Celebrity's Exceptional Customer Service

[Kennedysa]

Because I have read so many negative comments regarding Celebrity’s poor customer service, I want to share the outstanding service that I have received from Celebrity, not once, but twice in the past 3 weeks.

 

Our sweet sister-in-law was suddenly taken away from us 3 weeks ago.   Because of other issues within the family, my brother wanted to delay her celebration of life until June 8th.  We had a cabin booked on the Summit sailing on June 5 and my husband and I knew there was no way we weren’t going to be with my brother during this time.  We had cruise insurance so we decided we would cancel and file a claim but discovered you had to provide a copy of the death certificate.  There was no way I was asking my brother for a copy of my SIL’s death certificate so we could be reimbursed for a cruise.  Asking for a death certificate to be reimbursed money seemed callous to us and we decided we would just go with the loss of funds.  I called Steven M. (our cruise consultant/travel agent) at Celebrity to cancel and before I knew what was happening Steven was contacting the Resolutions Team and received permission to move us to the Summit June 16 cruise.   We were very thankful to Steven for taking the steps to change our cruise, and to the Celebrity Resolutions Team for approving the change.

 

You may have heard the saying “Life happens while you are making plans.”  I was busy planning and making a reservation for our daughter and grand kids to travel with us on our rescheduled June 16^th cruise when we found out my husband had to have urgent hernia surgery.  He had the surgery and was told by the doctor it was okay to go on our cruise just no swimming or hot tubs.  Yippee!  Then, five days later, hubby is in the ER with a hematoma from internal bleeding the size of a basketball caused by having to take a blood thinner for his artificial heart valves.  Because of his inactivity and weakened state from loss of blood, he is now in rehab and unable to travel for several months.

 

I again call Steven at Celebrity, and again Celebrity comes through like a champion, for us and our daughter, and moves our cruise out in a hold position until we can make plans. 

 

Perhaps Celebrity made these changes because I have additional cruises scheduled, but I prefer to believe they made the changes because they understand life doesn’t go smoothly and they can help make things a little smoother by simply changing or moving out a cruise.

 

I can’t thank Celebrity and Steven enough for going above and beyond in providing exceptional service!

 

[Mike981]

Holy cow you have been through a lot! I hope you have smooth sailing from now on and your travels help sooth those bad memories.

[GerScot]

That really is exceptional service indeed, hope everything works out for you.

[Georgia_Peaches]

I'm glad you posted this.  Celebrity gets a lot of bad press on CC for "poor customer service" which is really often just the result of the customer either not getting what they want or hearing what they want to hear.  Neither of which usually reflects poor customer service.  I hope you enjoy your cruise!

[chemmo]

Sincere best wishes to your family, what a traumatic time for you all...

 

Celebrity changed our cruise twice for us a couple of years ago when I had significant health issues. We also had a non refundable hotel booking and phoned the hotel to simply let them know they we would not be using our booking and they also changed our booking to an alternative date.

 

There are some amazing caring people out there, lovely to hear a story of staff recognising exceptional circumstances and acting with care and compassion.

 

Best wishes for your next cruise as and when you are up to enjoying...

[Oceangoer2]

Yes, life happenings get in the way of perfect planning.  Hopefully all will go smoothly in the future for you and your family.  Kudos to X for their sensitivity and cooperation.  Too many bad notices re their lack of good customer service, so kudos to you as well for the complimentary post.  The Equinox CS manager was very, very helpful to us during a trying time during one of our cruises with them.

[Cruise Raider]

Wow .. 

Let me first offer condolences for your loss and well wishes to your husband.  

Kudos to Celebrity  and thank you for posting these positive comments about their excellent customer service.

Hope you are able to enjoy that cruise in the future.  Bon Voyage!  

[Shadow9612]

Thank you for posting.   I'm sorry for your  loss.  It's wonderful that Celebrity was so understanding and helpful. 

[twincheryl]

22 hours ago, Kennedysa said:

  I called Steven M. (our cruise consultant/travel agent) at Celebrity to cancel and before I knew what was happening Steven was contacting the Resolutions Team and

 

Wonderful they helped so much!  I had the same experience with a land vacation last year and everyone I spoke to, including Hawaiian Airlines, was very accommodating.

 

Not meaning to hijack your thread, but several times in the past that I have called Celebrity and gotten someone amazingly helpful on the phone, I have asked if I could call that person back next time... kind of like the personal vacation planner that other cruise lines have... and they have said it doesn't work like that.  How did you link up with Steven M?  Do you call him to book your cruises to start with?

 

Thanks... and best wishes to your DH for a quick recovery and many future cruises.

[CharlieCharlieCharlie]

23 minutes ago, twincheryl said:

 

Not meaning to hijack your thread, but several times in the past that I have called Celebrity and gotten someone amazingly helpful on the phone, I have asked if I could call that person back next time... kind of like the personal vacation planner that other cruise lines have... and they have said it doesn't work like that.  How did you link up with Steven M?  Do you call him to book your cruises to start with?

 

Thanks... and best wishes to your DH for a quick recovery and many future cruises.

 

KennedySA

I, too am sorry for your loss, and health difficulties, and am very glad to hear Celebrity has been helpful and kind to you.  Enjoy your cruises.

In response to twincheryl: Yes, there are Celebrity Vacation Planners.  Below is the signature line from emails we have exchanged.  I blanked out all of the info that I think isn't allowed on CC, but at one point years ago, I called Celebrity and worked with this person to get great deals, even as good as "big box" travel agencies. I do call to speak with her when I am planning a cruise.  I generally do all of the basic homework myself before calling to do the actual booking. If you think this is good for you, maybe try to call and ask again for a Vacation Planner.  Of course, they only provide information and book for Celebrity, so it's not quite a personal planner.

"....Sincerely,
J------- P----
Your Celebrity Vacation Planner
phone: 1-888-307-8413 Ext ---- (This is the general Celebrity Cruise telephone number which I think is okay to post.....)
Email: j----@celebrity.com....

followed by the Celebrity Cruises Logo"

Edited June 16, 2019 by CharlieCharlieCharlie
add a sentence to clarify

[wwcruisers]

OP -- So sorry to hear that you've had such a run of bad luck, recently. It was very nice of you to take the time to post about your positive results with X's customer service department. Hoping that things go better for you, and the the future finds you back out on the high seas, once more! 💐

(BTW -- loved the John Lennon quote -- truly, words to live by!)

[Covepointcruiser]

Sounds like we can get by without buying the expensive trip insurance.   We wouldn’t mind delaying a trip if we were hospitalized or if  we needed to attend a funeral.   Great news!

[Michidoeme]

5 hours ago, Covepointcruiser said:

Sounds like we can get by without buying the expensive trip insurance.   We wouldn’t mind delaying a trip if we were hospitalized or if  we needed to attend a funeral.   Great news!

Do not count on this.  A while ago I had to cancel a cruise less than 2 months before, not sure about exact dates anymore, just that Celebrity kept 50 pct of cruise price.

Reason was my mother who was going to cruise with me discovered she was very sick and died within 3 months of cancelling.  I never received a future cruise certificate nor OBC, much less a “sorry for  having to cancel under these circumstances”!

I never really expected anything, nor asked for it.

Edited June 16, 2019 by Michidoeme

[cynbar]

6 hours ago, Covepointcruiser said:

Sounds like we can get by without buying the expensive trip insurance.   We wouldn’t mind delaying a trip if we were hospitalized or if  we needed to attend a funeral.   Great news!

 

Future cruisers, please don't take this heartwarming report as encouragement to forego trip insurance. I wouldn't count on Celebrity or any other cruise line to always be this accommodating. Plus, trip insurance covers so much more than cancellation of a cruise, such as trip interruption coverage. It can end up being very expensive if you don't have insurance.

[Kennedysa]

9 hours ago, twincheryl said:

How did you link up with Steven M?  Do you call him to book your cruises to start with?

I was looking at the Celebrity website many years ago and put a courtesy hold on a cruise I was interested in taking.  The next day I received a call from Steven regarding the booking and from that point on, whether or not I called him, he was listed as the point of contact on my booking confirmations.  I was a little slow figuring out Steven was my point of contact but once I did and started calling him, I never wanted to deal with anyone else.  He is very efficient!!!

 

[Kennedysa]

7 hours ago, Covepointcruiser said:

Sounds like we can get by without buying the expensive trip insurance.   We wouldn’t mind delaying a trip if we were hospitalized or if  we needed to attend a funeral.   Great news!

I would never cruise without insurance and would never encourage anyone to do so!  

[Kennedysa]

1 hour ago, cynbar said:

 

Future cruisers, please don't take this heartwarming report as encouragement to forego trip insurance. I wouldn't count on Celebrity or any other cruise line to always be this accommodating. Plus, trip insurance covers so much more than cancellation of a cruise, such as trip interruption coverage. It can end up being very expensive if you don't have insurance.

I considered myself to be very lucky Celebrity changed our cruise to a future date once let alone twice.  I didn't expect them to and wouldn't have been upset if they hadn't.  I read the contract, I knew the penalties that would be applied.  I wanted to share they provide great customer service not have someone take away from my comments they wouldn't need insurance.  Thank you for letting others know how important cruise insurance is.

[twincheryl]

On 6/16/2019 at 7:34 AM, CharlieCharlieCharlie said:

 

KennedySA

I, too am sorry for your loss, and health difficulties, and am very glad to hear Celebrity has been helpful and kind to you.  Enjoy your cruises.

In response to twincheryl: Yes, there are Celebrity Vacation Planners.  Below is the signature line from emails we have exchanged.  I blanked out all of the info that I think isn't allowed on CC, but at one point years ago, I called Celebrity and worked with this person to get great deals, even as good as "big box" travel agencies. I do call to speak with her when I am planning a cruise.  I generally do all of the basic homework myself before calling to do the actual booking. If you think this is good for you, maybe try to call and ask again for a Vacation Planner.  Of course, they only provide information and book for Celebrity, so it's not quite a personal planner.

"....Sincerely,
J------- P----
Your Celebrity Vacation Planner
phone: 1-888-307-8413 Ext ---- (This is the general Celebrity Cruise telephone number which I think is okay to post.....)
Email: j----@celebrity.com....

followed by the Celebrity Cruises Logo"

Thanks...  We usually book onboard, but will ask when I call to make a booking from home next time.