FIRST and LAST CRUISE With CELEBRITY

[emuller1]

My wife and I are booked to cruise June 14th on the Equinox and are looking forward to it.

HOWEVER and it is a big HOWEVER this will be the last time I will cruise with CELEBRITY. Their customer service nowhere to be found unless it requires a payment. Today I have been on hold for 60 minutes, hung up, then later 40 minutes had to hang. I have previously sent 2 email requests asking about excursions no response to date.

To me this is an indication on how they value their paying customers and I will not be 1 after this cruise. I prefer to spend my money where I am dealing with a company not only mentions customer service but practices it.

[Orator]

My wife and I are booked to cruise June 14th on the Equinox and are looking forward to it.

HOWEVER and it is a big HOWEVER this will be the last time I will cruise with CELEBRITY. Their customer service nowhere to be found unless it requires a payment. Today I have been on hold for 60 minutes, hung up, then later 40 minutes had to hang. I have previously sent 2 email requests asking about excursions no response to date.

To me this is an indication on how they value their paying customers and I will not be 1 after this cruise. I prefer to spend my money where I am dealing with a company not only mentions customer service but practices it.

 

Enjoy your cruise on Equinox.

[LilMsFoodie]

information and booking on tours and excursions are on their website. You sound like you need a full service travel agent. You might like Crystal Cruise lines for your next voyage.

[Martinjjd]

That must be very frustrating & long waits for the call centre service seems to be a common complaint on CC. I must say that the service from the Sydney office is good from my experience.

I am thinking that if you have a great time on your cruise it may NOT be your last Celebrity cruise.

I hope your experience is like our was on Solistice in March. Fantastic !!

 

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[emuller1]

information and booking on tours and excursions are on their website. You sound like you need a full service travel agent. You might like Crystal Cruise lines for your next voyage.

The inofrmation I asked for is not on their site and no I do not need a full service travel agent I need a company that not only says the words customer service they actually know what it means.

[4774Papa]

Sorry about your problems. I have never had to wait that long when calling customer service. I did have to wait several minutes once, but I worked on my computer during the time.

 

One thing that I usually do is book excursions on the website. I usually book early and don't have last minute issues.

 

Enjoy your cruise. Perhaps you will have a different view after your cruise.

[WestLakeGirl]

Maybe someone here on cruise critic would know the answer to your question. What is it you are trying to find out?

[koolforkatz]

I feel your pain - trying to get through on the phone is often a Kafkaesque experience :(

 

However, the onboard experience more than makes up for it and keeps me coming back. I hope you find it to be the same.

[Lastdance]

Sadly, it is the price so many of us have to pay to get service. Technologically speaking, If you don't have good programmers or enough help, your experience can be a nightmare. On the other hand, life is too short to harbor frustration for too long. I have encountered the same issues with so many companies...:eek:

Edited May 9, 2014 by Lastdance

[Yellowfurbaby]

Sorry you seem to be having these issues. I agree what you have described is indeed unacceptable. It gives a very bad image of the company when things like this happen.

Hope you have a wonderful holiday though x

 

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[dodger1964]

Sorry about your frustrations. Post your questions here and I would bet you would have answer very quickly.

 

I think if someone didn't do business with mass market cruise lines that offered subpar customer service it wouldn't be long that u would run out of options.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[steveweese]

Make sure to remember this..... Your first drink is free just mention it to the bartender.

[Starry Eyes]

Maybe someone here on cruise critic would know the answer to your question. What is it you are trying to find out?

The hold times have been frustrating to me at times. I feel your pain there.

 

As to finding info, I agree with WestLakeGirl. Cruise Critic is a terrific source for information. Land based customer service, maybe not so much. if you seek detailed info about an excursion, I am not sure you'll easily get reliable info by telephone.

 

You have found cruise critic. Perhaps you should ask your question here. Somebody might well know the answer or might be able to direct you to a good info source.

[h0mbr3]

I feel your pain! Took almost a week for an email reply. I had another question and called and waited just a few minutes. Maybe I caught them on a good day! However, once I stepped on the boat, I didn't want to get off of it! I have sailed numerous times with Carnival in the past, but Celebrity is my cruise line of choice now. You'll have a great time once you get on the boat!

[monicajay]

My wife and I are booked to cruise June 14th on the Equinox and are looking forward to it.

HOWEVER and it is a big HOWEVER this will be the last time I will cruise with CELEBRITY. Their customer service nowhere to be found unless it requires a payment. Today I have been on hold for 60 minutes, hung up, then later 40 minutes had to hang. I have previously sent 2 email requests asking about excursions no response to date.

To me this is an indication on how they value their paying customers and I will not be 1 after this cruise. I prefer to spend my money where I am dealing with a company not only mentions customer service but practices it.

 

Hopefully, like us your cruise experience will be so wonderful you'll forget about your poor experiences on the phone.

 

Booked again :rolleyes:. Don't plan to call till final payment and will try to do that at a 'slow' moment in the week.

 

For those that will say I need a TA, I don't. Worked full time as a TA for 10 years before going to work for an airline so it is not my lack of experience or knowledge.

 

Website needs to be fixed. This will have fewer clients phoning in and lines will be answered faster.

[blindrid]

I'm on your side.

 

Couple of weeks ago, I called to book equinox on 12/1. First time w/celebrity. I knew what I wanted. On hold forever, twice, hung up. On website asked to call, called immediately, on hold again. Hung up.

 

Called again, short wait. Got a PVP that could care less. Booking took less than 5 minutes for three cabins all the while not caring.

 

I get much better service with "lesser", price wise cruise lines. Not near excited about this cruise as those in the past.

 

What gives?

[kelmac]

I've cruised 52 times and never had to call the Cruise company because I had a question. Is it because I did something right, or something wrong?

Be negative if you want attention.

 

Enjoy!

Kel:)

[teecee60]

I've cruised 52 times and never had to call the Cruise company because I had a question. Is it because I did something right, or something wrong?

 

Kel:)

 

Ditto here, the only time I have ever had to call Celebrity was to ask for help with their on line check in for my first cruise. :o

 

I am still trying to figure out why everyone needs to call them all the time... :confused:

[hulamoon]

Many if not most of the excursions can be booked on board.

 

Even repeat customers endure long phone waiting. Sometimes excursions can be booked on their website, but that maybe yet another frustration.

 

You can also check out the roll call for excursions planned with others cruising with you.

[We're The Groupnors]

We use a travel agent and let her deal with Celebrity. Prices are the same whether i do the work or pass it on to our TA. I have called Captain's Club before several cruises to book Specialty Dining without having to pay up front, as you do when you book on the web-site (wanted to use OBC on board). Never had to wait more than a couple of minutes. Can't imagine any other reason to have to call Celebrity directly.

[miched]

I think the problem is Moden Luxury, whatever that means.

 

No matter where you go finding service is a problem and I think that we are to blame as everyone is looking for a deal or bargain.

 

It started years ago with a few self serve or no frill markets that basically put full service out of business because people decided that they were willing to give up service to save a few dollars.

 

Gas stations are self serve, supper markets are almost self serve as they want you to bag your own groceries and at some even do your own check out.

 

Then if there is a place where there is some service people will go tehre for advice and then go home looking to save a dollar by ordering on the Internet.

 

I don't know how the service dept is on other cruise lines but apparently people are willing to put up with Celebrities Service Deparatment because they think the value is worth the aggrievation. Is it worth paying hundreds to thousands more for someone to answer a phone in 5 minutes? My time is valuable and it is aggrievatiing but I am willing to sacrifice the time for the value. I just put the phone on speaker phome and go about doing other things until they answer. Problem is when I get disconnected or the battery goes dead.

 

 

🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[Orator]

 

I am still trying to figure out why everyone needs to call them all the time... :confused:

 

Perhaps that's part of the problem? With all the travel information available on the net I sometimes wonder why people need to ask about things like tours, scheduled closing and travel restrictions, alcohol,policy and other often repeated questions.Naturally there are some Celebrity specific questions and issue that need to be addressed by the company and they should do this in a timely and professional manner. Perhaps a thread search on Cruise Critic could help at least some from calling Celebrity. The OP hasn't revealed the nature of his problem and my remarks are not directed to him. I really hope that the cruise experience lessens his frustration.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

I feel your pain. I won't hold that long for any one. That's why I use a travel agent. She gets to deal with them if calling is necessary.

[RDC1]

As far as customer service goes I agree with the OP. I recently did a cruise on the Solstice. Prior to that cruise I had a couple of questions. The first time I called I spent over 30 minutes waiting. I gave up. The second time I clicked on the web site to have them call me. My phone rang immediately, but I still had to wait about 10 minutes before someone actually came on the phone.

 

I have never had waits like that to talk to someone on the other cruise lines I use. Princess has never been more then a couple of minutes. With HAL my longest wait has been less then 5 minutes.

 

It has been a couple of years since I was on NCL and RCI but then the waits were also very short. Don't know what has happened with Celebrity lately, but there phone service response times have gone down hill badly recently.

[Andy]

My wife and I are booked to cruise June 14th on the Equinox and are looking forward to it.

HOWEVER and it is a big HOWEVER this will be the last time I will cruise with CELEBRITY. Their customer service nowhere to be found unless it requires a payment. Today I have been on hold for 60 minutes, hung up, then later 40 minutes had to hang. I have previously sent 2 email requests asking about excursions no response to date.

To me this is an indication on how they value their paying customers and I will not be 1 after this cruise. I prefer to spend my money where I am dealing with a company not only mentions customer service but practices it.

 

Hi Emuller,

 

While I'm not about to make any excuses for the long hold times... why not post your questions on this thread ? Myself, and many of our wonderful members will certainly try our best to assist you. There's a wealth of information here, so please ask away !

Edited May 10, 2014 by Host Andy