New propulsion problem on Millennium

[CMJ33]

If you have travel insurance - trip interruption/cancellation, call them to find out what you are covered for and what you are not. They should also provide you with a claim # as reference. Have your policy # ready. They will tell you yes or no which will allow you to make an informed decision of what to do.

[cruisestitch]

Personnel from Wichita office arrived just a short while ago. I believe that they sent more than 30, from the size of the group I saw in a meeting now at specialty restaurant. A bank of 12 computers is set up just outside that venue for them.

[deise17311]

Again, Celebrity is falling down for those of us traveling in the next 48 hours...do we get on a plane tomorrow???

 

 

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[lovecruzin]

I have been following this thread and just want to let everyone know how badly I feel for you... for some this is just an inconvenience and for others a bucket list trip that has been ruined..

 

I appreciate all of you reporting your experiences and wish you safe travels home or wherever you go after this. I have been on cruises where we missed one port due to weather and people wanted refunds, you all seem to be making the most out of your experience and keeping a positive attitude. For those on upcoming sailings, I hope Celebrity provides some answers soon.

[coldweathergirl]

Personnel from Wichita office arrived just a short while ago. I believe that they sent more than 30, from the size of the group I saw in a meeting now at specialty restaurant. A bank of 12 computers is set up just outside that venue for them.

 

They must have awfully speedy planes and really dedicated staff that travel without any warning to get staff there so quickly :rolleyes:

[A Sixth?]

They must have awfully speedy planes and really dedicated staff that travel without any warning to get staff there so quickly :rolleyes:

 

Huh??? :confused::confused::confused:

[ghstudio]

Again, Celebrity is falling down for those of us traveling in the next 48 hours...do we get on a plane tomorrow???

 

 

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This is a real problem for Celebrity. If they cancel the cruise and they fix the problem in the next couple of days, the ship sits idle with no revenue. So they want everyone there, just in case they can fix the pod. Unfortunately, if they can't fix it, you are on the dock with no cruise and you've flown to the port. Celebrity (likely) claims to responsibility to refund you the airline ticket, that's what insurance is for.....but they ignore the fact that travel insurance doesn't actually cover the airfare in many situations....in fact, I haven't read the policy that Celebrity sells, but last I looked (a couple of years ago), it didn't cover the airfare either.

 

Ugly situation. The only thing to do is go with the flow and hopefully everything will work out OK.

[coldweathergirl]

Huh??? :confused::confused::confused:

 

Meaning that they must have known since early yesterday to get all of that arranged. Too bad they didn't let the passengers know quite so promptly that the sailing was basically cancelled.

[deserttraveler]

Did any of you currently onboard miss a booked whale watch with Harv and Marv in Juneau yesterday? If so, did they make an exception to their 30-day cancellation and offer a refund or a future whale watch? I am booked with them for the Sept. 6 Millie sailing and am starting to count up what expenses I will have to eat if this cruise does not go.

 

And my sympathy to those of you onboard who are doing this as a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

[karensc]

My travel agent is being as helpful as she is able to be right now. Not sailing until September 6th it is basically, wait and see.

[watson524]

I'm not on the ship right now as we took a tour to the local laundromat :-) but good those reps are there as there was a LOT of noise coming from deck 3 today at customer relations. My gut tells me they knew yesterday what a s@*t storm this was going to be just from the conversation I had with the longshoremen

[Veronda817]

Did any of you currently onboard miss a booked whale watch with Harv and Marv in Juneau yesterday? If so, did they make an exception to their 30-day cancellation and offer a refund or a future whale watch? I am booked with them for the Sept. 6 Millie sailing and am starting to count up what expenses I will have to eat if this cruise does not go.

 

And my sympathy to those of you onboard who are doing this as a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

 

I cannot say specifically for Harv and Marv, but every one of our excursions, through Celebrity and independents, have been more than accommodating. My whale excursion at ISP was refunded before I even had a chance to tell them we wouldn't be arriving...and this was before it was certain that we wouldn't reach the port. Last night I contacted TAT in Talkeetna where we have a McKinley flight arranged during our land tour to let them know it was unclear how the cruise issue would affect our land portion, and they said no problem, they would cancel/refund when we knew for sure. Thus morning they announced they would get us to our land tours, so I let TAT know that we should be there as planned, and they just told us to let them know if plans change. I'm sure the excursion companies want us back if we do come back to Alaska, and I'm sure they would expect positive word of mouth (as opposed to poor reviews and no repeat bookings if they refuse to refund).

[Shaelyn]

We sail on Sept 6th also, so keeping an eye on this board. My sympathies are with those of you on this weeks cruise.

[deise17311]

Talked with celebrity about 8/23...they were very evasive and I can understand in case its fixed, however I got the distinct feeling that we will NOT be sailing on Friday....when I stated, "I'm sure you are doing everything possible to get us sailing Friday," the rep stated "I'm unable to answer that"...understanding no false hope...

 

 

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[deise17311]

24 hours till flight...surely they must know something...come on Celebrity...we must know to make

Cancelations etc...we leave in 24 hours...half our party is there ready with no info...celebrity is starting to fall down on the job!!!!! Flight, trains, excursions booked

 

 

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[ghstudio]

Talked with celebrity about 8/23...they were very evasive and I can understand in case its fixed, however I got the distinct feeling that we will NOT be sailing on Friday....when I stated, "I'm sure you are doing everything possible to get us sailing Friday," the rep stated "I'm unable to answer that"...understanding no false hope...

 

 

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The reps really know nothing other than what they are told. They have had a few days to diagnose the problem. If they don't know what it is by this point, it's likely the ship will go to drydock...but that's just my guess which is worth about as much as a celebrity rep saying the ship will sail on Friday. Unfortunately, as I said earlier, they don't want to risk finding a fix and having no passengers, so better to have the passengers fly to the port (at no cost to celebrity).

[cruisestitch]

All passengers planning on being on the next cruise must consult the particular travel insurance they have to see what is covered and if this falls within the policy they purchased.

 

Those with no travel insurance should consider that the best course of action might be to come to Anchorage and use the refund ( assuming the next cruise is cancelled) to put together a week of Alaska experiences independently.

[deise17311]

This is a nightmare for all...I need to start canceling stuff and celebrity needs to make a decision...cancel us and do the work over the next week and a half and fix this problem if possible until a reasonable dry dock...someone mentioned that celebrity got a settlement for the bad merazipods...did they not use that money to replace them? Clearly not...

 

 

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[360Guy]

The reps really know nothing other than what they are told. They have had a few days to diagnose the problem. If they don't know what it is by this point, it's likely the ship will go to drydock...but that's just my guess which is worth about as much as a celebrity rep saying the ship will sail on Friday. Unfortunately, as I said earlier, they don't want to risk finding a fix and having no passengers, so better to have the passengers fly to the port (at no cost to celebrity).

 

I am on the 9/13 cruise so certainly hoping your comment about drydock is a "guess"--I was on the Oosterdam some years ago and they had an azipod engine fire off the coast of Cabo San Lucas--we missed a port, they took care of us and operated the ship for almost 8 more months with 1 engine before going to drydock. Perhaps given recent cruise incidents they will no longer sail with only one engine but just hoping the engine repair would not take the ship out of service for what could be an extended period! Thanks!:)

[bobbysingh]

What could be a vacation of a lifetime...with an uncertainty.

 

Not even sure if you will board the ship even if you get to the port

after flying and taking the train...so in short...

 

Even after all the Planes, Trains and Automobiles...no Ship to board on.

 

:(

[Northern Aurora]

I really am not surprised that the remaining portion of the cruise has been cancelled. While I've crossed the Gulf of Alaska with smooth seas, it also can be quite rough. The fact that Celebrity didn't try to do so speaks well of their concerns for safety. I wonder if it also means that there is no easy fix for the current problems on the Millennium. While this must be so disappointing for some, no one would want to be in the Gulf on a ship with propulsion problems.

[Christine Frances]

Meaning that they must have known since early yesterday to get all of that arranged. Too bad they didn't let the passengers know quite so promptly that the sailing was basically cancelled.

 

Not really:rolleyes: They arrived at noon our time which is 3pm EST - The staff could have left anytime this am to get there.

[specialdiet]

For what its worth, the official line on board has been that they've been unable to determine the root cause of the problem, which suggests its not one of the "standard" failure modes for these pods.

 

I'm not an engineer but I know enough to know that for large, complex systems, it's often the case that finding the problem is 95% of the work, and the fix can then often (but not always) be quick and straightforward.

 

For those wondering about the day-by-day nature of this delay, cancellation, and no word on the next sailings, I suspect that is the reason, as compared with last week's, where it obviously failed in a "standard" way so they knew what went wrong and what it would take to fix it.

[ghstudio]

For what its worth, the official line on board has been that they've been unable to determine the root cause of the problem, which suggests its not one of the "standard" failure modes for these pods.

 

I'm not an engineer but I know enough to know that for large, complex systems, it's often the case that finding the problem is 95% of the work, and the fix can then often (but not always) be quick and straightforward.

 

For those wondering about the day-by-day nature of this delay, cancellation, and no word on the next sailings, I suspect that is the reason, as compared with last week's, where it obviously failed in a "standard" way so they knew what went wrong and what it would take to fix it.

 

However, if you are familiar with large complex, well documented systems, you know that when there is a problem that isn't "standard", the response from the experts working the problem starts with "we think....." as in we think it's the inner static bearing. That leads to the next "we think"....as in "we think it's fixed".

 

I'm not there, but I'm not optimistic on this one. The folks working on the pod are (presumably) experts and know every part of the pods. If they are stumped.... Is there a lemon law for ships :)

[Andy]

Hi Everyone,

 

To those onboard Millennium, I'm very sorry to hear of your dream vacation coming to an end. I'm hearing Celebrity's compensation (once again) is generous - but I know that doesn't lessen your disappointment. I truly hope you will enjoy Alaska in the future.

 

To those on the next sailing waiting for news... it must be very frustrating, but we should remind ourselves that Celebrity is doing everything possible to resolve this situation. Believe me, it's not in their best interest for this to continue 1 second longer than need be. Let's hope Celebrity will resolve sooner than later, and your sailing will proceed as planned. I'm rooting for you !