themselves as far as I could tell.

We have three more cruises booked with Celebrity, but for the first time, I will have to consider using other cruise lines if reports on Solstice begin to sound like the many that I am now seeing on Century.

You can take this all with a grain of salt if you wish, it's merely a synopsis of what I saw and felt on Century and it matters to me.

I should have paid closer attention to what host Andy was saying after the dry dock and lowered my expectations considerably.

The binoculars aren't really that bad, it's just that most of them have been dropped several times to the point where they are misaligned. They are useless, I take my own.

Starboard side will be alongside the terminal (actually an old warehouse on the pier). Most balcony cabins will have a view over the pier of the Golden Gate Bridge, pier 39, Alcatraz, Fisherman's Wharf and the San Francisco skyline.

Port side there is another pier warehouse, but you can see the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge pretty much up close. Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island, San Francisco skyline and the City of Oakland. The Bay Bridge is lit up at night quite nicely.

I can live with either view. They both have their pluses and neither have any negatives in my opinion.

The Century has a cult following as previously stated in another thread. We were on the eight day sailing following the dry dock. It was definitely not up to Celebrity standards. I can't help but think that the Century defenders are cruisers who can't get past the good old days of cruising when they and the ship were a lot younger and the cruise ship choices were not what they are today. These people also seem to obsessed with what they consider to be classic cruise liners. I think they picture themselves as Rose on the Titanic, before the iceberg.

That's my opinion also. There were people that were quite vocal about keeping her in the fleet. After the announcement that she is being removed from Celebrity, some of those same people started complaining about her condition and talking smack about her.