Emergency Travel Team?

[skittl1321]

I just finished my first cruise with Celebrity. We were on the Xpedition, so I know it is not a typical celebrity experience, but still a Celebrity cruise. This post is a bit of a rant, but also sharing my experience.

 

We had flight issues due to the Chicago Air Traffic Control fire (in that, our flights were canceled entirely) and needed to contact Celebrity to 1) alert them that we would not be arriving Friday and 2) Figure out what we were supposed to do on Saturday.

 

We contacted the phone number listed in our cruise documents as "Emergency Travel Team" and were shocked at the poor customer service we received from them.

 

The very first issue: They had never even heard of the Celebrity Xpedition.

 

I know that when calling the regular reservation line, it is recommended to ask for the Xpedition desk, or the Galapagos desk. Is the Emergency travel line just the same line to customer service? However, even when we asked for either of these desks, they still had no idea what we were talking about.

 

I finally just said thank you, hung, up and called back again. The second representative we still had to explain the Xpedition was one of Celebrity's ships and it sailed in the Galapagos, but once we told her Galapagos, she was able to connect us to the Xpedition desk, where a rep thanked us for telling her we wouldn't make it in Friday, told us that no transfers would be provided Saturday (we were a bit miffed that she said "since you chose to deviate from the booked package", we certainly didn't choose that! but of course, the air issues were not Celebrity's), but our room would not be canceled when we didn't show up, so we would have one on Saturday.

 

On Saturday, once we figured out what our flight was, we called again- once again the rep hadn't heard of the Xpedition, but was able to pull up our reservation to note our flight number. Since we didn't expect transfers we had no idea why they needed it, and since we were in a dreadful hurry (the plane was about to leave!) we were very frustrated with the number of times we were put on hold, since he wouldn't transfer us to someone who knew about the ship. (We were trying to figure out what would need to be done with our bags to get on the charter flight- since the group's bags were already collected.) In the end, we had to hang up before getting an answer.

 

So that makes 3 representatives of the "emergency travel team" who had never heard of one of Celebrity's ship. What kind of emergency team is this? Why does Celebrity provide such a useless phone number in the cruise documents?

 

 

So that this is not all negative: I am happy to report that when we got to Ecuador, we were able to borrow a cell phone to call the Ecuador Celebrity team, who told us someone was waiting for us at the airport! What a welcome sign the X symbol was. We thought she would just show us how to get a taxi, but we actually got a private 1 hour transfer to the hotel! She thanked us for letting her know we wouldn't arrive on Friday, because apparently their procedure if someone doesn't arrive, is to come back to check every flight that arrives from the expected country until the traveler is found! Very opposite what Celebrity USA told us.

 

Now I am trying to see if Celebrity will give us any information about the "value" of the part of the pre-trip package we missed so we can submit to trip insurance. For some reason on the cruise invoice though it just lists it as one total price, so I'm not sure how to go about getting anything reimbursed, since it doesn't even look like we booked pre- and post- cruise tours. (Since it is just the 10-day vs. 7-day option.) I might just have to say I booked a 10-night, and missed 1, and see if travel insurance will give me 1/10 of the price!

Edited October 8, 2014 by skittl1321

[Celebrity Cruises]

Hi there, and sorry to hear about this.

 

Can you please send us this in an email to concerns@celebrity.com. Please also include your reservation number, and anything else we can assist with. Thanks!

[Sloop-JohnB]

Happy to hear you arrived safe & sound after your ordeal.

 

Chalk it up to another example where "The Cruise People" actually know what is going on and provide excellent service (ie that unexpected Airport to Hotel Transfer) vs the suits who run this Cruise Company back in the USA

 

Hopefully every thing else will "float on" smoothly for you and you'll get the Travel Insurance issue straightened out too (although again if that is coming from a desk somewhere don't necessarily expect to be timely or easy :rolleyes: )

 

Cheers!

Ps... See while I was drafting my reply here that CELEBRITY CRUISES (Official Rep) has also posted. That is a good sign... Perhaps someone will indeed get a heads up on your issue. *fingers crossed*

Edited October 8, 2014 by Sloop-JohnB
Edit to add PS

[skittl1321]

I'm happy to report back that Celebrity got me the itemization of missed tour parts very quickly :)

[didicruiser]

That's for the update! Good to hear

[FloatSomeMore]

Quick question: outside of your travel arrangements, how was the cruise? We are considering booking this cruise but have not done any research yet. Thanks in advance.

[skittl1321]

Quick question: outside of your travel arrangements, how was the cruise? We are considering booking this cruise but have not done any research yet. Thanks in advance.

 

Absolutely phenomenal, just on location alone. If given the opportunity to take a cruise in a covered canoe, I'd still do it! Of course, Celebrity provides a much nicer accommodation than that. I recommend checking out the "Anyone back yet" thread in the Xpedition Roll Call area.

 

I will say- while I've never cruised Celebrity, service or food wasn't what I would expect from the brand (I thought Carnival fared better service and food wise, though my picky eating meant the small ship had limited options)- but overall it was pretty amazing. The ship was just big enough that there were lots of people to visit with and enough amenities that it wasn't at all "roughing it", but small enough that you were able to enjoy this phenomenal destination without ever feeling over crowded.

 

A few things about the Galapagos that some people don't really consider:

1) It is a birder's paradise, but not really a zoo. Don't come expecting a lot of mammals, the only mammal on land is the sea lion. And while the birds are everywhere and not at all afraid of humans, they aren't scheduled performers. I never saw the blue footed boobies doing their mating dance (one other group did)- one woman remarked this "ruined" her cruise.

2) Some of the spots are more geologic in interest than they are wild-life oriented. People complained Rabida was boring because there wasn't wildlife; but if you compare it's iron rich land to Bartolome's basalt rich land; or look at the stage of life the vegetation is in compared to the older islands- I found it fascinating.

3) The trip is active, but not -too- active. There were a few islands where all the walks were on rough terrain that needed good balance, but most locations offered options where you could do the hike or just go for a zodiac (small boat) ride around the island.

 

This was a "bucket list" trip for me that lived up to my expectations, but I can see how maybe the cruise isn't for everyone.

[wrk2cruise]

We did this trip a couple of years ago, our flight to Quito was diverted due to fog to Guayaquil where we had to overnight because the flight crew was over their time limit. We were traveling with one other couple. Since we arrived at our hotel after midnight (757 load of people to put up), and we didn't have concrete plans on when we were leaving the next day, we didn't think to figure things out with Celebrity until the next day.

 

We were at a Hilton so went to see the concierge, explained that we wanted to call ahead. She knew that Celebrity used the Marriott in Quito so she called there, the assured her that they knew where we were and would be met at the airport.

 

While waiting to reboard the plane the next day we realized there were 10-15 of us on the flight. When we arrived Celebrity was there with a bus and took us straight to the crater for lunch then to the equator center. We arrived to checkin at the hotel about the time the rest of the group was leaving for dinner. They gave us some time to clean up then a quick city tour and to dinner to join the rest of the group who was on desert.

 

I can't say enough about how it was handled. When we returned home our TA was able to get the cost of the missed day from Celebrity and had no trouble getting reimbursed from our travel insurance.

 

I guess the only reason I went on about this is given the experience of the OP and ourselves I would advise anyone traveling on this trip to make sure they have the number of the Marriott in Quito with them. I would call them directly (not the US based customer service) in the event of any delay or issues.

 

It was a fabulous trip, by dinner that first evening we were settled down and it was clear that we were going to be well taken care of.