Japan 2024 canceled…

[mahdnc]

19 minutes ago, sfaaa said:

X relented and I am L&S to Mar 27, 2025 Japan cruise at the old price with perks. Happy this got resolved. Now waiting for my TA to send revised booking confirmation. 

 

I am very pleased to read this.  As I posted earlier, it is possible to get Celebrity to make some concessions if you are persistent and willing to make your case.  It's just too bad that you have to work at it.

[Larasmum]

53 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

I am very pleased to read this.  As I posted earlier, it is possible to get Celebrity to make some concessions if you are persistent and willing to make your case.  It's just too bad that you have to work at it.

I'm also pleased for SFAAA.     Sadly, it was NOT possible for Celebrity to resolve my issue with the family's six cabins.    The only "concession" was that they could cancel ALL the reservations if we wanted to lift and shift to fall, 2025.     This was after persistent emails and finally a call back from the Executive Office.   First call was that they were reviewing our situation again.   Second call was the party line of "nothing can be done about cancellations" with no explanation as to how the decision was made on which reservations were cancelled.   Final decision is that half of the family will still travel, while half will take the refund.   They have no intention of ever cruising with Celebrity again.

[cruiseconcious]

I've been reading these posts with interest. So much speculation. So many people hoping that they are the lucky ones that don't get literally cast off. Maybe you will be lucky. Maybe you will dodge the bullet, and if so you have every right to be overjoyed; going on the cruise you planned for, you saved for, and that you rightfully deserve to be on.

All I would ask you is that you think of this: Celebrity did a bad thing to a lot of people. You were not affected so that will be easy to forget. But I will tell you from personal experience, we had every right you did to be on that cruise, and we are not. And what's worse is that Celebrity just didn't care. We have flights we are going to lose money on. They don't care. When they talked to me they used phrases like, "if you cancel you get nothing." If I cancel? We have been trying to find land tours now to take the place of the cruise, but of course all the good ones are sold out. When I told the Celebrity representative that she was canceling my cruise 13 months after I bought it and why did they wait so long, she curtly replied, "You still have another 6 months." They just don't care.

Maybe you got lucky. But don't you dare give credit to Celebrity for that, because if you think they care about you individually, they do not. It could just as well have been you. Try to eternalize that and you will be doing a service both to those they slighted, and to yourselves, as it may prepare you for a similar sad awakening in the future.

 

Edited April 27, 2023 by cruiseconcious
you you

[Mark_T]

One side effect of all of this is that our April 2025 Japan sailing now has no verandas available at all, and prices for whatever is still available have gone up considerable...

[Larasmum]

45 minutes ago, cruiseconcious said:

I've been reading these posts with interest. So much speculation. So many people hoping that they are the lucky ones that don't get literally cast off. Maybe you will be lucky. Maybe you will dodge the bullet, and if so you have every right to be overjoyed; going on the cruise you planned for, you saved for, and that you rightfully deserve to be on.

All I would ask you is that you think of this: Celebrity did a bad thing to a lot of people. You were not affected so that will be easy to forget. But I will tell you from personal experience, we had every right you did to be on that cruise, and we are not. And what's worse is that Celebrity just didn't care. We have flights we are going to lose money on. They don't care. When they talked to me they used phrases like, "if you cancel you get nothing." If I cancel? We have been trying to find land tours now to take the place of the cruise, but of course all the good ones are sold out. When I told the Celebrity representative that she was canceling my cruise 13 months after I bought it and why did they wait so long, she curtly replied, "You still have another 6 months." They just don't care.

Maybe you got lucky. But don't you dare give credit to Celebrity for that, because if you think they care about you individually, they do not. It could just as well have been you. Try to eternalize that and you will be doing a service both to those they slighted, and to yourselves, as it may prepare you for a similar sad awakening in the future.

 

Cruiseconscious - Thank you for your well thought-out response.    It could easily have been anyone's reservation, and you are absolutely correct - Celebrity just don't care.      Something to consider with future cruise planning ...

 

[mahdnc]

51 minutes ago, Larasmum said:

I'm also pleased for SFAAA.     Sadly, it was NOT possible for Celebrity to resolve my issue with the family's six cabins.    The only "concession" was that they could cancel ALL the reservations if we wanted to lift and shift to fall, 2025.     This was after persistent emails and finally a call back from the Executive Office.   First call was that they were reviewing our situation again.   Second call was the party line of "nothing can be done about cancellations" with no explanation as to how the decision was made on which reservations were cancelled.   Final decision is that half of the family will still travel, while half will take the refund.   They have no intention of ever cruising with Celebrity again.

I'm very sympathetic to your situation and I would be very upset since it's no small feat to plan a trip for a large group that requires six cabins. And then to be presented with a choice of half-of-us-go or nobody-goes simply sucks.

[Larasmum]

10 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

I'm very sympathetic to your situation and I would be very upset since it's no small feat to plan a trip for a large group that requires six cabins. And then to be presented with a choice of half-of-us-go or nobody-goes simply sucks.

Thank you, mahdnc.    With this final blow (I was truly hoping that there would be some way for Celebrity to fix this!) much of the joy/sparkle of this trip is now gone for me.    I will go, because we have $6000 in airfare in addition to the cruise costs, but it will not be the family time I was so excited to be sharing.

[mahdnc]

35 minutes ago, Larasmum said:

Thank you, mahdnc.    With this final blow (I was truly hoping that there would be some way for Celebrity to fix this!) much of the joy/sparkle of this trip is now gone for me.    I will go, because we have $6000 in airfare in addition to the cruise costs, but it will not be the family time I was so excited to be sharing.

 

I understand. I'm sure you looked into this, there should be natural cancellations that will occur before the sailing date, can the cancelled people in your family get waitlisted?

[anniegb]

Someone posted on their roll call that Celebrity advised they are not allowing anyone to volunteer for cancellation unless they pay the cancellation penalty.

 

 

[Larasmum]

34 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

I understand. I'm sure you looked into this, there should be natural cancellations that will occur before the sailing date, can the cancelled people in your family get waitlisted?

I asked if they could remain waitlisted until final payment but was told no - they would be automatically cancelled May 1.   Only option will be to rebook at prevailing rate if cabins become available

[mahdnc]

8 minutes ago, Larasmum said:

I asked if they could remain waitlisted until final payment but was told no - they would be automatically cancelled May 1.   Only option will be to rebook at prevailing rate if cabins become available

Not a satisfying answer. 

[Mark_T]

15 minutes ago, Larasmum said:

I asked if they could remain waitlisted until final payment but was told no - they would be automatically cancelled May 1.   Only option will be to rebook at prevailing rate if cabins become available

I suspect that Celebrity are mindful of the rates at which these cruises were originally booked and the yawning chasm of the gap between that and the current pricing of these cruises...

 

... any excuse to simply refund the original payment so they can sell what inventory they have left on these Japan cruises is going to be taken by them...

 

Shabby, very shabby...

[pukekolive]

2 hours ago, cruiseconcious said:

I've been reading these posts with interest. So much speculation. So many people hoping that they are the lucky ones that don't get literally cast off. Maybe you will be lucky. Maybe you will dodge the bullet, and if so you have every right to be overjoyed; going on the cruise you planned for, you saved for, and that you rightfully deserve to be on.

All I would ask you is that you think of this: Celebrity did a bad thing to a lot of people. You were not affected so that will be easy to forget. But I will tell you from personal experience, we had every right you did to be on that cruise, and we are not. And what's worse is that Celebrity just didn't care. We have flights we are going to lose money on. They don't care. When they talked to me they used phrases like, "if you cancel you get nothing." If I cancel? We have been trying to find land tours now to take the place of the cruise, but of course all the good ones are sold out. When I told the Celebrity representative that she was canceling my cruise 13 months after I bought it and why did they wait so long, she curtly replied, "You still have another 6 months." They just don't care.

Maybe you got lucky. But don't you dare give credit to Celebrity for that, because if you think they care about you individually, they do not. It could just as well have been you. Try to eternalize that and you will be doing a service both to those they slighted, and to yourselves, as it may prepare you for a similar sad awakening in the future.

 

If we eventually get onto our cruise on 24 October 2023, we will certainly be mindful of all the people that didn't and raise a glass to them. We have cruised with Viking and MSC before and would travel again with both of them but I don't think we will ever use Celebrity again after this debacle. The waiting for the axe to drop has been an unsettling and stressful time even if we successfully embark on the cruise; a lot of things could have been handled differently for better passenger communication.

Edited April 27, 2023 by pukekolive

[dlh015]

3 hours ago, Larasmum said:

I'm also pleased for SFAAA.     Sadly, it was NOT possible for Celebrity to resolve my issue with the family's six cabins.    The only "concession" was that they could cancel ALL the reservations if we wanted to lift and shift to fall, 2025.     This was after persistent emails and finally a call back from the Executive Office.   First call was that they were reviewing our situation again.   Second call was the party line of "nothing can be done about cancellations" with no explanation as to how the decision was made on which reservations were cancelled.   Final decision is that half of the family will still travel, while half will take the refund.   They have no intention of ever cruising with Celebrity again.

I have followed your posts in particular.

 

I assure you that the shabby treatment you have received from Celebrity will not be forgotten by me as I plan next years cruises...which won't include X. Frankly, I'm not at all sure how they would ever win me back...not that they're trying...lol. They won't miss me and that's fine. But they won't get the opportunity to trash any of my dream cruises. 

 

But do try to enjoy your trip...even under these trying conditions. It's the least you can do for yourself and your family members that are going!

 

Wishing you well.

[southwestie]

4 hours ago, cruiseconcious said:

I've been reading these posts with interest. So much speculation. So many people hoping that they are the lucky ones that don't get literally cast off. Maybe you will be lucky. Maybe you will dodge the bullet, and if so you have every right to be overjoyed; going on the cruise you planned for, you saved for, and that you rightfully deserve to be on.

All I would ask you is that you think of this: Celebrity did a bad thing to a lot of people. You were not affected so that will be easy to forget. But I will tell you from personal experience, we had every right you did to be on that cruise, and we are not. And what's worse is that Celebrity just didn't care. We have flights we are going to lose money on. They don't care. When they talked to me they used phrases like, "if you cancel you get nothing." If I cancel? We have been trying to find land tours now to take the place of the cruise, but of course all the good ones are sold out. When I told the Celebrity representative that she was canceling my cruise 13 months after I bought it and why did they wait so long, she curtly replied, "You still have another 6 months." They just don't care.

Maybe you got lucky. But don't you dare give credit to Celebrity for that, because if you think they care about you individually, they do not. It could just as well have been you. Try to eternalize that and you will be doing a service both to those they slighted, and to yourselves, as it may prepare you for a similar sad awakening in the future.

 

I do agree with uou. I learnt in lockdown. Lucky BA refunded me in a week. The hotel didn't I finally got a voucher. But in ybr I lost £200,  not too bad. But this cruise I'm letting my TA book everything.  Transfer  hotel. Flights. Exactly  what I'd book. But they have to sort it all out

 

I do feel for those who lost out

[southwestie]

Hopefully now this mess has been sorted  out by Celebrity.  No more cancellations. We booked a c2 cabin with number. C cabins were among those not over sold and what saved our booking.  Well I think so

[pukekolive]

4 minutes ago, southwestie said:

Hopefully now this mess has been sorted  out by Celebrity.  No more cancellations. We booked a c2 cabin with number. C cabins were among those not over sold and what saved our booking.  Well I think so

I sent Celebrity a message on Twitter a couple of days ago and they replied for my booking number; I asked if they had finished the overbooking process and they replied yesterday that they didn't have the information but if I had a cancellation letter to call their special line and rebook before 1 May! So maybe they haven't finished?

Edited April 27, 2023 by pukekolive

[southwestie]

1 hour ago, pukekolive said:

I sent Celebrity a message on Twitter a couple of days ago and they replied for my booking number; I asked if they had finished the overbooking process and they replied yesterday that they didn't have the information but if I had a cancellation letter to call their special line and rebook before 1 May! So maybe they haven't finished?

Well maybe . They did say may 1st

 The cruise is now back in there website. Show  the availability of cabins left. You can book or do anything yet 

[patty1955]

6 minutes ago, southwestie said:

Well maybe . They did say may 1st

 The cruise is now back in there website. Show  the availability of cabins left. You can book or do anything yet 

Our March 4th cruise now shows on Celebrity's website as sold out.

 

[southwestie]

13 minutes ago, patty1955 said:

Our March 4th cruise now shows on Celebrity's website as sold out.

 

Well that's interesting

 They have made several changes to it all through the day. It was all oversold

Then inside. Balcomy. Retreat. Then it had normal prices and then astronomical  prices and now sold out

 

Thank for again picking out my mistake.  Nice to have back covered.

 

The main point is the cruise is back on the website and hopefully if any cabins are available they will. Show. Tomorrow maybe.

 

Please feel free to pick on any other mistakes I make.  As I say I have patial blindness and I do my best 👌

 

[patty1955]

7 minutes ago, southwestie said:

Well that's interesting

 They have made several changes to it all through the day. It was all oversold

Then inside. Balcomy. Retreat. Then it had normal prices and then astronomical  prices and now sold out

 

Thank for again picking out my mistake.  Nice to have back covered.

 

The main point is the cruise is back on the website and hopefully if any cabins are available they will. Show. Tomorrow maybe.

 

Please feel free to pick on any other mistakes I make.  As I say I have patial blindness and I do my best 👌

 

I wasn't trying to point out a mistake. I assumed they had changed it again. I know they showed cabins available this morning. 

[southwestie]

3 minutes ago, patty1955 said:

I wasn't trying to point out a mistake. I assumed they had changed it again. I know they showed cabins available this morning. 

They have changed every day and in every way

 But encouraging  to it back

 

 

However it has gone again it seems.

 

Best to wait till May 1st there dead line.

 

At least now with 3 free tours Inc and with 3 tours passengers organising some my tours are almost covered.  I feel its happing 7

[luckybecky]

What a clusterf***! 

 

I'm so sympathetic to all of you who have been cancelled. What a disaster, especially when you have a lot of other expenses (air, hotels etc) invested. 

 

For many reasons, we decided our Japan cruise just isn't going to work for us right now. We have (had?) a concierge veranda and an inside, both with rooms assigned since September of 2021.

 

So as I posted previously, we were willing to be voluntarily cancelled on our Sept 30, 2023 cruise which would be good for us but also hopefully be good for Celebrity -- that would be two less cabins they would have to involuntarily cancel resulting in very unhappy passengers, as many of you understandably are. 

 

I made a call on Tuesday. Bottom line is this: we know Celebrity has oversold this cruise. We are willing to cancel our two cabins, which would open those up for customers who do not want to be involuntarily cancelled -- but we don't want to lose our deposit. We asked our TA, is there anything we can do to make this work?

 

This seems to us a win-win. Celebrity has the opportunity to make some other customers happy by not involuntarily cancelling them -- especially when many passengers have invested a lot of money in travel expenses. And it would make us happy by not losing our deposit. Those cabins are still filled with paying customers, and Celebrity still keeps our money as FCC. It does not seem to me to be a difficult calculation.

 

Now keep in mind, we have not reached final payment date yet. Under the terms of our booking, we could choose to roll that deposit over to a different cruise as long as we do it before final payment -- we would only have to pay a change fee of $100 per person. 

 

So that was a viable option for us, but if we can just voluntarily cancel now and get the FCC, even better! We can take our time choosing how to spend the FCC -- but Celebrity still gets our business -- and someone on the current cruise is happy because our cabin can be assigned to them. Honestly I don't see any downside for anyone here, especially Celebrity.

 

And on Tuesday that was the option that was offered to us and we accepted.  Cancel our Japan cruise and receive an FCC for the full amount of our deposit.

 

But 48 hours later I had never received any confirmation. So I called back our TA. What a mess! I was on the phone for 2 hours. Big Box C travel agent says they show that our concierge veranda was cancelled, but the inside cabin was not. They had no information about any FCC.

 

They got Celebrity on the line. After much back and forth, bottom line is this:

 

1. Our concierge veranda was cancelled in the TA system, but is still showing as active with Celebrity. So we really aren't sure if we have that booking or not.

2. That concierge veranda on the Celebrity website has been downgraded from a confirmed cabin number (reserved and confirmed almost two years ago) -- to a guarantee cabin.

3. our kids' inside cabin appears unchanged and still active. We are a family traveling together. No way would we agree to cancel one and not the other. This was made VERY clear in our conversations.

4. Neither cabin is eligible for an FCC -- even though they told us the EXACT OPPOSITE and we accepted two days ago.

 

When I repeatedly pointed out that this is not what we were told and accepted, the Celebrity rep said, "I'm not saying you are lying, but...."

 

Ooohh boy. It is NEVER good business to say to a customer, "I'm not saying you are lying, BUT"  😡

 

My blood is boiling. As it is for so many others who have so much time, money and effort invested into these cruises. 

 

When we ended our call today, nothing was resolved. Arthur from the resolutions department at Celebrity says they are going to pull our phone call from Tuesday and listen to it to see what they actually offered. No matter that the Costco contemporaneous notes from the call describe exactly what I said above.

 

Once they listen to the Tuesday call, they will contact us with their decision. OMG

 

Sorry for the long post. I'm just venting. I know there are many of you who have it much worse than we do. At least we had not yet purchased air fare, for example. 

 

But the point is, there are SO MANY  ways that Celebrity could have/ could still handle this better, and they just are not.

 

We have only cruised with them twice and loved them: loved the food, the ships, the decor, the crew, the entertainment, everything. Really wanted to make them our favorite cruise line and become dedicated customers. But now....

 

[mahdnc]

24 minutes ago, luckybecky said:

What a clusterf***! 

 

I'm so sympathetic to all of you who have been cancelled. What a disaster, especially when you have a lot of other expenses (air, hotels etc) invested. 

 

For many reasons, we decided our Japan cruise just isn't going to work for us right now. We have (had?) a concierge veranda and an inside, both with rooms assigned since September of 2021.

 

So as I posted previously, we were willing to be voluntarily cancelled on our Sept 30, 2023 cruise which would be good for us but also hopefully be good for Celebrity -- that would be two less cabins they would have to involuntarily cancel resulting in very unhappy passengers, as many of you understandably are. 

 

I made a call on Tuesday. Bottom line is this: we know Celebrity has oversold this cruise. We are willing to cancel our two cabins, which would open those up for customers who do not want to be involuntarily cancelled -- but we don't want to lose our deposit. We asked our TA, is there anything we can do to make this work?

 

This seems to us a win-win. Celebrity has the opportunity to make some other customers happy by not involuntarily cancelling them -- especially when many passengers have invested a lot of money in travel expenses. And it would make us happy by not losing our deposit. Those cabins are still filled with paying customers, and Celebrity still keeps our money as FCC. It does not seem to me to be a difficult calculation.

 

Now keep in mind, we have not reached final payment date yet. Under the terms of our booking, we could choose to roll that deposit over to a different cruise as long as we do it before final payment -- we would only have to pay a change fee of $100 per person. 

 

So that was a viable option for us, but if we can just voluntarily cancel now and get the FCC, even better! We can take our time choosing how to spend the FCC -- but Celebrity still gets our business -- and someone on the current cruise is happy because our cabin can be assigned to them. Honestly I don't see any downside for anyone here, especially Celebrity.

 

And on Tuesday that was the option that was offered to us and we accepted.  Cancel our Japan cruise and receive an FCC for the full amount of our deposit.

 

But 48 hours later I had never received any confirmation. So I called back our TA. What a mess! I was on the phone for 2 hours. Big Box C travel agent says they show that our concierge veranda was cancelled, but the inside cabin was not. They had no information about any FCC.

 

They got Celebrity on the line. After much back and forth, bottom line is this:

 

1. Our concierge veranda was cancelled in the TA system, but is still showing as active with Celebrity. So we really aren't sure if we have that booking or not.

2. That concierge veranda on the Celebrity website has been downgraded from a confirmed cabin number (reserved and confirmed almost two years ago) -- to a guarantee cabin.

3. our kids' inside cabin appears unchanged and still active. We are a family traveling together. No way would we agree to cancel one and not the other. This was made VERY clear in our conversations.

4. Neither cabin is eligible for an FCC -- even though they told us the EXACT OPPOSITE and we accepted two days ago.

 

When I repeatedly pointed out that this is not what we were told and accepted, the Celebrity rep said, "I'm not saying you are lying, but...."

 

Ooohh boy. It is NEVER good business to say to a customer, "I'm not saying you are lying, BUT"  😡

 

My blood is boiling. As it is for so many others who have so much time, money and effort invested into these cruises. 

 

When we ended our call today, nothing was resolved. Arthur from the resolutions department at Celebrity says they are going to pull our phone call from Tuesday and listen to it to see what they actually offered. No matter that the Costco contemporaneous notes from the call describe exactly what I said above.

 

Once they listen to the Tuesday call, they will contact us with their decision. OMG

 

Sorry for the long post. I'm just venting. I know there are many of you who have it much worse than we do. At least we had not yet purchased air fare, for example. 

 

But the point is, there are SO MANY  ways that Celebrity could have/ could still handle this better, and they just are not.

 

We have only cruised with them twice and loved them: loved the food, the ships, the decor, the crew, the entertainment, everything. Really wanted to make them our favorite cruise line and become dedicated customers. But now....

 

 

Unbelievable. This reminds me of well known water safety guidelines that tell you not to jump in the water to try to rescue someone having trouble because you can end up in trouble, too (unless you're properly trained).

 

I hope things get fixed right for you. 

[mahdnc]

It must be a Royal Caribbean Group thing as Wonder of the Seas is oversold for the third time. This time for a cruise that leaves in three days. 

 

https://www.cruisehive.com/another-oversold-royal-caribbean-cruise-days-before-departure/100027