11/19/05 Constellation Schedule Change

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wayneair

Guest
Celebrity recently changed the itinerary for the Constellation sailing out of San Juan on November 19, 2005. As an avid cruiser, I do understand that itineraries can change for operational needs, but I expect a premium line would exercise some good judgement to keep the clientele happy. The Constellation was originally scheduled to call on Casa De Campo Dominican Republic at 1:00 p.m. and depart at 11:00pm and the following day was scheduled to be a sea day (heading to Barbados). The schedule has now been changed so the Constellation arrives at 5:00pm and leaves the following day at 8:00am. Instead of the sea day on Monday, The Constellation is now going to Catalina Island Dominican Republic on Monday from 9:00am to 5:00pm. The sea day is now on Tuesday. The port of call for Grenada has been cancelled. When I did the same cruise last year, Grenada was cancelled due to storm damage, but at least it was replaced with a nice port of call, Dominica.

Here is my issue with this recent itinerary change. It makes absolutely no sense to visit Casa De Campo from 5 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. the following day. I have been to Casa De Campo and there is not much to do there during the day so I can not think there is much to do at night. At least during the day you can go to a beach or shop. I’m sure most of the shops will close at 6pm anyway. Lastly, I am also concerned about the safety of the island at night and will not go ashore. Like most of the Caribbean islands, they are not safe at night. Then the choice of going to another part of the Dominican Republic is not top on my list. I decided to take a cruise to see different places not to stay on one island for a few days. I could have done an all-inclusive vacation.

Anyone booked on this cruise should contact this “premium†line to let Celebrity know how this itinerary change is not good. They could have at least done another sea day.

P.S. I was never contacted about the change. I just happen to discover it while on the Celebrity website.
 
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BSeabob

Guest
Since you're inside the cancellation period I guess all you could do would be to contact them and request your money back as a favour... the only thing I can really think of to say is..you are likely one of the very few that know this is going to happen at all. So at least there you are ahead of the game.
Cruise lines seldom bother to tell anyone anything in advance unless they really have to it seems.
 
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randy

Guest
Unfortunately, the carriage contract allows the cruise line to change the itinerary at any time. While I agree that an evening stop in Campo sounds silly, you can bet they have some shore exursions that take it into account. They'd not miss an opportunity for revenue!
Our schedule for the 14-day Hawaii trip next week just got changed, and they faxed a notice to our TA. She was on the ball, and provided it to us so that we could make adjustments to our plans. I guess you have to roll with the ...punches? waves?
Anyhow, in my opinion, I'd rather stay aboard ship than visit most destinations anyhow!
 
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wayneair

Guest
I absolutely agree that a cruise line can change an itinerary at any moment in accordance with their terms of carriage. I also recognize the operational needs can change at any moment. I just expected Celebrity would have done a better job with its choice of itinerary changes. Arriving at a port at 6pm in the Caribbean does not make much sense to me. When you pay for premium service, you expect premium treatment. When Holland America has a change with itineraries, they at least give you something that makes like you feel like you did not waste your money.
 
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tara0830

Guest
That stinks!! The good thing is that you are still able to to enjoy yourself on a beautiful ship with great service, but when we chose our cruise, we do carefully research which islands we'd like to see and base our decision (along with which ship) on that. I think about all of the planning that you've probably done to decide what to do on each port and now you have to change everything around. Are they still going to barbados? I guess that's why that disclaimer is always there about itinerary being subject to change, but one always hopes that doesn't happen. You almost wish you didn't know until you got onto the ship, b/c then you really can't do anything about it, and at least you are on vacation anyway...

Good luck with any compensation they may allow for you...and sorry to hear about that...

Tara
 
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wayneair

Guest
No reason given. I sent a couple of e-mails to the captin's club desk that included links to various web postings, but I have not heard back. I'm just glad they changed it back.
 
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