Celebrity Experience - Unempathetic Corporate Office

[LabGuy64]

I think it too bad that you had the issue with the door.....but, thank your lucky stars you live where you do if a malfunctioning card reader can reach your breaking point and send you into a cyring jag.......god help you if you ever encounter real misfortune

 

 

 

 

I am sharing this experience to inform potential Celebrity cruisers - if you have a major problem on the ship, do not think the shoreside (corporate office) cares! I took it as far as both the CEO and President's Office.

 

We sailed on the Celebrity Millennium (Alaskan Northbound) on May 27, 2016. I was so excited about the cruise because I was able to finally convince my DH to go. He prefers warm-weather places and thinks Alaska is below 50 degrees 365 days a year. :)

 

I sent a detailed email to Celebrity president's office with of issues from this cruise. I received a call from someone in that department (not sure I am allowed to post names here) - not an ounce of empathy. There was no accountability or responsibility accepted by Celebrity. For some reason, Celebrity believes that because I did get a cabin on the ship, regardless if the cabin did not have a properly functioning door 6 out of 7 cruise days, that it is the same as a cabin with a properly functioning door, so therefore I am not entitled any portion of the fare back. More details below.

 

All I know is that the conversation with the person this morning has turned me off of Celebrity. My first time on Celebrity and last. So maybe that is why they do not care. We have 2 more bookings with RCCL to finish up and then will go back to Princess, which we left because we thought RCCL ever since our DD was born.

 

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Here are a few of the issues:

Minor Issues:

1. Apparently on Celebrity, status does not mean anything. This was our 1st Celebrity cruise. But because of the relationship between RCCL and Celebrity, we were given Elite status on Celebrity. But Elite status is the same as no status. We had no priority boarding, which is a really nice benefit.

Moderate Issues:

1. It is obvious Guest Services and Captains Club staff can treat passengers as such because they know corporate would not care. That was very apparent in my conversation with the Celebrity representative who made zero apology. I provided very specific examples of "training opportunities", but those fell on deaf ears.

 

Captain Club staff arguing with me for about 5 min. I asked for the paper that showed where the activities were for Elite members. Rather than just providing me a copy, the person and I spent 5 min bantering:

 

CC staff: I gave you a copy of it already.

me: No you didn't.

CC staff: Yes I am sure I did. I always give that to passengers when they first come up to the table.

me: I still don't have the paperwork. Can I get another one?

cc staff: well what happened to the one I gave you?

me: I didn't get one.

...on and on and on. This should have been a 5 second conversation with her giving me another copy.

 

2. Celebrity needs to be very explicit with the passengers that the spa is a separate entity, and the cruise line cannot help with any issues. I had always assumed (and you know what happens when one assumes) the cruise line will assist when an issue arise.

 

3. For the major issue I had on the ship, NOT one officer at Guest Services or Engineering apologized or reached out to me while onboard.

 

Major Issue:

 

I thought only I saw it as such until I spoke with fellow passengers. Everyone of them said it was ridiculous what I had to deal with.

 

I became an unwilling participant in the blame/finger-pointin game between maintenance and guest services.

 

I had a cabin where the door would not open whenever I put the key card in. For the first 3 days of the cruise, I made many many trips to Guest Services to get new keys - all times of the day. None of them worked. Imagine how many times one goes in and out of your cabin - that is how many times I had to visit Guest Services to get a new card. Even one occurrence resulted in multiple trips for a key card because the new card (just given to me) did not work. There were times I was fortunate to find a cabin steward to let me in, eliminating a trek to Guest Services.

 

Day 4: Maintenance replaced the key card reader. Everything was functioning as expected until Day 6.

 

Day 6: Key card reader failure. Up to this point, I have been very patience, respectful and nice to all staff. But when the reader failed, I ended up just crying. I have been pushed to my breaking point.

 

It was discovered on Day 6 that I have a bad door mechanism. So maintenance spent a few hours replacing the entire door mechanism.

 

*********************************************.

To add insult to injury, the person from the executive office who called me:

1. Offered reimbursement of $67 - the balance on my onboard account. No consideration that I had to spend part of my onboard credits for something I did not want, but did because of the ship.

2. Told me that Guest Services credited back over $500 to my onboard account. I had to do the persons work and explain:

a. Bar credit was due to an error. We were charged for a drink even though we had the drink package!

b. Internet credit. There was a mix up in our status. When I checked in online, the system correctly reflected our Elite status. But when we checked in at the terminal, we were given Select status. The internet credit was for the free internet minutes for Elite members.

c. Specialty dining credits. Guest services insisted over and over for me to go to the Specialty Dining because I was crying and maintenance needed the room to fix the door!

3. The only apology given during the phone call, which was made later in the call instead of right at the start, was a generic scripted apology!

[fantasy51]

Hi Jen. I'm so sorry that you went through all of this on what was meant to be a holiday. I'm even more sorry that no one on the ship cared enough to fix the problem earlier.

 

Hindsight is simple. You have received loads of suggestions of what you could have done, but at the time you were too busy dealing with the issue, plus looking after your child, plus trying to have a holiday, to be able to think through all of these options. I think you coped really well.

 

I think what you wanted most was to know that someone cared about your holiday and your problem, and you did not receive that. 'Compensation' (dirty word) is one form of caring but I'm sure you would have preferred attention to detail at the time.