New propulsion problem on Millennium

[BigHeadedDriver]

Were these merely promised or have they been issued?

 

Transferable?

 

Terms and conditions?

 

SMS 3128601862.

[CarpeCerevisi]

Some blogs are posting that shes going to the Bahamas for repair. Guess that means the SAN-FLL cruise on the 22nd of now scrapped. How terriable for those guests.

 

No, the 9/22 cruise is still a go as of now. The Millennium is due to arrive in Freeport on 9/3 followed by a dry dock of five days. That still leaves plenty of time to get her back to San Diego. Of course, if something in that schedule slips ...

[Lynnees]

No, the plan is to have the ship back in San Diego on the 22nd to embark those passengers. Still, if I had a reservation for that cruise I would probably already be working on a back-up plan.

 

I don't really understand why they're taking the ship all the way to the Bahamas for a five day repair. Is it a dry dock space issue? Contractual obligation? I had assumed my cruise on the 13th would be safe because a repair would take place somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. Does anybody know why they would take the ship all the way across the continent for this?

 

There were no other dry dock areas available. There is one in Victoria but it's already being used. There has to be space available and that appears to be the closest.

[CruisinMaterial]

No, the 9/22 cruise is still a go as of now. The Millennium is due to arrive in Freeport on 9/3 followed by a dry dock of five days. That still leaves plenty of time to get her back to San Diego. Of course, if something in that schedule slips ...

 

There were no other dry dock areas available. There is one in Victoria but it's already being used. There has to be space available and that appears to be the closest.

 

Does anyone actually know what the repair is going to be? Are they going to rip a hole in the side of her and replace a faulty engine or replace a pod? :cool:

[papadave]

We were scheduled to go back to back. We were told, a number of times, not to worry and that we would be taken care of. Do nothing and your vacation will not be spoiled. Hearing this, we assumed that Celebrity would arrange for us to continue our vacation in some way -- a 7 day cruise in Alaska either returning to Vancouver or Seattle at or near the date we were scheduled to return to Vancouver (8/30). Cruises existed and there was availability. I could have, and looking back should have, booked one of these by myself, but I was told not to because this would be taken care of. Also, we would have been happy to be added to the folks going to Anchorage with a land tour.

 

But, what happened was not good. We receive a voicemail in our stateroom telling us to pack our bags and be ready to go to Seattle first thing next morning. From there, they would put us in a hotel for up to two days and give us $200 per person for any change fees for our airline tickets. None of this worked for us. Our flight home is on Cathay Pacific, which requires that we be in Vancouver and not Seattle. People are using our apartment until the morning of August 31st.

 

Many hours in line later, at 3:40 a.m. we were assured they would do everything they could to make sure we stayed on vacation in Alaska.

 

Around 6:30 a.m. we were told that nothing was available and we would have to work things out ourselves unless we wanted to take a cruise from New York to the Bahamas right away -- during the start of Hurricane season. NOOOOO!

 

My travel agent was unable to book anything. Phone calls to Celebrity left us without any new options. Holland America accepted $350 to put us on a wait list for the Amsterdam, RT Vancouver 8/23-/8/30. We waited hours and hours without plans. Holland America called around 1:00 p.m. to let us know that they could offer us a cabin, but it would be just under $5,000 (more than we paid for the entire back-to-back trip). Reluctantly, we took this. I would not be as frustrated if I had booked this 24 hours earlier and did not spend most of the intervening day worrying and waiting on lines. Needless to say, I have very little sleep in me and I probably will not be very relaxed at the end of a vacation that started August 12th.

 

The real problem here is that we were told we were being taken care of and we should have a nice time in Ketchikan when we really should have been told to call our travel agent.

[FLACRUISER99]

No, the plan is to have the ship back in San Diego on the 22nd to embark those passengers. Still, if I had a reservation for that cruise I would probably already be working on a back-up plan.

 

I don't really understand why they're taking the ship all the way to the Bahamas for a five day repair. Is it a dry dock space issue? Contractual obligation? I had assumed my cruise on the 13th would be safe because a repair would take place somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. Does anybody know why they would take the ship all the way across the continent for this?

Doesn't seem to make sense, but since RCI is a part owner in the Freeport yard maybe thats the reason.:confused:

[CarpeCerevisi]

From all I have heard, the problem is with the propulsion pod, not the gas turbine main engines. The pod contains an electric motor that drives the propeller, that might be where the problem lies. If it was with any of the other electrical gear such as the transformer or converter, they are within the hull of the ship and wouldn't require a dry dock. The only way to access a pod is in a dry dock.

[Queenbee031]

Thank you, cruisestich; This is the best synopsis of disruption and its resulting impact ever presented. Brilliant.

You deserve millions kudos for your fair, cool, calm and collected way of re-capping the whole sequel of events, the good, the bad, and...ultimately, the ugly....And this, from your very first post.!

Your summary ought to be printed/framed/pasted...and forwarded to Bayley's department ''for their perusal''....I doubt anyone in charge will ever see a better report on a disruption and the catastrophic level the company's own people allowed it to reach.

I particularly love point #6 in your current post; nails it right on the head; capsules the whole problem magnificiently. The fact that Celebrity missed that is still mystifying......

Thank you again .

I agree 100% with the comments. Even worse, my friend and I who were sharing a cabin were placed on 2 different flights to 2 different countries, neither city where we wanted to go (Seattle & Vancover). We ended up booking our own flight to Anchorage and getting a hotel on our own so we could continue our trip. There are alot of us from the ship at this Anchorage hotel this morning (all of us booked it on our own).

 

I echo the biggest problem was the shore staff not listening to the customer and lack of communication. If they had asked one member from each party to fill out a form I think it would have been a lot less chaotic. We kept being told we would be taken care of and weren't. The final morning after we were told we couldn't get on an ANC flight I mentioned this to an officer who was suddenly able to get us on one in 30 min (though it didn't leave until 10:30 that night). We kept our commercial flight.

 

Vacation now back on track with an extra day to explore Vancouver and off to Denali by train tomorrow. I will summerize my review of the actual cruise when I get home.

[Jean17]

Does anyone know if Millenium has left Ketchican? And if so when?

Thanks!

[moebruin]

Yes it left yesterday. Don't know exact time. It was still in dock when I got to the airport at 4.30 and it was gone when I boarded my plane around 6.30

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Forums mobile app

[purduemom1]

I'm posting this more in hopes that Celebrity will read all the comments and realize they DO have an obligation to all those affected to, at the very least, make them whole financially. This cruise was to end in Seward and pax were either staying in that area and doing land tours or flying home. All but B2B pax should have been transported to Anchorage. Why was that so hard to figure out?

That would have left the B2B pax who would need help working things out. While I don't know how many there were, I'm sure they were in the minority. Some pax were able to make their own hotel reservations in Anchorage and I am willing to bet that there were hotel rooms available but probably not at a price that pleased Celebrity. Assigning people arbitrarily to cities they did not want to go to and then leaving them to make the flight changes at whatever additional cost was required demonstrates that Celebrity's goal was to spend as little as possible. Their only concern was getting everyone off the ship without regard to how their actions affected the passengers.

 

In this case, all the cities involved are in either the US or Canada but what if this had happened in a foreign country where it is not so easy to communicate and find one's way to where one needs to be? Knowing where Celebrity's priorities are makes me reluctant to book a Celebrity cruise for fear that I might find myself trying to get home from half way around the world!

 

Early in this thread Celebrity posted but has been silent since all the passenger problems have been revealed. I am assuming they are reading and if so I certainly hope they realize that they need to do much better for their guests.

[sailor_jimc]

Wow.. reading the experiences here leaves me wondering what X was thinking (or not thinking apparently) . I was on the Carnival Triumph when she caught fire and had to be towed to Mobile,AL. Compared to what I have read here, they handled the travel arrangements much better. The head of each cruising family was asked to fill out a form detailing your preferences - flight home from Mobile, bus trip back to Galveston, etc... They did a very good job of figuring out what they needed to do before they made the arrangements. They even flew a couple traveling with us to FLorida so they could pick up their daughter from Grandma's instead of flying them home and then having them make new flight arrangements to get their daughter... All arranged before we got off the ship. And Carnival's CEO and several of his senior officers were in Mobile when the ship docked.

 

So many times I have heard that Carnival should take a note from Celebrity's playbook.. obviously this goes both ways.

 

I understand the frustration for all of you on the Milli when your cruise came to a sudden halt. But keep it in perspective, at least you were not stranded on a cruise ship in the gulf of Mexico with limited common comforts...

[Bfson]

So far all I have read refers to a 'propulsion problem." Does anyone know if we are talking about pods or something else?

[Travel the USA]

So far all I have read refers to a 'propulsion problem." Does anyone know if we are talking about pods or something else?

 

I understand it's pods.

[cruisestitch]

Yes we often said that it certainly could have been even worse.... It could have happened at Icy Strait Point (A tender port).

 

It could have happened in a place where none of our cell phones worked. We had 4G coverage which was invaluable in making and cancelling reservations

 

It could have shut down the elevators, lights, toilets.

 

It could have shut down the PA system. Oh wait, that would have been a good thing.

[takemewithyou]

Wow.. reading the experiences here leaves me wondering what X was thinking (or not thinking apparently) . I was on the Carnival Triumph when she caught fire and had to be towed to Mobile,AL. Compared to what I have read here, they handled the travel arrangements much better. The head of each cruising family was asked to fill out a form detailing your preferences - flight home from Mobile, bus trip back to Galveston, etc... They did a very good job of figuring out what they needed to do before they made the arrangements. They even flew a couple traveling with us to FLorida so they could pick up their daughter from Grandma's instead of flying them home and then having them make new flight arrangements to get their daughter... All arranged before we got off the ship. And Carnival's CEO and several of his senior officers were in Mobile when the ship

 

Exactly! As a shareholder in RCCL...that is what I expect from the CEO of Celebrity! Come on, Mr Bailey, where were you when all of this was happening? managing from Miami. Ok, great. great,if your team is able to manage and has practiced this before. Obviously, this was not the case. either you or someone very close to you should have been personally managing this. What a PR nightmare! shame on you! What this has done to the Celebrity brand is disgusting! Not that you weren't well on your way to dumbing down the brand anyway! :rolleyes::rolleyes:

[JaneStarr]

Yes we often said that it certainly could have been even worse.... It could have ...{{snip}}}

 

... shut down the PA system. Oh wait, that would have been a good thing.

 

LOL; Love you sense of humor!

[takemewithyou]

Yes we often said that it certainly could have been even worse.... It could have happened at Icy Strait Point (A tender port).

 

It could have happened in a place where none of our cell phones worked. We had 4G coverage which was invaluable in making and cancelling reservations

 

It could have shut down the elevators, lights, toilets.

 

It could have shut down the PA system. Oh wait, that would have been a good thing.

appreciate all of your updates and the positive attitude you have shown through this whole episode! If not for your uodates, I am not sure we would have known all of this. Wishing you a bit of peace on the rest of your vacation and a safe trip home.

[purduemom1]

 

It could have shut down the PA system. Oh wait, that would have been a good thing.

 

Cruise stitch, glad to see a bit of humor in all of this! I hope you are doing well. Thank you for all your informative posts. As a cruiser, I have learned from you that it might be a good idea to add another aspect to all the pre cruise plans we all make....what will we do if we are stranded in one of the ports on our itinerary? What options are available etc. just as we all look into the port tours, shopping, etc....now we should add....how do we get home from here! Not exactly enjoyable but after all of this, necessary. Thanks again.

[gimletgal]

Does anyone know if Millenium has left Ketchican? And if so when?

Thanks!

 

She is long gone. Left yesterday around 3:30 PM Ketchikan time.

 

 

[susaraymond]

The stay in vancouver Fairmont turned out well. But, please know that we left for the airport at 6:00 am and were told by the taxi that our vouchers were not good. The taxi driver showed us what voucher should have looked like from holland America. We paid the driver and hope to be reimbursed by celebrity.

[cjknox]

Wow.. reading the experiences here leaves me wondering what X was thinking (or not thinking apparently) . I was on the Carnival Triumph when she caught fire and had to be towed to Mobile,AL. Compared to what I have read here, they handled the travel arrangements much better. The head of each cruising family was asked to fill out a form detailing your preferences - flight home from Mobile, bus trip back to Galveston, etc... They did a very good job of figuring out what they needed to do before they made the arrangements. They even flew a couple traveling with us to FLorida so they could pick up their daughter from Grandma's instead of flying them home and then having them make new flight arrangements to get their daughter... All arranged before we got off the ship. And Carnival's CEO and several of his senior officers were in Mobile when the ship docked.

 

So many times I have heard that Carnival should take a note from Celebrity's playbook.. obviously this goes both ways.

 

I understand the frustration for all of you on the Milli when your cruise came to a sudden halt. But keep it in perspective, at least you were not stranded on a cruise ship in the gulf of Mexico with limited common comforts...

 

Very well said and so very true.

[Celebrity Cruises]

The stay in vancouver Fairmont turned out well. But, please know that we left for the airport at 6:00 am and were told by the taxi that our vouchers were not good. The taxi driver showed us what voucher should have looked like from holland America. We paid the driver and hope to be reimbursed by celebrity.

 

Hi susaraymond, please be sure to hold onto your receipt, and we will be able to reimburse the taxi costs.

[CALIF65GM]

Hi susaraymond, please be sure to hold onto your receipt, and we will be able to reimburse the taxi costs.

 

Celebrity,

 

I've never posted on here, but have been following this thread only because my folks were on a cruise at the same time in Alaska and I was actually in Seward when the Millennium was in town for it's initial fix.

 

I didn't know about the 3-day stay until I heard about it here.

 

I find it really interesting that you only decide to respond to this 1 taxi reimbursement post. How come you're not addressing any of the passengers who were shipped off like cattle to a city that they didn't want to go?

 

I think only responding to this 1-post just makes it seem less sincere in my opinion.

 

And before anyone jumps my case, I am in customer service too and let's just say most people would recognize the client names that I list off.

 

Thanks for listening and crawling back to my seat in the bleachers now.

[tinabinab]

I understand the frustration for all of you on the Milli when your cruise came to a sudden halt. But keep it in perspective, at least you were not stranded on a cruise ship in the gulf of Mexico with limited common comforts...

 

I can promise you that that fact was not forgotten by any of us. We were VERY thankful to be in a port with no loss of services. The majority of us were taking it with a positive attitude. Stuff happens and we were just going with it the best that we could. It wasn't until they made the ridiculous decision to send the great majority to Vancouver and Seattle that things got crazy stressful.

 

It was a little depressing to see ship after ship come into and leave port, day after day. I stuck my thumb out several times to try and catch a ride, but no one stopped. :(