Live from Millie 6/30-7/12- Damage

[larronry]

When our Millie cruise was cancelled 12/06 we received our credit in less than two weeks. The disappointment is heartbreaking but the free cruise helps a bit. We were lucky and booked for the same week on a different ship, but then of course, we had a few weeks notice. I know how you feel (been there) and hopefully you can find an alternative. At least you know prior to travelling all the way to Venice.....we ran into people who showed up to board Millenium and were told....no, going to drydock....they had not been told of the situation.

I wasn't on the boards then and I remember the Sunday I received the phone call. I know those on the boards found out before I did because I've since gone back and searched for the post. I can't remember if it was my TA or Celebrity who called me I just remember I was in so much shock I didn't ask questions. We ended up booking on another cruiseline for the same dates as well. I am however a bit nervous about the pod problems because well we ended up pretty high up and all the way forward and the seas were pretty rough. We questioned the stabilization of the ship and were told no the seas were that rough. (Didn't get sick just bruised) This time we are booked low down and center but now I'll worry about vibrations if there are pod problems. I read about that somewhere.

 

It does seem like people are taking it well.

 

I do suggest that it appears that cruising is only going up in price you don't get a free cruise but a credit of equivalent price to what you paid. Book early if you are booking for next year before the prices go up. You can still get credit if the prices go down. In fact you still have to pay the deposit with a credit card and then Celebrity will credit you the overage after final payment. (something to do with people reserving too many cruises)

 

The price for my room has gone up sever hundred dollars since booking and I can only assume that Mediterranean cruises will go up more.

[hajekfam]

Hi Cruise Gypsy !

 

Interesting question. There is actually a message area within your booking, that Celebrity could theoretically use to send you a message. However, in all of my bookings with Celebrity, I have never had a message to date. Frankly, I do not believe the feature is used by Celebrity, so why have it there to begin with ? They should make use of it.

 

The other problem is.... in my case, I cannot add or review most of my current bookings on My Celebrity (it usually says cannot add booking due to internal restrictions -- whatever that means), so even IF they used the messaging system.... in my case, I would never get the message !

 

The bottom line ? Celebrity should try their best to have everyone's email address, so they could send out emails when crucial situations arise. I know if there was a problem, I'd love to hear it from Celebrity firsthand... but we all know that due to the speed of information on the internet, we get the information here first.

We told them all that when the Millie transatlantic fiasco occured in 2005. Do they listen?

[xtopher_66]

Xtopher 66,

I was looking at your pictures of the Infinity from your 5/05 Alaskan cruise, and I have a question. Where are pictures #27, 29, 30 of the ship taken? I am cruising on Infinity in Dec 07 and would like to try to find that place since it looks so beautiful. Thanks.

Those pictures are of the Thalassotherapy Pool area in the Aqua Spa. One of the more popular public areas on the M Class ships.

 

Chris

[rebeccalouise]

when all is said and done- I would be disappointed that my cruise was ruined because of the propeller issue. But I must say that regaining the $7200 we paid for our balcony stateroom would soften the blow. Once the ship was docked in Civitecchia- I think I would have been planning plan B- especially once they refunded the entire cruise fair. I would have taken this as a sign that there was no guarantee the ship was going anywhere.

Of course, hindsight is 20/20. We are going on the July 24th sailing. I know about the issues at hand. My parents (age 70) have no idea about the Millenium problems and I don't plan to tell them... but will be following this board closely.

[Cruise Gypsy]

I cannot believe that there is absolutely NOTHING on the Celebrity website about this situation!!

 

I agree - I can't believe that as well. Say I heard about the cruise being canceled, the first thing I would do is go to the website and expect a big banner saying "Millie cruise canceled - click here for more information" but there is nothing.

 

Maybe Celebrity should have a standing message that says "For information on the status of your cruise - go to CruiseCritic.com"

[GloBug]

As we speak my DH is on call this weekend and on his way to fix someone's server - in ICU at hospital. Everyone gets poopy if it doesn't work like it is supposed to . . . understandably, but unfortunately it doesn't work that way - stuff happens.

 

OT, - Patricia, my husband takes care of the servers at VA hospitals. It's more than "everyone getting poopy"... if the servers go down, patient records get compromised, and people can die... it's vital to keep them up.

[cruisinelsewhere]

I agree - I can't believe that as well. Say I heard about the cruise being canceled, the first thing I would do is go to the website and expect a big banner saying "Millie cruise canceled - click here for more information" but there is nothing.

 

Maybe Celebrity should have a standing message that says "For information on the status of your cruise - go to CruiseCritic.com"

 

Again. when my cruise was cancelled, which I heard here on Cruise Critic, I immediately (after drying my tears) called, rebooked another ship...and 3 days later Celebrity called to tell me the cruise was cancelled..and I politely told them that I had rebooked days earlier, Go figure. I keep sailing with them, I love the ships, the service, the food....but the Customer Service really leaves alot to be desired

[bella1979]

Hey Jordie, Spider! We decided to book July 10th next year too! Let's set up a roll call and get excited all over again!!! Jordie...we are seeing our travel agent in the am to go somewhere pretty and tropical to PARTY LIKE A ROCK STAR!!! Anyone out there know anywhere that isn't raining or in threat of a hurricane!!????

[c-legs]

Hi Psuflita !

 

Thank you for the compliment about my email idea. I know its far from a perfect solution, but a tremendous amount of passengers could have heard the news from directly from Celebrity, simply by Celebrity doing bulk emails. Heck, if I were running Celebrity.... over the past several days, I would have been sending out constant emails to the July 12th group, the MOMENT there was additional news (and updates) to offer. While the end result would have been the same, at least everyone would be on the same page.

 

I truly hope that Celebrity learns from this experience, and gets their communictions, website, and technology up to a 2007 level. It desperately needs to be addressed.

 

:) Good evening,Andy,

Right on !!

I've always said all along that ==X== has the best ''bang for the buck'' in the industry, and an absolutely superb shipboard product....but a pathetic shoddy shoreside service reputation, and, chief among all its shortcomings: terrible COMMUNICATION system.

The current Millie misfortune illustrates the point beyond doubt. ""hitting the rocks'' is a terrible incident, ''mishandling the affected folks comunication'' is a terrible mistake. Great companies shine not by avoiding accidents, but by the way they react to them......==X== ''missed the boat'' here....( no pun intended....)

Cheers

;)

[Germancruiser]

Milli is today on the webcam of Costa Victoria. Poor July 12 th cruisers, I would try to book myself on another ship at once. RCI or X- not necearily Costa ( LOL) !

Greetings

Michael

[jordie]

So now it is three in the morning and I can't sleep thinking about all of this...ugh! Bella, I am going to book july 10th in the am AND a tropical vacation...roll call to follow! Let me Know where your TA suggests!:p

[uktog]

I am so, so sorry for all of you who are scrambling to rebook precious holidays. I hope for everyone that the outcome is as positive as it can be and that disappointments, though nver disappearing, fade into the background and some restful holiday time is enjoyed, whenever that is.

 

Can I ask one thing, though I am sure this is not an issue with CC members. My son ( a big 6'6 toughie) works in a Customer Service Department on the phones (not a cruise line I would add) As a team leader he has to support others during difficult calls, wipe their tears after people have said some very nasty things to them and try and keep them positive. Some nights he comes home in tears himself

His problem, like is so common, he is only able to work with info from Head Office and to do otherwise is a dismissable offence. So when calling today, that person on the end of the phone is someones partner/son/daughter/sibling and they did not break the ship and they are having an awful day as well

 

A

[MortgageChick]

Bella. Have you considered Aruba. They are so far south , about 14 miles of the coast of Venezuela, that they are seldom (not never) bothered by hurricanes.

Weather would be very hot Weather for next 10 days. Night time low of 80 and day time high of 89-91F. Always slight breeze here too. Lovely beach.

[j!m]

i have been following this board for some time and share the disappointment of those pax onboard and the folks booked on the july 12 cruise. it is terrible for a vacation to be ruined even if by accident. people have made all sorts of plans that have to be cancelled, work has to be re arranged etc etc.

 

i guess it is reasonable to criticize x for a lack of communication however it should be kept in mind they are a public company (via rcl) and thus have an obligation to report events to everyone at the same time otherwise the playing field for trading their securities would be uneven. as a public company they have an obligation to report all important news via press releases to ensure all relevant information about their business is available to everyone at the same time. imo it is likely that management believed the problem could be remedied in rome otherwise they would not have gone to the effort they did, flying in divers,parts etc. while i would be sorely disappointed if i was personally involved it seems to me the full refund etc is a very reasonable offer by x.

 

i am certain the event was an "accident" whether the cause was human, electrical or just one of those things is not yet known by us. whatever the cause i am sure the management team will be reviewing the matter and putting in place whatever measures they can to avoid a repeat incident. no company wants to be recalling product and issuing refunds, the cost is way too high both in dollars and reputation.

[Jane789]

Jane789 ~ can we ask in what media outlets you've been reading about the cancellations? I haven't seen news of this anywhere....when I check the news wire reports, the first news release I find from Celebrity is dated July 6 and it only talks about refunding the cruise fare of the passengers that embarked on June 30. So I'm curious where you've seen cancellation info all week.

 

Host Anne

Earlier in the week Cruise News Daily had an article that talked about the repair process and the logistics of everything making a difference about how Celebrity was handling the problem, and then Friday's edition updated the stuff about the repair and the itinerary. Sunday I got a special edition when Celebrity actually canceled the 7/12 cruise. Right after that I googled it and found an article about the cancellation in Cruise Reports or something like that.

 

But my main point in posting was responding to that person who seemed to imply if passengers didn't read this bulletin board they wouldn't know about the cancellation. Celebrity was obviously talking to the on Sunday, so the word was going out, and if they didn't hear about it then, everyone affected was going to know this morning when their travel agents open. Celebrity is going to let them know. I don't see that most people are going to want to plug in just any cruise they can to replace this one on the same day. When they are spending that much money, they are going to want to book the right thing and I don't believe that knowing the cruise is canceled Sunday night as opposed to Monday morning is going to make that much difference to them.

 

Jane

[hcat]

Sorry this is so long!

My hat is off to the canceled cruisers who are taking this so well-- Wish you all the best of luck.

We had to cancel a cruise for a medical issue three days before it left port in Florida-- we had ins etc but I was in disbelief & denial right up to the time I went into surgery on the day the ship sailed without us. .. When time came to reschedule, everything land based was so expensive & all cruises were already booked. I was depressed. Then one night I checked one last time on the Royal carib website---By dumb luck it was just after final payment was due on Jewel of the Seas & there was a great hump balcony at a Sr. discount for a fraction of what we would have paid... I could not believe the rate for this cabin! we also got three extra cruise days-- Moral of the story is that things can turn better after the huge let down.

Three cheers to cruisecritic for being there or all of us...I am not sure what else we could have expected from Celebrity EXCEPT they MUST learn to communicate better. They have a website that is useless! They should devlope a page for updates on every booked cruise so travellers can go there & check on things--it's would save many calls to the call center..& get the word out on cancellations much faster. I am sure some poeple will not learn abt this cancellation in time!!!!

[HISTORY]

I am going to try to book July 10th also but it looks like it is the summit ship is that what you see

[BlackPear]

The cancelled cruises are expected to have an all in negative impact on the earnings of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE: RCL) of approximately $0.14 per share.

 

The quote above is from the www.rclinvestor.com website

 

A quick bit of maths................

 

Market capitalisation $8.07billion

Share price $42.69

Therefore shares issued = 189,037,000

Impact per share (see above quote) $0.14

Therefore cost to RCL/Celebrity for this fiasco = $26,465,000

 

That's $26 million

[DeltaOne]

Mortagechick ~ to date, I haven't seen anything that definitely states what actually caused Millie to hit the rocks. There's been plenty of discussion but I haven't seen a final cause released.

 

Here we go: On July 2, while anchored off Villefranche, France, the ship's propellers struck a submerged rock, following an electrical malfunction. Three of the four blades on the starboard propeller and one on the port propeller were damaged and needed to be replaced.

 

You can read it here: http://www.celebritycruises.com/aboutceleb/pressDetails.do?pagename=press_room_details&event_date=2007-07-09&event_type=press_release&sequence_code=A

[LindaRTS]

There is a message about the Millenium on the Celebrity website that states that it indeed hit a rock.

 

The ship will reenter service for its July 24 sailing.

 

On July 2, while anchored off Villefranche, France, the ship's propellers struck a submerged rock, following an electrical malfunction. Three of the four blades on the starboard propeller and one on the port propeller were damaged and needed to be replaced.

[greeneg]

Anne, this came this morning from RCCL Investor's Site:

 

http://www.rclinvestor.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=103045&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1023355&highlight=

 

Ed

[cruiseyguy]

Wouldn't RCL/Celebrity's insurance alleviate the financial impact to the company as well as the share price?

[Marytutor]

I am so sorry to hear about this and the upcoming cancellation. Hopefully those there now can get home without further problems and that those on the July 12 cruise will be able to book fabulous cruises.

 

In reference to emails, we received little ones about how to enjoy our upcoming cruises via email. To get that , Celebrity has passenger email addresses linked to specific cruises, so why can't they just use those in cases like this. I would think that it would be easy enough to have a prepared message that could be mail-merged to send in the event that they needed it.

 

They have customer phone numbers that they could use also.

 

Mary

[HISTORY]

Is this a nce ship

[jordie]

Hey History, yes it is the summit for next year...I hope you book it!:D