David Michel
Age: 54
Occupation:Retired
Number of Cruises: 6
Cruise Line: Celebrity
Ship: Millennium
Sailing Date: December 2nd, 2005
Itinerary: n/a
Celebrity Cruises
Millennium Cruise Review
Bahamas
David Michel
This review is a copy of a letter mailed to the
President of Celebrity X Cruise Lines. The letter is the review. Also please
note that the company did respond and generously offered us a $75.00 future
cruise certificate, how very generous of them.
December 4, 2005
Mr. David J. Michel
2717 NE 15th Street
Pompano Beach, Fl 33062
Mr. Daniel J. Hanrahan
President, Celebrity Cruises
1050 Caribbean Way
Miami, Fl 33132
Dear Mr. Hanrahan:
My name is David J. Michel. On December 2nd, 3rd, and 4th a friend and I had the
distinct displeasure to sample your cruise line during a three day, two night
cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale. We were on the Millennium, Embarking on 12/02/05
and Disembarking on 12/04/05. We were in Cabin 3088. The purpose of this letter
is to make you personally aware of several observations regarding our much less
than stellar cruise. I am an experienced traveler who has had past cruises with
RCL, NCL and Carnival. I place our experience with Celebrity at the absolute
bottom of our experiences. Although I will say the general appearance of your
Ship was excellent and appeared to be very well maintained, however a ship does
not a cruise make.
To try to present out our observations and complaints in a logical manner I will
attempt to break them down by category:
Arrival Concerns
We dropped off our luggage at Terminal 25 and then were directed to walk to
Terminal 26. The original Check-in time scheduled for 3 pm, was moved to 4 pm
due to the late arrival of Millennium due to a hurricane. (Beyond control of the
cruise line) Passengers were called and advised that the departure time had
changed, and that the two days at sea now included a port of call, Nassau. We
were also advised that celebrity would include a buffet snack for passengers.
The buffet turned out to be cold sandwiches and Luke warm hotdogs. (Not a good
introduction to Celebrity) We arrived at 3:15 pm for check-in and after standing
in line for three hours at 6:15 we were finally boarded. Now three hours
standing in line is excessive. It was obvious that your check-in/boarding
employees were frazzled. Your contract security people were doing the best job
they could with having only two screening stations.
Dining room Concerns:
We found the dining experience to be poor. Both nights our waiter was surly,
lacked personality, appeared tired and frazzled. The assistant waiter was upbeat
and was trying hard. Food service was very, very slow. We had 9 PM sittings and
generally it was after 11 pm by the time we were out of the dining room. The
first night one hour passed from the time the salad (a wilted ceaser in a warm
bowl) was served until the main course arrived. When the food finally arrived
the main course was so over cooked it would have qualified as shoe leather. By
this time we were so exhausted from our check-in experience that we just
accepted it and assumed that the crew was also exhausted as were we. The second
night proved to be no better. (Although the escargot was excellent) The beef
again arrived vastly overcooked and was sent back. Service was so slow that at
five minutes to eleven in order to make the show (excellent show) we left, never
having received our dessert that was ordered 20 minutes earlier. At no time
during either night did the Maitre d’ or assistant Maitre d' appear at our table
to inquire as to the quality of food and service. I rate the quality of food at
the very bottom of my cruising and dining experience.
Employee Concerns.
We were amazed at the generally less than professional attitude of some of the
employees of your line. For example, service was slow, attitudes were poor. To
provide you an example, we visited the Ice Cream station on deck ten. The male
employee had run out of chocolate topping and refused to provide or get more. He
said he would give chocolate soft serve but no chocolate topping for you.
Several passengers found his attitude and lack of good communications just
amazing, as did we.
Another waitress at the 10th floor fantail bar was slow, haute and seemed to
project an attitude of non-caring. Additionally she seemed to be suffering from
what appeared to be numerous lesions on her legs and arms. Perhaps she may have
been better utilized at another location without so much visibility to your
passengers.
Another example, a waitress complained to us about how bad the crew was treated:
“The long hours and seven month contracts with no rest, and the poor quality of
crew food if you are not an oriental.” By the way we heard this on at least
three occasions and generally from people of Slovak origins. Your Philippino
employees were excellent with no complaints. We actually asked several
Philippinos about their food and accommodations and they had no complaints and
actually said the food was great. However the other complaints made us feel that
we were exploiting these people.
I did observe interactions between what appeared to be service supervisors and
employees on the food lines. I must say that the supervisors did not use good
people management skills, openly and scowlingly correcting employees in public.
This lack of basic supervisory skills may lie at the bottom of the attitude I
saw from your people.
Health Concerns.
On both mornings of the cruise, on at least Deck 3, all bathrooms were not
working due to a broken vacuum line to the toilet black water system. It is not
acceptable that the engineering department allowed this problem to happen on two
consecutive days. Generally one does not awake in the morning and perform a test
flush of the system. The problem being in close quarters is that it takes no
time to foul the entire cabin. Worst was searching the ship for a working toilet
that is not already contaminated. Some of the Ships public restrooms stalls were
locked.
Now for what I consider the final insult to my and my companion's senses: On the
first morning, we left the cabin and just went into Nassau. Upon our return
hours later we entered our cabin and became almost nauseous from the stink of
un-flushed sewerage. One would think that after the system became operational,
the hotel staff would have sent someone around to each cabin to flush the
toilets, and spray deodorant through out the cabin. I complained to our cabin
attendant who is from India and he exhibited absolutely no concern.
I had also attempted to call in a complaint on the cabin telephone, but the pick
up of an incoming call is so slow that after 10 or 15 minutes of listening to
your recording of how important my call is to the line, or something of that
sort, I felt ignored and hung up.
Summary:
Mr. Hanrahan, I must say that it is my experience that the numbers of concerns
that I have enumerated certainly seem to indicate that someone in your
organization appears to resting on their laurels. We were never polled or asked
to report our experiences. This was my first trip on your line and in all
honesty I can say that even my experience on Carnival was superior to your line.
We arrived back with more Stress than on leaving.
We would like to compensated in some way or have our fare refunded, as we can
find little or no value for the money paid. I am now planning my next cruise of
a week or more on a line other than Celebrity X. I suggest that you take this
letter quite seriously as a harbinger of where your company is headed. If you
wish to speak personally, please do not hesitate to call me at the above
telephone number.
Regards,
David J. Michel