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Celebrity is a sister line to Royal Caribbean and caters to a more upscale, somewhat older crowd at prices somewhere between mass-market and luxury. While things may not go wrong as often as on the mass-market cruises, what problems do occur can be quite vexing and the line is not always quick to respond.
A few of the more recent complaints ...
Todd of Sarasota FL (04/26/08)
I was hired as a Comedy/Variety Entertainer by Celebrity Cruise lines to perform on the ship M/V Mercury in Ocotober 2007. It went very good, and I received rave reviews (by the Cruise Director, passengers, and staff). Because of the great reviews, I was given 20 weeks of work (not in a row, spread out over 18 months), and a pay raise. Before my 2nd cruise with them in January 2008, I was notified by the person who worked for Celebrity Cruise Lines and that booked all my dates, that he had been fired from his position. I called up Celebrity and left a message for the Entertainment Director, Eric Bohus, only to introduce myself, give him a better idea of what exactly I do, and to say I look foward to working with him on the future contracted dates (19 weeks of bookings).
Days later I received a phone call from somebody at the Celebrity Entertainment office, telling me that I don't have any more work with them. I explained that not only am I contracted to work with them, but the next cruise was for 4-weeks beginning on March 29, 2008, less than 2 months away, and that I cancelled out of two other engagements so I could commit to Celebrity, and turned down many other job offers because I was already contracted with Celebrity. I also mentioned this is my sole means of livelihood, and will have difficulty finding replacement work with such short notice. They didn't seem to care, and all the people that I spoke with on the week to follow just kept telling me that I had no work with them.
I retained an attorney, and he confirmed that this was a breach of contract on Celebrity's part. The attorney sent a Letter of Demand to Celebrity Cruise Lines, and on the day that they received it, they called me up and said they were sending me a contract to sign for all 19 weeks of work. Although they assured me that they will return a signed copy to me, they never did. On the contract there is a Termination Clause, that they can terminate me without any reason, but must give me notice first, and then only pay me for two weeks in lieu of two weeks notice. It was pretty obvious they were just using this as a ploy to avert my lawsuit, and to terminate me first chance they had after I signed the documents.
I went on the ship on March 29th, scheduled for 4-weeks of work, and like clockwork, 5 days later, the morning after my two successful Wednesday Night shows, I was notified by Celebrity's Travel Office of my revised return air itinerary that following Saturday, April 5th, after only one week of work. Nobody ever gave me notice, nobody ever told me why I was terminated, and nobody will reply to my phone calls or e-mails. I was finally paid for the one week onboard the ship, plus one week in lieu of one weeks notice. But according to the documents I am due two weeks pay in lieu if two weeks notice. Still, nobody will even give me an inkling on what the terms of termination are.
Because I was booked on the ship already, I turned down many job opportunities, approximately worth $15,000. When Celebrity initially told me that I had no further work with them, I was grasping for straws, and took any work I could to pay my bills. Then, when Celebrity foiled my lawsuit by giving me back my work (Contracted at $42,750 total for 19 weeks), I had to take it, but had to get out of all the new commitments I made, and contracts I signed. Besides paying booking agencies their lost commissions for the jobs, as well as paying for replacement acts, AND giving away free make-up shows (I did this to try to save my reputation in the business), I unfortunately did hurt my reputation with some agents and burned some bridges with some agencies that will not work with me again.
My out of pocket expenses so I could take back Celebrity Cruise's work was $1500, and the amount of lost work was close to $15,000. Celebrity has shown the lowest in integrity by not paying me what I was due (two weeks pay in lieu of two weeks notice @$2250/week), never telling me why I was terminated, never giving me notice (which the contract says they have to), or even returning a signed contract to me(which they assured me they would). I saved all the e-mail communications with Celebrity in which they lied to me. To top it off, I was back home and available to perform jobs I cancelled from, but it was too late. So I'm now out of work for 3 weeks, not paid my due by Celebrity Cruises, and experienced a major blow to my professional reputation which I always prided to be of the highest of integrity.
Peter of Surrey OTHER (01/28/08)
Our cruise with Celebrity gave us a perfect example of how not to provide customer service. It gave the impression that staff were laughing and giggling behind the scenes betting who could provide the worst service. Sailing from Rome in August of 24 on board the Galaxy, my wife and I were ecstatic at celebrating our wedding anniversary and my 50th in a once in a lifetime trip. Everything went well on the first day but then changed dramatically. The toilet in our cabin stopped working. We contacted Guest relations, and the problem was fixed in a reasonable amount of time. But then it broke down again, as did those in nearby cabins. And then again, and then again. Each time the wait to repair was taking longer. One nearby cabin had water dripping in from the ceiling. Water dripped down constantly from the shared corridor ceiling; at one time there was a large bucket and several towels lined up in the corridor to catch the drips.
As the week progressed the problem worsened. In fact, the toilet smell started to fill our cabin and the corridor to such an extent we had to stay away from the cabin for long periods. Celebrity's solution? They recommended we use one of the public bathrooms elsewhere on ship! That's a lot of fun when you urgently have to go at 2 a.m. Also there was a gastrointestinal infection on board hitting staff and passengers at the time, making the public washrooms even less appetizing a prospect. What made things ten times worse was the response from Guest Relations Staff. I'm sure their training consist of days of reciting the mantra "I'm sorry" with the least expression. Repeated requests to speak to the House Manager were denied, or excuses given why she was not available.
After days of complaining and making requests we finally received a voice mail from the hotel manager five hours before our final disembarkation. After the cruise we contacted head office and were met with another barrage of "I'm sorry", but corporate police denied our claim for compensation. The utmost in stupidity and insult was in their letters, 95 percent of which bragged about how wonderful their company was and what fantastic service they offered! Yes, sure, appease a poorly served customer by totally ignoring his complaint and instead telling him how wonderful you are. I still can't believe the insensitivity, lack of concern or caring as well as ignorance and stupidity of the so-called guest relations staff.
Emotional stress and physical illness (nausea) brought about by cabin stench. Unable to use the cabin we had paid for.
Emily of Fort Lee, NJ (01/15/08)
I booked a cruise for four people for 2/3/08. I paid by 11/22/07, as directed and received a paid-in-full invoice. Now it's 1/15/08, and I received a new invoice stating I owe an extra $140 for a fuel surcharge.
I have never paid in full and then had a company come back and tell me they have raised their price. I have cruised every year for the last ten years, but will never cruise Celebrity again.
Neill of Dromore UK (07/11/07)
We had booked a cruise through Victoria Travel with Celebrity Cruises on there Millennium ship, we where due to travel on the 12/07/2007 but sadly I discovered the ship had had an accident in France and was out of action. I contacted Victoria Travel on the 9/07/2007 to ask out our cruise and they contacted Celebrity. They had cancelled our cruise and offered a full refund for the cruise and a future credit of the same value on another cruise, I asked about our flights and hotels and they said no not covered. We have spoken to our travel insurance and
they say we are not covered as we did not cancel the holiday, rather
we were forced to cancel and they are telling us it is the
responsibility of the Travel Agent and the Cruise Company to refund
the travelling expenses that we have incurred to date. We have had to suffer the loss of the Flights, £648.00 and Hotels at €240.00 and cancellation fees of £26.30 together with a lot of stress.
We have now rebooked onto the cruise on the 03/08/2007 using our free cruise credit and had to pay £2000 more as the original category cabins are fully booked, another £625.00 for new flights, and another €280.00 for hotels.
Kathleen of Port Charlotte FL (12/04/06)
When dumped at the pier after our cruise we were left in unsafe contions. Twenty six people were left outside on the peir with no bathroom, nothing to drink and only 2 small benches to sit on (enough for 6-8 people). All our luggage cluttered the area. The area was use by the longshoreman with tow motors and very large metal baggage bins. We were put off the ship at 8 a.m. and not picked up untill 11:45.
The area was unsafe and uncomfortable. The cruise line will not take any responsability, nor the bus line. People were hurt. One woman fell. I suffered back spasms ( I have had 2 spinal fusions and can not stand for long lenghts of time) People were on walkers, wheel chairs,and cains.
I have had to ramain in bed for 2 days so far. The swelling in my legs and feet did not resolve until this morning. Taken pain medication every 4 hours. Used a heating pad and lost sleep due to pain. I am on Medicare disibility for my severe back.
Ml of Provo UT (05/18/06)
Cruise was cancelled. We were informed two days before scheduled departure date. Only reimbursed $200 for already purchased airfare (total to change would be $1500+). Customer service reps were rude, discourteous, impatient, would not listen, and unwilling to help. Refused to see if they could work promo or discount with sister line (Royal Caribbean or to help us to come up with any viable solutions to the problem.
We lost almost $5000 because of necessary air fare changes and having to rebook cruise with another line - it was a necessary business cruise with deadlines and appointments at ports of call so we had to go during specific time frame. We also lost time from work resulting in lost income.
Daniel of Toronto (05/09/06)
My wife and I took a 15 day Hawaiian cruise with Celebrity over the Cristmas / New Years holidays. We were never advised that the average number of children on a holiday cruise would increase from approximately 24 to nearly 600! The dress codes for dinners were not adhered to or enforced by the cruise staff, there was excessive noise at all hours, fighting and, on New Year's Eve cruise ship staff were serving alcoholic drinks to anyone who asked, including pre-teen children.
Our vacation of a lifetime was ruined to a high degree by the noise and mess created by all of these 600 or so unsupervised children on a space-restricted cruiseship. Our relaxing cruise was the exact opposite - and in both directions!
Edward & Darlene of Keremeos Canada (05/04/06)
We cruised on this line December 4-10, 2005. In the cabin next to us was a 3 month old crying baby. It cried all hours of the day and night. We told our room steward but with his limited English he did not understand. We hardly got any sleep ... we finally wrote a letter to the Service desk and 2 days later they called to say they were sorry and would report our problem to the people in head office and they would try to make up for our lack of sleep.
Also while onboard we attended a shopping talk where we were told that only certain shops were trustworthy and recommended by Celebrity Cruise Line. They also said to watch for cabin numbers in these stores and if ours matched that number we could win a prize. The numbers were 4007, 3105, and 3105 again. The ship had no cabins on the 4th floor and only went up to 3098 on the 3rd floor. I brought this to the shopping director's attention and she said my aren't we perceptive. Now I could have brought this up at the meeting but felt she would take care of the situation. But this seems to be a scam that goes hand and hand with the cruiseline. We wrote to head office about these things and they basically said too bad.
Mary of Efland NC (03/07/06)
Webooked a cruise to Mexico in January 2006. I receive the confirmation from the travel agnecy a few weeks later. On March 7 , 2006 , I received travel documents from Celebrity. I was surprised to see a totaly different itinery from what I had booked. I called RCI agency and was told there was no change. After several explainations, they called Celebrity to check on it. They came back on the phone to tell me , yes, Celebrity changed the iterarty to Grand Caymans ( one day ), no stops in Mexico and an extra day at sea . I called Celebrity and they were even less helpfull. They said that they made the change in September 2005 and it was not their problem that RCI did not change it. They would not do any thing for me. So now I have a vaction to a place I don't want to go and can not get any refunds because I found out too late.
Barbara of Corinth TX (01/08/06)
January 8, 2006 Non Smokers beware-- We just returned from a 7 day cruise on to the Southern Caribbean on the Constellation and if you do not smoke you should be leary of the Celebrity ships. While the policy is smoking only on only one side of the ship, smoking occurs in every public place, including elevators and the rest rooms. We found it impossible to use our balcony since the smoke (both cigarette and cigar) from the adjoining balconies made it unpleasant to sit outside. The help desk was no help. They also botched our seating reservations and never did remedy the situation satisfactorily.
The economic damage is we paid for a balcony room and we could not use the balcony due to my reaction to the smoke that wafted in from the adjoining balconies. The seating fiasco also made the trip less than enjoyable.
David of Fort Worth TX (09/07/05)
We took an Alaskan cruise with Celebrity on the Mercury in early June to avoid the crowds. Celebrity's Infinity had a problem and they off-loaded all of Infinity on to Mercury so they wouldn't have to pay compensation. This is our final email to Celebrity when we emailed them after we got home to complain. They said emergencies happen and to live with it.
This is what we emailed back. "We're so glad you appreciate the opportunity to respond to our inquiry. Please note the sarcasm! Well, you and your really lack-of-understanding reply makes us now understand why we were not satisfied on our first (and last) cruise with Celebrity. I don't know if it's your corporate culture or what, but I'm now just glad Mercury didn't sink. We know emergencies at sea occur but none of what we've cited on this particular cruise could be classified as emergency. It was, instead, Celebrity problems pushed from one cruise to another to hold the bottom line. In other words, in plain English to make sure you understand, because you were cheap then and now, you lost us as customers."
Terry of St Albert Alberta Canada (03/28/05)
We booked a Category 4 on the Horizon for January 10/05. This was to be an unobstructed view cabin, Cat 4 is the highest ranked/cost for an outside cabin w/o balcony or concierege service. To us, as we had on the Summit,an unobstructed view is just that, nothing in the way. Our unobstructed view window had, to the left,a hoist used to raise and lower the gangway, in the middle were 4 large round life raft containers, each about 4' high or a row 16'long. To the right of the containers was a suspended platform and to the right of that a lifeboat.
To our surprise, shortly after we settled in a head appeared seemingly rising out of the deck. Our cabin window looked right over the top of a stairway that was used for the crew.As they went up or down they had an unobstructed view of the whole inside of our cabin. WE HAD TO KEEP OUR CURTAINS CLOSED FOR MOST OF THE CRUISE. We complained,however the ship was sold out and unfortunately we did not do it in writing. We also had a major complaint about a shore excursion, complained in writing (4 pages) three days before the end of the cruise. We were totally ignored by the Shore Excursion Manager.
We have been in contact with Celebrity's top management by letter and so far 10 emails over the past two months.There has not been one response from Celebrity. One comment I got over the phone from a supervisor, other than 10 we are sorry's was that they had to put those articles somewhere, refering to the hoist,rafts and platform. We have requested a refund on the shore excursion sponsored by Celebrity(anultimate island tour and barbeque ended up with a visit to a crafts/hardware store, a visit to a remote beach, a ticket [to the barbeque] to eat in a rundown shack, all the cats you could kick...pick any one item from the sheet of paper, pay $1.00 for a shot of our local rum in the free punch, pay $5.00 to sit on a chair on the beach, need I say more.
We have asked for some compensation for the cabin however we have been totally shut out and I don't think Celebrity gives a hoot about their clients. I don't know if you can do anything for us however the more people read about this the better. My one lesson....complain on the ship, loud and long (after they sail) the more people present the better, don't take no for an answer....
Michael of Cottonwood CA (09/12/04)
We took a cruise from Santiago to Ft Lauderdale Mar 14-28 2004 on Celebritys INFINITY When we got on the ship we were told the Itinerary was altered because of propulsion problems. The cruise skipped Manta, Ecuador and cut time ashore at other ports. My complaint is that Celebrity apparently knew weeks in advance that the ship was was slowed and the INFINITY cruises previous to ours had skipped ports we later discovered. Instead of cancelling our cruise or giving us a choice to cruise at a later date they chose secrecy.They kept the problem a secret and sprung the news on us after we had boarded the ship.
The port we wanted most to see was the one we skipped. We wasted airfare and 2 nights hotel to traved that distance (19 hours from Redding, California to Santiago, Chile. We wrote them of our concerns and they said they have the right to change itineraries when ever they want to. I dont think they had the right to keep the problems a secret weeks before our cruise started. We would have cancelled this trip had we known of the ship problems. It would be different had the problems sprung up during our cruise. That would be unforseen and understandable.
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July 7 2008
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