Booking has never been so stressful as now

[sandravb79]

DISCLAIMER: I'm going to vent/ whine, ya'll be warned.

 

Here we go: I have never ancountered a situation where booking a vacation has been as stressful as booking my Celebrity cruise.

I'm "international", i.e. not an American, not living in the US and I don't have a US zip code. This excludes many websites to book from. In order to avoid all "troubles" and because the price was almost the same, I decided to book through the Celebrity-website.

I fill out the reservation form, and at some point in the process, I receive a page saying my reservation is on courtesy hold, and that I have to contact a company over here to complete my reservation. Nothing more, nothing less.

I find this kind of weird, but I call the company. There some inpolite man barks at me that I will receive an email with all details (well excuse me, I didn't know that, the webpage only gave a company's name, address and phone number, nothing else). I then ask if extra charges/ fees/ taxes would be added and once again he barks at me that I'll receive an email. OK, sorry I bothered you :(

A couple of hours later, I receive an email, with an overview of my reservation, some fees are added and it says I have to contact a travel agent of my choice to complete the booking. *****??? I book this trip online because I have no time to go to a travel agent! (I don't know how the situation is in the US, but here they are open Mo-Fr from 10 am until 4 pm or so, only few are open on Saturday). I'm not amused with this.

I give my mom (who goes with me on vacation) a 'mission': call around, and find a travel agent that is open on Saturday where I can pay with Mastercard (there are many where you can't pay with MC, and we need to pay using that, because only then it will give my mom travel insurance through the card)

She finds a TA, I go there on Saturday... They have never heard of the company that Celebrity communicated to me and that I called, and they have no idea what to do with my reservation. Since it's Saturday, they can't call around for it. So, I'm back to start. At this point, I have a "courtesy hold", lost an afternoon and had to pay a parking ticket. And I have no confirmed/ paid cruise :(

Oh, btw, the courtesy hold is only valid until February 10, 8 am EST.

Today, I receive a phone call from TA. They can book my trip through another company, and if I could come to the office to pay for it. NO! I CANNOT COME. I can't leave work to get there before 5 pm. After some discussion, I can pay with the MC over the phone.

In the meanwhile, the price of the cruise has increased + the travel agent charges me an amount because they handle my file.

 

I don't understand that in this day and age, it's impossible to handle this freaking reservation completely online. I am very disappointed with all the extra charges (+ parking I had to pay) and all the hassle/ stress. :mad:

 

Sorry, just had to vent :(:mad:

[dwjoe]

Sorry for your frustration. Which country are you located in? Sounds like Celebrity is not equipped to deal direct in your area and is still relying on old-school TA relationships.

[alicam]

They are in Belgium

[Moeve]

Are you now booked and sorted out or do you still need help??

 

It different here in Europe........ so what else is new????

 

The only way the OP could book online in the US is with a TA - she cannot book with X directly in the US.

[sandravb79]

We're booked now (I hope).

All other companies I've dealt with regarding vacations (Carnival, Disney, Hilton, airlines, ...) they all let you pay online.

 

Anyway, I have to stop whining and get myself "zen" again.

But sometimes you just have to "tell" someone.

[Ships R Great]

Boy, what a hassle! I am so sorry you had all this trouble. It is so simple for us, in the US, to just pick up the phone and book. I hope your trip makes up for the angst you have had to suffer. Aren't you with us on Mercury in the fall? Or do I have you mixed up with someone else?

[sandravb79]

We will be on the Century in April. I hope. Worst case scenario, we will be sleeping on the loungers pool-side :rolleyes:

[JNCRUISEBUMS]

OH NO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Another chair HOG! LOL...Nancie:D

[lucky white heather]

We will be on the Century in April. I hope. Worst case scenario, we will be sleeping on the loungers pool-side :rolleyes:

 

Hi there..that is so unfair to have to go through all that hassle just to book and even then .....pay more because of a delay.

What I wondered was if you saw on the home page the drop down menu to change where you are booking from....if you are not from the country they are pricing in like $ for the US or £ for the UK (eg in Uk it is priced in £) you can change the drop down menu .. but haven't tried it to see if B'gium comes up myself . I have spoken with someone who booked from South Africa..he had to change the place on the home page too to get prices in rands. Probably too late now but I would be interested to hear if this would have made it simpler for you ?.

 

We had conversations regarding booking from abroad with a couple from Holland last year who had to write several letters to UK HQ in order to book direct with X UK ..they finally managed it and when they wanted to .....depending on price they told me they used a US TA......you may not have the same "rights" booking with a US TA...I don't know ....so check that out before you get into that scenario..but it might be worth investigating ????

 

To pay by credit card, if you phone up to book , X now gives you a "personal cruise consultant" who prices it all for you (but you know all that already if you have gone through the system and put it on courtesy hold yourself), you will have a reservation no. to give the PCC who will take it from there etc etc and you have their direct number to call them if you have any questions or want to go ahead with the booking etc of course first of all you need to get through to the "bookings" tel no. but after that it is simple..the no.is on all our brochures. Perhaps you do not get X brochures in B'gium..we have friends in Sweden and they have to use a TA in Stockholm...so I presume no brochures available there????

[cvaty]

European officialism!

[sandravb79]

The saga continues.

Yesterday, I got the phone call from TA, paid through the phone, and it doesn't show up in "My Celebrity". It only says now that the reservation is on hold until some day in March. Which means I can't add shore excurions, I can't say I want late dining, nor how large a table we would prefer, ...

 

Calling Celebrity in UK, US, Mars, wherever is nice, but I don't want to have to wake up at night to call them (time difference) nor do I want to pay for those phone calls (ever been put on hold for 20 minutes when calling transatlantic? Those are not nice phone bills, you know...)

I thought that's why companies use the internet, to avoid all that?

 

Anyway, I am kind of worried regarding shore excursions. I chose the Celebrity cruise over the Carnival one because of the Tulum excursion, I will be seriously p*ssed if it turns out that it is completely booked by the time I am finally allowed to add it to my reservation.

 

I will need many of those cocktails once onboard to relax :D

 

Oh, btw, I sent an email to Celebrity, I hope they will be able to clear up some things (like confirming I am really booked for the stateroom I chose).

 

 

And we don't have Celebrity brochures. When I asked the TA if she had the data/ prices for the Disney cruises in Europe in 2010, she just "ridiculed" me (is that a word?) saying there is no such thing as "Disneyland cruises" :rolleyes:

Indeed, there are no "Disneyland cruises", but there is Disney Cruise Lines, with 2 ships and 2 more ordered, and don't make me feel like a complete idiot when there are other clients of you around. :(

(yes, customer service is such a big deal over here at times... not!)

[*Kendra*]

I hope you get it all worked out. To a point I know how you feel. I am an American living in Italy and have had the same problem booking through Costa. The departure point I wanted was only avaliable for Italian citizen. Luckly, I found a TA here and she booked the cruise for me but I cant do anything online. I have to go to her for everything. What makes matters worse is I can log into the costa website and see whats avaliable but all my information is in Italian and I dont speak Italian. LOL. I really hope you get it all worked out!!!

[The_Big_M]

The process is the same here in Australia. One thing I'd suggest is that you call that TA you're dealing with regarding your dining preferences as I think those are only viewable online, but you need to get your TA to pass the request through.

 

However, you should be booked for the room chosen; that does get locked in when you put the hold on to that reservation number.

[paulred]

I am in Canada. I booked with an on line TA. I won't say which one, but they advertise here. They had absolutely no problem booking me, even though I am not US based.

 

Try that and see what happens.

 

Paul

[sandravb79]

Thank you for the tip; the TAs I tried online only allowed US, Canada and some islands.

As I have already given my credit card number to the travel agent here, I guess I'm stuck with that.

 

But I'll remind it for a next cruise :)

[Cote d'or]

Hi sandravb79, I understand your frustration. The company mentioned on the X-website is the international representative for Celebrity Cruises in Belgium. When we started cruising, I also called them, since their phone number was displayed on the X-website. They told me I wasn't supposed to call them. When I said I saw their number on the website, they said it was meant for TA's, not for customers...

The thing is that you can't book a Celebrity cruise in Belgium without passing through this international rep, they have the monopoly.

It's quite complicated, here we go : you have to book through a TA. The TA has to book through a tour operator. And the tour operator has to book through the international host and finally the international host interacts with Miami.

Our biggest frustration for the moment is the fact that this international rep keeps charging us a fee of € 75 ($ 100) when we want our cruisefares to be adjusted in case of a price drop. It's not our TA, it's not the tour operator, but by all means this international representative of Celebrity who charges us extra... I wrote them several letters concerning the price protect policy of X, but nevertheless they keep on charging us extra fees. We cruise about 3 months a year (all with X) and I don't think this is the way you treat a loyal customer (although it shouldn't matter if someone cruises 1 or 20 times a year, policy is policy) . If I ask for a price drop, let's say 8 times a year, that's € 600 ($ 800) for them, just because they say so.

I wrote a letter to Celebrity Miami to inform them about this matter and now I'm waiting for their answer.

[Kathie44]

Re: excursions--I was closed out of the rainforest excursion w/airport dropoff before we sailed on our S. Carib. cruise last month. But a poster on CC reminded me that the cruiseline always has spots available to book after boarding. Just use the TV in your room or go to the excursion desk as soon as it opens. I had no problem booking my excursion.

Sorry about the booking hassle. We hear similar stories here all the time from European cruisers. You'd think every operator would be drilled in better PR ways to handle anything that comes their way. Good PR sells future cruises.

[sandravb79]

Kathie, thanks for the thumbs up regarding the excursion :-)

 

Cote d'or, that must be so frustrating! I guess everyone has to earn their "bread", but still, it's amazing how procedures are different between countries!

I sent an email to Celebrity, waiting for a reply (I don't really expect one, still waiting for a reply from Carnival regarding our 2007 Bon Voyage gifts :rolleyes: )

[sheilauk]

Don't hold your breath on an answer to your e mails. I sent an e mail 3 weeks ago because I also cannot access my booking to make shore excrusion bookings.. Not a sniff of a response from them. I have also sent the Same e mail every day for 10 days now asking for a reply, again no response. Perhaps one of the resaons that according to another post on here , they are rated 5 worst cruise company for Europeans.

 

We have a UK office, but the web site bookings get diverted to the States, as do the e mails. It is pretty poor service in this day and age and we will be going back to P&O for our next cruise.

[Moeve]

Hi sandravb79' date=' I understand your frustration. The company mentioned on the X-website is the international representative for Celebrity Cruises in Belgium. When we started cruising, I also called them, since their phone number was displayed on the X-website. They told me I wasn't supposed to call them. When I said I saw their number on the website, they said it was meant for TA's, not for customers...

The thing is that you can't book a Celebrity cruise in Belgium without passing through this international rep, they have the monopoly.

It's quite complicated, here we go : you have to book through a TA. The TA has to book through a tour operator. And the tour operator has to book through the international host and finally the international host interacts with Miami.

Our biggest frustration for the moment is the fact that this international rep keeps charging us a fee of € 75 ($ 100) when we want our cruisefares to be adjusted in case of a price drop. It's not our TA, it's not the tour operator, but by all means this international representative of Celebrity who charges us extra... I wrote them several letters concerning the price protect policy of X, but nevertheless they keep on charging us extra fees. We cruise about 3 months a year (all with X) and I don't think this is the way you treat a loyal customer (although it shouldn't matter if someone cruises 1 or 20 times a year, policy is policy) . If I ask for a price drop, let's say 8 times a year, that's € 600 ($ 800) for them, just because they say so.

I wrote a letter to Celebrity Miami to inform them about this matter and now I'm waiting for their answer.[/quote']

 

It isn't just about protectionism for TAs it also has something to do with the protection for the passenger/customers in accordance with EU laws and regulations. THIS is what makes it so much more difficult in this case.

 

However the OP made one very big mistake - she tried to book with X directly which mean't she was automatically transfered to the office hold Belgium bookings in the EU. She should have contacted a US TA who would have booked her with X in the US and then her booking would have been US based now however she has an EU booking.

[sandravb79]

You know, I tried booking (online) in the US, but each and every time, I ended up being "stuck" somewhere along the booking process because I don't have a US zip code, am not a US citizen and don't have a "nearest US or Canada city".

At that point, I also didn't realise how X works with their European respresentatives. I have learned my lesson.

If anyone knows a good US TA where I can book through website/ email/ fax (I want to avoid to call, I have an accent in English, Americans have accents in English and that always makes for interesting phone calls :rolleyes::eek: ) (last time I called Disney to book a guided tour and some dining reservations: after I spelled my name, my mom's name and our street name, I thought, thank goodness, I am done spelling now, it's just "Brussels" and "Belgium". Nope had to spell those too. Wanted to say, it's Brussels like in sprouts and Belgium like in waffle :cool: ), please let me know at sandra underscore vanbossuyt at yahoo dot com.

We will cruise again (thinking of one of DCL's Baltic cruises in 2010!!!) and that information will be very much appreciated for future vacations.

 

Oh, it's also scary to see it's one of the 5 worst cruise lines for Europeans :eek:

[sjaak]

Hi Sandra,

 

Our TA in Antwerp has tons and tons of brochures and it is possible to make an appointment for a saturdaymorning. They're very helpful. I made the mistake on My Celebrity of typing my husbands shortened name insted of the name as mentioned in his passport. I called my TA and just a few days later I received a call that things were adjusted.

 

I know booking through a TA doesn't give you all the benefits of booking online, but on the other side, it can be easy to have taken care of everything.

[cvaty]

And we don't have Celebrity brochures. When I asked the TA if she had the data/ prices for the Disney cruises in Europe in 2010, she just "ridiculed" me (is that a word?) saying there is no such thing as "Disneyland cruises" :rolleyes:

Indeed, there are no "Disneyland cruises", but there is Disney Cruise Lines, with 2 ships and 2 more ordered, and don't make me feel like a complete idiot when there are other clients of you around. :(

Do they have something agains cruising with Mickey Mouse?!

[cvaty]

You know, I tried booking (online) in the US, but each and every time, I ended up being "stuck" somewhere along the booking process because I don't have a US zip code, am not a US citizen and don't have a "nearest US or Canada city".

At that point, I also didn't realise how X works with their European respresentatives. I have learned my lesson.

If anyone knows a good US TA where I can book through website/ email/ fax (I want to avoid to call, I have an accent in English, Americans have accents in English and that always makes for interesting phone calls :rolleyes::eek: ) (last time I called Disney to book a guided tour and some dining reservations: after I spelled my name, my mom's name and our street name, I thought, thank goodness, I am done spelling now, it's just "Brussels" and "Belgium". Nope had to spell those too. Wanted to say, it's Brussels like in sprouts and Belgium like in waffle :cool: ), please let me know at sandra underscore vanbossuyt at yahoo dot com.

We will cruise again (thinking of one of DCL's Baltic cruises in 2010!!!) and that information will be very much appreciated for future vacations.

 

Oh, it's also scary to see it's one of the 5 worst cruise lines for Europeans :eek:

 

There were a few ones.

I´m going to post you this via email when i can recall the names.

 

B like Belgium.

 

When my Internetconnection (I like irony) agrees to work again fine.

[sandravb79]

Do they have something agains cruising with Mickey Mouse?!

 

One must think so.

I guess their snooty-level is too high to appreciate Mickey Mouse :)

 

I am a HUGE Disney-fan, and take quite some Disney vacations, as well in Paris as Orlando as Anaheim. Most people declare me crazy, because in their eye, it's only about children's movies.

Well, guess what, there is way more, but I don't mind them being snooty about it, it means I won't encounter them on the ship :)