What a Mess

[cruisecluestoo]

I is very easy to say Celebrity did a wonderful job if you weren't here. It was the most miserable day I have spent in years . When we arrived by taxi the police wouldn't not let anyone in . That was fine but they wouldn't even take our luggage . We had to stand on the sidewalk for almost 1 hour before a very nice police man who felt sorry for us got us more information. . He sent us to a hotel (Mills House) that he thought was just a few blocks away . At the time no shuttle was provided . Five of us had to drag our luggage all the way there that ended up being a lot more than a few blocks maybe 10 or more . Everyone was sent there later in the day or they had one other hotel set up too . The first thing we heard was boarding would be at 2 then 5 then no one knew anything . It was such a mess there people and luggage everywhere . The hotel staff were wonderful but very stressed because Celeberty sent them no one to help. They told me that . When A Celeberty rep finally showed up around 5:00 Pm that is when we were told what was going on . She said we were going to be put up at the Marriott RiverSide (a very nice hotel), accomodations only for those who lived more than 2 hours from the port. We stood in line while she checked our name off a list then you were suppose to collect luggage and get on the shuttle to hotel...at that time we were ahead of many people since we arrived early .

 

That was a real mess . Celebrity provided 1 shuttle for all of us (the man at the hotel said that's all Celebrity provided). We were out there for over an hour in the blowing cold waiting to get on . People were just shoving in front of you . No one seemed to care who's turn it was to board . By the time we got to board the shuttle the Marriott was full. :mad: More.....

[cruisecluestoo]

Far cry from the Marriott

Riverside...Hampton Inn (Hampton is often nice) at the airport...worse Hampton we have ever seen...gray, smelly, and depressing...only restaurants nearby were Waffle House, McDonalds, and Bojangles (not that we have never used them but haven't eaten all day long and wanted a nice meal like the many wonderful restaurants near the Marriott Riverside). I talked to at least 9 Celebrity representatives on the phone and none were able to help, or give us to anyone who could help us. No one seemed to know what to do to solve the problem. All they could do for us was apologize (which was no help at all). We finally ended up getting a cab (at our own expense) going back to the hotel we stayed in the night before (Holiday Express, Mount Pleasant).

We still don't know what is happening yet today, and will have to get back at our own expense. This whole exprience has been a nightmare, you would think that a company this size would have been able to handle a situation like this much better. The left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing. I am sure that those staying at the Marriott had a much nicer experience, it was part of their vacation, where us................!

 

Diane Cruiseclues

[warmwinds]

Am I the only one who has no idea where she is talking about?

[Amy from Delaware]

I'm assuming it's about the Mercury sailing a day late so they can clean her up after an outbreak of gastrointestinal virus (norovirus?).

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1152157

[cruiseinfoseeker]

Am I the only one who has no idea where she is talking about?

 

 

The Mercury Delay.

 

 

Sorry about your situation, Diane. Hopefully it will get much better......

[reklawr]

Am I the only one who has no idea where she is talking about?

 

 

I suspect she is referring to Charleston and the Mercury cruise.

[cruisecluestoo]

Sorry I am talking about the Mercury .

 

Diane cruiseclues

[Dharma517]

How disappointing. I feel for you. I had something similar happen on my honeymoon and the only thing that made me feel better was a good cry and a bottle of wine. I hope you are able to let go of the bad vibes and have a good time once you get on board.

 

Jenn

[willbrook]

For your sake, I hope that your disembarkation goes more smoothly than ours. We were on the Mercury that arrived yesterday. We assembled at the Celebrity theater and were instructed to proceed ashore at 0830. Two long lines of passengers "snaked" around the guest relations desk until we could finally exit the ship at 10:00. No passengers were offloaded between 08:30 and 10:00. Frustrated people just standing around. I personally removed chairs from nearby cabins to assist the elderly. People in wheelchairs, sick people, etc. What a mess!

 

Celebrity blamed Customs for the delay, but that is not true. A porter who assisted us told me that a new contractor had been hired to remove the luggage from the ship. That, coupled with the inadequate space for luggage in the terminal made for the worst disembarkation experience for us.

 

I hope you eventually board the ship and have a good time.

[ellbon]

Knowing Charleston and already being taken to Mills House.. great hotel -right next to 82 Queen-I would try to check in there or the place i always stay in. If i had to walk from the port with bags I would be calling for a taxi.

 

I had a feeling people would end up in N Charleston instead in town. Since you can canal hotel rooms up to 6 pm i have one ready to go to once Celebrity told me what was going on.

 

I would go for a relaxing nice dinner and get over it..

[ellbon]

For your sake, I hope that your disembarkation goes more smoothly than ours. We were on the Mercury that arrived yesterday. We assembled at the Celebrity theater and were instructed to proceed ashore at 0830. Two long lines of passengers "snaked" around the guest relations desk until we could finally exit the ship at 10:00. No passengers were offloaded between 08:30 and 10:00. Frustrated people just standing around. I personally removed chairs from nearby cabins to assist the elderly. People in wheelchairs, sick people, etc. What a mess!

 

Celebrity blamed Customs for the delay, but that is not true. A porter who assisted us told me that a new contractor had been hired to remove the luggage from the ship. That, coupled with the inadequate space for luggage in the terminal made for the worst disembarkation experience for us.

 

I hope you eventually board the ship and have a good time.

 

you are a very nice person helping others. I was on B2B on Equinox in jan. i was on the noro cruise. i was given a choice to take a boring bus tour or get a taxi and do my own thing. Wis hi had done the taxi. Celebrity would pay me back fro the taxi.. so on the bus tour of FLL i save my lunch receipt and got OBC for it. I felt celebrity was being fair in this case.

 

Where celebrity was wrong they had us leave the ship at 930 before the ship was empty. Customs refused too let us leave until the passengers did. we had to get wheelchairs and orange juice for people. the person who took us off the chair had no clue at all . NONE!! But it could of been worse.

[Woobstr112G]

Am I the only one who has no idea where she is talking about?

 

Np[e you are not.....:confused::confused::confused:

 

Bob

[WineDown17]

Understand and empathize that this was a bad situation..I would have been very unhappy personally just becuase of the dumb rotten luck...

 

But to imply X is responsible for the fact that the area hotels were crummy and that the restaurants nearby not to her liking??

 

Sounds like emotions are understandably running high...

 

X tried to do the right thing here, but they cant seem to win..

 

Concrete feedback to the company on what went well and what did not could help them respond better if this were to happen at this magnitude again for certain... but it should be specific to things they can control.

[Lmack]

For your sake, I hope that your disembarkation goes more smoothly than ours. We were on the Mercury that arrived yesterday. We assembled at the Celebrity theater and were instructed to proceed ashore at 0830. Two long lines of passengers "snaked" around the guest relations desk until we could finally exit the ship at 10:00. No passengers were offloaded between 08:30 and 10:00. Frustrated people just standing around. I personally removed chairs from nearby cabins to assist the elderly. People in wheelchairs, sick people, etc. What a mess!

 

Celebrity blamed Customs for the delay, but that is not true. A porter who assisted us told me that a new contractor had been hired to remove the luggage from the ship. That, coupled with the inadequate space for luggage in the terminal made for the worst disembarkation experience for us.

 

I hope you eventually board the ship and have a good time.

 

Sorry to hear you had a problem. We also disembarked from the Mercury yesterday. It was the easiest disembarkation ever. The original time for our color/number luggage tags was 9am. Wed evening friends said they received a flier stating new time schedules (earlier than previously scheduled.). We didn't receive the flier & I finally asked for one in Guest Relations Thur night. Our new time was 7:25am. They called our luggage color/number at 7:35am. We went down the ramp, collected our luggage in less than 2 min, customs line went very quickly - didn't even have to wait - snaked around and when we got up to the front personnel told us Agent 5 was ready for us. We walked up, handed the passports & form, and out the door we went. We walked on the sidewalk directly out to the street. Fastest and simplest we've ever had. We remarked what a change from embarkation!

 

I think the major problem the Mercury has is COMMUNICATION!

[Solstice23]

I am sure they will figure it out, See how any company reacts to something not usual like this is hard, to plan ahead and have buses would be hard also. It could happen to any line like when Cruise ships like cars break down or have a fire, its hard for any line

 

Best Wishes and hope it gets better!

 

X and RCCL are a great Company and it will work out, better then getting on fast and getting sick in the long run!

[Smartcookie]

Sorry about the hassle Diane, but on the bright side, Charleston is one of my favorite favorite cities on the planet, the Mills House is a nice place and I'm sure you'll enjoy a nice dinner in Charleston.

 

Things are always brighter in the morning!

[Oceangrace]

Willbrook and Lmack...

 

sounds like you both had very different disembarkation experiences yesterday. I will be on the mercury in a few weeks and I am curious as to what determines when you are allowed to disembark? what do you have to do to be able to get off of the ship first thing?

 

Willbrook... on a side note.. I am originally from PI and my Mother lives in Tradition at Willbrook...

[quote name='Lmack;

23338643]Sorry to hear you had a problem. We also disembarked from the Mercury yesterday. It was the easiest disembarkation ever. The original time for our color/number luggage tags was 9am. Wed evening friends said they received a flier stating new time schedules (earlier than previously scheduled.). We didn't receive the flier & I finally asked for one in Guest Relations Thur night. Our new time was 7:25am. They called our luggage color/number at 7:35am. We went down the ramp' date=' collected our luggage in less than 2 min, customs line went very quickly - didn't even have to wait - snaked around and when we got up to the front personnel told us Agent 5 was ready for us. We walked up, handed the passports & form, and out the door we went. We walked on the sidewalk directly out to the street. Fastest and simplest we've ever had. We remarked what a change from embarkation!

 

I think the major problem the Mercury has is COMMUNICATION![/quote']

[ccruisequeen]

Am I the only one who has no idea where she is talking about?

I feel like I'm coming in the middle of the story:confused:

[julia]

This character has some kind of beef with Celebrity. He's a Carnival and NCL cheerleader who takes every opportunity to bash Celebrity. I doubt he has even set foot on a Celebrity ship based on his clueless comments. Of all his 200+ postings, only 10 have been on the Celebrity board, and every one of them is negative. This morning he has posted 10 times. Two have been on Celebrity threads, both negative. Yesterday he posted on another thread, claiming the ships are the dirtiest in the industry, with raw sewage and dirty carpeting. Too bad there isn't a way to force troublemakers like him off a board. Ignore anything he posts here.

Sorry for the rant, but people like this are annoying like an itch that you can't reach.

 

 

There is!! Please click on the red triangle of this person's repeated bashings and report them to the moderators!!

[G'ma]

Seems like a real inconvenience. Wonder why OP didn't take advantage of the opportunity to cancel, receive a full refund and a discount on another cruise?

 

According to this:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1152157

 

Celebrity pretty much took care of everyone.

 

Sometimes when things go awry, you have to be independent and proactive and take care of your own business.

 

Nothing is ever perfect and, in this type of situation, it's a Herculean effort, no doubt.

[elena7seas]

I is very easy to say Celebrity did a wonderful job if you weren't here. It was the most miserable day I have spent in years . When we arrived by taxi the police wouldn't not let anyone in . That was fine but they wouldn't even take our luggage . We had to stand on the sidewalk for almost 1 hour before a very nice police man who felt sorry for us got us more information. . He sent us to a hotel (Mills House) that he thought was just a few blocks away . At the time no shuttle was provided . Five of us had to drag our luggage all the way there that ended up being a lot more than a few blocks maybe 10 or more . Everyone was sent there later in the day or they had one other hotel set up too . The first thing we heard was boarding would be at 2 then 5 then no one knew anything . It was such a mess there people and luggage everywhere . The hotel staff were wonderful but very stressed because Celeberty sent them no one to help. They told me that . When A Celeberty rep finally showed up around 5:00 Pm that is when we were told what was going on . She said we were going to be put up at the Marriott RiverSide (a very nice hotel), accomodations only for those who lived more than 2 hours from the port. We stood in line while she checked our name off a list then you were suppose to collect luggage and get on the shuttle to hotel...at that time we were ahead of many people since we arrived early .

 

That was a real mess . Celebrity provided 1 shuttle for all of us (the man at the hotel said that's all Celebrity provided). We were out there for over an hour in the blowing cold waiting to get on . People were just shoving in front of you . No one seemed to care who's turn it was to board . By the time we got to board the shuttle the Marriott was full. :mad: More.....

 

Diane, thank you very much for taking time to post the situation in Charleston.

 

I am so sorry for your very unpleasant day. Sometimes things just go worse than anyone expected. It doesn't make sense to me that Celebrity didn't get a rep down to the hotel immediately. That should have been a priority.

 

I'm hoping that everything gets sorted out and that everything goes better than usual for the rest of your trip.

 

I can imagine how difficult it is to stay positive under the circumstances and I'm sure that being taken to a grim hotel after such a difficult day was just a final indignity.

 

I'm counting on Celebrity to do well by all of you when you do finally get on board the ship.

 

Please be sure to detail your experience in a letter to Celebrity. It will help them to avoid similar errors in the future, and perhaps they will respond to you in a way that will make you feel better about the situation.

 

I send you best wishes, and hope that, from here on out, you have a brilliant vacation.

[The Anchor Banker]

As frustrated as the OP is over this, as most of us would be, I do think Celebrity is doing the right thing here. There is no point in continually infecting others, try and eradicate the virus. I would gladly wait an extra day to cruise rather than spend 4 days locked in my cabin feeling awful.

 

On a side note, I do not understand why everyone on these boards seem to think someone is flaming their favourite cruise line just because they may not have had a great experience. I'm sure the moderators have more to do than to eliminate every post which some may not agree with, yet might be fact based. Our experiences are all subjective, are they not?

[tuggers]

I think its unfortunate that the OP had such a terrible experience however I'm not sure I would have let my fate be in someone else's hands if I didn't like the way things were going.

A cab would have gotten you to the suggested hotel with little damage except to your wallet. Once the situation seemed like boarding might not happen, I would have been on my phone making my own reservation. If I was in Charleston, wanted a good meal and it was not available close to my hotel, I would have again called a cab.

Sometimes you have to take charge of your own situation. Insurance would reimburse you for these expenses if X wouldn't.

When traveling, hope for the best but be ready to take charge and make lemonade out of lemons, if necessary!

BTW, it would sure get everyone's message out better if the titles of these threads were more descriptive of the information you wish to disseminate. I looked over this one several times and I am sailing on Mercury 3/8 and 3/19. So I am interested.:)

[ccruisequeen]

It would have also helped if OP hadn't started in the middle of his story!;)

[jcpc]

Tuggers is 100% correct. In this type of situation, you have to take control of your own situation. Don't wait in line for 3 hours for a shuttle bus or walk 10 blocks with luggage -- take a taxi and pay for it yourself. Don't eat at a McDonalds - take a taxi to a nice restaurant. If you booked through a travel agent, get on the phone and call him/her to assist in getting you booked into a nice hotel. If you have a good travel agent, I'm sure he/she would have assisted.