On Jan 12, my husband and I boarded the Celebrity Constellation for a 12 night cruise. We had been notified that the previous cruise had contacted norvovirus. Therefore the boarding process would be delayed while they did an extra level of cleaning of the ship. We finally boarded and wait until around 2:30 in the afternoon when the crew announced that all cabins were clean and we were free to enter. When we entered our cabin, the bed was made, but the bathroom and urine in the toilet, pubic hair on the toilet seat and what looked like feces on the wall. The mirror in the room had finger prints and smudges all over. Immediately we notified guest relations. I talked to someone name Maria. She said they would have someone immediately do a deep clean of the bathroom. (Why wasn’t this done earlier?). We explored the ship and wasted about 3 1/2 hours. I stopped by the cabin and the bathroom had not been touched. We went back to guest relations and made a second complaint. We were told to wait at the chairs near guest relations and someone from housekeeping would be out to talk to us. We waited about 30 minutes and were told that the head of housekeeping for our deck was waiting outside our cabin. We went back to the cabin, she was waiting in the hall. She photographed the bathroom and apologized. We also pointed out the pubic hair, feces on the wall and smudges on the mirror. She said she would have someone do a deep clean of the entire cabin and bathroom and that it would be about an hour. We sat by the pool for over an hour, went back to the cabin, the cleaning cart was still outside the door, so we ate dinner and returned around 10:00 pm. the cabin and Bathroom appeared to have been deep cleaned. But it was now 7 1/2 hours after we boarded.
The following day we were sent roses as an apology and attempt to shut us up, later, we were sent a bottle of wine and 6 chocolate covered strawberries. We were also called and told that they would comp us for a specialty dinner and they made a reservation.
The first 8 days of the cruise were miserable, the service was non existent, we heard horror stories from others about their cabins and sewage leaks on the carpet, unmade beds and dirty towels after everyone was told that it was OK to enter the cabins. The crew that was aboard seemed inexperienced. The buffet lines were lengthy with all the food and beverage station roped off and being served by the crew. There would be 10 different food items with one server, trying to serve 20 people in line.
Around day 9 of the cruise, the crew appeared to have double. They probably had to fly some in. There were many more officers now on board. They took the ropes off the buffet line and we were finally able to serve ourselves.
But the big question that we had is why was our cabin dirty with the urine, feces and pubic hair when we boarded, and why did it take 71/2 hour to rectify.
On day 10, my husband and I went to a show and arrived early. A large group of officers entered the theater and sat near the front, probably 20 tota, they were all drinking alcohol in uniform. My husband went to just ask a question about our cabin and asked who was in charge of housekeeping. A lady responded and said she was, my husband just wanted to know how something as serious as what we found in our cabin on a ship that the previous cruise had numerous cases of norvovirus could have been given the all clear to enter the cabins, he did not use profanity, only the words Urine, feces and pubic hair. Someone named Paul the Hotel Manger jumped up and told him to sit down. My husband asked for his name, he ripped off his name tag and handed it to my husband so he could write the information down. He told my husband he was going to have him disembarked the next day in Cozumel. My husband was not disruptive.
We went to bed that night, got up the next morning and around 9:45 attempted to get off the ship in Cozumel. My husband was blocked from departing the ship. We were told by security that housekeeping needed to speak with us. They were doing fire and life boat drills, so we were forced to wait outside guest services for over an hour. While walking to guest services on deck 2 there were at least 3 cabins that were flood and smelled of mildew. They had large fans in the door ways and were attempting to dry the carpet. Finally after the drills, we were called into a private office where a group of 6-7 offers were sitting around. The head of Security and one other person told us they were wearing body cams and filming us, he told us that due to the profane words used in the theater is why we were there. My husband said I didn’t say anything profane. I said the words, Urine, Feces and Pubic Hair. Is that not allowed? The head of security said no, it is not allowed. Then Captain said “we have decided that because of you actions, you will be disembarked today. This is not negotiable.” We said OK that is fine. We asked for all of their names and business cards and copies of the recordings. They sayid they would make sure we got them. (We never got the). We were escorted to our cabin by a uniformed security guard and told to pack our things. We were originally told we could just disembark. The security guard said we had to stop by guest relations for some formalities. They took our passports from us, demanded that I give them a flight locator number, so I was forced to book a flight while standing there. We asked to speak to someone from the US Embassy, the crew refused. We were told we would have to pay an additional $47 each because we were disembarking in Cozumel. This process took over an hour, around 1:30, they finally escorted us off the ship. Loaded us in a van but did not tell us where we were going, pulled up outside some rundown office, had to be escorted in by the van driver who asked me for the $47 each in cash, I gave him $100 which he stuck in his pocket. Someone in the office stamped some piece of paper and our passports, the van driver did not give the money to the people in the immigration office, he kept it in his pocket. We had to get back in the van and were dump off at the airport curb.
Cruisers beware, this can happen to anyone. If you read the cruise contract, you will be shocked, you have no right, the ship and crew are always right. You can be disembarked for any reason. Beware of the Celebrity Constellation, it is the cesspool of the seas. Should be retired.
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