New Look on Celebrity Website

[Z'Loth]

Heh..... I'm logged into my work laptop, and brought up the website via Chrome. Still getting "undefined DAYS before my next cruise". Logged out, cleared all the celebrity cookies from Chrome, and brought up the site again..... it's the older..... and working..... website.

 

I don't deny that the new website looks pretty good and modern. But, if it isn't functional, it's a fail.

[C 2 C]

I just signed on and as far as I could see, there is no change at all.

 

Perhaps one has to book a suite or be a Zenith to see the new hopefully better site :) Of course, it's possible that they are having issues so the new site is up/down. I'll check back tomorrow.

 

No such luck.. same old site.

[Luvcrusn]

I logged on this morning. My default browser is IE, and the new site showed up. By deleting my cookies and clearing my cache I was able to access the old site and actually see and do what I wanted. X has actually found a way to make me appreciate the old site. LOL! Unfortunately the old site doesn't show my December 2018 cruise as PAID IN FULL:(

[Simoncpj]

I have managed development and web sites for the last 20 years moving up from manager to C level. If I were over this the site would a) never have gotten this far and b) be rolled back immediately unless the many fixes needed could be pushed within 48 hrs AND the user experience could be addressed within 45 days.

 

This is a classic example of a major corporation thinking that web design led by web designers will result in a good user experience (UX). The Celebrity execs loved the look and did not actually try to navigate through to key functions. While the users will get used to it, there are major usability issues that a good UX company could address quickly (like how can I see drink packages or excursions for a future cruise).

 

Having done this for a long time, this is a "teachable moment" for the testing manager and whomever led the go/no go decision.

[CruisersTimesThree]

I logged on this morning. My default browser is IE, and the new site showed up. By deleting my cookies and clearing my cache I was able to access the old site and actually see and do what I wanted. X has actually found a way to make me appreciate the old site. LOL! Unfortunately the old site doesn't show my December 2018 cruise as PAID IN FULL:(

 

I have 3 web browsers, IE, Firefox and Chrome.

On IE and Chrome the new Celebrity website made its appearance this week.

On Chrome, it wont let me manage my reservation, I can see it in the dashboard with the reservation # and cruise info, but when I click manage, a box pops up and tells me to enter my reservation #, last name, ship and sail date, then it tells me it cant find a reservation with that info and to call guest services...soooo frustrating!

IE works okay, just have to get use to the navigating, and it also does not have the rest of my family, who are traveling with us, linked up together, it shows all three of us being linked to reservations #2345678 (none of us have that number, but being sequential #'s, I'll guess its not ready yet)

The old site had all the correct info

I remembered seeing your post and that you cleared cookies and caches, so I did the same on IE and Chrome and lo and behold! I have the old site back and can see that all is okay!

Thanks for the advice, it worked!

[MVPinBoynton]

I have managed development and web sites for the last 20 years moving up from manager to C level. If I were over this the site would a) never have gotten this far and b) be rolled back immediately unless the many fixes needed could be pushed within 48 hrs AND the user experience could be addressed within 45 days.

 

This is a classic example of a major corporation thinking that web design led by web designers will result in a good user experience (UX). The Celebrity execs loved the look and did not actually try to navigate through to key functions. While the users will get used to it, there are major usability issues that a good UX company could address quickly (like how can I see drink packages or excursions for a future cruise).

 

Having done this for a long time, this is a "teachable moment" for the testing manager and whomever led the go/no go decision.

 

Congratulations on your first CC post; and for stating exactly what I also believe happened with this website. I am a retired CFO, who had IT reporting to me. I am shocked that a company gets lots of business through their website, could release a beta site with obviously so little user testing.

[Luvcrusn]

I have 3 web browsers, IE, Firefox and Chrome.

On IE and Chrome the new Celebrity website made its appearance this week.

On Chrome, it wont let me manage my reservation, I can see it in the dashboard with the reservation # and cruise info, but when I click manage, a box pops up and tells me to enter my reservation #, last name, ship and sail date, then it tells me it cant find a reservation with that info and to call guest services...soooo frustrating!

IE works okay, just have to get use to the navigating, and it also does not have the rest of my family, who are traveling with us, linked up together, it shows all three of us being linked to reservations #2345678 (none of us have that number, but being sequential #'s, I'll guess its not ready yet)

The old site had all the correct info

I remembered seeing your post and that you cleared cookies and caches, so I did the same on IE and Chrome and lo and behold! I have the old site back and can see that all is okay!

Thanks for the advice, it worked!

 

Glad :)

[Mytravellove]

I signed in on to the Celebrity site and get the old site, with my 2 booked cruises showing just where i had put them. Maybe I am too new to be one of the testers of their new site, which suits me fine. As long as I can access the new site once all the bugs are debugged and out of their site. May next Celebrity cruise is only in October 2017....sufficient time for them to work out the kinks, I hope.

[ghstudio]

It seems that if you use a browser that you used for the old site, Celebrity saved a cookie and you will only continue to see the old site. If you use a new/different browser, you will get to the new site where you will have the opportunity to enter your userid and PW many times...the new site seem to be unable to automatically authenticate you as you go to the apparently different systems within the celebrity web site.. I signed in, wanted to check my captain's club status....sign in again. want to see my reservations...sign in again....but actually I'll save you some time...don't bother.... because my (and likely your) reservations don't show.....you get to re-enter each reservation number, etc to add them again. I didn't bother...

 

It's not exactly obvious (being kind here) that the way to get to your reservations to look at excursions, book things seems to be by clickiing on the very small letters "check in" at the top of the page. Perhaps I missed something....finally guessed at "Check in" even though I just wanted to look at excursions.

 

I'm sure they'll work out the kinks...but you would think they would have found the multiple sign in's and lack of reservation porting from the old system during TESTING!!!!! That's apparently continues to be a foreign concept to Celebrity's IT team.

 

I'm sure the new site will get better. Fortunately, I still have access to the old site so I can actually find reservations and book excursions, etc.

[chowderbsk]

For what it is worth, I am using Chrome on my IPhone 7 plus and it brings up the old stable website. Chrome on my desktop brings up the new mess, and at this moment, their website simply has a picture of a ship and says it is under maintenance....so perhaps they are on this......but if you have an IPhone with Chrome, check it out, it may work for you as it does for me. ;)

[Syrreal]

New site shows up on my iPad. Partly functional and I can see my upcoming cruises, but clicking manage reservation only shows basic info (like dining time) and doesn't show perks. Maybe that will come with a later site update? Who knows.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[njaloha]

In case X IT is reading, I signed on to the new Celebrity website on Microsoft Edge :) browsed cruises, looked at available cabins, and was able to get all the way to ADD GUEST INFO and PAY even though I received a message in red on the Configure Cabins pop up window that warned me to call the loyalty desk to restore signon capability. The message was meaningless as I remained signed on for almost 45 minutes while I browsed and planned.

 

 

 

Along the way, fellow cruisers, I hit a page during my mock booking that allowed me to choose "deals found for me" where I was able to decide on GO BIG BEST OR BETTER.

 

 

 

I love the cute active graphic that comes up when you click on PORTS for a specific itinerary. That's cool. It paints a 'journey' showing each port the ship will visit.

 

 

 

I love the dashboard that gives me a quick look at cruises in number of days sailed, ships, cruises, loyalty status and number of points needed to achieve next loyalty level. However, I could not view my captain's club benefits. The link is inactive. But I can link to it on the captain's club tab on the toolbar on the Welcome Back screen and on the MENU dropdown in the upper left corner of the screen. Shore Excursions can be browsed and "booked" from this MENU as well.

 

I can view all my reservations on one page in sequential order unlike the old site where they're set up in order of when they were booked. But, I didn't see any links to booking any add-ons to the cruise, shore ex, dining, bev pkg. That's all I'm going to mess with on this. I hesitate to do anything else with my reservations on what some are saying is a non functioning website. However it looked functional to me.

 

I can save an itinerary for future consideration. I looked at and saved 2/1/19 Silhouette 9-night and looked at the itinerary in COMPARE and the dates are wrong. The compare feature is useless as someone previously pointed out. VIEW DETAILS doesn't work. Prices can't be compared side by side. Very difficult to compare a cabin type on one cruise against another cruise.

 

 

 

When looking at a particular ship and deck plans, I'd like to see the cabin classes/colors on the deck I'm looking at. Would like to see "Future (ship name) cruises" with dates not just destinations. Also, I saw on cabin availability on a cruise I was investigating where the picture didn't match the cabin class. For example, the picture for the Sky Suite was the Aqua Class cabin and vice versa. :o

 

 

 

That's it, X IT, hope you're paying attention and can fix these bugs fast so we can all feel more comfortable using this amazing new website!!!! :D

Edited April 30, 2017 by njaloha

[Pushka]

Del

[hcat]

Without functionality ...it's useless.

Please give us fewer distracting cute graphics and something that works!

[njaloha]

Without functionality ...it's useless.

Please give us fewer distracting cute graphics and something that works!

 

 

As I said in my post, it's functional. I just spent an hour hitting almost every button I could. I'm not sure what everybody's problem is. Imho, the website is not useless.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[hcat]

As I said in my post, it's functional. I just spent an hour hitting almost every button I could. I'm not sure what everybody's problem is. Imho, the website is not useless.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Our present specific issues are:

We'd like to find out via our "My Celebrity" page the excursions that are available for booking on our Silhouette cruise, and also see confirmations of booked and paid for excursions & specialty dining for all our booked cruises....something easily done previously.

 

The number of points we need to get to Zenith from E plus is really of no great interest...but that is displayed quite large.. We have 3 diff computers....all diff OS..no luck so far

 

. We have time before we sail again so will wait it out....we can call X for just about anything we need. Our needs are simple..manage the res, nothing more!

[CEOofVacation]

As I said in my post, it's functional. I just spent an hour hitting almost every button I could. I'm not sure what everybody's problem is. Imho, the website is not useless.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I believe the new site works differently for each platform / OS. On my Samsung tablet it is useless.

 

The problems are many, including back function crashing with error codes, and with a message to report the problem to Celebriy tollfree number. There are also many missing critical features, with no indication of the various subcategories. Subcategories are critical because they provide information as to the pricing difference and any applicable captain's club upgrades. From the reservation, nothing can be done from it, it does not provide options to buy internet, drinks, shore excursion, check in etc.

 

Today I used my LG cell phone, the initial launch of the website gave me the new website. However when I selected to book a cruise, it launched the OLD full site. I can deal with this.

 

So depending on what platform you are trying to run, you are going to very different end use experience. It also tells me that their amateur IT folks: 1. Did not understand business requirements 2. Did not spec, design and test the system on all current (and at least last 5 years) in use platforms.

 

The worst part of it is that this system was not tested internally and given a pass before its release.

[njaloha]

I believe the new site works differently for each platform / OS. On my Samsung tablet it is useless.

 

The problems are many, including back function crashing with error codes, and with a message to report the problem to Celebriy tollfree number. There are also many missing critical features, with no indication of the various subcategories. Subcategories are critical because they provide information as to the pricing difference and any applicable captain's club upgrades. From the reservation, nothing can be done from it, it does not provide options to buy internet, drinks, shore excursion, check in etc.

 

Today I used my LG cell phone, the initial launch of the website gave me the new website. However when I selected to book a cruise, it launched the OLD full site. I can deal with this.

 

So depending on what platform you are trying to run, you are going to very different end use experience. It also tells me that their amateur IT folks: 1. Did not understand business requirements 2. Did not spec, design and test the system on all current (and at least last 5 years) in use platforms.

 

The worst part of it is that this system was not tested internally and given a pass before its release.

 

Noted. Thanks for your insight.

[oroszdb]

As I said in my post, it's functional. I just spent an hour hitting almost every button I could. I'm not sure what everybody's problem is. Imho, the website is not useless.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

Try making a payment, it gave me a receipt but that's it, never charged the credit card and never posted the payment to the booking, given that I have a printed copy of that receipt I would say it's a website issue not a PICNIC issue

 

Ps by going to the old website I was able to successfully make the payment....so now I have two payment receipts from Celebrity, but only one charge and one posting to the invoice....

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Edited May 1, 2017 by oroszdb

[Pushka]

Try making a payment, it gave me a receipt but that's it, never charged the credit card and never posted the payment to the booking, give that I have a printed copy of that receipt I would say it's a website issue not a PICNIC issue

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

 

 

It looks nice though ;)

[oroszdb]

It looks nice though ;)

 

 

Lol yes it does....

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Z'Loth]

I have managed development and web sites for the last 20 years moving up from manager to C level. If I were over this the site would a) never have gotten this far and b) be rolled back immediately unless the many fixes needed could be pushed within 48 hrs AND the user experience could be addressed within 45 days.

 

Sorry, not a C-level manager (I wish), but I am a senior support engineer for a major SaaS company. Had a complete loss of functionality occurred with our customers, I would have our account managers, their mangers, and my manager's manager manager, our customer's IT managers, and our customer's C-level managers screaming at me for a immediate rollback combined with a Root Cause Analysis. I, in turn, would be engaged with the ***WWYTBBQ rollback nooowwwwwww with our Engineering teams.

[ghstudio]

I think it's pretty clear that someone had a 4/30 implementation date on their performance plan (or contract). The new site isn't ready for prime time, but someone will claim "they made their date".

 

Celebrity would be wise to retract the new site....actually test it...and reintroduce it when ready. Celebrity would also be wise to terminate whoever was responsible for rolling this site out...to meet a date.

[GottaKnowWhen]

As I said in my post, it's functional. I just spent an hour hitting almost every button I could. I'm not sure what everybody's problem is. Imho, the website is not useless.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I am one of those who has voiced favorable comments. New is good, progress is good, there are some attractive and potentially useful aspects of the new design.

However, no, it is not ready for prime time.

 

[side note: I have been going through one of my aperiodic inventory adjustments, which is to say I have been selling some of my older camera gear on eBay. Payments received via PayPal. On PayPal, I can buy postage at a discount and print the corresponding mailing label. When I request to Print the mailing label, I am offered an option to continue with the New process or to use the Previous Version of the label maker. When I choose Previous Version, a popup window comes up asking me to tell their IT guys and gals why I choose the old version, what's wrong with their new version. As it happens, I don't much like either version and go back into eBay for my postage and mailing label. But I do very much like having the option and the chance to provide feedback.]

 

I have 7 future reservations, with one trip coming up in August. I go to Menu, select My Account, get to see the list of my reservations. I select the August one. Try to book an excursion from the Manage My Reservation. No link. To do anything, I had to back out of my reservations, go up top someplace, (to the Dashboard? I don't remember now), type in my reservation number, name date of sailing, ship's name and then I can actually manage my reservation. Sorta. This is someplace between frustrating and absurd. I don't really care, now, but if this sort of dysfunctionality is not cleaned up soon, then I might be less favorable.

 

By the way, if you renew your passport this year and go into your Profile to update passport # and expiration date, don't bother. The dropdown menu for the expiration date field ends at 2026 and of course our 10 year passports renewed this year don't expire until 2027. And there is no option for typing in the data, the field only accepts "valid" entries as defined by the list within the popup function. So, you can't accurately enter your passport information. Again, just a niggling little detail for now, one which I told them about via email, and I just hope they read their email. Or hire a bunch more CSRs to handle the increased phone volume.

 

Stan

[NantahalaCruiser]

As I said in my post, it's functional. I just spent an hour hitting almost every button I could. I'm not sure what everybody's problem is. Imho, the website is not useless.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Here is one of the many examples of lack of functionality. In your earlier post you mentioned:

 

"Along the way, fellow cruisers, I hit a page during my mock booking that allowed me to choose "deals found for me" where I was able to decide on GO BIG BEST OR BETTER."

 

 

Problem is, there is currently no way to get to the page that lets you look at the price for zero perks with a 55+ or residence fare.