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Itinerary Change Corona Virus


capnicolay
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I am a loyal RCI cruiser, great staff, great service onboard. We have completed over 10 cruises in the past five years with Celebrity, Azamara and Royal Caribbean.  We are booked on Celebrity Cruises on the Constellation for their March 17th sailing from Singapore to Dubai.  For the past 3 weeks we have been getting emails regarding the Corona Virus. 

First stating : “any guest who has transited through mainland China or Hong Kong, 15 days prior to embarkation, will be denied boarding and issued a full refund. This includes guests on connecting flights. All guest flights must be free from connections or stops in mainland China or Hong Kong. Please make sure that your flights are in accordance with these policies.”

So we had to rebook our flights since we were flying thru Hong Kong.  About ten days later they came up with this email:  “After further consultation with public health authorities and medical experts, we have made the decision to adjust our itinerary for the Constellation voyage of March 17th by replacing our embarkation in Singapore with embarkation in Dubai. Our change in embarkation port will also require a few modifications to the rest of our itinerary including replacing our call to Phuket, Thailand on March 19th with a relaxing day at sea.  We have also been able to extend our port times in Cochin, Goa and Mumbai, India. ”

There are no travel alerts for Singapore and the Virus is present in Dubai as well as Singapore. This change has nothing to do with health reasons what so ever, it is more a logistical issue for the cruise line.  We have asked for a refund or a future cruise credit since we were using the ship to get from Singapore to Dubai. Now we have to fly from Singapore to Dubai (8 hrs) to get onboard.  All of our requests have been denied.

We understand that cruise lines have the right to change itineraries for various reasons, but this is not an itinerary change this is a completely different cruise. Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises are still departing Singapore. Again no travel advisories for Singapore are in place.

Customer Service for this issue is none existing at Celebrity. I have spent more the 10 hours on the phone mostly on hold for the past 10 days.

I know some U.K.passengers have received a full refund, but this does not apply for U.S. passengers.  

I am posting this so that maybe Celebrity listens and if not, future customers can make their own opinion on how RCI is dealing with this matter. Canceling all my future reservations (3) with them.......

My final point and I emphasize this: THERE IS NO HEALTH REASON TO CHANGE THE DEPARTURE PORT FROM SINGAPORE TO DUBAI AND NO REAL EXPLANATION HAS BEEN GIVEN AS TO WHY......

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32 minutes ago, capnicolay said:

We understand that cruise lines have the right to change itineraries for various reasons, but this is not an itinerary change this is a completely different cruise. Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises are still departing Singapore....THERE IS NO HEALTH REASON TO CHANGE THE DEPARTURE PORT FROM SINGAPORE TO DUBAI AND NO REAL EXPLANATION HAS BEEN GIVEN AS TO WHY......

 

Glad to hear Celebrity is making decisions that will protect the safety and health of their customers and staff.  I guess Celebrity or whatever cruise lines decides to make changes to itineraries based on current events is damned if they do and damned if they don't! 

 

Welcome to CC. By the way using all caps is considered shouting IAW CC guidelines and we're asked not to do so. 

 

 

Edited by davekathy
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16 minutes ago, davekathy said:

Glad to hear Celebrity is making decisions that will protect the safety and health of their customers and staff.  I guess Celebrity or whatever cruise lines decides to make changes to itineraries based on current events is damned if they do and damned if they don't! 

 

Welcome to CC. By the way using all caps is considered shouting IAW CC guidelines and we're asked not to do so. 

 

 

No shouting intended just emphasizing my point. My apologies davekathy. 

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Did you contact Flights by Celebrity for assistance to see if that can rearrange your flights to get you directly to Dubai?  They may have more success and with less effort on your part to rearrange the travel. 

I looked at your itinerary and fortunately  you only lost 1 port.  We did your original itinerary in 2018 and it was amazing.  While Phuket was nice, for us it wasn't the best of the ports on that itinerary.  I hope you enjoy the cruise as much as we did.

 

 

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I agree with you. This was a massive change and not just a simple itinerary change. Given the price differentials for people in Australia to fly to Singapore versus Dubai it would leave us very much out of pocket - well over $1000 each. Of course I understand that this was done for reasons of health as I’ve been thinking that Singapore does have more cases, however they also manage the situation better than any other country but countries might change their restrictions to entry on a whim. And I read that people had flown through Dubai to get to Singapore then fly back. So they had transited through the ‘hot spot’ of Singapore anyway. This was on the cruise departing Feb 15 where something like a couple of days notice was given and people were already in Singapore waiting for embarkation day. 

Edited by Pushka
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1 hour ago, cruisestitch said:

Sometimes we need to shout for emphasis, so shout when you must, otherwise try underlining.  But meanwhile, back to the issue, I assume you do not have a travel agent?  Sometimes travel agents can escalate issues in ways that passengers can’t.....

We have been tackling the issue from both sides....

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48 minutes ago, Pushka said:

I agree with you. This was a massive change and not just a simple itinerary change. Given the price differentials for people in Australia to fly to Singapore versus Dubai it would leave us very much out of pocket - well over $1000 each. Of course I understand that this was done for reasons of health as I’ve been thinking that Singapore does have more cases, however they also manage the situation better than any other country but countries might change their restrictions to entry on a whim. And I read that people had flown through Dubai to get to Singapore then fly back. So they had transited through the ‘hot spot’ of Singapore anyway. This was on the cruise departing Feb 15 where something like a couple of days notice was given and people were already in Singapore waiting for embarkation day. 

That is correct, and we are still going for a week to Singapore as planned. From what I have read so are many more passengers.  My point is that yes Singapore has more cases but it has dealt with the situation better than any other country including the U.S. Dubai I am not so sure since I do not really trust the UAE’s transparency on this type of matters.  Either way this was a logistics change for Celebrity to avoid any delays in getting the ship back to Europe and into dry dock.  People who bought their cruise from the UK are all being refunded since they protected by their laws. We will have to sail for one last time on RCI, for us this is it. I do not agree with what they are doing and already did to passengers before us. This was very poor judgement on their part and they should own it and at least offer a future cruise credit refund....

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1 hour ago, jelayne said:

Did you contact Flights by Celebrity for assistance to see if that can rearrange your flights to get you directly to Dubai?  They may have more success and with less effort on your part to rearrange the travel. 

I looked at your itinerary and fortunately  you only lost 1 port.  We did your original itinerary in 2018 and it was amazing.  While Phuket was nice, for us it wasn't the best of the ports on that itinerary.  I hope you enjoy the cruise as much as we did.

 

 

Thank you, no need since we are still going to Singapore for 7 days as planned. Now we have to fly to Dubai instead of sailing....

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That’s interesting. I suspect that Australian passengers would be covered by the same kind of protection as UK then which is a relief for us. The people on the very first cruise where this happened simply did not have any time to do anything about it. 
 

I suspect the weather in Dubai is detrimental to the coronavirus however. It’s starting to get hot again with lots of sunshine. 

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3 hours ago, capnicolay said:

I am a loyal RCI cruiser, great staff, great service onboard. We have completed over 10 cruises in the past five years with Celebrity, Azamara and Royal Caribbean.  We are booked on Celebrity Cruises on the Constellation for their March 17th sailing from Singapore to Dubai.  For the past 3 weeks we have been getting emails regarding the Corona Virus. 

First stating : “any guest who has transited through mainland China or Hong Kong, 15 days prior to embarkation, will be denied boarding and issued a full refund. This includes guests on connecting flights. All guest flights must be free from connections or stops in mainland China or Hong Kong. Please make sure that your flights are in accordance with these policies.”

So we had to rebook our flights since we were flying thru Hong Kong.  About ten days later they came up with this email:  “After further consultation with public health authorities and medical experts, we have made the decision to adjust our itinerary for the Constellation voyage of March 17th by replacing our embarkation in Singapore with embarkation in Dubai. Our change in embarkation port will also require a few modifications to the rest of our itinerary including replacing our call to Phuket, Thailand on March 19th with a relaxing day at sea.  We have also been able to extend our port times in Cochin, Goa and Mumbai, India. ”

There are no travel alerts for Singapore and the Virus is present in Dubai as well as Singapore. This change has nothing to do with health reasons what so ever, it is more a logistical issue for the cruise line.  We have asked for a refund or a future cruise credit since we were using the ship to get from Singapore to Dubai. Now we have to fly from Singapore to Dubai (8 hrs) to get onboard.  All of our requests have been denied.

We understand that cruise lines have the right to change itineraries for various reasons, but this is not an itinerary change this is a completely different cruise. Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises are still departing Singapore. Again no travel advisories for Singapore are in place.

Customer Service for this issue is none existing at Celebrity. I have spent more the 10 hours on the phone mostly on hold for the past 10 days.

I know some U.K.passengers have received a full refund, but this does not apply for U.S. passengers.  

I am posting this so that maybe Celebrity listens and if not, future customers can make their own opinion on how RCI is dealing with this matter. Canceling all my future reservations (3) with them.......

My final point and I emphasize this: THERE IS NO HEALTH REASON TO CHANGE THE DEPARTURE PORT FROM SINGAPORE TO DUBAI AND NO REAL EXPLANATION HAS BEEN GIVEN AS TO WHY......

Your second point is easy - UK passengers have a completely different cruise contract. For example on a Mexican Riviera Cruise we missed a port due to an emergency medical evacuation. US passengers got a couple drink vouchers and refund or port fees. UK bookings were refunded approximately 5% of the cruise fare.

As for Singapore, there are government alerts that went from Yellow to Orange two days ago as Corona virus continues in Singapore. Several countries have either banned or suggested avoiding Singapore. I certainly understand your frustration and personally would have cancelled my cruise because of the ever changing situation with the first change.

If Celebrity does assist with rebooking you I would go to my credit card company and dispute the charge.

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We are on the same cruise and are glad they changed the itinerary.  Even if it left from Singapore the ship could not stop in Thailand so it would go directly to Sri Lanka. As of yesterday there are 81 people with 

coronavirus in Singapore. That is the highest number outside of China. Better safe than get a ship stuck somewhere. Contacted choice air and they rerouted us to Dubai and got us a hotel. Customer service was very good. Took the agent about 45 minutes to rebook our flights. Why take a chance?

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4 hours ago, capnicolay said:

There are no travel alerts for Singapore and the Virus is present in Dubai as well as Singapore. This change has nothing to do with health reasons what so ever, it is more a logistical issue for the cruise line.  We have asked for a refund or a future cruise credit since we were using the ship to get from Singapore to Dubai. Now we have to fly from Singapore to Dubai (8 hrs) to get onboard.  All of our requests have been denied.

We understand that cruise lines have the right to change itineraries for various reasons, but this is not an itinerary change this is a completely different cruise. Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises are still departing Singapore. Again no travel advisories for Singapore are in place.

 

NCL, Oceania and Regent announced yesterday that they have cancelled all their upcoming Asia cruises.  There is a current Oceania cruise that changed its ending port from Singapore to Dubai, halfway through the cruise.

 

Singapore has the highest per capita number of Coronavirus cases in the world.  It is hard to fault the cruise lines for not wanting to go there right now.

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Hello All!  Just a quick update:

 

Celebrity Cruises contacted us and offered us a full refund towards future cruises.  And we accepted it. I think that is fair and will keep us sailing with them.

 

Thank you for all your replies regarding this issue!

 

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We have had a similar frustration with this Booking.  We are working with a travel agent and have had no success in getting a credit or change to a future cruise.  We started the process when our itinerary was changed for the March 2 sailing.  We do not dispute the right of Celebrity to change the itinerary for whatever reason.  We did ask to do a future cruise as Singapore was going to be an extended stop at the end of the cruise.  We have never asked for a refund, just a change to a different cruise.  As the Coronavirus spread to other areas our concern became the travel to and from the cruise.  My husband has medical issues that put him at greater risk should he contract the virus.  We again asked for consideration of a cruise credit or change to a different cruise.  Our requests have fallen on deaf ears.  There will be no more Celebrity or RCCL cruises in our future.

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On 2/20/2020 at 1:39 PM, capnicolay said:

 

There are no travel alerts for Singapore and the Virus is present in Dubai as well as Singapore. This change has nothing to do with health reasons what so ever, it is more a logistical issue for the cruise line.  We have asked for a refund or a future cruise credit since we were using the ship to get from Singapore to Dubai. Now we have to fly from Singapore to Dubai (8 hrs) to get onboard.  All of our requests have been denied.

We understand that cruise lines have the right to change itineraries for various reasons, but this is not an itinerary change this is a completely different cruise. Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises are still departing Singapore. Again no travel advisories for Singapore are in place.

 

I’m just curious if you still feel this was a “logistical issue” for Celebrity? Or maybe they actually were working in your best interests?

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8 minutes ago, Wanna house said:

We have had a similar frustration with this Booking.  We are working with a travel agent and have had no success in getting a credit or change to a future cruise.  We started the process when our itinerary was changed for the March 2 sailing.  We do not dispute the right of Celebrity to change the itinerary for whatever reason.  We did ask to do a future cruise as Singapore was going to be an extended stop at the end of the cruise.  We have never asked for a refund, just a change to a different cruise.  As the Coronavirus spread to other areas our concern became the travel to and from the cruise.  My husband has medical issues that put him at greater risk should he contract the virus.  We again asked for consideration of a cruise credit or change to a different cruise.  Our requests have fallen on deaf ears.  There will be no more Celebrity or RCCL cruises in our future.

For us it was just like you describe, our travel agent could not get anything. I just kept calling and calling until on agent finally said she would transfer me to the resolution department, there I was denied again but a few days later a very nice lady called and started listening to our issues and she got us the future credit refund.  I hope this helps.

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9 minutes ago, clojacks said:

I’m just curious if you still feel this was a “logistical issue” for Celebrity? Or maybe they actually were working in your best interests?

Yes I do and I still believe that Singapore was a much Safer departure port than Dubai. The issue is that by the time the cruise sails. UAE will have probably more COVID 19 cases than Singapore specially due to the Iranian Outbreak and the fact that UAE Airlines have not stoped flying to and from mainland China or Hong Kong. And as mentioned before UAE is not very forthcoming with COVID 19 infection information.

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On 2/20/2020 at 2:39 PM, capnicolay said:

I am a loyal RCI cruiser, great staff, great service onboard. We have completed over 10 cruises in the past five years with Celebrity, Azamara and Royal Caribbean.  We are booked on Celebrity Cruises on the Constellation for their March 17th sailing from Singapore to Dubai.  For the past 3 weeks we have been getting emails regarding the Corona Virus. 

First stating : “any guest who has transited through mainland China or Hong Kong, 15 days prior to embarkation, will be denied boarding and issued a full refund. This includes guests on connecting flights. All guest flights must be free from connections or stops in mainland China or Hong Kong. Please make sure that your flights are in accordance with these policies.”

So we had to rebook our flights since we were flying thru Hong Kong.  About ten days later they came up with this email:  “After further consultation with public health authorities and medical experts, we have made the decision to adjust our itinerary for the Constellation voyage of March 17th by replacing our embarkation in Singapore with embarkation in Dubai. Our change in embarkation port will also require a few modifications to the rest of our itinerary including replacing our call to Phuket, Thailand on March 19th with a relaxing day at sea.  We have also been able to extend our port times in Cochin, Goa and Mumbai, India. ”

There are no travel alerts for Singapore and the Virus is present in Dubai as well as Singapore. This change has nothing to do with health reasons what so ever, it is more a logistical issue for the cruise line.  We have asked for a refund or a future cruise credit since we were using the ship to get from Singapore to Dubai. Now we have to fly from Singapore to Dubai (8 hrs) to get onboard.  All of our requests have been denied.

We understand that cruise lines have the right to change itineraries for various reasons, but this is not an itinerary change this is a completely different cruise. Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises are still departing Singapore. Again no travel advisories for Singapore are in place.

Customer Service for this issue is none existing at Celebrity. I have spent more the 10 hours on the phone mostly on hold for the past 10 days.

I know some U.K.passengers have received a full refund, but this does not apply for U.S. passengers.  

I am posting this so that maybe Celebrity listens and if not, future customers can make their own opinion on how RCI is dealing with this matter. Canceling all my future reservations (3) with them.......

My final point and I emphasize this: THERE IS NO HEALTH REASON TO CHANGE THE DEPARTURE PORT FROM SINGAPORE TO DUBAI AND NO REAL EXPLANATION HAS BEEN GIVEN AS TO WHY......

Pending on what your 3rd party travel insurance will permit in this situation, you may want to contemplate a claim.

 

UK passengers have different laws/policies/T & C's which apply, conservatively.

 

Many of us have our own opinion as to how X and RCI is handling this situation and many of us understand that there are logistics, other than individual passengers, in ship deploy, health concerns, government concerns etc...

 

There are others who have or will cancel current and future bookings with X because of this and while I do not blame you at all, it is not necessary to broadcast it here on CC... just go.

 

By 'no real explanation...' you do mean that is 'acceptable' to you personally, correct?

 

bon voyage

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On 2/20/2020 at 4:12 PM, Pushka said:

I agree with you. This was a massive change and not just a simple itinerary change. Given the price differentials for people in Australia to fly to Singapore versus Dubai it would leave us very much out of pocket - well over $1000 each. Of course I understand that this was done for reasons of health as I’ve been thinking that Singapore does have more cases, however they also manage the situation better than any other country but countries might change their restrictions to entry on a whim. And I read that people had flown through Dubai to get to Singapore then fly back. So they had transited through the ‘hot spot’ of Singapore anyway. This was on the cruise departing Feb 15 where something like a couple of days notice was given and people were already in Singapore waiting for embarkation day. 

Do you or anyone else here can say if booking flights through X incurs additional charges/fare for embarkation and dis-embarkation port changes???

 

bon voyage

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1 minute ago, Bo1953 said:

Do you or anyone else here can say if booking flights through X incurs additional charges/fare for embarkation and dis-embarkation port changes???

 

bon voyage


Im an Aussie and Celebrity x airfares aren’t always or even usually available to us. So I’ll defer to those who are able to book them. 

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