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

[cruiseacecat]

berryhappy24,

 

So very sorry to hear of more cancellations. I really hope Celebrity will make this up in a fair way to all those on board. I would be climbing the walls at this point.

 

Hang in and do your best to salvage what is left of your cruise.

[clambake43]

berryhappy24...

My heart goes out to you. I had been dreaming of going to Pompeii since I was a child and Florence was my sister's favorite city (she passed away this past Janurary), so if I would have missed that it would have been very upsetting to me. No compensation can be made for those sites you have been dreaming to see for so long. You made plans and had all sorts of exciting expectations, only to be shot down by bad luck and unforntunate circumstances! We are all thinking of you!

If you see John in the martini bar tell them that Mike and Harvey (and family's said "hi").

[pgh]

Another e-mail from my friend and very similar to "berries" updates. He said an official revised itinerary would be provided in a "few" hours. Also said there are upset individuals who want to cancel the trip and fly home from Rome. He on the other hand is reporting the food is great and he is winning at the casino - Yay for him!!!!

 

I told him there are worse places to be stuck - a "cruise to nowhere" docked in Rome can be made interesting - of course it is no replacement for the intended itinerary.

 

Clambake - Sorry to hear about your return home - I'm happy to hear you're safe and hope your luggage found its way home!

 

Pam

[DeepWaterMariner]

Prop problems are not something that can be fixed without a drydock. Cruise ships have been known to limp along for a few cruises with a damaged prop but it usually means a shaky slow ride with missed ports or shortened port calls. How fast it can be repaired will depend on the availability of a dry dock and the availability of a new prop.

[bella1979]

Thanks Berryhappy for the update...let us know when you are able to leave and how the ride is. If our sailing next week is going to be compromised I hope they will let us know before we sail. I would rather do Europe by land if we are going to miss ports and have a shaky ride.

Let's all stay positive and keep our fingers crossed! :o

[Kane]

Prop problems are not something that can be fixed without a drydock. Cruise ships have been known to limp along for a few cruises with a damaged prop but it usually means a shaky slow ride with missed ports or shortened port calls. How fast it can be repaired will depend on the availability of a dry dock and the availability of a new prop.

 

Deep....

 

I have been reading this thread and wondering how they were going to do this. Many years ago I was a NavArch for Navy ships ... but I worked on submarine hulls, not propulsion systems. I know it would not be possible on a submarine, but am not familiar with the pod systems.

 

Whatever the case, I just can't imagine having divers attempt to remove and replace any device weighing tons. I know I would not want to be the diver working on it.

 

For the sake of those aboard and those scheduled to board, I sure hope modern technology has a miracle solution.

[bella1979]

I too am really curious about how they are fixing it...there must be some way they can...

[rebeccalouise]

Well- being stranded outside of Rome isn't the end of the world. Go and visit as many places as possible. I would be disappointed in missing several ports but instead of crying about it- try to make the most of it and the approximate $ 1500 dollars per person that is being refunded. There is alot you can do with this money in Rome and on the rest of the trip- Corfu, Dubrovnik.

 

Accidents happen. It could have been worse- you could be stranded at sea or far worse!

[flagger]

Based on the precedence set by Cunard with the QM 2 losing a prop;

 

http://cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=1497

 

I would hope that Celebrity realises in the best of corporate public image they should also offer a full and complete refund. I feel for those people getting ready to cruise who more than likely will find out too late that their cruise has been cancelled.

 

What a travesty and the non-response of Celebrity is completely typical!!!

[J9sling]

My parents are on this sailing and called us tonite to let us know what was happening. Supposedly things are getting worked on through the night but there are no assurances of when the ship will be fully operable. My parents are taking the 4 hour trip to Florence because they really wanted to see that port. This is their first Medi cruise but they are making the best of it. One thing that really disturbed them was the passenger meeting (someone mentioned "mutiny"). My mom said a male passenger had grabbed a microphone and was trying to rally the crowd in a negative way. My parents and some other passengers quickly left the situation and retreated to a quieter deck.

 

Unfortunately, in these types of situations, people can make a bad situation worse.

 

My mom said she had a feeling the captain would be looking for another job soon.

[Germancruiser]

I agree, as sad as a situation like this one, is , some people make such situations worse than they allready are.

Your parents did exactly what I would have done, leaving the room as quickly as possible.

Such things can happen when on a vacaton esp. on a ship, even if you stay at home a storm can hit your house. Okay it´s sad when cruising the med. and flying so long hours to get there and miss some really nice ports. Happen to me also on board Summit in Alaska, when our cruise was shortend by one day. It was a bummer- yeah- but otherwise it was a great cruise. The compensation satisfied me completly.

The person who took over the mikrophone would have been dismissed out of the room if I would have been the crew member in charge.

[bella1979]

Has anyone called Celebrity lately to see what the "official" stance is?

[kidznp]

I would assume that Celebrity (as a company) is doing everything within their power to repair the damage as quickly as possible while minimizing the inconvenience to their customers to the best of their ability. This is obviously a task of mammoth proportions.

 

Celebrity will not benefit in any way by having to cancel future cruises yet must make sure the ship is sound and operational before continuing to sail. It was an accident and whomever is responsible should (and undoubtably will) be held accountable but it is incredible that passengers are yelling "mutiny" and acting like they should receive a complete refund. They are still on a cruise, so far they have missed a day in Florence and Naples but they are still being fed, sheltered and entertained. I agree that it would be mildly disappointing and my major concern would be that the ship would make it to the end of the itinerary safely. If they have to cancel one or more subsequent cruises then I would think this was the only choice they have. It will be very disappointing to the affected passengers but is really beyond Celebrity's control.

 

Just my opinion, probably wrong...

[ClipperMiami]

I would assume that Celebrity (as a company) is doing everything within their power to repair the damage as quickly as possible while minimizing the inconvenience to their customers to the best of their ability. This is obviously a task of mammoth proportions.

 

Celebrity will not benefit in any way by having to cancel future cruises yet must make sure the ship is sound and operational before continuing to sail. It was an accident and whomever is responsible should (and undoubtably will) be held accountable but it is incredible that passengers are yelling "mutiny" and acting like they should receive a complete refund. They are still on a cruise, so far they have missed a day in Florence and Naples but they are still being fed, sheltered and entertained. I agree that it would be mildly disappointing and my major concern would be that the ship would make it to the end of the itinerary safely. If they have to cancel one or more subsequent cruises then I would think this was the only choice they have. It will be very disappointing to the affected passengers but is really beyond Celebrity's control.

 

Just my opinion, probably wrong...

 

WAY too rational :-)

[Germancruiser]

hi kidnzp

no you are not wrong, your absolutley right. Some people take every chance they get to form a mutiny. I would have send them or him out of the lounge - at once.

[BurBunny]

Celebrity told one of the posters that the problem had been repaired. It clearly hasn't been repaired. It is not premature to say that Celebrity has been dishonest. They have misrepresented (lied) the status of the ship. If they don't know the staus they should say so. Anything else is a lie.

 

It's quite possible it's an honest miscommunication. They may have put into the computers that the repairs will be made prior to the following cruise. The reservations clerk then interpreted that as they have already been repaired and indicated that to the passenger.

 

Have you ever played "telephone"?

 

One other note here regarding the Cruise Director giving the bad news onboard. For many Captains, English is not a comfortable second language and even for more routine matters, they have the CD make almost all the communication. It's possible that while this Captain made the first couple of announcements, he realized that it was important that what was said not be miscommunicated, so is having the CD do the talking.

 

Not being an apologist for Celebrity here, as they often haven't handled things well onboard. But they usually deal best with shortened/cancelled sailings (having had a lot of practice with all their pod problems). Let's not turn into a land-based lynch mob. Sounds like they have enough of a mutiny onboard. Give them a bit of slack until we have more facts, and not just emotions arising out of disappointment (though I'll say the posts from onboard on this thread are nicely balanced - definitely no insult intended to any of the current passengers posting here).

[Germancruiser]

Well said Amber!

[iandjm]

Hi,

 

In my opinion given that accidents do happen, and that people now have been given onboard credit and offered a 50% fare refund I would say that they are being treated pretty well.

 

I appreciate passengers onboard are missing ports, which is a great shame, but it has been said many times before on cruise critic, if you really must see a place, its best not to travel there by ship, as things do sometimes go wrong.

 

Causing riots onboard will not do any good, all it does is ruin others vacation, and is very unfair to the crew, who are more than likely trying there best to sort things and make the best of a bad situation. The best course of action is to make the best of the situation, register your complaint onboard, by letter if possible, and follow this up with a firm, but polite letter when you get home.

 

I know something must have gone wrong on the ship to cause it to hit the rocks, but blaming and being abusive to the ships crew is not acceptable. In the real world things do go wrong!

 

I hope things are sorted as soon as possible

 

Ian

[iandjm]

hi kidnzp

no you are not wrong, your absolutley right. Some people take every chance they get to form a mutiny. I would have send them or him out of the lounge - at once.

 

 

I would throw them off the ship to be honest.....

[Moeve]

You know this not being our vacation it is alot easier to stay calm & collected but wait till they wreak your special maybe once in a lifetime vacation well then I bet you will probably also not react quite soo cool about it. It is not excusing any sort of radical actions but things like this tend ruin any cruise...

[XatSea]

but am not familiar with the pod systems.

 

Whatever the case, I just can't imagine having divers attempt to remove and replace any device weighing tons. I know I would not want to be the diver working on it.

 

For the sake of those aboard and those scheduled to board, I sure hope modern technology has a miracle solution.

 

I would like to know as well how they can fix this without a dry dock:

[teach29]

I have to agree. It is very easy to say how people should react but we are not on the cruise. We are planning to leave on Wednesday for the same cruise. I realize there is a problem from reading cruisecritic. How many people have not idea that there is anything wrong??? My concern is that they will have us come but be unable to fulfill the itinerary that we have paid for. Customer service at this point has been specifically told what to say and what not to say. Has anybody been in this situation before? What do they do? Do they cancel the cruise before we leave and travel to Venice? I am packing but with a 'shaking hand'...

[YOW]

Two years ago, while on Summit, we had to sail around the edge of a hurricane, missing Cabo in the process. In charge of the vessel at the time was Captain Karatzas, who did a fine job of keeping everyone in the loop. He communicated early and often both on TV and in person, including showing us charts and using layman's terms, which put the passengers at ease and kept the situation calm and pleasant.

 

Captain Karatzas had been on Millennium not long ago. Can anyone confirm who the captain is aboard Millennium now?

[larronry]

I would say that anyone cruising in hurricane zone during the season has risked last minute cruise cancellations so I'm sure the cruise companies have some sort of system in place to notify passengers and it has been practiced. The risk here would be that people might be leaving for Europe days ahead of the cruise and not just the night before as the would for a U.S. port.

 

And I've been thinking that the best way to see European cities is through a cruise because you can see many cities and countries with out packing and repacking. I really feel for the people on the Millie for whom this is a once in a lifetime that they've been saving up for.

[cars0153]

Has anyone called Celebrity lately to see what the "official" stance is?

Not answering phone or emails. Very concerned since

we leave Wednesday.