Celebrity's Handling of their Millennium Sailing is SHAMEFUL!

[az_tchr]

On 1/31/2020 at 12:32 PM, Bo1953 said:

 Okay, okay, okay... many of us will get it that you are upset and want to change the sailing or not take or get a refund.

 

Can you tell us or X on what 'geo-political' basis you have to cancel your sailing and indicating that it is not safe based on the port you are embarking from?

 

I Am almost sure that if a sailing is cancelled or postponed or otherwise changed while in-transit, X will take care of many of your expenses incurred and etc...

 

Unfortunately, X and no other cruise line can know in advance what ports may be closed due to any situation, health or political or???

 

What does your travel insurance cover in this type of situation?

 

Also, I do not believe, personally, that X or any other cruise line will intentionally place any passenger in harms way, not a good business practice. Then again when panic ensues, all bets are off!

 

Unless you know differently, I have only heard of one (1) ship, docking in Italy, where there is a quarantine about concerns over the virus.

 

If ports need to be skipped due to this, then substitute ports or sea days will be added.

 

At this juncture, your sailing in a few weeks off, you can either cancel and lose money or wait to see what will happen as far as containing the virus and the panic.

 

I, happen to believe that to come here to slam X because you are not getting your way, currently, is not the way to go. Patience. Understanding of the business decisions in play.

 

Remember, it is not only YOU involved, there are thousands of others, potentially and X will take all things into consideration.

 

Good luck and let us know how you make out.

 

bon voyage???

 

Edited To Add: Beautiful World, were this novo virus, which is common often on passenger ships, you do understand that cruise lines have sanitizing procedures in place to handle it? I would tend to believe this comes into play as well to protect passengers and crew.

 

[jelayne]

59 minutes ago, Cardinal86 said:

Plus celebrity made us get visas for China & now we'll be out of that money also... 

 
 Celebrity MADE you get a visa. China required the visa, no different than Australia, India or many other countries that require a visa in order to enter.   Certainly  your not suggesting that X owes you for a visa. 

[The_Big_M]

1 hour ago, omeinv said:

 

Point of fact, Celebrity NEVER makes anyone get a visa.  It is a transaction they specifically will not get involved in.  The country you wished to visit made you get a visa. 

 

 

And if you didn't want to get the visa, then you could have chosen another cruise, to a country not requiring a visa.

 

I can certainly understand how it's annoying to go through the paperwork and potential extensive cost of a visa, but that comes with visiting the country however you do. 

 

The choice to select an itinerary to a country requiring a visa comes from the buyer. 

[MarkusToe]

To be honest, i do not understand you American guys: 

If a coffee is too hot you're running to court , but you sign contracts for holidays saying more or less, here is my hard earned money,  do what you want, I'll accept.

Within Europe  we have to think first if we sign a contract, because any cancelation or change involve penalty fees. This is binding for both partys. 

Per Example   if the Cruise Line,  change more than one port, and date change us a change, you are allowed to cancel,  full refund. In case something is going wrong during your vacation and you get more than 50% back, for any reason,  we will get$$$ for lost holiday fun....based on salary 

I've booked a lot if cruises within the Us in the past,  because of the by far better services from TA you get, but lesson learned, no more booking under US law based contracts...

 

Edited February 10, 2020 by MarkusToe

[terrydtx]

I wonder if the OP would want a full refund if the scenario was a little different. Suppose the week before he was to leave for his cruise he had a medical emergency that kept him from flying and going on the cruise. Would he blame Celebrity if they refused to give a full cash refund? His medical emergency had noting to do with Celebrity. Oh BTW under this scenario, if the OP had travel insurance he would most likely get a full cash refund for his airfare and cruise cost. Remember the OP does not believe travel insurance is worth the cost and never buys any.

[Bo1953]

8 hours ago, Cardinal86 said:

Totally agree with you OP. I feel like I walked into a Corvette dealership, gave them my hard earned money that I saved for decades for, then they tell me, "Sorry, we're not giving you a Corvette today, here is a Kia Rio, no price adjustment or refunds though." 

 

The original itenerary is what we paid for. Not whatever this is now. If we wanted to go to those places, we would have booked that cruise. Plus celebrity made us get visas for China & now we'll be out of that money also... 

Have you filed with your travel insurance or even possibly you homeowners insurance to get reimbursed for the Visa costs?

 

Also, how long is it good for, it is possible that you just might be able to use it....

 

bon voyage

[Bo1953]

3 hours ago, MarkusToe said:

To be honest, i do not understand you American guys: 

If a coffee is too hot you're running to court , but you sign contracts for holidays saying more or less, here is my hard earned money,  do what you want, I'll accept.

Within Europe  we have to think first if we sign a contract, because any cancelation or change involve penalty fees. This is binding for both partys. 

Per Example   if the Cruise Line,  change more than one port, and date change us a change, you are allowed to cancel,  full refund. In case something is going wrong during your vacation and you get more than 50% back, for any reason,  we will get$$$ for lost holiday fun....based on salary 

I've booked a lot if cruises within the Us in the past,  because of the by far better services from TA you get, but lesson learned, no more booking under US law based contracts...

 

m - to be sure, it is not ALL Americans who take approach of your scenario.

 

Some of us do recognize that laws are different in various regions and countries of the world and accept it for those areas accordnigly.

 

I know there are some 'protections' which Europeans may have which would benefit us, yet what will we have to give up in order to get them? Not sure I would want to change some of the laws 'here' for some of the laws 'there' no matter how rosy and protective they appear.

 

Yet, no one knows for sure what is coming down the pike for any countries laws in this regards...

 

This is our contract law here in the U.S. under which we have survived for decades and even changed over the decades as well.

 

We do have options for insurance coverage for these types of situations, which is not forced. Either we can either take it or not, our choice.

 

I can appreciate your thoughts and input on this though...

 

Any Europeans or UK residents who booked in their country can let us Americans know how this situation is being handled your respective countries?

 

bon voyage

[az_tchr]

3 hours ago, MarkusToe said:

To be honest, i do not understand you American guys: 

If a coffee is too hot you're running to court , but you sign contracts for holidays saying more or less, here is my hard earned money,  do what you want, I'll accept.

Within Europe  we have to think first if we sign a contract, because any cancelation or change involve penalty fees. This is binding for both partys. 

Per Example   if the Cruise Line,  change more than one port, and date change us a change, you are allowed to cancel,  full refund. In case something is going wrong during your vacation and you get more than 50% back, for any reason,  we will get$$$ for lost holiday fun....based on salary 

I've booked a lot if cruises within the Us in the past,  because of the by far better services from TA you get, but lesson learned, no more booking under US law based contracts...

 

Marcus - ports are changed all the time.. Missed the Falklands because of bad weather. It was the main reason I took the cruise. Another cruise misses ports due the a medevac from the ship. Safety is most important.

 

Also a comment about your dig about Americans suing over hot coffee. The coffee was dropped into her lap. She - Stella who was a friend - asked for about $100 in doctor bills as her insurance was in place. She was rudely told to sue. Thus she did. If the store owner had not been rude you would have never heard of what was escalated beyond reason by the owner insulting the patron.

[MarkusToe]

Off topic, the coffee incident was McD...

They where talking about Millions...

Was within the media over here,  but years ago 

 

[bEwAbG]

10 minutes ago, MarkusToe said:

Off topic, the coffee incident was McD...

They where talking about Millions...

Was within the media over here,  but years ago 

 

The story has been distorted by many people (including the "friend" above) in its retelling.  But, the case isn't an example of a frivolous lawsuit.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald's_Restaurants

[sanger727]

5 hours ago, bEwAbG said:

 

The story has been distorted by many people (including the "friend" above) in its retelling.  But, the case isn't an example of a frivolous lawsuit.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald's_Restaurants

 

I think that statement is highly controversial. Coffee is hot. You can get a sense of how hot the coffee in your cup is before you drink it by the temperature of the cup and visible steam coming off it. It had marking on the paper cup that coffee is hot. And she put it in her lap and spilled it. ***** happens. Congrats to her for winning but I wouldn't have agreed to that if I had been on the jury.

[bEwAbG]

33 minutes ago, sanger727 said:

I think that statement is highly controversial. Coffee is hot. You can get a sense of how hot the coffee in your cup is before you drink it by the temperature of the cup and visible steam coming off it. It had marking on the paper cup that coffee is hot. And she put it in her lap and spilled it. ***** happens. Congrats to her for winning but I wouldn't have agreed to that if I had been on the jury.

 

Well, we're not going to settle the debate here, but I would encourage you to read about the case before drawing firm conclusions.  It's a case that's been used as shorthand for many years, but the facts are probably not what you heard or remember from media reports at the time.

[mpk]

For what it is worth, the 15-FEB sailing on Millennium has been canceled.

 

Safe travels everyone!

[keifernny]

Based on the previous post, It does appear that celebrity is being more generous with the 2/15 cancellation with refunds and  50% fcc than they were with those that cancelled their 2/1 sailing (100% FCC)

[cruiserchuck]

1 hour ago, keifernny said:

Based on the previous post, It does appear that celebrity is being more generous with the 2/15 cancellation with refunds and  50% fcc than they were with those that cancelled their 2/1 sailing (100% FCC)

 

The difference is because Celebrity cancelled the 2/15 cruise.

[Pushka]

Interesting, but of course sad for those impacted, that celebrity are now cancelling cruises because when I commented on that possibility a couple of days ago, a few here got very upset I’d dare suggest such a thing. I can’t see any sailings for March in Asia currently on the celebrity search site. 

Edited February 11, 2020 by Pushka

[villauk]

3 hours ago, Pushka said:

Interesting, but of course sad for those impacted, that celebrity are now cancelling cruises because when I commented on that possibility a couple of days ago, a few here got very upset I’d dare suggest such a thing. I can’t see any sailings for March in Asia currently on the celebrity search site. 

 

 

Looks like they changed the port of embarkation for Connie from Singapore to Dubai too.

 

Edited February 11, 2020 by villauk

[Pushka]

14 minutes ago, villauk said:

 

 

Looks like they changed the port of embarkation for Connie from Singapore to Dubai too.

 

 

Ive been thinking for a while that Singapore isn’t a true safe haven but cruises are using it as a safe port. Their roll call shows people already in transit (one through Dubai to Singapore!) and they will receive the news on their arrival into Singapore.  It’s going to be a series of cancellations or changes. Although the media here aren’t carrying coronavirus as a lead story anymore. 

[oneputt18]

10 hours ago, Pushka said:

Interesting, but of course sad for those impacted, that celebrity are now cancelling cruises because when I commented on that possibility a couple of days ago, a few here got very upset I’d dare suggest such a thing. I can’t see any sailings for March in Asia currently on the celebrity search site. 

I don't know where you are searching, but a Millennium cruises are still showing on Celebritycruises.com and are also available on Cruising Power. Only cruise not showing is the cancelled 2/15 

[netbill1]

The 15th Feb cruise cancelled by celebrity. The 29th May be cancelled too. We were on 29th. Spoke our cruise coordinator today. Mellenium no longer going into Singapore. 

[cruiserchuck]

7 hours ago, villauk said:

 

 

Looks like they changed the port of embarkation for Connie from Singapore to Dubai too.

 

 

It appears they are not offering passengers anything if they do not want to go on this new itinerary on the Constellation.  No FCC mentioned, just normal cancellations penalties, which probably are 100% at this point.

[Maykitten]

Disembarked Millennium yesterday when the cruise was cut short by a week. Celebrity were more than amazing & we all got a 100% refund as well as fcc & on board credit. The ship was refused entry to several ports & the company did their very best to get us to other ports but we were then refused entry to those due to the situation in SE Asia. Non of this is the companies fault yet have given us a lot back in compensation. Think of the poor staff on board who don’t know what on earth is happening. Just be pleased everyone is safe & well.

[Bo1953]

2 hours ago, cruiserchuck said:

 

It appears they are not offering passengers anything if they do not want to go on this new itinerary on the Constellation.  No FCC mentioned, just normal cancellations penalties, which probably are 100% at this point.

Apparently someone has yet to visit X's website for the 'official info' on currently cancelled sailings... Yes, there is a full refund in place along with FCC...

 

Check it out.

 

bon voyage

[cruiserchuck]

1 minute ago, Bo1953 said:

Apparently someone has yet to visit X's website for the 'official info' on currently cancelled sailings... Yes, there is a full refund in place along with FCC...

 

Check it out.

 

bon voyage

 

I was referring to the new itinerary on the 2/16 sailing on the Constellation.  There have not been any cancellations (yet) on the Constellation.  Celebrity changed the departure port to a location 3,633 miles away, less than 5 days before departure, and is not offering refunds or future cruise credits to those who cancel. 

[Bo1953]

5 minutes ago, cruiserchuck said:

 

I was referring to the new itinerary on the 2/16 sailing on the Constellation.  There have not been any cancellations (yet) on the Constellation.  Celebrity changed the departure port to a location 3,633 miles away, less than 5 days before departure, and is not offering refunds or future cruise credits to those who cancel. 

c - you are absolutely correct, as I looked at another sailing for the same date.

 

I was incorrect, my apologies.

 

bon voyage

Edited February 11, 2020 by Bo1953