Celebrity Cancels Excursion on Edge without Reason

[stickeypaper]

I just found out the cooking excursion I had booked last January on the Edge for Cosumel was canceled by Shore Excursions without specific reason.  Although I did get a refund as onboard credit I AM NOT HAPPY.  Why did they wait until 3 months before the cruise to do this since now I have missed all the excursion sales the past few months and have to pay a higher price to book something else that is not sold out already  Any recourse and has this happen to others?

[CHEZMARYLOU]

We have had 2 Chief's Marker Discovery tours cancelled after we boarded. We scrambled to use our non refundable OBC since it was late in the cruise. As far as recourse the best you can hope for is another sale.

[Xport]

The cooking excursion I participated in while at Cozumel was offered by Celebrity but operated through a third party at a local venue...  There are all kinds of “good reasons” that have nothing to do with Celebrity choice or discretion that could cause cancellation by the venue...

 

Three months is more than an adequate lead time to arrange a suitable substitute.  And indeed excursions are sometimes cancelled on much shorter notice—including on the day it is to occur—due to weather, illness, mechanical and logistical difficulties on shore or on ship, or failure to attract a sufficient group so as to make the tour economically viable...  Stuff happens...

 

Your recourse is to come up with Plan B...  With lots of influences and parties in the equation , travel circumstances can/do change; with respect, happy and fulfilled travelers adapt... 

 

 

Edited September 13, 2019 by Xport

[Iamthesea]

Three months is plenty of time to find something else! I rarely book anything online, and when I do, it's  no more than a month before the cruise.  Even if excursions are not showing available online,  there will be spaces available once on the ship.  Just be sure to head to Shore Excursions as soon as you board, or they open.  And who knows...keep checking for another sale.  They pop up closer to your sailings.

[jelayne]

If you are interested in a Cooking class in Cozumel check out Trip Advisor, they have some Cooking excursions that seem to be well rated. 

[mom says]

As Xport pointed out, most ship excursions are not conducted by Celebrity- they are only acting as the middlemen, selling excursions actually operated by independant contractors. There are a myriad reasons why an excursion might be cancelled. On our last B2B we had 3 booked excursions cancelled. Only 2 were before sailing. Such is life. We got our refunds and had no trouble finding something else. A little flexibility makes rolling with the punches much easier.

[Alakegirl]

Over the next three months, you may find that ports get changed, Arrival and departure times get adjusted, shore excursions get added and taken away, Sale prices are offered and then expired. There are so many things that can happen over three months. Be prepared for anything.  Oh and any of those can happen during the cruise, as well.

[waterbug123]

9 hours ago, stickeypaper said:

I just found out the cooking excursion I had booked last January on the Edge for Cosumel was canceled by Shore Excursions without specific reason.  Although I did get a refund as onboard credit I AM NOT HAPPY.  Why did they wait until 3 months before the cruise to do this since now I have missed all the excursion sales the past few months and have to pay a higher price to book something else that is not sold out already  Any recourse and has this happen to others?

 

They didn't cancel without reason, they just didn't share with you what the reason was.  And why did they wait til 3 months prior?  Because it was at that point that they became aware of the need to cancel for whatever the reason was- probably because that's when the 3rd party vendor canceled on them or informed them of some problem.   Celebrity didn't just randomly decide to cancel for no reason, and then intentionally wait until a random date to notify you.

[PTC DAWG]

ROLL with the punches...

[slei15]

Check out the Cozumel Chef and do one privately.  A quick google search will bring you to their website.  The cooking class with Josefina at $80 per person is awesome, as are their local food tours with Jerry or Emily.

[OC SeaPA]

1 hour ago, slei15 said:

Check out the Cozumel Chef and do one privately.  A quick google search will bring you to their website.  The cooking class with Josefina at $80 per person is awesome, as are their local food tours with Jerry or Emily.

They also cancelled our wine excursion on the Eclipse 30 days prior to sailing, so i doubt if another sale will be forthcoming.  Plus, we are in Victoria on Canadian thanksgiving, so not much open or options. I too have lots of OBC I wanted to use, but like they said, when traveling, roll with the punches. 

[Fouremco]

27 minutes ago, OC SeaPA said:

Plus, we are in Victoria on Canadian thanksgiving, so not much open or options.

The Butchart Gardens should be open on Thanksgiving. Celebrity usually offers a shore excursion, but there are other, cheaper means of transportation that you can check out. The gardens themselves are gorgeous and well worth visiting, and we plan on going again next April when we stop in Victoria on our way to Hawaii.

[Gonzo70]

2 hours ago, slei15 said:

Check out the Cozumel Chef and do one privately.  A quick google search will bring you to their website.  The cooking class with Josefina at $80 per person is awesome, as are their local food tours with Jerry or Emily.

 

Strongly agree with this advice. Have done the Cozumel Chef food tour twice, once with Emily and recently with Jerry. Best Caribbean excursion I've ever done. Extremely well run company, friendly people, and amazing excursion. Consider it a blessing; probably MUCH cheaper than what you were going to be doing with Celebrity and likely a superior experience to boot.

 

https://www.cozumelchef.com/

[Hlitner]

I will certainly not defend Celebrity but some folks do not understand that cruise lines do not operate shore-side excursions.  They contract with local providers/tour companies for their excursions.  There are times when the local providers cancel their tours (for a multitude of reasons) or perhaps the cruise line's own shore excursion office ends the contract with that provider for various reasons.

 

Keep in mind that shore excursions are quite lucrative for the cruise line (the tours are marked-up to generate a hefty profit) so there is an incentive to offer more tours....not cancel.   As long time (over forty years) extensive cruisers we learned (over thirty years ago) to generally avoid any cruise line excursion in favor of doing our own thing, booking tours with local companies, etc.  Our personal rule is to not even consider any cruise line excursion unless it does something we cannot possibly arrange or do on our own.

 

Hank

[Presto2]

We had 2 of ours cancelled - the 2nd one just 2 days before! We were not too happy with the 2nd cancellation as the place we were going to visit was one of the reasons that we had picked that particular cruise. As it was we did manage to book another one to this place but it was a half day rather than a full day's excursion. We did have a good day, but it was sad - just one of those things I suppose. Ironically, the excursion we ended up doing was one we had originally booked and cancelled for a more expensive one. Ironically, it meant that we saved a lot of money when it was cancelled, so am guessing that Celebrity were not pleased that it didn't happen either ...

 

They also put the money back on to onboard account. Hubby did check that we got what we had paid as we were concerned that we had actually made a loss considering the change in the exchange rate from when we booked it to when they put the money back on our account. Thankfully, it was ok, but one to keep an eye on.

 

Have to say, the system did work well and as we had not spent the money onboard it has now gone back on to the account that we used originally.

 

Edited September 13, 2019 by Presto2

[capsplace]

It happens.  We've had it happen.  Either rebook with a Celebrity tour or whatever.  Move on.

[mitz18]

Hank - in general I agree with you however if it is a "late day" activity, we generally book thru the line just to avoid that unpleasant run towards a departed ship.  That's the main benefit of booking via the cruise line.