Inaugural Cruise on December 16th Question

[BayAreaBC]

I am considering booking the inaugural cruise on 12/16/18 from FLL. However, from researching other inaugural cruiselines from other cruise companies I found that often inaugural cruises can be rescheduled. Does anyone know what happens if an inaugural Celebrity cruise is rescheduled? Do you get a full refund or do they just sail on another ship?

[steamboats]

I haven´t seen a Celebrity inaugural cruise being rescheduled over the last years (which means all Solstice class ships). I do understand your post that way that you fear the rescheduling will end up in your cruise being cancelled and rescheduled for a later date?

 

The Celebrity Edge is being built at STX in St. Nazaire. The other two ships by RCCL having or being built there are the Harmony of the Seas and the Symphony of the Seas. As for the Harmony she came out two weeks early (o.k. that wasn´t just fun for the passengers). And the Symphony is also coming early. They´ve added cruise prior to the original inaugural cruise.

 

What do you expect from an inaugural cruise? You´ll definitely won´t be the first person sleeping in the cabin as usually there will be pre inaugurals for travel agents and media ahead of the first cruise with paying passengers (plus the naming ceremony). You should not expect a perfectly working ship. Especially with a brand new ship class there will be lots of construction still going on - some to finish the last details, some to work out mistakes. The crew will need quite a time to get aquainted with the ship too. So the service level may no be pair to other ships of the cruise line (although usually the cruise line does recruite their best staff from other ships).

 

You may get some special gifts on an inaugural cruise. You may see some VIPs from the cruise line.

 

steamboats

[C-Dragons]

We made our reservation for the Solstice Inaugural when X first opened the ship for booking.

The ship was delivered early. Celebrity did not allow anyone to book the new inaugural cruise date until they contacted everyone booked on the original inaugural and offered them the opportunity to change to the earlier sailing at their original fare. This was done over a period of one week.

Unfortunately, many people could not change their bookings due to vacation scheduling and or flights, hotels, etc.. Those who could not change sailings were offered a complete refund. I don't recall if any other compensation was given, as we were able to change all our arrangements to sail on the earlier date.

Solstice was the first in her class and I don’t remember any last minute construction going on during the inaugural. X did bring in their best crew members from across the fleet. The only minor hiccup was that some things, such was service in the MDR, took a little longer than expected. This was due to the fact that the crew were still trying to find their rhythm on a brand new ship. We still had a wonderful time.

[steamboats]

I have been on quite a few pre inaugurals (not the Solstice but starting with Eclipse and many more with RCI and others). There was always some construction still going on. Mainly minor things. Sure they tried to fix anything until the paying passengers are coming onboard. But not in all cases this is possible. The Quantum of the Seas was sort of a disaster (first of its class although Meyer usually does not deliver incomplete ships). The paying passengers on the TA received compensation. RCI brought out the Harmony of the Seas two weeks early and did some short cruises out of Southampton. After a big bash in media passengers got compensated. I was on three weeks later for a pre inaugural (after the official inaugural from Southampton to Barcelona) and there was still some construction going on. Some stuff wasn´t even added until the TA.

 

The OP shouldn´t be disappointed right now and expecting a "horror cruise". No, I just wanted to tell that there might be some kinks. Setting your expectations lower and expecting some kinks will provide you a wonderful cruise!

 

steamboats

[Lastdance]

We made our reservation for the Solstice Inaugural when X first opened the ship for booking.

The ship was delivered early. Celebrity did not allow anyone to book the new inaugural cruise date until they contacted everyone booked on the original inaugural and offered them the opportunity to change to the earlier sailing at their original fare. This was done over a period of one week.

Unfortunately, many people could not change their bookings due to vacation scheduling and or flights, hotels, etc.. Those who could not change sailings were offered a complete refund. I don't recall if any other compensation was given, as we were able to change all our arrangements to sail on the earlier date.

Solstice was the first in her class and I don’t remember any last minute construction going on during the inaugural. X did bring in their best crew members from across the fleet. The only minor hiccup was that some things, such was service in the MDR, took a little longer than expected. This was due to the fact that the crew were still trying to find their rhythm on a brand new ship. We still had a wonderful time.

 

Are you saying that Celebrity gave everyone a week to make their changes or it took a week to contact everyone? It would surely take time for those changes, and Celebrity is not the best at getting out information. Also, airfare changes make it more expensive too, but using points could be a better option.

 

Glad you were able to make the change easily C-Dragons. I am still on the fence with this, as I would rather travel a week or so earlier, but I guess I'll figure it all out in the future.

[C-Dragons]

Are you saying that Celebrity gave everyone a week to make their changes or it took a week to contact everyone? It would surely take time for those changes, and Celebrity is not the best at getting out information. Also, airfare changes make it more expensive too, but using points could be a better option.

 

Glad you were able to make the change easily C-Dragons. I am still on the fence with this, as I would rather travel a week or so earlier, but I guess I'll figure it all out in the future.

X set a one week period to contact everyone, and guests had to respond within that week.

 

It wasn’t that easy for us, as X had our telephone number on file with two digits transposed. We only discovered all this when I read about the new inaugural date on CC. By that time there were only three days left to try to coordinate all the changes, and it was pretty stressful. When I first spoke to a X agent I asked why we weren’t contacted earlier, to which she responded that their records showed X had left numerous messages on our phone. There were no messages, and when I asked what telephone number they had been calling, we discovered it was due to their mistake.

 

Yes, last minute airline changes can be expensive, but trying to change flights using points can be just as costly. 😉

[hcat]

New postings indicate short Bahamas pre inaugual cruises have also been added...guess there's no way to make sure someone is really on the first cruise out...

[sunluva]

Celebrity left me a message today stating that the Inaugural was moved from Dec 16 to Dec 9 and if I wanted to change, to please call them back. I am on hold waiting for someone to pick up. We actually prefer the 9th as it's not as close to Christmas.

[sheltielover1973]

Celebrity left me a message today stating that the Inaugural was moved from Dec 16 to Dec 9 and if I wanted to change, to please call them back. I am on hold waiting for someone to pick up. We actually prefer the 9th as it's not as close to Christmas.

 

I waited almost an hour and a half this morning on hold to change mine.

i prefer this new date too for that very reason.