High Technology

Last year, I took the family on Celebrity Summit. We had 2 cabins -- one for myself and my spouse, and another for our 3 teens. Everyone enjoyed it, so before disembarking we booked a different itinerary on the same ship for this year. Departure date is/was supposed to be April 8th.

This afternoon we got a voicemail message at home saying that our cruise was being cancelled due to mechanical issues and we'd be receiving an email with details. It looks like there were some propulsion system issues a month or two ago, and my guess is they need to take the ship out of service to repair it. I know stuff happens, and safety is paramount, so I do understand their decision.

All that said, it's 2 weeks before departure, and Easter/Passover week is one of the busiest weeks in the Caribbean. I didn't receive the email yet, so I called them and they told me they are providing a refund, plus a "good will gesture" of a voucher of 25% of our fare towards a future cruise. They will also pay the $200 change fee on the air tickets for each passenger, but nothing related to fare differences. Two weeks before Easter break, almost anything is going to cost me thousands more than I paid for this cruise, and they're refusing to provide any other compensation.

So I am looking for some advice on whether this is "fair" compensation or not. My point of view is that there would have been a 75% penalty if I cancelled at this point, so I'd be fine if they gave me a voucher for 75% of my fare towards a future cruise. That would offset some of my additional costs because of this unforeseen occurrence.

We had a great fare, which is why I booked this again -- $4,000 for 5 people in 2 outside cabins, with free drinks and another $850 of on-board credits (which would cover the tips and most of our other incidentals for the week). I also used 250k air miles to book 5 airfares to/from San Juan.

We can't find another cruise at this point (I spend 2 hours looking -- the only comparable one out of San Juan that has availability is $10k for the 5 of us on Disney). Also, we're kind of stuck airfare-wise, as I'd need another 150k points to fly elsewhere at this point, plus whatever fees Delta might charge (that Celebrity would pay), so I think we're just going to keep the flights and spend the week in San Juan (while it wouldn't be my first choice of where to spend the week, I know life could be much worse)...

Financially, this is going to cost me much more than the cruise. Reasonable hotels are going to be ~$250/nite/room + taxes so that's going to be about $4k for 2 rooms for the week. I tried other things (timeshare, etc.) but there's nothing available this late in the game... Reasonable meals will be $250-300/day for a family of 5 (teens eat like adults), so that's another $2k for a week, plus probably another $500 for the week for some incidentals (I am purposely excluding what might not be in the cruise, such as alcohol, beach excursions, etc. to make a fair comparison). So I'm easily going to be out of pocket another $2,500+ due to the change in plans, and this is the least expensive, comparable vacation I can book at this point (again largely because higher airfares to go anywhere else will not be offset by lower costs on lodging).

Does anyone here have experience with a cruise being cancelled on them a short time before departure. I know from news reports that cancellations during the cruise result in refunds a voucher for a free cruise, but haven't heard of any compensation for situations where a cruise was cancelled two weeks out. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Randyk47

Sorry to hear this has happened to you. We cruise and I fully understand the financial and emotional investment. There is some discussion of this specific situation over on Cruise Critic http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2474950 and you may want to read that thread. A quick read didn't reveal much but it may give you some more information.

BamaVol

My condolences on your loss. I would be upset as well. It's stories like this one that will have me buying the insurance for my next cruise. It's not an everyday occurrence, but stuff does happen.

mtobar

I am in the same ship or maybe I should say boat than you. I got the email offering the compensation you are talking about, but in my case, and to aggravate the situation even more, I am traveling with a big group; we were planning to expend a week in Puerto Rico prior to the cruise, and the hotels are non refundable, and the air is booked with a commercial airline, not with the cruise ship. I am with you, the cruise line offer is not enough to compensate all the hassle we have to suffer with such a short notice.

Most likely we would have to cancel the overall vacation, but I am planning to challenge the compensation offer and ask the cruise to cover all the cost related to the cancelation; I just hope to get a good answer from the cruise.

Randeman

You have my sympathies as well.

If the cruise lines have the same caveat that the airlines have in their contracts of carriage (as I am sure they do), i.e. they don't guarantee schedules, you are probably out of luck getting anything else out of them.

High Technology

Yup, I think Celebrity deserves a lot of bad press over this one. Sadly, we live in the age where social media (and social perception) are a far greater determinant of the outcome than doing the right thing by your individual customers. That's part of the reason why I posted this...

I read the CC site comments, and they are mostly in-line with my own. We've spent several days trying to figure out logistics, and to see if there is any way to salvage this trip. I'm trying VRBO, but finding that the lack of real-time availability is really a PITA (it's a 24-hour turn around to find out something is booked already, despite it showing as available on the site).

Kagehitokiri

what about traveling farther to another celebrity cruise, would they offer anything else

while Baha Mar had quite a development history, new owner is solid, if there was a large enough group of displaced cruisers, they might do some kind of deal ?

other large properties like Atlantis might be open to large group deals if space remains

Need

I read your thread and the thread on cc site because I am going on a celebrity cruise this coming week. I have to say that I am disappointed at how they handling this. Seems like they know about this months ahead of time and yet they don't notified the guests until last minutes. Also you would think they have some alternatives lines up to offer the guests.. like other cruises on celebrity leaving the same week... on sister company RC... or else where and they pay the difference in airfare.

lilabeans

I'm so sorry to hear about your upcoming vacation plans. We were booked on the 4/15 sailing which was shortened out of San Juan. We have a group of 8 and had 4 cabins. It was not reasonable for all of us to try and find new accommodations last minute in San Juan given the amount of people we had and the cost was too high due to the holiday week. We tried to get on another Celebrity ship leaving the same date using any other port. However, we were told that nothing was available that would keep us all together or at least relatively close or within a reasonable price range. Our 4 cabins were adjoining. This cruise had been years in the planning for our 10 year anniversary, our friends 25th and my parents 53rd. I already had special excursions that I had booked on my own for the islands that we were no longer going to. That cost us over $700. Fortunately, I booked them through a reputable company and was able to get a refund on them. However, when we booked this cruise last year, we each got the drink package and $300 OBS. We asked Celebrity if they would honor the drink package and OBS if we were able to get on a RC cruise that would leave on the same dates we were supposed to. (Due to everyone's schedule, the 4/15 to 4/22 is literally the only time we could make it). Celebrity would not honor any of the perks we had booked on our original trip even though we were still staying with her sister company. All in all, we have lost over $1100 per cabin, we've incurred additional costs for changing all of our flights (we're coming from 3 different states) and now had to book a hotel in another state so that we can drive 4 hours to catch a flight to our new departure port. I have made numerous calls to Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and countless emails. I have yet to receive a single response from an email. Celebrity customer service was totally useless. I asked for a supervisor and after insisting she put me through to someone, I was finally sent to the Resolution Center. The woman was very nice, but completely unhelpful. We are out thousands of dollars and they are offering nothing to compensate. All we have received is a refund of our original cruise fare. No word on flight changes or hotel. And certainly nothing about how to compensate for the loss of the 8 drink packages or $300 OSB per cabin. This would have been my parents fifth time on the Celebrity Summit and the third for the rest of us. Between all of us we've probably been on at least 50 cruises and for the last 5 years we've remained loyal to Celebrity even though our last cruise they changed the itinerary and skipped an island and just spent an extra day at sea. We didn't complain then, but I'm done with this. Unforeseen circumstance is understood, but customer service should still be paramount. Incredibly disappointing, expensive and frustrating!

DJ_Iceman

You asked if we consider this "fair" compensation. To me it is not--to be fair, they should reimburse all of your lost out-of-pocket expenses. But I don't think they care about fair, they just care about offering the bare minimum that will keep this out of the press and keep anyone from going to court over it.

That being said, you should seriously consider the $10k Disney cruise. I think you will find their service levels at least comparable to X, with many aspects of the on-board experience superior. And at least you won't lose out on your airfare, hotels, etc. in San Juan.

Kagehitokiri

do any cruiselines handle it better than celebrity?

747FC

Or worse?

This is not a situation exactly comparable to the OP, but I had the opportunity to compare the response of Celebrity to Holland America when similar problems occurred in my rooms on their older ships.

Celebrity ended up giving me $1800 of onboard and future cruise credit. It is kind of funny that I remember that number distinctly (partially because I booked another --very nice-- Celebrity cruise).

While I can't recall exactly what the on-board credit was with Holland, it was not as generous as Celebrity. When I complained again after the cruise, Holland sent me a letter saying that I would be eligible for a room upgrade on my next reservation. However, the limitations on the offer were major, and the upgraded room would not be one I would ever pay for myself (too low a category and not a confirmable location). Needless to say, Holland has not seen me again.

freecia

Well, they could let you on then cancel most of the ports when both propulsion systems fail like NCL Star http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/...-a7579241.html

It is incredibly frustrating when cruise lines cancel or significantly alter itineraries without generous compensation. You have my sympathy.

Perhaps you could fly up to FLL or MIA and grab a cruise from there? There's also flights to TPA and MCO area which has a lot of timeshares and amusement parks for teenagers.

Cruiser123

Has anyone received their full cruise refund? We are now 20 days on since notification and still no refund or response to my last emails 2 days ago to Celebrity. Out of interest I sailed on the 01/04 sailing with no issues with port departures or arrivals. I should have been a b/b passenger however, this was not mentioned on the sailing. During conversation with guest relations they stated that as far as they were informed guests were notified well in advance of the cancellation and reimbursed/ compensated well.