Celebrity Cruises review: cruise

Complainant Mrs Joanne Flanagan and Mr Peter Flanagan
contact email jo. [protected]@gmail.com
Cruise dates
04/05/24 - 10/05/24 Summit
11/05/24 - 17/05/24 Edge
Celebrity Summit.
We Embarked on the Summit cruise on the 4th May at the time I was anticipating stopping in the ports of
Santa Barbara 5th May
San Fransisco 6th May
Astoria 8th May
Victoria 9th May
Vancover 10thMay
The reason we booked this cruise was to see the north west coast of America..
However, the summit only made one, what could be considered port stop at San Fransisco on 7th May a day later than initially expected.

We did stop in Victoria for 2 hours to enable people to disembark, but it was to late and the time in port too short for us to get off and explore the area. The communication from the Captain and the deck was very poor, no alternative arrangements were made to port elsewhere or stay in the ports for longer. Which when we have sailed with other cruises has always been accommodated and no form of compensation offered. During the time on the ship the speed remained relatively constant at 6-8 nautical knots, We feel that this was a time wasting exercise.. We have cruised in worse conditions and have never had issues with the captain being unable to make port or provide an alternative. So this was extremely disappointing and not the cruise we booked or expected. A complaint was sent to the customer services team and we asked them to confirm whether any of the other cruise liners in the area were able to make port? this has not been answered.

Before embarking on the celebrity Summit we were was led to believe that celebrity are one of the best. This is not the case by any stretch of the imagination and not our experience, the Stateroom was tired with the veranda roof blowing about in the wind. This was reported and eventually repaired. The USB ports in the room did not work this was reported on a couple of occasions but nothing was done.

In the room the entertainment provided was poor with most of the TV channels having no satellite connection. Café al Bacio the service was poor with dirty cups and plates left on tables and not being cleared. The ocean view restaurant dirty plates were left on tables and not being cleared in a timely manner. I am a vegetarian due to health reasons. I had very little choice of food, with the chefs on the pasta and pizza areas used the utensils for both vegetarian and meat dishes. The salad areas again utensils were cross contaminated between the salad and meat plates. I did raise this with the staff and nothing was done.. The Vegan area the meals remained constant with little variation including the curry being presented at breakfast. No milk alternatives were readily available again this is a dietary requirement for myself. My husband also struggled to get food that was hot and on one occasion we went to the restaurant late in the evening and the chicken he brought back to the table was undercooked and pink.

The food in the cosmopolitan was poor we had little choice and the meals served were at most look warm. On a number of occasions we asked for the food to be heated up only to have a new plates of food put in front of us with little change in temperature. What a waste..

One evening we booked a meal at Qsine at $60 a head. Five of us went together and all agreed the meal was not great and did not meet our expectations, again the food was lukewarm, sommelier service was poor and we had to ask on a number of occasions for drinks. Due to the poor service and excessive cost of this experience we again complained to and eventually managed to get a refund after chasing this with the team.

We upgraded to a premier drinks package as there was little choice available on the classic package. Thinking this would provide us with choice throughout the bars on the ship. This was not the case and the premium drinks were not available at all bars. Edge Our first impressions of the edge where the ship was amazing. However We again upgraded to the premium drinks package. This was $117 each.. on the Summit we paid $116 for the two of us? The staff could not explain why the package on the Edge was double that on the Summit for exactly the same deal..
The food in the Cosmopolitan was the same menu as was available on the summit with little variation. The food again was tepid at best even when asking for the food to be served hot.

The vegetarian meals lacked choice and on one occasion I asked for an alternative “mac and cheese”or my evening meal, this came dry, rock hard and lukewarm, in my opinion inedible. We raised the issue of lack of suitable choice with the team only to be given similar choices every night! The ocean view café we went for a lunch I had soot on my plate from the ships chimney. As part of a larger group some of whom had upgraded to the Aqua, on speaking to them it appeared that they received a much superior service with better choices.. I booked celebrity with the understanding that it was a premium cruise line. Where “you would be treated like a celebrity”… would I book again? From the experience on the Summit and the edge although better I would not book or recommend family or friends to book with celebrity.

During our time on both the Summit and Edge we raised our concerns to the appropriate teams and guest services. But these were not dealt with and ignored, It gave us the feeling that you had been paid and no longer had a duty to meet our expectations. The expectations that “NOTHING COMPARES” I have telephone and emailed Celebrity cruises on many occasions Celebrity have eventually offered us £700 off a future cruise or £800 on board spends, However after the experience we had, there is no way we would sail with them again. This cruise having cost us in excess of £9000.
I have further contacted customer services again to reiterate this point only to be told that is all that Celebrity offer. I have requested that a manager calls me to discuss but this has not taken place.

In light of this please could you consider this complaint
kind regards
Jo Flanagan jo. [protected]@gmail.com