I Guess All The Ships Are Having Problems!

[tuggers]

Just talked to my friend who got off Grandeur today. They broke a rudder pin coming in, had to wait for the coast guard to send divers down and inspect so their early am arrival turned into 2:30 pm. Passengers started disembarking at 4!

Ship will be in port for at least 36 hours and then do a two day cruise to nowhere.

See, problems and not a pod in sight! Guess it happen to them all!

[cruiser2004]

Tuggers,

You are correct that all cruise ships do have problems from time to time. The big difference with the Celebrity POD problems is that this is a design flaw with the M-Class ships that has been known about for six years and has caused at least fourteen dry docks for temporary repair. This has resulted in tens of thousands of passengers missing part of their cruise or all of the their planned cruise. I do agree with you that it does happen to them all, with over fourteen occurrences of the same problem, I do feel that Celebrity is unique in continuing to sail ships with the same known problem.

[starsjohn]

We just canceled our B2B around South America in Nov-Dec as it is just too much money to risk with the Infinity unable to complete a satisfactory Alaskan iteneray. The CC review section tells the story for the Summer of 2006 on Infinity.

[Ma Bell]

Looks like there will be some vacations ruined, but not by pod problems.

 

I guess those who never go will not know what they missed.

[cruiser2004]

We just canceled our B2B around South America in Nov-Dec as it is just too much money to risk with the Infinity unable to complete a satisfactory Alaskan iteneray. The CC review section tells the story for the Summer of 2006 on Infinity.

 

Starsjohn, You are wise not taking a chance on the recurring pod problems.

The risk is just not worth it, unless you have the luxury of sailing four or five times a year and really do not care where you sail to, or even if you sail.

[Desertbelle]

Tuggers,

You are correct that all cruise ships do have problems from time to time. The big difference with the Celebrity POD problems is that this is a design flaw with the M-Class ships that has been known about for six years and has caused at least fourteen dry docks for temporary repair. This has resulted in tens of thousands of passengers missing part of their cruise or all of the their planned cruise. I do agree with you that it does happen to them all, with over fourteen occurrences of the same problem, I do feel that Celebrity is unique in continuing to sail ships with the same known problem.

 

What would you have them do? Just shelve the M-class ships until the law suit is settled and a complete fix is made?? That would disappoint far more people than the occasional break downs. I, for one, am very happy that we were able to enjoy the Millennium in Europe last summer.....my very favorite cruise, ever.

 

When we had our problems with the Dawn Princess, Princess continued to use a ship with a broken engine for 7 months before fixing it. All those cruises in that time were affected (missed ports and shortened port times.) Our cruise, which was the first one after the drydocking to fix the engine was also affected, because they didn't want to drive the new engine too fast, they called it a "breaking in period"....something they neglected to tell us when I asked them directly when we first heard of the engine problems and the drydocking. When I inquired we were told that the ship would be "like new" after the dry docking and the itinerary would be as planned. Ha!! Not hardly. And what did we get for compensation for their months of lying to us and a 10 day cruise where 3 ports were canceled and 2 ports were cut in half, because of engine problems? $100 pp. shipboard credit. Yep, that's it.

 

I think people should be grateful that Celebrity is generally fair in it's compensation for it's ships problems.

[cruiser2004]

I understand your dissapointment. I got the same lousey $100 compensation pp for missing over 1/2 of a thirteen night cruise and this problem has been going on since the M-Class ships were launched. The answer would be to warn all passengers before they purchase tickets and more importantly fix the problem.

[Ma Bell]

I understand your dissapointment. I got the same lousey $100 compensation pp for missing over 1/2 of a thirteen night cruise and this problem has been going on since the M-Class ships were launched. The answer would be to warn all passengers before they purchase tickets and more importantly fix the problem.

 

I understand your disappointment too, but the offer of compensation for your cruise was much more than that. It's your choice not to use it. If it gives you pleasure to discourage others go right ahead, but at least tell the truth.

[CORONA47]

I guess those who never go will not know what they missed.

 

We cancelled our Galaxy trans-atlantic because there were so many reports of a "tired" or "worn" ship. We just this weekend cancelled our Millenium trans-atlantic due to concerns over the pods. It was also interesting that we explained that our reason for cancelling was over concern for the pod system and due to our mentioning this we did not have to forfeit any of our full payment. Our travel agent advised us that since Celebrity knows this is a problem they cannot deny a full refund if it is requested for the potential pod problem (to me this is not very honorable of Celebrity to cheat other cancelling customers out of money if they don't mention the pods).

 

I know that by not going on Galaxy I won't have missed a nights sleep due to the poor bedding that nobody can confirm is replaced. I know that by not going on Galaxy I won't have missed not using the whirlpools which apparently have not been in working order for several cruises in a row.

 

I know that by not going on Millenium I won't have to worry about being stranded in the mid atlantic during a storm due to an engine failure as a result of a known problem.

 

I am not saying that any of the other cruise lines are better - however, after reading theses boards it is fairly apparent that Celebrity is very lacking in their upkeep, regular maintenance and shore based customer service compared to the other lines. The only consistently positive remark I have heard about Celebrity is that their on board service is superior to the other mass market lines and that if you like bland food that it too is superior to the other mass market lines. Neither of these two items, especially the latter is enough for me to choose Celebrity over a different cruise with less known problems prior to the start of the cruise.

 

Those of you who have only sailed with Celebrity for the past few years, you will never know what you are missing by not trying something else as well. This is what we were trying to do in taking our first ever cruise with Celebrity, however for the moment Celebrity seems to be too full of problems and controversy for our liking.

[tbelian]

This is what we were trying to do in taking our first ever cruise with Celebrity, however for the moment Celebrity seems to be too full of problems and controversy for our liking.

 

Bye Bye. Best of luck looking for a perfect cruise.

[CORONA47]

Bye Bye. Best of luck looking for a perfect cruise.

 

Why so sarcastic?

 

If you actually fully read and comprehended my post you would have seen I openly admitted there is no cruise line without their own problems. Celebrity just seems to have a multitude of problems which alot of you regulars are able to dismiss as no big deal to you. To many others, such as myself, it is a big deal however there is no need for the constant barrage of snide remarks that seems to follow anybody mentioning something negative about Celebrity.

 

What is perplexing to me is that if somebody relays their experience with respect to ship conditions or even just wants to discuss them it is seemingly taken as a personal insult by a core of posters on this board and responded to accordingly. My god, why is it that so many of you can't take a little constructive criticism here and there? What is so threatening to you that you just can't stand somebody saying so and so does it better or wouldn't it be better if Celebrity did this? Perhaps you could explain to those of us who obviously just don't get it what makes Celebrity a superior product to their contemporaries.

[chessbriar]

This is what we were trying to do in taking our first ever cruise with Celebrity, however for the moment Celebrity seems to be too full of problems and controversy for our liking.

 

I have never had a bad cruise on X. I have never had a cruise cancelled. The ships and service have been wonderful.

 

It's a shame you have to listen to the nay sayers instead of discovering for yourself what a wonderful experience X offers.

 

Notice, I have sailed on Galaxy 3 times out of 10 cruise and one more planned. The reviews back in 2004, listed Galaxy's problems, but I never saw the conditions I read about on these boards. Is Galaxy perfect? No. Is she a wonderful ship with great service, YES. The bedding is due to be completed before she sets sail on her TA.

 

Sorry you missed her.

[chessbriar]

Perhaps you could explain to those of us who obviously just don't get it what makes Celebrity a superior product to their contemporaries.

 

Try it and see as opposed to reading others opinions.

 

Look at the large number willing to defend as opposed to the small number who complain. You have read a few negative reviews and cancelled your vacation. Keep in mind, unhappy people complain and happy people keep quiet. So when someone complains, many on these boards what to defend ships they have had a great time on.

 

Look at the posts defending as much as you look at the negative.

[Desertbelle]

CORONA47, you have been a member of these boards for a month, it seems you might be new to forums in general. As a rule, people on forums generally fall into two groups....complainers and praisers.

 

Anyone who only listens to the complainers is going to get a very negative view of the subject, and if you only listen to the praisers, you are going to get a cruise experience that might not be exactly what you want and need.

 

What to do? Read them all, take what you want from them and make your own decisions.

 

My cruise on the Millennium was wonderful beyond all words. After cruising many different lines my husband and I finally felt the need to stop cruising around and to go steady with Celebrity and Royal Caribbean. :) Many things important to us helped us to feel this way. What is important to us might have no influence on you at all. Because of our wonderful experiences on Celebrity and our less than wonderful experiences on other lines, our next 3 cruises will be on Celebrity. They offer to us what is important to us.

 

For you to cancel your Celebrity cruises based on what you read here is very unfortunate. You have taken away the opportunity to experience Celebrity yourself, and who knows, maybe you would have fallen in love with them too. But, you will never know now. That is sad.

 

I wish you good luck in your cruising future. Since you have washed your hands of Celebrity, I guess we won't be seeing you around the Celebrity forums anymore, unless, of course, you have an ulterior motive for your postings. Take care.

[Captain Cosmo]

If it gives you pleasure to discourage others go right ahead, but at least tell the truth.

 

I don't think any of us are happy about the problems on Celebrity, but refusing to admit to them or calling those who complain "untruthful" (a "polite" way of calling them liars) is simply a form of denial. Trying to censor anything that's not positive about X is not going to fix the pods or on-shore service problems. Many people have had their vacation compromised in a negative way because of these two problems. Whether or not you have personally had a negative experience on X is irrelevant to the experience of others. People use these boards to gather information to help them plan their cruise experience, so it makes sense for posters to share the positives as well as the negatives. For example, I'm not a bridge player but I did see that X is eliminating bridge. Its not a deal-breaker for me but that doesn't mean that it doesn't matter to others. Many posters are talking about writing to X to get them to change this decision, so obviously its a real problem for them and I respect their right to be upset about it. But writing to X - as we know from these boards - usually doesn't even produce a response from them, let alone action. First it was the crack down on bringing your own wine/liquor on board, then the dance hosts, now the elimination of bridge. The end of the world? Hardly. But it is yet another sign that X is thinking more about cost cutting than the vacation experience of its passengers. X is holding all the cards right now - ships sailing full and a core group of loyal passengers who have put up with a lot of problems and yet still come back. That can't go on forever, particularly in view of the fact that X is continuing to degrade the cruise experience so it can boost its bottom line. Its easy to ignore pod problems, breakdowns, cancelled cruises, missed ports and shortened itineraries if its not happening to you - but that doesn't mean its not happening to others.

[renebfl]

I feel Celebrity gives an excellent cruise, but would never use it again for my once-in-a-lifetime cruise place. I trusted Celebrity with Alaska and got burnt big time. I would trust them with a Carribean cruise because I have been to those ports before and just floating (or being parked in the ocean for 7 hours, like we were in Alaska), would be all right. Never with a cruise with great ports.

[excitedofharpenden]

 

I know that by not going on Millenium I won't have to worry about being stranded in the mid atlantic during a storm due to an engine failure as a result of a known problem.

I'm going on Millennium in a couple of weeks. I'm not at all worried. Neither should you be. My understanding is that the Mermaid Pods Millie uses for propulsion do not just fail and strand you out in the middle of the sea. They wouldn't be cleared to sail if this was the case. The issue they have gives fair warning that there is a problem and the Captain has to reduce speed to preserve the bearings for as long as possible. There is no safety issue when you are on the ship.

 

No quick fix as already said. Celebrity are between a rock and a hard place on this one.

 

Tom, buy one get one free, yes?;)

 

Phil

[fabulous50]

Travel in general has become so much more expensive in the past couple of years. In fact just a short car trip is 3x more expensive than it used to be. I am sure that is the case with cruise ship travel also. So maybe...just maybe the recent changes are being made to preserve and not "boost" the bottem line. It could be that the company is trying to make changes that affect the least number of customers. Dance hosts, bridge, fewer liquor smugglers....it all adds up money wise. X is still my cruiseline of choice however, I bet all the lines are facing the same challenges.

[doublemm16]

Corona:

 

I hope you did not cancel your Galaxy cruise only because of mattresses. I just returned and the mattress was fine. I even had a new pillow. A container of mattresses arrived while we were docked in Messina, and it looks as though all mattresses would have been replaced by your trip.

 

Sorry you could not experience a Celebrity cruise. I hope you are able to find alternative travel plans that suit you.

 

Mindi

[Pecoraro]

This is when I was also told that if I wished to cancel my cruise on an M class ship due to my concerns over failure of the pods that it was Celebrities policy that they would waive any fare forfeiture penalties - their one stipulation was that I had to inform them in writing of my concern. My educated guess is that this requirement is related to the past and ongoing lawsuits. The fact that the lawsuits are ongoing prohibit Celebrity from rectifying the problem and the fact that they do not disclose in their literature there is potential for a breakdown from a known, existing problem, requires them to provide a full refund if requested.

 

If you read the Notice of Claim filed for the May 7th Summit cruise you will note that this is the very language the attorneys for the class action group are citing. It would appear that Celebrities legal department concur that Celebrity is required to notify potential customers that M class ships have propulsion problems and that their cruise may be canceled or restricted in scope due to these potential problems. I would expect before long that you will see this sort of language on their web site as well as on all of their brochures. It is about time.

[Welshlady]

Surely it speaks volumes that Celebrity are willing to give a full refund at the mere mention of 'pod' troubles??? It's a shame they weren't as open and honest with all their passengers and let pax know before they board the ship that they may be delayed, miss ports, etc.

[bbro]

We missed the Inside Passage in Infinity this summer due to POD problems. It was not the end of the world, I still had a great cruise. But was I disppointed? Absolutely. It's the same as missing a port. Would I not sail on Celebrity again? No, I'm booked for one next year. But I will stay away from M-Classes until the pods are fixed. I'm not being offered compenstation for missing the Inside Passage, even though it was to me the highlight of the cruise. So I'm not willing to risk it on another ship. I did know about the POD problems before I booked on Infinity and at the time I was willing to take the chance. I didn't actually think it would affect MY cruise. I was wrong, I took that gamble. I won't do it again. I'll stick to the older refurbished ships or wait for the new ones. I can't wait to see the Century next year! And once PODs are solved I'd love to do the Millie (my in-laws swear by her). I guess what I'm trying to say and maybe what other people mean is that Celebrity is not a bad line (trust me, I've been on bad cruises), but she is more expensive than most in her class, so it doesn't make sense to me to take those type of risks with my hard earned vacation time and money.

[cruiser2004]

My remark does not denigrate the posters experience. I would NEVER try to censor anyone's comments. Of course it's true that people have unfortunate experiences. The poster said they received $100 dollars as compensation for their problem cruise in May. I'm sure you are aware that's just not true.

 

I'm aware that people have problems and I want to hear about them too. We all need information to make our choices. However, when I see something that is not true, I will speak up.

 

Is it possible that people also want to hear of the overwhelming number of good experiences people have as well, or do only the negative experiences have validity?

 

I am the poster who said they only received $100 per PERSON ($200 per cabin), for missing over 1/2 of the Alaskan itinerary, caused by known pod problems is absolutely the truth. I always book cruises for more than 30% off the "rack" rate, so any discount of 30% off the full rack rate is worthless to me. It is true that some who pay the "rack" rate and want to take a chance on the M-Class ships not having pod problems would find value in the coupons, but for myself the coupon is worthless. The 30% coupon is also worthless to the many who were on a once in a lifetime cruise, those whose health will not allow them to cruise again and those who came from all over the world to take a one-time cruise. When I see something that is wrong or unfair I will continue to speak up.

[Texed]

I'm going on Millennium in a couple of weeks. I'm not at all worried. Phil

 

Have a great time, Phil.:) I know you will.

[Rebel]

I guess I'm a lucky winner then. And that wasn't written with sarcasm behind it.

 

I'm a refugee of the cancelled 9/13/06 Infinity Alaska cruise and I got a "free cruise" as compensation. Did I reschedule my Alaska cruise? Yes, but with Princess because the Alaska season is so limited and I can only take an Alaska cruise in September. Alaska, for me is virtually once in a lifetime. And I only chose Princess because the Dawn leaves from SF (just like the 9/13/06 cruise would have) and I don't have to fly anywhere. Big bonus when taking a more expensive itinerary like Alaska.

 

I was very well compensated and am extremely appreciative of what Celebrity has done to soften the blow of my one and only vacation opportunity for 2006 having been blown out of the water. I'm very lucky that I now get two cruises in 2007 and one of them is free! I have not given up on X, but have decided I cannot risk using them for an Alaska cruise. Please no lectures about the inherent risk with any cruise line, any ship. I'm very aware of that. I've weighed all the pros/cons and that along with various personal reasons have led to my decision to not entrust Alaska to Celebrity. I'm not trying to convince anyone to cancel their X cruise or to not give them a try at all.

 

Even if I hadn't won the "free cruise lotto" I would still book with X. I've never been on a Celebrity cruise before and was so looking forward to boarding Infinity the day after tomorrow :(. That and meeting the good people of our rollcall. I'm booked on Mercury 3/26/07 (this is the free cruise; I'm no dummy, not gonna throw away something for nothing) and am looking forward to booking with Celebrity again hopefully in 2008. I've never been on Celebrity before and can't wait to give them a try.

 

So there's my 2 cents, for what it's worth :) from a soon to be satisfied Celebrity customer...

 

A/K/A Lynn