1st Celebrity Cruise: The Good and the Bad

[hvsteve1]

We were in port in Cozumel on the Silhouette docked next to Connie. We heard about the rough crowd and that the captain had posted notices on doors threatening to throw people off the ship. I also heard that Connie left Cozumel late because a large number of students had gone to Senor Frog's and the security people were trying to get them back to the ship. They should have left them there.

 

Our cruise was seven nights.. There were a number of students on board and all were very well-behaved. Maybe they were a bit more upscale due to the price of the seven nights. There were also some families with children and you never know the kids were around.

 

My previous two cruises were with HAL and I cannot picture this happening there. The minute the kids started creating havoc and throwing "F-bombs", the old ladies would have beat them over the heads with canes and walkers until they pled for mercy. :D

[tgmtgm]

Hogwash is right.....they did remove people that did not conform to the policy....you would have them enforce the policy as YOU see it....they have to walk a fine line as they are basically an entertainment venue. and can't offer "compensation" for everything that bothers passengers...look at these threads...half of them are people griping about something...Celebrity would make no profit if they handed out compensation to anyone that complains. You don't know how many people complained....should they have handed out 100 dinners?..200? it seems like they did what they could to reign in the worst of it...

 

The stated policy's are not MINE- they were put in place by Celebrity and not enforced to the detriment of many passengers. And furthermore, I don't give rat's ass how many "dinners" Celebrity hands out for free- they allowed the situation to transpire. What it costs them $$ wise is of no concern to me.

 

Those guests who were impacted should be better respected and listened to- not labeled entitleist's.

 

Tony

[yorkyred]

Can't say I'm a big fan of the compensation culture we seem to live in these days. we have just ended up changing our phone number due to the number of companies wanting us to claim for an accident where my wife was unhurt.

[DB605]

Being tucked away in a Penthouse it appears I missed out on some of the more exciting moments like the 3am door knockings. Always interesting to see what was left on the balcony each morning after being thrown from the aft bar on deck 10.

 

One technique I saw to get swifter service at the bars was to yell " I've got 5 ****** dollars here man, why the **** ain't you taking care of me?"

 

Of course the scene where at 11.50 am one bartender from South Asia didn't respond quickly enough to this new onboard service policy was treated to a number of impressions of Apu from the Simpsons show was a particular highlight. I'm sure he was cheered greatly by these friendly reminders of his home country.

 

The additional health benefits from this cruise were also a bonus. Fortunately the main elevators were always full of drunk oiled sweating teenagers and as such we enjoyed may energetic trips up and down the stair wells.

 

How kind also of Celebrity to host additional safety briefings for those who would rather tour the open decks and look in on the rest of us. No kicking off the none attendees as no doubt they were below the age of 90 as was the case with a couple removed from ship in recent years because one of them would not attend. Also nice they held the ship up to encourage some visitors to local bars to get back on the ship 20 minutes late, none of this sailing off nonsense like you get when someones private tour gets held up in traffic.

 

Also a new drinks policy appeared whereby it seems you can take 7 bottles of liquor from behind a bar and then share it out in the Oceanview Cafe amongst your friends.

 

My only complaint is the group of 8 girls in the MDR on the table next to ours who observed the dress code, were polite and friendly and enjoyed a relaxed meal together every night. Not the sort of thing we expect with Celebrity as you will all agree no doubt!

Edited March 17, 2015 by DB605

[bobsfamily]

My only complaint is the group of 8 girls in the MDR on the table next to ours who observed the dress code, were polite and friendly and enjoyed a relaxed meal together every night. Not the sort of thing we expect with Celebrity as you will all agree no doubt!

 

Oh the horror!:D=:eek:

[phoenix_dream]

I would like to comment on the continual lambasting of the OP for looking for compensation. I realize sometimes people want money or perks for really trivial situations. This cruise was anything but!

First of all, unless you were on this cruise you could not really understand how awful it was at times, and how much of the ship was not available for your use without being subjected to vulgarity, chaos, and on and on. I have honestly never seen anything like it on over 30 cruises, many on Spring Break, and a couple on Carnival.

 

Second, the OP provided a long overview of likes and dislikes about the cruise. He did not focus solely on 'give me some money'.

 

Third, if you go back and read the posting, he says specifically that even getting a free glass of champagne would have helped by showing that the ship cared about customer service and their customers.

 

I read the primary point in mentioning some type of compensation as a concern over the general disregard by Celebrity ship's management to the serious inconvenience of their standard customer base, who were promised X and delivered Y. If I owned a business and my customers experienced what happened on that cruise, I would be falling all over myself trying to win back their loyalty.

 

I can almost understand how those not on the cruise must think we are exaggerating or complaining or generally being 'entitled' type of people. I truly could not believe what I was seeing at times. Yes, it was that bad.

[vacation luvver]

vacation luvver...that is quite an experience to be on a wrecked tender without enough life jackets.

Yes, it was. And Celebrity had to get special permission from the Coast Guard to sail from Bar Harbor to Bayonne, NJ, because with the tender out of commission, there weren't enough lifeboats for everyone.

 

I was really worried about my cabinmate on the tender, because she was in her 70s and couldn't swim. Plus, she had had a heart attack a number of years ago. While some people insist on saying "You should have known better" when talking about people who cruise in March, I don't think that anyone would say that my friend should have known better than to ride a tender when she couldn't swim.

 

I also heard that Connie left Cozumel late because a large number of students had gone to Senor Frog's and the security people were trying to get them back to the ship. They should have left them there.

Oh my goodness, I wonder why they didn't leave them there. I'm assuming that the trip to Senor Frog's was not part of a ship's excursion. Celebrity should not have done that. Now people will be complaining, "You set sail without me because my taxi was stuck in traffic, yet you held up the ship for college kids drinking themselves sick at Senor Frog's. I want compensation!" And there will be people who will agree with them and say that yes, they deserve compensation, because they should be treated with as much consideration as the college kids at Senor Frog's.

 

I have no idea why Celebrity bends over backwards to treat some passengers really well while not giving a shot about how other passengers are treated.

[Lois R]

quote:

"I truly could not believe what I was seeing at times. Yes, it was that bad."

 

Hi Sandy....me either:(:mad::eek:.....

[bobsfamily]

I have no idea why Celebrity bends over backwards to treat some passengers really well while not giving a shot about how other passengers are treated.

One thought does come to mind... I wonder if the "little angels" parents were either very, very loyal suite cruisers or possibly large stockholders?

 

From all the stories, which BTW I completely believe, there has to be more than just Celebrity got caught unaware this was going to happen.

 

Real Glad I went 2 Weeks earlier! One of best cruises I've had in a while, great ship, wonderful crew!

 

So sorry for those on this cruise who witnessed all the "antics" to put it nicely.... AND all of you still managed to have a decent time!

Edited March 17, 2015 by bobsfamily

[Lois R]

You may have a point there, 1000 loyal customers offended by Celebrity Cruises probably wouldn't make any headlines.

 

Celebrity Cruises abandons American children of Dr, Senator, Governor etc in Mexico however may be far more interesting a headline for the press.

 

The very large table used by the Captain on formal nights was occupied by a bunch of loud but younger kids at 8:30 who could not get alcohol and were intending to get as drunk as possible in Cozumel. Upon discovering that they would not be served alcohol they were banging the table and shouting "Bull****". This was the first night!

 

Thanks for confirming what I already knew....I was invited to dine at

The Captain's table and we were taken to Oceanliner's.....

Edited March 17, 2015 by Lois R

[hulamoon]

When Lois says it was bad, it was bad.

 

But she did not lambast the Co for not greasing her palm like the OP did in their initial post. It is of no wonder a large part of our small planet does not like those of us that live in the west because of our pre conceved sense of entitlement.

 

This debate will always be like a line in the sand, with some of us on both sides.

 

Wallie I think the OP said they were disappointed they did not receive a free glass of champagne or a free dinner after complaining about continuous over the top behavior and a series of poor meals. I am sure the staff had their own degree of shock or some may have collapsed over the insanity of it all. I don't think that is the same thing as asking to have ones palm greased.

 

But I am wondering how much I would be willing to contribute to someone's Palm to have the diners described In a previous post removed from the ship.

Edited March 17, 2015 by hulamoon

[DB605]

Thanks for confirming what I already knew....I was invited to dine at

The Captain's table and we were taken to Oceanliner's.....

 

We got the invite too from Lionel on boarding but were travelling with a group so we declined. This would suggest that there was an awareness of the problem at an early stage and rather than tackle it they decided to try and hide some of the issues and save the Captain some rather public embarrassment. Given the massive resources of Royal Caribbean Group and their base in Miami I would imagine it could have been possible to get extra security down to Key West overnight rather than pretend it wasn't happening.

 

In the event after the first nights I paid for our guests to use the specialties that we were offered free in suites but declined. In hindsight I guess I should have asked for this to be offered free of charge due to the dining room being so poor an environment but at the time my main concern was the enjoyment of all of my party.

 

We were sheltered from some of it as we had the Penthouse to retreat too although judging by what was on our deck on a few mornings including broken glasses it was a good thing we weren't outside at night. Overall we still had a good time but this was down to experience and adapting quickly to the conditions with simple tricks like using al Bacio as a bar due to its location and generally only being regarded as a coffee shop.

 

The impression I got was that it was initially decided to let the younger crowd have the benefit of the doubt and hope they would behave appropriately. Shortly after boarding it was clear what was happening but a firmer approach was only adopted several days later.

[JonnyCT81]

I don't usually feel compelled to inject my feelings on threads like this, but I felt compelled to after reading some of these comments.

 

My partner and I are in our early 30's and are Elite on Celebrity - we started cruising in 2012 and quickly fell in love with Celebrity's attention to detail and more "quiet" types of cruises (i.e no water parks, rock climbing walls, lots of kids, etc).

 

That being said, I have to say that if I were to encounter things like what the OP stated and the pictures that I saw, I would be very annoyed that the company wasn't doing anything about it. The issue to me is not so much about seeking compensation, but Celebrity's apparent lack of enforcement of the Code of Conduct. I can't help but think about the various threads that deal with dress codes and people asking the point of having one if it's not enforced.

 

The code of conduct is there not only to ensure that everyone has a good time, but to ensure guest safety - it's not a grey area, it's black and white when it comes to ensuring the safety of the guests on the ship (as Celebrity says it's their #1 priority).

 

Let me play devil's advocate for a second - if the OP wanted to use a hot tub, and decided to say screw it to the people hogging it and force their way in, are they just supposed to endure the rantings of drunken college kids? What if they verbally assaulted them, or threw F-Bombs telling them to get out of the tub? The plain fact that a guest feels INTIMIDATED to the point of not being able to enjoy themselves by the people on board illustrates this point. Any guest should be able to go about their business and enjoy themselves without feeling that they can't do what they want to do, when they want to do it.

 

The COC states:

 

"Inappropriate or Abusive Behavior

Inappropriate or abusive behavior including uninvited physical contact, solicitation, harassment, vandalism, theft, violence, use of fake/

false identification, underage drinking (see alcohol section below), providing alcohol to those under age 21 (see alcohol section below),

possession of illegal substances/items or any other illegal or offensive conduct is not permitted."

 

Again, I am not sure about compensation, but I do feel that the company should be held responsible for the lack of enforcement on their part - whether that is a letter of apology, or future cruise credit remains to be seen. I do however hope that the company looks at this thread and opens an investigation into the matter.

[wallie5446]

 

Eventually we went to see the Guest Relations Manager. Well, I thought, she would offer us a meal at one of the premium restaurants, or a free massage, or? What about some compensation--something, anything?

 

.

 

Wallie I think the OP said they were disappointed they did not receive a free glass of champagne or a free dinner after complaining about continuous over the top behavior and a series of poor meals. I am sure the staff had their own degree of shock or some may have collapsed over the insanity of it all. I don't think that is the same thing as asking to have ones palm greased.

 

But I am wondering how much I would be willing to contribute to someone's Palm to have the diners described In a previous post removed from the ship.

 

Again, I am in no way dispelling how bad a situation this was. But do not for an instant believe a glass of champagne would have made anyone all okie dokie with this.

[CruisingChick]

Personally, if we were on this sailing a letter would have been written and mailed to the President of Celebrity including pictures as soon as we returned home. We have been on a few Celebrity cruises where we had problems with passengers, etc. and very disappointed in the lack of enforcement of polices on board the ship.

 

So sorry to the OP and all others (Lois) who were on this sailing.

[Lois R]

Personally, if we were on this sailing a letter would have been written and mailed to the President of Celebrity including pictures as soon as we returned home. We have been on a few Celebrity cruises where we had problems with passengers, etc. and very disappointed in the lack of enforcement of polices on board the ship.

 

So sorry to the OP and all others (Lois) who were on this sailing.

 

Hi Anne Maria, thanks.

[vacation luvver]

Gee, I had no idea that when Celebrity tells passengers that they must be on the ship by a certain time before it sails away (as long as the passengers aren't on a ship's excursion that got delayed, of course), it doesn't apply to passengers who have parents who are VIPs or who constantly book suites or are stockholders. It would be very helpful if they would mention this in their daily newsletter.

 

I guess that's why Celebrity allowed the rowdy college kids to keep on misbehaving. They were afraid of upsetting the kids' VIP, suite-booking, stockholder parents.

 

If anyone needs a reason to avoid Celebrity, they certainly have it now. I thoroughly disliked my first cruise with Celebrity (on the Silhouette), but I was persuaded to give them a second chance. So I booked a cruise on the Summit, where they totally botched up their shore excursions, and they deducted anywhere from 30% to 60% of the cost from each of my excursions, but only because I complained. As soon as I said that I was unhappy with my excursion to Gaspe, the shore excursion employee immediately interrupted me and said, "We had a lot of complaints about that excursion. We'll give you 60% off." And then my cabinmate and I were on the tender that crashed into the rocks.

 

I took a third cruise with Celebrity, but that was only because all they offered my friend and me was cruise credit, not cash. But we figured that a cruise to Bermuda would be okay, because there wouldn't be any tenders. And we told everyone we talked to on the cruise that the only reason we were there was because Celebrity gave us a free cruise because they had treated us so badly on our last cruise with them.

 

I have no idea why people like Celebrity, and I really have no idea why anyone who took the cruise that the OP and Lois took would ever sail with them (unless they get a free cruise from them, of course).

[vtcruising]

That time of the year is usually the very last of the winter break and doubtful to be much of a party time. I just checked the college our kids went to and next year the first day of class is the 11th of Jan. Although enough time to be on the 5 night cruise it would be cutting it close.

Go, have a wonderful time in your suite!

 

Thanks, Bob - that is reassuring!

[catlady25612]

All right. We were also on this cruise. I don't have time to read each post. Here is our peace about this cruise...

 

Last year we were on this same cruise at the same time, sans girl child age 9. It was so well done that we rebooked and decided that girl child should attend.

 

Let me say the good stuff first. The Fun Factory was fantastic with exception of a young man named Yony. He let her out without our permission, us having paid the additional fee before the "free" time was up. Our daughter did not want to leave. Upon her leaving she was harassed by the "happy people" and shoved around the hall when her key card didn't work. A very sweet couple came out of their room 3 doors down and saved her. It should have NEVER happened EVER in a million years!!! After that night Yony was never left alone with her again.

 

The family veranda two doors down from us was empty due to a family not making it to port in time. One of the groups of " happy people" had a burst pipe in their room on the first night. They were awarded that room. Those young boys were the most disrespect arses I've encountered in a long time. They even exposed their private parts to our young daughter.

 

One afternoon as we walked our daughter to Fun Factory, there was a couple, a "happy couple" as Alejandro would say, just outside the door. The young lady (girl?!) was spread leg on a lounge chair. Young man (boy?!) laying face down in her open crotch area. My husband turned my daughter and I around immediately. He confronted them asking that they take it to a room and children were on board. They were extremely gross. Staff was called. No help was given!!!

 

On the last night at 12:30am there was a huge hall party in our hall. Except the only guests from out hall were the kids in the family veranda. Kids were pounding on doors screaming yelling etc. Called security and it literally rang for 15 minutes. No help. When help finally did come because I left to room to find help, they did NOTHING to help.

 

The kids from that room went in to crank call our room and several others all thru the night. We unplugged our phone. Today I got a bill for unplugging our phone. Thanks for that Celebrity!!! Much love to you also.

 

We did chose to have as nice a cruise as we could. There were many nice kids mingled in. And problem was not the kids with drink packages. The problem was kids with rum runners. Maybe if they secured the ability to bring rum runners on board it would be helpful.

[catlady25612]

I would like to comment on the continual lambasting of the OP for looking for compensation. I realize sometimes people want money or perks for really trivial situations. This cruise was anything but!

 

First of all, unless you were on this cruise you could not really understand how awful it was at times, and how much of the ship was not available for your use without being subjected to vulgarity, chaos, and on and on. I have honestly never seen anything like it on over 30 cruises, many on Spring Break, and a couple on Carnival.

 

 

 

Second, the OP provided a long overview of likes and dislikes about the cruise. He did not focus solely on 'give me some money'.

 

 

 

Third, if you go back and read the posting, he says specifically that even getting a free glass of champagne would have helped by showing that the ship cared about customer service and their customers.

 

 

 

I read the primary point in mentioning some type of compensation as a concern over the general disregard by Celebrity ship's management to the serious inconvenience of their standard customer base, who were promised X and delivered Y. If I owned a business and my customers experienced what happened on that cruise, I would be falling all over myself trying to win back their loyalty.

 

 

 

I can almost understand how those not on the cruise must think we are exaggerating or complaining or generally being 'entitled' type of people. I truly could not believe what I was seeing at times. Yes, it was that bad.

 

 

Yes this. Exactly.

[catlady25612]

You're welcome. And yes, it felt like it was that number and more:eek::(

And yes, I was told many of the cabins had 4 in them and only 1 of them

needed to be 21.

 

 

Yes Lois is correct. The hotel manager herself was quoting this number. She also told me she could narrow this problem down to a very few travel agents. Seems maybe they could cut ties with a few agents.

[RiotAct]

WOW, catlady, that is totally unacceptable what happened. I'd be furious! :eek:

[rM3panno]

All right. We were also on this cruise. I don't have time to read each post. Here is our peace about this cruise...

 

Last year we were on this same cruise at the same time, sans girl child age 9. It was so well done that we rebooked and decided that girl child should attend.

 

Let me say the good stuff first. The Fun Factory was fantastic with exception of a young man named Yony. He let her out without our permission, us having paid the additional fee before the "free" time was up. Our daughter did not want to leave. Upon her leaving she was harassed by the "happy people" and shoved around the hall when her key card didn't work. A very sweet couple came out of their room 3 doors down and saved her. It should have NEVER happened EVER in a million years!!! After that night Yony was never left alone with her again.

 

The family veranda two doors down from us was empty due to a family not making it to port in time. One of the groups of " happy people" had a burst pipe in their room on the first night. They were awarded that room. Those young boys were the most disrespect arses I've encountered in a long time. They even exposed their private parts to our young daughter.

 

One afternoon as we walked our daughter to Fun Factory, there was a couple, a "happy couple" as Alejandro would say, just outside the door. The young lady (girl?!) was spread leg on a lounge chair. Young man (boy?!) laying face down in her open crotch area. My husband turned my daughter and I around immediately. He confronted them asking that they take it to a room and children were on board. They were extremely gross. Staff was called. No help was given!!!

 

On the last night at 12:30am there was a huge hall party in our hall. Except the only guests from out hall were the kids in the family veranda. Kids were pounding on doors screaming yelling etc. Called security and it literally rang for 15 minutes. No help. When help finally did come because I left to room to find help, they did NOTHING to help.

 

The kids from that room went in to crank call our room and several others all thru the night. We unplugged our phone. Today I got a bill for unplugging our phone. Thanks for that Celebrity!!! Much love to you also.

 

We did chose to have as nice a cruise as we could. There were many nice kids mingled in. And problem was not the kids with drink packages. The problem was kids with rum runners. Maybe if they secured the ability to bring rum runners on board it would be helpful.

 

 

Ok, that is a much more concerning situation than any of the previous posters. I would be irate if that happened to my family.

 

As I mentioned before, my wife and I are loyal Celebrity cruisers and are willing to accept this as an outlier to the many other wonderful trips we have had with them. However, it seems like the staff, especially the officers really dropped the ball here. Almost to the point of negligence as it becomes clearer how very aware of the problems they were. I can't believe Celebrity's official poster hasn't acknowledged this thread yet. If nothing else, an apology would go a long way considering how poorly this sailing was managed.

 

What is even more interesting is the reviews from those that just disembarked the cruise immediately after ours and had nothing close to last weeks debacle. I really believe if they would have just enforced their code of conduct from day 1 this would have looked like a different trip for many of us.

 

Also, has anyone heard back from Celebrity yet? I sent an email off several days ago to the new CEO and received the auto confirmation but haven't seen anything else nor heard that anyone else has.

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited March 18, 2015 by rM3panno

[hvsteve1]

Catlady...if young men exposed themselves to your 9 year old daughter, that is a SEX CRIME and should have been reported to security as such. If Celebrity didn't want to deal with it, I would have filed a report with the police as soon as you docked (maybe calling 911 on your cell before they started debarkation) as you, or Celebrity, knew who these guys were as you knew the room.

 

I have been reflecting as to why the ship hung out in port rather than leave a number of college kids in Cozumel. I now think it was a PR decision and cannot believe the captain was not in constant contact with corporate over these issues. I would guess that leaving several dozen (or more?) kids behind in Mexico would have generated desperate phone calls to many families and the eventual intervention of our embassy. Someone would contact the media and, right or wrong, the story would be that a Celebrity ship stranded a bunch of kids in a foreign country. Bad publicity, no matter how many legitimate excuses the ship might have. The general public doesn't understand the rule about being on board on time or being left at the dock.

[NLH Arizona]

Gee, I had no idea that when Celebrity tells passengers that they must be on the ship by a certain time before it sails away (as long as the passengers aren't on a ship's excursion that got delayed, of course), it doesn't apply to passengers who have parents who are VIPs or who constantly book suites or are stockholders. It would be very helpful if they would mention this in their daily newsletter. Where did you get the idea that these college students had parents that were VIP's, suite bookers or stockholders. One poster ask the question, but we don't know the answer and before you vilify Celebrity, you might want to make sure you are posting correct information.

 

I guess that's why Celebrity allowed the rowdy college kids to keep on misbehaving. They were afraid of upsetting the kids' VIP, suite-booking, stockholder parents. Again, where did you get the information that their parents were VIP's, suite booking stockholders?

 

 

Hopefully, you will find a cruise line that suits you. Please don't go around starting rumors with regard to the children's parents being something you have no idea if they are that or not. I realize you dislike Celebrity, but that is no reason to pass on bad information. Edited March 18, 2015 by NLH Arizona