Celebrity's Website is Pathetic. Calling Them Isn't Much Better.

I know, I know. I'm beating a dead horse here. But Celebrity's website is so bad they deserve to have a thread about it on the front page at all times. It seems that some of it is purposeful.

1. When I went to book my cruise a few weeks ago, they were advertising two free perks. Nice! Unfortunately, when you go to pick your perk, free wifi is selected by default and it is very, very difficult to deselect it. Eventually I figured it out, but it took some quick clicking. If Celebrity doesn't want people to select more valuable perks, then it doesn't need to offer them. No need to booby trap the website.

2. Sometimes I can change my stateroom online, and sometimes I can't. A few days after booking, a better cabin opened up and I changed it online on the "Manage My Reservation" page. A few days later, an even better cabin opened up and I went to change it again. The link to change the cabin had disappeared. A mystery!

3. I cant buy anything online. I can't add specialty dining, upgrade my beverage package, or buy shore excursions. When I select "add to cart," it says I'm "not eligible" to make the purchase. Oh well!

4. When I exit Cruise Planner, the system automatically logs me out and locks my account. Frustrating!

5. When I got locked out, I called the customer service line. Unfortunately, the line for existing bookings is unstaffed. I waited on hold for 30 minutes and hung up. The robot said they were "experiencing higher than normal call volume." Haha, good one! I called back and pressed through to the new reservations line. A rep answered almost immediately. What a way to make your existing customers feels like dog dirt!

In sum - Celebrity, your customer support for existing customers is pathetic. Shame on you!

Sorry you are having so much difficulty with the website. It can be extremely frustrating.

Lately I haven't had any issues, did online check in & printed Xpress passes. Purchased a shore excursion using OBC, again no problem. I put a cabin on hold and saw the pre-selected 2 perks but didn't have any difficulty changing the selection. I recently spent some time cleaning up my PC, clearing cookies and deleting a bunch of unused stuff maybe that's why I'm not having problems. Hope my luck continues.

The other thing I have learned is that the week-ends seems to be more problematic than weekdays as they do maintenance and updates to the system so I avoid the week-ends. Granted it should work all the time but since I have learned weekend are bad I limit my frustration not using the website on the week-end.

I beg to differ.

I know that there is a major issue with the website.

But, I have always been able to communicate via telephone without a problem.

In fact, I have found the telephone reps to be very friendly and helpful !

I guess I've been lucky lately, no problems with the web site and have never had problems calling Celebrity.

I beg to differ.

I know that there is a major issue with the website.

But, I have always been able to communicate via telephone without a problem.

In fact, I have found the telephone reps to be very friendly and helpful !

I agree that the reps are very friendly and helpful. My wish is that they would stop understaffing the existing bookings line.

OP, I hate to correct you, but I really doubt that the IT staff has the ability to deliberately booby trap the website! :cool:

There's an ongoing issue with the online check in function for our March 18 cruise. After a week, they hope to have it fixed soon. We'll see.

While I agree that phone calls are normally not a problem, I've had three phone calls recently. Two were finally answered shortly after the 45 minute mark and I gave up on the third call at 65 minutes. All calls were made during the week. The interesting thing is that all the calls we made to different Celebrity responsibility centres, but all were routed to Reservations. I'm not sure why that is happening, but it might explain why there are long delays.

I beg to differ.

I know that there is a major issue with the website.

But, I have always been able to communicate via telephone without a problem.

In fact, I have found the telephone reps to be very friendly and helpful !

I agree. I waited maybe 2 minutes. The celebrity rep, Jenny couldn't have been more helpful and accommodating.