century 10/13 cruise cancelled in Nice

[curiouscat]

Well, Corporate gave us a tray of 6 chocolate covered strawberries due to our October troubles.

 

The ship's rudder functioned very well. But there was still some drama - we had to stay 2 extra days in San Juan in order to get a flight back to New York.

 

I'll expand more in my review, but suffice to say we were dismayed by the decline in the cuisine and many other shortcomings.

 

If we didn't have to spend the future cruise credit, we otherwise would not sail on Celebrity again.

 

 

Interested in your review.... could u please let us know where and when you post it.

Thanks

CC

[lvcruiser]

We've had everything we requested reimbursed in October, November and December. December was due to us sending in our receipts a little late. We are quite satisfied with the reimbursements and have booked a Solstice cruise in February to apply our 25% discount. This was not our 1st cruise, our 30th actually and we, like everyone else were very disappointed but redirected our efforts to providing ourselves with an alternate vacation. We spent time in Spain then did a Transatlantic, followed by a short Caribbean cruise. When you travel a lot you can expect things to happen, good and bad. I believe it's how you react to it that is important. Be it Celebrity or any other travel company, you must always be ready for the unexpected!

 

I am happy that you are pleased with the way Celebrity reimbursed you for a broken cruise and I agree that you must always be ready for the unexpected. However, other than yourself and a select few others that appear to feel the company can do no wrong, the preponderance of passengers on that cruise feel that Celebrity could have done much more to appease a bad situation, and in doing so little, actually exacerbated it instead.

 

To me, Celebrity, for years, has been synonymous with outstanding cuisine on the seas, coupled with outstanding service. Those are probably the two most important reasons I have sailed with them so often and for so long. On my recent cruise aboard the Eclipse, the service was good, but not excellent as in the past, and the food in the MDR was, in my opinion, below average. Couple that with the customer service issues Celebrity has always had along with this incident and the way it was handled, and I'm finding a new way to vacation.

 

I hope you continue to be happy with their product. Personally, I have already given them too many second chances.

[harryw]

A truism is that there are always some on these Boards that will defend whatever a particular cruise line does. Whether they are Travel Agents in sheep's clothing, contrarians, or whatever, is not important.

 

Celebrity had been my line of choice for many years, having taken 15 or so of our 18 cruises with them. I sang their praises for years to friends and on these Boards. But the love affair is so over.

 

It's similar to my reaction to Sex and the City 2. SATC was one of my favorite series, loved the first film. But after the dismal sequel, I'm breaking up with Carrie.

 

But I digress. We returned last week from the Summit. It was the first cruise on which my wife LOST weight. Driven disgusted from the MDR, our final dinner on the ship was a plate of pasta in the casual cafe.

 

Fittingly, our last moments on the ship were in the disembarkation lounge for Elite CC members in the Normandie Restaurant. The pastry (poor quality) tray was almost depleted, and not replenished. Coffee was served in paper cups.

 

Oh, the horror...the horror...

 

Harry

[jcrandle]

A truism is that there are always some on these Boards that will defend whatever a particular cruise line does. Whether they are Travel Agents in sheep's clothing, contrarians, or whatever, is not important.

 

Celebrity had been my line of choice for many years, having taken 15 or so of our 18 cruises with them. I sang their praises for years to friends and on these Boards. But the love affair is so over.

 

It's similar to my reaction to Sex and the City 2. SATC was one of my favorite series, loved the first film. But after the dismal sequel, I'm breaking up with Carrie.

 

But I digress. We returned last week from the Summit. It was the first cruise on which my wife LOST weight. Driven disgusted from the MDR, our final dinner on the ship was a plate of pasta in the casual cafe.

 

Fittingly, our last moments on the ship were in the disembarkation lounge for Elite CC members in the Normandie Restaurant. The pastry (poor quality) tray was almost depleted, and not replenished. Coffee was served in paper cups.

 

Oh, the horror...the horror...

 

Harry

 

Harry, in my mind, the litmus test for a ship and crew is how you are treated on disembarkation day. When the gratuities have been passed out, the outstanding charges settled, the breakfast service and disembarkation assistance highlight the staff that continues to deliver exceptional service!

[harryw]

I forgot to mention, that on the final night in the cafe, when returning to the pasta station for a second helping of spaghetti. I was told by the server that he had no more spaghetti! So I had penne..

 

Harry

[ladylumley]

Harry, in my mind, the litmus test for a ship and crew is how you are treated on disembarkation day. When the gratuities have been passed out, the outstanding charges settled, the breakfast service and disembarkation assistance highlight the staff that continues to deliver exceptional service!

 

Agree, and this was not the first time we've had a bad experience when disembarking from a Celebrity cruise they make it quite clear they just want rid of you.

 

On this occasion, we'd booked the hotel in Ville Franche as we'd been told we'd be tendered there. When we came to leave the ship we were told we were to be tendered to Nice. We complained and were then told that there would be a bus waiting for us in Nice to take us back to Ville Franche. Because of our previous experience we told the lady at guest relations we didn't believe it and could she put it in writing for us, which she did. When we got to Nice there was no bus.

[carolinagal]

We've had everything we requested reimbursed in October, November and December. December was due to us sending in our receipts a little late. We are quite satisfied with the reimbursements and have booked a Solstice cruise in February to apply our 25% discount. This was not our 1st cruise, our 30th actually and we, like everyone else were very disappointed but redirected our efforts to providing ourselves with an alternate vacation. We spent time in Spain then did a Transatlantic, followed by a short Caribbean cruise. When you travel a lot you can expect things to happen, good and bad. I believe it's how you react to it that is important. Be it Celebrity or any other travel company, you must always be ready for the unexpected!

 

 

My family has been cruising for over 50 years starting with my parents in the mid 1950's on the Homeric Line. The ultimate port cancellation was when their ship was turned away from Havana, Cuba because of a small revolution led by that pesky rebel named Castro. So yes, unexpected things happen when traveling. But in the more than 100 cruises our family has taken over the years, the 12 night October 13th Mediterranean cruise on the Celebrity Century was the worst!

There was no excuse for the nightmare that took place aboard that ship. Starting with the vanishing Captain and staff, abrupt disembarkation with little to no time to make new plans, crashing phone & internet systems, elderly passengers being treated in a less than humane manner with some being reduced to tears, passengers sent on a 10 hour bus trip to Barcelona without so much as a bottle of water, hotel for one night in Barcelona on the opposite end of the city from the airport, etc., etc.

Happy that you were able to scoot around Europe topping it off with more cruising. My compassion goes out to the working men and women who used precious vacation time, people on a budget, elderly and physically challenged passengers and all the rest of us that were just shell shocked at the way we were treated.

We are getting ready for another cruise with friends and I trust this will be a better experience.

[CCAustin]

Still can't bring myself to book a cruise in 2011 to use my vouchers...

 

BUT- Checked my Captain's Club status today and it now shows that I have 2 credits for the Century 10/13 sailing. A nice surprise, a little salve for my still smarting wounds. I might actually take the 2012 cruise I had already booked before the fiasco, since my parents were very excited about the itinerary.

[rvlandandsea]

My family has been cruising for over 50 years starting with my parents in the mid 1950's on the Homeric Line. The ultimate port cancellation was when their ship was turned away from Havana, Cuba because of a small revolution led by that pesky rebel named Castro. So yes, unexpected things happen when traveling. But in the more than 100 cruises our family has taken over the years, the 12 night October 13th Mediterranean cruise on the Celebrity Century was the worst!

There was no excuse for the nightmare that took place aboard that ship. Starting with the vanishing Captain and staff, abrupt disembarkation with little to no time to make new plans, crashing phone & internet systems, elderly passengers being treated in a less than humane manner with some being reduced to tears, passengers sent on a 10 hour bus trip to Barcelona without so much as a bottle of water, hotel for one night in Barcelona on the opposite end of the city from the airport, etc., etc.

Happy that you were able to scoot around Europe topping it off with more cruising. My compassion goes out to the working men and women who used precious vacation time, people on a budget, elderly and physically challenged passengers and all the rest of us that were just shell shocked at the way we were treated.

We are getting ready for another cruise with friends and I trust this will be a better experience.

I agree with you, it was a nightmare on the ship and getting back to Barcelona. We are retired now and were able to readjust quickly. Had this happened 2 years ago, we would have been terribly upset, lost precious vacation time and tight budgets. We will be sailing on the Solstice soon but are planning land trips and river cruises for a change. Not sure if Celebrity or other ocean cruises will be in our future plans.

[fleckle]

Harry, in my mind, the litmus test for a ship and crew is how you are treated on disembarkation day.

While in my mind, the litmus test for a ship and crew is how you are treated when something goes wrong.

 

Every ship we have ever been on has treated passengers well when all was going smoothly and no unexpected problems occurred.

[SueBee0]

I bought Travelex's travel select plan. It cost $266 for 2 people and they reimbursed $750/each for trip delay. I had no trouble with them at all. They actually were the first one to give me $ back. The reps are all very nice and helpful!

My wife and I purchased travel insurance through our AAA Travel office in NJ. The premiums were $356 for two people. By qualifying under both Trip Delay and Trip Interruption, they paid out approx. $960, of which almost $600 was for our two extra days in a Barcelona hotel and meals, while waiting for the first available flight on Continental back to Newark, NJ. We filed a "total expense list" with Celebrity on 11/13, and advised them that we had simultaneously filed with our travel insurer. Celebrity had already refunded our total airfare, cruisefare, $250 p/p change fee, and $100p/p incidental expense, but we were still out of pocket about $1300. On 12/7, for some reason--obviously a mistake, we were again refunded our original airfare of $1700 through our on-line travel agent. On 12/10 I received an e-mail from Corporate Guest Relations saying that since we had travel insurance, they would not pay any of our claimed expenses, but if the insurer rejected part of our claim to get back with them. While I was in the process of revising my claimed expenses after being paid partially by my insurer, I get another call from RCCL this time, saying they were reviewing passengers refunds, and noted that we had been paid again for our original airfare. I explained I was sending in this new list of reduced expenses ($1300), and she gave me two fax numbers to use. After 5 tries on each number with no connection, I called and got a 3rd fax number on 12/24. As of 1/4/11, she had not received the fax, so she gave me her e-mail address and I sent her my revised claim, and the letter from the insurer saying they were not paying all of my claimed expenses. Today, after she reviewed my information, she just repeats the corporate line that no pre-cruise expenses will be paid, but they would pay for the outstanding $100 post cruise expense, even though Celebrity ruined our vacation, wasted our time, and treated us like cattle. The expense that really upset me was that Celebrity agreed to pay up to 3 days of hotels and meals for people who had to wait for their flights, IF they had not purchased travel insurance!! So the people like us, who had the foresight to buy travel insurance, are out our $356 of premiums, and still end up only being reimbursed the same hotel and meals expense that Celebrity paid for, and they did not require an insurance premium to be paid. I tried several times to explain that whether or not I purchased travel insurance should have nothing to do with being treated equally with other passengers. I also pointed out that Celebrity saved $600 by us buying the insurance, and they should be more than willing to pay us the $356 premium expense and thereby, putting us in the same economic position as those that did not buy insurance. She just said the "leadership team" here at Celebrity had decided to reimburse passengers for their hotel and meals if they had not purchased insurance, but those that had purchased insurance would not be reimbursed for their insurance premiums. Am I crazy, or is this viewpoint unfair and illogical? She also said that I was paid more than other people who had trip insurance, but I noticed you were paid $750 p/p or a total of $1500, which is more than my insurance paid. Has anyone else run into this same issue, and what do you think of how Celebrity is handling this? I don't know who has been sending her letters of appreciation, but she said "many people were surprised at how generous Celebrity had been with the refunds, and they were not expecting all they had received!" I asked one more time about any additional future cruise compensation, and she said the 25% is all they will be offering, and I told her not to expect any future business from me, unless I see a 12 day cruise with a price that matches the $283 voucher they sent us.

[Can'tstopcruising]

My wife and I purchased travel insurance through our AAA Travel office in NJ. The premiums were $356 for two people. By qualifying under both Trip Delay and Trip Interruption, they paid out approx. $960, of which almost $600 was for our two extra days in a Barcelona hotel and meals, while waiting for the first available flight on Continental back to Newark, NJ. We filed a "total expense list" with Celebrity on 11/13, and advised them that we had simultaneously filed with our travel insurer. Celebrity had already refunded our total airfare, cruisefare, $250 p/p change fee, and $100p/p incidental expense, but we were still out of pocket about $1300. On 12/7, for some reason--obviously a mistake, we were again refunded our original airfare of $1700 through our on-line travel agent. On 12/10 I received an e-mail from Corporate Guest Relations saying that since we had travel insurance, they would not pay any of our claimed expenses, but if the insurer rejected part of our claim to get back with them. While I was in the process of revising my claimed expenses after being paid partially by my insurer, I get another call from RCCL this time, saying they were reviewing passengers refunds, and noted that we had been paid again for our original airfare. I explained I was sending in this new list of reduced expenses ($1300), and she gave me two fax numbers to use. After 5 tries on each number with no connection, I called and got a 3rd fax number on 12/24. As of 1/4/11, she had not received the fax, so she gave me her e-mail address and I sent her my revised claim, and the letter from the insurer saying they were not paying all of my claimed expenses. Today, after she reviewed my information, she just repeats the corporate line that no pre-cruise expenses will be paid, but they would pay for the outstanding $100 post cruise expense, even though Celebrity ruined our vacation, wasted our time, and treated us like cattle. The expense that really upset me was that Celebrity agreed to pay up to 3 days of hotels and meals for people who had to wait for their flights, IF they had not purchased travel insurance!! So the people like us, who had the foresight to buy travel insurance, are out our $356 of premiums, and still end up only being reimbursed the same hotel and meals expense that Celebrity paid for, and they did not require an insurance premium to be paid. I tried several times to explain that whether or not I purchased travel insurance should have nothing to do with being treated equally with other passengers. I also pointed out that Celebrity saved $600 by us buying the insurance, and they should be more than willing to pay us the $356 premium expense and thereby, putting us in the same economic position as those that did not buy insurance. She just said the "leadership team" here at Celebrity had decided to reimburse passengers for their hotel and meals if they had not purchased insurance, but those that had purchased insurance would not be reimbursed for their insurance premiums. Am I crazy, or is this viewpoint unfair and illogical? She also said that I was paid more than other people who had trip insurance, but I noticed you were paid $750 p/p or a total of $1500, which is more than my insurance paid. Has anyone else run into this same issue, and what do you think of how Celebrity is handling this? I don't know who has been sending her letters of appreciation, but she said "many people were surprised at how generous Celebrity had been with the refunds, and they were not expecting all they had received!" I asked one more time about any additional future cruise compensation, and she said the 25% is all they will be offering, and I told her not to expect any future business from me, unless I see a 12 day cruise with a price that matches the $283 voucher they sent us.

 

We also have a unique situation. Although we have cancellation insurance through our credit card, we could not collect from them.

 

We opted to remain in Barcelona until our original flight. It was very difficult to find a hotel for so many days (there seemed to have been a medical congress). We were lucky to find an apartment. It was not expensive and not to our liking, but it was in a good area and it was a roof over our head.

 

We don't eat big meals every day, so the first 3 days our meal expense was rather small.

 

So, after deducting the $100pp and the first night at the Hilton, all they gave us was 2 nights and food, the grand total of which was $260 for the 2 of us (not each).

 

Knowing what Celebrity paid others, 3 nights in more expensive hotels and more expensive restaurants, PLUS expensive airfares to return earlier than planned, I would say that Celelbrity got off really cheap with us.

 

Needless to say, we are less than thrilled with Celebrity, which, by the way, has always been our cruiseline of choice. We are loyal elite members.

However, the way we were treated, I don't think our loyalty will last for long.

[CruisinNole]

We're finally able to close the book on this messed up cruise. After many calls and emails, we got the last of the checks from our travel insurance. All we're out is the cost of the travel insurance which appears to be a waste of money since it sounds like Celebrity would have reimbursed us but possibly without all the difficulties imposed by our insurer.

 

We try very hard not to speak negatively about Celebrity, the company, when we tell our story about this miserable cruise, our horrid treatment and struggles to get reimbursed. We just state the facts and we've heard over and over again from the people who hear our story that they will never cruise Celebrity. However, we mince no words when we discuss the Captain and his senior staff, who we blame for the disgusting treatment and we emphatically tell people that we will never set foot on the Century again.

[Can'tstopcruising]

We're finally able to close the book on this messed up cruise. After many calls and emails, we got the last of the checks from our travel insurance. All we're out is the cost of the travel insurance which appears to be a waste of money since it sounds like Celebrity would have reimbursed us but possibly without all the difficulties imposed by our insurer.

 

We try very hard not to speak negatively about Celebrity, the company, when we tell our story about this miserable cruise, our horrid treatment and struggles to get reimbursed. We just state the facts and we've heard over and over again from the people who hear our story that they will never cruise Celebrity. However, we mince no words when we discuss the Captain and his senior staff, who we blame for the disgusting treatment and we emphatically tell people that we will never set foot on the Century again.

 

First, the captain & crew changes periodically.

 

Second, I think the Captain was getting his orders from Miami. The powers that be probably told him & his staff to lay low so that they could avoid answering pertinent questions, such as: why did this happen in the first place? Did a perfect rudder suddenly break while anchored in Villefranche?

 

To my mind they cannot be trusted. It is difficult to have respect for the members of a company, whether at sea or on shore, when they obviously have no regard for their customers.

[harryw]

The Century was our favorite Celebrity ship. Our very first cruise was on the Century in 1998, and we returned four more times. But the Century now holds such bad memories, returning to it would be unthinkable.

[rvlandandsea]

We're finally able to close the book on this messed up cruise. After many calls and emails, we got the last of the checks from our travel insurance. All we're out is the cost of the travel insurance which appears to be a waste of money since it sounds like Celebrity would have reimbursed us but possibly without all the difficulties imposed by our insurer.

 

We try very hard not to speak negatively about Celebrity, the company, when we tell our story about this miserable cruise, our horrid treatment and struggles to get reimbursed. We just state the facts and we've heard over and over again from the people who hear our story that they will never cruise Celebrity. However, we mince no words when we discuss the Captain and his senior staff, who we blame for the disgusting treatment and we emphatically tell people that we will never set foot on the Century again.

 

You may have a point about the senior staff, but we were helped by two terrific staff that answered our 20 questions and assisted us in our bookings to replace this cruise. They followed up and were honestly concerned about us. Unfortunately not everyone had the same treatment.

[Can'tstopcruising]

You may have a point about the senior staff, but we were helped by two terrific staff that answered our 20 questions and assisted us in our bookings to replace this cruise. They followed up and were honestly concerned about us. Unfortunately not everyone had the same treatment.

 

We received help from the Captain's club person. One of our group was very pro-active and resourceful and she discovered that he would help. But how many passengers knew about him?

 

One officer promised she would help us. Not only did she fail to do so, but she made herself unreachable.

 

The hotel manager. Oh boy. When asked for help, his answer was that they do not do hotel reservations. Sure. Get off the ship and find yourself a hotel. Very nice.

 

It was deplorable how things were handled. And to add insult to injury, not only did they string us along for months regarding refunds, but they DEDUCTED some of the refunds already made.

 

It is obvious that they couldn't care less whether or not we remain loyal Celebrity passengers.

[Samone78]

It seems as though, now, months after this huge debacle, we still have to deal with sub-standard treatment from Celebrity.

 

After much consternation, my husband and I decided to use the FCCs that were sent to us. We felt like this was the only thing we really got from Celebrity in return for this huge blunder, on their part. To not use them, would essentially be like taking Celebrity off the hook for all of this heartache!

 

Our travel agent submitted these for processing and not to my surprise, the numbers on the certificate were entered incorrectly. Long story short, I spent hours on the phone trying to get this done and get the credit, we so much deserve.

 

Not for nothing, we did choose a cruise which would require the least out of pocket expense and which would utilize all of the FCCs.

 

All of this reiterates that Celebrity has very poor customer service and they have no interest in righting their wrongs. I think it will always be the same story.

 

Who knows how this upcoming cruise will turn out, but regardless of that, we are through with Celebrity!!!!

[jcrandle]

I was not on this cruise, and therefore can only sympathize with those that were dumped off the ship. I would, however love to be a fly on the wall at the debriefing that (I hope) was held at Celebrity operations after this debacle. I worked in an operational area at a Fortune 100 Information Technology company supporting a major client that had a 24/7 I/T operation. After every outage that impacted their service objectives we held an outage analysis that delved into the causes that initiated the outage, what actions were taken to correct or shorten it, and (most importantly) what changes in the operation should be taken to prevent it from happening again, as well as to reduce the impact to our customers.

 

The minutes of these outage studies were published to the affected clients, so that they could provide feedback, but more importantly, that they could see positive actions to prevent/alleviate the problem in the future.

 

The absence of corporate comment from Celebrity leaves open to question whether the next aborted cruise will be handled any better than this one.

[Can'tstopcruising]

I was not on this cruise, and therefore can only sympathize with those that were dumped off the ship. I would, however love to be a fly on the wall at the debriefing that (I hope) was held at Celebrity operations after this debacle. I worked in an operational area at a Fortune 100 Information Technology company supporting a major client that had a 24/7 I/T operation. After every outage that impacted their service objectives we held an outage analysis that delved into the causes that initiated the outage, what actions were taken to correct or shorten it, and (most importantly) what changes in the operation should be taken to prevent it from happening again, as well as to reduce the impact to our customers.

 

The minutes of these outage studies were published to the affected clients, so that they could provide feedback, but more importantly, that they could see positive actions to prevent/alleviate the problem in the future.

 

The absence of corporate comment from Celebrity leaves open to question whether the next aborted cruise will be handled any better than this one.

 

Logically, if they plan to better handle a similar situation in the future, they would start off by offering something more attractive to these cruisers than a 25% discount on a future cruise. That is 25% of what you paid for the Oct.13th MINUS the taxes. They always seemed to find ways to SUBTRACT monies.

[CruisinNole]

We received help from the Captain's club person. One of our group was very pro-active and resourceful and she discovered that he would help. But how many passengers knew about him?

 

We knew the Captain's Club host from previous Century cruises. He's a super guy. One of our group talked to him and he tried to find out an answer to what should have been a simple question -- if we stated on our travel questionaire that there were 4 of us traveling together (we put the names and cabin numbers of all 4 passengers as well as a statement that we needed to travel together), would we be on the same tender, traveling to Barcelona on the same bus and staying in the same hotel? He made some calls for us and told us that the answer was "yes".

 

Being the skeptic I am, I stood in line for 1 1/2 hours to ask the front desk the same question and was told "yes". Of course it didn't work out that way. We received a tender time an hour later than our friends. When we went back to the CC host, he made another call. We were told that our friends would have to wait on the dock for us and that we might not be in the same hotel and that if we got to the hotel and there wasn't a reservation in our name, we should ask another passenger in line if we could have their reservations! How stupid a response is that????

 

As it turned out, we just went on the same tender as our friends like we had that scheduled time, our luggage was there, we got on a bus to Barcelona and when we got to the hotel, found out that there were no reservations in anyone's name. You just stood in line and hoped that there were enough reservations for everyone on the bus.

[lost luggage]

I still have not been able to book with Celebrity. I have looked at a few cruises but just can't shake the sour memories fom our Century fiasco.

[harryw]

We booked the Eclipse for next month, but only because we had to use a credit that was originally applied to the Century cruise.

 

In Dec, we were on the Summit (which was booked prior to the Century fiasco.) The food was so horrendous, it was the first cruise on which my wife lost weight.

 

We're strategizing on how to find good food on the ship next month.

[CruisinNole]

We're booked on a transatlantic in May. Want to use the voucher. Have no other Celebrity cruises booked. Still will never go on Century again especially since the same captain is still on the ship. Even if he weren't, we have such bad memories of the ship, we'll never set foot on it. Took us 3 months but we finally got all charges reimbursed.

[Jade13]

I still have not been able to book with Celebrity. I have looked at a few cruises but just can't shake the sour memories fom our Century fiasco.

 

 

Book something on Eclipse.