INFINITY is broken down again

[C 2 C]

My best advice (because I seriously have not yet found a way to make anyone care) is to be prepared for stuff to happen and know how you'll deal with it if it does. Otherwise, it really can ruin a vacation.

 

"A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving."Lao Tzu

 

I just talked to customer service (1-800-280-3423) and they are aware of the situation...

She (Gypsy?) knew of the $500 credit, the stop in Lima and the cancelled port of Arica. I was assured that Infinty would be back to "normal" operation tomorrow. ... but we know what normal is for this class of ships..

My final payment for our B2B cruise in Infinity Feb 25 from BA, is due next week....

[Captain Cosmo]

Hi Host Anne - you're right in that there's not much difference, but at least with the airlines I occasionally get someone who does know what's happening, and I've never gotten a recording saying that the office is closed due to bad weather, as they have multiple call centers. As far as dealing with the problem, once we leave Atlanta tomorrow night on our way to Santiago we will definitely be screwed if the cruise is cancelled. Will need to make arrangements to come back to the US from Santiago instead of Buenos Aires as ticketed, and then there's the issue of having spent four days flying to nowhere. Well, enough "pity party" for now - if anyone has the number of the corporate office in Miami please post it, as I will be calling up until we lift off from SFO tomorrow at noon to see what's happening.

[Nurse Bambi]

Classic Celebrity customer service. 1900 people are waiting to find out if their cruise is happening or not and most are getting ready to fly half way around the world to meet the ship, so of course X closes the Captains Club (like the calls couldn't be forwarded to Miami?). Most large corporations have a back up plan for communication, but not Celebrity - because basically they just don't care. Imagine if the airlines operated this way...

 

Captain Cosmo, Wish you and all that are going on the next Infinity cruise the best of luck. Sure airlines have problems, but they are operating hundreds of thousands of flights per year. No airline operates with the same recurring problem. The effect on passengers caused by these on-going pod problems is just unbelievable.

Wishing everyone who is sailing on the December 3 Infinity a safe and happy voyage.

Nurse Bambi

[Drew B]

Captain Cosmo, Wish you and all that are going on the next Infinity cruise the best of luck. Sure airlines have problems, but they are operating hundreds of thousands of flights per year. No airline operates with the same recurring problem. The effect on passengers caused by these on-going pod problems is just unbelievable.

Wishing everyone who is sailing on the December 3 Infinity a safe and happy voyage.

Nurse Bambi

 

Perhaps not. However, Celebrity's product is more attractive in every way! Trust me, I'd MUCH rather be on a cruise with pod failure than on ANY flight anywhere, any time!

[Canes Rule]

The way the ship tours operate, a Machu Picchu excursion takes three days, which is the absolute minimum you can do it in.

 

Then I can quite understand how upset they might have been as who knows when they could ever get back down there to redo it. I would think the $500.00 credit did not do much to appease them.

[Nurse Bambi]

Then I can quite understand how upset they might have been as who knows when they could ever get back down there to redo it. I would think the $500.00 credit did not do much to appease them.

Canes Rule, you are right for two people in one cabin that's $250 each, for missing what was for many a chance of a lifetime. How does that compare to the total cost of their vacation? I too can quite understand how they might be upset.

[Host Anne]

Captain (and everyone else sailing) ~ we wish you a safe and enjoyable trip. We'll all be thinking about you and hoping for the best.

[marksocal]

Mark, I am going to make a suggestion...rather than

calling Customer Service, try the Main Offices down

in Miami (tomorrow morning).

I think they might have a more accurate answer

for you, rather than the Customer Service

area out in Kansas.

I wish you smooth sailing...In All The Ways

That Count The Most.

Thanks for the suggestion. Do you know where I can find the phone number for the main office in Miami?

 

Thanks

[ocngypz]

 

I have a question for all the TA lurkers out there... why have cruise agencies not warned their customers about the pod problem? I've known about it for three years because I had a cruise cancelled. Many regulars on cruise critic know about it and take their own risks. I can understand why RCL/Celebrity cruise consultants don't warn away unsuspecting newbies.... but are all the other TAs out there not telling their customers that cruising X ships has these drawbacks?

 

I am going to answer your question from the CSR training aspect.

 

If a problem affects less than 10% of whatever your product is, it is not an issue. If it is affecting greater than 10%, then the issue needs to be addressed.

 

Here is a case in point. One of my international clients insisted that a particular tour I ran would not sell because the hotel costs were too high.

I told them the Q ratings of the less expensive hotels would generate CS complaints, but they didn't care. So I changed the hotels. Once the season was finished, the hotel selections garnered a 30% satisfaction score. I knew the evaluations would be poor. The following year... I changed the hotels... and the pricing. The hotels scored 96% as I knew they would.

 

Let's assume for a moment, the cruiseline carried 1 million passengers a year, and of that amount, 250,000 passengers were carried on a podded ships.

 

How many cruises would need to be affected by pod problems to hoist the red flag? 250,000 divided by 1950 = 128.20 sailings per year by podded ships x 10% = 12.8 sailings per year x 1950 passengers = 24,960 which equates to 2.496% of total passengers carried affected.

 

Even if all 1 million passengers were carried by podded ships, in order to reach 10% "failure" 51 sailings would need to be affected if you use the math above with 1950 being the passenger berths (2 per cabin).

[shoreless]

DH has repeatedly stated today that X can't take the chance "around the horn" on a badly running ship. The Drake Passage is just too dangerous.

 

That seems like the most relevant comment that's been made here.

 

Until I discovered Cruisecritic I never even knew cruise ships went around the Horn. I've seen pictures and video from sailboats doing round the world races and it's a frightening looking place.

 

It's one thing to make the best of missed ports, bad weather, and even cancelled cruises, but the idea of being down there at the end of the world on a ship with a less than stellar record of reliability seems pretty terrifying to me.

[marksocal]

Celebrity Cruises

1050 Caribbean Way

Miami, Fl 33132

Phone

305-539-6000

 

I plan to call in the morning.

[c-legs]

 

! I would posit that Celebrity has a much bigger problem with incompetent land-based customer service personnel than they have with the mechanical issues of the pods. Whereas the pod problems affect a limited number of sailings, bad customer service affects every single passenger that encounters them!

:) Good evening

 

RIGHT ON !!!!!!

Well said!!!

 

CHeers

Claude G

;)

[c-legs]

Are they incompetent or are they reading from a prescribed script as authored by Celebrity management? Most customer service reps have a cheat sheet in front of them with the required responses to various questions.

:( Good evening,

 

Makes no difference....still incompetent and abysmal customer service,at the end of the day, from the customer's standpoint.

 

Cheers

Claude G

;)

[Germancruiser]

Hi,

I am on the Infinity Hawaii Roundtrip April 22nd next year. I was also a little worried to trust the reliability of the Milli- Class ships. My Alsaka Cruise on board Summit last year was shortend by one day.( Pod Problems- what else) I was happy with their compensation though ! So I would say lighting hits you just ones! Think positive ! I don´t would cancel my cruise, because of those pod problems. ( I guess X is in the mood to send all the four " Ladys" right to Alang:eek: )

I am sure that X would never let one of their ships sail around the horn, which is not working properly!

Michael

[c-legs]

 

 

My final payment for our B2B cruise in Infinity Feb 25 from BA, is due next week....

 

:rolleyes: Good evening, Arno....

 

I'd think twice about that one.....Either you're investing in a '' double refund and two free cruises'' or a high quality blood pressure buildup device !!!!

 

Cheers

See you next week

Claude G

;)

[two rabbits]

I am going to answer your question from the CSR training aspect.

 

If a problem affects less than 10% of whatever your product is, it is not an issue. If it is affecting greater than 10%, then the issue needs to be addressed.

 

Let's assume for a moment, the cruiseline carried 1 million passengers a year, and of that amount, 250,000 passengers were carried on a podded ships.

 

How many cruises would need to be affected by pod problems to hoist the red flag? 250,000 divided by 1950 = 128.20 sailings per year by podded ships x 10% = 12.8 sailings per year x 1950 passengers = 24,960 which equates to 2.496% of total passengers carried affected.

 

Even if all 1 million passengers were carried by podded ships, in order to reach 10% "failure" 51 sailings would need to be affected if you use the math above with 1950 being the passenger berths (2 per cabin).

 

Your give a good example and I imagine that Celebrity may look at things just as you have said. This may have influenced the decision to just keep sailing the M-class ships as Celebrity, as they are. The example that you mentioned also will give RCI a good earnings per share ratio.

If I take off my stockholders hat and give another example from the perspective of the some of the passengers who have been affected, one way or another, by the many pod failures (shortened cruises & cancelled cruises), I get a different picture. 15 pod cruises + 15 cancelled cruise = 30 x 1950 passengers = 58,500 people affected. From the perspective of many of those missing part or all of a chance for a vacation of a lifetime, they might not agree that this is just an insignificant statistic.

[greatam]

Canes Rule, you are right for two people in one cabin that's $250 each, for missing what was for many a chance of a lifetime. How does that compare to the total cost of their vacation? I too can quite understand how they might be upset.

 

 

You two, please quit trying to make it worse than it is. The $250.00 per person had nothing to do with the MP trip. And for what most of the pax paid for the MP excursion ($2100-2500pp), you can easily fly from the US, go to MP, stay in top notch hotels (except the Monasterio), take the same train that the excursion did AND it will cost about $1300.00PP FROM THE US. The excursion is VERY overpriced.

 

Everyone who wanted to go to MP through the ship excursion got to go. They just don't get to reboard the ship. The original tour left from Lima and after MP, they rejoined the ship via air in Arica. But there again that was their choice about not rejoining and I do not know what additional compensation that small group of pax received. I overheard one lady stating the X was paying for 4 nights hotel, instead of the original 2, so maybe they got a longer trip to Cusco/MP.

 

I do know that quite a few people GOT OFF the ship in Lima (about 40) and made their way to MP independently. They were all VERY happy, as they got to see something they were not planning on seeing. Only expense to those people was the plane fare to MP (usually $160 RT), train ($99pp), small entry fee and bus ride to the ruins and whatever hotel they chose. X reimbursed the change fee on airline tickets from Santiago and even helped with rearranging independent air, so pax could fly home out of Lima. So almost all of the expense was covered for those traveling independently to MP by virtue of the $500.00 compensation.

 

This trip, I think X handled this crisis spendidly. Now about other things, I am not so happy (food sucks and very few activities on sea days). But one really great thing-EVERYONE and I do mean EVERYONE is abiding by the dress code. Haven't seen a pair of jeans after 6:00PM in two weeks. Will post later

[Drew B]

I can't imagine choosing to do an excursion that would take me away from the cruise for THREE WHOLE DAYS, anyway. It seems you'd be paying double for those days (paying for the excursion plus paying for the days on the ship which you aren't even getting). Of course, I feel guilty if I eat lunch ashore because I feel like I'm missing out on the shipboard lunch that I paid for... It seems to me that it would make much more sense to do the cruise, then tack on a trip to Macchu Picchu at the end...

[C 2 C]

I am not so happy (food sucks and very few activities on sea days).

C 2 C, aka Ozymandias (X cancelled our cruise two days prior to our Hawaii 2003 cruise), would like to know the name of the Cruise Director and why there are no activities on sea days... a B2B requires a good activities staff.

Subway food makes me happy, but no activities???:mad:

 

Was the transcanal any different than regular crossings?

Was there a "crossing the equator" celebration?

[ocngypz]

Your give a good example and I imagine that Celebrity may look at things just as you have said. This may have influenced the decision to just keep sailing the M-class ships as Celebrity, as they are. The example that you mentioned also will give RCI a good earnings per share ratio.

If I take off my stockholders hat and give another example from the perspective of the some of the passengers who have been affected, one way or another, by the many pod failures (shortened cruises & cancelled cruises), I get a different picture. 15 pod cruises + 15 cancelled cruise = 30 x 1950 passengers = 58,500 people affected. From the perspective of many of those missing part or all of a chance for a vacation of a lifetime, they might not agree that this is just an insignificant statistic.

 

 

15 failures over 6 years............6 million cruisers.......you can do the math.

[greatam]

C 2 C, aka Ozymandias (X cancelled our cruise two days prior to our Hawaii 2003 cruise), would like to know the name of the Cruise Director and why there are no activities on sea days... a B2B requires a good activities staff.

Subway food makes me happy, but no activities???:mad:

 

Was the transcanal any different than regular crossings?

Was there a "crossing the equator" celebration?

 

Hi,

 

We never did get that limo ride, did we???

 

Well, as I posted before, this is the third time we have booked Infinity-two times, including the two days prior Hawaii cruise, have been cancelled.

 

Activities director is Damien ???. When I said no activities, maybe I should have meant not to my liking. They only have "free" exercise classes pretty darn early in the mornings-before nine; everything else is pay. Too many times (4, I think) the late show has been at 7:00PM, before my late dinner. They had a ladies day in the Casino, which turned very nasty. The movies are at VERY inconvenient times-like 2:00PM (same time as Trivia), then 6, 8:45 and sometime too late for me. Why it couldn't be more like 4:30-5:00 for the second showing is beyond me? Lots of 30-40 minute activities which were lacking, IMHO. The band only plays from noonish to 1:30 and that is only on certain days. NO band in the late afternoons.

 

There was an Equator ceremony, which was corny and fun. And I thought the Panama Canal was spectacular, but I also revel in Prudhoe Bay and the Three Gorges Dam.

 

As you can see, I am bored to tears. At $.75 per minute, you would think I could find something better to do with my time.

[C 2 C]

15 failures over 6 years............6 million cruisers.......

 

58,500 people affected.

 

.......you can do the math.

 

58,500 rounded up to 60,000

60,000/6,000,000 why that's almost 110%:rolleyes: of the posts not dealing with dress codes and BYOB ;)

[richsea]

Activities director is Damien ???. When I said no activities, maybe I should have meant not to my liking. They only have "free" exercise classes pretty darn early in the mornings-before nine; everything else is pay. Too many times (4, I think) the late show has been at 7:00PM, before my late dinner. They had a ladies day in the Casino, which turned very nasty. The movies are at VERY inconvenient times-like 2:00PM (same time as Trivia), then 6, 8:45 and sometime too late for me. Why it couldn't be more like 4:30-5:00 for the second showing is beyond me? Lots of 30-40 minute activities which were lacking, IMHO. The band only plays from noonish to 1:30 and that is only on certain days. NO band in the late afternoons.

 

As you can see, I am bored to tears. At $.75 per minute, you would think I could find something better to do with my time.

 

Gee, maybe they sould have consulted you before the cruise to see what your preferences were. Bored to tears?? I'll switch places with you!!!!

[Lois R]

Celebrity Cruises

1050 Caribbean Way

Miami, Fl 33132

Phone

305-539-6000

 

I plan to call in the morning.

 

Hi Mark,:) you posted it before I could reply.

It is the same number I was going to give you.

Hope you receive an acceptable answer.

[flagger]

58,500 people affected.

 

.......you can do the math.

 

58,500 rounded up to 60,000

60,000/6,000,000 why that's almost 110%:rolleyes: of the posts not dealing with dress codes and BYOB ;)

The math is immaterial. What matters is Celebrity continues to market a clearly defective product that even their own former president acknowledged in 2002 could and would be a problem.

 

Millions of cars sold, but if there is a defect or you get a lemon I bet you might not purchase from that manufacturer again.