So far NOT impressed with Celebrity....

[JeanS]

Hubby & I are taking our first Celebrity cruise, chosen because they are the only cruiseline so far to cruise to Hawaii from L.A. (Lesse, what would we rather do, be stuck in a crowded plane for 6 hours or enjoy the drink of the day on a beautiful cruise ship??? A no-brainer!!)

So far, however, we have been really disappointed with the way Celebrity is treating us, and we haven't even stepped aboard yet! We received the booklet describing the shore excursions, which had absolutely NO reference as to whether they were wheelchair-friendly or not, unlike Carnival, who has info on those right in the booklet. (Guess Celebrity thinks that the handicapped don't like to cruise?? Hmmm....)

Anyway, Ron contacted their special needs desk and spoke to a man who was VERY rude! He refused to help him on the phone and was told he would have to email his request!! Well, we all can imagine how long THAT would take to get answers to all of his questions! He finally got to a supervisor who was surprised at that suggestion. He was told by this "supervisor" that someone would call him back to help him.

Well, a week later, STILL no call! (Dont' they WANT our money???) Our TA even called, spoke to another supervisor who said she would call us as soon as she hung up with him. STILL no call! I finally called last night and spoke to a man on the shore excursions desk. He was VERY rude (guess he was frustrated at all of my questions...God forbid he should do his job!) and believe it or not, ending up HANGING UP on me!! Wellll, I couldn't believe it....I called back, got a supervisor, filed a complaint, told her to listen to the call (I LOVE it when they say the call is being recorded!!) which she said she would. So far, SHE has been the only helpful one there, although when I mentioned the lack of response, she stated that it may be due to the recent bus crash (our sympathies to the victims!), however I stated it occured on March 23rd and my call was well a week and a half old by then, so that was a poor excuse...

She told us she would call my husband back today after she had the answers to all of our questions....and she did! BUT amazingly enough (or maybe not!) she said the 4 people she contacted with HER questions did not return her calls!!

We are both truly surprised at their lack of customer service. Guess we are used to Carnival's eagerness to help their customers! We got so frustrated, we were just about to cancel the trip, but we REALLY like the idea of cruising to Hawaii, so based upon the responses we get before our trip, we would like to give Celebrity a try. Additionally, I emailed Celebrity thru their web page with some questions on their spa services about 2 weeks ago, and NO response!

Any comments on their treatment towards handicapped cruisers on their ships???

Thanks in advance!

[KLD]

Have never had problems with Celebrity. They are better than most for PWD. Princess also goes round trip from LA to Hawaii, and HAL goes round trip from San Diego. They are all about the same...no one advertises accessible tours. You have to ask, and frankly if you can, you will do much better to just arrange your own trips. If you can transfer, renting a car in Hawaii is the way to go. Even with a power chair, we can take the Bus in Honolulu to see what we want to see, and we have had accessible tours through Princess in Kauai and Hilo. Don't depend on the cruise line for this though, as they are clueless about what "accessible" really means.

[JeanS]

Well, we FINALLY got a call back from the woman we are dealing with at Celebrity, and she emailed us ALL of the information we requested! We told her we really appreciated her doing all of this work, but it's still pretty ridiculous what we had to go thru to get it. Hopefully she will be SMART and put all of the info she gathered in the shore excursions booklet so others who are limited in mobility won't have to harrass her for the same info!

So we will be booking our excursions tomorrow....some sound really terrific, and I am looking forward to my first luau in Hawaii!

Happy cruising!